Andrew Garfield on Spider-Man Hype: “I’m going to do my best to remain me”

Andrew Garfield wowed audiences at this year’s Comic-Con with his sheer enthusiasm with his upcoming role as the titular hero in The Amazing Spider-Man, a role that promises to catapult the once little-known actor into super-stardom. 

Of course, preparing for the role and dealing with the fame fallout might prove to be far more difficult that acting in the movie itself.  In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Garfield opened up about the preparation he underwent before filming and how he plans to come to terms with the significant fame he’ll doubtlessly receive once it appears in theaters.

When asked if he intentionally avoided anything while preparing for the role, Garfield admits he didn’t feel that way, saying, “I didn’t really think about avoiding anything. I just didn’t come at it that way. I wanted him to have fun. I wanted it to feel like Peter Parker could have some fun and wasn’t just trying to save the world. He could have fun even after the responsibility has been thrust upon him and he has to save the city. I really wanted to do something physical that was genuine and authentic and inspired by the different artists over the years. His physicality is something which I’ve been obsessed by and I’ve loved.”   Read more

Interview: Megan Mullally and Ken Marino

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 12:31 — 8.6MB)

Megan Mullally and Ken Marino star in Adult Swim’s Children’s Hospital. The show, which was just renewed for another season, features Marino as Dr. Glenn Richie and Mullally as Chief in the medical drama parody. 

Megan got on most of our radars playing Karen on Will & Grace but she’s also been on Broadway (Grease, How To Succeed, Young Frankenstein) and other hit shows like Party Down and plays a recurring character on Parks and Recreation.

Ken has been involved in so many great comedies over his career; The State, Wet Hot American Summer, Party Down and Role Models to name a small few.

This was the first time I’ve talked to either of them and they were probably my favorite interview at Comic-Con. Both were just flat-out funny and just really warm, nice people.

We talked about Children’s Hospital, a Party Down movie, female body parts and more! Check out the full audio interview, because it’s hilarious!

Children’s Hospital airs on Midnight, Thursdays on Adult Swim. 

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

Before we talk about Children’s Hospital, is the Party Down movie going to be the new Arrested Development movie or do you think that it’s actually going to come together as the point?

Ken Marino: The script for the Party Down movie is basically, it feels, it read like the next episode of Arrested Development, so yeah, we’re going to do the Party Down movie we will be playing…

Megan Mullally: I’m playing Maybe.

Ken Marino: Yeah and I’m doing [Jeffrey] Tambor’s part.  So, it’ll be good.  Read more

Interview: Wilfred’s Dorian Brown “I probably I wouldn’t have gotten the show if I weren’t pregnant”

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 4:02 — 2.8MB)

Dorian Brown got the audition for Wilfred the day she was scheduled to leave for Africa.

If you’ve ever planned a trip and had an audition right before you leave, I’ll bet you almost 90% of the time you’ll get it. It’s happened to me a couple of times and it happened to Dorian. “I was a lot looser,” she said.

Three weeks later, she came home, they called her in again and “it was meant to be.”

Wilfred is one of my favorite new shows and Dorian is great as Kristen, Ryan’s (Elijah Wood) sister. 

I talked to her at Comic-Con about the audition process, how she didn’t want her character to be a “one-note bitch” and more!

Wilfred airs on Thursdays on FX at 10pm.

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

How did the project first get presented to you?

Dorian Brown: I got the audition the day I was leaving for Africa which I think it led me to get so far into it because I was like, “Who cares about an audition. I’m going to Africa.”  So I was a lot looser but the script was so funny when I got it, I would walk into the other room and tell my husband the jokes. Like, I would read the lines and I was like, “listen, listen to this” and he was like, “that’s funny.  You should go out for that.” and I’m like, “Right, I know.”  So I went in and I got nervous because the ones that you love the most are the ones that you never get.

But then I was like “I’m going to Africa.  It’s fine.  I’ll forget about it” and luckily they were still looking for people three weeks later. So it worked out. Read more

Interview: Rob Corddry “I came up doing Shakespeare and drama and now, it’s just not as fun as comedy”

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 13:44 — 9.4MB)

Children’s Hospital is consistently one of the funniest, most absurd shows on television and for that, we have Rob Corddry to thank.

Corddry, who created the show (and also produces, writes and directs) stars as Dr. Blake Downs, a member of the “clown race” who happens to believe in the healing power of laughter instead of actual medicine.

I talked to Rob at Comic-Con on why 15 minutes is the perfect length for the show, how they are planning a stage play of one of the episodes and the demolition of the hospital they use as their set.

Children’s Hospital airs on Midnight, Thursdays on Adult Swim. 

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

Your show is funnier than most shows and you can do so much with your 15 minutes. I guess it’s kind of liberating to be able to do whatever you want every week and not have to adhere to, okay, this character and to this last episode and all that.

