Category Archives: The Rundown

Jack Black and Angelina Jolie on Kung Fu Panda 2, Getting Physical and the Good Bad Guy

Posted on May 25, 2011 by James Rocchi

While not part of the official selections at Cannes, someone at Paramount studios must figured that if you have to have the stars of “Kung Fu Panda 2″ meet the press, well, why not do it in the South of France? Especially since the first “Panda” played there out-of-competition back in 2008 — and also probably in no small part because Angelina Jolie probably had family plans to travel with “Tree of Life” star Brad Pitt …

Sitting with Jack Black and Jolie, the voices of Po the Panda and Tigress, I asked exactly to what degree either of them acted out while in the recording booth; does the kung-fu spirit move them to move? Jolie thought so: “It can get pretty physical.” Black, renowned for his distinctive physicality on-screen, was even more sure: “I do like to mimic any of the moves that Panda’s going to do. I like to do it, too, so I get the vocalizations just right.”

As a sequel, “Kung Fu Panda 2″ is also in 3D — so, I asked Jolie, how did everyone involved make sure that the film wasn’t just bigger but also better? “Why it stands out is because so many animated films are great, but (‘Panda 2′) does stand on its own in that it’s an ancient story, it’s a classic, and it feels like a classic with kung fu and animals and fun.” Jolie explained that many of the merits of “Kung Fu Panda 2″ were revealed to her in the making of it.”It has a beautiful message in it. We knew that — (but) I didn’t know exactly which ones, and then we discovered that they were about family and inner peace and coming to terms with who you are and friendship and loyalty. It was what we’d hoped for, and better than I imagined.”

With Black, his excitement about the sequel was a little more down to earth — and all about Gary Oldman’s bad guy, an albino peacock named Lord Shen. “I love that it had a great new villain with a very evil and intriguing plan. At the same time, Po had this inner journey that he was going to take to find out who he really is — and to find inner peace is the only way to truly kick ass. It seemed like a really good, fun movie.”

As Po, Black has a mix of enthusiasm and observational irony; how hard is it, I wondered, for him to get into that headspace? “It’s pretty easy. It’s basically me in my teen years — that’s how I think of it. The first movie, Po was me when I was 10 years old, and this one’s me when I was 13, 14. The next one will probably be …” ‘Kung Fu College,’ I asked? ” Black shrugged: “Who knows? I didn’t know where that was going. It might be a prequel. We might go back — before I was born. Haley Joel Osment will take over.”

With animation, having a great actor as the new villain is all well and good — until you realize that you may never be in the same room with him. So did Jolie and Black feel mixed emotions about having Oldman join the cast but not necessarily them? Jolie nodded: “Absolutely. We think, ‘I’m finally doing a movie with Gary Oldman — but he’s a peacock and I’m a tiger and we’re not on the same team.’ The other side of it is … who cares? I just get to do a movie with Gary Oldman. ” Black also felt that having someone with bad guy experience was imperative: “Yeah, he’s always been one of my favorites. He’s done so many great ones over the years. That was the big question: ‘Who’s going to be the peacock? Who’s going to be the villain?’ When I heard Gary Oldman’s name, my heart’s like, ‘Come on … please come true.’”

–From my article at The Rundown

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Linda Cardellini on Cannes and Return

Posted on May 25, 2011 by James Rocchi

One of the more sacred-and-profane contrasts of the 64th Cannes Film Festival came with the press notes for Liza Johnson’s “Return.” The only American film in the Director’s Fortnight, “The Return” press notes promised careful drama, as star Linda Cardellini plays a National Guard member coming home after deployment overseas … and at the same time, made sure that Cardellini’s bio mentioned her most well-known big screen effort, “Scooby-Doo.”

Talking with Cardellini on a sunny rooftop, it’s clear that doing “Return” was, for her, a way to get away from some of that. “I was in New York to do some things, try to get some New York jobs from Los Angeles, and I got sent this script. The next day I met Liza. I thought, ‘Wow, what a role for an actress — my God.’ I’d taken a step back after I finished ‘ER,’ and I was really waiting for something that moved me.”

