Christopher Plummer “Determined to Keep Crackin’”

As acting legend Christopher Plummer tells it, love for his work is what’s keeping him alive.

“I’m glad (my ambition) is still there. If it faded, what’s there to live for? It makes you appreciate other things if you keep working at your job and you love your job,” the 81-year-old recently told the Associated Press. “Too many people in the world are unhappy with their lot. And then they retire and they become vegetables. I think retirement in any profession is death, so I’m determined to keep crackin’.”

He’s still crackin’, alright. He had a role in this year’s Priest and is appearing in the Mike Mills Beginners, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Son of Tobor. The Shakespeare fan also has a deep passion for the stage, calling it his “medicine.” He’s played a wide array of roles in productions of Bard classics like Hamlet, Macbeth and Cyrano. “I’ve become simpler and simpler with playing Shakespeare. I’m not as extravagant as I used to be. I don’t listen to my voice so much anymore. All the pitfalls of playing the classics — you can fall in love with yourself,” he explained.
Read more

Breaking Bad Season 4 Trailer!

“Once you break bad, you never go back.”

AMC has released a trailer for season 4 of Breaking Bad and as expected, it looks like it’s going to rock.

But, we’ll all have to wait until Sunday, July 17 at 10 p.m.

Read more

Trailer: “The Whistleblower” starring Rachel Weisz

The Whistleblower: Inspired by actual events, Kathy (Academy Award(R) winner Rachel Weisz) is an American police officer who takes a job working as a peacekeeper in post-war Bosnia. Her expectations of helping to rebuild a devastated country are dashed when she uncovers a dangerous reality of corruption, cover-up and intrigue amid a world of private contractors and multinational diplomatic doubletalk. from trailers.apple.com

Director: Larysa Kondracki
Cast: Rachel Weisz, Vanessa Redgrave, Monica Bellucci, David Strathairn

In theaters: August 5th, 2011

Read more

Trailer: “50/50″ starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Seth Rogen, Anna Kendrick, Bryce Dallas Howard

50/50: Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Seth Rogen star as best friends whose lives are changed by a cancer diagnosis. Rogen also serves as producer, along with Evan Goldberg and Ben Karlin. Jonathan Levine directs from a script by Will Reiser. “We worked with Will on Da Ali G show, and it was shortly after that we learned he was sick.” Rogen recalls. “As shocking, sad, confusing and generally screwed up as it was; we couldn’t ignore that because we were so ill-equipped to deal with the situation, funny things kept happening. Will got better, and when he did, we thought the best way to pull something good out of the situation was to get him to write a screenplay. Ideally we wanted to make a film that would be as funny, sad, and hopefully as honest as the experience we went through. As soon as the script was completed, it quickly became a passion project for all of us. It helped us come to terms with Will’s struggle as well as our own experiences.” from trailers.apple.com

Director: Jonathan Levine
Cast: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Seth Rogen, Anna Kendrick, Bryce Dallas Howard, Anjelica Huston
Writers: Will Reiser

In theaters: September 30th, 2011

Read more

“Hollywood Pilot Report” Compiles 2011 Pilot Stats and Trends

Premier Talent Group President James J. Jones recently released his annual “Hollywood Pilot Report,” which includes statistic-based information on the 2011 television pilot season.

As Jones writes in the report, there were 92 pilots green-lit and 613 major roles cast during the most recent period. Male actors were cast in 339 (55 percent) of those parts, with females taking up the remaining 274 (44 percent). While the majority of hired actors (19 percent) fell in the 30-39 age range, most females cast (16 percent) were between 20 and 29 years of age.

More roles went to “Known” actors, who are those with low “Q” scores, than “Named” actors, defined as stars with high scores. “Knowns” such as Without a Trace’s Poppy Montgomery and The Unit’s Scott Foley grabbed 50 percent of all roles while established “Named” actors like Ashley Judd and Tim Allen got 21 percent.

Meanwhile, Jones also found that while 2010 saw many film stars crossing over to the small screen, this somewhat tailed off in 2011. “In 2011, while there was still a number of the more traditional “film stars‟ in the mix there was a strong movement of booking former Series Regulars from previous TV shows,” he writes.

