In revealing interview with USA Today, Davis goes into her reaction to her recent success, criticism of her character in the award-winning film, and where she sees her career going next.

The praise for Davis, however, has come at a time when she’s a new face to many even though she’s been in movies and television for years. “Most people feel like I just arrived in Doubt,” she says, one of her rare leading roles before The Help. 

But a significant majority of her previous appearances were supporting or bit parts, something that Davis grew accustomed to in her career.  She explains, “I’ve had to channel my talents in narratives that were incomplete, and those two or three scenes in a movie, I’ve had to try and make them work, flesh them out as real human beings.  I haven’t had the benefit of a full journey, a character that’s been in every frame of the movie. That’s been my thing, up until The Help.” 

As a result, audiences and critics aren’t the only ones who see The Help as a breakthrough for Davis, as the actress recognizes it herself.  “It wasn’t really until I started really justifying my choices with The Help that I really started to find my voice.  When you’re standing up for yourself you really are alone, no matter how many people have your back. And you really have to soul-search to find your own justifications for why you do what you do.”

In fact, despite her ambition for the role Davis admits that she found the subdued nature of the part intimidating, revealing, “I probably would not have been as afraid if I were Minny,” she says, referring to the much more impulsive character played by Ocatvia Spencer who wears her heart on her sleeve.  “I was more afraid of Aibileen. I felt like she was such a fantastic character in the book, but 98% of who she was, was internal dialogue.”

Davis also concedes that she is aware of the criticism of the role from African-Americans who see African-American actresses portraying maids in movies as degrading rather than uplifting.  Davis understands the criticism, but disagrees with it based on the quality of the film, pointing out, “If what the African-American community wants, which is what I want, is a vast array of story lines on screen, then I think that they have a point.  I think that we want to see different people on screen other than the maids, other than the urban mother, other than the gang-banger. OK? So it’s valid in that sense. But this movie still, regardless of all of that criticism, is a great story.”

In fact, Davis reveals that she has a very personal connection with playing a maid on screen, revealing, “My mom was a maid, my grandmother was a maid.  I considered it to be an honor to be able to step into their shoes and to be able to tell their stories. I find that their stories are valid. Especially women who gave up their dreams so that I could have mine. Are you kidding me? I think that’s fabulous.”

With her recent success, Davis realizes that the days of bit and supporting roles might be behind her.  She confesses, “The stakes are higher.  There is a certain amount of comfort that rests in anonymity,” she says. “My car is seven years old, I sit in my house with my scarf over my head. I cook. I like leading the ordinary life.”

But with her new-found acclaim, what kind of roles will Davis pursue?  You might be surprised by her choices.  She says, “I’ve always wanted to be the black girl with an Afro in a John Ford movie, with the only backdrop being the land.  I’ve always wanted to do sci-fi. I’ve always wanted to play some grand sweeping figure in history. And I’ve always wanted to create work for other actors of color. For me, it’s about passing on the baton.”

After all, based on her performance in The Help, Davis could play just about anything — and audiences are looking forward to her doing so!

Click here for the script

Director: Steve McQueen

Cast: Michael Fassbender, Carey Mulligan

Writers: Steve McQueen, Abi Morgan

Denzel Washington

Washington admits that the role is a bit of a throwback to intimidating characters he has played in the past, pointing out, “Safe House was an opportunity to revisit ways of working that I used to do.” 

Though Washington wanted to immerse himself in the role, he purposely avoided doing research on CIA agents.  He explains, “I didn’t want to do a lot of CIA research because Tobin Frost wasn’t CIA anymore. He hated everything about the CIA, and I wanted to discover his dark side.”  Instead, Washington focused on studying sociopaths, which he felt ultimately Frost was.  He says, “Scott [Stuber, the film's producer] gave me some great books to read, one of which was The Sociopath Next Door, which became my bible that I would refer to in developing the character. I felt Tobin was a sociopath. When you think ‘sociopath,’ you think violence, and the majority of sociopaths aren’t violent but they want to win and manipulate. I thought he was a great liar, a great manipulator and perfect for the CIA.”

Washington definitely pulled it off  — I have even found his cold stares on the movie’s posters that are hanging in the subways around here intimidating!

Safe House opens in theaters on February 10.

Ryan Reynolds

In 2011, Reynolds was seen starring in the Universal Pictures comedy The Change-Up and in the title role in DC Comics’ Green Lantern. He also recently starred in the mystery thriller Buried, a 2010 Sundance favorite in which his character, Paul Conroy, a contractor working in Iraq, wakes up in a coffin, buried alive after an attack by a group of dissidents. In the cinematically challenging film, Reynolds is the only actor to appear on camera for the duration of the 95-minute run time.

Reynolds recently wrapped production on Universal Pictures’ R.I.P.D., which he is starring in and producing. 

Reynolds starred in two other Sundance entries: Greg Mottola’s Adventureland, the amusement park-set comedy with Kristen Stewart, which premiered at the 2009 festival and was also nominated for Best Ensemble Cast at the 2009 Gotham Awards, and The Nines, in the triple role of a troubled actor, a television showrunner and an acclaimed video-game designer whose lives are intertwined in unsettling ways.

His other recent films include the comedy Paper Man, in which he starred as an imaginary superhero friend of a struggling novelist; Definitely, Maybe, in which he played a political consultant and parent to Abigail Breslin, with a questionable past; the complex drama Chaos Theory, in which he played a man experiencing a crisis after he finds out he is sterile and his child is not his own; Joe Carnahan’s crime thriller Smokin’ Aces, in which he starred as a morally centered FBI agent out to prevent a gangland hit; and a remake of the classic cult horror film The Amityville Horror.

Reynolds hails from Vancouver, British Columbia, where he harbored an affection for acting at a young age. After establishing himself on television in the sitcom Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place and in a variety of guest spots and telefilms such as In Cold Blood, he caught moviegoers’ attention with his lead role in Walt Becker’s irreverent 2002 comedy National Lampoon’s Van Wilder, which led to larger roles in such films as Blade: Trinity and the romantic comedy Just Friends.

Reynolds recently entered the production side of things, partnering with Allan Loeb in the production company DarkFire. They have two pilot deals in place: a comedy series titled Guidance and an animated series titled And Then There Was Gordon, both slated for FOX.

In addition to landing numerous leading roles, Reynolds also serves on the board of directors for The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research. In November 2007, Reynolds ran the New York City Marathon in honor of his father, who has long suffered from the ravages of Parkinson’s disease. Reynolds’ marathon run raised more than $100,000 for Fox’s foundation.

Biography courtesy of Universal Studios in conjunction with the film, Safe House.

From Trip, an embittered runaway slave in Glory, to South African freedom fighter Steve Biko in Cry Freedom; from Shakespeare’s tragic historical figure Richard III to the rogue detective, Alonzo Harris, in Training Day, Washington has amazed and entertained us with a rich array of characters distinctly his own.

In 2010, moviegoers were treated to two very different sides of Washington when he starred in Tony Scott’s fast- paced thriller Unstoppable, and in the Hughes brothers’ dystopian vision, The Book of Eli, which Washington also produced. The Book of Eli grossed more than $38 million in its opening weekend.

In 2009, Washington was directed by Tony Scott in the respected remake of The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3, also starring John Travolta.

In late December 2007, Washington directed and co-starred with Academy Award®-winning actor Forest Whitaker in The Great Debaters, a drama based on the true story of Melvin B. Tolson, a professor at Wiley College in Texas who in 1935, inspired students from the school’s debate team to challenge Harvard in the national championship. In November 2007, Washington starred alongside Russell Crowe in Ridley Scott’s American Gangster. The film grossed $43.6 million in its first weekend and earned Washington his largest opening weekend to date.

In March 2006, Washington starred in Spike Lee’s Inside Man. The film, co-starring Clive Owen and Jodie Foster, took in $29 million in its opening weekend and marked Washington’s second-biggest opening to date.