Most interesting for Cardellini was the fact that her character Kelli is, for lack of a better phrase, gloriously messy. “Every time you think she’s going to get it together, it unravels a little bit more. It’s like she was away at work, but there’s also a little bit of a fight that she’s having at home, trying to feel comfortable again and trying to feel herself again. The idea that Liza wouldn’t really let me have the rage or have the tears, it was really a gift to be able to hold all those things in and try to find ways to communicate those things without doing the obvious.”

Another gift? Having Michael Shannon (“Boardwalk Empire,” “World Trade Center”) play Kelli’s husband — and play him as a perfectly average guy. “I find Michael to be incredibly warm and humorous and loveable, to which he is totally surprised that I would say that about him. He’s exciting to work with because you don’t know what you’re going to get, and what you’re going to get is great. It’s incredibly fun to work with him in the serious stuff and in the fun stuff.”

As for winding up in the only American film in the Director’s Fortnight, that was all right for Cardellini, too. “I was the most stereotypical version of a person who was excited. I’ve never really had this experience, except I was comparing it to something that is completely ridiculous — when I auditioned for ‘The Price is Right’ I jumped up and down and started screaming uncontrollably, and I had that exact same reaction when Liza called me. It was so exciting, because we worked so hard, and I may be the person that you see the most, but there were so many people that worked so hard and gave up so much to work on this film because they really believed in it. The idea that we would be able to celebrate it for the first time ever here in Cannes, it was the most ridiculous privilege.”

“It’s funny because I was getting depressed about something, and somebody told me, ‘Whenever you feel depressed, just remember how you felt when Liza called you and told you the film got into Cannes.’ It’s true: It’s a moment I can go back to and just feel pure joy. The funniest part about it is the DP, the director, myself, and our significant others are all staying together in an apartment, sharing it dorm-style, so we’re still living the independent film lifestyle here in Cannes. It’s a little bit like still being the underdogs of the thing that is so giant and glamorous. That, to me, is always fun.”

“Return” is currently seeking distribution.

–From my article at The Rundown

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Antonio Banderas on Almódovar and The Skin I Live In

Posted on May 25, 2011 by James Rocchi

One of the most intriguing collaborations at Cannes was between Antonio Banderas and writer-director Pedro Almódovar for the twisty, bizarre “The Skin I Live In” — a film too strange to spoil — that also saw the director and writer reunited for the sixth time … resuming after a 21-year pause in the wake of 1990′s “Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!”

Meeting the press, Banderas — a handsome and trim 50 — explained how he came to play mad plastic surgeon Dr. Ledgard. “Do you know, it happened here in Cannes. It was 8, 9 years ago — truth — that Pedro told me the story, referring to the novel (‘Mygale,’ by Thierry Jonquet), and we started talking. Then the thing started getting cooler, and I thought at some point that it almost disappeared: He probably went in another direction, was not interested in the story anymore. Then what happened, actually, out of the blue … I was in New York. I got in my car that was taking me to my house, and suddenly there’s a phone call. ‘Hey Pedro, what’s up?’ He says, ‘It’s time.’ I said, ‘Sure.’”

“I didn’t cry. But it was beautiful, because Pedro is part of my life, part of my career. We were presenting the movie the other day at the Palais, it was almost like reproducing the feelings we used to have when we were with the ‘Law of Desire’ and ‘Matador’ and all those movies. The festivals and the people were startled; they didn’t know what they were watching, they didn’t know how to put it, what department of the brain they were going to store the things. The hard drive was saying, ‘No!’ But then, with the years, the people could divide that, they metabolize the meditative processes and started recognizing Almodóvar as something that they could actually have access to.”

“Another surprise, when it came to work with Pedro this time, I found he was content, more complex, more serious maybe, more profound in certain areas. The shape of it and the form of it, more minimalist, more precise, more austere — probably that’s the word. But then the interesting thing that I discovered is at 60 years old my friend has his engine still pumping big time. He’s not becoming a crowd-pleaser; he’s not just doing accommodating to what the audiences expect from him, but stretching a little bit more to the limits his own narrative process to a point of almost fear. When we were working on movies — ‘Oh my God, where are we going?’ It’s almost like getting on the verge of a cliff and he’s asking you to jump.”

