08.9.2010 | By Jack Rico |
When you have a smile like that then you must be none other than Julia Roberts. I sat down with the EAT PRAY LOVE star to talk amongst many things, porn, yes porn, and what she thinks happiness really is.
07.1.2010 | By Namreta Kumar |
ShowBizCafe: How important was it for you to stay true to the series, furthermore how important was it in casting that it is an Asian cultural creation?
M. Night Shyamalan: Yeah well, the great news is I’m Asian so that worked out really well and I felt excited because this would be different. If someone, you know, Paramount called me and said, “hey would you look at this series called Last Airbender and see if you would be interested,†then I would approach it very differently.
What happened is one of the fans of the show asked to make the movie. I just became obsessed with the show, as everyone in our family was, it was like a cultural thing in our family. And I asked to make it, I begged them to make it, I gave them a million reasons, had a million meetings that this is why we should make it. Nickelodeon, Paramount, Viacom, everything, campaign, and we got to make it. And so I was coming from the fan and then I got to know Mike and Bryn really well and what their limitations were.
They were making for Nickelodeon, for a certain demographic, and they were going for a certain thing; but it was the wrong fit for me. The story was bigger and darker; it was talking about reincarnation and genocide and all kinds of cool stuff that you couldn’t dwell on too much cause it is supposed to be for a six-year old/seven year old to enjoy, and I wanted to bring all those flavors to the forefront. I felt really good about the balance. You know, the people we have shown the movie to, fans of the movie, 100% feel the spirit of the show and the spirit of the movie are identical.
The details are, for me, to make the grounded realistic version of the movie. So I felt like I can’t, with the exception of on thing which we can talk about, I really went through it methodically, made everything grounded for me. And so I cant say Ang, I am going to say Aang; that is going to be symbolically what the difference is between the movie and the show, that the Asian pronunciation of Aang, you know, it’s not Ang Lee. And that is ok when you, it’s not even ok; but lets say it’s acceptable if it was for a particular medium, but it’s not acceptable for me to do it, it’s just not acceptable… That all the way across grounded everything, you know, everything for me.
A mythology, like the Fire Nation, I wanted to have the same limitations as everyone else and they were limited by their source, but at the highest, highest level you could turn your chi into fire. Iroh can do it and like when the comet comes they will all do it for that day, and that’s the day you don’t want to be anywhere near a firebender. Like that was a really cool tweak to the mythology. I made slight choices, changes like that, but generally it was exactly the same.
There are some practical ones, like in the end of the first movie they had a giant. Ang became a giant, I don’t know if you have seen the show, he becomes a giant water fish and stands up. That’s a direct pull from Princess Mononoke, the Miyazaki movie, it is directly pulled; so I can’t then put it into a movie that was pulled from a movie to put it in a cartoon. Those are some practical issues. They were very inspired by movies, and I had to make it a new original movie.
And also physically… I am getting of tangent… Ok we will go to casting…
The casting of the movie was a really wonderful opportunity for me to make a world of nationalities that I was excited about and diverse. It’s one of the great assets of the movie and the subject matter, that it is barring from all cultures: Indian, Thai, Japanese, anything you know. Every single culture was barrowed from in the backgrounds of this show so I was really excited by it.
I think that there is this small group that is vocal here about the fact that I didn’t cast the correct Asians in it, and, five to seven thousand people are very very vocal. Here is the thing; Anime is an art form based on ambiguous facial features. It’s part of the art form. You got a problem with that, talk to the dudes who invented Anime, it’s not my issue, ok. That girl looks like my daughter. That boy looks like Noah. There is no intuit that looks like Katara. It’s just not true; she looks like my daughter. My daughter is a dupe of Katara, right. So our family saw ourselves in it, so another, a Hispanic family saw themselves in it. My daughter’s best friend is Hispanic, she saw, their whole family thinks, and they are all Hispanic, and that is true and that is the beauty of Anime. We all see ourselves as incredibly ambiguous and wonderful. I wanted to be diverse I wanted to be more diverse so I had to deal with the cultures that came in. This wasn’t an agenda for me it is just very open to me.
