Posted on May 10, 2013 at 8:00 am
Audrey Hepburn won an Oscar for her first starring role in “Roman Holiday,” with gowns designed by Edith Head. I loved this segment from the early days of television that takes us behind the scenes of creating the costumes for the film.
Posted on May 8, 2013 at 8:00 am
Craig Robinson is one of the funniest people alive and his performances have been the highlights — and sometimes the only bright spots — in films like “Hot Tub Time Machine,” “Miss March,” and “Pineapple Express.” It is a lot of fun to see him in his first leading role in “Peeples,” the story of a music teacher who meets his girlfriend’s very intimidating family for the first time. And it was a lot of fun to get a chance to talk to him when he came to Washington to host a screening of the film. 
When did you first know you were funny?
I was a kid, and we would ride in the car. My father is an attorney and his father died when he was 12, so he was the man of the house ever since he was very young, a “my way or the highway” kind of thing. To make him laugh was the — what’s the Monty Python thing? — the holy grail. When we would be in the car and I’d be in my corner and acting silly, there was this natural thing that came out. I never acknowledged that I was funny but there was definitely something that felt good about making my parents laugh.
That’s a lot like what happens in the movie, where your character has to impress a very stern, “my way or the highway” judge.
Exactly! David Alan Grier, who is fearless, amazing, funniest man on the planet it my eyes. Going up against him was one of the best things I’ve done in my career.
You got to bring some of your experience as a music teacher to this role, not just singing a funny toilet training song to kids but performing a 70’s R&B disco number in a headdress. How did you develop those moves?
For the dance number, there’s a musician-singer from back in the day called Sylvester, very flamboyant, a huge gay icon. I watched what he did and was inspired to go with that kind of vibe, to perform and go for it and not care. It was fun to go into that little mindset of dancing and being free and being so hypnotized by the headdress. And they only made one, so when I got little carried away, it went “CRUNCH,” but they were able to salvage it and make it work.
Was it a big challenge to take on a lead role for the first time?
I couldn’t have asked for a better cast or a better director to step out. We all had each other’s back. And I couldn’t have asked for a better role. I had to fall in love with Kerry Washington. Check! I had to learn from David Alan Grier, show him stuff I’ve stolen from him. Check! Tina Gordon Chism, first-time director, so we’re leaning on each other. Check! It was all these wonderful challenges as we all worked together to push that boulder up the mountain called “Peeples.” And we just had a blast doing it. The biggest challenge was not allowing the pressure to get to me. Okay, it’s your first leading man — but not allowing that to get in. It was there every day biting at me but I’m not going to let that pressure come in and mess with me. I’m just going to do the work.
I liked the way your character didn’t go to the easy silly place of insecurity. He knew who he was.
He’s a “kounselor with k,” and he loves his girl. He keeps it real. The family has all these secrets but he keeps it real. He knows he’s lovable, so let’s go meet the family and get this marriage going.
What do you hope audiences will take away from this film?
To laugh and be closer. And to just learn to be yourself, and own that.
How did you and Kerry Washington work out the chemistry of your characters’ relationship?
We went on a couple of “dates” to figure out who this couple was. She’s such a natural in everything she does. And she’s brilliant, an amazing person all around, and the more you know her, the more you love her. She can speak different languages, she can dance, she can sing. You’re just going to be a bigger fan once you meet her. She’s super-fantastic. I could not have picked a better leading lady. I would do anything she says.
What’s the best advice you ever got about acting?
Every scene is a love scene. No matter if you’re fighting or whatever, why else would you be there if you didn’t love each other?
Posted on May 7, 2013 at 8:00 am
Football star-turned actor Brian Bosworth spoke to me about his new role in Revelation Road: The Beginning of the End
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQ_KNZ4ADGQ
Let’s start by having you describe your character, a biker named Hawg.
Not a guy you want to bring home to mama.
I think that’s fair. I’d add angry to that too. I felt a lot of anger coming off of Hawg.
