Q&A: Lisa Kudrow Talks ‘Who Do You Think You Are?’

Lisa Kudrow returns tonight as Host and Executive Producer of NBC’s Who Do You Think You Are?

The show traces the ancestral roots of celebrities and follows them as they find out, on camera, their family history. The celebrities featured this season are Martin Sheen, Marisa Tomei, Blair Underwood, Helen Hunt, Reba McEntire, Jerome Bettis, Rita Wilson, Edie Falco, Rob Lowe, Rashida Jones, Jason Sudeikis and Paula Deen.

I talked to Lisa on a conference call where she discussed why she championed and brought the show to America, the most challenging aspects of tracing someone’s past and if some of her Friends might one day appear on the show.

Who Do You Think You Are? airs at 8/7c on NBC

If you come across bad news, as I know some celebrities have on the show, how do you approach that situation?

Lisa Kudrow: You know, most people go into it understanding, I mean, there’s, you know, not a formal conversation, but, you know, most of them feel like I just want information whatever it is. Whatever it is. And they already understand that, you know, if they – if somewhere in their ancestry there were some, you know, unsavory people or they did bad things then, you know, that’s not who they are. And, you know, you can just focus on how the family turned itself around.

So, I don’t know, I mean I think people go into it understanding that this about getting information, it’s not about, you know, getting what you want.  Read more

John Hawkes on His Preparation for the Sundance Hit, ‘The Surrogate’

America Gangster and The Perfect Storm actor John Hawkes scored rave reviews at this year’s Sundance Film Festival after viewers witnessed his portrayal of Mark O’ Brien, a man in an iron lung who hopes to lose his virginity, in the Ben Lewin directed movie The Surrogate. 

Talking with SpeakEasy at the festival about his difficult role in the film that is based on a true story, Hawkes shared how he prepared for his role as the thirty-eight year old O’Brien, who enlists a sex surrogate with the help of his therapist and priest, on his unique mission to experience human connection.

“At the first meeting with Ben, an essential question I had when we sat down—before it was decided I’d be in the movie—was, “Why not a disabled actor?” And Ben assured me that he’d been looking and that he found some wonderful actors but nobody who quite fit into how he saw Mark. He’d auditioned [disabled] actors. Ben being a polio survivor himself made me a little less nervous about taking work away from a group of people that’s under employed as it is. Once I was cast there was a lot of preparation. Physically I have worked out, for 25 years, every day. So, I stopped doing that [to lose muscle tone].”  Read more

Anne Heche Posed As a Stripper in Preparation for Her ‘Carlito’s Way’ Audition

Long time actress Anne Heche has revealed to SF Gate, that she daringly went to a strip club and danced in preparation for an audition for the 1993 film Carlito’s Way, starring Al Pacino. 

“I had to strip for the screen test because there’s this scene where he comes into the strip club and so the last thing I did before my screen test was I went into a strip club and asked if I could audition,” Heche shared.

Stepping into the risque world of adult entertainment during her 20′s, Heche detailed her visit to an unknown club, doing a little research for the role. 

“I walked in completely as an unknown.  I went to where the strippers get their outfits and I had a wig and I did a shot of scotch that was in my hotel bar. I was scared to death. I stripped that night and they offered me the job at the club!,” she said. “I was very, very shy about my body and it was so wild. I didn’t go completely nude; I had pasties and a G-string on, but to have the experience of being on stage and the feeling of the control of entertaining the men there was surprisingly liberating.  That’s how I knew I could go and do the screen test and not worry about being truthful as a stripper.”  Read more

Q & A: The Cast of ‘Spartacus: Vengeance’

Are you ready to return to the arena?

Then you’re in luck because Spartacus is back and this time, with a vengeance.

Spartacus: Vengeance picks up where Blood and Sand left off as the gladiator rebellion continues and they begin to strike fear into the heart of the Roman Empire.

Liam McIntyre takes over the lead role of Spartacus from Andy Whitfield who, before his untimely death, told the cast and crew that he wanted the show to continue. Whitfield even gave the thumbs up to McIntyre, saying that he wanted him to have the role. As McIntyre said in the conference call, “To know that the person who made it so wonderful was on your side, as it were, especially considering all the harrowing personal experience he had to survive at the time. That means more to an actor than you can possibly imagine.”

