The Interview Game
The Rules
1. Leave me a comment saying, “Interview me.”
2. I will respond by asking you five questions, I get to pick the questions
3. You will update your LJ and this thread with the answers to the questions
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the post
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.
Favourite? I’m taking that as having a different meaning from “best”, which would involve a more serious tone and evaluation of methodology, performance and critical reception. “Favourite” lets me be more playful, so thanks for that.
If I’m going just on the movies of his that I own, which I watch repeatedly, which make me happy and have somehow affected me on a personal level, then I have to say Immortal Beloved. I know he’s not gorgeous in it - the Gorgeousity Award goes to his younger self in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead - but it was the first Gary movie I ever saw. I remember going to see it at the movie theatre on my piano teacher’s recommendation and thinking, “Yeah, this is pretty good” and then the last few scenes came on with the Emperor Concerto playing in the background. Gary’s the young Beethoven racing to meet his lover, and he reads the Immortal Beloved letter as a voiceover. His voice dropped on the line, “You - you’re my life” and he just got me. I’ve had Gary-Oldmanitis ever since. There is no known cure.
2. Name the other two Gary Oldman on-screen performances that made the short list for question number 1.
We’re going with favourites still, right? My favourite “bad guy” performance was in Leon a.k.a. The Professional to those of you who rented it in Canada. Stansfield is fabulously insane, quick with the sawed-off shot-gun and there’s that great scene when he talks about Beethoven, which, given the above first choice, brings everything full circle for me.
My other favourite performance that I considered for #1 is, God help me, Gary in The Scarlet Letter. I know, I know, it’s a truly horrid film. Trust me, I own it, I am well aware of its capability to peel paint off of walls through sheer torture. But, the thing is, Gary gave a really good performance in it, despite the script, the direction, Demi Moore’s acting and Robert Duvall chewing (and choking) on the scenery. The accent he uses as Dimmesdale is my favourite in his repertoire - it’s so much softer than practically everything else he’s done, barring his great explosion of, “God, wo-man! I’m in hell!!!!” I loved him so much in this film that I went to see it twice in the theatre (dragging one of my best friends along with me the second time - I still don’t think she’s forgiven me yet) and I had the promo shot for it hanging in my high school locker for the next four years. People would stop by when I was getting binders for class just to make sure a) it was still up and b) I was still crazy. On a follow-up note,
lolitalolita sent me a glossy shot of the same promo a few months ago. It was like seeing an old friend again.
I also have to give honourable mentions to two films, Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Prick Up Your Ears, which, combined, have my favourite Gary sex scenes. Mina licking Dracula’s chest to become a vampire was extremely erotic to thirteen year-old me, and I couldn’t stop grinning (and snickering) when Joe Orton got a blow-job while watching the Queen’s coronation. Brilliant.
3. Describe what a typical day is like for you.
Sadly, a typical day these days is not at all typical! I’ve recently introduced a new regimen to see me through my final thesis corrections. Theoretically, it will stop me from becoming sick - a habitual hazard living in a college for international graduates - and get the job done. Time will tell…
7 AM
Wake up, kind of. Turn on BBC Breakfast. Go back to bed and doze while trying to listen to the weather. Curse when I realise I’ve slept through the London forecast and am listening to how things are up in Aberdeen.
7:30 AM
Shower (unless I’m going to the gym that morning). Breakfast, either in my room or down in the dining hall, depending on how sociable I feel. Nine times out of ten, I’m in my room.
8 AM
Turn on the computer and do my “correspondence”. Cut myself off after five minutes on Facebook or reading the gossip columns. Go back to doing proper emails about proper things. Avoid turning on a movie just to get away from it all.
9 AM
Either at the gym or starting my work. If I need to go to the library or the newspaper archive, I’m out the door by 9:20 in order to save my desk from those rabid undergrads who have somehow been allowed to get reader cards at the BL. Ick.
N.B. If I’m at the gym, I still haven’t really woken up yet.
