Posted on March 10, 2015 at 3:12 pm
Guess who showed up on the Valentino runway for Paris fashion week! Derek Zoolander and Hansel! And Blue Steel, of course.
Derek (Ben Stiller) wears a custom Night Butterflies brocade suit with hand-embroidered overcoat and black Creeper shoes. Hansel (Owen Wilson) wears a Silk Continent print Pajama suit with Double Cashmere overcoat and Open sneakers. Both will be back in theaters for “Zoolander 2,” coming in 2016.
Posted on March 9, 2015 at 3:27 pm
David Milchard stars in “Russell Madness” as the father of a family who inherits a wrestling arena. But I think he would agree that the real stars of the film are the talking monkey and dog.
He took the time to talk to me about making the film, which is a lot of fun . I have copies to give away! Send me an email at moviemom@moviemom.com with Russell in the subject line and tell me your favorite movie dog. Don’t forget your address! (US addresses only). I’ll pick a winner at random on March 16, 2015. Good luck!
They always say that actors don’t like to work with animals or children. You managed to do both in this film so tell me a little bit about what that was like.
A dog and a monkey! A monkey is an animal but some people will say it is also a human. And I work with CGI which means there’s nothing there at the time. So I feel like I can do anything. I have been through the hurricane class of acting. Crystal is the name of the monkey. I like Crystal. She was fantastic to work with. It was a great experience; it was actually funny; the very first day on the set, I hadn’t met the monkey yet. And we were kind of in an important scene in terms of like how to get it done so it was a crash course on how to handle a monkey. Getting the monkey up on my shoulder and then acting as though I always had the monkey upon my shoulder, like it is totally normal. And then every now and then a monkey does what a monkey does which is like really screech loudly in your ear. But for the most part Crystal was a professional. Very well behaved and it was super fun to work with Crystal. And then I learned that if you ignore the monkey just a little bit they adore you more. So that is what I did.
What was it like to work with CGI, or, rather, to pretend that what would be inserted via CGI was there?
We were moving very quickly so sometimes they would film the dog and then they would remove the dog. The dog would do some crazy flip. And then you had to react to a dog flipping but there was no dog. So it was challenging but it was fun and working with the Director, Robert Vince, was great because he was very honest. If it was working, he would be like “Perfect, great!” If not, he would say, “No, we are going to do that one again,” and then he would explain if I was looking in the wrong spot or whatever but it was really great. After that, I’m definitely capable of handling anything right now. Give me any sort of situation actingwise, I am ready.
Your co-star is John Ratzenberger (“Cheers”), and I know he loves to improvise.
Yes and I love to do improv, too. I actually performed in a place called the Vancouver TheaterSports League and that’s where I get my chops for improv over the last, I guess 10 or so years and it was great. Yes, John and I would mess around a little bit. He kept me on my toes for sure.
You were very believable as a dad. What did you do to help the kids in the film get comfortable with you?
It was lots of fun. Working in the “Conversations With” Web Series was very helpful because it is not shot like a traditional TV set or anything like that. And being an improviser I have worked with lots of kids on stage in front of a live audience, which is very exciting and dangerous if you will. And so I felt quite prepared when I got on set and the kids were great. I mean everyone was super fun and Mason Vale Cotton was a consummate professional. He was very prepared. And he was also very adaptable. I mean it is hard acting with the dogs and animals and stuff but he was patient and he was fantastic.
I’m glad you mentioned the very funny “Conversations With” on YouTube, where you played the role of a 2, then 3, now 4-year-old, saying exactly what she said to her father. Tell me how you psych yourself into that role.
I think there is more kid in me than I realize. I always want to try and get what I want when I want it. And so I definitely tapped into that. But basically, being an improviser you just sort of say yes to situations and also you observe a lot. So I spent a lot of time watching my brother raise his two kids and like I said I taught improv as well so I have worked with kids in that way. And then just watching Coco, I studied her sometimes and see what she does. And then I take some creative license.
I like the way you capture the temperament of a child without having to use an exaggerated baby voice.
Yes, Matt Clark, my friend and my partner in crime in the series, we talked about that at length actually when we were starting. We were like “Well, how much like a kid do I play it?” We try to find a fine line about what makes the most sense. Sometimes I do act like a kid because it feels right and then other times I feel like no, this is an adult moment, this is when maybe Coco’s exploring the world of what it is like to be older.
One of the things that I particularly enjoyed in the “Russell Madness” movie was the set. It was just gorgeous.
When I walked on to that set, I was like, “Oh my goodness! I’m in a real movie!” The set was amazing. And we were all really sad when we had to go to the modern version, but that was amazing too. Everyone loved it. And then we were all kind of like joking that we could just leave it up and start a wrestling league here. We were all sad when we had to leave that set.
What do you think families will talk about after they see the film?
I think people are going to love this movie because it has got a great little story. The parents will be happy with the family message: family first, family is the best tag team. And I think that is a great element of it. The monkey talks and we hear the monkey and that is super fun. And then of course we have got the dogs so if you like dogs, you are in. If you like monkeys, you are in. You kind of got it all and the kids were both talented obviously and super cute. So it is fun.
Posted on March 8, 2015 at 3:41 pm
The breakout hit of the television season is the steamy, soapy, musical melodrama “Empire,” and the breakout star (long overdue) is the fabulous Taraji P. Henson as Cookie Lyon, just out of prison after 17 years and determined to get back everything she has lost or missed, including the recording company she founded with her now ex-husband Lucious, played by Terrence Howard.
As the show concludes its season later this month, now is a good time to stock up on some of Henson’s earlier work as we wait for “Empire’s” second season.
