popentertainment-interviews - Tumblr blog

popentertainment-interviews · 17 days

Text

Fastball

Riding High at the Sonic Ranch

By Jay S. Jacobs

Fastball has been throwing the high heat right down the middle for 30 years now.

The band came together in the early 1990s in Austin, Texas. They teamed up after playing with local bands Big Car and The Goods. The trio has been made up of the same lineup for all these years – a trio of singer / songwriter / bassist / keyboardist / guitarist Tony Scalzo, singer / songwriter / guitarist Miles Zuniga and drummer Joey Shuffield.

Fastball signed with a major label (Hollywood Records) in 1995 and released their first album Make Your Mama Proud the next year. However, it was their sophomore album, All the Pain That Money Can Buy in 1998 which totally exploded the band, spawning the smash hits “The Way” and “Out of My Head,” going platinum and getting nominated for two Grammys.

While they have never quite hit those heights again, Fastball has soldiered on, releasing eight albums over the years – not to mention solo albums by Scalzo and Zuniga in the 2010s – and touring worldwide. We had previously interviewed Zuniga about the band in 2004 around the release of their then-current album Keep Your Wig On.

They returned to the pop cultural zeitgeist in 2016 when Machine Gun Kelly and Camila Cabello featured Cabello singing a variation of the chorus of “Out of My Head” as the anchor of their huge hit single “Bad Things.”

This has led to another spurt of creativity in the band, with Fastball releasing two albums and a live record (with another studio album upcoming) in the last five years. Later this year – probably in the summer – their ninth album Sonic Ranch will be coming out on Sunset Boulevard Records.

We recently hooked up with Fastball singer / songwriter / multi-instrumentalist Tony Scalzo to discuss the “Celebrating 30 Years” tour and their upcoming album Sonic Ranch. Also, check out an exclusive preview of the video for the upcoming single “Rather Be Me Than You” below.

Fastball has been together for about 30 years now. How crazy is that you guys have been doing it for that long?

It makes sense when you really think about it. (laughs) We could have done other things, but, honestly, I don't think we would have done as well as separate careers. I think we had just the right amount of success to where we can make that make that success be the thing to build on and just keep it the band. It's like a small company that just didn't get too big to lose the mom-and-pop aspect of it. (laughs again)

Do you think having two singers and songwriters in the band keeps the band interesting?

You said it right there. There are more dimensions to the band because there's two different frontmen and two different songwriters. And really a third songwriter, when you think about the collaborative end of things. So there's a lot of variety going on, at least the ideas that are coming out in songs. I mean, yeah, we're a pop, rock and roll band. I don't stray too far from that original mission statement, I guess.

When our writer spoke with Miles twenty years ago about your Keep Your Wig On album, he said that mostly you did your writing for the songs that you were singing, and he did it for the ones that he sang. But I saw in the press release that you guys wrote the new single “Rather Be Me Than You” together.

That’s true.

Is that something you’ve been doing increasingly over the years?

Even Keep Your Wig On, that record has a couple of collaborative compositions on it. I think every album we've included, maybe one, for the last few years anyway. That single “Rather Be Me Than You” is something that the two of us came together and turned it into an actual song when we had been struggling with the ideas that went into it on our own. We set a goal, let's try and make something out of this evening that we had open. That's a great thing when that happens because it's just all fun. It's not like labor. It was a good time, and we managed to get something out of it that didn't take a lot of pain. (laughs)

youtube

How do you feel that your musical artistry has changed over the years? How do you think that Sonic Ranch is different than say Make Your Mama Proud or All the Pain Money Can Buy?

The Make Your Mama Proud example is the easiest one to discern for me, I would say. (laughs) That's a record that that we recorded in 1995. It was during a time when all of us in the band were ready to do something. We were just very proactive on the business end of things and on musical delivery. We were a lot younger, and you tend to yell a lot more. (laughs) It was like Rebel Without a Cause, you're so adamant about all these things. It was just really poetry that I was just trying to make, turn into a song, to have songs to play in my dad's. This feed the machine of the band with more material, eventually, I think we improved as songwriters. We matured. All of our experiences feed into our art.

Of course.

Also, our influences have expanded over the years. Music hasn't faded from our lives. I honestly believe that there are a lot of people who start young and who are in a band and after a while, things don't work. They go back into the normal world of having a job and doing all that. We're fortunate enough to have this smallish but also successful thing that we build on. That has given us the incentive to stay in the music world, to stay focused on music. I think that like any art form, or any kind of profession, you have to focus pretty much on that world, for the majority of your life, if you want to improve and you want to grow.

In 1998, All the Pain Money Can Buy got the band two big hits with “The Way” and “Out of My Head” – both songs that you wrote and sang. You were all over the radio and TV for a few years. What was it like to be in the middle of that sort of whirlpool? Was it sort of surreal to be you at the height of your popularity?

That's the word I was definitely going to use. The whirlwind of activity, coupled with the constant adulation and back slapping, and people holding you up; all that stuff combines to make a really toxic… not toxic, intoxicating… cocktail of surrealist ideas. You think this can never end. Why would it end? This record has sold a million copies. The next one is sure to sell three million copies. I was surrounded by people who were very successful, much more successful than us. Like we were opening up for the Goo Goo Dolls for the summer of ‘99. They were indie guys. They were a punk band. They did pretty well, nationally, on an indie level.

Right, the early Metal Blade albums…

They got a deal and not much happened. Then the next record, stuff started happening. Then by I guess the third or fourth album, boom, they've sold multi-million copies of records. They've been able to build on that really well. I assumed, because I was in that scene – in that zone of the music world – that would happen for us as well. I didn't take into account that it's a game. You have to understand how that game works and you have to play it well. You also have to be united as a team, just like a business. We're a team and we didn't know how to really do that effectively.

Okay….

For years and years, we managed to stay afloat and stay a band, and do lots of gigs. Gigs only slowed down to a rate of maybe… ten a year was probably our lowest point. Not counting the pandemic, where we didn't do very many shows in 2020 and those were on the front end of 2020, before everything happened. So, we've always been active, and we've always been doing it, but we've struggled. We've had some pretty hardcore longtime fans that won't give up on us. (laughs) That's really great. They've helped us build things to where they are now, which I feel like is on an upward trajectory.

Good.

We started a Patreon. That really helps with keeping money coming in. It's not a lot of money, but it's the kind of money that we're able to pay for things that come up. We need an extra $2,500 to finish a music video, or we need to print up shirts to sell on the road. Little things like that. That's helped. The fans and the Patreon subscribers have been a very functional part of keeping the band going and helping us put out new material. Thank God for them. I'm really glad that there's things like that today that can help people do their thing. I subscribe to a few Patreon, not artists, but podcasters are my thing. I like to take care of some of those people, because I'm so into what they do. If I’m going to expect people to support what I do, then I'll support people that I'm a fan of as well.

I read that “The Way” was based on a true story that you had read about. Is that true?

Sure, that's true. Naturally, it's a story I've told hundreds of times. I'm cool with it. I was at a loss for a subject matter to write about. I'm sure as a journalist and a writer, you have to figure out: Do I have something important to say? That's a dilemma I've grappled with all my career. I just couldn't find anything interesting to say. I called a friend of mine and asked him what he thought. He said, “Well, the Beatles did that thing with ‘A Day in the Life.’ You can maybe look at something in the paper or turn on the news.” I read an article in the newspaper about a couple that had been missing for about a week or two at that time. They were elderly, they're from the country and they had an extended family that was putting out the word and trying to help. Maybe on the TV news, they can show pictures of them. “Have you seen these people?” I just started running on that.

Nice.

I wrote that song, and it was like, maybe they're all right. They just wanted to get away from everybody. I've been married for a long time, but I've also had a lot of kids, and I can't wait until the day of the last bus. (laughs) So, I thought about that. I found out later that they had a tragedy. They crashed their car, and it was in a place where nobody could find it for a long time.

Yes, that’s sad.

How that incident informed the song is something that has helped develop my songwriting skills over the years. Now, I tend to write songs pretty regularly. Some are good and some are not. Or some are just okay. But some are good. Not everyone's going to be good but if you don't try and you don’t move and do the thing, then it's not going to happen. So I work on a weekly prompt that a group of people give me. We all write songs. There's only a few of us our email thread. We get a prompt every week, and I managed to come up with a song every week without fail. Once you put a seed in my little garden, I tend to be able to make something happen out of it, whether it be just a quick little ditty, or something really cool might happen. That's a good thing that whole story brought for me in an otherwise obviously, tragic story. It's a big part of what I do today.

Several years ago, Machine Gun Kelly and Camila Cabello had a hit with “Bad Things,” which was based around the chorus of “Out of My Head.” What did you think of that song and how your song was reinvented for a new generation?

I was excited at the financial [prospect]. I knew there would be something if this thing was a radio hit – and it sounded like a hit to me when I heard the recording. I had nothing to do with the recording or the production of that song, but Machine Gun Kelly and Camila were working with… I'm trying to think of the name of the guys, I always forget. I'm so out of that world. This production company in LA, who write a lot of songs for a lot of different people (ed. note: It was The Futuristics) figured out a way to incorporate that chorus. It sounded amazing. I was sent a copy of the recording. I listened to it, and I was like, “Damn, that sounds like something you would hear on the radio.”

And you did.

It's nothing that I would have been able to make or do. I wouldn't have been able to update the original song or do anything with it. The sentiment is totally different than what's going on in the original song. It's a different song. But because it's so obvious that that song “Out of My Head” informs “Bad Things” that I'm in for pretty good things. I didn't have to do anything but say, “Sure. Yeah, let's do it.” (laughs) It's helped me personally over the last few years. It's turned my personal finances around, actually. To be frank and honest, it's helped a lot. I haven't gotten the yacht. Somebody else will take one of my other songs. Who knows, maybe this “Rather Be Me Than You” single that we’re putting out, maybe that be the one that puts me on a yacht, finally.

One thing I’ve always liked about your band is that you are not afraid to experiment with styles. On Sonic Ranch, there are songs of all diverse types. “Let Love Back in Your Heart” is very much power pop, “Grey Sky Blue” has a bit of a country feel, “America” has an almost spy theme vibe…

Yeah, that reverb feeling song…

“Daydream” is a bit psychedelic, “I’ll Be On My Way” is an offbeat piano ballad. Do you guys enjoy playing with styles on your albums?

I’m glad you hear that diversity is on the record. I think that's really great. A lot of this diversity comes from the two of us, as writers – Miles and myself – getting into all kinds of different music. I also can't leave out [producer] David Garza. He's just got this incredibly expansive palette musically, but also culturally. He's open to not just aping something, but really sitting in it. We’ve done some things over the years that are kind of… that's us trying to be country, or that us trying to do a ska thing. I believe that we really do pull it off, not just here, but on a few recent records that we've done. When we do something that's maybe a different style, it's not about the style, it's about the band.

Right.

It's about us playing what we like and keeping it real – to use an overdone 90s term. We're just trying to keep it real and not pretend. The pretending is over. Young people pretend. We're on the other side of that. We like sitting where we are and being where we are. We know that we have a career that we can be proud of.

“Hummingbird” is a pretty pointed song. Is it about anyone specific?

Well, I can’t really speak to that. That was Miles’ words almost all the way.

Okay, sorry, I didn’t have a breakdown of who wrote which songs on the new album.

I could talk about it as a fan of the song. I think it's really great. It's super hooky. It's got that mid-period Beatles vibe to me – that Rubber Soul or Revolver kind of vibe. Or maybe even for Beatles For Sale. It's almost to the point where they were super heady, but not quite. It's got these really colorful hooks and chord progressions, and the melody just can't be beat. As the arrangement goes, and the way it's recorded, we threw in harmonies, but they are only seasoning. They're just like a little dab here. Fastball, for our first few records, is notorious for yelling these harmonies and I can barely listen to it today. It's just like, what are you screaming about? Are you ready for the fallout? They could seize these lyrics. (chuckles) Anyway, there's fans that love that stuff, so that's great. I like what we're doing, and I want to continue to make records that sort of follow our path.

Another song that really sort of stood out to me lyrically, and again, I apologize that this is Miles, I'm not sure who wrote this. But “America” is not exactly a political song, but it is very much about the divide between people in the US these days. Why do you think people have so much trouble getting along?

That's just the way they get their information. That's all there is to it. That's the bottom line. That information is coming – not for the sake of information or informing the public – it's coming at people strictly based on capitalism, on both sides. It's a drag that there are both sides. It's not even like this whole entity. It's just this thing. It's just a line. At any rate, Miles and I wrote those lyrics together. We were definitely coming from a direction of unity. Let's see if we can be the United States, by looking at the people, and just looking at the fabric, without all the muck of information. People get so addicted to it, too. It's not like it’s coming out as through a foghorn. It's coming at us because we choose to go to these places that give us the dopamine. Each little thing engages us and makes a pleasurable experience for a minute. Then we remember that. We keep going back. Then we start realizing that it's just coming at us to spew. It really means nothing because it's not based on a concern for truth. It's based on how many customers we can line up to sell them $60 Bibles. (laughs)

Sonic Ranch is the third album you’re releasing in under five years. What do you think is the cause of the spurt of creativity? Were a lot of the songs on the last two albums written during the pandemic?

