Interviews

Audrey Tautou: Channeling Coco Chanel

 
Audrey Tautou as the title character in "Coco Before Chanel."  (Sony Pictures Classics)

The first time I interviewed French actress Audrey Tautou it was late in the troubled year of 2001. 

Tautou was in Los Angeles to talk about the quirky romantic-comedy "Amélie," which drew five Academy Award nomination, including Best Foreign Film.

Speaking in somewhat broken English back then, Tautou charmed her interviewers (including this scribe) with stories of playing the title character, a naive, innocent girl in Paris.

 

"Coco" Chanel (Courtesy:  ACEPhotos.com)

Tautou is back on screen in many markets this Friday (Oct. 9) as legendary late fashion designer "Coco" Chanel.  There's not as much quirkiness in her latest character, but certainly more backbone in Tautou's latest screen persona.

Movieline's Kyle Buchanan, who interviewed Tautou recently about her performance in "Coco Before Chanel,"says in a story posted on the Movieline Web site that he was struck by two things when he approached the interview area:

"Tautou’s delicate, porcelain beauty, and the fact that this tiny woman, dressed to the nines, is struggling to lift and reposition a gigantic, shade-granting umbrella."

Buchanan talked with Tautou about her own youth and her affinity for Ms. Chanel among other things.

Click here to read the Movieline interview. 

Here come da Judge; there goes Hank Hill

  Mike Judge, left, on the set of "Extract."  (Miramax Films)

 

When Mike Judge laughs, which he does a lot, it sounds like a cross between Beavis/Butt-head and Hank Hill, with a little Billy Bob Thornton thrown in.

 

I sat down with the Austin-based creator of “Beavis and Butt-head,” co-creator of “King of the Hill” and writer-director of “Office Space” during the 46-year-old writer, actor, producer, director, animator and musician’s recent visit to Dallas to beat the bushes for “Extract,” his new live-action comedy.

 

He was witty, fun and in a good mood, especially since the Fox TV network has pulled the plug on "King of the Hill."

 

"Extract" is a blue-collar comedy that provides an extension in spirit at least to Judge's white-collar comedy "Office Space" of 10 years ago.

 

Q:  What fascinates you about the working man?

 

A:  In TV and movies and even in some novels, it seems like people have endless cash.  They don’t need to worry about it.  I remember watching “The Waltons” when I was a kid and thinking, “Wait, they’re supposed to be poor?  They live in this great house with I don’t know how many acres.  None of them are starving.”

 

Also, I remember my sister would read these Nancy Drew novels. “So I hopped on the plane.”  Who paid for the ticket?  Maybe it’s because I’ve gone through so many jobs and liked some of them and disliked some of them.  There’s just so much material there that I think people just don’t look at that much in Hollywood when they’re making movies.

 

Q:  You worked at a factory yourself at one point didn’t you?

 

A:  I worked at a couple of places.  One was a factory that made guitar amps and bass amps.  Then I worked at this place in Albuquerque called Honor Snacks.  They’re these little cardboard things with snacks and Fritos and candy bars and stuff in them.  They just trust you to put money in there.  I guess they would count it.  If people were ripping them off they just wouldn’t put it back in that office.  It was all about honor, but really it was about not having to pay for the vending machine.

 

Q:  You’ve been described as having a trademark flavor of dry wit.  Do you think you have a trademark?

 

A:  According to some blog I saw somewhere, I always put water towers in the background.  I read this and I thought, “I guess I do.”  There was always a water tower that I’d draw in the background of “Beavis and Butt-head.”  There’s a pretty prominent one in “King of the Hill.”  In “Office Space,” there’s one in the back yard.  It’s really prominent.  I read that, so in “Idiocracy” I made sure to put in a water tower.  I’ve got one in (“Extract”) too.  It’s just a little harder to find. 

 

Q:  On “Extract,” you found financing, made your movie and then sold it to a distributor.  Is there a freedom in making movies that way?

