actor - Blog 2.0 - California Film Foundation2024-03-29T08:42:34Zhttps://californiafilm.net/profiles/news/feed/tag/actor'Umbrella Academy' and 'Juno' Star Elliot Page Comes Out as Transgender and Non-Binaryhttps://californiafilm.net/profiles/news/umbrella-academy-and-juno-star-elliot-page-comes-out-as-transgend2020-12-01T23:21:43.000Z2020-12-01T23:21:43.000ZElla Christiansenhttps://californiafilm.net/members/EllaChristiansen<div><p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}8238209063,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-full" src="{{#staticFileLink}}8238209063,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="710" alt="8238209063?profile=RESIZE_710x" /></a></p><p>"I can’t begin to express how remarkable it feels to finally love who I am enough to pursue my authentic self," Page shared in a statement on Tuesday.</p><p>Elliot Page, the Oscar-nominated actor who has starred in Juno and The Umbrella Academy, has announced he is transgender.</p><p>Page, formerly known as Ellen Page, shared the news on social media, expressing "overwhelming gratitude" for those who have supported him.</p><p>"Hi friends, I want to share with you that I am trans, my pronouns are he/they and my name is Elliot. I feel lucky to be writing this. To be here. To have arrived at this place in my life. I feel overwhelming gratitude for the incredible people who have supported me along this journey. I can’t begin to express how remarkable it feels to finally love who I am enough to pursue my authentic self. I’ve been endlessly inspired by so many in the trans community. Thank you for your courage, your generosity and ceaselessly working to make this world a more inclusive and compassionate place. I will offer whatever support I can and continue to strive for a more loving and equal society," he wrote.</p><p>Page asked "for patience" following his announcement, noting "my joy is real, but it is also fragile." The actor shared the fear of invasiveness over their news, as well as concern over discrimination and violence fueled by the fact 40 transgender people have been murdered in 2020 alone.</p><p>"To the political leaders who work to criminalize trans health care and deny our right to exist and to all of those with a massive platform who continue to spew hostility towards the trans community: you have blood on your hands. You unleash a fury of vile and demeaning rage that lands on the shoulders of the trans community, a community in which 40% of trans adults report attempting suicide. Enough is enough. You aren't being 'canceled,' you are hurting people. I am one of those people and we won't be silent in the face of your attacks," they wrote.</p><p>"I love that I am trans. And I love that I am queer. And the more I hold myself close and fully embrace who I am, the more I dream, the more my heart grows and the more I thrive. To all the trans people who deal with harassment, self-loathing, abuse, and the threat of violence every day: I see you, I love you, and I will do everything I can to change this world for the better," Page wrote at the end of his statement.</p><p>Page's wife, dancer Emma Porter, shared support on her own Instagram account, writing "I am so proud of @elliotpage. Trans, queer and non-binary people are a gift to this world. I also ask for patience & privacy but that you join me in the fervent support of trans life every single day. Elliot’s existence is a gift in and of itself. Shine on sweet E. Love you so much."</p><p>Page uses both he/him and they/them pronouns and describes himself as transgender and non-binary, meaning that their gender identity is neither man nor woman.</p><p>Born and raised in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Page worked in Canadian television before making his first stateside splash in 2005 revenge-thriller Hard Candy. He then played Kitty Pryde, aka Shadowcat, in 2006's X-Men: The Last Stand. But it was their starring role in Jason Reitman and Diablo Cody’s indie Juno, that cemented their stardom and earned him an Academy Award nomination. Other notable roles for Page include Christopher Nolan's Inception and Netflix's The Umbrella Academy. Last year, Page made his directorial debut with the documentary There's Something in the Water, which focuses on environmental racism faced by indigenous and African Nova Scotian women.</p><p>Netflix announced in November that it was handing out a third-season renewal of The Umbrella Academy, where Page stars as Vanya Hargreeves (and ultimately, The White Violin). Sources told The Hollywood Reporter that Page will continue in the role and that Netflix is in the process of updating Page's name on all titles on the service in which he's involved. The streamer also congratulated Page following their announcement, writing on Twitter, "So proud of our superhero! WE LOVE YOU ELLIOT! Can't wait to see you return in season 3!" The Umbrella Academy's own account shared the same sentiment on Twitter. </p><p>Many in Hollywood were quick to support Page on social media, including Natasha Lyonne, Miley Cyrus, Emmy Rossum, Olivia Munn, and Alyssa Milano.</p><p>Pop band Tegan and Sara Quin wrote on Twitter, "Your strength, bravery and activism - not to mention all the art you contribute to this earth - is truly special. Thank you for being so open about your journey and for fighting so hard to make the world a better place,"</p><p>Kevin Smith offered up some fan love for Page on Twitter, writing "I’m so happy for you! (Elliot’s one of the only actors I’ve ever fanned-out over in person. Cannes ‘06, I was using the WiFi in the hotel lobby the morning after the XMen3 premiere. I saw Elliot quietly reading and had to go over to bug him and gush.)"</p><p>Guardians of the Galaxy 3 director James Gunn tweeted, "Elliot, I love you, am proud of you, and admire you. Please keep being a beacon of courage, compassion, and strength for all of us." </p><p>"Elliot Page has given us fantastic characters on-screen, and has been an outspoken advocate for all LGBTQ people," said Nick Adams, GLAAD’s Director of Transgender Media. "He will now be an inspiration to countless trans and non-binary people. All transgender people deserve the chance to be ourselves and to be accepted for who we are. We celebrate the remarkable Elliot Page today."</p><p>Page came out as gay in 2014, making the announcement in a deeply personal speech delivered before several hundred attendees at Time to Thrive, a conference to promote the welfare of LGBT youth held at Bally's Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nev.</p><p>"I'm here today because I am gay," Page told the audience, "and because maybe I can make a difference, to help others have an easier and more hopeful time. Regardless, for me, I feel a personal obligation and a social responsibility. I am tired of hiding and I am tired of lying by omission. I suffered for years because I was scared to be out. My spirit suffered, my mental health suffered and my relationships suffered. And I'm standing here today, with all of you, on the other side of all that pain."</p><p>Since their public coming out, Page has become one of Hollywood's most outspoken advocates for the LGBTQ community, serving as host of Vice's travel series Gaycation (in which Page visited cities around the world and explored different perceptions of LGBTQ culture) and taking on the role of an out gay woman in Freeheld, a romance drama centered on the fight for gay rights.</p><p> </p><p>Article by: <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/elliot-page-formerly-known-as-ellen-page-comes-out-as-transgender-non-binary" target="_blank">Sharareh Drury</a> for the Hollywood Reporter.</p></div>Angela Bassett's Inspiring Advice for Young Filmmakershttps://californiafilm.net/profiles/news/angela-bassett-s-inspiring-advice-for-young-filmmakers2020-11-01T23:37:07.000Z2020-11-01T23:37:07.000ZJosephine M Stummerhttps://californiafilm.net/members/JosephinemStummer<div><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/8101929490?profile=RESIZE_400x&width=400"></div><div><p>Angela Bassett could make the items on your CVS receipt sound like a motivational speech, so you can imagine what hearing her share actual words of wisdom sounds like. Yesterday, while supporting women filmmakers through Chanel and Tribeca Film Institute’s annual Through Her Lens event, she relayed valuable advice for rising directors and creatives who are hoping to have their stories heard and seen.</p><p>“What does it feel like in the room? What are they looking for?” Bassett tells <em>BAZAAR.com,</em> with conviction, over Zoom. “Of course, the room and what they’re looking for can change depending on the generation, the year, the folks who sit in the room, if they’re all male, if they’re male [and] female, if they’re rigid in their thinking, or if they’re open to ideas.</p><p>“Know that your voice is needed and necessary. And just go in with the most confidence that you can garner. And I think being undergirded with preparation can help that. Find out as much as you can, prepare as much as you may—preparation is key—and go in and just speak your truth in your voice and allow your passion to emanate, to come through. You can’t read their minds, so just assume that you are who they’re waiting for.”</p><p>The veteran actor, who made her directorial debut in 2015 with <em>Whitney,</em> joked that when she was starting out, she was “just completely oblivious, ignorant as to the machinations of it all.” But as a juror for this year’s program, which sees five directing teams vying for a grant to get their film off the ground, she’s looking for compelling stories, fresh perspectives, and new voices. “It can be gentle, it can be subtle, it could full-force hit-us-in-the-face, but just a real, new, fresh voice,” she says. She cites director Dee Rees and her 2011 film, <em>Pariah,</em> as an example.</p><p>When it comes to promoting women and women of color in the director’s chair and places of leadership, Bassett says that established creatives can empower rising stars and help provide opportunities, as they do with Through Her Lens and Ryan Murphy’s Half initiative, which advocates for women and minorities behind the camera. “It’s more those individuals who are empowered and have an option to have a means to provide an opportunity to someone who’s ready, and having that be more in place and just taking that chance,” she says.</p><p>“And whether they do or not, always be ready, just keep working where you can. Bloom where you’re planted and as much as you can with the resources that you have at the time, because someone’s always watching. There are those who pay attention. Someone’s watching when you least expect it, so don’t grow weary.”</p><p>Coming up, Bassett will lend her powerful voice and performance to a rendition of <em>Between the World and Me,</em> the stage production based on Ta-Nehisi Coates’s award-winning book. Look for it November 21 on HBO.</p><p> </p><p class="body-text"> </p><p class="body-text"><a href="https://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/film-tv/a34374734/angela-bassett-filmmaker-advice-chanel-tribeca/" target="_blank">Article by Erica Gonzalez for Harper's Bazaar</a></p></div>Issa Rae Embraces Her Role as a Hollywood Trailblazer: "You Can't Be Polite or Modest"https://californiafilm.net/profiles/news/issa-rae-embraces-her-role-as-a-hollywood-trailblazer-you-can-t-b2020-08-28T21:00:09.000Z2020-08-28T21:00:09.000ZMaria Fernanda M.https://californiafilm.net/members/MariaFernandaMerayo<div><h2 class="longform__deck"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7663466660,RESIZE_1200x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-full" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7663466660,RESIZE_584x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="450" alt="7663466660?profile=RESIZE_584x" /></a></h2><h2 class="longform__deck">The 'Insecure' creator-star could make history at this year's Emmys, but her main priority is making way for diversity at her production companies and beyond: "My longevity will be opening the door for others."</h2><p>Throughout the course of Issa Rae's career, she’s absorbed plenty of good advice. But none has been as impactful as the wisdom she received in 2015 while surrounded by Ava DuVernay, Debbie Allen, Shonda Rhimes and Mara Brock Akil at an <em>Essence</em> cover shoot. At the time, Rae was 30 — a relative newcomer to the tier of power and influence occupied by the women around her — and trying to find the best person to direct the pilot of<em>Insecure, </em>the HBO dramedy series that she created, stars in, writes and produces. Rae listened as each woman emphasized pivotal career flashpoints, when they’d dropped being polite and stood their ground.</p><p>"I remember feeling, 'Oh, this is a life-changing moment for me,' " says Rae, 35, sitting outside her not yet-renovated Inglewood office space, which will house her growing empire of two production companies and a record label. "I ended up making the call that I needed to make the next day," she adds. That call involved saying no to a director she didn’t think was a good fit for the show. "Years later, he came up to me at a party and was like, 'Yeah, I would’ve fucked your shit up. You made the right choice.' I felt so validated." (When asked, Rae says, "I absolutely cannot say who, but if he wants to fess up after reading this, be my guest.")</p><p>Through the lens of a young Black woman, <em>Insecure</em> — a show comprising a predominantly Black cast and writers room — imparts savvy storylines that touch upon ex-boyfriend drama, gentrification, class, motherhood and code-switching (adjusting how one speaks, appears and behaves to make others feel comfortable). Through the series, Rae depicts what everyday life feels like for her and her friends in Los Angeles. Traditionally, Black characters have been "focused on specific struggle stories, or we’re just side characters, or we’re just supernatural, and there was never any real in between," she says. "That’s something Prentice [Penny, <em>Insecure</em>’s showrunner] and I talked about— that white people get to have scenes with them just washing their hands and thinking. We don’t get that shit." With healthy ratings (its fourth season had 4.5 million viewers per episode across all platforms), <em>Insecure </em>is arguably the most impactful show to normalize Black lives onscreen in the past decade.</p><p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7663498259,RESIZE_1200x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-full" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7663498259,RESIZE_584x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="450" alt="7663498259?profile=RESIZE_584x" /></a></p><p>Now four seasons strong, the Peabody Award-winning series is up for eight Emmys, including two for Rae: lead actress, following her 2018 nomination in the same category, and comedy series. If Rae wins for lead actress, she’ll make history as only the second Black woman to take home the Emmy in the category since Isabel Sanford for <em>The Jeffersons</em> in 1981. If <em>Insecure </em>wins for comedy series, Rae will be the first Black woman creator of a premium cable show to receive the award. And as exec producer of HBO’s <em>A Black Lady Sketch Show, </em>she is also in the running for variety sketch series. But Rae’s not here for the accolades. "Awards don’t validate you," she says. "They allow more people to know about the series, like, 'Oh, what is this?' That’s all you want."</p><p>In 2018, Rae’s production company, ColorCreative, struck a multipicture deal with Columbia Pictures to develop projects from diverse writers. In early August, it was announced that Rae would executive produce <em>Seen & Heard</em>, HBO’s docuseries on Black television, for her other production company, Issa Rae Productions. She’s also teaming with Jordan Peele for the sci-fi feature <em>Sinkhole </em> while juggling her first feature, <em>Perfect Strangers; Badmash, </em>a Bollywood crime-comedy picture; and HBO Max series <em>Rap Shit, </em>about female lyricists. Says Kerry Washington, who directed an episode of <em>Insecure </em>in season four: "Issa’s vision extends beyond the limitations of Hollywood’s imagination."</p><p>In addition to penning features, Rae, who starts her day at 4 a.m., has also been starring in them. From 2019’s <em><a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/little-review-1200869" target="_blank">Little</a>, </em>to February’s <em>The Photograph,</em> to <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/lovebirds-review-1295106" target="_blank"><em>The Lovebird</em>s</a>, which switched from a theatrical to a Netflix release in May because of the pandemic, Rae is onboard for all of it: "Selfishly, I was like, 'Oh, I get to be a romantic comedy lead.' I was almost flattered to be thought of to do something like that."</p><p>While many actors relish jumping into the unfamiliar, for Rae, the key to her success has been mining what she knows. Born in Los Angeles to a Senegalese doctor and a teacher from Louisiana, Jo-Issa Rae Diop, who is one of five children, spent part of her childhood in Potomac, Maryland, before moving back to L.A. Two web shows — the first, <em>Dorm Diaries</em>, centered on Black students at Stanford University; the second was YouTube series <em><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIVa9lxkbus" target="_blank">The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl</a> </em> — led to <em>Insecure</em>. "Nobody’s you," she says. "How you exploit that as a creative means so much."</p><p>By 2013, a year after a half-hour comedy called<em> I Hate L.A. Dudes </em> (sold to ABC by way of Rhimes’ Shondaland) fell through, Rae was in talks with HBO for <em>Insecure, </em>which premiered in 2016. Now in the (virtual) writers room for season five, Rae discusses getting back to production during COVID-19, pay parity and what it means to craft a legacy: "To be able to have the ability to bring other people in, who I think are massively more talented, it’s something that brings me so much excitement."</p><p><strong>I felt like this season, more so than any other, was a love letter to our neighborhood, View Park. </strong></p><p>I love it. I’ll walk in my neighborhood all the time because that’s the only exercise I’m willing to do. This lady came up to me and she was like, "Yo, I really love that you feature our neighborhood." I was like, "I regret it." It was a hidden gem, but I had to open my mouth.</p><p><strong>Even after going to Stanford, you came back. </strong></p><p>[When] I was in New York, I was in the Black neighborhoods, like Washington Heights and Harlem. I was convinced that I wanted to make it out there — whatever that meant. I would come back and visit and a friend reminded me, "Girl, this is home and why don’t you just come back here? Everybody knows you here." I had to get a new appreciation of L.A., and then just loved it so much.</p><p>Then I lived in Inglewood while we were coming up with the idea for the show, and knowing just how Black it is and realizing that it hadn’t been portrayed in a way that I felt was accurate to how it is now … It just really excited me to set something there and make it a character. But no one really invests with the community in mind. That always bothered me. I remember being in Inglewood, like, "I want the benefits of gentrification without the gents."