I talked to the cast – McIntyre, Lucy Lawless, Viva Bianca and Peter Mensah – about the upcoming season, the costumes (or lack thereof) and acting in the mud.

Spartacus: Vengeance airs on Fridays at 10pm on Starz

Liam, you played a character that was obviously played by Andy Whitfield. I was wondering, how did you manage to carry on the character that Andy had built, but also leave your own mark as an actor?

Liam McIntyre: Well, I mean I’m very lucky in that I – the writing team is absolutely sensational, and that Starz is really supportive. So Starz early on said, you know, make the character your own, treat it as your own character. You know, that they didn’t expect me to copy anything. I did watch all of Andy’s amazing work. And so I don’t know if any parts was osmosis or kind of like a kind of influenced me in any way. I can’t be sure, but I mean hopefully because he was sensational.

But I mean realistically I just tried to be true to the character which, you know, essentially stays the same. Because the writing is the same and all of that lovely humanity and those difficult choices and all that. Then that struggle that Spartacus goes through, it’s still there this season. So I didn’t get the honor of being able to treat that with respect and truth. And hopefully you have a character that feels the same as the great character that Andy portrayed.  Read more

An Actor’s Credo: Why what we do matters

This is a guest post by Matthew Arkin

This year, many of us are facing financial uncertainty unprecedented in our lifetimes, both for ourselves and the nation as a whole. This can lead to a lot of questioning and soul searching, particularly for those of us who have chosen to follow a career in the arts, a career known for financial instability even during the best of times. Sometimes the voices in our heads can get very loud. We might look at our wallets and ask, “What am I doing with my life?” We might look at our work and ask, “Does any of this really matter?”

So now that the holidays are over, and we are getting back to day-to-day business, I’d like to share some of the thoughts that percolated through my eggnog-and-shopping-crowd addled brain throughout the season.

For me, at times of stress, general questions about goals and ideals in life become more focused into questions about the value and purpose of what we as actors do with our careers. After all, we’re really just storytellers, purveyors of entertainment and diversion. There are serious problems in the world. What are we, artists, doing about these problems? We’re not curing cancer, or housing the homeless, or feeding the hungry.

Or are we?  Read more

Interview: Christopher Heyerdahl Talks ‘Hell On Wheels’ and Acting in 2 TV Shows at the Same Time

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 26:01 — 17.9MB)

Christopher Heyerdahl had a great 2011.

He started it filming the last of the Twilight movies where he plays the vampire Marcus, one of the leaders of the Volturi coven. He then went off film season 2 of the SyFy hit, Sanctuary, where he starred as 2 characters (one has since been killed off). If that wasn’t enough, during filming, he got word that he booked yet another part as ‘The Swede’ in AMC’s Hell on Wheels.

Thanks to some creative scheduling, he would film Sanctuary in Vancouver, leave set and rush to the airport. At 6am the next day, he’d be sitting in hair and make-up in Calgary ready to film Hell on Wheels.

Just the normal life of a busy actor.

And, it was just announced that Heyerdahl would join the cast of True Blood for it’s upcoming season. Looks like Christopher’s 2012 might be as hectic as his last. 

I talked to Christopher about Hell on Wheels and how he got the part, working two jobs at once and more!

For the full interview (including Twilight questions), click the audio link above or download it from iTunes 

You had a great 2011 with Hell on Wheels, Sanctuary and Twilight. Has that been the best year career-wise, so far?

Christopher Heyerdahl: Well, yeah.  I guess it has been the best year so far in as much as I’m alive and well, and I’m working.  What other actor doesn’t want’ that?  It has been pretty intense. 

I mean, I started off the year doing Twilight. I got to go to New Orleans. It was a great way to start the year and then Sanctuary got renewed which is always a tenuous thing with a show that’s privately funded and within maybe two months into doing Sanctuary, I got The Swede on Hell on Wheels. 

