Posts Tagged ‘marlow stern’
Woody Allen on You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger
Yes, we’ve already heard Woody Allen’s whine incessantly about how shooting in New York is too expensive, despite the new incentives offering $420 million per year in tax breaks for films shot here and the fact that he shot the underwhelming black comedy “Whatever Works” in the Big Apple a little over a year ago. Woody’s big “return to New York City” following his trio of London films – “Match Point” (solid), “Scoop” (awful) and “Cassandra’s Dream” (awful) – and pleasant return to form “Vicky Cristina Barcelona,” was a dud, grossing just north of $5 million domestically.
So, the tireless Oscar-winning writer-director has opted to cross the Atlantic one more time in search of that “Match Point” magic. Shot in London, Allen’s latest is the heinously-titled YOU WILL MEET A TALL DARK STRANGER. The film continues along the nihilistic path laid forth in “Whatever Works” and premiered at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival. Initially, Nicole Kidman was cast in one of the lead roles, but she dropped out in favor of the film “Rabbit Hole,” and was replaced by relative newcomer Lucy Punch. “Stranger” also landed in the headlines earlier in the year, when it was reported that a brief cameo by France’s first lady Carla Bruni took 35 takes to film.
STRANGER follows two married couples – Alfie (Anthony Hopkins) and Helena (Gemma Jones), and their daughter Sally (Naomi Watts) and husband Roy (Josh Brolin) – whose various anxieties lead them astray. Alfie leaves Helena to romance a younger prostitute named Charmaine (Lucy Punch), Helena starts seeing the recent widower, Jonathan (Roger Ashton-Grifiths), Sally starts crushing on her terribly handsome art gallery owner boss, Greg (Antonio Banderas), and Roy becomes smitten with a mysterious woman named Dia (Freida Pinto). Naturally, all these affairs spell trouble. Entertainment Weekly said of the film: “The film is notable, if that’s the word, for being the first movie Allen has made in London that is every bit as bad as his most awful New York comedies, like ‘Anything Else’ and ‘Melinda and Melinda.’” Yikes.
MMM attended the New York press conference for Woody Allen’s latest, where the celebrated filmmaker chatted about nihilism, filming in Europe, and his desire to make a classic film.
MANHATTAN MOVIE MAGAZINE: Somebody once asked what “Interiors” was about and you said: “The spiritual turmoil, the floating unrest that can only be traceable to their choices in life, and how a lover can posses the loved one as an object to control. There’s something of me in all the characters.” Does that apply to this film?
WOODY ALLEN: This film was an attempt to deal with the same subject but to deal with it in a more comic way than “Interiors” was. The subject matter is still the same thing, it’s still the inability of people to relate to one another, of people needing some kind of certainty in life, people deluding themselves into some sense that there is purpose to life or that there is some extra meaning to life when in fact it’s a meaningless experience, and yet in the end even faith in anything at all is better than no faith at all. These are all the same subjects as “Interiors,” but here the characters play them with more humor. It’s still serious but it’s played with more humor. I was reminded, I was talking to someone just before, years ago I was on television with Billy Graham and I was taking this bleak outlook position and Billy Graham was saying to me that even if I was right and he was wrong and there was no meaning to life and it was a bleak experience and there is no god or no afterlife or no hope or anything, that he would still have a better life than me because he believed differently. And that even if he was 100% wrong our lives would both be completed and I would have had a miserable life wallowing in bleak outlook, and he would have had a wonderful life, confident that there was more. So that was one of the main themes of this picture, that someone like Gemma could be deluded as I felt Billy Graham was deluded, and that she would have a better life than someone like Josh, who’s more scientific minded and had a more realistic view of life but was going to have a more miserable life.
MMM: What do you think are the basic elements that turn a romantic comedy into a classic?
ALLEN: A classic is a de facto experience. You find that over the years that certain comedies, romantic comedies or comedies last, they endure, they remain fun to see 10 years later, 20, 50 years later. And other romantic comedies which were delightful for people at the time are not. When I was a boy I went to see many films that were delightful romantic comedies with June Allyson, Esther Williams, and Gloria DeHaven and all these people, and they were delightful and I loved them and they were fine, but they’re just kind of gone, vanished. And there were others that I saw, “Shop Around the Corner,” something like that, which year after year remains just a wonderful film to see. And you look up after many years and you find that the thing has become a classic because it’s meaningful to people and alive decade after decade.
MMM: When you’re filming in Europe, when you’re filming in Spain, when you’re filming in England, I wonder how much your choice of location changes your writing process or the way you view your characters.
ALLEN: It does, it’s meaningful because it’s a movie and you’re watching it, and when you’re sitting in the room writing the script you’re alone in your bedroom and it’s nothing. But then you get out there and I’m constantly rewriting the script for the locations. A good example of that is “Annie Hall.” I wrote the character lives in Flatbush, in Brooklyn, and his father’s a cab driver, and then I was with my art director and we were scouting in Brooklyn and we saw this apartment under the Cyclone, under the rollercoaster, and I thought it was great. And so I quickly rewrote that he was born in an apartment underneath the rollercoaster and his father was not a cab driver, his father worked in Coney Island and had a concession, and the whole thing was changed completely. I’ve done that a hundred times over the years because you can’t anticipate in the room the riches that you come across when you’re location hunting for a movie.
MMM: First of all, could you talk a little bit about Antonio Banderas? It’s rare that you include a Hispanic actor in some of your movies, and it looks like you’re very excited about having him in the movie. And then number two, I was reading in the production notes that Naomi Watts had never met you until she walked in and I think you just exchanged a brief hello and then she began acting. Do you feel that’s the best way to bring the best performances out of the actor, or at one point would you want to do some rehearsal beforehand?
ALLEN: First Antonio Banderas. I needed someone for this part that was European, charming, very good looking, of a certain age, and inherently sort of a nice guy, a lovely person who projected that, and he came to mind. We talked about it and he came to mind as someone that would be perfect for that part because he’s exactly that; he’s charming, he’s a lovely person, he projects that niceness, that decency, and he’s a lovely actor. It was a very fortuitous choice for me.
MMM: And the other question?
ALLEN: The other question. I myself don’t like to speak to the actors at all. I like to hire great people and let them do their thing. I don’t like to speak to them, I don’t want to have lunch with them, I don’t want to have to socialize with them, I don’t like to hear their ideas. Josh wanted to play this part in a wheelchair. He called up and asked – this is what you get when you’re the director. So of course he can’t play the part in a wheelchair, but when you talk to actors they’re thinking about acting. They decide to play it as a hunchback and they’re going to grow a beard and they’re going to do all kinds of things to affect a limp, so the less I speak to the actors the better. And I always hire great people and I don’t want to impose my preconceived notions on them. They know how to play it; Lucy knew how to play it, that was a character she created. I wrote the character but what you’re seeing on the screen is her creation; she moved like that, spoke like that. I didn’t know the nuances of that when I wrote it, I just wrote the cold lines in the room. The same for Gemma; these people infuse it with what’s made them wonderful actors and actresses, and so the less I have to speak with them the better. I didn’t know Naomi Watts at all. She was a wonderful actor for years in movies, beautiful, and I saw no reason to meet her. She had nothing to say to me and what am I going to tell her? She knows how to act and she read the part, she said she was going to do it so she must know what it is, and she came in that morning and said “Hello,” the usual exchange of insincerities, “I’m a great fan of your movies and I love all your films,” “Yes, and I love all your films,” and all that nonsense, and she had her hardest scene in the picture. She just started off cold and did the scene when she confronts Gemma and wants the money for her business and Gemma’s not going to give her the money because the medium has advised her not to. And that was a very, very strongly acted scene between the two women. Gemma I had worked with for the prior week or two but Naomi I hadn’t even met her. And she came right in and did it, she was completely professional and great, and for me that’s the best way to work. I don’t like to meet the actor and have a lot of conferences and talk about their sub-life and their off-screen life and their back stories and all that nonsense, because it never means anything and they never know why they’re good. They think they’re great because they’re doing all this extra work when in fact when they wake up in the morning they’re Jack Nicholson or they’re Robert De Niro or they’re Josh Brolin and it’s built in. But they think it’s all this other stuff but it’s not; they’d be great if they didn’t think about their part or if they did think about it. I hope you’re digesting this.
MMM: With regard to location, were there any changes in the script here because of locations you found? With regard to the input of the actors, were there any changes because of what the actors provided you with? And then with regard to your initial statement on nihilism and Billy Graham, if in fact there’s nothing to believe in why make films? And in your own particular career, after all you’ve achieved, is there anything that you have a burning desire to achieve in the future?
ALLEN: The first thing is in this picture there were instances where we would see locations and rewrite for those locations. We didn’t change the script as radically as that “Annie Hall” example I gave you, but we would change things depending on the neighborhoods that we found in London where the characters lived. We’d find a pretty place for them to walk and we’d switch the scene for that, and this happened fairly frequently in the picture. The characters evolve in the picture and I wanted and encouraged them to improvise. Lucy very frequently would want to say what she wanted to say and she’d make up her own joke or make up her own line and it was always better than mine because it was organic, it came from the actor who feels the character. And Josh would want to talk like Josh a lot, like he felt the character was at the time, and I encouraged all the performers to do that and they did in the movie. And sometimes some of the best moments are contributed by the actors being creative on their own with their own improvisations. I work all the time because it’s a great distraction and it keeps me from sitting home and obsessing morbidly. If I just got up in the morning and had no place to go and was retired or something I would be sitting there and I would be thinking of the same thing that Anthony Hopkins thought of when he woke up in the middle of the night. You start thinking gee, what is the purpose of life, and why are we all finite, and why do we get old and die, and is there nothing out there, and why is it so tragic, and why do our loved ones perish, and why do we degenerate? So who wants to think about that stuff? So I’m thinking about gee, if I call Josh Brolin will he be available for this? I don’t know Lucy; will she be able to do this as great as I think she will? And is Gemma the perfect person for this? These are all problems that you can solve and it makes you feel that you have some control of your life, and if you don’t solve them, if it turns out that one of them is wrong and Josh is wrong for the part, or Lucy’s wrong, or Gemma’s wrong or something, that’s the worse that happens. You have a bad movie but you don’t die. So that’s why I keep making movies.
MMM: And if there’s a desire to achieve something you have not yet achieved?
ALLEN: Yeah, I’d like to make a great movie. I’ve made many movies, I think I’ve made some good movies, I never felt I’ve made a great movie. If you think about the truly great movies, if you think about “Rashoman” and “The Bicycle Thief,” and “8 ½” and “Grand Illusion,” I don’t think I’ve ever made a film that could be on a program with those films. I’m not saying this out of false modesty or self-deprecation or anything; realistically, those are really enormous achievements and I’d like to make something like that, that would be fun. But you can’t set out to do that; you get lucky and if you work enough maybe one of them turns out to be terrific. But so far that hasn’t happened.
MMM: You mentioned uncertainty as a theme and one family has a lot of financial problems, the other, the Hopkins-Punch relationship has some extreme class contrast, and I was wondering if the current economic crisis was on your mind at all?
