For quite some time Johnny Depp was attached to star in the biopic Black Mass as Boston mobster Whitey Bulger, who is currently on trial for his role in 19 murders. But it was suddenly announced on May 30 that he was out after a pay dispute. Or is he? That seems to depend on whom you ask.
Though Russell Crowe is no stranger to beefing up for a role, it had been some time since he had to do so before he agreed to portray Superman’s Kryptonian father Jor-El in Man of Steel. Crowe is following in the footsteps of Marlon Brando, who played Jor-El in 1978’s Superman (and again nearly thirty years later in Superman Returns, which featured unused footage from the original).
So life after The Office begins for its principal cast, like Jenna Fischer, who had been with the show for the entirety of its nine-year run. For Fischer “life after” starts with her New York theater debut at the strictly limited engagement world premiere of Reasons to Be Happy, a play by Neil LaBute, which runs through the end of June at the Lucille Lortel Theatre
Henry Cavill almost played Superman several years ago while Warner Bros. was developing the project that would eventually become Superman Returns. Though that ultimately didn’t work out, opportunity ended up knocking for Cavill when he was selected to portray Superman in director Zach Snyder’s Man of Steel, a new origin movie of the world’s first superhero.
It has been said when the late Heath Ledger got into roles he really got into them. And when he portrayed Batman’s arch-villain The Joker in The Dark Knight, for which he won a posthumous Oscar for, Ledger went even deeper, including keeping a “Joker diary.”
David Morse is an actor who has had a long career in film, television, and theater for over thirty years and has never seemed to take a break. He has returned to the stage in New York in The Unavoidable Disappearance of Tom Durnin at the Roundabout’s Laura Pels Theatre.
After weeks of negotiating during a time when commercial actors have seen themselves working harder for less pay, members of SAG-AFTRA have strongly approved a new deals for acting for television and radio commercials.
The Wolverine will be the sixth time Hugh Jackman will be playing the quick-tempered Marvel superhero on screen (and he’s already signed for a seventh time in X:Men – Days of Future Past), and most fans wouldn’t have anyone else play Logan at this point.
James Lipton, the long-time host of Inside the Actors Studio, has revealed the details of his past as a pimp in 1950s Paris to Parade.
I will believe just about any story you tell me about certain actors. For example, Bill Murray randomly joined a kickball game in New York City? Yes, I totally buy that.
Nick Offerman made a career appearing in small roles in sitcom to sitcom for about a decade before gaining steam in the late 2000s, which eventually led to his starring role on the NBC sitcom Parks and Recreation.
The producers of Broadway’s Annie are enjoying a solid boost from Jane Lynch’s limited engagement (and Broadway debut!) as Miss Hannigan.
There was a time where the most “outdoor” theater got in New York City was Shakespeare in the Park. But today? How about in a graveyard?
Last fall a number of actors sent a letter to SAG-AFTRA that claimed that the union had not properly paid actors foreign royalty payments due to them for over a decade. SAG-AFTRA immediately dismissed the claim by pointing out that famed accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers audits the foreign royalty payments for the union.
As always, there is both good news and bad news in the Broadway League’s annual report of Broadway attendance and grosses.
May has been a month of endings for Ed Helms. First came the series finale of The Office, a show he has been starring in since 2007.
Sometimes it’s hard to separate an actor from his or her characters. For example, many are still surprised when they hear Hugh Laurie speak in his natural English accent because they heard him speak with an American accent for eight seasons on House.
In the end, Smash is, at best, an imperfect television series. It took an interesting industry — the behind-the-scenes creation of Broadway productions — and incredibly talented singers, like Megan Hilty, yet somehow failed to make it interesting to general audiences or even Broadway diehards.
In case you haven’t been paying attention to the media over the last two years, the cult favorite Fox television comedy Arrested Development, which ran from 2003-2006, is being revived for new episodes on the streaming service NetFlix.
The television drama Ironside, which was about wheelchair-bound detective Robert T. Ironside, ran for eight seasons in the 1960s and 1970s and starred able bodied actor Raymond Burr.
