Virtual Newsstand: Movieline, March 2001

ENTERTAINMENT AS A WAY OF LIFE
MOVIELINE
March 2001

FEATURES

Jason Isaacs
When it comes to playing the bad guy, Jason Isaacs is very, very good. He portrayed troublemakers in 1996's Dragonheart and in 1998's Soldier, but he really got moviegoers hating him as the red-coated sadist Colonel Tavington in last summer's The Patriot. Can he top that villainy? Actually, he doesn't want to. "You can't be typecast-- you're only cast if you accept the jobs," says the 37-year-old, who has chosen to appear next in much lighter fare as Charlize Theron's cross-dressing best friend in Sweet November, which also stars Keanu Reeves.

Brittany Murphy
No one who saw 1999's Girl, Interrupted could easily forget Brittany Murphy's portrayal of the laxative-addicted daddy's girl who stored chicken carcasses beneath her bed.

Stuart Townsend
Few young actors are ballsy enough to risk comparison with Tom Cruise's vampire Lestat in 1994's Interview With the Vampire. Wes Bentley, Heath Ledger and Josh Hartnett all turned down the starring role in Queen of the Damned, the upcoming movie version of the Anne Rice novel in which Lestat becomes a rock star whose anthems bestir the mother of all vampires from her beauty sleep.

Johnny Depp: A Man Apart
Ever since Johnny Depp moved to France to be with Vanessa Paradis, the mother of his child, he's been making fascinating career choices, like Lasse Hallstrom's Chocolat and, this month, Ted Demme's Blow. Here Depp talks about the pleasure of living in Europe, explains why he was surprised Hallstrom wanted to work with him, and discusses what made him bolt from the Oscars and steal Harrison Ford's limo the one year he went.

Geoffrey Rush: Gold Rush
Geoffrey Rush's career took off when he won an Oscar for Shine, and now he's involved in more awards buzz for his performance as the Marquis de Sade in Quills. Here he discusses how being Oscar's golden boy has changed his career but not his life, why he was eager to sink his tongue into playing the Marquis and what's with his title role opposite Pierce Brosnan in The Tailor of Panama.

Gore Verbinski: The Other Gore
One minute he's an unknown director leaping from a Budweiser commercial to the feature Mouse Hunt, the next he's directing the high-wattage pairing of Julia Roberts and Brad Pitt in The Mexican. Here's how Gore Verbinski did it.