*Live Blog* The Hollywood Reporter's Actors Roundtable

Y'all remember when I did this for the ladies so I figure it's twin-time. You have to have both pieces of a matching set. Not that I'm looking forward to this one as much. Impress or surprise me fellas! You're not actresses so you have to work harder to provide Film Experience jollies. (If you have time to watch the full video it's at the bottom of the post.)

1:00 Robert Duvall (Get Low) tells a rambling story about becoming an actor and reveals "my brothers were both professional singers." The Duvall Brothers, eh? I so wanna hear that record. Would it be like the Osmonds except with less smiling?

3:00 The discussion turns to acting as a rewarding profession. Colin Firth (The King's Speech) picks up this Duvall baton.

"You get to play all your life. Most people have to grow out of it. The fantasy thing stays alive which is wonderful. It can be a little hard on the people living with you..."

  He then reveals the dangers in staying a child when you're a grown-up. Those who do get very susceptible to external matters of fame; they become needy about attention and far too giddy if someone pats them on the back.

4:00 The first laugh of the hour comes from Mark Ruffalo (The Kids Are All Right) who pats Firth on the back. Right then.

Blazing young star and seasoned professional.

 6:03 Firth is still talking three minutes later but the thing that struck me here is realizing how young Ryan Gosling (Blue Valentine) is. He just turned 30 two weeks ago. I never think about this but seeing him in this context I'm suddenly like 'oh, yes. baby star' Sometimes I forget that though actresses are regularly giant stars in their 20s, the male actors take longer to ascend. 

7:00 This is funny. The reporters try to lead Firth to name projects he hated.

Reporter: Have you done a film or a role where you really felt it wasn't quality and you knew it?
Firth: Have you glanced at my CV?

Funny. Firth is still talking. I don't recall any of the actresses hogging the convo this much.

7:40 Linguistic Trivia! Firth claims that English civilians use the word "resting" to describe time off between actor's roles but he says that actual actors don't use the word as there's nothing "restive" about it. Ruffalo says he calls this "rotting."

9:02 The toughest moment in Ruff's career? He's talking about the bi-coastal issue of theater and the perception being if you're doing theater in LA people think you're a loser. It took him forever to get his first movie role. So he's doing theater and bartending (in LA) and going "Where's my Rumblefish?" This leads to an incredibly off moment where James Franco (32) suddenly gets confused about how old Mark Ruffalo is (43). Awwwk-kwward. (From the looks of things, Jesse Eisenberg doesn't know what a Rumblefish is.)

For the record Rumblefish debuted in 1983 when Ruffalo was only 16 and not legally allowed to serve alcohol. He meant it aspirationally rather than real-time concurrently. Duh, Franco!

10:49 Ruffalo says he's from Kenosha, Wisconsin. Wisconsin readers? Are you proud to claim the Ruff?

11:54 Now he is talking about seeing A Streetcar Named Desire on TV and realizing what acting was for the first time. This is the second random reference to Marlon Brando and we're only 12 minutes in. That man casts quite a long shadow with thespians.

14:00 Hmmm. Amazing descriptive nugget of great acting from Duvall "Terrific interior moment that works in the imaginary set of circumstances." I love that. But then he has to go and ruin it by bagging on critics for a split second. I hate when actors do this because it's so short-sighted. I always wish people would stop and ask themselves where the legends of entertainment would be, or rather, how large would their legend be if you removed the perceptive things that have been written about them over the years, the monuments to their performances and such. Not as legendary that's where they'd be.

17:24 Gosling explains that he worked on risky material now because of starting on undemanding television shows. He talks about growing up around a lot of crazy characters and not seeing them reflected on television or the screen.

They were good or they were bad [on film]. The people I was growing up around were everything all the time. They were good people but they were bad people. They were funny but they were doing terrible things. So I think I just naturally gravitated to those kinds or roles

He then talks about superhero films and the like and how he isn't sure he could do them and assumes they'd be hard to do, acting against nothingness rather than another actor. Brief shoutout to Michelle Williams for her difficult role in Blue Valentine.

