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Actor Adrianne Palicki is one of that select group of actors who has had a foot in both the Marvel and DC universes onscreen. While her DC adventures did not work out so well – she played the title character in an unsold Wonder Woman pilot for NBC and appeared as a villain in an (also unsold) Aquaman pilot for The CW – her time with Marvel was more successful.
Palicki played agent Bobbi Morse, aka Mockingbird, for most of two seasons on Marvel’s ABC-TV series Agents of SHIELD, appearing in 31 episodes between 2014 and 2016 alongside team partner and ex-husband Lance Hunter (Nick Blood). Morse and Hunter were such a popular part of the ensemble that Marvel TV decided to spin them off at the end of Season 3 into their own series.
However, while a pilot for that show, Marvel’s Most Wanted, was shot, the fledgling series was not picked up as ABC scaled back its Marvel broadcast content and Marvel TV itself pivoted to streaming series like Daredevil and Jessica Jones.
While Morse is technically still out there in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (AoS’s connections to the film universe became more tenuous as the show went on, but were still legit, while her Agent 19 alias has been transplanted to Linda Cardellini’s Laura Barton), Palicki tells Den of Geek that there are other characters she would love to play in the MCU if she had the chance.
“The only one that I haven’t played that’s on my bucket list is Rogue,” she reveals. “I would love to play Rogue, or Jean Grey. I want to be one of the X-Men.”
Palicki’s wish is not beyond the realm of possibility: Marvel has cast actors in different roles in the MCU before (see: Gemma Chan, Kenneth Choi, Mahershala Ali) and enough time will have passed since Palicki’s AoS stint before Marvel Studios gets the mutant corner of the MCU fully up and running.
In the meantime, however, Palicki has nothing but fond memories of her time as part of the AoS world. “I loved working on that,” she says. “I mean, it was hard. We had three units going at all times. We’d have the main unit, we’d have a second unit shooting the action stuff, and we’d have the third unit, which is usually on the eighth day, starting the next episode. So all of us would be jumping from one thing to the next, to another episode, to another fight scene, to whatever.”
Palicki says that she remains close friends with Nick Blood, Ming-Na Wen (Agent Melinda May) and Henry Simmons (Agent Alphonso “Mack” Mackenzie), and that while the show was “a lot of work,” it was also “really fun and surreal” to be part of it. She adds that plans were already afoot for a bigger role for Bobbi Morse when she came aboard.
“I’d entered the show knowing that it was going to either transition to a series or was going to go into the films, so that was already kind of in play,” she says now. “That moment in the bar, when we say goodbye to Mack, is still like, I think, one of the best moments of that show just because the love that’s with those three characters is so much and you really feel the loss of those characters.”
Morse and Hunter were disavowed by SHIELD at the end of Season 3, sending the sparring one-time romantic partners on the run and ostensibly into their own show. But while Marvel’s Most Wanted advanced to the pilot stage, it never got picked up as a series.
“Most Wanted was really good,” Palicki says wistfully. “It was really good. I just think that at the time, they didn’t want to bring any more Marvel shows on that network. So it’s too bad because I think it would have really done well.” [Agent Carter was also on ABC around the same time.]
Palicki says that had Most Wanted gone to series, it would have had a different tone that the sometimes-uneasy mix of spy intrigue and sci-fi shenanigans offered by AoS. “It was very different,” she reveals. “It was just these two people. It kind of had this Bonnie and Clyde feel to it, with their comedy sensibility, and just boom, boom, boom action. But it felt like it was more in our universe, as opposed to the sci-fi universe of things. It was a little bit more grounded in human nature.”
Although Palicki and the Most Wanted team were disappointed that the show was not picked up (“We were all just so bummed — we really thought that was a shoo-in”), she’s adamant that she’d jump back into Bobbi Morse’s gear in a heartbeat if she got the call – or if her X-Men dreams don’t work out.
