Paapa Essiedu, star of The Lazarus Project, says he’s taken a proactive approach to avoiding typecasting, even if it means turning down great roles in the process.
The 33-year-old actor has a complex part to portray playing George, a rule-breaking secret agent who needs to be both the everyman and action hero of the high concept show – as well as being able to get his head around time travel.
Image: Caroline Quentin as project leader Wes. Pic: The Lazarus Project/Sky Max
The second series of the BAFTA-winning sci-fi picks up with the world stuck in a time loop in which the world ends every three weeks.
Essiedu’s co-star, Caroline Quentin, who plays Elisabeth ‘Wes’ Wesley, the leader of The Lazarus Project admits: “I struggle to remember what I did yesterday in real life. So, trying to find my way through the backwards and forwards of the script was very challenging for me.”
Also challenging were the show’s filming conditions – with series one shot in the middle of the first COVID lockdown, and the second during a brutally cold winter.
Image: Paapa Essiedu is the star of The Lazarus Project, now in its second series on Sky Max
Essiedu says he had to train for the role, which sees him take on numerous adversaries, fighting and shooting his way to saving humanity.
“It was a long shoot, very intensive… It requires a lot of mental resilience, emotional resilience, and physical resilience”.
Admitting to being somewhat accident prone, he didn’t survive the shoot injury-free.
“I could get injured like sat on this chair right now, you know? It really is a joke. My physio thinks I’m very talented in that particular sphere. So, yeah, I had a couple of injuries and a few fight scenes and whatever, but you keep calm and carry on.”
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Image: There are fight scenes aplenty to contend with. Pic: The Lazarus Project/Sky Max
So, in a show where the characters frequently live the same three weeks over and over again, do Essiedu and Quentin ever feel as actors they’re asked to play the same roles on repeat?
Essiedu, who’s played parts including Hamlet, Prince of Denmark; George Boleyn the brother-in-law to Henry VIII and a demon called Gaap in the guise of a disco star, says he’s taken a strong stance to avoid getting stuck in a career loop.
“I think for me I’ve had to be like quite conscious in things I say yes and no to in order to stop that from happening. Because you do a thing and people see it and they’re like, ‘OK more of that, more of that, more of that’.
“I’m quite rambunctious in my opposition to that, you know, and sometimes to the detriment of really great parts. I think if you’re lucky enough to get the opportunities that allow you to stretch your range or to show different sides of your capabilities, then you’ve got to be conscious to chase those opportunities.”
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Quentin, 63, who is perhaps best known for the role of long-suffering girlfriend Dorothy in 90s hit sitcom Men Behaving Badly has also had to battle with lazy casting.
“I’ve always struggled with that, you know, because I’ve done a lot of comedy and sometimes you just want to go, ‘I don’t just do that’. This is nice, it gives me an opportunity to do stuff that isn’t like that…
“If you’re good at something you don’t want to be bad at something, so people don’t ask you to do it again. But on the other hand, if you’re good at it, you don’t want people keep asking you do the same thing over and over again.”
So, what would they have done if their life paths had taken a different turn, and they hadn’t been actors?
For Essiedu, it would have been a complete jump away from the arts into the sciences: “I very nearly became a doctor. I had a place at medical school, and I often think about what my life would be like if I was doing that.
“I obviously love working with people and that’s one of the reasons I love being an actor because you get to meet many different types of people.”
Quentin would have stayed a little closer to home, becoming “either a potter or a painter or an illustrator or something in that world”.
Series two of The Lazarus Project is streaming now on Sky Max and NOW TV.
Paul Gallagher, the older brother of Oasis stars Noel and Liam, has been charged with multiple offences including rape.
The Metropolitan Police said Gallagher, 59, of East Finchley, north London, has been charged with rape, coercive and controlling behaviour, three counts of sexual assault, three counts of intentional strangulation, two counts of making a threat to kill and assault occasioning actual bodily harm.
The offences are reported to have taken place between 2022 and 2024. The charges follow an investigation which began last year, the force added in a statement.
A woman is being supported by specially-trained officers, the statement continued.
Paul Gallagher, who is about one year older than Noel and seven years older than Liam, has never been involved in Oasis.
He is due to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on 27 August.
