SXSW Interview: Richard Jenkins and Bradley Whitford on ‘The Cabin in the Woods’

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Richard Jenkins and Bradley Whitford star in the incredibly fun new horror film, The Cabin in the Woods.

The two play, uh…. well, I can’t really say. If I give away plot details, I may be doomed to the same fate some of the characters in the film meet. That being said, Richard and Bradley totally make the film the standout that it is and I promise you’ll love it.

In this roundtable I did with them at SXSW, they talk about shooting the film, why they don’t create a back story for their characters… ever(!) and what on-set chemistry really means.

I recommend downloading the audio interview because it’s so much better. You can hear their humor and you’ll get much more out of it. In the interview, both the audio and the one below, there are some small spoilers but nothing that will or could ruin the film for you. Promise!

The Cabin in the Woods opens April 13th. Go see it! 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

Biography: Reese Witherspoon

Academy Award® winner Reese Witherspoon has created the kind of unforgettable characters that connect with critics and audiences alike, making her one of Hollywood’s most sought after actresses.

In December 2010, Witherspoon received her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Her extraordinary performance as June Carter Cash opposite Joaquin Phoenix in the Twentieth Century Fox biopic Walk the Line, earned her the 2006 Academy Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role, a BAFTA, Golden Globe® Award, Screen Actors Guild Award®, New York Film Critics Award, Broadcast Film Critics Award, and People’s Choice Award, in addition to 11 other awards.

She is currently in production on Mud, directed by award-winning filmmaker Jeff Nichols.

Witherspoon was last seen in the adaptation of the best-selling novel Water For Elephants with Robert Pattinson and Christopher Waltz, and How Do You Know, a romantic comedy directed by Academy Award winning writer-director James L. Brooks, starring alongside Owen Wilson, Paul Rudd and Jack Nicholson.

Since 2007, Witherspoon has served as Avon’s Global Ambassador and Honorary Chairman of the Avon Foundation for Women, representing a company with a conscience and strong rights for Women’s Empowerment. Witherspoon strongly supports the passage of the International Violence Against Women’s Act, which creates a comprehensive approach to combat violence. Although low key about her ongoing charity work, Witherspoon has been active on behalf of the Rape Treatment Center at the Santa Monica-UCLA Medical Center and Save the Children. She currently serves on the board of the Children’s Defense Fund, with whom she has been involved for many years, raising money and awareness for their many programs. Last year, she went to New Orleans with a group of women to open the first Freedom School there, and they have since endowed thirteen more community centers in the area.  Read more

Q & A: Ving Rhames on Preparation, Actors vs. Movie Stars and Fighting Zombies

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If you’ve ever wanted to see Ving Rhames beat the hell out of a Zombie with a sledgehammer, your wait is over.

This Saturday night, he’s starring in the SyFy Original Movie, Zombie Apocalypse where yes, he kills many a Zombie. Rhames plays Henry, the “enforcer and protector” of a group of people trying to survive a zombie outbreak.

Rhames went to school at Julliard and in 1984, appeared in his first Broadway play, The Winter Boys. From there, got some supporting roles in shows like Miami Vice and The Equalizer and then made a huge splash in Quentin Tarintino’s Pulp Fiction. He also won a Golden Globe winner for his work in the miniseries Don King: Only in America. He can also be seen in the upcoming Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol.

Ving talked to me about his preparation, the differences between an actor and a movie star, whether he’ll do Broadway again and a whole lot more. I’d suggest you listen to the audio version of the interview. Lots of great stuff in there!

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

Zombie Apocalypse premieres Saturday Oct. 29 at 9/8c

Ving Rhames: I like that title, Daily Actor. Interesting.

Thanks! I appreciate that coming from you. You went to Julliard. How has your preparation for roles changed from the time you graduated to now? Is it a lot easier for you?

Ving Rhames: No. My preparation is basically the same. It’s even when I’m doing a play, which I haven’t done in decades. But, I do kind of a – we call it a character analysis. I do a scene analysis, a script analysis. I go over what are my character’s intentions in the movie? What are his actions? What are my overall intentions? What are my goals in the – my character’s goals in the film? How do I get from Point A to Point B? You know, just basically what we call a Stanislavski moment-to-moment reality, what have you. So I use the same process in every film really.

In a film like this one where it’s a lot of action or whatever – of course being in shape physically comes more into play.   Read more

Albert Brooks: “I’m growing into parts I never even knew I wanted to play”

Albert Brooks might be letting his role as Bernie Rose, the main villain of Drive, affect his vocabulary, as when he discussed the role with The Los Angeles Times he described his character by saying “I’ve played a few nasty guys over the years, but never one with … of steel.”

