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Posts Tagged ‘Fine Film Acting’

DeNiro’s Speech Before The Screening Of ‘Everybody’s Fine’

Posted by Dana Kaminski on 5th November 2009 in Fine Film Acting, Premiere

Everybody’s Fine, Is Robert DeNiro’s New Film

To introduce it, the actor made a short speech at the AFI Film Fest.

Also at the presentation were two actresses who play his daughters in the movie, Drew Barrymore and Kate Beckinsale. With them, stood writer-director Kirk Jones.

It should be noted that this is an American version of an Italian film that starred Marcello Mastroianni.

Sam Rockwell, who plays one of two sons, in the film, was an absent actor at the screening.

Actor DeNiro Hope

“It was great to work with my two daughters, and Sam Rockwell.

actor deniro my two daughters

“…And Kirk was terrific. I knew that when he wanted to do the movie it was going to be a special project for him. He really really wanted to do it. I saw that as soon as I met him, in the way he presented the whole project to me.

Actors Barrymore Beckensale Director Kirk

“What else can I say?” DeNiro said with a shrug.

deniro same hand out

“I hope everybody likes it.”

everybodysfine

Intentionally, I did not put the Everybody’s Fine trailer here. It’s a spoiler; for the jokes especially. Cover your ears and eyes, during commercials, also, if you want to fully experience this film.

DeNiro’s acting performance, in this one, makes it extremely worth it.

Thanks to Miramax for the last photo. The ones above it, are my own.

Release date: December 4, 2009.

Enjoy,

;~Dana

Please post on your Facebook, or Twitter. Thanks for sharing.

Movie Trailers, This Week’s Releases, Mid-Dec.2008

Posted by Dana Kaminski on 9th December 2008 in Ooooh! Movie Trailers!

Nixon/Frost, Doubt, Cadillac Records

 

These movies are being released in the next few days, and all are good ones.

I don’t know how much is “hype” but “Nixon/Frost”, directed by Ron Howard, is getting some great reviews.

The second trailer, “Doubt”, is ultra-high echelon stuff…it was a Pulitzer Prize winning theater piece, that had a good run, on the stage.  Adapted for the screen, and directed by the playwright himself (John Patrick Shanley)… in order to make sure that the film truly is organic to the author’s intent. (Can’t get more integrity than that!)  The cast is full of some the best American actors we’ve got: Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Amy Adams.  

The third movie, here, “Cadillac Records”, is also getting some surprisingly good reviews.  I am putting it here, on the site,  because it’s about on of my most favorite periods in music…I never grow tired of “At Last”, by Etta James. I still listen to it, quite a bit.  I’m from Philadelphia, which has a strong soul-music heart, and I grew up on soul.

As far as acting goes, generally, biopics are cast usually by celebrity power, instead of chops, but it’s improving somewhat, in the last few years. I don’t really see “Beyonce” as a heroin addict, but biopics tend to Hollywood-ize their biograpical casting.  I think she’ll do “junkie” quite glamorously, maybe that’s good for the movie; in the least, it won’t hurt it’s popularity.  I’m an acting- purist, I like my film junkies to really convincingly seem like a junkie… She does have an audience, charisma, and star-quality.  She also has that Beyonce voice.

I do agree that casting her will give the movie, and ticket sales, some mojo.  I assume that’s why she was cast, and because she can sing; unless they wanted to dub, they needed that…

Etta James really could too, unlike anyone else has ever been able to replicate.

I do think that Adrian Brody is a good strong actor, and Jeffrey Wright is too.  Those two’ll balance it out with their acting-power.

Actors, please remember….  It’s important to be fully stocked with acting skills, because you won’t get cast without them.  But, remember this, too: there are all kinds of reasons why particular actors get cast, and the other factors may count the most, in the final decision.  I say that, now, because  a lot of Hollywood Actor Prep users are auditioning, quite a bit, lately…

 

 


 

 

 


 

 


I will be posting some interviews; some of the actors in these trailers will be talking about how they worked on these specific roles, and what it was like to work with some of the heavy hitters…Coming up, in the next few days…
Until then, 
; Dana

“Acting Opportunity Of A Lifetime”…Melissa Leo

Posted by Dana Kaminski on 8th December 2008 in Fine Film Acting, Professional Actor Involvement

Have you heard about the movie: “Frozen River”? It was released this past summer, and is still being buzzed about.  Not just because it is a stirring film, and it’s different…

Thematically… it’s a bit more real, than the average Hollywood film. It’s a story about a woman whose husband gambles away all the money that they’ve saved for a suitable trailer home, for the family. Their “dream savings”. Now, he’s gone. She’s got a family, and poverty.

She’s not young; and all glammed-up.  Sexily clad. No.

 

Melissa Leo’s character “Eddy”, doesn’t have a high end manicure. No little things, like hair tangles, ruins her evening… She’s a grown woman, with the kind of real-life-authentic-drama, that all human beings deal with. Female humans, too.

Yes, female, and Eddy is a mother, and if you are one, then you know… motherhood is just about the most profoundly dramatic experience… (Oddly, it’s a drama that is rarely, theatrically, expressed.) 

