Willem Dafoe on Becoming a Nine-Foot-Tall, Four-Armed Martian for ‘John Carter’

You can look for Willem Dafoe in Disney’s sci-fi action/adventure film John Carter, but you’ll only hear his distinctive voice coming out of the mouth of Tar Tarkas, the nine-foot-tall, four-armed green Martian who leads his people, the Tharks.  He befriends the transplanted Earthling John Carter, played by Taylor Kitsch. 

But Dafoe didn’t just record his lines in a booth or shoot his scenes in front of a green screen.  He explains how his presence on the set not only helped “human actors” like Kitsch, but also helped his own performance.

Dafoe was attracted to the role principally because of the challenges it offered him as an actor.  He explains, “I was excited that John Carter was a big movie and at the prospect of playing a nine-foot-tall Martian warrior. When Andrew [Stanton, director] showed me the designs for the world of the movie, the beauty of it struck me. I liked the cast that was already in place, and I knew the Tars role would be a physically demanding one. I sometimes miss the physical challenges in movie roles but John Carter promised lots of physical performance elements— not only would I perform on three-foot stilts, we had to develop a vocabulary of gesture and the Martian spoken language which is used in part of the film.” Read more

Adam Scott on Starring in ‘Friends with Kids’: “I was like, ‘Just have Jon Hamm play the part’”

Just because Friends with Kids arrives in theaters Friday doesn’t mean that star Adam Scott thinks he was deserving of leading-man status in director Jennifer Westfeldt’s film, which is centered around a group of thirty-something couples who decide to have children and then date other people.

“I was lucky that Jen wanted me to do it,” explains a self-deprecating Scott. “I reminded her many times that she could find someone far more famous than me and have a much easier time getting this thing made. I didn’t get (what she saw in me). I was like, “Just have Jon Hamm play the part.”

Of course, Scott is selling himself short. Since joining the cast of NBC comedy Parks & Recreation two years ago, he’s become one of the hit series’ most popular characters. Before that, he starred in Party Down, Starz’ much-missed cult hit about a Los Angeles catering company. Read more

Robert De Niro Researched ‘Being Flynn’ Role by Posing as a Homeless Man

Robert De Niro has rightfully been called one of the best actors of his generation.  But man, it’s been a long time since we’ve seen De Niro in a role that he could really sink his teeth into.  He hasn’t been nominated for a major acting award in over a decade, and the last time I heard about him doing his formerly trademark extensive research for a role was… well, 1997, I think.

So it’s refreshing to hear that while his latest film, Being Flynn, hasn’t garnered the greatest reviews, WENN reveals that De Niro did engage in some research for his role.  He disguised himself with heavy makeup and spent a day in the Boston homeless shelter where Nick Flynn, who wrote the novel Another Bullshit Night in Suck City, which the film was adapted from, worked.  

Curiously, the director, Paul Weitz, reveals that when De Niro was conversing with a staff member about the film, the staff member said,”Oh, maybe Bob De Niro could play me!” without realizing that he was actually speaking to Robert De Niro himself!  Weitz adds, “Bob likes to play real people so he was trying to get a sense of the reality there. In the shelter he observed the people staying there and their body language wasn’t downtrodden. They had erect posture and didn’t want to appear to be marks and get robbed or beaten up so that’s how he appears in the film.” Read more

Ciaran Hinds on Becoming an Actor During The Troubles in Northen Ireland

Ciaran Hinds.  The name probably doesn’t ring a bell, but you’ve doubtlessly seen the Northern Irish actor in There Will Be Blood, Road to Perdition, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, and the upcoming John Carter, among dozens of other films. 

He sat down with NPR to discuss his role on the British TV series Above Suspicion, but he also talked about how he became an actor and how he copes when he isn’t being cast in every other film that’s coming soon.

Like most actors, Ciaran (pronounced “Keeran”) has a story on how he became actor, but I’d say that his is among the more interesting ones I’ve ever heard since he came from Northern Ireland in one of its most violent eras.  He explains, “It was quite extraordinary because at the same time I wasn’t running away from what was going on the north of Ireland, but it was insane in 1973. Civil rights had kicked off ’68, ’69 and the army had moved in; we have internment introduced. There were tit-for-tat killings. And it was sort of something that you began to accept just part of the life that went on there. But there was nowhere, as I decided that maybe I would try and change to be an actor, there was nowhere Ireland at that time that you could do that. So, the only place is to head over to England and see if you could get a placement in one of the theater schools there, which is what I did.” Read more

Will Ferrell on His Spanish-Language ‘Casa de Mi Padre’: “There was a moment of: ‘What did I get myself into?’ It’s the exhilarating part of what we get to do”

After running the well dry on sports comedies, Will Ferrell must have been ready for a change.  First he starred in the indie dramedy Everything Must Go, but his next film takes him in a different direction entirely — and even has him speaking a different language! 

