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Behind the scenes with the best supporting actor Oscar nominees at the 2026 Academy Awards

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Behind the scenes with the best supporting actor Oscar nominees at the 2026 Academy Awards


Watch scenes from the performances nominated for the Oscar for best supporting actor, as well as interviews with the nominees below. The 98th Academy Awards will be presented Sunday, March 15. 

Nominees for the best supporting actor Oscar this year are, from left: Benicio Del Toro (“One Battle After Another”), Jacob Elordi (“Frankenstein”), Delroy Lindo (“Sinners”), Sean Penn (“One Battle After Another”), and Stellan Skarsgård (“Sentimental Value”).

Warner Brothers; Netflix; Neon



Benicio Del Toro, “One Battle After Another”

Benicio Del Toro, who won an Academy Award for best supporting actor for “Traffic” (2000), and was nominated for “21 Grams” (2003), earned his third Oscar nomination for “One Battle After Another.” 

In Paul Thomas Anderson’s darkly comic thriller, Del Toro plays Sergio St. Carlos, a martial arts sensei and overseer of an underground railroad for undocumented immigrants. His association with revolutionaries requires him to bring his strategic and focused attention to whatever situation washes up at his door, including Bob (best actor nominee Leonardo DiCaprio), a lapsed revolutionary figure who is on the run after military forces have attacked his cabin. Sergio tries to give the kind of help the desperate Bob doesn’t know he needs.


“One Battle After Another” clip: The sensei by
CBS Sunday Morning on
YouTube

In a conversation recorded for the SAG-AFTRA Foundation, Del Toro said that when Anderson approached him about the role, he first sent a picture of a poster depicting a tiger dressed in a judo kimono. “I said, ‘Okay, send me the script when you can.’ And he sent me this picture. And I was like, Huh? And then I read the script and I kind of, like, understood. There’s like a strength in there. I thought it was cool. There’s a strength, and the kimono gives him some kind of, like, sense of honor.”

There were many changes to the script done on the fly, to suit the characters, or to take advantage of found locations. Del Toro, who had a short window in joining “One Battle” following filming of “The Phoenician Scheme,” said it was originally intended that Bob and Sergio would kill police officers, but it soon devolved into a discussion of where. Thinking ahead, Del Toro said doing so would mean having to clean up the mess.

“The drafts did change,” Del Toro said. “In the draft that we were about to shoot, there was, I believe, Bob killed one of the officers and then I killed the other one. It was pretty intense. I just said, ‘Well, if we’re gonna kill him in my dojo, we’re gonna have to clean it up. And then after that, Leo is on his own.’ All these conversations happened between Leo, Paul and myself, and little by little we started getting to what you see now. I can’t take the credit of that. Leo had great ideas in there, too, and so did Paul. But I think I was the one who instigated the thing about, Wow, we’re going to kill him in my place. And then, you know, there was talk about we’ll burn the place down. And then I go, ‘We got to get some good insurance here. I ain’t going to burn all those trophies, you know?’ But that’s how the dialogue came, and Paul was just very light on his feet to change.

“Every movie has ‘movie moments.’ And I think you can have a movie and have three movie moments, but if you have a movie that deals with killing and you have too many movie moments, we’re going to check out. It’s just logic, and working with people that are seeing the same story, the same idea of logic. We showed up, we were ready to kill people. You know, I was just practicing the choke and all that stuff on the floor and rolling around, and [Paul] showed up and said, ‘We’re not killing anyone.’ ‘Okay. Well, what do we do then?’ There’s a seriousness and a motivation and an understanding of the story. I was very clear of what the purpose of my character was: I’m to take Leo from point A to point B. That’s it. And so, I knew that. And then how do we do? How do we do it in the most convincing and realistic way? And it went in the direction that it did.”

  • “One Battle After Another” is nominated for 13 Academy Awards, including best picture.

Jacob Elordi, “Frankenstein”

Guillermo del Toro’s lifelong fascination with Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” has afforded moviegoers with a gift they didn’t know they needed: a new interpretation of the often-filmed gothic novel about a crazed scientist who creates life from the remains of the dead. Not only is del Toro’s “Frankenstein” one of the most opulent renditions ever made; it is also one of the most emotional, in its telling of the respective stories of scientist Victor Frankenstein (Oscar Isaac), and the Creature he births (Oscar-nominee Jacob Elordi).

As the Creature befriends a blind man (David Bradley), who has shared his love of books, Elordi’s character explores his sense of self, and his sense of purpose, and seeks answers – in literature, and in his own fragmented memories. 


“Frankenstein” clip: The Creature and the Blind Man by
CBS Sunday Morning on
YouTube

Some of the most indelible performances of Frankenstein’s Creature, such as Boris Karloff’s, were pantomimic – a man struggling to communicate, whose physicality could be brutal but also childlike. Del Toro’s creature is capable of speech, empathy, and a desire to connect, but much of the time he struggles as he takes in the world around him.

Asked why he chose Elordi for the role, del Toro told “Sunday Morning,” “Eyes. I cast the eyes.”

In an extended conversation with “Sunday Morning,” Elordi (who had previously played Elvis Presley in Sofia Coppola’s “Priscilla,” and starred in “Saltburn” and the HBO series “Euphoria”) talked about the process of becoming the Creature, and his communication with the director:

“I remember, there became a point in filming where I would just stare at him, ’cause I was pretty non-verbal the whole time we were filming, and Guillermo and I, we would stay on set the whole time. So, if there was a lunch break or something, the pair of us would be on set, and I would just stare at him. And he looked back at me one time and he’s like, ‘I’ll let you know when you can break.’ And it actually, it was like a pat on the back. I knew that I was submitting myself to him and I could trust him, and he did. And it was when the film was over, you know, but it was a great thing to hear.”

Was he in the Creature’s mindset that whole time? “Well, for me, when I’m shooting a movie, this whole sort of idea of Method and the conversation around it, I think, is so skewed and butchered, because if you’re making a film, for me, the way that I create, your 24 hours of your day is about the film. Everything you do is about the film. You eat for the film, you sleep for the film, you talk about the film, you dream about the film, you take in media that has to do with the film or music or art. For me, filmmaking and acting is an all-consuming process. You know, you can’t, like, moonlight in the movie. You don’t turn it off, and nor would I want to, because you have six months to play with one of the greatest artists of the last century. Six months to play Frankenstein’s Creature. Six months to be around castles and fire and monsters and beauty and pain and all these things. I mean, that’s the world that I want to live in.”



Extended interview: Jacob Elordi

29:17

His performance was enhanced by the Oscar-nominated makeup and prosthetics he wore. Asked how long it took to apply, Elordi said, “It would depend; when he was freshly minted and newborn, you know, head-to-toe sort of sculpture, it was 10 or 11 hours depending on how much we were moving or whatnot. And then when he’s in his coat and you can sort of just see this section of his body, it’s about 5 to 6 hours. Which was a treat. That was like, ‘Okay, thank God it’s a short day!'”

  • “Frankenstein,” a Netflix release, is nominated for nine Academy Awards, including best picture.

