President/Owner
Chelsea Pictures
What’s the impact of the pandemic on you, your company, your approach to doing business in the future? What practices emerged that you will continue even as restrictions are loosening?
The Pandemic was sheer hell for everyone. But a silver lining within Chelsea was how the whole team with our directors, reps, and crew doubled down on being there for each other and standing strong. My team is far and away the most unified it’s ever been and we’ve implemented all kinds of traditions to keep us tight moving forward.
How has the call for equity, racial and social justice affected, honed or influenced your sense of responsibility as a company in terms of the content you create and/or your commitment to opening up opportunities for filmmaking talent from underrepresented backgrounds?
The last couple years have been transformational for me and have completely altered my view of our country and the world around us. This country is hindered by the deep set biases. As for my business the Chelsea Team is committed to social justice and will continue to advocate and fight for equity until it becomes a reality.
What’s the biggest takeaway or lessons learned from work (please identify the project) you were involved in that was or is in the running for current awards season consideration (i.e., Emmys, Cannes Lions, etc.)?
The most relevant and innovative brands take a stance and use their platforms as a megaphone for justice, equity, and the environment as social responsibility is now essential for brands that want to thrive. For Chelsea Libresse Wombstories, P&G Widen the Screen, States United for Gun Safety and our work for LinkedIn were bold conversation starters for change.
While gazing into the crystal ball is a tricky proposition, we nonetheless ask you for any forecast you have relative to content creation and/or the creative and/or business climate for the second half of 2021 and beyond.
The power of Creative has never been more essential — the world desperately needs big ideas and innovative solutions and our industry will continue to flex its muscle as we ride the wave of radical societal change we’ve been swept up in.
What are your goals, creatively speaking and/or from a business standpoint, for your company, division, studio or network in 2021?
We opened an office in London and we’re really excited about all the potential we see in the UK and European markets for the Chelsea directors.
What work (advertising, entertainment)–your own or others–struck a responsive chord with you and/or was the most effective creatively and/or strategically so far this year? Does any work stand out to you in terms of meshing advertising and entertainment?
Beats By Dre’s “Do You Love Me” takes my breath away every time I see it. The message is so spot on and the execution is perfect and it’s just what the world needed this year: showcasing joy, pride, solidarity and determination and a healthy cultural slap on the wrist calling out double standards, double talk and bias.
Carrie Coon Relishes Being Part Of An Ensemble–From “The Gilded Age” To “His Three Daughters”
It can be hard to catch Carrie Coon on her own.
She is far more likely to be found in the thick of an ensemble. That could be on TV, in "The Gilded Age," for which she was just Emmy nominated, or in the upcoming season of "The White Lotus," which she recently shot in Thailand. Or it could be in films, most relevantly, Azazel Jacobs' new drama, "His Three Daughters," in which Coon stars alongside Natasha Lyonne and Elizabeth Olsen as sisters caring for their dying father.
But on a recent, bright late-summer morning, Coon is sitting on a bench in the bucolic northeast Westchester town of Pound Ridge. A few years back, she and her husband, the playwright Tracy Letts, moved near here with their two young children, drawn by the long rows of stone walls and a particularly good BLT from a nearby cafe that Letts, after biting into, declared must be within 15 miles of where they lived.
In a few days, they would both fly to Los Angeles for the Emmys (Letts was nominated for his performance in "Winning Time" ). But Coon, 43, was then largely enmeshed in the day-to-day life of raising a family, along with their nightly movie viewings, which Letts pulls from his extensive DVD collection. The previous night's choice: "Once Around," with Holly Hunter and Richard Dreyfus.
Coon met Letts during her breakthrough performance in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolfe?" on Broadway in 2012. She played the heavy-drinking housewife Honey. It was the first role that Coon read and knew, viscerally, she had to play. Immediately after saying this, Coon sighs.
"It sounds like something some diva would say in a movie from the '50s," Coon says. "I just walked around in my apartment in my slip and I had pearls and a little brandy. I made a grocery list and I just did... Read More