'Promising Young Woman' co-star Clancy Brown praises streaming for giving Oscar-nominated movies an audience

Focus Features

Acclaimed character actor Clancy Brown plays the father of Oscar nominee Carey Mulligan's lead character in the Academy Award-nominated film Promising Young Woman

Brown has starred in classic films like Highlander and The Shawshank Redemption, beloved animated properties like SpongeBob SquarePants, and huge properties like The Mandalorian and the superhero blockbuster Thor: Ragnarok, but he tells ABC Audio that too many great films often went unseen -- until the pandemic brought streaming into the forefront.

"[T]hey [can see] some of the Oscar nominees that they wouldn't have seen otherwise, I mean, you know, Minari, who was going to see Minari [in theaters]? Nobody was going to see Minari," says Brown. "But now, because it's on streaming...everybody can see it and see how good it is."

He adds, "You can make the same argument about Mank, and Promising Young Woman, you know, all of them. You know, Ma Rainey's and, I know One Night in Miami isn't nominated for Best Picture. But, boy, what a great movie!"

Incidentally, Brown can also be seen on the specialty streaming service Shudder, starring in The Mortuary Collection, a creepy anthology series. He says Shudder similarly gives people access to lesser-known movie gems.

"It's not just, you know, horror-slasher movies, it's...thrillers and some real great art house movies," says Brown. "Now I think right now they have Ken Russell's The Devils, which I haven't seen since, gosh, I was in college...So it's been a real revelation."

He adds, "I'm all for films coming back and being in theaters again, but, you know, maybe we can we can have more of those [niche streamers]."

Wednesday, April 21, 2021 at 12:00PM by Stephen Iervolino Permalink