If nothing else, Brooks — typically known for his comedic roles and comedies he has directed himself — insists that Rose isn’t the typical “movie villain,” which suggests why he was cast. 

He explains, “There’s a very clichéd bad guy in American movies, and you know who he is, the blond-haired guy who talks in an accent and from the moment he’s on screen you know everything about him.  What’s great about Bernie is you don’t know who he is in the first 40 seconds. He can turn out to be 11 different things. You just know that you don’t want to cross him.”   Read more

Gillian Jacobs says her role on ‘Community’ is like “grad school”

Gillian Jacobs considers herself lucky to be working with the the cast of her hit show, “Community“.

She told the Wall Street Journal’s Speakeasy, that it’s like “grad school for me and I’ve learned so much working on this show like timing, delivery, and making bold choices. I’ve never had a lot of vanity as an actor, I will say that about myself, and I have even less now. I’ve been inspired by working with these people to really try and figure out what is funny about me or my character, and then to just go for it. I think it’s also a natural by-product of working on a show as a series regular for more than one season. It feels like a safe zone for you. Even though millions of people are going to see it each week, you feel comfort with the people you work with and you feel free to make weird, bold, strange choices.”

This is Jacobs first role in a comedy and she says observing her castmates at work has helped her expand her comedy skills. “You are bound to learn things when you are surrounded by people like Jim Rash (Dean Pelton), who is a Groundling. I do feel like I’ve become a better improver being around these people. I went and did the Groundlings one night with Jim and I don’t think I could have done it had it not been for “Community.” I haven’t done improv since I was in middle school.”

Jacobs is looking forward to a little down time while “Community” is on hiatus. “I’m taking it easy, taking meetings and reading scripts. Right now, I’m just trying to look like I didn’t get hit by a truck.” [Editors Note: Yeah, Gillian, don't try that. It's not fun - Lance]

To read more of the interview, go to: wsj.com

Paul Giamatti on preparation and using dreams in his work

From Movieline:

So let’s take Sideways. Short of soul storage, what kinds of preparations would you undertake to nail a role like that?
That was a hard part, and I’ve never felt like I actually got that part right. I always felt like I was too serious or something. I don’t really know how to play jokes as jokes; it’s easier for me to play all the comedy deadpan. I had a hard time doing that part. [Pauses] It’s interesting to use the metaphor of the soul-storage thing. If I’m going to define myself as an actor in some way, I’m more of the outside-in kind of actor than the inside-out. It’s often easier for me if I have an accent or an eye patch or something, you know? A funny walk — if I have no legs or something? Something like that is easier for me to hook on to. I didn’t have that with that part, and I had to find my way into it. The wine stuff, actually, was what I started to use. The behaviorisms of that stuff. What do they call them? Oenophiles? That was sort of the “in” with that. So in some ways, yeah. I had to find the right soul for that guy, I guess. It wasn’t an easy part. None of them are, but that one especially.

Read more

Interview with David Johnson, Screenwriter of 'Orphan' (with audio)

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David Johnson, screenwriter of the film, Orphan (starring Peter Sarsgaard and Vera Farmiga), sat down and talked with me during Comic-Con.

Here’s David Johnson’s bio:  He began his career as a production assistant on Frank Darabont’s The Shawshank Redemption, which was filmed on location in Johnson’s hometown of Mansfield, Ohio, at the historic Mansfield Reformatory, where Johnson’s great-grandfather had been a prison guard. Johnson spent the next five years as Darabont’s assistant, using the opportunity to hone his craft as a screenwriter.

In 1999, Johnson wrote an adaptation of the classic Doc Savage pulp novels, and later worked with Marvel Comics legend Stan Lee, adapting an original idea of Lee’s into a two-hour teleplay. Johnson then wrote a four-hour miniseries sequel to John Carpenter’s The Thing, which brought him to the attention of Leonardo DiCaprio’s producing shingle, Appian Way, for whom he wrote Orphan.

Johnson developed an early interest in storytelling and began writing plays in the second grade. He later became interested in film and, at age 19, wrote his first screenplay. He attended The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio, and graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in Photography and Cinema.

He currently has several projects in development, most recently re-teaming with Appian Way to pen an epic horror/fantasy inspired by a classic fairy tale. Johnson’s next project will be an adaptation of the Australian ghost story thriller Lake Mungo.

