Emily Nussbaum: 'The Marvels' Star Emily Blunt's Most

Emily Blunt is set to take on one of her most challenging roles yet as Susan Orlean, the trailblazing news anchor who broke down barriers in a male-dominated industry. Based on the true story of Orlean's life, The Marvels promises to be an inspiring and thought-provoking film that sheds light on the struggles and triumphs of women in journalism.

This story first appeared in an August stand-alone issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine.

Key Analysis and Detailed Timeline

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Rivalries are a defining aspect of the drama on Palm Royale, but in season two, the claws literally came out in a knock-down, drag-across-the-house showdown between Kristen Wiig’s Maxine Dellacorte-Simmons and Claudia Ferri’s Raquel Kimberly-Marco.

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The brawl between the high-society wannabe and the wealthy socialite was inspired “I did a bunch of research on Dynasty and watched all these crazy catfights with these women, which were so fun,” says Emmy-nominated stunt coordinator Mallory Thompson. “I was like, ‘I can’t even believe this was a thing in the ’70s.’ ” Thompson and Emmy-nominated stunt performers Sonja Wajih and Col “Fights are usually 10, 20 seconds, but [creator Abe Sylvia and producer Jesse Sternbaum] were, like, ‘This can be long … it’s Dynasty, just keep going,’ so we went through the house, up the stairs, down the stairs, out the house,” says Thompson.

Broader Impact and Sector Outlook

The stairs proved the most dangerous element of the scene. “We have two women doing a stair fall together in heels and in very little clothing, so they couldn’t really put a lot of pads on,” Thompson explains. “And then they went into an actual wood table that we scored, but this was solid wood. That was probably the most tricky in terms of keeping [Wajih and Lemmo] safe and healthy,” she adds. “They came out with some bruises, but no injuries.” Wiig and Ferri did their part to make the scene as real as possible as well.

“They wanted to do everything they could. … I was like, ‘Claudia, we can’t throw you down the stairs,’ ” Thompson recalls with a laugh. “We didn’t want to injure our actresses The whole fight has so many screams, so having them add that elevated it and made it funny.” This story first appeared in an August stand-alone issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.