Exclusive: Dulé Hill and Sarayu Blue are set for key recurring roles opposite Ellen Pompeo and Mark Duplass in Orphan (working title), Hulu‘s eight episode limited series starring and executive produced by Pompeo.
Written by Katie Robbins, the drama series is inspired by the true story of a Midwestern couple, Michael and Kristine Barnett, played by Duplass and Pompeo, who adopt a girl with a rare form of dwarfism. But as they begin to raise her alongside their three biological children, questions emerge around her age and background, and they slowly start to suspect she may not be who she says she is. As they grow to believe their new daughter is a threat, she fights her own battle to confront her past and what her future holds, in a showdown that ultimately plays out in the tabloids and the courtroom.
Hill plays Brandon Drysdale, the detective investigating the...
Written by Katie Robbins, the drama series is inspired by the true story of a Midwestern couple, Michael and Kristine Barnett, played by Duplass and Pompeo, who adopt a girl with a rare form of dwarfism. But as they begin to raise her alongside their three biological children, questions emerge around her age and background, and they slowly start to suspect she may not be who she says she is. As they grow to believe their new daughter is a threat, she fights her own battle to confront her past and what her future holds, in a showdown that ultimately plays out in the tabloids and the courtroom.
Hill plays Brandon Drysdale, the detective investigating the...
- 4/22/2024
- by Denise Petski
- Deadline Film + TV
Prime Video is gearing up for a strong Emmy push with Lulu Wang’s emotionally charged and intricately crafted miniseries “Expats.”
It was revealed exclusively to Variety that stars Nicole Kidman and Ji-young Yoo will be submitted for lead acting accolades, while Sarayu Blue and Ruby Ruiz will aim for supporting roles. Altogether, “Expats” will vie for 24 Primetime Emmy nominations, including outstanding limited or anthology series.
Set against the vibrant backdrop of Hong Kong, and adapted from the novel by Janice Y.K. Lee, “Expats” delves into the lives of a close-knit group of expatriates, navigating their affluent, yet complex world. The narrative centers around the mysterious disappearance of Margaret’s (Kidman) son during a market visit, intertwining the lives of three American women amidst the 2014 Umbrella Movement protests.
Read: All Primetime Emmy predictions in every category on Variety’s Awards Circuit.
Lulu Wang, the creator, writer and director of the...
It was revealed exclusively to Variety that stars Nicole Kidman and Ji-young Yoo will be submitted for lead acting accolades, while Sarayu Blue and Ruby Ruiz will aim for supporting roles. Altogether, “Expats” will vie for 24 Primetime Emmy nominations, including outstanding limited or anthology series.
Set against the vibrant backdrop of Hong Kong, and adapted from the novel by Janice Y.K. Lee, “Expats” delves into the lives of a close-knit group of expatriates, navigating their affluent, yet complex world. The narrative centers around the mysterious disappearance of Margaret’s (Kidman) son during a market visit, intertwining the lives of three American women amidst the 2014 Umbrella Movement protests.
Read: All Primetime Emmy predictions in every category on Variety’s Awards Circuit.
Lulu Wang, the creator, writer and director of the...
- 4/11/2024
- by Clayton Davis
- Variety Film + TV
Spoiler Alert: The following reveals major plot points from the Prime Video limited series Expats including the finale.
Lulu Wang’s Expats, an adaptation of Janice Y. K. Lee’s novel The Expatriates, concluded its 6-episode run on Friday with the episode aptly titled “Home.” What is home exactly?
The limited series takes viewers on a journey with three central female characters—Margaret Woo (Nicole Kidman), Hilary Starr (Sarayu Blue) and Mercy Cho (Ji-young Yoo)—whose lives become intertwined while they’re expatriates living in Hong Kong.
On the surface, life appears blessed and busy for Americans Margaret and Hilary, two married professionals who require the assistance of one or more helpers to keep their lives running and looking perfect from the outside.
Margaret is married to Clarke (Brian Tee) who is trying to make his way up the corporate ladder while helping to raise their three children: Daisy (Tiana Gowen...
Lulu Wang’s Expats, an adaptation of Janice Y. K. Lee’s novel The Expatriates, concluded its 6-episode run on Friday with the episode aptly titled “Home.” What is home exactly?
The limited series takes viewers on a journey with three central female characters—Margaret Woo (Nicole Kidman), Hilary Starr (Sarayu Blue) and Mercy Cho (Ji-young Yoo)—whose lives become intertwined while they’re expatriates living in Hong Kong.
