We talked about how she portrays a mental health condition with equal parts comedy and respect, getting used to making intense eye contact with Jason Segel, her favorite day on set when Wally “accidentally” kidnaps her neighbor’s dog, and much more.

Reflecting on when she joined the show at the beginning of season one, Condict said, “I went and did my part on the first day of the first season, and at the beginning of the day, so it was like everybody’s first day of school. And that was a really cool, fun vibe to be there right at the beginning. I felt like I was in on it. It was my first time ever working with Bill [Lawrence]. It was my first time working with Jason, of course. And they were just so warm. I think I was nervous to meet Jason because he’s so famous, and when I went into the room, I met him, made eye contact with him, and hugged him. I could feel his energy, and he was just very grounding and wonderful.”

As a viewer, I am always impressed by how laugh-out-loud funny the therapy scenes are in Shrinking while still treating these very real mental health conditions in a very delicate and thoughtful way. I think that it all goes back to the impeccable writing and casting, and Condict agrees. She commented, “I’m a person who in my life has been diagnosed with anxiety and depression, and so I think it feels like a very near thing. It’s just a different mirror in the fun house we’re all trapped in. I think a lot of OCD is a product of anxiety or vice versa. So I think I mainly just channeled my own anxiety and fears and nervousness about stuff, but it’s so well written that it feels very natural to say all the stuff that they’ve crafted.”

With season four of Shrinking officially underway, I’m eagerly awaiting any news on the future of Wally’s character. One of my favorite questions to ask actors is to throw out their ideas for a dream spinoff for their character. Condict had two great concepts in mind – either Wally doing immersion therapy by going to work somewhere deep in nature like Yosemite, or turning some of her OCD traits into a successful organization business a la The Home Edit. I would absolutely tune in for countless episodes of either one.

Tune into our full conversation in the video above. The 11-episode third season of Shrinking is now streaming in full on Apple TV.

The post How Kimberly Condict Made Wally a Fan Favorite on Shrinking appeared first on Nerd Reactor.

The Exit 8 film follows The Lost Man, played by Kanunari Ninomiya (Letters from Iwo Jima), as he discovers that he’s trapped in a loop in a Japanese subway station.

“What gave me a hint on how to approach this film was that I had a panel with Nintendo’s Miyamoto Shigeru about 10 years ago,” Kawamura tells Nerd Reactor. “On this panel, he said, ‘Really good games will entertain the players, but they’ll also entertain the people watching the player and watching the screen.’

“From that, I looked at the video game landscape at large, and we have the video game players, and we also have streamers. And we have people who watch other streamers. I thought if there was some way to take what’s happening in the video game world and capture it in this movie, it would provide this unique and new type of experience within movie theaters.”

The Corridor as a Character

The supernatural element is this corridor that traps the humans in an endless loop, unless they are able to identify the anomalies.

“First, we were following our human characters, and then we’re invested in their stories,” the director explained. “But more and more, as I got invested in the film, I began to see the corridor itself as one of the characters, if not the main character of the film. It’s almost like a giant monster or creature. And within it is this yellow, Exit 8 sign that’s overlooking like a god or divine being watching different humans wander into its domain.”

Building Two Identical Corridors

One of the techniques in capturing the endless loops in the film is the use of two identical corridors on the set.

“With the POV of video games, there aren’t going to be any cuts,” Kawamura said. “That’s the nature of video games. They’re constantly viewing the world through your perspective and camera. I wanted to capture that expression in that oner, that super long shot. In order to do that, we actually built two identical corridors in one set and linked them in the middle. So the shot you’re probably talking about was physically looped and shot practically during production.

“An instance of that is The Walking Man walking past the camera at the end of the corridor. He actually had to get on a bicycle, ride to the beginning of the first corridor, catch his breath, and come walking down again. And that’s how we were able to do it, by doing it in a very analog way, and having him walk as though he’s a CG character. We gave it that feeling of a video game loop.”