</p><p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7663830885,RESIZE_1200x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-full" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7663830885,RESIZE_584x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="450" alt="7663830885?profile=RESIZE_584x" /></a></p><p><strong>Taking it back to Stanford, you studied African American studies, not film. </strong></p><p>Yes, but I studied theater and took drama classes and creative writing classes. I thought I wanted to be a director until I started to do it. It felt like too much control. I’m not necessarily [about] the visual aspects. Like meeting Melina [Matsoukas, who directed seven episodes of <em>Insecure</em>], I was like, "Wow. You pay attention to every single detail and you get bothered by everything that’s out of place." I just don’t care enough.</p><p><strong>After Stanford, you pursued a New York theater fellowship. How were those days?</strong></p><p>In college, I also thought that I wanted to pursue theater. Then when I got to New York, I was like, "Oh, this is real theater. I don’t like this." It was a little too abstract. And admittedly felt really, really white in a way. But the public theater was all about facilitating playwrights of color and creating this pipeline to Broadway. It sparked an idea for me to form a collective of Black filmmakers to make our own work and, I think, subconsciously laid the foundation for some of the work that I did later.</p><p><strong>Eight Emmy nominations for <em>Insecure</em> this year, the most so far. What is this moment like, and for co-star Yvonne Orji to also be nominated?</strong></p><p>Anybody can tell you when I heard Yvonne’s name, that’s when I got really excited. I had been nominated before, but I’m very much aware that I don’t do this by myself. I did feel guilty. It was just like, "Everybody else is killing it and they’re really helping to elevate me and they’re not getting the recognition."</p><p>But Yvonne was like, "They’re watching and they’re seeing the work we’re doing." To be a four-season show, to have it happen now, is not lost on me because there’s so many new and amazing shows. To have the culture support our show, it’s a FUBU [For Us, By Us] show in every way … I feel so blessed and we love every second.</p><p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7663845269,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-full" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7663845269,RESIZE_584x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="450" alt="7663845269?profile=RESIZE_584x" /></a></p><p><strong>Was there ever a moment back then when you had doubts?</strong></p><p>[With] <em>Insecure</em>, it took so long and every draft was like, "No, this isn’t it. No, this isn’t it. No, this isn’t it." I was just like, "Oh, OK. Maybe this is the end of the road for me," especially when I’m investing in this big venture, which ended up being ColorCreative, and spent all my money and didn’t have anything. I remember being on the set of a pilot we were filming [<em>Words with Girls</em>] and getting the call that HBO was not feeling the latest draft and I was losing Larry [Wilmore, <em>Insecure</em>’s first showrunner]. I was like, "This isn’t going to happen for me, and I just did all of this for nothing."</p><p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7663873070,RESIZE_1200x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-full" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7663873070,RESIZE_584x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="450" alt="7663873070?profile=RESIZE_584x" /></a></p><p>Thankfully, Larry leaving for <em>The Nightly Show</em>, as much as I love him, was the best thing that could’ve happened because it forced me to be like, "OK. It’s not a workplace comedy," and having a conversation with HBO was really helpful just in terms of centering it. It was just like, "I’m going to put everything that I’m going through out on the table in this pilot. If they say no, at least I tried, and fuck it."</p><p><strong>Hollywood definitely isn’t an industry that was made for us [Black people] to have longevity.</strong></p><p>By no means.</p><p><strong>How does it feel to be defying that and to say, "Fuck that. I’m here. I’m staying."</strong></p><p>I do question that. I still [do]. For me, my longevity will be opening the door for others. I think frequently about the Tupac quote: "I’m going to be the light that sparks the inspiration, that sparks the change." I need to get that quote right. [Exact quote: "I’m not saying I’m going to change the world, but I guarantee that I will spark the brain that will change the world."]</p><p><strong>Why do you feel like this season really stood out for Emmy voters?</strong></p><p>I’m going to be real. I think the pandemic, being quarantined during a period when our humanity was questioned, in a more front-facing way, definitely helped. We came on during a time when people were bored at home, and also there were racial uprisings, and our show served as a comfort. Thank God, because to release anything else during this time — even our show — I felt a huge guilt in coming out during the protests because there were just so many more important things happening, I didn’t want to take full focus away from that. But to hear people be like, "No, this is an escape. It brings us back to Black people being joyous and happy and ourselves" — our natural state really felt like we were meant to air during this time. I think that for sure helped people to see our show in a different light.</p><p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7663895859,RESIZE_1200x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-full" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7663895859,RESIZE_584x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="450" alt="7663895859?profile=RESIZE_584x" /></a></p><p><strong>In processing the guilt that you felt, were there ever moments of "Should we alter a storyline?"</strong></p><p>Not alter the storyline. Me and some of the actors were on a group chat. First we were talking about, "We should protest. How are we going to get together?" And it came down to the show, like, "Do we even do anything? We shouldn’t promote this shit, right?" And then we got on the phone with HBO just to get behind the messaging and what we wanted to say, to make sure that people didn’t think that we were being tone-deaf to what was happening. So they were also very helpful, and Natasha [Rothwell, series regular, writer and supervising producer] wrote a beautiful statement that we were able to piggyback off, just, "We’re aware of this time, and we’re also aware of the beauty of us, and we don’t want anything to negate that." That’s how we were all feeling in the episode that aired during that one specific Sunday [May 31]. It just so happened to align, in a very dark way, perfectly.</p><p>So many of us were just feeling the same feelings of dread. I was so worried, too, just thinking about, before I went out there, the people who were out there in the streets, and how historically, our voices had been suppressed, and we’ve been baited by various fear tactics, and I was just like, "They’re going to target people. They’re going to try to make it so that nothing changes once again." That was a devastating part: Is this just going to be for the moment? And then, are we going to forget about this? But from what I’ve seen behind the scenes and some of the people that I’m working with, there is a dedicated energy to making sure that this time is for real, and that we’re making real impact moving forward.</p><p><strong>How do we keep that momentum going? </strong></p><p>I think it is going. It’s a terrible expression now, but it’s keeping our foot on people’s faces in that way of, "Don’t forget this. You posted a little black square, but we’re still about this life, and if you’re serious, then do something about it." And I’ve seen a real commitment to people wanting to change.</p><p><strong>Have there been times when someone, maybe perhaps with more power, wanted to override a certain vision?</strong></p><p>All of that was early on. I remember the biggest thing back and forth we had was with the former president [Michael Lombardo], and the show title. He wasn’t super insistent about it, but he was passionate about the fact that he didn’t think that<em> Insecure</em> fit because he was like, "I see these strong, confident Black women, and they’re fierce." And all the terms that we use to describe ourselves, but I was like, "Ooh, that’s not … No, they’re not specifically." And [that’s] exactly what we want to showcase throughout the show … the title reflects that, and as soon as I explained that that’s what we’re trying to combat, he got it and backed off.</p><p>Beyond those early script stages, they’ve been really, really supportive, and they’ve never pulled us to the side, "Can you explain this first because the audience …" They don’t care about your broad appeal, which is why I also wanted to make a home with them, because the ratings on it were dry then, and they’re very aware of being a subscription-based model. We’re going to appeal to who we appeal to, and there’s no pressure there. They were also really good about not leaving us in the dark about whether we were going to get picked up. That first season, I was scared as hell, but since season two, they’ve been really great about letting us know that we have a home.</p><p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7663924864,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-full" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7663924864,RESIZE_584x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="450" alt="7663924864?profile=RESIZE_584x" /></a></p><p><strong>I wonder about the dynamic of the room being predominantly white execs. Do you think that anything would be different if those rooms reflected the way the world really is?</strong></p><p>A hundred percent. There’s no question that some of the input that we would get would be different. I’m also really happy that there aren’t a lot of executives on our show. Part of the intimacy is that we have two people [Amy Gravitt, HBO’s comedy head, and Amy Hodge, vp original programming], where at a network, you have two people here, three people here, two people there, and it’s just so many voices. Can HBO improve in terms of their hiring practices? A thousand percent. They’ve got to do it.</p><p><strong><em>Insecure</em> deals with issues of sex and race and class, but you guys never seem to jump into the topical fray. You’re never like, "This is the Black Lives Matter episode."</strong></p><p>Yeah, I feel like it’s corny. We’re not an after-school special. That’s not how we live life. I don’t wake up like, "Today’s about to be about Black Lives Matter." When you experience racism or sexism, your life doesn’t stop, but it may affect how you talk to your partner that night when you get home or prevent you from doing something else. Those are the moments that I’m more interested in.</p><p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7663950687,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-full" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7663950687,RESIZE_584x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="450" alt="7663950687?profile=RESIZE_584x" /></a></p><p><strong>How do you see the pandemic impacting plot, and how do you intend to shoot?</strong></p><p>I don’t want to mention COVID or the pandemic in any way, shape or form. We are addressing the fact that the city is going to be different, and part of the way that we’re talking about it is putting people with masks in the background or subtle things like the business being impacted because we’re so location-specific. We’re supposed to shoot in September, so that’s not happening. It changes every single day. It’s definitely a painful reminder that you don’t control your plans.</p><p><strong>What are some of the new pressures you’re facing? </strong></p><p>The longevity of it. I really want to make sure that what I’m doing has impact and is long-lasting. I want to feel rooted …</p><p><strong>What would make you feel rooted? </strong></p><p>Girl, this is for my therapist that I don’t have. I don’t know. It always changes. It’s old age and still being here. Denzel-ness. Alfre Woodard-ness. I mean, Denzel is a good model because he belongs to Black people and has never denied who he is and his roots. The stuff that he’s done underground to help young Black actors, to create a pipeline for them. He’s also been a producer and a director and is just so revered and has a Blackass family. I got to go to his AFI tribute, and I was just reminded, "Man, this man has meant so much to me, my mom, my aunt, my grandmother, and that matters to me." There’s a legacy there.</p><p><strong>You are now in a position to demand more money. What does that feel like? </strong></p><p>We’ll find out. I mean, I’ve definitely demanded. Yvonne joked before the Emmy nominations came out, "Girl, I told all my agents, 'Don’t make no deals until after Tuesday or Monday,' whenever the announcements were, because our price is going up or down." So there is something to that, too, of just realizing your worth. Also, seeing how little these white people care about asking for more than they’re worth in many cases. You can’t be polite, or tiptoe, or be modest about those things. You’re seeing these nine-, 10-figure deals out there. I have a great team that also is not afraid to ask for beyond my worth. I have an amazing Black lawyer who is constantly being like, "No, I’m going to get you better." Or, "No, I’m going to make sure. I heard that so-and-so made this, you’re about to make this."</p><p><strong>Criticism — how does it affect you? </strong></p><p>I’m open to all criticism. I feel like you have to be, to be in this industry. There are Black critics that I value what they think because I read what they read, or I read what they write about everything. I love it. I can see this point of view, and that’s so interesting. It may be reflected in something else that I do down the line, or it may spark inspiration for conversations that we may have. We feed each other in that really interesting way.</p><p>But let’s be real. There are a couple where I’m like, "Oh, this person just comes for me," or "This person doesn’t like me." You’re putting your personal life into it. You’re a blogger, not a critic at this point. It’s an art form.</p><p><strong>How is one of your first forays into feature writing going?</strong></p><p>I’m excited. I’m doing a feature, an adaptation of an Italian film called <em>Perfect Strangers</em>. It’s set at a dinner party with friends where they decide to read all the messages that come in on their phones. That’s a game that I would 100 percent play. There’s something about the cultural specificity of it that I wanted to bring to a movie. It’s been remade in different countries, like in South Korea. I just felt I could bring my own spin.</p><p><strong>Jordan Peele and Sinkhole: Please tell me how this went down. </strong></p><p>Shoutout to one of our execs who found the short story. The premise is, basically, a couple moves into a house that has a sinkhole. When you drop things in it, the sinkhole makes everything perfect. The quest for female perfection is really intriguing to me and what that means now, especially in a culture that’s still resistant to feminism. There’s just something so eerie about that quest to me. Also, what Black female perfection looks like, and relationship politics — when you have a particular dynamic that’s working for you as a couple. We’re just in that brainstorming phase now.</p><p>Sara [Rastogi, who is the vp development at Issa Rae Productions] was like, "What do you think about bringing it to Jordan Peele or pairing with them?" So it was as easy as that. They were into it and then it was up to us to convince the writer, a young white female writer [Leyna Krow], that we were the best people for the job. She said in an interview what intrigued her the most was that the ideas that we had extended beyond her perspective. She was like, "I’m a writer and I think about white people when I write." The idea that we could bring something else to the table in a way that she hadn’t thought of really excited her.</p><p>To be in a competitive situation like that — we’re a very small, independent production company, [and] obviously Jordan Peele is just massive in terms of what he’s been able to do in such a short time, as a director, for the culture — the fact that he even wanted to partner with us was really amazing. We’ve hit each other on the DM and we’re really super excited.</p><p><strong>So during this shutdown craziness, what have you learned about yourself? </strong></p><p>I’ve learned that I obviously, like so many people, value touch. I value social interactions. I also realize I don’t work as hard as I need to, to preserve certain relationships in my life. I need to do better about that. That’s been a hard revelation for me. I feel like this has caused me to withdraw in a way that I’m not happy with. I’m trying to reconcile that.</p><p><strong>I know some of your co-stars seemingly put you on blast about being engaged. When it comes to your personal life, why do you prefer to keep things private?</strong></p><p>I guess because it’s private. Whose business is it? I realized I just don’t like to be the subject of conversations if it doesn’t have to do with my work. I’ve always been like that, where I’d be dating someone and my friends would find out six months later. Like, "Bitch, what the fuck? Why don’t we know this?" So it’s just always been that I want to vet situations for myself. I really value that part of my life a lot.</p><p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7663966696,RESIZE_1200x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-full" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7663966696,RESIZE_584x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="450" alt="7663966696?profile=RESIZE_584x" /></a></p><p><strong>Who should Hollywood be paying attention to talentwise? </strong></p><p>Oh, so many people. There’s a writer named Tori Sampson who’s out of this fucking world. She’s a playwright. Writer Syreeta Singleton. Child is another person, a director. Everything she makes is beautiful and she just did a video for Big Sean on a whim. Now she’s the go-to video person. TT the Artist is someone else who’s a multihyphenate, in a way where she started off making music and made a documentary [that] was supposed to be at South by Southwest. You know how we have crumping here? There’s a different form of dance in Baltimore where people are dancing their pain away, in spite of their circumstances. She made the most beautiful documentary [<em>Dark City Beneath the Beat</em>] I’ve seen. Have you watched <em>I May Destroy You?</em></p><p><strong>Girl, obsessed. </strong></p><p>So fucking good, but I was like, "Hollywood is paying attention." It’s amazing. It’s really disturbing. The conversations that have [been] sparked around it are just so necessary. I almost wish it had come sooner. It’s going to be so impactful to a generation of people.