Star Wars Pays Tribute to Princess Leia, Carrie Fisher
Posted on April 16, 2017 at 8:00 am
The “Star Wars” filmmakers pay tribute to Carrie Fisher with this lovely short film.
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Interview: Mckenna Grace of “Gifted”
Posted on April 12, 2017 at 10:49 am
Mckenna Grace is the star of “Gifted,” playing Mary, a first grader with extraordinary mathematics ability, living with her Uncle Frank, played by Chris Evans. In an interview, she talked about what she and Evans did off camera, crying on cue, and what might be difficult for someone who is gifted.
What did you and Chris Evans do to get to be comfortable with each other?
We had an immediate connection. It was very special when I first met him. We were there ahead of time for two weeks to kind of get to know each other better and then we were there for two months so some of the scenes were really just better with our connection because we had been knowing each other for longer.
What kinds of things did you do when you were not filming?
We sang, we sang. “Peaches” by Presidents of the United States of America and then we also sang “Old Man on the Back Porch” by Presidents of the United States of America.
Would you like to be as smart as Mary?
I think it would be cool but from watching “Gifted” I learned that some people don’t always feel accepted or they feel different or alone when they are gifted or they just feel they have an irregular life. So, I think that being gifted would be cool but sometimes people can make fun of you and I think that that’s wrong.
Are you good at math?
I do six grade math even though I’m in fifth grade so I think I’m okay.
Did you have fun with Octavia Spencer, the way your character does with her character?
Yes, we still talk a lot. And she would always invite me to her hotel, we have parties and we talk and sing and eat. We hung out a lot and we still talk a lot.
What was your audition like for this role?
I was auditioning and connected to this for over 8 months. I did the Blacklist live reading so if they made a movie I thought I would get to play Mary but nope, I had to do a whole auditioning process to get it right.
What are some of the tricks that you use to be able to cry and to be angry in a scene?
I just think about sad things and I really put myself in Mary’s shoes, Mary’s position.
So, what was she feeling when it seemed like she was going to be living with Frank anymore?
She was feeling very upset and she felt very worked up and sad and she felt very abandoned. We did tons of takes, tons.
Do you like to read? Are there any books that you especially like?
Yes, I love reading. I’m on my tenth novel this month. I love the Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children series. I also really love Stephen King’s, The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, that one was amazing!
Was there a movie or television show that you saw where you said, “That’s what I really want to do. I really want to act?”
Yes, The Pee-wee Herman Show and Shirley Temple movies. I really love “Little Miss Broadway.”
And what is the best advice that you ever got about acting?
That you can do anything you put your mind to and do your best and if you do your best then you know you have done all that you could do.
What makes you laugh?
Oh goodness, lots of things made me laugh. My papa because sometimes he is very overdramatic on purpose to get laughs out of me. He makes me giggle a lot.
Interview: John O’Hurley of “Swing Away”
Posted on April 9, 2017 at 8:00 am
John O’Hurley may be best known for playing a fictionalized version of the founder of the J. Peterman catalogue on “Seinfeld.” In his new film “Swing Away,” he also plays something of a fictionalized version of a real-life character. In an interview, he told me that when they were filming in 2014, he had no idea that the real estate mogul he based his brash, bombastic golf resort developer character on would be elected President before the film was released. We also talked about the fun of filming in Greece and why golf reveals character.
The film is about a Greek-American professional golfer (Shannen Elizabeth) who flees to her grandparents in Rhodes after a televised meltdown in an important golf tournament. It is a sweet, funny, story with a little romance and some spectacular scenery. One of the highlights is a golf match in Rhodes with an obnoxious American developer, played by O’Hurley.
The audience at the screening we attended was almost entirely Greek-American and they were thrilled to see the beautiful location footage.
It does speak to something that I found out about this film. The Greek people are the proudest people I have ever met and they support Greek culture in any way that they possibly can. They are proud to be Greek when they get up at six in the morning and they are proud to be Greek when they go to bed at 4 am.
It is clear you are real-life golfer.
Yes, I am a golfer. I have been a golfer my whole life. It’s always been the game that I played and I played it competitively in high school and then acting was my love so it has always been kind of an avocation for me.
They say that golf is more revealing of a person’s integrity and character than any other game. Do you think that is right?
Absolutely. You spend four hours with somebody on a golf course and you will learn pretty much everything you need to know about them. It’s a game with personal responsibility. The ball isn’t moving when you go to hit it, so therefore everything you do from the first tee shot to the ball is all up to you. It’s all within your wheelhouse; you can’t blame anyone or anything else for it.
Is it true that, at least a year before he declared his candidacy for the Presidency, you based your performance on Donald Trump?
That’s exactly what I was going for. It really had to be that kind of overwhelmly myopic American businessman capitalist coming in to take over what his vision of the development would be, culture be damned. We’ve seen examples of that all over the world and Donald certainly has made several forays overseas in the British Isles and met with quite a bit if resistance over there, so he has been through it, absolutely.