About Exit 8

Synopsis: A man trapped in an endless sterile subway passage sets out to find EXIT 8. The rules of his quest are simple: do not overlook anything out of the ordinary. If you discover an anomaly, turn back immediately. If you don’t, carry on. Then leave from Exit 8. But even a single oversights will send him back to the beginning. Will he ever reach his goal and escape this infinite corridor?

Exit 8 released in U.S. theaters on April 10, 2026.

The post How Exit 8 Turns a Viral Horror Game Into a Mind-Bending Film appeared first on Nerd Reactor.

In the revival series, Malcolm has been living a peaceful life away from his birth family. He has a daughter and a girlfriend, and life couldn’t be better. Kiana Madeira portrays Tristan, Malcolm’s girlfriend, who is thrust into the chaos that is Malcolm’s childhood family.

“I was such a huge fan growing up, so I knew what I was getting myself into,” Madeira told Nerd Reactor. “But I just love that they didn’t lose that. It’s been almost 20 years, and the actors themselves just jumped into the character so effortlessly. The writing, like Linwood Boomer, our creator and executive producer, stayed so true to the heart of the original series. I think fans are gonna love it for that reason, like we really don’t lose that chaos and that energy, which is like what makes Malcolm in the Middle what it is.”

While Malcolm’s family isn’t perfect, at the heart of it, the family still cares for each other.

“Your family doesn’t have to be perfect, because no family is perfect,” she explained. “There’s going to be dysfunction, there’s going to be chaos, but at the heart, if you just have love for one another, you can overcome anything. That’s what I love about this family, it’s so relatable.”

Malcolm in the Middle: Life’s Still Unfair is now available to stream on Hulu and Disney+.

The post ‘We Didn’t Lose That Chaos’: Kiana Madeira on Malcolm in the Middle’s Revival appeared first on Nerd Reactor.

The series follows teenager John Bennett (Max Burkholder) and his foul-mouthed bear, Ted (Seth MacFarlane), in 1990s Boston. Playing his father, Matty Bennett, is Scott Grimes.

“It’s gonna be the whole scene where I come out of the bathtub with my pants down, and I have to wrestle my brother with my bare behind showing to the world,” Grimes tells Nerd Reactor. “I don’t know if you guys have seen it, but my bum is in your face. The camera is there, and my bum is right there. So that was tough to watch, tough to film, but it’s also what we do on this show. We push that kind of envelope a little.”

Giorgia Whigham portrays John’s cousin, Blaire, and she shares one of the most unhinged moments in the season.

“Oh man, they’re all unhinged,” she said. “But I think anything from the Mrs. Robichek episode. That whole episode is unhinged, and that would pop up in the dictionary, I would say.”

Whigham recalls a scene with Alanna Ubach, who plays John’s mother.

“There’s one that I reference because I laughed and I couldn’t pull it together,” Whigham said. “It was in season one. I don’t even know if it got put into the show, but when Alanna… when we were at the dinner table, we were, for some reason, I forget what it was, we were all complimenting on Suze. I think they were, ‘Oh, I think they were stoned,’ and they were saying, ‘Oh, this meatloaf is great, or whatever.’ And she said, ‘I feel like the Academy Awards,’ and just the way Alanna talks is so, it’s just the improv lines that she would give just made me laugh each time. But that one, that one killed me.”

You can check out our video interview above.

About Ted Season 2

Ted the TV series – Everyone’s favorite foul-mouthed teddy bear is back! Peacock’s comedic prequel series to the hit film franchise of the same name, Ted season two finds us in the ’90s, and Ted the bear’s moment of fame has passed. He’s now living back home in Framingham, Massachusetts, with his best friend, 17-year-old John Bennett (Max Burkholder), along with John’s parents, Matty and Susan (Scott Grimes and Alanna Ubach), and cousin Blaire (Giorgia Whigham).

