(no subject)
Random Spartan article came up on Google alerts.
Even more random: the article's date is listed as today.
Maybe the website just lists today's date--that would make much more sense.
Oh, except for how they also used a picture from Nikita. Maybe they've had the interview all this time and they were just sitting on it until they deemed Stanford relevant. Except you'd think they would've posted it for PR for Spartan or when X3 came out.
Except they didn't.
And the fun part is, the website is called "current.com". I. Can't. Even. Especially since the person who wrote the article posted an interview with Alia Shawkat right beneath it and there is still no mention of "The Books" anywhere in my life. I am starting to doubt my sources, again, and fearing that this film isn't going to happen.
But anyway, the article is here.
There's a pretty lengthy article complete with interview, which is also pasted under this cut:
Aaron Stanford -- known as Pyro from the X-Men movies and Birkhoff from the Nikita reboot -- has a small but pivotal role in David Mamet's Spartan, as Michael Blake, the college boyfriend of the President's daughter. Or would that be ex-boyfriend, given that when we meet him, he's written her a letter calling her a whore?
"Michael was obviously a well-bred, extremely privileged kid behaving in a manner very much beneath his station," Stanford told Current. "I liked that contradiction."
Val Kilmer's character Scott interrogates Michael under the guise that he's a security guard, one of many false idenities he takes on. He finds Michael trying to retrieve an incriminating note from his girlfriend's postbox late at night, now that he's had second thoughts. The couple has had a fight, on the surface about her new platinum pixie haircut, but more because Michael suspects that Laura Newton (played by Kristen Bell) hasn't been faithful to him.
"Michael is clearly infatuated by her, I think in no small part because of who she is," Stanford said. "I can imagine that for a person like Michael, letting the daughter of the most powerful man in the world slip through your fingers might be something that would keep you up at night. She's a possession that he doesn't want to lose. He snaps at her in a moment of weakness and then desperately wants to take it back."
For the couple, probably the most important content in the letter is the name-calling -- but for Scott, a couple of clues emerge that lead him on his quest to find Laura, who's gone missing. First, in interrogating Michael, Scott learns about the Black Light, a club in the Fenway where coeds are rumored to hook up with older men, sometimes for money. (It's actually a front for a brothel).
"He knows about Laura's extracurricular love affairs and her promiscuity," Stanford said. "I don't think he knows the full extent of it, but what he does know points Scott in the right direction."
More importantly, Scott learns that Laura has a signature sign-off, of a cock-eyed smiley face, which he sees in the letter -- a clue that indirectly helps him establish when Laura's been somewhere, since she draws it in the dust or steam on windows. "This symbol later serves as proof that Laura is still alive, and exposes a plot to cover up her abduction," Stanford said.
Because of Michael's clues, Scott is able to go in the right direction, and keep going in the right direction, even when others would try to convince him to quit, telling him lies about Laura's supposed death. "These clues are map points scattered throughout the winding roads of the story," Stanford said. "They help the main characters find their way through a maze of conspiracy and lies that ultimately ends in an indictment of the ruling elites of America."
Stanford's scene is short -- and was shot quickly, in the space of a few hours. Like most of the production, the scene was very fast-paced, so the audience feels the clock ticking as much as the characters do. “[Writer/director] David Mamet wanted the dialogue and the whole scene in general to have a relentless, staccato pace,” Stanford said, “which he kept up throughout the whole movie.”
And a video of his scene in Spartan:
Yay! Because we know how I feel about Spartan. And I like Mamet. IDK about Kilmer, but you know.
Anyway.
Hope you watched Nikita tonight, you guys! I'm.. Working on it.
Also.. Someone please tell me I'm wrong and this is an old article. It's factual and well-written. Stanford's phrasing remains articulate and idiosyncratic. He should play someone really brotastic so he has to get an awkward spray tan and star calling people "brah". I mean.. I'd buy a ticket for that.
XO
A
Even more random: the article's date is listed as today.
Maybe the website just lists today's date--that would make much more sense.
Oh, except for how they also used a picture from Nikita. Maybe they've had the interview all this time and they were just sitting on it until they deemed Stanford relevant. Except you'd think they would've posted it for PR for Spartan or when X3 came out.
Except they didn't.
And the fun part is, the website is called "current.com". I. Can't. Even. Especially since the person who wrote the article posted an interview with Alia Shawkat right beneath it and there is still no mention of "The Books" anywhere in my life. I am starting to doubt my sources, again, and fearing that this film isn't going to happen.
But anyway, the article is here.
There's a pretty lengthy article complete with interview, which is also pasted under this cut:
Aaron Stanford -- known as Pyro from the X-Men movies and Birkhoff from the Nikita reboot -- has a small but pivotal role in David Mamet's Spartan, as Michael Blake, the college boyfriend of the President's daughter. Or would that be ex-boyfriend, given that when we meet him, he's written her a letter calling her a whore?
"Michael was obviously a well-bred, extremely privileged kid behaving in a manner very much beneath his station," Stanford told Current. "I liked that contradiction."
Val Kilmer's character Scott interrogates Michael under the guise that he's a security guard, one of many false idenities he takes on. He finds Michael trying to retrieve an incriminating note from his girlfriend's postbox late at night, now that he's had second thoughts. The couple has had a fight, on the surface about her new platinum pixie haircut, but more because Michael suspects that Laura Newton (played by Kristen Bell) hasn't been faithful to him.
"Michael is clearly infatuated by her, I think in no small part because of who she is," Stanford said. "I can imagine that for a person like Michael, letting the daughter of the most powerful man in the world slip through your fingers might be something that would keep you up at night. She's a possession that he doesn't want to lose. He snaps at her in a moment of weakness and then desperately wants to take it back."
For the couple, probably the most important content in the letter is the name-calling -- but for Scott, a couple of clues emerge that lead him on his quest to find Laura, who's gone missing. First, in interrogating Michael, Scott learns about the Black Light, a club in the Fenway where coeds are rumored to hook up with older men, sometimes for money. (It's actually a front for a brothel).
"He knows about Laura's extracurricular love affairs and her promiscuity," Stanford said. "I don't think he knows the full extent of it, but what he does know points Scott in the right direction."
More importantly, Scott learns that Laura has a signature sign-off, of a cock-eyed smiley face, which he sees in the letter -- a clue that indirectly helps him establish when Laura's been somewhere, since she draws it in the dust or steam on windows. "This symbol later serves as proof that Laura is still alive, and exposes a plot to cover up her abduction," Stanford said.
Because of Michael's clues, Scott is able to go in the right direction, and keep going in the right direction, even when others would try to convince him to quit, telling him lies about Laura's supposed death. "These clues are map points scattered throughout the winding roads of the story," Stanford said. "They help the main characters find their way through a maze of conspiracy and lies that ultimately ends in an indictment of the ruling elites of America."
Stanford's scene is short -- and was shot quickly, in the space of a few hours. Like most of the production, the scene was very fast-paced, so the audience feels the clock ticking as much as the characters do. “[Writer/director] David Mamet wanted the dialogue and the whole scene in general to have a relentless, staccato pace,” Stanford said, “which he kept up throughout the whole movie.”
And a video of his scene in Spartan:
Yay! Because we know how I feel about Spartan. And I like Mamet. IDK about Kilmer, but you know.
Anyway.
Hope you watched Nikita tonight, you guys! I'm.. Working on it.
Also.. Someone please tell me I'm wrong and this is an old article. It's factual and well-written. Stanford's phrasing remains articulate and idiosyncratic. He should play someone really brotastic so he has to get an awkward spray tan and star calling people "brah". I mean.. I'd buy a ticket for that.
XO
A