Category: Guest Actor in a Drama Series

Cuban actor Néstor Carbonell, known for his performances in TV dramas like “Bates Motel” and “Lost,” as well as films including Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight,” plays an essential role in the pilot episode of FX’s drama series “Shōgun.” In the episode “Anjin,” Carbonell portrays Vasco Rodrigues, a Spanish pilot who sails from Portugal and introduces Blackthorne (Cosmo Jarvis) to the Japanese. His character’s strong and unpredictable nature adds depth and intrigue, setting the stage for the epic. Carbonell is also in the running for his role in Apple’s “The Morning Show,” where he is among the names for supporting drama actor.

Néstor Carbonell credits years of hard work — and a multitude of memorable TV roles — for allowing him the opportunity to appear on FX’s hit series Shōgun.

“Any time I get to work is a gift. I have a deep appreciation for every character I’ve had the opportunity to play because it is a chance to investigate a part of you within that character as well,” Carbonell, 56, exclusively told Us Weekly. “It’s so interesting because the opportunities I’ve had have had different kinds of audiences. So some people might recognize me from Lost, Bates Motel, The Morning Show, [the movie] The Dark Knight and now Shōgun, which is amazing.”

Carbonell got his start on TV as a guest star on various shows. It wasn’t until he joined Brooke Shield‘s NBC sitcom Suddenly Susan in 1996 that he rose to prominence and continued to book high-profile projects that gained him a dedicated audience. Most recently, Carbonell completely transformed to play Vasco Rodrigues on Shōgun, FX’s acclaimed historical action-drama, which takes place in Japan circa 1600.

“When you get the opportunity to truly escape into a role that is very far from you — those are the things you dream about,” Carbonell told Us about the skilled Spanish navigator who doesn’t have any specific allegiance when viewers first meet him. “Those opportunities don’t always come around that often because you’re typically doing more work in your immediate wheelhouse. So this was a phenomenal and an amazing opportunity and challenge.”

Before Carbonell could actually film scenes as Rodrigues, he had to bring the character to life. That meant a physical transformation which included creating an accent, adding scars to better reflect Rodrigues’s life story, cutting his hair as his character and more.

“Immediately [when I got the part] I was like, ‘Well, I’m definitely gonna start growing the beard now. Let’s start with that.’ Then we really talked at length about the history of this character and things that weren’t necessarily on the page to really get a sense of who he was emotionally,” he explained. “Then we got into what could inform him physically? I thought, ‘Well I’d probably want to put on a few pounds.’ I wanted to add some heft to the character.”

Carbonell gained around 20 to 25 pounds to better reflect Rodrigues as a character, adding, “It was wonderful just on the physical side to discuss when I got to set after doing all the emotional prep. [We discussed] how can I give him a history on his face and his hair and his physicality that will allow us to further escape into his world and give us a sense of where he came from.”

Based on the 1975 novel by James Clavell, Shōgun is an adaptation of the source material with show creators Rachel Kondo and Justin Marks taking major steps to properly depict key events and figures of 1600 Japan when the Azuchi–Momoyama period approached its end and the Edo period commenced.

“We had the privilege of having these experts who were flown in from Japan to inform every department. We got to learn social customs of the time period. And while my character was breaking all the rules, I knew how far to push it,” Carbonell said of his onscreen approach. “I really wanted to learn what the rules were so that I knew how to break them.”

Carbonell expressed his gratitude for the crew members behind the scenes that helped him on the journey. The actor was also thankful for the network that invested so much into reflecting authenticity within the Shōgun world.

“The support that we got from FX and from [Chairman of FX Networks] John Landgraf was just extraordinary. How he supported Justin and Rachel the entire production was phenomenal. I don’t think we could have been supported any better,” Carbonell shared. “Certainly in my time on the show, what I saw there was unprecedented. Every department was doing things in a phenomenal way to the highest level.”

He continued: “[Everything I learned on the Shōgun set] were truly gifts that help you escape even further into the character. It allows you to really be present in that time period and in that role. So again, it was a gift beyond my dreams to get to play a character like that.”

READ MORE

#7 Yanko is Problematic Again

After his storyline in The Morning Show season 2 where he refused to take proper responsibility for using the culturally appropriative term “spirit animal” while on air, Yanko said the wrong thing at the wrong time once again. Yanko has become one of the most frustrating The Morning Show characters both for viewers and other characters with his ego and tendency to blame others instead of looking inward. In The Morning Show season 3, episode 3, he made things even worse during a staff meeting.

