White Lotus Conundrum; Sigourney Weaver Remembers Roe; What Levon Helm Has to Do With The Peripheral

One of the biggest mysteries of The White Lotus Season 2; Call Jane star Sigourney Weaver looks back on Roe V. Wade; What The Band’s late drummer and singer Levon Helm has to do with Amazon’s sci-fi series The Peripheral. All in today’s Movie News Rundown.

We’ve Returned: After taking a short hiatus from the Rundown in order to travel to amazing places like Austin, Texas for the Austin Film Festival and Provo, Utah for FilmQuest. Now we’re back and ready to give you the day’s most interesting movie news.

Jack Reynor Loves Levon Helm: Midsommar star Jack Reynor is a big fan of The Band drummer and vocalist Levon Helm — so much so that the late rock and roller influenced his portrayal of Burton Fisher in Amazon’s new series The Peripheral, based on the book by William Gibson. “I thought about the cultural context of Burton, and Levon Helm from The Band kept popping into my head,” Reynor told MovieMaker. “I’m a big fan of The Band, and particularly Levon. So I started to watch a load of interviews with Levon Helm, and I just thought about the way he would carry himself and I thought about the intensity of how he would speak and engage with people, but also the kind of honesty that he had.” Perhaps this will give you some more insight into Burton’s character as you’re watching The Peripheral.

Luca Guadagnino on Quentin Tarantino’s Foot Fetish: “Let’s face it. There is a sort of comfortability in pretending to be easily scandalized as a majority,” Bones and All and Salvatore: Shoemaker of Dreams director Luca Guadagnino told MovieMaker‘s Joshua Encinias. The question was about how Tarantino’s interest in feet has changed the conversation around that human appendage, which is central to Guadagnino’s shoemaking movie. “It might be the fear of being seen that makes people take these positions. But I think that, in a way, it’s irrelevant at the end of the day, because Quentin’s movies are super successful. People love them for the kinds of obsessions that Quentin plays out in his movies. And shoemaking is one of the most important pillars of the fashion industry. No matter how parochial people can be, they’re not going to have success in that.”

Sigourney Weaver Remembers:  “I remember what it was like before Roe vs. Wade was passed,” Sigourney Weaver, who stars in the abortion drama Call Jane, told MovieMaker. “The idea that we’re back there again is honestly — it’s completely unthinkable to me, what’s happened. Over 51% of the population now has no agency over their bodies.” Call Jane is now in theaters, from Roadside Attractions. Read more of our interview with Sigourney Weaver and Call Jane director Phyllis Nagy here.

Daniel Radcliffe Doesn’t Want to Be Wolverine: That’s just a press tour rumor, the Weird: The Al Yankovic Story star says. “It’s purely a press tour rumor; I say something, and then occasionally I get bored of answering that way so I say something different, and that sets it off again. I should just never open my mouth,” he told GQ. “I just don’t ever want to get locked into something,” Radcliffe says, “that I am not sure I will be able to love the same amount the whole time.”

White Lotus Mystery: I haven’t seen White Lotus yet, but if you have and you’re curious about what’s going on with Greg (Jon Gries) in Season 2, then look no further than right here for a deep dive into why his character is different this season. “You would think that Greg, who has seemingly been given a miraculous second chance at life, would be more upbeat and charming than ever, right? But no,” writes MovieMaker’s Julia Coccaro. It’s a conundrum!

As for me?: I love Jon Gries because of two performances he’s done: the football-obsessed Uncle Rico in Napoleon Dynamite and the creepy, mean-spirited Richard Linus in Lost.

Eli Roth Remembers Last House on the Left: In honor of the iconic 1972 horror movie’s 50th anniversary, Knock Knock director Eli Roth told IndieWire how much the Wes Craven film has impacted him and his career. “I remember it very well, it was on VHS when I was 13 years old. Last House on the Left was one of those VHS tapes that people warned you against renting. You couldn’t begin your horror journey with it, you had to work your way up to it,” Roth said. “I remember being shocked when I saw it, but what stayed with me more than the imagery was the music.”

Main Image: Jon Gries and Jennifer Coolidge in The White Lotus courtesy of HBO