 

 A: Yeah, definitely.  On the live action movies I’ve made, I feel like I got the cast I wanted.  I got the music I wanted and everything, but it was just a battle.  It was just an ugly battle all the way through.  With this, there wasn’t a battle.  It was really nice doing it with independent financing.

 

Q:  Do you feel more comfortable working in animation or live action?

 

A:  I think for a movie these days I’m probably more comfortable (with) live action.  Probably my favorite fun thing to do was when I was just making animated shorts by myself.  I’m having more fun doing live action these days.

 

Q:  Jason Bateman (who stars in “Extract”) called you the Texas Woody Allen. 

 

A:  Did he?  Wow, that’s nice.  I wouldn’t put myself on that level, but that’s kind of what I aspire to, especially his early stuff.  Most of his movies are about these very specific characters in Manhattan.  It’s stuff he knows.  For the most part, he’s a regional filmmaker.  I remember thinking, “Why can’t you have that kind of thing, but about the suburbs?”

 

I remember seeing “Do the Right Thing,” the Spike Lee movie, and seeing those three old black guys talking about the Korean grocery store and thinking, “Someone should make something like that about my neighborhood in Richardson.”

 

Q:  Is this the end of Hank Hill in September?

 

A:  Cartoon characters have a way of coming back from the dead.  It’s weird.  Maybe it hasn’t hit me yet, probably because we’ve been canceled before.  This really is it, though, as far as the series goes.  Who knows, there may be something to be done with those characters later on down the road.

 

Q:  Will you miss Hank if this is the end?

 

A:  Yeah.  We’ve done so many episodes of the show, though, I’d rather quit than be sitting there thinking, “Oh God, how are we going to come up …”  I don’t want to run it into the ground.  It’s kind of a bittersweet thing, I guess.  I think it’s a good time to stop, actually.  I’m OK with it.     

Whole lotta guitar love

 

Jack White, left, Jimmy Page, center, and The Edge communicate through their music.  (Sony Pictures Classics)

Those who can play great rock guitar, do, like virtuosos Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin, The Edge of U2 and Jack White of The White Stripes.

 

Jimmy Page, left, and Davis Guggenheim. 

(Sony Pictures Classics)

One of those who can't, filmmaker Davis Guggenheim, makes an insightful, rockin' documentary about those who can.  Opening Friday (Sept. 4) in Dallas-Fort Worth and other markets, it's titled "It Might Get Loud."  If there's an unnecessary word in the title, it's "Might."

Guggenheim teamed up with former Vice President Al Gore for the Oscar-winning environmental documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" in 2007.  The personable filmmaker stopped by Dallas recently. 

We talked about Guggenheim's love of guitars and how he managed to get a trio of guitar icons into the same room to discuss their love of music and three generations of rock 'n' roll.

Q:  Your last documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth," changed the world in some respects.  This one is going to rock the world.  What made you interested in guitars in general and these three guys (Jimmy Page, The Edge, Jack White) in particular?

A:  I'm just a fan.  I'm a huge Led Zeppelin fan.  The first album really to shake me was U2's first album ("Boy").  And lately, I've been a huge White Stripes fan.  I love this music, and I've always wanted to know how these guys do this.  They hold this piece of wood and they make this sound.  It's a mystery to me.  I just wanted to figure out how they did it.  That's why I made the documentary.

Q:  You crank up the volume pretty high as these three accomplished musicians play.

A:  I've asked Sony Pictures Classics to put "Please play this as loud as humanly possible."  That's because the movie is called, "It Might Get Loud."  The music -- Led Zeppelin, U2 and The White Stripes -- is better loud.  It wants to rattle you.  

Q:  Do you play, or are you just a fan of the guitar and the music?

A:  I play like a cat uses a litter box.  If people aren't around, I'll circle around and do my business.  I love to hold it and I love to make sounds, but no one should witness me playing guitar.  

Q:  Let's talk about these guys.  Why these three, except that they're pretty much gods?

