‘Inside The Actors Studio’ Celebrates 250 Episodes with a Two-Hour Special (video)

Inside the Actors Studio, hosted by James Lipton, will celebrate reaching 250 episodes with a special 2-hour show on Wednesday, May 29th at 7p.m.

Lipton sits down for brand new interviews with former guests including Actors Studio alumnus Bradley Cooper, Robert DeNiro, Jennifer Lopez, Christopher Walken, Barbara Walters, Dave Chappelle, Jay Leno, Conan O’Brien, Ellen Burstyn and Spike Lee. Read more

Biography: Hamish Linklater

Hamish Linklater starred for five seasons on the CBS comedy “The New Adventures of Old Christine,” playing the brother of Julia-Louis Dreyfus’s title character. On the big screen, he recently co-starred with Liam Neeson and Alexander Skarsgård in Peter Berg’s 2012 action adventure “Battleship.”

An accomplished stage actor, Linklater most recently starred opposite Alan Rickman in the Broadway play “Seminar,” marking his Broadway debut. In 2011, he won an Obie Award for his performance off-Broadway in “The School for Lies.” He earned a Drama Desk Award nomination in 2010 for his work in the Public Theatre’s Shakespeare in the Park production of “Twelfth Night.” Earlier this year, he made his playwriting debut with “Vandal,” which just premiered off-Broadway.

Born in the heart of the Berkshire Mountains of Massachusetts, Linklater began acting at the age of eight as part of an acting troupe called Shakespeare & Company, founded by his mother, Columbia University drama professor and noted vocal coach Kristin Linklater. After attending Amherst College, he left school to pursue his career. Read more

Liam Neeson on Returning to the Stage: “I would love to tread the boards again at some point”

You might be unaware of this, but before he became an action star in his late fifties in films like Taken and The Grey Liam Neeson was a highly-regarded actor.  Okay, that’s not really news to anybody, but while Neeson has gone onto an unlikely career revitalization as a greying action hero he admits that he misses where he got started in the first place: the stage.

He tells the Belfast Telegraph after being awarded the Freedom honor of his home town of Ballymena, Northern Ireland, “I would love to tread the boards again at some point. It’s been four-and-a-half years since I was on the stage so it’s time to flex that muscle again.”

In fact, Neeson even has a theatre in mind where he would want to appear.  Naturally, it’s where he started: the Lyric Theatre in Belfast.  He explains, “I’d love to do it at the Lyric. We’re actively trying to find something, you know. I’m a single parent so it’s hard trying to distance myself for the moment.” Read more

SAG Awards Speeches – Film: Ben Affleck, Daniel Day-Lewis, Jennifer Lawrence & Anne Hathaway

Here are the transcripts of the speeches t he winning actors gave from the Film portion of the 19th Annual SAG Awards, featuring Ben Affleck, Daniel Day-Lewis, Jennifer Lawrence and Anne Hathaway. My favorite of the night was Affleck’s.

Check them out below! 

OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY A CAST IN A MOTION PICTURE

BEN AFFLECK: Wow, thank you all so much. I can’t believe I’m standing in the place where Daniel Day-Lewis just was. I feel like maybe I’ll be a better actor just for the, like, radiation. [laughter] I am really amazed and stunned, there are so many great actors here and this is voted on by our brothers who are actors. There’s a hundred and some thousand people in SAG-AFTRA. Some of them never get, you know, to come to a place like this. And they vote from home, you know.

First, I want to thank my wife, who I love, and our kids who I also love. You know, and Warner Bros. who I love. Not quite as much, but I do love them. You know, there is so many people who are actors, who want to be actors. I got in SAG in 1986 and I always wanted – just like so many people who came up and made these speeches, and to me this has nothing to do with me, it has to do with the incredible people who are in this movie.

The people you see on stage, we had more than a hundred and fifty actors. They spoke in English, they spoke in Farsi, and the one thing that they had in common was that they came to work every single day, whether they had a line or a look to somebody, or two lines or 10 lines, or a bunch of stuff I couldn’t understand in Farsi, and they wanted to “kill” it to make the movie better.

Because that’s what actors do all over the world, every day. God bless you. Thank you so much for making the movies that you make, and the television you make, and the theater you make. We are in your debt. Thank you. God bless you. Thank you all and thank all these incredible films who were nominated with us. Read more

The Best and Worst Films of 2012

It’s that time of year where everyone and their alcoholic uncle are giving you their list of the best and worst films of 2012. So, we here at Daily Actor are jumping in, minus our drunk uncle.

The Top 10 Films of the 2012

1) Zero Dark Thirty
You’ve know doubt heard all of the hype on this film that stars Jessica Chastain and Jason Clarke, and guess what? It lives up to it and then some. The film, about the hunt for Osama Bin Laden, proves once again that director Katheryn Bigelow is a true force. Definitely a must see!

2) Argo
This has been out for a while now and if you haven’t seen it yet, my question is: Why not? In a story where most of us know the ending, Director Ben Affleck manages to ramps up the suspense and forces you to sit on the edge of your seat.

3) Killing Them Softly
Starring Brad Pitt, Richard Jenkins, James Gandolfini and a handful of wonderful character actors, this film tanked at the box office. I can see why: most scenes involved just 2 people in a room talking… and talking… and talking. Boredom for some, but for those us who cherish actors and their craft, you will love it. Watch this and get schooled.

