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Adolescence star Stephen Graham has revealed he was reduced to tears by a ‘beautiful’ text from music icon Bruce Springsteen.

The 51-year-old British actor, who is currently dominating water-cooler conversation around the world thanks to the powerful Netflix drama, has been cast as Springsteen’s late father Douglas ‘Dutch’ Springsteen in the Born in the USA hitmaker’s upcoming biopic, Deliver Me From Nowhere.

Springsteen Senior died in 1998, and his rock star son sent a message to thank Graham for his stunning performance, after watching him in action on set one day during the shoot.

‘[Bruce] sent me the most gorgeous text I’ve ever had in my life because I play his dad when his dad’s like, I play him in the eighties,’ the Line of Duty actor explained of his small but crucial role in the much-anticipated movie, opposite Jeremy Allen White.

Recalling the day, he told the Soundtracking podcast with Edith Bowman: ‘So I was dead serious and we did this scene and it was a really beautiful little scene. It was lovely, but I had to get the flight.

‘So, I had to rip the prosthetics off and I’m in the car and I’m racing to get to the airport and I got this text. And the text was so beautiful and just said, “Better than any award that I could ever receive in my life.”’

Graham went on to praise Springsteen as a ‘working-class hero’ and ‘an icon to thousands of millions’.

‘And his text just said, “Thank you so much. You know, my father passed away a while ago and I felt like I saw him today and thank you for giving me that memory.”’

Unsurprisingly, the Bafta-nominated star was overcome at receiving such a personal and touching confession from Springsteen.

‘I was crying reading the text, do you know what I mean? It was beautiful. You couldn’t ask for anything more, you know, to share that with someone was gorgeous. He’s a lovely man.’

Graham also had impressive things to say about his ‘unbelievable’ co-star White, maintaining that ‘working with him is like working with the presence of Al Pacino and De Niro back in the day’ – and Graham has some insight, having acted opposite both in 2019’s The Irishman for director Martin Scorsese.

In fact, he previously became tearful on the radio recently when recounting how he told his father he would be acting with De Niro after growing up with a poster of Taxi Driver on his wall.

He marvelled: ‘Can you imagine what that phone call was like?’

The Boiling Point star also revealed to Bowman how he got into character as Dutch by listening to Springsteen read the audiobook version of his memoir, Born to Run.

The actor shared of a conversation about the role he had on set with Springsteen: ‘I said to him, “Are you aware that when you speak about your dad in your book, you kind of change the tone of your voice and you take on this persona?”. And he was like, “Really?”

‘I said, “Yeah,” and I said, “And that’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to just basically mimic that sound and that persona that you do and inhabit it and try and create my own character.”’

He also disclosed that Deliver Me From Nowhere director Scott Cooper, who also wrote the screenplay, penned the part of Dutch with Graham in mind.

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Don’t Worry Darling, starring Florence Pugh and Harry Styles, is set to come to Netflix after being haunted by reported backstage drama throughout its press run.

The 2022 Olivia Wilde-directed psychological thriller, which follows a 1950s housewife (Pugh) who starts to become unnerved by her picture-perfect husband and closed community, when it seems that not everything is as it seems.

The film was met with mixed reviews and much of the attention from the film was caught up in the backstage drama on the set that was well reported at the time.

Among the various rumours was a feud between the director and the leading character in the film.

It was reported that Wilde would frequently be absent from set, which frustrated Pugh and it was reported that the tensions culminated in a screaming match on set, as reported by Vulture.

Wilde praised Pugh publicly and blamed the tabloids for the reports of a fallout.

Pugh did not address the fallout claims and a report said that she would be ‘limiting press’ – although it was said this was down to the actress’s filming commitments on Dune 2, which she was filming in Budapest at the time of Venice Film Festival.

Another controversy arose as Shia LaBeouf was replaced by Harry Styles.

Wilde addressed LaBeouf’s departure, saying that he had been let go from the project.