20:54 James Franco claims that he no longer fights for roles. He thought he wasn't going to get 127 Hours but it turns out that the audition just went awkwardly because Danny Boyle thought he was stoned. The reporter, bless, says "were you?" "NO!" comes Franco's quick shocked response. Oh, Franco. Everyone always thinks you're stoned. It's the sleepy eyelids, glazed eyes and perpetual naughty smile.

21:53 Interesting bit on 127 Hours, where Franco likens the crew to actors since he had no one to act off of. So the cinematographer, director, etcetera felt like fellow actors to him.

25:37 Franco "I can only have one master." [*numerous hands raise for volunteering at computer screens across the world*]

26:15 The reporter brings up the not so uninteresting topic of disagreement with directors but these actors are too cagey to answer. Franco sees through this immediately and here is his silent response.

Firth makes an elusive stab at the question.

If you have faith in this person than you probably give your idea up for theirs. That's exhilarating. But that's awful if you don't trust the person which is not that unusual, really.

The King with the stammer then clams up after that tantalizing confession. So damn cagey. Why will no one answer? You don't have to name names. Speak cryptically to give us some guesswork at home. Think of the audience. You're entertainers, so entertain.

28:04 Ohmygod. It's weird. You know, I enjoyed watching The King's Speech but it's one of those movies that seems boring to discuss. They're talking about the research of playing a kingzzzzzzz. Biopics put me to sleep. Speaking of which why was Christian Bale not invited to this? Is it because he would hate this sort of thing?

34:00 We're still on researching biopics. I'm going to grow old and die while watching this. Cobwebs are growing twixt keyboard and screen. It's rather remarkable that Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network) is just now speaking more than halfway into this thing and it's making me realize why the Actress roundtable was so much more interesting. And it's not, I swear, just because actresses are more interesting. I believe if you watched these back-to-back you would quickly realize that the actresses actually talked to each other. Banter sprung forth. This is just a group of six men waiting to be questioned. They're not interacting. Zzz.

Jesse says he was discouraged from researching Mark Zuckerberg but he found it impossible not to.

How could I not meet a guy I'm going to be playing?... I thought it would be limiting to play somebody real and so specific but it turned out to be really freeeing... maybe it would start as mimicry but then it would have some kind of visceral response and ultimately take you into it further.

36:50 Jesse talking about reading the script from Zuckerberg's point of view and feeling he was completely justified in everything. God, being an actor would be so weird, right? Constantly removing yourself and embodying other ethos and personalities.

38:40 There's a split second where I think we're going to get a good back and forth. Jesse glances at Mark and mentions that they've both worked for him (David Fincher though he is weirdly not named) but Ruff' doesn't respond. Duvall seems totally confused by Eisenberg's description of filming The Social Network ... since he keeps talking about 50 takes.

41:00 Gosling and Ruffalo are totally laughing about Eisenberg's candor and obsessiveness. He's telling about a director being pisssed at him for keeping track of which takes he thought he was terrible in and sharing his notes about which to use. (Not Fincher)

Duvall speaks his mind. He has opinions, this one.

42:05 Finally something interesting! It seemed like Duvall was deaf or confused by the Fincher discussion but it turns out he was listening. He says he turned down a role in Se7en (!) -- but mentions that he thought it was a great movie -- but is not happy to hear about Fincher's fondness for endless takes.

"Can I say one thing? To me 'The great Stanley Kubrick' was an actor's enemy. He was an actor's enemy. I can point to movies that he's done, the worst performances I've ever seen in movies. Terrible performances. Maybe great movies but terrible performances."

We'd probably have a spirited throwdown right then in a roomful of critics or chattier actors but these are polite hesistant interviews so he then trails off into discussing Brando again who has now been mimicked twice. Both Duvall and Ruffalo have done Brando during the first 42 minutes.

43:05 Finally some interaction. It took Duvall's Kubrick smackdown to wake them up (even if they didn't join in the fight) and they're actually talking to each other. Sometimes conflict on the set is good they all agree.