ALLEN: It hasn’t been on my mind because I haven’t been in the cross hairs of it. I’ve been in show business. I’m not a poor factory worker who’s been laid off. My mortgage hasn’t been foreclosed. So I haven’t really been affected by it as profoundly as many people have tragically been. But I felt that the movie was about uncertainty. Josh’s character wrote a book in the movie called “The Uncertainty Principle,” based on the Heisenberg Principle, and I felt everybody was searching for certainty. Gemma wanted a certain certainty; she wanted to know what the future held. Anthony Hopkins wanted certainty; he wanted to know that he was not going to get old, that his life was not over. And Josh was uncertain as to whether that guy would ever get up out of his coma or not. Was he going to be unmasked as a plagiarist or was he not? All the characters in the movie were constantly searching for certainty, and I thought originally of calling the film “The Uncertainty Principle,” but I felt that would sound too much like homework to the audience and they would not show up. So I called it “You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger,” which I felt was a juicier title. Oddly enough, in foreign countries they don’t have that phrase and it’s been a problem to translate the title in European countries because they don’t have the cliché, it’s not a fortuneteller’s cliché. And in Russia, I’m told, the death figure, the tall dark stranger, is a woman. In Russia, the grim reaper figure is a woman, and so “you will meet a tall dark stranger” certainly has no meaning there, and we’ve been changing the title in various European countries, coming as close as we can.
MMM: Woody, you have it down to a science that you write half the year, you shoot half the year, and you come out with a new movie each year. I was wondering what are the advantages and disadvantages of that routine and also if you’ve ever fanaticized about pulling a Stanley Kubrick and spending years obsessing over one project.
ALLEN: I don’t know. I’m a completely different kind of person. Kubrick was a great artist and a perfectionist, and he always wanted the exact right thing, he did a million takes, and everything had to be perfect. I’m an imperfectionist. I don’t really care that much about the work. I write quickly, I’m careless, I shoot carelessly. If the characters are working and I have a dinner engagement I don’t do 20 takes, I do five takes and go home, I want to go to dinner. I don’t have the same dedication to my art that he has, so I would never do that. But there is an advantage in having a routine, in working with the same people with you can, and writing as a regular thing, and filming as a regular thing. That routine pays off for you; you get a lot of productivity that way, rather than just sitting around just waiting for inspiration and waiting for the perfect thing to happen. I would be much less productive that way.
YOU WILL MEET A TALL DARK STRANGER is currently in theaters in limited release.
I’m Still Here a Hoax, Pacino & Scorsese Finally Team Up, and much more.
I’M STILL HERE is a HOAX.
Yes, as many suspected, Joaquin Phoenix’s gonzo faux-documentary avant-garde art project, I’M STILL HERE, is all fake. Director Casey Affleck, who is married to Joaquin’s sister, Summer Phoenix, finally made the reveal to The New York Times, saying he “never intended to trick anybody,” and that absolutely everything in the film, including his appearance on Letterman, was an act in what he describes as “ the performance of his career.” Oddly enough, according to a staff writer over at Letterman, the late night talk show host was in on the joke, too. Dave, we never knew you were such a good actor!
GRAB YOUR NEW YORK FILM FESTIVAL TICKETS!
The festival runs from September 24 – October 10, and always features a dazzling array of (mainly foreign) films. Buy your tickets here now!
THE TORONTO FILM FESTIVAL WINNER IS…
…THE KING’S SPEECH. Yes, the Colin Firth-Geoffrey Rush drama about King George VI’s attempts to overcome his stutter and lead England into World War II – has won the coveted audience award at the Toronto Film Festival, confirming its status as an Oscar frontrunner. The two most recent winners of the prize were “Precious” last year and “Slumdog Millionaire” in 2008, so it’s a biggie, even if Time’s Richard Corliss is not a fan.
PACINO + DE NIRO + PESCI + SCORSESE = THE IRISHMAN?
The long-awaited Al Pacino-Martin Scorsese collaboration might be in the works! According to Deadline, Al Pacino and Joe Pesci are in talks to star opposite Robert De Niro (!) in THE IRISHMAN – a mob drama by Scorsese that chronicles the exploits of mob hitman Frank “The Irishman” Sheeran as chronicled in the book “I Heard You Paint Houses.”
THE RZA and RUSSELL CROWE MAKE A KUNG-FU FILM.
Previously, Wu-Tang Clan member RZA – who also composed the soundtrack to “Kill Bill: Volume One” – wrote a kung fu movie with Eli Roth called THE MAN WITH THE IRON FISTS that he planned to star in and direct, and got Universal to finance it for $20 million. Well, it’s not been confirmed by none other than RZA himself that Russell Crowe will co-star with him in said project as “the baddest man alive,” according to E! UK. The two previously starred together in “American Gangster.”
THE WORST MOVIE POSTER. EVER.
The movie poster for Gael Garcia Bernal’s upcoming (terrible looking) romantic comedy with the increasingly bland go-to girl for rom-com’s, Kate Hudson, is quite possibly the worst movie poster, like… ever. Vomit.
COOL ARTICLE.
New York Magazine’s Vulture Blog is amazing. That being said, here’s a fun gallery they did on “The Twelve Creepiest Masks in Movie History,” inspired by the mask-wearing bank robbers in Ben Affleck’s crime-thriller “The Town.” Check it out.
CASTING ROUNDUP.
Swedish actress Noomi Rapace has been chosen to play the female lead in SHERLOCK HOLMES 2, reports Heat Vision. Best known for her role as Lisbeth Salander in the Swedish Millennium Trilogy (“The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,” “The Girl Who Played with Fire” and “The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest”), Rapace will make her English language debut with the Holmes sequel. Though her role is unspecified, Heat Vision suggests that it may be the part of a French Gypsy, a role that doesn’t have any immediate parallel in iconic Arthur Conan Doyle characters.
Sacha Baron Cohen has been cast as Queen frontman Freddie Mercury in a biopic of the late singer, according to Deadline. The project is being scripted by Peter Morgan (“The Queen”) for a 2011 production start, and is being produced by Graham King’s GK Films.
According to the gang over at Entertainment Weekly, Martin Freeman – best known as Tim in BBC’s original “The Office” and the star of “The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy” – may be the frontrunner to play Bilbo Baggins in “Lord of the Rings” prequel THE HOBBIT. An offer has reportedly been made out to Freeman, and though official details are still unannounced, progression on “The Hobbit” would seem to indicate that New Line/Warner Bros. and MGM are close to working out the financial issues that have been holding back production.
Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna, who starred together in “Y tu mama tambien,” are joining Will Ferrell in CASA DE MI PADRE, director Matt Piedmont’s Spanish-language comedy. The Hollywood Reporter says the film’s story is being kept under wraps, but it will be told in an overly dramatic telenovela style and feature English subtitles.
Jennifer Garner is in talks to star opposite Jeremy Renner in Occupant Films’ dramatic thriller BETTER LIVING THROUGH CHEMISTRY. The film “centers on a small-town pharmacist (Renner) who is stuck in a loveless marriage and rediscovers himself through an affair with a trophy wife (Garner) who introduces him to the pleasures of prescription drugs. Things spin out of control when the affair escalates and the lovers begin plotting to kill the woman’s husband,” according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Variety has confirmed that “Mad Men” star Christina Hendricks will be joining Ryan Gosling and Carey Mulligan in the action-thriller DRIVE. To be directed by Nicolas Winding Refn (“Bronson”), the film also stars Albert Brooks, Bryan Cranston and Oscar Isaacs. Based on James Sallis’ crime novel of the same name and adapted by scribe Hossein Amini, “Drive” revolves around a Hollywood stunt driver (Gosling) who moonlights as a getaway driver in L.A.’s criminal underworld. He finds himself a target after agreeing to aid the ex-con boyfriend of his beautiful neighbor (Mulligan) in a job that goes dangerously awry.
VIRAL VIDEO.
Megan Fox is hot. Watch her lingerie-y short for Armani Jeans, entitled THE TIP.
Remember that story two years back about how Joaquin Phoenix credited eyewitness Werner Herzog for relaxing/rescuing him after the actor rolled his car in Laurel Canyon? Well, now you can watch the animated short film WHEN WERNER RESCUED PHOENIX, a Real-Life Story of Herzog and Joaquin.
NEW TRAILERS.
THE FIGHTER: Starring Mark Wahlberg, Christian Bale, and Amy Adams, and directed by David O. Russell (“Three Kings”), the film chronicles the true story of determined Irish boxing legend Mickey Ward. Uplifting stuff.
THE TOURIST: Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp in a comedy-thriller set in Venice. Is it just me, or does Depp look a bit… under the weather in this trailer?
HEREAFTER: The new Clint Eastwood suspenser starring Matt Damon as a man who communicates with the dead. Supposedly will be in the vein of “The Sixth Sense.” The film will close the 2010 New York Film Festival.
Until next week!
Tags: i'm still here, joaquin phoenix, marlow stern, the king's speech, weekly blog
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Gemma Arterton is Alice Creed
With her dark, square cut bob, schoolgirl uniform and sassy pout, actress Gemma Arterton made quite a splash as anti-ingénue Kelly Jones in the British laffer “St. Trinian’s.” The film went on to become a cult hit in the U.K. spawning several sequels and catching the admiring gaze of Hollywood, where Arterton would go on to star as Bond Girl ‘Strawberry Fields’ opposite Daniel Craig in “Quantum of Solace,” followed by the female lead in a pair of sword-and-sandals epics – “Clash of the Titans,” alongside Sam Worthington, and “Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time,” starring Jake Gyllenhaal. On the surface, her success story seems like the combination of stunning looks and a Gladwellian stroke of luck.
Arterton was born in Gravesend, Kent, England, to a Sally-Anne, a cleaner, and Barry, a welder. As a child, she suffered from polydactylism – having six fingers on each hand, and, following her parents divorce when she was five, was raised by her single mother on a council estate. Arterton worked as a makeup salesgirl whilst enrolled in school, and eventually, through hard work and perseverance, won a full scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. She appeared in the BBC series “Capturing Mary” and as Rosaline in the Globe Theatre’s revival of Shakespeare’s “Love’s Labour’s Lost” while still enrolled at RADA, before beating out Sienna Miller for the lead of “St. Trinian’s,” and 1,500 other women for ‘Strawberry Fields.’ In addition to her blockbusters, she’s also appeared in supporting roles in Guy Ritchie’s heist film “RockNRolla,” and Richard Curtis’s ode to music, “The Boat That Rocked.”
In her latest film, J Blakeson’s THE DISAPPEARANCE OF ALICE CREED, Arterton is out to make a statement; to prove that she’s not just a pretty face. She plays Alice Creed, a wealthy socialite who’s kidnapped by a pair of ex-convicts – played by Martin Compston (Ken Loach’s “Sweet Sixteen”) and Eddie Marsan (Mike Leigh’s “Happy-Go-Lucky”). Bound naked and gagged, it’s a huge departure for the glamorous Arterton who navigates the plots twists and turns like a seasoned pro. She “can turn from wounded innocent to wanton seductress on a dime,” and “has a chance of becoming a big star,” said The Globe and Mail.
MMM sat down with Gemma Arterton to chat about her most challenging role to date, juggling Hollywood and indies, and how Lars Von Trier made her want to become an actress.
MANHATTAN MOVIE MAGAZINE: Did you do this right after “Prince of Persia?”
GEMMA ARTERTON: I did this right after “Persia” literally about two weeks after I wrapped, and then I started “Titans” about a week after this. And then I went on holiday after this one since I was so exhausted. It took a lot out of me. It was great to put this in the middle. It was kind of my “fix” before I did another blockbuster. I needed to do it because I needed to see if I could. I was starting to think, “I don’t know if I’m actually any good at acting.” It’s quite hard, sometimes, in a bigger movie… I’m not gonna go there, really. But I needed to do something really difficult. I needed to do something that scared me.