Delroy Lindo, “Sinners”

With more than 75 film and TV credits to his name, including “Malcolm X,” “Crooklyn,” “Get Shorty,” “Heist,” “The Last Castle,” and “Da 5 Bloods,” and a Tony Award nomination for “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone,” Delroy Lindo has been a steady presence for more than five decades. He brings that gravitas to Ryan Coogler’s conflagration of genres, “Sinners,” in which a music-filled story of Black entrepreneurs in the Jim Crow South becomes swarmed with vampires.

Lindo plays Delta Slim, a blues musician recruited by twin brothers Smoke and Stack (best actor nominee Michael B. Jordan) to play in their new juke joint. Stack finds the musician to be a hard fish to reel in.


“Sinners” clip: Delta Slim by
CBS Sunday Morning on
YouTube

“Sinners” represents Lindo’s first Oscar nomination.

He told “CBS Mornings” that development of the character of Delta Slim started with Coogler sending him two books: “Deep Blues” by Robert Palmer, and “Blues People” by LeRoi Jones (a.k.a. Amiri Baraka). “I read those two books, I then exposed myself to a lot of music specific to the Delta – Delta Blues musicians Howland Wolf, Sunhouse, Muddy Waters, Ike Turner,” he said. “I looked at a lot of documentary film that centered on people living in the region. So, I was just soaking up as much data, information as I could, and then filtering it through my own process to come up with Delta Slim.” He also got lessons to play the piano and harmonica. 

The backstories of blues artists fueled Lindo’s delivery when Slim tells of the experience he and a fellow player had when they showed up in the wrong Southern town one day. In an early cut of “Sinners,” Coogler had deleted the chain-gang scene containing Slim’s three-page monologue; Lindo fought to reinsert it, and the director relented. “Not in its entirety, but enough was there that it kind of restored the overall spirit of what he had written originally,” Lindo said.


“Sinners” clip: Delta Slim’s monologue by
CBS Sunday Morning on
YouTube

Lindo said that receiving his first Oscar nomination was a big deal. “Part of the reason that it’s a big deal is because of how people are responding in my behalf. It’s a big deal to a lot of people, therefore it enhances how I’m thinking about the whole experience,” he said.



Delroy Lindo shares how his son told him he was nominated for his first Oscar

06:11

  • “Sinners,” is nominated for 16 Academy Awards, including best picture.

Sean Penn, “One Battle After Another”

A two-time best actor Oscar winner (for “Mystic River” and “Milk”), Sean Penn gave one of his most intense performances in “One Battle After Another,” playing a maniacal military officer, with a piercing gaze and a ridiculous haircut.

As the white supremacist Col. Steven J. Lockjaw, Penn is in pursuit of a Black revolutionary, Perfidia (best supporting actress Oscar nominee Teyana Taylor), but his pursuit of her becomes carnal, and ultimately vengeful when – years later – he searches for the young woman he believes may be his daughter.  

Lockjaw detains Willa (Chase Infiniti) and administers a DNA test. It is to find out whether she is the product of Lockjaw’s assignation with her mother 16 years earlier – and her life rides on the result.


“One Battle After Another” clip: Col. Lockjaw and Willa by
CBS Sunday Morning on
YouTube

Penn had first met Paul Thomas Anderson when Anderson was directing his debut feature, “Hard Eight.” (Sean’s brother, Michael, composed music for that film.] In a Variety conversation with Julia Roberts, Penn remembered a piece of advice he’s given the young director – “A go-to quote I had at the time, which was, ‘Always consider the possibility that everyone else is wrong.’ And he’s stuck to it.”

Penn later crossed paths with Anderson during post-production of their respective films (“Into the Wild” and “There Will Be Blood”) at Skywalker Ranch. Penn finally acted in an Anderson film, in “Licorice Pizza.” And then came “One Battle After Another.”

“There are great, great directors, of course, who aren’t writers,” said Penn. “But when a great director is also a great writer, then the first thing he did is when he gave you the script, and you’re having that experience. With him it’s always gonna be so fresh. I had no idea what he was taking on.”

W Magazine asked Penn about any special preparation he may have done for the role of Col. Lockjaw. “Because of other aspects of my life, I’ve spent a lot of time around that culture,” he replied. “As for any preparation, this one felt like, ‘Shut up, Sean. Stay out of their way.'”

  • “One Battle After Another” is nominated for 13 Academy Awards, including best picture.

UPDATE: On Sunday, Sean Penn won the Academy Award for best supporting actor for “One Battle After Another.” It was his third acting Oscar, tying him with Jack Nicholson, Daniel Day-Lewis and Walter Brennan among male actors. He was not present to accept the award. 


Stellan Skarsgård, “Sentimental Value”

Beginning as a teenager on Swedish television, Stellan Skarsgård has accrued more than 150 film and TV credits, from European dramas (“The Unbearable Lightness of Being,” “Breaking the Waves”), to Hollywood hits (“The Hunt for Red October,” “Good Will Hunting,” “Mamma Mia!,” the “Pirates of the Caribbean” and “Dune” franchises), and even a galaxy far, far away (“Andor”). In “Sentimental Value,” for which he received his first Academy Award nomination, he plays Gustav, a once-successful filmmaker who tries to enlist his estranged daughter, Nora (best actress nominee Renate Reinsve), to take on the lead role in his latest film.

But she refuses to even read the script, and it becomes evident that there is a lot of unspoken, buried tension between her and the father who abandoned his family when she was a child. It turns out that the script Gustav has written – based on the life of his own mother (Nora’s grandmother), who was tortured by the Nazis during World War II – reveals as much as it obscures when it comes to the fractured family history. Gustav is confronted by Nora about the example he set as a parent. What is unearthed is not just the tension between father and daughter, but also between Nora and her sister, Agnes (best supporting actress nominee Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas). 


“Sentimental Value” clip: Father and daughters by
CBS Sunday Morning on
YouTube

Though dialogue in “Sentimental Value” is in both Norwegian and English, there are also many moments in the film when Skarsgård holds the screen without talking, saying a lot with his expressions. “I love that stuff,” he told “Sunday Morning.” “Movies, real movies are not literature. Cinema to me is what happens in the image. Not what is said; what is not said.”

Skarsgård suffered a stroke in 2022, and since then he has worn an earpiece while filming to help with lines. “It’s actually more complicated than learning the lines, because the prompter has to say their line while the other actor is talking,” he said.

In discussing “Sentimental Value,” a film about the pull between career and family, Skarsgård reflected on having eight children, many of whom are actors (including Alexander Skarsgård), which he credits with inspiring him. “I stole things from them. Like, expressions and the sort of naive attitude towards everything,” he said. “Just watching them is fantastic.”



Stellan Skarsgård on acting: “It is like being a child … you never grow up”

07:40

Skarsgård won the Golden Globe for his performance. 


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Arbeloa’s Real Madrid youth revolution is straight from Pep’s playbook

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Arbeloa’s Real Madrid youth revolution is straight from Pep’s playbook


They do say that no house is a happy home until it hears the pitter-patter of tiny feet. In which case, casa Real Madrid will be in a state of pure bliss ahead of their UEFA Champions League second-leg visit to Manchester City on Tuesday.

