Freddie Highmore apologizes even when he doesn’t need to. His network bosses must be thrilled.
FREDDIE HIGHMORE, slight, pale, well-mannered, and low-key English, is, at 26, so earnest that he seems to be from another, less desperately self-branded time. I meet him at the Essex House hotel on May 15, the morning of the ABC “upfronts” at Lincoln Center, where the network showcases its programming to advertisers and the press. This year’s festivities focus, imprudently in retrospect, on Roseanne Barr and the network’s “heartland strategy.” That strategy includes Highmore’s feel-good show, The Good Doctor, which premiered last fall to ratings nearly as high as Roseanne’s. We sit in the window, and he orders a decaf and apologizes, first, for being in sweatpants and, later, for being the British star of a hit American TV show—“You thought you’d gotten rid of us and then, like, here we come again. Sorry.”
Two weeks later, on May 29, Barr would upend ABC’s agenda by comparing former Obama aide Valerie Jarrett to an ape on Twitter, prompting the network to cancel her show and, with it, an estimated $60 million in ad revenue for next season, and in the process making its former No. 2 show its new No. 1. In other words, it’s now up to Highmore and The Good Doctor to come to the rescue—stat.
Denne historien er fra June 11, 2018-utgaven av New York magazine.
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Denne historien er fra June 11, 2018-utgaven av New York magazine.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Enchanting and Exhausting
Wicked makes a charming but bloated film.
Nicole Kidman Lets Loose
She's having a grand old time playing wealthy matriarchs on the verge of blowing their lives up.
How Mike Myers Makes His Own Reality
Directing him in Austin Powers taught me what it means to be really, truly funny.
The Art of Surrender
Four decades into his career, Willem Dafoe is more curious about his craft than ever.
The Big Macher Restaurant Is Back
ON A WARM NIGHT in October, a red carpet ran down a length of East 26th Street.
Showing Its Age
Borgo displays a confidence that can he only from experience.
Keeping It Simple on Lower Fifth
Jack Ceglic and Manuel Fernandez-Casteleiro's apartment is full of stories but not distractions.
REASON TO LOVE NEW YORK
THERE'S NOT MUCH in New York that has staying power. Every other day, a new scandal outscandals whatever we were just scandalized by; every few years, a hotter, scarier downtown set emerges; the yoga studio up the block from your apartment that used to be a coffee shop has now become a hybrid drug front and yarn store.
Disunion: Ingrid Rojas Contreras
A Rift in the Family My in-laws gave me a book by a eugenicist. Our relationship is over.
Gwen Whiting
Two years after a mass recall and a bacterial outbreak, the founder of the Laundress is on cleanup duty.