It isn’t easy to follow up starring in one of the most successful and beloved television sitcoms of all time. We’ve all heard about the “Seinfeld Curse” (though Julia Louis-Dreyfus seems to be handling herself well these days), but most of the cast of Friends have had trouble finding a project that had a fraction of the success of the “Must See TV” hit NBC sitcom.
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.
One of the most anticipated films of the year is master filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master, a film that has been controversial since before it even began production because of its subject manner. Thought to be a thinly-veiled look at Scientology, the religion founded by science fiction author L. Ron Hubbard that counts numerous celebrities among its membership, the film stars Philip Seymour Hoffman as the Hubbard-like Lancaster Dodd.
One of the best parts of Boardwalk Empire, the award-winning Prohibition crime drama on HBO, is Michael Kenneth Williams as Chalky White, a bootlegger and the unelected mayor of Atlantic City’s African-American work force. The role comes after several years on The Wire, another crime drama.
As funny of a guy as Paul Rudd is, when he takes the lead in a film the box office isn’t always there. His last three starring roles — Wanderlust, Our Idiot Brother, and How Do You Know — all underperformed. So it’s a good thing that Rudd is more than just a movie actor, since he is making a return to Broadway after several years in movies to star in Grace alongside Michael Shannon, Kate Arrington, and Ed Asner.
I definitely respect when the child of someone famous in entertainment uses a different name in order to avoid any expectations (good or bad) audiences might have of your work. But it’s a bit more difficult to get away with it these days when anyone can Google your name.
It would have been easy for the producers behind Chaplin, a new Broadway musical based on the life of the famed early film icon, to find a Hollywood star to cast in the lead. But going that route would have made it unlikely to equal the performance of Rob McClure, who initially received rave reviews portraying the man behind the Little Tramp during the musical’s run at California’s La Jolla Playhouse.
It’s been four years since 007 was on screen — one of the longest gaps between sequels in the James Bond franchise — so when Daniel Craig returns as the British secret agent in November’s Skyfall it will be a very welcome return.
Okay, so it’s hard to think of David Schwimmer as anyone else than Ross on TV’s Friends, a character he played on the highly-rated show for ten seasons. In fact, Schwimmer seems completely aware of this problem, spending much of his post-Friends life behind the camera as a director. But Schwimmer, who began his acting career in theater, is actually returning to the stage in New York in the new comedy Detroit at Playwrights Horizons.
Usually a film from WWE Studios means it’s some wacky action-comedy starring one of the company’s many wrestling stars. But The Day, a post-apocalyptic thriller, looks like a major break from that mold — and it doesn’t feature any wrestlers. But it does star Lord of the Rings and Lost star Dominic Monaghan as the leader of a group of people who refuse to resort to cannibalism, although they begin to look like a tasty meal to another group.
The three-time Oscar nominated Amy Adams is so beautiful that if she wanted to she could have made an entire career out of starring as the ditzy, pretty face lead in cheesy romantic comedies. Thank goodness she didn’t, because along with cute family films like Enchanted and The Muppets, Adams has starred in heavy dramas like Doubt, The Fighter, and perhaps the most challenging role of her career, The Master.
One of the perks of being a big star is not having to audition for parts. After all, if an actor is well-known enough, his or her reputation and ability precedes him or her. But that wasn’t the case for the next big movie musical, Les Miserables. Despite stars like Russell Crowe, Hugh Jackman, and Anne Hathaway starring in the film, director Tom Hooper made all of them audition for their roles.
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…
Let’s be clear: most celebrities don’t want to be bothered when they’re, say, eating in a restaurant. I mean, you can’t really blame them for that — there’s a time and place for autographs and publicity, and then there’s trying to finish your sandwich. Of course, there are many exceptions — there are celebrities that don’t even want to be bothered when doing anything in public, and there are some celebrities who… well, will go to extremes to accommodate your wacky requests.
Like many successful actors, Cristin Milioti wasn’t a name anyone would have recognized a year ago. Yet now she is the star of the hit Broadway musical Once (for which she was nominated for a Tony), starring in the indie film Sleepwalk With Me, and soon will have a major role in The Wolf of Wall Street, directed by Martin Scorsese.
There’s a famous, though embellished, story about classically trained actor Laurence Olivier and method actor Dustin Hoffman on the set of Marathon Man. According to the legend, Olivier asked Hoffman why he looked so tired on the set one morning, and Hoffman explained that he had stayed up the whole night in order to properly play a character who had stayed up all night. As a joke, Olivier replied something to the effect of, “Why not try acting? It’s much easier.”
Ever notice how many unimportant and/or uninteresting messages people post on social networks? To get to the good stuff you often have to wade through the same inspirational quotes (which are often misattributed), pictures of meals, and broadcasts of political views that probably don’t coincide with your own. Another form of social network clog is the braggers, who often post about all the wonderful things happening in their lives. One of the worst forms of that is when a person posts about how excited he or she is to interview for a job, which is never a good idea since if you don’t get that job you’ll still have many people ask you “did you get that job?” for several weeks following. In other words… sometimes it’s better to play your cards close to your vest.
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.
I’ve always been impressed by Amy Adams because there aren’t many actresses who can star is cheery family films (Enchanted, The Muppets) and heavy dramas (Doubt, The Fighter) and be apt at both. For example, in September alone she stars in two very different films, the father-daughter comedy/drama Trouble with the Curve and the controversial drama The Master written and directed by visionary Paul Thomas Anderson.
We all know it’s difficult to make it in Hollywood. You might be working as hard as you can and end up feeling hopeless after playing your fifteenth bit part (if you even get that!) You might even consider doing something extreme to get attention
