On today’s episode of “Daily Variety” podcast, in our Cover Story segment, Variety’s Daniel D’Addario details his time with David Harbour as the actor tries to navigate that trickiest of transitions – moving on from a career-making role after five seasons as Jim Hopper on Netflix’s “Stranger Things.” And Marc Malkin brings us a Red Carpet Rundown with Taylor Swift and Joan Cusack from Disney’s “Toy Story 5” premiere.
Harbour was in the headlines last year after his former wife, singer-actor Lily Allen, released an album with pointed lyrics about their marriage which ended in early 2025. Harbour used the interview to share his perspective after keeping mostly quiet during the height of the controversy after the release of Allen’s “West End Girl” album last October.
D’Addario says Harbour seemed very clear-eyed about what he wanted to say — and what he wouldn’t say — about Allen and the experience overall.
“I was struck that he seemed serene and poised in walking me through his experience. I think part of what is at work here is that, happily, he is a very reflective person and has spent a lot of time over the course of the past year working through stuff out of the public eye on his own time. He’s able to speak about it in a very clear, thoughtful way,” D’Addarios says.
“There was no ambiguity with him about where the boundaries were. One might expect someone to be fidgety if they were still undecided about how much they were willing to say about something. There were no-go zones, perhaps not even because it’s so salacious but because he was not a major celebrity until deep into his career,” he says. “He never expected this. Even as a theater actor in New York and a character actor in Hollywood, he had the expectation that he would have a private life, that in which the media was not interested in him. And now that the media is interested, he’s had years of practice of just not talking about it. He would not down talk or speak negatively about his ex-wife, Lily Allen at all. And I think that when you stand in that, it’s easy to remain unruffled, because he knew what the bright lines were for him.”
At the “Toy Story 5” premiere, actor Cusack explained why she’s taken a break from Hollywood in recent years. She’s enjoyed running a gift shop in Chicago.
“I feel so honored to be able to work in this industry for a long time. But it’s also great to live your life and raise your kids and be in Chicago, and be a normal person,” Cusack told Variety.
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