Tribute: Stan Freberg

Posted on April 7, 2015 at 7:03 pm

The world lost one of the funniest and most creative men in broadcasting, Stan Freberg, who died today at age 88. One of the great thrills of my life was seeing Mr. Freberg at Comic-Con, and seeing the wildly enthusiastic audience let him know how much he was loved.

During the Mad Men era, he was responsible for some of television’s most memorable ads, like these:

When I worked at my high school radio station, we used to play this classic Freberg demonstration of the power of radio.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPbvFv6BJvU

Freberg provided voices for some of Termite Terrace’s classic cartoons, including Pete Puma.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8gQ-YdgeMU

His fresh, brash, innovative style inspired many of the most subversively delicious comedy of the next generation. The Beatles said they were fans. And so were parodists like Weird Al Yankovic, who paid tribute to Freberg on Twitter.

Very sad to say that one of my absolute all-time heroes has just passed away. RIP Stan Freberg. A legend, an inspiration, and a friend.

— Al Yankovic (@alyankovic) April 7, 2015

May his memory be a blessing.

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Actress Speaks Up Against Absurd Hollywood Casting Conventions

Posted on March 27, 2015 at 3:57 pm

Cheers to the understandably anonymous “Miss L,” an actress in Hollywood, for her Tumblr posting real-life casting information that shows how limited and misogynistic Hollywood casting is. Casting Call Woe shows actual casting call notices, most of which require actresses to be hot (no matter what the character). Here’s an example: “We need women comfortable dressing in revealing clothes, for the scenery.” And “She might not be the most beautiful woman in the room, like only a 7 on the typical hotness scale.”

A touch of almost Beckett-ian irony in this one: “Single mom desperate to pay her bills. Salary: no pay.”

And these: “Her scene will include being screamed at by a clown and being gagged briefly.” “Involves some leather clothing to attract YouTube fans.”

Of course it is fair to expect that performers will be attractive. But Miss L is absolutely right to call out these demeaning casting notices and I hope the existence of this Tumblr will mean there will be fewer of them.

Interview: Tom Berenger of “Lonesome Dove Church”

Posted on March 23, 2015 at 3:12 pm

Tom Berenger stars in Lonesome Dove Church, available March 24, 2015 on DVD. He spoke to me about the role and why Westerns have such enduring appeal. And I have a copy of the DVD to give away! Send me an email at moviemom@moviemom.com with Dove in the subject line and tell me your favorite Western star. Don’t forget your address! (US addresses only). I’ll pick a winner at random on April 3, 2015. Good luck!

How did a kid from Chicago learn how to act in cowboy movies?

I’ve been doing Western since 1978 (Butch and Sundance – The Early Days), and that was a big one and it was three months and it was just constantly on horseback, all kinds of terrain. It was in the mountains, it was in snow, it was on rocks, it was on ice, it was in rivers, it was full gallop, so just a little bit of everything. The first time I learned to ride a horse was bareback and it was fine, yes, it was okay, no reins so you just jerk the mane one way or the other. He always tried to rub me off on a tree but I didn’t let him, so I learned about controlling them. In this one, I drove a buckboard.

You play a preacher in this film. What is he like?

He is pretty much upbeat. He is a real upbeat character that does not allow himself to get down too much despite whatever the situation. And so he is not given much to moods or depression or anything like that. He’s not overbearingly joyous of course but he is pretty well grounded in his beliefs as well so he’s an anchor. He’s starting a new church in Missouri in the 1850s and so it’s right before the Civil War. And in the opening scene he talks a bit in his Sunday sermon about that, about his concern that the country could be torn asunder over slavery. And as far as people in the congregation I would say half maybe are for slavery and half against. So remember if it’s Missouri it’s a border state. He of course is anti-slavery and when you’re in Missouri you are also next to Kansas and the Civil War actually started out there. No we don’t see this yet but it was pretty, pretty bad out there, pretty vicious and it actually really sort of begun before war was declared.

Do you typically read a lot of the history before you work on a project or did you know all of this before?

I knew all of that beforehand and I remember talking to the prop guys about certain rifles and things like that, because they hadn’t developed repeating rifles as yet, and all that sort of thing.

