Smallville Alums, Movies
~
*Michael Rosenbaum tweeted a trailer for his short. Weird, as to be expected, but the color is beautiful.
“Ghild” a “Rose and Bomb” production
GHILD TRAILER from David Yarovesky on Vimeo.
I wonder if his life partner helped him with this.
*Kyle Gallner is working his little legs off. Kyle talks to Movieline about his two showings at Sundance: “Red State” and “Little Birds”. Kyle, the Sundance Kid
“Vampire” costarring Kristin Kreuk will also show at Sundance.
*Adrian Holmes talked to The Everything Film Radio Show and discussed “Frankie and Alice”, “Red Riding Hood” and his time on “Smallville”.
Here is the SV bit:
Q: You’ve been on several episodes of “Smallville”. Most recently, last season as Basqat. I’m hope I’m saying that right…
Adrian: I’m glad you didn’t say “biscuit”. Tom would always bug me on set and he’d call me “biscuit’. “Hey, Biscuit!” I’m like, “Hey, c’mon now!” Anyway, yeah…
Q: You actually played a character called Griff on “Smallville” a few years earlier. How did you get that first role on “Smallville” and how did you wind up working on the series again in a different role?
Adrian: Good question. The first role; Griff, I auditioned for. I worked with Michael Rosenbaum who played Lex and we had a great time. I was one of his henchman trying to sabotage the campaign for Jonathan Kent who was running for Senator. It was two episodes and it was a lot of fun. And I thought that was it and I was disappointed because my character died because I loved the show and I really wanted to come back.
Lo and behold many years later, I get a call from my agent saying, ‘Smallville called and they wanted to know your availability’ I was like, “Uh, for what?” There’s a character named Basqat and I had no idea who he was---they didn’t know anything about him-- and they’d like for you to come in and play him for the season. I was like, “Wow, okay.” And I mentioned him to a buddy of mine who knows more about comics than I do and he was like, “Basqat! Oh man that’s a great part. That’s like the three villains in “Superman 2”, yet you’re Non. They changed the names from Non and Ursa to Faora and Basqat. I was like, “Okay, great. That means I get to fly? Shoot! Black man flying! Sign me up. I basically hit the gym and went to wardrobe and they put me in some really great costumes (dawnybee: Didn’t Zod hook his army up with marv jackets?), we went to camera and I had a blast. That was definitely one of the highlights of my career because..I mean everyone on “Smallville”…they’re just a great team. It’s no coincidence that they’ve been going as long as they have: ten years.
(well-oiled machine quote in 3, 2, 1)
Adrian: They got a well-oiled machine over there and I thank them so much for allowing me to come back because that’s not something that happens too often that you could play a character on a show and come back later on and play a completely different character. They have a lot of love for me, I have a lot of love for them and I had a great experience. Hopefully I get to pop back in this season and do something, who knows, but it was good times.
*Last night was the premiere of “Being Human”. I wasn’t impressed by it. I’ll hang in there but Sam Huntington’s halting delivery (trying to mimic Russell Tovey’s) is irksome. As irksome as Mark Pellegrino’s eyebrows..which I know he can’t help but still! (They remind me of my cousin who has Spock eyebrows and when we were kids her mom caught me licking my fingers and smoothing them down. She had to explain to me that she was born that way.)
Flavorpill, a digest of events and other things held “Being Human” screening in several cities. So after some stop and start (before I left home my sink flooded due to a pipe backing up. I was thankfully able to reach the building’s manager so she and maintenance came over. Then I couldn’t find the bar where they were holding the screening) Settle in with a drink and my “Being Human” tees.
I only got Aiden and Sally
They had a laptop set up so we could watch the Twitter timeline for the “Being Human” hashtag so I would tweet just to see my name show up on the screen. The screening was slated for 8pm, but it was well past 8 and nothing. Watching the Twitter feed I saw that SyFy showed it back to back so when they began to set it up at 9pm, I thought we were catching the second viewing. When old-timey music show up and the opening credits for a film came up, people began asking what was going on. I smugly thought, “Oh, they don’t know Jeremy Carver. This is a psych-out . They’ve obviously never watched SPN’s “Monster Movie”. Turns out they didn’t realize their DirectTVfeed was on East coast time so we missed BOTH episodes.
We were welcomed to continue watching “Ghost Ship” however.
But I ended up getting home in time to catch it.
It seems that they’re following S1 of the original. They have their own versions of Gilbert, Tully and Lauren.
Here’s the cast at the TCAs
You won’t like what Sam is planning to do to you if you don’t watch.
Fake George and Fake Annie
Jared is how big, Mark?
* Poptimal interviews the show’s re-creators and cast
*Meanwhile, the original is slated to return on the 23rd!!
More notably at the TCAs was the CW panel, “Kick Ass Women”.
~Kick Ass Women
Erica and Lyndsay
Aly and Candice. Aly looks Russian or Armenian to me.
Dobrev and Quigley. I can just see that on a movie poster.
Nina in a recent spread
Erica
This must’ve been when they spotted Dawn Ostroff
Bonus Sara Rue of “Shedding for the Wedding”
Here are some interviews that came out of that panel. Spoilers I’m guessing because.
Excerpts from the panel, Erica and Kelly interview , TV Guide (the headline for this one is “Lois Makes Clark Superman” and I just wanted to punch a wall, myself, some penguins. Can’t Clark just be the driver of his own destiny instead of everyone being responsible for the man he is/becomes?)
*Two SV promo posters debuted at the TCAs.
Super bad
I liked the image better when it was from Star Wars: The Phantom Menace
*At the TCA, the Dawn I love to hate (before her it was only Dawn from “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”)says she’d be surprised if SPN didn't get a seventh season.