“I would love to put on that costume again,” Palicki says. “I loved playing Bobbi Morse. I loved everything about that character. She embodied all the things: She was comedy. She was drama. She was action. She had it all. She’s a really fun character, and I would love, love, love to play her again.”
Source: Den of Geek
There are now 58 images of Adrianne Palicki from the screening of Quasi in Nashville and the premiere of the film in Los Angeles!
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Last week, the resident film critic of SoBros Network, Brandon Vick, and I had the honor and privilege of sitting down with Jay Chandrasekhar, Adrianne Palicki, and Eric Stolhanske to talk about their new movie Quasi, the latest effort from comedy troupe extraordinaire, Broken Lizard. Check out the highlights from Brandon’s interview below, and fire up Quasi on Hulu as soon as humanly possible.
Brandon: I have a question for you, Adrianne. You’ve worked with some brilliant comedic minds between Seth MacFarlane on The Orville and, of course, Broken Lizard on Quasi. What did you enjoy the most about working with them? How does it compare to the more dramatic stuff that you’ve done? They always say comedy is way harder than drama.
Adrianne: It can be, for sure. The difference is The Orville is much more structured. This felt in a lot of ways like Friday Night Lights in the sense that there are freedoms that happen and you have to use your instincts. These guys made me feel comfortable enough to use my instincts, and to improv. It felt freeing and fun. So, they’re two different kinds of comedy. But, working with them (BL) was honestly one of the best experiences of my life. Being on that set is one of the funnest places to be, and you guys (looks at Eric and Jay) are like brothers…it’s just so fun to be apart of.
Brandon: As far as Broken Lizard goes, how has your creative process evolved since the early days? Has it ever been a goal of yours to keep engaging with the younger generations?
Jay: We don’t write for other people. We write only for ourselves…under the idea that we are like other people, and that if we think it’s funny, there’s probably a group of other people out there who also think it’s funny. It’s all you really can do in comedy and in music. You could attempt to try to appeal to some people, but that’s just not our way.
In terms of the youngsters, when I do stand-up shows, I feel like there’s a lot of youngsters out there, and I think what they’re responding to is that we’re willing to make jokes that not everyone is wiling to make in a certain way that has not gotten us canceled yet. Sometimes, the studio’s like “I don’t think we can make that joke,” and I’m like “I’ll say it, and then it’ll be my face on it, and then when they come for you guys, put me out there with a mic and I’ll defend the joke.” They say “alright,” and we do the joke! So far, nobody’s come after us.
I feel like we’re lucky in that our films like Super Troopers and Beerfest, and I think hopefully this one (Quasi) will be that too….we’ve got a certain rhythm that seems to be appealing to different age groups.
Brandon: The Slammin’ Salmon was 2009, and then we waited about 10 years before Super Troopers 2 in 2018. It was another five years before Quasi – my logical conclusion here is that you guys have gotten sick of each other….
Jay: No. I think our output is going to increase over the next five or so years. We’ve got a good thing going with Searchlight in that we make them money and then they get to spend that money on their artsy stuff. So, we’re sort of their clown.
Eric: Things just take so long. If we pitch an idea, we want to make it great, so we spend a year writing it. A whole year goes by when you’re trying to make 20-30 drafts. Then, even if you finish shooting, sometimes they need a marketing target down the road. So, another year could go by when you’re waiting with a film in the can.
Adrianne: It was a year and a half since we wrapped.
Eric: Yeah, and it’s been done for a while! Time goes by.
Jay: Yeah, and they only want to release our movies on 4/20! So, we have to have a movie ready by then or else we have to wait another year.
When it comes to being a badass, Adrienne Palicki has that down. Thanks to roles in movies such as G.I. Joe: Retaliation and John Wick, then TV shows like Agents of SHIELD, the actor showed the world that she can hold her own when it comes to action. At one point, she was even meant to be the next Wonder Woman for David E. Kelly. Her stint in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and other roles showed off some of her comedic chops, but it was The Orville that showed off her full-range abilities.