10 AM - 5 PM
Technically, this is when I do my work, either thesis corrections or finding new research evidence for claims I’ve pulled out of thin air in my latest chapter. Somewhere I squeeze lunch in. I often have a couple tea breaks, check the email again periodically, and fight a desperate battle not to watch interviews with various actors on YouTube. Did you know that Charlie Rose has interviewed Peter O’Toole three separate times? Time well wasted.
5 PM
Bath. My love for bath-bombs from Lush knows no bounds. Definitely a big help towards maintaining sanity.
6:30 PM
Dinner thoughts. Since I’m cutting back on grains, bread, cheese, chocolate and alcohol for the next three months, it’s not as much fun as it used to be. Supper now involves a lot of soup (Duchy Original if possible), the occasional salad and the even more rare appearance in the dining hall. I often reheat frozen-y things down in the basement kitchens and then come back up to my room to watch something on the telly or a movie. I made it through the first two seasons of House last week (I also turn shows on if I’m working on less mind-absorbing stuff while sitting on the floor). I like long things that I can tune in and out of if I’m multi-tasking. I think Brideshead Revisited will be next. Or Kill Bill.
8 PM
Free time. I can either do mindless things on the internet, meet up with friends outside of “the compound”, do my bar shift (that’s tonight’s appointment), read or continue watching a movie. I’m not working on my novel as much as I used to, which I should rectify.
10 PM
Theoretically, I want this to be when I get into bed and read for half an hour. Invariably, I’m an hour late by the time I get around to doing that. Still, it’s a goal.
4. Name your favourite film viewed thusfar in 2007.
I am much more of a rental girl than I used to be, because movie tickets are so damn expensive here (as is everything else). This past March I saw The Big Lebowski for the first time, which was a fantastic experience. I now own it and got a “Congrats” from the FOPP clerk when I bought it. That’s a sign of a good thing.
The other movie I watched that blew my mind was The State Within, a BBC miniseries that aired November 2006. It’s about the British Ambassador in Washington DC after a terrorist attack has occurred. It had the best script I’ve seen recently and I recommend it to everyone. It was like The West Wing and 24 had a child who was a hundred times smarter than its parents.
I will definitely go and see Eastern Promises in the theatre.
5. If you could make a compilation that best depicts your personality or aspects of your life and experiences, which 10 songs would you select, and if you'd like, elaborate why you chose these tracks.
In random order…
1) TIE: Brideshead Revisited Theme - Geoffrey Burgon
L’Arena - Ennio Morricone
Because they are the pieces of music that play on default in my head whenever I’m not listening to anything else.
2) Neil Young and The Band ft. Joni Mitchell - Helpless (live from The Last
Waltz)
The one song that makes me homesick every time I hear it.
3) Velvet Underground - All Tomorrow’s Parties
The first thing I blast in my car as soon as I hit the highway, or the last thing I remember to put on before I get lost in my writing.
4) Madonna - Like A Prayer
This was what we played in the dorm before a night on the town. I still play it when I’m getting ready for a night out.
5) Beethoven - Piano Concerto No. 5 (“The Emperor”)
I love a lot of classical music, but this concerto is quite possibly the most beautiful, passionate and headstrong piece of music I know.
6) David Bowie - Ziggy Stardust
The first song I learned to play on bass guitar and my favourite Bowie tune. The K-town girls and I would play this on my patio late at night after a summer bbq. Probably drove my neighbours crazy. So much fun.
7) Elvis Presley - Can’t Help Falling In Love
“Shall I stay? Would it be a sin?”
My favourite lyrics ever.
8) The Verve Pipe - Freshmen (acoustic version)
This is the theme song for Dante, the male lead in my novel. He’s my attempt at the Great Canadian Heart-throb, though I think he’s coming out a lot more Wolverine than Gilbert Blythe. Anyway, if the story were a film, this song would be playing when he first walks on screen. Except that he shows up behind Annie’s shoulder and then lounges on the lawn in front of her while she sits on a bench. But you know what I mean…
9) Handel - See The Conquering Hero Comes
Apparently, this is what they play as the processional for my college’s PhD convocations at the Uni of London. Fitting, since Handel and I have the same birthday.
10) Dean Martin - King of the Road
Because there’s nothing like listening to jazz at 5pm after a long day.
