Michelle Williams on ‘Take This Waltz’: It’s about “a transition that you make in your life in your late 20s from being a girl into being a woman”

Actress Michelle Williams, Oscar-nominated star of My Week with Marilyn, appeared at Tribeca Film Fest to discuss her upcoming role in the indie Take This Waltz. 

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Williams said she initially thought the movie would be perceived as a comedy.  She said, “I gave the script to a friend of mine to read, I was like, ‘I’m so excited, I’m going to make a comedy.’  And I came back an hour later and she was on the couch reading it and she was crying, and she was like, ‘I don’t know when it’s going to get funny, Michelle!’”  She added, “Yeah, that’s my kind of comedy.” Read more

John Cusack on his Darker Roles, Jungian Shadow Exercises for Acting and Losing 30 Pounds for ‘The Raven’

While The Raven has performed poorly at the box office after receiving very negative reviews, John Cusack is still talking about playing Edgar Alan Poe. 

In a lengthy interview with New York Magazine, Cusack talks about how playing Poe affected him both mentally and physically, exploring his dark side, and a little about why he stars in films with both small and huge budgets.

In previous interviews, Cusack has alluded to how uncomfortable it was playing Poe, a man well know for his struggle with addictions and traumatic personal losses.  In this interview he elaborates on that, saying, “It’s just it’s not a nice head-space to stay in, but it’s kind of an exhilarating head-space because there’s something kind of romantic toying with the abyss, you know. But it’s a nice place to be able to leave. I mean, I understand why he died early and everything.”  Read more

Benedict Cumberbatch Filmed His ‘Star Trek’ Audition on His iPhone

Benedict Cumberbatch doesn’t just have one of the most unique names in the acting community, he’s also had quite an impressive career over the last several years. 

Not only does he star as the lead detective in Sherlock and recently completed starring in Danny Boyle‘s recent stage adaptation of Frankenstein, but Cumberbatch will lend his voice to The Hobbit and star as the villain in the upcoming Star Trek sequel.  The busy actor paused to share a humorous story about how he was cast in Star Trek with the New York Times.

Cumberbatch jokes about how he got his role in the Star Trek sequel.  While in his native England for Christmas he was alerted that producer/director J. J. Abrams wanted him to send a videotape audition for “the not-so-good guy” role.  However, Cumberbatch couldn’t find anyone who would film his audition, pointing out, “We observe this little Judeo-Christian cult holiday called Christmas, whereas, you know, some kids in this part of town [Los Angeles] with their Crackberrys, don’t.” Read more

Ewan McGregor Talks About On-Screen Nudity and His Four-Month Break from Acting

You may not have noticed it, but in his nineteen-year career Ewan McGregor has appeared in 45 films, which is a prolific rate for actors these days.  However, 2012 might be the rare year in which McGregor only appears in one film released this year. 

As he tells The Telegraph, the reason for that is McGregor took a rare four month break, which has allowed him to reflect on his varied career and his proclivity of showing a lot of skin in his roles.

McGregor explains that he took the lengthy beak (well, for him anyway) because before then he always felt like he had to work.  He explains, “I finished shooting a film in September, and I just felt I’d worked my ass off for years.  I felt like I just hadn’t stopped. Which I hadn’t. And I realised one day that I didn’t have to work if I didn’t want to. It was like the sky suddenly opening up. I called my wife and suggested that I didn’t work for the rest of the year. And it’s been lovely.” Read more

Rhys Ifans on his ‘Spider-Man’ Audition and Lizard Transformation: “The chilling thing is, in the clips I’ve seen, I recognize myself”

Welsh actor Rhys Ifans is set to star as the villain in the biggest blockbuster of his career, The Amazing Spider-Man.  Though he appears as the very-human Dr. Curt Connors, for much of the film we’ll see Ifans as the scaly Lizard. 

However, the Anonymous star confesses to a great deal of hesitation before taking a role that will have his transformed visage all over posters and action figures for years to come.