This is how I feel about that
Speaking of that slattern Jensen Ackles, although the full lineup for the Paley Fest will be announced tomorrow, they’ve announced that SPN will have its second go at the Paley fest.
That’s going to be a whole lot of crazy sauce for one room.
ETA: With one more day to go for the official word, Variety has added two more honorees. "Parks and Recreation" and HBO's "Eastbound and Down" (they'll probably hold that at the Paley Center because I don't see how that show could remotely fill the first floor let alone the entire Saban Theater) joins the already announced SPN, "True Blood", "American Idol", "Freaks and Geeks/Undeclared Reunion" and "The Walking Dead.
TV Squad interviewed (SPOILERS) Sera Gamble about what we'll see after the hiatus. Can we agree that she’s Mary Sue-ing it this season?
I find this season pretty hard to watch, but the cast gives good face.
Ellen and Ash together at last
*Matt Bomer Popwrap interview
*Daniel Gilles of “The Vampire Diaries” talks his storyline whoever he is.
*I guess those rumors of Dominic Purcell getting the “Spartacus” gig was erroneous. Liam McIntyre won the role, taking over for Andy Whitfield.
Says Lucy Lawless, “"This was not a decision we made lightly. It hurt us to do it and Liam has some terribly big shoes to fill," she told PopWrap exclusively. "We don’t expect him to be Andy, no one could, but he’s going to be Liam. And we believe that he’s the right guy to reimagine that role and keep this series on fire."
He isn’t as good looking IMHO
~ I’m still on my kick to try to see as many award nominated films I can. I’m whittling away at the biggies.
Thursday night I attended a screening and Q&A of “The King’s Speech”. On hand was Colin Firth, Helena Bonham Carter, Claire Bloom, Guy Pearce, director Tom Hopper and moderated by Matt Holzman of KCRW (a local L.A radio station).
The moderator was bad. They really should’ve used someone from Backstage West like they usually do.
Matt: Why have we not heard this story before (about King George VI) and how did you find it?
Tom: Because the English traditionally have not been highly welcoming to the need for therapy. So you can imagine a story about a king needing a therapist and that king (sic-he meant to say therapist) being Australian was something that was put in the footnotes of the history books and was quite marginalized. If you Googled Lionel Logue two years ago you’d get two hits, it’s a little different now. We knew very little about Lionel. In fact before we started Geoffrey Rush was desperate to see a photograph of him. We had no photographs, we didn’t know his kids name. We knew very little. The writer, David Seidler basically had to basically invent Lionel. The turning point came nine weeks before the shoot when we tracked down the grandson of Lionel Logue in London, ten minutes from where I live. In his attic was a hand-written diary account of his grandfather’s relationship with the King which no historian knew existed; no royal biographer had read it. No member of the royal family had ever seen and nine weeks before the shoot we had this treasure trove of information.. Five or six of the best lines of dialogue in the movie is written by King George and Lionel. As an example, at the end of the big speech Lionel tells him “You stumbled on the W” and George says “I had to so that they’d know it was me.” Those lines were written by King George VI.
Colin offers that the line that Edward says to George about a brother pushing another off the throne is positively medieval was taking directly from a letter between the brothers when George was doing a kingly duty for Edward and Edward jokingly said that.
Matt tells of listening to the actual speech on “The King’s Speech”s website and hearing the King and how Lionel made a difference in his speaking. He then asks some stupid question about if any of the cast could become king or queen by beguiling their way to the title.
Colin: Queen?
Matt: You have the legs for it.
Colin: Bless you. I don’t want to speak for Guy but he’s been there.
Guy: Yeah, been there done that.
Colin: You’re looking at a whole row of queens.
Matt asks this question about how did Helena play two different characters because for some reason he viewed her supportive wife as vastly different than her Queen when it was just another facet of her. It’s like anyone: you have a professional air about you and in your personal life you’re more unguarded. For some reason he took that as her playing two vastly different roles.
Helena: That’s a good take on the Queen Mum: sociopathic. Uh, what was the question. I’m sorry, my brain is on London time so it’s not really function, but I’m never really high functioning.
Colin: Moving swiftly on.
Guy: Are you a sociopath? That was the question, basically.
Helena: Nice..what was the other bit? Supportive? What was the contrast? Now you’re looking at me like I’m really a sociopath. My one take on the Queen Mum…when you play here there’s a hell of a lot to get through. There’s about five inches of biography to get through and I’m not a speed reader. There was one sentence that made sense to me. I think it was Cecil Beaton and it was “She was a marshmallow but made with a welding machine.”
Colin: That was the one sentence that stood out to you?
Helena: I told you I’m not high functioning. That was a highlight. I just thought, “Thank God, now I don’t have to read the rest of it.” Got it. She was an expert public figure. She was a professional widow. There was a public front that she hid behind. That sweetness that she projected was a real front that she from which she could operate so in that way she was a bit sociopathic, but I don’t think she was sociopathic. See I only just arrived and now they’re going to want me to go all the way back to London.
Colin: It was just your portrayal that was sociopathic.”
Guy: I was the least prepared when I showed up.
Tom: That’s not true. Guy.
Guy: I might have been prepared dialect wise., but as far as any historical knowledge, I came unto the project really late so there was a bit of a cramming session for us. Tom gave us books to read and there was a great collection of film footage and recordings so I was plowing through all of that. I guess that’s why I seemed prepared because that’s what I latched on to because it’s a very specific voice. Mine is a long way off from that.
Matt: That’s why I was shocked when you said, ‘hello” to me.
Guy: Why? Is it because I’m normally rude and turn away?
Matt: No, the accent.