Mia and Stella organized the impromptu meeting with the entire The Morning Show crew to let them express their feelings about the leaked email and racial disparity at UBA. During the meeting, Yanko, who has some Cuban ancestry, said that “race is a fiction” that’s “being weaponized” when they’re really “all mutts.” When Alex said he was derailing the meeting for a spectacle, he said the real problem was “the wokeness.” This was not met well by other characters and may leave both viewers and his coworkers wondering when Yanko’s finally going to leave The Morning Show.

On May 15, 2010 Nestor attended the Disney Television Group Press Junket along with friend, Henry Ian Cusick. The gallery has been updated with 13 additional photos from the event. An interview that Nestor & Ian gave to ComingSoonNet discussing the ending of Lost has also been added to the press library.

Global hit series “The Morning Show,” starring and executive produced by Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon, renewed for season three
Apple TV+ inks multi-year deal with WGA Award winner Charlotte Stoudt, who joins third season of Emmy, SAG and Critics Choice Award-winning series as showrunner

On the heels of the buzzy sophomore season finale of “The Morning Show,” today Apple TV+ announced that the global hit, Emmy, SAG and Critics Choice Award-winning series has been renewed for a third season. Starring and executive produced by Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Aniston, directed by Mimi Leder and produced by the studio Media Res, Hello Sunshine and Echo Films, season three of the broadly acclaimed drama will be showrun and executive produced by Charlotte Stoudt (“Fosse/Verdon,” “Homeland,” “House of Cards”).

Apple TV+ today also announced a new, multi-year overall deal with Stoudt for scripted television series. Kerry Ehrin, who developed “The Morning Show” and served as showrunner on the first and second seasons, will serve as consultant on the third season, as well as continue developing new series for Apple TV+ under a previously announced overall deal.
“It has been thrilling to watch ‘The Morning Show’ go from strength to strength over the past two seasons, exploring topical storylines that have resonated with audiences around the world while also being incredibly addictive and entertaining,” said Matt Cherniss, head of programming for Apple TV+. “We’re excited to see where Charlotte takes these extraordinary characters in season three and to watch the magic that Jennifer, Reese and our awe-inspiring cast continue to bring to the captivating world of morning television.”
“I’m excited to be joining forces with Apple TV+ and ‘The Morning Show,’” said Stoudt. “The cast, led by the phenomenal Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon, are truly to die for. Kerry, Mimi and Michael, and the teams at Media Res, Hello Sunshine and Echo Films, have created an irresistible world that is equally delicious and provocative.”The complete first and second seasons of “The Morning Show” are now streaming globally on Apple TV+.

Picking up after the explosive events of season one, season two found “The Morning Show” team emerging from the wreckage of Alex (Aniston) and Bradley’s (Witherspoon) actions, to a new UBA and a world in flux, where identity is everything and the chasm between who we present as and who we really are comes into play. Along with Aniston and Witherspoon, the star-studded cast includes Billy Crudup, Mark Duplass, Nestor Carbonell, Karen Pittman, Bel Powley, Desean Terry, Janina Gavankar, Tom Irwin and Marcia Gay Harden, as well as new additions for season two Greta Lee, Ruairi O’Connor, Hasan Minhaj, Holland Taylor, Tara Karsian as news producer Gayle Burns, Valeria Golino and Julianna Margulies.

Read More

The Morning Show, unlike Mitch Kessler, lives on! (Too soon?)

Apple TV+ has renewed the drama starring Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon for Season 3, TVLine has learned.

The renewal comes with a behind-the-scenes switch: Charlotte Stroud (Homeland, Fosse/Verdon) will take over as showrunner/executive producer, replacing Kerry Ehrin in the role. Ehrin, who is developing series with the streaming service under a previously announced overall deal, will continue as a consultant with the show

The drama’s polarizing second season saw the death of Steve Carell’s Mitch Kessler, who in Season 1 had been outed as a habitual sexual abuser and fired from the titular morning show. Mitch spent most of Season 2 in Italy where, after a visit from his former co-anchor Alex (played by Aniston), he died in a car accident that took place around the start of the COVID-19 lockdown. On a related note, Alex contracted COVID during her time in Italy. Meanwhile, fellow Morning Show host Bradley Jackson (played by Witherspoon) started dating a woman (Julianna Margulies’ Laura Peterson), dealt with a visit from her troubled brother and was on the receiving end of a surprising “I love you” from boss Cory Elison (played by Billy Crudup) in the finale. (For more on the hour, read our interview with Witherspoon and Crudup.)

The Season 2 finale began streaming on Nov. 19, 2021.

In the fourth episode of season 2, Yanko (Nestor Carbonell) had to apologize for an offensive comment, and may have only made it worse. At least according to his bosses Mia Jordan (Karen Pittman) and Stella Bak (Greta Lee).

