Interview with “Kite Runner” star Khalid Abdalla

Posted on December 14, 2007 at 8:00 am

Khalid Abdalla stars in “The Kite Runner,” based on the world-wide best-seller by Khaled Hosseini. The book, the first-ever Afghan novel published in English, was a word-of-mouth sensation. It is the story of Amir, who left Afghanistan as a child following the Soviet occupation and returns during the time of Taliban control to find the son of his childhood friend. Abdalla, a Cambridge-educated actor of Egyptian heritage, plays Amir as an adult.
You have an extensive background in theater. How is it different preparing for appearing on screen?
It all came about by accident, just like my getting into acting in the first place. With acting, it was a teacher who came up to me one day and invited me to audition for a part and with “United 93” it was a case of them looking for actors of my descent in London. My background’s in theater but both mediums are about story-telling. You’re trying to find the best way to tell the story. From a director’s perspective it’s very different but for an actor it is very similar. There was a bigger difference between “United 93” and “Kite Runner” than between theater and movies. In “United 93” our average take was 20 minutes, but in “The Kite Runner” the longest one was an hour and 15 minutes. We used two cameras and variety of tricks in continuity. But the actors had to sustain the performance for a much longer time, as we do in theater.
One thing that is a huge difference is with a play you have to rehearse with a sense of the rhythm of the entire piece. That’s one reason you have to rehearse so long. With a film you have to concentrate on each scene and the majority of the rhythm is made by the editing so that in some ways frees you. But in both you find a performance essentially the same way. It always starts off badly, gets going, then slips a little bit. In film you start with a master shot, then cover it. It follows the rhythm of a rehearsal. You’ve always got to find it in a way that is sustainable relative to the whole.
You share the role of Amir with Zekeria Ebrahimi, who plays your character as a child. Did you coordinate at all in creating the character?
We didn’t go out actively to create a thruline, the “how do you hold a cup of tea” sort of thing, but we were around each other a lot. I watched the whole of that section on the set and I learned to fly a kite with him. There was the power of suggestion as well. We play the same story and that story carries both of us. You read me through the experience of one, having left my country and two, having gone through that history with Hassan. When you see me in the bar having the conversation with my father when he says, “I wish Hassan were here,” how I respond to him. You also see Amir begin to stand up to his father.

(more…)

Related Tags:

Interview

Interview: Diablo Cody and Ellen Page of “Juno”

Posted on December 12, 2007 at 8:00 am

The author and star of this year’s most popular and critically acclaimed independent film talked with me about “Juno,” a smart, funny, touching film about a pregnant teenager who decides to give her baby to a childless couple. This is the first screeplay for Diablo Cody (born Brook Busey), whose book and blog about her life as a stripper first brought her to the attention of Hollywood. Ellen Page’s astonishing performance in “Hard Candy” as a young girl who turns the tables on a predatory pedophile showed her to be an actress of formidable range and talent. There could not be a better match of performer and material and it was clear that they have become close friends.
NM: I am a big fan of your director, Jason Reitman, who wrote and directed Thank You for Smoking.
EP: Working with him in the kind of atmosphere he creates is just lovely, awesome. He is extremely assured, he knows what he wants, but he is also unbelievably collaborative. And he has an enormous heart, only good intentions, there’s only goodness with Jason.
DC: I agree on all counts. It’s very rare actually. It’s very rare that you meet somebody who has that incredibly sharp mind and is also incredibly compassionate. You don’t see those qualities paired in a lot of people, and Jason has that elusive combo. He is a great filmmaker and has a keen comic timing, which is something that is evident in his first movie as well. Juno is a movie where he really wears his heart on his sleeve as a director. As a writer it was amazing to work with him because he is such a generous collaborator.
NM: It’s impossible to imagine anyone else in the role. Ellen, you seem perfectly cast as the stunningly self-possessed but very vulnerable heroine. I was especially moved by the scene where she finally lets go and sobs.
EP: Ever since first reading “Juno” and Juno kind of entering my life, I immediately fell head over heels in love with Diablo, the script, with Juno, I became obsessed. With regards to that scene, Juno definitely hides a lot in what she projects as herself in her kind of sarcastic wit and what have you, but the reality of the situation is that it is a bit of an extreme situation, even though Juno in the film deals with it in such a refreshing way. There’s the kind of relationship she hasn’t had with her mother, literally abandoned by her mother, as she develops this connection with the baby that is growing inside her along with Vanessa’s love for that, when it all starts falling apart, it’s absolutely devastating for her. In that moment, when she’s alone, she allows herself to experience that devastation at that point.
DC: Ellen is such a strong actor I’ve seen that people sense a connection between her and every character she plays. I like to believe in my heart that she has a special connection to Juno, but that’s just talent, baby.
EP: I think the reason that Diablo’s script is so awesome and people are connecting to it is so many elements of it are completely unexpected and that is so refreshing. People, especially these days, are afraid to take risks. Mind you, every year, it is the people who do take those risks who are successful, the people who have had those really long careers are the ones who have dared to have a sense of integrity and individuality. And I think that’s something Diablo really did with this script. So you have Jennifer Garner giving an incredible performance, just outstanding. And Allison Janney and JK Simmons, it’s full-on pandemonium extravaganza of awesome individuals.