On the surface, life appears blessed and busy for Americans Margaret and Hilary, two married professionals who require the assistance of one or more helpers to keep their lives running and looking perfect from the outside.
Margaret is married to Clarke (Brian Tee) who is trying to make his way up the corporate ladder while helping to raise their three children: Daisy (Tiana Gowen...
- 2/24/2024
- by Rosy Cordero
- Deadline Film + TV
“Expats” star Sarayu Blue remembers the first time imposter syndrome bowled her over.
She was on set for David E. Kelley’s “Monday Mornings” with the “inimitable” Alfred Molina, who just performed a big speech in a key scene.
“We got done, and we were walking to our rooms and he turned back and he said, ‘Was that all right?'” Blue recalled in a conversation with IndieWire. “And I looked behind me cause I thought, ‘Well, he can’t be asking me, who the hell am I?'”
After assuring Molina that he was “brilliant,” Blue remembered realizing: “In that moment, I thought ‘Oh, we never quite release that impostor syndrome.’ We always will check. ‘Did I get that? Did we get it?’ It was a beautiful moment, and I love him so much.”
Going into “Expats” with Nicole Kidman, Blue was experienced at working with big stars and...
She was on set for David E. Kelley’s “Monday Mornings” with the “inimitable” Alfred Molina, who just performed a big speech in a key scene.
“We got done, and we were walking to our rooms and he turned back and he said, ‘Was that all right?'” Blue recalled in a conversation with IndieWire. “And I looked behind me cause I thought, ‘Well, he can’t be asking me, who the hell am I?'”
After assuring Molina that he was “brilliant,” Blue remembered realizing: “In that moment, I thought ‘Oh, we never quite release that impostor syndrome.’ We always will check. ‘Did I get that? Did we get it?’ It was a beautiful moment, and I love him so much.”
Going into “Expats” with Nicole Kidman, Blue was experienced at working with big stars and...
- 1/27/2024
- by Proma Khosla
- Indiewire
Exclusive: Sarayu Blue won her part starring alongside Nicole Kidman in Lulu Wang’s Prime Video limited series Expats at a time when she didn’t know if she “could lift the boulder back up the hill.”
In an interview with Breaking Baz, the Indian-American actress recalls how she had just gone through the jubilation of landing the lead role in Aseem Bahra’s NBC series I Feel Bad in 2018 and the devastation when it was cancelled after just one season. The episode had a real impact.
Landing the role in the Amy Poehler-executive produced comedy had been “an enormous thing,” says Blue, because it was a role that was ”never written Indian…. and I tested against three white women for it.” She instantly corrects herself by replacing the aggressive “against” with a softer “with.”
The role of Emet Kamala-Sweetzer in I Feel Bad, was that of a concept artist and a boss,...
In an interview with Breaking Baz, the Indian-American actress recalls how she had just gone through the jubilation of landing the lead role in Aseem Bahra’s NBC series I Feel Bad in 2018 and the devastation when it was cancelled after just one season. The episode had a real impact.
Landing the role in the Amy Poehler-executive produced comedy had been “an enormous thing,” says Blue, because it was a role that was ”never written Indian…. and I tested against three white women for it.” She instantly corrects herself by replacing the aggressive “against” with a softer “with.”
The role of Emet Kamala-Sweetzer in I Feel Bad, was that of a concept artist and a boss,...
- 1/26/2024
- by Baz Bamigboye
- Deadline Film + TV
Compared to the more rigid constraints imposed by a traditional TV network series or feature film, streaming provides as little or as much space as necessary to tell a story. But time and time again, this greater freedom results in a lack of concision, a tendency to get lost in the weeds. The latest example is Lulu Wang’s limited series Expats, which attempts to tell a story that might have worked just fine if it weren’t spread across six episodes.
Expats is adapted from Janice Y.K. Lee’s novel The Expatriates, which traces the lives of three American women living in Hong Kong in 2014. The expat community is represented here by Margaret Woo (Nicole Kidman) and Hilary Starr (Sarayu Blue), who live in a luxury apartment building with their husbands and, in Margaret’s case, children. They have live-in “helpers,” and they attend lavish parties even in the midst of tragedy.
Expats is adapted from Janice Y.K. Lee’s novel The Expatriates, which traces the lives of three American women living in Hong Kong in 2014. The expat community is represented here by Margaret Woo (Nicole Kidman) and Hilary Starr (Sarayu Blue), who live in a luxury apartment building with their husbands and, in Margaret’s case, children. They have live-in “helpers,” and they attend lavish parties even in the midst of tragedy.