As 2006 came to an end, Washington reteamed with director Tony Scott and thrilled audiences in Touchstone Pictures’ Déjà Vu. In this flashback romantic thriller, Washington plays an ATF agent who travels back in time to save a woman from being murdered and falls in love with her during the process.

In 2004, Washington collaborated with director Tony Scott on Man on Fire, in which Washington plays an ex-marine who has been hired to protect a young girl, played by Dakota Fanning, from kidnappers. That same year, Washington was also seen in The Manchurian Candidate, a modern-day remake of the 1962 classic film for Paramount Pictures, directed by Jonathan Demme and starring Meryl Streep and Liev Schreiber. In the film, Washington stars in the part that Frank Sinatra made famous.

Washington was honored with the Academy Award® for his acclaimed performance in Training Day, directed by Antoine Fuqua. The film was only one of two in 2001 that spent two weeks at the No. 1 spot at the box office.

In 2003, Washington was seen in Out of Time, directed by Carl Franklin and co-starring Eva Mendes and Sanaa Lathan, in the murder-mystery thriller for MGM.

December 2002 marked Washington’s feature-film directorial debut with Antwone Fisher. The film, based on a true-life story and inspired by the best-selling autobiography “Finding Fish,” follows Fisher, a troubled young sailor played by newcomer Derek Luke, as he comes to terms with his past. The film won critical praise, was awarded the Stanley Kramer Award from the Producers Guild of America, and won NAACP Image Awards for Outstanding Motion Picture and Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture for Washington. Also in 2002, Washington was seen in John Q, a story about a down-on-his-luck father whose son is in need of a heart transplant. The film established an opening-day record for Presidents’ Day weekend, grossing $24.1 million. The film garnered Washington an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture.

In September 2000, he starred in Jerry Bruckheimer’s box-office sensation Remember the Titans, which took in $115 million at the domestic box office. Earlier that year, he starred in Universal Pictures’ The Hurricane, reteaming with director Norman Jewison. Washington received a Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture—Drama and his fourth Academy Award® nomination for his performance.

In November 1999, he starred in Universal’s The Bone Collector, an adaptation of Jeffery Deaver’s novel about the search for a serial killer, co-starring Angelina Jolie and directed by Phillip Noyce.

In 1998, he starred in Warner Bros.’ crime thriller Fallen, for director Gregory Hoblit, and in Touchstone’s He Got Game, directed by Spike Lee. He also reteamed with director Edward Zwick on the 20th Century Fox terrorist thriller The Siege, co-starring Annette Bening and Bruce Willis.

In summer 1996, Washington starred in the critically acclaimed military drama Courage Under Fire, for his Glory director, Edward Zwick. Later that year, Washington starred opposite Whitney Houston in Penny Marshall’s romantic comedy The Preacher’s Wife.

In 1995, Washington starred as Navy Lieutenant Commander Ron Hunter opposite Gene Hackman in Tony Scott’s underwater action adventure Crimson Tide; as an ex-cop released from prison to track down a computer-generated criminal in the futuristic thriller Virtuosity; and as World War II veteran “Easy” Rawlins in the 1940s romantic thriller Devil in a Blue Dress (which Washington’s Mundy Lane Entertainment produced with Jonathan Demme’s Clinica Estetico). Another critically acclaimed performance was his portrayal of Malcolm X in director Spike Lee’s biographical epic Malcolm X. For his portrayal, Washington received a number of accolades, including an Academy Award® nomination for Best Actor.

In addition to his accomplishments on screen, Washington took on a very different type of role in 2000. He produced the HBO documentary Half Past Autumn: The Life and Works of Gordon Parks, which was nominated for two Emmys. He also served as executive producer on Hank Aaron: Chasing the Dream, a biographical documentary for TBS, which was nominated for an Emmy Award. Additionally, Washington’s narration of the legend of John Henry was nominated for a 1996 Grammy Award in the category of Best Spoken Word Album for Children, and he was awarded a 1996 NAACP Image Award for his performance in the animated children’s special Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child.

A native of Mt. Vernon, New York, Washington had his career sights set on medicine when he attended Fordham University. During a stint as a summer camp counselor, he appeared in one of its theater productions. Washington was bitten by the acting bug and returned to Fordham that year, seeking the tutelage of Robinson Stone, one of the school’s leading professors. Upon graduation from Fordham, Washington was accepted into San Francisco’s prestigious American Conservatory Theater. Following an intensive year of study in its theater program, he returned to New York after a brief stop in Los Angeles.

Washington’s professional New York theater career began with Joseph Papp’s Shakespeare in the Park and was quickly followed by numerous off-Broadway productions, including Ceremonies in Dark Old Men; When the Chickens Came Home to Roost, in which he portrayed Malcolm X; One Tiger to a Hill; Man and Superman; Othello; and A Soldier’s Play, for which he won an Obie Award.

In 2010, Washington starred as Troy Maxson in the Broadway revival of August Wilson’s Fences, at the Cort Theatre. The record-breaking run received the most Tony Award nominations ever for a revival of a play, and Washington won his first Tony for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play. Washington’s other recent stage appearances include the Broadway production of Checkmates and Richard III, which was produced as part of the 1990 free Shakespeare in the Park series hosted by Joseph Papp’s Public Theater in New York City.

Washington was discovered by Hollywood when he was cast in 1979 in the television film Flesh & Blood.

But it was Washington’s award-winning performance on stage in A Soldier’s Play that captured the attention of the producers of the NBC television series St. Elsewhere, and he was soon cast in that long-running hit series as Dr. Philip Chandler. His other television credits include The George McKenna Story, License to Kill and Wilma.

In 1982, Washington re-created his role from A Soldier’s Play for Norman Jewison’s film version retitled A Soldier’s Story. Washington’s portrayal of Private Peterson in the film was critically well received. Washington went on to star in Sidney Lumet’s Power, Richard Attenborough’s Cry Freedom, for which he received his first Oscar® nomination; For Queen & Country; The Mighty Quinn; Heart Condition; Glory, for which he won the Academy Award® for Best Supporting Actor; and Spike Lee’s Mo’ Better Blues. Washington also starred in the action-adventure film Ricochet and in Mira Nair’s bittersweet comedy Mississippi Masala.

His additional film credits include Kenneth Branagh’s film adaptation of Much Ado About Nothing; Jonathan Demme’s controversial Philadelphia, with Tom Hanks; and The Pelican Brief, based on the John Grisham novel.

Up next for Washington is the dramatic thriller Flight, for director Robert Zemeckis.

Biography courtesy of Universal Studios in conjunction with the film, Safe House.

Though Gerwig appears in Woody Allen‘s Nero Fiddled and Whit Stillman‘s Damsels in Distress in 2012, the actress spoke to the Wall Street Journal about why she took a role in such a small film and what she learns from appearing in independent films.

Gerwig admits that although she shot the film because she is friendly with Bagnall, she also found it difficult to find another major role after appearing opposite Ben Stiller in 2010′s Greenberg.  “It was hard.  After I finished shooting Greenberg, no one really knew I had made it, or if they did, it didn’t matter. Nothing was really panning out.” 

As a result, Gerwig thought that returning to a film similar to the independent films she appeared in early in her career would provide, at the very least, a reminder of why she loves acting.  She confesses, “I really needed to connect with something like that again.  Something that felt more self-generated and more self-reliant, and less reliant on the gods. I always feel when I’m on a huge set, that it isn’t really making a movie. I think, ‘This is like a paid vacation. This is pretty plush.’ The hours are long but they make it very easy on you. It’s really making a movie when there’s four people.”

Not only that, but Gerwig understands that by working with independent filmmakers she is more likely to share a deep appreciation for the “language” of the film, which helps her focus.  “I really like working with filmmakers who have a world that they’re building and their own language. I like trying to figure out how to speak their language and exist in their world. I think some actors connect to the essence of the story or some essence of the character, but I connect almost totally through language. Even if there’s a sparse script and there’s a lot silence, that’s the way I understand character and emotion.”

