Nick Offerman and Betty Gilpin are joining the cast of Death by Lightning, the Netflix historical drama from Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss.

Ordered straight to series earlier this month and based on the novel Destiny of the Republic by Candice Millard, the series explores the “stranger-than-fiction true story” of James Garfield, the 20th president of the U.S., and “his greatest admirer” Charles Guiteau — the man who would eventually kill him.

Succession Emmy winner Matthew Macfadyen stars as Guiteau, with Michael Shannon (George & Tammy) set as Garfield. Additional castings are expected to be announced in the coming days/weeks.

Gilpin, who returns to Netflix after starring in GLOW for the streamer, will play former first lady Crete Garfield. Offerman, fresh off an Emmy win for his guest role in HBO’s The Last of Us, will play Chester Arthur, Garfield’s vice president who took over as president after Garfield’s death.

Mike Makowsky (Bad Education) created the series and serves as writer. He exec produces alongside Benioff and Weiss, Bernie Caulfield and Matt Ross (Captain Fantastic), with the latter set to direct.

Offerman is repped by UTA and Jackoway Austen. Gilpin is with CAA, Anonymous Content and Hansen Jacobson. The news comes as Benioff and Weiss are ramping up for the March debut of their first series that they’ve showrun under their rich Netflix overall deal, the sci-fi epic 3 Body Problem.

Source: Hollywood Reporter

Betty Gilpin was nominated at the 2024 Film Independent Spirit Awards in the “Best Lead Performance in a New Scripted Series” category for her role as sister Simone on Mrs. Davis!

The awards show will be held February 25, 2024 in Santa Monica, and streamed live on IMDb’s and Film Independent’s YouTube channels.

Great news! SAG-AFTRA have reached a tentative agreement with the AMPTP. This means that actors are able to resume their work filming projects for television, commercials, and movies. Congratulations to the members of SAG-AFTRA on their new contract!

Source: SAG-AFTRA

With the perfect balance of snark and heart, Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers have captured the pop-culture universe with their podcast, Las Culturistas. They talk with actress Betty Gilpin about their long-standing friendship, their creative energy, their joint passion for pop culture and the collaboration that makes their podcast addictively bingeable. Recorded October 22, 2023 at the 92nd Street Y, New York.

Check out 70+ HQ/MQ images of Betty Gilpin attending a couple of events during the monthof October that were added to the photo gallery!

Check out the photo gallery to see 900 screencaps of Betty Gilpin from her guest appearance on the short-lived TV show, Past Life!

Admiring Betty Gilpin supports the SAG-AFTRA strike.

The nearly 160,000 members of SAG-AFTRA, the union that represents all performers on film and television, are going on strike.

On Thursday, the Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) announced its national board voted unanimously to launch the guild’s first strike. The news was unveiled by SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher and National Executive Director & Chief Negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland during a press conference, following the expiration of the union’s current contract and a 12-day extension of contract negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Pictures and Television Producers (AMPTP).

Why are the actors going on strike?
The short answer is because the SAG-AFTRA bargaining committee and AMPTP could not reach an agreement to form a new contract after their previous one expired on June 30.

But the reasons for a strike are many. SAG-AFTRA has faced a host of radical changes as the industry has pivoted away from more traditional models of theatrical distribution and network and cable television in favor of streaming. The issues at hand include the use of AI in generating and perpetuating actors’ likenesses, as well as residuals and data transparency for streaming projects. Other points of conflict are also salaries, particularly for guest stars, costars, and background actors, as rising inflation and the cost of living increasingly prevent many working actors from earning a living wage.

Drescher summed up the reasons for a strike in a press conference speech. “We are being victimized by a very greedy entity. I am shocked by the way the people that we have been in business with are treating us,” she said. “I cannot believe it, quite frankly. How far apart we are on so many things. How they plead poverty, that they’re losing money left and right while giving hundreds and millions of dollars to their CEOS. It is disgusting. Shame on them. They stand on the wrong side of history at this very moment.”

She continued: “The entire business model has been changed by streaming, digital, AI. This is a moment of history that is a moment of truth. If we don’t stand tall right now, we are going to be in trouble. We are all going to be in jeopardy of being replaced by machines and big business, who cares more about wall street than you and your family.”