Which is Banderas’s favorite collaboration with Almódovar? “The last one, because the last one is the new one, is the freshest one, is me now. The rest is past.” And Banderas has no time for regretting how time moves on — and is even a little eager to leave his romantic leading man parts behind. “I think there is a time for everything. You cannot play a Latin lover at 60 years old really. I don’t see myself doing that much longer. I don’t have anything against firemen, but if I play a fireman five times in my life, I don’t like them anymore. It’s simple. Do I have anything against the fire department? No. I just want to play more. I think there are more people in life and there are more circumstances, more stuff, more characters that I would love to play that I think I can do.”

–From my article at The Rundown

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Ryan Gosling, Drive and Cannes

Posted on May 25, 2011 by James Rocchi

At the end of Cannes, everyone’s looking for a little bit of a release from the serious social commentary and inspirational art of some of the films — and this year, they got it with “Drive,” Nicolas Winding Refn’s crime thriller starring Ryan Gosling (“Blue Valentine,” “The Notebook”) as a driver-for-hire in both Hollywood and L.A.’s underworld. Speaking with Gosling the next day beachside, the 30-year-old actor was a little taken aback by the crowd’s reaction to the film the night before. “I was shocked. I didn’t expect people to cheer. They almost started dancing at one point toward the end. I didn’t expect it to be so much … I didn’t expect people to have so much fun. But I think you’re right: It does have a lot to do with the timing.”

I asked Gosling what it was like to do the rehearsals and run-throughs for a Cannes premiere; he smiled. “I had spent the night before — at 2 a.m. we went to the Palais …” — Cannes’ main building — “… just 5 or 6 of us, and we went and sat and watched a little bit of the print to check the color and to check the sound. Apparently they only go to 7, but we made them go up to 7.5. ”

“It was a very special experience to get to be there alone and see the film, walk around in the theatre while it was empty. It made going there the next day less nerve-wracking. Then, of course, REO Speedwagon’s (‘I Can’t Fight this Feeling Anymore’ is) playing when we came down the red carpet. I was wearing a blue tuxedo, and I felt like me and Nic (Refn) were going to prom. Then everyone seemed to have so much fun in the screening. It was a magical night.”

Gosling — who hand-picked Refn to direct “Drive” — feels like the film is both a great action film and a commentary on action films, describing his character Driver as “… someone who’s seen too many movies. It feels to me like he’s someone who had seen so many movies that they began to confuse their own life for one.” At the same time, Driver’s not a traditional action-hero full of one-liners and snappy dialogue. “A lot of action movie heroes are full of bluster. The only time he says he’s going to kick somebody’s ass is when he means it; otherwise he can be a little girl. He doesn’t come on to the girl (Carey Mulligan) very hard. We never really talked about those classic archetypical characters, ‘the strong silent type.’ Every time I started talking — maybe it was just me — but it didn’t feel right.”

I asked Gosling about Driver and how the movie is short on any ‘backstory,’ for Driver, which made me wonder if Gosling thought about the character that way. He smiled. “I’m used to figuring out the minutia of the character, and Nicolas could care less. He wants to think in dream logic. The film was so freeing to think that way — that this movie’s a dream that’s turning into a nightmare, and we’re experiencing this story from inside the driver’s world. This could be his fantasy or his nightmare; it’s not literal, so we didn’t really think about those things.”

–From my article at The Rundown

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Drive to Succeed — Ryan Gosling in Cannes

Posted on May 25, 2011 by James Rocchi

Working with Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn, Ryan Gosling had no worries about trying to capture L.A.’s nighttime world with a foreign film maker. “I think it was a nice chemistry, because my favorite thing to do in Los Angeles is drive around at night and listen to music. I like listening to Art Laboe, who’s this guy — you know him? He does this show where families call in to their other family members who are in prison, and they dedicate songs to one another. Some woman will dedicate a song to a guy named Winky who’s getting out in six months, — ‘Stay safe and keep his head down.’ I started taking Nic into that world, which is driving around at night and listening to music and this spell that the car puts you under: You get in the car, you turn the key, and then suddenly you’ve arrived at your destination, and you don’t remember how you got there, that trance that it puts you in. And the movie became more about driving than stunts, and it became more about being in the car than the car itself.”

