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On Monday, December 11th, the world lost a wondrous and inspiring talent in one Andre Braugher. The man who brought to life iconic characters like Detective Frank Pembleton and Captain Raymond Holt. A star of both the stage and screen who breathed life and humanity into the roles he took. And judging by the outpouring of love from his past costars and those who have worked with him, an amazing friend. Let’s take a look at the life and career of one of the greatest unsung actors of our time, Andre Braugher.

Andre was born on July 1, 1962, on the West Side of Chicago, Illinois to mother Sally Braugher and father Floyd Braugher. He was the youngest of four for the couple. He attended St. Ignatius Prep School during his high school years and earned a scholarship to attend the prestigious Stanford University where he initially majored in engineering but after discovering his love for acting switched majors. He earned his Bachelor of Arts in theatre in 1984. He then attended the highly prestigious Julliard arts school, where he graduated in 1988. 

As far as first roles go, Braugher hit a home run. He starred in the 1989 war film Glory where he played Thomas Searles. Searles joined the first Black regiment of the Union Army during the Civil War. He then went on to star in the ABC revival of Kojak as young detective Winston Blake who’s assigned under the guidance of the titular inspector. It was after these roles that Braugher would snag the role that would define his career for years to come. In January 1993, Andre Braugher became known to the world as Detective Frank Pembleton when he started his stint on Homicide: Life on the Street. The role was one in which Braugher tapped into his amazing talent for bringing humanity and realism to his characters. In the 2011 PBS docuseries America In Primetime, Braugher said of his role as Pembleton: “Somehow I’m an instrument of his (God’s) will. Well, I’m too fragile an instrument for that.” 

Frank Pembleton’s driving need is to speak for the dead, to be the instrument of justice, and be someone who can keep crime down. It’s that search for justice and his pursuit for meaning that drives him to ultimately leave Chicago PD. And in the end, what Pembleton meant, and continues to mean to audiences is a character whose absolute empathy makes him both enthralling and heartbreakingly tragic. It’s this role that gave Andre two Primetime Emmy nominations: one in 1996 and the other in 1998. He won the award in ’98. 

Braugher spent the 2000s taking on many roles and even doing some theatre work, as when he starred in Shakespeare in the Park’s Henry V, in which he played the title role. This role landed him an Obie Award. He did some guest roles in popular shows like Law & Order and House, In which he took on the role of House’s therapist Dr. Darryl Nolan. For that role, he held his own with Hugh Laurie whose character of House can devour a scene without a strong enough partner. Something Braugher’s Dr. Nolan handled that intensity beautifully. In an arc where House is at his most vulnerable, Dr. Nolan challenges House in a way that not many can, cutting through the sarcastic and cynical outer layer to make House confront his humanity. 

The role that introduced Braugher to an entirely new audience (and really to a new generation) is his nuanced and hilarious role as Captain Raymond Holt on FOX-turned-NBC workplace comedy Brooklyn Nine-Nine. Holt starts on the show as a no-nonsense captain who wants to bring out the best in his detectives and cares enough to stay on them to make sure that they reach their full potential. It’s in this role that we once again see Braugher’s talent at bringing out the humanity and nuance of characters that can easily be seen as one note. 

Holt and Jake’s relationship morphs and changes as the series progresses. Jake goes from resenting Holt’s serious disposition to appreciating how Holt pushes him and holds him to task, even seeking out his approval and seeing him as a father figure. On Holt’s side, he learns to bend a little and sees his detectives as more than just work colleagues and subordinates. He sees them as family and allows each of them to play to their strengths, using his role as captain to foster a nurturing and empathetic precinct. 

Holt being an out gay man in the NYPD is something that could have been used mockingly, but the show doesn’t lean on tired stereotypes or offensive jokes. Braugher’s comedic timing and portrayal of Holt in both humorous and serious scenes showed his dedication to finding the humor in places that are truthful and not mocking. Braugher was nominated for four Primetime Emmys for his role as Raymond Holt. He has won 2 Emmys one for FX’s Thief and NBC’s Homicide: Life On The Street.

Sadly on December 11, 2023, Andre Braugher passed away. The public would not learn of this until December 12. Following his death, an outpouring of love from fans and his co-stars were painted across social media. These overwhelming gestures showed that not only was Braugher talented, but that he was beloved by pretty much everyone who worked with him. You can tell a lot about a person by what people say when they’re gone. Based on the posts that have come out since he passed, Andre Braugher was an exceptional actor and an exceptional man. 

Season 2 of Prime Video’s Reacher is based on Bad Luck in Trouble, the eleventh book in Lee Child’s Jack Reacher series. Actor/writer/dancer Maria Sten plays retired Army master sergeant turned private investigator Frances Neagley, who appears in five of the Reacher books. The former dancer is of Congolese and Danish descent, was Miss Denmark 2008, and worked as a writer on ABC’s Big Sky from David E. Kelly. BGN spoke with this talented artist via Zoom shortly before Reacher’s premiere on December 15, 2023. 