</p><p><strong>Do you know her? </strong></p><p>Yeah. I knew her from when she was doing <em>Chewing Gum</em>. I knew this show was coming because we have the same exec at HBO. She told me about it, about how this was her story. I was like, "We’re an HBO comedy. So she’s going to make this a comedy, like this terrible experience where she got roofied and raped?" The fact that it still manages to be darkly comedic and also just flat-out funny is just phenomenal. We got to kick it in her <em>Chewing Gum</em> days and I’ve kept in touch. I get to watch this as a massive fan. It makes you want to create more.</p><p>This article was written by Jessica Herndon for <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/features/issa-rae-embraces-her-role-as-a-hollywood-trailblazer-you-cant-be-polite-or-modest" target="_blank">The Hollywood Reporter</a>. </p></div>Bryan Cranston on 'The One and Only Ivan' and the Past, Present and Future of Walter Whitehttps://californiafilm.net/profiles/news/bryan-cranston-on-the-one-and-only-ivan-and-the-past-present-and-2020-08-28T19:40:17.000Z2020-08-28T19:40:17.000ZMaria Fernanda M.https://californiafilm.net/members/MariaFernandaMerayo<div><p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7662158070,RESIZE_930x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-full" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7662158070,RESIZE_584x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="450" alt="7662158070?profile=RESIZE_584x" /></a></p><p>In a wide-ranging conversation, the actor recalls bonding with friend Tom Hanks after both recovered from COVID-19 and reveals he was planning on appearing in M. Night Shyamalan's next movie before the industry shut down.</p><p>Bryan Cranston and Tom Hanks have been friends and collaborators since the late ‘90s, but their latest get-together meant a whole lot more given their March bouts with COVID-19. Knowing how fortunate they were to be in each other’s company again, the two actors swapped stories and compared notes, as Hanks even advised Cranston on where to donate his plasma, an effort that might help others fight off the disease. What’s alarming is that Cranston and his wife, Robin Dearden, had markedly different experiences than Hanks and his wife, Rita Wilson.</p><p>“[My symptoms], like my wife’s, were very mild. <em>So lucky</em>. You’re just exhausted. It just drains you of all the energy, and then, we lost our sense of taste and smell for three months. It has since come back, but it’s not come back full,” Cranston tells <em>The Hollywood Reporter</em>. “[Tom] and Rita were far more affected by it physically than Robin and I were… So we had dinner a couple of times, and just talked about it, realizing what an extraordinary experience that this is.”</p><p>Cranston recently returned to the screen in Disney+’s <em>The One and Only Ivan</em>, which is an adaptation of the children’s novel by K.A. Applegate. Cranston plays Mack, a struggling ringmaster of a mall-based circus that features a gorilla named Ivan (Sam Rockwell) and an elephant named Stella (Angelina Jolie). For Cranston, the family film was a nice change of pace compared to his recent dramatic turn as Howard Beale in the stage adaptation of <em>Network.</em> But given that <em>Ivan</em> is a Disney film that includes a young viewership, Cranston wanted to avoid a very tired joke.</p><p>“In the original script, the young elephant, Ruby, swings its trunk into my crotch and I double over. That never really appealed to me; we’ve seen it,” Cranston explains. “So I suggested this idea that not only saved that character and its intentions, but also deepened my character. And so, it all seemed to track and fit within the milieu of Disney, and the young viewers that will be watching this. I didn’t want to subject them to a crotch hit. That’s a cheap joke; I didn’t like it.”</p><p>Cranston is still buzzing from <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/bryan-cranstons-secret-role-breaking-bad-movie-el-camino-1246931" target="_blank">his appearance</a> in Vince Gilligan’s <em>El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie</em>, which concluded the story of Walter White’s protégé, Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul). Cranston, as Walt, appeared in a <em>Breaking Bad</em> season two-era flashback that was shortly before the character reached the point of no return via an introduction to meth kingpin Gus Fring (<a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/how-better-call-saul-star-giancarlo-esposito-realized-his-worth-1303030" target="_blank">Giancarlo Esposito</a>) and a fateful encounter with Jane Margolis (Krysten Ritter). While an appearance on the final season of the <em>Breaking Bad</em> prequel/sequel, <em>Better Call Saul</em>, is expected by most fans, Cranston is wholly content if <em>El Camino </em>is the end of his charmed run as Walter White.</p><p>“I was content with the end of <em>Breaking Bad</em>. I thought it was the perfect ending. I know I’m biased, but I don’t recall seeing the ending of a show that was so well-constructed, satisfying and legitimate. Everything just seemed to fall into place so extraordinarily well,” Cranston shares. “They say ‘less is more’ and in many ways, that’s so true. You want to leave an audience wanting more, as we know. That old adage is very true. Don’t give them more than they want. If they start looking at their watch, you’re done. You lost ‘em. We want them to go, ‘Holy shit, it’s over? That was an hour? It felt like 20 minutes!’ That’s what you want, and they crave more because it was so well-crafted.”</p><p>In a wide-ranging conversation with <em>THR</em>, Cranston also reflects on the past, present and future of Walter White, his friendship with M. Night Shyamalan and the baseball movie he hopes to develop.</p><p><strong>First off, in light of what you announced recently, how are you feeling?</strong></p><p>I’m feeling great. Yeah, my wife (Robin Dearden) and I got [COVID-19] very early on. About five days after we had to shut down my production in New Orleans, a limited series for Showtime [<em>Your Honor</em>], I had symptoms. But mine, like my wife’s, were very mild. <em>So lucky</em>. Just a slight chest cough — dry, not much. And about three days of pre-flu achiness. You know when you feel something coming on, but it’s not yet on? It was like three days of that, and then that left. Achiness is gone. And then, I was just left with a week of, “I could take a nap.” Every two hours, like, “Ah, I gotta take another nap.” You’re just exhausted. It just drains you of all the energy, and then, we lost our sense of taste and smell for three months. It has since come back, but it’s not come back full.</p><p><strong>Wow.</strong></p><p>Yeah, I don’t know if it ever will. I always test it. You know how you can smell coffee brewing? I can’t now. I can smell coffee when I open up the bag and put my nose into the beans; I go, “Oh, yep, coffee.” So, that’s my litmus test. (<em>Laughs</em>.) And I guess, all in all, if that’s the lingering effect of this, then I’m still very lucky.</p><p><strong>When Hanks announced his own diagnosis on March 11, that’s when the virus became real to most people in the States. Since the two of you are longtime pals, did you compare notes at all?</strong></p><p>Yeah, we did. He and Rita were far more affected by it physically than Robin and I were, and she more so than him, I believe. But then, when they came back from Australia and we had both gone through it and it was over, we got together for dinner, and it was the first time that you were thinking, “Wow, in a month and a half, we’re now able to actually be in each other’s presence.” Because at that time — and I guess it’s come back to that again now — it would be extremely difficult to contract it again, once you have the antibodies. So, we had dinner a couple of times, and just talked about it, realizing what an extraordinary experience that this is. I don’t think that there could’ve been anyone better than Tom and Rita to come out and say, “We had this,” and you’re right, it did make it real. And I think by their announcement, it woke a lot of people up. The country could’ve been a lot worse had that not happened.</p><p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7662177272,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-full" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7662177272,RESIZE_584x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="450" alt="7662177272?profile=RESIZE_584x" /></a></p><p><strong>Well, this is quite the awkward segue, but I really enjoyed your new movie, <em>The One and Only Ivan</em>.</strong></p><p>(<em>Laughs</em>.) Yeah, thank you. I did too.</p><p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7662187857,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-full" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7662187857,RESIZE_584x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="450" alt="7662187857?profile=RESIZE_584x" /></a></p><p><strong>When you first get a script such as <em>Ivan, </em>are you able to read it objectively? Or do you immediately put yourself in Mack’s shoes and begin voicing the character as you read?</strong></p><p>[Objectivity] is always my goal, and my agenda is to read it as an audience member. That’s why I will always set aside the time to read a script in its entirety in one sitting because that’s the way an audience is going to watch it. So I just imagine myself as an audience. After I’m done, I think about it and sometimes, it’s subtle. In other words, the effects of which won’t hit me right away. It might be the next day. It might be two days later. That’s always a good sign. If I easily forget the story or the title or “what was that about?” — that’s not a good sign for me that I should be involved in it. Or I guess you could say that it is a good sign that I shouldn’t be involved in a project if it’s easily forgotten.</p><p>So I was doing a play in London at the time, and the director [Thea Sharrock], who’s British, said she would like to meet with me. So I said, “Well, let me read this.” And my wife was over with me and we read the script, and it was like, “This is pretty good.” And I will say that I do pay extra attention toward stories that are different from what I’ve recently been doing. So I was doing a very adult sociopolitical drama onstage and before that I was doing other dramas, and it’s like, “Okay, so either a comedy or maybe a family film should be next.” So I’m on the lookout for them; my agency is on the lookout for that, and it would get extra points to move up the ladder as far as my consideration. So we read that. Then, I read the book that came with it [<em>The One and Only Ivan</em> by K.A. Applegate]. I thought that [screenwriter] Mike White did a terrific job in adapting the book for theatrical purposes. And then, I had some ideas, and that’s always a good sign. Then, I put it aside. My wife read it too, we would talk about it and she put it aside. And we would kind of go back to it and say, “What about…?” And when it doesn’t leave me, I have to pay attention to that. I had certain ideas that I thought would enhance the character and bring certain attentions to the character. You know the part where my character is training the young elephants to do some tricks, and he’s getting frustrated by the young elephant? And when you see something happen — I don’t want to give it away to the readers; it’s kind of a surprise in the movie. Well, that was an idea that I had. In the original script, the young elephant, Ruby, swings its trunk into my crotch and I double over. That never really appealed to me; we’ve seen it. So I talked to Mike, and he said, “Yeah, that was kind of a placeholder. Can we come up with something better?” And I said, “I think the elephant should always remain innocent.” So I suggested this idea that not only saved that character and its intentions, but also deepened my character.</p><p>As I’m developing this guy, he’s a showman, and that’s why I said, “I’d like to do an accent when he is the Master of Ceremonies, and then he drops it when he’s backstage.” That was accepted, and then I said, “And furthermore, what if when I’m Mack backstage, I wear padding, so it makes me look heavier? Then, we’ll show a girdle in my office.” And it’s like, “Oh, so when he does his ringmaster, he wears a girdle, he puts makeup on, he has the accent — it’s all a show.” And same thing with the reveal, it’s all a show. He’s not accepting of who he is, and that carried on with how he wasn’t accepting of this scheme of having his beloved gorilla in a cage. It’s gone. He’s got to let that go. It wasn’t sustainable — robbing Peter to pay Paul. And it’s like, “Oh god, how does he keep his head above water?” So it all seemed to be kind of like a domino effect. Then, I pitched this idea: “What if the baby elephant is nervous and she just sneezes? And that elephant sneeze does something humiliating and embarrassing.” But then I said, “And then, at the very end, you see that he’s come to terms with who he is…” And so, it all seemed to track and fit within the milieu of Disney, and the young viewers that will be watching this. I didn’t want to subject them to a crotch hit. That’s a cheap joke; I didn’t like it. Anyway, that’s the long-winded answer. (<em>Laughs</em>.)</p><p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7662202273,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-full" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7662202273,RESIZE_584x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="450" alt="7662202273?profile=RESIZE_584x" /></a></p><p><strong>While not quite as sleazy, did Mack’s hustle remind you of Shannon from <em>Drive</em> at all?</strong></p><p>(<em>Laughs</em>.) Ooh, you know, that’s funny. I hadn’t thought about that. But yeah, anyone who is a schemer — and that takes such a negative connotation — but schemes, the original connotation of it, is that it’s not necessarily a negative term; you’re planning. But we know schemers to be on a more dubious track. So, yeah, it’s anyone who is ambitious and has aspirational interests in achieving certain things. So Shannon was that kind of guy, and certainly, Mack is that kind of guy. Until you mentioned that, it hadn’t occurred to me, but I’m sure that digging down into the well of idiosyncrasies, I was able to pull out certain things that were similar.</p><p><strong>One of the moments that effectively defines Mack’s frustration for me is when a show didn’t go as planned and he lost his temper over the stray dog that Danny DeVito voices. Then, he stormed out of the mall until a speeding car abruptly stopped him in the parking lot, and he flailed his head a bit out of aggravation. It’s a moment that we’ve all experienced at some point. Were you glad that Thea kept that “shoe leather” moment in the final cut?</strong></p><p>Yeah, Thea Sharrock and I had a lovely working arrangement. Not everything that I pitched is something that she accepted, and that’s the way it should be. That’s really the collaborative art form in this genre and in film. You have to pitch ideas, but it has to be a singular vision to put it all together. She’s looking at the jigsaw puzzle as a whole, and I was looking at my own character. And so, at times, the pitches work, and at times, they don’t. That was her idea, and I said, “I could use that.” It’s just mounting frustration. So I had no idea that it would still be used, but it’s interesting that you noticed that little nuance.</p><p><strong>Mack brought Ivan home when he was very young, and for a while, he was raised like an actual child. While I’m reading between the lines, did you also get the impression that Mack and his wife couldn’t conceive a child of their own, hence their childlike treatment of Ivan?</strong></p><p>Yes, that was my backstory, and there was another scene or two where I think we were trying to convey that we were not able to conceive. But it ultimately didn’t feed the main thrust of those flashbacks and where the story was. So, in other words, it wasn’t necessary to say, “We love this little animal because we can’t have one of our own.” Yeah, that was our backstory in our conversations, but ultimately, we didn’t want the flashbacks to have all that dialogue and to have too much foundational elements to include in that. We thought it might muddy it up, but it was in the back of my mind and Thea’s.</p><p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7662217677,RESIZE_930x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-full" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7662217677,RESIZE_584x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="450" alt="7662217677?profile=RESIZE_584x" /></a></p><p><strong>Even though you shot the film a couple years ago, there are several current events that come to mind involving Mack and the animals. Are you always amazed at how quickly one’s perspective can change regarding a piece of work?</strong></p><p>Well, it’s always been a very subjective experience, hasn’t it? In the movie theater, if you’re going and sitting next to people, you and I could watch a movie, and you could be shedding a tear and I could be shrugging my shoulders. And it’s not to say that you’re wrong or I’m wrong. We’re both right. That’s the way you feel, and that’s the respect that I certainly have. I have that credo in me that the audience is never wrong. This is what they’re feeling. Now, it’s hard to get 100 percent of everyone on the train to feel the same thing at the same time because people have different experiences. There’s age differences, educational differences, affluence... There’s foreign, cultural and religious differences. So you have this potpourri of humanity watching this program, and it’s foolish to think that, “Oh everyone is going to feel what the targeted emotion is.” You just have to hope that the masses do and then try to tell your story without being pedantic or didactic. You want to be able to walk that edge so that you tell enough of the story to keep them involved, interested and invested, and move the plot forward. You don’t want to dwell too long on any given time. And of course, even that is subjective. People say, “Oh, that was too long,” or “Too long? I could’ve watched longer!” Ultimately, if you’re the one in charge, as Thea was — although we all have bosses — you hope that they get the sense that your instincts are correct. And I think Thea did a really lovely job.</p><p><strong>Shifting gears, I have a <em>Breaking Bad </em>question that you’ve never been asked over the past decade. In season three’s “Half Measures,” the episode begins with a montage devoted to Wendy (Julia Minesci), the Southwest’s favorite meth-addicted, root beer-loving prostitute. During the montage, she has a scuffle with another prostitute at the Crossroads Motel pool, and I am 99.99 percent certain that one Bryan Cranston is the other prostitute in disguise. So, Bryan, would you like to come clean once and for all regarding this mystery woman’s identity?</strong></p><p>(<em>Laughs.</em>) Wow! Wow, I can’t believe you got that.</p><p><strong>Did I get it!?</strong></p><p>No, you’re wrong. (<em>Laughs</em>.)</p><p><strong>You’ve got to be kidding me!