Rob Corddry: Well, it’s perfect.  15 minutes is perfect for our format, our sort of relentless show barrage, you know what I mean? And yeah, there are probably some shows out there, some half-hour shows that would be a lot better if they were 15 minutes.

You want to name any of them?

Rob Corddry: [laughs] If I can think of one, sure.  I guess nothing comes to mind but you know, it’s like, I guess you can say that about anything. There are certain shows that probably just don’t, they don’t have the right set, you know what I mean? They don’t have the right this or right that. There are so many factors.  That’s one of them, I think, the form. The actual duration of the show. Read more

New Spider-Man Andrew Garfield To Take “Death of a Salesman” Broadway Role

There are few plays in the history of American theater that carry the prestige of Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman.  An upcoming Broadway revival (the first since the acclaimed multi-Tony Award winning 1999 revival starring Brian Dennehy) has long been announced with Philip Seymour Hoffman in the lead role and directed by stage-and-screen director Mike Nichols, but the supporting cast is starting to take shape now. 

While Linda Emond will appear as Willy Loman’s wife while Andrew Garfield, star of the upcoming Amazing Spider-Man, will star as Willy’s son Biff, the one-time sports hero whose life has not amounted to much of anything since. 

It’s a difficult role to balance, especially for someone just about to turn twenty-eight, yet Garfield brings with him an English theatrical background (Death of a Salesman would be his first appearance on the Broadway stage).  It’s easy to write Biff off as a meathead jock who peaked too early, but anyone familiar with Miller’s plays knows that the character has far more dimensions than that. Read more

Interview: Executive Producer David Zuckerman and Director Randall Einhorn talk ‘Wilfred’

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 14:06 — 9.7MB)

Wilfred‘s Executive Producer David Zuckerman and Director Randall Einhorn, the guys behind the look and feel of the show, were at this years Comic-Con where they were clearly happy about the success of the FX comedy.

David talked about the casting of Elijah Wood and Fiona Gubelmann and how not doing table reads leads to them “not second guessing” themselves.

Randall, a former director of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, discuses how he came on board the series and how he finds the beats in the scripts.

Oh, and if you didn’t know, David is Casting Director Dori Zuckerman‘s brother.

Wilfred airs on Thursdays on FX at 10pm.

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

You guys don’t do table reads for the show. Do you think it helped as far as the show feeling very spontaneous, very real, and very kind of in the moment? Do you think that it helped because the show doesn’t seem too rehearsed?

David Zuckerman: Well, I don’t know.  I mean, there would have been time for rehearsal.  I think it helped in the sense that it didn’t allow for any second guessing. 

We did the scripts the way we thought they should work. And sometimes after a table read, you know, people will second guess.  We did table read for the first six episodes because we did them all in one day and they just went so extraordinarily well but then after that point, there just wasn’t time. And there was very little improvisation, I know that it kind of looks like there was. Everything was very tightly scripted and adhered to very closely because the scripts were written in such a way that a lot of plot points were interwoven, and if you pulled one thread it could have dire consequences down the line.  Read more

Interview: Wilfred’s Elijah Wood and Jason Gann

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 10:34 — 7.3MB)

At Comic-Con, I got another chance to talk to Wilfred’s Elijah Wood and Jason Gann. Speaking with them in person is no match for a phone call because these two were hilarious; especially Gann.

If you don’t know by now, Wilfred is a comedy about a depressed man who thinks his neighbor’s dog is an Australian guy in a dog-suit. Watch 2 episodes and you’ll be hooked, I promise!

This time around we talked how Jason got the original idea for Wilfred, his little black dog nose and Elijah answers questions about The Hobbit!

Wilfred airs on Thursdays on FX at 10pm.

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

When you got the original idea, you were completely stoned, right?

Jason Gann: I was a little bit stoned.  The first 30 seconds of the short film, Wilfred, offered the guy a bong.  He said, “Want one of these?” and when we wrote the short, we verbatim wrote it the way the way we improvised it at first. So yeah, there was bong there when we wrote it.  So, yeah, I’m not saying I’m not saying pro-drugs.

Not at all.  Oh no. 

Jason Gann: People say, “Is it real pot?” It’s like, have you been on a professional set? I actually did a short film, my first short film that I made, I played this dude who was smoking weed and he was sleeping on a mattress in the garage of his parents, his mum’s place. And I had  set up this brick as his bedside table, and in this scene, I just like, fall down half asleep back on to on the pillow. And my mate was shooting, he said, “I didn’t believe ya.  I didn’t believe ya.  Let’s do it again.”  I got up and did it again.  He was like, “I didn’t believe it.”  I’m like, “are you serious?”  “I didn’t believe it. Do it again.” And I went head first in the brick and split my head open.  For the rest of the short film, I’m like concussed. So that’s what happens when you perform stoned. Read more

Interview: The Cast of the Sundance Hit, ‘Bellflower’

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 15:44 — 10.8MB)

The story of Bellflower is as interesting off-screen as it is on.