It started out just because we were almost going to abandon the idea of continuing to make a record, put the record out, record is forgotten in 14 days, and never to be seen or heard from again. (laughs) We decided we were just going to start putting up material and giving it to our Patreon subscribers and bringing it up. Then later, after we had given everybody, maybe 10, to 12, or 13 tracks, then we just turned it into an album. That's basically what we did with The Deep End, which came out back in 2022. We did that. Then we somehow found ourselves in a relationship with a record label. (laughs again)

Nice.

This record label – Sunset Boulevard Records. We were pretty happy to be an indie band for a long time. But there's going to be other people interested in what we're doing. Help to get the word out. Help to make the record. Help to form the record as an album in the way they want it formed and the way we want it formed as best we can come together because they're trying to make something happen. We're very grateful that someone wants to make something happen with us. So we've agreed to put out two albums with these guys so far. In October 2023, we put out a live record. Now we're getting ready to put this out, Sonic Ranch.

Good.

A lot of the tracks for Sonic Ranch were us going into Sonic Ranch studios in West Texas, to try and come up with more songs to keep filling the Patreon feed. Once a month, we try to put up original Fastball music before it's released. So what we've done now, because we have a record label – this is the ins and outs of Patreon versus putting out records – what we've discovered now is that the people on Patreon want to continue to give us support as a band. They also want interesting stuff. So I put up all these old demos and things. Concerts and weird interviews. They're very happy with that. I give them like two little things a month and try to keep it fresh. We're going to keep that going for as long as we can, but in the meantime, we’ve got this record to put out. I believe it's coming out June 14 now.

You’re going back out on tour. In fact, you’re going to be in Philadelphia in a couple of weeks, and I’m looking forward to seeing you. But do you prefer performing live or in the studio? In what ways are they different? Some better, some worse?

They're totally different for us. We don't do a lot of rehearsing for the studio, especially on this record. Sometimes something starts working really fast. We do a little bit of pre-production, but on the last few recordings we've done, David was there to help figure out what was going to happen. We don't do a lot of performing live to record. A lot of multitrack is happening. Sometimes a guitar and a vocal, or a guitar and a keyboard and a vocal will go on first, and then a drum track will happen. It's very Sgt. Pepper. It's very eclectic, as far as how you do it.

Got it.

Performing is always fun. In answer to the actual question, I think I prefer performing live. When things are going great in the studio, it's awesome. But it's very hard work and it's very hard mentally. Sometimes it gets emotional, because there's a bunch of different artists working together and trying to make their egos gel and vibe together. It's a challenge. It's a team sport, the way we do it, and I'm grateful for that too. Because a lot of our peers, it's usually one songwriter, and the band is interchangeable with different players. I like having a relationship to keep working on over the last 30 years and the future years. It's fun. It's a challenge. It also makes me proud. It gives me that head-held-high vibe about Fastball. And I can say Fastball, even though I originally thought it was the worst name for any band, I love it now. (laughs) I love how it sounds.

#Fastball #2024 #Music Interview #Sonic Ranch #Jay S. Jacobs #Youtube

0 notes

popentertainment-interviews · 17 days

Text

Jack & Jack

The Return of the Jacks

By Emma Fox and Kayla Marra

Jack Johnson and Jack Gilinsky make up the power pop-rap duo known as Jack & Jack. Originally from Omaha, Nebraska, the guys started making music together in high school, and have continued through the years to now. They went on to join Magcon, a touring meet-and-greet convention for fans to meet their favorite social media personalities. Though the tours and conventions came to an end, the creative journey for Jack & Jack did not. They have released two studio albums since then, a plethora of hit singles, and several incredible EPs.

Now based in Los Angeles, we’ve connected with the talented pair various times over the years, the last time being in 2015. But just this week we were able to re-connect with them before their Philly tour stop and catch up with the guys about touring together again, reminiscing on the Magcon days, Jack G’s recent fatherhood, and more.

We last spoke to you seven years ago. It’s incredible to hang out with you guys again! You originally released the iconic song “Like That” in 2014. What made you re-record it years later?

Jack Johnson: I think a big thing was that it was taken down off streaming platforms because of a copyright claim. The people who know us know this story, but we’ll give you a brief rundown of it. The piano part, in the beginning, was taken by the producer who sold us the beat from another producer. So, that producer got upset and we had no idea. It got taken down and copyright claimed.

Jack Gilinsky: It was off of all streaming platforms for five years, now, maybe four.

Jack Johnson: Then we got on TikTok and saw a big resurgence. We saw the OG one was going viral on there and we were like, “Oh, man!”

Jack Gilinsky: Every time we posted, people were like, “Please put ‘Like That’ back on Spotify and Apple Music.”

Jack Johnson: We were done and had eleven songs on the album. Then two weeks before the album was set to drop, we were like, yo, why don’t we just revamp it? Use more updated, cleaner sounds. Get G’s new voice on there, my new voice on there. Change a couple of lyrics here and there. Make a revamped version. It felt like it was a full-circle moment for the record.

Jack Gilinsky: It felt right.

Jack Johnson: We’re really grateful for everything that record has done for us.

Jack Gilinsky: We’re grateful that we decided to do this, too, because it has 54 million streams, which plays into the whole total Home album streams.

Jack Johnson: At the end of the day, we’re trying to get everyone to listen to the other songs on the project, which we’re so proud of. Honestly, we’re a little more excited for those, just because they’re new and we haven’t heard them a trillion times. It’s been awesome seeing the fans sing new stuff live, and we feel like “Like That” could be a good gateway into the project.

This is so full circle for your OG fans, as well. I went to Magcon, so it’s incredible seeing you guys do this.

Jack Johnson: It felt like a special one.

What was it like being back together in the studio again?

Jack Gilinsky: It was awesome.

Jack Johnson: It was amazing.

Jack Gilinsky: It’s funny because we didn't take too much of a break. In 2020, obviously, we took a little bit of a break because we were basically in different places. I went back to Omaha, and he stayed in LA. Halfway through 2020, we moved in together and had a studio in the house.

Jack Johnson: We would always make stuff; we just never knew what was going to happen with it. Actually locking in on a project and actually knowing we have a vision for it. Knowing we have a deadline we want to release it by this day. Knowing we had tour dates coming up. It really made it feel like we had a mission. It wasn’t just us willy-nilly in the studio, creating little ideas and not following through with anything. It was amazing to be able to lock in again, really on our own terms, make the music we wanted to make and not feel as puppeteered by a major label. As great as A Good Friend is, and I love that project, a lot of songs on there were demos that were sent to us by other writers or other artists. The label was just like, “you sing this line,” and I was like, this isn’t why we started making music in the beginning.

Jack Gilinsky: It was awesome creating Home the album, because every single word you hear and most sounds that you hear, even instrumentally, Johnson’s playing on the piano, I’m singing the lyrics I wrote, I’m singing some of the lyrics Johnson wrote for me.

Jack Johnson: It’s all just stuff that really came from us and it feels a little more personal this time around.

Jack Gilinsky: We’re really proud of it.

That’s awesome to hear. With “Jack’s Version” at the end of “Like That” you’re really making it your own and taking back your art which is so powerful and cool to see.

Jack Gilinsky: We’re inspired by Taylor Swift, man. It’s pretty awesome to see what she’s done. We had to take that a little bit.

Jack Johnson: We want to set a guideline for other indie artists because this is the indie age we’re living in. The major labels are becoming a little bit less of a necessity as time goes on with how robust social media is.

Jack Gilinsky: Especially for smaller artists like us who have a core following and they support us through anything. We figured there was no need for a big system to get involved and take away what we all started for. We’re just grateful to have our crew and they’re always supporting us, like tonight.

You released your latest album Home earlier this month, congratulations!

Both: Thank you!

What was the recording process like, and what was your vision/goal with this album?

Jack Johnson: G actually lives about an hour away down by the Newport area, which is coastal California. Basically, we would just have three or four sessions throughout the week, and he would make the commute up into LA. We’re with a distribution company called CreateTV. They let us use their studios, and they have these great studios that we were super grateful to use. It would just be him and I in the studio and sometimes it would be a beat that producers would send us in packs, and we would be like, “Oh, we like this one.” It would just be me recording his voice and him recording my voice. I would make the first base mix and get a good reference point, and then we would send it all off to mixing. It was just a very hands-on process. We used to never really be involved in this stuff, as much as we like it.

Jack Gilinsky: Even in terms of creating the project, we didn’t really have a set goal and tried to have no expectations. Like, let’s just get in there and make a bunch of songs and see what happens. We started to make songs. We made one, then two, three, four five, and it started to be like, “Wait, all of these could go on the project.” It was never a thing, at least this year, that was said, “This one isn’t going to go on” or we’re just not hitting the right stride. I feel like we just got back in the studio together and it just kind of flew out of us. Within nine months – we recorded the last song in August, everything was done by September. It just came together.

Jack Johnson: With the whole “home” angle in terms of that creative for the project, there was this stop sign in our neighborhood we would always meet up at growing up. We were like, yo, let’s take our album cover picture there, change the “STOP” to “HOME,” another four-letter word. It was just something that was very sentimental to us rather than just slapping out a random cover art. It felt like it tied a bow on the whole thing with the creative packing of it all.

We love the album! Everyone out there is loving it, too.

Jack Johnson: We love that you’re loving it. It’s been out nineteen days now. Even in Nashville on night one, it had been out for twelve days, and they were already singing all the hooks. They’re learning my verses; I have mouthfuls in there.

Jack Gilinsky: It’s been crazy, the support has been awesome.

Jack Johnson: We just can’t wait. We know Philly’s going to be jumpin.’ It’s going to be the craziest show of the tour so far.

As Philly always is.

Jack Johnson: They always show out.

Jack (G), you’re currently in your “dad era,” congratulations!

Jack Gilinsky: I am. For the rest of my life, I will be!

How has having a daughter impacted your life?

Jack Gilinsky: I feel like it impacts it in every way possible. It just changes the way you look at the world. Even the most basic things, it changes your perspective on. Specifically working. It was all really, really fun growing up doing this with Johnson. I never really looked at it too much like a job because it was so much fun. It is still so much fun [except] being away from my daughter and Geneva. Thinking about raising my daughter, you’ve got to have a job and you’ve got to give it your all because if you’re going to spend time away from your loved ones, you need to be putting that work in. It makes me look at this a bit differently because I’m really motivated to put food on the table and a roof over their heads. Also regardless of having a baby, we’re just older and more mature now. We got to kill this, man, because this is our lives. We went out on a limb and didn’t go to college, and we’ve been away for four, five years.

Jack Johnson: We almost had a five-year gap, and there’s a very finite shelf life for artists. There’s a window that you have to take advantage of. We’re just so grateful that they’re all showing up, even after that time period. Seeing him with Hayven, I see an extra spark of motivation in his eyes, on top of him just having a lot of life changes, too.

Jack Gilinsky: I appreciate it, because honestly, you said it very well. Having a daughter is the most amazing thing in the world. I’m just really grateful, and I’m grateful that we still get to do this for work. If I had to go work a 9-5 and be away from my daughter every single day like that, I think that would be harder than being with her ten months out of the year and then being on the road for two months. I love being on the road, so I wouldn’t do it for anything else, being away from my family.

You talked about not going to college and pursuing being creative. Do you have a memory from that era or the Magcon time that stands out to you as an “I made it” moment or an “I want to do this for the rest of my life” kind of moment?

Jack Gilinsky: That’s a good question. Magcon Dallas was the very first one. Shawn made me sing a song with him on stage. I was like, you know what, this is really cool. We had never seen the people that are liking all of our Vines, Tweets, and Instagrams in person like that before. I always thought, “That’s a big number,” but it didn’t ever click that there were real people behind each number.

Jack Johnson: It was weird. We just left for a long weekend from high school, and then we went right back. A lot of the boys started doing online school, but we stuck it out throughout our whole senior year and graduated with our class and everything.

Jack Gilinsky: It made it real though, seeing it in person. I think for me, Magcon made me realize “oh shit, this is real.” There’s a career here that if we want to take it seriously. We can do this for our lives. It convinced us to take a gap year.

Jack Johnson: We just had a glaring opportunity in front of us, and sometimes you just got to seize life by the horns and just ride into battle you know.

Jack Gilinsky: Yeah, so I would say the Magcon thing made it real. Like alright, let's take this seriously.

That’s awesome! We’ve both loved seeing you grow. Last time I saw you was 2018 at a pop-up show in Baltimore, so it’s been great to see you grow since then and it’s awesome to see you back on the road! Can you talk to us a little bit about what a typical day on tour looks like?

Jack Johnson: Absolutely!

Jack Gilinsky: We actually wake up pretty late because we’ve been driving our bus. Johnson drove last night, I’m driving tonight. We’ve been switching off doing two-to-four-hour shifts, we’ll get into the hotel at 3-5am, depending on how long the drive is. Then me and Johnson get to sleep in because of how awesome our crew is, they load in by themselves. We wake up at around 12:00.

Jack Johnson: Well unless the fire alarm goes off.

Jack Gilinsky: Yeah, we had a fire alarm yesterday, it was pretty bad. But we wake up, we workout, come back upstairs and maybe have a bite to eat, and then get an Uber to the venue. Once we show up to the venue it’s straight into this thing called “Indoor Recess” which is an intimate meet and greet where you get to come backstage, we have a good conversation and take some photos. Then it’s straight into what’s called the “Soundcheck Experience.”

