Suits Alum Sarah Rafferty: My TV Goal Now Is to ‘Not Do the Moms Dirty'
The young adult series follows Jackie, a 15-year-old girl who abruptly relocates to Colorado from New York City after her family dies in a car accident. Rafferty's character, who was Jackie's mother's best friend, brings the grieving girl to live with her large family out west.
More from TVLine
Voice Winner Adam David Tells All About His Bromance With Michael Bublé and Inspiring Comeback
Survivor's Kamilla Karthigesu Talks 'Stressful' Fire-Making Moment, Why She Cheered On Opponent Eva
Survivor's Kyle Fraser Calls Fire Decision 'One of the Hardest Things I've Ever Had to Do in My Entire Life'
The drama was renewed for Season 3 in May. Season 2 is slated for release sometime in 2025.
'It's a family show that a lot of parents are watching with their kids,' Rafferty explained at the recent Women's Health Summit in Los Angeles, organized by our sister site Flow Space. And because multiple generations are paying attention, 'I'm pretty hypervigilant about making sure we get away from any kind of tropes that undermine women.'
TV's Best Slow-Burn Romances: 30 Long-Awaited, Highly Satisfying Love Stories From All American to Xena
View List
In the video above, Rafferty recalled a day during shooting in which a director's shorthand caught her attention.
'A director was just, she just had to get on with the day, and she was being really quick,' Rafferty said. 'But she was like, 'Respond to Mom like Mom's the scary one, and like Dad's the fun one.' …I was like, 'Let's not do that.''
She went on to say that, while making the Netflix drama, she's been involved in 'really great conversations on set about how to represent the moms that are spinning all the plates.' And after her nine-season run in USA Network's glossy, highly stylized Suits, 'What I think is important now for me to bring to this character is that she's a mom, she's a vet, she's got all these adopted and biological kids, and it's messy, and she gets it wrong sometimes,' the actress added. 'There's opportunities, in getting it wrong, for repair.'
She acknowledged that that type of verisimilitude isn't always what networks want. 'But if I could just find moments of realness to just not do the moms dirty,' she said, 'that motivates me.'
Best of TVLine
Yellowjackets' Tawny Cypress Talks Episode 4's Tai/Van Reunion: 'We're All Worried About Taissa'
Vampire Diaries Turns 10: How Real-Life Plot Twists Shaped Everything From the Love Triangle to the Final Death
Vampire Diaries' Biggest Twists Revisited (and Explained)
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Gizmodo
4 minutes ago
- Gizmodo
The Directors of ‘Project Hail Mary' Explain Why the Movie Is a PC, Not a Mac
Making movies is all about compromises. This actor is unavailable, so you cast someone else. That location is too expensive, so let's build a set. This shot is impossible, so let's think of something better. At every step, the big, huge mechanism of filmmaking is always a work in progress. But on Project Hail Mary, directors Chris Miller and Phil Lord tried to embrace a new philosophy. 'What's great about this movie is there are so many things that make it harder to make,' Miller said in Hall H at San Diego Comic-Con. 'All of the zero G, all of the centrifugal gravity, the characters have to have a wall between them because their atmospheres are different. Everything that a regular movie would be like, 'Oh, we can change that,' we were like, 'Anything that makes it harder we're not going to change.' We're going to stay true to it, and then that difficulty is what makes it interesting and makes it special.' His co-director, Phil Lord, put it another way. 'We kept saying, with respect, this movie is not a Mac, it's a PC,' he said, to much laughter. 'The movie is a machine, the ship is a machine; it can be beautiful, it just can't be pretty.' It is true that almost everything about Project Hail Mary makes it seem incredibly difficult to make. Most of the movie is set on a spaceship. That spaceship meets an alien race represented by a creature made out of stone that doesn't speak English. Changing the setting or the character could've still conveyed the overall idea of the story, but it wouldn't be the story author Andy Weir wrote in his novel. So everything had to be right. So how did Lord and Miller bring that rock creature, nicknamed Rocky, to life? 'We called our friend Neil Scanlan at the Lucasfilm creature shop, and we tackled it together,' Miller said. 'We built a practical creature that was puppeteered by an amazing puppeteer named James Ortiz and a team of five, which we called the Rocketeers, and it was amazing having Rocky there on set every day so that we could have a real interaction and shoot the whole thing practically. Ultimately, it's going to end up being a beautiful blend of creature puppetry and animation, and he comes alive in a way that you would die for this character.' Sounds like it's beautiful, but maybe not pretty, just like a PC. Project Hail Mary, starring Ryan Gosling, opens in theaters on March 20. Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what's next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.