Coach Álvaro Arbeloa is suddenly responsible for the greatest influx of young talent into Real Madrid’s first team in living memory. And it has taken less than nine weeks, never mind nine months’ gestation, of him in charge to produce it.

Los Blancos‘ drive to win LaLiga, plus their push for the Champions League quarterfinals, is being sustained by a clutch of teenagers: Thiago Pitarch (18 years old), Dani Yáñez (18), Jorge Cestero (19), Víctor Valdepeñas (18) and Diego Aguado (19), while César Palacios (21) and Manuel Ángel (22) have been hauled up from the B team and given debuts. These breakthrough kids join slightly more established academy graduates Gonzalo García and Raul Asencio, who are relatively new emergences but have 123 first-team appearances and 20 goals/assists between them.

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And, just as a side note, although these next stars didn’t come from the academy known as La Fábrica (the Factory), Madrid’s first-team counts heavily on 21-year-old Türkiye international Arda Güler (who scored a wonder-goal from his own half at the weekend), 18-year-old Argentina starlet Franco Mastantuono and 20-year-old Spain international Dean Huijsen.

For generations, since Johan Cruyff first took over at Barcelona, it’s the Blaugrana who have heavily backed his “if you’re good enough, you’re old enough” mantra. Now Arbeloa has, single-handedly, installed that same idea at the Santiago Bernabéu just as we reach the 10th anniversary of Cruyff’s death.

What’s more, waiting in the wings and heavily quoted as “factory-produced” first-team fixtures of the future are Joan Martínez (19), Lamini Fati (19) and Jesús Fortea (18).

The last time anything remotely similar took place at Madrid is still the stuff of fabulous legend, but it began as far back as 1983 — not far off half a century ago. It’s when the Quinta del Buitre group broke through and Madrid’s academy became, arguably, as powerful and prestigious as at any time in the club’s imperious history.

That the nickname was coined for the group’s most recognized and charismatic player, Emilio Butragueño: El Buitre, or “The Vulture.” The other four members were Miguel Pardeza, Manolo Sanchís, Míchel González and Rafael Martín Vázquez.

In their glorious era, the Vulture gang won 16 trophies, including two UEFA Cups, six LaLiga titles — five of them consecutively — three Copa del Rey trophies, four Spanish Supercopas and one Copa de la Liga. Out of all of them, however, only Sanchís won the Champions League (twice).

Back to the present. Back to this season’s Champions League quest. Let me try to give you a glimpse of the euphoria the emergence of these home-grown, all-Spanish, dynamic, confident kids is causing.

Pitarch is, without question, the leader of the gang. When he was subbed off against Elche on Saturday in the 63rd minute, the Bernabéu rose, as one, and simply roared. They already adore him. When Yáñez cut in off the right and used his left foot to bend the ball on to Huijsen’s head for 3-0, the old hands of the first team mobbed the debutant kid, ecstatic for him.

Arbeloa’s comments afterward helped explain how seismic this threatens to be.

“For someone like me, who came up through Madrid’s youth system and reached the first team … I think I can die happy thanks to a night like this,” he told RMTV. “After the match I was talking to Yáñez and Aguado, who were the first players I began to coach in our academy when they were 13 or 14. To be able to give them their chance at the Bernabéu is a dream come true for me.

“Add to that [Dani] Carvajal, the quintessential homegrown player, as well as Fran [Garcia], Thiago, César, Gonzalo … the feeling is almost indescribable. I’m so happy and proud. It’s not just about putting them in, but how they played.

“It almost reminded me of what Real Madrid was like during that Quinta del Buitre era. I’m sure Emilio [now Madrid’s vice president] who was there in the stands, is very proud of what he saw today.

“It’s essential there are academy graduates in the Real Madrid first team because of what they contribute. Not just talent, but that DNA they carry within them — what they transmit to anyone who joins from outside our club. Hopefully, in the future, whoever is sitting in this manager’s chair, we will always see our academy graduates in the first team.”

Part of what makes this particularly sweet for Madridistas is that their talent farm went fallow for years. Carvajal and Nacho emerged, definitively, in 2013-14, but, apart from Lucas Vázquez, no other youth-team graduate had established himself and became a genuine first-team player until now. That’s 12 low-return years.

Suddenly, Madrid haven’t simply ripped up that dismal record, they’ve also fallen in step with the youth revolution around all of Europe’s great clubs.

In last season’s Champions League, Paris Saint-Germain‘s Senny Mayulu became the youngest scorer in a final for precisely 30 years, Arsenal’s Max Dowman created history on Saturday as the Premier League’s youngest scorer, This season Kenan Yildiz, 20, was appointed as Juventus‘ youngest-ever captain, Lamine Yamal is smashing records for club and country at 18 years old, and Lennart Karl has racked up seven goals and three assists in 26 Champions League and Bundesliga matches while only 17.

It’s crazy to even hint that he’s a “veteran,” having just turned 21, but Güler — who has been playing continental football since he was 16, said: “I may be shy and reserved off the field, but when we go out on to the pitch, I know that age doesn’t matter.

“We are all the same there: teammates. I don’t exactly know what happens to me when I go out to play, but I take on a different personality — I go into warrior mode.”

Of course, none of this is new territory for Arbeloa’s rival on Tuesday.

Pep Guardiola did exactly the same thing, drawing Pedro and Sergio Busquets with him from Barcelona’s youth system into a Treble-winning season, perpetually trusting youth talent right up to today with Max Alleyne, Nico O’Reilly, Rico Lewis and Savinho at City.

Victory, and a quarterfinal place, no matter the age of whoever secures those, is the only headline item at the Etihad on Tuesday.

Now, however, Madrid approach the task with a sudden, not to say unexpected, flush of youthful exuberance and swagger.



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Behind the scenes with the best supporting actress Oscar nominees at the 2026 Academy Awards

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Behind the scenes with the best supporting actress Oscar nominees at the 2026 Academy Awards


Watch scenes from the performances nominated for the Oscar for best supporting actress, as well as interviews with the nominees below. The 98th Academy Awards will be presented Sunday, March 15. 

Nominees for the best supporting actress Oscar this year are, from left: Elle Fanning (“Sentimental Value”), Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas (“Sentimental Value”), Amy Madigan (“Weapons”), Wunmi Mosaku (“Sinners”), and Teyana Taylor (“One Battle After Another”).

Neon; Warner Brothers



Elle Fanning, “Sentimental Value”

Elle Fanning began her professional career as a toddler in the Sean Penn film “I Am Sam,” playing a younger version of the character played by her sister, actress Dakota Fanning. Growing up on screen, Elle has appeared in more than 80 film and TV roles, from “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” and “Super 8,” to “The Neon Demon,” “The Beguiled,” and “A Complete Unknown.” She received an Emmy nomination for “The Girl From Plainville.”

In “Sentimental Value,” she plays Rachel Kemp, a Hollywood actress who is wooed by Danish filmmaker Gustav (best supporting actor Oscar nominee Stellan Skarsgård) to star in his latest project – only after his own actress-daughter, Nora, has rejected him. The script is a deeply personal one, and Kemp finds herself struggling with the emotional depths of the role – a character based on Gustav’s suicidal mother.