Gosling’s character may not say much, but the actor clearly has plenty to say about his work: “I think we tried to make a werewolf movie without the makeup. There’s a violence in (Driver) that he’s afraid of, and I think he’s in a race to try and find a good cause that he can channel it into before it turns on him.” And as for the connection his character has with Carey Mulligan’s single mom Irene, “It’s a nonsexual connection. That’s what I think is the key for us. When we took out the sexuality, it became more about that he was her knight and his duty was to serve her in any way — and to die for her — that was his destiny. She was a princess locked in the tower, and he needed to defend her and slay a dragon.”

Less metaphorically, Gosling also learned how to drive — really drive — for the film, even if he couldn’t do quite as many of his own stunts as he wanted to. “It was frustrating because I had learned how to actually do the stunts, so I wanted to do them. You have to shoot them and you have to set up rigs and lights, and that part of it was frustrating. But it does look beautiful. The process of learning how to drive was pretty exciting. Working with our stunt coordinator Darrin Prescott, we go into this church parking lot. There’d be a new Camaro or a new Mustang, and we would do stunts until it started smoking, or catch on fire. Then some tow truck would take it away and we’d go home and wait until they found us another car. I’ve never had more fun on a film — never. It’s hard because it’s a skill that you can’t use; it’s a hobby you can’t really indulge. There’s nowhere to do it.”

So, I asked Gosling, let’s suggest that this movie makes a lot of money — and someone suggests a sequel. Would he be interested at all in getting behind the wheel again? Gosling’s face lights up with a mix of enthusiasm and loyalty. “Only if Nic does. I’d never do it without him.

Look at what he did with the ‘Pusher’ trilogy; I’ve never seen anyone do that …” Gosling’s face turns into a mischievous smile as fast as a bootlegger’s turn: “Maybe we direct it together and there’s a different driver. …” “Drive” will come to theaters this fall.

–From my article at The Rundown

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Cannes Kudos: Tilda Swinton of We Need to Talk About Kevin

Posted on May 18, 2011 by James Rocchi

On the second day of this year’s Cannes Film Festival, one actress emerged as the frontrunner for acting honors — Tilda Swinton, playing a mother living in the wake of her teen son’s killing spree in the film version of Lionel Shriver’s novel “We Need to Talk About Kevin.” Directed by Lynne Ramsay, “Kevin” is a stark and grim story of guilt, shame and sadness — and yet Swinton’s performance is full of as much light as it is darkness, and contains hope with the hurt. I had the chance to speak with Swinton in Cannes about the film’s long, challenged production and about the specific challenges it offered her as an actress.

“There was no script when I was first talking to Lynne about this film. The script evolved during the course of our developments. I would say that the rollercoaster moment — apart from the rollercoaster moment yesterday, when we first showed the film to an audience — was probably when I read the book. (I) was so caught by this material, the taboo that Lionel Shriver, in her novel, approaches — the idea of a woman in this predicament of having a baby that she doesn’t have a bond with. (When) I realized what (Shriver) was dealing with, it felt to me such uncharted territory — certainly in terms of fiction, in terms of cinema — that it’s really new territory that’s a taboo subject.”

For all of the tension and trauma in “Kevin,” Swinton didn’t find herself especially haunted. “I’m always reminding people that making films is easier than watching them in the sense that we have a long time and bite-sized chunks to chew things through. We were aware that what we wanted to do was keep the entire territory of the film ambiguous … because of course the film is a fantasy. It’s part reverie; it’s certainly nightmare. Who knows if it’s true? I think very early on, I hope, the audience becomes clear that we’re not dealing in truths, we’re not dealing in facts, we’re not in the court of law, we’re not dealing in any kind of judgment. We’re dealing with a human cesspit of worst-case scenarios. We’re entering the woman’s psyche, really. It’s a virtual notebook of all the possible ramifications she could imagine.”

Swinton was also delighted with the fact the film was at Cannes: “What’s the downside of that? That’s the best news we could have got. Literally. It was what we dreamed of. Making little independent films — this is a little independent film with the modest ambition of breaking new ground cinematically. It’s really, really tough out there, particularly now, to get cinema like this out there and into the cinemas. It’s a little bit like you need to take your pig to market, and if you get into a big competition slot in a big festival, particularly Cannes, you get a juggernaut driven up to your door, and you get to sit in a very plush cabin as your pig is ceremoniously driven to market, meaning the cinemas. If you don’t, then it’s really tough.”