A:  Some very thoughtful person gave me Rolling Stone's list of the greatest guitar players of all time.  I looked at the list.  After about two minutes I just threw it in the trash can because how do you say that one guy is a seven and one guy is six?  Music is very subjective.  Some music just reaches you and other music doesn't. 

So there's a lot of great guitar players.  We weren't trying to be an encyclopedia.  We weren't trying to get the best three.  What I was looking for was finding three people who would open themselves up to me.  A lot of rock stars like to keep the mystique.  They don't want to tell you their secrets.  That was important to me.  Edge pulls the curtain and shows us the simple way he plays "Elevation."  And you go, "I can't believe he just showed me that."  

Q:  You got terrific insight from all three individually.  But when you got them all together, were you apprehensive?

A:  At the very best I was apprehensive.  Mostly I was panicked.  

We actually plotted a map so they would each enter the studio through different routes so they would never see each other.  So Jimmy and Jack and Edge all met each other for the first time on camera for our movie.  What they talk about and what they play was totally up to them.  

Q:  For me, when Jimmy Page hits "Whole Lotta Love" your movie just goes into another gear.  Did you feel like that as well?

A:  Oh my God, chills went up my back.  Hair was standing on the back of my neck.  That was the first music that they played together.  They were just talking for a couple of hours.  I was, like, "God, I hope they play music."  You could see Jimmy growing sort of uneasy before he played it. 

These guys are less comfortable with words.  They express themselves through this instrument.  So out of nowhere Jimmy just stands up and reaches behind him and he grabs the guitar.  He starts playing "Whole Lotta Love."

McAdams plays peek-a-boo with the aging process

 

Rachel McAdams and Eric Bana doing the time warp in "The Time Traveler's Wife." 

(Warner Bros.)

Thanks to a little makeup artistry and a story line that jumps forward and back in “The Time Traveler’s Wife,” rising starlet Rachel McAdams knows what it's like to be 16 again, or at least look like a teen.

 

I joined a small group of film journalists who interviewed McAdams in New York recently.  My entire interview will appear in the September issue of ENVY Magazine. 

 

Here's a sneak peek, including what it was like for the rising star to look into the rear view mirror of the aging process.

 

“It was fun to be 16 again.  We spent a lot of time talking about the clothes, the hair, the makeup.  We worked with such amazingly talented people,” the Canada native says at New York’s posh Waldorf-Astoria Hotel.

In “The Time Traveler’s Wife,” based on Audrey Niffenegger’s 2003 best seller, McAdams and co-star Eric Bana (“Funny People”), travel disparate time lines.  Bana’s Henry has no control of his time hops, thanks to a genetic anomaly.  Clare’s life moves forward in real time.

 

Clare (McAdams) first meets the mysterious stranger, who arrives quite nude, by the way, when he suddenly rustles the bushes near a field where’s she’s playing with dolls.  Clare is 6 when they first get acquainted.

 

Since Henry comes and goes at different stages of his life as Clare proceeds on a linear path, McAdams also at some point had to come to grips with appearing older than her 30 years.

 

The former co-star of “State of Play” and “The Notebook” (with former real-life significant other Ryan Gosling) credits the makeup artist with altering her appearance with just a brush stroke.

 

“It would change my face a little bit.  It was the same with the older Clare as well.  I looked in the mirror one day.  I didn’t really realize we were doing the older Clare that day.  I said, ‘I’m looking a little haggard.’  She said, ‘Oh, don’t worry.  It’s paint.’  It did come off at night.”

 

The daughter of a truck driver and a nurse, McAdams divided her time between competitive skating and acting growing up in Canada.  Even though “The Time Traveler’s Wife” is set in Chicago, much of the romantic-fantasy-drama was shot in Toronto. 

That brought the very busy rising star home.  For a working actress, though, that can induce mixed emotions.

“That’s a really nice gift; from work right to bed.  At the same time, you’re almost responsible for more.  You’re living two lives.  You have your work life and your regular life.  You have to come home and clean the toilet and go buy groceries and all the stuff.  When you’re on location, you’re just sort of immersed in your work.  It’s different,” McAdams says.

