the only way that you can understand it is through art,” Wither-
spoon says. “We don’t take sides in any of it. It’s about the humanity
of these issues.” As for Witherspoon’s Bradley, she finds herself in
Alex’s orbit when a video of her arguing with a coal-mine protester
goes viral and the Morning Show producers bring her on for an
interview. We can’t quite get into where the two women go from
there, but with everything that’s going on, Bradley is not Alex’s big-
gest concern. Because not only has Alex lost her partner, but her
contract is up for renegotiation with the network—led by slippery
man-in-charge Cory Ellison (played to perfection by Billy
Crudup)—and let’s just say that she’s older than Jane Pauley was in
- As Alex tells her teenage daughter in episode 3: “Sometimes
women can’t ask for control, so they have to take it.”
Back in Los Angeles, just hours before Witherspoon will get lost
in her memory of Diane Sawyer’s set visit, Aniston is sitting pool-
side at her sleek hilltop home, holding a bottle of Smartwater like
the dedicated spokeswoman she is. Her blue eyes still sparkle the
same way they did when she first walked onto the Friends sound-
stage. But by now, they’ve seen some things. “This role never
could’ve come to me any sooner than now,” she says. “It’s one of the
hardest jobs I’ve had. I knew I was up to the task, but then there was
the excavation of all the emotions in order to create this world for
this woman. All of her lifelines are falling away. I would walk out of
some of those scenes feeling like a manhole cover just came off my
back.” Because, much in the way that America feels like it knows
Alex Levy within the world of The Morning Show, America feels like
it knows Jennifer Aniston in real life. “I understand that, with
people having connections to Friends,” Aniston says. “I understand
the isolation—not wanting to be seen, not wanting to be public, not
wanting to have to go on a red carpet. It’s not always easy to go out
there and have to be the person that you have to be.” But when the
lights come on and the cameras are pointed at you, you just figure
it out. Especially if Diane Sawyer is watching. �
“alternate history” drama with
Matt Wolpert and Ben Nedivi. “We
jump months, sometimes years,
and you’ll see the ripple effects:
We pull out of Vietnam earlier;
Nixon goes in hard on the space
program.” There’s also a moon
station, but it’s not sci-fi. “The
world is real,” says Joel Kinna-
man, who stars as an astronaut.
“It feels like this Mad Men world,
but where it all keeps expanding.
I’ve never been part of anything
so well written.” (Nov. 1) —PG
- See
A virus causes everybody in the
world to go blind. Thousands of
years pass. Then twins are born
able to—you guessed it—see.
That’s the world crafted by
writer Steven Knight and director
Francis Lawrence. “It’s not as if
people lost their sight and it’s
awful,” says Knight. “The human
race has adapted. Their other
senses have been enhanced.”
Game of Thrones’ Jason Momoa
stars in what he calls the tough-
est role of his career: “He’s a
great warrior trying to keep his
family together—just imagine
if Khal Drogo got to live on.”
(Nov. 1) —JAMES HIBBERD
→ “No one has ever
seen Jen Aniston jump
into the deep end
like this,” director Mimi
Leder says of the
star (with Duplass)
fall
tv pre
view
2019
5
4
EW ● COM OCTOBER 2019 35
SERVANT
: JESSICA KOURKOUNIS/APPLE;
SEE
: MURRAY CLOSE/APPLE;
THE MORNING SHOW
: APPLE
