Interview: Liana Liberato of “Dear Eleanor”

Posted on July 13, 2016 at 3:18 pm

Liana Liberato (“Trust”) stars in the lovely Dear Eleanor, set in the 1960’s. She plays a girl named Ellie who is caring for her siblings after the death of her mother. She and her best friend take a road trip to try to meet former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt. In an interview, she talked about acting in a story that took place long before she was born and what Mrs. Roosevelt meant to her character.

Why was Eleanor Roosevelt such an inspiration to Ellie and Max?

I know specifically for Ellie, Eleanor Roosevelt was an inspiration because she saw a lot of her own mother in her. She was a incredible humanitarian that believed in positive change. She believed in moving forward and changing the world. I think for Ellie, at that specific time, she needed someone like that to look up to. She needed someone who was going to encourage her to positively change her life and get out of the mental head space she was in when you meet her at the beginning of the movie.

Who inspires people today?

I think there are so many people out there who inspire us. I think the beauty of this era is the ability to reach other people so easily around the world. It doesn’t even have to be some huge celebrity. It could be your next door neighbor that inspires you. The person you sit next to everyday in class. Your barista at a local coffee shop. And I think it is really important to always keep in mind that you, yourself, have the ability to inspire the people around you. So know who you are and what you stand for and spread some good change.

If you could take a road trip anywhere, where would it be?

Well, one of my favorite places in the world is Montreal. So I would absolutely love to take a road trip there – and that is literally across the country so there are so many fun places to stop and explore!

What did you do for fun while you were on location?

We filmed just outside of Boulder, Colorado in Longmont. It was absolutely beautiful. Every morning before work I would go to Great Harvest Bread Company for breakfast and just snack on a huge sample of raisin bread to start the day off right. We would go into town and take yoga classes or just walk along side of the railroad tracks and enjoy the scenery!

What’s the best advice director Kevin Connolly gave you about your character?

Kevin had a lot of insight about Ellie that I loved. One of my favorite things about working with him as a director is that he’s also an actor. He understood my thought process and allowed me to experiment. Regardless of time restraints he was always conscious of us and our time spent with our characters. He is, hands down, one of the best directors I’ve worked with.

What surprised you the most about life in the 1960’s?

Oh gosh, the simplicity! Wouldn’t it be nice nowadays to be able to drop everything and go on a cross country road trip? Or not have to Instagram the whole journey and just enjoy time with your friends? That’s really what I loved about the story. Ellie and Max were just so trusting of those they came in contact with – they were aware of their surroundings and just took in everything they possibly could from the experience.

What was the biggest challenge Ellie and Max faced on the trip?

I think the journey itself is a challenge alone on their friendship. They obviously faced a lot of hardship on this trip. Ellie specially, I think, had to learn how to accept the love of her best friend. I think on that trip she realized she was deserving of a friend like Max.

What was the most important lesson they learned?

I think both of them learned to not give up when things got hard. And just because the circumstances around them can change doesn’t mean their friendship ever should.

Interview: Adam Devine of “Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates”

Posted on July 6, 2016 at 3:46 pm

Adam Devine is a busy guy. He plays Andy on the hit television series “Modern Family” and a capella singer Bumper in the “Pitch Perfect” movies. He took time to talk to me about his wildly raunchy new comedy, “Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates,” based on the true story of brothers who advertised on Craigslist for girls to take to their sister’s wedding.

You have an epic cry in this movie.

I’ve got a few cries in this movie. I’m a very emotional Mike Stangle. And that’s my actual cry; that’s what I look like when I cry. I’m a true mess of a human. I try not to cry often but when I do it is waterworks.

What makes somebody a good wedding date?

You need to go with the flow. You need to be willing to be cornered by that creepy uncle or weird aunt and have a decent convo with them and you know, no matter how dry the chicken is, say it is delicious. And hit up an open bar but don’t close the bar down.

The Hawaii resort location is just gorgeous. Did you have a lot of fun when you were not filming? Did you do some cool stuff?

Yes, we did all kinds of cool stuff. It was so awesome. We were there for two months so I was a Hawaiian boy for a minute. Zac and I went swimming with the sharks and it was so awesome. We weren’t even in a cage. We were in our boyshorts swimming and there were all these sharks around us and at one point this giant 13-foot tiger shark came out of the depths and Zac swam right over to it and grabbed its fin and rode it. Like an amusement ride. The video is online, you can look it up. It is bonkers and in the video you actually see my green trunks, like hard spin and swim aggressively back to the boat.

Other than your own, what’s the best wedding movie?

