Happy 100th birthday to the writer/director/star of one of the greatest films of all time, Citizen Kane. Everyone should see that movie, and then everyone should see it again, listening to Roger Ebert’s shot-by-shot commentary, a master illuminating a master and together both of them illuminating the best and worst of the human spirit.
Copyright Sandbar Pictures 2015Australian actor Brenton Thwaites (“Maleficent,” “The Giver”) stars in “Ride,” a new film written, directed, and starring Oscar-winner Helen Hunt. She plays Jackie, an overprotective mother whose son Angelo (Thwaites) is about to start college and move into a dorm a short walk from their apartment. When he decides to drop out of college and escape to California, where he can spend his days surfing, she follows him out and ends up taking surfing lessons herself, from a handsome surfer played by Luke Wilson. Thwaites, who is currently filming the next “Pirates of the Caribbean” movie, told me that while he did not consider himself an expert surfer, he is better than the character he played, so he had to “down my game because the character actually is not an experienced surfer. He is a New Yorker gone to LA to kind of start the process of surfing so knowing how to surf wasn’t really key in the role but it was an advantage, I guess.”
The early scenes in the film convey a very close connection between mother and son. I asked him how he and Hunt developed a rhythm that seemed to show years of spending a lot of time together. “A lot of it was in the writing, I have to be honest with you. She wrote these very unique characters that are on the same wavelength and only on that wavelength. It’s hard for other people to really connect with and understand what they’re talking about a lot of the time. And the way we kind of got to do that was just talking to each other, was just rehearsing, talking the lines through. I had to audition a couple of times to understand her flow, her style. But once we are in there, there is no going back. It’s quite fun to relish it.
He told me that it was not easy to be tough on Hunt, who was not only his co-star, but his director. “That was one of my challenges; to find the right level of frustration and anger towards her without seeming like I, Brenton, really didn’t like her. I didn’t want to annoy her or piss her off but at the same time that was my job. I had to do it.”
He did not think his first audition went well. “I went to her house and auditioned with her and we worked a couple of scenes and I went away feeling like I just destroyed my tiny chance of getting the role. And so I was called back for second audition with some notes to take on. And in the second one we kind of worked it and I was a little more relaxed. I understood the character a little more and the cadence and the text. I guess he found our flow. I guess she learned to see Angelo through me I guess. I know she had written someone in her mind very physically opposite to me. I am the furthest thing from inner-city New York. Probably not right for the role but I guess I convinced her somehow.” He really appreciated her “understanding of actors because she is an actor. A lot of actors don’t like this but I personally love the fact that she would be in the scene with me directing me on either side of “action” and “cut.” It just created a sense of rhythm throughout the whole movie that I loved. It was quick, it was effective, she knew exactly how to step on my triggers and she know how to pull me back, how to change my thought. And I guess slowly I learned to push her buttons and I guess I had to figure out how to play with her but at the same time preserve her to direct the film. I was trying to affect her in a way that only actors can affect each other. There was nothing to hide. So if she says were not going to get this shot or we don’t have time for this close-up then you know that. It is not hidden behind the camera behind a screen somewhere. She was very open with everything that was going on set and guess in that I learned to trust her and believe in her.
The biggest challenge for him was the first scene filmed, which comes late in the story, “the resolve of the movie. That was quite difficult just because it was my first scene and I was nervous and I didn’t really know what the set was like and how she was is a director/actor but it worked out really well. I think my most challenging scene was the most rewarding so I think that was the case for this one.”
MVP of the Month: Matthias Schoenaerts of “A Little Chaos” and “Far from the Madding Crowd”
Posted on May 4, 2015 at 3:38 pm
Copyright 2014 Belgian actor Matthias Schoenaerts is this month’s MVP and best screen boyfriend, playing patient, decent, devoted, outdoorsy lovers in two different costume dramas. In “Far from the Madding Crowd” he plays farmer Gabriel Oak and in “A Little Chaos” he plays royal gardener André Le Notre. We will see him again soon in “The Danish Girl” with Eddie Redmayne, and as half of the famous explorer duo in the HBO miniseries “Lewis and Clark,” with Casey Affleck.