Ted the TV series is available to stream on Peacock.

The post Ted Cast Reveals the Most Unhinged Scenes in Season 2 appeared first on Nerd Reactor.

Jessie T. Usher reprises his role as A-Train, who is seen on the run and trying to protect his family.

“I love that we find him in the only place that really makes sense,” Usher tells Nerd Reactor. “I love that he’s on the run, and it’s fitting for him. When you think about all of the stuff that he’s done up until this point, the only way out for him is to just stay on the move. He can’t really come back and face the mess that he made because it’s larger than him. There’s no way he can come back and tell the world what he did and have them just accept him. There’s no way that he can go back and say to Homelander what he wants to say without getting lasered.

“There’s just all these things. So the only thing that really makes sense is for him to be running. And I love that that’s where we see him. And I love that he hasn’t forgotten that and that the stakes are high, and at this point, where do we go next? With this character, it just feels like this ticking time bomb that’s just waiting to happen. And I love that he just takes control of his life for the first time.”

Susan Heyward portrays Sister Sage, a member of the Seven with superhuman intelligence.

“Things need resolution, stories need resolutions,” Heyward said about the show having a final season. “And as satirical as the show is, as inspired by real-life events as the show is, it is a story. So it does need to end. And kudos to Kripke and the writers for giving us a beginning, a middle, an end, and going out on a high, right? Instead of dragging it out and diluting the power.”

As part of The Seven, Firecracker is there to help out Homelander. Valorie Curry (Detroit: Become Human) is back as the Supes with the power of simple pyrokinetic sparks. However, she does have superhuman strength.

“It tells you that there was an intention behind the storytelling from the beginning,” Curry added. “And if it’s sort of just forever ongoing and open-ended, then to me, it sort of loses that sense of intention. And it’s always had a very strong point of view. And that is probably its greatest asset.”

The Boys Season Five will premiere on April 8, 2026, with two episodes, followed by a new episode each week, with the series finale on May 20, 2026. The season will stream exclusively on Prime Video.

Even though The Boys is ending soon, fans still have the upcoming Gen V Season 3 and the prequel series, Vought Rising.

The post A-Train on the Run: Jessie T. Usher on The Boys Season 5 appeared first on Nerd Reactor.

Matarazzo portrays Jack, a misfit who isn’t afraid to shake the system.

“I like to think that Dustin would academically excel tremendously more than Jack would,” Matarazzo tells Nerd Reactor. “I doubt that was Jack’s primary reasoning for attending college in the first place. So I think that they would have very different goals. I think they’d fare well. I don’t know if Dustin would be willing to jump into an unpredictable drug-fueled nightmare the way that Jack would. So I would trust Dustin in a situation far more than Jack personally.”

Giambrone is Montgomery, the reserved one of the duo.

“I think that Adam would probably call his mom to handle [things],” Giambrone said. “I think that I could almost see Dustin figuring out some way to balance the drug, so it would cancel the effect or something. That’d be a wild duo.”

Lulu Wilson plays Lizzy, who used to be friends with Jack and Montgomery and is trying to be part of the cool kids. She has a horror background with movies and series such as The Haunting of Hill House, Annabelle: Creation, and Ouija: Origin of Evil.

“I do think there’s definitely some utter terror in this movie,” Wilson recalled. “We get pretty scared, so I think it does kind of cross over. But I also think that horror and comedy are very connected, just because of people like Jordan Peele or Zach Cregger. I think it definitely informed the practice that I’ve had. Doing all this horror definitely helped with this movie 100%.”

About Pizza Movie

Synopsis: A shy college student and his reckless roommate set out on a simple mission to grab pizza, but after a strange dose of a mind-bending experimental drug, they’re thrust into a chaotic night of absurd encounters, wild hallucinations, and unexpected revelations that could change their lives forever.

