Peter Facinelli Discusses the Difference Between Acting for Film and Television

Peter Facinelli is currently playing two very different types of doctors; Dr. Fitch ‘Coop’ Cooper on Showtime’s Nurse Jackie and vampire-turned-doctor Carlisle Cullen in the Twilight franchise.

The roles themselves are diverse, but Facinelli also notices major differences between acting for film and acting for the small screen.

He told the Los Angeles Times that television is not nearly as finite and cut and dry as film, saying, “In television you don’t really know where you’re going to be in Episode 7. It keeps it fresh in the sense that you only know what your character is going to do that week, and you’re not exactly sure how it will develop.”

With Nurse Jackie, he says that “It’s kind of fun for me because sometimes I’ll pick the writer’s brain and what’s going on with Coop for the season and they have a rough idea. They don’t really like to tell us, but sometimes they’ll spill some info — it’s almost like going to a medium and they’re telling you your future. But things can change. They’ll throw you a curveball. It keeps you on your toes.”

“Transformers” Rosie Huntington-Whiteley: “It was my first-ever audition. I went in completely not knowing what I was doing. I left feeling not confident”

Rose Huntington-Whiteley appears in this week’s Transformers: Dark of the Moon opposite Shia LaBeouf and Josh Duhamel, but there was a time when she thought she had no chance of landing the role of LaBeouf’s character’s new love interest.

“I went to the audition and really I knew nothing about the role,” the 24-year-old model-turned-actress recently told MTV News. “No one had said anything; it was just a role in Transformers, so I kind of thought it would be an extra part or a cameo or something. I went in a bit blind and also, it was my first-ever audition. I went in completely not knowing what I was doing. I left feeling not confident.”

That was before director Michael Bay called her up and said, “Yeah, you’re the girl,” said the British actress.

Prior to Transformers, Huntingon-Whiteley was best-known as a Victoria’s Secret model. For the third installment of the popular film franchise, her Carly Spencer character replaces Megan Fox’s Mikaela Banes as the romantic counterpart of LaBeouf’s Sam Witwicky.

“I’ve been so lucky because doing this film, I got to try a little bit of everything,” she continued. “There’s something for everyone in it: there’s the romance, the comedy, the drama, the action, there’s the special effects.”

“Brothers & Sisters” Star Matthew Rhys Heads “back on the audition trail”

With the end of a television show often comes an influx of talent into casting offices, and the cancellation of Brothers & Sisters is no different.

Matthew Rhys, who played lawyer Kevin Walker on the ABC drama, reports that he’s “back on the audition trail” now that the show’s five-season run has come to an end.

As he recently told Welsh newspaper Western Mail, whether he stays in Hollywood, moves to London or returns to his native Cardiff remains to be seen. “I’m looking at my options on the West End. With Brothers & Sisters being cancelled, I’m back on the audition trail like millions of others, trying to get some work… I’m being drawn at the moment to London and to return to the West End,” he told the paper. “But, to be honest, I’m keeping my options open… I feel quite lucky to have a few choices so I won’t limit myself geographically quite yet.”

Rhys was sad by the cancellation of Brothers & Sisters, which focused on the lives of the fictional Walker family, although he wasn’t completely surprised. “Was I surprised? Yes and no. I think after five years it was incredibly fortuitous to still be running,” said Rhys. But, “After that amount of time, I think our storylines had been exhausted – we had a whole lot of really dramatic stories, so in that sense it wasn’t a huge surprise. It would have been nicer for us if we could have known that we were finishing… so it’s a little disappointing not to go out with a bang.”
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Alan Rickman heads back to Broadway in “Seminar”

After playing lash-tongued misanthrope Severus Snape in the last installment of the Harry Potter franchise, Alan Rickman plans to return to Broadway to play a manipulative writing instructor in “Seminar,” a dark comedy by Theresa Rebeck.

Rickman is hardly a stranger to the stage. The British actor made his Broadway debut in 1987 portraying Valmont in “Les Liasions Dangereuses,” garnering a Tony Award nomination in the category of “Best Actor” for his performance.

Rebeck’s play will mark Rickman’s first return to a Broadway theater since 2002, when his lead performance in Noel Coward’s “Private Lives” revival earned him another Tony nomination. His work in theater includes eight Royal Shakespeare Company productions.

In “Seminar,” Rickman will play Leonard, a “brilliant but unpredictable” writer whose international reputation as a literary legend precedes him. The four young writers in the seminar of the title are thrilled to be in his class.

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Tom Hanks on “Larry Crowne”, Hollywood Cynicism and Balancing his Roles as Writer, Director and Actor

Tom Hanks is well known for his attraction to hopeful, optimistic characters, which is why his turn as the titular Larry Crowne is unsurprising. The film, which opens this Friday, tells the tale of an unemployed, middle-aged man who reinvents himself at community college.