MMM: You needed something that stretched you.
ARTERTON: We Brits don’t make [thrillers] very well. We usually make comedies or kitchen sink dramas. I read it and really wanted to do it, but the director said, “No, she’s not right. I don’t think she can manage it.” I thought, “He just thinks that I prance around in princess dresses all the time! I’ll show him!”
MMM: Which scene did you have to do in the audition?
ARTERTON: I had to do the scene with Danny where I find out that he’s my boyfriend. It was a full-on scene to do in the auditions, but I knocked out a tear, gave ‘em the Gemma Arterton special! [Laughs] He was impressed by that. People are always impressed by that for some reason. Later on, cause he’s a friend now, he said, “I feel really bad that I made that judgment.” And I said, “You have good reason to because everything I’d down since then had been really poppy.” I’d done some TV stuff but nobody had really seen that. At that point it was “Bond” and “St. Trinian’s” and “RocknRolla.” Roles in big movies, but I don’t consider them turning points in my career. Alice Creed is more of a raw role. Something more than turning around and [pouting].
MMM: Did you have any time to prepare for the role?
ARTERTON: No. It was very last-minute, this film. I was the first one cast and that was maybe a month before we started shooting. And then they cast the boys. They cast Martin, who played Eddie, last – about two weeks before we started shooting. Then we had about a week of rehearsal, which is where we basically just practiced the moves of the kidnap and various fights. But with this role I thought, “What do I prepare?” No matter how much preparation you do for a character, when you’re put into an extreme situation, you’re just in the moment, in anxiety, fighting for survival. It was good to be underprepared. I hate when you rehearse scenes because you lose the impulse. It felt like a really ragged, raw process because we only had a month to make it. For “Prince of Persia” we had six months for the same running time. On “Prince of Persia,” sometimes we’d have a week for one scene, whereas on “Alice Creed,” we’d do three scenes a day. There was no room for thinking about it too much and watching the monitor wondering, “Is my head at the right angle?” You get a proper performance because the thought of being an actor doesn’t get in the way. You’re just doing a scene.
MMM: What was it like being bound to a bed?
ARTERTON: The first week, which was all the hardcore stuff, I tried to see what the really tight handcuffs and tight ball-gag were like. But the continuity got really bad because I was getting cuts on my face and bruises on my wrists. So, we just faked it a lot. If it was a close-up of me I would have the ball-gag in very tight, but if it was a wide shot, there was no need. I was on the bed pretty much the whole time and it was easier to not take the stuff off cause it took so long to get in and out of it. Sometimes I just lay there and fell asleep. People would forget I was there and were rigging for the new setup. But I was really trying to disperse the atmosphere that was created from people feeling awkward around me. There was a lot of, “Oh, Gemma’s in a compromising position!” I remember trying to crack jokes while I was naked on the bed, and people just laughing. When you do that it makes the whole day a lot easier for everybody.
MMM: Alice is an interesting character because the first words out of her mouth – claiming she has a daughter – is actually a lie. And she’s not the most sympathetic kidnap victim.
ARTERTON: I love that about it. She’s a heroine to me as a woman but it’s interesting because some people aren’t on Alice’s side. Eddie’s character seems to be the one many people sympathize with because he’s the only one who genuinely feels something for another person. Also, I don’t really like – contrary to popular belief – characters that you really like. It’s boring to play characters that everybody likes and be in films that everybody likes. I don’t particular like Alice when I watch it. She’s stuck up, spoiled. But she’s also incredible in that she’s very clever, feral in her instincts, relentless. I like that she’s flawed. My only worry was that she was going to be really annoying from screaming all the time! [Laughs]
MMM: So are you interested in doing more of these smaller films in between the blockbusters?
ARTERTON: I really love making smaller films, but it’s a different thing making a big film as well. It’s exciting. It’s thrilling to be involved in something big and epic. But I definitely want to try and balance it – with theatre as well. It’s important to do all three, as an actor, to get that experience. Acting in this is an extremely different skill set then acting in a blockbuster.
MMM: You have that upcoming Stephen Frears (“Dangerous Liaisons”) film.
ARTERTON: Yeah! “Tamara Drewe.” I’m really proud of it. It’s a black comedy, but it’s very clever. I don’t think I’ve ever scene anything else like it in terms of genre. I feel like my career has now taken a turn, and I think it was because of “Alice Creed.” I think I challenged people’s perception of me and now I’m getting offered more exciting, interesting roles.
MMM: Was it a challenge going head-to-head with two actors who come from the Mike Leigh and Ken Loach schools of acting?
ARTERTON: Yeah. Again, it was Martin who said, “I was really shocked when I heard you were playing Alice.” God! Everyone thinks I’m this terrible actress! [Laughs] But it’s great. They’re very humble. They were very much about the work and there was no ego attached. They gave me everything they had even when they weren’t on camera. Eddie, for example, has this amazing ability – cause he’s the loveliest guy and so gentle and sweet – he’ll be like [softly], “Are you alright, darling? Is everything OK?” And then he’ll be like, “YOU FUCKING C*NT!” [Laughs] I think, “Wow. This is just somebody who can do it.” It was so refreshing.
MMM: Were there any films that influenced you in your youth?
ARTERTON: I was always more into music then I was into film. I was obsessed with Björk when I was 16 – and I still am a bit. I watched “Dancer in the Dark” on my own at two in the morning and was like, “Fucking hell! What the hell is this?” I was like, “Who made her do that? Who brought her to that point?”
MMM: Do you want to work for Lars Von Trier?
ARTERTON: I do and I don’t. I mean Emily Watson in “Breaking the Waves” – one of my favorite performances ever by a woman. But he does f*ck his actresses up a little bit, I think. Maybe I’ll just enjoy his movies instead! But [“Dancer in the Dark”] was the movie that made me want to become an actress.
MMM: What do you have coming up?
ARTERTON: I might do “Clash of the Titans 2.” I still haven’t seen a script so I think they’re still working on it. I think that’s definitely going. Then, I’ve got a couple of movies that I’m really, really excited about.
MMM: What ever happened with “Wuthering Heights?”
ARTERTON: I got cast in it when it was a different director. The guy who did “Girl with a Pearl Earring.” Peter Webber. And I pulled out of it because I thought, “Ugh, I’m not into this.” And then Andrea Arnold (“Fish Tank”) got involved and I thought, “I want it again!” So I tried to meet with Andrea Arnold and convince that just because I’m in pop movies, I’m not pop. So we had a cup of tea and got along really well. But she went, “I think you’re too old for it.” I don’t know if they’re making it now. Oh wait, it’s on. Kaya Scodelario is now playing the role.
MMM: And I heard Ed Westwick of “Gossip Girl” fame is rumored for Heathcliff?
ARTERTON: No, no, no. Well, I hope Andrea Arnold wouldn’t cast a “Gossip Girl” guy. Come on! I think she wanted to get an Indian guy.
MMM: Will there be a “St. Trinian’s 3?”
ARTERTON: I think they’re planning one. I don’t know! I only hear about these things until after everyone else has! [Laughs]
THE DISAPPEARANCE OF ALICE CREED opens on August 6th in select theaters and is available on VOD/OnDemand.
Avatar 2 & 3, a John Belushi Biopic, On the Road News and Much More.
UPCOMING PROJECTS.
James Cameron talked to MTV and told them he’s considering shooting AVATAR 2 and AVATAR 3 back-to-back. Check it out here, courtesy of Deadline.
“The Pursuit of Happyness” screenwriter Steven Conrad and “The Hangover” director-producer Todd Phillips are developing a JOHN BELUSHI BIOPIC based on the late comedian’s life. Warner Bros. recently acquired the rights from Belushi’s estate, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Bummer. Bad news concerning the JERRY GARCIA BIOPIC. According to Jerry Garcia’s camp, the planned biopic of the Grateful Dead front man, adapted from the Robert Greenfield book “Dark Star: An Oral Biography of Jerry Garcia” and to be directed by Amir Bar-Lev – the documentary filmmaker behind “The Pat Tillman Story” and “My Kid Could Paint That” – will not be allowed to use any of Garcia’s music. Garcia’s estate released a statement: “We want to make clear that neither Grateful Dead Productions nor the Jerry Garcia Family LLC are in any way working with — or are in any other way affiliated with — the supposed upcoming Amir Bar-Lev-directed biopic about Jerry Garcia. We will not be licensing any recordings from Grateful Dead or Jerry Garcia’s music library for this production, nor will we provide the producer/director with access to any Garcia family members,” reports The New York Times.
TAYLOR SWIFT is rumored to be starring in a potential sequel to the hit ensemble comedy “Valentine’s Day.” The romantic comedy would star Swift as an NYU freshman looking for love, and possibly reunite her with her alleged ex-boyfriend and “Valentine’s Day” co-star Taylor Lautner, according to E!
CASTING NEWS.
Old Spice Guy ISAIAH MUSTAFA has been cast in a lead role in Tyler Perry’s upcoming entry in the “Madea” franchise, “Madea’s Big Happy Family,” according to The Hollywood Reporter. Mustafa will bow out of Perry’s other film, “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf,” in exchange for a bigger role in “Madea.”
What a cast! Although its taken nearly 30 years for Francis Ford Coppola to turn Jack Keruoac’s Beat Generation novel “On the Road’ into a movie, the project is finally well underway and looks worth the wait. Directed by Walter Salles (“The Motorcycle Diaries”), the film’s cast of Kristen Dunst, Kristen Stewart, Sam Riley and “Tron: Legacy” star Garrett Hedlund will now be joined by AMY ADAMS and VIGGO MORTENSEN.
Adams will play Jane, the emotionally damaged junkie mother of two children and the wife of Old Bull Lee. Mortensen is going to play Lee, according to Deadline.
David O. Russell’s (“I Heart Huckabees,” “Flirting with Disaster”) next movie is looking sharp now that SCARLETT JOHANSSON has committed to star alongside its producer and leading man, Vince Vaughn, in “Old St. Louis” – a road movie about a divorced traveling toy salesman who reconnects with his teen daughter after years on the road. Johansson would play Vaughn’s secretary/love interest who accompanies him on the trip, according to New York Magazine.
In one of the odder casting decisions of late, WILL FERRELL (“The Other Guys”) has committed to star in his next project, the Spanish-language comedy “Casa de mi padre.” The project will be produced by Ferrell and frequent director Adam McKay’s Gary Sanchez Productions, and the project – entirely in Spanish – begins shooting in September in California, according to Risky Business Blog.
“Inception” star CILLIAN MURPHY is set to join Justin Timberlake and Amanda Seyfried in filmmaker Andrew Niccol’s (“Gattaca”) sci-fi drama, “I’m.moral.” The story is set in the near future where an aging gene has been turned off and time is the currency people use to pay for things, meaning the rich can live forever. Will (Timberlake) is suddenly gifted a fortune but then becomes the target of a murder investigation. He kidnaps an heiress (Amanda Seyfried) while on the lam, and Murphy will play an officer from an organization called Timekeepers that is tracking him down, according to Heat Vision.
R.I.P.
PATRICIA NEAL, 84, died Sunday of lung cancer at her home in Edgartown, Mass. The actress won an Oscar for playing Paul Newman’s grief-stricken housewife in 1963’s “Hud,” and was nominated for another Oscar for 1968’s “The Subject was Roses.” Neal also appeared in other classic films, including: “The Fountainhead” (1949), “The Day the Earth Stood Still” (1951), and “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” (1961). She was married to legendary author Roald Dahl from 1953-1983.
NEW TRAILERS.
