Last Thursday, I had a lengthy, terrific interview with James Cameron in advance of the special edition of Avatar (rereleased to theaters August 27), and all this week, Movieline will bring you pieces of that wide-ranging talk. For the first installment of our interview, Cameron explained his tendency to revise his films after their release, where he draws the line, and why he thinks a test audience bristled at Avatar's infamous sex scene, which has now been reinstated.
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As Tommy, the impoverished younger brother to Sam (Sam Trammell) on True Blood, Marshall Allman plays a shapeshifting character who's still licking wounds from a family that forced him into dogfighting. Talking to Allman himself, however, is the furthest thing from a grim experience. The hilarious 26-year-old called up Movieline this week to chat about getting in shape, the tabloid treatment of his former Prison Break costar Wentworth Miller, and the lengths Mad Men showrunner Matthew Weiner went to during Allman's guest appearance.
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After earning a supporting actress nomination at the Oscars last year for her work in Up in the Air, Anna Kendrick again provides valuable support as part of the ensemble cast of Edgar Wright's hyper-caffeinated comic book adaptation Scott Pilgrim vs the World. So how does the 25-year-old actress feel about shooting her role as Scott's sister Stacey, her part in the upcoming cancer comedy Live With It, and the rigors of an Oscar season she's finally put to bed? She told Movieline.
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Autumn Reeser has come a long way from playing the Tracy Flick-like Taylor Townsend on The O.C. The versatile character actress has spent the better part of this summer giving Ari Gold a second ulcer in her recurring part as the foul-mouthed and super-smart Lizzie on Entourage. This fall, she'll ply her trade at family friendly dramedy in the upcoming ABC pilot No Ordinary Family, a sort of live-action version of The Incredibles. She also does a monthly stage show in Los Angeles and juggles going back to school. And you thought your life was busy.
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Nearly seven months after his debut feature Animal Kingdom wowed Sundance, found American distribution and repurposed Air Supply's "All Out of Love" in the most harrowing way possible, writer-director David Michôd is readying for the rest of America's reaction to the Australian crime-family drama. If the critics are any indication, he has nothing to worry about -- except, maybe, how to follow it up.
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How do you recover from a graphic vampire-on-vampire sex scene that ended with one nasty staking and screams that literally curdled blood? If you're actor Theo Alexander, you fly to Greece to unwind -- and edit the aforementioned sequence out of the bootlegged episode of True Blood you plan on screening for your mother. This morning, the Greek actor took a break from his two-week vacation to phone Movieline and discuss the sensual way he prepared for True sex, his fear of getting in touch with his "gay" side, and his character's 700-year romance with the King of Mississippi.
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For the perfect example of someone who can do a lot with just a little, just check out True Blood's scene stealer Kristin Bauer. As Pam, the stylish second-in-command vampire to Bon Temps big shot Eric (Alexander Skarsgard), it often falls to Bauer to swan into a scene, casually toss off the episode's best lines, and leave a lasting impression in just a few minutes. She talked to Movieline about how she does it.
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What if I told you that the best 3D I've seen since Avatar -- as well as the most fun I've had in a theater this year -- came from an innocuous little dance flick called Step Up 3D? While other directors use 3D to enhance special effects, director Jon Chu shows how eye-popping it can be when those cutting-edge cameras are pointed at real people (albeit people with superhuman dance talents). I talked to Chu about how he pulled it off, how many cameras he broke, and the movie's terrific, one-take showstopper.
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It's safe to say that Sam Rockwell and Jon Favreau enjoy a very good working relationship. Favreau gave the actor an uncredited role in his directorial debut Made, considered him to play Tony Stark in the original Iron Man, then let Rockwell do the bulk of Iron Man 2's scene stealing as Stark's rival Justin Hammer. At Comic-Con, Movieline spoke to Rockwell for a little while about their newest collaboration: Favreau's sci-fi western Cowboys and Aliens.
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It was less than two years ago that most American filmgoers became familiar with Gemma Arterton, the 24-year old British actress whose all-too-brief tenure in Quantum of Solace ended in... well, oily fashion. Arterton has been more than a little busy (and conspicuous) in the time since, with another pair of blockbuster appearances culminating in this week's new indie thriller The Disappearance of Alice Creed -- in which her title character puts up much more of a fight than her doomed Bond girl.
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Wilmer Valderrama spent almost a decade of his life hitting precise comic beats on That 70's Show, but in Ryan Piers Williams' returning-soldier drama The Dry Land, he's a revelation as an easy, unaffected actor. The role was an especially personal one for the 30-year-old, who's spent years visiting troops as part of the USO, where That 70's Show is an unexpected phenomenon. He told Movieline all about it, and dropped a little bit of information about his hush-hush new film with Tom Hanks as well.
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Ilene Chaiken broke new ground when she created The L Word, but since that show's six-season run, most of TV's gay representation has come from the reality TV genre. It's only fitting, then, that Chaiken's latest project is The Real L Word, a reality spin on her original series that's currently winding down its first season on Showtime. Chaiken talked to Movieline about how surprised she was that Showtime wanted the show, how they shoot those sex scenes, and how LA lesbians might need a breather soon.
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America Ferrera's star was launched with the 2002 independent film Real Women Have Curves, and eight years later, she's hoping to strike similar indie gold with the new returning soldier drama The Dry Land, which she produced and stars in (the film was directed by her fiance, Ryan Piers Williams). How much has the independent film landscape changed since then -- and how much has Ferrera herself changed now that Ugly Betty has closed up shop after four seasons? She told Movieline.
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It's shaping up to be quite a year Badge Dale. The 32-year-old actor starred on the critically acclaimed HBO mini-series The Pacific, will be seen in Robert Redford's next directorial effort, The Conspirator, and plays the lead on AMC's newest drama, Rubicon (Sunday night before Mad Men). He's also a Verge alum. So, yeah, 2010 has been pretty good to him indeed.
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After launching two incredibly successful franchises in Austin Powers and Meet the Parents, Jay Roach became Hollywood's first pick to direct any studio comedy, and yet the Steve Carell/Paul Rudd vehicle Dinner for Schmucks (adapted from Francis Veber's French farce The Dinner Game) is his first theatrical endeavor outside those two series in over ten years. Roach chatted with Movieline about the pros and cons of that kind of success, why he loves a girl with an accent, and what he'd like to see from the next Austin Powers sequel.
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