How has your background as a dancer factored into your work ethic as an actor?

I do all my stunts whenever it is safe, which is most of the time. And so it’s exciting to be able to use that old background of learning choreography and being in your body in such a natural way on a big explosive show like Reacher. Being a dancer requires a lot of discipline. It requires pushing through fatigue, pushing through aches, and whatever is going on with you. I am grateful to love what I do. And I take it seriously.

You’re also a network TV writer. Do you ever want to give the writers notes for your character?

Generally, it’s a very collaborative effort. One thing I’ve learned is when you pitch something in the writer’s room, you are always ready to make another suggestion. And if you hear a pitch, you never turn down the pitch unless you have another suggestion. That’s writer 101, standard. So whenever I come across something in the scripts where I think, “Maybe it could be a little bit different” — which rarely happens because the creative team behind Reacher is so well versed in the tone of the characters — but on the rare occasion that it does happen, I always will say, “Hey, I’m flagging this, and here are three ways that I think you could solve it.”

I hope that makes their job a little bit easier, so that they don’t have to spend brainpower coming up with something new when they have so many other things to worry about. And of course, they do that anyway. But it’s just trying to be helpful because I really love the collaborative aspect of what we do more than the actor deciding to do something and the writer deciding to do something else. For me, it’s best when it’s a collaboration. 

Frances has got this combination of being a sniper but also a little nerdy. I love that nuance of your character.

I fell in love with her on the page. She has this weird quirky quality about her that shows she’s not just a tough badass. Frances also has a sort of endearing quality about her that has been so interesting to get to play with.

There’s a scene in a convenience store with the guy helping out Frances with the security footage…

Yea, that was cool.

That particular scene was one of my favorites of the whole series.  That moment that y’all had together was just such a slice of life placed in this action series that brought it down to earth.

That was a very fun scene. And it was actually funny on the day. I don’t know if this is a spoiler, but on the day when we were shooting it, I just met the actor playing the convenience store guy that day and so I asked after we had done a rehearsal or a take, “I just have a question. Are you flirting?” And Alan [Ritchson, who plays Jack Reacher] looked at me, and he was like, “That is such a Neeley moment.” Because it’s like: “Oh, she didn’t get that.” 

You were crowned Miss Denmark in 2008. If Frances competed in beauty pageants, what do you think her talent would be?

Oh my god, she would never… [Laughs.]

I know, I know, but what if she had to compete, say, for an undercover case…

It would be a martial arts endeavor. In Season 2, some of the training techniques that she uses specifically are from something called Kali, which is a Filipino martial arts style. When you look at people who are really good at it, it’s beautiful. 

What about playing Frances brings you the most joy?

Oh, so many things. Really. She’s a joy of a character because she’s fun and quirky. Frances also has a lot of tragicness about her because she’s quite isolated from the world and she has this keen ability to follow orders. I am a person who really needs to be in control at all times.

When I get to be Frances, she’s more open to taking orders and doing things because they need to get done. It’s less complicated for her. There’s an ease in that. There’s a freedom in that; that I don’t have in my life that has been interesting to explore. You know, I’m just here showing up to do. What do I need to do? Tell me what to do. It’s interesting being in a space where I don’t have the correct answer at all times because I need to control everything. I think that is my favorite thing about her and the second part is that she’s just unapologetically herself.

Reacher season two returns on December 15, 2023, on Prime Video.

PHOTO CREDIT: DANIELE VENTURELLI/WIREIMAGE By Keyaira Boone ·Updated December 16, 2023

Ava DuVernay screened her latest film, Origin, at the Museum of Modern Arts’s (MoMa) Education and Research Center for members of the Black Arts Council and their guests on December 11. 

Origin is a loose adaptation of Isabel Wilkerson’s best-selling book Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents. Starring Anjunue Ellis as Wilkerson, the film merges the text’s academic research with stories from Wilkerson’s personal life in narrative form. It highlights the catharsis in deep work, eerily familiar book bans, seismic cultural shifts, liberal dismissiveness, and potent performances from Jasmine Cephus Jones, Neicy Nash-Betts, and Audra McDonald.

Ellis brings a tragic romance to academic concepts as Wilkerson, who armed with a tote bag and curiosity, seeks to create international connections by examining caste on three continents. Nash-Betts and McDonald keep the viewer connected to the power of friendship and the comfort of shared experiences. They also represent the need to crystalize ideas to be easily accessible to those who could benefit from their impact most. Select attendees opted to stand through the 2 hour 16 minute running time rather than miss a frame. DuVernay acknowledged their commitment to experiencing her work. “I just want to thank everyone for being here because it is crowded. And I really want to thank the people in the back who elected to stand,” she said.