Jack Johnson: We’ll actually do our soundcheck and then we wanted to give everybody a little extra something this time around because whether it was in our hands or not, we did have a five-year hiatus, and we feel bad about it inherently. We decided to add the “Soundcheck Experience” where we do a general Q&A with the fans, just have a talk and nice banter with them, and then we do a little acoustic performance just to warm them up for the night.

Jack Gilinsky: Then we do the meet and greet!

Jack Johnson: It’s a good flow of a day. We’re starting to get the science down a bit more of how it’s supposed to run. Usually, we would tour with a 13 or 14-person crew, and we didn’t have to deal with any of these things. It’s a much more busy day, but I like it. It makes me sleep harder at night, makes me a little more locked in knowing that I do have more personal responsibility on this tour. I really do enjoy it because it feels like we’re taking our business into our own hands and being very meticulous about the way we’re doing things.

Jack Gilinsky: Then after the meet and greet we have a two-hour break. I always cook my bison; I eat it every day. Then maybe have a banana, chill out, do our vocal warmups, and I have a vocal steamer that we do. Then it's time for the show! An hour and a half later we’re off stage, we shower, and pack up our things.

Jack Johnson: We’ll say hi to some people outside the venue if they’re hanging around.

Jack Gilinsky: If we have an off day, we’ll do this thing called a crew dinner. But tonight, we’re in Philly, we have an off day tomorrow, we’re going to get a cheesesteak.

Jack Johnson: What’s the spot? We’ve been hearing a couple things.

I will say, my favorite spot is somewhere on South Street, it’s called Ishkabibble’s. They have the best cheesesteak I’ve ever had.

Jack Gilinsky: Bro we’re going. How far is that from here? I need to go, like I want one right now.

Jack Johnson: Okay I’m screenshotting this right now.

Jack Gilinsky: Is that your favorite too?

It’s also my favorite!

Jack Johnson: I’m literally telling our drummer right now – we have to go to Ishkabibble’s.

What do you guys get on your cheesesteaks?

Jack Gilinsky: On my cheesesteak, I order a Philly Cheesesteak and I eat it how it comes. What is it, peppers, onions?

What kind of cheese do you get?

Jack Gilinsky: I think I’m going to do provolone.

Jack Johnson: I will usually do the steak, whatever cheese they recommend, I want to do what the locals do. Then I’ll maybe add some jalapeños, something that adds a little kick to it. I've become more of a spice guy. Maybe some grilled onions in there too. Wherever we end up I’m just excited to get a cheesesteak in Philly!

Jack Gilinsky: It’s going to be great, it’s Philly!

What’s been your favorite song to perform live so far?

Jack Gilinsky: I’m not even going to sugarcoat it, my favorite song to perform live is “Like That,” because every single person who bought a ticket knows every single word to the song.

Jack Johnson: There’s just a different energy. Not to say that the other songs are low energy by any means, the people who have been coming to these shows have been hype for all of them, even the new stuff. I’ve got to say though, “Stuttering” from the new project, for some reason there’s like some crack in that song.

Jack Gilinsky: That’s going to be a hit, I feel it.

Jack Johnson: It’s such a hype one live. It’s early in the set so everyone’s still fresh, it’s just been going up every night the energy’s been through the roof. I also really like performing “September’s Gone” because we have the whole band jamming. Writing that at a piano and actually seeing it live, it’s crazy. They’re all great, the medley is so fun to perform because we get to take a little trip down memory lane.

Make sure to stream Home by Jack and Jack, out everywhere NOW and catch the guys on tour through May!

youtube

#Jack and Jack #2024 #Music Interview #Home #Emma Fox #Kayla Marra #Youtube

0 notes

popentertainment-interviews · 1 month

Text

JA Bayona and Enzo Vogrincic

Society of the Snow is One of the Most Harrowing films of All Time – and Chilling As Well by Brad Balfour

It’s an understatement to say that I’ve seen lots of films with varying degrees of frightening circumstances informing them. But Society of The Snow was one of the most harrowing – well deserving of award nominations, including the Oscar for Best International Feature. Though the film is fiction, it’s based on a true story and is done in such a way that you feel yourself actually experiencing the cold, anguish and pain as the story reveals itself.

In 1972, a Uruguayan rugby team chartered a flight to Chile, which catastrophically crashed on a glacier in the heart of the Andes. Of the 45 passengers on board, 29 survived the initial crash, although more would die from injury, disease, and an avalanche over the following weeks. Trapped in one of the most inaccessible and hostile environments on the planet, the survivors were forced to resort to survival cannibalism of those who had already died in order to stay alive. However, rather than turn against each other, the survivors drew upon the cooperative teamwork they learned through rugby, along with their spiritual faith, in order to escape the mountains. Only 16 of the 40 passengers ultimately survived.

Director JA Bayona discovered Pablo Vierci's 2009 account of the crash, La sociedad de la nieve, while conducting research for his 2012 film The Impossible. He bought the rights for the book when he finished filming that movie. Bayona recorded more than 100 hours of interviews with all of the living survivors. The cast is composed of Uruguayan and Argentine actors, most of whom are newcomers. The actors had contact with the survivors and the families of the victims.

Society of the Snow was the closing film at the 80th Venice International Film Festival, in an Out of Competition slot. It played in theaters in Uruguay, Spain and a limited run in the United States in December 2023, before streaming on Netflix in January 2024. Society of the Snow received positive reviews and won 12 awards including Best Picture and Best Director at the 38th Goya Awards and was nominated for Best International Feature Film, representing Spain, along with Best Makeup and Hairstyling at the 96th Academy Awards.

This Q&A with writer-director Bayona and star Enzo Vogrincic took place in front of an audience a few weeks before Oscar Night.

Society of the Snow was shot in sequence, which is so rare now. Also shooting on location with all the challenges. How important was it to you to have an Uruguayan voice to this film, this passion in your life for the last decade?

JA Bayona: This story is not only well-known in the Spanish-speaking world, but also [throughout] the whole world. There are many documentaries about it. There were two movies already done (ed note: Survive! in 1976 and Alive in 1993), so we had to do this one right. We spent the time, and we wanted to shoot in Spanish. There was no way to shoot this film in another language than Spanish with a Uruguayan accent, since it was based on a book by a Uruguayan author with a Uruguayan voice and a Uruguayan actor. It took us 10 years to find the financing, find a place where we were allowed to show up and believe in the film, and believe in the level of ambition we were looking for, again in Spanish. Once we knew the film was going to be done – actually before then – we did auditions for nine months, looking for the actors. I saw 2,000 self-made tapes, and from those, I started to choose faces and meet actors online, because it was during the pandemic. We finally got our cast. That was at the end of 2020. We did two months of rehearsals – which is a luxury – maybe seven weeks. Then, all the cast met the real people they were portraying or the families of the dead. Then we spent a very long shoot, 140 days, which was extraordinary. We created such a beautiful family. Everything that’s in front of the camera was real. The friendship, the love, the sense of camaraderie, and we were there with our cameras. We captured that.

Who was your continuity director? You've been recognized for makeup and hair. This was another-level continuity.

JA Bayona: I gave the actors a lot of space and freedom to improvise, because they were so well prepared. They spent two months in rehearsals, met the survivors, and read the book. They had all the information, and then they worked in similar conditions, with a context that was constantly stimulating the performance. There was a lot of space to improvise. We shot 600 hours of material. The heroes of this film are the editors because they had to deal with that. There were a lot of continuity issues that we had to deal with in the editorial.

Enzo, when it comes to rehabilitation in the hospital, the showers, the emaciated bodies – and being a 2024 film realist – it wasn’t body doubles. Your body weight went from 159 to 103 during the shooting of this film. That was real. How important was it for you, for the living and the dead, to honor your character?

Enzo Vogrincic: While we were making the film, as actors, we always thought we owed the people that survived and those that died, to tell their story as realistically as possible. Therefore, when we were filming things such as hunger or cold, we were barely able to move. It was a way of replicating what they had gone through, beyond our acting, because we knew that we had a responsibility to the people and to the characters. This was not a typical shoot whatsoever. It was part of the story, so fundamentally, we were willing to do whatever it took to get that realism in. After putting in 12 hours of filming and besides, we were eating very little, we found that we could set up a gym afterwards. At night, those of us who were not filming, we were training and continuing to lose weight.

How important was it to you that this project be delivered in a Uruguayan voice?

Enzo Vogrincic: This is something that was fundamental to us because this story has been told before, but not with our voice. I thought that was the key thing to do because – though some theories say we are human regardless of where we took place – but these were the stories lived and survived by actual Uruguayans. We thought that to be able to tell it in the original language, it was important for us to understand the tales of the survivors so we could tell the story better. There were terms, feelings, and all those things which mattered, because it hadn’t been done that way before.

There were scenes that involved faith, the notion of a higher power, permission from God. On the other hand, what kind of God would allow this? Those scenes were directed with great care. Tell us how you approached that?

JA Bayona: I always try to be as close as possible to the characters, to the reality, in order to be able to capture them with a sense of authenticity, a sense of place, of being there. These guys were, most of them, very religious. There was a lot of religious iconography. I like to think the film tries to be more spiritual than religious. I see these people like orphans, abandoned in a place where life is not possible, and they need to reinvent life. They need to, somehow, reconsider what is important and what is not, as human beings.

By doing so, the movie becomes a mirror of ourselves. They had to start everything from scratch. They were abandoned by the authorities, they were abandoned by their families, so they had to. For them, it was a journey of self-discovery. It was also a way of understanding that God was everywhere, in order to survive. There was not a religious institution in the middle.

When we mention cannibalism, when we talk about it, that's a word they don't like to use. I think this film makes a big change; in that it's not about taking. It's about giving, about giving yourself to others and suffering the same pain that they are suffering. By doing that, feeling empathy …understanding that you and the other person in front of you are really the same. It's like when Gustavo Zerbino told Roberto Canessa, "You have the strongest legs, you need to walk for us." [And he did just that, walking out from the crash down the mountain towards civilization until they were found, which saved everyone who remained.]

There's an immediate realization that you and the other ones are the same. We are all the same. To me, that feels sacred, spiritual and transcendent. To understand that we are all part of the same thing. That resonates in the world we live in right now, especially with young people. We are surrounded by so much conflict, and finally having this story that tells you that we are all part of the same thing, that we are all aboard the same plane. We need to come together to find a solution. We had such an important message. That was our fuel.

With today's GPS, the flight would have landed at its destination safely, one would hope. You had to get the technical details right. The formal report said it was pilot error. That's clear from your work. How challenging was that, starting with your visit to the crash site?

JA Bayona: We had to give the context to make others understand what they went through, and by doing so, what they did. We put so much effort into all the details, like talking about the type of plane. We went to the Uruguayan Army. We had a very honest conversation with them. They accepted that it was human error. But it was actually a combination of human error with some kind of an early model of GPS that failed that day. They basically had to do this turn there because that kind of plane was not able to fly at 40,000 feet. So they had to go through a lower pass. They had to do this kind of U-turn. It takes 20 minutes to get from one side to the other. They turned to the right only when they were six minutes into it. That's why it's considered to be a human error because there was no way that the pilot didn't know that. The pilot had done that journey many times. But we really don't know what happened in that cockpit. I decided to leave the camera outside of the cockpit out of respect for the pilots. We knew that there was a machine that failed there. But anyway, we decided out of respect not to get into that space, so we stayed with the other characters.

Will your life ever be quite the same after the experience of filming this movie?

Enzo Vogrincic: In life, everything you do changes you. You're never the same after an experience this informative. Of course, I’ve changed. I am different. I like to take every opportunity to continue changing myself. The biggest changes were on a professional level and in terms of how much I learned. I had to go in depth into my character and we spent one to three years with those people talking about life, death, friendship, love, family and making friends. I've made 25 new friends and therefore I like to think that I did change.

Talk about your immersion in your new extended family. The family of the living and the family of the dead.

JA Bayona: I sent an email to the survivors in 2011 and in that first email, I already sent a line about Roberto Canessa that said, “Talking to the dead, accepting peace, gives us the chance to live other lives we didn't have the chance to live.” I was very struck by that conversation between the living and the dead and that sense of depth towards the dead. The more I was in contact with the survivors and the more we talked, the more I realized that they needed the film to be completed and released even more than I did.

My big question was what was left to say after so many documentaries, books, and movies. Now I realize, after seeing the film with them, that it was not about telling something that wasn't being told yet. It was more about giving them the chance to say thank you to people who’d been so important. I see how it was like a poetic thing, the fact that people who didn't make it, they gave everything they had for these people to be alive. Now they are using their testimony to bring these people back, to keep them alive again on the screen. By doing so, I realized that they were comfortable with the story. So it was more about giving these folks a chance to say “thank you” to those who had helped while capturing the mood, feelings and context of what they had gone through so that people seeing the movie would understand what had happened.

In the hands of another director, the debate over sheer survival might not have been handled as beautifully as it was with you. There's a line in the script where Enzo’s character says, “What was once unthinkable became routine." As the black & white photos are being taken, there's a shot showing a human rib cage in the background, almost cavalierly, but it mostly was kept out of the photos. The pictures, of course, are still with us today. They're on the web for people to see. You've managed to take on such a life-and-death topic and deal with it matter-of-factly but with great respect and discretion.