Starring in the film are Gaten Matarazzo, Sean Giambrone, Lulu Wilson, Jack Martin, Peyton Elizabeth Lee, Marcus Scribner, Caleb Hearon, Sarah Sherman, Justin Cooley, Kevin Matthew Reyes, Adam Herschman, and Lucas Zelnick.

The film is written and directed by Brian McElhaney & Nick Kocher. It is produced by American High’s Jeremy Garelick and Will Phelps and All Things Comedy’s Billy Rosenberg. Jason Zaro, Molle DeBartolo and Max Butler are also producers. Gaten Matarazzo is an executive producer.

Pizza Movie releases on Friday, April 3rd, on Hulu and Hulu on Disney+ for bundle subscribers in the US.

The post Gaten Matarazzo Says Dustin Would ‘Excel’ in College, Sean Giambrone Says Adam Would ‘Call His Mom’ appeared first on Nerd Reactor.

“He’s this larger-than-life, big ball of energy who comes in and shakes things up,” Marsden tells Nerd Reactor. “But I was excited to work with Olivia because we’ve known each other for a long time. Both went to the same high school in Oklahoma, and we’ve never actually worked together. So that was exciting.

Jon and I have been in a fantasy football league together for a long time. And so I’ve known, I’ve just known him through the business. And so it was like, get to work with people that you know are your pals. So yeah, first day shooting was like, this is gonna be fun. We have a good time with this. And the character for me really allowed me to go there.”

Olivia Munn portrays Samantha Levitt, who tried to frame Cooper in the first season. Life has been hell for her at the start of the season, as she is shunned by her former friends and neighbors, except for Ashe.

“It was really interesting to play someone who was feeling so many conflicting feelings at once,” Munn said. “Not one of them was bigger than the other one. Like she was feeling shame and regret. And she was feeling like she was also justified and feeling like everyone was treating her unfairly. And that a lot of them are hypocrites and they have all done something wrong in their lives. She’s feeling all of those things at once and is determined to make her way back into this social group.

“And then having to feel that embarrassment and sadness and exclusion when none of them can even stomach looking in my direction. And so it was really fun to go from someone who was in such control, even if her life was imploding and she wasn’t always getting what she wanted. She was in control, and she had a game plan. And this time around, she’s got to go with other people’s game plans and be able to be flexible, adjust, and change for the different opportunities that are coming her way.”

About Your Friends and Neighbors Season 2

In season two, Andrew Cooper (Jon Hamm) doubles down on his life as an unlikely suburban thief, until the arrival of a new neighbor threatens to expose his secrets and place his family at risk.

Emmy Award-nominee James Marsden joins the cast, alongside returning stars Hamm, Amanda Peet, Olivia Munn, Hoon Lee, Mark Tallman, Lena Hall, Aimee Carrero, Eunice Bae, Isabel Gravitt and Donovan Colan.

Hailing from Apple Studios, “Your Friends & Neighbors” is created by bestselling author Jonathan Tropper, who serves as showrunner, director and executive producer for Tropper Ink under his overall deal with Apple TV. Hamm executive produces alongside Connie Tavel, Craig Gillespie, Jamie Rosengard, Lori Keith Douglas and Stephanie Laing, who directs six episodes.

The post James Marsden and Olivia Munn Talk Season 2 Shakeups in Your Friends & Neighbors appeared first on Nerd Reactor.

Nerd Reactor: The show has had such a great response from the fans so far this season. Why do you think this was the right moment in time for Scrubs to come back?

Layla Mohammadi: I think this show is so relevant, no matter what time it is. I think everyone needs a good laugh these days, and it has the heart and the humor. And I think Bill Lawrence is having such a moment in television right now, and anything he touches is gold. And it’s just such a fun show to be a part of.

Nerd Reactor: Do either of you have any other favorite shows from that early 2000s time period that you would love to see come back or even be a part of if you got the chance?

