Behind The Scenes Drama: “Sons of Anarchy” Is Not Just A Title

Every long-running television show (and even some short-running ones, too!) has a fair amount of behind the scenes drama, but it’s a surprise to see a show like Sons of Anarchy going through a whole mess of drama recently.   The Los Angeles Times reports on the number of the issues going on with the popular FX outlaw motorcycle show.

The first major issue came up during the Television Critics Association press show when star Charlie Hunnam didn’t appear as scheduled.  According to reports, the star and show creator Kurt Sutter had a “disagreement that got a little heated” prior to the show’s panel and Hunnam left the Beverly Hilton Hotel, which was were the press show was held.  Of course, eyewitness reports that Hunnam was escorted from the building were denied by an FX spokesman, who chalked up the scuffle to long shooting hours the night before.  Read more

New Spider-Man Andrew Garfield To Take “Death of a Salesman” Broadway Role

There are few plays in the history of American theater that carry the prestige of Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman.  An upcoming Broadway revival (the first since the acclaimed multi-Tony Award winning 1999 revival starring Brian Dennehy) has long been announced with Philip Seymour Hoffman in the lead role and directed by stage-and-screen director Mike Nichols, but the supporting cast is starting to take shape now. 

While Linda Emond will appear as Willy Loman’s wife while Andrew Garfield, star of the upcoming Amazing Spider-Man, will star as Willy’s son Biff, the one-time sports hero whose life has not amounted to much of anything since. 

It’s a difficult role to balance, especially for someone just about to turn twenty-eight, yet Garfield brings with him an English theatrical background (Death of a Salesman would be his first appearance on the Broadway stage).  It’s easy to write Biff off as a meathead jock who peaked too early, but anyone familiar with Miller’s plays knows that the character has far more dimensions than that. Read more

Bryce Dallas Howard on “The Help”: “I Loved Playing a Character That I Didn’t Have to Worry About Being Likable”

In a recent interview with Moviefone, The Help’s Bryce Dallas Howard talked about playing a rich snob in the new movie, which tells the story of a group of African-American maids in 1960s Mississippi.

Talking about the film’s sometimes-heavy subject material, Howard said, “There are scenes that I would never want to go back and do ever, ever again. But there were a lot more scenes that were so fun because (Howard’s character) Hilly’s getting what she deserves… Those were incredibly fun.”

The 30-year-old actress has appeared in Spider-Man 3 and The Twilight Saga: Eclipse in addition to her leading role in The Help, which also stars Emma Stone and Allison Janney, among others.

“I loved playing a character that I didn’t have to worry about being appealing or likable or attractive in any way, that gave me a real sense of freedom,” Howard explained. “It’s a character that’s so different from myself that I didn’t have to worry about making her different from me, whereas sometimes you play a normal person and you don’t want to be playing yourself so you come up with these things and they’re not necessarily organic to the movie. For me, it’s way easier to plan an extreme.”

Hugh Dancy to star in the Broadway premiere of ‘Venus In Fur’ with Nina Arianda

Hugh Dancy is joining the cast of the upcoming Manhattan Theatre Club‘s Broadway premiere of David Ives‘ Venus in Fur.

Directed by Tony Winner Walter Bobbie, the show also stars Nina Arianda and will begin previews October 13th at MTC’s Samuel Friedman Theatre.

Dancy made his Broadway debut in the Tony-winning revival of Journey’s End. He followed that up with The Pride in 2009. He can be seen in the upcoming Our Idiot Brother and Martha Marcy May Marlene.

The press release is below. Read more

Site Update

Hi Guys -

This past weekend, I transferred Daily Actor to a new web host and as some of you noticed,  it was down for about 24 hours.

The good news is that the site is now faster.

The bad news is that I’m still working out the kinks. Such as not being able to send email, upload any pictures into posts and other minor issues that keep coming up.

Hopefully this will all be resolved soon.

Thanks for the emails and your patience!

~ Lance

Lea Michele on her post Glee plans: “I plan on playing every role on Broadway”

If Glee fans are afraid that Lea Michele might find a lull in her career after her run as Rachel Berry – have no fear. 

“I don’t stop,” Lea says. “It’s my nature. People have to tell me to slow down. I plan on playing every role on Broadway. I want to do Evita. I want to do Sweeney Todd with [Glee costar] Chris Colfer. We want to do Wicked. I’ll be Elphaba and he wants to play ‘Guy-linda.’ I want to do movies, make music. Glee is only the beginning.”