Gregg Wallace has spoken about his sacking from MasterChef after inappropriate behaviour while working for the BBC – but insisted he is “not a groper, a sex pest or a flasher”.
Wallace, 60, has apologised after a report, commissioned by the cooking show’s production company Banijay UK, found 45 out of 83 allegations were substantiated.
In an interview with The Sun, he said: “I know I have said things that offended people… I understand that now – and to anyone I have hurt, I am so sorry.
“I don’t expect anyone to have any sympathy with me but I don’t think I am a wrong ‘un.”
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Torode, who insisted he had “absolutely no recollection” of the alleged incident, has not had his contract for the show renewed.
Wallace has now defended Torode, saying: “I’ve known John for 30 years and he is not a racist.
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“There is no way that man is a racist. No way. And my sympathies go out to John because I don’t want anybody to go through what I’ve been through.”
Image: Gregg Wallace has defended his former MasterChef co-host John Torode (left). File pic: PA
At one point, Wallace became tearful during the interview when describing the impact of the investigation on his family.
“I have seen myself written about in the same sentence as Jimmy Savile and Huw Edwards, paedophiles and sex offenders. That is just so, so horrific.”
In respect to the specific allegation of unwanted touching, Wallace denied groping a woman and said that, while he was attempting to flirt with her, he did believe the contact it was consensual.
“She gave me her phone number. I considered that to be intimacy. It was 15 years ago. Me, drunk, at a party, with my hand on a girl’s bum,” he said.
He also accepted he had briefly appeared with a sock on his private parts in front of four colleagues in MasterChef studio. But he said his is not a flasher, and people were either “amused or bemused” but not distressed.
On the broader allegations about using inappropriate language, Wallace accepted the criticism and suggested that some of his conduct could be explained by his autism and his background.
“I know I am odd. I know I struggle to read people. I know people find me weird. Autism is a… registered disability. Just because you can’t see it doesn’t mean it’s not real.”
He also blamed his former career: “I’m a greengrocer from Peckham. I thrived in Covent Garden’s fruit and veg market. In that environment that is jovial and crude. It is learned behaviour.”
Wallace told the newspaper he is now scared to appear in public: “I go out now in a disguise – a baseball cap and sunglasses, I don’t want people to see me. I’m scared.”
On Wednesday, the BBC confirmed a series of MasterChef filmed last year, before allegations against presenters Gregg Wallace and John Torode were upheld, will still be broadcast.
The company at the centre of a viral video at a Coldplay concert has released a tongue-in-cheek clip on social media – featuring Gwyneth Paltrow as a “temporary spokesperson”.
Astronomer was thrust into the spotlight after two of the tech firm’s senior executives were filmed embracing on a kiss cam during a gig in Boston.
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Tech boss resigns after viral Coldplay concert video
Paltrow, who used to be married to Coldplay frontman Chris Martin, is seen sitting at a desk in the new video uploaded to X – and begins by thanking the public for their interest in Astronomer.
She adds: “I’ve been hired on a very temporary basis to speak on behalf of the 300-plus employees at Astronomer.
“Astronomer has gotten a lot of questions over the last few days – and they wanted me to answer the most common ones.”
A question is then typed out on the screen that reads: “OMG, what the actual…”
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Before the final word appears, the video cuts back to Paltrow, who goes on to promote some of the services Astronomer offers.
In a subtle nod to the countless column inches the company has attracted, Paltrow adds: “We’ve been thrilled so many people have a newfound interest in data workflow automation.”
Another question then pops up on screen, which begins to type out: “How is your social media team holding up?”
But before the sentence fully appears, Paltrow abruptly interrupts by declaring that Astronomer has spaces at an upcoming conference in September.
“We’ll now be returning to what we do best: delivering game-changing results for our customers,” she adds at the end of the video.
The marketing stunt is a sign that Astronomer is trying to put a positive spin on the scandal, which sparked feverish speculation online.
After Mr Byron resigned, the company had said in a statement: “Astronomer is committed to the values and culture that have guided us since our founding.
“Our leaders are expected to set the standard in both conduct and accountability, and recently, that standard was not met.”
Pete DeJoy, who has taken over as interim CEO, admitted on Monday that the company has faced an “unusual and surreal” amount of attention in recent days.
On LinkedIn, he wrote: “While I would never have wished for it to happen like this, Astronomer is now a household name.”