interview Archives

Finding The Missing Link: Interview With Zoe Saldana, Zach Galifianakis & Chris Butler

April 8, 2019 by Beeb 6 Comments

Travel consideration provided by United Artists Releasing.

LAIKA films are always ambitious – but the studio’s upcoming fifth release, Missing Link, upped the ante even further. The film, which follows the journey of a lone Sasquatch trekking the globe with a pair of adventurers, has been aptly described as taking viewers “Around the world in 94 minutes“. From London to the Himalayas to right here in the Pacific Northwest, bringing the vast world of Missing Link to life required the creation of more than 110 sets and 65 unique locations, as well as 106,000 different puppet faces that were made with cutting-edge new 3D printer technology.

Stop-motion is an incredibly time intensive process that spans years, requiring a lot of imagination on both the part of the animators and the voice cast. Last week, I had the opportunity to chat with the film’s writer and director, Chris Butler, as well as actors Zoe Saldana and Zach Galifianakis, who lent their voices to the film. I asked the trio what the process of building these characters was like, and how it feels to finally see them come to life after years of work.

“Well, I suppose it starts with me,” said Butler, who also served as character designer and storyboard artist for Missing Link. “Maybe 15 years ago, maybe longer, I start with an idea – I doodle in my sketchbook, writing little notes down. And over the years, I keep coming in and out of different ideas. And this one really started with a drawing that I did of Mr. Link, which has been described as a hairy avocado, with legs. And there was something about that drawing that I just kept coming back to, and people kept saying, ‘That is a very charming thing.’
And that really ended up becoming Mr. Link in this movie. When I’m writing I’ve got this little movie playing in my head. So I have an idea of what I think the movie’s gonna be, but then I give these script pages to these guys and they come in and they turn it into something else. Suddenly, what I had on the page or in my head is something living and breathing and has its own identity that these guys bring to it.”

“I’ve always wanted to play a hairy avocado,” deadpanned Galifianakis. “Or I’ve been told I look like a hairy avocado. I wish it was hairy bravado. To me, and I keep saying it, the real characterization is the animation that happens from the voice. The genius of this stuff is to watch what they’ve done with your voice, and how the animators, the way they do the face with the voice is just – it is really amazing hand-eye coordination. The magic to me is, oh my god, they actually make me interesting. That was the selling point for me, looking at the LAIKA films that they had done before.”

For Saldana, the stop-motion process required a lot of patience. “You’re making peace with the fact that you’re gonna have to wait four years,” she said. “[That] is a little bit of a canker sore for me. But I love stop-motion, there’s something that is just aesthetically pleasing. And when you hear that it’s time consuming, that means that only people that are a part of this world make the choice to be here. So that means that there’s a level of commitment and passion and devotion and artistry that is invested in this form of art that LAIKA just refuses to let die. So, that is what attracted me in the first place to want to do it. I think I’m used to being a part of projects that take forever to make. And it’s always like leaps of faith. But Chris Butler was very convincing and he was wonderful. And when he showed me all the reference pictures and I was able to see Adelina, I fell in love with the whole story of it. And then he said that Zach and Hugh were already signed on, I said, ‘Okay, absolutely, yes, I’m gonna do it.’”

While Missing Link is a colorful, comedic romp around the world, the heart of the story revolves around creating your own identity and finding your true community. But although representation is important to Saldana, who founded the inclusive media platform BESE last year, it didn’t inform her decision to take the role of Adelina, as the actress has developed a strict rule of only accepting roles that speak to her artistically.

“There are so many layers to who I am as a person and being an activist is a very minor, minor aspect of who I am in addition to everything else,” Saldana told me. “And I don’t really decide the roles that I’m gonna play according to my beliefs or the direction that I want to take when it comes to a social conversation. At the end of the day, I have to [have] my own sovereignty as an artist. That means that I can’t be bound by a view, I can’t be bound by a color, I can’t be bound by a gender, or an age. If I read something and I keep flipping, [I’ll think] ‘This is great – oh, I finished it. Yes, I want it,’ you know? I’m very childish in the way I approach my art. If I keep falling asleep, or I can’t be bothered, or it’s not there on the page — I keep getting more and more disciplined as years go by in just being super strict, that if it’s not there, it’s not gonna be there. It’s like your mom taught you, don’t believe boys that lie. So why am I believing boys that lie in Hollywood? When they go, ‘We’re gonna make this role better,’ and you’re like, ‘Papi, it’s not here.’”

