Gomez takes heat in cooking show
Cuoco takes to skies in ‘Flight Attendant’
Selena Gomez is taking the heat in the kitchen. The singer-actress slices and dices in “Selena + Chef”, debuting Aug 13 on the new HBO Max streaming service. The 10-episode series was shot in the kitchen of Gomez’s new Los Angelesarea house. Her grandparents and two friends, who have been quarantining with her, serve as taste testers.
“I really thought this would be something lighthearted because I was getting definitely down,” she said in a video conference Wednesday. “Of course, there’s more important things going on but this was an opportunity to make something that could make people smile.”
Guiding Gomez remotely are chefs Nyesha Arrington, Roy Choi, Tonya Holland, Daniel Holzman, Jon & Vinny, Candice Kumai, Ludo Lefebvre, Antonia Lofaso, Nancy Silverton and Angelo Sosa. They coach her through making such dishes as Korean breakfast tacos, matcha chocolate chip cookies, spicy miso ramen, seafood tostada and cheese souffle.
There was no one off-camera perfectly prepping the ingredients and Gomez didn’t glam up her clothing or makeup while chopping and stirring. Remote cameras set up in her kitchen captured Gomez’s mishaps that include flames in the oven and squirting juices. She wields sharp knives while struggling with a slimy octopus and pulls organs out of a raw chicken. “I hope you’re going to laugh because I look like a fool,” she said. “I love cooking, I just don’t know how to do it all the time.”
Her go-to recipe? “I make a killer PB&J,” she said, laughing.
Gomez learned to use a wet towel to adjust the shape and position on the plate of a classic French omelette.
“I’ve never cared more about presentation than I do now,” she said.
Cooking at home has skyrocketed during the global pandemic, with people using it to alleviate boredom and anxiety. “It’s not easy for anyone to be walking through what we’re walking through. It’s affecting people, specifically with mental health,” Gomez said. “It’s just confusing. It was hard but I tried to find what I needed to get me through it. I have great friends, I see a therapist. Just try to keep my mind positive. I’ve learned more about my country than I ever have from school or anything.”
Each episode highlights a food-related charity and invites viewers to follow along at home with lists of ingredients and tools needed. “You don’t have to be a great cook to enjoy this show,” coexecutive producer Aaron Saidman said.
Since filming ended, Gomez said she’s made the chocolate chip cookies and French omelette again. “I didn’t burn my house down,” she said.
Kaley Cuoco was looking for her next project three years before “The Big Bang Theory” ended. She found it reading a snippet about a book on Amazon.
“The Flight Attendant” is a dark thriller with comedic overtones, letting Cuoco employ the love of laughter she honed for 12 seasons on the CBS comedy. Cuoco said she won a bidding war for the rights to the novel of the same name by Chris Bohjalian.
She stars as Cassie Bowden, a flight attendant who wakes up in the wrong hotel in the wrong bed with a dead man, and has no idea what happened.
“It’s kind of an actor’s dream to play someone like her,” Cuoco said on a video conference Wednesday. “She’s got a roller coaster of issues but a heart of gold. She’s strong.” Cuoco serves for the first time as an executive producer on the limited series set to air this fall on new streaming service HBO Max.
“It’s been total career-changing for me just to see it from the beginning and kind of go with my gut on things and make my own decisions,” she said.
The series had filmed five of its eight episodes before production was shut down in early March due to the global coronavirus pandemic. Production is set to resume late this month in New York, with social distancing, rewrites to certain aspects of the script and daily COVID-19 testing for actors working closely together. “It’s not just going through the motions of trying to keep us safe,” costar Zosia Mamet said. “It makes me feel not only safe, but incredibly taken care of.” Cuoco surprised Rosie Perez by agreeing to meet in her Brooklyn neighborhood to discuss the role of a fellow flight attendant. Perez quickly made it clear how she works.
“I don’t mess around, I hit my mark, I may be late in the car, never late on set,” Perez said. “I know all my lines. If I forget them, it’s because I’m nervous. That’s the way I like to work. Otherwise, I get very irritated.”
Then Perez dropped the really important details: she hates traveling and flying or talking before 8 am.
Cuoco didn’t flinch. “I was like begging her, please, you are the one we wanted from day one,” she said.
Perez took the role and even didn’t mind the trip to Bangkok for filming.
“I had the best time,” she said. “It’s especially nice for a person of color to come onto a project that is extremely diverse in regards to the cast. You walk on that plane and it reflects how a real flight crew works. It’s not just about ethnicity, it’s also about age.” (AP)