JA Bayona: I'm so glad that you asked about that “unthinkable” line because that's life. That's life. First, you do what you think is impossible, then you get used to it, and then there's a moment that you don't pay attention to it. Our ordinary lives are about that. These people remind us how important every single detail is in our lives. It doesn't matter if your skin is black or white or if we’re American or Spanish. We each have our chance to live life. But when you meet these guys, you meet people who’ve been given an extra chance. That makes a big difference. Their story helps us realize that sometimes we complain and don’t appreciate what we have, the fact that we do have lives to live.

How cold did it get? At what altitude did most of the filming take place?

Enzo Vogrincic: Well, I have to admit, it was hard to tell this story. You feel you have to go through the pain yourself, in order to tell it well. The shooting was hard, obviously, because you have to connect the pain with your own body. We had to lose weight and experience the cold. You have to do it until your body becomes part of that character’s story. There were experiences that allowed us to feel the pain. We were able to work less on certain things and still retain the emotional tone of the story. The emotions didn’t take over necessarily when your body had to suffer. There were other important components, too, in addition to the pain and the suffering. You were able to see that you had a duty to carry out which took you beyond the pain, because you had a story to tell in a competent way.

JA Bayona: Let me add one story. Enzo did such an extraordinary job. He was so committed to the performance of Numa that when we finished the shoot we had to go back to the Andes because the first time we went, there had been very little snow because of global climate change. We went for one year. Once we finished the shoot, we went back to shoot again in the background. Secretly he was in Uruguay, and I called Enzo and said, “What are you doing next Wednesday?” He said, “Nothing.” I said, “I want to take you to the actual place where the plane crashed. I don't have permission from the other producers, but I think I can manage to bring you there. How much is the ticket?” He said, "$400.” I said, “Well, we can pay $400. I can talk with the insurance company and the professional drivers.”

I secretly took Enzo finally with the blessings from the other producers just because he did so much. We had this shoot then we had the person in Germany that was to do this film. I really wanted Enzo to be there and be able to shoot some shots that were very helpful for the film. You can treat the audience by putting in a couple of shots of Enzo there and there. At the same time, Enzo had a closure to that journey. He was able to do these shots but was also able to stand in front of the great theater. I don't know what you said there, what you did there, but you had your moment there. To me that was very important. When you do a film, the whole atmosphere affects the final result. I pay attention to these kinds of details. Also, I wanted him to be there and have that closure.

Having just shared this in a theater, I know that’s what movies are designed for, communal viewing experience. But when someone watches your movie on a streaming device. How does it affect you? And to be honest, can you interpret it for any language that it needs to be interpreted for?

JA Bayona: Can we take the Netflix people out of the room for a second? No, listen, we spent 10 years trying to make the financing for this film. We tried to do this film by conventional windows to the cinemas. Apparently, there is no market for Spanish films that are over $10 or $15 million in budget. We couldn't do this film with that budget. We spent 10 years and when we were about to give up, Netflix showed up and put in the money and gave us the freedom. They made the film possible.

At the same time, I come from Spain. To me, it's more difficult to handle the market in the US than in Spain. I'm quite popular there. We released the film on December 22nd. It was a limited release, 100 cinemas. Normally one of my films would be in 500 cinemas. We released the film in 100 cinemas. I decided to go with the film. Every week, I went to a different city and showed the film. The film is still in the cinemas, in the same number of cinemas. We've done 100 million admissions. The film actually is doing better since it's on Netflix. I'm very happy that Netflix made the film possible and made it accessible to the whole planet. We had 100 million people watching the film in the first 10 days. So it’s not true. There is a market for Spanish films. But I'm glad that the movie is still in theaters for people who want to see it there.

youtube

#JA Bayona #Enzo Vogrincic #2024 #Interviews #Season of the Snow #Brad Balfour #Youtube

13 notes · View notes

popentertainment-interviews · 2 months

Text

Tony McNamara

The Provocative Poor Things Starring Emma Stone has Racked up Multiple Award wins and Noms Due to a Great Script

by Brad Balfour

It may have taken a while, but director Yorgos Lanthimos' Poor Things ultimately rose to the Awards season challenge, winning several Golden Globes and garnering 11 Oscar nominations: Best Actress, Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Supporting Actor, and Best Cinematography. In this fractured tale inspired by the Frankenstein creation story, actress/producer Emma Stone plays a re-animated Bella Baxter as a fully grown body woman with the brain of a rapidly maturing child.

Bella doesn't hold back as she discovers the joys of masturbation and, further on, energetic sex – which she calls "furious jumping" – with Mark Ruffalo's domineering, and equally unclothed, paramour. Then she explores the inner-workings of a Paris whorehouse engaging with many men in many ways – but on her terms.

The movie's sexual candor is only some of the trappings to this extraordinary story of a woman – though born of men – comes into her own. In exposing herself aesthetically and physically, the seemingly fearless Stone is one of the rare A-list actresses willing to risk such exposure for her art.

Poor Things is a no-holds-barred re-imagining of female empowerment displayed in a thoroughly fantastical environment of striking colors, costumes and landscapes. As a result, the movie is rated R for strong and pervasive sexual content, graphic nudity, disturbing material, gore and language.

Though the cinematic vision is Lanthimos, the essential story comes from veteran scriptwriter Tony McNamara, an Australian playwright, screenwriter, and television producer. Born in 1967, he worked on the script for The Favourite in 2018, the historical comedy-drama film directed by Lanthimos, also starring Stone. Originally a screenplay by Deborah Davis, written 20 years prior to the film's release, Lanthimos and McNamara worked together to refashion it into a final script resulting in it winning, or being nominated for, many various awards at the time.

McNamara also created The Great, a series revolving around the life of Catherine the Great, starring Elle Fanning and Nicholas Hoult, which premiered on Hulu in May 2020. It's based on his period play about Catherine, which premiered at the Sydney Theatre Company in 2008. McNamara also wrote a film adaptation of it as well.

This Q&A is based on an appearance by McNamara shortly before Poor Things began its run as an award nominee and cinematic phenomenon.

Talk about the process of adapting this from the book by Alasdair Gray. That Poor Things is very much written from the male perspective in terms of people discussing and describing their experiences with Bella. The film switched that into [a story] from a female view of the world. What did it take to adapt and shift the perspective?

The book is a big Scottish classic – it's wild and has hundreds of pages about Scottish nationalism which, you might notice, is not in the movie. Bella's story was told by the men like Duncan and Max; they all tell you what happened to her. You never get her experience of it. Yorgos read it and we both felt the same – she was the character he was interested in. That's an interesting story and it seemed like a great thing to do. The point of the novel was that the men controlled her narrative. While keeping that idea, I wanted to flip it so that film-wise, it was her story.

This is the first time that you've done an adaptation from a book. What were the unique aspects of doing that?

Yes, it was the first time. When I read it, I thought the first one should be the baby's brain in the woman's head [chuckles]. But Yorgos is amazing, and we had such a good time on The Favourite that the biggest thing was to work out what to tell from the book. We could just depart from the book because I adapted material from history and stuff. I'm always a bit like, "Well, a book, that's one thing and a movie is a whole other thing. How do we make a movie that has a relationship to the book but isn't really about the book."

That started with the Bella thing, which let me invent a lot because the men told her story [in the novel]. I could invent her story because we didn't really know... There was nothing there when she went to Portugal, we knew she went, but we didn't know what happened there. I was creating this sort of internal story when she went on her journey, Yorgos kept saying it was a fantasy. We're both Fellini fans so we thought it should be a big European style, old school stage movie.

How do I create a language that's going to be big enough for what he's going to do? I had to create this sort of dialogue that felt baroque but was also contemporary enough that you could feel it emotionally. That was my main thing. You've got to feel her journey.

You adapted from history before. What you do with language is take elements of period language, but then you really look at it from the perspective of a modern audience's lens into it. You created this unique amalgamation. So for this one, in particular, how did you find the way to make the language work in that regard?

I knew the scale of this story and also, I love language. Half the time, I'm not serving the audience, I'm serving myself [chuckles]. I think it's fun to create a particular language for a movie, which is why I was really drawn to doing this. Bella had a particular language, and it was a character where you had to evolve her language, which you never get to do. Usually the person just talks the way they talk. But with her, part of telling the story was changing the language throughout the narrative. So it's how to do that and make it fun.

It's interesting how her language changed, even [if it's] just with the grammar. It's the same way when you learn another language, you learn the present tense first. She's speaking specifically in the present tense in the beginning of the movie but that evolves. How did you find those different layers and textures of grammar and language for her?

It was like knowing where to start. We had this geographic journey, so I used the geography to change her language through each geographic point. She would change a little bit through it, and I knew where I wanted to start. She talked like my four-year-old. He was a real inspiration. He's very proud now. When Yorgos and I were developing it, we were having lunch one day and I was telling Yorgos about my son and I said, "He's kind of a sociopath and he's only four years old.” We were in a restaurant, and it was really loud. This baby was crying, and my son looked at me and went “punch that baby." I went to Yorgos, and he said that we should put that in! So when she's in the restaurant, she goes, "I'm just going to punch that baby." My son feels like he should get a credit now.

We should see if – in the DVD version – he's given credit. Bella changes so much throughout the script. You talked about thinking from different specifications. At the beginning, she started out pretty much a toddler and then we reached a point where this is when she's 16. When she's leaving home for the first time, she's like in her early '20s at first, then her mid '20s. How did you set about creating those different stages?

In my head it was just to create. Basically at its core. In a way, this is a coming-of-age story. It was as simple as that. It's like watching someone grow up and discover their sexuality and then their intellectual life and they come to terms with being mature and emotional. There's a point – on the boat – where she's so self-regarding and then realizes there's a world out there and she has to be part of it. I felt like there were certain points where… I think the contemporary thing for me was things like, "Oh, you go to college and discover books” and you're like "Oh books and ideas!" There were all these steps where you get a boyfriend and you think he's great and then you realize at some point, "Oh my God, he's the worst." There were simple things I was always thinking of but not to take it away from the bigness of it. I had to ask, what are the basics of it in terms of us, in terms of just a human experience?

That idea for Bella was to be like, "Oh, I've got a boyfriend but he's the worst." That's the arc of Duncan [Mark Ruffalo], where it's so great because he's such an audacious character. We understand that he's full of shit from the get-go. But she takes everything quite literally. So when he says, "I bedded over 100 women," she believes that to be true. What was it like writing the dynamic between those two characters with that in mind?

It was really fun to write because he is such a classic trope and yet I felt sorry for him because she doesn't have any of society's ideas which he owns. He has them all in his head and it's like a paradigm he lives through. She doesn't have any of that. So he can't even get the traction that he would normally get from a person. He sort of dissolves. I enjoyed writing it, but I didn't have as much fun as I did watching those two do it. They were so freakin' right.

How did you shape the tension that starts to fester in Duncan because the less that he succeeds with her, the more frustrated he becomes. He's also watching her with the idea of who he wants to be in a world with no care.

I think that was what the irony was. He sees himself as a free spirit and he's outside society like all the men who have their view of themselves. Everyone in the movie had a view of society that she doesn't ascribe to. Even when they try hard, she either resists it or is oblivious to it. It was constructing that, and some people understood that ... like Max [Ramy Youssef] who went on a sort of positive journey in that respect. Duncan just dissolved more and more because he didn't know what to do. I liked the idea of that.

It's great the way that you have other characters start to use elements of her language. Suddenly another character uses the phrase "serious jumping." How did you find those moments when you wanted other characters to step into her world like that?

She's such a powerful character as she goes through life and gathers agency, I think she's so charismatic because she doesn't [back down]. Beat to beat [it's] just a pure response that isn't shaded by anything. How she feels in that moment without judgment of herself, I think that's attractive. I felt like [with the] other characters, [it] starts to rub off on them a little bit.

What's the difference in writing a character who is so innately reactionary but in such a positive way?

I was talking to Emma about it. It's great for you as a person. I think she felt the same, playing Bella. I think for her and me, and I'm sure for Yorgos, writing that character and her playing that character, you're aware of how much you're shaped by everything. For her, playing a character who is just shaped by a really pure response, and we don't get that. I think that's why she's a character people can respond to because it's a bit of a wish fulfillment of like, "that would be good if you could just live life like that."

We get an opportunity to watch her learning in real time and developing her back story as a character. How did you set about making sure that you are always cognizant of what she has already learned in the space of a scene to make sure that it comes into play here?

I have a really strong process. I guess I've always thought about what she learns. Yorgos and I were very meticulous as it goes. We didn't do that many drafts. But what we did at the end is, we just went line by line over three or four days separately. There's always time between it and as there's a three-week rehearsal. Then we tweak that a little bit if we hear things that aren't quite right or Emma would say, "Oh, that word seems too sophisticated for her at that point." We're very meticulous about her verbal journey as well as Emma and Yorgos creating the physicality of that.

It sounds like with that process as well in the way that you talk about the film previously that you really aren't doing rewrites during production and that even during rehearsal, it's right mental.

