Cate Blanchett and Jonathan Pryce join the cast of Documentary Now!‘s 53rd season
The long-running IFC comedy series will premiere six new episodes this fall
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If anyone can convince us not to leave history in the past, it has to be Cate Blanchett and Jonathan Pryce. Luckily, the duo are just some of the names set to join the 53rd season of IFC’s acclaimed comedy anthology series Documentary Now!
The goofy and warm-hearted homage to classic documentaries (hosted by none other than Dame Helen Mirren) will begin with three episodes penned by Seth Meyers. Meyers co-created the series alongside fellow Saturday Night Live alumni Fred Armisen, Bill Hader, and Rhys Thomas—Studio 8H maestro Lorne Michaels executive produces.
Blanchett will contribute to the season’s inaugural episode, “Two Hairdressers in Baggleyport.” Paying homage to fashion documentaries 3 Salons at the Seaside and The September Issue, per a press release. The episode stars Blanchett and Succession’s ice queen Harriet Walter as a hairstylist and salon owner, respectively, and follows the duo as they put together their yearly stylebook. Co-creator Armisen will also step into a guest role for the episode, playing Dave the Postman.
This isn’t the first time Blanchett has made an appearance on Documentary Now!— she also starred in season 52 alongside John Mulaney, Natasha Lyonne, Owen Wilson, Michael Keaton and more. Last time around, Blanchett took on the role of the subversive, Marina Abramović-esque artist Izabella Barta in the episode “Waiting For The Artist,” a spoof of the 2012 Abramović documentary The Artist Is Present.
As for Pryce, The Two Popes star will bring his talents to the season’s second episode, “How They Threw Rocks.” Alongside co-stars John Rhys-Davies, Trystan Gravelle, and legendary musician Tom Jones, Pryce tells the story of the Welsh sport of Craig Maes, also known as “Field Rock,” and an infamous 1974 matchup known as “The Melon vs. The Felon.” The episode will reportedly serve as a homage to classic go-for-the-gold sports documentaries like 1996's When We Were Kings.
Documentary Now! will premiere its new season this fall on IFC and AMC+.
7 Comments
It wasn’t quite as good in Season 3 without Bill Hader, unsurprisingly. “She was like whipped cream and whiskey. Fluffy, and God damn dangerous. She had just the right va-va-voom to play a Holocaust survivor.” Amazing.
This and surprise episodes of RU Talkin’ RHCP to me keep me going these days.
I feel like I’m missing something- Aren’t there only three seasons of this so far? Are we contracting people for fifty seasons in the future?
I’d love to see them do an NFL Films, but I don’t know how they would pull it off.
It’s been so long I figured this had been softly cancelled.
Fred Armisen is getting to Seth MacFarlane-like delusions of grandeur that every dumb thought that ping-pongs around his skull needs to be on TV.
At least once a week, I think about the scene where Cate Blanchett drinks milk from a cat dish and says “I am human” over and over.