The Point Radio: Buckle Up For More UNREAL

Lifetime’s critically acclaimed series, UNREAL is back with a new season starting tonight. Series stars Constance Zimmer and Shiri Appleby talk about what fans can expect and what the reaction has been from actual reality TV shows. Plus summer blockbusters are hitting every weekend and Fandango’s Alicia Malone gives us a guide of just what will be ticket worthy this summer.

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Transcript

The Point Radio. Hey, it's Mike Raub. Unreal is back for more controversy and some big ratings, more than likely this summer on Lifetime. Constance Zimmer and Cherry Apple be here along to talk about what's ahead for Season

2. Plus, what's ahead for moviegoers? Well, Fandango's Alicia Malone has a bunch of sneak peeks that you do not want to miss. Let's get to The Point. This is The Point.

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For folks in the reality TV business, it's a show that hits uncomfortably close to home. Unreal is back for another season on Lifetime. And I talked to Siri Star, Constance Zimmer, about where we pick up things for Season 2. Well, it's a little crazy. Our roles are a little different this year because Rachel is in Quinn's possession, showrunning

the show, directing it, et cetera. And Quinn is in Chet's position, kind of being the overseer, the ringleader, as you will. And that already kind of causes a lot of problems and a lot of issues, not only with Rachel and Quinn, but Chet comes back to reclaim his kingdom. And so there becomes an intense power struggle.

And it's kind of a triangle. We have a power triangle struggle, love story slash war happening at the top of the season. And that just kind of trickles down throughout the rest of the season. Constance is co-star Sherry Abilby told me how we find her character this season. She actually starts off in a pretty strong place.

She's now running the show herself, taking over from Quinn. But as the season progresses and things just get thrown at her, it's really a matter of watching her survive. At the heart of the show is the relationship between the characters played by Constance and Sherry.

And I was curious as to what this bond actually is. I think it is a mother-daughter. I think it's two best friends. I think it's two lovers. I think it's sisters.

I think it's every single type of love situation that you could think of. It's these two women. They are completely codependent on each other, but would never admit that. Because I believe that they have seen each other through so many struggles. And they've always ended up together.

No matter who has broken them in the middle, they always have each other. And they always have each other's backs. And I do believe that Quinn feels like she knows what's best for Rachel because she doesn't want Rachel to become her or have the struggles that she has. And so I do feel like they can't be without each other because they're the only ones who

know each other's flaws. And yet they still love each other. They'll never leave each other kind of in the dust. One of the things the first season of Unreal accomplished was to pull back the curtain on what really happens on reality television.

I talked to Sherry a little bit about whether there was any blowback on that from people in the industry. Yeah, a lot of people told us that we should rename the show Real. We're the folks at Unreal. But we met tons of women that were producers on reality shows that felt like the show was

actually their personal story. I think that's something that gave Constance and I and everyone involved in the show a ton of gratification. It felt like we were telling actual human beings stories. But I just think also a lot of women relate to the show.

It's watching complicated women have goals and be driven and want to be successful outside of the home. I think that's something that people are really responding to. Another accomplishment for this new season is Sherry stepping from in front of the camera to behind him.

I just finished directing and I actually found myself really finding inspiration from a lot of the directors I've worked with over the years, like taking shots from David Nutter, David Semmel or John Poulson, people that are really at the top of their field in television directing. I've worked with him as an actress and I just found that I had paid so much attention to

how they used the camera to tell the story that I was doing a lot of the same thing. But it felt incredibly lucky to be directing for the first time on a show that I obviously know so well and working with actors that I have become incredibly close with who trusted me and allowed me to be a part of their story and of their performance. It was a really incredibly gratifying experience.

So more directing coming down the line? Absolutely. I mean right now I'm definitely focused on acting. I love playing Rachel Goldberg on the show. Everything just feels like the next logical step for me.