“The very fact that you’re all here talking about it and thinking about it, that’s all we ask: We don’t want much more than that. The fact that it’s well-received is almost too much to ask.” In our dwindling time, I ask Swinton if she reads her own reviews; her ice-blue eyes smile. “I will read them eventually. I don’t necessarily read them in the middle of a day like today … but I like to hear that it’s all going very well.”

–From my article at The Rundown

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John C. Reilly and Ezra Miller of We Need to Talk About Kevin on Evil, Independence and Cannes

Posted on May 18, 2011 by James Rocchi

As the distracted-but-doting father in ‘We Need to Talk About Kevin,” John C. Reilly plays an affable, warm man who may not have all the facts; as the title teen, Ezra Miller is magnetically malevolent. But sitting down to talk about the film, the two laughed and complimented each other on their press-day wardrobes. Reilly, in a blue jacket and straw fedora, laughed as Miller flipped over copies of that day’s “Metro” paper that featured Miller’s face on the cover: “I’m just a little perturbed by sitting and looking at what looks like a jury of my peers that are myself staring back at me. It’s a little strange to me still; I guess I’m not acclimated.” Reilly explained how “I prefer to be overdressed than underdressed. My self-esteem is low enough; I don’t need to drag myself down further.” He nodded towards co-star Miller: “You don’t know what that’s like: You’re a golden child.”

Reilly felt lucky, though, as he explained coming on board the film: “I was obsessed with Lynne Ramsay for years and years. I loved ‘Ratcatcher’ and ‘Morvern Callar’ and it’s been some years since ‘Morvern Callar’ came out. I was like, ‘What happened to that woman? I’ve got to find out what happened.’ I called my agent at the time, and I said, ‘Here’s the directors I want to work with.’ The first person I said was Lynne, and he said, ‘Actually, it’s funny you mention that. She’s just written the script, and she wants you to do it.’ And here we are at Cannes.

Reilly and Miller both praised how Ramsay and co-writer Rory Kinnear transformed Shriver’s original novel — which is written as a series of letters — into, as Reilly put it, something new, “Instead of this corny voiceover treatment of a diary kind of thing.” Miller shuddered: “The horror of voiceover.”

Reilly didn’t take a Cannes debut for granted, but he also didn’t think it was that unlikely: “We had high hopes, and Lynne has had good success here at Cannes in the past; Tilda is beloved here. I knew — if the movie came together in the way that Lynne wants it to — ‘I think we have a shot there.’ When the news finally came — and it came late; they don’t really let you know until right before — it was much celebration around the world, because all of us are scattered all over the world right after we shot it.”

Less happy, for Miller, was trying to get into Kevin’s toxic mindset. “For me, it was about really trying to create the internal conditions of someone who’s, in a certain way, neglected, and how that development tracks from an incredibly young age. Adolescence — which is where my Kevin appears — is the moment when everything you felt throughout your childhood takes on this very distinct black-and-white clarity and you feel so righteous and certain in your course of action. Kevin is furious that there’s so much inauthenticity that he’s been treated with his entire life. Essentially for me the most important thing was really having no judgment of him whatsoever, just fully feeling all of that constantly — which was, indeed, a little traumatizing.” Miller laughed: “But in a good way.”

–From my article at The Rundown

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Famke Janssen: From Red Carpet to the Market at Cannes

Posted on May 18, 2011 by James Rocchi

In 2006, actress Famke Janssen walked the red carpet at Cannes with the world debut of “X-Men: The Last Stand.” In 2011, Janssen’s back at Cannes — but this time as a first time director hoping to find distributors and buzz for her film “Bringing Up Bobby,” which stars Milla Jovovich and Spencer List as a mother and son whose life of cons and crimes comes to a sudden, wrenching end.

Speaking in a rooftop garden, Janssen explained that making the jump from acting to directing wasn’t an impulse decision. “I’ve wanted to do this for a long time, waited for the right moment, opportunity, time, all of that. About 15 years ago when I thought of heading in that direction, then my life got detoured and I got into acting. But because it was so hard and so challenging, I applied to film school … got accepted, and then I got offered the part in (1995 Bond re-boot) ‘GoldenEye.’ So I have been acting for all these years now and hoping that there was going to be the right time to do this.”