Interview: Georgie Henley of “Sisterhood of Night”
Posted on April 12, 2015 at 3:41 pm
Georgie Henley stars in “Sisterhood of the Night,” a story of intense teenage girl friendships and bullying, based on a story by Steven Millhauser. I have been a big fan since she played Lucy in the Narnia movies, and it was lovely to get a chance to chat with her about filming on location in New York state and working on her American accent. The film is now in some theaters and available on VOD.
Did you enjoy working on location for the film?
Copyright 2014 Cinemosaic
We were shooting in Kingston, where we were a couple of hours out of New York City. It was a place in the world I’ve never been to. The scenery was just gorgeous. And we were so welcomed by the locals. The whole community got really involved in the shooting of the film which is always fantastic. You know you don’t want to invade people’s space and rub them the wrong way. So it was just gorgeous and we have an incredible director of photography on the movie and he really made the most of the fantastic location that we were working with there.
The film really captures the intensity of friendships which are so important at that age. So how did you and the cast get comfortable with each other and establish that chemistry?
It’s all happened pretty quickly. We were all kind of at tender ages in our teenage years. From the very minute that we met we just all knew that we were going to get along. I remember we had a lot of pre-production stuff in New York and we went to go see a few shows together and we would have dinner all the time and we were all kind of getting costumes and enjoying getting to know each other. Then once we got to Kingston and we actually started shooting the film we were all staying the same Holiday Inn. We all pretty much spent every single minute with other, just became pretty much inseparable and when we were not kind of messing around on set we were messing around at the hotel or staying up until 3 o’clock at a diner somewhere and just having fun and taking walks. So we really did not have to force that connection. It just came really easily. We all just got to completely adore each other and we still do. We made friendships for life which is kind of beautiful but also I guess sometimes quite rare. It was fantastic, it was great!
How did you manage that superb American accent?
Oh thank you. When I thought about auditioning for American project I knew I needed to get a good American accent. I’m terrible at accents. I think American is the only one that I can do kind of possibly. So I used to have Skype sessions with a dialect coach in New York and we would go through scripts, thinking about rules but also kind of developing an ear for the accent. And I found that after I have had some sessions with her I found that I was able kind of just pick stuff up just by listening to it. It is surprisingly easy when you’re on the sets with Americans to kind of let that natural osmosis happen and it just kind of seeps into your brain and into your dialect. So I find that when I’m around Americans I can just kind of slip into it quite naturally. I do stress about it a lot so it is nice when people tell me that it is a good. That makes me very happy.
Did you pick up any Americanisms?
I’ve just been at the Atlanta Film Festival and me and my mom became obsessed with that expression y’all! It compresses everything nicely and it rolls off the tongue.
Copyright 2014 Cinemosaic
When did you first hear about “Sisterhood of the Night?”
I read the script a really long time ago, must have been two or three years before they even started auditioning for it. And then about three or four years later I had this script land in my inbox again and the draft that I read was even better than the last draft. I’m very picky about projects, I feel like when you read something you have to really be absolutely absorbed in something. This script to me was just incredibly raw and honest and just really beautifully written.
And I could tell that within the kind of complexities of the description that it was also going to look incredibly visible stunning. I was like, “I have to be in this film.” And I tried sending some audition tapes. I actually originally auditioned for Lavinia and Emily. I love the role of Mary but I just couldn’t see myself as a Mary. I was just thinking to myself, I’m definitely more of a dreamer, maybe more of an outcast and I kind of fit the role of Lavinia and Emily more. And then they came back to me said, “We would love to see you try Mary.” And I’m like “Really? Are you sure?” I was lucky enough to get the role, and it still surprises me to this day that they trusted me with such incredible role. It was a leap of faith for them, especially because they never met me before. It was done entirely by tape. It was pretty terrifying for me.
You started acting very young. What did that experience help you bring to this film?