The screening is one of many annual events hosted by the MoMA Black Arts Council, which celebrated its 30th anniversary earlier this year. The Council is a group of museum patrons, philanthropists, collectors, and art enthusiasts committed to increasing visibility, access, and appreciation for art and artists of the African diaspora at MoMa. It is one of several affiliate groups associated with the museum and was initially created as “an audience development effort.” They celebrate and amplify Black art by inviting visitors to engage with it. 

Attendees at the event included artist Bisa Butler, Art advisors Adefolakunmi Adenugba and Amber Smith, former ESSENCE Deputy Editor Cori Murray, and former ESSENCE Executive Editor Jacklyn Monk. 

Maya Cade, the curator of the Black Film Archive, conducted a question-and-answer session with DuVernay after the film. Cade labeled Origin the latest in a new tradition of “cinematic heirlooms”  that people “pass on just as a guide throughout time and just refer to back again.” 

DuVernay explained why she adapted the text narratively instead of doing a documentary as some expected. “As a documentarian, I use documentary to convey information. I wanted to solicit empathy and connection and ignite debate and get into the emotions,” she told Cade and the crowd. “In order to do that, you need narrative tools.” 

Those tools were used to expand the story to include characters that did not make the text. “The script was one that was, I’d say, about 40 percent from the book and 60 percent from my interviews with Isabel Wilkerson about her life. For example Mary, the character played by Niecy Nash-Betts, was not mentioned in the book at all. But as Mrs. Wilkerson was telling me about her cousin. She talked about it with such joy, talked about her with such joy and such lightness of being and such connection. That I started to think about someone that brings joy and lightness of being to my life, which is one of my best friends, Niecy Nash-Betts,” said DuVernay. “That casting was very personal.” 

Nash-Betts improvised during a scene that caused the screening to burst into laughter. DuVernay revealed she made that choice to support her co-star Ellis and allow her “to be able to laugh because she had such heavy work.”DuVernay described how her mind lit up with how to use those narrative tools when she engaged with the text.”I wanted to see Isabel with her mother looking in the clouds. I wanted to see her go kiss her mom when she wakes her up. I wanted to see a Black family reunion. I wanted to see cousins sitting there looking at pictures,” she said. Those images are the entry point to a project that goes from quaint German conference rooms to robust Harlem street corners to quaint Southern porches. 

“I started from those stories because that’s what I understood the Black folks,” DuVernay said. She spent time “looking for the touch points that allowed the Black American experience to be what it rightly is: a global story.” 

The story shows these elements while shifting back and forth between time periods and subplots featuring oppressed people of different races using cross-cutting in a way DuVernay does not use often. 

“It sparked my imagination in new ways. And I hope it does so for other people, too.” Origin is currently in theaters. Learn more about the Black Arts Council here.

The post Ava DuVernay Shared Her ‘Origin’ Inspiration At Packed MoMa Event appeared first on Essence.

In the real world, we marvel at skyscrapers like One World Trade Center, or the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. But those buildings are simply dwarfed by the ones folks create in their imaginations. But which imaginary buildings are the biggest? Buildworld has recently ranked the tallest buildings as seen in fiction, across film, books, and video games. And the answers as to what the tallest buildings are might surprise you. They’ve released their findings in a series of infographics, and you’ll spot several iconic monoliths from Star Wars, games like Grand Theft Auto, and more. You can check them out in our gallery below.

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It’s interesting to see that the tallest structure by a significant margin in films comes from the galaxy far, far away. Standing at 4,343 meters tall is the Coruscant residential complex at 500 Republica. We first saw it in The Phantom Menace, as the home of the Galactic Senate’s most elite members. Coming in at second place is the Tyrell Corporation headquarters, from the futuristic Los Angeles we saw in Blade Runner. That cityscape was a direct influence on the looks of Coruscant in Star Wars.

Both of these structures make some other famous buildings from movies seem very tiny. Even Barad-dûr, home to the Eye of Sauron from The Lord of the Rings, can’t compete when it comes to size. Hogwarts looks like a two-story apartment complex next to them. As for the skyscrapers from various Marvel movies? These tend to have something closer to real-world proportions. So Avengers Tower and the Oscorp Tower from The Amazing Spider-Man films mostly seem like regular old buildings in comparison. The buildings from the Grand Theft Auto series are way more down to Earth as well. As for us, well, we’re more comfortable closer to the ground. Has anyone got a hobbit hole with a spare room?

The post From STAR WARS to the MCU, Which Buildings in Fiction Are the Tallest? appeared first on Nerdist.