Ron Masak Meets His Heroes

Posted on May 21, 2010 at 3:48 pm

Ron Masak’s face and voice are more familiar than his name. As Sheriff Mort Metzger in “Murder She Wrote” he appeared with Angela Lansbury as the mystery novelist who ran into a different real-life mystery every week. And he has been called the “King of Commercials” for his appearance in hundreds of radio and television ads. This career has given him the opportunity to meet up with many of the biggest stars of sports, show business, and more. He has written about his encounters with heroes from Buzz Aldrin and Muhammad Ali to Bill Cosby, Grace Kelly, Frank Sinatra, Cary Grant, and Elvis Presley in a charming book called I’ve Met All My Heroes From A To Z. Send me an email at moviemom@moviemom.com to tell me what celebrity you’d like to meet and the first one I receive will win a copy of this book.

Ron was nice enough to answer my questions.

Which of the people you met was least like his or her public persona?

The fact that they made the book means that they were all pretty much what they appeared to be. Lucy of course was a brilliant business woman as well.

Which one taught you the most important lesson?

My wife…taught me to “be yourself. My college director had the same advice.

My favorite part of your book is your loving tribute to your wife. What did she
teach your children about how to be a parent?

Be a living example to them…Teach them right from wrong, to “be themselves” and never let them leave the house without hearing “I love you.”

I’m a Chicagoan, too — so what’s your favorite place for pizza in Chicago?

In my youth it was Venuccis, Chesdens, and Home Run Inn.

Do you find that the same qualities lead to achievement whether it is in acting, sports, or the military?

Yes, the challenge, the preparation, the ability to perform your duties.

Who is the bravest of your heroes and why?

Audie Murphy, most decorated man in WWII, medal of honor winner. Who could top that?

Who is the funniest?

In my book a tie between George Burns, Jerry Lewis, Lucy, and Cosby. Not in my book? Shecky Greene.

As the King of Commercials, what is the most important thing to remember in
making an ad?

Timing…If you are brilliant and it’s too long it is wasted.

Do you really have to like the product?

I do.

One surprising thing about your book is the unexpected kindness shown by many of
the people you write about. Do you have a favorite example?

They were all so generous with their time and talent. Roy Rogers, catching a Special Olympian out of the corner of his eye as we were leaving, going over to him in his wheelchair, kneeling and spending time with him. He was special….he was everything you wanted your hero to be.

Botox vs. Acting

Posted on March 18, 2010 at 8:00 am

Amanda Fortini writes in New York Magazine about the impact that Botox and other beauty treatments have had on acting. What is a star to do when deciding between a face that can show emotion and one that looks younger but can’t move?

These days, to watch television or to go to the movies is to be jarred, put off, and sometimes saddened by our nonstop exposure to cosmetic interventions. We’re all familiar with the usual specimens, the Heidi Montags and Mickey Rourkes, whose many extreme surgeries and baroque physical changes are routinely dissected by blogs and tabloids. But I’m talking about a different species of performer. Less freakish yet far more abundant are the actors who, by virtue of a range of injectable substances (Botox and its cousin, Dysport; Restylane, Juvéderm, and other fillers of this ilk), are mysteriously unaffected by gravity, childbearing, or free radicals. They seem to have avoided growing old entirely or, like Benjamin Button, to be growing younger with each year. Either that or they look as if they’ve ripened abnormally, their features drifting off in odd, conflicting directions.

What I like about this article is the way it goes beyond the usual tabloid “who’s had work done?” or even “who’s had freakishly bizarre work done?” articles to talk about the way these treatments have affected the style of acting. If you watch early talkies, movies from the 1930’s-late 1940’s, you will still see remnants of early 20th century stage acting with its arch, mid-Atlantic cadences and theatrical gestures. Movie acting was still in its infancy and it really was not until the 1950’s that what we think of today as acting, the natural, intimate, style of performers who understand that the camera will pick up their smallest changes of expression.

The Method brought Freudianism to the screen. Its numerous devotees (Marilyn Monroe, James Dean, Paul Newman, Jane Fonda) ushered in an era of fluid, naturalistic acting that has continued to flourish to this day….The aim of the Method has, over time, come to define the fundamental mission of dramatic acting itself: to use the face and the body to express subtle, complex, conflicting psychological and emotional states.

But by freezing the face and removing the ability to convey emotion and character with the eyebrows, the forehead, and the mouth, Botox and other treatments have led to a return to acting through more emphasis on gesture and voice, and Fortini says the result is a different kind of character.