Jacob Dudman: I loved Arrested Development. I think that was the first American sitcom that I fell in love with. If you can call it a sitcom, it’s sort of genre-defying, I think. But I always admired it from a distance, thinking I’ll never be in an American sitcom, and here I am. I think the important thing for me was really believing that there’s a reason for it to come back. I think we’ve seen examples over the years of shows that are brought back for the wrong reasons and what really excited me about joining this was that all the original team both in front of and behind the camera were interested in being a part of it, and so I knew that it wasn’t trying to recapture someone else’s magic but actually that these were the people who made it what it was and they care so deeply. You can tell from Zach [Braff] working overtime that he wanted to make sure that it was for the fans, and I think he did a good job.

Nerd Reactor: For this week’s episode, we see the beginning of and maybe the end of a relationship between Amara and Asher. And I’ve heard you all auditioned separately, and then you met when filming started. So, did you know your characters would be getting together, and how did you build that chemistry?

Layla Mohammadi: I actually had no idea when I auditioned. I had no scenes planned that had anything to do with her talking to boys. But I was told the first day on set that I’m going to have this little thing in the hospital. But it was weird. None of us met. We didn’t know how any of the chemistry would be. And I think it’s a testament to Debby Romano that they picked the right people for the jobs who would get along. And I don’t know how they did it, but we all love each other so much and hung out all the time. And I think it helped in the show because we had such a good relationship off the show.

Nerd Reactor: I think that’s one consistent part about Bill Lawrence shows, it creates the feeling of I want to be hanging out with this group of people because you see how warm they are together. What would you say are three words to describe each of your characters?

Layla Mohammadi: Awkward, unpredictable, growing.

Jacob Dudman: It’s interesting you say that, actually, because now I’m reflecting and thinking that Asher and Amara are in some ways quite similar. Because for me, I would say Asher is sweet, squishy, and big-hearted with a hyphen if that counts.

Nerd Reactor: We’re really just only in the early stages of getting to know all of these characters. Do you think to yourself about more of their backstories and invent some of the history of why they are the way that they are?

Layla Mohammadi: Yeah, I think you kind of have to as an actor, especially when, you know, it’s only nine episodes this season, and there are so many characters and so much story to be told. It’s fun to kind of imagine who these people are and come up with different things. And then you get proven wrong when you read an episode, and you kind of discover things as it goes on, like she has an uncle who doesn’t talk much. But I’m excited to see the backstory for all of the characters and what they’re going to come up with, because I’m sure it’s going to be something fun and crazy, knowing the writers of the show.

Nerd Reactor: One of the great things about a medical show is that it leaves so much room for guest appearances. Do either of you have a dream guest star in mind?

Layla Mohammadi: Oh my gosh, Harrison Ford. Harrison Ford.

Jacob Dudman: Yeah, come on, we’ve got to pull that string, surely. That’s my dream. Although I worry I’d be a bit like Troy in Community meeting LeVar Burton. I would just freeze up. I wouldn’t know what to do or say.

Layla Mohammadi: I think I’d be quiet. It’d be the quietest I’ve ever been.

The post Sacred Heart Is Heating Up: Layla Mohammadi & Jacob Dudman on Scrubs Revival appeared first on Nerd Reactor.

Daniel Rojas was the first musician to come on board KPop Demon Hunters and was the architect, along with EJAE.

“[I was] the very first, and I brought in EJAE,” Rojas tells Nerd Reactor. “So EJAE and I worked together with Maggie and Chris for more than three years before anyone else came in. We kind of put it all together as far as like where the songs should go, what the songs should be doing for the story, before different groups of songwriters were called in for different scenes. So it was more, I would say, like the architecture of it all with EJAE.”

600 Songs Were Made for KPop Demon Hunters

The process was very long, and the songwriters worked on 600 songs, only to have 9 songs chosen for the final version of KPop Demon Hunters.