44:00 Franco says he's never had a director like that (hundreds of takes) but thinks that Fincher makes great movies.

45:00 God, I love Mark Ruffalo. He seems to be enjoying this the most (or is at least the most laidback of the six) and is describing those excruciatingly long days on Zodiac. 'You hit your stride and you're on take 25 and He starts walking toward you. You're thinking to yourself 'I hope he's coming over here to fire me' [laughter in room] And then he just walks past you and moves the extra behind you an inch...'

First there was no interaction and now physical interaction. Will there now be slash fiction involving Ryan & Mark? I offer this picture up for inspiration.

Ruff' says it's in moments like this that you realize that Fincher is a director who is always thinking of the entire frame and you are just happy to be taking up your small percentage of it. If this subject intrigues you and you're new to the Film Experience you might want to check out these recent comments from Jake Gyllenhaal on the same issue.

48:00 This leads to a bit about Gosling being fired from The Lovely Bones. Funny story about Peter Jackson and Gosling not seeing eye to eye on the character. "He hired me at 150 lbs and I showed up weighing 210 lbs" His diet consisted of melting down Häagen-Dasz and when he was thirsty he would drink it instead of water. YUM. Anyway, they had different ideas about the father and he was fired. "So I was unemployed and fat." He seems glad that he got fired which can only lead me to believe that he has seen the finished movie. The Häagen-Dasz saved him!

52:00 A question about expectations versus actual experience in Hollywood is asked but doesn't get traction. Jesse talks about his experiences as a child actor and trusting your own instincts about which projects to say "yes" to. He alludes to a horror movie (I'm guessing that'd be Cursed) that his agent and his dad were at odds about whether he should do and he went with the agent's advice but says his Dad was right.

56:00 The reporter tries to end with a "great takeaway from your life/career?" proudest moment type round table question.  Duvall brings up The Godfather but it sounds like he's bringing it up just because it's expected of him. What really gets his emphasis is the TV miniseries Lonesome Dove.

58: 21 Colin says he can't do it, can't answer this question. Colin is pissing me off. He talks so much but he won't answer the questions. Yet his refusals are complicated and verbose. Shut it Darcy.

59:00 Oh! Sorry. I didn't mean to force the issue. The video shut off on me just as I typed that. No joke. It's a sign from the blogging gods that I've gone too far; shut it Nathaniel.

Here's the complete video if you have a full hour free.



Footnote (just for the helluva it)
Movies/TV & Stars Name Checked

• Duvall: Marlon Brando, The Great Santini, Eleanor Dusa, Sarah Bernhardt, Sandy Meisner, Othello, Stanley Kubrick, A Clockwork Orange, The Shining, Lonesome Dove, Se7en, The Godfather, American Buffalo
• Firth: Christoph Waltz, Nostromo
• Ruffalo: A Streetcar Named Desire, Marlon Brando, Stella Adler, Rumblefish, Zodiac
• Gosling: Young Hercules, Michelle Williams, Peter Jackson, The Lovely Bones, Blue Valentine
• Franco: Danny Boyle, Milk, 127 Hours, James Dean, Alfred Hitchcock.
• Eisenberg: Adventureland, The Social Network

Unsung Heroes: Kirk Douglas for Producing Paths of Glory

Hey everybody. Michael C. from Serious Film back again. This week is all about Kirk Douglas, and although his acting career has enough high points to fill this blog for a month, today we're here to honor the hand he had in launching one of the most important directorial careers of the last century. 

One fact everyone in the film business seems to agree on is that it is incredibly difficult to get anything made and borderline impossible to produce something good. When quality movies somehow miraculously find their way into theaters it is most often because a star got involved who believed in the project and had the clout to get the money men to cough up the loot. Kirk Douglas was such a star in the mid-1950’s when he came across a script named Paths of Glory being shopped by a young Stanley Kubrick. Douglas had been a big fan of Kubrick’s previous film, The Killing, and was so impressed with the new script that he decided his company, Bryna Productions, would produce the film with him as co-producer. Douglas did this even though, as recounted in the gorgeous new Criterion edition, he was convinced the film was unlikely to be a commercial hit.