“Sentimental Value” clip: Rachel and Nora by
CBS Sunday Morning on
YouTube

At 27, Fanning received her first Oscar nomination for “Sentimental Value.”

Referring to Rachel Kemp, Fanning told The Hollywood Reporter, “We’re at different phases, but there was a little feeling while playing her that maybe I was looking back at a younger version of myself in this world.”

Fanning had just completed filming the Bob Dylan biopic “A Complete Unknown,” and was preparing for a film in New Zealand, when her agent called. She told the Los Angeles Times podcast The Envelope, “[He] said, ‘Joachim Trier has a new film and there’s a part for an American actress in a role, even though the film is predominantly in Norwegian. It’s going to film in Oslo.’ And from that moment, I was like, ‘Oh, I have to do this.’ I’m a really instinctual person. And I get feelings. I feel like I’m a little psychic.”

She said she wanted to avoid Rachel coming off as a silly character. “I saw the pitfalls that I could have fallen into,” she said, “the cliches that maybe could happen, that she could become kind of a joke. So when I talked to Joachim, I was happy to know we were on the same page of how we wanted Rachel to be presented.

“Joachim and I talked a lot about, maybe the struggles or the pressure that Rachel’s feeling in her own career. People are really quick to – especially women – put us into a box of limitations and tell you what you can or can’t do. I feel like I’ve been really lucky to navigate that. The show that I did, ‘The Great’ [in which she played Catherine the Great], I really felt like I broke out of that mold a little bit. People probably knew me most for ‘Maleficent’ … I felt like I came into my own a little bit.

“And I think that’s what Rachel is when we find her, that’s what she’s yearning for. That’s what she’s struggling with – she feels like this emotion inside her that she wants to unleash, but no one’s really [seen] her for her talent. … When she meets Stellan’s character, there’s something that he sees in her that she hasn’t experienced before. And so, playing Rachel, I feel like she’s a very different actress than me. But there was part of me that felt like I was kind of drawing from my younger self of maybe how I felt in the past and kind of bringing that into Rachel – and the discovery of being moved by a text.”


Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, “Sentimental Value”

Norwegian actress Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas grew up in an acting family – her parents ran a theater company. But in addition to acting credits in European TV, she also worked as a dental hygienist, a drama teacher, and caregiver for the elderly. She told USA Today, “In the nursing home, you’re working with people who have lived long, long lives, and for a lot of them, those lives are slipping and they can’t remember. So, you’re a detective, in a way, trying to figure out who these people are. That’s what you do as an actor – you’re looking for what’s underneath.”

In Joachim Trier’s “Sentimental Value,” Lilleaas plays Agnes, the younger sister of Nora (played by best actress Oscar nominee Renate Reinsve), siblings who have each experienced trauma growing up in their broken family. When their father, Gustav, returns following the death of their mother, their own relationship is tested.


“Sentimental Value” clip: Nora and Agnes by
CBS Sunday Morning on
YouTube

Lilleaas won best supporting actress from the National Board of Review for “Sentimental Value.” This is her first Oscar nomination.

In a Q&A held at last fall’s New York Film Festival, where “Sentimental Value” had its New York premiere, Lilleaas said the depth of the script resonated with her in many ways, like a novel. 

“This whole sisterhood, working with the theme of sisterhood, is really interesting, that they lived the same life, but of course like all siblings it’s completely different. I think for Agnes she’s able to be a safer and more secure person because she had a protector growing up, which is really beautiful, and so she could be her sister’s protecter in adulthood because of that.

“There are some cracks, of course, like for everyone, but I think Agnes has chosen her life. She knows what she wants. We talked about that a lot actually. Her father and sister judge her a little, because it’s more conventional, her life. But it’s a very active choice that she makes. She wants love, she wants security and safety, and she wants a family, and she made that for herself. And she was able to because she’s able to receive love in a way that maybe Nora isn’t. But she also has traumatic experience with her father, with making a movie with her father, but she doesn’t necessarily know [it] was traumatic.”


Amy Madigan, “Weapons”

The clownish Aunt Gladys, in Zach Cregger’s jolting horror tale “Weapons,” is a pitiable fright when we see her: Orange wig, smeared makeup, cartoonish glasses, a wide grin, and a motormouth eager to soften her audience. But when she wields witchcraft, her true horror overtakes whatever empathy we may have felt toward her. She is a monster, with ice water in her veins, who cruelly uses her nephew, Alex, to further a vague plot that has thrown an entire town into turmoil when elementary school children disappear.


“Weapons” clip: Gladys by
CBS Sunday Morning on
YouTube

Madigan, who started as a rocker-performance artist, turned to acting, studying at the Lee Strasberg Institute, and appeared on stage, where she met future husband Ed Harris. Her film and television roles included “The Day After,” “Places in the Heart,” “Alamo Bay,” “Twice in a Lifetime” (which earned her an Oscar nomination), “Field of Dreams,” “Uncle Buck,” “Pollack,” “Gone Baby Gone,” and the TV drama “Roe v. Wade,” for which she won a Golden Globe.

For “Weapons,” director Zach Creeger told the Hollywood Reporter that casting the role of Gladys was vital, given that she was key to the film’s mystery. “If that character doesn’t work, this movie doesn’t work,” he said.

Risky is kind of a really fun thing to participate in,” Madigan told Entertainment Weekly of how she developed the character. “I could create Gladys, and she’s a big personality, and it seemed to work for this, so that was very freeing. … Zach said to me kind of early on, ‘You just wait to see how people are gonna come to Gladys.’ And I kind of went, ‘Oh, well, let’s just see, Zach,’ and we’re in the middle of work. But he was actually correct.”

Working with the film’s hair, makeup, costume and special effects teams, Madigan conjured two looks for Gladys – her public face, and her startlingly decrepit, more witchy appearance. When they were doing tests, she said, “Zach was in sheer delight. ’cause that’s what he was hoping for.”

Madigan’s vivid portrayal of Gladys became a meme on TikTok, and a fixture among Halloween cosplayers. “People like Gladys. They want to hang out with Gladys,” Madigan told The Guardian. “Which I find kind of interesting. It’s crazy how people are responding to Gladys. But I have to accept that they’re also responding to me.” She said, of the nightmares Gladys may be causing to children fearful of a child-catcher coming for them, that she was taking it as a compliment.

Madigan won the Screen Actors Guild’s Actor Award for “Weapons.”

  • “Weapons” has received one Academy Award nomination.

UPDATE: On Sunday, Amy Madigan won the Academy Award for best supporting actress for “Weapons.” At a press conference backstage, she said, “Horror, as we all know, was looked at like you’re at the little kids’ table at Thanksgiving. You’re just over there. Which, as we know, is not true. You just look at the great silent horror films that started our business.”

Of her character, Gladys, she said she felt an instant affinity: “I just knew that I could grab it by the throat. … Zach Cregger, our writer-director, we worked together, but he was just like, ‘Do it. Go for it.'”