4) Hello I Must Be Going
Anytime Melanie Lynskey has a starring role in a film, that’s a good thing. Director Todd Louiso‘s story of a divorced woman who is forced to move back in with her parents and then starts a relationship with the young son of her fathers business partner is funny, touching and a showcase for Lynskey.

5) Starlet
The film stars Dree Hemingway (yes, of that Hemingway family) as Jane, an up-and-coming porn star who forms an unlikely friendship with the elderly Sadie (80-year-old newcomer Besedka Johnson). Director Sean Baker knocks it out of the park with this small, intimate (very intimate) film.  Read more

Interview: Maggie Grace & Mia Maestro talk ‘Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 2′, Action Scenes and Auditioning

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 23:36 — 16.3MB)

Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 2 opens in theaters this weekend, and by all accounts, this film is the best of the bunch.

I talked with Maggie Grace and Mia Maestro, who star in the film as part of the Denali Clan, and they both told me that they can’t wait for the fans to see it. “It’s a much more grownup film,” Maggie told me. “It stands out from the others in terms of theme. It’s more about community and the community banding together.”

They also talked about much they loved working with Director Bill Condon. “He’s a fantastic actor’s director,” Maggie told me.  With Mia adding that “he even added a special surprise at the end for fans. It’s a really moving gesture that he gave all the actors and all the fans and he gave to the saga.”

I really enjoyed talking to these two; they were so warm and nice. We talked about Twilight, working with Michael Sheen and those hand-painted contacts they had to wear during filming. We also talked about acting; Maggie tells a great story about watching Liam Neeson on Inside the Actors Studio and we end the interview with a one of the best conversations I’ve had about auditioning.

Check it out below and don’t forget to catch Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 2! 

For the full interview, click the audio link above or download it from iTunes

Read more

Sally Field on Almost Not Getting Her ‘Lincoln’ Role: “I had a feeling they’d want someone who had less baggage”

Starring in a Steven Spielberg film opposite Daniel Day-Lewis might be as close as it gets to a “dream role” for an actress, and for two-time Oscar winner Sally Field Abraham Lincoln’s wife Mary Todd in Spielberg’s Lincoln was a role she wasn’t going to accept being passed over for.  While she was long considered for the role during the film’s ten year period of development, she reveals to Moviefone that she almost didn’t end up with the role after Day-Lewis was cast as Lincoln.

Spielberg has been trying to develop a film about Abraham Lincoln since he got the film rights to the book Team of Rivals in 2001, with Spielberg hoping to cast Liam Neeson in the lead role.  Before the script was even completed, Sally Field was the director’s choice for Mary Todd.  However, Field reveals that as time passed she worried that her age would keep her from the role, explaining, “They asked me to do it in 2005 but there was no writer. Many scripts came and went and Liam came and went. Tony Kushner became the writer and delivered an exquisite script and then when Daniel Day-Lewis came on board, I knew there would be a problem. I just knew it in my head. I’m 10 years older than Daniel and Lincoln was 10 years older than Mary. And then I have a lot of baggage on me as an actress, I’ve been doing it for 50 years. I had a feeling they’d want someone who had less baggage.” Read more

Famke Janssen talks ‘Taken 2′, Life as a Bond Girl and Moving Forward as a Writer/Director

Famke Janssen is still well-known for appearing as a Bond girl in 1995’s Goldeneye.  But looking back, the actress isn’t too fond of that role.

“I’m also, I suppose, object to that whole world of ‘Bond girl’ as a woman,” she told Moviefone.  “It’s such a demeaning, silly title to give somebody.  And it’s definitely something that, as a woman, I have to deal with.  People constantly want to remind me or an audience that I was a model or that I was a superhero or that I was a Bond girl.  Any of those titles keep coming up, even now as a person who has directed her own movie.  It doesn’t happen with men as much.  They seem to be luckier in that department.  But I seem to have those things attached to my name regardless of what I do or how far away from it I am.  But that’s okay.” Read more

Clips and Quotes from Tomorrow Night’s ‘Inside the Actors Studio’ Featuring Liam Neeson

Inside the Actors Studio and its host, James Lipton, welcomes Oscar-nominated actor and Taken 2 star Liam Neeson to its stage tomorrow night (October 2nd).

In the show, Lipton asks Neeson about his roles in Schindler’s List, The Dark Knight Rises and Kinsey. I’m assuming they won’t talk about the cinematic trash pile, Battleship.

Neeson also shares details ranging from his always-changing accents to his romances with famous leading ladies. Read more

‘The Hobbit’ Star Billy Connolly Thinks J.R.R. Tolkien’s Books are ‘Unreadable’

Actor/comedian Billy Connolly doesn’t strike me as the type of person who parrot out generic answers to questions about his latest projects (as opposed to, say, Liam Neeson talking about the “character development” in Battleship).  My notion appears to be correct, because in an interview with New York magazine he openly admits that he isn’t a fan of J.R.R. Tolkien’s writing even though he is appearing in The Hobbit movie series in the key role as the dwarf lord Dain Ironfoot.

But not only does Connolly confess his dislike for Tolkien’s writing, he even says he generally dislikes people who are fans of Middle-Earth.  He says, “I’ve never read The Hobbit. Never.  Never read Lord of the Rings.  I could never read Tolkien. I always found him unreadable … I didn’t read [the books], and I normally don’t like people who have! The people who love it, they’re kind of scary. They talk all this gobbledygook and they think of it as the Holy Grail.”  Read more

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