On the other hand, the young Gerwig believes that acting in smaller films will help her expand her range as a true actress.  “I still always feel like I better make sure I can do other things, because someone’s going to realize at some point that I’m not an actor.  Everyone always feels like they’re a bit of a fraud. I work hard and I try to do my best with things, but it’s a slippery art. You could spend weeks researching a role and be terrible. Or you see actors walk in, they haven’t rehearsed, they look at it and they’re genius. And then there’s genius actors who have worked really hard at something. You get better at it, and you get more skilled at it, and more consistent, but it never feels safe.”

Click here for the script

Writer/Director: Sean Durkin

Cast: Elizabeth Olsen, Christopher Abbott, Brady Corbet, Hugh Dancy, Maria Dizzia, Julia Garner, John Hawkes, Louisa Krause, Sarah Paulson

Lisa Kudrow

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. 

What do you think are some of the biggest improvements in the series over last year?

Lisa Kudrow: Oh, I think – well, the first improvement came after the first season when we didn’t have that, like, music video montage. That, to me, was a great improvement because then we could have more time to actually tell a story.

I mean, the drag for us is that it’s, you know, like 40 minutes total. And, you know, we would love to even get into more history for – to get some context for what was going on. And like, you know, I know in Helen Hunt’s episode, I think that helped tremendously and really just helps you get invested in the people that we’re looking at because we can see what was going on at the time and, you know, just how it motivated what they did. You feel like you kind of understand them. More than just a name and a date and oh, she was president of, you know, this league and that, you know.

Now that you’ve done this for a few seasons, have you noticed any common elements as to why each person has become so successful in their own life?

Lisa Kudrow: No. That I haven’t. I haven’t thought about that because I’ve, you know, we’ve been mostly focusing on the people who are not famous that came before them. And then it’s generations later that someone, you know, happened to become famous for whatever it is that they’re doing.

Because, I mean, you know, for every famous person, they’ve got like a hundred other relatives that aren’t famous.

Now that people are familiar with the show, are celebrities more or less apprehensive than Season 1?

Lisa Kudrow: Much less. Much less. We’ve got, you know, we’ve got a waiting list now.

I think they know that, you know, this is not – we’re not trying to catch them at something or make them look bad, you know. That’s not what we’re interested in. We’re really interested in just telling these stories as experienced by their ancestors. And hope that they’re engaged because that always makes for, you know, a more interesting episode.

What influenced your decision to be a part of the show as Executive Producer?

Lisa Kudrow: Oh, because I had seen it and – when I was in Ireland and I thought it was – it was on BBC and I thought it was, you know, the most riveting show I’d ever seen.

And what a great way to talk about history and sort of the human condition.

What do you think is most challenging in your search?

Lisa Kudrow: You know, there are different, you know, different countries have different privacy laws, so that’s about getting documents, getting permission to look at documents or shoot documents, so that’s one roadblock. Obviously slavery is a big roadblock. Eastern European Jewish history is a huge roadblock that you – a lot of the times you can’t even get past World War II. I mean, you can get like a name of a parent of someone who came over, but there are no records over there. Period. At all. They’ve been obliterated. So that one’s pretty tricky. That’s why there haven’t been too many Eastern European Jewish stories. But yes, I mean, there are – and I think, you know, we’ve tried to do like Korean subject or Japanese subjects and it’s very tricky.

You mentioned that there’s a waiting list for the celebrities to be on the show and come forward, but do they approach you now about wanting to be on it?

Lisa Kudrow: Yes. Absolutely. They do. I mean, I saw Blair Underwood at a party and just walking by each other he said, “I want to do your show.” And I said, “All right.” Done. I mean, sure.

It’s easy enough to, you know, to get going because it all has to start with a conversation with a researcher and then they get going. And like I said, it can take two years. Like I, you know, Martin Sheen was saying, “I don’t know, I spoke to them and then six months later, they said all right, so when are you – when can you shoot this?” He didn’t hear anything. Brook Shields said the same thing. They’re like, “I didn’t hear from anybody.” Maybe we should get a little better at communication. But, you know, the – it can take a while sometimes.

Have you reached out to any of your former Friends cast mates, and have any of them expressed interest on finding about their pasts?

Lisa Kudrow: Yes, some have and some haven’t and then it’s a scheduling issue.

Have you always been interested in history and ancestry or was there a point in your life where this became something that you were interested in?

Lisa Kudrow: Well, I was always interested in, you know, parts of history. But like I said, when I saw Who Do You Think You Are? on B- on the BBC when I was in Ireland, I thought that this was such a fascinating show and what a great way to deliver history on such a personal level. You know, you personal- you personalize it and it takes on a whole new meaning. And then what a great thing to offer an audience who wants to see it. And luckily we have a lot of show up to watch it.

America Gangster

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].” 

Hawkes explained his need to forgo a body double, and how he went about transforming himself into a believable O’Brien for the role.  “There was talk of a body double and I was not interested in that. I thought if I can’t make this work without gimmick then I didn’t want to do it. I felt it was important that there be no prosthetics or CGI or anything. I wore no makeup and used a device that I’d insisted on and helped design, a soccer ball piece of foam. I would lay it under the left side of my body to approximate Mark’s curved spine. The story speaks of that. As an actor you have to honor that and make it plausible. I call it the torture ball. So that was one piece of physical preparation.”

Hawkes also trained himself to use a mouth stick for the filming of The Surrogate.  “I didn’t do many hours at a time with the mouth stick. I just made a mouth stick. Jessica Yu’s film Breathing Lessons  [an Academy Award winning short documentary released in 1996] was the best tool an actor could ask for. So, I made a mouth stick like Mark’s. I’d practice an hour or two at a time tops…and because it’s a film and not a play, I knew if I had moments with the mouth stick that weren’t convincing they could cut around them. I got pretty good at turning pages and typing.”

The fifty-two year performer shared that he spent a great deal of time listening to Mark O’Brien to tackle his voice, building on his very believable performance in the film. “The only recordings of him speaking were in Breathing Lessons, which was enough. The film is basically 20 minutes basically of his voice. In my own low tech way, I was able to suck the audio out of the film onto a CD and listen to it in the car constantly to try to get his voice right. If that film hadn’t existed I would have taken a different approach but I always like specificity as an actor. And Mark’s timbre of his voice and dialect were quite specific, and I tried to emulate that as best I could. I read every article he had written, every poem he wrote, and a book called How I Became a Human Being that he co-wrote about his life, and that was also invaluable.”

Since its premiere at Sundance, The Surrogate has already been acquired by Fox Searchlight for $6 million, making John Hawkes, and the Ben Lewin creation one of the most highly anticipated films this year to come out of the annual event.

“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.”  Unfortunately Heche didn’t land the part, but she did walk away with the experience.  “I didn’t get the part because I was too young.”

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. 

Are you guys ever affected by the violent scenes you have to perform in? Are you ever surprised by them?

Lucy Lawless: Always surprised, but they look – we’re not affected because they never look that way in actuality. It’s all done in post, you know. Quite brilliant.

Viva Bianca: I think it was David Mamet who said, “An actor must always defend his character.” And so I think as an actor, you become very good at emphasizing a character, however evil or misguided the character is. Certain for Ilithyia or any of the villains on the show. You have to find a reason – or many reasons as to why a character is doing a scene. So like for instance in episode four, Ilithyia does very a brutal thing – I think that’s what you’re referring to.

You become the character, and the truth is for these Roman aristocratic people, they didn’t consider slaves, or people of that class, as people. And to really feel like, for instance, for Lucy and I to get ourselves into that mentality is quite an extreme step. But it is a step that an actor has to make in order to, you know, enter that ancient Roman society, and to play these kinds of women.

Liam this is your first year on this. Do you walk through those sets and see that stuff going on and think, “Wow!”