I love “The Wedding Crashers” because in the same vein as our movie. It’s a wedding movie but it’s not just about love and the wedding. There’s is a lot of really, really fun stuff. Sometimes I feel like if they get too hung up on the actual wedding and not enough about the fun in getting there. And I think our movie did a really good job with that.

You’re from the midwest, Iowa and Nebraska. What are weddings like there?

Midwestern weddings are awesome because it’s without fail it’s much Milwaukee’s Best as you can handle. And then you know your aunt is really weirdly proud about the beans that she brought for the reception. One uncle has cornered his high school friends to play at the reception so there’s like a really cool weird cover band that’s only covering Poison songs. So yes, I’m a huge fan of Midwestern weddings.

The movie is actually based on a true story?

At the beginning of the movie it says “based on a true story” and people are like, “Oh that’s not real.” but it 100% is actually real and Mike and Dave Stangle are everything you wanted them to be. You think “Oh they are not going to be as fun as you think they are going to be. Like in the movie these guys are super fun and party animals and crazy and then you meet them and they are the best. First of all, they came on set 11 am the first day that I met them. They were already drunk, that night they got kicked out of the Jacuzzi for making out with Australian girls and I’m like — all this cool stuff is happening the first day they get in and I’m the star of the movie and I wasn’t making out with Australian girls, I need to take a page out of the real Mike and Dave Stangle’s playbook.

I think they just go for it. They are the type of guys that, they just do everything until they are made to stop as opposed to asking for permission. They are like “Yes, it will be fine, and then “Would we be kicked out if we take it too far?” And I think that’s a good way to live your life if you want to have the best and most fun.

How did you and Zac Efron work out your brotherly chemistry?

I knew Zac a little bit. Not very well but we went to Hawaii a couple weeks early to sort of bond and rehearse and take scenes and improve them together and when you are shooting something on location and we don’t know anyone there, it was easy to bond with your castmates because you don’t have anyone else to hang out with. And Zac is like the best guy in the world so it super easy to become really good friends with him. And Sugar Lyn who plays our sister — I mean her name is Sugar for a reason. She is truly the sweetest girl you’ve ever met. So it was real easy to love her guts. And Anna and Aubrey are so funny and such good actresses and they really brought it. In fact, I would say for a lots of the movie their characters are way crazier than Mike and Dave. We are trying to hold it together for the family and they really get to let it fly. So it’s a really fun movie. It’s not like a movie where only the guys are going to like it or only the girls are going to like it. It’s really a type of movie that everyone can come and watch and have a good time. It’s not a remake; it’s not a reboot. It’s an original comedy that’s super funny and I’m willing to say that it’s definitely the funniest movie that you’ll see this year.

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Happy 100th Birthday Olivia de Havilland!

Posted on July 1, 2016 at 10:04 am

Happy 100th birthday to one of the greatest and most versatile stars of the golden age of Hollywood, Olivia de Havilland!

She and her fellow-Oscar-winning sister, Joan Fontaine, were born in Tokyo, the daughters of British parents, a professor and an actress. The girls and their mother later moved to California, where she appeared in local theater productions as a teenager. Producer Max Reinhardt offered her an understudy role in “Midsummer Night’s Dream,” and when Gloria Stuart (later nominated for an Oscar for “Titanic”) left the production, de Havilland played Hermia, and was asked to perform the same part in the film, opposite Dick Powell.

Soon she was paired with Errol Flynn in “Captain Blood.”

They made eight more films together. My favorite is “The Adventures of Robin Hood.”

Another of my favorite de Havilland performances is opposite James Cagney in “The Strawberry Blonde.”

She played Melanie in “Gone With the Wind.”

She won an Oscar for “To Each His Own.”

She won another one for “The Heiress.” And she won something more important — her rebellion against the oppressive contracts of the Hollywood studios led to a lawsuit that gave actors the freedom to choose their roles.

Happy birthday, Miss de Havilland! Thank you for 100 years of grace, beauty, and intelligence.

Where You’ve Seen Them Before — “The BFG”

Posted on June 29, 2016 at 3:55 pm

“The BFG” stands for Big Friendly Giant, and it is a new movie from Steven Spielberg, based on the book by Roald Dahl.
There are no big-name stars in the film, but there are some familiar faces, with some of the world’s best character actors. After you’ve seen “BFG,” try some of their other films.

The cast includes Mark Rylance in the title role, and while he did win an Oscar earlier this year for his performance as a Soviet agent in Spielberg’s last film, “Bridge of Spies,” he’s better known for his three-time Tony Award-winning theater work than for movies or television.

You’ve seen him, though, if you watched “Wolf Hall,” where he played Thomas Cromwell.