 

This is an important year for McAdams.  In addition to interacting with “Time Traveler” Bana, she shares the screen with Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law in Guy Ritchie’s “Sherlock Holmes” this Christmas.

 

Zooey's a doozy in 'Summer' stock

 

Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt ride the relationship roller coaster. 
(Chuck Zlotnick/Fox Searchlight Pictures)

Rising star Zooey Deschanel doesn't have to steal scenes from the leading lady anymore.

Beginning last winter opposite Jim Carrey in "Yes Man" and continuing in grand style Friday (July 17) with the offbeat comic-drama "(500) Days of Summer," Deschanel is the leading lady.

Before all that, the talented 29-year-old actress named after the male character in J.D. Salinger's "Franny and Zooey" committed delightful grand theft as Sarah Jessica Parker's roommate Kit in "Failure to Launch" and opposite Will Ferrell in "Elf."

Deschanel is front and center as the title character Summer in her new starring vehicle.  She shares the screen with Joseph Gordon-Levitt ("Killshot," "The Lookout"), another Hollywood up-and-comer.

Summer, an office assistant at a greeting card company, doesn't believe in true love.  Tom (Gordon-Levitt) does.  So beings a roller coaster relationship ride that director Marc Webb brings to the screen with unique comic style and surprising grace.

The "(500) Days of Summer" leading lady comes from a show biz family.  She spent much of her youth hanging out with her actress mom, Mary Jo ("Twin Peaks"), and her dad, Caleb ("Being There," "The Black Stallion"), an Oscar-nominated cinematographer.  Deschanel credits her father with instilling in her a keen visual sense and grand style.

That was apparent very early on in young Zooey's acting career. 

"It was nice to know what I was getting myself into," she told Scotsman.com writer Siobhan Synnot of her show-business background. Synnot was told she was barely 2 when she first baby-talked her own decision to become an "actwess".

"'My nursery school did a production of The Three Little Pigs,''' the article says.  (Click here to read the full interview.)

"'I played the third pig. When the wolf knocked on my door, I refused to get up and answer it because, to me, he was knocking the wrong way. I just lay there, snoring away on stage, fully immersed in my character. My dad turned to my mom and said: 'Dustin Hoffman'.'"

  

Diaz fought real personal tragedy for 'Sisters'

 

 

Cameron Diaz had to deal with a close family member's death on and off the set of "My Sister's Keeper." (Sidney Baldwin/Warner Bros. Pictures)

Two major emotional bombs rocked the set of “My Sister’s Keeper,” the tragedy-drama co-starring Cameron Diaz, Abigail Breslin and Sofia Vassilieva.

Based on Jodi Picoult’s bestseller, “My Sister’s Keeper,” opening Friday (June 26), chronicles 10 years in the lives of parents (Diaz and Jason Patric) dealing with the weakening condition of a daughter fighting leukemia (Vassilieva).  They make a desperate attempt to engineer a perfect medical match by having a third child.

Oscar nominee Breslin (“Little Miss Sunshine”) takes on the pivotal role of Anna, a child conceived, she says, as spare parts for her older sister.

The first emotional bomb that landed on set involved a playful conspiracy by Diaz and director Nick Cassavetes to get 12-year-old Breslin to drop the verbal F-bomb.  It was an attempt to keep the mood light while shooting the story of a family dealing with a child’s terminal illness.

 “It was all in good fun.  We didn’t really want her to swear,” Diaz says, flanked by Breslin and Vassilieva  in a small hotel conference room in a Santa Monica beach hotel.

The second emotional bomb was devastating and all too real.  The sudden death of Emilio Diaz, Cameron’s father, in April last year not only halted production, it turned the film’s star into what Cassavetes calls “a ragdoll.”

 “Even when we got the call on set, everyone truly believed that it was some fluke thing and Cameron had to go visit her sick dad but she would be back the next day. We were all stunned to find out that he died so suddenly,” the director says.

