We mourn the loss of actor Robert Vaughn, whose silky charm made him the perfect choice to play the role of the second most famous spy character created by Ian Fleming: Napoleon Solo on the 1960’s television series “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.”
He was also one of the original “Magnificent Seven,” the one with a Southern accent and a drinking problem.
He also appeared in “Bullitt” and “The Towering Inferno,” and played the villain in “Superman III.”
Interview: “Hacksaw Ridge” Mel Gibson, Luke Bracey, Vince Vaughn
Posted on November 6, 2016 at 8:00 am
Copyright 2016 Warner Brothers
Mel Gibson’s first film as a director in ten years is “Hacksaw Ridge,” the true story of Desmond Doss, a medic in WWII who showed extraordinary courage and devotion, returning over and over again to rescue 75 wounded men under enemy fire in a battle in Okinawa. I spoke to Gibson, and to Vince Vaughn and Luke Bracey, who play soldiers in the film.
The movie’s battle scenes are intentionally brutal. “I don’t think I glamorized war,” Gibson said. “I made it look hard and hopefully realistic, at least that’s what the Okinawa guys told us. There’s not many of them left but it was an experience for them. I think is not really a war film, it’s a love story because a guy went in there through filial love determined never to kill anyone or harm anyone and he kept putting his life on the line to save lives so this is the greatest act of love you could perform, to sacrifice yourself for someone else so it’s a love story. It just happens to be in the worst place on earth.
Vaughn spoke about the challenge of portraying a the sergeant who trains and then takes into battle Doss and his unit.
I have a lot of military in my family and have done a lot of things throughout the years with the USO, so I had a good point of reference for start. And then being in a unique situation playing a sergeant, that you are training a new unit and that you’re actually going to carry them over to the battlefield, you really are going to feel responsible for these kids. You have got a lot of love for them and your job is ready to prepare them to be able to go to their training and as much as possible not kind of freak out during battle and to stay alive for themselves and for their brothers in arms.
Look, you are preparing for war, so the penalty of not being up to the task is death of yourself or the people in the unit. That’s why I think there is a bit of sense of humor in some of it because you want to reach people. You can’t just come and make them tone deaf because you are screaming at them the whole time. I think like everyone has their own unique way of doing it so I think there are moments when you are really hard, you are trying to get your point across to let them know what’s at stake and your intents. And then there is other times when you try to use it a little bit of a sense of humor to try to get them to laugh and to bring them together. And I think that this presents a unique situation. Here is a gentleman who is refusing to carry a gun. You just have to understand that from a military point of view this is close quarter battles you see the depiction of it in the movie, to be in a foxhole at night, sleeping with somebody and them on watch and someone approaches and they don’t have the means to defend themselves, then obviously no one would want to be in that situation. And I think made the true story and what is so powerful about Desmond is he had such a faith such a conviction and a calling and it really transcended the moment. There is something beautiful in that and I think that when you are true to your convictions and you do stay true to what you believe in, not only are you rewarded but actually everyone else around you is rewarded as well and I think you see that resonate in the film.
Bracey talked about the “intense physical aspect to this stuff especially, the battle scenes. You spend about two months filming that stuff and I think preparation for me it was obviously very physical but not just getting in shape. There is a mental aspect to the physical side in that commitment to everything you are doing. If you take the right attitude towards it you can really tolerate it in a positive way where you can try not to give up and everything you do, you know it’s going to hurt but you know there’s so much left to go as well so I enjoyed that aspect of it, and also just kind of delving into what is a man as well. At what point does a man goes from telling another a man to harden up to the point where can empathize with him.”
Filmmaking technology has changed very rapidly, and Gibson appreciated being able to take advantage of lighter, faster cameras and better special effects.
In the old days you had two stops either way for light but now it’s infinite and you can turn day into night with no problem. You can blow frames up without any loss of quality, you can flop the shot. I mean it’s just crazy what you can do with colors and the color palette. So technologically things really advanced and you can move pretty fast and shoot from the hip but I would say filmwise, in the world of films there are restrictions if you want to make an independent film and this is an independent film. So your budgets are restricted, you have less time to do it. This is a superhero movie so don’t get me wrong, but if he’s not wearing spandex you don’t get the budget.