It's joyful. I'd just hang out and drink coffee and watch them do their thing. No one sees the script for a long time. The first person to see the script was Emma. I think the producers didn't see it for years and then when they see it, he's ready to make it. I think his view of it is that we spent four years on this by making it because I think it's right. He is a very strong individual about how he feels artistically. He's like, "That's what we decided; it is what it is!" He never really made changes on The Favourite. He rang me once [to make a change] because they literally couldn't do something physically. Through the couple of films we worked together, he's never changed anything.

This was a project that Yorgos had been trying to make since before The Favourite. What was the chronology of when you two started working on the script?

He'd moved to London and started on The Favourite and knew he wasn't... He'd only made Dogtooth and Alps, so he was like, no one's going to give me the money to make The Favourite. It's going to cost a little bit because of the period. So he went off with his Greek co-writer, Efthimis Filippouand they wrote The Lobster so they could try and make something cheap. While he was doing it, he rang me and said he'd read this book [Poor Things]. Even when he was making The Lobster no one would give him any money to develop Poor Things. Everyone was saying, "We like you but we're not doing the baby brain!” Once he made The Lobster and there was some buzz, Film4 came in with some money and he was like, "Do you want to do it?" So we started it. We were in pre-production for The Favourite, and I started writing Poor Things.

Going back to Bella as well, one of the things that's so refreshing about her as a character is she's not necessarily carrying this internal dialogue. Everything that she thinks and feels throughout the movie is said out loud. How is that a totally different approach to writing a character for you?

When I write, I'm just asking myself, "Where is she coming from? What does she want and what's in her way?" I knew she didn't question herself much and that was the joy of her as a character because she wasn't super conflicted about anything. Except towards the end, when she has to confront her feelings for Godwin [Willem Dafoe], but even then, she has clarity in the two different feelings she has. I think that was why she was a really refreshing character to write. She manages to be very simple and very complex at the same time.

How did you find what you wanted to be the essence of the relationship between her and Godwin? It's such a fascinating dynamic. He's had the experience of her being an experiment and now he's kind of carrying it out with a lot of love and heart.

Yeah, I think for us it was one of the most interesting relationships we explored in a way because he was an experiment as well. In the book, he's not an experiment. I made that up so that we could understand him a bit better. His father made him an experiment, so it makes sense. He thinks everything is science and everything's an experiment. But deep down, he's a guy who wants someone to see him and not think he's ugly – someone to "get" him. He's someone that's never had that and he doesn't quite know how to deal with feelings.

That's why he rebels, but it's not in the book. There's the Margaret Qualley character where they just make another one [like Bella] but not quite. That was our idea of how we can show him go through a journey. I was like, "Oh, he makes another one." He'd go with his feelings; by the end of the movie, he realizes his feelings matter.

What was the difference that you wanted to show with Godwin and Margaret Qualley's character when that comes up? It's such a different experience for him.

I think because rather than replace [Bella], it was supposed to show the idiocy of what he did by trying to do that to himself. Then he understood it wasn't the experiment he loved, but it was her.

With the narrative up to where Bella goes back to her ex-husband to learn to visit her old life and learn about that. Initially the idea was that it was sort of a kidnapping, and it was against her will. But then you realize that it was important for it to be her choice to go there. How did that change for you?

Yeah, I think we've done it. We've done a couple of years, and we were having lunch, and everyone really liked the script at that point. We had long periods of silence. That's our process. We just sit there not talking for long periods. We all thought there was something wrong with the third act, so I said I'll go think of something and then I'll text Yorgos. What if she chooses it because she's choosing everything else? So why wouldn't she? She's fearless and that broke it open for us because the other way – when she was kidnapped, and then there was a shooting and that's how it ended – he was kind of like, I think they shot him or something and he died. It didn't feel totally right because it wasn't weird enough for the rest of it. So we brought in Christopher Abbott's character. I was always nervous about that because it's hard to bring in a character in two hours and have them hold their own in a big crazy movie like this. But Chris was terrific [as a bad guy].

How did you deal with the sexuality of the whole film? Decisions you made and didn't make, where it would and wouldn't be?

It was always part of that coming-of-age thing. She's at a certain age and starts to discover it. A man comes into her life and she's like, "What adventure do I want to go on?" For me, it was all like, every beat wasn't so much a sex scene. It was the evolution of the character and of the general story. How it's shot and how it's managed was really Yorgos and Emma working together. For us, it was always going to be a movie that was like those '70s European films where it's very... Emma Stone was very unapologetic. It made no sense for it not to be very unapologetic. Yorgos was really devoted to that '70s European aesthetic.

The way you write with layers of comedy which stem from a place of truthfulness. There's so much comedy and attention that's created from Bella's perspective in the world. The way that she refuses to be tied down to other people's ideas of her – how did you write that in a way that feels so grounded – and then find the layers of comedy that can stem from that?

I always go for whatever's real, I think I read that someone famous once said, "To make it real, make it funny." I always try to go from the emotional place of what they want, so I never just go for the joke.

Yorgos and I love comedy, but I think it's all built from the ground up and it's built into the structure – it's a satire. She's a fish out of water. Here's the basics. They're all trying to control her and can't, the poor things. They're idiots. There's a certain element of comedy that I built into the whole structure. I love funny dialogue.

youtube

#Tony McNamara #2024 #Writer Interview #Poor Things #oscar nominee #Brad Balfour #Youtube

2 notes · View notes

popentertainment-interviews · 2 months

Text

Ed Lachman

Legendary Cinematographer Gets An Oscar Nomination for El Conde, the Strangest Vampire Movie of All Time

by Brad Balfour

When American cinematographer and director Ed Lachman joined the Oscar nom list, it was as a real outlier. All the other films nominated were expected – Poor Things, Maestro, Killers of The Flower Moon, and Oppenheimer. But El Conde was way out of left field, a satire about the life of late Chilean dictator, Augusto Pinochet. He's portrayed as a vampire who puts fresh hearts into a blender and drinks them like a smoothie.

Nonetheless, the film deserved recognition for its master director of photography. Born to a Jewish family in Morristown, New Jersey, Lachman attended Harvard and studied in a French University before pursuing a BFA in painting at Ohio U. Once he transitioned from painting to cinematography, however, the 75-year-old has primarily worked with independent filmmakers, winning accolades along the way. Serving as the cinematographer for Todd Haynes, including 2002's Far from Heaven and Carol in 2015, Lachman earned Oscar nominations. He has served as DoP for other directors such as Wim Wenders, Steven Soderbergh, Paul Schrader, Werner Herzog, Sofia Coppola, and Todd Solondz. He also did Robert Altman's final film in 2006, A Prairie Home Companion.

Besides working with others, Lachman co-directed a segment of the anthology film Imagining America in 1989. Then, in 2002, he co-directed the controversial Ken Park with Larry Clark. In 2013, Lachman did a group of videos French electronic dance duo Daft Punk for their best-selling album Random Access Memories.

Most recently he did El Conde with the Chilean-born Pablo Larrain, who has built a career making quirky yet significant films such as Spencer (2021), Jackie (2016), El Club (2015), and NO (2012), among others. El Conde imagines the story of Claude Pinochet, a royalist French soldier, who's discovered to be a vampire and survives an attempt to kill him. Witnessing the French Revolution and the execution of Marie Antoinette, Pinochet fakes his death and flees, participating in the suppression of revolutionary upheavals over the next centuries. Eventually, he ended up in Chile in 1935 and joined the Chilean Army under the name Augusto Pinochet. Rising to become a general, he overthrew the socialist government of Salvador Allende in 1973 and became the country's dictator. Quite a story laden with bizarre imagery and narrative, all shot black & white.

This Q&A was conducted before a preview audience at the Paris Theater.

It's an amazing movie and your collaboration [has produced] a timeless classic. How did your collaboration get started on this movie? You've been friends but haven't collaborated on something before.

I like looking at films as much as working on them, maybe more. I first saw Pablo's work, Tony Manero, at the New York Film Festival and from there we developed a friendship. He said, "One day, I'll bring you to Chile," but I never thought that was actually going to happen. We were always friendly. He came to New York and worked with Darius Khondji who is a friend. So I thought, "Wow, he comes all the way to New York and works with a French cameraman. Why does he need to bring me to Chile?" We did a commercial in Los Angeles and he called me about a month later and said, "Would you come to Chile?" Sure. But obviously, I don't speak much Spanish and I've worked with his whole crew. Right from the beginning, Pablo said he wanted to work in black and white. Usually, today, you have to shoot in color, either in film or digitally and then transfer into a monochromatic image. But he convinced Netflix that it would be produced out of Mexico, and he was going to shoot in black & white. That opened up a whole door for me and I reached out to Arriflex, the camera manufacturer in Germany. I knew they had produced a large format camera for monochromatic but not a lighter weight camera. Another conceit that Pablo wanted to do was to be on a crane for the whole time – a short 15-foot Technoscope telescopic crane. His idea was that we could move quicker and find angles. That set was built for the size of the crane so we could move in and not have to take out walls. We did once or twice. There were all those factors that came into it. Arri was just coming out with their own camera, and I thought they'd never get there even if they were interested.

Lo and behold, ten days before we were to shoot, they said we have a camera for you. I went back to Pablo and said, "We have a camera. Can the production afford it?" Well, he's the production company, so he said yes. Another aspect of the filming was that I worked with lenses that were actually made in the '30s for black & white. They were the primary lenses that shot black & white film. I just happened to remount those lenses for somebody who had told me about this glass that it was available in LA. Now I have the black & white lenses, the black & white sensors. All these things contributed. Then there's an exposure system that I used for the first time.

That's the system that you invented.

Basically, I don't make it complicated. If you knew Ansel Adams, he developed a way of evaluating exposure. You could read shadow detail and highlights and place your negative where you would get the most detail, which is a way of analyzing where your exposure was. I worked on an idea about doing that for digital technology. I was, again, very lucky – all the forces came together when a monitor company, SmallHD, came out with this inner monitor and they licensed it to me. I was able to use it for the first time in this film. That's why you have this incredible shadow detail that you would lose if you didn't know where you were placing your eye light. Sometimes, if you overexpose something, you have to print it down and then you don't get the shadow detail. I was thinking about looking at it today – what's the difference? Matthew Libatique shot Maestro in color then converted to black & white. You don't get the subtlety of midrange that you can get when you shoot monochromatic. The other thing is you can use filters that they used 50 years ago, black and white filters that you can't use on color film. You can try to do it in post, but it's not the same thing.

It sounds like the perfect marriage of technique and intention to create this look that's both timeless and with a purposeful artificiality to it. You have worked in black & white before for some of Todd Haynes' films like Wonderstruck. Give us a taste of what's more appealing to you in shooting in black and white, something maybe you get when you're not working in color.

When you shoot in color, you have a problem with the color temperature of the day. It changes. I realized that again with black & white, because I hadn't shot black and white since Wonderstruck. However, that was with film, and this is digital. What's wonderful about black & white is that you can shoot from the beginning of the day to the end of the day and it's just contrast. It's light and dark. In color, the color temperature changes from cool to warm to cool to warm, and you have to modify what you're doing with color. They always say black & white is harder because you don't see in black & white, so you have to imagine how it will look. But once your eye gets more trained and, especially, when you're looking at it on a monitor, you can affect how the black & white [works]. We tested different colors for blood and ended up with blue. All the blood is blue because we found it had more luminosity. When I was in the hospital with my broken hip, at the end of the show, I found out that in our body, that's why our veins look blue. Our blood is blue and it's only red when it hits the air.

Let's go back to the beginning when you first were presented with the concept of Augusto Pinochet as a 250-year-old vampire. What was your reaction and what pulled you into the story?

Pablo was my education and the way he expressed it was that Chileans have never been able to heal because they never had the justice to heal. The individuals and their families paid the price. Even the church.... There was a part of the church that did fight what Pinochet was doing to the people. There was another part of the church that went along with him. When he explained it that way, I understood why he is forever. He died a multimillionaire and died free. Which is why the Chilean people will never be able to have any resolution to the crimes that were committed. Not like in Argentina where the [dictator] goes to jail.

He's embarrassed about being called a thief, but he's not embarrassed about the murders. He thinks of them as a necessity. what kind of [perhaps] hemophiliac conversations did you and Pablo have watching this movie? Obviously, that recalls Nosferatu, Vampyr. What other movies have you visited?

I watched those films – Vampyr, Nosferatu by F.W. Murnau, and I did like Josef von Sternberg. In some ways, I liked working on films where I don't speak the language because then I can just look at it, in my own world. Things came together in abstract ways, there wasn't much of an intellectualization.

What did you bring to the table to make plausible the scenes of Pinochet flying over Santiago?

All the night footage is against the blue screen or green screen. All of the day scenes, they brought in – and I didn't even know about this – an acrobatic group from Colombia that worked on wires. One of our actresses, Paula [Luchsinger], had studied dance. So they put her on wires. We did have a stunt double and it was a 160-foot crane and in the middle of the crane was a seat on cable. The operator allowed us to show that double or Paula flying or moving around the landscape – it was a sheep farm in Patagonia. That's real air-to-air photography without the benefit of drones. We did use a drone for the point of view of when they're flying. The drone was the second unit, and they went out to film in areas all over Chile. I was there on a vacation watching what was happening.

What's your process with the other departments like production and costume design, especially when you're shooting in black & white? What is the harmony among the other technical departments?