The second one describes in great detail why I’m so vengeful and angry. And it was important that we were able to get that out because I was in fear what when I read the script originally that there wasn’t enough definition behind the purpose behind Hawg and his vengefulness towards God. And the way I wanted to play it I needed to have that purpose and what I did was I substituted my own anger and my grudge with God for the last 25 years into to something that I think people have the ability to identify with because it happens every day in our lives. When people that we love are taken from us and we don’t have control over it.
It feels like the easier choice to go with the anger rather than be honest with ourselves?
It’s a human choice. And it’s the test and as I’ve learned and as I’ve gone through the process and now that I’ve been saved and released all that anger and I’m starting to study the Word and understand the history of what the lesson is. It’s a lesson from day one. In time and it resonates. It doesn’t matter where you are and what era the same challenges occur for humans 5000 years ago to today to whatever time that we do have left. It’s just a matter of how you deal with those challenges and the instructions are clearly written in that Book. You just accept that fact that you don’t have control of what happens in your life. Only God has control of that. It’s a temporary thing that we are experiencing in this thing that we call life. And there are things that happen that are beyond or control. And of course we are going to get angry. I know if my child was taken from me unexpectedly and without reason or cause, the first thing to do is to be angry. But there’s instructions on how to deal with that and know that your purpose. Now I understand I don’t own every soul. Just because they are my kids, they are not my souls. I don’t own them. I’m just their guardian and I have to give them instructions that I am given so that I can pass on the ability that one they’ll make that choice independently that they will fill their heart up and be saved themselves but I can’t save them.
Just like nobody could save me. And I had to make that choice. Life is hard. Life is tough. And it was not easy and the thing that I replaced in the movie of my character’s wife being killed was my career. When I lost my career I felt that was God breaking his promise to me because I made a promise to him when I was young. Give me this because I need this in my life and yet without purpose at least in my mind he took that away from me. It was more clear now than it was then. It’s hard to deal with things.
At the moment.
At the moment it is.
In the case of being a professional athlete you kind of feel like you make a bargain because you give up so much to achieve that level of skill and you’re entitled to get that success in return.
Well I think entitled that’s one of the words that I might not use unless you act entitled. And I think you know when I go back and describe my change and my demeanor when I was in college. When I give testimony about it. To me there’s a direct correlation to what you’re blessed with and what you feel you are entitled to. And I felt like I was blessed with a God given ability to play football and that was when I was Brian Bosworth. But then when I turned into the Bos and the Bos took me over I allowed things to happen in my life then I started to follow a different path. That’s when the entitlement so to use that’s really when God stepped in and said you know what you’re not entitled to anything. You’re blessed with everything but you’re not entitled to any of it.
Isn’t that the difference between pride versus humility? When you feel blessed you have a sense of humility when you feel entitled you have a sense of pride.
There’s no question, yeah. The way I describe it is I took my training wheels of my relationship with God off and I said, “I got it from here, thank you for the push.” That’s my pride saying that I don’t need you anymore. And lack of humility to me is the mistake that we all make when success is abundant in our life and we have the audacity to think that we’ve done that on our own. That’s just all our doing. And unfortunately is really the key ingredient to our undoing.
What do you want people to think about as they walk out of this movie? What do you want them to say to each other?
It’s not what they say to each other it’s when they go back home and they look at themselves in the mirror. When I did a screening in Oklahoma, I said, “If this event were to happen today or tomorrow or next week, are you ready to go?” You can’t fake God out. That’s one thing. We can fake each other out. And I’ve done that before and I’ve seen that happen. You can talk about it in a lot of different ways. But the one thing you can’t do is you can’t lie to yourself because your heart knows the truth. When you do something wrong your heart inherently knows “I’m doing this and I know I shouldn’t.” No matter what it is. No matter if it’s small or big. Your heart tells you whether it’s right or wrong. And that’s God’s way of talking to you. So when you look in the mirror and say, “Am I a Christian? Am I walking the walk? Am I doing it the way Jesus would do it?” Only you can answer that question so when the rapture comes — and it is coming — are you going to be able to say with 100 percent certainty when you raise your hand, “I’m going; I have a ticket” or “I’m not sure.” You can fix that but you have to do that now and don’t wait until tomorrow or think you have until tomorrow because God is the only one who has our clock.