Chad Oakes and George Horie, Chad is with Hell and George is with Sanctuary.  The two of them got together and said, “We can make this work” because it was a crazy scheduling, scheduling that I think any producer just wouldn’t normally not want to invite into their daily routine because I was getting on a plane pretty much every night after work, flying off to Calgary or vice versa, coming back to Vancouver in order to do each show.  It was crazy for them and that was a blast for me.  Read more

Oscar Nominated Screenplay: ‘The Descendants’

Courtesy of Fox Searchlight, here is the script to The Descendants.

The screenplay was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay.

Click here for the script

Director: Alexander Payne

Written by: Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon and Jim Rash

Cast: George Clooney, Shailene Woodley, Beau Bridges, Robert Forster, Judy Greer, Matthew Lillard, Nick Krause, Amara Miller, Mary Birdsong, Rob Huebel, Patricia Hastie

Read more

Trailer: ‘Darling Companion’ starring Kevin Kline, Diane Keaton, Richard Jenkins, Elisabeth Moss, Mark Duplass, Dianne Wiest, Sam Shepard

Darling Companion: Beth saves a bedraggled lost dog from the side of the freeway on a wintry day in Denver. Struggling with her distracted, self-involved husband Joseph and an empty nest at home, Beth forms a special bond with the rescued animal. When Joseph loses the dog after a wedding at their vacation home in the Rockies, the distraught Beth enlists the help of the few remaining guests and a mysterious young woman in a frantic search. Each member of the search party is affected by the adventure, which takes them in unexpected directions — comic, harrowing, sometimes deeply emotional and ultimately towards love.

Director: Lawrence Kasdan

Writers: Meg Kasdan, Lawrence Kasdan

Starring: Kevin Kline, Diane Keaton, Richard Jenkins, Elisabeth Moss, Mark Duplass, Dianne Wiest, Sam Shepard

In Theaters: April 20, 2012
Read more

Dermot Mulroney on Joe Carnahan, Director of ‘The Grey’: “He was determined to make a movie in which the actors truly suffered”

Dermot Mulroney has never seemed to have a truly breakthrough role, but chances are you have seen him before: he’s been in such varied films as Zodiac, Young Guns, J. Edgar, My Best Friend’s Wedding, and the upcoming The Grey — though he actually hopes you don’t recognize him! 

Set in the Alaskan wilderness after an oil rigging team experiences a plane crash, Mulroney explains that the film’s on-location shoot itself provided an extremely challenging environment for the actors.

Mulroney makes an important, logical point: often in a film in which involves characters trying to survive dire circumstances, it is often the most recognizable actors who survive.  He points out, “In most films, if you see a bunch of people getting on a plane and you already recognize six of them, then you already know who’s going to survive the movie, and that kind of blows it. So Joe [Carnahan, director] cast the film with really strong, dedicated actors — some you might have seen before, but not all of them, not yet.”  To avoid audiences recognizing him, Mulroney changed his appearance by growing a beard and wearing glasses.  Read more

How Did Thomas Horn Get Cast in ‘Extremely Loud’? “I was on an episode of kids’ Jeopardy and someone [on the film] saw me”

Appearing on Jeopardy! and coming home with over $30,000 would be the highlight of most kids’ formative years, but 14-year-old Thomas Horn is one-upping himself with a starring role in the big-screen adaptation of 9/11 aftermath novel Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, which arrived in select theaters on Christmas and will receive a wide release today.

“I was on an episode of kids’ Jeopardy! and someone high up in the production of the upcoming movie saw me,” Horn, who won $31,800 on the iconic game show, told The Hollywood Reporter. “My whole family was a bit confused, but we were curious. We didn’t know what a casting agency was, or anything about the entertainment industry. I’m not a huge movie fan.”

The casting of Horn was the culmination of a nationwide search for the perfect actor to play the young Oskar Schell, whose father was on the 105th floor of the World Trade Center’s south tower when terrorists struck on September 11, 2001. “We had scouts going out to schools and auditioned 3,000 kids in America and in Europe as well, for the better part of a year,” said director Stephen Daldry.  Read more

Next Page »