(more…)

Related Tags:

Interview

Interview: Morris Chestnut and Faizon Love

Posted on December 12, 2007 at 8:00 am

“A Perfect Holiday” is a stocking-stuffer of a movie, a family-friendly story about a little girl who asks a department store Santa for a special gift — a compliment for her mother. The Santa makes the girl’s wish come true, and, after the usual complications, ends up making his own wish come true as well, finding himself on Christmas morning with a new job and a new love. The movie stars Gabrielle Union as the single mother, Morris Chestnut as the would-be songwriter picking up some holiday work as a store Santa, and Faizon Love as his friend who dons the world’s largest elf costume. I spoke to Chestnut and Love about the movie and about their own perfect holidays.
NM: What’s your idea of a perfect holiday?
MC: My idea of a perfect holiday is spending time with the family, waking up on Christmas morning or Thanksgiving morning, watching football all day, having the family come over, people you haven’t seen..
FL: …eating nice food..
MC: seeing people I haven’t seen in months.
NM: Did you ever have a perfect holiday as a kid? Was there one you especially remember?
FL: My parents tried very hard and every holiday was perfect. There was this remote control car
MC: Firefox? I wanted one of those!
FL: Yeah, it was a Firefox. I came down there Christmas morning and there was tons of things, but I didn’t see the remote control car. I was like “Where’s the control car?” and my mamma took me out to the car and she pulls it out and she’s like “I knew you knew it was there!” I had the first Atari and I was like “What is this?” Football with three guys, Space Invaders, the paddles for Pong. Not very exciting.
MC: Now my son wants like an iPhone, he’s 10, I don’t even have an iPhone!

(more…)

Related Tags:

