In Rob Reiner's retro family film Flipped, the central, budding romance is handled in a novel way: first we see things from the perspective of aloof junior high schooler Bryce (Callan McAuliffe), and then we replay the same events through the perspective of his not-so-secret admirer, Juli (Madeline Carroll). For this edition of the Verge, then, let's check in with McAuliffe first (he's a 15-year-old Australian with a key role in the upcoming action film I Am Number Four), then hear from Carroll (already a TV and film veteran at the age of 14), two unusually self-possessed young actors.
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It's not easy to play a cinematic dream girl, especially the inscrutable Ramona Flowers of Edgar Wright's Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, who literally meets our titular hero (played by Michael Cera) for the first time inside his own dream. Still, actress Mary Elizabeth Winstead pulls it off, and why shouldn't she, after braving challenges like Live Free or Die Hard, Death Proof, and the upcoming remake of The Thing? Just before Scott Pilgrim's release this past weekend, Winstead called up Movieline to discuss elements of a fight scene you didn't see, the film's reshot ending, and the credit she's got that's even weirder than Scott Pilgrim.
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In Middle Men, Laura Ramsey plays a woman who parlays an ignoble beginning (selling sex on the internet) into a lucrative business, and in some ways, it's a fortuitous match of actress and character. Ramsey, too, paid her dues in productions she'd probably rather forget (like MTV's reality flop The Real Cancun), but she's since built a promising career as an actress, with notable appearances in projects like The Ruins, The Covenant, and Mad Men. She called up Movieline to talk about fake online profiles, and donning a sailor hat for Sofia Coppola.
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How does a relatively unknown actor get cast opposite America Ferrera, Wilmer Valderrama, and Melissa Leo as the lead in Ryan Piers Williams' drama The Dry Land? As Ryan O'Nan told Movieline, it's all thanks to one very fortuitous poker game.
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In The Devil Wears Prada, Stephanie Szostak played a French magazine editor who made a rival out of Meryl Streep, but in Jay Roach's Dinner for Schmucks, she goes one bigger: She makes a rival out of all the American women (and many American men) who covet Paul Rudd as their fantasy boyfriend.
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Some people decide to pursue acting on a whim -- maybe they saw a performance that resonated with them, or they're looking for a way to express themselves. For Hutch Dano, it was in his blood.
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Face it: after this summer of crappy post-production 3D, you need a palate cleanser, and you shouldn't have to wait until Christmas for Tron Legacy to do the job. Why not let next month's agreeable Step Up 3D fill the void? Not only was it conceived for and shot by 3D cameras, but it also has a leading lady of just as many dimensions: the free-spirited Australian actress Sharni Vinson. Like Heath Ledger, Naomi Watts, and Isla Fisher before her, Vinson got her start on the Aussie soap Home and Away, but none of them ever had to dance their butts off amidst 3D raindrops, so points for Sharni.
How does it feel to be part of Hollywood's recent Australian invasion? Vinson told Movieline about how she managed it, whether she auditions with her natural accent, and what cruel joke she had played on her by Step Up 3D's director, Jon M. Chu.
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How do you stand out in the ensemble cast of Predators, which features actors like Adrien Brody, Laurence Fishburne, and Topher Grace? Simple: you bring a big freakin' samurai sword. As the Yakuza assassin Hanzo, Louis Ozawa Changchien gets what may be the Nimrod Antal-helmed reboot's most striking scene: a "mano-a-alien" battle royale that draws on Chanchien's years of Kendo experience. Still, while the swordfighting skill is all his, in real life, Changchien couldn't be more different: he's a quick-witted nice guy who's just as excited about his considerably more down-to-earth roles coming up in Fair Game and Kathryn Bigelow's new project.
Last week, Changchien called up Movieline to discuss those parts as well as one of his earliest roles: a Jell-O pudding commercial opposite Bill Cosby himself that left him battle-scarred in a way far worse than any swordfight gone awry.
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The gossip headlines may ask, "Is Colin Egglesfield dating Kate Hudson?" but rest assured, it's only for the movies. The 37-year-old Egglesfield has spent spring canoodling with Hudson and Ginnifer Goodwin as the male lead in the in-production romcom Something Borrowed, a high-profile boost after the actor was bounced from the struggling revamp of Melrose Place. Egglesfield takes it all in stride, however; it's just another curveball in a career that's been full of them, zig-zagging from his pre-med background to high-fashion modeling to daytime soaps.
How did it happen? He told Movieline.