#MissingLink hits theaters everywhere April 12. Get your tickets now! bit.ly/MissingLinkTix

We Need More Strong Women–Sophia Bush

June 22, 2018 by Momstart Leave a Comment

One of our interviews during the Incredibles 2 Press Event (that Disney provided hotel and transportation for) took an unexpected turn and that was Sophia Bush. Sophia Bush plays Voyd a female character that has spent her life in hiding and unsure of herself because she is a super and it’s illegal to be a super. In many ways Sophia Bush is nothing like her character except that they both want change.

For one, she entered the room explaining to us that she is on a 30-day “no throw away challenge”. I found that to be so inspiring, I mean think about all the waste that there is in one single day, and at big events there is a LOT more. So boom, that was the first thing that impressed me.

Sophia Bush Impresses

As all the actors did, she also mentioned how great it was to work with Brad Bird in the sound booth. He’s really great at impersonating all of the other Incredibles characters. But as she was talking about this she transitioned into talking about her character Voyd.

Who is Voyd?

Voyd was told to hid who she was, but she saw Elastigirl and wanted to be just like her. That was her idol because there was no one in her town like her. And for Sophia it made her think about intersectional activism. She talked about how all women don’t have enough privilege. As a white woman we have more privilege than most women. She also mentioned that people in society are not accepted for who they are because of their race, gender, sexual orientation. She mentioned that she had an idol and that was Debra Messing.

Elastigirl girl is Voyd’s Debra Messing. She is that idol who made this girl, who had to dim her light for so long, feel like eventually everything was gonna be okay. And you see her expressing her identity. Like, she has turquoise hair and a side shave. This is a bold expression of her inner radicalness, but she’s had to hide her biggest magic. And she gets to meet the person who made her feel like one day it was gonna be okay. And that made everything about why she just couldn’t figure out how to hold it together.

Sophia said this made it really personal for her, because that’s been a fight in her real life and helped her own the moment for the character Voyd.

Another thing that impressed me is that she went back to the story about Brad and how he didn’t have a political agenda in making The Incredibles. His goal was to freak the character Bob out by making him the stay at home dad. However, she shared a story that Brad told her about how his wife is the coolest woman he knows. And that Brad is a good guy, one of the good ones. And we need to remember that we don’t want to “burn all men at the stake”. But we do want to “Throw the trash out. The Incredibles 2 is able to bring issues to the table and it’s refreshing because there is no tension in the issues, everyone is welcome to the table here.

Another thing that made me love this strong woman is that she knows a lot about animation because she just went into Pixar one time and interviewed a lot of people and dug in. She, like I, loves the tech part of it. Pixar Animation is so much more than regular animation because of all the technology involved. Not only is something drawn, it’s programed, it’s styled, it’s got lighting and rigging. There’s been a while process starting with making clay figures and story boarding. Then when things don’t work new technology is created because there is no, no we can’t do that. It’s let’s figure out how.

Finally, she told us a lot about how she loves all tech and investing and that women should talk about money. Women should be investing. We should be talking about our healthcare and our bodies. We are much more than just makeup and hair products. She said we need more women sitting at those decision making tables. She said we need more girls who code and she supports Reshma Saujani’s program, “Girls Who Code”.

We Need More Women

Women should be in and talking about fields of science, technology, engineering and medicine.

Fore More Incredibles 2 Coverage:

Incredible Incredibles 2 Giveaway

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Interview With Amanda Leighton, Skylar Astin & Matthew Beans #DWTrollsTV

January 19, 2018 by Beeb Leave a Comment

The voices behind Poppy and Branch: Amanda Leighton and Skylar Astin

Travel consideration provided. This is a partnered post.

Last month’s trip to the DreamWorks Animation Campus began with an advance screening of Trolls: The Beat Goes On!, a Netflix Original series that just premiered today. We got a sneak peek at three episodes from the first season, and I’ve been impatiently waiting to see the rest of it ever since! Like the movie, Trolls: The Beat Goes On! is full of fun, laughs and great music. The characters and stories are genuinely heartwarming without being saccharine – it’s a truly feelgood show that adults will enjoy just as much as children!

Matthew Beans, Skylar Astin and Amanda Leighton

After the screening, we were joined by three talents from Trolls for a Q&A: The show’s Executive Producer, Matt Beans (Known for his work on Robot Chicken) and the voice actors behind Poppy and Branch, Amanda Leighton (This Is Us) and Skylar Astin (Pitch Perfect). Since the Trolls universe is so uniquely vibrant and fun, I asked the trio what they enjoyed most about immersing themselves in this colorful and zany world.