Of course, it wasn’t a completely altruistic endeavor on Douglas’s part. It did give him the chance to play one of the greatest (for my money the greatest) roles of his career. Douglas’s Colonel Dax is a more clearly heroic character than in the original novel, an oasis of courage and decency in a world warped by war and corruption. They even work in a moment for Douglas to take his shirt off, which legend has it was contractually stipulated in all his movies.

So what raises Kirk Douglas above the typical star scouting out opportunities to look noble? The fact that he sought out the opportunity to make a film with Kubrick, that’s what. Douglas did what we always hope politicians would do with power, which was to surround himself with smart people who will stand up to him. Kubrick was no yes-man, and Paths is no Kirk Douglas vanity project. Kubrick elevates the material above the typical star vehicle into one of the most shattering anti-war statements ever put to film.

Viewers of the film don’t remember Douglas's heroism; they remember the stark, horrifying black and white world of trench warfare, a world where the execution of innocent men is found to be an acceptable idea. Douglas’s Dax is strong-armed into leading an attack he knows to be doomed, and his attempts to preserve justice in the fallout prove to be a futile, almost naïve, exercise. His famous late in the film explosion at the obscenely corrupt General Broulard is less a moment of triumphant defiance and more a choked howl at his own powerlessness in the face of insanity. My reaction to his character has always been less, “Hooray for Colonel Dax!” and more, “That poor bastard.”

At the end of the day Paths of Glory is Kubrick’s film and Kubrick’s success, but it’s fair to say it is unlikely it would have occurred without Douglas’s support and leadership. There are accounts that the idea of using a happier, more commercial ending was suggested and that Douglas fought against it (Kubrick’s position in this debate varies between versions). Generations of film lovers are grateful that Douglas prevailed and the heartbreakingly perfect ending won out, but the instinct behind the idea wasn’t wrong. Despite being a critical success that launched Kubrick into the top tier of working directors it fizzled at the box office. If you’re lucky enough to get your hands on the new disc of Paths check out some of the bonus interviews with Douglas and witness the pride on his face when the film is mentioned. He doesn’t seem to be mourning those lost box office dollars. 

Check back next week for the first season finale of Unsung Heroes where I will shine some attention on a 2010 release.

Take Three: Sterling Hayden

Craig here with today's Take Three

Today: Sterling Hayden

Take One & Take Two:... for Mr. Kubrick or: how I learned to stop worrying and love The Killing

Kubrick didn’t often cast actors more than once in major roles in his films. Apart from Kirk Douglas (Paths of Glory, Spartacus) and Peter Sellers (Lolita, Dr. Strangelove) I can’t think of a great many others who received a repeat Kubrick experience. That is, other than Sterling Hayden, who nabbed two great roles in The Killing (1956) and Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964). Hayden was the stern leader of Kubrick’s crime gang in the former, and an integral part of his military circus in the latter.

For Dr. Strangelove he was drawn out of early retirement by Kubrick to play General Jack Ripper, an ever-so-slightly insane, uber-patriotic USAF Brigadier (bizarrely obsessed with his own ‘precious bodily fluids’) who issues orders to launch a nuclear attack on the Soviet Union due to his paranoid fear of “the Commies” and “their plan” involving water fluoridation. (This is somewhat ironic as Hayden had a brief dalliance with the Communist Party, although he subsequently repudiated his membership.) Ripper holes up in his office with Capt. Mandrake (Sellers), who attempts to - sometimes literally - wrestle the three-digit attack recall code from him. (Ripper’s the only one who knows the code.)

The grim Ripper: Hayden burning a hole through the screen in Dr. Strangelove

Hayden plays the General as a psychotic, controlling brute force - but perceptibly daft and “mad as a bloody March hare” with it. He’s called on to play it straight, but with enough of a knowing wink to indicate that he’s well aware of the preposterousness inherent in the premise; he gamely plays along with it. When Ripper’s got Mandrake in a tight grip (see below), spouting forth about his ‘bodily fluids’, he barely blinks - watching closely, it's noticable that Hayden just about manages not to crack up with laughter at the absurdity of the situation; his gradually softening eyes almost betray the comedy buried in him, struggling to get out. Minor moments such as this make Hayden a joy to watch in the film.