Matt then says that
*When asked about how he prepared for the role of a stammerer, Colin said that there’s just your imagination because while there are books about stopping stammering or how to keep from doing it, there’s nothing and no one who teaches you how to. “I may be the sole authority.” Helena joked that he should write a book like that as tie-in merchandising for the film. Colin said that they had a speech expert who came to set to discuss what happens in the throat and the front of the mouth when someone hits that block. The screenwriter David Seidler overcame stammering so he could tell Colin how it felt. He gave him a “rich, disturbing description” of how it felt. He describes it as a feeling of drowning. That, along with footage that Tom and Colin viewed of King George VI at “his worst” was what helped give Colin a sense of what it’s like. He says the footage they saw was heartbreaking. “A lot is revealed about him in that moment. You don’t see him reveal and anger or fear other than the fact that he’s completely exposed…you’re almost rendered like an infant or an animal. There’s no way to use that basic human faculty. There is no way.”
Colin says that Tom wanted George to stammer more, but Colin was afraid of alienating people with overdoing it. “If you sell it short than the stakes are very low and you don’t feel anything is at stake; there’s no issue.
Helena: Then it slows the movie down.
Colin: Yes, then there’s the danger that the movie could last four hours. And Helena had a home to go to-she made (that) very clear.
(Helena laughs)
Colin: The supportive wife here (Helena explained that she was doing Harry Potter during the week; “The King’s Speech” on her weekends plus a mother to two children) .When Tom said he wanted me to stammer on every word, I was fairly mortified, but Helena turned white as a sheet.
*King George had another speech impediment: he had weak “r”s. He didn’t stammer on it, he just couldn’t say it properly.
*The script was originally written in 1980 and the writer wrote to the Queen telling her about the project. She sent word back saying that she didn’t want it done in her lifetime as it was still too painful and he waited. Tom laughed that little did the writer know she would live to be 102.
Helena: Thank God she did or we wouldn’t have played her. Who would play these roles?
Colin: Don’t ask me to cast it.
Guy: Justin Bieber.
*They all discuss whether the biggest “sin” for Edward was marrying a divorcee or a commoner. Helena says that Queen was a commoner and Colin remarked that Princess Diana was always referred to as a commoner when her family line went further back than in English ancestry than the Royal Family. Helena figures it’s about the level of poshness.
Colin: You’ve noticed we’re all out of our areas of expertise but we’re all carrying on like we’re the authority.
*When talking about the “R” rating for the film (as a technique, George is encouraged to swear)
Colin: I think it’s very important for the scene in which I decapitate my speech therapist and disembowel the Queen Mother. It is the same rating as “Saw 4 “ in 3D.
Guy: I think it’s ridiculous. When you see the reason-the way language is portrayed in the film, it’s crazy to me.
*When the mod commented that Edward was heroic for giving up the throne for Wallis Simpson, Guy said that that tends to be an American sentiment, but not one that is shared in the UK where they look down upon it. Guy says that people who knew Edward/David knew that he didn’t want to be King and that if they looked close enough they could’ve found reason to kick him out. “The way I look at it, he didn’t give up anything. He certainly enjoyed the trappings of the position he was in but didn’t’ want any of the responsibility. I think he really resented the structure of the royal existence.”
Matt compares Wallis and Edward to Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee: two not really bright people..
Guy: That’s who I should’ve played! (to Tom) That’s who you meant when you said Tommy Lee. I thought you were talking about some historical figure.
*The mod reads a question from Twitter of someone who asked Guy if he was going to be in every Oscar Nominated Best Picture from now on (He was in “The Hurt Locker”).
Guy: I was in “The Hurt Locker” for five minutes.
Tom: I cast him entirely as a lucky charm.
Guy: I was in “The Godfather 2”, but really just for a minute in the wedding scene and you don’t even know I was there. And I was really young.
*When asked who he’d like to play him in a biopic, Colin answered “Guy”.
*Helena said she’d love to do a musical like “Wicked”, but “I’d be crap. But in my mind I’d be great.”
*Helena said she knew Colin was a great actor but never more so when she began working with him.
Helena: He might never forgive me for saying this, but it’s a little known fact that in real life he had to overcome a compulsive talking disorder to play this (role). He really is a seamless actor. He has laryngtis, poor love, so he’s practically mute compared to his usual self tonight. He is a brilliant, brilliant actor, his subtlety is such---
Colin: You’re getting me the sympathy vote.
Helena: Yeah, yeah, he’s ill just give him the Oscar.
Colin: It’s true. Tom would basically roll camera and go “Slow down talking” and “Stop talking” and “Find it difficult to talk” and “Action”.
Helena; It’s the only reason I knew he was acting because he’d stop talking. I’d go, “Oh, we’re on.” And Geoffrey too. He talks a lot. I’m no slouch, but compared to them I look like a woman of restraint.
*About Queen Mary. Clare drew her influence from a Miranda Richardson film called “The Lost Prince” about Mary’s epileptic son who was hidden away because in those times to have a child that was “faulty”, especially in the Royal family was a cause of shame and she feels that emotionally froze Mary.
*Tom talked about casting his dream actors like Michael Gambon and Derek Jacobi. Guy says when he went to the first table read with the entire cast he thought, “What the fuck am I doing here?
*Clare was asked about working with Charlie Chaplin who cast her in her first film at 19. She says he was a wonderful mentor and treated her like a true colleague. He was the epitome of warmth.
She must’ve done another famous film because Guy said his dream was to rest his head on her bosom and with “The King’s Speech” he had his chance. The moderator said to look on IMDB and her credits and we’ll see what Guy was referring to. Still clueless to what film it was.
*Helena says the actors who influenced her was Judy Davis (“a fellow Aussie”, Guy added) and Jodie Foster. She said she wanted to be a “Charlie’s Angel” when she was a kid.
Someone then asked her another question and she started rambling on lost and Colin says, “This gone very surreal. Very “Alice in Wonderland”.