I personally can’t wait for this. The trailer for MTV’s JACKASS 3D has hit the Internet, and it looks hilarious. All the boys are back – Johnny Knoxville, Bam Margera, Steve-O, etc. – and better than ever. Check it out here:
The trailer for the Christina Aguilera-starring music pic BURLESQUE has hit the Internet. Cher also stars as a burlesque clubowner who mentors the small town girl with big singing pipes. No word yet on whether this will be as bad as “Crossroads” or “Glitter.”
COOL VIDEOS OF THE WEEK.
Watch Joseph Gordon Levitt’s directorial debut – the short film “Morgan and Destiny’s Eleventeenth Date” – that premiered at SXSW earlier this year. Gordon Levitt stars in the film, alongside his “G.I. Joe: Rise of the Cobra” pal Channing Tatum.
“Scott Pilgrim” co-stars Michael Cera and Jason Schwartzman randomly stopped by Atlanta’s local Fox News TV affiliate to do the news. Hilarity ensues.
MTV News asked the stars of “Eat, Pray, Love” if they knew what the mantra of MTV’s breakout reality hit “Jersey Shore” – GTL, or “Gym, Tanning, Laundry” – meant. Javier Bardem’s response is pretty hilarious.
Until next week!
A Bieber Biopic? Paul Rudd: Bar Mitzvah DJ? “Titanic II?” And much more…
UPCOMING FILM PROJECTS.
Bieber-mania! Paramount Pictures has made a deal to turn Justin Bieber’s life story into a 3D feature biopic. Davis Guggenheim, the Oscar-winning director of “An Inconvenient Truth,” is negotiating to direct, and though the film doesn’t have a title, Bieber is set to play himself in the film. The film will come out February 11, 2011 on Valentine’s Day weekend (for all you ladies out there).
Jason Reitman and Charlize Theron are in talks to direct and star in, respectively, YOUNG ADULT, from a script by Reitman’s “Juno” scribe Diablo Cody. The story is a dark comedy that follows a thirtysomething, divorced, young-adult fiction writer (Theron) in Minneapolis who returns to her hometown to chase the ex-boyfriend, who’s now married with a kid, that got away, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Yes! The long-in-gestation ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT MOVIE now has half a script, and is very likely to get made, according to the show’s creator Mitch Hurwitz.
CASTING NEWS.
Life is good for Old Spice man Isaiah Mustafa these days. Not only is he causing sales in the company’s bodywash products to soar courtesy of an ingenious ad campaign, but the muscle-bound ladies man ahs been cast in the upcoming Jennifer Aniston/Jason Bateman comedy film HORRIBLE BOSSES, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Sony has picked up MOMMY & ME, the comedy package featuring Meryl Streep and Tina Fey as a mother-and-daughter duo to be directed by Streep’s “The Devil Wears Prada” co-star Stanley Tucci, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Woody Allen’s currently filming MIDNIGHT IN PARIS, and probably regrets casting French first lady Carla Bruni in a cameo. Why, might you ask? She appears in one scene – where she walks into a grocery store and walks out with a baguette – and it took Sarkozy’s stunning wife 35 TAKES to nail it.
INDUSTRY SHAKEUP.
Walt Disney Co. finally brokered it’s sale of the Weinstein-created independent film company Miramax Films for $660 million to an investment group led by real estate mogul Ron Tutor, according to Variety.
MUST READS.
Frank Bruni wrote an absolutely brilliant profile of celebrated indie actress and three-time Oscar nominee Laura Linney in the most recent issue of The New York Times Magazine. Read it for yourself.
And on the funnier side, you should read Dan Fierman’s Q&A interview with legendary funnyman Bill Murray, where he addresses “Ghostbusters 3,” Barack Obama, “Garfield” and his infamous rumored gags on unsuspecting Union Square bystanders.
REMAKES.
Len Wiseman, the filmmaker behind the “Underworld” flicks and that silly fourth “Die Hard” movie where John McClane is dead sober and flies a car into a helicopter, will apparently direct a remake of the 1990 Arnold Schwarzenegger sci-fi cult classic TOTAL RECALL, according to Heat Vision. Too soon in my book.
GOING VIRAL.
Before Paul Rudd starred in “Clueless,” “Knocked Up,” “I Love You, Man,” and the recent “Dinner For Schmucks,” he had a different job: Bar Mitzvah DJ. Check out this incredibly clip of Rudd DJing a Bar Mitzvah in 1992.
“Titanic II?” YES. Please stop whatever you’re doing and watch the unintentionally hilarious trailer for the straight-to-video sequel to the James Cameron classic. The trailer actually contains the line, “It looks like history is repeating itself.” Must-see TV.
Watch the equally hilarious (fake) trailer for a movie version of the famous computer game we all played as kids, “Oregon Trail.”
Thespian Kevin Kline recently stopped by Stephen Colbert’s “The Colbert Report” while doing the promotional rounds for his latest film, “The Extra Man.” There, Kline and Colbert engaged in a battle for the ages. Prepare yourself for… Enunciation throwdown!
The greatest talk show of our time returns. Check out Steve Carell’s appearance on “Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis.”
A new entry in the lexicon of truly awful trailers: “Yogi Bear,” a 3D adaptation featuring Anna Faris (as the real person), Dan Aykroyd voicing Yogi and Justin Timberlake doing Boo-Boo.
SCANDALOUS.
“Charlie St. Cloud” and “High School Musical” star Zac Efron recently attended Flashdancers strip club in New York City, where the boyish actor reportedly spent $2,000 on vodka and strippers…
Chris Tucker apparently hires the same accountants as Wesley Snipes. Tucker, who hasn’t acted since 2007’s “Rush Hour 3,” for which he reportedly raked in $25 million, owes $11 million in federal taxes to the IRS, according to TMZ.
Until next week!
Ashley Judd is Helen
Whether surrounded by rowdy, chest-painted frat boys at Kentucky Wildcats basketball games or sporting a Kentucky Derby-style hat and nervous grin while watching her husband, Dario Franchitti, whip around the Indianapolis 500 racetrack, actress Ashley Judd seems like the picture of happiness.
Judd, 42, best known as the star of thrillers like “Double Jeopardy” and “Kiss the Girls,” is in a good place in life. In May, she received a Masters Degree in Public Administration from Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, her husband recently won the Indy 500 and Judd’s coming off a string of impressive roles in smaller, character-driven films like Joey Lauren Adams’s Sundance drama “Come Early Morning” and William Friedkin’s psychological horror film “Bug” that really show off her range as an actress.
It’s a far cry from 2006. That year, Judd had come off her biggest critical and commercial failure yet, the nonsensical thriller, “Twisted.” What’s worse, she was suffering from a bevy of personal issues and ultimately entered a program at Shades of Hope Treatment Center in Buffalo Gap, Texas, and stayed for 47 days. There, Judd was treated for depression and codependency.
In a stunning example of art-imitating-life, Judd’s latest starring role is in HELEN. Directed by Sandra Nettelbeck (“Mostly Martha”), Judd stars as Helen, a seemingly-happy music professor who, unbeknownst to her husband (Goran Visnjic) and 13-year-old daughter (Alexia Fast), suffers from severe depression. When Helen relapses, her life begins to unravel. She finds solace in one of her young students, Mathilda (Lauren Lee Smith), who is afflicted with the same disease. Similar to her standout Sundance performances in the aforementioned “Come Early Morning” and her breakthrough role in 1993’s “Ruby in Paradise,” HELEN is more than anything a showcase for Judd’s acting talent.
MMM chatted with the incredibly articulate Judd about her own battle with depression, her politics and political aspirations, being typecast in thrillers and, last but not least, Kentucky Wildcats basketball.
MANHATTAN MOVIE MAGAZINE: What attracted you to the character of ‘Helen?’
ASHLEY JUDD: I thought it was a beautiful, powerful screenplay. I think it was about page 12 and I was reading it and thought, “I absolutely have to do this.” I had no idea where this film was going but I had a really deep sense of identification.
MMM: Did you see similarities between Helen’s descent into madness and Agnes’s in “Bug?”
JUDD: Oh, what an interesting question! I love Agnes. I love that movie. On occasion, I’ll be in an airport – or some big public space – and an anonymous member of the throng will point their finger at me with their eyes wide and start to back away. “Oh, you’ve seen ‘Bug’!” [Laughs] I think that Helen is much more conscious about her trajectory than Agnes is because Helen knows where she’s going. She’s been there before, and that’s really common with people who have depression. There can be, oftentimes, a foreboding sense around a certain time of year or around the anniversary of a triggering event, and folks get really scared and think, “Oh crap, am I going to go there again?” There’s a wonderful saying around recovery circles that ‘we’re only as sick as our secrets,’ so, in addition to living with untreated depression, Helen is keeping a toxic secret about being there before. Agnes and she share the isolation.
MMM: But Agnes was pushed into madness by Peter [Michael Shannon.] Did your husband’s character in Helen [Goran Visjnic] have a hand in Helen’s relapsing?
JUDD: No, I don’t think so. I really think Helen was a biochemical baseline mood brain event. I think Goran’s character was the untreated codependent in the relationship, whereas Agnes is the one who’s very codependent in “Bug.”
MMM: The film seems to advocate hospitalization and medication to combat psychiatric illness—
JUDD: —Oh no, not at all. That’s a part of Helen’s journey, but I don’t think in any way, shape or form this film is advocating that. The director, Sandra Nettelbeck, was very clear in filming this one scene when Helen is insisting on being discharged, that the attorney representing her points out that some psychiatric patients succeed in committing suicide while in the hospital. Now, if you want my personal view, they absolutely have a place in treating major recurrent suicidal depression. And, in this day and age, we’re fortunate that there’s a full arsenal of tools that are useful and effective and they all need to be used in a concerted and coordinated effort.
MMM: So you’re not with the Tom Cruise camp on this one?
JUDD: Absolutely not. Absolutely not. I think medication can be crucial for stabilizing baseline mood and only from a stable baseline can the daily pick-and-shovel work of cognitive and behavioral therapy – experiential therapy, of which I am an impassioned proponent – and other modalities, can genuinely stand a chance of staying effective. Chat therapy on it’s own, lets be real clear, does no good. It can in fact be abusive because it regurgitates the problem instead of creating a design for living that helps move the person forward in a dynamic and real way.
MMM: As far as the ending is concerned, with Helen receiving electro-shock therapy, many critics have found it to be a bit “tidy.” What are your thoughts on the ending?
JUDD: Sandra is a German auteur, so “tidy” is not in her vocabulary. [Laughs] I’m not jumping on any electro-shock therapy bandwagon. It was part of Helen’s journey. I don’t know if you’ve ever lived with or known someone battling with major recurrent suicidal depression. It is not a thing to be trifled.
MMM: I understand you had your own battle with depression in 2006. How did your own experience inform the way you approached the role of ‘Helen?’
JUDD: Well, it certainly made me love Helen in a special way, and I think those of us who have been there can understand like few others can. When I started reading the script and, on a pretty deep, intuitive level, understand what it was about, I started to weep. “But for the grace of god go I” was the constant refrain in my mind, because it very easily could have been me if I had not gotten the kind of help I did when I got it. I was on an airplane when I was reading the script and as soon as I landed, I called two of my mentors and said, “I have to send you this screenplay. Do you think I can play the disease without being ‘in’ the disease?” And they said, “How dare you not. You of all people, you can carry the message of recovery because, in a way, you’re uniquely qualified.” I identified a lot with Helen’s story. Some of the major things were different but the essence was the same. This is going to sound perverse, but it was really fun. I got to play the disease without myself being in it. From an artistic point of view, there was something really incredible about that.