The production designer there didn't speak any English and they work a little differently. Generally, I have an on-set prop person moving things around through the frame. But there he came out of the theater. He had no compulsion but to be on the set all the time and move things around. But wait a minute, that's my set now. But we got along even though sometimes we had discussions through Pablo like, "Don't move this, or move that."

When I'm working on a set, it's what's in the frame that's important to me: how you compose the frame, and how you move the image in the set. Your great production designer actually thinks about the frame when they design the set. He had a little different approach to it, more like theater. There's the stage and the set and you just work with it. We did all this testing with lighting which made the backgrounds always dark. I wanted that separation between the characters and the background so that there was a starkness to it.

I did something different that I don't normally do. Even though there was an overhead bridge system for lighting, I mostly lit from the window and because we moved the camera around a lot, I couldn't have lights on in the set to help their eyes out. But I realized something that these people are hiding from themselves and hiding from each other. I let the eyes go darker than I ever normally would do and it worked. First, I thought it was a mistake, but here the eyes go in the shadow from cross light. That was important psychologically for the characters.

What was something specifically difficult during the filming? What sequence was most challenging to get right?

There were these big lights that I like to use, and nobody wanted to say no to me. So if I say I want eight 10Ks around the set. On pre-light day, I would be there, and the lights would not be there. They always promise they'll be available mañana, but they never are. I finally had to adapt to work with the equipment that I had. That was an improvement. If I'd had everything I wanted to begin with, I wouldn't have had the benefit of the adaptation.

Over your career, you've collaborated with so many and shot across genres. Do you have a filmmaker that you'd still love to work with? Who would that be?

I went to art school and then ended up being a cinematographer, a cameraman for other people's films. I've always made some of my own films. There are always new people. I'm always inspired when I see other people's work, even other cinematographers. There's a reason why people create images the way they do because of the time period. That's something that Todd Haynes is very much into. He understands that the tools you use affect the look of the final image.

On Wonderstruck he wanted to use the same apparatus of the periods ('70s and the '20s) like the dollies used to get those long tracking shots in the street and not see the track. We used something called the Western dolly that has rubber wheels. That was not the best way to do it but was the only way during that time period. I always find it interesting to go deeper into how it's done and why it's done. I studied painting, studio art and didn't like the idea that I'd be alone in a room. If someone brings me a story, I like the challenge of finding the visual language to tell that story.

Speaking of different techniques and tools that are available, there's obviously so many changes in the way films are shot. Some people still swear by film and others love the flexibility and freedom that digital brings to the table. Where do you stand?

I used to always think it had to be a film. But the way I feel about it now, certain stories can be told in the film, some can be done digitally. The problem is, it has become more and more difficult for student films. The craft of filmmaking is being lost because during the process you need a film loader, someone who loads the film in the magazine. Younger and younger people aren't coming up in the industry learning how to load film anymore.

Film labs don't have some of the equipment anymore that helps judge the treatment for the film negative. Footage gets mistreated during digital transfer. The old classic cameras don't get repaired properly because of the lack of expertise and replacement parts. To continue shooting on film, we're going against what the industry is pushing because that's the way they make more money. They come out with faster lenses and higher-resolution cameras. But actual image makers don't necessarily want everything to look photorealistic. Sometimes it's essential for us to feel that we are actually watching a film and not being inside the storyline.

youtube

#Ed Lachman #2024 #interview #El Conde #Oscar Nominees #Brad Balfour #Youtube

0 notes

popentertainment-interviews · 2 months

Text

Dermot Mulroney

Look Out, Old Mack is Back

By Ronald Sklar

Once again, busy actor Dermot Mulroney is stepping – or in this case, singing and dancing – outside his comfort zone.

“I’m always comfortable when I’m having fun,” he insists, however.

This time, the fun presents itself not in another movie (there are lots of them. Check his IMDb), but as an “in concert” production of the Broadway musical Mack & Mabel (three nights only – February 16-18, 2024 – at North Hollywood’s El Portal Theater).

The fully staged, choreographed event is an inaugural production of the All Roads Theater Company; it’s based on the “forgotten” 1970s musical about Tinseltown’s earliest era. Expect Keystone Kops and flappers.

“It’s a romance and a beautiful story,” Dermot says. “It’s a major event in the musical theater world happening for a very short run.”

Dermot stars as silent-film director Mack Sennett and introduces Jenna Rosen as Mabel Normand, who became one of early Hollywood’s biggest stars.

A revival like this is no small thing for both the theater culture and for the actor himself.

“There are thirty people in this company,” Dermot says. “I’m learning so much from all of them.”

That the original show somehow slipped under the cultural radar is a baffling crime – the 1974 production starred no less than Robert Preston and Bernadette Peters; David Merrick produced it, with music and lyrics by Jerry Herman (Hello, Dolly, Mame). The show received eight Tony nominations and won none. Herman was not nominated. It ran for just 66 performances.

Yet somehow, over the decades, the original cast album grew an obsessive fan base, and there is new interest in the story.

Dermot says, “You learn now, in the computer age, that anything and everything has its following. The people who know Mack & Mabel are crazy about it.”

What else is crazy – so crazy that it makes perfect sense – is the shared hope for the show to make its way back to Broadway, fifty years later.

“There is every reason for that to happen,” Dermot says.

So why would a man who is known for so many movies suddenly take to the boards?

“I’ve decided to do Mack & Mabel for two reasons,” Dermot says. “One: I’ve never done this before, singing in a full musical. And two: because I’ve always wanted to do it. I couldn’t pass up the opportunity when it came to me out of the blue.”

Leading man roles sure enough attach themselves to Dermot. He’s been at it for about forty years, starring in everything from My Best Friend’s Wedding to The Wedding Date and Young Guns. On TV, he played Rachel’s boss on Friends, as well as prominent roles in New Girl and Shameless. He is also an accomplished cellist and has played professionally on various on-screen projects as well as in live musical performances.

Mack & Mabel, however, is a whole different animal.

“It’s hugely challenging for me,” Dermot admits. “It’s a world I’ve never inhabited. The two times I’ve been in musicals were in my senior year at Northwestern University, a thousand-seat theater. I sang in an operetta, as Ko-Ko The Executioner in Gilbert & Sullivan’s The Mikado.”

There is also the one that got away: the time that Francis Ford Coppola chose Dermot to play The Big Kahuna in his ambitious Gidget stage musical (alas, it never got past the workshop phase). And he has indeed sung in public before: on the big screen, to Julia Roberts, on a boat (see it here).

Mack & Mabel, though, is the musical Big Time. It fits nicely with his continuing busy career, including a key supporting role in the current hit romcom Anyone But You, as well as his turn as Detective Bailey in Scream 6.

“I’ve just been incredibly blessed,” he says of his journey. “I’ll admit, that’s what I thought the assignment was when I first became an actor, to be a man of a thousand faces.”

His face can now also be regularly seen on social media, as he has pumped up his posts on Instagram. Most of them push his current projects, but he also shares the kick he gets out the universally common misspelling of his name (think “Dermont” on a Starbucks cup).

“That is so fun for me because it’s happened to me my whole life,” he says.

Still, he enters the world of social media carefully, and treads lightly, as online life can sometimes do bad things to our offline attention spans.

The solution?

“We have to re-expand our attention spans,” he says. “That’s why the four-five-six-month learning process on Mack & Mabel has been incredibly good for my brain.”

Find out more about Mack & Mabel here.

youtube

#Dermot Mulroney #2024 #Actor Interviews #Mack & Mabel #Ronald Sklar #Youtube

4 notes · View notes

popentertainment-interviews · 5 months

Text

NXCRE and the Villains

Take Us Down to Dabbington City

by Natalie Orozco

We're sitting in an outdoor lounge area at The Broadway in Brooklyn, the band just wrapped up sound check and the anticipation is real. NYC based alternative band NXCRE and the Villains has been getting steady buzz since the release of their singles “Indigo” and “Usurper” earlier this year. Since then the band's nostalgic sound has been getting bigger, with their recent release “Dabbington City” it's clear they're just getting started. We were lucky enough to sit down with the band and discuss inspirations, their upcoming album Fean is War and more.

Can you share the name of your band and each member's respective roles within the group?

NXCRE: The Villains is a name that one of my boys named Mizzy coined for us back in the day. I was making a collective of dope people to collaborate with. At the time my boy Mizzy was just like, “Man, you’re all moving like the villains out here!” I’m just like, I like that! It's a whole group of people who we just rocked with. We just called ourselves The Villains. When I found my band, I just wanted to keep it The Villains and stick with that. In regard to the respective roles of each member, I'll let them say that one.

Loyalty: I'm Loyalty, better known as Shemari Fener. I play the drums and I basically help coordinate the song structure and give advice. I just practice, and yeah, that's it…

Jay Sambuco: My name is Jay Sambuco spelled J. A. Y. Last name Sambuco S.a.m.b.u.c.o. Similar to the liquor brand, it's an Italian coffee liquor. Or sambucas like cough syrup, you know what I'm saying. Anyways, I play guitar in the villains. I write riffs. I help with the arranging; I help come up with the stuff. The Villains, it's my life, I love it. It's what we do. And yeah, time for Coqui.

Coqui: Yo, what's good? I'm Coqui and I play bass in The Villains.

How would you describe the evolution of your sound and what influences have played a significant role in shaping your musical style?

NXCRE: Through my journey as an artist, I've experimented heavily with all types of sounds, trying to find what truly resonates with me. I'm a big fan of music varying from all genres, so it was very easy for me to find inspiration from multiple sources. Whether it's Jeff Buckley, Chris Stapleton, Michael Jackson, Frank Ocean, the Weeknd, Drake – it doesn't matter where it's from as long as it's great music. I always find some joy and inspiration from the sounds. It allows me to really pursue forward with my motivations. When I founded the band and we continued on creating, it felt like an evolution to the sound that I was creating earlier on in my days. Now it's heavier, it's fuller, it just fits so well. The way that the songs have been resonating with the people, it's a testament to that.

Loyalty: Basically, I started playing drums at a church. I was really inspired by this drummer named Shariq Tucker. I was influenced by the gospel genre at first and then I grew a passion for rock music as well, so I started practicing that. Luckily enough, it was a blessing that we all became a band of Villains because we have a unique touch in the rock scene right now. It's a blessing.

Jay Sambuco: My biggest influence when it comes to my guitar playing and style, first and foremost, has to be my first real guitar teacher, Jason Hagen. He was my guy! He put me on to everything. My first OG guitar teacher taught me how to play some Led Zeppelin tunes, but Jason Hagen taught me literally everything. In terms of actual artists, I would say Zakk Wylde, Jason Becker, and then like bands I love – Deafheaven, Motley Crue, Ozzy Osborne, Metallica, Megadeth, all those bands. I'm really into the classics. That's what shaped me as the guitar player that I am right now. I've also been blessed enough to be able to study at Berklee (College of Music). That's been shaping my sound as well.

Coqui: I was influenced musically a lot by, I guess, like…

Jay Sambuco: Your high school teacher!

Coqui: Yeah! There was a high school teacher. I was too poor to go on this trip and he was supervising all the kids who were too poor to go on the trip. He showed me a bunch of bands like Sonic Youth, Minor Threat, Fugazi, Bad Brains and L7 and all sorts of grungy underground acts and alternative shit that I like clenched onto for dear hell. They have influenced me to this day.

Would you like to mention any names?

Coqui: Mr. E, I don't remember his full last name. Mr. E, though, from MS 447. If you ever end up hearing this somewhere or another, hit me up, bro.

Can you share some insights into your songwriting process? How do you collaborate as a band? What themes or experiences inspire your lyrics?

NXCRE: First and foremost, everything starts in a studio. Whether it's a rehearsal studio, a recording studio, at the end of the day, it's a room where we all get together. We start laying down our ideas, our foundations, our influences, everything that shapes us into who we are today. After that, one of our major, major, major, major assets is our engineer, Steve Kay. Steve was the first ever engineer that I've ever recorded with, and he still records with me today. I trust that man with my life, That man understands my sound from ins and outs. I always call him the 40 to my Drake. He's been so, so impactful in my life. He's been there for us throughout this journey and helping us achieve the sound that we're creating right now. So, big shout outs to Steve, man. None of this is possible without him. Also shout out to Frank. I know Loyalty you have some stuff to say about Frank.

Loyalty: Yeah, shout out to Frank. He definitely helped me through recording the drums and giving me some tips and some fill ideas. He led me into the right direction [for] making some remarkable songs.

NXCRE: Frank, by the way, is our tracking drum engineer.

Jay Sambuco: The songwriting goes a lot like… either NXCRE or me would play a riff, or NXCRE will show a demo and then we'll build off of it and just expand. That's usually how it goes. One of us has something and we just build off of that. Then we get in the studio, Steve brushes it up, and we make it beautiful. Steve really is like butter to the bread… if that makes sense.

Coqui: We make lit shit for lit people who like to get lit, and that's it.

Live performances are a significant aspect of a rock band's identity. How do you guys engage with the audience during shows? What do you believe sets your live performances apart from other bands within the scene that you're in, or scenes that you guys are looking to get into?