For me the most moving part of the film was when the Jesus figure says, “Have you asked?”
Yeah, it’s the most important question. For me in my journey I chose to turn my back. It wasn’t a question of whether I believed that God was there. I felt that he was there and either he or I or we broke a promise and therefore I am choosing to not engage him. I already know the answer to the question of where my heart is. If I ask the answer is going to be no because my eyes aren’t ready to see, my ears aren’t ready to hear and my heart isn’t ready to receive him. Not only until I get to the bottom of where I am to where I have to be on my knees begging and asking. I can’t do this alone. And I know without Your help I can’t get home. Are you ever going to be able to ask that question and then hear that answer?
Do you feel that some of the same discipline and focus that you brought to being an athlete was helpful to you in becoming an actor?
It’s the only thing I know how to draw from. I wasn’t trained as an actor and I never really wanted to be an actor, to be honest with you. That’s part of my anger that I had to let go. All those movies that I ever did back in the past was somebody else vision, somebody else’s vehicle, somebody else’s choice and I had to take ownership and allow somebody else to choose a path in my life. Should I then take credit for it? So I consider this really my first movie because it’s the first movie I sat down and I read and even though I was reluctant I looked at it and it spoke right to my heart and it said “this is exactly who you are today.” And it was a godsend because it was like I know that I am this dark vengeful angry man because I choose to be. Hopefully through the process it will stir up something and it will bring me back to me knees and make me ask, “Do you want to still be that person” because you can be or you can choose not to be. But only you can decide that. But yeah from a discipline standpoint I only know how to work in the way in which I was trained. And I go through a routine disciplined and when I know I’m working I turn and shut everything else out. So every day you are working is like game day. You go and you prepare and you discover and every play is not exactly the way it is drawn up on the board. You have to be open to allow the play to develop. And then you have to be instinctual about your responses to that. You have to be real you can’t fake your way through it. It actually comes from a place that you know is real.
So I’m getting the feeling from talking to you that the very process of playing this character was a part of your journey.
It’s the quintessential part of my faith. I wasn’t even really acting in this movie. That character was exactly who I was. I didn’t have to draw from anything other than my own anger. And it was the triggering point to find my salvation because if I hadn’t accepted that movie I wouldn’t be standing her today talking about being saved. I would still be standing here angry, mad, and vengeful and not at peace with where I am knowing that the journey I’m on now has an ending point of a place called home.
Do you have a favorite Bible verse?
I have several different bible verses that I love but the one that spoke to me the most is Isaiah. It spoke to me on the day that I got saved. And I just happened to be reading it. Isaiah 1:18-20 “Come now let’s settle this lord though your sins are like scarlet I will make them white as snow. Although they are red like crimson I will turn them white as wool. If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land: But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword.”
It’s exactly the last 27 years of my life.
And it’s right there. Until I was ready to listen and hear it those were just words and they could have been in Mandarin it wouldn’t matter. It’s clear. It’s like the picture of your life. It’s like “Wow, that’s it.” It’s exactly what I have chosen to take that path and because I decided not to obey Him he’s taken and devoured everything. But He will turn around and give it all right back to you just like Job. And that is a man who deserves to be angry at God. Here’s a man who has every blessing you could want.
And did nothing wrong.
He was the best subject for Satan to prove man’s faith. He still sits down and says thank you Lord. Even though you take everything away I still love you.
Will you be a part of Part 3?
If we get to do a Part 3, yes. I would like to do it. And you saw at the end I’m just kind of sitting there. We shot that last scene and this is how providential the whole movie was. I told them before I took it I’m getting married on May 5th. You guys are starting this movie on April 2nd. And I know how movies go. There’s going to be run over days. You’re not going to get all your shots. I’m leaving on May 2nd because I got to get my marriage license so if there’s any issues with that I guess I can’t do this movie. And back in that time I was kind of hoping for them to say, “Okay, yeah let’s pass on you.”