MMM: Ever since “Twisted” in 2004, you’ve come a Sundance darling so-to-speak. I know you got your start at Sundance with “Ruby in Paradise,” but you’ve really been acting in a lot of independents and staying away from the thrillers. Why the change?
JUDD: I like you! [Laughs] I burnt out. For some of Helen’s reasons, I was just ready to take a step back and opting out felt really necessary, and it also felt really good. I really enjoyed making “Come Early Morning” with Joey Lauren Adams. And then “Bug” was just a riot. I think I was being really nourished creatively and having my needs met.
MMM: But do you feel like the thrillers weren’t stretching you enough as an actress? Because in these independents you really seem to go for it.
JUDD: I always work hard in the thrillers. I show up and do whatever I have to do on any particular day. I was actually thinking about how, for that period of time, I was associated with those films, but I was also doing “Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood” and “De-Lovely.” Maybe because of [the thrillers’] commercial success, and audience familiarity, I seem a little over-associated with those than what’s really reflective of the totality of my work. “High Crimes” was a really difficult film for me. I was not in a good place, personally. When I look back on it, if I had been a little more empowered at the time, I probably wouldn’t have made “High Crimes.” And then I think it ended up setting up “Twisted” to look like one too many. Working with Philip Kaufman, Sam [Jackson], it was a great group of people, but I was personally in a really bad place. I was really in a pickle. That can’t help but be reflected in what goes out into the world.
MMM: I understand you just received your Masters Degree in Public Administration from Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government and you’ve done a great deal of advocacy work. Is it your goal to one day run for public office?
JUDD: No, it is not ultimately my goal. I would like to be of maximum service to the god of my understanding, and right now, I’m not sure that’s the best use of me. I was surprised during my time at school that I had, if anything, a deeply affirming recommitment to the power of individual consequence in the world. And work on the grassroots level, right now, is where I belong. But I am very active in Washington D.C. and I enjoy the advocacy that I do. Marsha Blackburn, who represents our [Tennessee’s 7th congressional] district in congress, is coming over. We have absolutely nothing in common except for a chromosome and our residency, but we’re going to be talking about intimate partner violence and we’re going to be putting our heads together to stop male sexual coercion and aggression.
MMM: Just wondering – did you attend any college parties at Harvard?
JUDD: That’s a great question, actually. I hosted a few parties and my class had this thing called ‘Dinners for Seven,’ where groups of seven students are randomly put together for a fortnight for a potluck. And one of the last ones I hosted I was the only American. It was the nastiest dinner ever. So gross. One of my Korean cohorts brought spongy cookies with orange stuff and we had Indian food, Greek food—
MMM: —Not sure how all those foods mix together in your stomach.
JUDD: Yeah. Totally. I just brought biscuits and gravy! [Laughs] But, in terms of beer-swilling kinds of parties, no. People do have fun and cut-up and we did karaoke and all that, but it was a pretty earnest bunch who wanted to get down to business and change the world.
MMM: Now let’s segue to sports. I know you’ve been married to Dario Franchitti for almost a decade. Is there anything more nerve-wracking than watching him race?
JUDD: Um… Watching West Virginia’s 3’s go down when ours don’t? Watching the [Kentucky Wildcats] start 0-20 from 3 in the Elite Eight?
MMM: But it must still be pretty difficult for a spouse.
JUDD: I honestly don’t get nervous. It would be a terrible way to live to be caught up in that fear or even excitement. I try to maintain a pretty even keel in life. But I enjoy it, I’m excited for him and I hope he has the opportunity to succeed at the highest levels because he has that kind of talent.
MMM: And speaking of your Kentucky Wildcats superfan status, how do you think the team will do now that they lost so many players to the NBA?
JUDD: I think they’ll do well! There’s a rule in the NCAA that a team can do something prior to the academic years, so Coach Cal is taking the team for a 3-game tour in Canada. Interestingly, that hasn’t been done since the beginning of the ’96 season when Pitino took the team that ultimately won the national title to Italy. We have a lot of incoming freshman, so we could potentially start five freshman – I don’t think we will – but we have the #1 recruiting class in the nation, again, so I think it will be an exciting year.
MMM: How do you think John Wall will do in the NBA?
JUDD: I think he’ll do great. But I’m really interesting in seeing how the others will do as well. I always thought [Eric Bledsoe] was a major star and he was just eclipsed, understandably so, by Wall, but he is phenomenal. And I think DeMarcus Cousins has the opportunity to play at a high level right away. I’m so excited for Patrick Patterson who’s one of the most popular players in UK history and he’s going to be playing with Chuck Hayes [for the Houston Rockets], who’s the other bring-the-work-pail-to-lunch type player who does everything. They’ll have long careers in the NBA.
MMM: I was always waiting for Al Pacino to play Rick Pitino in the Kentucky Wildcats movie.
JUDD: [Laughs]
MMM: Could you talk about your upcoming film “Flypaper” with Patrick Dempsey?
JUDD: It’s Patrick Dempsey, Tim Blake Nelson, Matt Ryan, Jeffrey Tambor – really fun cast, like, “Costumes go to two, Ashley’s wet herself again can we get her double?” I had so much fun on that film. It was a very spontaneous, last-minute thing. I just finished school and turned in all my papers, and Dario had just won the Indianapolis 500, it was filming in Louisiana, which isn’t too terribly far from where we live, and Tim Blake Nelson is really special to me from “Come Early Morning.”
MMM: So it’s a bank heist comedy?
JUDD: Yeah, it’s a bank heist comedy. I play a teller who has this annoying, strange guy with obvious psychiatric issues who comes to my station right as the bank is closing, and just as she’s about to leave she realizes the bank is about to be robbed, and the gag is that the bank is robbed by multiple crews at once and we’re all taken hostage and it plays out over eight or ten hours. And the congresswoman’s here so I need to scoot!
HELEN opens on July 30th in select theaters nationwide.
Tags: ashley judd, helen, interview, marlow stern
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Tribeca Interview: Bill Murray & Sissy Spacek Get Low!
By Marlow Stern
Two veteran actors sporting wildly divergent backgrounds.
One: Bill Murray. After starting on “Saturday Night Live,” he built a reputation as one of the most celebrated comedic actors with hits like “Caddyshack,” “Ghostbusters,” “Groundhog Day” and much more. Following a few less than stellar choices in the mid-90s (“Larger than Life,” “The Man Who Knew Too Little,” “Wild Things”), he reemerged stronger than ever as a midlife crisis-suffering rich father in Wes Anderson’s 1998 film “Rushmore.” From there, he reinvented himself as a multi-dimensional actor with dramatic roles as the disillusioned movie star in “Lost in Translation,” which garnered him an Oscar nod, and a nostalgic bachelor in Jim Jarmusch’s “Broken Flowers.” He’s also reteamed with Anderson on “The Royal Tenenbaums,” “The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou” and “Fantastic Mr. Fox.”
The other: Sissy Spacek. A cutesy Texas native, Spacek made an early splash in film as the murderous Holly in the Terrence Malick 1973 classic “Badlands.” She followed this landmark film with a star making and Oscar nominated performance in the 1976 horror flick “Carrie,” in which she played a humiliated prom queen coming to grips with puberty and her telekinetic powers. Spacek would win a Best Actress Oscar for her portrayal of country music singer Loretta Lynn in the 1980 biopic “Coal Miner’s Daughter.” Although she continued to appear in film and television during the late 1980s and 1990s, Spacek devoted most of that time to her family. Then, in 2001, she returned to the big screen with a powerful performance as the grieving mother of a murdered son in 2001’s “In the Bedroom,” which earned her a sixth Best Actress Oscar nomination.
Their latest film is GET LOW. Directed by Aaron Schneider, the films centers around Felix Bush (Robert Duvall), a bearded hermit living deep in the backwoods of 1930s Tennessee. Rumors surround him, and the locals think he’s a killer. The town is thrown into disarray when Felix suddenly shows up one day, demanding a “living funeral” for himself. Frank Quinn (Bill Murray), the owner of the local Funeral Parlor, sees an opportunity for some money, and agrees to Felix’s terms: letting the townsfolk tell Felix Bush the stories they’ve heard about him at his “living funeral.” Things get messy when an old mystery is brought back by Quinn’s protégé, Buddy Robinson (Lucas Black), involving a local widow named Mattie Darrow (Sissy Spacek).
MMM sat down with Bill Murray and Sissy Spacek during the 2010 Tribeca Film Festival for a long chat about GET LOW, their first loves, their storied careers and, last but not least, all those “Ghostbusters III” rumors.
MANHATTAN MOVIE MAGAZINE: I was just talking to the film’s producer, Dean Zanuck, about the way you do business – solely through your lawyer, as opposed to having a manager and/or agent. What are the advantages of doing it that way?
BILL MURRAY: Well when I had an agent they have people there whose job is to reach you on the telephone. I never had an answering machine in my house or anything like that so if someone would say, “Get me Bill Murray on the phone,” and that person would dial your number and let the phone ring 90, 100 times.
SISSY SPACEK: During dinner?
MURRAY: During any hour of the day. You think I’m not getting that and the phone would just keep ringing for minutes. And you’d think why would I ever want to talk to anyone that would let the phone ring that long? So first I got this 800 number and that was really the key to it; it just eliminated that completely. And then getting rid of the agents, that was like…
MMM: Can you talk about your process of actually signing on to “Get Low?” I’d be interested to hear your version of the story.
MURRAY: It gets more boring each time I say it. I got a message that this fellow was going to write me a letter, and it was a letter from Dean. And I thought that’s kind of interesting. Zanuck. I know who their family is but I don’t know this guy. So I call him on the phone and had a wonderful talk with the guy. He’s not like other people in show business. He’s a really real, genuine, wonderful guy. He turned out to be a fantastic producer – just consistent and constant, didn’t get emotional. But then they slowly get you pregnant like they do. I got a letter from Aaron.
SPACEK: Did you get my letter?
MURRAY: I don’t know if I got your letter. I don’t think so. Then there’s a letter from him and then he sent this DVD of his movie that he made that he won an Oscar for. He made a short called “Two Soldiers” that’s a really great thing. I thought it was going to be five minutes long. It’s 40 minutes and you go, “This guy’s good, this is good.” The key was I watched on this DVD, they have the making of, behind the scenes stuff, and that’s really interesting because then you can see what these people are really like.
SPACEK: Was he eating?
MURRAY: [Aaron] has a gargantuan appetite. It’s insane. He eats like for four people every meal. But watching him behind the scenes with all these people he made this little movie with. He was really kind and genuine and I thought, “Well, alright.”
SPACEK: How bad could it be?
MURRAY: How bad could it be? And then I didn’t know Sissy was on until after I was already doing it. I figured, “Well, no one ever asked me to work with Robert Duvall before. That would be swell.” And then I said okay and then they said, “Okay, and Sissy’s going to do it too.”
SPACEK: Well I was waiting to hear if you were going to do it.
MURRAY: They didn’t tell me anything about casting. They didn’t say anything. So then I was like, “Sissy?” Because we did ‘Saturday Night Live’ together.
MMM: What about these characters that you’re both playing? They seem to be like the proverbial fit like a custom made leather glove or something. It just seems shaped and I understand they weren’t.