 Production was halted for about two weeks.  Cassavetes says it would be great if he could say that some weird kismet allowed something good to come from the senior Diaz’s death.  But it didn’t.

 “She was like the rest of us; a ragdoll and unsure and didn’t know what country she was in and really wasn’t fully able to comprehend what had happened to her,” the former director of “Alpha Dog” says.

 Diaz got through it, though, thanks to moral support from her young co-stars.

 “I was really, really fortunate to have these people to come back to.  The show must go on,” Diaz says.

 “Literally, these girls helped me, and Nick was amazing.  That’s really the only way I was able to do it,” she adds.

Diaz broke into feature films through wild comedy, not drama.  Her breakthrough came opposite Jim Carrey in the offbeat superhero fantasy “The Mask” (1994).  She’ll always be remembered as the “hair gel” girl and title character of “There’s Something About Mary” (1998).

 Diaz is playing a mother for the first time in “My Sister’s Keeper.”  It never crossed her mind to worry about that.

 “I’m not 25 anymore,” she says.  “It’s not something I’m worried about.  I could have a 16-year-old child.  I might have if I was a different person.  I always say I’ve got a few out there I don’t know about.

 “I’m just kidding.  It’s a joke.”

(EDITOR'S NOTE:  In Houston, Dallas and Austin, look for this interview in the July issue of ENVY Magazine or -- as of July 1 -- find it at the ENVY Web site.)

Bullock's slapstick in the buff

 

Austin-based girl-next-door formidable movie star Sandra Bullock gets back to the business of making us laugh on Friday (June 19) with "The Proposal."

There was a strained stretch in her funny girl career -- call it the "Miss Congeniality" (I & II) era from roughly 2000 to 2005 -- when Bullock resorted to falling down quite a bit to milk the laughs.

If "The Proposal" is any indication, those days of trying so hard it was trying to watch are over.  A generally intelligent comedy with character-driven laughs co-starring Ryan Reynolds and scene-stealer Betty White, Bullock's latest does include one fall-down moment.

Oh, and did I mention that Bullock and Reynolds are nude at the time?

On its Web site, US Magazine reports from the "Proposal" press junket that her latest comedy marks Bullock's first outing of slapstick in the buff:

"'Sadly, my first and last nude scene got laughs, so I had to be very secure with that," she said Sunday at the film's press junket. "It was all about choreography. I mean, literally when you read it on the page, you saw it, and then you realized, 'OK, there is no way to shoot this unless you are buck naked!' Then I went, 'Go to the gym, cut out the carbs!,'" the US article said.  

Click here to read the entire article. 

(Photo:  Ryan Reynolds and Sandra Bullock find themselves in quite a pickle./Touchstone Pictures)

'Transforming' Megan Fox

Movie stars aren't really born destined for fame, they're noticed.

For every film star, there was a moment when someone -- either a movie studio executive or film lovers sitting in the dark -- decided something special was going on in that oh-so-fragile relationship between an actor and a movie camera.

Jack Black, for instance, sprang out of obscurity to almost steal "High Fidelity" from star John Cusack in 2000.  He's been on a skyrocket to fame ever since.

For Megan Fox, returning to the screen in the "Transformers" sequel June 24, that special moment of recognition was a little different, according to Chris Nashawaty's article posted on EW.com. 

Hers happened a couple of years back in the first "Transformers" action-thriller:

"As star-is-born moments go, Megan Fox's was a doozy. About 25 minutes into 2007's 'Transformers,' the curvy sex bomb, dressed in a denim miniskirt and a cropped tank top revealing miles of midriff, leaned over the engine of Shia LaBeouf's car. Folks might have walked in expecting to see the Autobots and Decepticons, but they walked out talking about...that girl," the article states.

Click here for the rest of the Q & A interview.

(Photo:  As Mikaela Banes, Megan Fox is back on screen for the sequel, "Transformers:  Revenge of the Fallen."/Paramount Pictures) 

Got any questions for the 'Sisters'?