Dev was really the kind of crux, who was going to be Zuko was the issue and there were a lot of people that were the finalists. There is this kid in London who tried out and I was like this goofy kid he killed this audition and I was like but there is no way I can cast this guy and I was like could I? Then suddenly Slumdog came out and I was like man; I called Paramount and I was like is this crazy but this kid should play this prince that is completely too sweet and too soft for his dad who thinks he should be ruthless and is a totally different way to go but I would love it. We had him come in and I was like this is the guy and so that decided the Fire Nation for me. I thought it was Mediterranean, Indian, Persian and I was lucky enough to find Shaun Toub, who I loved from Iron Man, to play my favorite character, Uncle Iroh, who is like the sage of the part, so that was that.
So Noah came in, and for me Noah, I didn’t know Noah’s background, felt mixed. I never met his Dad and I saw his mom and I thought he was mixed, so I made all the Air Nomads mixed. So everyone is, no one isn’t mixed in the monks; Gyatso is African American and Spanish, and everybody is mixed and that made sense as Nomads. So that is how that country went, and that nation went.
And then Jessica, who is cut from the movie, auditioned and became Suki, who was the big character in the movie for the Kyoshi warriors, who were big characters. Super sad, this was the character that I had to cut last minute. The Earth Kingdom, which is the largest kingdom, became for me the broadest. I mean a lot of it got cut down because the Earth Kingdom part got cut down, cause the second movie is all based on the Earth Kingdom. But there is a Mongolian town and a Korean town and then I made a whole area of the Earth Kingdom, and it is huge, an African American town, that they actually came to. There was a whole sequence there that got cut.
That became the three nations there and then Nicola came in and so I said well the Water Tribe is going to be the Anglo-European look, I just don’t want blond people, sorry about that, in the movie. It just pulls me for some reason and so only they aren’t represented in the movie.
It moved around then finally it came to this world; and I said that’s going to work well, cause the second movie is entirely in the Earth Kingdom and the third movie is entirely in the Fire Nation and I think when we are done these three movies will be, without even a second place, the most culturally diverse movies ever made by Hollywood. And so the irony, for me, is if you look at me and say I am a problem, that I am the poster child for Racism in Hollywood, you look at the movie poster and you have Noah and Dev on the movie poster back to back and my name over it and this is your issue with the state of Hollywood I am saddened by it.
ShowBizCafe: You have had this increasing criticism amongst the critics over the last several years, you are known as a recognized filmmaker, a very exceptional filmmaker, but over the years criticism had increased; do you feel like another filmmaker in your position wouldn’t have gotten as much criticism?
M Night Shyamalan: No, I think they would have. I mean it’s a compliment when everybody is up my ass all the time, it really is. You gotta look at it as if they dismissed you, they weren’t paying attention. They are either trying to dissect you to show you why you aren’t that great, which is a wonderful thing for them to try to do for my entire life. My job is to just keep making movies, and it will go away or I will prove them right or wrong, right? And so time will tell, and so I am fine with that. In the end your critics are your hard teachers. You want them to tell you you are no good because of this and this, even if they secretly believe the opposite. It’s good to be tough on yourself.
ShowBizCafe: How big of a decision was it to do something like this, because after your last film, you were so overexposed, this one is not exactly an Indie film; did you give any thought to doing something smaller, so that maybe there was less pressure, less focus on you?
Dev Patel: Yeah, I mean that is what I wanted to do. I see myself as a, especially after Slumdog, I just love the feel of the shoot of a baby film, of an Idie film. There is so much heart involved and you feel so much more connected to the character, you know, there is no other, it is just you and you have got a lot more say in the process. But what I was getting offered wasn’t satisfactory, wasn’t stretching me, and … yeah, it was a dead patch and then this came along and I was like he is called Zuko. And Andrew Lesnie, the cinematographer from Lord of the Rings is shooting it, M. Night Shyamalan is directing, Frank Marshall is producing, you’d be stupid not to want to be a part of it. It just moved away from the whole, you know; for someone that looks like me it’s a lot easier to get typecast so I have to be a lot more careful about falling into that trap and not being able to get out again. So I have really, and it is a responsibility as well, I have been given a great platform from Slumdog to open doors for actors like me. So I try my best, there is a certain point where you have to be like you can’t just bat away everything, you need to get in front of a camera and just get working because you want to be in front of a camera because you are an actor.
ShowBizCafe: Night is very much known for a specific kind of storytelling, were you confident from the beginning that he would be able to handle a huge production like this and an adaptation?
Dev Patel: Yeah, Yeah, Yeah. I mean the way he spoke of it was um… you know, when you are using your imagination a lot you need a director that is going to be a great storyteller and put you in that place and in that moment, and he really did that. He actually did that physically as well. I mean you actually go and see the sets we didn’t have to imagine too much. I think he built one of the biggest sets on the east coast; and your walking in there and you feel like you are in an Ice Palace or something and then obviously to Greenland, which was freezing.