Is it fun to play a guy who is really over-the-top?
Oh, absolutely and I had a chance really to sculpt his character from the ground up. I make no apologies for the jackass that he is. And I think he has to be unredeemable in order to make this film work; I don’t think he can be somebody who is redemptive. The rest of the film is redemptive but he has to be irretrievable.
Very little of my character was scripted. A lot of it was just improvisational because I understand the mentality of this character very well. So in many cases I had the borderlines of what we wanted to say, and they let me flower things up. Most of what you see on screen is just me rambling.
It is so beautiful there. Did you get to enjoy yourself in Greece? Try any special Greek delicacies?
As it turned out I only had about two weeks free from other commitments that I could spend there so they basically had to stack all of my scenes including the big golf match kind of back to back to back. So I didn’t really have a day off, I kind of just continually shot. But in the evenings we went out to eat and I enjoyed them all and I think I had them all. I think I gained 15 pounds and I look at the film and I also thought it was kind of appropriate that the character looked a little self-indulgent. So, I definitely put on pounds while I was there. Because we were shooting so much outdoors we were limited by the last light and from there we would go right to dinner and we would eat and dance every night. They celebrate outdoors and eat outdoors and dance outdoors and it was fabulous every night.
What do you think people should talk about after they see the movie? What is the lesson of the movie?
I think it’s a movie about redemption, that all things are remediable. I like the idea her going back to her homeland to rediscover the whole passion of why she became involved with golf. It was a sense of rebirth for her and seeing through the eyes of this little 10-year-old girl and mentoring her and just gave her that sense of renewal that she needed to go back and take the game at a different level.
And what’s the best advice you ever got about acting?
Acting is reacting. Before I go on stage and before I do a film I always say, a prayer: “God, let me be surprised.” And that’s all it is so that way I’m calm and I’m out there looking for the next moment to happen. I know what I’m going to say but I shouldn’t know how I’m going to say it yet. I’m just waiting and ready for the moment to inspire me.
Tribute: Don Rickles
Posted on April 7, 2017 at 8:00 am
Mr. Rickles did not tell jokes with traditional punch lines, did not make topical comments about the news and did not use crude profanity. Every show was spontaneous, built largely around his caustic observations about members of the audience….Short, bald and stocky, Mr. Rickles walked on the stage “looking like a snapping turtle surfacing in a pond,” as a New Yorker profile put it in 2004. He glanced around the room at his prey. Overweight people, men accompanied by younger women, racial and ethnic minorities — all were subject to his relentless barrage of smart-aleck buckshot.
Mr. Rickles’s chief comedic weapons were exaggeration and ridicule, deployed in a rapid, sharp-tongued style that stacked one quip on top of another until audiences were helpless with laughter. He especially delighted in tweaking the rich and mighty and became renowned for his biting performances at celebrity roasts.
Rickles’ training as a dramatic actor was evident in his performance opposite Robert de Niro in “Casino.” In Pixar’s beloved “Toy Story” movies, he provided the voice for Mr. Potatohead. He was known for being as kind and loyal a friend off-stage as he was caustic and insulting on stage. His closest friend was a comedian whose style and persona could not be more different, Bob Newhart. May his memory be a blessing.
Where You’ve Seen Them Before: Cast of “Going in Style”
Posted on April 4, 2017 at 3:37 pm
The remake of “Going in Style,” like the original, is about a trio of retired men who rob a bank, with all three characters played by acting legends. This version stars Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine, and Alan Arkin, all Oscar-winners with decades of brilliant performances. And the co-star is one of my all-time favorites, Ann-Margret.
Morgan Freeman: Best remembered as Red in “The Shawshank Redemption,” Hoke in “Driving Miss Daisy,” and God in the “Bruce Almighty” and “Evan Almighty,” and the deep, rich-voiced narrator of films like “March of the Penguins,” Freeman won an Oscar for “Million Dollar Baby.”
Michael Caine: His breakthrough role was in 1966 as the ladies’ man title character in “Alfie,” and he has delivered iconic performances in everything from period drama (“The Man Who Would be King”) to literary adaptations (an Oscar-winning performance in “The Cider House Rules”) to Alfred in the Batman movies. His distinctive voice and Cockney accent have inspired many imitators.
Alan Arkin: He won an Oscar for playing a raunchy, drug-addicted grandfather in “Little Miss Sunshine,” and his other great performances include a confused Soviet submarine captain in “The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming!,” an isolated deaf man in “The Heart is a Lonely Hunter,” and a cynical Hollywood executive in “Argo.”
Ann-Margret: Her most iconic roles showcased her fiery hair, creamy skin, flashing turquoise eyes, gorgeous figure, seductive purr, and the unmatched energy and flair of her dancing, but she showed her ability with dramatic roles in “Carnal Knowledge” and the television film “Who Will Love My Children?”