1. Leave me a comment saying, “Interview me.”
2. I will respond by asking you five questions, I get to pick the questions
3. You will update your LJ and this thread with the answers to the questions
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the post
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.
- Name your favourite Gary Oldman on-screen performance and elaborate, if you will, on your choice.
Favourite? I’m taking that as having a different meaning from “best”, which would involve a more serious tone and evaluation of methodology, performance and critical reception. “Favourite” lets me be more playful, so thanks for that.
If I’m going just on the movies of his that I own, which I watch repeatedly, which make me happy and have somehow affected me on a personal level, then I have to say Immortal Beloved. I know he’s not gorgeous in it - the Gorgeousity Award goes to his younger self in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead - but it was the first Gary movie I ever saw. I remember going to see it at the movie theatre on my piano teacher’s recommendation and thinking, “Yeah, this is pretty good” and then the last few scenes came on with the Emperor Concerto playing in the background. Gary’s the young Beethoven racing to meet his lover, and he reads the Immortal Beloved letter as a voiceover. His voice dropped on the line, “You - you’re my life” and he just got me. I’ve had Gary-Oldmanitis ever since. There is no known cure.
2. Name the other two Gary Oldman on-screen performances that made the short list for question number 1.
We’re going with favourites still, right? My favourite “bad guy” performance was in Leon a.k.a. The Professional to those of you who rented it in Canada. Stansfield is fabulously insane, quick with the sawed-off shot-gun and there’s that great scene when he talks about Beethoven, which, given the above first choice, brings everything full circle for me.
My other favourite performance that I considered for #1 is, God help me, Gary in The Scarlet Letter. I know, I know, it’s a truly horrid film. Trust me, I own it, I am well aware of its capability to peel paint off of walls through sheer torture. But, the thing is, Gary gave a really good performance in it, despite the script, the direction, Demi Moore’s acting and Robert Duvall chewing (and choking) on the scenery. The accent he uses as Dimmesdale is my favourite in his repertoire - it’s so much softer than practically everything else he’s done, barring his great explosion of, “God, wo-man! I’m in hell!!!!” I loved him so much in this film that I went to see it twice in the theatre (dragging one of my best friends along with me the second time - I still don’t think she’s forgiven me yet) and I had the promo shot for it hanging in my high school locker for the next four years. People would stop by when I was getting binders for class just to make sure a) it was still up and b) I was still crazy. On a follow-up note,
lolitalolita sent me a glossy shot of the same promo a few months ago. It was like seeing an old friend again.
I also have to give honourable mentions to two films, Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Prick Up Your Ears, which, combined, have my favourite Gary sex scenes. Mina licking Dracula’s chest to become a vampire was extremely erotic to thirteen year-old me, and I couldn’t stop grinning (and snickering) when Joe Orton got a blow-job while watching the Queen’s coronation. Brilliant.
3. Describe what a typical day is like for you.
Sadly, a typical day these days is not at all typical! I’ve recently introduced a new regimen to see me through my final thesis corrections. Theoretically, it will stop me from becoming sick - a habitual hazard living in a college for international graduates - and get the job done. Time will tell…
7 AM
Wake up, kind of. Turn on BBC Breakfast. Go back to bed and doze while trying to listen to the weather. Curse when I realise I’ve slept through the London forecast and am listening to how things are up in Aberdeen.
7:30 AM
Shower (unless I’m going to the gym that morning). Breakfast, either in my room or down in the dining hall, depending on how sociable I feel. Nine times out of ten, I’m in my room.
8 AM
Turn on the computer and do my “correspondence”. Cut myself off after five minutes on Facebook or reading the gossip columns. Go back to doing proper emails about proper things. Avoid turning on a movie just to get away from it all.
9 AM
Either at the gym or starting my work. If I need to go to the library or the newspaper archive, I’m out the door by 9:20 in order to save my desk from those rabid undergrads who have somehow been allowed to get reader cards at the BL. Ick.
N.B. If I’m at the gym, I still haven’t really woken up yet.