Daily Actor: Reading the notes that I was sent, everyone was completely praising the script and how you brought everything together and how you fleshed out the characters. How cool is it to know that all these people just loved the script, now saying your words and this multi-million dollar production exists because of you?
David Johnson: It’s kind of amazing. The finished product though is everybody brought so much to it. You’re talking about, you know, the actors. It’s kind of a dream cast and they’re so good. The first time I saw the movie, and some of the clips I saw before I saw the finished product, I would just get caught up in their performances and sort of afterwards remind myself that I had written it because they had just sort of brought it to life so well.

Regarding your dream cast, I know when you were writing you said the voice of CCH Pounder popped in as Sister Abigail. Did it happen with anybody else?
No, I don’t usually have a specific actor in mind when I’m writing a character. I don’t know whether that’s unusual or not. I don’t see anyone – sometimes like you know a voice from like the past will like, an actor who’s been dead and gone comes into my head and I sort of use that as an inspiration, but CC was the only one that just I couldn’t get her out of my head. At the time I would write Sister Abigail, I would start writing dialogue, and it sounded like it was coming out of her mouth.

Did you ever get the chance to mention, CCH Pound would be great for this role?
Yeah, I happened to in a meeting where they were spit-balling actors for Sister Abigail, and I was able to say, well, I kind of wrote it for CCH Pounder. I had never told anyone that before. And there was a moment where everyone sort of went, “Yeah, this is CCH Pounder.” And luckily she happened to be available, and they got her.

Were there any names where you were like, “Please, not this guy. No please.” You don’t have to mention any names.
No, I mean they started off with going to Vera and you know, I think Jaume was a little concerned she wouldn’t do it because she had just done Joshua, but she came on board. And you know, like everybody that they brought into it was just terrific.

It’s a great cast. From the beginning when you started writing until everything was finished and the production was started, was it a long process for you?
You know, it was probably about a year between you know maybe a little longer from the moment I got the phone call that it was happening to the producing the movie. Probably about a year.

What’s your day like when you’re actually working? You wake up super early and write all day?
I kind of have to keep focused on it. It’s probably frustrating for my wife. But I just have to get into the zone, and the music I listen to is keyed into what I’m writing, what I’m reading has something to do with what I’m writing. We go to the movies, I try to watch something similar just to try to keep my head in that space. I guess maybe I’m too easily distracted.

Its been said that you know when the cast that you end up with is the cast that you’re actually supposed to have. Do you think that’s true?
In this case, it certainly turned out to be. Peter and Vera really brought the characters to life in a way that if they hadn’t, none of this would have worked. The movie is going into sort of a larger than life place. But it starts out very grounded and very real. I think it has a lot to do with them. And they bring a real authenticity to those characters so that when things start beginning to get a little bit larger than life as the movie goes on, you buy it because it starts in such a grounded and rooted in reality.

Were you on the set working?
I wasn’t able to. It was during the writer’s strike, so I worked with the director extensively right before. I was hammering away at the keyboard right up until 11:59 on the deadline. But, I had seen a visual treatment that he had done. It was just images of what he thought the movie should look like, and I thought he just had a great idea of what it was going to be. And it was going to be in great hands. And everybody was sort of on the same page, I think, in terms of what the movie wanted to be.

What you wrote on the page, did the actors improvise at all? Or was it just pretty much that was it, locked script, this is what you’re saying?
No, obviously, not being able to be on set, you know, I can’t speak directly to, but I know that they did do some improvisation, and because Peter and Vera sort of really inhabited those people. And so they brought a lot of their own mojo to the character and took in some places that were unexpected. And like I said, really brought it to life.

Was it everything you could imagine? Like when you were writing it, did you say, “This is exactly what I wanted?”
To be honest, I think it wound up better than what I had in my head because like I said Jaume was great, the cast was great, production design was great. Everybody came into it really with their A game.

Actually I’ll tell a quick story about the production design on that aspect of it. The production designer looked at the script and had this idea for – there are two characters in the script, the father and the shrink, who don’t really figure out what’s going on. And so he designed the shrink’s office and the dad’s office to be underground with no windows because they can’t see what’s going on. And Kate is the one that does see what’s going on, and the room she’s associated with is the greenhouse, which is high in the house and is surrounded by glass. And it’s things in a million years I would not have thought of and in watching the movie you probably won’t consciously think of, but he was looking at the script and finding these metaphors to work into it that I was really impressed by the idea that he took the time and really got in there and brought something great to it.

You didn’t have any say in any sort of production or anything like that?
I was consulted beforehand. I was asked my opinion on a lot of script matters, but obviously during shooting it wasn’t possible.