Wunmi Mosaku, “Sinners”

Born in Nigeria to academics who emigrated to England, Wunmi Mosaku studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Her stage, TV and film roles led to a BAFTA Award for the TV series “Damilola, Our Loved Boy,” and a British Independent Film Award for best actress for “His House.” In Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners,” Mosaku plays Annie, a hoodoo practitioner in the Deep South, for which she earned her first Oscar nomination, and won her second BAFTA Award.


“Sinners” clip: Annie and Smoke by
CBS Sunday Morning on
YouTube

Mosaku talked with “CBS Mornings” about taking on the role: “There’s a distinction between voodoo and hoodoo, and so we had a hoodoo consultant [Yvonne Chireau]. I didn’t know anything about the culture, the spirituality, the connection to the Yoruba, the traditional religion of ifa – I didn’t know any of it. So, I went in completely clueless, complete blank slate. Except, actually, I did have a judgment, ’cause I was born and raised in a really strict Christian household and so I did have a judgment of ifa and voodoo and knowing it was all kind of connected to hoodoo. So I thought it was scary, and my mom was like, ‘Be careful, please be careful.'”

Mosaku said she felt she had grown as a person, a mother, a wife, and a member of society through playing the character: “I feel like more connected to my ancestry because of it and more connected to my purpose because of it. I think it’s such a beautiful reminder that we’re all going to be future ancestors and, like, what we’re going to do with that our gifts and our energy into this world and how it will reverberate,” she said.  



“Sinners” stars talk movie’s success and lessons learned

11:05

Having played immigrants, Mosaku described to The Guardian that, as a youngster in England, she was discouraged from becoming fluent in her native language, Yoruba, because it would result in a “funny” accent. “That’s the stuff that’s really important,” she said. “You don’t appreciate the cost to people, the tax on a person’s spirit in order to assimilate into your country – and for what? It’s superiority. It’s ego. It’s brutal. It’s a cultural genocide.”


Teyana Taylor, “One Battle After Another”

In Paul Thomas Anderson’s “One Battle After Another,” a band of American revolutionaries takes on a militaristic government, in a story that, while based on a 1990 Thomas Pynchon novel, feels fiercely topically, as we witness militants attack a government detention center for undocumented immigrants. Perfidia Beverly Hills (best supporting actress Oscar nominee Teyana Taylor), a key figure in the armed band known as the French 75, displays a revolutionary zeal unmatched by her compatriots, even after giving birth to a child with a bombmaker known as “Rocketman” (best actor Oscar nominee Leonardo DiCaprio).


“One Battle After Another” Clip: Perfidia and Rocketman by
CBS Sunday Morning on
YouTube

Taylor is a Grammy-nominated singer, choreographer and music video director, whose debut album, “VII,” topped the R&B chart. Her next two releases, “K.T.S.E.” and “The Album,” went gold. Taylor also acted in several film and TV roles (her credits include “Coming 2 America” and “White Men Can’t Jump”). She received a phone call from Anderson about “One Battle After Another” in that most L.A. of situations: while she was stuck in traffic.

In an appearance on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” Taylor described her character: “I think Perfidia is very complex. Perfidia has a lot of layers, and I think a lot of her layers are color-coordinated. That’s what I chose to do with her character. I wanted to color coordinate her layers!

“This is a woman who was unapologetically herself. Of course, selfish at times, but for whatever good reason she feels like that is, she’s also coming from the pressures of coming from a long line of revolutionaries. I think that’s a lot of pressure for a person. They need to carry it on. It becomes her identity. I think throughout her journey of trying to figure it out, we have motherhood and things get tough. You have postpartum depression. It’s a lot, and I think a lot of what we see in Perfidia is her being in survival mode and navigating all these different things.”

In a conversation for the SAG-AFTRA Foundation, Taylor talked about performing a scene that gives Perfidia a voice to the 16 years she was away from her daughter, reading a letter about her wishes for Willa.

“The original ending was me in Cuba, or Mexico. I was somewhere and we originally had that in there. Then he wound up taking it out and was like, ‘Let’s just do a letter.’ And I remember it was just me, [Paul], and our sound guy. We went to this room. It was actually the last day of filming, I think. And we did it in one take. And yeah, it was so emotional to get through that letter, but we took our time. I didn’t rush through it. Those were real tears. It was real emotion. And at the time, you know, our producer Adam Somner, we were losing him. He was dying of cancer and he was still coming to work every single day. It was a lot. So, it was getting through that letter, we were dealing with a lot. I was crying. Paul was crying. Our sound guy was crying holding up the boom mic. And I’m sorry, it’s a serious moment, but like, it was just so cute because it was just like we just couldn’t. It was a lot, and I was happy that it made it. …

“I’m really most proud of that part because, you know, you still have the music in the background, and I’m not in the scene for people to probably feel or see how powerful it was while I was reading it. So, it really does make my day when people bring up the letter ’cause you do hear what she’s been through within the 16 years. That’s her moment to kind of redeem herself and show that she’s not just, like, unhinged. You hear her heart in this letter. … And also, the questions are so valid. Are you happy? Do you have love? Will you try and change the world? You know what I’m saying? These are questions that I ask my children, you know, and they’re just five and 10. You know, do you feel safe? Do you feel loved? What do you want to be? What do you want to do? Like, these are real questions that you ask.”

Taylor won the Golden Globe for her performance.


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How debit card fraud can happen without using the card

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How debit card fraud can happen without using the card


NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!

Every so often, we receive an email that stops us cold. Not because it is dramatic. Not because it is careless. Because it feels impossible. 

Sheri M. from Georgia recently wrote to us with this question:

“Yesterday I learned that someone had stolen my debit card information. I was alerted by my bank about 10:00 p.m. last night that someone tried to use my card in Brazil. I am in the Southern United States and have never traveled outside the country. What I have trouble understanding is that this particular debit card has never been used and has never been out of a locked vault. It has been activated, and once activated, I locked it up. No one had access to it, no questions about that. It is just not possible. So how could someone have my card information? I asked this question at my bank, and after speaking to several people, they are at a loss as to what to tell me. I hope you can shed some light on this.”

— Sheri M. from Georgia

GHOST-TAPPING SCAM TARGETS TAP-TO-PAY USERS
 

Debit card numbers can be compromised digitally through system breaches or automated number-guessing attacks. (fizkes/Getty Images)

Sheri, first, we are glad your bank flagged it. That alert tells you fraud monitoring worked. Now let’s address the part that feels unreal. How can someone use a debit card that has never left a locked vault?

If you have asked that same question, you are not alone. This type of debit card fraud happens more often than most people realize. And it almost never involves someone physically touching your card.

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How debit card fraud happens without using the card

When a card is compromised without being used, the issue is typically digital. Here are the most likely explanations.

1) The number was exposed before you received it

Debit cards move through multiple systems before they reach your mailbox. Third-party vendors manufacture, encode and ship them. That means the card number exists in databases long before you open the envelope. If one of those systems is breached, criminals can obtain card numbers in bulk. They never need the physical card. They never need your home. In that case, it has nothing to do with your vault. 