ShowBizCafe: Talking about the bigger arc of the character, did you lay some of the seeds for that in this performance?
Dev Patel: Um, yes and no. I mean everyone says have you seen the entire series, and I have only seen the first season, and I got a bit tempted so I have seen a few more episodes here and there; but, um, I want to stay as innocent as possible and unclouded, untainted by any of what the character goes through in the cartoon so that when I am shooting I am just in that moment. And it is kind of hard because you are going to read the whole script and then do it, but it really does help to a certain extent. You know when you watch cartoons, it’s like he has got this… it is a lot more black and white in the cartoon. He is a lot more erratic and angry all the time and him and his uncle are constantly bickering and he is like, “Shut Up Uncle. Go away. I can do this.†And when you watch it and you know that you are going to do a live action film you know that you have to make this human and you need to bring some sort of a sense of depthiness to the character, grittiness. So I remember thinking what would make me special in this character that no other guy can do, and I remember thinking about it and I was like imagine if I was a boy with so much pressure on my shoulders, you know, I am the Prince of a nation and I have been banished by my father, all I want to do is just get his love back and it just sends me into this mine of confusion because I know this mission he is sending me on is wrong, it’s quite, it’s morally wrong to capture this boy when I know, in subconsciously, he is doing something good. And so that, I play this whole other sense of vulnerability to the character, whereas lots of fans of the cartoon think he is so badass, and you see a bit of that when he fights. I tried to find this sort of confusion and vulnerability in him.
03.18.2010 | By Namreta Kumar |
ShowBizCafe.com (SBC) had the opportunity to talk to Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning about their new film ‘The Runaways,” opening March 19, 2010. They let us in on how the music and the Rock icons Joan Jett and Cherie Currie influence them today:
SBC: You know what it feels like to have thousands of people screaming at you, due to your previous films, and now you are playing Rock musicians on stage. Although for a film, can you guys compare and contrast the energy that you get from fans in the two fields?
Dakota: I think it is hard comparing an actor with someone that is in music. I think it is really different, especially me just playing a musician. It is kind of a different energy that you feel than actually someone screaming for you or cheering for you personally. Also with actors, most of the time, those people are fans of whom you played and a character. They see you as that character, as appose to a musician they love YOU and who YOU are and how you project yourself onto other people; as appose to an actor, how you project your character onto other people.
Kristen: Musicians make statements. They are there to be themselves. That is just not who we are. I feel like they are much more public figures than actors almost because they are more like… she (Dakota) said it already.
SBC:How was the experience of working with Floria, and was their any real challenge to get it right for the real life people you were portraying?
Kristen: That was the whole thing. That is why the performances were the most intimidating thing, because they have very distinct styles. They’re performers and we’re… I am not a performer, so that was a new thing for me. When I first started watching Joan do these songs, she was SO full of something that I thought that I could never, that nobody could ever try to emulate because that is unique to her. Nobody else has that. When she looks into the crowd, and there are certain videos that you get lucky and there is a good shot of her because they are kind of rare, but she stares into that camera and you just think I am never going to be able to do that. So that was the hugest thing for us, because for Joan it is all about the music. Even if the movie’s story line completely fell short and people were disappointed by it, if the music was still good she would be good, people are listening.
SBC: Can you both talk about what makes them icons, beyond the obvious, what to you resonated of both characters, both people?
Kristen: Well Joan the first woman to start her own record label. She was basically told after The Runaways broke up, after such a successful extravagant, for a couple of years, time at such a young age, that she was done and that was it and she had peaked. Despite The Runaways success people still didn’t want to hear, people still didn’t like her style, people still thought she was too aggressive, and people didn’t wan to see that in a girl, she was ugly and she wasn’t girlie enough. She is not just a famous musician because she makes cool music, she makes really great music and it is filled with her. She is in her music; she says it all the time, if you want to know me read my lyrics. Or jus listen to the guitar she is playing. So what is cool is that it is not just because of that she made some headway and people should know where she came from; that is why The Runaways is so cool because I didn’t even know about The Runaways, I didn’t even know who they were.
