Jason Segel on ‘Jeff, Who Lives at Home’: “When I read the script, I felt a little bit scared as to whether or not I’d be capable of acting it”

Jason Segel and Ed Helms star as brothers in the subdued comedy Jeff, Who Lives at Home, which coincidentally was written and directed by brothers Jay and Mark Duplass. Falling firmly in the Duplass’ “mumblecore” style (who came up with that term, anyway?), Segel stars as 30 year-old Jeff, who as you might guess, still lives at home. 

The star of How I Met Your Mother and The Muppets explains what drew him to the low-budget movie, and what he thought about working with the Duplass brothers.

Segel has some praise for the Duplass brothers, who immediately won over him after their initial meeting.  He recalls, “I met Mark and Jay when they offered me this movie.  They came to me with the script and we had dinner – and they’re two of  the nicest guys I’ve ever met.  There’s a scene in the script that calls for this sort of action stunt.  And I wanted to do it for them.  It’s not like you’re working with some other director and you think, ‘Hey, let a stuntman do it.’  For Mark and Jay, you want to do it for them.” Read more

John Cusack on Becoming Edgar Allan Poe: “You have to see yourself in these great people if they represent the shadow part of you”

As a former English literature teacher, I can tell you that no author’s work interested my students as much as Edgar Allan Poe.  Whether it was his dark prose, his scandalous life, or even just the fact that Baltimore’s NFL team was named after his most famous poem, almost every student I ever had found something to like about Poe.  Needless to say, Poe remains an iconic figure over 160 years after his death.

So not only does John Cusack have the pressure of playing the famous writer in the upcoming mystery film The Raven, but he had to deal with the difficultly of coping with Poe’s notoriously turbulent mental state.  Or, as Cusack puts it in an interview with The Huffington Post, Poe “was so self-destructive, he’d burn any bridge he ever built.  He was at war with the entire world.”

Cusack understands how important it is when playing a famous individual to find something in yourself in the character.  He explains, “You have to see yourself in these great people if they represent the shadow part of you.” Read more

Jennifer Lawrence: “I can’t stand it when actors complain”

The Hunger Games comes out on March 23 and star Jennifer Lawrence should be expecting her popularity to soon explode. 

The 21 year-old knew that taking on the role of Katniss Everdeen, the heroine from Suzanne Collins’ incredibly successful series, would alter her lifestyle. 

In an interview with Access Hollywood, Lawrence said, “I gave myself three days.  I knew from reading the books that I loved The Hunger Games, I just didn’t know if it was worth changing my life for.  I’m at a peaceful place right now…Nobody’s staked outside my house.  I wanted to make sure that when I said yes I wouldn’t regret it.  And I don’t regret it.”

Lawrence came onto the scene in 2010 with her Oscar-nominated turn in the indie Winter’s Bone.  A young actress who already has critical acclaim, Lawrence wanted to be sure she was taking her career in the right direction.  She said, “I would have said no because I was scared, and then I would have been that bitter actress telling my grandkids, ‘I’m the one that turned it down.’” Read more

Andrew Garfield: “You just have to just keep your head down and work as hard as you can on whatever you’re working on”

Though Andrew Garfield is best known for his film roles — after all, he’s going to be splashed across multiplexes in red and blue tights later this year in The Amazing Spider-Man — he maintains a passion for theater, pointing out, “There’s something pure about working on a play, in my experience.” 

So while it’s no surprise that Garfield is currently appearing in his first Broadway role, it is surprising that his first role would be in one of the most popular plays in American history, Death of a Salesman, starring Philip Seymour Hoffman. 

Garfield talks about his experience working on the play and how he deals with the pressure of celebrity to USA Today – all in an American accent, by the way. Read more

Taylor Kitsch on the Physical Demands of the ‘John Carter’ Shoot

While John Carter may have performed well below Disney’s expectations during its opening weekend, many fans of the Edgar Rice Burroughs book series singled out Taylor Kitsch for praise for his portrayal of the titular Martian adventurer.