MURRAY: Well, that’s the deal. I think I speak for any good actor, or one that thinks that he is or she is, and you get the script and your job is to do it every day and make it better than the script. So that’s what you do. It’s like a winning streak: you do it every single day. But the writer, this Charlie Mitchell, and Chris Provenzano did the original. [Chris] was there every day, always really encouraging. His writing is really, really fine.
MMM: Did you guys enjoy working in that period and investigating that period in various ways? And of course the music must have touched a note for you.
SPACEK: All of us were wild about the music. I liked the 1930s, I mean I loved investigating the 1930s, but women wore so many undergarments then. In that respect it was a real bummer.
MURRAY: And that was a bummer for me too, baby.
MMM: You were pretty dapper there.
MURRAY: We had a great costumer on this movie, one of the best I’ve ever worked with, named Julie Weiss. Everyone’s clothes – Bob’s clothes are unbelievable. Everyone had amazing clothes. And you had amazing hair too.
SPACEK: Yeah my hair took them four hours. But I like to point out, every time I would come out of makeup after four hours of sitting under a hairdryer [Bill] would say, “Hey Grandma!”
MURRAY: Well she had my grandmother’s hairdo. [Laughs]
MMM: The movie is about true love in a way so can you tell us about your first loves and what you remember about that experience?
SPACEK: I have a great story about my first love. His name was Clifford Zack Cane. He was just the cutest boy. We were boyfriend and girlfriend from like five years old on. In fourth grade a new girl moved to town. In the meantime his mother, Imogen, who was a friend of my mother, said, “What’s Sissy’s ring size? Cliff wants to give her a little ring.” So she measured my finger. A week later Cliff presented me with this beautiful sterling silver signet ring with his initials on it. I was just thrilled to death! Well, several weeks pass, and a new girl moves to town and she’s got breasts. I can’t remember her name but he quickly broke up with me, wanted his ring back, and next thing I knew his girl had the ring on her finger. There’s a moral to this story: never give a ring that you’ve measured for one girl to another girl. Because it got stuck on her finger and so her dad cut if off with metal clippers and gave it back to him in two pieces when she broke up with him. I would cut my finger off before I’d cut the ring off. That’s the story of my first love. Heartbreak. Isn’t that sad? Men.
MURRAY: Can we move on?
MMM: I don’t get to hear about your first love?
MURRAY: No I can’t top that. Forget it. I’ve got nothing. I’ve got nothing.
MMM: You’ve never done standup comedy.
MURRAY: No. When I lose my mind I will do standup comedy.
MMM: Why is that?
MURRAY: Because they all just seem so unhappy. They seem miserable. We used to go to the clubs and see them and they all just seem miserable. It was like golly, I’m glad I don’t do this. But I mean if you were at the end of your life and you couldn’t move or you were immobile, they could roll you out in Vegas and you could do a show. I don’t think it’s that impossible. But it’s really about hating the audience. It’s weird. It doesn’t suit me.
MMM: So you just went right into improv? That was your start, improv comedy?
MURRAY: It wasn’t just comedy. You learned how to improvise in any sense. Even comedy’s playing straight so you learned how to exchange and you learned a lot about rhythm. You always had to be available and don’t try to do the same thing twice.
MMM: Were there improvisational opportunities or moments in this film that you guys were able to employ at one time or another?
SPACEK: Occasionally that would happen when they would rewrite the scene and forget to give us the new pages. So after we shot the scene, we did a little improvising then.
MURRAY: The script is in two dimensions and it doesn’t take into account the third dimension, so when you actually do it in space there’s a different thing that happens that you can’t write on a page. So that’s what being trained in improvisation does for you. It enables you to go from this is happening in space now, how do I get from this moment to this moment? And it’s physical as much as anything else and it’s being able to go, “Now this is how we resolve this scene.” It’s usually audio, it’s usually a word or something, but most scenes end on a noise, on a sound. You just have to figure out the sound, the pitch, that ends that scene.
MMM: While you were shooting the film did you realize it would be a good one?
MURRAY: I’ve developed this mantra where I say I’m not a worrier so I don’t worry about it. As far as the jobs go, I sort of realized a long time ago that I’m just going to do the ones I like and one of them is going to hit. People feel like I’ve got to have great success to pay for my house or whatever, you’ve got to have this success thing rolling, and I just said, “I’m going to do the ones that I like and something’s going to hit,” and they do. You always know it’s pretty good. I don’t think we do bad ones anymore. We’re sort of through the reef in a way. Now, whether or not a movie is financially successful you can’t have any control over, and that makes a career. You make a movie that’s a good movie and no one sees it. It happens all the time. You make a movie with a studio and everyone quits or gets fired six weeks before it gets out, so the movie doesn’t happen. Or you can make something that everything goes well and it’s a big, big thing. But as far as knowing it was good, we knew the script was really good and we knew the other guy, the old guy [Duvall], his thing was ridiculous.
SPACEK: The hardest part was doing a scene with him and not just kind of thinking, “Oh! I’ve got the next line.” Unbelievable.
MURRAY: Yeah it’s really kind of mesmerizing because he’s so powerfully present. It really touches the walls. It’s really powerful; it passes through your body.
SPACEK: But what he [Bill Murray] did was equally powerful on the other side.
MURRAY: Even better.
SPACEK: Because it balanced it out. It gave it buoyancy.
MMM: Your character is surprised when he realizes that this kooky hermit has hatched this plan.
MURRAY: Well it’s really good writing and [Duvall] is so good. He really has that effect because he knows what the intention of every line is. He knows that script inside out. It’s like a radiant heat. You just get this heat of it all in your body and he really informs you and you really get the information physically. It’s a really powerful thing working with the nut.
MMM: Did you guys talk about it or did you just go in and do it?
MURRAY: Talk is for losers. Shut up and work. Turn the camera on, let’s go.
SPACEK: Hit your mark and speak.
MURRAY: Just hit your mark and show up on time.
MMM: What was it like driving those old cars?
MURRAY: Driving the old car was really fun. It’s about an 8,000 pound Hearse and when you got going 40 it was like a train. It would take you 300 yards to stop the thing. It was kind of scary. We did a little stunt driving and the guy who owned the car would run after us. He’d really say, “Not through the woods!” He thought we were going to go really just into the woods.
MMM: There was an interesting point made by Zanuck that you’re superstitious about signing things, especially contracts. How did you handle that earlier in your career? Now that you’re who you are I can understand how people would go along with you. But when you’re just starting out how do you get people to agree to you not signing stuff?
MURRAY: They just want you to work. It’s not superstitious, there’s just a bunch a bureaucrats going “sign your contract,” and I’m like “Sign your contract? You have me confused with your mother or something like that okay. I’ve got to go to work tomorrow. I don’t have time to be reading this stuff.” I just show up and work. My word is my contract.
SPACEK: It used to be we never signed contracts and they wrote them up, but you never signed them. Your word was your bind. But now it’s different.
MMM: What do you think the most significant motivation is for his quest? Is it about life and death?
SPACEK: Felix Bush? I think he was riddled with guilt. I think he wanted to punish himself and to listen to people tell horrible stories about him so he could cleanse his soul before he really died. I think it was just another form of more punishment. But maybe I’m wrong.
MURRAY: I’d say that’s right. He didn’t know how to do penance; he couldn’t get it out of himself, he couldn’t speak the words. So he went off and became a hermit for 40 years. And now that anger and that toughness about him, he was so angry that even flagellating himself like this and doing his penance, it still didn’t feel good. He wasn’t over it yet and all he could think of was what if everybody said horrible things to him. As far as my guy goes, well, Frank gets to see, and I think all the characters in the film and even the audience get to see, what if this were myself? This is me. I’m going to be there, he’s just ahead of me in the row. What have I done with my life and what about my regrets and how can I change the sort of behavior that’s made me the kind of guy or girl who would take a long car ride with all the money in the car and think about maybe not coming back, and yet I can’t up on myself yet, I’m going to come back and try again.
MMM: So he does change? Frank really becomes a nice guy due to this?
MURRAY: Well I think everyone is affected by this. I think Felix is affected and I’m affected. Certainly Sissy’s character has this staggering revelation, which is really the news, and is probably most devastating to her more than anyone else. And to have to come to some sort of peace with that, even though the pain of it is jarring and disturbing and everything, the idea that some mystery, some question that you never had answered was answered.
MMM: Bill, what’s going on with “Ghostbusters III?”
MURRAY: This started, and it’s really the studio starts this stuff. They start saying “Ghostbusters,” they want to do it. And it’s really the world of sequels and bringing these things back again. And then some wiseacre said, “Hey, we’ve got a couple of new writers that are going to write something. And I thought, “Well, maybe there will be some writers, and there was always this joke, half-truth, half-joke thing of well I’ll do it if you kill me off in the first reel.” That was my joke. So, supposedly, someone was writing a script where I actually got killed in the first reel and became a ghost, and I thought that’s kind of clever anyway. But then these guys [Lee Eisenberg & Gene Stupinsky from NBC’s “The Office”] that were supposedly to be the writers who were going to do it, they wrote a film [“Year One”] that came out and people saw the film and went, “We’re not going to do it after all, are we?” So it’s just kind of a dreamy thing. They want to create a new generation of Ghostbusters. They’d just like us to pass the torch.
MMM: If it happened it wouldn’t actually be a nightmare for you right? It’s a great thing in your past.
MURRAY: Well, it’s true. We made a great movie and then… we made another one. We went to the well twice and it’s almost impossible to do the second movie as well. Only horror movies get better as they go along, because they have more money to spend on crazy effects. I actually thought the other day, it’s become so irritating, but I actually heard young people that saw the movie when they were kids, and I thought maybe I should just do it, maybe it would be fun. Because the guys are funny and I miss Moranis and Annie and Danny. I miss Moranis. He was a really big part of it.
MMM: The two of you seem to be in a mutual admiration society. Do you have a favorite Sissy Spacek movie and do you have a favorite Bill Murray movie?
MURRAY: Sissy does this thing in this TV show called “Big Love” that I find is so different than anything I’ve ever see her do. She’s this really scary dame. She’s really scary and she scares the scary Mormon people on the scary Mormon show. So it’s really a big time creepy performance and I’ve never really seen that out of her.
SPACEK: I’ve tried to protect you from that side of me.
MURRAY: Well, there are glimpses. I love lots of things that she does, and she can sing really well. She really is a good singer. I just think that “Carrie” was such a misunderstood young girl.
SPACEK: Poor girl. I love “What About Bob?”
GET LOW opens on July 30th in select theaters.
Tags: bill murray, get low, interview, marlow stern, sissy spacek, tribeca film festival 2010
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Comic-Con 2010 makes the geeks wet their pants, and much more…
COMIC-CON 2010!