In “Frozen River”, Leo is the type of mother who will do anything for the good of her children. 

And, this woman’s life is on the precipice of complete ruination, without many options. 

How does she handle an overwhelming challenge? She pairs up with a Mohawk woman [Misty Upham], smuggling people across a border.  In Alaska, in the freezing cold.   

You may remember Melissa Leo from television, she was detective Kay Howard, on “Homicide”. Her performances are always so seamless; she slips so deeply into the characters she plays, that, paradoxically, it almost renders her unnoticeable

…Remember “21 Grams”?

This time around, it’ll be a surprise if Melissa Leo doesn’t get nominated for a “Best Actress” Academy Award. If the Academy votes fairly, she may even win.  

Recently, at the 18th annual Gotham Independent Film Awards, in New York, “Frozen River” won best feature film, and Melissa Leo won best breakthrough actor…the two best awards.

Here are selected portions of an interview with Leo, by  Thelma Adams…

 

MELISSA LEO SHARES: FOUR YEARS TO FEATURE FILM

At the after-party, a wide-eyed blond-haired gal came up to me and said ‘I have a short, will you read it?’ And I said, ’sure.’ I read a script called Frozen River about two characters: the blond and the native; they didn’t even have names.

About four years ago, [writer-director] Courtney Hunt, [co-star] Misty Upham and I went up to Massena, NY and shot the short. After, I saw that short and was very impressed by what she had done, Courtney said, ‘wanna do the feature?’ And I said, ‘oh, I didn’t know you had one,’ and ’sure, let’s do the feature.”

So every six, eight months I would call Courtney and say, “Are we going to make that movie?” And she would say, “oh, yeah, no, I’ll get right back to you,” so I would kick-start her again to go look for the financing.

 

ON ACTING A CHARACTER, USING “SELF”

It’s difficult for me to know how much of myself I end up bringing.

Comments from people after the fact like my mom’s friend who just can’t get over the fact that I really knew how to look for that change in that couch [laughs]. She’s known my history. She’s known me my whole life. I’m not quite sure what parts of the character are parts of my self.

What I do know is first of all in the writing of Ray Eddy, she was a whole, complex character with flaws that Courtney wrote, and Courtney even was, as many writers are when they write, her character. And very, very generously gave me the character when it came my turn to play Ray Eddy and Courtney, then, took a backseat. So there were things in her writing that are primary to who Ray Eddy is, and there’s what I then brought to it, which is innate in me. I’m not sure how to describe what that is.

And, then, there’s also the direction that Courtney gave me. With another director at the helm, and me in that part, it wouldn’t have been the same thing because Courtney made me make Ray more likeable, that even though she might be doing things people might question, that you would still care for her. That’s very much Courtney’s hand in the direction.

Courtney had a very keen eye that that was important and, now, in viewing the film, which is very different from reading or performing the film, I understand and see the importance of that. So Courtney’s direction of me was a big, big part of it.

 

ON ACTING WITH A FIRST-TIME DIRECTOR

There were some bumps to get through in the first handful of days of shooting. Courtney’s never really been on a set before. There’s a way things work that everybody else there knows because the gaffer and the grips and the electric, they’ve all been on lots of sets…

There was a really scary day about three days in. We were shooting late in the film, not when we’re out and Mark Boone Jr. is being mean to those poor Chinese girls and then he shoots me in the ear, but right after I get in the car. So we’re starting the scene. We haven’t shot the other stuff with Mark Boone and the girls, where Ray gets shot in the ear, but we’re shooting right after when I get in the car. So we’re in the car, it’s pouring out with snow, with me driving to the start mark. Courtney’s in the back seat with what they call a clamshell, which is a monitor so she can see what the camera’s seeing. And I turn to look over my shoulder, quick as I’m driving to the start mark. ‘Courtney, do you think that we’ve been driving a little while and now we start the dialog or have I just got in the car, and we’re starting the dialog,’ Does that question make sense?

Didn’t make sense to Courtney! [Laughter] So then, I’m now about to act like a woman who’s just got shot in the ear, I’m getting a little amped up because I know my face is going to be about this close to the camera in about three seconds, because they’re going to call rolling and I ask Courtney one more time [voice rising] ‘just be very clear with me if this is a little while down the road or if I’ve just gotten in the car?” and she says [softly, whispery] ‘don’t talk to me like that.”

I remembered that I was working with a first-time director. We were going to have to work this out after we got the shot. They rolled the camera. We did the take. We got there. I got out of the car. I looked for a producer and I said, [loudly] “talk to her!” And they did. And it never happened again. That’s the amazing thing about Courtney. Is that she could learn even as we were doing it. And when we got through that third day, and that particular bump, and we came back the next day, something had changed. I knew we were going to be OK.

 

ACTING OPPORTUNITY OF A LIFETIME

This was very different for me in so many ways because here I was being given that opportunity that I have waited a lifetime for, the opportunity to carry the film. So everything mattered that much more to me. I was that much more involved in all of it. There’s all kind of utter nonsense that goes on on-set but, somehow, you get the darn thing in the can anyway….

 

Best,

:Dana
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