Collider Ladies Night & Collider Forces Podcast

An actor is very fortunate to have a multi-season run on a series. An actor is even more fortunate to get to see a series through to its natural conclusion. Lauren Cohan went above and beyond that with her Walking Dead journey. Not only did she play Maggie in over 100 episodes of the main series, but then she got to go on to headline a spin-off series opposite Jeffrey Dean Morgan, and that spin-off series earned her her very first executive producing credit and now her very first directing credit as well. Shes a key component of one of the biggest television empires ever created, and shes making the most of the opportunities that franchise affords her - opportunities shes earned.

The Walking Dead: Dead City picks up a number of years after the events of the main series. When Hershel (Logan Kim) is kidnapped by the Croat (eljko Ivanek) and taken to Manhattan, Maggie must turn to Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) for help. While Maggie does manage to make it off the island with Hershel, Negan is pressured to remain by The Dama (Lisa Emery). Season 2 kicks off about a year later with the New Babylon Federation conscripting the residents of The Bricks to head into Manhattan for an expeditionary mission tied to their agenda to ultimately retake it. Maggie agrees to go, but only if no one else from her community is forced to do the same. So back to Manhattan she goes, along with a stubborn Ginny (Mahina Napoleon) and a stowaway Hershel.

After powering through five episodes of Season 2 as an executive producer and playing Maggie trying to survive yet another perilous mission in the Big Apple, the time has some for Cohan to put on yet another hat. With the release of Season 2, Episode 6, Bridge Partners Are Hard to Come by These Days, she is officially a director. In celebration of the milestone achievement, Cohan joined me for a Collider Ladies Night conversation to discuss her early days on The Walking Dead, her experience advocating for herself when her initial series regular contract concluded, how she approached stepping into the executive producer role with Dead City, and how she felt about taking on an extremely ambitious episode for her very first venture as a director. 

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[Editor's note: The following contains spoilers through the Season 3 finale of Ginny & Georgia.]

Brianne Howey’s had her hands quite full playing Georgia in Netflix’s smash hit Ginny & Georgia since day one, but things take an especially dark turn in Season 3, which involves a sharp tonal shift and even more dire circumstances for the characters to power through. When the series kicked off in 2021, Howey began tackling the challenge of playing a highly likable character who does bad things, but without undermining the severity of her crimes. Not only did she start off strong in that respect, but for three seasons now, she’s consistently backed Georgia’s most complex decisions with maximum humanity. While you may not agree with every choice the character makes, Howey ensures you always understand them and that Georgia has your heart every single step of the way.

Season 3 begins with Georgia behind bars after being arrested at her own wedding for the murder of Cynthia’s (Sabrina Grdevich) husband, Tom (Vincent Legault). While she is able to go home under house arrest for the duration of the trial, her existence is rocked in every respect. Confined to her home, her world becomes smaller than ever, the situation upends her relationship with Paul (Scott Porter), it puts Zion (Nathan Mitchell) in an especially tough position, Austin (Diesel La Torraca) will undoubtedly be changed forever, and Ginny’s forced to decide how far she’s really willing to go for her mother.

What does it look like when a devout mother sees her relationship with her children threatened? What does it look like when a confident conwoman is stripped of her power? What does it look like when someone who has successfully hidden gruesome secrets for years has them all exposed? That’s what I dug into with Howey on a new edition of Collider Ladies Night.

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Similar to Sheila Carrasco, I’ve been lucky enough to have many lovely short group conversations involving Utkarsh Ambudkar, but I’ve been itching for a longer one-on-one sit-down with the Ghosts star to discuss his journey in film and television, and it finally happened with the conclusion of the hit CBS show’s fourth season.

Ambudkar’s Jay has been through a lot since Ghosts kicked off in October 2021. He learned his wife (Rose McIver) could see ghosts and powered through countless ghost-sparked shenanigans with Sam serving as the intermediary until he finally got the chance to see them for himself courtesy of an exorcism hiccup. On top of that, Jay’s also hit a number of key personal milestones. He opened a B&B with Sam, took a significant step forward with his father (Bernard White), and opened his dream restaurant. Trouble is, Jay also inadvertently signs a deal with the devil at the end of Season 4, a deal that will likely have Elias (Matt Walsh) out to kill him in Ghosts’ fifth season.

There’s much to love about Ghosts, but one of the show’s greatest achievements is finding the ideal lead ensemble. Not only does every ghost actor play their role to perfection, but the show is expertly anchored by its living leads - Rose McIver and Utkarsh Ambudkar. In fact, the duo are so successful at making Sam and Jay so uniquely their own, it came as a shock when Ambudkar revealed that, initially, he passed on the project.

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Since the dawn of the genre, women have soared in horror. So, what better way to celebrate the return of one of its most iconic franchises than with a very special edition of Collider Ladies Night, hosted by the queen of screams herself, Perri Nemiroff? For this exclusive advanced screening edition of the interview series, Nemiroff spoke with the stars and longtime franchise producer Sheila Hanahan Taylor for Final Destination Bloodlines, the first sequel in 14 years, just in time for the 25th anniversary of the OG.

After watching the movie, stars Brec Bassinger (Stargirl), Kaitlyn Santa Juana (The Friendship Game), Anna Lore (Gotham Knights), Rya Kihlstedt (Superman & Lois) and Taylor joined Nemiroff on stage for an in-depth conversation about the legacy of the Final Destination franchise, from the significance of casting lesser-known actors to bringing a very particular level of realism to this Death-defying narrative.

In this discussion, Taylor, who has worked on every Final Destination film, spanning nearly three decades, talks about working with directors Adam Stein and Zach Lipovsky (Freaks), and explained why Bloodlines was a much different experience than the first film. The cast also discusses the inner workings of those gruesome Final Destination death sequences, the joys of working in horror, why certain deaths and even characters had to change from script to screen, and tons more.

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[Editor's note: The following contains spoilers for Final Destination Bloodlines.]

Brec Bassinger’s been racking up impressive film and television accomplishments since she was 13, but Final Destination Bloodlines is bound to send her star soaring even higher for a multitude of reasons.

Bassinger is at the heart of one of the movie’s most highly anticipated set pieces - the opening premonition. As a young Iris, she takes us back to 1969 when her boyfriend, Max Lloyd-Jones’ Paul, attempts to whip up a very special night. He surprises Iris with a visit to the Skyview, a restaurant that sits atop a 500-foot steel-beamed tower, and proposes to her. However, soon after their magical moment, a penny sets off a chain reaction that ultimately kills everyone in the restaurant and brings the entire structure down.

Due to the genius “bloodlines” concept, that’s the extent of Bassinger’s involvement in the movie. When the opening destruction concludes, the film shifts to the present day, where Kaitlyn Santa Juana’s Stefani experiences the Skyview disaster in the form of a nightmare. Yes, we do get an older version of Iris, played by Gabrielle Rose, but as far as Bassinger’s direct contribution to the movie goes, she gets a single sequence to make an impression - and she does, big time.

Yes, the opening Skyview disaster is a production feat that’s packed to the brim with widely impressive effects and stunts, but a big reason why all of that work hits so hard is because Bassinger doesn’t waste a second filling out Iris’ world and sparking a meaningful connection with the viewer. That level of engagement ensures Final Destination Bloodlines' opening premonition isn’t just a cool horror set piece, but one with some real emotion and meaning.

In celebration of Final Destination Bloodlines’ big release, Bassinger joined me for a Collider Ladies Night conversation to revisit her days on Nickelodeon, to discuss making DC’s Stargirl, and to dig into every ounce of her unforgettable Bloodlines performance.

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