The Reelarc Rundown #1

Here’s a nice weekend surprise!

🎬 Welcome to The Reelarc Rundown 🎬

Every Friday, prepare to dive into a curated world where Reelarc brings you the most luminous updates and insights from the acting industry. Tailored specifically for the dynamic world of working actors, our weekly dispatch promises to be your essential guide to staying informed, inspired, and ahead of the curve. Let's embark on this journey together, where each issue is a step forward in your acting career!

Leading our discussion is the surprising success of "Mean Girls" in a typically slow month, and Quinta Brunson's historic Emmy win, highlighting a resurgence in ensemble comedies. We also offer insights from actor Andrew Scott, and round up the must-watch titles and social media trends for this weekend. Let’s get right into the heart of Hollywood’s happenings!

Industry News

January is historically known as a slow month at the box office and 2024 appears to be no different. Mean Girls came in #1 on its opening weekend with just shy of a $29 million dollar domestic gross. This isn’t a bad number for the movie musical, as it's well on its way to recouping its modest $36 million dollar budget.

The top five movies at the box office for MLK weekend were:

1. Mean Girls - 29 mil

2. The Beekeeper - 17 mil

3. Wonka - 8.5 mil

4. Anyone But You - 7.1 mil

5. Migration - 6.2 mil

Quinta Brunsen Wins Big!

Quinta Brunson became the first Black woman to win a Best Comedic Actress Emmy in over 40 years on Monday night at the 75th Primetime Emmy Awards. The last Black actress to accept this award was Isabel Stanford in 1981 for The Jeffersons. Brunson previously won an Emmy for her writing on Abbott Elementary but was stunned when she won for her performance as teacher Janine Teagues who perseveres through budget cuts, bureaucratic red tape, and difficult parents to help her students. Abbott Elementary is part of the new wave of ensemble comedies proving the genre is still thriving and actually didn’t die with The Office.

Find a full list of Emmy winners here. We also love this breakdown of the “Highs, Lows, and Woahs” from the night.

Joel Kim Booster, at it “Again Again Again”

After enjoying the success of Joel Kim Booster’s first screenplay Fire Island, Searchlight Pictures has bet on Booster’s second script, a romcom entitled Again Again Again. Booster began his career as a stand-up comic, but has had guest appearances on Search Party, Shrill, and Bob’s Burgers as well as a recurring spot in the Maya Rudolph vehicle Loot on Apple TV+. He wrote and starred in Fire Island, a queer retelling of Pride & Prejudice that sits with an impressive 94% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Expert Insights

Andrew Scott stopped by British GQ to break down his most iconic roles to date in promotion for his new movie All of Us Strangers- a heart-rending romantic drama directed by Andrew Haigh. Here are some of our favorite quotes-

On his role as the love-interest priest in Fleabag-

“People talk a lot about backstory for characters. Actually I’m not sure that’s as necessary as people might imagine. You can really relate to people you’ve met on the Tube and you’re interested in them, even though you don’t know anything about them. And so no, I didn’t create a name for him. I just really focused on this enormous connection and chemistry that these two characters had. And it just shows you don’t really need to have a huge amount of information to establish a deep connection between two real people or even two fictionalized characters.”

On playing iconic villain Professor Moriarty in BBC’s Sherlock opposite Benedict Cumberbatch-

“I love the idea that we don’t necessarily look like the characters. It’s what’s within you. How your spirit is. That’s the most important thing. So I always say to young actors- just because you don’t look like a character doesn’t mean you can’t embody the character.”

On his new film All of Us Strangers-

“There’s a myth that you have to really go away from yourself in order to authentically play somebody else, but the more I act the more I think it’s actually bringing as much of yourself to a project as possible.”

“I tried in some way just not to act. Which sometimes is the biggest challenge actually. How do you strip yourself of all the stuff that is fake?”

Quiz Time

Can you match the Emmys quote to the actor?

1 - “And you know who I wanna thank? I wanna thank me. For believing in me and doing what they said I could not do.” 

2 - “And I think tonight is a perfect time to tell everyone that Kieran Culkin beat the sh*t out of me.” 

3 - “I want to thank all the evil gays.” 

4 - “We don’t have to applaud every time I do something.” 

5 - “My parents are here tonight…Probably not like a dream to immigrate to this country and have your child be like ‘I wanna do improv’ but you’re real ones.” 

6 - “Suck it, Pedro.” (Ok, so this one might have happened at the Golden Globes..) 

A. Kieran Culkin

B. Christina Applegate

C. Neicy Nash-Betts

D. Pedro Pascal

E. Ayo Edebiri

F. Jennifer Coolidge

Trends on your FYP

Tiktok users are comparing the music performances of Mean Girls the musical against Mean Girls the movie musical. Let’s just say the movie isn’t faring too well…which has led to questions over several key creative choices made. Which version do you prefer?

Click here…

Here…

Here…

And here…

What We’re Watching This Weekend

For fans of locked door mysteries and/or Mandy Patinkin -
Death and Other Details, Season 1 on Hulu

For anyone who wants to start the year action-packed and ready to avenge a beloved pet - John Wick (1-3) now streaming on Netflix

For nostalgic Millennials who have hopped off the Harry Potter train -
Percy Jackson & the Olympians, Season 1 on Disney+ & Hulu

For anyone sick of the Hallmark-style holiday movie -
The Holdovers on Peacock

For those wanting a really great villain fix (Vincent D’Onofrio as Marvel’s Kingpin) - Echo, Season 1 on Disney+ and Hulu

(Quiz Answers: 1C, 2D, 3F, 4B, 5E, 6A) How'd you do?