- 1/25/2024
- by Steven Scaife
- Slant Magazine
"Not a moment goes by where I'm not thinking about what I've done." Prime Video has revealed the first full trailer for the new series Expats, created by the talented filmmaker Lulu Wang (her latest since her hit film The Farewell). Expats is an upcoming American drama streaming television series created by Wang based on the 2016 novel "The Expatriates" by Janice Y. K. Lee that is set to stream on Prime Video starting in January. It follows "the vibrant lives of a close-knit expatriate community: where affluence is celebrated, friendships are intense but knowingly temporary, and personal lives, deaths and marriages are played out publicly—then retold with glee." It's a story about the many lives of expats living in other countries (mainly in Hong Kong) - starring Nicole Kidman as Margaret, Ji-young Yoo as Mercy, Jack Huston as David Starr, Sarayu Blue as Hilary Starr, Brian Tee as Clarke,...
- 12/19/2023
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Nicole Kidman may be a nominated for her fifth Oscar for her work in “Being the Ricardos,” but she wasn’t at the annual nominees luncheon on Monday at the Fairmont Century Plaza hotel.
Variety can exclusively reveal that Kidman is at home in Nashville under doctors’ orders, recovering from a torn hamstring. She was filming the upcoming Amazon series “Expats” in Los Angeles when the pre-existing injury flared up.
The show is continuing to shoot this week but will temporarily pause while producers figure out when they can resume and if they need to shoot around Kidman until her return, according to an Amazon rep.
“Expats,” based on Janice Y. K. Lee’s best selling 2016 novel “The Expatriates” and directed by Lulu Wang (“The Farewell”), focuses on a group of three expatriate women living in Hong Kong. It is produced by Kidman’s Blossom Films.
“Expats” also stars Sarayu Blue as Hilary Starr,...
Variety can exclusively reveal that Kidman is at home in Nashville under doctors’ orders, recovering from a torn hamstring. She was filming the upcoming Amazon series “Expats” in Los Angeles when the pre-existing injury flared up.
The show is continuing to shoot this week but will temporarily pause while producers figure out when they can resume and if they need to shoot around Kidman until her return, according to an Amazon rep.
“Expats,” based on Janice Y. K. Lee’s best selling 2016 novel “The Expatriates” and directed by Lulu Wang (“The Farewell”), focuses on a group of three expatriate women living in Hong Kong. It is produced by Kidman’s Blossom Films.
“Expats” also stars Sarayu Blue as Hilary Starr,...
- 3/7/2022
- by Marc Malkin and Sasha Urban
- Variety Film + TV
The Amazon series adaptation of of Janice Y.K. Lee’s novel “The Expatriates” has cast Sarayu Blue, Variety has learned exclusively.
Blue joins previously announced cast member Ji-young Yoo. Set against the fabric of Hong Kong, “Expats” is the story of an international community whose lives are bound together forever after a sudden family tragedy. The show was originally ordered to series at Amazon back in 2019.
Blue will play Hilary Starr. A career woman with immaculate taste, Hilary adores her international life. When her friendship with Margaret is fractured by fate, Hilary must learn to embrace the silver linings that come from new beginnings.
Blue is known for her starring roles in the NBC comedy “I Feel Bad,” which was produced by Amy Poehler, as well as the 2018 Universal feature “Blockers,” which grossed nearly $100 million worldwide against a reported budget of $21 million. Her other TV roles include “No Tomorrow,” “Happiest Season,...
Blue joins previously announced cast member Ji-young Yoo. Set against the fabric of Hong Kong, “Expats” is the story of an international community whose lives are bound together forever after a sudden family tragedy. The show was originally ordered to series at Amazon back in 2019.
Blue will play Hilary Starr. A career woman with immaculate taste, Hilary adores her international life. When her friendship with Margaret is fractured by fate, Hilary must learn to embrace the silver linings that come from new beginnings.
Blue is known for her starring roles in the NBC comedy “I Feel Bad,” which was produced by Amy Poehler, as well as the 2018 Universal feature “Blockers,” which grossed nearly $100 million worldwide against a reported budget of $21 million. Her other TV roles include “No Tomorrow,” “Happiest Season,...
- 6/24/2021
- by Joe Otterson
- Variety Film + TV
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