</strong></p><p>That must’ve been one ugly prostitute. If there’s one thing... I make one of the homeliest women. And when I have, on occasion, been in drag for shows, it just doesn’t work. In fact, I can show you a picture of me from many, many, many, many years ago... I was playing a bad character, in drag, and whatever. Nope, not me. I’ve got to go back now and see that.</p><p><strong>I’m stunned. The jawline looks just like yours, and she even made the face you make when you grit your teeth.</strong></p><p>Well, there is that one-one hundredth of a percent that you left open to be wrong and the long shot came through in this case.</p><p><strong>Or this is a more elaborate ruse than I expected, and you’ll never admit to it.</strong></p><p>(<em>Laughs.</em>) We’ll never admit to it, yeah</p><p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7662230068,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-full" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7662230068,RESIZE_584x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="450" alt="7662230068?profile=RESIZE_584x" /></a></p><p><strong>Some of my favorite moments on <em>Breaking Bad</em> involve Walt alone with his thoughts, especially when he’d reflect in front of his pool or that beautiful hotel pool in season 5A’s “Rabid Dog.” During filming, would you remain in Walt’s thoughts, or would you drift to your own life at times?</strong></p><p>The artistic answer is I would remain in Walt’s head. That helps you, for the most part, but acting is an illusion. We are human, and we are susceptible to fatigue and lack of focus, for whatever reason. Our job is to exercise those muscles of focus and developmental abilities in characterization. So, for the most part, you can stay in that headspace, especially if it’s a real quandary for the character. So, yes, those were times when you were, most of the time, able to do that. If you had a director who insisted on 15, 20, 25 takes, your mind would be wandering. So, I could be sitting there contemplating, “I wonder how many more takes they’re going to do before they realize that it’s pretty much the same look; that look of contemplation.” (<em>Laughs</em>.) Or, “I wonder what I should have after work. Should I go out and eat? Or should I just pick something up and take it home? Let’s see, what time do I have to work tomorrow morning? That might determine if I have enough time.” You know? (<em>Laughs</em>.) Sometimes, it’s that, to be completely honest. Some might say, “You’re phoning it in.” Well, no. Phoning it in is if that’s your regular approach to the work. When those kinds of mind-wanderings happen in the past, I used to get tough on myself and go, “What are you doing? Come on. Come on. Shut up. Pay attention. Here we go.” And now, I just go, “Oh wow, I was thinking about all kinds of things there.” So you just let it go. You give yourself a pass, but recognize it. It’s certainly not somewhere where you want to live and use on a regular basis because, by and large, people can read through those things. If you’re not really thinking of something, if you’re not anguished by the character’s situation, I would pick it up. Those are those subtleties and nuances that we see from other actors that you just feel what they’re feeling and you’re right with them. And if the goal, as it is, is to take this audience on a journey with you, you’re the storyteller. You’re responsible for the audience’s emotional care and when they should relax, when they should get tense, when they should worry. All those things are on your shoulders. And “your,” meaning actor, writer, director — this is a collective, and I take it very seriously. You feel it every night doing a play.</p><p>A year ago, I was onstage in New York, and one of the easiest things that can happen to a human being is when you feel very confident that you know what you’re doing, you have a tendency to relax. Well, you don’t want to completely relax onstage. You want to be relaxed, but don’t relax. So I always would gather my cast and say, “Let’s lean into it.” I’d try to give them and myself a visual. I do it on a film set, too. You lean into the story and into what’s happening, as opposed to back onto your heels. And that kind of visual is usually something that people can take in. They get it. They feel it. If every cast member is leaning forward to tell that story that night, that’s going to be a better show. The odds are that’s going to be a much better show than if everyone just said, “Whatever, let’s go do the show. It’s two hours and then, we’ll go have a drink with a friend.” If that’s the idea, and you would just allow the words to take over, then you’re not working at full capacity. It’s kind of like going to the gym, doing a couple reps, resting and then chatting for fifteen minutes. And then, you leave and it’s like, “Yeah, I went to the gym.” And I go, “Wow, did you?” (<em>Laughs</em>.) “How’d that work out for you?” You know? (<em>Laughs</em>.) So you have to be a little self-disciplined in that regard.</p><p><strong>Your family nicknamed you</strong> <strong>“Sneaky Pete” as a boy, and you created a great show called <em>Sneaky Pete</em>. Somehow, it’s also a phrase that Saul Goodman (Bob Odenkirk) used in his first scene on <em>Breaking Bad</em>(season two’s “Better Call Saul”). Since it’s not the most common saying, did one influence the other?</strong></p><p>God, I have no idea. Back when I was playing the prostitute at the pool in that— oh shoot! Sorry, sorry. (<em>Laughs</em>.)</p><p><strong>(<em>Laughs</em>.) I’m never going to live this down.</strong></p><p>(<em>Laughs</em>.) Yeah, I have no idea. I don’t even remember that line that Saul used. I have to see the series again. I’ve only seen the series once, and that was while we were making it.</p><p><strong>Is it partly because you’re too close to it?</strong></p><p>No, no, just, I’ve got other things to do. And quite frankly, I lived through it, so it didn’t feel like urgent appointment television. I would like to watch it again with someone or two or three people who have never seen it. If I come across any people like that who are my friends, and I go, “Let’s watch it together. I’ll watch it again, but let’s watch it together.” It would be fun to see their reaction because I will have forgotten a lot of things, and then when you start watching, you go, “Oh, I know what’s going to happen. I’m going to watch my friend get this reaction.” So I kind of get two shows out of one. (<em>Laughs</em>.)</p><p><strong>I have to say that your bald cap in <em>El Camino</em> is the best bald cap I’ve ever seen. Normally, they look like <em>Alien Nation</em>, but KNB [EFX Group] really outdid themselves, along with VFX.</strong></p><p>Well, they did some remarkable work on that, and the CGI guys in post did even more. Here’s the issue: When I was doing <em>Breaking Bad</em>, that was my head. I just shaved my head. It wasn’t a bald cap. So, every other day, I would shave my head, but this was shot in January of ‘19 and I was doing my play. So, naturally, I’m not going to shave my head. I can’t. So I finished my Broadway show on Sunday at 5 o’clock, during the first full week in January, and zipped out to Teterboro, on a private jet. It flew me out to Albuquerque, I stepped off the plane onto the tarmac and two steps later, our transportation captain, Dennis Milliken, was waiting for me. I went with my wife and our assistant, and we took off, went to an Airbnb and Dennis showed us around. It had all the food, and then he said, “You know you can’t leave?” And I went, “No, I know.” It was like we were in a witness protection program.</p><p>The next morning, he picks us up, takes us to the set, and we did all the cafe scenes. And the bald cap. So they plastered my hair down with this goop, and they got it as <em>flat</em> as possible, and then they squeezed on that bald cap as <em>flat</em> as possible. And then, tight makeup, makeup, makeup. But it was different, and Vince noticed it. My head was a little bit like Mr. Big Brain. (<em>Laughs</em>.) A cartoon. And I noticed it too, but it didn’t quite really bother me as much. Of course, I wasn’t looking at me, obviously, as much as I was looking at other people. But Vince was and he said, “It’s just a little… seems a little…” And there was just no way around it. There’s a lot of hair under there and a bald cap on top of it. So, even though it’s thin, it was just a little bigger. So, they went through, and in the scene that we were doing there, any time it was on me, they had to go in, computer graphic, cut away the overall size of my head and reduce it somewhat. KNB, they’re always fantastic; Greg [Nicotero] and Howard [Berger] over there. Also, the postproduction guys in CGI — they’re masters.</p><p><strong>You shot <em>El Camino</em> during your limited time off from <em>Network </em>on Broadway. Did the whirlwind of <em>El Camino</em> catch up to you during your first show back, or did adrenaline prevail?</strong></p><p>Adrenaline. I was so happy to do [<em>El Camino</em>]. I was thrilled that Aaron was able to be number one on the call sheet. He so deserved it and to finish telling his story. I was there to support him and support Vince Gilligan. Aaron and I both say, if he starts to ask a question, we just say, “Look, the answer is yes, whatever you’re going to ask. We’ll do whatever.” He changed our lives. So we’re eternally grateful to him and happy to do it. The fact that it was so good, on top of that, is one thing I knew. I just know that Vince Gilligan agonizes over every aspect of storytelling. He does have a level of anxiety that does help him in some way, and in other ways, I worry about him, you know, because he cares <em>so much</em>. He knows he’s got one chance. He always says, “I’ve got one chance to do this.” But I know that he wouldn’t let anything go forward unless it passed his seal of approval, and that seal is very discerning. And I just thought it was so fantastic. In fact, when I was reading the script, I completely forgot that Walter White was in it. I’m just following along, “Oh, what happens next? And he goes there. Oh my god, he’s escaped. Oh, there’s a flashback. Oh, that’s me! That’s right. That’s why I’m reading this. Because I’m in it.” (<em>Laughs.</em>) If you can do that to me — and he did that to us throughout the series… We know the characters better than anyone. We know the show better than anyone. And yet, he was able to surprise us. Day in and day out, it was like, “Wow, I did not see that coming. How did that happen?” Masterful, he is and a great guy on top of it. Since I stopped working for him, we’ve developed a relationship that’s beyond <em>Breaking Bad</em> and our wives are good friends. He’s a very dear friend of mine now.</p><p><strong>There’s nobody better at cough acting than you. Did it come back rather quickly on <em>El Camino</em>?</strong></p><p>Yeah, I can do a fake cough, a fake sneeze... I can do double-takes, triple takes. I can even do a quadruple take and spit takes. It’s all the stuff that you learn in Harvey Lembeck’s Comedy Workshop. For years, I took the “Master of Improvisation” here in Hollywood, and it was just a lot of fun being able to draw back into things, the goofiness that you practice on and being able to use it. But it’s taxing. It puts stress on your vocal chords and things like that, but it was so much fun. And then, we flew back to New York on Tuesday night after the two days of work on <em>El Camino</em>, under the shroud of darkness, and back into New York City. I slipped back in, and nobody knew anything. I even did <em>The Tonight Show</em> on Wednesday between shows, and they didn’t know it. Fallon asked me, and I lied. It was like, “Well, this is kind of that sworn to secrecy thing.”</p><p><strong>Most people say “Ozymandias” is their favorite episode from <em>Breaking Bad</em>’s final season, if not the whole series, but I actually prefer “Granite State” with the great Robert Forster. I’m always impacted by the moment where Walt offers Ed (Forster) $10 grand to “stay a little longer,” as it perfectly illustrates Walt’s “fall from grace” and his desperate, unrelenting need to deliver his blood money to his family. What comes to mind from shooting that scene or episode with Forster?</strong></p><p>Well, those characters were just so well drawn, and Bob’s character was so inscrutable. You didn’t know how he felt at any time. He wasn’t mean; he wasn’t nice. He was just matter of fact. And he was willing to be a companion, but for a price. It was just so interesting because human beings can’t peg him. They can’t place him in a certain thing. Who is that kind of man? And that was such a great, great character. It was nice to see Bob be able to be healthy enough to do<em> El Camino </em>before he passed. I wrote about him in my book [<em>A Life in Parts</em>], and the moment where I met him. I was an assistant to a couple of people, and I was a production assistant on a movie that he did called <em>Alligator</em> back in the day. And I bumped into him in a van. He came in, and we were all going to the set. He sat next to me, and I was like, “Oh my god, this is Robert Forster.” And he kind of looked at me and said, “Hey, how are you?” And I go, “I’m fine.” (<em>Laughs</em>.) I didn’t want to engage because I was like, “Oh, actors, they don’t want to necessarily engage.” And he goes, “My name’s Bob,” and I said, “Bryan.” Then I shook his hand, and he asked, “What do you do, Bryan?” And I thought, “Wow, he cares!” I said, “Well, I’m the assistant to the assistant’s assistant,” and he laughed. (<em>Laughs</em>.) I said, “Yeah, I’m just a production assistant, but I’m an actor.” And he said, “Hey, how’s that going for you? Keep at it. It’s a long haul.” So we rode to the set and he went, “Nice to meet you, Bryan.” And I said, “You too, Robert.” “Call me Bob,” he said. So I said, “Okay, Bob.” And it was like… wow. That kind of behavior, that comportment really registered with me, and you collect several of those about how to behave.</p><p>Tom Hanks, I learn a lot from him. Helen Mirren. How to present yourself. And I thought, “Yeah, that’s what you do when you are able to be the number one on a call sheet and take a cast under your wing, and how you want to behave because that sets a tone for everyone else to follow.” If the top person is that, then no one can change that dynamic. There might be a couple incidents here and there, but by and large, you can control the temperament of that working condition. And it was like, “Yeah, that seems right. That seems like the thing to do.” So, that day on set, we sat down, and it was so interesting because we just grabbed the cards. “What do you want to play?” “I don’t know. It doesn’t matter. Play the cards.” I think we were supposed to be playing [seven-card stud], but I think he was dealing Blackjack. You could see it. He flipped over my card, and it was a king. He flipped over his card, also a king. And he said something like, “Huh, just two kings.” And I just looked at him, and that was the end of the scene. It was unscripted because we didn’t know what cards were going to come up, but it was remarkable how two kings happen to show up at the same time totally by accident. It was just kind of daunting to have that happen, and relevant to Walt; he was the king. Walt was the king at one point in his little fiefdom. And now, is he really a king? Who’s the king? The guy who’s controlling the situation is really the king, and that would be Robert’s character at that moment. You could also relate it to the animal world where two animals are going to fight for supremacy in a harem or something. The old guy and the young guy. Who’s going to take over the kingdom? So it had so many different meanings, and I think Peter Gould was directing that episode and was like, “Oh wow! Look at that.” (<em>Laughs</em>.) I said, “That was great. That’s got to stay.” And he goes, “Yeah, I think so.” So fun.</p><p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7662253452,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-full" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7662253452,RESIZE_584x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="450" alt="7662253452?profile=RESIZE_584x" /></a></p><p><strong>There’s a moment where Walt is waiting at the gate for Forster’s character to return, and I got the impression that you played it like a dog waiting at a window for their owner to get home. The way you moved your arms was like a dog wagging its tail. Is that the case, or am I projecting again?</strong></p><p>Well, back when I was playing the prostitute by the pool, I thought of that scene. (<em>Laughs.</em>)</p><p><strong>(<em>Laughs.</em>) I’m never going to hear the end of this.</strong></p><p>No, that was it. That was it. Walt was so starving for human companionship that it was that, and yet, when he got there, I didn’t want him to see that I was incredibly anticipatory of his arrival. But yeah, that was definitely that moment when the dog is looking and cocking its head, “Is that him? Is that him?” and then getting excited. So I just played that where my movement increased. Once I saw the truck coming, my movement increased to convey excitement as I opened up the gate. You know, that was fun stuff. And what was great is that we shot that right in Albuquerque’s Sandia Mountains, which is 5,000 feet higher than the floor of Albuquerque. And right there, that was our New Hampshire.</p><div class="embedded-content is-embed-initialized"><p><strong>While I have my reasons for why I think you’ll be in season six of <em>Better Call Saul</em>, your scene in <em>El Camino</em> is a perfect capper in its own right. If that’s the last time you play Walt, are you thoroughly content?</strong></p><p>Of course. I was content with the end of <em>Breaking Bad</em>. I thought it was the perfect ending. I know I’m biased, but I don’t recall seeing the ending of a show that was so well-constructed, satisfying and legitimate. Everything just seemed to fall into place so extraordinarily well. And with that, from the beginning of meeting Vince (Gilligan) again before I got the role to the development of the character and the story and the prep and getting out there and shooting the pilot, then waiting and then six years of shooting, I mean, it’s seven-and-a-half years. I experienced a very satisfying beginning, middle and end. It’s as if you came to the end of a good children’s book where the kids were saved and they lived happily ever after. And then, you turn the page and it goes, “The next day… ” It’s like, “Wait, what!?” And we’ve seen movies like that. We’ve seen them, movies especially, where it’s like, “Oh, it should’ve ended. And now, we’re going on. It’s like this movie has two endings or they weren’t quite sure where to go with it.” And I even equate it to someone saying, “Don’t you want to come back and do it again? If they rebooted <em>Breaking Bad</em>, wouldn’t you want to come back?” And I go, “No, I really wouldn’t.” And they’re like, “Why? Why wouldn’t you want to do that?” And it’s like, “Well, if you’ve had a perfect meal... a cocktail, a nice little appetizer, a salad, a perfect main course, a nice light little palette cleanser and maybe a little piece of chocolate. Maybe even an after-dinner drink or a little espresso or something.