Hanks wasn’t merely the star of the film, he wore three different hats: writer, director and actor. In a recent interview with NPR, Hanks admitted to the difficulty of balancing these distinct roles, saying, “Writing a movie and then directing the result of that script is … a personal virus that you have to fight. It’s a fever that you get that takes you over.”

The biggest challenge was not in the filming process, but in the preceding six-month preparation process. Hanks continued, “That’s when it’s hard to go back and forth between being a director who wants to tell a story with a specific sort of sound and look to it, as opposed to the actor just saying, ‘And what am I going to say here exactly and why am I saying it?…That’s where the battle between being a director and an actor is really fought.”
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Emma Stone on dropping out of High School: “Had I graduated I would’ve missed [Superbad], and had I missed that opportunity I wouldn’t be here right now”

In the next two months, Emma Stone will appear in a whopping three films: Friends with Benefits (July 22), Crazy Stupid Love (July 29) and The Help (August 12). It’s hard to believe that she only got her start at age 18 with Superbad in 2007.

To get to where she is today, Emma dropped out of High School and made the move to Los Angeles.

She told Vanity Fair, “I did Superbad in what would’ve been my senior year… I was playing a senior, and had I graduated I would’ve missed that opportunity, and had I missed that opportunity I wouldn’t be here right now.”

That doesn’t mean things were easy for her. In fact, she said that she hit “rock bottom” after auditioning for Claire on NBC’s Heroes. “I could hear that, in the other room, a girl had just gone in and they were saying, ‘You are our pick … On a scale of 1 to 10 you’re an 11.” That’s when Hayden Panettiere, who played the part, walked out of the room. “I went home and just had this meltdown,” she says.

Trailer: “Salvation Boulevard” starring Pierce Brosnan, Greg Kinnear, Jennifer Connoly, Marisa Tomei, Ed Harris

Salvation Boulevard: Pastor Dan Day, a charismatic evangelical preacher (Pierce Brosnan) has captivated a small western American town with his charm – and the promise of a sweet real estate development. Carl (Greg Kinnear) is a former follower – not of Christ, but of the Grateful Dead – who has since become “found” in Dan’s Evangelical community, serving as one of the preacher’s great examples of spiritual and moral transformation. But Carl’s new belief system is turned upside down when he witnesses a sinful act that Pastor Dan’s doughy henchman (Jim Gaffigan) aims to cover up. from trailers.apple.com

Director: George Ratliff
Cast: Pierce Brosnan, Greg Kinnear, Jennifer Connoly, Marisa Tomei, Ed Harris, Jim Gaffigan, Ciaran Hinds
Writers: George Ratliff, Douglas Stone

In theaters: July 15th, 2011

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Blair Underwood heading to Broadway

Blair Underwood will make his Broadway debut next season as Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire, the The New York Post is reporting.

The revival will open next March and the cast will be interracial.

No word yet on who will play Stella (yell it like Brando, I know you want to. I just did) and Blanche. “I don’t know who the producers are going to get, but two of my favorite actress are Anika Noni Rose and Sanaa Lathan. They are two Broadway babies I’d love to work with,” he said.

Personally, I think he’d rock the house in that show.

Why Haven’t I Heard from my Agent?

This is a guest post by Gywn Gilliss

Often an actor will ask me, “I’ve got an agent but I haven’t heard from them for 3 months (or more)…what’s wrong with THEM? Do I need a stronger agent that can get me in for major auditions?”

Sometimes, it’s not about your agent but about WHO you know in the industry.

How many Casting Directors know you, like you, trust you- to call you in for a high paying contract role on a series or a starring role in a film? Oops! First of all, You don’t have a relationship with someone if you haven’t heard from them in 3 months. If you were dating someone and didn’t hear from them in 3 months, would that be OK? No. Not acceptable. You may have perceived that they were your agent or they vaguely said…leave some pictures, we’ll send you out or let’s “free-lance” to start…but there was no commitment and follow through or you would have heard from them-

1- asking you for more pictures if they’re doing paper submissions

2- with an appt. for an interview

3. with an audition

What’s wrong with this picture??
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6 Clips from “Horrible Bosses” starring Jason Bateman, Charlie Day, Jason Sudeikis, Jennifer Aniston, Colin Farrell and Kevin Spacey

Here are 6 clips from the upcoming film, Horrible Bosses.

Starring Jason Bateman, Charlie Day, Jason Sudeikis, Jennifer Aniston, Colin Farrell and Kevin Spacey the cast is great and from everything I’ve seen, it looks great. I just hope that all the funny scenes aren’t in the trailers and clips.

Horrible Bosses comes out July 8th.

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