“You know, it’s really helpful having Matt and Katie McWane, our voice director, there because they actually help us immerse ourselves into this world,” said Astin. “We don’t always have the visuals – we have a script, and what they’re telling us is already being generated in the animatic, so I think what’s fun is to channel all of this knowledge, all of this imagination, into what we do. Sometimes that means doing certain movements that sometimes [the animators] borrow or steal willingly, because it feeds the visual and feeds the entire story. So it’s fun to get into that little booth and make stuff happen.”

“It also really helps when Matt will visually show us what the joke is,” added Leighton, gesturing in the air. “Falling from a tree – OK, got it.”

“This is what I think of actors, I don’t think they know what falling is!” laughed Beans.

“But that is a real challenge,” continued Beans. “I think a unique challenge for our show – if we did have long runs where it’s just two characters talking to one another, these guys could get that script and OK, I get where this is going and what each line intends. But when you have every other line broken up by some visual that requires a specific point of view – the camera has to be in a certain place for it to pay off, the timing has to be exactly right – sometimes they come and [say] ‘I don’t understand – what’s happening here?’ (laughs) ‘There’s a trick candle fire going on? Falling down a river IN a tornado? SPRINKLES? Cool…so, how long is this battle cry? 5 seconds?'”

It was interesting to hear this perspective from the voice actors on the importance of guidance to fill in the blanks with these detailed scenes. I got a small taste of this myself later on in the day, when I had the opportunity to step into the sound booth with Beans and record my own Trolls voiceover. He’s very skilled at bringing a good performance out of anyone, even a novice such as myself; I can really see where his approach would be key to conveying these fantastical scenes to Astin and Leighton as they try to imagine them in order to bring the show to life.

Group photo with Amanda Leighton and Skylar Astin

After our interview, we joined the actors outside for a special photo opp with Poppy and Branch themselves!

Amanda Leighton, the voice of Queen Poppy herself!

Trolls: The Beat Goes On! is now streaming on Netflix!

Developing The Trollhunters Universe: An Interview With Marc Guggenheim, Chad Hammes & Rodrigo Blaas

December 15, 2017 by Beeb 1 Comment

Marc Guggenheim, Chad Hammes and Rodrigo Blaas

Travel consideration provided. This is a partnered post.

The highly-anticipated Trollhunters Part 2 made its debut on Netflix today. Picking up where Part 1 left off, we follow Jim’s journey through the Darklands as his friends race against the odds to save him. I had the pleasure of getting an advance look at this season in conjunction with my trip to the DreamWorks Animation Campus last week, and was able to speak with executive producers Marc Guggenheim, Chad Hammes and Rodrigo Blaas about what fans can expect to see.

One of the things I found most compelling about Part 2 was watching the continued evolution of Claire’s character. I asked the executive producers to expound on the process of developing her storyline and what might be in store for her.

“The Shadowstaff is a very powerful weapon – it’s very powerful, but there’s also a dark side to that. Claire’s gonna have to wrestle with that,” Blaas told me. “And we really wanted to see that growth. We always saw this season as the season of Claire. The underlying narrative thrust of this was just seeing how it would culminate. By the end of this season, you’re gonna understand that and how that especially sets off what is to come. This is part of what we always strive [for] with our heroes, is not to give them easy way out.”

“And I think it’s worth saying how it gets set up,” added Hammes. “Jim’s given the Amulet, he finds the armor; Toby’s given his weapon, essentially. Claire finds the Shadowstaff independently and declares, ‘That’s mine. This is my tool, I keep this and I’m gonna learn how to harness the power of it.’ Which is a very strong position to take – she’s been kind of along for the ride and I think when she gets to that point, it’s a very strong moment for her.”

Guggenheim agreed with this, adding, “I think there’s a very good argument here – and I think you’ll see this a lot in season 2 – that between Jim’s Daylight and Toby’s hammer and Claire’s staff, Claire’s arguably the most powerful of the three. But, with that power comes a great cost. Jim can use his sword without facing any negative consequences. Toby, same thing with his hammer but Claire, because it is powered by emotion, it takes a toll on her. Without spoiling too much, particularly the very end of the season, you’ll see that there’s consequences that will set us up for the future stories post season 2 that we’re telling. Rodrigo’s right, it really is the season of Claire. And it’s great to watch the evolution of her character, having to to deal with these primordial forces and all the responsibilities that entails. Also, by the way, I’m tickled by the relationship that she’s developed with NotEnrique. That’s really a story in my mind about a sister and her adopted brother. And I think that it’s a cool story to tell. My wife comes from a blended family and this story’s just always really spoken to me.”