Liam McIntyre:  I mean I loved the show before, you know, before I got the call to be part of it. So I kind of knew what I was getting into. But that’s one of my greatest memories from the whole year, was watching our director from a distance in what was essentially the sign language version of the scene. So I got to watch him throw his hands around and do all the motions and actions as he described what he wanted to see as this camera panned through there. And that was one of the greatest memories I’ll ever take with me, because that was hilarious.

But I mean there is a moment where I have to attack a gentleman’s (money) making facility, and that was one of the most harrowing moments in my life. Because it’s kind of, you know, a sword, a small little protective kind of steel rig, and his gear, and a whole lot of hope, and so that was one of the very first days of shooting. And I’m like, “Oh god, what have I got myself into?”

Viva, you seem to really enjoy being the bad girl. Does it feel empowering to be that pure evil?

Viva Bianca: I’m a really nice person. You know what, I would so love to play a really virtuous, heroic person after Ilithyia. But Ilithyia’s a very satisfying role to play. And, you know, because she isn’t just pure bad. And the lovely thing in season two is the writers gave me a lovely range and complexity to explore. So I think the audience will get to see many different sides to Ilithyia. And of course there will still be that scheming, naughty girl, and then (almost) a lady now. But yes, I think maybe I see some vulnerability.

Lucy, we all know the show has a lot of nudity in it, is it kind of a source of inhibition when you know that maybe your husband is on set?

Lucy Lawless: No he’s not on the set. And it’s all inhibiting. But if you believe in it, it’s important to the scene.

Liam, you mentioned that you were trying to make the role of Spartacus your own. How did you try to do that?

Liam McIntyre: I guess just you work extremely hard and diligently. And it’s one of those things that early on, you go, well you just can’t – you have to use everything in your power to do the best job you can. And I mean I got trained really well by my first acting coach I hope, and that and you just put your tail between your legs and just work really hard until it’s all finished and cross your fingers. I don’t know, there’s no simple trick, or we’d all be doing it I suppose.

Liam, so this show has crazy, awesome action scenes that are on par with a lot of movies. How did you get in shape for that and what did you go through to handle a sword and all those acrobatic moves they have you doing?

Liam McIntyre: Well it’s a rare and lucky person who gets to be a 10-year-old for a whole year. It’s fantastic. But I mean getting into shape, well I – I mean early on when I started the process of testing for this role, I’d done another film where I was 45 pounds lighter or thereabouts. So I was going for that whole machinist look. And unfortunately I was succeeding. And so getting from that – well first of all, I thought there was no way I’d ever even be considered, but they did consider me.

And I got taught exactly how horrible training can be. In much the way that people say, “Do you get used to sex scenes?” And the answer’s generally “No.” “Do you get used to lifting ridiculous amounts of weights?” No really. I think the point is that you do it and it really hurts. But it’s one of the few things in life where you get to see tangible results. So I guess it’s worthwhile.

So you’re saying you gained 45 pounds of muscle for this role?

Liam McIntyre: Something like that. I haven’t done the math, but a lot. Because, you know, I certainly look a lot more healthier than I did back then.

This question is directed at the ladies. Those sex scenes -can you talk about how approach getting ready to do that?

Lucy Lawless: You know what, it gets – I’ve done things again this season that I’ve never, ever done before and never seen on television before. And it was very heavy duty. There were days when I would just go home and have a – just have a quiet little melt-down and be, you know, just go to sleep. Because it was so demanding emotionally.

This does great things for the viewer’s sex life. Not so much for the participants. It’s like aversion therapy.

Viva Bianca: I think some people think it might turn us on.

Liam McIntyre: It’s difficult to have that conversation. “What did you do today honey?” “Well, long story….”

Lucy Lawless: Sometimes I do need a hug because it’s harrowing. It’s really harrowing.

Viva Bianca: Well I think as well what Lucy might be talking about is, you know, some of the sex scenes or storylines in Spartacus that involves sex are actually not in any way of a turn-on. They can be quite brutal. I mean the show is talking about exploitation of slaves and of women and a lot of the violence is actually talking about some very serious stuff. So it’s kind of far from a turn-on. And can be quite horrific, and as an actor to carry that, you know, it can be quite heavy on us.

Viva, you’ll be coming back to Vengeance after a short hiatus from this Spartacus world. And Liam, you come in for the first time. What have your processes been like for getting into these characters?

Viva Bianca: Well I mean like for me, a year had passed pretty much between shooting – wrapping on season one and starting on season two. And yet at the same time, I mean the reality of our show, it was only about eight weeks that had passed between the end of season one, beginning of Vengeance. So it was kind of quite challenging actually. Yes, it was really quite challenging to go back into the world and feel that level of acute – continuity that was required, and to find the character again. But it was actually so fun to go back into the character. I was really happy to do it.

Liam McIntyre: Yes. For me I guess it’s a unique situation. But I mean I watched the first season and Gods of the Arena, you know, countless lines. And so for me I guess it was unique in the way that, I mean I really felt like I was right there with all of (Eddie’s) performances. So I mean, I really felt like I got like Spartacus – I got Spartacus as he portrayed him. So to me more than anything, it was important to make sure that Spartacus as a character continued as that character and not just some totally different person who, you know, was inspired by different things.

And, you know, the world as a different place for him. So I guess I had a unique situation of trying to create a new Spartacus that felt like, you know, the same kind of guy that Andy’s Spartacus was. So, you know, I mean it was a fantastic and very unique process to go through. It must be a really sad thing to have to kind of even look at. But, you know, it was – I certainly will never – touch wood, never have to go through anything like that again in my life, I suppose.

Is it a clash to do what you do and then walk off the set and walk to cars, cell phones, computers, laptops, assistants. Like, does your brain just go what the hell is going on?

Peter Mensah: Your brain needs it because I don’t know if we could survive in that world?

Viva Bianca: We have slaves, we don’t need assistants.

Lucy Lawless: Actually, no, it’s really important to be able to walk away from the modern world, away from your family, away from your relationship and go into this, you know, this make-believe world of ancient Rome. It’s helpful to have that universe separate from your own.

Viva Bianca: I think that’s a lot of what makes actors actors. We love going into fantasy make-believe worlds and playing. So the fact that we get to go into a world that is so far from our own reality is part of the joy.

Lucy Lawless: It’s like having a second life. It’s like having a virtual life experience. And I just love it. I’ve had a really crazy ride as Lucretia this season. The most intense stuff I’ve ever ever shot. And I’m really grateful.

Liam McIntyre: As far as slipping back into the modern world, though, I think it’s not too challenging for some people I think there’s a photo somewhere of most of the rebels on their iPads/iPhones in a row. I think that was quite – that’s something I found really really…

Lucy Lawless: Is that right because that’s banned from our set.

Liam McIntyre: I know. And I think as a result it was banned from ours. But, yeah, there was one.

The first season was largely centered on the House of Batiatus and the (Ludis) and with the second season it seems the story is definitely widening in scope. How did that affect how you approached the character or how they approached the situation?

Peter Mensah: I think what was great about it is with each episode we kind of have a little bit more information, a little bit more experience playing your character and I definitely feel like playing Oenomaus it was – it’s a sort of leaning, continuing learning curve always finding out the elements that help at one point, make him who he is and then exploring so the journey as it unfolds, he has to figure out, okay, there’s one structure in life that I was attached to, it’s all gone so now what do I do?

So it was sort of the expanding story. It was actually something I really embraced and I felt it was really useful in playing the character because it allowed for, you know, different platforms to react to. I think (unintelligible) and everybody meets Oenomaus in the first season as Doctore. He’s pretty impassive. He doesn’t’ really let on much.

And as the story unfolds you see a human person and the reasons why he was the way he was when you first meet him and I think in this season we really get to explore when all those structures are gone from him he’s incredibly vulnerable and for an actor it was just great to go to a higher range from being that dominant person to a person who really had to show every single emotion. So I loved doing it. It was a fantastic fantastic season to work.