A lot of things had to come together to make the image happen on screen. The thing with combat or war sequences on screen is it that they have to be clear, so clarity is required but within that wider framework of clarity, almost like a sporting or chess game, you have to have a strategy that is at least readable but it has to look like chaos amidst that. So in order for all the pyrotechnics, and the stunts and bullet hits and the camera guys, the actors, the extras, the stunts guys, everything, a lot of things have to come together so that you can catch it all on the screen so that logistically speaking little bit like juggling a few balls at the same time. But there’s a lot of people doing it. You don’t do these things alone and it’s really about synchronizing the departments, the various departments to come together to really get that image that you want. And after that the special effects that was great afterwards. But the earmark of great special effects is when you can’t see them. You don’t know what the practical stuff is from the stuff that you do afterwards. There’s both — there’s a lot of practical stuff like some 800 shots I think where they are special effects. I mean there’s muzzle flashes and tracers and dirt hits and stuff like that that were put in afterwards that really add so much. So technically speaking it’s a real scheduling juggling match.
Pup Star is available on Netflix today! It is a cute family movie from the “Air Bud” filmmakers, inspired by “American Idol” and “The Voice” singing competitions.
David DeLuise talked to me about appearing in “Pup Star” and about what he learned from his dad, comedy legend Dom DeLuise.
What is your role in “Pup Star?”
I’m playing the dad. Because I was on Wizards of Waverly Place with Selena Gomez, all the kids see me as the dad. I have two daughters, Riley who is 23 and Dylan who is 18, so that makes sense. It’s not so much a stretch because I know how to do it already. And it’s fun! I like doing that because there’s a lot of heartfelt moments in this movie. It is a big, loving, fun joyride with the kids. And my connection and my interaction with Makenzie Moss, who plays my daughter, makes this part so interesting to me, that connection with my daughter and wanting just anything for your kids.
How do you work with a child actor to create comfort and chemistry on screen?
You want to try to have as much time off set so that you can be familiar and comfortable with each other. And so Makenzie and her mom and Carla Jimenez who was playing the nanny/housekeeper/friend who is the kind of mother energy in the film, we all went out to dinner and we hung out, we went for a walk, we got to know each other. I wanted to know what she likes, what she doesn’t like, how her relationship is with her parents.
I was very lucky, we did get to walk around the neighborhood for a photo shoot that shows our house in the movie and so me and her just got to go play in the park. I’d ask her about her dad. “Oh, he makes movies. He likes movies? Do you like movies with your friends? What do you do? What are your favorite things?” I do this with anybody. It doesn’t have to be a kid. I love getting to know people. I just get in there and I find out as many details as I can so that ultimately she can feel comfortable with me so that she can express her true emotion. I will say I’ve worked with him a lot kids in this business and she is spot on right there, professional, really brings it. Jed Rees who plays the dogcatcher bad guy? We just looked at each other like “Wow! She’s good!” Like, “Oh she nailed that.” She really does know her stuff and it is also very encouraging as a grown-up actor to see someone younger not so much working very hard because it seemed to come very natural to her but working and doing a good job like she wanted to be there.
What was the first acting job you ever get paid for?
Being Dom DeLuise’s son. It’s like I was born into an acting improv class. At the dinner table it was, “Who can make me cry the fastest? Who can make me laugh the fastest?” My godparents were Ann Bancroft and Mel Brooks. We had Carl Reiner coming over and Gene Wilder was there. These are my dad and mom’s friends but they are also these heavy hitters in the entertainment business.
So to answer your question, the first thing that I got paid for was a Dean Martin special. My dad was doing a Dean Martin thing and I think I was in 4th or 5th grade. I had had to be a kid on the golf course. And then a producer said, “Does your son want to get paid $600 or does he want a Go-Kart and of course I said Go-Kart and that was my first paid job. I also did a Disney movie with my dad.