I've been working as a child in the business as an actress since I was three years old. So it just feels wonderful in a way to have the muzzle off and to be on set and feel free to speak my mind and really telling the story in a way I vision it. It's been an incredibly liberating experience. Constance has been the go-to girl for some great roles on television this season, not

just with Unreal but also things like Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., House of Cards and more. And I ask her, how does she grab all the good parts? You know I really wish that I could say that I choose any of my roles. But you know, the roles that I have been given the opportunity to play, I feel that they've come at perfect times in my life when I've been able to give them different colors and

different shades. So they're not just a strong female character but they're also a strong female character that has insecurity, that has heartbreak, that has sorrow, you know. And that for me has just been kind of taking those parts as individual women and individual storylines on all these different shows and being able to just kind of hopefully tell

the best story for that one character. And I have to say that I'm super happy that they're all very strong and confident because you know me in my real life I'm really not. I'm super insecure. So pleased.

That's not your guys. That's not your. I think she's much sweeter and much more down to earth and much more considerate and empathetic than any of the roles he plays. But insecure I'm going to bump her down.

Alright so as far as a dream role goes if we could offer Constance anything in the business what would it be? I would like to have my own television show in the vein of what Amy Schumer does. I'd like to write my own skits and direct them and be wacky one minute and cry another minute and be in control of creating a whole bunch like a rainbow of characters of women

and yeah that would be my dream. And for Sherry? I actually would love to make a movie playing Natalie Wood. It's a story that I really personally can relate to having grown up being a child. Obviously she had an incredibly tragic end but that's especially a part that I would

really like to play. A new season of Unreal rolling right down with new episodes every Monday on the Lifetime Network. X-Men coming to Fox TV that's just part of the latest. Here's more on what's going on in pop culture.

Julie Andrews is coming to Netflix in a new half hour series aimed at free schoolers and done in cooperation with the Jim Henson Company. It's called Julie's Green Room Andrews will star in the series and it will premiere on Netflix early in 2017. It's been 28 years since the game changing killing joke for said comic book stores.

For the past couple of years it's still been one of the top 20 best selling graphic novels and this month it is the top seller in bookstores according to the latest book scan survey. More than likely the book's going to stay at the top with the upcoming Suicide Squad movie not that far away and of course DC's direct to DVD animated version of the killing joke which will be rated R and released later on this summer.

Based solely on the pilot FX has placed an eight episode first season order for the X-Men based series Legion which is coming from both FX productions and Marvel television. The pilot order was placed back in October with Fargo showrunner Noah Hawley being attached to the whole thing. Production begins in Vancouver this summer and Aubrey Plaza and Dan Stevens are still

heading the cast. The show will premiere on FX early next year. Stars has given the green light to book three and four of Outlanders that means it will be with us for at least two more seasons on the cable network. The current season number two is set to wind up in a couple of weeks.

Meanwhile over on Showtime three series have gotten their debut dates for later this year. Season four of Masters of Sex debuts on September the 11th. The affair comes back on November the 20th and Shameless comes back to the network on Sunday October the 7th. The point, the point.

We're already well into the summertime movie season in fact it began when we were still shoveled a little white stuff off our front lawn. And it's also my time to sit down with Fandango movie expert Alicia Malone to talk about what's still coming up on the big screen for the rest of the season. And she had one movie that she wanted to be sure that nobody misses.

Well I think there's a couple that are coming out soon. Matthew McConaughey is in a movie called Free State of Jones where he plays a Confederate leader in the Civil War. And he plays a farmer who turns against the Civil War and frees the slaves and I think that looks fantastic.

I also saw twice this movie called Captain Fantastic. It's a small indie film but it's coming out soon. I saw it at Sundance Film Festival and at Cannes Film Festival. Big O Mortensen plays this father who takes his kids out to the wilderness to try to give them a better education about how to live in the world and live away from consumerism.

And it is fantastic and I think he does such a great job. Plus look out for Michael Keaton in The Sounder. This is a movie about McDonald's and how McDonald's became such a hit. And he is always bringing the great performances especially in the last few years. So I think people should look out for him and that.

We've seen historically that reboots can go either way. Sometimes successful and well sometimes not. So what's your feeling on Ghostbusters? Oh I've got high hopes for this one. I mean I think it's unfairly been given a lot of backlash online because it's a reboot

and because they're going for an all female version. But I love the director Paul Feige. You know he did Bridesmaids, he did Heats, he did Spy and the cast is fantastic. There's Kristen Wiig and Kate McKinnon, Leslie Jones, Melissa McCarthy and my pretend big brother Chris Hemsworth.