NXCRE: Oh yeah, the live audience. The little fans up in the front. Let me tell you something about "Feans," My "Feans." Yes, indeed. When you come to the show, prepare to be a part of the show. You're not just there standing, twiddling your thumbs, looking at your phones. No. You're in the pits. You're in the entire moment. Just know that when it comes to a Villain show, you are equally as important to the show as we are performing. You are part of the performance. You are part of the overall theatrics of the whole night. I can't thank you all enough for coming along and supporting us as much as you have and giving us your energy. It really feeds us and allows us to do what we're able to do.

Jay Sambuco: The biggest thing with playing live is honestly just getting up on stage and realizing it's not that serious, you know? No one's going to realize if you make a little mistake. No one's going to realize if we play the song for an extra 10 seconds. At the end of the day, the crowd's going to love that extra 10 seconds, you know what I mean? Just go up on stage and just give it all. Play through whatever mistakes or mishaps happen, because with a live performance it's never going to be the same for each performance. Every single performance might have one little tweak. One little thing. Sometimes the mistakes, that's where the magic happens. Sometimes the mistakes, that's where beauty occurs. That's where we really find our true colors. Playing on stage, just playing live in a room, it's like this feeling where you're all taking a sip out of a milkshake together. I don't know how to describe it. It's like you're all connected with each other in a weird way. I don't know how to say it. You really have to be a musician to understand what I mean. It's like you're one with your boys.

Coqui: I feel like what differentiates us from your average band you'll catch is just there's an energy to being locked in and also just having fun. Like that combination of being able to take a set and not just focus on, "Oh, am I going to fuck up this part?" There's a huge part of it that's like, "How are you going to entertain your audience?" "How are you going to keep them engaged?" Individually, we all bring an energy that makes us thrive. We are able to engage audiences in that way. Also in large part, there's NXCRE's frontman-ship that is a very large thriving force to the way that audiences engage with us as well. Individually, you'll catch us always between sets and shit. We talk to everybody. We just be meeting heads. We love to meet people. We love anybody who enjoys our shit, anyone who doesn't enjoy our shit. We love to meet people. We love to make connections. I feel like that's what connects us to other people. We're not just going to play a set and be like, we're the shit, and not talk to you. We love to engage with our people, and that's some real shit. Jay has something else to say.

Jay Sambuco: We're all about community, bringing people together. That's what really defines us. We want to bring New York together; we want to bring the USA together. We want to unite people because that's what is important and that's what's missing in society.

Loyalty: As a drummer, I like to play a part of the song. The song already sets the crowd in a certain mood that is unique because like NXCRE said, we like to engage the audience where they feel a part of the band. We want to grow a community like Jay said, so I think that's how we do it.

Each single and each EP or album you guys put out represents a chapter in a band's journey. Could you discuss the creative direction of your latest single and how it reflects the current state of the band?

NXCRE: I would say everything is evolving, whether it's the quality of the music videos or the quality of the records. You're watching a band evolve in real time. It's something special because usually you wake up and all of a sudden, this band is already the biggest thing in the world. But a lot of people are discovering us before we're there yet. It's something that you can really latch on to and feel connected to because, hey, you may come to the show and there's 100 people in a room, all connected to the same thing that you fell in love with. Definitely take this for what it is and enjoy every moment of it because this is moving fast. We're just going to keep it going. I would say right now we're definitely planning an album. “Dabbington City” was our third single off of Fean is War. Fean is War is the encompassing album. "Indigo" and "Usurper" have been singles from that. We're preparing to release the rest of the album very soon. I've been very big on having visualizers for each song, a music video to really encompass what the song represents, how it feels, the emotions that it gives off to people. So, you can see the growth and the evolution in real time, again, whether it's the visuals, you'll see a quality in the visuals that's like, "oh wow, now they got a bit more." It's special to see because you're watching a band grow in real time.

Jay Sambuco: On some real talk, when it comes to the creative process and coming up with songs and stuff, there's no real process. We just kind of make it up as we go. Basically, I don't know how to say this, but it's like, we're all some young guys. We're still figuring out our lives. We have such a special opportunity to make something big. It's amazing that we've been able to find each other because we're all determined to do that. We all want to make it. We all want to be known. We all want to be seen; you know what I mean? It's about taking what we don't know, and then mixing it with what we do know. Just showing people what we can create with the knowledge that we have. Learning with the knowledge that we have, because you grow the most by focusing on your strengths, not by focusing on your weaknesses. If you focus too much on what you're bad at, then you're only going to think about what you're bad at. You're only going to be like, "Damn, I suck at algebra even though I keep practicing it. I still suck, but I'm really great at geometry." Like, you're great at geometry, bro! Keep focusing on geometry. You could be a geometry wizard. Do you know what I mean? It's about taking what you know and going at it. I've always loved rock and metal, so that's what I do on guitar. If I go to a jazz school, they try and teach me jazz. I'll learn some of it, but for the most part, I'm like, "Teach me some Led Zeppelin." Teach me some real shit that I could use because that's my strength. I'm really glad that I've been able to find people who work with my strength.

Coqui: I feel like with “Indigo” – that was that was the first single – that was sort of like let's test the waters real quick, let's see how this shit do, let's see like what we can do Very quickly there is an overwhelming response to the sound that we've manifested through those strengths that Jay has pointed out. We're bringing this vibe that's nostalgic but very new. It's just scratching two different itches at once. For me personally, I never played anything like it. I’ve played in countless bands before, fronted bands before. Initially it came as a bit of a curveball to be playing all metal. At this point with the release of "Dabbington City,” I feel like we're rounding out this sound. You get that really heavy grungy alternative metal sound with "Usurper." Then you get that nice smooth ballad metal vibe with "Indigo." Then with "Dabbington City" we're hitting you all with some classic fucking rock. Just some classic fucking rock. We're not ashamed of it because we're showing you all that we can take what it is that we do to all of our strengths. Not just utilize them to do one thing but to do anything that we want. The way that we make these things, it's not like we're incubating on some songs for fucking months. We're making these shits on the spot, basically. We're refining them. We're practicing them. Then we're hitting the studio and you're seeing this shit happen in real time. This shit is no bullshit, bro.

Loyalty: Weall basically decided to leverage our skills and take advantage of it and create a sound that's able to cut the market in a unique way. It's a blessing because we all have a passion for music, and we all want to inspire people. Nowadays, I feel like the rock scene is being neglected. It's a blessing that we have an opportunity to inspire other people, even musicians themselves, you know? If you work on your talent and you believe in your talent, if you just keep going, there's a way you can make miracles happen.

I know we briefly mentioned an album is in the works. What are you guys looking to bring to the table on this album individually and as a band?

NXCRE: I think Fean is War is going to do great in it showcasing how extraordinary individual abilities can come together and create unique moments of art that encompass time. With this album, I just want to make sure that I'm able to speak as much of my truth as possible, as much as my reality, my feelings on this project without having to limit what I want to say due to different types of instrumentals. With "Usurper," "Indigo," "Dabbington City," these are all moments and lyrics for me that I truly feel. It's just more of that in a sense. I definitely want to make a statement. I'm also a big believer in competition. To be fair, I feel like if you're going to go into something you better go into it with the idea that you're going to be the best – or else like why go into it? I definitely want to make a statement with Fean is War. I want to show the world this sound that's being made right out of the backyards of New York, right in the cities and in the dumps and the slumps, whatever you want to call it. It's true to us. It's the best that we could give you at that time. As the next one comes out, we're going to go even harder.

Jay Sambuco: When it comes to Fean is War, me being the guitar player, I want to showcase my guitar playing, my musicianship and whatnot. Regardless of that, I think the main thing with this album is we're really just here to show people; we're just a band, we've met randomly, we're all basically four strangers, we all met in separate places and we were able to come together." Because nobody like walks into a room and says, “what up?” to the person next to them anymore, you know what I mean? That's something that's been lost in our society through social media and all this other crap. No one wants to just say, "what up?" to another. I was lucky enough to walk into a room with NXCRE who was like, "Yo, you play guitar? You should come jam with me and Loyalty." I really just want this album to show that you can make stuff happen with a random person that you just met. All it takes is just saying, "Hey, let's get in a room together and just hang out. We'll just see what happens." Because at the end of the day, we’re four different people from four totally different backgrounds, and we've been able to just come together and create something beautiful. So yeah, I think this album will be a statement to just show that, alright, no matter what, you can make anything happen.

Coqui: So this album... I'm telling you... I'm telling YOU!...

Jay Sambuco: Is dedicated to the haters!

Coqui: ... It's dedicated to everybody. The haters. The lovers. Whoever you may be. It doesn’t matter. We're just going to come together. We're going to make music. We're going to drop that shit. It doesn't really matter what happens because we're having fun, a good time, a grand old time. We just hope you enjoy it. Personally, what I'm trying to bring to the table is doing anything I do the best that I can do. That's the only way that I will do what it is that we do together. Yeah, I don't know, maybe a Teezo Touchdown feature? Or Jaleel, hit us up, our DMs are open. Let me know. Let NXCRE know. Let anybody know. All our lines are open.

Right? Everybody's down for that.

NXCRE: I'm just a fan! I'm just a fan!

Loyalty: Basically dedication and inspiration, that's the principles that I set for myself towards the band. Now for the album, the same thing, inspiration, dedication, showing that our passion can reach through people through music. If you work hard enough, it will project a message to other people that says this kid looks like he's really serious, I could work with this person and stuff like that. I hope that makes sense towards the album that you guys are going to listen to soon. I hope you guys enjoy it.

#NXCRE and the Villains #2023 #Music Interview #Fean is War #Natalie Orozco #Thomas Gracia

2 notes · View notes

popentertainment-interviews · 5 months

Text

Phil Traill, Kevin Kopelow & Heath Seifert

Serve Up 90s Nostalgia With Good Burger 2

By Kayla Marra

The 90s were a time of iconic fashion trends, formative moments in pop culture history, unforgettable music, and timeless sitcoms. One of the most memorable films to stem from this era is Good Burger – starring Kenan Thompson and Kel Mitchell. Though the movie was released nearly 27 years ago, it is still a cultural phenomenon.

Director Phil Traill, alongside writers Kevin Kopelow and Heath Seifert, joined forces again in 2023 to bring back everyone’s favorite fast-food coworkers in an all-new feature film: Good Burger 2. The sequel includes an incredible cast, comprised of Kenan Thompson, Kel Mitchell, Lil Rel Howery, Jillian Bell, Kamaia Fairburn, Alex R. Hibbert, Fabrizio Guido, Elizabeth Hinkler, Emily Hinkler, Anabel Graetz, Josh Server, Lori Beth Denberg, and Carmen Electra.

We were lucky enough to chat with Phil Traill, Kevin Kopelow, Heath Seifert in a virtual press conference about the newly released sequel.

On the inspiration behind reviving the iconic 90s story as a sequel 26 years later:

Heath Seifert: Good Burger is a project that is near and dear to our hearts. We did the original 27 years ago, and we worked with Kenan and Kel starting All That 30 years ago. That’s when we did the first sketches. We’ve always been thinking Good Burger. It’s always at the front of our brains. When the time was right, we had a story that felt really relevant to tell now about technology and evil corporations trying to exploit workers. It felt like the right time to tell that tale, and everybody involved with the original film looks back on it fondly and wanting to do it again and wanting to do it right. So, it was really just a matter of getting everybody’s schedules to line up.

Phil Traill: (laughs)I just wanted some money!

Heath Seifert: Other people did it for the money. It’s a paycheck.

On handling the continuity and coherence of a film’s narrative years after its initial release:

Kevin Kopelow: We had written a lot of “Good Burger” sketches on All That, so we always had this voice down. Then we rebooted it, did the sketches again and it was just natural. It’s always in our heads, we’re always thinking Good Burger bits and, “Oh, you know what would be funny in Good Burger?” and we got to do it! It wasn’t too difficult to get back into it.

On if Good Burger 2 is a continuation of Good Burger or the sequel was created from a different angle:

Heath Seifert: I think we looked at the first film as a template of what we enjoyed and what worked. I love what Phil likes to say, “Then we emulate and elevate.” We kind of took that blueprint and tried to build a bigger burger, so to speak.

On if there was a moment on set that encapsulated the experience of making the film:

Phil Traill: When Kenan and Kel got into the burger mobile for the first time and drove out onto the real street, and people just stopped, screaming. It was slightly annoying because we were trying to film! Everyone just seemed so happy to be there – from Kenan and Kel in the burger mobile, in their outfits, and then us filming it, and then all the people lining the streets. It was just people smiling.

Kevin Kopelow: The people that knew who they were, were so excited and the people that didn’t we’re going, “Woah, who are these two guys riding around in a burger?!” That’s the movie in a nutshell.

Phil Traill: I heard lots of dads telling their kids, “You’ve never seen it! We have to go home and watch it straight away!” They were explaining the world of it so quickly if the kids hadn’t seen it before. They’re going to be in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade driving the burger mobile – Kenan and Kel!

Kevin Kopelow: No one knows they’re doing it; they’re just driving. (laughs)

On what it was like seeing the film in its entirety after putting years of work into it:

Phil Traill: I’ve seen it a lot. Each time’s a joy. We actually have our premier tonight. I’m really happy and satisfied because when we set it up to make a film, you don’t completely know what you’ll end up with. The target is quite small to hit for nostalgic fans, new fans, young people, old people. It’s quite a small target. It seems to hit that, so I’m really pleased that it seems to be hitting that target. I’m really happy each time we show it to people.