2) A BIN attack may be responsible

Every debit card starts with a bank identification number. Criminals use software to generate the remaining digits at high speed. They test thousands of combinations using small transactions or foreign authorizations to see which numbers work. This is known as a BIN attack. They are not stealing your specific card. They are guessing valid numbers mathematically. If your card was activated, even if it was never used, it becomes part of the pool that can be tested. A foreign attempt, like one in Brazil, is often a test authorization. It feels personal. In reality, it is automated. 

WEB SKIMMING ATTACKS TARGET MAJOR PAYMENT NETWORKS
 

A person presents their debit card to pay as a gloved worker holds out a payment terminal.

A customer completes a transaction at Pike Place Market in Seattle, Washington, on May 28, 2025. Financial security specialists recommend canceling compromised cards and monitoring accounts immediately after a fraud alert. (M. Scott Brauer/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

3) A processor or network weak point

Sometimes the exposure does not originate at the bank itself. The weak link can involve:

  • A payment processor
  • A card network
  • A digital wallet backend
  • A servicing vendor

Frontline bank employees often do not have visibility into these system-level issues. Patterns can take time to surface internally. That is why you may not receive a clear explanation right away. 

4) Backend systems assign numbers early

Many banks pre-assign card numbers or connect them to digital systems before you ever swipe the card. If that backend data is exposed, the physical card remaining locked away does not matter. That is why debit card fraud without using the card can still occur.

Why did the transaction show up overseas?

You may wonder why the attempt came from Brazil. Foreign authorizations are often used as test transactions. Criminal groups run small or unusual location charges to see which numbers are active. If the charge clears, they escalate. The good news is your bank blocked it. 

What you should do right now

If this happens to you, act quickly.

  • Cancel the card completely. Do not just lock it. Make sure the number is permanently closed.
  • Request a new card number. Confirm it is not a reissue of the same digits.
  • Monitor your checking account daily for at least 30 days.
  • Freeze your credit with all three credit bureaus.
  • Add identity monitoring to detect broader misuse.

That final step is often overlooked.

WHY SCAMMERS OPEN BANK ACCOUNTS IN YOUR NAME
 

A person holds a debit card next to a mobile phone.

Experts say debit card fraud often occurs without the physical card ever being used or stolen. (Nikos Pekiaridis/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Why identity monitoring matters

Debit card fraud can be isolated. It can also signal a larger data exposure.

If your card number surfaced through a breach or vendor leak, other personal details may be circulating too. Email addresses, phone numbers and Social Security numbers often appear together in stolen datasets. That is where early detection becomes critical.

Our top Identity Theft Protection recommendation monitors credit activity, financial accounts and dark web marketplaces for signs your identity is being misused. You receive fast alerts so you can respond before small incidents turn into larger problems.

Instead of waiting for a late-night fraud alert, you gain earlier visibility.

See my tips and best picks on Best Identity Theft Protection at Cyberguy.com.

Ways to stay safe from invisible debit card fraud

You cannot control global criminal networks. You can reduce your exposure.

  • Keep debit cards locked in your banking app when not in use
  • Turn on real-time transaction alerts
  • Use credit cards for online purchases when possible
  • Freeze your credit as a preventative step
  • Avoid storing debit card details across multiple retail sites
  • Use identity monitoring for broader protection

Layered security gives you more control.

Kurt’s key takeaways

Sheri’s experience feels impossible because she did everything right. The card never left the vault. It was never used. No one had access. Yet the number was still tested from across the world. That is the reality of today’s financial crime. It is automated, remote and system-driven.

If this can happen to a card locked in a vault, what does that say about how secure our financial system really is? Let us know by writing to us at Cyberguy.com.

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“Mr. Nobody Against Putin”: How one Russian teacher confronted Kremlin propaganda

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“Mr. Nobody Against Putin”: How one Russian teacher confronted Kremlin propaganda


Right after Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, Karabash Elementary, like schools across Russia, was ordered to indoctrinate young minds with a so-called “patriotic curriculum.” Pasha Talankin, the school’s videographer, was assigned to shoot it all, to prove to Russia’s government that the school was toeing the line.

But much as he loved his students, Talankin hated the war, and felt trapped. “I love my job, but I don’t want to be a pawn of the regime,” he said.

Talankin also hated the way his colleagues were forced to parrot the state’s propaganda, such as referring to Russia’s “special operation” in Ukraine as “de-Nazification.” So, he decided he would record everything – not just for the government, but to show the world.

His work became the basis of the documentary, “Mr. Nobody Against Putin.” Talankin and the documentary’s American co-director, David Borenstein, spoke to “Sunday Morning” in our London office, ahead of this weekend’s Academy Awards, where their film is nominated for an Oscar.

“When the teacher had to say Ukraine had taken the path of neo-Nazism and neo-fascism, and we must ‘liberate’ it, at that moment I understood that I had no moral right to delete this material,” Talankin said, “because it is part of the evidence of what’s happening in Russian schools today.”

Borenstein said, “I don’t think Pasha even knew, none of us knew, that this film would ever come to anything when we were making it.”

Pasha Talankin recorded the propaganda curriculum being fed to schoolchildren in Russia following the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine, which became the basis of a new Oscar-nominated documentary, “Mr. Nobody Against Putin.” 

Kino Lorber


The two met online, and agreed to make a film. So for two years, Talankin kept shooting, while Borenstein directed remotely from Europe. He recorded everything: pro-war student assemblies; Putin’s paramilitary Wagner Group showing up to give weapons training; and the day some of his students were drafted to fight in Ukraine.

“When Pasha picked up the camera, it was because he felt he was trapped in this Kafkaesque system,” Borenstein said. “He says it in the film: ‘Being a propagandist at this school is like walking a tightrope.'”

The stakes were huge. Talankin could have faced life in prison if caught, especially as he kept drawing attention to himself with small acts of rebellion, like playing “The Star-Spangled Banner” instead of Russia’s anthem on the school’s P.A. system.

mr-nobody-against-putin-poster-kino-lorber.jpg

Kino Lorber


Asked if he ever thought Russian authorities were onto him, Talankin replied, “Sometimes I thought so. In Russia you never know. No one will call you; no one will knock on your door. They just watch, and then suddenly break the door down, throw you on the floor, and the floor is the last thing you see in your apartment. That’s it; you don’t exist anymore.”

In the West, “Mr. Nobody Against Putin” is a triumph. Most recently it won best documentary at the BAFTAs (the British Oscar). But in Russia, the Kremlin claims it’s just been too busy to watch.

Talankin’s mother, however, a crusty librarian who appears in the film, has managed to see it. “Well, we don’t talk about it directly,” Talankin said when asked about her reaction. “But she did give an interview to the New York Times and said she liked the film and that she’s proud.”

Eventually, though, the whole charade became too risky. Talankin booked a fake holiday to Turkey, and escaped. Now in exile, he is a very public critic of a sometimes vengeful Russian state. Asked how safe he feels, he replied, “Probably 80 percent safe.”

Talankin mourns for the kids he cares about so deeply, and whose future, he fears, has been poisoned by Putin’s nationalist lies. Of the film he says, “This is a very important document, because it shows what Russian society will be like in a few years. Putin may no longer exist, but society will be evil, because propaganda entered schools and was taught to children.”