<em> Just perfect</em>. And then, someone brings out more dessert, and it’s like, "oh no!" I don’t want to indulge that because you would be overstuffed, and it’s too much. They say "less is more" and in many ways, that’s so true. You want to leave an audience wanting more, as we know. That old adage is very true. Don’t give them more than they want. If they start looking at their watch, you’re done. You lost ‘em. We want them to go, “Holy shit, it’s over? That was an hour? It felt like 20 minutes!” That’s what you want, and they crave more because it was so well-crafted. So that’s the goal.</p><p><strong>There are many sides of Walter White. As rewarding as the entire role was for you, did you happen to have a favorite dimension to play among the family man, teacher, Heisenberg or the Mr. Lambert persona of the last two episodes?</strong></p><p>(<em>Laughs</em>.) It’s all me. If I were doing a scene where it was menacing, Heisenberg-y, awful and some innocents died or something, like the kid (Drew Sharp) on the motorcycle, there were times where it’s like, “Oh god.” If we’re playing in that realm for a while and then you see a flashback to when Skyler (Anna Gunn) is first pregnant and everything’s happy, then it's like, “Oh, I’m looking forward to that.” (<em>Laughs</em>.) It was almost like a cleanser. As it was, we feel things deeply, and no one is immune to that. So I had a process. At the end of every day, I would take a big hot towel and put it over my head like a turban. I’d take a moist hot towel, put it over my face and cover my face completely, like I’m going to get a professional shave. And I would just sit in the makeup-hair chair for ten minutes, just letting the heat and moisture draw out all the grime, both real and imaginary, and just wipe my whole head and face. You come out of that like you come out of a sauna. You’re lightheaded slightly, you drink some water and then change out of Walter’s clothes, and put my own on. Then, I’d get in the car, call my wife and have a conversation that had nothing to do with <em>Breaking Bad</em>. And by the time I got home, it was wiped away; the whole day was gone. I’d get home, have something to eat, start pouring into the next day’s work and memorize what I had to memorize. I would read the scripts about four or five days before we were shooting because I didn’t need to know too far in advance what was happening on the twists and turns of this guy’s life. I’d just let it come as it’s coming, and it gave me enough time to ask questions, challenge something if I thought something might be weird or I didn’t understand it. And then, also, if it’s like, “Oh, this one, I have a couple of big speeches,” I’ll bone up on those on the weekend. You parse it out so that you don’t let anything catch you by surprise, like, “Oh my god, tomorrow, I forgot! I have a two-page speech to give.” You don’t want to be in that position, so you kind of look ahead a little bit in that way.</p><p><strong>I’ve always said that you’d be a phenomenal Oscar host. If you were asked to host someday, would you strongly consider it?</strong></p><p>Only because of the novelty of it, I would consider it, but I don’t know if that’s the gig for me. I mean, Billy Crystal was a great host because he was so entertaining on so many levels. Obviously, comedy, but he can deliver a line, he can sing and he can command an audience. So it takes that kind of all-around performer to be able to hold their own in that setting, and I’m not so sure. The thing that would really make the deciding factor for me on something like that is, would this detract from audiences seeing me as a chameleon, as an actor? That’s <em>much, much</em>more important to me than getting some airtime or something. It’s just so rewarding to me when I hear people go, “When my brother told me that Walter White was the dad on <em>Malcolm in the Middle</em>, I made a bet with him, and I couldn’t believe it. Oh my god.” I <em>love</em> that, because that means that I’ve transformed into a different person. That, to me, is not only my favorite kind of comment from an audience, but also my favorite kind of approach to the work. I want to get lost in a character. I try, even though it’s extremely difficult. The more you do, the more you see different things that, oh, you know, like you pointed out, that could’ve been part of Shannon as the part of Mack. And it’s like, well, you are the same person, but maybe time helps erode some of those different characteristics that you used for one that you would not use for another.</p><p><strong>Given your history with the property, what did you think of the Spahn Ranch scene in <em>Once Upon a Time in Hollywood</em>?</strong></p><p>I really love that movie, and when I saw the Spahn Ranch, it kind of sent a jolt through my body. I whispered to my wife, I said, “God, that is it! That is what I remember from when I used to go there to ride horses when I was a kid.” So Quentin’s production designer <em>must’ve</em> scoured through a ton of photos to reenact that. That was the Western town motif with the facades, the old truck sitting out there and the horses. But the size of it was really remarkable. And the fact that I had the same experience that they showed in the movie — that there was a need for the group to get on horses and ride away — it was like, “Oh my god, that’s exactly what happened to me!” It was unbelievable. And then, they rode back in and it was like, “Wow!” To the maybe 50 people who are still alive and still remember the Spahn Ranch, who had it indelible in their mind or, in my case, ever crossed paths with Charlie Manson, that was a remarkable moment. I assume you’ve heard my story on that; it was such a thing. “Charlie’s on the hill!” And it’s like, “Whoa.” And then, here he is, and it’s like, “Wow, that must be Charlie.” We made such a thing of it, and it’s almost like passing an accident. You’re looking at him and staring at him out of the corner of your eyes. I remember seeing that face, and I think it was about two years later when he was arrested. I was like, “Oh my god. <em>That’s the guy!</em>” Crazy.</p><p><strong>In 2017, when you were shooting <em>The Upside</em>, you and M. Night Shyamalan went to a Philadelphia 76ers-San Antonio Spurs NBA game, and since it was a national broadcast, it caught a lot of people’s attention on </strong><a href="https://twitter.com/ESPNNBA/status/829525224878022656" target="_blank"><strong>Twitter</strong></a><strong>. Out of curiosity, did the two of you discuss working together?</strong></p><p>We did. Just a really great guy, a great filmmaker. It was fun when I was down in Philadelphia for that time, to be able to hang with him a little bit. Yeah, actually, we tried a couple of times, and in fact, just a couple of weeks ago, there was a project that he was thinking of doing in the COVID world that was really his milieu — a mystery thriller and scary. But I’m in first position to this limited series called <em>Your Honor</em> down in New Orleans where I have to finish that. I’ve got seven weeks to finish that, and we just don’t know when we’re going back. So I had to tell Night, “I can’t commit to it because I don’t know when we’re going to be called.” I mean, that’s just the truth of it. So I said, “Buddy, thanks for thinking of me, but until I’m totally free, I just can’t. I’d hate to say yes, then we plan it and all of a sudden, I have to call you and go, ‘Oops, I can’t do it.’ Then, you’re really stuck, and you have to quickly get out and try to find someone.” But great guy, fun, loves to laugh, terrific filmmaker, and I hope someday we’ll be able to work together.</p><p><strong>Since you’re an avid baseball fan, does your agent ever look for good baseball movie scripts? Or even something like <em>Field of Dreams</em> that uses baseball as a springboard for another story?</strong></p><p>I’d love to have that happen. I’m interested in writing a story that actually might be of its time. It won’t star me. I won’t direct it. In fact, I probably shouldn’t even write it, but it’s something that struck me. Once when I was in Kansas City, I went to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, and I was just amazed by what I was seeing. And that stuck with me, because I was realizing that there were less and less African Americans playing baseball. And I went, “Man, I wonder why that happened and where they went. Certainly, they’ve navigated to basketball and football, but what happened to baseball and why not?” So I was just thinking about that after visiting the museum. So I sketched out a story that involves that social element, and god, it might be very relevant now. We’ll just have to see how it plays out. If it comes together in my head, I might write a treatment to it and then hand it off. Right now, we’re living in an environment where old white men such as myself, we’re not to be on the vanguard of a movement right now. We are here to listen, be quiet and support. We have an opportunity to see fundamental change to our lives and really establish a level playing field of equality no matter what your race, religion, sexual orientation or gender is. One of mutual respect. And I’m tying in the #MeToo movement that started a few years after Black Lives Matter now. I think it all came to light because of the COVID-19 situation. So there’s a purpose for all of this, and I feel very optimistic that significant, meaningful changes can happen to our society. This is the time to have that happen — right here, right now. We’re looking at a lot of different headlines of unfortunate events, and looting and rioting that goes along with protests. And the thing to remember is that revolution — which this is; it’s a social revolution — is never easy. It’s muddy, painful, uncomfortable and inconvenient, all the way back to the Revolutionary War when we were trying to form this country. Protests and revolution was how this country was formed, so it is <em>extremely</em> and<em>literally</em> American. It’s an American quality and how this country was started. So that needs to be understood from a history standpoint and embraced from a society standpoint.</p><p>Article written by Brian Davids for <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/bryan-cranston-on-the-one-and-only-ivan-and-the-past-present-and-future-of-walter-white" target="_blank">The Hollywood Reporter.</a></p></div></div>Sean Connery Turns 90: Why He Was the Greatest James Bond of Allhttps://californiafilm.net/profiles/news/sean-connery-turns-90-why-he-was-the-greatest-james-bond-of-all2020-08-26T18:12:43.000Z2020-08-26T18:12:43.000ZMaria Fernanda M.https://californiafilm.net/members/MariaFernandaMerayo<div><p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7624222699,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-full" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7624222699,RESIZE_584x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="450" alt="7624222699?profile=RESIZE_584x" /></a></p><p><a id="auto-tag_sean-connery" href="https://variety.com/t/sean-connery/">Sean Connery</a> helped redefine movie stardom thanks to his role as <a id="auto-tag_james-bond" href="https://variety.com/t/james-bond/">James Bond</a>, an impossibly suave super-spy with a taste for martinis that were shaken, not stirred. In films like “Dr. No,” “Goldfinger,” and “You Only Live Twice,” the Scottish actor created a template for a fresh and exciting action hero, one whose womanizing, hard-drinking ways and penchant to solve any dispute with the barrel of a Walther PPK presaged a new and more permissive era of on-screen sex and violence.</p><p>The man who would be 007 turns 90 on Tuesday and has been off the silver screen since opting to retire in 2003 after appearing in the execrable “The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.” (Why do the great ones go out with a whimper? Here’s looking at you Gene Hackman/”Welcome to Mooseport”). However, his legacy continues to reverberate — it can be felt in everything from Tom Cruise’s globe-trotting “Mission: Impossible” alter-ego Ethan Hunt to Harrison Ford’s quip-ready adventurer in the Indiana Jones films. Daniel Craig’s darker take on Bond also owes a clear debt to Connery’s interpretation of the Ian Fleming character.</p><p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7624246259,RESIZE_1200x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-full" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7624246259,RESIZE_584x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="500" alt="7624246259?profile=RESIZE_584x" /></a></p><p>A look at <em>Variety’s</em> archives makes it clear that Connery’s casting and elevation to Hollywood’s A-list was hardly a foregone conclusion. He was essentially an unknown when he got the call, having appeared most notably in a supporting role in Walt Disney’s “Darby O’Gill and the Little People,” a bit of cinematic blarney that called on Connery to sing (off-key) and interact with leprechauns. And yet, something about the actor, call it a panther-like sleekness, led to him being cast as the refined, yet deadly member of her majesty’s secret service. In fact, Fleming initially hoped that David Niven would play Bond.</p><p>The brush with celebrity took Connery by surprise. In a March 14, 1963, column for <em>Variety</em>, published as “Dr. No” was taking cinemas by storm, Army Archerd noted that Connery, who was feted at a Directors Guild screening of the film and a ‘feed’ at the legendary eatery Chasen’s…”was only a coupla years ago hitching rides on Hollywood Blvd. That’s show biz.”</p><p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7624265853,RESIZE_1200x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-full" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7624265853,RESIZE_584x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="500" alt="7624265853?profile=RESIZE_584x" /></a></p><p>“Dr. No” was a godsend for United Artists, the studio behind the series, which was suffering from a series of box office disappointments such as “Pressure Point” with Sidney Poitier and Bobby Darin, and the Yul Brenner adventure film “Taras Bulba.” In a June 26, 1963 article, <em>Variety</em> in a bit of imaginative word play noted that the public’s reaction to “Dr. No” was “yes, yes.” It went on to report that UA was looking to create a franchise and that Connery was expected to reprise the role in 10 features, which would shoot every year. Ultimately, the actor would play the role six more times, one of which was in “Never Say Never Again,” a remake of “Thunderball” that was not backed by UA or the Broccolis, the producing powerhouses behind the series.</p><p>To hype the film in the U.S. following its dominance of U.K. screens, the studio embarked on a promotional campaign that hasn’t aged well in the post-feminist era. During a two-week tour of the country, Connery was flanked by models or, as <em>Variety</em> put it in a March 6, 1963 article, “three comely cuties.” The article went on to note that the actor, who later developed a reputation for being prickly, “insists he dislikes this kind of pub junketing.” He would go on to feud with the team behind Bond over contracts, licensing rights, profit-sharing, and other money matters. However, he remained the gold standard for the role. There’s a reason, after all, why aspiring Bond actors <a href="https://variety.com/2020/film/features/james-bond-no-time-to-die-barbara-broccoli-michael-wilson-1203466601/">must audition</a> by performing a scene first nailed by Connery in “From Russia With Love.”</p><p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7624280479,RESIZE_1200x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-full" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7624280479,RESIZE_584x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="500" alt="7624280479?profile=RESIZE_584x" /></a></p><p>For Connery, Bond proved to be both an opportunity and an albatross. It propelled him to riches and made him a star on par with the Beatles for much of the ’60s, but it also led to issues when he wanted to stretch his acting muscles. Early attempts to prove that he could have a career apart from Bond’s toupee, such as 1964’s “Marnie” and 1965’s “The Hill” were bigger hits with critics than audiences. And yet Connery persisted. In the 1970s, he scored with “The Man Who Would Be King,” “The Wind and the Lion,” and “Robin and Marian,” films that showed the aching, aging, vulnerable side of his hyper-masculine on-screen persona, and movies that stand the test of time. Over the ensuing decades, Connery would earn an Oscar playing an Irish beat cop in “The Untouchables,” and would win generations of new fans with roles in blockbusters such as “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade,” “The Rock” and “The Hunt for Red October,” in the latter as a Russian submarine captain with an incongruous Scottish brogue. There’d be controversies too. Particularly, comments in which Connery suggested that it was alright to hit a woman — he would later, <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/connery-to-hit-a-woman-is-wrong-nncwmzv0rk0" target="_blank">unconvincingly claim</a> he <a href="https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/12430892.i-dont-believe-that-any-level-of-abuse-of-women-is-ever-justified-under-any-circumstances-connery-speaks-for-the-first-time-after-cancelling-his-high-profile-appearance-at-holyroods-festival-of-politics-by-paul-hutcheon/" target="_blank">was misquoted</a> (see <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzXkbJwrN38" target="_blank">the Barbara Walters interview</a> to form your own conclusion). It should also be noted that Connery’s first wife, Diane Cilento, <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1037254/Sean-Connery-brands-ex-wife-insane-woman-claims-snubbed-son-will.html" target="_blank">accused Connery of physical abuse</a> — allegations he denied.</p><p>Despite those upsetting character deficiencies, Connery’s star power was undeniable throughout his 50-plus year career. He exuded an intoxicating mixture of intelligence and brawn, sophistication and menace, making him equally adept with a gun and a double entendre. To borrow a line from the theme song of a Bond film that did not feature Connery as 007 — nobody did it better.</p><p>Article written by Brent Lang for <a href="https://variety.com/feature/sean-connery-birthday-james-bond-dr-no-1234746737/" target="_blank">Variety</a>. </p></div>Jennifer Aniston and Jason Bateman on Acting in High-Adrenaline Series and Their Futures with Directinghttps://californiafilm.net/profiles/news/jennifer-aniston-and-jason-bateman-on-acting-in-high-adrenaline-s2020-08-18T17:32:35.000Z2020-08-18T17:32:35.000ZMaria Fernanda M.https://californiafilm.net/members/MariaFernandaMerayo<div><p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7516569254,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-full" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7516569254,RESIZE_584x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="450" alt="7516569254?profile=RESIZE_584x" /></a></p><p><a id="auto-tag_jennifer-aniston" href="https://variety.com/t/jennifer-aniston/">Jennifer Aniston</a> and <a id="auto-tag_jason-bateman" href="https://variety.com/t/jason-bateman/">Jason Bateman</a> have been in each other’s orbit for the better part of three decades, and have also worked together on films including “The Break-Up,” “The Switch” and “Horrible Bosses” franchise.