Liam, how was it playing in the mud in the mine?

Liam McIntyre: That was when I went – you know funny enough, I remember watching Lord of the Rings and the special commentary on that and being told about how freezing cold that lake that Bilbo and – that, sorry, Frodo and Sam try to escape in and how they spent like 14 hour days in there and they were freezing to death. And I was like, “Oh, yes. Sure. I bet it’s really hard being an actor in a huge show.”

That mud was one of the toughest experiences I’ve ever had in my life, and I apologize to every actor that I’ve ever judged because I didn’t think they were tough enough.

Yes, that was sticky. Gross. Freezing. There were – I don’t – with all respect to the makeup team, I don’t have a lot good to say about the mud besides the fact that it looks amazing on screen. That was an experience that I – you know what? I asked specifically that the characters that weren’t involved in that particular episode on our side have an episode all of their own where they run off into the mines and do that just so they can know what it’s about.

Peter Mensah: So kind of you.

Liam, I know that Andy wanted the show to go on. And as Lucy said earlier, he was happy – or he wished that you would take over the role. So, how was it to have his support? How did that impact you?

Liam McIntyre: Things like that are more important than you can imagine. As you know, it’s – especially being a fan of the show, it’s the last thing you want to hear, but it is that – you know, the star of one of your favorite shows has been taken ill. And then it’s also a strange situation to then be told to try and you know keep that thing alive – that character alive.

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.

How did it actually feel for you when you stepped onto the set for the very first day of filming knowing that you were stepping onto a set that he was on earlier?

Liam McIntyre: Humbling is probably the most appropriate word. Very humbling. And a little daunting.

Peter Mensah: But all of us that were on set recognized the sheer amount of work that Liam had put in. He didn’t just show up and walk on. He was there for months – months ahead of time working. Really, he devoted an awful lot of effort to this. So I think all of us on set appreciated how much he had put into to be that character and to step in and take over and keep the role going.

So you know all of us that’d been there originally with Andy, certainly appreciate Liam.

Viva Bianca: That’s right. And he had to become our new leader. And, I think we all agreed that from the Day 1, he dealt with the situation with complete grace and humility.

Liam McIntyre: Whatever – I mean, I know that from my experience ever since the very first test in New Zealand where I had to work with you know, Manu Bennett and Brooke and Craig, and all those – you know, people that were just fantastic in their roles.

That – from the person that picked me up at the airport to the – you know Rob the Producer, it was like working with a family. And it was very hard to leave when I didn’t know if I had the role, because it really felt like I was in a special environment with a family and a bunch of people that really cared. And I was lucky enough to have that with all my cast and crew as I tried to take on this crazy task.

How did it feel for you when you actually said, “I am Spartacus,” for the first time?

Liam McIntyre: Oh, that’s – you know, and – oh, that’s – it’s so – such a big line, isn’t it?

And in this instance more so than any other time. I remember acutely Andy’s – Spartacus saying that in the arena at the top of his lungs, you know. And you know, going back into – you know, to the Stanley Kubrick Spartacus where everybody says they’re Spartacus. You know, it’s – I guess it’s kind of like saying you know, “I’m Bond – James Bond,” or something like that. It’s…

You know, I wanted to do like 100 takes and the director just had to sit down and say, “We’ve got it. Move one. We’ve got to film the show. Come on.” So I – you know, it’s – you just – again, try to be honest and truthful with your character and say it as he needed to say it in the script and hope that you don’t look like an idiot.

When you guys go to the set and you’re in jeans and t-shirts and normal everyday clothes. And when you get to your trailer you put on your wardrobe or I guess lack thereof. How does that help you get into character and I guess transport you into that – I guess the Spartacus world?

Lucy Lawless: It’s not a short process, so you’ve got a an hour and a half minimum every day to – for that character to sort of happen, and I think we just are so accustomed to it that we don’t even realize that’s such a part of our process you know.

Liam McIntyre: Yes. And when that first layer of spray tan goes on, I really start to absorb the character.

Yes. No, it’s – I don’t know. It is one of those things. I remember – again, going back as again an actor, start – that’s in some ways green in terms of experience, that first test where they take us to – you know, they took me and put me in the actual costume. You know, it’s amazing how much it adds to the work you’ve already done on your character.

It just – you know, they’re so – the craftsmen on that set from the set builders to the whole wardrobe department and the wardrobe they create by hand – you know, leather workers and that sort of thing add so much more to what, you know, is already a very interesting character. You know, in – certainly in my case, it’s just – it’s amazing how much more you feel like you’re in the time, in the place when you all the costume on.

Lucy Lawless: Yes. We have a huge workshop of leather craftsmen, jewelry, people dying, specialists. People who make things with rubber and resins and all – whatnot. And obviously, the costume sewing you know, people in design. They’re an incredible team.

Viva Bianca: And obviously Barbara Darragh continually just turned out episode after episode all of these very elegant dresses for the Roman ladies. And for Lucy and myself, you know every morning we would be in our trailers and be dressed in these corset dresses and they’re all very intricate and detailed. And it really helps as a lady to enter you know high society in a frock, and you know it informs every choice you make in your physicality, your breath, your gait, and even the way you use your voice. So it’s kind of impossible to enter that character without the gown really.

Lucy Lawless: And then when they embellish it all with this great confection of hair on your head, you know, the wig work is amazing. So we have a lot of genius designers working on us.

Liam McIntyre: I would love to see a great confection of hair placed on Peter’s head.

Peter Mensah: And for us slaves, not having clothes really gets you into character.

Liam McIntyre: I know. But you know it’s funny. It’s one of those things – as my wardrobe changed, occasionally I would be – you know, I’d be given something where I had more clothes on and it felt odd, and then I felt terrible – I felt weird, the feeling that that’s held on.

What would your advice to actors be?

Lucy Lawless: I’ve given up giving advice.

Pay attention, because it’s like your career is like a marriage. There are good years and bad years. And if you can’t be with the ones you love, love the ones you’re with. That was a big one.

Work breeds more work. Another good one.

Could you talk about some of the initial acting challenges found both stepping into your roles and finding your respective characters?

Viva Bianca: Well as I said earlier in this phone call, you know that there was quite a hiatus for me in terms of wrapping on Season 1 and starting this – last year on Vengeance. But really, I suppose the way I approached it was the way one would approach any new role, which is understanding the given circumstances in which this character is living.

And the great thing is because I’ve played the role before and had the history of Season 1 behind me, which is really only about eight weeks kind of earlier in the timeline of our show, there was so much to inform the choices that I’d make coming into Season 2.

So much of the research had been done for me, but still you know, I had to go through the process of reentering the very skin, heartbeat, and sort the cell of this woman.

Peter Mensah: Yes. And very similarly, I think that the great thing about this is this – a lot of the underlying story to Oenomaus had been laid out previously by Steven and his writers. But – and in terms of stepping into the character, a couple of things do help.

I mean obviously the story lines themselves are sort of really, really vivid. The sets and the makeup and all the – sort of the support structures are so clearly transformative that by the time you step on set, you very much have entered that world of despair and hardship that Oenomaus lives in. So unlike, you know, real life that every time I’d go to work it was definitely a case of stepping into another world.

Now the story lines themselves take such trajectories that it’s very hard to prepare yourself for them. You sort of have to react to situations as they show up.

Viva Bianca: Which is a great thing, because acting is reacting.

Peter Mensah: Yes, there it is. And there’s plenty to react to in this.

So yes, it was a great challenge, and hopefully we sort of, you know, keep the story tight enough for everybody to enjoy the journey along with us. But, it was certainly fantastic fun doing it.

Viva Bianca: Yes. And just to add to that as well, I think for me coming back into Season 2 was – it was particularly useful having Lucy – Lucy Lawless and Craig Parker being – Ilithyia has kind of two key relationships in the show. And you know, it’s really the relationships your character has that informs who they are and reminds you of, you know, where they sit in the world.