The conflict in the film is also personal as your character has to be there for his son, who has made some bad mistakes and gotten in trouble.

Well, you know teenagers. I’m sure this was true in Roman times as well. Romeo and Juliet were teenagers. So you just sort of brace yourself for it and kind of remember what you were like as well. Certainly my character is pretty patient and understanding but frustrated about his son’s behavior, getting in trouble. He doesn’t want to see him get killed, he doesn’t want to see him go to prison. And he just wants him to get in touch with his religion and society. He loves him a lot as a parent.

Well I guess the West was something we had that nobody else did. In Europe all the borders were established forever. There were wars constantly but there was nowhere to go when it got too crowded or you ran out of farmland or it became so established that you never could improve yourself classwise. So here there was always a West where you could go and try it again. The whole country was like that to begin with. All these people get a chance to get away from their problems and start all over again with a clean slate.
And I’m not saying it was easy but like every wave of immigrants there was some hope that they could lift themselves up and be accepted and not be stuck in a class system. There are still many big open spaces if you drive through there. Endless opportunities. But not easy. You can see those old photographs of farmers out there and you can see how exhausted they were.You see them emaciated from hard work.

What’s the best advice you ever got about acting?

I worked with Richard Brooks. He started as a writer but he was a real character. He looked like a Marine with that haircut and the way he dressed. He looked like some guy on the cover of Field and Stream magazine or something. He smoked a pipe and drank black coffee and wouldn’t go out to lunch. I was the same way, I wouldn’t eat lunch and he and I would sit around and talk about stuff. He said, “Lunch is the worst American habit. Watch it, they will come back in and they will be slow, they are digesting their food, the are daydreaming, somebody will get hurt. And that happened, too, just as he predicted.

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If You Miss Downton Abbey: More From Maggie Smith, Penelope Wilton, Hugh Bonneville, Elizabeth McGovern

Posted on March 14, 2015 at 3:43 pm

“Downton Abbey’s” season is ending and it will be months before we get new episodes. Now might be a good time to check out some of the other roles played by your favorite Downton-ites.

Maggie Smith (the Dowager Countess) may not have hit superstardom until she was in her 70’s, but before that she had a long and highly successful career that included two Oscars. In The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie she plays a fiercely independent but free-spirited teacher whose efforts to have her students live out her fantasies results in tragedy. In California Suite ensemble comedy from Neil Simon, she was heartbreaking as a movie star herself up for an Oscar, escorted by her husband, a man she loves and who loves her, but who is gay in an era where he could not be honest about it. I also love her in Room With a View as the spinster aunt who does not see much but who can tell everyone sees her as fussy and in the way, in The VIPs as the loyal secretary who saves the day for the boss she secretly loves, and in Travels With My Aunt, a wild story based on the book by Graham Greene.

Penelope Wilton (Isobel Crawley) has a central role in one of the cleverest comedies of all time, three plays known as The Norman Conquests. They all take place at the same time, one in the living room, one in the garden, and one in the dining, so an entrance in one of them is an exit in another. She co-starred with Helen Mirren in Calendar Girls (based on the true story of a group of middle-aged women who pose nude for a fundraising calendar) and with Maggie Smith in The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and its sequel.

Hugh Bonneville (Lord Grantham) stars opposite a Peruvian bear in the popular 2015 release Paddington. You can also find him as Hugh Grant’s inept and awkward friend in Notting Hill, as the foolish Mr. Rushworth in Mansfield Park, and as the unfortunate M. Bovary in Madame Bovary.

Elizabeth McGovern (Countess of Grantham) appeared in the Oscar-winning Ordinary People as a high school student and romantic interest for the main character played by Timothy Hutton. She was touching and funny in Ragtime as real-life performer Evelyn Nesbit, whose wealthy young husband shot and killed her lover, the renowned architect Stanford White. In Clover she played the white widow of a black man, fighting his family for custody of his daughter.

Also: Allen Leech (Tom Branson) is in The Imitation Game Phyllis Logan (Mrs. Hughes) is in Secrets and Lies, Richard E. Grant (Simon Ricker) is in Withnail and I and The Scarlet Pimpernel, and Lily James (Lady Rose) is in this week’s live action “Cinderella.”