‘His process was not conducive to the ethos that I demand in my productions. He has a process that, in some ways, seems to require a combative energy, and I don’t personally believe that is conducive to the best performances. I believe that creating a safe, trusting environment is the best way to get people to do their best work. Ultimately, my responsibility is to the production and to the cast to protect them. That was my job,’ she told Variety.

However, LaBeouf denied the claims, claiming that he was the one to decide to walk away from the project and even was able to show proof of texts as evidence.

Variety reported that the actor reached out in the days after their interview with Wilde was published, and forwarded them an email he had sent to the director where he said he was ‘confused by the narrative that I was fired.’

The next drama took place in April 2022 when Wilde was served divorce papers from her husband Jason Sudekis while on stage.

While at a presentation at CinemaCon, Wilde was handed an envelope which was reported to contain legal documents from Sudeikis.

Wilde later told Variety: ‘It was my workplace.

‘In any other workplace, it would be seen as an attack. It was really upsetting. It shouldn’t have been able to happen. There was a huge breach in security, which is really scary.

‘The hurdles that you had to jump through to get into that room with several badges, plus special Covid tests that had to be taken days in advance, which gave you wristbands that were necessary to gain access to the event — this was something that required forethought.’

She went on to say: ‘There’s a reason I left that relationship.’

Another controversy arrived as actress Kiki Layne claims she and co-star Ari’el Stachel were ‘cut from most of the movie’

 The actress who played Margaret in the film shared on Instagram: ‘The best thing about #DontWorryDarling is that I was lucky enough to meet @arielstachel. They cut us from most of the movie, but we thriving in real life. 🙂🙂

‘‘Love you Ari ❤️❤️❤️❤️ #GotMyCheck #GotMyMan #EverythingHappensforaReason.’

Along with all of this drama, there was also a (false) claim that Chris Pine spat on Styles during a Venice Film Festival panel. This was later proved to be totally false, but it exemplified how high the tensions were around this film that fans believed this story.

WIlde and Styles also began a relationship during this time which was met with a huge amount of media attention- adding only more drama into the mix.

The reviews surrounding the film were mixed, with the film only earning a 38% ranking on Rotten Tomatoes.

The critic’s consensus for the movie reads: ‘Despite an intriguing array of talent on either side of the camera, Don’t Worry Darling is a mostly muddled rehash of overly familiar themes.’

The audience ranking was higher with 74%, with a consensus that reads: ‘The ending isn’t for everyone, but the cast — especially Florence Pugh — helps Don’t Worry Darling make the most of a story with fairly few surprises.’

Don’t Worry Darling is set to arrive on Netflix on April 2.

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Netflix is about to release a documentary about efforts to save one of the most trafficked animals in the world.

Titled Pangolin: Kulu’s Journey, it’s been teased of the film: ‘A man finds new purpose when he helps rescue a baby pangolin, one of the most trafficked animals in the world, in a sting operation in South Africa.

‘He leaves the city and embarks on a heartfelt mission to rehabilitate and prepare the vulnerable animal for a life of freedom in the wild.’

Directed by Pippa Ehrlich, who was behind the Oscar-winning feature My Octopus Teacher, it is a ‘poignant exploration of the connection between humans and the creatures we share our world with’.

This week a trailer for the film was released and shows a man called Gareth Thomas help rehabilitate pangolin called Kulu in an attempt to sent him back into the wild.

As explained in the trailer, the scaly mammals native to Asia and Africa are an ancient creature, but they run the risk of extinction.

Steve, who says the ‘stakes are very high’ to protect them, has also never seen one in the wild but is part of an effort to curb the illegal wildlife trading that is affecting the pangolin population by working at a rescue centre.

‘There was definitely a fear of failure. I never had to nurture something so vulnerable in my life before,’ he says.

He faces an uphill battle with Kulu, who refuses to eat and ‘is freaking out’ when they try and re-release him into the wild, where he faces threats of snakes, warthogs and lions.

Gareth then goes on to speak about how he was ‘in the stage in my life when I wanted something more valuable’ when he met Kulu, who ‘changed the way I saw the world’.

The trailer has already elicited a huge reaction, with many counting down to tune in.

