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BBC Studios CEO Tom Fussell and Zai Bennett, CEO and chief creative officer of BBC Studios Productions, discussed tariff talk by U.S. President Donald Trump, mega-consolidation, including the planned Netflix-Warner Bros. Discovery deal, the growth of the company’s U.S. streaming business, and the Bluey movie.

They spoke to the press on the first day of the 50th annual BBC Studios Showcase in London. BBC Studios, the commercial arm of British broadcaster BBC, is known for such hit franchises as animated powerhouse Bluey, Netflix’s Baby Reindeer, legal drama The Split and its upcoming spin-off The Split Up, and such natural science hits as Walking With Dinosaurs, and it recently unveiled new shows to mark broadcaster and naturalist David Attenborough’s 100th birthday on May 8.

“We have seen no impact” from Trump tariff talk, Fussell said when asked about any possible fallout, also lauding the continuing popularity of BBC News in the U.S. He didn’t discuss Trump’s lawsuit against BBC News, simply touting the resilience of the BBC brand and saying “we are not seeing any changes.”

Asked about Netflix-WBD, he said “we are well diversified, and obviously, you can only control what you can control, so you focus on your priorities, and our priority is carrying the transformation and the growth in the areas we’ve got.” He emphasized though that “no doubt, … people have talked about challenging markets and the rest of it, and our view going forward is that the market growth is not going to be anything like what it had been in the [past] five years.”

Continued Fussell: “And when you start seeing rumors upon rumors about takeovers and consolidation, that normally is testament to the fact there aren’t huge amounts of growth in the market, because everyone’s looking for … synergies. But we know what we’re doing. We know where we want to be investing in our global expansion of our studio.”

In that context, he also highlighted that BBC Studios was “a growing business that’s transforming,” with revenue up 55.7 percent over the last four years.

Following TV market challenges, Bennett on Monday suggested that “there are definitely green shoots of recovery,” sharing that “Paramount is back in the market, spending money,” among other things. But he reiterated that things are “definitely not” expected to return to the highs of the past five years but play out in a new normal range.

Fussell suggested though that he felt the business would be “talking about striving again,” from scripted to unscripted and, vitally, kids programming.

Mentioning the 2019 BBC Studios deal with what was then Discovery to take full control of UKTV’s entertainment channels, including Dave, Gold, and Drama, as well as a 2024 deal with ITV that gave the company full control of streamer BritBox International, Fussell also signaled that BBC Studios could also strike more acquisitions of its own. He said it would “carry on investing organically and maybe inorganically.”

Bennett, who started his role in late 2024, similarly noted that BBC Studios Productions is seeing “solid organic growth and investment” and “looking for inorganic growth in some territories,” mentioning the rest of Europe, the Middle East and Africa as one possible region for deals.

Fussell added that there “are opportunities for inorganic growth in streaming across the genres,” adding: “I think we have a right, as the home of British streaming, to grow that even further.” But he emphasized that “these opportunities take time,” concluding: “We are very judicious with how we spend that investment.”

Fussell on Monday also touted the success of streaming services BritBox and BBC Select, which focuses on documentaries, in North America. “Last week was the fifth birthday of BBC Select, and BBC Select is now the third-largest factual SVOD in the States, and we’re really proud of that,” he said. He also touted the growth of BritBox and its launch of a premium tier.

Among content trends, Bennett was asked about the growth of microdramas, saying that “we’re looking at that right now” and signaling the company could talk about this space more in the coming months. He added: “We’re certainly experimenting.”

Questioned about audience and buyer appetite, he sees for escapist content versus programming dealing with the world’s cultural and political divisions, Bennett said BBC Studios Productions looks at market needs and is “leaning into specificity and Britishness” more than anything else.

Current and old content favorites also drew reporter questions on Monday. Could motoring show Top Gear return to U.K. screens? Replied Bennett: “Never say never.”

Of course, the upcoming Bluey: The Movie was also a talking point. Fussell shared that he just visited creator Joe Brumm in his studio in Brisbane, calling the experience “an absolute pleasure,” and saying that the work on the film was going well. But “I can’t say anything” more, he emphasized. And Bennett shared: “We’ve seen bits of it, and it looks amazing.”