The first season of Trollhunters included an unprecedented 26 episodes, which is a daunting project to take on. I asked the trio about the production process on something of this magnitude, to which Guggenheim jokingly replied, “You ever seen a grown man cry?”

“My understanding is that delivering 26 half hours of content all at one time has been the largest delivery in TV history. That’s what I’ve been told,” noted Hammes. “So it was an accomplishment for everybody on the team. And yes, it takes a tremendous amount of work – it takes people not only all over the studio, but people all over the world, and everybody has to be coordinated and in sync. It’s a massive undertaking. It took years of experience between [us] and our team in putting it all together to make a show that is so complex – it has so much care in terms of writing and the narrative – and able to deliver such a large volume. Thankfully we don’t have that same delivery this year,” he laughed. However, that doesn’t mean that season 2 has been easy by any stretch of the imagination. Hammes explained that, despite Part 2 having 13 episodes versus 26, working on both seasons back to back brought its own unique challenges. “We were [still] standing last year making the delivery but I think what we underestimated was getting to this Christmas and finishing the show – I think that’s even been more taxing. You wouldn’t wanna see the production floor right now, people on their hands and knees, half asleep.”

Guggenheim also noted the additional challenge of working on other projects within the Tales of Arcadia trilogy simultaneously. “Also, we’ve been hard at work on 3 Below, so there’s been no rest for the weary and we just keep going and going and going.”

“It takes a team that is playing at their A game at every step of the process,” agreed Blaas, who also voices Gnome Chompsky in addition to his other work as executive producer. “There is nobody that is dropping the ball. Because it’s Guillermo del Toro’s vision, we all respect how much quality and love and heart he puts in all his projects. We really wanted to make sure that this was a show that could stand the test of time.”

Despite this intense workload, the reception from fans is what keeps everyone going. “Just watching the reaction of the audience fuels the team to give that extra mile. That is an integral part of the process for sure,” Blaas concluded. And with the hard work and care that has been put into telling the story of season 2, the reaction from eager fans will surely bolster Blaas, Guggenheim and Hammes as they continue to develop the Trollhunters universe.

Trollhunters Part 2 is streaming on Netflix now. And when you’re done binge-watching, be sure to check out our DIY Amulet of Daylight craft tutorial and make your own Amulet to fight darkness – or just use as a Christmas ornament!

The Beautiful Kelly Marie Tran’s Thoughts on Star Wars The Last Jedi

December 15, 2017 by Momstart 1 Comment

Disney provided me with hotel and transportation to the Star Wars Press Junket.

I really feel like Star Wars has always worked to bring diversity to the screen even in a time when most didn’t. Now that it seems to be so important to the world, the diversity in the cast is shining through. The newest addition to the Star Wars team is Kelly Marie Tran who has fought tooth and nail to even get into acting. She radiates an innocence and graciousness like no other. You can tell she is loving every second of being part of Star Wars. From her actions on the Star Wars Red Carpet to her interview with us, she’s been full of tears and laughter through it all.

During our interview she told us that she’s been trying to get into acting for seven years. She described her process as being long and hard and that she never expected to be cast as this part. The audition process took five months with the final part being a call back in full hair and makeup in London. It was only her second or third movie audition that she was “allowed” to go audition for. I find her story to be so inspirational because she never gave up and look where she is now. And she knows it. She’s decided to not take anything for granted and she’s going to be present in every moment. Then as she was telling us about how she found out that she got the role tears started rolling down her face.

“I’m, like, gonna cry right now. I had imagined this moment for so long. And… Oh my god! This is crazy. I’m sorry. I had imagined this moment for so long, and I thought that I would be, like, so ecstatic, and I’d be jumping up and down. And when it happened, I was so scared. I just was silent for a full minute. Like, I was just staring at the floor, like, oh my god! Like… I was treading water for so long, I never thought I would get to the end of the pond. Or the lake.”

Kelly Marie Tran’s character Rose is now a role model to young female Asians and she’s done so much for the diversity and changing things for future generations of Star Wars fans and Kelly Marie Tran said she has thought about this a lot and feels the pressure. She said that she grew up in a world where she never saw herself in anything. She hopes that people will see her character as such an example.

She’s “someone who doesn’t necessarily belong in this world. She works in maintenance. She works behind pipes all day. She’s not a star pilot. She doesn’t have magical powers. She’s not a princess. She’s someone who is just an every woman. And, and these people that… You don’t necessarily see in these stories, but that are so crucial to… the idea of the resistance. Without these people that are fixing the ships, like, Po couldn’t go fight the First Order! So of course they’re important. But no one ever really sees them, or talks about them. They’re always just running around in the background. And if… If this character could mean anything, I really hope that… I really hope that she portrays the idea that even if you are someone who’s kind of in the background who’s not in the spotlight, who’s not a princess… you can still make a difference, and… You can still rise up to any challenge that comes to you.”