So you know, it was those two actors that kind of kept me rooted in the show and reminded me of my place in the world of Spartacus.

Liam, what sort of prep and research did you do for this role once you booked it?

Liam McIntyre: Well, just I guess – I used to play computer games about the Roman Legions and that sort of thing every since I was a little kid, so I always interested in the world. So I came in there knowing a fair amount – I mean a fair bit about the Republic and the Empire that followed just out of a personal interest sake.

But then I was lucky enough to be lent an entire library from one of the producers, Chloe Smith, which I got to ingest and go through. And then you know, really explore what was known of Spartacus and that time in history and his – you know, his position in history and what he did or was taught – was said to have done.

And you know – and it was fascinating trying to piece that together and then seeing what Steven DeKnight and his team did in terms of the story they wanted to tell, and trying to really connect those dots. And then from those sort of outlines, fill it in with an actual emotion that I could understand.

It was – I love history and I love that kind of – I especially love that sort of epoch of history, so it was great to go through that in more detail for more purpose than just, you know, general curiosity.

This is a guest post by

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? 

December, 2001 in New York City. The first holiday season since the towers came down. 9/11 had thrown everything into sharp contrast for me, and like so many others, I was having a crisis of faith. I wasn’t sure what I could grab onto to keep me steady when the world was rocking so violently. Prior to the attacks, my role as father and provider gave me an identity. After the attacks, when my then wife and my child were feeling afraid and insecure in a world that had always seemed safe to them, that role felt more like a burdensome weight than an anchor that kept me moored in a turbulent sea. I was being looked to for strength, context and answers that I didn’t have. At the time, I had not developed a strong spiritual practice or connection to anything, and so I didn’t feel I had those things to give. And though finances were pretty good — I was working steadily as an actor, lots of theater, a recurring role on a television drama, tons of voiceover work — a career in the arts is always tenuous. It was an unsettling time.

One day I was making my rounds in the city, pondering these questions. Cheerful holiday advertisements were a painful and hollow contrast to the questioning and mournful mood of the city’s residents, who were not yet ready to celebrate, so soon after the tragedy. Riding the subway, hurrying to my next appointment, the rattle of the cars was a welcome relief after the cacophony of carols blaring from every open store, shallowly proclaiming the joy of the season. I got off at my stop and was walking down the platform toward the exit when a young woman caught my sleeve and said, “Excuse me, but I have to tell you that you saved my marriage.”

I stopped short, confused. I must have looked dumbfounded. I had never seen her before. I may have said “What?”

“I’m sorry,” she continued, “I saw you on the subway, and I just had to let you know.” We stood there on the platform as trains came and went, and she told me her story. She and her husband were both actors. They had been married for a couple of years, both of them struggling to make a living at their craft, studying, holding down menial support jobs so they could go after their dreams. After a while, things had started to go better for her. She was getting a good amount of paying work, and no longer had to do anything else to bring money in — was, indeed, too busy to do other things. But the same was not true for her husband. Instead, for him, things were getting worse. Nothing was happening in his career, and he had to devote himself more seriously to something else in order to make the necessary amount of money. Construction, I think it was, or perhaps carpentry. Although he was happy for her, it was difficult for him, watching her success grow, and he became demoralized. He was working so hard, for longer hours and for so much less money than her, at something with so much less “prestige,” whatever that is, and his ego was taking a hammering. There was tension between them. She suggested counseling, for him and for them as a couple. He was resistant. The tension grew into friction and, as she put it, their marriage was circling the drain. Still he would not agree to counseling, and she started to wait, with resignation, for the end.

Then one day a friend offered them two tickets to “Dinner With Friends,” a play I was doing in New York at the time. It is a wonderful play about, among other things, the difficulties a marriage can face as romance melts into comfort and then congeals into mere routine. They took the tickets, and at intermission, in the lobby, this young woman’s husband broke down in tears, told her he had been a fool, that he had been forgetting what they had, that he would do whatever he could to save their marriage. They got into counseling, and now, two years later, she told me, they were going to make it.

Now I am under no illusions about this story. I know that I didn’t save this woman’s marriage, any more than the paramedic who uses a defibrillator saves someone’s life. Hundreds of people save the life of a heart attack victim — all the people who play a part in the system: The donor who buys the defibrillators for the hospital, the councilman who votes for the funding for the paramedics, the man who invented defibrillators in the first place. But the point is that without each link in that chain, the heart attack victim dies. Likewise with the events that saved this woman’s marriage. I was merely doing my job to the best of my abilities. I was playing my part in a process — I was a link in a chain.

I believe that the work that we do as actors and writers sends energy out into the universe, and we can never know where that energy is going to go, or what it is going to do when it gets there. Meditating on this simple fact can be very freeing in your work. It will help you to get your focus off of yourself. It will make your work about something outside yourself, and your petty concerns. That will make you a better actor. It is ironic, but true, that the less you think about yourself, the more of yourself you can bring to your work. Of course, so many of the jobs that we do to survive seem to have no redeeming value other than the money that they bring us. This is true even of many high paying acting jobs: the Tide commercial, the 3 episode arc on Gossip Girl — probably not going to save a marriage with either of those. But again, links in a chain, and work that enables you to go out and pursue all the other jobs that do have the potential to be a gift in someone’s life. Think of the Beverly Hills plastic surgeon who does liposuction, breast augmentation, botox and collagen injections, and then volunteers at a low income medical care clinic and fixes a child’s cleft palate. One job supports the other, and a life is changed.

A friend of mine once told the following story, particularly apt to this discussion. When she was a student in college, her family situation was difficult, and her social life at school was not going well. She was afflicted with a serious illness from which she would never recover, leaving her with some permanent physical challenges. As the holidays approached, her sense of loneliness and isolation increased to the point where she resolved to end her life. She gathered the necessary supplies, and was setting them up on the table in her small apartment, with only the noise of the television to keep her company. At around one o’clock in the morning, as she was preparing to take her pills, the opening credits of Frank Capra’s It’s A Wonderful Life began to roll. She had never seen the movie, but she watched it then, start to finish, and when it was over, she flushed the pills down the toilet.

The Talmud tells us “And whoever saves a life, it is considered as if he saved an entire world.” I think about this often. Now of course we never know how our work plays out in the grand scheme of things. I don’t know, for instance, if the people whose marriage I “saved” will go on to have a kid who discovers the cure for cancer. But I also don’t know that they won’t. It doesn’t matter. What does matter is that I did my part. It’s not up to us what happens after we have followed our dreams and done our best. What is up to us is the decision to use the gifts that we are given, and trusting that a power greater than us has a design that we can’t see.

When a day passes, it is no longer there. What remains of it? Nothing more than a story. If stories weren’t told or books weren’t written, man would live like beasts, only for the day. Today we live, but tomorrow today will be a story. The whole world, all human life, is one long story.  – Isaac Bashevis Singer

Matthew Arkin is an actor, author and acting teacher. He received a Drama Desk nomination when he originated the role of Gabe in Donald Margulies’ Pulitzer Prize winning Dinner With Friends. His Broadway appearances in The Sunshine Boys and Laughter on the 23rd Floor, and he has extensive stage, television and film credits. He teaches Technique and Scene Study in Los Angeles. For more information, visit www.matthewarkin.com, or subscribe to his Technique and Scene Study Newsletter.

Christopher Heyerdahl

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. 

When you were working on Sanctuary or before it was picked up, had you already auditioned for Hell on Wheels?  How did that come about?

Christopher Heyerdahl: No, I had a buddy of mine called me up on a Sunday night and when I say a buddy of mine, I really mean it – a buddy who’s an actor. He was getting ready for an audition on a Monday and he said, “I love this character that I’m auditioning for but each time I read it and each time I go through it, I just keep thinking of you. Are you auditioning for this character?” Monday comes and I’m asked to come in as well and so anyway, we were both going on for the same role. There is a buddy, a true buddy.