#SAGAFTRAstrong #SAGAFTRAstrike

Mrs. Davis was nominated at the 2023 HCA TV Awards! Due to the ongoing WGA strike and the SAG/AFTRA strike looming, winners of the 2023 HCA TV Awards will no longer be presented on August 12th and August 13th. Presentation of the HCA TV Awards Winners is TBD.

Best Streaming Limited Series
Beef (Netflix) Black Bird (Apple TV+)
Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story (Netflix)
Daisy Jones and The Six (Prime Video)
Fleishman Is In Trouble (FX on Hulu)
Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities (Netflix)
Mrs. Davis (Peacock)
Ms. Marvel (Disney+)
Tiny Beautiful Things (Hulu)
Welcome to Chippendales (Hulu)

Source: Awards Radar

Betty Gilpin and Mrs.Davis have received nominations at the 2023 Television Critics Association Awards! The winners of the TCA Awards will be announced August 7, 2023.

INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT IN DRAMA
Christine Baranski, “The Good Fight” – Paramount+
Kieran Culkin, “Succession” – HBO | Max
Dominique Fishback, “Swarm” – Prime Video
Betty Gilpin, “Mrs. Davis” – Peacock
Pedro Pascal, “The Last of Us” – HBO | Max
Bella Ramsey, “The Last of Us” – HBO | Max
Rhea Seehorn, “Better Call Saul” – AMC
Sarah Snook, “Succession” – HBO | Max
Jeremy Strong, “Succession” – HBO | Max

OUTSTANDING NEW PROGRAM
“Andor” – Disney+
“Interview With the Vampire” – AMC
“Jury Duty” – Amazon Freevee
“Mrs. Davis” – Peacock
“Poker Face” – Peacock
“Shrinking” – Apple TV+
“The Bear” – FX
“The Last of Us” – HBO | Max

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN MOVIES, MINISERIES OR SPECIALS
“A Small Light” – National Geographic
“Beef” – Netflix
“Black Bird” – Apple TV+
“Daisy Jones & The Six” – Prime Video
“Fleishman Is in Trouble” – FX
“Mrs. Davis” – Peacock
“The Patient” – FX
“Weird: The Al Yankovic Story” – The Roku Channel

Actress Betty Gilpin not only embraced the wild tonal shifts of the wholly unique Peacock series “Mrs. Davis,” she says she finds the show’s ability to vacillate between comedy, drama, sci-fi and even absurdity much more true to life than the confines of a single genre box.

“The show cycles through genres every two pages,” Gilpin says in the latest episode of TheWrap’s “How She Did It,” presented by Peacock. “I find that much more true to life than when a show is one tone, one color. Throughout a given day, how many different genres do you cycle through in your life? Things can feel like slapstick farce, and then you get a phone call and you’re in a heightened drama. That’s much more true to life. It’s 10 different worlds and 30 different storylines and 11 different thesis statements braided together.”

Boiling the plot of “Mrs. Davis” into a simple logline isn’t all that easy, but the show begins as the story of a nun (played by Davis) who has a vendetta against an all-powerful A.I. on which the entire world depends. After conversing with the A.I. (called Mrs. Davis), it agrees to shut itself down if Davis can do one thing: Find the Holy Grail.

And that’s just in the first episode.

“I had worked with Damon Lindelof on ‘The Hunt’, drawn to his writing style, strange and original but so specific and felt so real to me even though it was so strange and fantastical,” Gilpin said of her attraction to the project, which was created by Lindelof and Tara Hernandez. “That was the kind of world I wanted to be in for seven months.”

Gilpin said the passion for the show’s unique storytelling seeped into every department.

“It felt really special to be part of a very original thorny, strange, ridiculous, wonderful world that was so specific,” she said. “You could really feel every department wanting to be very much a part of that. It was sort of everyone’s passion project. Everyone really got it.”

As for the looming threat of A.I. in the real world, Gilpin was drawn to the show’s unique take on A.I.

“Part of the thesis statement of the show is that Mrs. Davis is not some HAL super computer, other evil. It’s really just a robot puppy that’s fulfilling our wants and our needs, that we are in charge of and at the wheel of. And whether that’s more comforting or scarier is the question we should be asking ourselves.”

“Mrs. Davis” is streaming on Peacock.