And here he is as Richard III:

The wonderful Penelope Wilton plays an important role I won’t spoil here. She is best known for “Downton Abbey.”

I first became a fan after seeing her in the brilliant “Norman Conquests,” three intertwined plays by Alan Ayckbourn.

Rafe Spall plays a footman. He was in “The Big Short,” “What If,” and “Life of Pi,” co-starred with Wilton in “Shaun of the Dead,” and he stars in the new series “Roadies.” His father, Timothy Spall, played Peter Pettigrew in the “Harry Potter” films and has appeared in many other plays and films, including the upcoming “Denial.”

Rebecca Hall, who plays a lady in waiting, is also from a show business family. Her father, Peter Hall, is a distinguished director and founder of the Royal Shakespeare Company. Her films include “Frost/Nixon,” “Iron Man 3,” “Vicky Cristina Barcelona.”

Interview: Johnny Simmons of “The Phenom”

Posted on June 29, 2016 at 1:55 pm

Johnny Simmons has the title role in The Phenom, an exceptionally intelligent and insightful film about a troubled young major league pitcher and the therapist who helps him understand the impact his abusive father has had on him. Simmons is one of my favorite young actors and it was a treat to get to talk to him about the role. The film was released in theaters and on VOD and digital June 24, 2016.

Simmons plays a character who does not speak much and through much of the film has very little insight about himself or the people around him. “It was challenge,” Simmons told me, when I asked him about acting when the character is so subdued. Writer/director Noah Buschel “kept constantly bringing it back and pulling it back and pulling it back and I think that that’s reflective in the outcome; you see that in the movie. So on the set, it was the first film where I ever left a set early because we got done shooting earlier that we even expected. I think we left like 1 or 2 o’clock in the afternoon which if you’ve ever been on set that is just unheard of. And I think it’s because Noah knew exactly what he was going for and it’s in his vision from the very beginning. So it was hard to do at times because you are going to want do something when you are an actor and I learned how to pull it all back honestly.”

I asked what Buschel first told him about Hopper, the character he would be playing. “The one thing that was a clicking moment for me was when he said if there was an empty chair in the corner of the room that’s where you would find Hopper. Once I heard that I was like okay. He is really shy.” It wasn’t so much that Hopper was trying not to feel anything. “I think he is unable to feel. I don’t know if it’s intentional but he is certainly cut off or removed.” Simmons loved the script the first time he read it. “I felt that I knew what I wanted to do with it at that point — which by the way totally changed. But I could see where I wanted to go right away. It’s like you start reading the script and you know what’s coming because you tapped into the way the writer’s head was when he was writing it. I feel like that very rarely happens but it does happen when you’re like – I know what he is about to say. And that’s such a cool feeling.”

He felt lucky that the original start date was pushed back, which gave him more time to work on the role. “So we had a lot of time to talk about it that’s one thing. More often than not especially on a smaller budget film you don’t have any time. So we have to kind of fall into each other’s arms and just trust each other. So you always wish your last day was your first day because what you know about the experience makes you feel like you are ready to begin.”

Hopper is caught throughout the movie between two symbols of masculinity: the therapist, played by Paul Giamatti and the father, played by Ethan Hawke. Simmons said that anyone can identify with the struggle to find a role model and the consequence of learning that someone you look up to is not all you had thought or hoped. “I know that I had to figure all that out as well and I think I’m still figuring it out. I don’t know if you ever arrive at the place where you are like, ‘Oh that’s who I want to be,’ because I have been lucky and also unlucky in that I’ve met a bunch of my heroes. It happened to me on this film. Luckily on this film everybody that I met was incredible but sometimes your hero can be a letdown if you let it be because you realize that they are just human. And then that teaches you something. At first it’s a bummer because you are like, ‘Oh damn, they are human.’ I think that Hopper is kind of in that group where he is just a complete anomaly, somebody who really makes it to the major leagues and he gets the opportunity to realize that having your dreams come true doesn’t necessarily mean roses and happy love songs. I don’t know if that’s the truth for everybody but it has definitely happened to me. I have a couple of friends who have gone pro in sports and if you are off by an inch it’s an entire mind game for the next week. That’s how it works, like your whole world is based around an inch. Being an actor but your whole world turns on an inch, too. I guess the goal would be to not let it be that. Everybody is going to have their own issues that they bring to the table but for me the best thing is just giving over to whatever is there and trusting whatever is there and enjoying it. It’s so easy to become caught up by ‘I’ve got to do this’ or ‘I’ve got to do that’ and most of the times the best stuff comes from when you are not trying to do anything and when you let go. Just trust those around you and trust yourself.”

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