How hard is that to give up your baby?
I have to say in this case, it just, I felt like it was in good hands. So, I wasn’t that worried about it. The process had gone really well and the script was – I think maybe because I’ve written for so long and had things not get made, I sort of find satisfaction in just writing the best script I can because if I try to find satisfaction in it getting made, I’m going to be disappointed. So I can write the best script I can write, and then after that, it goes out in the world, and it’s out of my hands.

When you finish a script, do you have people read it in front of you to get the voices down more?
I… No (laughter). My wife reads it and then my agent and whoever I’m working for will take a look at it, but I hear things in my head you know pretty specifically, and I guess that’s one of the things that I liked about – I mean this was my first experience of something getting made – was hearing it come back. I learned a lot from hearing actors of this caliber reading the words and noticing what they dropped and what they skipped to, you know? It really, I think, my writing will improve because I can say okay, that line didn’t need to be there. It all works and you know –

Was there anything specific – just kind of like throwaway lines?
There was… something as simple, I noticed last night when I saw it, there was a question that Vera is asked, and she answers, “Yes.” And I had written something like, “I’ve never been so sure of anything in my life,” or something like that. And she says, “Yes,” but the way she says it, she says, “I’ve never been so certain.” The performance says all these things that I was using ten words to say.

When you watched the finished film, how many times have you watched it, by the way?
Twice. The completely finished film.

Does it get better each time you watch it or do you notice more?
Yeah. It might – the first time I saw it was on a smaller screen. Last night was the first time I saw it on like a really big screen with a crowd. And so, yeah, there are like lots of little things that Jaume did and the actors, too, that you pick up on in multiple viewings.

How many times do you think you’ll watch it before you’re like, “You know what? No more.”
I think we’re planning to see it two more times this week, and I think that’ll be it.
I’ve done some stuff where I’m like, you know what, just one viewing is enough for me (laughter). But I’ve done some awful stuff.

So when you watched the finished film, is there anything that you imagined differently or that you imagined the actors doing differently?
Absolutely. I think everybody came into it and improved it in terms of you were saying. It was actually more than I thought it would be. I keep going back to the performances just because I think that’s the stand out thing in the movie. Isabel, the girl that plays Esther, is astonishingly good. And she was the one thing when I was writing, I couldn’t have imagined who they were going to find to play this girl. I was writing this dialogue and thinking, if they don’t find the right girl to play it, I like this scene, this is really working, but the wrong girl playing this part, and it’s not working. And I had originally written it, she was sort of like an evil Shirley Temple. She was like blonde curls and everything like that. And Isabel, physically, didn’t look anything like what I had written. But she came in a so owned the character that it changed what everybody thought she should look like. It changed the picture of Esther in everybody’s head. So, that’s one thing that was unexpected.

Happy accidents?
Happy accident.

A lot of actors write, as you probably know. Do you have any advice for fledgling screenwriters/actors?
This is probably a cop out, but don’t give up. I wrote my first screenplay 20 years ago, and it was one of those things where at any time, there were a number of times when I thought alright, “I’m just done. This is going nowhere.” But you know, the stuff I was writing 20 years ago was crap, and I was getting better.

Can you see your work getting better or feel it?
Yeah, you know, I didn’t, in retrospect for sure. But for like 5 years I was working for Frank Darabont and he was looking at sort of mentorship kind of thing, and I think the first time I really –

That’s a good mentor to have.
Amazing. And I think the first time I thought, oh I might be able to do this was the first time he read something and thought this is really good. The first time he said this is good that sort of – everything I had written before he said that, I just threw away (laughter) and said okay we’re starting fresh now and hopefully improving from there.

Your next film is something called Lake Mungo. That’s kind of in the same genre as Orphan, right?
Kind of. I mean, Orphan is more of like a suspense thriller with sort of horror elements. Lake Mungo is a straight ghost story. It’s based on an Australian movie. It’s just really good. It’s almost like a supernatural drama about a family that’s haunted by the ghost of their daughter who has recently died. And it’s a very interesting ghost story in that you know usually, the ghost that’s haunting you is the ghost of someone who died in a house fire a hundred years ago and you have no connection to them, and in this story, the ghost is someone you know.

So, you’ll start writing on Monday?
Right, exactly.

Bruce Willis talks about his early days as an actor

Here is a great interview Bruce Willis gave about his early days as a young actor. From his decision to become an actor to his time on Moonlighting, this is really a must read.

Q: When did you decide to become an actor?