However, for her latest project Quasi, Palicki entered a whole different level of comedy that she hasn’t necessarily dabbled in before. But you wouldn’t necessarily know that as she blended in with fan-favorite comedy troupe Broken Lizard pretty well. Ahead of the debut of the new film from the creators of Super Troopers and Beerfest, we got to speak with the star about her approach to this upcoming Hulu movie, participating in her first sex scene, and the future of some of her favorite characters that could make a comeback in the future.
Thanks to roles like Commander Kelly Grayson and Agent Bobbi Morse, action/comedy is very much in your wheelhouse. But your character in Quasi leans a bit more to the comedy side. What did you do differently to approach and prepare for each of those roles, if anything?
Comedy is tricky because it’s all about timing, but it’s also about listening. And this [project] is pretty broad. I think a lot of it was the comfortability that those guys brought that made me feel so confident and comfortable to riff [and] to improv with them. [To say] this would be funny here or I think she’d do this here really helped me fall into that character and be in the moment. Improv comedy is about being in the moment, so you really can’t prepare for it. You just have to allow yourself to feel confident enough to say something if it comes to your head.
How nerve-wracking or intimidating was it for you to jump into the mix with Broken Lizard?
Definitely. I’m going into this comedy troupe and they’ve known each other forever. I mean, literally. I can’t believe they offered it to me. But then I got on Zoom with [Steve] Lemme and [Kevin] Heffernan. Lemme insulted me immediately about my last name. I just gave it right back to him without skipping a beat. And [Heffernan] was like, “This is going to be fun.” We had that vibe. They all made me feel like I’d been with them the whole time as well. I didn’t feel like an outsider for a second.
After seeing all of their blooper reels over the years, it’s hard to imagine keeping a straight face while working with Broken Lizard. How did you manage it? And do you recall any favorite bloopers from Quasi that stood out?
I mean, there were a lot. The best breaks were when an improv would happen and the guys would break because they’d think it was so funny. They’d have to go back and redo it. The day with the horses for me was definitely it as far as bloopers go. Working with animals, you never know what’s going to happen. There’s one point where the horse is taking a crap behind my back as I’m in the midst of saying something serious. Or it starts nudging me in the head in the background. There were just so many different ones. I mean, I broke all the time because watching them is hilarious.
I can only imagine. It’s like a badge of honor to work with them and get through takes with a straight face.
It is. And [it’s great] to watch the process. Pre-shooting, there were tons of table reads because with comedy you have to have that feeling, you know what I mean? The beats and the moments. They would come up with better jokes, so every time the script changed, we had another table read to see if it worked out loud. So to see their process and then eventually feel comfortable enough to even say, “Oh, but this would be funny here or that would be funny there.” That also kind of made me feel really comfortable, like one of the guys.
In most versions of the classic 1831 Victor Hugo tale, The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, the female protagonist is Esmeralda, a French Romani girl who is so beautiful that every major male character in the story either wants to marry her or seduce her. (She’s also only 16 in the novel—a book from over 200 years ago). For all her kindness and compassion, Esmeralda is basically treated terribly throughout the story and finally ends up hanged for a crime she didn’t commit, just as she reunites with her long-lost birth mother.
Quasi, a satirical new take on the story from the Broken Lizard crew (Super Troopers), has a decidedly different view of its female lead. Directed by Broken Lizard’s Kevin Heffernan and written by him and the rest of the team—Steve Lemme, Jay Chandrasekhar, Paul Soter, and Erik Stolhanske—the film dispenses with the tragic Esmeralda in favor of Catherine (Adrianne Palicki). Katherine is the (still beautiful) new Queen of 13th century France and she is both amused by and way ahead of everyone else around her, including her husband King Guy (Chandrasekhar) and the Pope Cornelius (Soter). Both leaders hire the same man, the deformed torturer Quasi (Lemme), to assassinate each other, while Catherine and Quasi developing an affection for each other.