And although she has encountered some difficulties over the course of her career, that began back in the late 90′s in Buster & Chauncey’s Silent Night, the Bronx bred diva, who openly shares that she’s only “five foot three,” isn’t letting anything or anyone hold her back. 

She may not “look like a lot of other people, you know what I mean? I look like I’m 12,” but that won’t stop here.  Nor will the managers that have told the twenty-four year old to “get a nose job,” while others in the industry have stated that she’s “not pretty enough.” Read more

Michael Emerson: “I don’t think you can go too far wrong if you follow great material”

For the better part of three decades actor Michael Emerson was better known as a theater actor than for his roles in film and television.  But as Emerson has gained new popularity over the last half-dozen years — especially since he will be starring in a new CBS drama in the fall — he’s learned that he’s had to be working with the best material he could find in order to turn in his best performances.

Emerson tells The Hollywood Reporter, “I tend to follow material generally.  I don’t think you can go too far wrong if you follow great material, and also, you like to collaborate with people at the top of their game. So, those things. Also, you kind of go where J.J. goes.” 

That J.J. is, of course, J.J. Abrams, co-creator of the immensely popular television series Lost, which Emerson played Benjamin Linus.  Emerson is working with Abrams again in Person of Interest, an upcoming drama which Abrams is executive producing (Abrams also co-wrote the pilot).  It’s clear that Emerson feels comfortable with Abrams’ work, which explains his preference for the style of collaboration he explained above. Read more

Jason Bateman: “Directing is the job I would most like to do”

It would be easy to assume that Jason Bateman just wants to act in R-rated comedies since he’s appeared in two this summer, Horrible Bosses and The Change-Up.  But in an interview with the Northwest Indiana Times, Bateman makes it clear that he hopes to follow in the footsteps of comedians like Charlie Chaplin, Woody Allen, and Ben Stiller and step behind the camera to direct.  Until then though, he doesn’t mind being typecast in comedy roles.

Curiously, the interviewer points out that Bateman’s characters in the two summer movies are both overachieving types, and Bateman doesn’t seem to have much a problem chalking it up to typecasting based on his past starring role on TV’s Arrested Development, saying “those are the parts that people think of me for ever since Arrested Development, because that is basically the type of character I played there and that was certainly a career restart for me, a re-identification of who I am and the kind of thing that I do, the kind of humor that I do. So, understandably, those are the kind of roles that come my way. But the more chances I get to play characters like Mitch in The Change-Up and if people like that character and the movie is well received, maybe I’ll start getting roles that are a little more left of center, a little more obtuse, and any actor loves to mix it up.”
Read more

A Leopard Can’t Change His Spots, But You Can

Written by Anthony Meindl

A Leopard Can’t Change His Spots, But You Can.

How?

Commitment.

You don’t get what you wish for in life. You get what you believe. And sometimes, our beliefs need a little bit of encouragement. For example, you believe you can do something (write a play, audition for a show, ask someone out on a date) but you also have doubts. You fast-forward to the end results and start worrying. Or you focus on what someone else will say or how they might react. Or you come up with excuses why it won’t work.

But when we finally commit, we discover that those projected fears rarely occur. The miraculous act of commitment ushers in the discovery of things that weren’t available to us had we not committed.

Commitment to something is both causal – you cause something to happen that ordinarily wouldn’t; and it also creates the end result or the effect. You end up experiencing the effects of stepping into something and making a commitment. Read more

Trailer: ‘A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas’ starring John Cho, Kal Penn, Neil Patrick Harris

A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas: After years of growing apart, Harold Lee and Kumar Patel have replaced each other with new friends and are preparing for their respective Yuletide celebrations. But when a mysterious package mistakenly arrives at Kumar’s door on Christmas Eve, his attempt to redirect it to Harold’s house ends with the “high grade” contents — and Harold’s father-in-law’s prize Christmas tree — going up in smoke. With his in-laws out of the house for the day, Harold decides to cover his tracks, rather than come clean. Reluctantly embarking on another ill-advised journey with Kumar through New York City, their search for the perfect replacement tree takes them through party heaven — and almost blows Christmas Eve sky high

Starring: John Cho, Kal Penn, Neil Patrick Harris, Paula Garces, Eddie Kaye Thomas, David Krumholtz
Director: Todd Strauss-Schulson

In Theaters: November 4th, 2011

Read more

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