*When asked about the use of close-ups, Tom answered, “I decided early on to reveal stammering is through the close up. Only in close-ups on Colin’s eyes do you see the fear and the poignancy of his hope that he’ll get through this. In long shots you reveal get the personal struggle. I chose to film the close-up on wide lenses to stripping him back and make him feel incredibly exposed as a character and an actor to the lense. And by shooting wide, putting the set and location always in the frame with him. One of the visual themes of the film was to find a visual analog for stammering which became about framing Colin in relation to the negative space in a scene. big blank backgrounds which was my way of suggesting how as a stammerer you’re haunted by the absence, by nothingness of sound.
Obviously not my pics (from Helena-Fan.com)
These are my pics because I didn’t bring my camera
*Colin hung out talking to the audience about acting. This is where he was talking about how King George was “deathly terrified” of his father to the extent that once his father called his sons to his office and thinking he was in trouble, when he got before his father George fainted.
They all stayed quite a while considering how tired Helena seemed and Colin’s laryngitis. Plus he got his star on the Walk of Fame that morning so it had been a long day for him.
Helena signing outside
*She’s very much like the characters she’s play. Very wonderfully eccentric. She had purpleish highlights in her hair. After this picture was taken Guy came over to kiss her goodbye and she told him, “I want you to play me in my life story.”
*I loved the film. I can only describe it as delightful. I had been told that if I liked good acting, to see this film. It’s very true. I didn’t feel the emotional connection with the characters as I would like to have had. But I loved watching the interplay between Geoffrey Rush’s Lionel and Colin’s King George VI (Bertie). Helena was wonderful as a supportive, caring wife. Incredible, incredible cast. I was really impressed by Michael Gambon who only had two scenes, but really gave an excellent insight in the large shadow that King George V cast.
The direction was impeccable. Tom Hopper was so masterful at the use of angles.
I was tentative about seeing it because I’m not a fan of period pieces, but the film feels so contemporary because it’s more about the characters than the crown. It made me want to go back and actually brush up on my history because I knew a lot about the Wallis Simpson/Edward debacle, but nothing of King George.
*
Once again my plan to see “Black Swan” has been foiled. I’ve been trying to see this film for some time but something comes up or I just decide not to go at the last minute. Sunday I was set to see it after church (which my friend thought was weird considering the supposedly explicit sex scene between Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis). Got there fifteen minutes after the start time, but we were told they were having projector problems and it would start late. They weren’t able to fix it so they gave us refunds and a free ticket to another movie. That’s how I came to “The Fighter”.
After an hour wait which I took to hang out at The Grove and Barnes and Nobles
It’s the story of Micky Ward (Mark Wahlberg) who at 31 fears he is losing his chance at a big boxing career. Managed by his mother (Melissa Leo) and trained by his older brother Dicky, a former champ who is now a drug addict (Christian Bale). Forced with the realization that he either has to make a change or give up boxing and his dreams of a better life for him and his daughter, Micky struggles with trying to keep his family intact and his dream alive.
When Bale won the Golden Globe for his supporting role, beating out Andrew Garfield I wasn’t surprised. I was surprised by how I really think he deserved it over Garfield who was so terrific in “The Social Network”. The difference for me was the emotional connection. I felt for the characters in this film: whether it aggravation, disgust or being humored by them, I felt something. I thought Bale gave a realistic portrayal of a drug addict. That selfish, prone to delusion of grandeur and shame that they exhibit. Melissa Leo, earned her Golden Globe by playing their mom Alice, who has her head stuck in the sand over Dicky’s addiction and so focused on Micky’s career that she doesn’t see his needs.
As Bale said in his acceptance speech, you need an emotional anchor for a role like this and it was really Mark; and I’ll add Amy Adams to that. Amy as Charlene is one of the strongest female roles I’ve seen in along time. I think people only consider female roles strong if the actress wields a gun or runs from aliens, but the reality of a strong woman is someone like Charlene: she stands up for herself, for the man she loves. She guides and supports, but isn’t a doormat.
Mark is Mark. I think his strong suit is when he plays the tough guy with a heart of gold because that’s’ the man he is now (a ways off from that thug in Dorchester he was). I felt for Micky and his turmoil over turning is back on his family who he loved even if they didn’t always do right by him or forging his own path.
Everyone gave excellent performances. The actresses who played Dicky and Micky’s six sisters were fantastic. I would really think they were like that.
~I saw “No Strings Attached”. It won’t be winning any awards, that’s for sure.
Standard rom-com fare that doesn’t want to admit that it’s a rom-com by dragging out the inevitable “fight leads to breaking up which leads to kiss by the end credits” by trying to throw in side plots involving their friends and parents.
It stars Ashton Kutcher and Natalie Portman as Adam and Emma, whose path crosses several times throughout the years. After their paths cross again, the two come to the decision that they should become friends with benefits.
There were things in this film that I really liked. Kevin Kline is in the film as Adam’s dad Alvin, a former TV star whose shadow Adam is trying to break free from. I think their father/son dynamic was great---for another film. As well as Emma’s relationship with her mom which is supposed to be the reason why she’s tentative about being in relationship. They throw the notion out there in the third act of the film even though in the very beginning of the film we see that Emma already doubts the reality of lasting love.
Ivan Reitman, who directed the film, introduced it and he said that people didn’t think he could do a relevant film anymore. Relevant film? I guess. Particularly good? Not so much.
Ashton Kutcher continues to be adorable in every way. Kevin Kline can still get it (he strips down to briefs in the film). He is divine at comedy and it was a great character for him. There was one scene involving him that made me keel over laughing, but I was sick when I saw it and my throat was gone so it sounded like a debarked dog. Cary Elwes was in it and he was unrecognizable to me because of the beard he’s working.
~The Golden Globes Nominees in “W”.
Very “Taxi Driver”
~I leave you with..