‘Pangolins are such fascinating creatures, and this documentary has caught my interest,’ user santiago.j.mancilla.perez1022 commented on YouTube.

‘So sad that people hunt and trade such a beautiful creature,’ warrenbadial2838 shared.

‘I cannot wait to see this. As an animal rights activist, it’s so incredibly important to have films like this that capture the essence and individuality as well as importance of different species, especially those exploited for food, entertainment, medicine, clothing, research, and so on. It will awaken the necessary empathy and compassion in so many humans, which we desperately need to lead with – for the non-human species, for the humans, for the planet, and for future generations. Thank you for choosing to share your incredible journey with us,’ sarahvanmantgem added.

In a statement to People, Pippa said that pangolins are ‘some of the most ancient and unique mammals that have ever walked the Earth’.

‘Over millions of years of evolution, they have traded their claws and fangs for protective scales and a finely tuned intuition that makes them deeply sensitive, innocent creatures: they can’t run or bite, and their only defence is to roll up in a ball.

‘When I met Gareth, I was immediately fascinated by his relationship with these gentle and mysterious animals, but the reason I wanted to make the film is that I believe pangolins are a symbol of our own fragile existence on this planet, along with so many of the vulnerable beings that belong here with us.’

Pangolin: Kulu’s Journey is streaming from April 21 on Netflix.

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Hollywood superstar Samuel L Jackson spent a month in urine-soaked water while filming one of his popular ‘90s blockbusters.

This grim fact was revealed by the 76-year-old Pulp Fiction actor and the movie’s director, Renny Harlin.

The pair collaborated on 1999 sci-fi horror flick Deep Blue Sea, which gave Jackson one of his most memorable onscreen deaths, when he is the surprise first victim of the film’s killer shark.

Deep Blue Sea is set in an isolated underwater facility, where Dr. Susan McAlester (Saffron Burrows) is harvesting the brain tissue of DNA-altered sharks as a possible cure for Alzheimer’s disease.

But when backers send an executive (Jackson) to investigate the experiments, a routine procedure goes awry, resulting in a shark attack.

Suddenly, there are multiple genetically engineered sharks on the loose, flooding the facility, and their human captors must race to stop them escaping into the ocean and breeding.

‘I had no idea I was going to be as wet as I was. I was in water for a month: it was kind of wild,’ Marvel stalwart Jackson told The Guardian of his experience filming Deep Blue Sea.

He also recalled that it involved ‘dumping water down on us from towers, like big-ass waves flying everywhere’.

‘After Stellan Skarsgård has his arm bitten off and we’re out on the deck trying to get him on the helicopter, we didn’t know they were going to throw that much water. The rehearsals had been very different,’ he added.

It was then left to filmmaker Harlin to reveal the gruesome truth of all that water the cast, crew and Jackson were swimming in, in the tanks that had been built for Titanic at Baja Studios in Mexico, where sets could be sunk on a hydraulic platform.

‘We had hundreds of crew and cast working in wetsuits, and for the first week everyone would religiously get out of the tank whenever they needed to go to the bathroom,’ he told the publication.

‘But it’s horrible climbing in and out of a cold wetsuit, and by the second week, people only seemed to leave the pool for lunch. By then, it had become a giant tank of urine.’

Also swimming in this delicious tank were LL Cool J, Michael Rapaport and Thomas Jane.

Deep Blue Sea made $165million worldwide and was considered pretty successful in a popular horror sub-genre that is dominated by Steven Spielberg’s 1975 classic Jaws.

On review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes, Deep Blue Sea managed a respectable 60% from critics, where reviews branded it a ‘cult favourite’, ‘the finest unabashedly campy B-movie of the ’90s’ and ‘a gory, trashy blockbuster that succeeds’.

Two belated direct-to-video sequels swam to the surface in recent years with Deep Blue Sea 2 in 2018 and – you guessed it – Deep Blue Sea 3 in 2020.

Last year, Netflix’s shark attack film Under Paris took the streaming charts by storm, becoming one of the platform’s most watched films not in the English language in a matter of days.

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