Joaquin Phoenix is known for going Method-deep into his roles even going so far as to appear as “himself” on Late Show with David Letterman a few years ago. Now, he’s taken on another seriously dark part in Paul Thomas Anderson’s take on a Scientology-like religion in The Master.
Mandy Patinkin isn’t holding back his opinion about his time on the CBS drama, Criminal Minds.
Most teenagers have a pretty similar experience—dating, high school, prom. But most teenagers didn’t grow up spending their time on one of the most successful movie sets of all time. Emma Watson started playing Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter series when she was just 9-years-old, thus eliminating the possibility of a normal high school experience. So the British actress jumped at the chance to portray a typical teenager in The Perks of Being a Wallflower.
It wasn’t too long ago that I looked at new Ben Affleck movies like trips to the dentist, especially the parts involving the dentist painfully picking at my gums. After excellent roles in films like Dazed and Confused, Chasing Amy, and, of course, Good Will Hunting (which he co-wrote) in the 1990s, the new millennium brought with it a string of films starring Affleck that ranged from inoffensively mediocre to reaching new levels of awfulness. But Affleck successfully taped into his Good Will Hunting creative energy to direct Gone Baby Gone, The Town, and Argo, three films that have received strong critical praise (he also co-wrote the first two).
Speaking with Rolling Stone, Modern Family co-star Ed O’Neill reveals where he might have been headed if he didn’t get into acting… and it’s a bit surprising.
One would think that after being manhandled (apehandled?) by a giant gorilla in King Kong an actress could pretty much pull off any physical role. But Naomi Watts, who stars in The Impossible, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, had to fend with far more than a digital gorilla since much of the film takes place during a tsunami in Thailand.
Seth Rogen has probably set the bar of good taste back a few dozen yards in his films, but believe it or not even he has limits. He actually ended up crossing one of those lines in his cameo in For a Good Time Call…
Bobby Cannavale is pretty much everywhere right now. He just finished a run on Nurse Jackie, he currently has a role on Boardwalk Empire, and he will be starring in the upcoming Broadway production of Glengarry Glen Ross.
Getting to make a movie centered around cars was a dream come true for Dax Shepard, star of the new film Hit and Run.
While many Saturday Night Live cast members begin their careers in standup, others aren’t so comfortable with being themselves on stage all by themselves. Bill Hader, for example, might be nominated for an Emmy for his work on the long-running sketch show, but the idea of doing stand-up comedy is something so challenging for him.
Ron Howard hasn’t appeared in a meaningful acting role since the 1986 TV movie Return to Mayberry, reprising his role of Opie Tyler from The Andy Griffith Show, preferring to sit in the director’s chair. It has worked out well for him, since he won Best Director and Best Picture Oscars for A Beautiful Mind along with directing several other popular films.
LaBeouf starred in the three Transformers movies, but he will not be in the planned fourth film in the franchise. That doesn’t seem to bother him much, as he says, “There’s no room for being a visionary in the studio system. It literally cannot exist.”
Todd Lowe is finally getting a chance to do some drama on HBO’s True Blood. For the past several seasons, his character, Terry Bellefleur, has had to settle for being the comic relief for the respective vampires, werewolves, and fairies on the scene. But Lowe actually favors the lighter bits.
Bill Hader has been nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Supporting Actor for his work on Saturday Night Live. Now Emmy nominations for SNL aren’t anything new, but no SNL actor has been nominated for that particular award since Eddie Murphy in 1983.
Chris Rock might have seemed like an odd choice to star in Julie Delpy’s indie romantic comedy 2 Days in New York, but that’s only if you haven’t been paying attention to Rock’s recent career. Sure, he might have starred in Pootie Tang years ago, but in the last several years Rock has manged to branch out not only as a writer, director, and producer, but also as an actor.
Online review sites like Yelp can be really helpful, but one always has to remember to take it from the source. I remember reading one that gave a hotel a poor review because the lobby chairs weren’t comfortable and the hotel TV didn’t have the writer’s favorite channel.
Despite Anne Hathaway having a lot of exciting projects coming up (The Dark Knight Rises, Les Miserables), there is only one question she is consistently asked. What’s it like wearing the Catsuit?
When asked how she felt about the ongoing campaigns, Sigourney Weaver (“Aliens,” “Gorillas in the Mist”) put it delicately: “I think it’s a pretty daunting thing to watch. It’s our dysfunctional political process front and center, and I actually think it’ll be one of the reasons people will tune into ‘Political Animals.’ As dysfunctional as we are, it’s fiction.”
Willem Dafoe remains one of those actors who is as versatile as he is prolific — he regularly appears in about 3 movies per year, ranging from expensive studio projects like Spider-Man and John Carter to independent films like this year’s 4:44 Last Day on Earth and The Hunter.
Michael Shannon was asked a handful of mostly New York-centric questions recently but this one about acting caught my eye.
