Unlike most interviews I do, this one took place several weeks after the film in question opened theatrically. The studio decided to capitalize on the momentum generated by the word-of-mouth on this sweet romantic comedy by sending its stars on a belated press tour. Vardalos, who also wrote the script from her one-woman show of the same… Read More »
YOU KILL ME Say Tea Leoni & John Dahl
It’s only right that the interview in support of an offbeat, quirky film should also qualify as both offbeat and quirky. John Dahl and Tea Leoni were in rare form when we talked on June 15, 2007, waxing eloquent on such topics as acting as a virtual tennis match, the invigorating qualities of coffee, and… Read More »
Fredi M. Murer on VITUS
Fredi Murer, a courtly gentleman given to performing deft sleight-of-hand for his interviewers, tapped his own childhood when he created VITUS, both the film and the character. Murer himself was not a genius in the classroom, as he tells it, but he did have a creative streak that landed him in all sorts of usual scrapes. When we talked… Read More »
INTRODUCING THE DWIGHTS Courtesy of Brenda Blethyn and Cherie Nowlan
The battle of the sexes takes a decidedly different turn in INTRODUCING THE DWIGHTS, and so when I talked with its star, Brenda Blethyn, and its director, Cherie Nowlan on June 25, 2007, how men and women react to the film was top of my list of things to ask them. Along the way, Blethyn bragged… Read More »
Kasi Lemmons Says TALK TO ME
There is a piquant contrast between the calm, almost nurturing personality of filmmaker Kasi Lemmons and that of radio pioneer, Petey Green, the bombastic subject of her film, TALK TO ME. But, as I discovered when I talked to her on June 5, 2007, there is the same drive, the same commitment, and the same passion for what she… Read More »
Sandra Nettlebeck Cooks Up MOSTLY MARTHA
Inevitably, food was going to come up while talking with Sandra Nettlebeck, and when it did, she helped me to understand the different religions, as she put it, of French and Italian cooking when we chatted about MOSTLY MARTHA in 2002. Being in charge, identifying blind spots, and the separating herself from her characters were… Read More »
Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and Edgar Wright are Cool as HOT FUZZ
It was the end of a grueling day for Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, and Edgar Wright when I talked to them on April 3, 2007. Fatigue notwithstanding, these guys were primed for a chat filled with banter and philosophy as they trekked from the heights of filmmaking in theory and in practice, to the silliness,… Read More »
Laurent Tirard Brings MOLIERE to Life
Laurent Tirard proved to be as philosophical as he is imaginative. His film being MOLIERE, the subject of comedy as a serious business naturally came up when we talked on July 10, 2007, but it was his lively musings on what makes a good script, how to imitate a horse, as well as his citation of Joseph Campbell that… Read More »
Jeffrey Blitz and Reece Daniel Thomspon Explain ROCKET SCIENCE
When I spoke to Jeffrey Blitz and Reece Daniel Thompson on May 4, 2007, the buzz about ROCKET SCIENCE had just begun. In town for a screening at the San Francisco International Film Festival, they had just completed a sword-buying trip to Chinatown before our scheduled appointment and worries had set in about how the swords… Read More »
Andrew Niccol on Creating SIMONE
In S1M0NE, Andrew Niccol (GATTACA, THE TRUMAN SHOW) presents an intriguing and, for SAG members, a somewhat disturbing glimpse of what the future of entertainment might be. In it, a computer-generated actress becomes a pop-culture sensation for a public that doesn’t know that she’s a collection of pixels. What that says about reality and perception is something worth… Read More »