Tom and his mandals killing me softly
*Michael Rosenbaum tweeted a trailer for his short. Weird, as to be expected, but the color is beautiful.
“Ghild” a “Rose and Bomb” production
You can watch this video on www.livejournal.com
GHILD TRAILER from David Yarovesky on Vimeo.
I wonder if his life partner helped him with this.
*Kyle Gallner is working his little legs off. Kyle talks to Movieline about his two showings at Sundance: “Red State” and “Little Birds”. Kyle, the Sundance Kid
“Vampire” costarring Kristin Kreuk will also show at Sundance.
*Adrian Holmes talked to The Everything Film Radio Show and discussed “Frankie and Alice”, “Red Riding Hood” and his time on “Smallville”.
Here is the SV bit:
Q: You’ve been on several episodes of “Smallville”. Most recently, last season as Basqat. I’m hope I’m saying that right…
Adrian: I’m glad you didn’t say “biscuit”. Tom would always bug me on set and he’d call me “biscuit’. “Hey, Biscuit!” I’m like, “Hey, c’mon now!” Anyway, yeah…
Q: You actually played a character called Griff on “Smallville” a few years earlier. How did you get that first role on “Smallville” and how did you wind up working on the series again in a different role?
Adrian: Good question. The first role; Griff, I auditioned for. I worked with Michael Rosenbaum who played Lex and we had a great time. I was one of his henchman trying to sabotage the campaign for Jonathan Kent who was running for Senator. It was two episodes and it was a lot of fun. And I thought that was it and I was disappointed because my character died because I loved the show and I really wanted to come back.
Lo and behold many years later, I get a call from my agent saying, ‘Smallville called and they wanted to know your availability’ I was like, “Uh, for what?” There’s a character named Basqat and I had no idea who he was---they didn’t know anything about him-- and they’d like for you to come in and play him for the season. I was like, “Wow, okay.” And I mentioned him to a buddy of mine who knows more about comics than I do and he was like, “Basqat! Oh man that’s a great part. That’s like the three villains in “Superman 2”, yet you’re Non. They changed the names from Non and Ursa to Faora and Basqat. I was like, “Okay, great. That means I get to fly? Shoot! Black man flying! Sign me up. I basically hit the gym and went to wardrobe and they put me in some really great costumes (dawnybee: Didn’t Zod hook his army up with marv jackets?), we went to camera and I had a blast. That was definitely one of the highlights of my career because..I mean everyone on “Smallville”…they’re just a great team. It’s no coincidence that they’ve been going as long as they have: ten years.
(well-oiled machine quote in 3, 2, 1)
Adrian: They got a well-oiled machine over there and I thank them so much for allowing me to come back because that’s not something that happens too often that you could play a character on a show and come back later on and play a completely different character. They have a lot of love for me, I have a lot of love for them and I had a great experience. Hopefully I get to pop back in this season and do something, who knows, but it was good times.
*Last night was the premiere of “Being Human”. I wasn’t impressed by it. I’ll hang in there but Sam Huntington’s halting delivery (trying to mimic Russell Tovey’s) is irksome. As irksome as Mark Pellegrino’s eyebrows..which I know he can’t help but still! (They remind me of my cousin who has Spock eyebrows and when we were kids her mom caught me licking my fingers and smoothing them down. She had to explain to me that she was born that way.)
Flavorpill, a digest of events and other things held “Being Human” screening in several cities. So after some stop and start (before I left home my sink flooded due to a pipe backing up. I was thankfully able to reach the building’s manager so she and maintenance came over. Then I couldn’t find the bar where they were holding the screening) Settle in with a drink and my “Being Human” tees.
I only got Aiden and Sally
They had a laptop set up so we could watch the Twitter timeline for the “Being Human” hashtag so I would tweet just to see my name show up on the screen. The screening was slated for 8pm, but it was well past 8 and nothing. Watching the Twitter feed I saw that SyFy showed it back to back so when they began to set it up at 9pm, I thought we were catching the second viewing. When old-timey music show up and the opening credits for a film came up, people began asking what was going on. I smugly thought, “Oh, they don’t know Jeremy Carver. This is a psych-out . They’ve obviously never watched SPN’s “Monster Movie”. Turns out they didn’t realize their DirectTVfeed was on East coast time so we missed BOTH episodes.
We were welcomed to continue watching “Ghost Ship” however.
But I ended up getting home in time to catch it.
It seems that they’re following S1 of the original. They have their own versions of Gilbert, Tully and Lauren.
Here’s the cast at the TCAs
You won’t like what Sam is planning to do to you if you don’t watch.
Fake George and Fake Annie
Jared is how big, Mark?
* Poptimal interviews the show’s re-creators and cast
*Meanwhile, the original is slated to return on the 23rd!!
More notably at the TCAs was the CW panel, “Kick Ass Women”.
~Kick Ass Women
Erica and Lyndsay
Aly and Candice. Aly looks Russian or Armenian to me.
Dobrev and Quigley. I can just see that on a movie poster.
Nina in a recent spread
Erica
This must’ve been when they spotted Dawn Ostroff
Bonus Sara Rue of “Shedding for the Wedding”
Here are some interviews that came out of that panel. Spoilers I’m guessing because.
Excerpts from the panel, Erica and Kelly interview , TV Guide (the headline for this one is “Lois Makes Clark Superman” and I just wanted to punch a wall, myself, some penguins. Can’t Clark just be the driver of his own destiny instead of everyone being responsible for the man he is/becomes?)
*Two SV promo posters debuted at the TCAs.
Super bad
I liked the image better when it was from Star Wars: The Phantom Menace
*At the TCA, the Dawn I love to hate (before her it was only Dawn from “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”)says she’d be surprised if SPN didn't get a seventh season.