Dakota: For Cherrie I think, what I took away, a lot form her was the sacrifice that she makes and to give up what she loves to do because she even says it today that she would have died, if she had continued on the path she was on. To watch someone give that sacrifice… I was looking at myself and I thinking to myself could I give that up myself and obviously I am not on a downward spiral like she was, but that is a really hard thing to do; and to watch the person that you are closest to become Joan Jett and to have zero resentment and to be so proud of Joan is such an amazing thing to watch in Cherrie; so she is pretty inspiring to me.
02.23.2010 | By Jack Rico |
So our fearless reporter Karen Posada had to go out and hunt for the truth on what’s going on with Bruce Willis and ‘Die Hard 5’. Since MTV posted it’s version of the events we decided to also present our own on video of the action from the Cop Out junket in NYC.
From the looks of it, it’s not officially happening… yet! They are in strong negotiations to shoot in 2011. He was serious when he said it, but he’s confident that it is.
He is definitely shooting RED in Toronto about a former black-ops agent who reassembles his old team in a last ditch effort to survive a threat by a high-tech assassin. The cast is pretty legit… Morgan Freeman, Helen Mirren, Richard Dreyfuss, John Malkovich, Mary-Louise Parker, Brian Cox, and Oscar winner Ernest Borgnine (Marty).
One thing he did want to squash were the IMDb reports of him filming The Last Full Measure and Morgan’s Summit. Sounds like they fell apart at the very end.
02.15.2010 | By Jack Rico |
It was a cold day in New York City as I arrived at one of New York’s top hotels, Le Meridien, to attend an exclusive press conference with Martin Scorsese, Leonardo DiCaprio, author Dennis Lehane, amongst others, to discuss ‘Shutter Island‘, Scorsese’s new cinematic effort.
First off was Lehane and his crew. Every one got off questions, including me. Then Scorsese’s crew came in and only 4 questions were asked – I was one of the lucky ones to get one in.
What you will hear in the audio slide to the left to you are the questions I asked DiCaprio, Scorsese and Lehane, in order. Essentially, this audio encompasses DiCaprio’s thoughts on his acting, how difficult it was to film these scenes, along with Scorsese’s directorial style and Lehane’s thoughts on the film adaptation of the book.
Without further adieu, here is the official interview from the stars of ‘Shutter Island‘.
01.21.2010 | By Karen Posada |
ShowBizCafe.com (SBC) got a chance to talk to the actor, screenwriter, film director and producer Mel Gibson about his new film ‘The Edge of Darkness’; opening January 29th nationwide. He excitedly gave us the back story of the movie and also spoke to us about his upcoming projects.
ShowBizCafe: So Mel, how does it feel to be back in a starring role? We haven’t seen you in one since the movie ‘Signs’ in 2002. How is this role different from the other ones we’ve seen you in?
Mel Gibson: Wow 2002, that’s 8 years? Well it’s about 8 years different (laughs). Well if you haven’t been on the board for so long you make different choices, time informs that, so it’s different. [In this movie] the character is a blue collar cop who is dealing with the loss of a child and dealing with grief; he’s on the edge of a nervous breakdown. I guess I’ve been on similar territory before but this has a nice feel to it. I liked the original TV series when it was on during the 80’s, also done by the same director who decided to add something new to it. It’s kind of a harbinger; it gives a social warning of where we might be headed.
SBC: Talking about the director Martin Campbell who is behind both projects, what can people expect in the film and was there more pressure because of its association with the series?
M.G: Well it’s essentially the same, it’s a very human story involving heighten circumstances, it was changed according to the times. The original series was on during the coal miner strike, union stuff, and civil unrest; so he found a new backdrop for the movie. It resides in the healthy paranoia we all have perhaps, on what our leaders may be up to. [The script] reminded me of Jacobean tragedies from the 17th century, this film kind of has the look and feel of them, and I’ve always been a big fan of them so this was one of the things that attracted me to it. It’s about getting even, and everyone getting their justice served, nobody gets a free ride.
SBC: Are you working on any projects right now that we can look forward to seeing soon?
M.G.: Well I have 3 projects lined up – Am writing a story to be shot down in Mexico, which will be rearing its ugly head soon. I’ve also signed to work with Shane Black on his next directing effort. [Finally] I’m writing another story with Bill Monahan and Graham King who I worked with on ‘The Edge of Darkness’, I don’t think anyone has done the Viking movie right yet, I’ve seen plenty but none that do it for me; so I’m gonna make one that does it for me and everybody else, I’m gonna put the ‘V’ back in Viking. It’s the biggest punch in the balls you’ll ever get.