Directing, though, was far more challenging than anything Janssen’s ever done; as she explained, “You have to keep going; no matter what happens, you have to keep going. Because it was a 3-year process — I had to raise the money myself and do all of it — at some point I was too deep into it, and there were many tears shed over this movie. It was so hard, there were so many disappointments and so many challenges and I sacrificed so much: I hadn’t worked as an actress, and I hadn’t been making any money, but I was so deep into it. You have to keep moving forward.”

Still, I asked, it must make it easier to raise money as Famke Janssen than as, say, an unknown citizen. “It probably does. I think those things can probably go both ways, because, unfortunately, the perception people may have of me might be different from who I am in reality, because I’ve done movies like ‘X-Men.’ For the larger audiences, I am known for the more action-y genre type films than I am for some of the independent films that I’ve done, so maybe some of these people would have had the perception that wouldn’t really have helped get money on the table for this film. I was extremely serious about it, and I had a very strong vision and idea of how I wanted to shoot the film. That helps, certainly. That got me the money in the end.”

Being in the Cannes market is very different from being part of the formal festival, and Janssen knows it: “It’s very different. I was not at the screening yesterday, because I had been warned about that, that as a filmmaker, it’s not a good place to be. People walk in and out at random — or probably not so random. 5 minutes: ‘I don’t like this movie.’ Or 5 minutes: ‘I’ve got to go see another movie.’ Or whatever the reasons are — but disheartening for a filmmaker. Yes, it’s very different to be at the market. I’ve been on the other side of it: I’ve been on the glamorous red carpet.”

Different, but welcome: “It’s so liberating to me, because what I find when you come to places like this as an actor and you’re in the spotlight, it’s all this fuss to get you ready, and it’s these little fluffy bits — they want sound bites; they want pictures of you looking good. It’s in those moments that you feel very much out of place, because it’s not really how I am. How am I supposed to survive in an environment like this? It feels awkward. I’m the person who walks around in her sneakers all over New York; I’m not really that glamorous of a person. That part is not really the part I enjoy. I really enjoy the part, funnily enough, of going to work really early in the morning, getting some coffee while I’m getting my makeup done, or going to set as a director and calling action at 5 o’clock in the morning and getting down and dirty and all that stuff. This feels good to me; this feels fun, and I actually get to speak in a few sentences as opposed to some sound bites and express my views and opinions. That’s nice.”

–From my article at The Rundown

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Director Rob Marshall and Ian McShane: The Bold and the Bad in Pirates IV

Posted on May 18, 2011 by James Rocchi

Making “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides,” for director Rob Marshall, was a daunting prospect after musicals like “Chicago” and “Nine.” How important was it, I asked, to have Johnny Depp as a collaborator and co-conspirator? “It was everything. He is extraordinary, I have to say. For me, I’ve never met anyone like him. He’s such a genius; he’s such a creative force. He’s really a throwback to another time: He’s such a gentleman. He comes on the set and shakes everybody’s hand. What an amazing leader to have with me. I felt spoiled, to be quite honest.”

Ian McShane, as the pirate Blackbeard, also felt the challenge in the film’s scale and scope — especially when in full costume. Most interesting, for McShane? The detail, taken from legend, of the tips of the braids on Blackbeard’s beard being on fire. “There were no flaming tips when I put (the beard) on. You’ve got a safety concern. We tried it once with a smoke effect under the beard. We came out on deck, it was one gust of wind, and it looked like somebody was under there smoking a huge Havana cigar because the smoke kept blowing from nowhere. We decided to do that in CG. They added that afterward, because it was physically too difficult. That beard in its natural form was difficult enough — because it came with 3 pieces, it had to be kept under my own and glued down and then stitched and anchored with magnets. It was quite a performance, but it made the character.”

McShane also got into the joy of it all, fake beard or no. “Acting is such a fun thing to do, if you like it. It’s really good. You get lucky to do it, (especially) if it’s something like this, which is like a childhood fantasy. I remember seeing Burt Lancaster pirate films as a kid, loving them — then they went out of fashion for a while. The first one, with Johnny’s iconic performance as Jack Sparrow — that’s what it is — it’s a terrific, comic performance. He’s the reason why we’re all here.”