“She’s definitely the smartest person in the room,” Palicki tells us. “A lot of times, queens are made to be the evil character, especially in movies like this. What drew me to it, outside of working with the guys and that it’s hilarious, was the fact that it was just different than anything I’ve ever done.”
As one might discern from the description above, this is a very loose (to put it kindly) adaptation of the classic story, with the characters speaking modern English, using contemporary vulgarities, and acting as anachronistically as possible amidst the period costumes, period settings, and period torture devices. While there are still moments of gross-out humor that were a trademark of earlier Broken Lizard efforts like Super Troopers and Club Dread, the template here is more Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
“It was super fun,” says Palicki about the shoot, which largely recreated medieval France in Santa Clarita, California. “It had that Monty Python feel that we haven’t seen for a very long time. And to have the woman be like the smartest person—no offense, but a lot of guys cannot write really well for women, but they can really write really well for women. On top of that fact, there was a lot of fun improv that went along with it.”
Adrianne Palicki co-stars with comedy troupe Broken Lizard in Quasi. The raunchy and hilarious plot offers a decidedly different take on The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Set in a 13th century French castle, the titular protagonist (Steve Lemme), bullied and ridiculed for his deformity, finds himself in a sticky situation. The sexist and cruel King Guy (Jay Chandrasekhar) wants the hapless hunchback to publicly assassinate the visiting Pope (Paul Soter), who also threatens Quasi if he doesn’t kill the King in the same fashion.
Queen Catherine (Palicki) takes pity on Quasi after learning of his dire predicament. King Guy ignores his latest wife’s intelligence and continually berates her as a woman. The disgusted Catherine finds a kindred spirit in Quasi. The lovable loser wins her heart, but their secret romance adds another dangerous complication.
Palicki was “shocked” and “flattered” to be offered the role. She thought the script was great. The Princess Bride is one of her favorite movies. She relished the opportunity to play a character like Buttercup. Broken Lizard made her feel “like one of the guys.” Palicki was able to seamlessly fit into their improv dynamics. This was especially needed when filming some of the crazy scenes. A torture rack hook up will have audiences rolling.
The interview with MovieWeb didn’t have good news for fans of The Orville. The brilliant sci-fi series has not been renewed for a fourth season. Palicki, who’s superb as Commander Kelly Grayson, confirmed “there have been talks” but the cast is no longer under contract.
MW: Talk about the process of being cast in a Broken Lizard film?
Adrianne Palicki: I honestly was so shocked. I randomly got a phone call from my manager in Egypt. You got an offer for this movie. That’s awesome. I was so flattered. I read the script. I was probably about 30 pages in, and I was like, there’s no way I’m not doing this movie. This is amazing. Then I got on the horn with [Steve] Lemme and [Kevin] Heffernan. We did a Zoom call. I live in Austin. They were in LA. We just kind of wanted to see how we all felt. They immediately insulted me, and I gave it right back (laughs). It’s my favorite century. The Princess Bride is my favorite movie and is genuinely the reason I became an actor. Playing the Buttercup role has always been a dream of mine.
The official trailer for Quasi was released recently! The movie will be streaming on Hulu on April 20th.
Searchlight Pictures has set the release date for Broken Lizard’s Quasi, a satirical take on The Hunchback of Notre Dame. The film will be available to stream starting April 20, 2023, on Hulu in the U.S., Star+ in Latin America and Disney+ in all other territories.
Quasi stars Kevin Heffernan, Steve Lemme, Jay Chandrasekhar, Paul Soter, Erik Stolhanske and Adrianne Palicki. Heffernan serves as director and penned the script alongside Lemme, Chandrasekhar, Soter and Stolhanske.
Quasi is the story of a hapless hunchback who only yearns for love, but finds himself in the middle of a murderous feud between the Pope and the King of France when each orders the hunchback to kill the other.
Source: Deadline Hollywood
There are now 144 images of Adrianne Palicki from the public appearances she has attended so far this year!
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