09.21.2009 | By Jack Rico |
Charlize Theron chats up our own Jack Rico on winning the Oscar and her desire to win another one with a Latino filmmaker!
08.11.2009 | By Alex Florez |
Recently I had a chance to sit down with Oscar award winning filmmaker Davis Guggenheim (An Inconvenient Truth) in New York to talk about his latest documentary It Might Get Loud. The film tells the personal stories, in their own words, of three generations of electric guitar virtuosos – The Edge (U2), Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin), and Jack White (The White Stripes). It reveals how each developed his unique sound and style of playing favorite instruments, guitars both found and invented.
We spoke about documentary filmmaking, whether the non-fans will enjoy the movie and his arguable decision to include Jack White in the film. Here in full, the Q & A:
AF: First of all, congratulations on the film, I thoroughly enjoyed it! However, I almost have to say that with an asterisk at the end. That’s because I’m a fan of all three musicians in the film. But I also have a lot of friends that are ‘U2 haters’ who say things like “The Edge is nothing but pedals and effects…he’s not a true guitarist!â€
How much do you worry about getting the non fans out to watch the film?
DG: Well the thing about the movie is that it’s kind of universal. Some fans may like this band more than that band but everyone responds to these guys as artists. We all grew up to this music and this movie shows you how they made it and why they made it and the people behind it. So I find that for non guitarists, people will like it even more because they connect with the artistry behind it. The super guitar geeks want to look at the chords being played but this is not about that, this about how these kids from different times, from different generations, took their obsessions and became rock stars.
AF:Â So is it fair to say that these bands will get some new fans out of the movie?
DG: Oh yeah. It already has. My son bought a mandolin and now he’s playing ‘The Battle of Evermore’. Years later, Led Zeppelin still moves people. U2 still moves people. All this music is still cutting edge.
AF: I want to talk about your selection process. For the film you chose three guitar virtuosos from three different generations. While it’s difficult to argue with the contributions that both Jimmy Page and The Edge have made in their respective eras, I think Jack White is a curious and somewhat debatable choice to represent our time. Perhaps because we’re not far enough removed from the era.
Did you ever consider someone else instead of Jack White? For instance, Tom Morello from Rage Against the Machine. Or did you just need a singer? Was this your original wish list of guitarists?
DG: We knew we weren’t going to get everybody. In fact, if we tried to make a movie about everybody it would be too diluted. You’d spend three minutes on Tom Morello, three minutes on Eric Clapton…We thought, why not pick 3 guys from 3 different generations? And it was important to have Jack White because he is still becoming, he’s got two new bands, and he’s also a singer, but most importantly because he represents the next innovator. He’s such an innovator. His sound is so distinct. He’s so creative. To me, he embodies what Led Zeppelin embodies: experimentation, improvisation and aggression. You could easily make a movie about Tom Morello or Eric Clapton too…I really wanted Jimi Hendrix but he wasn’t available.
AF:Â What kind of guitarists did you grow up with?
DG: I was a huge fan of U2 because my brother brought home that first album called ‘Boy’ and I was like ‘this is my music!’ It was so different and so direct and so different from the classic rock that everyone else was listening to. But it was years later that I started to realize Led Zeppelin is this really amazing band. ‘I cannot ignore Led Zeppelin.’ It was a half a generation ahead of me so I really didn’t look into it at first. But then when you hear it, you’re like ‘this is such great music, this is great musicianship and it’s the root of all the rock and roll that followed it.’ Everyone who came up after Led Zeppelin had to deal with Led Zeppelin because they were so good.
AF: Its interesting to me too. Led Zeppelin was obviously before my time but when you really fall in love with a band like U2 you eventually start to trace their roots, their musical family tree and you find out that sure enough, it was Led Zeppelin, The Clash, Patti Smith and all those bands from the 70s that influenced them so much.
DG: Yeah. You’re good. I like that. You know your stuff.
AF: A rockumentary. In my opinion, ‘It Might Get Loud’ is one of a few that genuinely deserves to be called that. A lot of films are called rockumentaries but all they really are is concert footage with a few sounds bites. Then there’s the ‘E! True Hollywood Story’ and the ‘Behind the Music’ specials. ‘It Might Get Loud’ arrives as something different and refreshing because at the end of the day it is about the relationship between the musician and his instrument.