However, Kitsch tells Moviefone that the shoot didn’t consist of him waltzing around shirtless — the role was both physically and mentally demanding on the Friday Night Lights star.

Surprisingly, Kitsch had little knowledge about the hundred year-old character before he was approached for the role, revealing, “I didn’t know anything. My team just called me and they were like, ‘Hey, will you take this general meeting with [director] Andrew Stanton?’ And, obviously, that’s a no-brainer. I went in there and that was my first meeting with him. That’s the first time I was exposed to it.” Read more

Paul Dano Talks About Acting Drunk in ‘Being Flynn’

Now that There Will Be Blood and My Little Sunshine star Paul Dano has appeared in perhaps his most significant role so far in Being Flynn, the adaptation of Nick Flynn’s memoir Another Bullshit Night in Suck City, he has had a lot to say about the production and what he learned from it. 

In an interview with IndieWire, Dano reveals some of the difficulties he had acting in the film, particularly acting drunk.  He also talks about the reward of working with Robert De Niro, one of the most acclaimed actors in film history. Read more

Jon Hamm on His ‘Friends with Kids’ Director (and Girlfriend): “Fortunately I didn’t have to sleep with the director to get this role”

It’s probably not hard for Jon Hamm to get cast.  But in the case of his new movie, Friends with Kids, he had an even better shot. 

Longtime girlfriend Jennifer Westfeldt is the writer, director and star of the movie, which also stars Kristen Wiig, Edward Burns and Adam Scott. 

In an interview with Vulture, Hamm confessed, “Fortunately I didn’t have to sleep with the director to get this role; I just happened to be sleeping with her.”

In the film, Burn’s character dates Westfeldt’s character.  Hamm said, “Actually, in a couple of the read-throughs in the early stages I read the part, but I think Jen and I wisely decided not to go that route and not to play opposite each other romantically.  I think it was a better choice.”  Read more

Taylor Kitsch on ‘John Carter’ Special Effects: Director put “performance before technicality”

I caught a screening of John Carter the other night, and despite some hookey dialogue I really enjoyed it.  It’s the type of action/adventure movie that just isn’t done these days, and I hope the film does a lot better than last summer’s Conan the Barbarian — another pulpy action/adventure movie that was unfortunately ignored by audiences. 

But no matter how John Carter does at the box office, Taylor Kitsch, who stars as the titular hero, has definitely made a name for himself and sure seems like he had a lot of fun shooting the movie.  In particular, he opens up about the most enjoyable aspects of the production and what it was like acting a movie that involved so many digital effects.

Though much of the special effects-heavy sequences were shot in London, the scenes on the dusty surface of Mars were shot in Utah.  Kitsch preferred shooting in the outdoors, saying, “I loved it there. Maybe it was just being outside after being on the stages in London for so long, but it was the first time I really had the feeling that we were making an epic adventure movie. We did some Lake Powell scenes, and the sets were remarkable. That really felt like something special. I think audiences are going to love this movie.” Read more

2 Clips from ‘Silent House’ Starring Elizabeth Olsen

Here is Elizabeth Olsen introducing a clip from the her new film, Silent House. 

The film is about Sarah, a young woman who finds herself sealed inside her family’s secluded lake house. With no contact to the outside world, and no way out, panic turns to terror as events become increasingly ominous in and around the house.

Duh duh Dummmmm!

Check out the clip she introduces and another one below. Read more

First Look at ‘The Lone Ranger’ Starring Johnny Depp and Armie Hammer

Curious to see what Johnny Depp will look like as Tonto, The Lone Ranger’s faithful sidekick?

Well, here you go!

From producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Gore Verbinski comes Disney/Bruckheimer Films’ The Lone Ranger.

Tonto (Depp), a spirit warrior on a personal quest, joins forces in a fight for justice with John Reid (Armie Hammer), a lawman who has become a masked avenger.

Read more

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