 

I'm heading out to Los Angeles this week to interview Cameron Diaz, Abigail Breslin and Sofia Vassilieva for the upcoming family crisis drama "My Sister's Keeper," which will be lighting up movie screens as of June 26.

Look for my upcoming interviews on this Web site and in the pages of ENVY magazine (July issue).

In the meantime, if you have any questions you're just dying to ask Diaz ("Charlie's Angels," the voice of Princess Fiona in the "Shrek" franchise), Breslin ("Kit Kittredge," "Nim's Island," "Little Miss Sunshine") or Vassilieva (Ariel Dubois on TV's "Medium"), pass them along as a comment to this post.  I can't guarantee anything, but I'll try to get in as many as I can.

Based on Jodi Picoult's bestseller, "My Sister's Keeper" chronicles the saga of a family dealing with a child with leukemia and their act of genetic engineering as an effort to save that child's life.

(Photo, left to right:  Sofia Vassilieva, Cameron Diaz and Abigail Breslin in "My Sister's Keeper."/Warner Bros. Pictures)

Mexico's other filmmaking Cuarón

This is about Carlos, the other Mexican writer -- and now feature film director -- named Cuarón.

Word to the wise, though: Don’t bother trying to get Carlos to even mention sibling rivalry involving his older brother Alfonso, the acclaimed director of "Y tu mamá también" and "Children of Men."

The elder Cuarón has drawn two screenwriting Academy Award nominations.  But Carlos, making his feature-film directing debut with the tragicomedy "Rudo y Cursi," drew an Oscar nod as well.

He co-wrote "Y tu mamá también" with Alfonso, who is five years older.

In Dallas recently for the premiere of "Rudo y Cursi" at the AFI Dallas Film Festival, Carlos kicked the word "brotherhood" around with the style and grace that co-stars Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna display on screen with a soccer ball.

"This is a movie about brotherhood made by brothers, or by a family of very good friends.  These guys are like my little brothers.  Alfonso is my big brother and so are (producers) Guillermo (del Toro) and Alejandro (González Iñárritu)," he says.  Video tape rolls as we sit across from each other at the W Dallas hotel.

 

"Rudo y Cursi," in Spanish with subtitles and opening Friday (May 15) in many markets, started out in his mind as a send-up of a soccer player who makes it big then loses his way.

 

"I wouldn’t say a mockumentary, like 'Spinal Tap,' but rather a fake documentary.  Back then I didn’t know if it was going to be funny," he says.

 

Carlos mentioned the idea to Bernal and Luna during the promotional tour for "Y tu mamá también." Both actors wanted to play the soccer player.

 

"I had a problem.  I had two actors and only one part," he says. "I made up a brother.  I threw away the idea of a fake documentary and I did my own thing."

 

The younger Cuarón has not always been so decisive.  Even though he knew he wanted to be a writer from the time he was 14, he was going nowhere until 1996.  That’s when his dark mood almost spoiled a dinner he was sharing with Alfonso and close friend Guillermo del Toro.

 

"Guillermo said, 'Why are you so sad?'  I said, 'Well, I write all these scripts.  They don’t get produced and it’s like giving birth to a dead child.  It’s terrible.'

 

"His answer was, 'You dummy, why don’t you direct them?'"

 

When it comes to his younger "brothers," Cuarón says it’s no accident that Bernal ("Babel," "Bad Education") and Luna ("Milk," "Frida") appear seamless as siblings in "Rudo y Cursi."

 

"They met when Diego was born because of their parents.  They grew up together," he says.  "That chemistry is impossible to get in any other way."

 

As for shooting a movie in Mexico in troubled, violent times, Cuarón says he had no problems.

 

"Despite of all the things that we’ve been hearing on the news, Mexico is still the same Mexico.  It is horrible that we are in the hands of the drug lords.  It is terrible that the only solid institution now in Mexico is the drug lords.  But it’s also true that there is a normal life in Mexico.  It’s not like living in Baghdad at all."

 

(Photo:  Director Carlos Cuarón on the "Rudo y Cursi" set in Mexico./Sony Pictures Classics)