Thousands of nerds gathered over the weekend in San Diego for COMIC-CON, the annual event where movie studios and TV networks offer sneak previews of their comic book adaptations in crowded halls of unshowered man-children who still live with their parents. With that said, here’s the buzz:
-GOOD-
SCOTT PILGRIM vs. THE WORLD continues to ride a wave of solid buzz, as the film screened in it’s entirety to the legion of fanboy critics to mostly glowing reviews. However, proceed with caution: these were fanboy online critics and not the more “polished” kind…
TRON: LEGACY returned for its THIRD consecutive Comic-Con—yes, you heard that right. Test footage screened at the 2008 Comic-Con by Disney to gauge interest in rebooting the 1982 film, then a brief teaser reel unspooled in 2009, and this year, the cast and crew returned with eight minutes of footage and a new trailer that was rapturously received…
THOR’s early stills looked absolutely ridiculous and were, fittingly, laughed off the Internet. However, Shakespearean director Kenneth Branagh took the Comic-Con stage with his entire cast, including: Chris Hemsworth (Thor), Natalie Portman & co., and showed a trailer, which was well-received…
COWBOYS & ALIENS has only been shooting for a month, but director Jon Favreau (“Iron Man”) showed 10 minutes of mixed footage of the cowboys-meets-spaceships epic film to crowd approval, and Harrison Ford’s first ever appearance at Comic-Con went like gangbusters…
LET ME IN, the American remake of the Swedish vampire flick “Let the Right One In,” which was released a mere two years ago, has been much-maligned by fans of the original. However, the new, restricted trailer for the film has made the haters change their tune. View the trailer here:
-BAD-
SUCKER PUNCH, Zack Snyder’s (“300,” “Watchmen”) 1950s-set saga about an institutionalized girl who imagines an alternate reality, and then must escape from that alternate reality, debuted its trailer. Most critics thought it was a bit too much of a head-trip. View the trailer and decide for yourself here:
THE GREEN HORNET, directed by Michel Gondry and starring Seth Rogen as Britt Reid and Christoph “Inglorious Basterds” Waltz as the baddie, debuted a second trailer, which was just as bad as the first, causing people to walk out right after it screened…
DRIVE ANGRY 3D, an upcoming entry into the Nicolas Cage oeuvre of ridiculousness, debuted. And was laughed at. View the trailer here:
Again, take all of this “buzz” with a grain of salt. Most of the Comic-Con media are fanboys themselves…
UPCOMING FILM PROJECTS.
“The Hangover” sequel is headed to Thailand. Yes, THE HANGOVER 2 production will move there this fall with a script that sees the characters from the 2009 hit comedy traveling to Asia. The film reunites Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Justin Bartha and Zach Galifianakis as a group of friends who find themselves getting into even more outrageous trouble. Ladyboys, anyone?…
As rumored, Tim Burton will direct an adaptation of the board game MONSTERPOCALYPSE, according to Slashfilm. The film is currently being drafted by Burton regular John August (“Big Fish”), working alongside the creator of the game, Matt Wilson. The monsters, meanwhile, are being developed by Visual Effects Supervisor Ken Ralston. Skyscraper sized, the giant monsters are left behind after an attack on Earth and humanity builds giant robots for which to combat them. The film will most likely be developed for 3D and that it could fast tracked to hit theaters before the end of 2012…
Variety reports Dustin Lance Black (“Milk”) has been hired to write the script for 20th Century Fox’s film about infamous 19-year-old outlaw Colton Harris-Moore, nicknamed “THE BAREFOOT BANDIT,” and David Gordon Green (“Pineapple Express”) is in final talks to direct. Based on the book proposal “Taking Flight: The Hunt for a Young Outlaw” by Bob Friel, the story centers on the teenager who’s stolen cars, boats and planes and taught himself how to fly in order to evade local police, Homeland Security and the FBI. He’s also burglarized at least 100 private residences. On July 4, Harris-Moore allegedly fled in a plane stolen from Indiana and crashed on the shoreline of a Bahamian island. He was indicted July 6 by a U.S. Federal Court in Seattle on charges of transporting another stolen aircraft in that state. He was arrested July 11 in Harbour Island, Bahamas, as he attempted to flee on a boat. Harris-Moore became known as the “Barefoot Bandit” or “Barefoot Burglar” by reportedly committing some of his crimes barefoot…
CASTING NEWS.
Rihanna is set to make her feature film debut in Universal’s BATTLESHIP, the Hasbro adaptation to be directed by Peter Berg. The recording artist, songwriter and model will be joining Taylor Kitsch (TV’s “Friday Night Lights”) and Alexander Skarsgard (HBO’s “True Blood”) in the film, scheduled to hit theaters on May 18, 2012. “Battleship” will unfold as a massive Naval adventure across the seas, in the skies and over land as our planet fights for survival against a superior force. Kitsch stars as a Naval officer who leads the fight and Skarsgard will play his brother in the film…
Daniel Craig will star in David Fincher’s THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO, based on Stieg Larsson’s posthumously published crime thriller trilogy, “The Millennium Series.” The deal includes two sequels based on “The Girl Who Played with Fire” and “The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest.” Adapted by Steve Zaillian (“Schindler’s List”), “Dragon Tattoo” describes the mystery surrounding the long-unsolved disappearance of an heiress. Journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Craig), recently dinged by a libel case, and young female hacker Lisbeth Salander try to resolve it, stirring up bundles of personal and industrial corruption along the way. The role of Salander has not been cast yet. Scott Rudin is producing “Dragon Tattoo,” which Columbia Pictures will release on December 21, 2011…
MTV interviewed WORLD WAR Z author Max Brooks at the San Diego Comic-Con and Brooks confirmed that the Marc Forster (“Quantum of Solace”)-directed adaptation of his novel is moving forward at Paramount Pictures with Brad Pitt attached to star in the lead role. Brooks says that the studio is targeting a Summer 2012 release for the film, about a worldwide infestation of flesh-eating zombies. Brooks — the son of Mel Brooks and Anne Bancroft — wrote a detailed tale in which a researcher for the U.N. Postwar Commission interviews survivors from countries all over the world, 10 years after the crisis, to gather a first-person post-mortem on a war that obliterated every country on the map…
STUDIO SHAKEUP NEWS.
Relativity Media has officially become a Hollywood player. Relativity will take over the distribution and marketing operations and some assets of the Starz Overture Films subsidiary. Approximately 45 staff members, or two-thirds of Overture’s employees, will make the move to Relativity Media, including Peter Adee, formerly Overture Films’ President of Worldwide Marketing, Distribution and New Media, and Kyle Davies, Executive Vice President Theatrical Distribution. Overture Films will release its remaining titles – “Jack Goes Boating,” “Let Me In” and “Stone” – through a new distribution services agreement with Relativity…
COOL TRAILER NEWS.
20th Century Fox has brought online the deliciously violent Comic-Con Red Band trailer for MACHETE opening in theaters on September 3. Directed by Robert Rodriguez and Ethan Maniquis, the action pic stars Danny Trejo, Jessica Alba, Robert De Niro, Michelle Rodriguez, Lindsay Lohan, Cheech Marin, Jeff Fahey, Don Johnson and Steven Seagal:
…Until next week!
Tags: comic-con, marlow stern, weekly blog
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Mark Ruffalo Talks The Kids Are All Right
With 32 films under his belt, Mark Ruffalo is still waiting for his big break.
Ruffalo has reached a comfortable place in his career, working with everyone from Ang Lee to Martin Scorsese. But the 42-year-old workman-like actor has scraped and clawed to get to where he is today. It began on the stage, with Ruffalo co-founding the Orpheus Theatre Company where he wrote, directed and starred in a number of plays. He earned his living as a bartender those nine years, patiently waiting for a call from Hollywood.
After landing bit parts in films like the off-beat indie comedy “Safe Men” (1998) and Ang Lee’s Civil War Western “Ride with the Devil” (1999), Ruffalo met Kenneth Lonergan. The two began collaborating on plays, and this union eventually led to Ruffalo’s role as the sympathetic, aimless younger brother to Laura Linney in Lonergan’s Academy Award-nominated 2000 indie drama “You Can Count On Me.” Ruffalo received raves for his performance, with some comparing him to a young Marlon Brando. This led to other starring roles in indie films like Jane Campion’s “In the Cut” and Michel Gondry’s “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.” Although Ruffalo lands leading man roles on the indie circuit, his Hollywood parts have been more narrowly-defined, to say the least, as the journeyman thesp has been relegated to the dopey boyfriend role in chick flicks (“13 Going on 30,” “Just Like Heaven,” “Rumor Has It”) or the archetypal, hard-boiled detective in “Collateral,” “Zodiac” and “Shutter Island.”
The past calendar year has seen Ruffalo’s popularity hit an all-time high, with appearances in the aforementioned Scorsese film “Shutter Island,” the passive boyfriend in “Where the Wild Things Are,” a supporting role in the Steve Carell/Tina Fey comedy “Date Night,” and last but certainly not least, as Paul – the freewheeling, hip vegan restaurateur (and sperm donor) who reconnects with his biological children raised by lesbian couple Nic (Annette Bening) and Jules (Julianne Moore) in writer-director Lisa Cholodenko’s “The Kids Are All Right.”
“The Kids Are Alright” has received some of the best reviews of the year to date. And the film’s also connected with audiences. Opening in limited release at seven theaters, the film grossed $491,971 in its first weekend. At $70,282 per theater, “Kids” scored the highest average gross in the year to date. What’s more, there are now rumors that Ruffalo is “in late-stage talks” to play the Incredible Hulk in the upcoming “Avengers” film, in what would be the biggest role of his career.
MMM sat down with Mark Ruffalo to chat about “The Kids Are All Right,” his steamy sex scenes with co-star Julianne Moore, being typecast in Hollywood and his directorial debut, “Sympathy for Delicious”:
MANHATTAN MOVIE MAGAZINE: What made you want to play Paul?
MARK RUFFALO: I thought it was a really interesting turn on kind of an American iconic life character – a kind of Peter Pan bachelor who lives his life purely for his own pleasure. A lot of us have looked up to people like that and wanted to be one. Then he has this really nice turn in it, when he meets his biological kids. They make him a pile of mush.
MMM: How do you think you’d react if you suddenly learned you had grown children you never knew about?
RUFFALO: That would blow me away. That would be a lot to handle. (laughs) I think I could get around to caring for that person. But that would be very disruptive, to say the least.
MMM: Is this role very close to home for you? I know you’re a vegetarian too but when you watch this cool, laid-back character onscreen it just makes the audience say, “I bet Mark Ruffalo is really like this guy.”
RUFFALO: I think I approach life and people with the same kind of attitude that Paul had. I think the guy has a fairly open heart. He’s not too judgmental of people. He’s interested and he’s adventuresome and he’s got a sense of humor to him that I relate to. I don’t have the confidence that he has. I never had the confidence with ladies he had. (laughs) And I wish that I’d found a sperm bank when I was in my early twenties. (laughs) Think of all the wasted talent. But as far as the rest of it, it’s people. It’s an amalgamation of people that I’ve really known and loved over the years.
MMM: At Sundance you had two films – “The Kids Are All Right,” and your directorial debut, “Sympathy for Delicious.” What was the sequence of you directing your film and doing this one?
RUFFALO: I directed my film. I was in post when I got the call for this. It didn’t look like it was going to work out with my schedule to do this. I was literally shooting basically when I had to deliver my movie and I had been away from my family. It was a tough year. So, I was thinking I needed a break. They couldn’t move their dates around, so it sort of looked like it wasn’t going to happen, which was really heartbreaking to me. I was telling my wife about it all the time. In fact, finally she was texting [Julianne Moore] – they’re friends – and she said “What’s up with that movie? I love that movie. Mark loved that movie. What’s going on with it?” They were like, “The part’s open. Would he do it?” She was like, “Yeah, he won’t talk about anything else.” So it kind of came together. I was still editing when we shot it. I had some finishing work to do on the movie, so I was between [the two films]. But I only ended up working really like seven days, I think.
MMM: Was it interesting watching them back-to-back? There was a totally different reception to the two films at Sundance, with “Kids” receiving raves and your film…
RUFFALO: Totally. It was a very wild ride at Sundance. My movie opened to some really mean-spirited reviews that eventually really turned around, but the first round was very painful. Then [“The Kids Are Alright”], which was such a huge success immediately out the gate. And then my movie [“Sympathy for Delicious”] taking a special jury prize at Sundance. It turned out to be incredibly drastic swings between elation and depression throughout the whole thing.