Watching her enjoy every moment of this journey from our interview to the interviews on the red carpet have been so endearing. I hope that this is just the beginning for her and that she’s cast in many more movies to come. I also can’t wait to see her in Star Wars The Last Jedi. My husband went and saw the movie last night with a friend and he said it is his favorite Star Wars to date. He said we will love it. Now I told him he has to take us ASPA. So after everyone gets some work done we’ll probably be going to see it. That is if it’s not sold out everywhere until Monday.

An Oh My Gosh Moment During Domhnall Gleeson Star Wars The Last Jedi Interview

December 14, 2017 by Momstart Leave a Comment

Disney provided me with hotel and transportation to the Star Wars The Last Jedi Press Conference.

During the Star Wars The Last Jedi Press Conference we interviewed Domhnall Gleeson who in Star Wars The Last Jedi plays General Hux. He’s also known for his role Bill Weasley in the Harry Potter franchise. He chatted about his time on set, being in this movie and in Star Wars The Force Awakens, and about that time that he embarrased himself in front of Harrison Ford while he was swinging a light saber just for fun. Luckily that ended in taking a picture with him. So we asked him if Han Solo was his favorite Star Wars character and he very diplomatically said that he loved them all. But he did say that he was a huge Indiana Jones fan. He also admitted that he hadn’t seen Star Wars until he was considering being in Star Wars The Force Awakens.

“JJ gave me a file of the original Star Wars, and I watched it on a big screen. And that was, like, yeah. So that was like, amazing. And then, yeah, then they all became my favorites. How diplomatic is that? They’re all my favorites. Yeah, but I do love Han Solo”

I didn’t realize this but part of Star Wars The Last Jedi was filmed in Ireland. Domhnall said that he loved that they had an amazing time and that everyone got good weather.

“Ireland is my home, I think it’s the best place in the world, and I’m just happy for people to see it. It’s, like, it’s an intensely beautiful place, and they got to see it in intensely beautiful weather, which is ridiculous. That never happens”

It was difficult to find out very much from him about changes in his character or how the story was going to go. All the actors we interviewed seem to say that it’s going to explore some very dark places and he talked a little bit about his disfunctual relationship with Kylo Ren and how they battle for favor from Snoke. He may have gotten some influence to creating his character from the older movies but said he had to reach for something real to make his character more believeable. He strongly felt that he couldn’t “steal” from other performances and had to make this performance his own. The only clues he gave us about where his character is at the beginning of The Last Jedi is that his character is in a………

“much more desperate place, a much more uncomfortable place, and I think that’s a good place to put somebody like Hux. Like, speaking… Taking a step back from him and thinking objectively, you want Hux to suffer. That is what you want for somebody like that, who behaves like that, and who carries himself like that. And I liked creating somebody that that would end up being the feeling you would have for him. So we start with a place where we’re ready to see him suffer.”

I found Domhnall to be very charming and can’t wait to see him on the big screen again. It’s a good thing that showings start tonight as Star Wars The Last Jedi comes out officially December 15th.

I did have one more thing I just had to know though and that was if he had a “geek out” moment on the set of star wars.

Is there ever a moment on set where you had a geek out moment, like, oh my gosh, I’m in this.

His response:

“Oh my gosh? That’s so polite, [LAUGHTER]. I use different words. Yes, there are. There are lots of moments like that because the scale of things. Because of how much Star Wars means to people. Because just the history of it. I mean, there aren’t many, like, Harry Potter was a huge journey, and that was over, those films were over; twelve year, ten years, something like that, you know what I mean? This has been going on since…..… There are so many things which are part of growing up, which are part of people’s childhoods. Star Wars would have been the first movie that a lot of people, you know what I mean? Like all those things. There’s just something that’s a position of privilege, so loads of moments like that. Any time, without giving anything away of who I worked with on this or didn’t work with, but when you’re on set, other people have to come on set to show Ryan a costume in person, or, you know, to talk to him about something………So the days when you don’t know somebody’s gonna be in, and you’re kinda talking to Ryan about something and then Mark Hamill just stoles up in his Luke Skywalker gear, you’re like what the f- [LAUGHTER]. You’re like, oh my gosh… [LAUGHTER]. Those moments, when you’re not expecting them, and he’s there on a Star Wars set and you’re like, what are you doing in the evil place? Why are you hanging out here, and it’s like, oh he just here to see Ryan. Like, those things are kind of amazing. Those where you pinch yourself.”