This film focuses on the children, but it reveals a lot about the cameraman, too. Borenstein said, “It’s also, to me, a story about resistance. Everybody faces a moral choice wherever you are, and this is a story also about what you do when there is a government around you tearing down everything that you have built up.”

When the time came, Pasha Talankin made his moral choice, to resist.  He is “Mr. Nobody” no more.


UPDATE: On Sunday “Mr. Nobody Against Putin” won the Academy Award for best documentary feature. In his acceptance speech, co-director David Borenstein said, “‘Mr. Nobody Against Putin’ is about how you lose your country. And what we saw when working with this footage, it’s that you lose it through countless small, little acts of complicity, when we act complicit, when a government murders people on the streets of our major cities, when we don’t say anything when oligarchs take over the media and control how we can produce it and consume it. We all face a moral choice. But luckily, even a nobody is more powerful than you think.”


To watch a trailer for “Mr. Nobody Against Putin.” Click on the video player below:


Mr. Nobody Against Putin – Official U.S. Trailer by
Kino Lorber on
YouTube

For more info:

        
Story produced by Leigh Kiniry. Editor: Brian Robbins. 


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Stair climbing has been included in exercise guidance. Landlords aren’t too happy

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Stair climbing has been included in exercise guidance. Landlords aren’t too happy


Tom McGee, a 69-year-old market researcher from near Chicago, has found an unusual path to fitness, one that has occasionally put him at odds with hotel security. For two decades, McGee has been climbing stairs as a way to stay off cigarettes, a dedication that has seen him “kicked out of about every hotel in the city” due to his unconventional workout locations. His experience highlights a growing challenge for enthusiasts of this highly effective exercise, as modern office towers increasingly restrict access to stairwells.

Despite these hurdles, stair climbing is increasingly recognised in exercise guidance for its significant health benefits. Dr Luis Rodriguez, a 66-year-old semi-retired paediatric pulmonologist and avid stair climber, champions the activity. “You are working your legs. You are working your heart. You are working your lungs,” he explains, adding, “You can get a lot more benefit than just walking, because gravity is working against you.” This is supported by research indicating that just four minutes of stair climbing offers similar benefits to ten minutes of brisk walking or twenty minutes of slower walking.

The efficacy of short, intense bursts of activity was officially acknowledged in 2018, when federal physical activity guidance began promoting such efforts – like opting for the stairs between floors at work. Stella Volpe, an exercise expert at Virginia Tech, points out that many people “don’t realize that they don’t have to exercise all in one bout for it to be effective,” suggesting that these small efforts accumulate throughout the day. Beyond the physical, Jennifer Gay, a public health researcher at the University of Georgia, notes that stair climbing can also improve mental well-being and boost feelings of energy.

However, experts caution that individuals who may struggle with stairs should always consult their doctor before adopting a regular climbing regimen.

Participants make make their way up 86 flights of stairs during the 35th Annual Empire State Building Run-Up in New York, on Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2012. (AP Photo/Jason DeCrow, File) (AP)

The American Lung Association holds fundraising events each spring in office towers in cities across the country. The “Fight for Air” events are widely regarded as fun, but organizers say the name draws from the shortness of breath people can experience after climbing dozens of floors — or having a lung disease.

Landlords aren’t always so accommodating.

Some law firms tell landlords and building owners that they can he held liable if someone trips or slips on a staircase. Poor lighting, liquid on steps and broken handrails are among the conditions that can be cited in lawsuits if someone falls and gets hurt.

Many building managers have taken such advice to heart, saying stairs can only be used in emergencies.

A study of hospital emergency department visits, published in 2018, concluded that more than 1 million stair-related injuries occur in the U.S. each year, with broken bones more common in older people. More than 60% of the injured were women.

Research suggests there’s very little risk of injuries for people climbing stairs, Gay said. Going down stairs can be riskier and building managers “can’t make it a one-way street,” she added.

For more than a decade, some health advocates have pressed for better access to steps.

In 2013, a California-based health policy nonprofit called ChangeLab Solutions issued a resource guide that urged property owners to open their stairwells, arguing they posed no greater liability risk than other common areas.

Gay and her colleagues have estimated that 60% of U.S. workers do their jobs in multistory buildings with stairwells. But there are no statistics showing what percentage of those buildings have restrictions on stair access.

In this photo provided by the American Lung Association, Tom McGee participates in a fundraising run in the Oakbrook Terrace Tower building in Oakbrook, Ill., on Sunday, March 8, 2026. (Pat Davies/American Lung Association via AP)

In this photo provided by the American Lung Association, Tom McGee participates in a fundraising run in the Oakbrook Terrace Tower building in Oakbrook, Ill., on Sunday, March 8, 2026. (Pat Davies/American Lung Association via AP) (American Lung Association)

Many people who like to climb have stories about trouble finding staircases they can use.

Lisa Bai, a New Yorker who works in real estate, said she’s not able to use the stairs in her office building. It would seem like an easy way to get some exercise, but sometimes “it’s not,” she said.

Bai and others say they find other ways to step up. Fitness equipment such as StairMaster machines can approximate the physical work of stair climbing, although people who participate in tower climbs say it isn’t as arduous as the real thing.

You might have to get creative if you don’t have easy access to stairs at home or in public spaces.

Carmen Erickson and Vivian Dawson, who live in the Detroit suburbs, have been meeting about three times a week to climb stairs, usually in a nearby park, for roughly a decade.

But it can be trickier when they travel. When they vacation together, they make a point to stay on the top floor of tall hotels so they can use the stairs. They also look for hills and hospital parking decks.

They also have negotiated after-hours access to one building’s stairwells, agreeing to sign a waiver and check in with security officers each time.

“If you connect with the right people and tell them what they’re doing and agree to the rules, it hasn’t really been a problem for us,” said Erickson, 53.

But Dawson, 64, added: “You have to really want to do it.”



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Lizzo delivers personal message of finding your voice and trusting yourself in new kids’ book

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Lizzo delivers personal message of finding your voice and trusting yourself in new kids’ book




Lizzo delivers personal message of finding your voice and trusting yourself in new kids’ book – CBS News










































Watch CBS News



Grammy award-winner Lizzo exclusively announced on “CBS Mornings” her latest project, a children’s book called “Little Lizzo Meets Sasha B. Flute.” She spoke with Gayle King about her inspiration for the book and message for young readers.



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A petri dish of human brain cells is currently playing Doom. Should we be worried?

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A petri dish of human brain cells is currently playing Doom. Should we be worried?


It sounds like the opening of a sci-fi film, but US scientists recently uploaded a copy of the brain of a living fly into a simulation. In San Francisco, biotechnology company Eon Systems created a virtual insect that knew how to walk, fly, groom and feed in its virtual environment. Researchers in Australia, meanwhile, have taught a petri dish containing 200,000 human brain cells to play the iconic 90s shooter Doom. One experiment has pushed a brain into a computer; the other has plugged a computer into brain cells.

Both stories have been hailed as scientific breakthroughs, but have also sparked inevitable fears about the prospects of lab-grown humans and digital clones. Should we be concerned?