</p><p>Both started in the business very young yet proved to have the ability not only to maintain longevity as performers and to deftly flip between comedic and dramatic roles, but they also both took greater control of their careers by slipping behind the camera as producers and directors.</p><p>Now, the duo finds themselves Emmy-nominated at the same time: She with her first dramatic Television Academy nod for her work on Apple TV Plus’ “<a id="auto-tag_the-morning-show" href="https://variety.com/t/the-morning-show/">The Morning Show</a>” and he with his third consecutive lead drama actor nom for Netflix’s “<a id="auto-tag_ozark" href="https://variety.com/t/ozark/">Ozark</a>,” in addition to a guest performance nomination for HBO’s “The Outsider.”</p><p>Here,<em> Variety</em> reunites Aniston and Bateman to talk about how the adrenaline-infused settings affect their performances, what to do with comedic instincts when working on a drama and what currently drives them in the various aspects of their careers.</p><p><strong>After working together a few times, what have you learned from each other that you’ve carried with you?</strong></p><p><strong>Jason Bateman:</strong> The way that she carries herself and everything that she takes on and has put upon her. It’s a very complicated full life that she manages, and she does it with grace and kindness and warmth to her closest friends and to a person she might meet that day on the set. I have learned, and it has been reaffirmed to me, that no matter how successful you become, that is still the most important thing for your own peace of mind, but also for the work environment because a lot of people take their cues from what No. 1 on the call sheet is doing and how they’re handling things — how they’re holding themselves, how they’re behaving. And she just sets such a great example.</p><p><strong>Jennifer Aniston:</strong> OK you win.</p><p><strong>Bateman:</strong> Just say ditto.</p><p><strong>Aniston:</strong> Ditto! No, I’m not kidding, I have to say there is no one more professional and lovely to be around — and calm. There’s no histrionics with him: He is prepared, he is solid, he is kind, he is funny. I love my days when I get to be with Jason on a set or my house on a Sunday. He’s one of the greatest people to be around, whether I get to work with him, which I don’t get to do enough of and it’s been too long. But we’re going to write that, aren’t we, Jason?</p><p><strong>There are more seasons of “Ozark” and “The Morning Show” coming.</strong></p><p><strong>Bateman:</strong> That’s true. I would love to see Jen doing some drive through the Ozarks.</p><p><strong>Aniston:</strong> Yeah, what if there was a television and you were watching the news and it was [my “Morning Show” character] Alex Levy reporting it?</p><p><strong>Bateman:</strong> I’m going to pitch it right now.</p><p><strong>Aniston:</strong> It would be a kind of cool, weird crossover.</p><p><strong>How do the high-adrenaline of the worlds of your characters now, from morning news to money-laundering, affect the way you carry them?</strong></p><p><strong>Aniston:</strong> The truth is that world is such a high-octane environment, and I have to say it was quite amazing to witness when I went to “GMA” to shadow. To see the intense, as you say, adrenaline running through this, that revs up — it starts like a slow hum and then the wheels go faster and faster and faster and faster and all of the anchors are walking in and out, getting all of these little sound bites and they have to also in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 be on camera — completely compartmentalizing all of this adrenaline — and deliver the news with calm and grace to America as if it’s just having a conversation. And they do this every day, some people for 25 years. Somehow they’re built that way — I don’t know where that insane adrenaline stores itself inside their body until they just spontaneously combust, which ended up happening at the end of our season.</p><p><strong>Bateman:</strong> My character is not too dissimilar from Jen’s in that we’re always toggling between offense and then also defeat, so there is this, physically speaking, upright posture when we’re being proactive with stuff, and then there are times when it all become a bit too overwhelming for these characters. And I think that’s good because there’s not that much to be interested about with a character that is bulletproof. And I think Jen is certainly great at showing vulnerability and humanity and certainly really being present with whatever, and I try to do the same. It’s a lane that characters that are the leads are usually put into so that we can be these proxies — these portals — for the audience, so the audience can vicariously experience these situations, these storylines through. So it’s nice to be able at one point to drive the story and at other points to react to the story.</p><p><strong>Aniston:</strong> There are those moments where Alex would just snap and there are those moments where she’s with her team and she just knows how to swing that pendulum from one version of herself to the other.</p><p><strong>Bateman:</strong> I would say [we’re] probably the same in really being conscious of how much physicality we play in the parts because it just kind of comes naturally: When you’re defeated, you slump a little bit; when you’re in charge, you’re chest-forward.</p><p><strong>There are so many moments where all of these feelings and Alex and Marty’s struggles just have to be written on their faces, too, though. What does it take for you to get into the right headspace for that?</strong></p><p><strong>Bateman:</strong> All the hard work is really done at the script level, and then you really just have to not screw that up with some expression or body language that is completely contrary. They basically create this beautiful box for us to fit in — and then working with the directors and other actors who are allergic to false moments is really helpful because you’re only as good as the taste you’re surrounded with.</p><p><strong>Aniston:</strong> Mimi [Leder, executive producer and director] loves to have the camera sit there, and push in and push in and push in, and you have to just ignore the camera and play the beat — you just relive it. It’s hard to explain any kind of prep for it except it’s just there; you’re living in the moment of the scene. I try to be, as much as I can be, not aware that there is a camera there at all.</p><p><strong>How do you know when you’ve nailed it?</strong></p><p><strong>Aniston:</strong> For me it’s instinctive. I trust about two or three people 100% [where] if I get a look I will do it again or I know we’re good. And then I’ll have no problems walking away if everybody’s happy.</p><p><strong>Bateman:</strong> There’s an internal smell check. It just stinks when it’s not right; you can sense it. And Jen, I’ve seen you do this when we’ve worked together — you just self cut. If you’re doing something that just sucks, the last thing you want to do is give the editor or director a complete take of what sucks, so you just stop. And if you’re brave enough to watch yourself, it’s a great learning tool. There are times when I’ll think I’m doing well but it’s just terrible, so whatever that feeling was I’ve given myself a false positive and I have to reassess what that feeling is.</p><p><strong>Do you actively look for or ask the writers for moments where you can infuse comedy, given your backgrounds, or simply just to let your characters breathe?</strong></p><p><strong>Aniston:</strong> No. That’s the gift: Our writers just know. I don’t have to say much to them. I’m lucky, in that I can just show up and read the material and go on this roller coaster of emotions that they created.</p><p><strong>Bateman:</strong> I usually have a global conversation with Chris [Mundy, showrunner] before we start the season about what the whole seasonal arc is going to be, and I’m just basically listening for things that we should potentially not do because it is something that is broken or a problem or a mistake or wrong. In the first season there was something that he wanted my character to do that I thought might cede some moral and ethical ground that I thought was important for [Marty] to hold onto since there was some infidelity in the first episode. But I think that’s the only time I’ve ever said, “I don’t think we should do that.” Otherwise I’m just listening as a fan to what his plans are. I don’t pretend to know anything when it comes to writing; my job is always after once the script is done.</p><p><strong>As executive producers on these shows, in addition to starring in them, arguably you could ask for more specific things for your characters. By separating the two parts of your jobs, what do you feel acting gives you that producing doesn’t and vice versa?</strong></p><p><strong>Aniston:</strong> Acting is where I lose control and then producing is where I get to pay attention to the details. But I’m also a multitasker, whether it’s looking at the day — the shoot order — and knowing, “This is going to take this amount of time” or “If we swap this scene we’re going to get that faster.” We have a great group of producers so I can slip into the character and lose control and I know it’s all covered.</p><p><strong>Bateman:</strong> Yeah really the same things as what Jen said. The acting is a solitary thing — yes, you are working with other actors and you’re kind of in a dance with members of the crew, but you can be selfish with your efforts. There’s a lot of internal stuff going on with that and there’s a lot of joy in that. A weird analogy would be, the joy you would get painting something — there’s really only something you’re communicating with yourself as you’re painting and then eventually you show it to somebody and they see the final product. With producing there’s a real-time contribution and alchemy and teamwork going on, almost by definition of what that job is. Producing is almost impossible in a silo; it’s a much more outward effort, as opposed to acting being inward.</p><p><strong>What piece of scene work were you most proud of this season?</strong></p><p><strong>Bateman:</strong> The thing that pops to my mind is the long six or seven page scene that Laura Linney and I had where we’re in couples therapy. It’s this long argument we have, just the two of us — and you see scenes like that in plays when people have long conversations, just hitting the ball back and forth, back and forth. And to make another terrible analogy, like tennis, there needs to be some synergy between the two people playing to present an enjoyable match to watch. And Laura is so skilled in what she does that it doesn’t take a whole lot of rehearsal or conversation before, during or after to find the chemistry, to find the rhythm that is going to create something satisfying for the audience; she just has this great metronome inside her knowing when to ramp up the speed and when to come down and let that little bit process and then come on the attack again. I’m just really proud of our ability as a cast and this one situation in particular with Laura where there’s a lot that can be done that’s unsaid. Oftentimes that’s a bit casting hurdle to jump over — to make sure you get a bunch of people that share the same sensibility and creative goals.</p><p><strong>Aniston:</strong> Well played.</p><p><strong>Bateman:</strong> Can I say something about you? That scene you have with Reese [Witherspoon] in the first episode where you’re doing the interview, as an audience you’re waiting for the two co-leads of the show to finally meet up and I could feel the pressure as a viewer what you two actors must have been feeling about, “Well everyone’s going to be watching this scene, what kind of chemistry we’ll have, the dynamic between the two characters, who’s going to alpha, who’s going to beta?” And then of course to honor what all the dialogue is. And you guys just played so nice together and took turns from alpha and beta and being strong yet vulnerable. I could see the two human beings being as high quality as they both are but also the acting being high quality as well.</p><p><strong>Aniston:</strong> Thank you. I do say that was such a fun scene to play because there was so much underneath — everything you’re saying. Everything above the water and everything below was so much fun and quite a dance, and complicated! And it’s funny how with those scenes, when I know they’re coming, I’m just like, “Oh god!” The anxiety.</p><p><strong>Bateman:</strong> Yeah. If you can remember the days of auditioning when you prepare and try and you’ve got it all worked out and you think, “If I could just be in control of my nerves enough to do what I rehearsed, I don’t care whether I get the job or not. I just want to make sure that I can execute and not get distracted by the weight of the situation.” Any scenes like that, there are so many things that can knock you off your center of your basic job of not being full of s—, and it’s hard to compartmentalize all of that stuff. You can’t just turn off and not be human. You’re feeling pressure and insecurity, and at the same time you might be playing a scene where your character’s supposed to be confident as hell.</p><p><strong>Aniston:</strong> Exactly, that’s so true. There was also one other scene that I loved — it was a scene with my [on-screen] daughter at her dorm. Earlier in the episode we’d broken the news that [my husband and I] were going to get divorced and she feels very betrayed by us. [Alex] goes to visit her and tries to win her over with pizza, and we just see her lose it on her kid — which I thought was just a brilliantly written scene by Kerry [Ehrin, showrunner]. And also, it was just a shout out to every single mother in the world. I felt like I was speaking for all the mamas out there. It was like I just found my mom — just channeled Nancy [Dow] for a second there.</p><p><strong>The pieces you are pointing to focus on shifting power dynamics at a micro, between characters levels, but the shows also explore a broader view of the complications and corruption that characters experience with such shifts. What is most interesting to you about those themes?</strong></p><p><strong>Aniston:</strong> I just think there is no better time in the world than to be telling these stories. All of this power — abuse of power — and human ills are being exposed: racism, sexism, agism, all of the isms. It’s also really interesting to play a woman who is in a powerful position and show the power struggles between men and women, and women and women. It’s happening and it’s a perfect time to be exploring that because the jig is up, we’re taking that down.</p><p><strong>Bateman:</strong> On “Ozark” there’s some good evergreen thematics, being domestic strife and the pursuit of the American Dream and cutting corners and temptation and all of that. But there is a more topical one that we don’t try to get too didactic about — we try to sheaf it with some killings every once in awhile or a bag of money here and there — but it’s this awakening that the city folk have had to have with the way in which they perceive the, in quotes, country folk. They aren’t the people that you fly over — they are this country as well and one needs to reckon with that because they have a very valid voice and a very valid set of issues that may be somewhat dissimilar at times but we’re all in this together. So when Marty Byrde and his family came down from Chicago, to the lake of the Ozarks and they swaggered in there thinking they were going to handle everything, they [got] a real rude awakening.</p><p><strong>Jason you won the directing Emmy last year for “Ozark” and Jen, you’ve directed but not “The Morning Show” yet. How are you both feeling about helming episodes next season?</strong></p><p><strong>Aniston:</strong> That is in my future, for sure. I’m excited about it, but I don’t think it will be happening in Season 2. If there is a Season 3, that’s when it will definitely be.</p><p><strong>Bateman:</strong> I decided not to direct this year because of all of the complications that we may have to deal with as far as the COVID stuff and guidelines. I just felt like it would be most responsible to leave the directing to someone whose entire job is directing, in the event we have to pivot for certain things. And plus, it might leave me more exposed to get COVID, and if one of the actors gets it we have to go home for weeks. So I very reluctantly let everybody know for the first time I’m not going to do.</p><p><strong>Aniston:</strong> That’s so disappointing!</p><p><strong>Bateman:</strong> I’m kind of bummed, but I put on my producer hat and there was no way I could let me do it.</p><p><strong>Aniston:</strong> And you can always backseat direct, you know that!</p><p>Article written by Danielle Turchiano for <a href="https://variety.com/2020/tv/features/emmys-2020-jennifer-aniston-jason-bateman-morning-show-ozark-ambition-power-directing-interview-1234726750/" target="_blank">Variety.</a> </p><p> </p><div id="adm-inline-article-ad-1" class="admz"> </div><p> </p></div>Column: How Emmy nominee Uzo Aduba, Ann Dowd and more actors stay creative amid COVID-19https://californiafilm.net/profiles/news/column-how-emmy-nominee-uzo-aduba-ann-dowd-and-more-actors-stay-c2020-07-30T19:52:47.000Z2020-07-30T19:52:47.000ZMaria Fernanda M.https://californiafilm.net/members/MariaFernandaMerayo<div><p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7160275295,RESIZE_930x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-full" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7160275295,RESIZE_584x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="450" alt="7160275295?profile=RESIZE_584x" /></a></p><p>So you’re an actor.</p><p>Maybe you’re famous, maybe you’re not. Maybe you work regularly enough to support yourself, maybe you don’t, at least not yet. Maybe you were in the middle of a job when COVID-19 sent everyone home, maybe you weren’t.</p><p>It doesn’t really matter. Because at this moment, this endless, unprecedented and anxiety-provoking moment, you and the vast majority of your peers — from the legends to the waiters — are all in the same boat: You’re a performer in a world that is suddenly very much not a stage, at least in the traditional sense.</p><p>Sheltering at home, writers can still write, painters can paint, <a class="link" href="https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2020-07-20/covid-art-school-students-university-online-classes-fall-2020">musicians can play and dancers can dance.</a> But acting is rarely a one-person deal; how do you stay in artistic shape without a cast, a director, an audience? In many ways, as it turns out, some playful, some practical, some traditional, all of them creative.