I think after his “Oh My Gosh” he’s now one of my new favorite actors and I’m going to go watch and rent everything he’s been in. Plus, I’ve always been a fan of that wonderful Irish accent.

Understanding Evil in Star Wars The Last Jedi in an Interview with Gwendoline Christie

December 12, 2017 by Momstart Leave a Comment

Disney provided hotel and transportation to LA for the Star Wars The Last Jedi Press Junket.

I remember the first time I saw Gwendoline Christie for the first time. It was at the press junket for Star Wars The Force Awakens. I saw her walk by and was amazed by her presence and had to ask someone who she was. They told me her name, and I still wasn’t sure, so they said Captain Phasma, and I was like, ok but. Then they said, she’s in Game of Thrones and I was like, oh wow she is really tall. We didn’t get to interview her at that time, but we did get to interview her this time and now I’m completely smitten with her. I watched her as she went from room to room doing interviews and all day long she was in amazing spirits. She seemed to be the most joyous person at the press junket that entire day. She can fill a room with her exuberance. She certainly filled our interview room.

As I mentioned in my interview yesterday with Laura Dern, women kick butt in the next installment of Star Wars. There is an abundance of strong female characters and they aren’t all good guys and Captain Phasma isn’t a good guy. Gwendoline Christie talked a lot about how much she loved getting to explore her character more. We might even get to learn why Captain Phasma is the way she is.

“what I loved about it is that in the world that we live in, we are met with deluge of information all of the time, and the idea of having that moment- the sort of suspension of disbelief where you have the space and are forced to wonder who is this, and who are they, I was very attracted by that.”

She also said described her character as an enigma, a bit of a mystery.

“She turns up out of nowhere; she has this very confrontational, threatening presence, and that’s sort of compounded or emphasized by what she’s wearing…… by this suit of armor which is entirely practical.”

She went on to also say that we will see more of Phasma in this film and we will see,

“her resilience, her need to fulfill an overriding sense of revenge, and we see something that we don’t commonly see in female characters which is that we see this- and it manifests itself in different ways, this violence that comes from deep within her.”

I have to remark that Gwendoline Christie is so descriptive and eloquent. Her choices in words just paint a picture of her character that almost make me want to root for Captain Phasma when I go see the movie next week. Or maybe we’ll go see the movie this weekend, I mean it does come out December 15th an all.

However, I’m not sure I can completely root for someone that is going to try and kill Finn. That’s not cool!

And that brings me to her conversation about training. I’ve already mentioned that she was in Game of Thrones, so of course she’s had some combat training. Well, that and she was in the previous movie, The Force Awakens as well. So working hard isn’t new to her. Her work on Star Wars The Last Jedi brought her back with her original trainer and she loves how he pushes her to do more.

“You know, he’s the person that helped to give me the courage in the first place, to say you can do more than you ever thought, physically, and to do it with a great deal of humor, and charm, and humanity. And he’s a man always sort of without ego, as well. I mean, what an amazing, an amazing teacher, and to be reunited with him, and he’s also so brilliant about how he puts things together, and how they evolve about pushing you further, and in terms of your strength. “

I think the one thing we need to remember is that Captain Phasma is “a person, she’s a person” even if she has the “need to eradicate”, “to hurt”, “to be ultimate”, “to destroy”. She is a “woman with a destructive force when women are seen as mothers” and it’s that complexity that seems to make Gwendoline giddy. She laughed a lot during the interview and really seems to love the complexity of her character Phasma. She said, “that fascinated me, and I felt like the opportunities were limitless.”

Rene Russo is Just Getting Started

December 10, 2017 by Beeb Leave a Comment

As the saying goes, you’re as young as you feel, and in the new film Just Getting Started, actress Rene Russo channeled her inner child. “I think there’s a little girl, little boy in all of us. No matter how old you are, I think we’re all the same on the inside – we just look different on the outside. I’m shocked that I’m not 27. I’m always just like, What? Yes I am! Even 13 sometimes.”

I chatted with Russo on the phone last week about her turn in this new Ron Shelton movie, and she was warm and charming, complimenting my name – “Young people always have interesting names, I can tell by your name that you’re young” – and laughing at memories from filming alongside Morgan Freeman and Tommy Lee Jones. “Morgan’s like a big kid, and Tommy is too!” she exclaimed. Although Just Getting Started centers around life at retirement community Villa Capri, the characters in this comedy are anything but mature as the manager Duke (Freeman) goes head to head with new resident Leo (Jones) vying for the affections of Suzie (Russo) and title of top alpha male. Russo told me that watching her male co-stars film these high jinks was so entertaining, she momentarily forgot she was filming. “Watching the two of them in the scene, sometimes I would literally get lost and then forget my line – that actually happened to me. Because I was thinking, Oh my God, before my eyes, these two guys are 8 year olds. I’m watching them turn into 8 year olds and I blew a line. I was suddenly in a movie, and not an actress on the set.”