Ifans admits that he was nervous about the effects, but upon seeing himself in the effects he was won over.  He says, “I thought, ‘What a night. That’s up there with the biggest, that is.’ I was thrilled. Beforehand, part of me dreaded the thought of sitting in a make up char for eight hours a day, but that wasn’t the case at all. They did so many scans of my face I felt like a dartboard. The chilling thing is, in the clips I’ve seen, I recognize myself.” Read more

Jason Segel on His Early Acting Jobs and ‘The Five Year Engagement’: “I find romantic comedies very predictable, and that’s what most people don’t like”

From television, movies, and even singing and dancing with the Muppets, Jason Segel is just about everywhere right now.  But what sets Segel apart from many other comedians is the active creative role he takes in his projects — for instance, he co-wrote Forgetting Sarah Marshall, The Muppets, and his upcoming romantic comedy, The Five Year Engagement with his collaborator Nicholas Stoller (who also directed both Sarah Marshall and Engagement). 

In an interview with NPR, he discusses his early acting roles, his writing process, and a surprising type of role he’d like to have one day. Read more

Sarah Silverman on Her Nude Scene in ‘Take This Waltz’: “It’s such a common, everyday thing for women that’s never reflected in movies”

Actress/comedienne Sarah Silverman appeared at the Tribeca Film Festival last weekend promoting her new film, Sarah Polley’s indie Take This Waltz.  As seen in The Hollywood Reporter, Silverman discussed her role starring alongside Michelle Williams.

The film depicts a full-frontal nude shower between the costars.  Silverman said, “The actual day wasn’t bad.  It was very supportive, and you forget it once you do it, but the morning leading up to it, I overgroomed.  You know when you even and even and even until nothing’s left?  It was bad.  Never try to even from the top.  Let the top be the top…It was all right.  I wish it was fuller.  Michelle’s was so full and awesome.” Read more

Guy Pearce on Why He Feels Supporting Roles are More Difficult than Lead Roles

English-Australian actor Guy Pearce will likely always be most remembered for his starring role in Christopher Nolan‘s breakthrough film Memento, but Pearce has appeared in a variety of roles — both big and small — in a number of acclaimed films. 

He spoke to Movieline about choosing projects, and how he actually finds it more difficult to act in a smaller role than a lead role.

Pearce admits that when he chooses projects he’s baffled by which ones will eventually turn out successful and which will not.  He explains, “Even if I am conscious at all you still don’t necessarily know if it’s going to work out that way — you still don’t know if a film is made well or not seen, or seen or not made well. You kind of go, well, I have no say over that anyway. So to me I have to just respond to what my internal interests are, I suppose. Like, I wouldn’t have chosen Memento to gain a whole lot of attention and yet Memento has probably gotten me more attention than any other film I’ve ever done. So you never really know what the outcome’s going to be. So I tend not to think about it too much, to be honest. I’ve had discussions; my agent has said, ‘Well, you might want to do this, this is something that might be kind of big, it’s going to be seen by a lot of people,’ and I kind of don’t really hear it, necessarily. I need to understand the character and understand the director. So I’m aware of that stuff but I just don’t know what to do with it.” Read more

Alison Brie on Her ‘Five-Year Engagement’ Accent and How She’s Handling Problems on the ‘Community’ Set

Community and Mad Men star Alison Brie has her most high-profile movie role so far in The Five-Year Engagement as the sister of lead actress Emily Blunt.  Of course, the American Brie had to work on her accent to sound like the English Blunt, and she talked to MovieFone about how she prepared for that and gave some insight into the problems on the set of Community.

As previously revealed, Brie worked with Emily Blunt on set in order to sound like she could be her sister.  However, almost prophetically Brie was working on her English accent before she was even cast in the role.  She reveals, “I just sort of on a whim thought it would be a good idea to brush up on a British accent, so I’d been [listening to] … these accent CDs on my way to work in the morning and on my way home. So it was like fate.”  She also admits working on other accents, too, but she tells the interviewer that she isn’t quite as proficient at them.  She says, “I had a couple other CDs — Irish and German — but I couldn’t just whip them out. I’d have to go back and brush up on the CDs.” Read more

Jerry Ferrara on branching out beyond ‘Entourage’: “I like the challenge”

Playing the same character on a fairly one-dimensional TV series for seven years can understandably lead to an actor being pigeonholed, but Entourage star Jerry Ferrara is looking to prove he’s more than the posse member he played on the HBO series, which aired its final episode last summer.

“I’m proud of what Entourage was and what the character was and I think being heavily identified means I did a good job,” the “Turtle” actor said in a recent interview. “I also was excited for the challenge – like, I know that there will be some people who like think that that’s all I can do. And you know what: give me that opportunity, because I like that challenge.” Read more

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