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Interview: Jordan Trovillion of “Horse Camp”

Posted on March 11, 2015 at 3:55 pm

Horse Camp is a heartwarming story of a young girl’s adventures at summer camp. I really enjoyed talking to Jordan Trovillion, who plays Kathy, a shy girl who goes from having no friends to having one close friend to abandoning that friend when she is accepted by the camp’s mean girl clique.

Your film brought back a lot of memories of my own camp experiences, especially the songs.

That’s fantastic! That was one of the coolest thing about making that movie. It was going back and kind of remembering things that I don’t didn’t even know I had forgotten.

Were you a horseback rider before you made this film?

I rode a couple of horses when I was young. We lived out in the country and my neighbor across the street had horses and so we would occasionally go riding but I didn’t ever attend horse camp and I didn’t ever take formal lessons. We went on trail rides. Riding horses is not as easy as it looks but I think a big important part of being able to ride a horse is not to be afraid of it. And I think horses are super cool. I was afraid of them when I was a kid but I had kind of gotten over it by then. And the girl who played Stacy in the movie, Kristen Ryda, she had attended the camp and she was a counselor. She was the one who taught me how to ride horses. So we actually got along great! She was very helpful and super informative and so with a teacher like that I don’t think anybody would have any trouble riding.

I’m glad to hear that because she did a very good job of being mean in the film.

She’s so good! She has a really good little like kind of angry rat face. She’s so nice though in real life. She’s a really great woman.

Why do you think it’s important to explore the theme of mean girls and bullies in a movie like this?

I think that sometimes as adults we forget how difficult it is to be a kid and to be in a huge group of people who are creating their own social networks and cliques and what it feels like to be excluded, and how difficult it is to maintain all of your relationships in their priorities in a crazy environment like your high school or horse camp or middle school or a club or anything like that. I think that it is important to highlight these lessons, for young girls to be able to be nice to each other, to know when it is time to apologize and know where your priorities lie. And it’s confusing as a kid. It is an important thing for girls to have role models and have representatives of things that they can remember and called back to when they find themselves in these difficult situations. And again we have lots of lasting scars and it is very important to have something to lean on in situations like that.

One of the things that was particularly good in this film is that it shows not just that we all have to deal with the mean girls in our lives but with our own temptations to become a mean girl ourselves.

Exactly. And anyone who was met with some success of anything big or small knows the feeling of kind of getting that power and the seduction of it. Even in my life in making the movies,being able to see my face on a poster and interviews and it makes me feel like I’m an important fancy person for the day. And it’s like when my best friend calls me and is like, “Hey I need you up here, it is awkward, don’t worry about it but I need you to come up right now” I’m really grateful that I am the person that she calls for something like that because of the relationship that we form not because I’m a fancy person.

Parallel to that is one of the things that was most refreshing about the film — most movies about teenage girls include a makeover but in this one you get a makeover and then a make under.

That was a really important thing for the movie. There is a difference between being made up and being gorgeous and being a real person. There is a difference between taking care of yourself and not caring about what you look like. And it is true that taking care of your appearance and putting on a good face can make a difference in your life but this should not be your entire life.

What was it like to be all glammed up?

It felt like there were birds on my face. I couldn’t even breathe it was so weird. It was a lot of makeup and made my face feel very heavy.

Another thing I liked in the film was the relationship between Kathy and the girl who was her real friend.

Rachel Sowers is an amazing actress and is wonderful to work with and she is very much like her character. She is down to earth and chill and very low-key. And so we were filming the scene at the end when I’m was giving her the Camp Princess crown and she had been with Terry Mcglasson all day and had gotten herself to the place where she did in the set to cry. I had smoke blowing into my eyes the entire scene so I was already really teary. And I looked over at her and her face is all wet and she’s crying and so I started crying and she started crying harder. And so we had to just hug it out after that as it was very emotional.

What’s your next project?

I have a movie coming out that is sort of in the process of release called A Matter of Faith. And for the last several years I’ve been working on a show called Comic Continuum which is like Access Hollywood for dorks.

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