Some actors appear to be underplaying their characters, consciously making them cool, without affect. If you can’t move your face, why not create an undemonstrative character? Others have taken the opposite approach: On two cable dramas starring actresses of a certain age, the heroines are brassy and expansive, with a tendency to shout and act out, yet somehow their placid foreheads are never called into play. Usually, when a person reenacts a stabbing or smashes a car with a baseball bat, some part of the face is going to crease or bunch up. Not so with these women. As though to compensate for their facial inertia, both perform with stagy vigor, attempting broad looks of surprise or disappointment, gesticulating and bellowing. If you can’t frown with your mouth, they seem intent on proving, you can try to frown with your voice.

The conflict is getting even more pointed as HD televisions threatens to do to less-than-perfect faces what the introduction of sound did to actors whose voices did not match their profiles. On the other hand, “Avatar” would not have been nearly as affecting without the performance of Zoe Saldana, whose stunningly expressive face was translated by computers that could never hope to replicate true the communication of true emotions, making, for that film, acting the real special effect.

Interview: Mizuo Peck of ‘Night at the Museum 2’

Posted on December 1, 2009 at 3:40 pm

In the middle of all the special effects and silly fun of the “Night at the Museum” movies is one character who lends the real heart to the story: Sacajawea, played by Mizuo Peck with such sweet, quiet dignity that it is no wonder Theodore Roosevelt (Robin Williams) falls in love with her. I had a chance to talk with her about my home-town museum, the Smithsonian, and what it’s like to film a love scene with Robin Williams. The movie is now available on DVD and Blu-Ray.

NM: This may sound silly, but who are you playing, Sacajawea or a statue of Sacajawea?

MP: That was an interesting question that we were thinking about the entire time when we were shooting. Was Teddy Roosevelt in pain? No he isn’t because he is made out of wax. So we don’t really have the history of the actual figure. But I personally as an actress did a lot of research about Sacajawea and approached the role as if I were a wax statute who was identifying with her.

NM: She was such an amazing character!

MP: Doing the research on her life was almost the most amazing part about this! I didn’t know much about her before. In the back of everyone’s mind, there’s Pocahontas and Sacajawea but we don’t learn much about them in school. I got to read and watch really cool documentaries and find out what a powerful and important historical figure she was. I was very, very proud to play someone so exciting. There’s all sorts of fun things to learn about her. The Lewis and Clark expedition might not have been successful without her.

She was not an official member of the Corps of Discovery. She was just the wife of one of the translators. But her contribution was essential. She was able to dig up roots when all the men were just about eating their horses. Her being there, a woman with a baby, made their encounters peaceful because it showed that Lewis and Clark weren’t there for war. There were all these swarthy men doing this expedition in the dead of winter and she was a young woman holding a newborn on her back the entire time, so more power to her!

NM: We in Washington were very excited that the second film was set in the Smithsonian. Did you visit the museum when you were here?

MP: Yes, the premiere was there at the Air and Space Museum so I got there a day early and my boyfriend and I got there and did the whole tourist thing, the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument. Going to the museum is most definitely a different experience after making the movie! And it’s such a great aspect of the movie that it makes kids want to go to the museum and check out all these characters.

NM: What’s it like to play the love interest of Robin Williams?

MP: Extremely bizarre, I must say! One of the first scenes we did, he’s looking at me through the glass and I’m still getting over that there’s a huge giant star in front of me and then the fact that he is doting on me? And in the second one, I had a scene on a horse with him. I’m just like “pinch me” because it was incredibly surreal! We had a lot of down tme together so we got to joke around a bunch. One scene started with us in an embrace. We would get into position and be hugging and then there would be a wait before “action” and there were so many funny moments where we would be talking while we were in this hug! It is impossible not to enjoy him.

NM: Did you have a lot of special effects work?

MP: I didn’t have to do as much as the other characters like Owen Wilson and Steve Coogan. In the first one, Robin Williams was wearing green tights in the scene where he was in two pieces and it was funny to see him like that.

NM: What are you doing next?

MP: Nothing like this giant blockbuster! Some independent movies and my own script.

NM: What makes you laugh?

MP: When people do silly things, and when my boyfriend tickles me. The movie “Nacho Libre” — it’s so silly, but Jack Black makes me laugh.

NM: What’s your dream role?

MP: I always like it when a woman starts off vulnerable and gains strength, a really intense arc — I like complex characters. I’ve always been attracted to the role in “La Femme Nikita.” She starts at such a low point and keeps her vulnerability but becomes a real bad ass!

NM: What inspires you?

MP: You find inspiration all over the place. I’m a born New Yorker so just the people on the street give me inspiration, being exposed to so many different kinds of people. We all are so different but we all want the same thing, love, trying to make a living. We’re all so different and diverse but it boils down to a certain sense of love and happiness. That’s kind of inspirational to me.