Henson and Howard first worked together in Hustle & Flow
Henson was nominated for an Oscar when she played the adoptive mother of Brad Pitt’s character in The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button
One of my favorite Henson performances is in the underseen Talk to Me
She starred in I Can Do Bad All By Myself
Posted on March 5, 2015 at 3:38 pm
British-born actor Dev Patel (Slumdog Millionaire
In the sequel “The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” he returns as Sonny Kapoor, the ever-optimistic proprietor of the title accommodations. His business plan: “To outsource old age.” His vision: “To create a home for the elderly so wonderful that they will simply refuse to die.” His motto: “Everything will be all right in the end… if it’s not all right then it’s not yet the end.”
And in “Chappie,” he plays the inventor of the title robot. I’m especially looking forward to his next film, “The Man Who Knew Infinity,” about mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan.
Posted on February 28, 2015 at 12:00 pm
We mourn the loss of Leonard Nimoy, who created one of the most iconic characters of all time, “Star Trek’s” half-Vulcan, half-human Mr. Spock, with pointed ears and angled eyebrows perfectly designed to convey a wry sense of irony. The storylines of the original “Star Trek” were provocative political and cultural allegories, but the heart of the show was the reflection of the internal struggle we all try to reconcile: fire and ice, Athenian and Spartan, id and superego — between the passionate, impetuous Captain Kirk (William Shatner) and the cerebral, deliberate Mr. Spock.
Adam Bernstein wrote in the Washington Post:
Spock was the ultimate outsider — a trait Mr. Nimoy said he understood. He was Jewish and had grown up in an Irish section of Boston. Going to movies as a child during the Depression, he was drawn to actors who specialized in bringing pathos to the grotesque — especially Boris Karloff in “Frankenstein” (1931) and Charles Laughton in “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” (1939).
By most accounts, Mr. Nimoy portrayed the most popular character of the “Star Trek” cast. While some critics thought that Mr. Nimoy’s acting was dour or wooden, fans might have argued that these were precisely the characteristics of the emotion-suppressing, logic-obsessed Spock.
Nimoy was a fine actor, and he gave a dry wit to Mr. Spock. The character was fascinating because of his emotionless, stoic, purely rational approach. Once in a while, his human side showed through. And although most of the time he seemed to conclude (rationally) that the Vulcan approach was superior, he occasionally seemed to envy his human colleagues’ capacity for emotion. And certainly, he showed himself capable of friendship with Captain Kirk.
I loved his father’s explanation of why he married a human: “It seemed the logical thing to do at the time.” Spock also had the enviable ability of telepathy and could immobilize a humanoid enemy with a neck nerve-pinch.
Bernstein’s obituary quoted an interview Nimoy gave to the New York Times:
“I knew that we were not playing a man with no emotions, but a man who had great pride, who had learned to control his emotions and who would deny that he knew what emotions were. In a way, he was more human than anyone else on the ship.”
He added: “In spite of being an outcast, being mixed up, looking different, he maintains his point of view. He can’t be bullied or put on. He’s freaky with dignity. There are very few characters who have that kind of pride, cool and ability to lay it out and walk away. Humphrey Bogart played most of them.”
He spoke to Pharrell Williams about his life and career and developing the character of Spock.
The devotion of “Star Trek’s” fans is legendary, and the subject of documentaries including Trekkies
A particularly fitting tribute was in an episode of “The Big Bang Theory,” where the hyper-rational Sheldon Cooper (Jim Parsons) has the most emotional reaction in the history of the series because he receives a special gift, a napkin that had been used by Leonard Nimoy.
In another episode, Nimoy provided the voice for Cooper’s Mr. Spock action figure.
Nimoy was the son of Jewish immigrants from what is now Ukraine. It was his idea to use the traditional rabbinic blessing gesture, with the fingers spread apart in a V shape as the Vulcan greeting.
He was also a successful director, not just of “Star Trek” films but also of the popular comedy “Three Men and a Baby” and the Diane Keaton drama “The Good Mother.”
In 1968, Nimoy responded with warmth, generosity, and wisdom to a letter from a biracial girl who identified with his bi-planetary character. He told her to “realize the difference between popularity and true greatness. It has been said that ‘popularity’ is merely the crumbs of greatness. When you think of people who are truly great, and who have improved the world, you can see that they have realized that they are people who do not need popularity because they knew they had something special to offer the world, no matter how small that offering seemed. And they offered it and it was accepted with peace and love.”
He left us with a beautiful final message via Twitter.
A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory. LLAP
Nimoy gave us many perfect moments. As long as there are devices to view content, new generations of fans will love and be inspired by Mr. Spock. May his memory be a blessing.
EPIX will pay tribute to Nimoy this weekend.
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A Conversation with Leonard Nimoy: AIRING: Friday 2/27 – 11:00PM ET, Saturday 2/28 – 5:40PM ET & 10:00PM ET, Sunday 3/1 – 8:00PM ET Leonard Nimoy shares insights and personal anecdotes from his nearly 50-year involvement with the phenomenon that is Star Trek. Star Trek Into Darkness: AIRING: Saturday 2/28 – 10:15PM ET, Sunday 3/1 – 8:15PM ET In the wake of a shocking act of terror from within their own organization, the crew of The Enterprise is called back home to Earth. In defiance of regulations and with a personal score to settle, Captain Kirk leads his crew on a manhunt to capture an unstoppable force of destruction and bring those responsible to justice. As our heroes are propelled into an epic chess game of life and death, love will be challenged, friendships will be torn apart, and sacrifices must be made for the only family Kirk has left: his crew. |