It was Australian startup Cortical Labs in Melbourne that taught a dish of lab-grown neurons to play Pong in 2022. Now it has built what it describes as “the world’s first code-deployable biological computer”, running on living human tissue rather than silicon chips, which is happily playing the 1993 shooter Doom.

“In computer-science nerd land, there’s this obsession with getting Doom to run on everything, from calculators to microwaves,” Hon Weng Chong, CEO of Cortical Labs, tells me over Zoom from Melbourne. “As soon as we managed to get Pong to work, the first thing people said was: ‘When are you going to do Doom?’”

The average human brain contains about 86bn neurons – roughly 430,000 petri dishes’ worth. But how do you harvest 200,000 brain cells without resorting to a hacksaw and an ice-cream scoop?

“They’re my brain cells, actually – at least most of them are,” Chong says proudly. “There’s no scraping or brain extraction. It’s a very cool technique that was developed by Professor Shinya Yamanaka, who won the Nobel prize in 2012.”

All you need is 10ml of blood (in this case Chong’s), from which around 100 white blood cells can be harvested. These can then be reprogrammed into induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) – the body’s biological building blocks – which can then be reproduced exponentially.

Close-up of 200,000 neurons on a glass slide the size of a 50p piece. Photograph: Cortical Labs

“Essentially we reverse the biological clock back to an embryonic state, induce them into neurons, and put them on a glass chip roughly the size of a 50p piece,” explains Chong . “Because they’re on a chip – and electricity is the common language between neurons and the computer system – we can interface with them and get them to play Doom.”

Cortical Labs conducted its Pong experiment in-house, but this time it reached out to 24-year-old Singaporean Sean Cole, who has just completed an MSc in artificial intelligence at the University of Sussex, and whose dad happens to be mates with its CEO. Cole wrote the code remotely, which the team then tested on their local machines.

“I was a bit surprised it worked the first time around,” he tells me over Zoom.

So how does a petri dish of brain cells play Doom when it doesn’t have any eyes? Or fingers? “We take a snapshot of the game with information like the player’s health and the position of enemies, pass it through a neural network, convert it into numbers, and send the data,” explains Cole. “This is called encoding – essentially turning the game state into signals the neurons can understand. The neurons then fire an output – move left, move right, walk forward, shoot or not shoot – which the system decodes and converts back into actions in the game.”

“If you think about how humans operate, we have information going into our retina, which is converted into electrical signals, processed in the brain, and then an output happens,” adds Chong. “It’s really no different from that.”

If a computer full of brain cells is playing a video game and making decisions, does that mean it’s sentient? Or is it just behaving like the average Doom player? “People have different perceptions of what sentience is,” says Cole. “I definitely don’t think it’s conscious. At first it didn’t know how to move, aim or even shoot. Then it would shoot the first two enemies and stop – almost as if it was preserving itself. So it’s definitely learning. We’ve managed to control a brain to learn in a very controlled environment. The next step could be something like Neuralink, where you inject a chip into the brain to train someone to learn a language faster.”

Exactly how the cells are learning to play the game is unclear. “We can hypothesise that it might involve things like the free energy principle – the idea that living systems act to minimise free energy – or Hebbian learning, where connections between neurons strengthen when they fire together.” Could we ever use technology like this to instantly learn kung fu, as in The Matrix? “If we find a way to safely connect this technology to humans, that is kind of what the implications might be,” Cole says. “A big concern would be: what if you override someone’s memories?”

‘I don’t think it’s conscious’ … Doom encoded for the biological computer to play. Photograph: Cortical Labs

While Chong says he’d like to try getting the neurons to play Pokémon next, the real future application here lies not in getting trays of human neurons to graduate to playing Minecraft or Grand Theft Auto, but in medicine. “People are looking at it from biomedical research angles, for disease modelling,” he says. “Things like epilepsy, where drugs could be tested on neurons grown outside the body – not just to discover new drugs, but to tailor them at a personal level.”

Meanwhile, in San Francisco, where Eon Systems has scanned a fruit fly brain and recreated it as a virtual insect, the big scientific news is that the team have essentially recreated the creature’s behavioural wiring. The digital insect already knew how to behave like a fly, without any training or prompting. This challenges a central assumption of modern AI: that intelligence must be acquired. In the case of the fly, much of its behaviour appears to be built-in.

“The brain was scanned using electron microscopy. Our head of engineering led a project to emulate that brain, and now we’ve placed the emulated brain back into a body, so it can wander around a virtual world,” Michael Andregg, CEO of Eon Systems, tells me.

A fruit fly’s brain comprises around 140,000 neurons – about five petri dishes’ worth. The virtual fly has 87 joints and can do pretty much anything an actual fly can. But does it realise it’s living in a simulation?

“The fly probably knows something’s off, because we’re not simulating the environment with high fidelity,” says Andregg. “We can’t give very specific taste and smell cues – just that something smells sweet or tastes bitter, but there are no complex aromas.”

Brain emulation, Andregg suggests, could eventually allow humans “to flourish in a world with superintelligence. Our goal is to make the emulation and computed brain and body feel indistinguishable from the natural biochemical body and brain,” he continues. “If it feels different, we’ve done something wrong.”

But we’re still a long way from the upload-yourself-into-the-internet futures imagined in Devs or The Lawnmower Man, mainly because, in this case, the fly’s brain had to be removed from the body first. “Scanning the body was too hard,” says Andregg, which will probably reduce the waiting list for human volunteers willing to try out the technology.

The digital fly, and a map of its 140,000 neurons. Photograph: Eon Systems

Chong, meanwhile, believes biological computing could achieve things that traditional computing has struggled with. “There’s a thing called Moravec’s paradox, which is well known in robotics: what humans find very difficult, computers find easy, and what computers find difficult, humans find easy,” he says.

“Abstract reasoning, mathematics and language are relatively recent in evolutionary terms, which is partly why computers excel at them. But motor control and probabilistic decision-making are things we’ve inherited through millions of years of evolution. Robots may be very good at solving maths problems, but we’re still trying to build robots that can walk properly.” Biological systems like the fruit fly simulation, he says, might eventually power robots, drones and other machines that need to navigate the messy unpredictability of the real world.

For now, humanity’s first biological computer is busy doing what humans have always done with new technology: playing games. And somewhere in Silicon Valley, a fruit fly is living its second life inside a computer, totally unaware that it is living in the insect Matrix.



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Breaking down top moments from the Oscars

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Breaking down top moments from the Oscars



Clayton Davis, the senior awards editor for Variety, joins “CBS Mornings” to discuss the big moments, winners and surprises at the Oscars.



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“One Battle After Another,” “Sinners” win big at Oscars as Rob and Michele Reiner are honored

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“One Battle After Another,” “Sinners” win big at Oscars as Rob and Michele Reiner are honored


“One Battle After Another” took home six awards at the Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director, while Michael B. Jordan won Best Actor for his performance in “Sinners.” Meanwhile, actor Billy Crystal led the in memoriam segment with an emotional tribute to Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele, who were killed last year. Nischelle Turner reports on Hollywood’s biggest night.



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