Kirsten Dunst defends ‘Melancholia’ Director Lars von Trier over his ‘Nazi’ comments

Playing Justine, a manic-depressive heroine in Melancholia, Kirsten Dunst not only earned the Best Actress Award at the Cannes Film Festival but it also drained her so much that she is taking the rest of 2011 off.

Working with Lars von Trier, the director of Melancholia, must have been a very trying experience;  German von Trier joked that he was a Nazi and that he “understood Hitler”. Within hours the story had gone viral, prompting the Cannes organizers to expel von Trier from the Croisette. The defining image from this year’s festival may have been the sight of a stricken Dunst at the director’s side, clutching her throat in anguish.

This incident isn’t the most enjoyable memory for the actress.“Well yeah, you could see my face. I was choking, because I’m watching a friend having a meltdown. And what he’s saying is horrendous in a roomful of press. He was asked an inappropriate question [about his family] and his response was to make a joke about it. But no one laughed and he just kept unravelling,” she said.   Read more

Hugh Dancy on the 2 Character Broadway Play ‘Venus in Fur’: “It leaves me with nowhere to run”

Hugh Dancy is currently in rehearsal for the Broadway première of Venus in Fur as playwright/director, Thomas, alongside Nina Arianda. The show, which closed off-Broadway two years ago, features only 2 characters and “it leaves me with nowhere to run,” Dancy said.

When it’s mentioned that Venus in Fur closed and is now re-opening in just a two-year span, Dancy responds, “Are you trying to make me tremble? You are always up against it, and not to get to precious, but it’s a little bit remarkable that you produce anything. We’re only one week into rehearsal, I’m sure we will cobble something together. Which is the worst pitch for a play ever. Yes, I do think we will be ready. Every time I’ve worked onstage,there’s been no pressure to be ready at the stage I’m at now. You only have to be ready, you want everything to fall into place at the very last minute. If it happens earlier, it’s wasted time.”

“There’s a part of it where you apply your experience with the play, but usually if a play is well-written it works in a unique way,” he said. “It will reveal itself as you work on it and for me the best way is to sit back and wait for it. It will click into place, usually that happens. And there are big shifts once you get into dress rehearsal and you are running the thing through.”    Read more

Michelle Williams channels Marilyn Monroe in ‘My Week With Marilyn’

For six seasons, she played the beautiful yet complicated Jen Lindley on Dawson’s Creek. Flash forward t0 2011 and this teenager is now a woman in her thirties with many award nominations, including an Oscar nod for her turn as a lonely, trapped wife in Brokeback Mountain.

Now, after playing these deeply depressing characters, she is beginning to embrace her “new life,” which can only come from growing up and understanding who she is. It doesn’t hurt that she was chosen to play iconic sexpot/actress, Marilyn Monroe in the film My Week With Marilyn. But what hides underneath this willowy, Mia  Farrow-esque actress? “I think Nabokov once said that genius is finding the invisible link between things.  And that’s how I choose to see life. Everything’s connected, and everything has meaning if you look for it.” 

The idea of playing such an iconic figure was daunting. “As soon as I finished the script, I knew that I wanted to do it, and then I spent six months trying to talk myself out of it,” she says. “But I always knew that I never really had a choice. I’ve started to believe that you get the piece of material that you were ready for.”

She’s also intrigued by Monroe’s way of being both an adult and a little girl, a dichotomy hard to genuinely find in this world. “I’ve always thought of her as that woman-child, not an icon, which is probably why I let myself approach the role.”  Read more

GLAAD Speaks Out Over Lack of LGBT Characters on TV

Every year, GLAAD releases its “Where We Are on TV” list, as a check-up of how networks are doing with regards to the amount of LBGT characters they have on scripted shows. Though the percentages may seem minor, there has been a drop in gay and bisexual characters, down 3.9% for the 2011-2012 season, in comparison to 2 seasons ago.

As of now, out of 650 characters, only 19 fit this particular category, which is approximately 2.9%. GLAAD Acting President, Mike Thompson says,”While the number of LGBT characters is down, some of the most popular shows with critics and viewers, such as Glee, True Blood and The Good Wife, weave storylines about gay and lesbian characters into the fabric of the show.”

At this time, FOX leads in gay representation with 8/117 characters while True Blood and Shameless are tied with 6 characters each.   Read more