MMM: The outcome for your character is kind of tragic in “The Kids Are Alright.” What did you feel about that?
RUFFALO: Growth is painful. I think he gets spanked. But I like to think that he is going to have a relationship with his kids and that he’s going to buy a minivan. (laughs) You go from the beginning of the movie – that guy doesn’t have to beg a woman for anything. And would never do it, too. Like, begging Jules to stay with him and begging his father’s forgiveness. In a weird way, even that look to his son is begging for something, you know? Some connection. I think that’s a big change for him.
MMM: Do you think he’ll grow from it?
RUFFALO: People change incrementally. I think the whole idea of having a family is possibly being entertained in a more serious way.
MMM: What about being so irresistible that a lesbian can’t refuse him?
RUFFALO: I think Paul is like half a lesbian himself. (laughs) No I’m kidding. You know, he’s got one foot in the door. He had two kids with her. So it’s… I think it’s a confluence of a lot of different circumstances that they end up together. To me, the real telling nature of the relationship is when she’s riding him and using his face like a riding pummel on a horse saddle. That kind of says it all. I don’t think there was really a deep connection other than just purely physical. I don’t know how real that relationship really is.
MMM: I think it addressed some issues that are often debated and put them in an interesting context. Have you met people that you’ve talked to who were in a similar situation?
RUFFALO: I haven’t met anyone who has had this particular situation.
MMM: Well, no, of course, but a man who got involved with a woman who was out of a lesbian relationship or someone who goes back and forth?
RUFFALO: It’s interesting. Lisa is probably the one who could really talk about this. She understands it way better than I do. To make those jumps… I think statistically more people are on the fence than not. When it comes to sex, people have all kinds of kinky things that turn them on that I don’t think always reflect so much who they are. Well, they certainly don’t make it in the movies. Not these kinds of movies.
MMM: You have worked with Julianne before, and you know her outside of working. Did that make it a little easier to do such intense sex scenes with her?
RUFFALO: Yeah. I mean your dream is to work with people who you have a vernacular with, who you’ve worked with, you feel comfortable with. You can work well with people like that. We went through… “Blindness” was a tough experience. It was a hard movie to make. We had a great time, but the subject matter is intense. So you’re going through something. She’s friends with my wife [actress Sunshine Coigney], which certainly doesn’t make it… it’s helpful with doing those sex scenes. (chuckles) To go to work and not have my wife be like, “Are you doing the sex scene today? Who is this girl? You like her, don’t you?” She loves Julie. She trusts her. So, in a weird way, it was a lot easier. (laughs)
MMM: Lisa and Stuart worked on the script for a long time. How complete was Paul as written when you got involved?
RUFFALO: When I read something, a big part of it is daydreaming. I’ll start to get an image of the person. It was pretty clear to me who he was from the script. I mean it’s filtered through my interpretation.
MMM: Were there changes to the character and scenes once you came on board?
RUFFALO: No, it pretty much stayed the same. At some points I’d improvise a line here or there, if I felt like there was a chance for humor in a place. Lisa… I think what makes her such a great director is she really is interested in subtext and what’s happening between the lines, so you had a lot of behavior off the lines, people responding to little looks. Even when the camera is not on you or you’re not speaking, something happens after a scene. Those are the flourishes that you put on as an actor.
MMM: Your indie film roles really seem to display your talents; I think more so than your Hollywood roles.
RUFFALO: You get to do more. (laughs)
MMM: I was wondering if you got frustrated by playing so many cops?
RUFFALO: Well, I’ve gotten to play some great cops. (laughs) Indie films are usually more character driven just because of the nature of it. You can’t do too big of a plot for a start, because you don’t have the time or the money. I’ve worked with real formal filmmakers and very informal filmmakers. Very kind of loose camera I’d say filmmakers. Both have their own challenges. I’d like to get a nice beefy, juicy role in a feature film that was a big, big studio movie. That’s outside of my control. I hope that would happen, but I also feel lucky that I’ve gotten to work with great people and I’ve learned a lot. I wouldn’t begrudge where I’m at.
MMM: Is there more directing coming?
RUFFALO: Yeah. Honestly, by the time I finished this movie last year, I was like, that’s it. I’m done with acting. I’m going to just direct.
MMM: “You Can Count On Me” is my favorite performance of yours. I was just wondering what was happening with “Margaret” [writer/director Kenneth Lonegan’s long-awaited follow-up film, which was filmed in 2005 and starred Ruffalo, Matt Damon and Anna Paquin]?
RUFFALO: Buddy, you and me both. I don’t know what is happening with that. I keep hearing that rumblings that it is coming out any time now…. But you probably know as much about it as I do, honestly.
Tags: Lisa Chodolenko, Mark Ruffalo, marlow stern, The Avengers, The Kids Are All Right
Posted in Featured, Interviews | No Comments »
Mel Gibson is Craaaazy, and so much more.
UPCOMING FILM PROJECTS.
Working Title Films and director Joe Wright (“Pride & Prejudice,” “Atonement”) are developing a live-action feature based on Hans Christian Andersen’s fairytale THE LITTLE MERMAID. Abi Morgan (“Brick Lane”) wrote the script for the adaptation of the classic tale of a young mermaid who gives up her life in the sea for a human prince. Andersen’s story was first published in 1837 and has been adapted numerous times for stage and screen. Wright’s version is inspired by a children’s puppet theatre production of the classic at London’s Little Angel Theatre Company.
Early work has begun on bringing WICKED to the silver screen, reports Deadline, who has received word that J.J. Abrams, James Mangold, Rob Marshall and Ryan Murphy are among the names who have met with the musical’s authors, Winnie Holzman (the libretto) and Stephen Schwartz (the songs). The musical, originally based on the novel, “Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West” by Gregory Maguire, retells L. Frank Baum’s “The Wizard of Oz” from the perspective of Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West. Premiering in 2003, the stage version, which originally starred Idina Menzel, Kristen Chenoweth and Joel Grey, continues to perform internationally.
Sir Michael Caine, who plays Alfred in Christopher Nolan’s BATMAN movies, told Digital Spy at the premiere for Inception last night at London’s Leicester Square that the third film will get underway in April for a July 20, 2012 release. You can watch the interview clip below:
The Wachowskis’ upcoming Iraq war film is reportedly titled CN9, according to a tweet from Production Weekly. The film, said to have entered the casting stages, is rumored to deal with a homosexual relationship between a U.S. soldier and an Iraqi. Beginning in the near-future and flashing back, the project will allegedly be shot in a cinema verite style. Though it may have a different meaning for the film, the term CN9, in medicine, refers to the ninth cranial nerve, known as the Glossopharyngeal nerve.
CASTING NEWS.
Edward Norton will not be reprising his role as Dr. Bruce Banner, reports HitFix, who say that Marvel Studios plan to cast a new actor in the part. The report theorizes that a deal could not be made, despite Edward Norton wanting to join the ensemble cast of THE AVENGERS that will include Robert Downey Jr as Iron Man, Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, Chris Hemsworth as Thor and Chris Evans as Captain America. Marvel Studios’ Kevin Feige confirmed the report with the following statement he sent to the site:
“We have made the decision to not bring Ed Norton back to portray the title role of Bruce Banner in the Avengers. Our decision is definitely not one based on monetary factors, but instead rooted in the need for an actor who embodies the creativity and collaborative spirit of our other talented cast members. The Avengers demands players who thrive working as part of an ensemble, as evidenced by Robert, Chris H, Chris E, Sam, Scarlett, and all of our talented casts. We are looking to announce a name actor who fulfills these requirements, and is passionate about the iconic role in the coming weeks.”
Marvel Studios is planning a May 4, 2012 release for The Avengers.
According to Variety, Ralph Fiennes, Colin Firth, Gary Oldman and Michael Fassbender will star in the espionage thriller TINKER, SAILOR, SOLDIER, SPY for Working Title and Studio Canal. Tomas Alfredson (“Let The Right One In”) is directing the film, which starts shooting this October in London. Peter Morgan wrote the script. Based on John Le Carre’s seminal cold war best-seller, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, the thriller tells the tale of a spy-hunt within the highest echelons of the British Secret Intelligence Service.
MEL GIBSON.
Will Mel Gibson’s career ever recover? That’s the question everyone’s asking. He seemed to rebound fine from those drunken pictures with random ladies – who weren’t his wife – and his DUI/subsequent anti-Semitic rant, directing the criminally underrated Mayan epic “Apocalypto.” However, his latest uncorking of the crazy has taken him far past the edge of darkness. I’m sure by now you’ve heard the terrible phone conversations between Gibson and his baby mama, Oksana Grigorieva – the Russian pianist who Gibson left his wife of 29 years (and seven kids) for. Gibson split from Grigorieva in April, and there’s since been a domestic violence investigation launched against Gibson, who is alleged to have punched Grigorieva in the face – knocking out several teeth in the process. And then, there’s the taped conversations, which led to Gibson being dropped by his agency, William Morris Endeavor. Here’s just one of them. Judge the insanity for yourself:
FUN NEW TRAILERS.
Focus Features has debuted the trailer for one of my favorite filmmaking duos, Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck’s (“Sugar,” “Half Nelson”), IT’S KIND OF A FUNNY STORY and you can watch it using the player below. The dramedy, opening September 24, stars Keir Gilchrist (“The United States of Tara”), Zach Galifianakis, Emma Roberts, Viola Davis, Zoe Kravitz, Aasif Mandvi, Lauren Graham and Jim Gaffigan.
In the New York City-set film, 16-year-old Craig (Gilchrist), stressed out from the demands of being a teenager, checks himself into a mental health clinic. There he learns that the youth ward is closed – and finds himself stuck in the adult ward. One of the patients, Bobby (Galifianakis), soon becomes both Craig’s mentor and protégé. Craig is also drawn to another 16-year-old, Noelle (Roberts). With a minimum five days’ stay imposed on him, Craig is sustained by friendships on both the inside and the outside as he learns more about life, love, and the pressures of growing up:
IT’S KIND OF A FUNNY STORY Trailer
The trailer for direct Todd Phillips’ DUE DATE has come online and can be watched using the player below! Opening in theaters on November 5, the comedy stars Robert Downey Jr., Zach Galifianakis, Michelle Monaghan, Jamie Foxx, Alan Arkin, Juliet Lewis and Danny McBride.
In the Warner Bros. release, Peter Highman (Downey Jr.) is an expectant first-time father whose wife’s due date is a mere five days away. As Peter hurries to catch a flight home from Atlanta to be at her side for the birth, his best intentions go completely awry when a chance encounter with aspiring actor Ethan Tremblay (Galifianakis) forces Peter to hitch a ride with Ethan–on what turns out to be a cross-country road trip that will ultimately destroy several cars, numerous friendships and Peter’s last nerve.
DUE DATE Trailer
TWILIGHT NEWS.
There is a great profile in GQ this week of Taylor Lautner, star of the “Twilight” films. Yes, I’m as surprised as anyone. But it’s a very fun read.
THE 2010 NEW YORK FILM FESTIVAL.
In addition to announcing that David Fincher’s THE SOCIAL NETWORK has been selected as the opening night film of the 48th Annual New York Film Festival, Columbia Pictures has released a new teaser trailer for the Facebook film:
THE SOCIAL NETWORK
Until next week!
Tags: marlow stern, mel gibson, weekly blog
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