And you know I think moviegoers are actually looking forward to this because Fandango did a survey about the most anticipated summer comedy. And it actually came out as number one. So I am hopeful that this works because I think it's so nice that young girls and young boys have a new set of heroes to look up to.

And the clips I think were quite funny. With so many big box office movies taking up space on the screens, there's not a lot of room for the independent film. However on demand has really breathed new life into that genre. Yeah I really think that it gives indie films a chance to reach a wider audience.

Because you know at a lot of places in America, indie films don't play in the big theatres. So the only way to see them is at home and I'm so glad that now you have this variety of streaming services that you can find in smaller films. And these films you know possess quite small. I don't think you necessarily need to see them on the big screen.

They're not the kind of you know big superhero big theater experience that you want to see in a theater. So I think you can watch at home and you can still enjoy the story. It's something just simple and fun and a great way to spend the night in. I know I always am at home watching movies.

Besides providing movie tickets, Fandango is also moving into the on demand arena. Yeah it's great because now Fandango is not just a place to buy movie tickets to see in theaters. You can actually go to FandangoNow.com and you can stream a bunch of movies. And there's some great films that are coming out soon.

Hello my name is Doris. There's this really sweet comedy drama starring Sally Seales and if you want to talk about great performances she does a brilliant one and there she plays an eccentric woman who's trying to capture the attention of a younger coworker who's played by Max Greenfield from TV's New Girl.

There's also Zootopia which is fantastic for the kids that's coming out June 7th and 10 Cloverfield Lane. This was an unexpected hit. It's a sequel, a spin off to Cloverfield which came out in 2008 but it is a great thrilling ride.

It is self contained, about a couple of characters, stuff in a bunker. You don't really know exactly what's happening outside the bunker but it takes you on a huge ride and although you can stream at home using FandangoNow. So you don't want to leave the house this summer. You can stay in and watch me.

So anything so far out there that's going to get some Oscar buzz? Oh well I'm really looking forward to finding Dory like I said but the one that I really enjoyed which is out at the moment is The Nice Guys and this was directed by Shane Black who did Kiss Kiss Bang Bang a couple of years ago and this is Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling. It's a detective, gumshoe, mystery comedy but it's got that great buddy cop comedy feel

to it, great banter between these two. I was really surprised and excited to see Russell Crowe in a comedic role because being from Australia you know I remember him in The Sum of Us which was years ago and he was quite funny in that but we haven't seen him do anything like this in a long time and the way those two play off together I thought it was fantastic so that one I think people

should check out. Alicia's interview is online, always end with a signature hug with the subject that she's been talking to. A little tough for us to do over the phone but I didn't want to know were there any stars that were kind of taken aback by this?

I think a lot of them are taken aback by it because it's just a way that I use it to break the ice and you know I feel like we're all human and we all love hugs. I think Jared Leto was the one who was the most dubious of it and he requested to do an awkward stare instead so we just stared at each other for a full minute and it was quite awkward but funny and then the good thing was after the panelist talked around

and he said come here I'll give you a hug for that. So no one has said no but I mean I didn't ask for me to leave home. Maybe it didn't seem like the hugging type. Maybe next time I'll be brave and I'll ask him. If you want to find out more about Alicia well that's easy.

Yeah well you can find me across Twitter at Alicia Malone. You can also follow Fandango on Twitter also and don't forget to go to Fandango.com for all the information on Sum of Us new movies. And while you're at it check out Fandango's new on-demand service. Get more info right now Fandango.com.

That's it for the podcast. We'll be back in a few days and when we are we're bringing along Mary Ann. Dawn Wells from Gilligan's Island talks about just how that show almost didn't make it on the air. All that and more on great websites like ComicMix.com, TrackTVNews.com, PopCultureUpload.com, GetThePointRadio.com

and of course in the iTunes podcast directory. On Twitter and Instagram where PC upload, on Facebook where PopCulture upload and we're looking for you to get right back here in a few days.