My dad always said to me and my brothers, “You can be this business anytime you want, but you can only have one childhood.” We all went to public school, and had a normal childhood. But we did plays and we also had a video camera when I was younger. That was like a hard thing to have back then. Now the kids have studios with their phones and laptops. They can score it, cut it, everything. We had to do like reel to reel VHS tape and try to put music on it but it was a good education.
And I did this TV movie called “Happy.” It was about a clown who witnessed a murder. I played my dad’s son in the movie and also my dad directed a movie this is a long time ago called “Hot Stuff” with Jerry Reed, Suzanne Pleshette, and Ossie Davis. Then in high school I started auditioning. My first real job was an episode of “Hunter.” That was my first real job on my own acting and I was like, “Oh okay, I’m going to do this.” I did some acting classes but I would go over my auditions with my dad and he always enjoyed it so much. He would always say, “Make it a problem, make something happen, don’t make it easy.” He would say, “Does this guy juggle?” And I would say, “He’s a lawyer; he doesn’t juggle.”
Did your dad give you advice about comedy?
What I learned from my dad is you’ve always got to be thinking, thinking fast. My dad, Jonathan Winters, Rob Williams, all these comics thought very fast on their feet. And you have to trust yourself. You have to trust your instincts and your intuition as to what’s happening. I think there’s something about comedy that you can learn but there is also something just whether comedy is in you or not. You either have it or you don’t and I did get a little piece from my dad. There is a little bit of the comedy gene inside of me, so I’m very happy about that. It’s not so much talking about comedy as it is talking about acting and the feelings so you can do funny and you can do dramatic. It’s all about listening and reacting to what the other person is doing and having a point of view. So it can be a very funny off-the-wall point of view or a dramatic one for that matter.
What do you think families will learn when they watch “Pup Star?”
Family is the most important thing. This movie has a journey to a realization that family is everything. There’s our family, our immediate family, my daughter and our dog Tiny but also Tiny finds her own family on her adventure with Charlie and everyone else. I think the idea is unconditional love will always be there no matter what. You don’t need a house, you don’t need a recording contract, you don’t need things; you just need the relationships that you have in your life, your kids, your parents, your brothers and sisters.
W.C. Fields famously said actors should never work with children or dogs. In this film, you have both plus lots of special effects. How do you hold your concentration with all of that?
We had a three split screen, we’ve got two dogs on the left, the humans are on the middle of the shot, and then we have the dogs running through on the right side. So there is a lot of technical stuff, I could be wrong but I think it was something like 2500 or more special effects shots. They have been doing this so long. Actually, they were editing on set while we were shooting. They could see what was happening so they would not move on until they made sure they did not miss anything. That is really smart because then I can focus on acting; I can focus on the moment and all that stuff because they are not going to move on until it’s right. Everybody on this crew was just so funny. When you make a movie like this you become a family. They are a well-oiled machine and everybody loves the dogs, everybody loves their jobs. But when you’re working with dogs, you can’t connect with them right away; their attention has to be on the trainer. And so over time I was allowed to get to know the dogs but you don’t want them to get to really like you because then you distract them while they are acting.
And the kids were great, so professional and easy to work with.
What’s next for you?
I did a movie called “Believe,” a faith-based film with my friend Danielle Nicolet who was just in the “Central intelligence” movie. We were in “3rd Rock from the Sun” together 21 years ago. I get to do a southern accent. It was really fun to work with my friend and play the bad guy. So in Pupstar I’m like this sweet dad and then in “Believe” I am this southern politician guy with a smile who will steal your candy.
Joel Edgerton stars in “Loving,” the true story of the couple whose 1967 Supreme Court case successfully challenged laws prohibiting marriage between people of different races. In an interview, the Australian actor spoke about playing the quiet man from a small town in Virginia who just wanted the Court to know, “I love my wife.”Copyright 2016 Focus
He said, “I kept seeing the words Loving v. Virginia. I saw those words together and I thought it was a very powerful obviously, the couple felt so fated to be because of their name but it felt like humanity versus the system which is really what the movie is about. I just kept thinking about a human quality, a human desire that we all share versus the system that’s all about everything else.”