DG: I wanted to make a different kind of music documentary. Even to call it a documentary…I guess that’s how it has to be categorized, but this is about a summit of three guys from three different generations coming together to play and I’ve never seen that before. Whereas a lot of rockumentaries end up leading towards the death of the band or a drug overdose or a girlfriend breaking up the band, this movie is about the personal journey of these guys and how they went from teenage boys to artists and how they would write their songs. I see a lot of other movies and say ‘wait you didn’t tell me anything about how they wrote and how they created. I want to know more!’
AF:Â What is the appeal of the documentary film? And do you prefer it over a traditional narrative feature?
DG: You know, I’ve done a couple of features and I’ve done a bunch of television. So I like it all. I’m really drawn to documentaries because right now at this moment, documentaries are exploding. Creatively they’re changing. Features aren’t being as experimental as documentaries are. It Might Get Loud is an experimental movie where I had a lot of creative control. I had animation in this film. I used different kinds of techniques and storytelling devices that you could never use in features. On top of that, you have all these people that you admire whose stories haven’t been told.Â
The thing that you’re desperate for when you’re telling any kind of story, whatever is, is wanting to be passionate. You want to be excited when you wake up in the morning, because if you excited that comes through in the filmmaking.Â
I get sent a bunch of scripts. Just last night I was reading a script and I cannot finish reading it because I’m so bored. I think audiences feel that same way when they see a lot of these movies. ‘Why did they even make this movie?’ These documentaries are so fun and interesting that I just keep following that.
AF: A documentary like this one doesn’t have the same urgency as some of the others like ‘An Inconvenient Truth’, or the Obama piece that you made. The ‘It needs to be said NOW’ factor. Can you talk about the differences in the approaches?
DG: That’s a very good question. We made Inconvenient Truth in 5½ months and documentaries usually take a couple of years to do. But we just felt like we had to make this movie now and the timing of it was its success. It was about capturing the moment. It Might Get Loud is very different. This is an exploratory movie about the nature of creativity.Â
I like just jumping around. I like being in the situation where I’m doing a totally different movie and saying ‘I don’t know if I’m going to be able to pull this off!’
AF: I know that the structure of most documentaries are found in post. I don’t know how much scripting you did beforehand but it was pretty neat how each story had its own take. There’s a boy in the film that shadows Jack White, which serves as a clever device for his segment. The Edge going back to his old high school brings this nostalgic effect. Then, Jimmy Page’s visit to the legendary Led Zeppelin house is almost mythological. is that something that was at all premeditated, to have these different approaches for all of them?
DG: Documentaries have a script that you are kind of writing in your head as you’re editing them, and when you finish the movie you finish the script. Whereas if you’re doing a feature you finish your script, then start shooting. So its kind of the opposite right? But I’ve learned with documentaries not to script stuff, to let the characters take me where I should go. So with Jimmy Page, we just sat in a room for two days and just talked. I asked him questions about this song and that song, and his songwriting.  Out of those interviews, an early map came out of the places where we might go shoot. Those places then led to more clues. We would edit some more, and that led us to even more clues.Â
AF: Very different from ‘An Inconvenient Truth’, where you had Al Gore’s slide show in essence, guiding you.
DG: Yes, the slideshow was about 2/3 of the movie but the other part was telling his story which hadn’t been really done properly. So we were following him around debating whether we should go here or whether we go there, still trying to discover those moments as we went. I wasn’t even sure that you could intercut these very personal reflective moments inside this slideshow. But it was very organic. Then, we were constantly animating his slideshow and changing it and cutting it and moving it around. It’s all an evolution. His slideshow was almost twice as long than it was in the movie, so we had to kind of shape that. By the time we finished the movie, we had our script.Â
AF:Â Thanks again, Davis. we wish you the best of luck with the film.
DG: Thank you. What a nice interview. I enjoyed it!Â
07.7.2009 | By Mack Chico |
The Hollywood Reporter interviewed actress Cameron Diaz, who has cuban ancestry, about her career and a plethora of things. Here is how it went:
Since her first film role in 1994’s “The Mask” opposite Jim Carrey, Cameron Diaz has been become one of Hollywood’s most successful leading ladies, entertaining audiences in such quirky comedies as 1997’s “My Best Friend’s Wedding” and 1998’s “There’s Something About Mary” and earning street cred in such dramas as 2001’s “Vanilla Sky” and 2002’s “Gangs of New York.” In 2003, Diaz struck salary gold, becoming the third Hollywood actress after Julia Roberts and Reese Witherspoon to receive a $20 million paycheck — for “Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle.”