This is how I feel about that
Speaking of that slattern Jensen Ackles, although the full lineup for the Paley Fest will be announced tomorrow, they’ve announced that SPN will have its second go at the Paley fest.
That’s going to be a whole lot of crazy sauce for one room.
ETA: With one more day to go for the official word, Variety has added two more honorees. "Parks and Recreation" and HBO's "Eastbound and Down" (they'll probably hold that at the Paley Center because I don't see how that show could remotely fill the first floor let alone the entire Saban Theater) joins the already announced SPN, "True Blood", "American Idol", "Freaks and Geeks/Undeclared Reunion" and "The Walking Dead.
TV Squad interviewed (SPOILERS) Sera Gamble about what we'll see after the hiatus. Can we agree that she’s Mary Sue-ing it this season?
I find this season pretty hard to watch, but the cast gives good face.
Ellen and Ash together at last
*Matt Bomer Popwrap interview
*Daniel Gilles of “The Vampire Diaries” talks his storyline whoever he is.
*I guess those rumors of Dominic Purcell getting the “Spartacus” gig was erroneous. Liam McIntyre won the role, taking over for Andy Whitfield.
Says Lucy Lawless, “"This was not a decision we made lightly. It hurt us to do it and Liam has some terribly big shoes to fill," she told PopWrap exclusively. "We don’t expect him to be Andy, no one could, but he’s going to be Liam. And we believe that he’s the right guy to reimagine that role and keep this series on fire."
He isn’t as good looking IMHO
~ I’m still on my kick to try to see as many award nominated films I can. I’m whittling away at the biggies.
Thursday night I attended a screening and Q&A of “The King’s Speech”. On hand was Colin Firth, Helena Bonham Carter, Claire Bloom, Guy Pearce, director Tom Hopper and moderated by Matt Holzman of KCRW (a local L.A radio station).
The moderator was bad. They really should’ve used someone from Backstage West like they usually do.
Matt: Why have we not heard this story before (about King George VI) and how did you find it?
Tom: Because the English traditionally have not been highly welcoming to the need for therapy. So you can imagine a story about a king needing a therapist and that king (sic-he meant to say therapist) being Australian was something that was put in the footnotes of the history books and was quite marginalized. If you Googled Lionel Logue two years ago you’d get two hits, it’s a little different now. We knew very little about Lionel. In fact before we started Geoffrey Rush was desperate to see a photograph of him. We had no photographs, we didn’t know his kids name. We knew very little. The writer, David Seidler basically had to basically invent Lionel. The turning point came nine weeks before the shoot when we tracked down the grandson of Lionel Logue in London, ten minutes from where I live. In his attic was a hand-written diary account of his grandfather’s relationship with the King which no historian knew existed; no royal biographer had read it. No member of the royal family had ever seen and nine weeks before the shoot we had this treasure trove of information.. Five or six of the best lines of dialogue in the movie is written by King George and Lionel. As an example, at the end of the big speech Lionel tells him “You stumbled on the W” and George says “I had to so that they’d know it was me.” Those lines were written by King George VI.
Colin offers that the line that Edward says to George about a brother pushing another off the throne is positively medieval was taking directly from a letter between the brothers when George was doing a kingly duty for Edward and Edward jokingly said that.
Matt tells of listening to the actual speech on “The King’s Speech”s website and hearing the King and how Lionel made a difference in his speaking. He then asks some stupid question about if any of the cast could become king or queen by beguiling their way to the title.
Colin: Queen?
Matt: You have the legs for it.
Colin: Bless you. I don’t want to speak for Guy but he’s been there.
Guy: Yeah, been there done that.
Colin: You’re looking at a whole row of queens.
Matt asks this question about how did Helena play two different characters because for some reason he viewed her supportive wife as vastly different than her Queen when it was just another facet of her. It’s like anyone: you have a professional air about you and in your personal life you’re more unguarded. For some reason he took that as her playing two vastly different roles.
Helena: That’s a good take on the Queen Mum: sociopathic. Uh, what was the question. I’m sorry, my brain is on London time so it’s not really function, but I’m never really high functioning.
Colin: Moving swiftly on.
Guy: Are you a sociopath? That was the question, basically.
Helena: Nice..what was the other bit? Supportive? What was the contrast? Now you’re looking at me like I’m really a sociopath. My one take on the Queen Mum…when you play here there’s a hell of a lot to get through. There’s about five inches of biography to get through and I’m not a speed reader. There was one sentence that made sense to me. I think it was Cecil Beaton and it was “She was a marshmallow but made with a welding machine.”
Colin: That was the one sentence that stood out to you?
Helena: I told you I’m not high functioning. That was a highlight. I just thought, “Thank God, now I don’t have to read the rest of it.” Got it. She was an expert public figure. She was a professional widow. There was a public front that she hid behind. That sweetness that she projected was a real front that she from which she could operate so in that way she was a bit sociopathic, but I don’t think she was sociopathic. See I only just arrived and now they’re going to want me to go all the way back to London.
Colin: It was just your portrayal that was sociopathic.”
Guy: I was the least prepared when I showed up.
Tom: That’s not true. Guy.
Guy: I might have been prepared dialect wise., but as far as any historical knowledge, I came unto the project really late so there was a bit of a cramming session for us. Tom gave us books to read and there was a great collection of film footage and recordings so I was plowing through all of that. I guess that’s why I seemed prepared because that’s what I latched on to because it’s a very specific voice. Mine is a long way off from that.
Matt: That’s why I was shocked when you said, ‘hello” to me.
Guy: Why? Is it because I’m normally rude and turn away?
Matt: No, the accent.