[Spoiler alert: This article contains spoilers for the fourth episode of The Morning Show Season 2.]

Lee, Pittman and Carbonell spoke with Showbiz Cheat Sheet on Sept. 10 by Webex about the new season of The Morning Show. Their opinions on the apology situation varied as drastically as their characters’. New episodes of The Morning Show premiere Fridays on Apple TV+.

Nestor Carbonell wishes Yanko stood up to ‘The Morning Show’ producers

Even behind the scenes, Carbonell thought his character was in the right. Carbonell said he wished Yanko had pushed back harder, but agreed his apology was lackluster.

“I was all about Yanko being resolute, holding his ground,” Carbonell said. “If anything, I was like, ‘Dude, why are you even doing this apology? Don’t go there’ but Yanko didn’t listen to me. So off he went and did his lame apology. He did what he could because he had to answer to his conscience on some level. His conscience told him that this is just absurd on his face, that the head of the news division has completely misrepresented who he is and has not backed him in this thing. So he feels deeply underappreciated, deeply misunderstood. So no, I was hoping he would stand his ground and he did in the end, but it took him a while.”

Read Full Article

Carbonell told us that, personally, he had no knowledge “whatsoever” that the term Yanko uses could be offensive, saying he thinks The Morning Show’s writers are “trying to come up with something as innocent as possible to drive the point home.”

That point, Carbonell says, is that “cancel culture has run amok,” saying “You can insult one person and it can mean that they would start a campaign to not just criticize you, but to destroy you.”

While Carbonell acknowledges that there’s “absolutely a validity in criticizing someone for something they might say that might be offensive,” he thinks “this notion of dragging [someone] through the mud, through a campaign of destruction is another thing altogether.”

Read Full Article

Huge congrats on the new season, it’s great.

Nestor Carbonell: Thank you so much, and I feel very much at home on your outlet. I am a nerd, just ask my kids.

First off, I want to ask how it felt getting to return for a second season and what were you most excited for?

Well, Sophia, for so many reasons, I was excited. I mean, I think for so many of us who were because of COVID, the subsequent shutdown, and how it affected me, I was grateful that I had a job to come back to, many people didn’t have that luxury. I was grateful for that. So gratitude was the first thing, just being grateful to have a job and that we’re able to come back to work in a safe environment thanks to Apple, which was able to make that happen in an incredible way. So that and then actually getting to work on a show that handles the issues of the day in such an incredible way with this obviously, extraordinary cast and the writing is just so good, the crew, the directors, everybody. So, it’s a treat to get to work with material like this and with people like this. So for all those reasons, I was excited to come back.

The season one finale had an explosive ending, can you give me a preview of where we pick up and what fans can expect from the new season?

Absolutely, so we pick up I think, roughly around six months after where we left off when Alex proverbially blew up the network and it changed the network forever. It had people fired and there’s a big shake up in the network, including Alex herself. She basically had a bit of a breakdown and had to sort of come to terms with who she was, her identity, and try to find herself, while the show kept going under new leadership. And that’s where the show picks up, about six months after the fact, predating COVID still, so it’s before COVID hits the US. So, we get to find out through the show how COVID sort of comes into the into the news cycle, what people think about it, what they say, the silly comments some people say, including my character. Then we get to explore other issues that we’ve all explored in the last few years — namely, the advent of cancel culture, the dangers of it, the pitfalls of it, issues of race, the 2020 election is covered to some extent, and naturally, obviously, COVID. So, a lot of big issues.

What’s in store for Yanko in season two?

More pain, you’re definitely gonna see more pain, but Yanko is brokenhearted still when we see him six months after the fact, after Claire broke up with him. So you’re gonna see even more pain when he sort of unwittingly gets involved in and becomes a target of being canceled, having to sort of fight for his innocence and fight for it in the face of a boss that has painted him with one brushstroke, as someone who probably should apologize. He just simply doesn’t see it that way and he feels deeply misunderstood. So you’re going to see Yanko in even more pain than you saw before.

Read the Full Article

“Angry that he has been passed over to host a presidential debate, Danny (Desean Terry), a reporter on the show-within-the-show, demands to know what it is — being gay? Being Black? — that has impeded his career. Stella (Greta Lee), the blunt-speaking new president of UBA’s news division who is Asian American, agonizes about whether she was hired as a token, even as she is subjected to Trump-style racial slurs about the coronavirus on the street. Yanko Flores (Nestor Carbonell), the beloved Cuban American weatherman, is accused of appropriating Indigenous culture after he uses the expression “spirit animal” on the air, and then attacked again when his apology is deemed insufficiently sincere.”

Read The Full Article