A: It wasn’t gradual. It was a very abrupt choice. It was the first year I was a student at Montclair State College (now a university) out in Jersey. They had a great theater department, where stage directors would come out from New York City and help. My first play as a freshman, I realized this is what I want to do. Never looked back. Never considered anything else. I was 19. The role was a small part, Ruckley in “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.” I changed most of my classes and took all acting and theater-related courses. By the beginning of third semester, I was cutting class to go to auditions for plays out in New York. Got into a play in 1976 and moved to New York.

Q: What was going through your mind in those days?

A: I had been in New York for a couple of years doing theater. For me, to work on any film, let alone one with Frank Sinatra or Faye Dunaway, I was thrilled. I thought I was in show business, albeit on the perimeter. A couple of things happened on that film. It was back in the day when I still had a big full head of hair, and I had just shaved my hair for an independent film called “A Guru Comes.” I answered an ad “must have shaved head.” So I shaved my head the night before. I went in to audition for “First Deadly Sin,” and the director, Brian Hutton, later gave me a small speaking part.

Q: When did you realize you were a good actor?

A: It was a staircase of work. Every job I got seemed to be a little better part with a little more to do, a little more challenging. I’d study in between with Stella Adler, who took a liking to me and helped out a lot. The work was the answer. If you were a working actor in New York and getting paid, then that allowed you to call yourself an actor.

Q: Was there a job you loved or hated most during those first years?

A: I can’t remember any of them that I really didn’t like. The one that was another big turn was a Sam Shepard play called “Fool for Love” that I did off-Broadway for about 110 performances.

Q: What was your first impression of the David Addison Jr. character in “Moonlighting”?

A: That part in “Moonlighting” just came out of nowhere. I had gone out to California after I finished “Fool for Love” to take a vacation and check out the Olympics in 1984. I ended up not having any time to check out the Olympics because I had gotten a call from an agent about auditions. One of them was “Moonlighting.” I had a typical New York theater actor’s disapproval of television. I hadn’t watched television for about 12 years at that point. But the script that Glenn Caron wrote, I thought, “I know this guy. I know how he talks.” Unfortunately, I didn’t look the part of an ABC leading man at the time. It took a while for ABC to accept me. But it was another big turn.

Q: How did it improve your acting?

A: Comedy is a test by fire. Comedy in a weekly two-character series is a huge test. You’re either funny or you’re not. If we hadn’t been funny, the show would have gone off the air quickly. We had great writing. Glenn wrote just about all the episodes the first year. Cybill (Shepherd) and I just clicked. More than anything, we tapped into a sort of screwball comedy that went back to Howard Hawks and Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn. We just talked as fast as we possibly could and said funny things. It was like a big toy, having a show where the guy who created (it) would say, “Yeah, do that. That’s funny,” and making it all up as we went along. The first 2 1/2 years were a thrill.

Q: Did the fun end?

A: As with a lot of television, it just becomes cyclical. It’s hard to avoid repeating yourself. It’s hard to avoid telling the same joke in the fourth year that you already told in the first year. Our audience was pretty faithful, and they started to notice it. The network started to notice it, and the wear and tear on Cybill and me was something I had never experienced. Just mental exhaustion. Everybody knows what physical exhaustion is. You work out, your muscles get tired, you go to bed early. Mental exhaustion is a lot trickier. You don’t know where the falling-down point comes. There were days where we worked 17 hours. In that 17th hour, you’d have to be on and funny and still deliver. Not a lot of time off. From the first year on, we worked nine months, and on my hiatus I would work on a film.

Q: When did it feel as if the work paid off?

A: When the first “Die Hard” came out I was starting to hear people say, “Wow. Congratulations. You’ve crossed over.” I didn’t know what that meant at the time or how difficult it was to take that step from television to feature films.

Q: What role did you feel the least confident in taking on?

A: I was always trying to push myself to try new things. When I started doing supporting roles in other people’s films, my agent was up in arms, saying, “You’re going to hurt your price. You’re going to hurt your box office.” I was just trying to keep myself interested as an actor. Taking the role of Butch in “Pulp Fiction” was certainly challenging. Everybody brought their A game to that. You had to show up with yours. I played a small role in a movie called “Mortal Thoughts” that (ex-wife) Demi Moore produced. I had a ball doing that. Prior to “Pulp Fiction,” I used to say that was my favorite film. It didn’t get seen a lot because it got caught in a studio regime change. But it’s still out there.

Q: What’s the worst advice you’ve ever received?

A: I don’t pay much attention to advice. It’s worth about as much as it costs. I try not to give it. And I try not to take anybody else’s too seriously. I have to take responsibility for everything that happens in my life, good and bad. So advice is like cowboy hats.

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