Beyond the fact that they both technically belong in the genre of “sports,” the Jewish table-tennis-hustler film Marty Supreme and the spicy gay hockey TV series Heated Rivalry seem to have almost nothing in common.

And yet Josh Safdie’s Oscar contender and Jacob Tierney’s TV phenomenon have riled up parts of their audience in similar ways. Both works, critics say, display uncomfortable stereotypes that have been used to marginalize their respective Jewish and gay populations for a very long time.

In the case of Marty Mauser, it’s the persona of a grasping, lying shyster who will do anything and sell anyone out for money. For Ilya Rozanov and Shane Hollander, it’s a depiction as psych-textbook caricatures, the two muscularly embodying the narcissistic, decadent compulsion for sex with zero attachment and intimacy. And so for all their acclaim and popularity, the pieces have been slammed by these critics for playing to ugly tropes. Further complicating the sense of betrayal is the fact that Marty Supreme was created by Safdie, who is Jewish, and Heated Rivalry was created by Tierney, who is gay.

Nor do the characters play to affectionate Hollywood type in any way. Marty is not cultured, colorful and neurotic with a penchant for Yiddish outbursts. Ilya and Shane are not sensitive, stylish and creative and don’t have a drag scene. Instead, Marty lies to everyone, holds a co-worker at gunpoint for his pay and, infamously, makes a shocking wisecrack about Auschwitz. Meanwhile, over years of random, closeted and compulsive encounters, Shane and Ilya barely exchange pleasantries during their hot, impersonal hookups, even calling each other by their last names — half bros, half hos. These are not good Woody Allen Jews or good Tony Kushner gays.

For critics, these characters evoke a long history of pop-cultural stereotypes. From the predatory Jewish villain Svengali (made famous in the 19th century French best-seller Trilby) to the 1991 “Big Five” Oscar winner Silence of the Lambs (with its predatory queer villain Buffalo Bill), there’s a whole century of coded prejudice that hasn’t exactly vanished from the world.

But people focusing on these kinds of inhuman portrayals might consider what Safdie and Tierney are doing differently. Both Marty Supreme and Heated Rivalry cleverly use these aspects as starting points to slowly draw back the curtains on their characters’ stifled humanity.

After a grueling 135 minutes of danger-dealing (in which he finally gets to the world championships and scores a minor moral victory), Marty limps back humbled to New York and goes straight to the hospital to see his newborn son and his (married) girlfriend Rachel, whispering “love you” to her sleeping form, a selfless moment of redemption.

And in Heated Rivalry, after eight years of brief hotel hookups, Shane spends the day at Ilya’s house. Ilya makes Shane a tuna melt, and, for the first time, they use each other’s first names. When Shane can’t handle it, we see the damaged humanity under the hotness.

It’s as though both these narratives have set up a long con, where the stereotyped behavior acts as a form of misdirection — and it pays off with a sudden release when the characters’ latent humanity is revealed. This is as much a physics experiment as a drama: Tension is stored as stereotype and ratcheted up, then finally discharged as complexity.

This technique can be seen in another Oscar contender, Sentimental Value, in which Stellan Skarsgard’s distant father is finally revealed as scarred rather than selfish.

What all these works suggest is that stereotypes don’t need to be avoided — they can be used strategically as powerful ingredients for characters to defy.

Yes, there’s a lot to be said for humanity, empathy and the rest of today’s values checklist. But as Marty, Ilya and Shane make clear, that’s not always an inclusive spectrum. Real people are complicated and selfish. Real people want sex and success. Everyone wants to win, not just people stuck in “the patriarchy.” Instead of policing representation as some perfect singular, we should be trying to make it as plural as possible. Both Heated Rivalry and Marty Supreme prove that complicated characters and even stereotypes can be a dramatic vehicle for helping us see and reconcile all kinds of conflicting human urges. Actors want to show range. The world does, too.

This story appeared in the Feb. 23 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.