The evil dictator President Snow in “The Hunger Games” series is played by one of my favorite actors, Donald Sutherland, which gives me a chance to write about some of the outstanding work he has done over more than 50 years.
Sutherland is Canadian and studied acting in England and Australia. His first major movie role was in the classic “The Dirty Dozen.”
Copyright 2015 NBCIn the sequel to the popular television series, “Heroes,” it’s been five years since the public became aware of the existence of evolved humans or “EVOs” who possess incredible, supernatural abilities. In that time, the public has grown to either fear or revere EVOs. It’s now “Heroes Reborn,” and I was lucky to get a chance to talk to one of the stars, Gatlin Green, who plays Emily. She explained, “My character Emily is a young high school girl who is just trying to fit into school, she is probably one of the more popular girls at school, not your traditional popular girl, just really sweet and looks out for the underdogs. So when she finds Tommy, Robbie Kay’s character, she sees him as kind of like the new kid, the underdog maybe because he’s new to school, and she sees that he is trying to fit in too. So she befriends him. That kind of shows you a different side of Emily, which is that she is super compassionate once she finds out about his special ability and she’s there to pick him up and encourage him when he is feeling down or discouraged. And I like to say that Emily is the type of person that if you are feeling sad she’s there to feel sad with you and then encourage you. She’s just a great friend.”
She thinks that is an important example for today’s teenagers. “We’re so easily distracted. Our technology lasts us for 15 seconds before we are on to the next thing. I think it’s really good to display commitment and show what it is like to really be there for people even through the time when it gets really tough. So I think displaying a really good true commitment of friendship on TV is actually a really, really good thing. And I’m happy to be a part of portraying that.”
If she could pick any of the enhanced powers for herself — she would pick all of them. She’d like to have the power to switch to whichever is needed at the moment.
She almost didn’t get the part because she was sick when she was supposed to audition, and she was very disappointed because she knew the impact that the original series had on the fans. But by the time she was better they called her again. “So I went in and auditioned and it went all right. A few days later they said, ‘Hey, if you are interested, you are down to the last three girls. We want you to come in and do a chemistry read with Robbie Kay.’ Obviously I was beside myself excited and literally the day after that I was walking onto stage with my brother Cooper to play music and they called and said I got the show and so it was such a quick turnaround and I just couldn’t believe it. I was just so excited.”
Gatlin and Cooper come from a show business family. “My mom actually was a singer in a group called Sierra a long time ago. So one day they were doing a photo shoot and they all brought their kids to take a few pictures at the end. The photographer said, ‘Wow your kids are really good at taking directions. You should take them to get an agent for modeling.’ So she did and when we got to the agent they said, ‘Would you be interested in acting as well?’ and she asked us at four and six years old and we looked at her and said, ‘Yes okay.'” They started doing commercials and for a while went back and forth between Nashville and LA, but finally moved to LA so they could be closer to work.
She has watched carefully to learn as much as possible from the people around her. “I think the lessons have been many because every day is just a different experience. Being able to adapt, that is something that I’ve learned, like being quick on your feet and just going with the flow. And just always having your stuff prepared so that you can to make it easier for everybody. I think it’s something that I have seen and really admired on set, watching talented people doing talented stuff every day.”
Gatlin’s family adopted three children from Ethiopia. “We actually only set out to adopt one kid and then my parents saw a set of twins on a child waiting list and we started out that adoption process and literally like the next day they called and said, ‘We have some news. There is an older sister that just showed up at the orphanage, what would you like to do?’ And we just knew that God would provide and so we stuck with it and it has been the best thing our family has ever done.” They love doing things together and Gatlin is proud that they always have their home open to their friends. “It’s one of the best thing to know that we have such a tight knit family type environment that people just feel comfortable and know it’s a safe place for them to come and hang out.”
She and her older brother Cooper are keeping up with their music as well, and hope to release an album soon. Fans can stay in touch via Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Juliette Binoche and Director Patricia Riggen on “The 33”
Posted on October 28, 2015 at 10:19 pm
At a special screening of “The 33” at Washington DC’s Newseum, director Patricia Riggen, stars Juliette Binoche and Lou Diamond Phillips, and producer Mike Medavoy spoke about making a movie about the rescue of 33 Chilean miners. I was able to record a brief part of the presentation, with the end of Binoche’s description of the ore in the mine as a metaphor of what the miners really found when they were trapped for two months, and Riggen’s very sweet description of Binoche’s preparation for her very un-glamorous role.