Peter Sellers doesn't want to know about Hayden's bodily fluids in Dr. Strangelove

Elsewhere, Hayden aptly commands the screen, often assisted by Kubrick’s trademark severe close-ups: one in particular, in which he’s shot just under the chin, with his ever-present cigar jutting out imposingly, makes him look almost monolithic, statue-like; Hayden’s stony-faced disposition fills the film frame, dominating the scene. The camera fixates on Hayden’s chiseled features; Kubrick’s exquisite framing captures his half-comical-half-scary-as-hell antics with a precise tension.

Heist wide shut: Hayden plans a Killing

For crime-noir The Killing Hayden was top-billed, but as with all movie heists we know it’s teamwork; every desperate rat supports and relies on the others. Hayden puts his granite-like good looks to great use as ex-con Johnny Clay, the smooth, duplicitous leader of a gang of no-hope chancers hedging their bets on a stolen $2 million racetrack payout. Hayden was just as dashing and debonair as Cary Grant in his day; but he was, by turns, more weathered and tender in his expressiveness (especially here in The Killing), and not, I guess, as bankable or definable as Grant - though he was an infinitely more intriguing screen presence.

Hayden with Marie Windsor in The Killing

Clay needed to be played by someone with a commanding allure. Hayden, at 6ft-5-in, towers over his co-stars, expounding Jim Thompson’s salty dialogue with the right level of casual spite; he lays it out with quick-wit and barely a pause for breath: “I know you like a book. You’d sell your mother for a piece of fudge... you’ve got a great big dollar sign, there, where most women have a heart.” Hayden’s cool, full-throated line delivery and persuasive way with words could convince God to do the devil’s work.

Johnny come lately: Hayden stashes the gun in The Killing

Johnny knows the heist plan inside out. He’d beat The A-Team’s Hannibal in a loving-it-when-a-plan-comes-together-competition any day. We, the audience, aren’t privy its every step, so we rely on the omnipotent narration and Hayden’s controlled verve to carry it out for us. (The non-chronological, out-of-place scenes are doled to us like disjointed puzzle pieces - a narrative device revolutionary at the time, and one Tarantino milked for Reservoir Dogs; ostensibly making Hayden’s Johnny the original Joe Cabot.)

Hayden has many lone scenes in the film - particularly where he's zipping around town, organising the finer details of heist and making sure every last arrangement goes according to plan. Of course it doesn't - do movie heists ever go according to plan? - but Hayden strives hard to carry it off till the end. (Despite the fact he's a brutal criminal, it's crushing to think that a pesky dog and an airport's luggage policy are the simple things to fudge it all up, after everything Johnny's gone through; it's solely to Hayden's credit that he makes us care so much what happens to him.) It's possibly his best role - one that requires him to often wordlessly convey much of his character's inner complexities. He's as compelling to watch alone on screen as he is interacting with co-stars. And for my money, The Killing is probably Kubrick's best film.

Take Three: Johnny, He Good

"The name, sir, is Johnny Guitar... anybody care to change it?"

Between two strong-willed women of the west, Joan Crawford’s Vienna and Mercedes McCambridge’s Emma Small, Hayden was almost sidelined as Johnny Guitar (1954), Nicholas Ray’s oddment (non-)western. But then everyone who works with Crawford has a supporting role - whether they’re named after the title character or not. (Apparently both Hayden and McCambridge hated working with Crawford so much they openly declared it after shooting wrapped, vowing never to work with her ever again; undoubtedly Crawford reciprocated.) In retrospect, the ladies’ off-screen animosity added an extra venomous volatility to the scenes between Vienna and Emma; but it’s to both Hayden’s and Crawford’s credit that they convincingly made pretty with one another on screen. There is chemistry between them - and, luckily, due to their character's situations, it needed to be awkward.