The full report is available here.

Warning: Don’t Skype with Ryan Reynolds

While on location in South Africa shooting the CIA thriller, Safe House, Interview Magazine hung out with Ryan Reynolds on his day off to talk about his latest films, Green Lantern and The Change-Up.

When, towards the end of the article, he was asked if he had any projects coming up, Reynolds said, “I don’t really know what I’m going to do next. I’ll meet with some directors via Skype.”

Then, he added, “If the camera angle’s just right, you can be ferociously masturbating and they have no idea.”

And that is why I love Ryan Reynolds.
Read more

Tony Nominated Bobby Cannavale suffers mid-show accident backstage during “Motherf**ker with the Hat”

‘The show must go on’ was taken to heart by actor Bobby Cannavale who is starring in “The Motherf-with the Hat“, after a backstage accident occurred about an hour into the play.

Cannavale banged his head hard enough to cause bleeding and enough pain that during a brief delay the actor was checked out by medical personnel as a precaution. Then the dedicated actor returned to the stage to finish the rest of the show.

Read more

RIP Jeff Conaway

Jeff Conaway, 60, has died after 2 weeks in a coma.

Conaway was found unconscious on earlier this month and was rushed to the hospital. The troubled actor who starred in “Taxi” and “Grease,” actor was taken off life support yesterday.

I remember watching Grease and thinking he and John Travolta were the coolest people in the world when I was younger. He was perfect as Keneckie. So much so that whenever I see a performance of the show, I’ll always compare that actor to Conaway.

An Easy Solution to the Audition Waiting Game

Written by Dallas Travers, CEC

A lot of actors express frustration about not having access to their dream auditions.

They say that if only they could “get in the room” they’d be able to book the job.  Perhaps you don’t need to “get in the room” at all before auditioning for a role you desire.  Maybe you can instead film an audition for that dream role and submit your DVD to the producer, casting director, or director of the film.

Did you know that Vera Farmiga landed the role of Madelyn in Martin Scorsese’s film, The Departed because she created an audition tape and sent it directly to Mr. Scorsese?

Mick Brown interviewed Farmiga for the August, 2008 edition of The Telegraph where he wrote, “In lieu of attending auditions, whenever she read a script that interested her she would make a mini home-movie of the character she wanted to play, acting out the part while a friend fed her lines. ‘With the program on a Mac you could really edit it in a very clever way, fade in and fade out, have intimacy with the mikes, the lighting, and have the luxury of takes – you could make yourself as ugly or as beautiful as you wanted. They always resulted in a meeting – a flight over to Los Angeles to meet the director. Even if at the end of it all I didn’t get the role it would be fine because I’d already executed it in my own living-room’.”
Read more

Ken Jeong on Asian-American Acting Community: “We’re Helping Redefine Our Identity”

In a recent interview with the Philippine Daily Inquirer, The Hangover: Part II star Ken Jeong opened up about being an Asian-American Hollywood success story and the inspirations for the hilarious antagonist he plays in the new film.

“It’s a great challenge. But for me as an actor, I look at it this way—there were some roles that were written for white people that I got,” Jeong explained. “For example, my role in All About Steve was written for a white person. I got the role instead. I feel the joy of playing different characters.”

Speaking about the Asian-American acting world as a whole, he said, “There’s a groundswell of Asian-American talent and I’m honored to be among them. The best thing about it is we’re all different. We’re not the same. We don’t act or look alike. We’re helping redefine our identity.”

In The Hangover and its sequel, Jeong plays Leslie Chow, a maniacal Las Vegas gangster. Who influenced the way he portrays the character? “It’s a combination of different characters in movies and people. Joe Pesci’s character in Goodfellas was a big inspiration. In fact, there were times in Thailand when I’d watch Goodfellas in my trailer just to get in the right mood. And Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight in terms of the sociopathic qualities of Mr. Chow.”

Via the Philippine Daily Inquirer

Next Page »