Matt then says that
*When asked about how he prepared for the role of a stammerer, Colin said that there’s just your imagination because while there are books about stopping stammering or how to keep from doing it, there’s nothing and no one who teaches you how to. “I may be the sole authority.” Helena joked that he should write a book like that as tie-in merchandising for the film. Colin said that they had a speech expert who came to set to discuss what happens in the throat and the front of the mouth when someone hits that block. The screenwriter David Seidler overcame stammering so he could tell Colin how it felt. He gave him a “rich, disturbing description” of how it felt. He describes it as a feeling of drowning. That, along with footage that Tom and Colin viewed of King George VI at “his worst” was what helped give Colin a sense of what it’s like. He says the footage they saw was heartbreaking. “A lot is revealed about him in that moment. You don’t see him reveal and anger or fear other than the fact that he’s completely exposed…you’re almost rendered like an infant or an animal. There’s no way to use that basic human faculty. There is no way.”
Colin says that Tom wanted George to stammer more, but Colin was afraid of alienating people with overdoing it. “If you sell it short than the stakes are very low and you don’t feel anything is at stake; there’s no issue.
Helena: Then it slows the movie down.
Colin: Yes, then there’s the danger that the movie could last four hours. And Helena had a home to go to-she made (that) very clear.
(Helena laughs)
Colin: The supportive wife here (Helena explained that she was doing Harry Potter during the week; “The King’s Speech” on her weekends plus a mother to two children) .When Tom said he wanted me to stammer on every word, I was fairly mortified, but Helena turned white as a sheet.
*King George had another speech impediment: he had weak “r”s. He didn’t stammer on it, he just couldn’t say it properly.
*The script was originally written in 1980 and the writer wrote to the Queen telling her about the project. She sent word back saying that she didn’t want it done in her lifetime as it was still too painful and he waited. Tom laughed that little did the writer know she would live to be 102.
Helena: Thank God she did or we wouldn’t have played her. Who would play these roles?
Colin: Don’t ask me to cast it.
Guy: Justin Bieber.
*They all discuss whether the biggest “sin” for Edward was marrying a divorcee or a commoner. Helena says that Queen was a commoner and Colin remarked that Princess Diana was always referred to as a commoner when her family line went further back than in English ancestry than the Royal Family. Helena figures it’s about the level of poshness.
Colin: You’ve noticed we’re all out of our areas of expertise but we’re all carrying on like we’re the authority.
*When talking about the “R” rating for the film (as a technique, George is encouraged to swear)
Colin: I think it’s very important for the scene in which I decapitate my speech therapist and disembowel the Queen Mother. It is the same rating as “Saw 4 “ in 3D.
Guy: I think it’s ridiculous. When you see the reason-the way language is portrayed in the film, it’s crazy to me.
*When the mod commented that Edward was heroic for giving up the throne for Wallis Simpson, Guy said that that tends to be an American sentiment, but not one that is shared in the UK where they look down upon it. Guy says that people who knew Edward/David knew that he didn’t want to be King and that if they looked close enough they could’ve found reason to kick him out. “The way I look at it, he didn’t give up anything. He certainly enjoyed the trappings of the position he was in but didn’t’ want any of the responsibility. I think he really resented the structure of the royal existence.”
Matt compares Wallis and Edward to Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee: two not really bright people..
Guy: That’s who I should’ve played! (to Tom) That’s who you meant when you said Tommy Lee. I thought you were talking about some historical figure.
*The mod reads a question from Twitter of someone who asked Guy if he was going to be in every Oscar Nominated Best Picture from now on (He was in “The Hurt Locker”).
Guy: I was in “The Hurt Locker” for five minutes.
Tom: I cast him entirely as a lucky charm.
Guy: I was in “The Godfather 2”, but really just for a minute in the wedding scene and you don’t even know I was there. And I was really young.
*When asked who he’d like to play him in a biopic, Colin answered “Guy”.
*Helena said she’d love to do a musical like “Wicked”, but “I’d be crap. But in my mind I’d be great.”
*Helena said she knew Colin was a great actor but never more so when she began working with him.
Helena: He might never forgive me for saying this, but it’s a little known fact that in real life he had to overcome a compulsive talking disorder to play this (role). He really is a seamless actor. He has laryngtis, poor love, so he’s practically mute compared to his usual self tonight. He is a brilliant, brilliant actor, his subtlety is such---
Colin: You’re getting me the sympathy vote.
Helena: Yeah, yeah, he’s ill just give him the Oscar.
Colin: It’s true. Tom would basically roll camera and go “Slow down talking” and “Stop talking” and “Find it difficult to talk” and “Action”.
Helena; It’s the only reason I knew he was acting because he’d stop talking. I’d go, “Oh, we’re on.” And Geoffrey too. He talks a lot. I’m no slouch, but compared to them I look like a woman of restraint.
*About Queen Mary. Clare drew her influence from a Miranda Richardson film called “The Lost Prince” about Mary’s epileptic son who was hidden away because in those times to have a child that was “faulty”, especially in the Royal family was a cause of shame and she feels that emotionally froze Mary.
*Tom talked about casting his dream actors like Michael Gambon and Derek Jacobi. Guy says when he went to the first table read with the entire cast he thought, “What the fuck am I doing here?
*Clare was asked about working with Charlie Chaplin who cast her in her first film at 19. She says he was a wonderful mentor and treated her like a true colleague. He was the epitome of warmth.
She must’ve done another famous film because Guy said his dream was to rest his head on her bosom and with “The King’s Speech” he had his chance. The moderator said to look on IMDB and her credits and we’ll see what Guy was referring to. Still clueless to what film it was.
*Helena says the actors who influenced her was Judy Davis (“a fellow Aussie”, Guy added) and Jodie Foster. She said she wanted to be a “Charlie’s Angel” when she was a kid.
Someone then asked her another question and she started rambling on lost and Colin says, “This gone very surreal. Very “Alice in Wonderland”.