Absolutely.

Christopher Heyerdahl: You know, most actors, the last thing they are going to do is call up a friend who possibly got a better shot at getting the job than they do and anyway, that’s how it started.  I just went in and threw my hat into the ring and did an on tape audition.  It resonated with them and went in for a call back and bish bash bosh.  The rest is, you know, the H word.

I hope you bought that guy a nice steak dinner.

Christopher Heyerdahl: Oh, believe me, like I said, he is a good friend and so yeah, we definitely celebrated.  Yeah, it was pretty amazing. 

We were already shooting Sanctuary and this came along.  The character that I, because I played two characters on Sanctuary and for the most part, one of my characters had been killed off at the end of the previous session and so it opened up the schedule.  There was a window of possibility there which allowed me to go into the room and say, “Okay, it’s possible to work this thing out.” And the producers were kind enough on Sanctuary to say “Yeah, were not gonna block this opportunity.” 

As far as any role could be tailor-made, The Swede is about as close as it gets for me and my background.

Yeah, I was reading that, amazingly close.

Christopher Heyerdahl: Phenomenal. It’s one of those roles you can only hope for in a career. It’s something that you have so much to draw upon in as much as my father’s from Norway, I’ve lived in Norway before.  I’ve had a number of visits off and on since then and before. I grew up with my father bringing over all sorts of Norskies over and Swedes to have a good time at our house and party until the wee hours of the night.  So I grew up with that, a lot of Norwegian men acting like Norwegian men. 

They have a very interesting perspective of the world, quite different from anything that we’re used to in North America.  It was fun to be able to draw on that and hopefully, they will look at it and maybe see a little bit of themselves. Maybe not the psychopathic or sociopathic elements of the character but, you know, just the way he looks at the world and hopefully I’ll bring a little bit of a flavour of that.

When you first got the sides for the role, how much preparation did you put in? 

Christopher Heyerdahl: Well, I’ve got several 40 odd years of hanging out with Norwegians.  What the Gaytons had brought to the table was pretty amazing.  The first taped auditioned that I did without anyone being around, just myself and Jennifer at Kirk Talent here in Vancouver, where I was at the time.  She read with me and there was some wonderful, I mean, the scenes are just so juicy.  There was so much there. Then when I went in for the call back, the Gaytons has done some rewrites so there was more information to draw upon.  And then again when we were shooting, they did more rewrites so there’s a small tome of information about The Swede  that is there.  It was there at the beginning for me to look at and think about and do a research on.  But, you know, it all happened within a period of a week really. From first taking a look at the sides that I was given to being offered to the job.

How much does wardrobe help you with the character? You go to the set in your jeans and t-shirt, and you come out of your trailer in your 1800s clothing?

Christopher Heyerdahl: It’s enormous. Getting into the, if you want to call it the skin of the character, the outer layer.  We all sit there and every day, most of us think about how we’re going to portray ourselves that day.  As guys, we may not necessarily think about what’s underneath those clothes but certainly what we’re putting on ourselves, you know, what jacket we’re going to wear. And for The Swede, he is no different and certainly, someone who is trying to make a very strong impression every day.  I mean this was a costume that came, it influenced so much of what The Swede does, you know, the fact that he’s got that high stiff collar and even underneath his tunic, he’s got a high shirt collar.  It keeps that very straight, stiff back. He is not a slouching man.  There is nothing slouched in him at all.  That costume is just a gift.

I read that you would shoot Sanctuary during the day, get on a plane, fly a couple of hours, and then you’re on the set of Hell on Wheels early that next morning.  

Christopher Heyerdahl: Yeah, we would. Gordon MacDonald, he was usually the one who had to deal with getting me off set of Sanctuary and they would have to get me… because of the prosthetics in the character that I was doing.  The one surviving character in Sanctuary was in prosthetics and so you have to have an hour to get yourself out of that stuff. They would have to have me off set by 7, out of makeup by 8, in a car by 8:30, off to the airport and through security and on a plane. I’d get to Calgary by because of the slight time difference; I’d get to Calgary sometimes, 12:30, one o’clock in the morning, and then be on set for a 6:30 call.  That happened frequently. 

But you know the drill, when you’re doing something you love, it’s great.  I remember one night getting off a plane and just this stupid grin started to grow on my face as I was walking through. I realized that I was commuting to work on a multimillion dollar transport vehicle. It’s a pretty nice situation to be in at without a doubt.

At what point are you learning your lines, like on the flight?

Christopher Heyerdahl: On the flight, on set, well you know the drill. What’s the saying, “We don’t get paid to work, we get paid to wait.”  There’s a lot time on the set and usually, I don’t like to split my focus on set but in that case, I had to.

It was actually pretty silly to see me. I can only imagine from my fellows, they had a good laugh watching me mumbling in a Norwegian accent, going over my lines for Hell on Wheels while I’m dressed up as a Sasquatch. There’s got to be something a bit odd about that.  You’re not going to see that every day.

You also shoot in some pretty hairy conditions. Mud, awful weather, it looks cold as hell out there.

Christopher Heyerdahl: Did you say hairy conditions after I said Sasquatch?

Yes, I did.

Christopher Heyerdahl: That’s a good segue. [laughs]

Does that contribute to I guess to your characterization as well?

Christopher Heyerdahl: It affects everybody.  It certainly affects the crew because they’ve got to lug the equipment around through the mud and rain, and sleet and snow, and everything in between, windstorms. So certainly, you didn’t have to act all that stuff.  It was muddy, cold, and uncomfortable.  We were all in period gear.  Our boots were wet and there’s only so much you can do to try and dry out a pair of leather-soled boots.  Once they’re wet, they are wet. 

So, all of that influence, it was a great help for us and it certainly was an amazing help for Marvin Rush, our DP, in order to create and capture that, I mean those skies, some of the shots that he was able to get are amazing. So you had tons of gifts like that from a visual point of view as well as the fact that we didn’t have to go very far to realize what these people had to deal with at that time.

Each character you play is pretty much distinctly different…. except for you height.

Christopher Heyerdahl: [laughs] You know, sometimes I do walk on my knees and I just put my shoes just on my knees and shuffle along. I can play a short person and I have no problem with that.  I can do that.

How did you get your start?  Did you have any training?

Christopher Heyerdahl: I went to theatre school and for a number of years at Studio 58, it’s a school here in Vancouver.  I went for a number of years to Banff Centre and I did my time at Stratford in Ontario.  It was really one of the best Shakespeare or classical theatre production houses in North America and they have really the best voice and movement and text, etc., access to amazing teachers and coaches there. So through the years, we never really stopped learning our craft so altogether that is almost 10 years of training there.

Do you still get nervous when you audition or when you do a scene?

Christopher Heyerdahl: Yes.  It’s certainly on the first day.  The first day is one of those, you know, I don’t sleep the night before. It’s like going to first day of school, I always liken it to.  It’s quite terrifying. I find once I get to know the people who are there on set or in the cast of the play, it always becomes more comfortable and you just get on with the work but absolutely, it’s always a terrifying prospect.

What’s your advice to actors?

Christopher Heyerdahl: Well, I believe heavily in learning the craft and I’m someone who obviously decided to go to school to focus my, certainly for the majority, as I say, the beginning of the first 12 years of my career, it was focused only on theatre. And for me the majority of the people whom I’ve worked with who have that as a base, they have more of a general understanding of what story is, of what everyone does in order to create either a play or eventually a film or whatever the medium is.  I find the actor more well-rounded.

So I would suggest to every actor to go to school and learn the craft. Learn the history and exercise the instrument. Take voice classes, work on the body. Every aspect of this instrument that we have and learn your limitations then push those limitations.  Get yourself into a situation where you have the opportunity to surprise yourself.  Go beyond what you’ve ever thought.  Get out of your comfort zone, I suppose, is the best thing for any actor.

