Watch: Nina Arianda and Hugh Dancy in a clip from Broadway’s ‘Venus in Fur’

Venus in Fur opened at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre on Tuesday and the reviews have been incredible.

The show, about a young actress who is determined to land the lead role in a playwrights new play, stars Nina Arianda and Hugh Dancy and is directed by Tony Award winner Walter Bobbie.

The New York Times Charles Isherwood called Arianda’s performance a “must-see” and that her she “burns so brightly you can almost feel the heat on your face.”

Check out the short clip from the show below. I can’t wait to see this!

The show has a limited run and will close December 18th. Click here for tickets.
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Johnny Depp: “It’s not like I was ever looking to become franchise boy, I was never looking to become anything like that. I just latched on to a character I loved”

Johnny Depp is coming off the release of his latest film (The Rum Diary), just wrapped on another (Dark Shadows), and is gearing up to star in another big blockbuster (Lone Ranger).  As one of the most famous and highest-paid actors working in film today, Depp has been able to pick-and-choose his projects, including The Rum Diary. 

Yet in an interview with The Guardian, Depp confesses the trouble with his success (though he wouldn’t trade it for anything) and his theory why The Rum Diary wasn’t a major success at the U.S. box office.

Depp had been a recognizable name since the late 1980s, but he obviously hit worldwide superstar status with his first turn as Captain Jack Sparrow in 2003′s Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. 

Depp claims he didn’t anticipate the massive success he would receive from the role, explaining, “Pirates was a film I did just like any other one, I made that choice the same way I made every other choice.”  While he admits that he loves acting, being a superstar does have its drawbacks.  He points out, “It’s a very privileged opportunity I’ve been given, obviously. You know, the benefits are certainly very good.  But there is a trade-off, as with anything. Somebody’s always going to bring you the bill. The invoice comes.” 

Despite that, he says he wouldn’t change the success he’s earned from his recent career, saying, “I wouldn’t change anything, no. Because I think I went into it innocently, and it became what it became. And now they want to tear me down. Instantly, as soon as I did Pirates II, they say: ‘Oh, he’s selling out.’ What the fuck does that mean, selling out? What if I did Ed Wood II, is that selling out? I mean, it’s not like I was ever looking to become franchise boy, I was never looking to become anything like that. I just latched on to a character I loved.”  Read more

Trailer #3: ‘Red Tails’ starring Bryan Cranston, Cuba Gooding Jr., Terrence Howard

Here’s the 3rd trailer for Red Tails, the film based on The Tuskegee Airmen. The effects look great but I’m not sold and I think the reason is because Terrence Howard looks like he’s hamming it up. Check it out and tell me I’m not right.

Synopsis: 1944. As the war in Europe continues to take its toll on Allied forces, the Pentagon brass has no recourse but to consider unorthodox options – including the untried and untested African-American pilots of the experimental Tuskegee training program. Just as the young Tuskegee men are on the brink of being shut down and shipped back home, they are given the ultimate chance to show their courage. Against all the odds, with something to prove and everything to lose, these intrepid young airmen take to the skies to fight for their country – and the fate of the free world. courtesy of trailers.apple.com

Director: Anthony Hemingway

Cast: Bryan Cranston, Cuba Gooding Jr., Terrence Howard, David Oyelowo, Kevin Phillips, Nate Parker, Daniela Ruah, Michael B. Jordan, Tristan Wilds, Cliff Smith, Rick Otto

In Theaters: January 20th, 2012
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Q & A: Michael Ornstein on ‘Sons of Anarchy’: “I was just hired to do that one show in Season 1 and that was it”

On Sons of Anarchy, Michael Ornstein plays Chucky Marstein, an associate of SAMCRO, chronic masturbator and the go-to guy for help around the clubhouse. After 19 episodes on the show, Michael says he still loves the character and like to play someone who “boggles” his mind.”

Michael is also an accomplished painter and has hopes of touring his work around the country and possibly London. Check out his stuff here!

In this Q & A, Michael talks about the journey of Chucky, how he was only hired for the pilot and how his art and acting come from the same “zone.”

Sons of Anarchy airs on Tuesdays at 10pm on FX

For more Sons of Anarchy, check out our interviews with Theo Rossi, Winter Ave Zoli and Kristen Renton and Christopher Douglas Reed.

When you started the role or when you got the job, what was your reaction when you found out the character would have the habit he does?

Michael Ornstein: Well I love that. I mean that was what I loved about it. I love people who are complicated. I love to play people who are complicated. I always did. Like characters that I played in the past or like I developed the character of ‘Louis’ in Angels in America.  A very complicated guy. I played people like, ‘Ivan’ from Dostoyevsky’s Brothers Karamazov, very complicated people.

I love being an actor because I love that. I love being presented by a character that kind of boggles my mind. And that I have to do some work, do a lot of work and exploring, okay, how can I make this guy absolutely real and absolutely believable to myself. And then I go to work in doing that in order for it to be believable to an audience, to other people.