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Historically, pop culture is full of vampires who are calm, collected, and more than a little mysterious, which is what makes Deborah Ann Woll on True Blood such a hoot. Her fledgling vamp Jessica is none of those things -- instead, she's equal parts giddy and grossed-out (and blessedly free of those centuries' worth of wisdom that make most other vampires such a drag). Heading into season three, Woll's just as much of a delight as ever, and even feature film auteurs like Paul Thomas Anderson are beginning to take note.
What's in store for Jessica this year -- and for Woll herself? Movieline talked to the 25-year-old actress about the third season's arc and her upcoming projects.
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It can't be argued that Australian men are having a bit of a moment in Hollywood -- just ask actors like Ryan Kwanten or the Hemsworth brothers, tapped to play roles that America's slender man-boys can't quite muster up the strength for -- but what of the Australian actresses who'll follow in the footsteps of Nicole Kidman or Naomi Watts? Enter Teresa Palmer. The 24-year-old Adelaide native has appeared in productions like December Boys and Bedtime Stories, but things are about to ramp up considerably; next month, she'll be seen as Jay Baruchel's love interest in The Sorcerer's Apprentice, then she's primed for a big action moment in the alien adventure I Am Number Four, where she'll star alongside other rising stars like Alex Pettyfer and Glee's Dianna Agron.
Palmer called up Movieline last week to chat about the crazy training regimen she's currently undertaking for Number Four, the big movie she swears she isn't actually attached to (no matter what IMDb says), and how the swerves of her early career have made her stronger.
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Luke Evans is your new leading man -- you just don't know it yet. The Welsh 30-year-old made his name on the British stage by starring in productions of Miss Saigon and Taboo, and since he transitioned into film last year, he's booked role after role after role. In Robin Hood and Clash of the Titans, Evans had smaller supporting parts, but he turned heads as the romantic lead opposite Gemma Arterton in the Cannes comedy Tamara Drewe, and after he finishes Tarsem Singh's Immortals, he'll be playing Aramis in Paul W.S. Anderson's The Three Musketeers (with a cast that includes Orlando Bloom and Christoph Waltz) and the title character in the biopic Vivaldi, opposite Jessica Biel. Not a bad haul for someone who hadn't even appeared in a film until this year!
Movieline caught up with the busy Evans to get the scoop on all of his upcoming projects and the one movie musical he's desperate to be a part of.
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Some roles change an actress's career, and then some roles change her life. Neil Jordan's fairy-tale thriller Ondine did both for 27-year-old Alicja Bachleda, who stars in the title role as a mysterious young woman caught in the net of the Irish fisherman Syracuse (Colin Farrell). Revived and stabilized, she is thought by both Syracuse and his physically ailing daughter to possibly be a selkie -- the mythical sea-woman creature of Irish folklore. Ondine's gifts for singing fish into Syracuse's net and treating the sick girl only compound the suspicion; their increasing closeness sets up a romance both on- and offscreen (Bachleda and Farrell became an item on the set, having a son together in 2008), not to mention a quintessentially Jordan-esque meditation on a woman who isn't what she appears to be.
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For years, Justin Bartha's been a dependable supporting player in comedies (The Hangover), tentpoles (National Treasure) and even misfires (Gigli), but his days of second fiddle may be coming to an end. In the new drama Holy Rollers, Bartha still plays support to Jesse Eisenberg, but through his role as the debauched Hasid who lures Eisenberg into a life of drug running, Bartha gives the movie its jittery intrigue. Meanwhile, the 31-year-old actor has the lead in Stanley Tucci's Broadway musical Lend Me a Tenor, and though he was gone for most of the first Hangover, he's due to have an expanded role in the second.
Last week, Bartha spoke to Movieline about the perils of indie filmmaking, Eisenberg's habit of self-deprecating, and the job he'd take on the next Hangover if director Todd Phillips asked him.
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There's a bit of cognitive dissonance that happens when you watch Imogen Poots in Solitary Man: she's utterly convincing as a confident Manhattan teenager who sexually entangles herself with the boyfriend (Michael Douglas) of her wealthy mother (Mary-Louise Parker), but with a name like "Imogen Poots," there's no way she's actually American. In fact, the 20-year-old Poots is British and, until now, best known for playing one of the young leads in 28 Weeks Later. That should change after the one-two-three punch Poots has coming in Solitary Man, the Cannes drama Chatroom, and the Cary Fukunaga-directed Jane Eyre, where she plays rival to Mia Wasikowska.
As Solitary Man sees release this week, Poots called up Movieline to discuss the sitcom that helped her with an American accent, the perils of technology, and the pleasures of working twice opposite Michael Fassbender.
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