10 AM - 5 PM
Technically, this is when I do my work, either thesis corrections or finding new research evidence for claims I’ve pulled out of thin air in my latest chapter. Somewhere I squeeze lunch in. I often have a couple tea breaks, check the email again periodically, and fight a desperate battle not to watch interviews with various actors on YouTube. Did you know that Charlie Rose has interviewed Peter O’Toole three separate times? Time well wasted.
5 PM
Bath. My love for bath-bombs from Lush knows no bounds. Definitely a big help towards maintaining sanity.
6:30 PM
Dinner thoughts. Since I’m cutting back on grains, bread, cheese, chocolate and alcohol for the next three months, it’s not as much fun as it used to be. Supper now involves a lot of soup (Duchy Original if possible), the occasional salad and the even more rare appearance in the dining hall. I often reheat frozen-y things down in the basement kitchens and then come back up to my room to watch something on the telly or a movie. I made it through the first two seasons of House last week (I also turn shows on if I’m working on less mind-absorbing stuff while sitting on the floor). I like long things that I can tune in and out of if I’m multi-tasking. I think Brideshead Revisited will be next. Or Kill Bill.
8 PM
Free time. I can either do mindless things on the internet, meet up with friends outside of “the compound”, do my bar shift (that’s tonight’s appointment), read or continue watching a movie. I’m not working on my novel as much as I used to, which I should rectify.
10 PM
Theoretically, I want this to be when I get into bed and read for half an hour. Invariably, I’m an hour late by the time I get around to doing that. Still, it’s a goal.
4. Name your favourite film viewed thusfar in 2007.
I am much more of a rental girl than I used to be, because movie tickets are so damn expensive here (as is everything else). This past March I saw The Big Lebowski for the first time, which was a fantastic experience. I now own it and got a “Congrats” from the FOPP clerk when I bought it. That’s a sign of a good thing.
The other movie I watched that blew my mind was The State Within, a BBC miniseries that aired November 2006. It’s about the British Ambassador in Washington DC after a terrorist attack has occurred. It had the best script I’ve seen recently and I recommend it to everyone. It was like The West Wing and 24 had a child who was a hundred times smarter than its parents.
I will definitely go and see Eastern Promises in the theatre.
5. If you could make a compilation that best depicts your personality or aspects of your life and experiences, which 10 songs would you select, and if you'd like, elaborate why you chose these tracks.
In random order…
1) TIE: Brideshead Revisited Theme - Geoffrey Burgon
L’Arena - Ennio Morricone
Because they are the pieces of music that play on default in my head whenever I’m not listening to anything else.
2) Neil Young and The Band ft. Joni Mitchell - Helpless (live from The Last
Waltz)
The one song that makes me homesick every time I hear it.
3) Velvet Underground - All Tomorrow’s Parties
The first thing I blast in my car as soon as I hit the highway, or the last thing I remember to put on before I get lost in my writing.
4) Madonna - Like A Prayer
This was what we played in the dorm before a night on the town. I still play it when I’m getting ready for a night out.
5) Beethoven - Piano Concerto No. 5 (“The Emperor”)
I love a lot of classical music, but this concerto is quite possibly the most beautiful, passionate and headstrong piece of music I know.
6) David Bowie - Ziggy Stardust
The first song I learned to play on bass guitar and my favourite Bowie tune. The K-town girls and I would play this on my patio late at night after a summer bbq. Probably drove my neighbours crazy. So much fun.
7) Elvis Presley - Can’t Help Falling In Love
“Shall I stay? Would it be a sin?”
My favourite lyrics ever.
8) The Verve Pipe - Freshmen (acoustic version)
This is the theme song for Dante, the male lead in my novel. He’s my attempt at the Great Canadian Heart-throb, though I think he’s coming out a lot more Wolverine than Gilbert Blythe. Anyway, if the story were a film, this song would be playing when he first walks on screen. Except that he shows up behind Annie’s shoulder and then lounges on the lawn in front of her while she sits on a bench. But you know what I mean…
9) Handel - See The Conquering Hero Comes
Apparently, this is what they play as the processional for my college’s PhD convocations at the Uni of London. Fitting, since Handel and I have the same birthday.
10) Dean Martin - King of the Road
Because there’s nothing like listening to jazz at 5pm after a long day.