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

Darling Companion

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

Dermot Mulroney

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. 

While Mulroney was able to fix the issue with his familiar appearance, that didn’t do much to help Mulroney avoid the shoot’s frigid temperatures — the movie was shot in Smithers, British Columbia, which is a 12-hour drive north of Vancouver.  He describes the temperatures as so shockingly cold that it took his focus off everything else.  “All the preparation you do on the script, the reading about airplane wrecks, the research into wolves — it all goes out the window. Because when you’re standing on a mountain and it’s 20 below zero with 60 mile an hour winds snowing sideways, none of that matters. You’re just being there.”

Just in case you think Mulroney is exaggerating he assures you he isn’t.  He adds, “When I say ‘cold,’ I mean intensely, painfully, near-frostbite cold. It was excruciating.  Joe conceived of and wrote the movie with that in mind — man going through the most extreme conditions and harshest environment imaginable. He was determined to make a movie in which the actors truly suffered.”

“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. 

It seems that the award-winning director may have transformed the young teenager into a bit more of a movie fan. “He gave me a lot of space for creative input. Who says I deserve that? I don’t. But I admire that he’s willing to let people have their creative try,” said Horn, who channeled his character in his own special way. “I would go into a little room off the set that the director built for me and think about what my character was feeling in his situation. When I felt that the character had entered my body and that I was fully being the character, then I could leave and do a good job.”

Extremely Close & Incredibly Loud also stars Tom Hanks, Sandra Bullock and John Goodman.

Written by Mark Macias

Put yourself in the position of a casting agent. You need to hire an actress for a commercial shoot. She should have a comedic style and must be strong enough to carry a 30-second commercial. Her age and ethnicity can vary, so the actress search is broad.

I’ve posted similar actor ads on Craigslist and received more than 300 emails in the first 10 hours. After the first 20 emails, I have to be honest all CVs and headshots run together – with the exception of one group: actors with a reel.

I will never understand why actors don’t email a reel when they are applying for an audition, yet less than 3 percent of the actors who have applied for jobs that I posted emailed me a video reel. The rest emailed me multiple attachments with headshots and resumes, assuming I had the time to open 5 attachments.

It doesn’t make any sense. A video reel showcases an actor’s presence, acting skills, delivery, voice and style. A headshot just tells me what you look like, but even that isn’t always accurate. 

My actor friends have given me a million excuses why they don’t have a reel.

It costs too much money.

The camera distorts how I look.

I’m worried my reel won’t showcase my true acting abilities.

I don’t trust the editor to sell me to an agent.

I’d prefer to sell them on my abilities once I get the audition.

And if you don’t have a reel, I’m sure you have your own reasons for not getting one. My actor friends openly admit they are not the savviest when it comes to marketing themselves as actors, but a reel isn’t marketing. A reel is an opportunity to speak directly to agents and directors, showing them what you have to offer.

In my former TV career, I produced reels that got me up the ranks of NBC, CBS and King World Productions. As an Executive Producer with WNBC, I hired producers, talent and screened more reels than I could ever count. If you think Craigslist postings get a ton of responses, imagine what an on-air posting for NBC will produce.

Here are a few tips to help you understand what your reel needs to stand out from the pack.

1) The first 10 to 15-seconds are crucial. This is when the agent and producers are watching with their gut. Does she have what it takes? What does he look like? How are her expressions? How is her voice? Does his charisma come across the screen? Does she speak to me? This is why you should begin your reel with a close-up of you, talking directly to the camera. In TV news, all reporters start their reels with several standups and there is a reason why this is the standard in news. It works. A General Manager and News Director can see instantly what this reporter looks like. It’s no different for an actor. Start your reel with a snippet of you.

2) Your reel shouldn’t be more than 3.5 minutes, but if you have several minutes of great content, go up to four minutes. It’s highly unlikely an agent, producer, ie will watch more than that amount of time when screening for an audition and here is why. You are one reel in a pile and the casting agent doesn’t have hours of time to screen for an audition. It’s more likely the hiring agent has already made up his/her mind within the first minute of watching your reel. This is another reason why you want to showcase your close-up scenes at the beginning of your reel. This should go without saying (but actors do it, so it must be stated), put your best material first and go down the list. Don’t start with a wide shot where you are one in a crowd.

3) Shorter and stronger is better than longer and weaker. I’ve produced some reels for talent where they didn’t have more than 2 minutes of material. In a way, screening for an actor is like online dating. Sometimes, you see too many pictures of the single person and you realize why he/she is on this dating site. If you don’t have enough good material, then keep your reel short.

4) Present original content with your reel. A few actor friends have asked me why they shouldn’t add theatrical roles to their reel. Yesterday, someone asked me if he could perform a role from Brokeback Mountain for his reel. No matter how good your acting is, you can’t compete with Heath Ledger, so don’t even try. If you don’t have any original screenplays, then pull a script from an off-theater production. You want them to remember you, not the role someone else played.

Finally, don’t put too much pressure on your reel. You’re not producing a reel to land the role. You are producing a reel so that you can get an audition and be seen by the right people. Technology has enabled us to do this, so put it to your advantage. Likewise, get yourself a website so everything can be seen on one page. No one wants to open an attachment, so don’t give them a reason to dismiss your dreams.

Mark Macias is the founder of ReelFactor.com. His company, 3M Media Group, has produced videos and commercials for all kinds of projects, including retailers, programmers, restaurants, hotels and personalities.

The spot, co-produced by Funny or Die, features William Fichtner, Josh Duhamel, Megan Fox, Vinnie Jones and a Fu-Manchu-ed Robin Williams, all in search of the one they call, ‘The Host’ (Billy Crystal). 

Academy Chief Marketing Officer Christina Kounelias said in a press release that “we wanted to try something a little bit different this year instead of a traditional, clip-based piece. The trailer has a fun twist that conveys how excited everyone is to have Billy back.”

The Academy Awards will air on Sunday, February 26, at the Kodak Theatre on ABC.

Check it out below! 

So when Jared Harris stepped into the role for the latest Holmes film, Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, he had a vast number of performances to be potentially influenced by. 

However, Harris tells the Miami Herald that more than anything else he was influenced by the style already established in Ritchie’s previous Sherlock Holmes movie.  He also talks about how he ended up acting even though he initially was hesitant to do so.

Harris explains, “You could see from the first film that they had taken such a fresh approach to treating the characters, the period, the subject matter. It was exciting because Moriarty had to be a re-imagined version of the character than we had seen beforehand.  It was a big mountain in a sense that the character has to pose a formidable problem to Sherlock Holmes. How that was going to be achieved, I didn’t know. But I knew it had to happen.”  Still, Harris decided to treat Moriarty — one of the most famous villains in fiction — as he were portraying a real person, not unlike how he had to invent a fictional version of John Lennon for the movie Two of Us, in which Lennon and Paul McCartney meet and discuss a Beatles reunion in 1976.  He points out, “Even when I am playing a real person, I am playing a character. It is what is in the script. When I played John Lennon, the conversations he had with Paul McCartney did happen but not in one night.”

Harris claims he decided not to do extensive research into real-life figures he has has portrayed when he played Andy Warhol in 1996′s I Shot Andy Warhol.  As much as he wanted to be accurate, he obviously considers the script more important as it is the source of the story and says ninety percent of his performance of Warhol came directly from the script.

Though Harris has amassed quite a resume since he began acting, it was something he did not consider as a career until  his twenties — even though he is the son of the Oscar-nominated actor Richard Harris.  While attending college in America at Duke University he had his first stage experience, recalling, “I finally decided to try out for a play. I thought I would do just the one play to see how I liked it.” 

But he obviously enjoyed it, because after graduation he pursued an acting career and made his film debut in 1989.  Still, he has his moments of self-doubt about that initial audition, as he mentions, “The only time I keep wondering if I made the right decisions are those months where there are no acting jobs.”