Joan Crawford's none too impressed with Hayden's instrument in Johnny Guitar

As with The Killing, Hayden excelled at playing lone men with shady histories. He’s Johnny again here (real name Logan), a figure from Vienna's past; he struts into her Arizona barroom armed with an ounce of charm and, of course, his guitar. His screen virility is near quashed by Crawford’s domineering saloon owner; she’s more man than he is; he’s the mild west to her wild west. The almost role-reversal schematic was certainly strange for the genre at that time, but integrally progressive and fascinating to watch. (The beef and resulting showdown, the crux of the narrative, is between the women - making this an almost feminist take on the western.)

The unusual west: Crawford and Hayden search the open range in Johnny Guitar

Johnny's a sing-song character, placid and lightly played to begin with, but Hayden gradually allows Johnny a glint of darkness as the film goes on - so that heading into the final reel he can down the guitar and become Johnny Gun. He’s not the cowboy hero though; it’s Crawford’s show. The most intriguing aspect to Hayden’s performance is in watching how such a statuesque, brusque hunk of an actor manoeuvres through a secondary role. He’s never quite a Desperate Dan in distress, but he passively sits back and lets the McCambridge and Crawford double-act to dominate - something grouchy old John Wayne would never have done. It’s applaudable that Hayden was man enough to play second fiddle, or, ahem, second guitar, to the women. He played it all with a relaxed, rugged style.
*

Don't Be Afraid of the Link

<-- The poster and the teaser for the British noir Jack Falls. Hmmm, somebody has been mainlining Sin City!

Victim of the Time on Susannah York. My god I love this scene in They Shoot Horses Don't They
Guardian Stanley Kubrick's widow speaks. How they met, how he danced (?) and more...
Cinema Obsessed is spooked by the Don't Be Afraid of the Dark teaser. I am too. Guillermo Del Toro found created his scaried creature yet called "Katie Holmes"!
And Your Little Blog, Too shares memories of meeting Patricia Neal (RIP)
Videogum Inception themed casual encounter [NSFW... and by Not Safe For Work I mean NSFP... Not Safe for the Prudish]. You know it's funny. I was just going to post about how I'm just DONE with reading about Inception on the internets and then this hit. Hee.


Tribeca Film my column "best in show" spotlights John Hawkes and Dale Dickey in Winter's Bone
52 Bad Dudes This is a cool tumblr. Adam Sidwell is drawing badasses from the movies each week
50 Best Illustration Blogs If you're like me and you love drawrings, check these out.
Daventry Blue "12 Songs About Movie Stars" Can you think of any more?
Quiet Earth isn't too happy about these plans for Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter

On a final note, I read Sunset Gun's piece on a meeting with Lindsay Lohan before that infamous trip to Cannes with great interest. Like Kim, I think Lohan is gifted and like Kim I'm all for forgiving stars their scandals. I have roughly zero use for the weird media demand that they also be role models. But I'm not defensive about LiLo anymore. Give me fine movie appearances and I'll forgive all but Lohan isn't delivering in the movies... or even in the movies so I can't rally. I wish she'd come back but until she recovers her acting focus, I have no real use for her. Party girls bore me. Give me actresses!

Curio: Artful Directors

Alexa here with some art therapy. Lately I've been spying all kinds of great original art with directors as a subject. I love to see if there's any intersection between the artists' individual styles and that of their subjects. Here's a small gallery for your viewing pleasure.

Hitchcock, Fellini and Kubrick, by Alison Legg.

Print available for purchase here.


A very Quentin-esque Quentin, by David Hildreth.
Poster available at his shop.

Burton à la Pollock?
Print available from The Boring Blue Boy.


Woody in his natural habitat.
Buy the print at Mulford Arts.

Finally, I just had to update my coaster post from the holidays to mention that Kelly Puissegur has added more directors to her coaster series (including Tim, Francis, Roman, and Sofia)! Check them all out at her shop.