‘The Morning Show’: Billy Crudup calls playing Cory Ellison ‘a gift’ during SAG Foundation event [Exclusive]
With voting for the 2024 Screen Actors Guild Awards set to end on January 7, “The Morning Show” star Billy Crudup hit the SAG Foundation on Wednesday night to participate in a conversation about the Apple TV+ drama’s third season and his role as Cory Ellison on the hit show.
Crudup is a five-time SAG Award nominee and a past winner as part of the “Spotlight” ensemble. His acclaimed and Emmy Award-winning performance on “The Morning Show” has earned him three overall SAG Award nominations, including two individual Best Actor nominations for the show.
“I love the work more than anything,” Crudup said during the event – his first appearance in support of the show since the end of the actors’ strike. “This has tested my limits in this medium as TV has a different rhythm. To have the opportunity to play someone like Cory is a gift.”
The third season of “The Morning Show” debuted in September on Apple TV+ and earned acclaim from critics and fans for its high-stakes drama and performances. The series – which also stars Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Aniston – earned six 2024 Critics Choice Awards nominations, the most for any series this year. Crudup was among the Best Actor nominees.
On working with Jen and Reese, Crudup said the actors are “formidable colleagues and incredibly supportive. They’ve fostered and created an environment with unique ingenuity”
During Season 3 of “The Morning Show,” Crudup’s Cory struggles as CEO to keep UBA afloat – all while revealing new layers to his personality and family life, including an appearance by his mother (Lindsay Duncan). But the Season 3 finale leaves Cory in his most vulnerable position yet – not only forced out after being accused of inappropriate conduct due to his feelings for Witherspoon’s Bradley, but potentially facing legal ramifications after Bradley goes to the FBI to turn herself in for hiding evidence that her brother participated in the January 6 uprising at the Capitol.
“There are massive changes that are underway, not just with UBA but with some of our major characters who may or may not face some very severe consequences to their actions and I don’t think there’s been a kind of, not even a minor key, but a cliffhanger that the entire world is facing as it is at the end of Season 3,” Crudup said of how the third season ends up. “Season 2 ended with COVID and the uncertainty of the natural world collapsing on UBA and all of our characters, and this was more like the people within it have upended the entire place and we don’t know where they’re going to land.”
Nominations for the 2024 SAG Awards are announced on January 10.
All episodes of “The Morning Show” are now streaming on Apple TV+.
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