They waited til the very last day to do all those stunts and they waited until the last day to get my most emotional scene. That scene isn’t written in the script. David, the producer, and the guy that plays Josh in the movie is aware enough of where I was. The sun was down. We were in the desert and it was dark. And he said, “Let’s stop the rest of the shooting. Brian is leaving tomorrow and we got one shot to get and I know what he has to do to end this scene correctly.” So we never rehearsed it. We didn’t do any dialogue changes. There was no dialogue. I said, “Just roll the camera and I’m just going to let it run.” And it came out at one time. And I was hoping at the end that they would finish it the way they did because it leaves something for the audience to go, “Okay, he has at least let go of his anger, not for his daughter and not for his wife, but he’s let go of the anger for Him.” And when you finally relinquish that and you do it for Him then that’s when your life begins. It at least gives Hawg a moment of redemption. I have told people this whether you walk the walk or think you’re the most righteous person in the world and you read the scripture that doesn’t give you an automatic ticket to heaven and just because you may have done the most abominable things known to man and you might be the worst human being on this planet it doesn’t mean you don’t have a day of redemption.
Turn around and ask. And that’s all that I did that day. I stopped and I asked.
Posted on May 6, 2013 at 8:00 am
What a treat to talk to Doc McStuffins! Kiara Muhammed provides the voice for the little girl who diagnoses all of her toys’ ailments and teaches them to be healthy. The latest DVD, Doc McStuffins: Time for Your Checkup
Where are you when you record the voice for Doc McStuffins?
I am in a room by myself with a microphone and there’s glass so I can see the writer and director telling me how to say the lines. I try to think of some things that she does already, how she would normally do it to keep it the same. It would be a little weird if I did something totally different than what she normally does. Like does she nod when she says “yes” or does she just reply — things like that. I put my voice really high so I sound younger!
What is Doc McStuffins’ favorite thing to do?
Her favorite thing is helping toys. But she also likes playing with her friends. Family and friend time is important, too.
What should kids learn from Doc McStuffins?
The hygienic stuff is really important. Washing your hands and eating well and exercising — it’s a problem now because kids have all these electronics and can get lazy. They really have to take care of themselves.
Are you more careful about those things now?
I’ve been working out more and now actually like to go play. I used to just be on my phone all day and watch TV. Now I play basketball and tennis!
Do you have a favorite episode?
I like the episode where Lambie gets a rip and then I have to heal her. It’s a really sweet episode! I like the sweet episodes where I really try to help people out, not when they’re hurt but with their emotions.
What do you like to do for fun?
I really love movies! I like Will Smith movies and animated movies like “Tangled” and “Up” and “The Little Mermaid.” I like listening to music. If it’s really loud and I can’t hear anything else, I’m really happy. I like being with my friends. I’m reading The Goddess Test
What makes you laugh?
I like dry comedy — I find that hilarious. If you have a dry sense of humor, I’m going to laugh at you a lot!
Posted on May 5, 2013 at 8:00 am
American Masters salutes Mel Brooks on May 20 (check your local PBS station listings for details). I love this photo of Brooks with his 2000 Year Old Man collaborator (and fellow Sid Caesar “Your Show of Shows” writer) Carl Reiner. Brooks is an Oscar and Tony winner (for “The Producers”), one of the creators of the classic “Get Smart” spy spoof television series, and the mad genius behind “Blazing Saddles,” “Young Frankenstein,” and “Spaceballs.” He also produced the serious drama “The Elephant Man” and the bittersweet gem “84 Charing Cross Road,” both starring his wife, Oscar-winner Anne Bancroft.
Some great Mel Brooks quotes:
Why should I indulge myself and do a David Lean-ish kind of film? I could do my little Jewish Brief Encounter and disguise it – shorten the noses. But it wouldn’t be as much fun as delivering my dish of insanity.”
My movies rise below vulgarity.
Oh, I’m not a true genius. I’m a near genius. I would say I’m a short genius. I’d rather be tall and normal than a short genius.
Look at Jewish history. Unrelieved lamenting would be intolerable. So, for every ten Jews beating their breasts, God designated one to be crazy and amuse the breast-beaters. By the time I was five I knew I was that one.