The movie’s script, by director Jeff Nichols, includes some of the moments in the powerful documentary, “The Loving Story.” Edgerton said one of his favorite lines was when Ruth Negga as Mildred Loving said, “We might lose the small battles but win the big war.” And a woman who saw an early screening told him that her favorite line was when Richard Loving asked his wife, “What can I do?” “She said every man needs to know that.” Edgerson said, “That says a lot about the relationship, the support, of not presuming to create somebody’s happiness but to see what you can do to contribute to somebody’s happiness by listening to what their needs rather than to presume what their needs are.”
I asked whether it was especially difficult to play a character who does not speak very much. He answered, “I actually thought that it might be the opposite and not because I thought I could be lazy or no homework or anything but I know all too well that film is a visual medium and the camera often gets very close. The camera doesn’t lie and therefore it’s important that we as actors don’t lie and if we are doing it we hide it very well. And so I thought this might be somewhat not easy but a simpler task than I realized it was. And I realized that it taught me a lot. When you have large speeches you kind of choose the surface layer or the subtext and do a dive into that and it kind of gives the audience a guide to what you’re supposed to be thinking as a character. When the audience doesn’t have that guide, that verbal guide then it’s up to you to be very specific about the silence, the reasons for it. That became the real task and I don’t think I’ve ever had to think so specifically about silence. The pause is as much line of dialogue is a line of dialogue is. So Jeff and I would have conversations about the frustrations or the awkwardness or the shyness or looking for an aspect of Richard in those silences and try to be as specific as possible so that they became words we just couldn’t hear or screams that we were unable to express. Just because you’re not speaking doesn’t mean you’re not communicating.”
David A.R. White on His New Memoir, Between Heaven & Hollywood
Posted on October 25, 2016 at 10:58 pm
Copyright Zondervan 2016
David A.R. White is one of the most recognizable actors and producers of faith-based films, best known for his starring role in the “God’s Not Dead” film series.
In his two-decade career, David has starred in more than 25 films and produced over 40 films, and is a founding partner of Pure Flix Entertainment, the largest indie-faith film studio in the world.
David grew up as the son of a Mennonite preacher, near Dodge City Kansas, where his early jobs included rock picking (such a job exists!). But as a young man, David felt a yearning to pursue a career in the entertainment industry.
After graduating high school, and upon his father’s urging, enrolled in the respected Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. It was there David was expected to graduate with a pastoral degree and find a wife.
At nineteen years old, David dropped out of college and moved to Hollywood without a job, home, or many friends. He never imagined the vital role prayer and determination would play in pursuing his life-calling in the entertainment industry. Early in his career, David worked with stars like Billy Bob Thornton, Hilary Swank, Leah Remini, Candace Cameron Bure, Kevin Sorbo, and Burt Reynolds.
In his book Between Heaven & Hollywood: Chasing Your God-Given Dream (Zondervan), David shares with wit, wisdom and spiritual encouragement the journey (and roadblocks) to pursuing your God-calling, and how your talents and gifts can have a positive impact on others.
What is your God-given dream for you own life?
I know that it is in being the father and husband that God called me to be. On the career side, it’s been to build a faith and family studio that can impact culture for Christ, and to enlarge that footprint around the world. Also, it’s to use my performing side in unique ways to accomplish those goals.
How can you tell if a dream is yours or God’s?
This is a little more complicated, and I reveal more of my answer in my book. But one way, is the overall question of, “is your dream bigger than you?” So often we have these dreams growing up, and by the time we reach adulthood, we’ve cut them into very manageable pieces, so we don’t get disappointed. I think that is the opposite of what we should do. We should set higher goals, as our God is the author of bigness not littleness 🙂 If the dream is bigger than you can achieve on your own, then there is a good chance that it’s from the Lord.
What’s the role of faith in chasing our God-given dreams?
I think it always centers around God’s will for your life and the freedom that he also gives us in pursuit of those dreams he puts inside of us. You have to be in tune with God to know His plans for your life as the plans may change over time but also faith allows you to stay inspired and keeps your dream alive but also helps you stay accountable to the person that ultimately holds your future.