Although Russo had met Freeman during the making of Outbreak, the two never filmed any scenes together, so working with him on Just Getting Started was a new experience. “Morgan is just suave, charming as hell. We’re in the desert and he’s serenading everyone – he’s got an extraordinary voice. But it was a little nerve-wracking. They’re just huge personalities, both of them, so when you walk in a room and they’re both there, you’re like, Oooh, this energy is big energy! And you kinda had to be on your game, because they’re really good. I’ve worked with other actors and actresses, of course, that are really good but I dunno, I just felt a little bit intimidated by the two of them.”

While Freeman serenaded the cast, Jones was more of the silent type. “He doesn’t talk much. But when he does, it’s always interesting,” Russo said. “Off-camera, Tommy Lee Jones is the most interesting person I’ve ever met. He’s so complex and so interesting. And he’s got a really soft heart – he probably hates me saying this. He’s got a really sweet, soft, sensitive heart. And he’s brilliant. I don’t think there’s anything he doesn’t know about any subject, which was really shocking to me. I finally said, Tommy, is there anything that you don’t know? You know everything about everything. It’s aggravating! I actually said that to him.”

Russo told me that both her co-stars brought a lot of their own personalities to their characters. Just like Leo, Jones is a fan of Ford trucks, showing off his vintage Ford pickup to Russo during filming. “He was so cute – he said You wanna see my truck? It was the coolest truck.” She declined his offer to take it for a spin, however. “He goes You wanna drive? I’m like, Tommy, no! I’m thinking to myself, dear God, it’s a ship – which I grew up on, but can you imagine? This is his baby.” And better safe than sorry, lest life imitate art: In the film, Leo does not take kindly to the person who destroys his precious Ford F-150.

As Just Getting Started unfolds, Suzie’s character arrives at the Villa Capri during Christmas to audit Duke’s performance as manager. But he has more to hide than just shady business practices: After a string of attempts on his life, Duke must come clean about his past and enlist the reluctant help of Leo to save not just his life, but also the Villa Capri and Suzie’s career with it. “I think was Susie was hanging on by a thread,” Russo laughed. “She’d been in trouble before – trouble follows Susie. She’s going there to investigate some unsavory business practices, and she’s at a time in her life she really has to get it together. I think she’s trying to hold herself together more than she really is actually together.”

Although it’s not specifically a holiday movie, Just Getting Started has the quirky backdrop of Christmastime in the desert, with inflatable Santas bedecking palm trees; at one point in the film, Duke brings in an entire live nativity scene complete with camels because Villa Capri is a desert “Just like Bethlehem“. But don’t expect Russo to add the film to her personal holiday viewing list: “I don’t watch myself in films,” she explained.

The next project on Russo’s plate is a film that will take her back into art world, which she famously visited in Thomas Crown Affair. “My husband Dan Gilroy is writing a movie, and it’s a movie set in the contemporary art world – we start shooting that in March, so I’m lucky because I’m his wife and he has to give me the part,” she joked. Like the film, Russo herself is just getting started.

Just Getting Started is in theaters now.

Directing The Star: An Interview With Timothy Reckart

November 20, 2017 by Beeb 3 Comments

Photo courtesy Enza Ketcham

Travel consideration provided. This post contains Amazon Associates links.

I recently sat down with Oscar-nominated director Timothy Reckart to discuss his work on The Star, an animated feature about the first Christmas as told from the perspective of the manger animals. Reckart had the delicate task of blending Scriptures with a new story about Bo, the donkey that accompanies Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem. I asked him how he found the balance in tone between the direct Biblical references and the lighter story of Bo and his friends.

“Generally our thought was anything that is in the Bible, let’s try to be faithful, period,” Reckart said. “Our sandbox was the animal point of view, so that was where we thought we would use most of our creative freedom. When it came to Mary and Joseph and King Herod and all that stuff that you do read about in the Bible, we thought, let’s stick to that. And actually, there’s this play, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, which is a take on Hamlet where occasionally they enter into the story of Hamlet, and then Hamlet goes off stage and we stick with the characters that normally go offstage. So it’s a similar type of structure for this movie, and it only works if you stay faithful to what’s in the Bible, because you’re sticking to the beats of the story. That’s why you get that creative freedom – if you stick to the Bible story, that means you can put more of the Bible story offscreen, because people know what’s happening.”