Yahoo
7 minutes ago
- Yahoo
This 'Parks and Rec 'character is Adam Scott's pick to get a spinoff: 'I'd like to see how that worked out'
Scott says he'd love to see if "there were any scandals" with this fan-favorite character, "or if he was able to keep his powder dry." Everyone else is doing it, so why can't Parks and Recreation have a reboot? While various members of the Parks cast and crew have expressed their interest in a reboot, revival, or some kind of return to the beloved fictional town of Pawnee, Ind., no formal plans have yet materialized. But the powers that be likely haven't heard star Adam Scott's bright idea. Scott sits down with Entertainment Weekly Editorial Director Gerrad Hall on this week's episode of EW's Awardist podcast to discuss his freshly Emmy-nominated performance in the Apple TV+ thriller series Severance. Noting that The Office, the mockumentary series that informally spawned Parks, is getting its own spinoff called The Paper, Hall asks Scott, "Of the Parks and Rec characters, is there one specifically you would love to catch up with now, see where they're working, find out what they're doing?" Scott responds without hesitation, and his pick might surprise loyal Parks fans. "Probably Jerry [Jim O'Heir]," Scott replies. "I think because when we left the show, he was mayor, still, of Pawnee. I'd like to see how that worked out, if there were any scandals or if he was able to keep his powder dry and run the town in the way we know it should be run." Indeed, when Parks and Rec wrapped up its seventh and final season in 2015, viewers didn't have to guess where all their favorite characters would end up. The series informed them — Six Feet Under style, but without all the doom and gloom — by flashing into the future and offering closure for each beloved alum of the Pawnee Parks Department. O'Heir's Garry Gergich, mean-spiritedly referred to as "Jerry" throughout most of the series, is Parks' perpetual underdog — overlooked, undervalued, and even mocked for his enduringly sunny outlook. Which is what makes the great fortune bestowed upon him by the Parks finale so sweet. The character is elected mayor of Pawnee in a write-in campaign coup, a position he happily holds until his 100th birthday. "I don't know how my life could get any better than this," he tells Amy Poehler's Leslie Knope in one of their final scenes together. "I feel like Jerry would've done a terrific job," Scott continues, and adds one more idea to boot. "I think also Tom would be a good one to check in with, find out what's going on with Tom, with [Aziz Ansari's] character," he says. Similarly to Garry/Jerry, Ansari's Tom Haverford finds a happy ending in the Parks finale, though one that doesn't come without its hitches, meaning it could make for great spinoff fodder. , On the finale episode "One Last Ride," Tom continues to operate his "classy, authentic" restaurant, Tom's Bistro, which has become the most successful chophouse in Pawnee. However, an economic recession throws open a money pit that pulls Tom's Bistro. But with the help of new wife Lucy (Natalie Morales), Tom writes a bestselling book, which he naturally parlays into a lucrative motivational speaking gig. Tom and Garry/Jerry are prime candidates for a Parks spinoff, and in 2022, one of the series' most key players signaled her openness for more. Poehler, who also produced the series, said she was "always standing by" for a Parks reboot. "Anytime anybody gives me the word, and I'm down." Listen to the full episode of EW's Awardist podcast above. Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly
Yahoo
9 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Critics once doubted James Cameron — but can Avatar: Fire and Ash prove them wrong again?
James Cameron's hugely successful film franchise will return with Avatar: Fire & Ash in December. Avatar will soon return with the third chapter in its epic, otherworldly story in Fire and Ash, but the jury is still out on whether it can sustain the momentum the franchise needs. The movie, which premieres in December 2025, promises to be a war movie of grand proportions thanks to its exploration of new cultures among the Na'vi and the animosity that has developed between the large blue creatures and a newly introduced clan, the Ash people. Everything is at stake in the upcoming film, not just for Sully (Sam Worthington) and his family but also for James Cameron himself. Avatar is one of the most expensive film series ever created, so the films need to make a lot at the box office to be deemed a success. So far it has done that, and more, as the original Avatar became the first film to make more than $2bn at the box office while the sequel The Way of Water beat that. But can the franchise strike gold again? There does seem to be a reason that audiences have gravitated so strongly to the Titanic director's fantastical world so far. The story is perhaps the oldest there is, the battle between good and evil. The first and second explore this through the clash between humans and Na'vi, while Fire and Ash is arguably doing the same thing, but with slightly more nuance because it's between different cultures within the alien species. It's the kind of story that audiences will always be drawn to, regardless of its simplicity, actually, perhaps because of it. It doesn't matter if they're seven-foot-tall blue people, the Na'vi are fascinating and experience the same things we do. Viewers from all walks of life can relate to and be transported by Avatar; that's the beauty of Cameron's vision for Pandora. Critics though, for better or worse, are now quite divided by the franchise — where the first was deemed a movie marvel that changed the film landscape forever, The Way of Water wasn't received as well with reviews veering wildly between 5 star and 2 stars, one reviewer even described the 2022 film a glorified "trillion-dollar screensaver". But if ever there was a time that proved that critics aren't the be-all and end-all of movie success, it was The Way of Water, because the film earned $2.32bn worldwide and became the highest-grossing film since the Covid pandemic. Why is that? Because audiences want escapism, that's the whole point of cinema; audiences want to forget their troubles and be taken far, far away for a few hours, and Avatar is the perfect movie for it, thanks to its awe-inspiring visuals and innovative use of technology. The question is, can Fire and Ash mirror the success of the first two Avatar films? If early reactions to the trailer are anything to go by, it will do that and more. In fact, even the critics are back on side ScreenRant's Liam Crowley, for example, wrote on X: "I just EXPERIENCED the #AvatarFireAndAsh trailer in glorious 3D. I'm breathless... What a privilege it is to be alive during this revolutionary franchise." While critic Austin Burke wrote on the social media platform: "There is no doubt in my mind that this WILL be the biggest movie of 2025, and epic doesn't feel like it does this trailer justice… It is truly beyond epic. THE HYPE IS REAL.' With praise like this, the buzz is going to be gaining momentum quickly for Avatar: Fire and Ash ahead of its December release. One thing is for sure, it'll mark a great end of the year for Hollywood. No one should ever count James Cameron out, really, the director always has a clear vision and he knows how to make epic films that have huge mainstream appeal, whether that be sweeping romances like Titanic or gut-punching action like The Terminator. He knows how to make a great popcorn movie, the kind that will stand the test of time and do extremely well at the box office. There's a reason he is seen as one of the greatest filmmakers of all time. And the Avatar film franchise could well become his magnum opus by the time it reaches its fifth, and currently final, film in 2031. But, before that, at least, we have Fire & Ash to enjoy — long live cinema. Avatar: Fire & Ash premieres in UK cinemas on 19 December, 2025.