And the film’s demands even inspired McShane to both pass on a vacation and to get back from the disabled list. “I had just come back from doing this big series called ‘Pillars of the Earth’ last year, and I had just had a rotator cuff operation. I was settling into 5 months of nice rehab at the beach here where I live, and they came, Jerry (Bruckheimer, producer) and Rob (Marshall): ‘Will you do Blackbeard?’ Which inspired me to do more rehab, so the arm was in good shape by the time we started doing (the) fencing.”

Still, I suggested, it must be flattering to join a huge franchise like the “Pirates” movies as the bad guy. “Very flattering, and as long as you’ve got the right costume and the right look, you’re onto work. I do think that’s the important part of it. It’s immaculately done, marvelous detail. That’s the magic, because it gets you in the mood, gets you into the background of the character and what you’re doing, and base of reality to explore this madness that’s going on, the search for the eternal fountain of youth — which we all want, I guess.” McShane pondered for a moment: McShane pondered for a moment: “I don’t think I do anymore; I’m very happy.”

–From my article at The Rundown

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Bridesmaids Scene-Stealer Melissa McCarthy

Posted on May 11, 2011 by James Rocchi

In the Kristen Wiig comedy “Bridesmaids,” a big part of the comedy is the ensemble cast around Wiig’s manic maid of honor. Part of that group, which includes Rose Byrne, Ellie Kemper and Wendi McLendon-Covey, is Melissa McCarthy’s Megan, whose take-no-prisoners, no-holds-barred bluntness means she steals every scene she’s in. McCarthy, a veteran of L.A.’s infamous Groundlings comedy improv group, explained when we met that after years of development, the call that the script was going into production — with her up for a role — came as a shock.

“They said, ‘Why don’t you come in and read for this part, Megan.’ I got it, and I thought, ‘Oh my God, she’s out there and, as weird as it sounds, is maybe right in my wheelhouse.’ People think she’s so odd, but she’s kind of similar to the women I always do at Groundlings that I love — I love me some Midwestern eccentric women. I guess I’ll say it that way.”

While keeping to a film’s script is different from improvisation, McCarthy also knew that “Bridesmaids” would give her room to stretch. “I think it’s a delicate balance. It’s not that loose and free. If you’re lucky enough to get a fantastic script, and there’s fully formed characters, then you can improvise. You’re changing the joke or the noun. You get more freedom when you already have such a great roadmap to go with. You have to wrap it up.”

“I can’t tell you how many times once Paul (Feig, director) would yell ‘cut,’ (and) I was like, ‘I’m sorry, that’s a four-and-a-half minute story that is never going to see the light of day because I can’t talk about my love affair with a dolphin for six-and-a-half minutes and expect (it) to show up somewhere.’ You do have to keep it brief, get your points out, and hopefully have it be funny.”

If Megan’s dialogue comes as a surprise to the audience, that’s in no small part because it often came as a surprise to McCarthy. “I guess I don’t know why I say a lot of the things I say. It just seemed like when I was in the mode of Megan, I took the first thing that came to my mind. I thought she was so confident, if I thought it, it must be the truth. I would just say it.”

McCarthy also loved being part of an ensemble — as I noted, it’s called “Bridesmaids,” not “Bridesmaid.” “I think with Kristen and Annie (Mumolo) writing it, the movie and the way the set was run speaks so much to what kind of women they are. How smart, how funny, and also how incredibly kind and confident enough to never need this to be mine, this to be yours, and let’s ration it out. Kristen, a lot of times, said, ‘Do you feel OK with this? Do you feel like we’re going in the right direction?’

“Kristen’s crazy. She’s in the lead in the movie and also is like, ‘Do we all have waters? Did you get a water?’ I’m like, ‘What are you doing, worrying about who has water?’ Literally, that’s who she is. I’ve known her for 10 years, and nothing has changed about her. She’s still this incredibly nice woman that now the world knows how funny we’ve always known her to be.”

Like all Judd Apatow-produced films, McCarthy promises much, much more when the film comes to DVD: “There is a 22-hour cut of this movie. I’m waiting for the miniseries to come in. I really am anxious to see the DVD. They’ll have to have 16 hours of fantastic bonus things on it. Rose (Byrne) and I were talking before that we keep coming up with whole scenes that we’re like, ‘Oh my God, that’s not in the movie. What happened to that?’”

–From my article at The Rundown

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