A helpful tool in creating the film’s atmosphere was its charming soundtrack, which reimagines several standard Christmas carols with a new feel to set the mood for each scene. Reckart told me that it was important to use music as a storytelling vehicle.

“We knew that we wanted to do a Christmas album with the movie, and if you make a Christmas movie you’re just missing out on a real opportunity if you don’t use those songs, because they have such an inherent power to make you feel those warm fuzzy Christmas feelings,” he told me. “But I didn’t wanna just shoehorn them in, so I wanted to try and find ways where the carols could actually help us tell the story. And a good example of where I think that works really well is when Joseph is processing what Mary has just told him – that’s where we decided to put What Child is This? because it actually seemed like the lyrics there helped communicate what Joseph is going through mentally. We tried to take that approach to what songs we used when, and what the tone would be -which is to say that we wanted them to tell the story for us.”

Reckart called on the talents of the soundtrack’s musicians to help set the scene for Bo’s journey. “The process of working with the artists was that we put in some temp music, [so] they can kind of use that to see what the intention is, but then they basically brought whatever they had to the piece. Another good example of that was Children Go Where I Send You – that’s the song that we hear when Bo is doing the scene with the miller chasing after him. And in that, Kelsea Ballerini’s version has this Do doo doo, doot doot doot – which I never anticipated at all, but because I had given the direction that we want this to be fun, and energetic, then she was able to work together with that note and both be creative and also make it work for the film.”

The Star is now playing nationwide, and the original soundtrack is available on Amazon.

Interview With Patricia Heaton

November 18, 2017 by Beeb 26 Comments

With Patricia Heaton during our interview

Travel consideration provided.Last Saturday, I was in West Hollywood to interview the voices behind The Star. This animated Christmas feature about the nativity story features an all-star – pun intended – voice cast, and I had the pleasure of sitting down with Patricia Heaton to chat about her role in the film. Heaton portrays Edith, a cow who lives in the manger in Bethlehem where Mary and Joseph seek shelter when there is no room at the inn. Although Heaton is a seasoned actor, this is her first major voice role, so I asked how her approach differed going into a voice acting role versus what she does in live action.

“I feel like that’s like another skill set that I really would like to hone,” Heaton told me. “Going from multi camera on Raymond where we rehearsed all week and then presented it like a play to the audience, is very different from going to The Middle where there’s no rehearsal, you’re shooting out of order, there’s no response from an audience, and you don’t know what it’s gonna look like until it gets on the air. So that was a new skill set to learn. And then doing voiceover, where you might think you’re being animated, but you have to kind of ratchet it up a little bit. Because I can sound kind of flat, actually – have you ever listened to yourself and you’re like, ‘Oh! Is that my voice?’ You have to get used to that, and then you have to get used to putting a little more energy in it than you would normally do as an actor – because as an actor they can see your face, so that’s also informing what you’re saying, but here you’re trusting the animator to put that in. It’s a little flying blind, I think. But it’s really fun to do.”

Heaton said that she enjoyed the process of experimenting in the sound booth. “I think the most fun is doing the lines different ways, trying different takes. The director gives you different ideas and like on any show, if you can make the crew laugh, then you know you’re doing it well, so that’s kind of you goal. Although they can’t really laugh because we’re being recorded, but afterwards they do – you can see them snickering or holding it back.”

The Star retells the Biblical story from the perspective of the nativity animals, mixing lighthearted humor with parables. I asked Heaton if her own personal faith played a role in her wanting to be involved in the film.

“I think it’s always nice, if you’re a Christian, to have something out there – especially at Christmastime,” she said. “Because that’s what Christmas is about. You can put something out there for the whole family. The story of Christmas is what I base my entire life on, and all my hope, so yes – it’s nice to have that story out there to share with people.”

When it comes to celebrating Christmas in her own household, Heaton incorporates traditions from both the US and the UK: “I’m married to a Brit,” she explained, discussing how she enjoys making Yorkshire puddings and pulling Christmas crackers with her family. As a British expat in America myself, I asked her if this means that she essentially makes Thanksgiving dinner back to back, as the traditional UK Christmas dinner includes most of the same things. “Yes, so we’re doing Thanksgiving here [Los Angeles] and then we’ll do Christmas in Montana. And the other thing that the Brits do, they have Boxing Day, so the day after Christmas they do another celebration. It’s a little exhausting. (Laughs)”

The Star is in theaters now.