</p><p>If you’re Dame Judi Dench, you vow to memorize the sonnets of Shakespeare and wind up <a class="link" href="https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2020/07/judi-dench-tiktok-star" target="_blank">learning TikTok dances</a> with your grandson. <a class="link" href="https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2020-05-27/mandy-patinkin-relatable-shutdown-videos">If you’re Mandy Patinkin,</a> you allow your son to post videos on social media (occasionally in service of serious fundraising) that capture your hilarious conversations with your wife. If you once starred in a hit television series, you take part in a Zoomified reunion. And there’s always Instagram — early in the shutdown, “Contagion” star Jennifer Ehle posted videos of her reading “Pride and Prejudice,” in which she also starred — or YouTube; John Krasinski launched <a class="link" href="https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2020-05-19/coronavirus-john-krasinski-some-good-news-goodbye">“Some Good News”</a> while Josh Gad revealed himself to be a very astute interviewer in “Reunited Apart with Josh Gad.”</p><p><a class="link" href="http://reggiewatts.com/" target="_blank">Reggie Watts,</a> who continues to work — albeit remotely — as bandleader and announcer for CBS’ “The Late, Late Show,” went one step further and debuted his own platform, WattsApp.</p><p>“I wanted to have my own multimedia channel, to post videos, do live streaming, geo-locational-based media,” Watts says. “I also have a store where I sell my old electronics on it, and that’s been doing really well.”</p><p>The videos include Watts’ unintentionally prescient series “Droneversations” — interviews that are captured via the ultimate social-distancing device, the drone. Past episodes, filmed before the shutdown, featured Fred Armisen and Jack White; the first installment filmed post-COVID will feature Thunder Cat.</p><p>Watts, who shared a particularly emotional episode with host James Corden during the early George Floyd protests, is not daunted by the prospect of the entertainment industry going more fully digital. “It’s all about vision,” he says. “I don’t really notice much of a difference, on camera, in my home by myself, not getting immediate feedback. I’m usually fine with that; I just try to entertain myself and that’s usually OK.”</p><p>For some performers, the work is more internal.</p><p><a class="link" href="https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/tv/story/2020-06-16/uzo-aduba-mrs-america-hulu-cant-stop-watching">Uzo Aduba</a>, a 2020 Emmy nominee for her portrayal of congresswoman and presidential candidate Shirley Chisholm in “Mrs. America,” says she’s been using the time to get back to basics, especially observation.</p><p>“Before ‘Orange [is the New Black’] I used to observe people,” she says. “I’d see quirky little things on the train, waiting tables, being in the park — and file it in my brain. That actually has been my greatest exercise — being able to socially distance in the park, mask on, and really sit and observe people. Like parents actually parenting, not what my idea of parenting might be. And not in a crazy stalker way,” she adds, laughing, “but to really take in what is a natural response, what is a consistent response. I’ve filed away quite a few things.”</p><p>Especially, she says, the physical details of collective anxiety. Living in New York, Aduba experienced a city besieged by COVID-19, and while she had her own reaction to walking past refrigerator trucks being used as makeshift morgues and hearing ambulance sirens blaring all day — “and when I say all day, I mean all day” — she eventually began watching what those feelings looked like on other people.</p><p>“The anxiety is real,” she says. “You can see it everywhere. At a grocery store, at a pharmacy, the number of times people look down at the sticker to make sure they’re six feet apart, the shock you feel when you see someone not wearing a mask. Little patterns of behavior.</p><p>“The practical of part of acting isn’t happening, but the foundational and analytical aspects are. When I think of parts I have loved, and I have put my greatest inspiration into, it’s been through the analysis of human behavior.”</p><p>She recently watched a woman reading alone in the park, “head down, but watching the world, surveilling who was around her. And a family with a little kid came near, looking for a place to sit. They weren’t even that close to her, but her behavior — like she was reading but her eyes were completely tracking where they were going as they came closer. Her body started to come erect — please don’t sit here — and when they passed, there was relief, in her neck and shoulders. I thought, ‘How often does she have that experience and what is like when she goes home?’</p><p>Aduba wonders if all of us aren’t, at a certain level, delivering a performance during this crisis. “There’s awareness of an invisible danger, so we’re always at a high alert. That is what being on the stage is like — a dual life. There’s Uzo and there’s the character I’m playing. I could catch a 108 mph fastball on stage, I’m so aware of everything that’s happening. That’s what it’s like now.”</p><p>While venues including <a class="link" href="https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2020-07-22/pasadena-playhouse-live-streaming-platform-covid-theater">the Pasadena Playhouse</a> and the Williamstown Theater Festival are experimenting with recorded performances, some actors are staying in shape the old-fashioned way: through workshops and classes. Director Cameron Watson has been teaching acting classes in a small Hollywood theater for years; when COVID-19 made that impossible, he asked students if they would be interested in continuing online. The result was a resounding yes.</p><p>“I started talking to industry friends, casting directors, agents, faculties of theater schools,” he says. “They were all asking the same questions — how are we going to re-invent acting classes, how are we going to do scenes, how are we going to move forward?”</p><p>He decided that his first set of classes during the shutdown (which my daughter attended) would focus on self-taping. “That’s going to be the future for some time — how we audition, possibly how we will work.” He brought in guests, including Octavia Spencer and Allison Janney, and discovered that actors want to act and talk about the craft any way they can. “Every month I think people won’t want to come back; every month they want to come back, new people want to join, because there’s nothing else we can do.”</p><p>Michael O’Neill will likely be teaching classes, though for him the shutdown was compounded by the cancellation of <a class="link" href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/24/entertainment/council-of-dads-review/index.html" target="_blank">“Council of Dads,”</a> the NBC drama he had been starring in. “It was the most talented, gracious and least selfish cast I’ve ever worked with,” he says. “So I was mourning the loss of a character I wanted to play for 25 years, and it’s worth the grieving.”</p><p>He and his daughters built a garden at their Alabama home — “so we could watch something live and grow” — and he has been working on potential projects. A two-man play about brothers that a friend has written, another play called “Alabama Boys” that he’s been working on with another friend, Thom Gossom Jr., about their different experiences growing up in a segregated state. (O’Neill is white, Gossom Jr. is Black.) “We have a script, but we are revising it in light of current events,” O’Neill says, “because there’s a new consciousness that needs to be addressed.”</p><p>Like many of us, Gregory Zarian has been using newfound time to work on long-delayed projects. Only in his case, it isn’t cleaning out closets but shoring up his memory skills. “I’m terrible at memorizing,” he says, “which for an actor is not great.” Zarian, who lives in Los Angeles, has had roles in a wide variety of series,including “Westworld.” But after a recent audition for “NCIS” required that he learn his pages before the filming, Zarian hit the books — literally — to address the issue. “I’m just taking pages out of books and learning them. A casting director once told my brother that if you want to memorize something, you read it out loud 10 times, but I’ve learned that if you whisper it, it becomes more personal and stays with you.”</p><p>As a recent Daytime Emmy nominee, for his acting work in in the digital series <a class="link" href="https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2020-07-30/venicetheseries.com" target="_blank">“Venice: The Series,”</a> Zarian was a judge in other categories and, he says, the lack of current work allowed him the time to really study the submissions “as a master class. Really watching to see if you can tell who is telling the truth and who isn’t.</p><p>“I really want to get back to work,” he says, “but I’m kind of loving having the time to work on the details.”</p><p>Gabriel Iglesias, a.k.a. Fluffy, is not. Loving it, that is. He really wants to get back to work. His tour has been postponed until September but, all things considered, who knows?</p><p>“I’m in enforced retirement,” he says. “I’m used to being in front of thousands of people and now … I’m not.”</p><p>From his L.A. home, he has been staying engaged on social media, doing Q-and-A’s with fans — the second season of “Mr. Iglesias,” in which he plays a high school teacher, dropped on Netflix last month — and posting videos on TikTok. “I used to be anti-video, but TikTok caught my attention.”</p><p>Meanwhile, he’s bummed about missing Comic-Con, happy about his new Funko line — “they are selling way better than I thought they would” — and trying to figure out what his show will be like post-COVID, in both content and form.</p><p>“I just tell things that are happening in my life, and if it gets a laugh, I keep it,” he says. But he doesn’t plan on belaboring the shutdown in his act. “I figure that when we come back to work, everything will be about distraction, so it won’t be a big part of my show.”</p><p>His worried about the “when” part, however. “People ask are you doing stand-up online? That’s not stand-up; you are removed from the audience. You need the intimacy. Even in a big arena, the people are there, right on top of you. That engagement needs to be there for the show to feel normal to me. Two people at one table, six feet apart from the next table; it’s not the same. And if they’re wearing masks? I can’t wear a mask for a show. I’m sarcastic in a drive-thru and they don’t get it because I’m wearing a mask.“</p><p>He is enjoying the chance to get a full night’s sleep. “For the longest time, I’ve been ‘get up early, get on the plane, get on the bus, do a the show, get in a car, get on another plane ... to get eight to 10 hours of sleep every day? I can’t remember the last time that was possible.”</p><p>Many people, actors and otherwise, have used the silver lining of down time as a shield against the multi-tentacled anxieties of the pandemic. Like Uzo Aduba, <a class="link" href="https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/la-ca-st-ann-dowd-sunday-conversation-20180518-htmlstory.html">Ann Dowd</a> (“The Handmaid’s Tale,” “The Leftovers”) believes that much of an actor’s work comes down to paying attention to what is happening when you’re not working. Especially now.</p><p>She had just finished shooting the upcoming Showtime series “The President is Missing” when production was halted, so she returned to New York, where for a few weeks she “lived on the joy of having finished something.” Then she and her family decamped to New Hampshire, a place she was quite familiar with in the summer, less so in late winter and early spring. “It’s so beautiful, I loved it. Then insecurity started to surface. I started to feel irrelevant. I wondered, ‘What is this about?’ And then I thought, ‘Oh, right; work.’”</p><p>After fretting a bit, she decided to “get comfortable with the silence, with doing nothing,” she says. Working on “The Leftovers,” she recalls, she learned that people’s ability to sit with grief is very limited. “Unless we can’t get out of bed, we tend to distract ourselves. If we sit now and examine our feelings, we will have learned so much.”</p><p>Speaking to theater students online, she reminded them that this is particularly true for actors.</p><p>“I told them, ‘You will have periods of uncertainty as an actor. When you are not working, you will need to remind yourself that ‘I am an actor.’ Weathering this virus and not being in contact is a great time to strengthen that skill,” she said. “Actors have to have a perspective of hope.”</p><p>Article written by Mary Mcnamara for <a href="https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2020-07-30/emmy-nominee-uzo-aduba-ann-dowd-actors-cope-covid-19" target="_blank">LA Times.</a></p></div>Kevin Valdez of Apple TV+'s 'Little Voice' on being an actor with autismhttps://californiafilm.net/profiles/news/kevin-valdez-of-apple-tv-s-little-voice-on-being-an-actor-with-au2020-07-30T19:41:07.000Z2020-07-30T19:41:07.000ZMaria Fernanda M.https://californiafilm.net/members/MariaFernandaMerayo<div><p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7160264081,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-full" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7160264081,RESIZE_584x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="450" alt="7160264081?profile=RESIZE_584x" /></a></p><p>The young actor draws upon his personal experience with autism while playing one of the lead roles in a new digital television show. </p><p>The new music-filled series “Little Voice,” which debuted on Apple TV+ earlier this month, is a comforting antidote to the hectic 24-hour news cycle set in a pre-COVID New York City. While the show may center around the gifted but self-doubting songstress Bess, one of the show’s real breakout stars is Kevin Valdez, who plays the lead character’s brother, Louie — an aspiring Broadway actor who lives in a group home for those on the autism spectrum. </p><p>Besides “Little Voice” marking Valdez’s first role on television, playing the character of Louie is especially meaningful to the actor, who was also diagnosed with autism at the age of 22 months. His character is unflinchingly outspoken with an affinity for all things musical and Broadway, a passion shared by Valdez himself, who discovered his love for acting early.</p><p>At the young age of 14, Valdez got his first acting gig in Cornerstone Community Church’s theatre production of “Cinderella Kids,” going on to appear in shows like "Seussical Jr." and "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe."</p><p>After catching the first few episodes of “Little Voice,” whose launch was perfectly timed with New York’s <a href="http://disabilitypridenyc.org/">Disability Pride Month</a>, we virtually sat down to chat with the budding actor to hear more about his role on the show, his thoughts on neuro-inclusivity and what has been inspiring him this year.</p><ol><li><strong>Your love of acting started so early. What first attracted you to the performance arts, and what keeps you interested and engaged?</strong></li></ol><p>I had two friends from elementary school that had roles in a play at Cornerstone Community Church in Manteca [,Calif.], and that pretty much sparked my interest in becoming an actor. After that, I had a part in the next play the church had two years later. I like pretending to be a person that I’m not, so that makes it pretty interesting.</p><ol start="2"><li><strong>Tell us a bit about your current role on “Little Voice,” and what it means to you personally to be able to play a character with autism. </strong></li></ol><p>In “Little Voice,” Louie is Bess’ older brother that is on the autism spectrum and lives in a group home with a few roommates. He’s obsessed with Broadway and finds himself mesmerized by his interests. It really means a lot to me playing somebody with autism like myself because there are some instances where I sort of act like Louie in real life and I can relate a lot to what he has to go through. But we’re all different, and that includes people with autism and I hope that this realistic portrayal can help spread awareness.</p><p>3.<strong> Why do you think it is important that actors with disorders and disabilities, both developmental and physical, are given opportunities to play roles that mirror those disorders and disabilities (vs. able bodied actors playing those with physical disabilities, for example)?<br /></strong>Each person has their own special talent that is hidden within themselves. Once everybody figures that out, they start to play an important role in society. It’s also because I think they make potential performances more realistic to others.</p><ol start="4"><li><strong>What is the most important cause to you right now that you believe more people should be informed on?</strong></li></ol><p>Those with disabilities are people too that can do normal chores like other people can and they should have their voices heard just like everybody else.</p><ol start="5"><li><strong>Speaking of causes that are important to you, who do you think are the biggest Agent(s) of Change in your field and why?</strong></li></ol><p>Besides my parents, I think some of the biggest Agents of Change are among Temple Grandin, who helps educate others with her perspective of how people think with autism, Hester Wagner, the program director of Futures Explored, which specializes in giving out potential job opportunities to those with disabilities, for attracting me to this role, and Joey Travolta, the founder of Inclusion Films, for creating a company that calls out for the special talents of people with disabilities.</p><ol start="6"><li><strong>What movie, book or song inspired you this year, and why?</strong></li></ol><p>There’s one film that has recently attracted me closer to film, and that’s Ford v Ferrari, since I’m a fan of auto racing, particularly NASCAR. I like the underdog story that was put into the film, and the main key there is that you should never give up and keep on pushing to something you’re passionate about.</p><ol start="7"><li><strong>If you could wave your magic wand, what one thing would you change for 2020?</strong></li></ol><p>I think I speak for the world when I say that I want to change the state the current coronavirus pandemic has brought the world in right now. I hate the site of people getting sick, losing their jobs and sometimes succumbing to the disease, and I wish that life will get back to the way it was very soon.</p><p>Article written by Austa Somivichian-Clausen for <a href="https://thehill.com/changing-america/respect/accessibility/509333-kevin-valdez-of-apple-tvs-little-voice-on-being-an" target="_blank">The Hill.</a></p></div>Olivia de Havilland, star of 'Gone With the Wind,' dies at 104https://californiafilm.net/profiles/news/olivia-de-havilland-star-of-gone-with-the-wind-dies-at-1042020-07-27T17:44:46.000Z2020-07-27T17:44:46.000ZMaria Fernanda M.https://californiafilm.net/members/MariaFernandaMerayo<div><div class="el__leafmedia el__leafmedia--sourced-paragraph"><p class="zn-body__paragraph speakable"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7146219487,RESIZE_584x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-full" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7146219487,RESIZE_584x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="445" alt="7146219487?profile=RESIZE_584x" /></a></p><p class="zn-body__paragraph speakable">Olivia de Havilland, a two-time Oscar winner and for decades the last surviving star of "Gone With the Wind," has died at the age of 104, her publicist Lisa Goldberg told CNN.