“A lot of these songs had 30 to 40 different versions,” he explained. “By versions, I mean very different, not small revisions, but like whole different tracks or different lyrics, different things. We worked for over five years, and then in the end, it’s only like nine songs. People are like, ‘It took five years to do nine songs?’ I was like, ‘No, it took five years to do 600 songs, out of which the nine that you know.'”

Rojas and EJAE have worked together previously, and he knew that she was perfect for the film.

“I’ve known EJAE for a decade, basically,” the songwriter said. “And I’ve always thought she’s extremely talented, both as a writer and also as a singer. I loved her voice. I’ve used her many times, even just to sing demos and things like that. And especially this being a Korean film, she was born in Seoul, grew up in America, but also goes back there a lot.

“Her family still lives in Korea. It just felt like such a perfect fit. And someone who had been through the K-pop system and had trained at SM Entertainment, I immediately told Maggie, ‘I have the perfect person that we need for this puzzle.’ Because I’m not a K-pop person. I’m not an idol in any way. We were lacking that kind of authentic voice in our team for the music side. The music was so important. So we already had authenticity from Maggie, but we needed a voice in the music department early on that could also guide that light. And I thought EJAE was the perfect match. I made the introduction, brought her in, and we worked together for many years.”

The post How Daniel Rojas Recruited EJAE to Help Shape the Sound of ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ appeared first on Nerd Reactor.

Ahead of the season two finale “Exodus,” I spoke to Enuka Okuma, whose performance as Xavier’s wife, Dr. Teri Rogers-Collins, anchors the entire second season’s storyline with the most beautiful message of hope and resilience.

Spoilers ahead for Paradise season 2

Reflecting on the moment that Xavier and Teri finally reunite after three years, Okuma said, “It was very stressful, obviously. Just because it is a moment that is so important to the show, it’s been driving Xavier the whole season. And I just really wanted to get it right. But once we got there, it was really, really hot. And there were trains and lots of extras and explosions and stunt people. It was just such a massive situation that it kind of wasn’t hard to believe the fake circumstances. So I just thought, let’s surrender to this moment, which I did. And the biggest thing for me was I was really glad that Teri and Xavier got a second moment. That first time they see each other, it’s crazy, slow-mo, fake smoke, all the things. But to be able to have that moment in the tent when they actually connect, and they’re grieving the loss of time with each other, I thought that’s the moment that to me is actually more important.”

Following their reunion, a chilling scene plays out where Teri has to confront an unhinged Gary (Cameron Britton) to say goodbye and save Bean (Benjamin Mackey). Okuma remembered, “In my mind, I knew Teri wouldn’t go in there unless she knew she was going to be safe. But cynical Enuka was reading and going, oh, my God, this is it. What great storytelling if we get [Teri and Xavier] together and then all of a sudden she dies, and he had her in his grasp. But Dan is thankfully not as dark as that…I feel like Gary had the best intentions and he loves pretty fiercely and would do anything to keep those he loves dear. So I don’t think he would have ever hurt Bean or Teri, but he would hurt anybody who’s going to take them away from him…This is a man who saved her life, so she cares for him dearly and really does hope and believe that he’ll be okay. But she’s got to go be with her husband, and she’s taking that little boy with her.”

After the events of the season two finale unfold, it feels like we may be left with more questions than answers in typical Fogelman style. But one thing is for certain as we look to season three, family will be at the center of everything now that the Collins crew is all reunited. Okuma adds, “After three years of being apart, the most important thing is that they’re now together. Being able to actually reunite amongst those circumstances, I think, is going to inform how much hope that she and the whole family have that they can survive anything… Even if they don’t know what they’re up against, they know that they can survive. Family is what defines Teri, so I just hope we’re going to see that group work together and stay together.”

Tune into our full conversation in the video above. Paradise seasons 1 and 2 are now streaming in full on Hulu.

The post Enuka Okuma on Explosive Paradise Season 2 Finale and Long-Awaited Reunion of Teri & Xavier appeared first on Nerd Reactor.