2 l September
6 - 12, 2020
Northeast Oregon TV Weekly
It’s a rough go for ‘Coastal Elites’
in HBO special
BY GEORGE DICKIE
In the age of the pandemic, “Coastal Elites” have a lot to grapple
with in a special upcoming on HBO.
Premiering Saturday, Sept. 12, the comic satire from director
Jay Roach (“Bombshell,” “Game Change”) and screenwriter Paul
Rudnick (“Addams Family Values,” “Sister Act”) tells the stories of
individuals from New York to Los Angeles coping with politics and
the pandemic in the summer of 2020.
Among them are Miriam (Bette Midler, “Beaches”), a cultured
New York City schoolteacher who finds herself in police custody;
Clarissa (Sarah Paulson, “The People v. O.J. Simpson: American
Crime Story”), a YouTube personality who produces a series called
“Mindful Meditations”; Mark (Dan Levy, “Schitt’s Creek”), a gay
West Hollywood actor videoconferencing with his therapist during
a moment of personal and professional stress; and Callie (Issa Rae,
“Insecure”), a West African woman whose activism takes her all
around the globe.
Rudnick conceived this as a stage production to be performed at
The Public Theatre in New York, then rewrote it as a TV program
when the lockdown hit. Each actor’s monologue was filmed at their
home and then edited together with other soliloquies. The turn-
around time was fast as shooting ended in mid-July with editing
and post-production taking the last two months.
“I started writing this over a year ago, pre-pandemic, pre-protests,
everything,” Rudnick explains. “But the spark for it was that I had
realized that for the past four years now, everyone I knew on every
Sarah Paulson
OVERWHELMED or
UNDER INSPIRED?
C
Let us help you
turn that around
OLLEEN
side of the political divide was spending 24 hours a day angry and
heartbroken and totally addicted to discussing this country and its
future and every aspect of politics and their personal lives. And I’d
never seen that level of emotion and engagement ...
“And it became so urgent that it was something that I became
desperate to write about. So when these characters kind of came to
me, it was the best way to write and it’s very rare that there were
these people who just wanted to be heard. So I let them.”
Paulson initially turned down her part down because it
conflicted with shooting FX’s upcoming “American Crime Story:
Impeachment,” in which she is slated to play Linda Tripp. When
the pandemic shuttered production there, she was free to do this
project, which she shot in a tent in her backyard with the help of a
camera crew and green screen.
It tells the story of a woman who has a moment of vulnerability
at the worst possible time.
“She’s sort of explaining something that’s happened to her
recently (that) had an enormous impact on her,” the actress
explains. “And because she’s sort of live on the air, she’s having a
kind of – not a Paddy Chayefsky sort of ‘Network’ breakdown,
but almost something to that extent where she is finding herself
exposed and having a big sort of emotional internal upheaval that
many people watching can unfortunately or fortunately be part of.”
C NTOSH
Founder | Fitness Instructor
Contact us at:
peaklifestylestudio.com
PeakLifestyleStudio@gmail.com
541-663-6404
BACK TO SCHOOL?
541-963-0265
888-843-9090
A LIBRARY CARD is a must-have
for students. Access our online
resources for research and
homework help!
FREE eBooks
and audiobooks
Thousands of titles
www.GVfoot.com
AVAILABLE DAILY
Noon to midnight
Travis T. Hampton, D.P.M.
Foot and Ankle Surgeon
Unlimited # of sessions at NO CHARGE!
It’s PRE-PAID with your taxes.
Access with
your Baker County Library Card
from www.bakerlib.org/kids-teens
Explore the ONLINE LIBRARY at www.bakerlib.org
541.523.6419
info@bakerlib.org
New Name.
Same Great Team.
Same Exceptional
Service.
La Grande
1408 N Hall Street
Enterprise
601 Medical Parkway
Baker
3175 Pocahontas Rd.