It’s kind of weird because I’m used to being the least experienced one on a film set. And then I came into this and I found that people were now asking me questions, and me advise them when normally it had been the other way around. I just like to kind of being able to be a bit of a big sister to everyone. If someone was worried about having an emotional scene or something like that, being able to talk to them about it was wonderful. I don’t think it makes a difference in my performance because I think no matter how experienced you are I’m still always a nervous wreck when I’m on set because I just want to do a good job. But it was nice to be able to help other people and to kind of be able to say to them that it is going to be okay, it doesn’t matter if you mess up, and talk to them about things that they were kind of worried about or scenes that they were unsure how to approach, so yes it was nice to do that.
One of the most interesting things about the film is the way that we see how developments in technology and social media have amplified the typical adolescent intensity in dealing with relationships and feeling left out. So tell me a little bit about how you think that plays out in the film.
Yes, social media is definitely a generational thing. And it was exciting to be part of a film that explored themes of alienation and identity but in an entirely fresh new perspective with this kind of social media. And I’m not a social media person myself, I don’t have anything, I don’t have Facebook or Twitter or Instagram or anything like that but I can understand the pull of it. And I think that this film is really important for a lot of young people to see, girls and boys because it shows kind of the dangers of over exposing yourself and also the dangers of giving into peer pressure, letting something spiral out of control because once something is online it is pretty much online forever. There is no real erasing of it.
The word I keep coming back to it and I know it’s quite simplistic, but it really is an important film. I think it is an important film for people to be seeing and if you put aside the beauty of filmmaking and the beauty and of the scripts and if you put all of that to one side it is incredibly important film for people to be looking out for the message alone. Because it is not a preachy film and is not saying that social media is bad but it is just exploring the different elements of it and trying to show people that obviously there are two sides to everything, there are two sides to all dialogues on the Internet really.
The cast of this week’s big release, the Nicholas Sparks movie “The Longest Ride,” includes three actors with some of Hollywood’s biggest stars in their family trees. It’s a good reminder to check out some of their best films.
Scott Eastwood plays Luke, the rodeo rider. It is obvious from his face as well as his name that his father is Oscar-winning actor/producer/director Clint Eastwood. Here are three samples from Eastwood’s long and varied career.
Jack Huston plays Ira as a young man in the 1940’s. Houston comes from Hollywood royalty. His grandfather, great-grandfather, and aunt have all won Oscars. What’s really nice is that his grandfather, John Huston, was the director of both the Oscar-winning performances of his father, Walter Huston (in “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre”) and his daughter, Anjelica Huston (in “Prizzi’s Honor”).
Walter Huston won his Oscar for “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre.”
But my favorite Walter Huston performance is in “Dodsworth.” The look on his face in the last scene is unforgettable.
John Huston directed some of the greatest films of all time, including “The Maltese Falcon,” “Key Largo,” and “The African Queen.”
Jack’s aunt Anjelica starred in many films including “The Witches,” “The Addams Family” and its sequel, “The Grifters,” “Crimes and Misdemeanors,” and “The Royal Tenenbaums.”
And his uncle Danny starred in television’s “Magic City” and “American Horror Story” and played a key role in Tim Burton’s “Big Eyes.”
Ira’s wife is played by Oona Chaplin, whose grandfather and great-grandfather were two of the greatest talents of the 20th century. Her grandfather was Charlie Chaplin.
She is named for her grandmother, Oona O’Neill, the daughter of playwright Eugene O’Neill.
And her mother is Geraldine Chaplin, who appeared in several films, including “Doctor Zhivago.”
Ira as an old man is played by Alan Alda, who is also the son of a well-known performer, Robert Alda, who originated the role of Skye Masterson in the Broadway musical “Guys and Dolls.” Here he is doing a duet on an old television show.
You can see the progeny of these stars in “The Longest Ride” trailer.
. I have been a big fan since she played Lucy in the 
, and it was lovely to get a chance to chat with her about filming on location in New York state and working on her American accent. The film is now in some theaters and available on VOD.
