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Lioness is back for Season 2 -- have you been tuning in?
Source: Ryan Green / Paramount +
The Paramount+ series returned for its second season on October 27 with the first two episodes and we are HOOKED -- just like last season. From Oscar nominee Taylor Sheridan, the espionage thriller Lioness features a star-studded cast, including series lead and executive producer Zoe Saldaña, Laysla De Oliveira, Genesis Rodriguez and Emmy Award nominee Michael Kelly, with Oscar winner Morgan Freeman, and Oscar and Emmy winner and executive producer Nicole Kidman.
This season follows the CIA's fight against terror as it moves closer to home. Joe (Saldaña), Kaitlyn (Kidman), and Byron (Kelly) enlist a new Lioness operative to infiltrate a previously unknown threat. With pressure mounting from all sides, Joe is forced to confront the profound personal sacrifices she has made as the leader of the Lioness program. The series also stars Dave Annable, Jill Wagner, LaMonica Garrett, James Jordan, Austin Hébert, Jonah Wharton, Thad Luckinbill and Hannah Love Lanier.
Check out the incredible scene below where Joe meets her new Lioness recruit for the first time.
We all recall the last Lioness had quite a temper, but Josie's might be even more intense. GlobalGrind Sr. Content Director Janeé Bolden spoke with Genesis Rodriguez, who plays Josie Carillo, ahead of the new season and ask about playing Carillo as well as that explosive first encounter with Joe.
"Josie is a type of person that you can hear her from a mile away," Rodriguez said of her character, so I really had to fill those shoes and she was incredible to be able to play."
"I have been such a huge fan of Zoe for so many years, honestly it was just like a life accomplishment to be able to share the screen with her and share acting time with her and because I'm a fan," Rodriguez told GlobalGrind. " And not only is she just the most kind and amazing, generous person, she's the same on screen as she is off screen, so our scenes they were amazing because we were both playing. We were finding moments and really just that chemistry, you can't make it up. It just happens because you have a very present and generous actor with you.
Source: Ryan Green / Paramount +
While Joe and the Lioness team are focused on the best interests of national security, she often finds herself arguing with her colleagues -- like Byron Westfield for example, about the best way to do so. Like Genesis Rodriguez, Kelly also heaped praises on his executive producer co-star, Saldaña.
"One of the coolest things when he [Taylor Sheridan] says cut and I just sit there and go God you're so f*****g good, you're so good," Kelly said, referring to frequent scene partner Zoe Saldana. "She is one of those actors that -- I think one of the hardest things for an actor to do is to listen right? I'm not saying it's easy, none of it's easy, but it's easier to say the words than it is to listen. When you're listening and you're engaged then what you say comes from what you've heard, right? And she's so good and so locked in and so free. I think that's one of the greatest compliments I can give her, is that she's one of the most free actors I've ever been around. As a fellow actor watching her, you're like 'she's just feeling it man,' she's feeling it and being it and doing it and as an actor, one of the hardest things to do is to is to be, is to just be. She bees. Makes sense? She just is there and she's so present and I can't say enough good things about her and every day that I get to work with her. I'm just saying I'm a lucky dude. I'm a lucky dude especially when we go to head to head . So much fun."
Kelly also spoke about how Sheridan and the Lioness writers have upped the ante with the second season.
"The stakes are definitely higher ," Michael Kelly told Global Grind. "I was blown away when I read this season. Like every one of the scripts, 'Oh my God,' it's gripping -- truly page turners and I do believe we upped the stakes from season 1."
Season 2 Episode 4 of Lioness airs Sunday, November 10 on Paramount+
Will you be watching?