Ferrell stars in Casa de Mi Padre, a Spanish-language comedy that places him in totally new territory.  However, Ferrell reveals to the New York Times that he’s far from proficient in Spanish, which made the production a challenge — though ultimately rewarding.

Ferrell admits that he took a gamble on this project simply because he isn’t finding fresh material coming out of Hollywood.  He clarifies by saying, “It’s one of the more creatively timid times in Hollywood.  You find yourself going, ‘If they’re not going to make this movie, why don’t I go off and play in this area for little or no money?’ The other thing that was supposed to pay me just went away, so I’m not getting anything anyway.” Read more

Paul Dano: “Acting is a very strange thing – your life kinda goes on hold. You disappear, you don’t see your friends, you work such long days”

Paul Dano has been seemingly talking to anyone who will listen about his latest film, Being Flynn, the adaptation of Nick Flynn’s memoir Another Bullshit Night in Suck City, so give the 27 year-old actor credit for promoting it like crazy. 

For instance, he talked to Spinoff Online about acting in such an emotional film and how he manages to maintain his personal life during a long production process.

Though Dano has had emotional roles in the past — particularly his role in There Will Be Blood — he confesses that he found it difficult to move from emotional scene to emotional scene in Being Flynn. Read more

Project X’s Jonathan Daniel Brown Started in… Porn

It’s an unusual way to get your start in the world of acting but some performers  do what they can to break into the business.  Case in point, Jonathan Daniel Brown of director Todd Phillips Project X. 

Discovered and revealed by TMZ, before Brown nabbed a role as the character JB in the film, that also stars Thomas Mann, Oliver Cooper, Kirby Bliss Blanton and Alexis Knapp, he was the star of the porno Nerd Hunting, a Bang Brothers Production.

According to an unknown source close to Brown, who has also appeared as the nerdy guy in the TV series Pretend Time, he took the role as a way to get a start.  “It was just kids being kids,” the individual shared.  Seen in the movie, Brown shares some x-rated one on one time with some extremely attractive ladies in the said to be popular adult film.  Read more

Meryl Streep donates $10,000 to Rhode Island School in Viola Davis’s Honor

Veteran actress and Oscar winner Meryl Streep has generously donated $10,000 to the Central Falls school in Rhode Island in lieu of  actress Viola Davis of The Help.

Streep, who won an Oscar during this year’s annual awards show for performance  in The Iron Lady, donated the money to the school that is now bankrupt in honor of  the forty-six year old Davis after beating her in the best actress category.

Davis has been a “champion” of the Rhode Island school for quite some time, according to Reuters.  After receiving the generous check the morning after the awards ceremony the director of the school, Angelo Garcia,  shared his happiness.  “We’ve just been screaming from the rooftops.”  Adding, “we’re  excited Meryl Streep has gotten the ball rolling for us, but we recognize there’s a long road ahead of us.” Read more

“One Hit Wonders” to Star Gwyneth Paltrow, Reese Witherspoon and Cameron Diaz

Gwyneth Paltrow, Reese Witherspoon, Cameron Diaz and Ryan Murphy may not know what it’s like to be down-on-their-luck has-beens, but according to a Deadline.com story, that isn’t stopping them from making a movie about them.

Sony has reportedly picked up musical comedy One Hit Wonders, which will feature the three actresses as singers who had one hit each in the ‘90s and are teaming up to come back bigger than ever.

Murphy will direct the film, which sprang from a recent dinner he had with the three actresses. The creator of TV’s Glee and American Horror Story directed 2011 box-office smash Eat, Pray, Love. and is also attached to a big-screen adaptation of Broadway hit The Normal Heart.  Read more

Elizabeth Olsen on ‘Silent House’: “Because there was not much dialogue, the only arc to create was the journey of fear”

Though she gained rave reviews in the 2011 Sundance Film Festival release Martha Marcy May Marlene, Elizabeth Olsen also starred in another film that debuted at Sundance 2011, the horror film Silent House, which is finally being released this month. 

Olsen stars as Sarah in the unique film, which not only plays in real-time and is rendered to appear to have been done in one continuous shot.  Olsen speaks about why she decided to star in a horror film and what it was like shooting such a challenging movie.

Olsen was immediately interested in starring in the film because she’s a fan of horror movies.  She explains, “I love horror movies, I like being scared, and I laugh my ass off, screaming and laughing as an audience member.” 

However, Olsen is particular about the type of horror movies she enjoys, which her led her toward her role in the unconventional Silent House.  She clarifies, “I personally don’t like horror movies that are about slicing and dicing.  I like feeling claustrophobic and that is where this one goes.” Read more

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