*When asked about the use of close-ups, Tom answered, “I decided early on to reveal stammering is through the close up. Only in close-ups on Colin’s eyes do you see the fear and the poignancy of his hope that he’ll get through this. In long shots you reveal get the personal struggle. I chose to film the close-up on wide lenses to stripping him back and make him feel incredibly exposed as a character and an actor to the lense. And by shooting wide, putting the set and location always in the frame with him. One of the visual themes of the film was to find a visual analog for stammering which became about framing Colin in relation to the negative space in a scene. big blank backgrounds which was my way of suggesting how as a stammerer you’re haunted by the absence, by nothingness of sound.
Obviously not my pics (from Helena-Fan.com)
These are my pics because I didn’t bring my camera
*Colin hung out talking to the audience about acting. This is where he was talking about how King George was “deathly terrified” of his father to the extent that once his father called his sons to his office and thinking he was in trouble, when he got before his father George fainted.
They all stayed quite a while considering how tired Helena seemed and Colin’s laryngitis. Plus he got his star on the Walk of Fame that morning so it had been a long day for him.
Helena signing outside
*She’s very much like the characters she’s play. Very wonderfully eccentric. She had purpleish highlights in her hair. After this picture was taken Guy came over to kiss her goodbye and she told him, “I want you to play me in my life story.”
*I loved the film. I can only describe it as delightful. I had been told that if I liked good acting, to see this film. It’s very true. I didn’t feel the emotional connection with the characters as I would like to have had. But I loved watching the interplay between Geoffrey Rush’s Lionel and Colin’s King George VI (Bertie). Helena was wonderful as a supportive, caring wife. Incredible, incredible cast. I was really impressed by Michael Gambon who only had two scenes, but really gave an excellent insight in the large shadow that King George V cast.
The direction was impeccable. Tom Hopper was so masterful at the use of angles.
I was tentative about seeing it because I’m not a fan of period pieces, but the film feels so contemporary because it’s more about the characters than the crown. It made me want to go back and actually brush up on my history because I knew a lot about the Wallis Simpson/Edward debacle, but nothing of King George.
*
Once again my plan to see “Black Swan” has been foiled. I’ve been trying to see this film for some time but something comes up or I just decide not to go at the last minute. Sunday I was set to see it after church (which my friend thought was weird considering the supposedly explicit sex scene between Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis). Got there fifteen minutes after the start time, but we were told they were having projector problems and it would start late. They weren’t able to fix it so they gave us refunds and a free ticket to another movie. That’s how I came to “The Fighter”.
After an hour wait which I took to hang out at The Grove and Barnes and Nobles
It’s the story of Micky Ward (Mark Wahlberg) who at 31 fears he is losing his chance at a big boxing career. Managed by his mother (Melissa Leo) and trained by his older brother Dicky, a former champ who is now a drug addict (Christian Bale). Forced with the realization that he either has to make a change or give up boxing and his dreams of a better life for him and his daughter, Micky struggles with trying to keep his family intact and his dream alive.
When Bale won the Golden Globe for his supporting role, beating out Andrew Garfield I wasn’t surprised. I was surprised by how I really think he deserved it over Garfield who was so terrific in “The Social Network”. The difference for me was the emotional connection. I felt for the characters in this film: whether it aggravation, disgust or being humored by them, I felt something. I thought Bale gave a realistic portrayal of a drug addict. That selfish, prone to delusion of grandeur and shame that they exhibit. Melissa Leo, earned her Golden Globe by playing their mom Alice, who has her head stuck in the sand over Dicky’s addiction and so focused on Micky’s career that she doesn’t see his needs.
As Bale said in his acceptance speech, you need an emotional anchor for a role like this and it was really Mark; and I’ll add Amy Adams to that. Amy as Charlene is one of the strongest female roles I’ve seen in along time. I think people only consider female roles strong if the actress wields a gun or runs from aliens, but the reality of a strong woman is someone like Charlene: she stands up for herself, for the man she loves. She guides and supports, but isn’t a doormat.
Mark is Mark. I think his strong suit is when he plays the tough guy with a heart of gold because that’s’ the man he is now (a ways off from that thug in Dorchester he was). I felt for Micky and his turmoil over turning is back on his family who he loved even if they didn’t always do right by him or forging his own path.
Everyone gave excellent performances. The actresses who played Dicky and Micky’s six sisters were fantastic. I would really think they were like that.
~I saw “No Strings Attached”. It won’t be winning any awards, that’s for sure.
Standard rom-com fare that doesn’t want to admit that it’s a rom-com by dragging out the inevitable “fight leads to breaking up which leads to kiss by the end credits” by trying to throw in side plots involving their friends and parents.
It stars Ashton Kutcher and Natalie Portman as Adam and Emma, whose path crosses several times throughout the years. After their paths cross again, the two come to the decision that they should become friends with benefits.
There were things in this film that I really liked. Kevin Kline is in the film as Adam’s dad Alvin, a former TV star whose shadow Adam is trying to break free from. I think their father/son dynamic was great---for another film. As well as Emma’s relationship with her mom which is supposed to be the reason why she’s tentative about being in relationship. They throw the notion out there in the third act of the film even though in the very beginning of the film we see that Emma already doubts the reality of lasting love.
Ivan Reitman, who directed the film, introduced it and he said that people didn’t think he could do a relevant film anymore. Relevant film? I guess. Particularly good? Not so much.
Ashton Kutcher continues to be adorable in every way. Kevin Kline can still get it (he strips down to briefs in the film). He is divine at comedy and it was a great character for him. There was one scene involving him that made me keel over laughing, but I was sick when I saw it and my throat was gone so it sounded like a debarked dog. Cary Elwes was in it and he was unrecognizable to me because of the beard he’s working.
~The Golden Globes Nominees in “W”.
Very “Taxi Driver”
~I leave you with..
Tom and his mandals killing me softly