</p></div><div class="zn-body__paragraph speakable">The actress died Sunday of natural causes at her residence in Paris, Goldberg said. She lived in Paris for more than six decades.</div><div class="zn-body__paragraph speakable"><a href="https://www.cnn.com/2013/01/21/us/olivia-de-havilland-fast-facts/index.html" target="_blank">De Havilland</a> emerged as a star during the classic movie era -- first as a romantic partner for Errol Flynn in swashbucklers such as "Captain Blood" and "The Adventures of Robin Hood" and then as Melanie Hamilton Wilkes in "Gone With the Wind" (1939), considered the top moneymaking film of all time when adjusted for inflation.</div><div class="zn-body__paragraph speakable"> </div><div class="zn-body__paragraph speakable"><div class="zn-body__paragraph">By the late 1940s, she had become one of the screen's top actresses.</div><div class="ad ad--epic ad--tablet"> </div><div class="ad ad--epic ad--desktop"><div><div class="zn-body__paragraph">But her off-screen role in a lawsuit against her employer, Warner Bros., may have been her most notable achievement in Hollywood.</div><div class="zn-body__read-all"><div class="zn-body__paragraph">In 1943, de Havilland sued the studio after it attempted to extend her seven-year contract, which was expiring. Under the studio system, actors faced suspension without pay if they turned down roles, and the suspension time was added to their contracts.</div><div class="zn-body__paragraph"> </div><div class="zn-body__paragraph">De Havilland's eventual court victory helped shift the power from the big studios of that era to the mega-celebrities and powerful talent agencies of today.</div><div class="zn-body__paragraph">"Hollywood actors will be forever in Olivia's debt," de Havilland's friend and frequent co-star Bette Davis wrote in her autobiography, "The Lonely Life."</div><div class="zn-body__paragraph">De Havilland later recalled how rewarding the ruling was for her.</div><div class="zn-body__paragraph"> </div><div class="zn-body__paragraph">"I was very proud of that decision, for it corrected a serious abuse of the contract system --forced extension of a contract beyond its legal term. Among those who benefited by the decision were the actors who fought in World War II and who, throughout that conflict, were on suspension," the actress told the Screen Actors Guild in a 1994 interview.</div><div class="zn-body__paragraph"><div class="zn-body__paragraph"> </div><div class="zn-body__paragraph">In recent years, Jared Leto credited the so-called de Havilland Law for helping his band, Thirty Seconds to Mars, in a contract dispute with its record label.</div><div class="zn-body__paragraph">About three-quarters of a century after that landmark ruling, de Havilland lost a lawsuit she brought against the makers of the 2017 FX Networks miniseries, "Feud: Bette and Joan."</div><div class="zn-body__paragraph"> </div><div class="zn-body__paragraph">The US Supreme Court declined to review the case after the centenarian failed to convince a California appellate court that the filmmakers had depicted her in a false light and should have gotten her permission to be portrayed in the drama.</div><div class="zn-body__paragraph"> </div><div class="zn-body__paragraph"><div class="zn-body__paragraph"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7146269879,RESIZE_400x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-left" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7146269879,RESIZE_400x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="307" alt="7146269879?profile=RESIZE_400x" /></a>More importantly for de Havilland, she gained freedom to pursue better roles in award-winning films such as "To Each His Own" (1946), "The Snake Pit" (1948) and "The Heiress" (1949).</div><div class="zn-body__paragraph"> </div><div class="zn-body__paragraph">Her first Oscar win -- for "To Each His Own" -- also brought into the spotlight an often strained relationship with her famous younger sister, Joan Fontaine. At the 1947 ceremony, Fontaine tried to congratulate her sibling backstage, but de Havilland brushed her aside, reportedly telling her press agent, "I don't know why she does that when she knows how I feel."</div><div class="zn-body__paragraph"> </div><div class="zn-body__paragraph"><a href="https://www.cnn.com/2013/12/16/showbiz/joan-fontaine-obit/index.html" target="_blank">Fontaine, also an Oscar winner, died in December 2013</a>, at age 96, fueling press speculation about whether the sisters had ended one of Hollywood's most famous family feuds before her death.</div><div class="zn-body__paragraph"> </div><div class="zn-body__paragraph"> </div><div class="zn-body__paragraph"><div class="zn-body__paragraph">"I regret that I remember not one act of kindness from her all through my childhood," Fontaine said of her sister in her memoir, "No Bed of Roses."</div><div class="zn-body__paragraph">De Havilland rarely made any public remarks about her sibling. Asked about their relations in a 2006 interview with David Thomson, she replied, "How shall I put it? Well, let's just say they stand still."</div><div class="zn-body__paragraph">At the time of Fontaine's death, she issued a statement that she was "shocked and saddened" by the news.</div><div class="zn-body__paragraph"> </div><div class="zn-body__paragraph"><div class="zn-body__paragraph"><h3>Shakespeare, then swashbucklers</h3></div><div class="zn-body__paragraph">Olivia Mary de Havilland was born July 1, 1916, in Tokyo to British parents. Both Olivia and Joan were often ill as children, and their mother decided to return to England for treatment. A stopover in San Francisco led the trio to settle in Saratoga, California. Eventually the girls' parents divorced, and their mother remarried.</div><div class="zn-body__paragraph"> </div><div class="zn-body__paragraph">De Havilland caught the acting bug in a school production of "Alice in Wonderland." Her dedication to the craft led her to defy her stepfather's warning against appearing in plays and to leave home early before graduating from high school.</div><div class="zn-body__paragraph"> </div><div class="zn-body__paragraph">She got her first professional break as an understudy for Gloria Stuart (later the elderly Rose in "Titanic") in Max Reinhardt's production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream." After Stuart bowed out, de Havilland won the role of Hermia and made her stage debut in Shakespeare. The Hollywood Bowl appearance led to a contract with Warner Bros. and the 1935 film version of the play.</div><div class="zn-body__paragraph"> </div><div class="zn-body__paragraph"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7146299673,RESIZE_930x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-full" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7146299673,RESIZE_584x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="450" alt="7146299673?profile=RESIZE_584x" /></a></div><div class="zn-body__paragraph"> </div><div class="zn-body__paragraph"><div class="zn-body__paragraph">But another 1935 movie made her a star, at age 19, ensuring her immortality as part of a great screen team. "Captain Blood" was the first of eight films pairing de Havilland with Errol Flynn.</div><div class="zn-body__paragraph"> </div><div class="zn-body__paragraph">De Havilland later said her swashbuckling co-star was her first love but that the timing was never right, especially for the wayward Flynn.</div><div class="zn-body__paragraph"> </div><div class="zn-body__paragraph">"I had a great crush on him," she told The New York Times in 1976. "Eventually, he got one on me. It was inevitable to fall in love with him. He was so naughty and so charming."</div><div class="zn-body__paragraph"> </div><div class="zn-body__paragraph">Flynn perhaps set the tone for their relationship by playing practical jokes on his co-star, even hiding a snake once in her panties before a costume change.</div><div class="zn-body__paragraph"> </div><div class="zn-body__paragraph">"It slowly penetrated my obtuse mind that such juvenile pranks weren't the way to any girl's heart. But it was too late. I couldn't soften her," Flynn admits in his autobiography, "My Wicked, Wicked Ways," noting he had fallen for de Havilland by their second film, "The Charge of the Light Brigade" (1936).</div><div class="zn-body__paragraph"> </div><div class="zn-body__paragraph">While the movies with Flynn were popular, the roles were rarely challenging. The actress began to feel trapped playing beautiful but demure heroines.</div><div class="zn-body__paragraph"> </div><div class="zn-body__paragraph"><div class="zn-body__paragraph"><h3>Memories of Melanie</h3></div><div class="zn-body__paragraph">When Margaret Mitchell's "Gone With the Wind" became a huge bestseller in the late '30s, every actress seemed to be vying for the role of Scarlett O'Hara, the selfish, headstrong heroine. But not de Havilland. She had her eyes on Melanie, Scarlett's sweet and sympathetic sister-in-law.</div><div class="zn-body__paragraph"> </div><div class="zn-body__paragraph">"Scarlett didn't interest me at all. She was a career girl, after all, and I was a career girl," <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/07/movies/moviesspecial/the-good-girl-gets-the-last-word.html" target="_blank">the actress told The New York Times in 2004</a>. "Melanie was something else. She is a happy woman, she is a loving woman, and you cannot say Scarlett was loving."</div><div class="zn-body__paragraph"> </div><div class="zn-body__paragraph">The only obstacle for de Havilland was her contract with Warner Bros., which was reluctant to loan her to producer David O. Selznick for the film.</div><div class="zn-body__paragraph"> </div><div class="zn-body__paragraph">De Havilland, then in her early 20s, strategized about how to win the part, deciding to make her case before the boss' wife. Over tea, the actress pleaded with Ann Warner to intervene on her behalf. Jack L. Warner finally relented, and de Havilland headed to Selznick International to make what many in Hollywood thought was going to be a disaster.</div><div class="zn-body__paragraph"> </div><div class="zn-body__paragraph">But the star later told writer Gavin Lambert she always knew the movie would be "something special, something which would last forever."</div><div class="zn-body__paragraph"><div class="zn-body__paragraph">Melanie was the first of de Havilland's roles to downplay her attractiveness. It also revealed her affinity for playing "good girls."</div><div class="zn-body__paragraph"> </div><div class="zn-body__paragraph">"I think they're more challenging," she explained to the Times in 2004. "Because the general concept is that if you're good, you aren't interesting. And that concept annoys me, frankly."</div><div class="zn-body__paragraph"> </div><div class="zn-body__paragraph">De Havilland earned the first of five Oscar nominations with a best supporting actress nod for "Gone With the Wind," but she lost to co-star Hattie McDaniel, who became the first African American to win an Academy Award.</div><div class="zn-body__paragraph"> </div><div class="zn-body__paragraph"><div class="zn-body__paragraph"><h3>A studio fight, then a career peak</h3></div><div class="zn-body__paragraph"> </div><div class="zn-body__paragraph">Returning to Warner Bros. after "Gone With the Wind" was not easy. De Havilland discovered she would have a supporting role in a film with Flynn. Bette Davis was the leading lady in "The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex," with de Havilland reduced to the queen's lady-in-waiting.</div><div class="zn-body__paragraph"> </div><div class="zn-body__paragraph">Good roles for actresses were hard to come by at the studio known for its tough, masculine image, and Davis ruled the roost as its lone major female star.</div><div class="zn-body__paragraph"> </div><div class="zn-body__paragraph">De Havilland began to defy Warner Bros., rejecting parts in films she didn't like and taking suspensions.</div><div class="zn-body__paragraph"> </div><div class="zn-body__paragraph">In one bright spot, she scored a best actress nomination for another loan-out deal, "Hold Back the Dawn" (1941), as a spinsterish schoolteacher who falls for European refugee Charles Boyer as he's struggling to enter the United States. She lost again, this time to her sister, Fontaine, who won for "Suspicion" (1941).</div><div class="zn-body__paragraph"> </div><div class="zn-body__paragraph">De Havilland was ready to move on when her contract expired. However, Warner Bros. had other ideas, tacking on 25 weeks from her suspensions to the contract.</div><div class="zn-body__paragraph"> </div><div class="zn-body__paragraph">She decided to take legal action, a risky move that would keep her off the screen for nearly three years. If she lost the lawsuit, her Hollywood career might be over.</div><div class="zn-body__paragraph"> </div><div class="zn-body__paragraph"><div class="zn-body__paragraph">"I really had no choice but to fight," the actress recalled to the Los Angeles Times in 2006.</div><div class="zn-body__paragraph"> </div><div class="zn-body__paragraph">The California Court of Appeal for the 2nd District upheld a lower court ruling in de Havilland's favor, finding that a personal service contract was limited to a calendar year of seven years.</div><div class="zn-body__paragraph"> </div><div class="zn-body__paragraph">Studio chief Warner admitted in his autobiography that de Havilland had "licked" him. He noted his onetime star "had a brain like a computer concealed behind those fawnlike brown eyes."</div><div class="zn-body__paragraph"> </div><div class="zn-body__paragraph">De Havilland now was able to plot her career. Within three years, she had won two Academy Awards.</div><div class="zn-body__paragraph"> </div><div class="zn-body__paragraph">She displayed a new versatility in "To Each His Own," moving in flashbacks from a young unwed mother who loses her son to a middle-aged businesswoman. "The Dark Mirror," also from 1946, showcased de Havilland in dual roles as identical twins -- one good and the other a disturbed killer.</div><div class="zn-body__paragraph"> </div><div class="zn-body__paragraph">But she really came into her own as an actress with the "The Snake Pit" and "The Heiress."</div><div class="zn-body__paragraph"> </div><div class="zn-body__paragraph">The former -- a look at a woman who spirals into mental illness -- appears dated today, but critics in 1948 praised the movie and actress for tackling such a serious subject.</div><div class="zn-body__paragraph"> </div><div class="zn-body__paragraph">De Havilland reached the peak of her career in William Wyler's "The Heiress" as Catherine Sloper, a plain, awkward girl courted by a fortune hunter for her inheritance. She becomes an embittered woman who turns the tables on a cold, unloving father (Ralph Richardson) and her suitor (Montgomery Clift).</div><div class="zn-body__paragraph"><div class="zn-body__paragraph"> </div><div class="zn-body__paragraph">This adaptation of a play based on Henry James' "Washington Square" won de Havilland her second Oscar for best actress.</div><div class="zn-body__paragraph"> </div><div class="zn-body__paragraph"><div class="zn-body__paragraph"><h3>Later years</h3></div><div class="zn-body__paragraph"> </div><div class="zn-body__paragraph">De Havilland's screen career inevitably began to cool in the 1950s and '60s, although she still had memorable roles in "My Cousin Rachel" (1952) and "Light in the Piazza" (1962). She teamed up with Davis in "Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte" (1964), a follow-up to "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?" (1962). In a surprise twist, de Havilland had the villainous role.</div><div class="zn-body__paragraph"> </div><div class="zn-body__paragraph">She also appeared on Broadway in "Romeo and Juliet," "Candida" and "A Gift of Time" with Henry Fonda. In the '70s and '80s, she took supporting roles in disaster movies such as "Airport '77" (1977) and "The Swarm" (1978) and on television in "Roots: The Next Generations," the 1979 sequel to the landmark miniseries. She received an Emmy nomination for best supporting actress in a miniseries or special for one of her final roles, "Anastasia: The Mystery of Anna" (1986).</div><div class="zn-body__paragraph"> </div><div class="zn-body__paragraph"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7146361081,RESIZE_400x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-left" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7146361081,RESIZE_400x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="307" alt="7146361081?profile=RESIZE_400x" /></a></div><div class="zn-body__paragraph"> </div><div class="zn-body__paragraph"><div class="zn-body__paragraph">She retired from acting in the late '80s but continued to make public appearances and receive honors for her long career, including the <a href="https://www.arts.gov/honors/medals/olivia-de-havilland" target="_blank">National Medal of Arts</a> in 2008 "for her lifetime achievements and contributions to American culture as an actress" and France's Legion of Honor in 2010.</div><div class="zn-body__paragraph"> </div><div class="zn-body__paragraph">In June 2017, <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/621349/prime_ministers_list_queens_birthday_honours_2017.pdf" target="_blank">Britain's Queen Elizabeth II made de Havilland a dame</a> "for services to drama" -- two weeks' shy of her 101st birthday.</div><div class="zn-body__paragraph"> </div><div class="zn-body__paragraph">The star was known for dating many notable bachelors in her Hollywood heyday, including Howard Hughes, James Stewart and director John Huston. She was married, and divorced, twice -- first to writer Marcus Goodrich and then Paris Match editor Pierre Galante. Her son, Benjamin Goodrich, died in 1991 from complications of Hodgkin lymphoma. Daughter Gisèle Galante is a journalist.</div><div class="zn-body__paragraph"> </div><div class="zn-body__paragraph">News accounts often reported the actress was working on a long-awaited autobiography, but nothing appeared during her lifetime. She did write a 1962 memoir about her life in France called "Every Frenchman Has One."</div><div class="zn-body__paragraph"> </div><div class="zn-body__paragraph"><div class="zn-body__paragraph">De Havilland survived virtually all of her contemporaries from the movies' golden age -- even writing a tribute to the younger Mickey Rooney for Time when he passed away in April 2014. Ironically, the sickly Melanie died near the end of "Gone With the Wind," yet the actress who played her long outlived co-stars Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh, Leslie Howard and McDaniel.</div><div class="zn-body__paragraph"> </div><div class="zn-body__paragraph">Asked two decades ago to explain her longevity, this "Steel Magnolia" told a Screen Actors Guild interviewer, "I don't understand the question -- I'm only 78 years old!"</div><div class="zn-body__paragraph"> </div><div class="zn-body__paragraph">Article written by Lee Smith and Chuck Johnson for <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/26/entertainment/olivia-de-havilland-dies/index.html" target="_blank">CNN</a></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="zn-body__paragraph"> </div></div><div class="zn-body__paragraph"> </div></div></div></div></div></div></div>