Interview

Emile Hirsch Goes Into the Wild

Posted on September 24, 2007 at 10:18 pm

Emile Hirsch gives a magnificent performance in one of the year’s best films, Into the Wild. I met with him in Georgetown to ask him about making the film.
What does Sean Penn as an actor bring to directing?
He has that whole wealth of experience since he’s done it on the actor’s side. So you trust him so much. Everything he asked me to do, certain things I was hesitant to do, he did first. He ate squirrel. He went first on the Colorado River. He let me know I could do it. Sean was an incredible director. He let me learn for myself, He helps you bring out the best in yourself and there’s no greater gift.
All of the movies Penn has written and directed are in some way about lost children. Why do you think that is?
He is a man of high intellect but also a very keen instinct. A lot of his choices are on an instinctual level in a very pure way. One of the things I admire about him so much is the kind of strong-willed instinct that he has and the confidence to trust that instinct and move forward. Where so many people are in the back rubbing sweaty palms, he is doing it. He wanted to do this movie because he always had a really strong wanderlust, as do I. It was infectuous, the idea that you want to go out and live your life all the way and have more meanng, live it while you have it.
You play a real-life character who died of starvation in Alaska. Did he have poor judgment? Was he self-destructive? Where would he have gone next?
He made a couple of really crucial errors, not bringing things with him like a map. But he purposefully did not bring them because he wanted to shave he margin of error. He shaved it a little too much. He had amazing wanderlust and also had a lot of personal problems.
Did he learn from the people he met or were they just way-stations on his journey to sever all ties?
He was very determined. The people on the road started to open his eyes, but it took the total solitude for him to find himself and what the meaning of his life could possibly be.
It’s quite a contrast to go from this film to your next film, “Speed Racer.” How do you prepare for such different genres?
The directors of “Speed Racer,” the Wachowski brothers, the guys who did The Matrix, have a particular sensibility about performances they expect. It was like being in a sauna for eight months and jumping into an ice bath without a break — with the lid locked!
Were there elements of the real-life story that were especially meaningful to you in portraying Chris McAndless?
The abandoned bus he lived in, which he called “the magic bus.” It was like a waystation, always symbolzing the journey, Where he learns about himself. It symbolizes the question, “Where is he going?” And I read the books he was reading, Walden by Thoreau, Emerson, Dr. Zhivago by Pasternak, Jack London’s Call of the Wild. What Chris did was very similar to what Thoreau did.

Related Tags:

Actors Interview

Ben Foster in ‘3:10 to Yuma’

Posted on September 3, 2007 at 10:22 pm

Ben Foster stars with Russell Crowe and Christian Bale in “3:10 to Yuma,” one of this fall’s two big westerns. This is a remake of an earlier film by the same name, starring Glenn Ford and Van Heflin, a tense thriller about a rancher who must deliver a captured outlaw to the train station, so he can be taken to trial. Both movies are based on a story by Elmore Leonard, better known as the writer behind stories of modern-day crooks and tough guys. This new version is directed by James Mangold of “Walk the Line” and “Girl, Interrupted.”

Ben Foster took time to talk with me by phone between interviews when he was in Washington to promote the film. He was very engaging and very forthcoming about his tactics in approaching this role.

Jim really re-created and modernized the film and really delved into the character development. Fans of the original film will be startled. I decided not to watch the original film. I related to being in an accident where it seems like everything slows down. My research was going through the archival photographs of outlaws at the time. We concluded they were the rock stars of their day. They were like pirates or rock and roll stars, living outside of the law, where murder becomes your show, performance. So I watched glam rock footage, David Bowie and INXS. These outlaws were also indiginous to the environment and its elements. They were predators. That idea seemed to resonate the most, so we looked at mountain cats, how they move and approach their prey. We also thought of matadors because there is a certain elegance to the character. I play the second in command, so finding a certain kind of deviant loyalty was also important.

Foster started acting professionally when he was very young, so I asked him about his influences.

Gary Oldman is brilliant. Barry Levinson gave me my first job in Liberty Heights and really shaped me with his approach to work. I was hoping to be told what to do and his direction was by asking questions, making it your own. Nick Cassavetes (Alpha Dog) works in that same way and so does Jim Mangold.

His future plans:

I’m heading to Belfast to shoot a film called “50 Dead Men. I want to keep doing what I am doing. I’m fortunate to stay busy and not feel that I am repeating myself.
I’ve never avoided a genre or pursued one. It’s always the material and who the other players are. What’s important is I’ve never taken a job because I know how to do it. I look for a sense of recognition. Ideally in conspiracy with the director you create a fouidation that lets the character come in, making room for that person to come through, so you’re experiencing through them rather than through you. I believe you do the research and preparation so you can experience what is going on for the first time.

He admires his co-star:

Russell Crowe was incredibly supportive. He went out of his way to make sure that I felt good on my horse. I had never ridden a horse before and that’s not something you can really fake. He is really misrepresented in the press. He is a remarkable actor. If you’re hardworking and you mean it, you’ve got him on your side.

And the most important thing to know about this film:

There’s a stigma with westerns that makes people think there’s no dialogue and it’s all people scowling at each other. This is more of a character-driven action film great acting, great ride, not a dated western, it really moves.

Related Tags:

Actors Interview