Her latest film, the New Line drama “My Sister’s Keeper,” teams her with Jason Patric, Abigail Breslin and Alec Baldwin in a different kind of role: Portraying a mom who goes to extreme measures to keep her leukemia-stricken daughter alive. Diaz may soon be reunited with Tom Cruise, her “Vanilla Sky” co-star, in James Mangold’s action film “The Wichita Project”; and she’s attached to the Zach Braff-directed comedy “Swingles,” currently in development. Just before receiving a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, the native San Diegan spoke with The Hollywood Reporter’s Noela Hueso.
The Hollywood Reporter: You’re known for broad comedies. What brought you to “My Sister’s Keeper”?
Cameron Diaz: It was a story that just touched me. l liked that (my character) Sara wasn’t obvious. I didn’t know exactly where she was coming from at first but then I realized that it was pretty simple to understand: She’s just a woman who’s trying to keep her child alive. We can all relate to that in some way — how far we would go for the ones we love.
THR: Do you see yourself transitioning into more roles like this?
Diaz: I’ve done a number of dramatic films over the years, such as “Gangs of New York” and “Vanilla Sky,” and a slew of smaller films nobody would have seen but that weren’t just comedies. For me, it’s all about rhythm. It’s not something I plan, it’s just questioning “What am I feeling?” Recently, I was feeling that I would love to do something fun and big. I haven’t done an action film in a long time and “The Wichita Project” fits the bill.
THR: How about a musical?
Diaz: I would love to do a musical. I don’t sing very well — honestly I’ve never worked on it — but I believe that if you work on anything hard enough you can get to at least someplace where you can fudge it a little bit!
THR: Do you dance?
Diaz: I do. I love dancing. I’ve never been trained, but choreography is something that comes pretty easily for me. I love musicals. When I was a child, I loved watching films where people were dancing. I loved Fred Astaire.
THR: You’re attached to a number of other projects, too.
Diaz: I have more than usual just because it’s been a year since I worked, so I’m ramped up to see what falls into place first.
THR: You don’t know what’s next?
Diaz: You never really know until you’re on the set. Anything can happen. “The Wichita Project” is definitely in the works. “Swingles” is in development, too. What’s going to be next is always a question of who’s getting (the project) together the quickest.
THR: Do you see yourself becoming a producer or director?
Diaz: No, I don’t really. It’s so much work. I lack the ability to focus for that long. I enjoy my time on a set as an actor. It’s the perfect amount of time for me. Films are a collaboration anyhow, so everyone is always contributing something to a project.
THR: Do you have a dream project you’ve been trying to get off the ground?
Diaz: I haven’t found anything where I’m saying I have to tell this story. I am a meanderer of sorts. I like to move around and see what’s going on over here and see what’s going on over there.
THR: You broke the $20 million salary barrier with “Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle.” No actresses are getting that kind of money anymore, yet the guys still are. Are women being hit disproportionately with the salary reductions?
Diaz: I don’t think so. In light of the current economic situation, everybody’s been pulling back on all levels; everyone’s being reactive. The whole country is waiting to see where this is going and how long it’s going to last. From what I know, all the deals are having to change. A good deal isn’t always $20 million up front — but getting a fair deal all the way around is.
THR: Beyond your acting, you have become quite prominent for your environmental activities. Have you been happy so far with the Obama administration’s environmental policies?
Diaz: So far. I know that he’s pushed and pulled from so many different directions, but I think he’s getting some good advice.
THR: What would you like to see him accomplish on the environmental front?
Diaz: Alternative energies — and doing it the right way. Changing an entire industry isn’t an easy feat to accomplish but if we give him enough time to do it, he can set up a great infrastructure to do so.
THR: What do you think about your getting a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame?
Diaz: It will be cool to be under people’s feet. It really is the place where people can understand exactly that actors are not really stars — they don’t exist in the sky, they exist on the ground just like everybody else.
02.22.2009 | By Mack Chico |
Colombian actress Sofia Vergara is popularly known in the Spanish language television market for her commercials and variety shows on the Univision network. She began to crossover a decade ago with a film called ‘Chasing Papi’ and a few ABC tv shows, unfortunately to no success. Afterwards, urban film directors began to cast her in small roles and that’s what she’s doing now. She’s still pretty, though.
Here she is in her latest urban movie speaking about her role as ‘T.T’