Copyright 2016 David A.R. White
Let’s talk about your own personal journey. You have met with quite a few obstacles. What were a few of them?
In life, there’s always a lot of challenges along the way, from health…to family…to career setbacks. But the key to remember is that through those setbacks and challenges, for every hardship and failure you endure, they could very well be the stepping stones of success and the realization of God’s dream for you.
How are we to view obstacles? How can you differentiate between an obstacle and a closed door?
So often we are riddled by fear and self-doubt. But I think we need to remember, that our courage is not the absence of that fear, but the triumph over it. As you go through those hardships and obstacles, often time you’ll discover God’s real plan for you.
What do you say to someone who questions their purpose?
This is a primary reason why I wrote my book “Between Heaven and Hollywood” because I wanted to lend some insight, knowledge and understanding into the issue of what is inside of someone, their God-given dreams and desires and how they can utilize them.
Some people need some soul searching time. They need time to figure it out. Sometimes we force our kids at twelve, seventeen or eighteen to know exactly what they should be doing, and oftentimes we don’t. I think that it’s okay. The number one thing should be to stay in the Word of God than on your own, and to pursue God first and foremost.
It will unveil itself. You will learn why you were created. I truly believe that each and every one of us are called here to have a dream, a goal, or a specific reason for living. Romans 12 talks about different measures of gifts that were given to each one of us. We all have a reason and a purpose for being here. It’s a matter of uncovering it, and finding out what that is.
What do you say to a middle-aged person who is just not satisfied and doesn’t feel like they belong where they are? How do you speak truth into the excuse that they are too old to follow a dream?
It goes along with the someday myth. If you look at the calendar, you are never going to find that day. *laughing* There is no someday. It starts today, right where you are at. You need to take that fear and self-doubt, and you need to embrace it and move forward as opposed to pulling back. You are never too old! Colonel Sanders was sixty years old before he started KFC. He had failed at a lot of businesses before he stumbled upon something that worked.
What led you to become a founding partner” of Pure Flix Entertainment?
I had been producing Christian films for man years. I think that my first one was in 1999. Myself, three other actors raised eighty-seven thousand dollars. We made a little movie called, “The Moment”.
In the process, we as producers were learning how to feel our way through the marketplace. I think, at the time, I had produced about four or five different Christian films along the way. None of the original guys were PureFlix, but I had a good relationship with Michael Scott and Russell Wolfe. The three of us had the same vision about having this content on a consistent basis, and knew that we wanted to make more of it.
However, we needed a way to put it out there because studios were just shutting down evangelistic movies. They would start a faith label, and then shut it down. Then the cycle would repeat. So, that’s why we really felt the need to start PureFlix production-distribution company.
You seemed to have a bit of an entrepreneurial spirit early on in life. How do you think that you ended up cultivating it?
I think that it was something the Lord put in me. One of the giftings that He had given me at an early age was connecting with people. I guess the entrepreneurial spirit came in as I didn’t want to do what I had been tasked to do. The entrepreneurial spirit came out of how do I do what I want to do, not what I have to do.
It’s an interesting thing, as oftentimes we see ourselves as stuck doing what we don’t want to do, and yet those times turn out to be the best times in our lives because it gives us an opportunity to think about what we really want to do. So, it makes us get out of our comfort zone to chase what it is that we are really desiring.
Conversely, some inventions were born out of a desire not to do certain tasks. There’s a great catapult for going into God’s plan and calling in your life. By simply designing something to get you out of doing a chore that you absolutely hate!
In Between Heaven & Hollywood, you talked about your touching last conversation with your dad. What was the conversation about? And what did he say?
My father, the night before he passed, had just randomly called me to say hi, and to tell me that he was proud of me and what I was doing. I didn’t realize that would be my last conversation with him. But, I’m so thankful that the Lord allowed me to have it. It meant the world to me.
For more information on David A.R. White and his book “Between Heaven and Hollywood” please visit http://DavidARwhite.com