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Interview: ‘Fame’s’ Anna Maria Perez de Tagle

Posted on September 26, 2009 at 8:00 am

Anna Maria Perez de Tagle is one of the bright new stars who “light up the sky like a flame” in the new re-booting of the 1980 classic film, “Fame.” I was lucky to get to interview her about the film.
NM: How is this version of “Fame” different from the original? If they make one 20 years from now, what will it be like?
AMPdT: “Fame” is more of reinvention rather than a remake of the 1980s hit movie. This time It follows 10 students throughout their personal and professional lives at the NY Academy of Performing Arts high school. It’s different because it’s more contemporary and modern for our generation like the music and the dance numbers. I think 20 years from now the next “Fame” would be patterned after our “Fame.’
NM: Which do you like more, singing or acting, and why?
AMPdT: When I was younger, I always wanted to be a singer. Singing was my first love then it all fell into acting, but once I started working I grew to love acting just as much as I loved to sing.
NM: What was your first performing job and what did you learn from it?
AMPdT: I was the first Asian American Cinderella in the bay area for the children’s musical theatre of San Jose performed at the Montgomery Theatre. I learned everything from musical theatre–I loved the feeling of being on stage and touching people with my talent. That’s when I realized I wanted to do more and go to Hollywood.
NM: Was there a movie or television show you saw as a child that made you say, “That is what I want to do?”
AMPdT: My obsession when I was younger was “Grease.” I watched it everyday on VHS and knew every song. I would pretend I was Sandy and sing to myself to a mirror.
NM: If you could play any part in a famous Broadway musical, what would it be?
AMPdT: I’d love to play my favorite Broadway musical character …. guess who this is and where it’s from…
“When’s it my turn? Wouldn’t I love, love to explore that world up above? Out of the sea…wish I could be……..Part of that…world….!!!” ARIEL from The Little Mermaid!!!!
NM: What would be the best part of going to a performing arts school like the one in “Fame?”
AMPdT: I actually went to the Los Angeles County High school for the Arts which is very much like the “Fame” school. The best part about the school was learning how to sing different styles of music. I was a part of the vocal department Jazz club and other singing classes so I learned how to scat, sing arias, sing operatic etc.
NM: What was your biggest challenge with this role and what helped you make it work?
AMPdT: My biggest challenge was one scene, my favorite scene, with Debbie Allen. I was so nervous to do a one-on-one scene with her because she was an original Fame cast member. Kevin Tancharoen had to talk me through it and he basically told me that that scene will be the one time everyone will remember Joy and actually see my acting chops. At the end I felt like the outcome was very good.
NM: What is it like to be on the red carpet?
AMPdT: It’s actually very hectic. The easiest part is posing for photographers. All you have to do is set one pose and smile. The crazy part is going through the interviews because you never know what will be asked, but it’s still a lot of fun.
NM: What have you learned from your co-stars about how to deal with fame (the experience, not the movie!)?
AMPdT: I think we all learned the exact message of the film which is dreaming big, sticking with that dream and still trying to achieve success. We are all trying to make a name for ourselves in the business so we still strive hard to get to where we want to be.
NM: Do you have any pets?
AMPdT: Yes! I have two teacup pet Yorkies! Timmy, he’s a boy and weighs only less than 3 and a half pounds and Nikki, she’s a girl and weighs a little over 5 pounds. They’re cute and I love them so much.
NM: What’s on your iPod?
AMPdT: I listen to everything from the Jonas Brothers, to Lady Gaga, Demi Lovato, Jordin Sparks, T-Pain and more.

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Meryl’s accents

Posted on August 11, 2009 at 3:59 pm

Slate has put together a magnificent compilation of some of Meryl Streep’s best accents but what I think of when I watch this is the astonishing range of the performances behind them. It is almost impossible to imagine that it is the same person playing the steely nun, the Holocaust survivor, the Australian mother accused of killing her child, the Danish writer, the barfly. Look at the difference between her portrayals of two women with Irish accents, one Irish, one Irish American. The stunning achievement of her performance as Julia Child is not the accent, or even her ability to appear to add six inches of height, but the way she creates a complete and true character within the larger-than-life and very caricature-able personal characteristics so familiar to so many people. It is a clever trick of writer/director Nora Ephron to include in “Julie & Julia” a clip of Dan Ackroyd’s “Saturday Night Live” parody of Child’s television persona as a compelling contrast to the subtle and endearing character Streep is able to create from the same raw material. Charlie Rose had a marvelous interview with Ephron and Streep about the film, where Ephron said that two of the movie’s best moments, so immediate and effective that both appear in the trailer, were both improvised by Streep. I was also very interested that Streep said she found it liberating when she decided her job was not to re-create the actual historical figure of Julia Child but to portray Child the way she was seen by blogger Julie Powell half a century later. This enabled her to bring in to the portrayal not just Child’s mannerisms but Streep’s own mother’s expansive and generous sense of joy.

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