When I learned about ‘Chucky’ and the compulsive masturbation and this and that it wasn’t very difficult for me to believe that that could be true. I mean, I feel like no matter what you think up has already happened somewhere in the world, right. I mean there are so many people that exist and I felt like it was just a tick that I really loved it. And what was cool about it is that I was able to separate the tick from the guy so that he could be sitting next to ‘Clay’ and ‘Jax’ is in the van and just have a conversation and be wickedly masturbating while he’s just talking and not even be aware of it.  Read more

Henry Cavill: “You can work your entire life as an actor, trying to develop and build a career. It’s a very thankless job and task”

When Henry Cavill appears on screen as Superman in Man of Steel in just over a year and a half, it’s likely that anybody who doesn’t know his name now will learn it quickly. 

But even though Cavill is only 28, he’s had a long road to get to a lead role in a blockbuster movie.  In fact, after losing out on originally being cast as Superman in 2006′s Superman Returns, as James Bond in Casino Royale, and as Edward Cullen in the Twilight series, it seemed like Cavill had just about the worst luck (or the worst auditions at the very least) in the film industry.  It’s no surprise then that in an interview with The Toronto Sun Cavill explains that it was very tempting to quit acting.

He confesses, “There was definitely a moment where I thought this was a waste of my time.  You can work your entire life as an actor, trying to develop and build a career. It’s a very thankless job and task.”  Well, could you really blame him?  It must have seemed that he was incapable of landing a major lead role.  He continues, “I went through a phase where I was getting wonderful feedback for everything I did, but not getting the job because I wasn’t a name … It just wasn’t happening. I was getting lots of feedback: ‘Oh, loved you, fantastic performance, the director loved you, but sorry, no.’ And I started to throw my hands up in the air and thought, ‘There’s just no winning. It’s not going to happen because I’m doing everything right, but I’m not getting the results.’ So I was considering going back to school, finishing my last year of school, and then joining the Armed Forces.”  Read more

The Poster for ‘Carnage’ has arrived and it looks….

Carnage comes out on December 16th and Sony has just released the poster for the Roman Polanski directed film.

And it looks awful.

It looks like I photoshopped it with a gun to my head. This may be the worst poster for a film I’ve seen in ages. Wow. It actually looks almost as bad as the trailer and clips I’ve seen.

The film stars Jodie Foster, Kate Winslet, Christoph Waltz and John C Reilly and it’s based on the play, God of Carnage, by Yasmina Reza.

I still have no idea why they didn’t go with the cast of the Broadway production. 

How to Use Facebook to Build Your Acting Business Without Offending Anyone

Written by Dallas Travers, CEC

Recently, a casting director expressed her frustration on her Facebook wall about actors approaching her through Facebook to request auditions. This post sparked a lively dialogue among some actors and casting directors who all agreed that using Facebook as a marketing tool was rude, amateur, or even desperate.

I have to disagree. Approaching casting directors, producers, agents, filmmakers, directors, and artistic directors is not rude. It’s not amateur. And it’s not desperate. It’s business.

Facebook exists so that people can connect with each other. That’s the whole point. Virtually every business and businessperson today has a Facebook page and uses Facebook for promotional purposes. So, there is nothing wrong – at all- with you doing the same as an actor.

Now, different people have different boundaries on Facebook. If a casting director wishes to keep her Facebook page and her business separate, that is absolutely her prerogative and I support that 100%.   Read more

4 Clips from ‘My Week with Marilyn’ featuring Michelle Williams

I’ll see any movie that Michelle Williams is in, she is just freakin’ that perfect. Have you seen Wendy and Lucy? If not, watch it. It’s absolutely wonderful. I mean she is. The film is totally depressing but great.

Here are 4 clips from My Week with Marylin where Williams plays the iconic actress. It’s about a young guy who meets Marilyn Monroe while working as a young assistant on Laurence Olivier‘s The Prince and the Showgirl. When she started to get emotional during the shooting, the young assistant director came to her aid and a romance developed.

The film opens November 23rd.   Read more

8 Clips from ‘The Muppets’ featuring Jason Segel, Amy Adams, Kermit, Miss Piggy, Fozzy Bear and the rest of the gang

I’ve loved all of the parody trailers that The Muppets have put out for their upcoming film and can’t wait for it to come out.

I’ve watched all of the films and old TV shows and am so looking forward to this. I hope the film does well because we all need a healthy does of brightly colored felt in our lives, don’t we?

Below are 8 clips for the upcoming film that stars Jason Segel, Amy Adams, Kermit, Miss Piggy, Fozzy Bear and the rest of the gang. 

Look for it on November 23rd.

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Trailer: ‘Safe House’ starring Denzel Washington, Ryan Reynolds, Brendan Gleeson, Sam Shepard, Vera Farmiga

Safe House: Matt Weston is a rookie CIA operative frustrated with his lackluster post running a safe house in Cape Town, South Africa. All that changes when his first “guest” is Tobin Frost, a renegade intelligence officer who had been on the run for almost a decade. When mercenaries attack the house, Weston and Frost make a narrow escape and together must find out who they can trust.

Starring: Denzel Washington, Ryan Reynolds, Brendan Gleeson, Sam Shepard, Vera Farmiga
Directed by: Daniel Espinosa

In Theaters: February 10, 2012
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