Evan Glodell, the writer, director and star originally started working on it in 2003. He had cast most of the roles but through the fate of filmmaking, it never happened. Cut to 2008: They start filming; editing took two years and once they were done, everyone they screened the film for shot it down.

Finally, with no money, Evan scrounged the fee together to submit the film to Sundance and it became one of the ‘go see’ movies at the festival.

The film is about two friends (Glodell and Tyler Dawson) who spend their free time building flamethrowers and a working on a souped up car named Medusa in hopes of a global acoplyapse. When Milly (Jesse Wiseman) enters the picture, things take eventually take a turn for the worse.

I talked to Evan, Tyler and Jessie along with the rest of the cast – Rebekah Brandes and Vincent Grashaw –  at this year’s Comic-Con where they talked to me about getting into Sundance, how their acting careers have changed and how they’ve finally found a “home” in Hollywood by working together.

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

Read more

Review: “Cowboys and Aliens”

Cowboys and Aliens has gotten a ton of hype thanks to director, Jon Favreau. He’s been everywhere pitching the movie, even having a star-studded premiere at Comic-Con last week.

Eben thought I’m totally bitter about not being invited, I won’t let that color my review. Because I liked it. It’s not going to win any awards but the film definitely lives up to its title, delivering not only cowboys and aliens but also indians, bandits and the best performance Harrison Ford has given in years.

The film starts off with Jake Lonergan (Daniel Craig) lying on the ground, waking up in the middle of nowhere with a metallic gizmo on his wrist. He’s got no idea where or who he is but he’s got no time to figure anything out because he’s soon surrounded by a gang of desperadoes out to kill him. A scuffle ensues (i.e., he kills ‘em all!) and, thanks to a preacher, finds his way to the town of Absolution.

In town, Jake watches Percy Dolarhyde (Paul Dano) bully the townsfolk, including the saloon owner (Sam Rockwell). When it’s Jake’s turn to get Percy’s rile, he doesn’t take too kindly to it, knocking him down within seconds. That puts him on the radar of the Sheriff (Keith Carradine) and Percy’s father, cattleman and unspoken leader of the town, Woodrow Dolarhyde (Harrison Ford), who realize that Lonergan is a wanted man.

But when, out of nowhere, several alien ships swoop through town and snatch up a bunch of townsfolk, those matters are set aside. Lonergan and Dolarhyde gather up a posse and head out to kick some alien butt.

The film does have it’s faults, particularly Olivia Wilde‘s character. She is part of a major plot twist (which I won’t reveal) that doesn’t really have any pay off or explanation. When it happens, the film seems to brush it off within moments. And in the scene, she’s naked… so I was hoping it would last the rest of the movie.

Daniel Craig is perfect in the film as is Rockwell, who gives us a crowd-pleasing moment towards the end of the film. And like I said, this is Ford’s best role in ages. This is the kind of part I want to see him in! You can’t fault him for wanting to do films like Morning Glory or Extreme Measures but come on, he belongs in a hat battling evil. Midway through the film, he gives a speech to the little boy about being a man. It maybe lasts for 1 minute but for me, that was the best part of the movie. I could watch that moment over and over and never get tired of it.  For that one minute, I recommend this.

Rhys Ifans To Comic-Con Attendants: “You people disgust me”

Rhys Ifans might be taking his role as a super-villain a bit too literally.  Since he made headlines for being “detained” and “cited” by security at last weekend’s San Diego Comic-Con for wanting smoke a cigarette backstage (and allegedly being drunk), most people ignored Ifans’ rather questionable comments about fans at the Amazing Spider-Man panel. Luckily the San Diego Reader transcribed Ifans’ allegedly booze-filled diatribe.

Ifans, who plays the film’s main villain The Lizard, immediately began his rant by stating that he wanted to come to Comic-Con to see if comic book fans were anything like Comic Book Guy from The Simpsons.  His conclusion?  Real-life comic book fans are worse.  Ifans said, “I wanted to see just how much truth there was to the parody. Come to find out, it’s not a parody at all. If anything, it’s a whitewash. You people disgust me, with your self-important justifications for your stunted development and your elaborate, mask-ridden drag shows. It’s sad wretches like you who have made it well-nigh impossible to earn a living as an actor without either making dick jokes or putting on fetish wear and calling it a ‘superhero costume.’ Poor Bobby [DeNiro] and Al [Pacino] might as well be wearing clown noses every time they get in front of a camera these days, and here I am getting ready to impersonate a character known for dragging out his ‘s’s and wearing a lot of purple.”

Huh.  While you could argue that Ifan’s rant has several valid points — superhero films used to be considered the death knell for an actor’s career, but now it seems like every Hollywood A-Lister jockeys to be in as many as possible — it’s sort of odd for Ifans to take it out on the crowd since he is, you know, going to be in a comic book movie next summer.  Nobody forced Ifans to take the role, and he can hardly blame the “stunted development” of comic book fans for that.
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