S TREAMING
New Drama
OCT—4 � NETFLIXThis nine-episode adapta-
tion of the Dennis Liu and
Jason Piperberg comic book
of the same name appealed
to star Alisha Wainwright
on several levels. While the
superhero element is fun—
Wainwright’s character,
Nicole, discovers her son
Dion (Ja’Siah Young) has
special powers—the human
element of single mother-
hood drew her in. “That’s
something that I found super
relatable, because my moth-
er’s a single mother, and
juggling the most basic
things to make sure that your kid is happy and healthy is, in itself,
kind of a superhero skill,” she says. “So when I read it, I was just
like, ‘Oh my gosh, I know any person that knows someone who is on
their own trying to take care of somebody else, they’re going to
relate to this like I relate to this.’ ” —SARAH RODMANRAISING DION
↓ Ja’Siah Young as Dion↑ Top Michael Douglas Bottom Kathleen TurnerCOMMON KNOWLEDGE? > MILF Island, Vidas de Fuego, Inspector Spacetime, GhostfacersTHE
KOMi NBen PlattTHE POLITICIAN’S
The Dear Evan Hansen
Tony winner, 26, plays the
lead role on the new high
school election comedy
from Glee creators Ryan
Murphy, Brad Falchuk,
and Ian Brennan.
What drew you to this
role?
What was the most attrac-
tive for me was that it was
a total 180 “character-
wise” from Evan Hansen.
It was somebody much
darker and more conniving
and egomaniacal. It was
just something that
stretched me in a way that
made me very frightened,
but I think in a good way.
That, combined with how
much I trust Ryan and how
clear his vision was for this
particular show, made it
a really easy no-brainer—
that’s the perfect thing
to go into next.
The actors, especially
the younger stars, seemed
to have really bonded
together.
As soon as we had every-
one cast, I messaged
everyone on social media
and I created a little group
chat. I was like, “We’ve got
to plan a Disneyland week-
end. We’ve got to plan a
Malibu weekend.” I think
it affected the work in a
really positive way. I think
we all felt we were very
much of one world.Gwyneth Paltrow plays
your mother, and you have
a lot of emotional scenes
together. What was it like
working with her?
As soon as we met, she
just felt immediately very
maternal and very warm
and very loving to me,
and kind of took me under
her wing. We forget what
a star she is because
she’s so busy ruling the
world in other ways. I’m
happy we gave her a
reason to come back and
remind everybody what
a brilliant actor she is.
—TIM STACKNew Comedy
SEPT—27
NETFLIX↓
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