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Octavia Spencer, Hannah Waddingham on playing BFFs in ‘Ride or Die’

Hannah Waddingham, Octavia Spencer and Ed Skrein in ‘Ride or Die.’ (Prime Video)

Octavia Spencer and Hannah Waddingham are besties on the run in Ride or Die.

The new series, which premieres on Prime Video Wednesday, follows best friends who think they know everything about each other — until one discovers the other is an international assassin.

The show has it all — action, drama, comedy and romance — but its heart is the friendship between Debbie (Spencer) and Judith (Waddingham).

“It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity to get to play in all of these sandboxes,” Spencer told ABC Audio. “For me personally, horror is my favorite genre and then action … the fact that I’m getting to be in an action, comedy, drama with Hannah and getting to play at this level was amazing.”

Spencer said the characters were “otherworldly to me because we see these women. We are these women in real life.”

She made sure to quickly clarify, “Not the assassin part of it,” right before Waddingham chimed in, “Or am I?”

Spencer laughed and said, “Or maybe she is. Maybe she’s the secret sauce.”

As for what it was like to get to play Spencer’s best friend, Waddingham said, “That is the crux of it all for me.”

“It’s not every day that an Oscar winner gets on a Zoom call and goes, ‘Come and play and do this amazing role, and I’ve got an amazing role, and we’re going to have Bill Nighy playing an amazing role,'” Waddingham said. “It was just almost too much for a girl to listen to and feel like you could step up to the plate with these massive hitters.”

Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

23 years later, a ‘How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days’ sequel is in the works

(CNN) — The love fern may be making a comeback.After more than 20 years, a sequel to the hit romantic comedy “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days,” is in the works, with its original star Kate Hudson attached to the project, sources told CNN.Hudson, who starred in the original film as magazine columnist Andie Anderson, will produce the sequel at Paramount alongside American film producer Stacey Sher, whose production credits include award-winning films like “Pulp Fiction,” “Erin Brockovich” and ‘Django Unchained,” a source close to the project confirmed to CNN.The studio is currently seeking a screenwriter, the source said, and there are no other attachments at this early development stage. Variety was the first to report the story.It remains unclear whether Hudson or Matthew McConaughey, who starred alongside Hudson as advertising hot-shot Benjamin Barry, will reprise their roles.CNN has reached out to representatives for Hudson and McConaughey for comment.Released in 2003, “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days” follows Andie, a magazine columnist, as she sets out on a reporting assignment to prove she can make a man break up with her in 10 days. Her journalistic experiment soon gives way to a ‘will-they-won’t they’ relationship with Benjamin, who bets his boss that he can make her fall in love with him.The film grossed nearly $180 million worldwide at the time of its release, according to Variety.And the yellow silk Carolina Herrera gown worn by Hudson during the film has since become an iconic visual moment in cinema.In recent years, Hudson and McConaughey had demurely responded when asked whether a sequel was underway.During an appearance on Bravo’s “Watch What Happens Live” in 2024, Hudson was asked whether she’d thought about reprising her role with McConaughey, saying, “I think they’re (studios) always thinking about that.”“All that matters would be the script and if Matthew and I were into the script,” Hudson said. “I think we’re both totally open, it has just never happened.”In June, around the New York Knicks’ NBA Finals win against the San Antonio Spurs, Hudson shared on Instagram two stills from the film of Andie and Benjamin at a game, alongside the caption “Déjà vu.”Just weeks ago, McConaughey revealed that “How to Lose a Guy in 10 days” is his favorite romcom he’s ever worked on.Speaking on the Happy Sad Confused podcast with Josh Horowitz earlier this month, the actor described the 2003 film as the “gift that keeps on giving,” saying it still pays the “best mailbox money of any film I’ve ever done.”News of the sequel comes just months after the box office success of “The Devil Wears Prada 2” — another fan-favorite from the early 2000s - which brought back the original cast of Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Stanley Tucci, and Emily Blunt.Other follow-ups to popular films from the 2000s have also seen colossal success this year –– with the new “Scary Movie” grossing over $231 million worldwide and “Toy Story 5” grossing over $1.128 billion worldwide, according to the box office data tracking site, The Numbers.The development comes as Paramount tries to merge its movie studio and television operations with WBD, the parent of CNN, HBO, Discovery, the Warner Bros. studio and many other assets.The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
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