Heath Seifert: Phil did an amazing job. It’s really fun to watch it. It’s really exciting to see it. I think people are going to be really happy.

youtube

#Phil Traill #Kevin Kapelow #Heath Seifert #2023 #Director interview #Writer interview #Good Burger 2 #Kayla Marra #Youtube

4 notes · View notes

popentertainment-interviews · 5 months

Text

Quinn Lemley

Through Rita Hayworth - The Heat is On, Singer/Performer Transforms Into the Legendary Star

by Brad Balfour

On Nov 20, 2023, the singer/style queen Quinn Lemley will present her last NYC performance of The Heat Is On! – Rita Hayworth at Don’t Tell Mama (343 W 46th St.), the long-established cabaret center in midtown Manhattan, before going on the road. Hayworth, known as “The Love Goddess,” is iconic for her indelible performance in Gilda, the film noir classic – performing the sexiest striptease on celluloid, “Put The Blame On Mame.” The hottest sex symbol of the 1940s, Hayworth’s pin-up on the Atomic Bomb gave her the international title of “The Atomic Star.” Courted by the world’s most powerful men – Orson Welles, Prince Aly Khan, and Howard Hughes among others – Hayworth was a legend until she had early onset Alzheimer’s Disease which led to her death.

Fire-haired performer Lemley brings the star to life in her sold-out shows. Having headlined various performing arts centers and casinos across North America, she received The Bistro Award and two MAC award nominations. Lemley’s jazz quintet performs internationally and she’s the iconic face of the Half Note in Athens, Greece. The New York Times defines her performances as "Dazzling... with one show-stopping number after another!"

Besides this show, Lemley has directed and co-produced Rebel Rebel, The Many Lives of David Bowie, Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Wall and The Ultimate Queen Celebration. She’s had a presence on national TV through appearances on Good Morning America, Oprah and as a finalist on Shark Tank. Lemley also has five CDs available, and her music is on Spotify and Apple Music. She’s hosting the locally produced TV show, Secrets of the Stage on MNN.org with a monthly virtual concert on Zoom -- “Up Close & Personal.” A graduate of NYU Tisch School of the Arts, she's a Distinguished Toastmaster at Toastmasters International and a member of National Speakers Association as well as SAG, AFTRA, AEA, DTM, NSA NY, APAP, and IEBA.

This critically acclaimed concert about Hayworth's life — the star who built Columbia Pictures — is a humorous, heartfelt and heartbreaking look at The Golden Age of Hollywood, the MeToo movement and the price of fame — especially in light of Hayworth's tumultuous relationship with the head of Columbia, the infamous Harry Cohn. The show reflects the price of fame, celebrating a remarkable life with humor, wit and impeccable storytelling. It’s all woven together with tunes from The Great American Songbook and the Golden Age of Hollywood.

Written and directed by Carter Inskeep (“Always Patsy Cline”), Lemley’s performance is either backed by a quartet or by an 11-piece big band. The show includes hits from such legendary composers and lyricists as Irving Berlin, Harold Arlen and Jerome Kern. It includes “Bewitched,” “Zip,” and “The Lady is A Tramp” from such iconic films as “Gilda,” “Pal Joey,” “Cover Girl” and more.

The following Q&A was conducted online in advance of the upcoming show.

When did you know you wanted to be a performer?

I came out of the womb entertaining. I’ve always known that I wanted to perform. Singing and acting have always been my passion. Even as a young girl from Indiana I was always producing puppet shows, carnivals and musicals for our neighborhood. Luckily, my parents were incredibly supportive and made sure I took lessons and classes. I’m so grateful today!

Talk about the first time you performed. Can you describe the moment?

My first show was when I was in fifth grade. I played a Far-Out Foxy Lady from A Foreign Land in Whitecloud and the Seven Dwarfs. I guess I was bound to be a glamour gal from the get-go!

Have you focused on cabaret because of the intimacy of the experience?

I love cabaret. I love its intimacy. It’s taught me to connect to each and every person in the room. It provides an opportunity to try things out and to take a chance, to take risks.

Although it’s been a big part of my life, I haven’t focused on cabaret. My late husband -– producer, manager and best friend, Paul Horton -- expanded my shows by putting them with 9- to 12-piece big bands. That opened up the scope of our shows. For the past 15 years, I’ve been headlining casinos and performing arts centers like The Kravis Center, Naples Philharmonic, Thousand Oaks Civic Center and BB Kings in NYC. After Covid, Paul suggested I go back to the club where I started my career -- Don’t Tell Mama in NYC -- before going back on the road in theaters. We won the Bistro Award, a MAC Nomination, rave reviews and have enjoyed a 17-month residency. I’m grateful Paul booked these dates leading up to going back to theaters starting in North Carolina at the Tryon Center Nov. 4, The Pheasantry in London on Feb 16 & 17th, and a one-week run at The Cape May Playhouse in July. We have our last NYC date on Monday, Nov. 20 at Don’t Tell Mama. It’s given me a chance to heal and put myself into the performance on another level.

How do you choose the songs you do?

First, it’s the lyrics. What am I trying to say? How do I want to say it? Where does it fit into the show? Secondly, it’s about melody and structure. How does the melody make me and the audience feel? How do I want it arranged to tell the story? Finally, does it fit me as an artist? I love all kinds of music. But like clothing, not everything fits with my voice and personality or belongs in the arc of the story that I’m telling. I have to try the songs out and see how they feel and sound in my voice.

How did you develop this show?

Rita Hayworth – The Heat Is On! has had three stages of development. The first stage was when I got out of NYU. I was starring in a show off Broadway. A reviewer saw me and said, “You look like Rita Hayworth. You should meet Carter Inskeep and do the story of her life.” That was pre-internet, so we read every biography, watched her films on tape and went to the library. We also read every article we could find on microfiche. The question we kept asking was, “Who is Rita Hayworth – the public persona? But more importantly, who is Margarita Cansino? The girl who has hopes and dreams and just wants to be loved?” Just like me, like all of us. We had tremendous success, got rave reviews, were on Oprah, Geraldo, Good Morning America. I was in my mid 20s then. In my 30s, I met Paul Horton. He changed my life. He had us rewrite the show, using the songs from the Great American Songbook during the Golden Age of Hollywood to help tell the story instead of limiting it to songs from Rita’s films. He had it orchestrated for both a big band and a quartet. Now we can play intimate theaters as well as large ones like The Kravis Center, Naples Philharmonic and BB King’s. We toured throughout North America. During Covid, Carter rewrote the book to make the story about resilience, accepting our choices with topics like the “Me Too” movement, women’s empowerment and the price of fame. He had us return to Don't Tell Mama’s in NYC where we started the show after COVID, before going back on tour in theaters. Our residency was so successful that we got extended from four to 17 months, had rave reviews, won the Bistro Award and got a MAC Nomination.

Besides this one performance left in NYC on Monday, Nov. 20, I’m going to London in February at The Pheasantry. I am so grateful that Paul put this in motion. It's been a lifesaver since he unexpectedly passed in March. It was his vision to do this residency. The story is so rich, deep, funny and moving. I’ve been able to tap into Rita’s story on a deeper level than I ever could have when I was younger. I’ve been able to put myself into the role in a way I never dreamed was possible. And the audiences are responding.

Do you try to make your shows thematic, or sometimes just a simple revue?

All of my shows are thematic. The Heat is On – Rita Hayworth is about Rita and The Golden Age of Hollywood. Burlesque to Broadway is about the women who went from Burlesque to Broadway and Beyond. As a director and producer, I've done these shows: The Ultimate Queen Celebration, Rebel Rebel: The Many Lives of David Bowie and Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Wall. My TV Talk show on MNN, Secrets of the Stage is where I pull back the curtains and explore the creative process. My speaking keynote is about resilience through the lens of my relationship with my shows Rita and Burlesque to Broadway.

You did have a burlesque moment. Did it feel liberating, powerful or what?

I did a show called Burlesque To Broadway. It was so liberating. I was onstage with four beautiful and talented women who celebrated their talent, beauty and humor. It was powerful to claim and own my femininity and fun to tease. As the great poet Mel Brooks said, “When You Got It, Flaunt It.” Every woman should step into her power and “Be”!

Besides the songs you're already playing, what are your benchmark tunes?

My heroine is Julia Child. I got to have lunch with her at her house in Cambridge with her husband Paul. Her spirit was incredible. She was a woman who took massive action and didn’t let anyone or anything stop her. Other icons of mine are Cher, Ann-Margret, Lady GaGa and Diana Ross. I’m putting a list of songs from '70s and '80s rock, so my benchmark songs are "The Show Must Go On," "You Take My Breath Away" and "Rock and Roll Suicide." I perform Queen and Bowie plus others to celebrate my late husband, Paul’s genius and talent. Plus, “Don’t Fret World” from his Rock Opera which was his anthem.

Who would you like to perform with or what show would like to be in?

My dream is to work with the French artist, arranger and producer Benjamin Biolay. And, of course, I’d love to work with David Foster.

What goals do you have for this show and for yourself?

We are going back on the road in theaters. I’m on a plane now headed to Tryon Arts Center in North Carolina. Going to London. I’m hoping to find producers and promoters who will help us tour and produce a run on the West End of London. I’d like to do a national tour. We’d also like to do a NetFlix special filming of the show for broadcast. Paul was my agent as well as producer, so I need to find an agent that can help me internationally. I am also looking to get my TV show, Secrets of the Stage, picked up by a major network with sponsorship. As a director and producer, I’m working on our tour of The Ultimate Queen Celebration with Yvan Pedneault and MiG Ayessa, both endorsed by Queen. It’s the best Queen tribute band on the market. We will be at The Egg in Albany, May 11th, and are routing around that. The audiences are on their feet. It's a Queen party. Starting next month, I’m working on a new show with ’70s and ‘80s rock that’s a tribute to Paul and our incredible 20-year journey together through music. I’m grateful to have so many talented colleagues with me on my journey.

Who: Quinn Lemley

What: "Rita Hayworth - The Heat is On!"

When: November 20th, 2023

Where: Don’t Tell Mama – 343 W 46th St. – New York, NY – (212)-757-0788

[email protected]

For more info go to: www.QuinnLemley.com

youtube

#Quinn Lemley #2023 #Theater Interview #Rita Hayworth - The Heat is On #Brad Balfour #Youtube

2 notes · View notes

popentertainment-interviews · 7 months

Text

Bill Pohlad, Donnie Emerson and Nancy Emerson

In Their Wildest Dreams

By Jay S. Jacobs

Thirty-some years is a long time for it to take to become an overnight success.

Just ask brothers Donnie and Joe Emerson. In the late 1970s, they were teenagers living on a sprawling farm in the tiny town of Fruitland, Washington. They were both fascinated by music – particularly Donnie, who was a singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. (Joe played the drums.) Seeing their passions, the Emerson’s parents Don Sr. and Salina built a state-of-the-art recording studio on the farm.

The boys recorded an album called Dreamin’ Wild, which was released on the family’s own Enterprise & Co. record label. (Donnie was 15, Joe was 17 when Dreamin’ Wild was released.) The album was a slight success locally, but never really gained much traction. In fact, Don Sr. ended up selling much of the farmland off to finance his son’s musical dreams. Donnie continued working in music – performing locally with his own band (which featured his wife Nancy on drums) and running a marginally successful local recording studio. Joe gave up on music, working on the family farm.

And that was pretty much it, until it wasn’t.

Fast forward to 2008, when a used copy of Dreamin’ Wild was bought by a record collector named Jack Fleischer at an antiques store. When Fleischer listened to the album he was pretty blown away, particularly by the song “Baby.” Fleischer started to spread the word amongst his record geek friends and over the next few years the album got enough buzz in collector circles that the album was re-issued on CD by the acclaimed boutique label Light in the Attic Records. This rerelease led to a writeup in The New York Times.

This was how filmmaker Bill Pohlad learned about the Emersons. At first, he was not sure he wanted to make a movie about their story – the popular documentary Searching for the Sugarman was out at about the same time and told a similar story of delayed fame. However, once he met the Emersons he changed his mind.

This has led to the film Dreamin’ Wild, starring Casey Affleck as Don Emerson, Walton Goggins as Joe, Zooey Deschanel as Nancy and Beau Bridges as Don Jr. Released to theaters earlier this year, the film has become a surprise success – not unlike the record which inspired it.

We recently got a chance to chat with Donnie and Nancy Emerson and Bill Pohlad about the long, strange trip of Dreamin’ Wild.

Donnie, you and your brother made an album over 40 years ago. At the time, nobody really noticed it. Then with the reissue many years later and now the movie, how crazy is it that it has been rediscovered after all this time?

Donnie Emerson: There are different stages, aren’t there. We did it, and then it took off. Now it's taking off again with the film. It's a never-ending journey. It's just an unbelievable, exhilarating time. {It will] be exciting to go out and start playing and doing the music. It's going to be awesome.

Bill, how did you find out about the Emerson Brothers? What made you think that that was the story you wanted to tell?

Bill Pohlad: Jim Burke, a producer friend of mine, and a producer on the project, brought the story to me, asking me to direct it. There was only the article in The New York Times. I mean, I thought that story was great, but not until I met Donnie and Joe, for real, the real people, that it really clicked for me, seeing the kind of people they were and the family as a whole. I just thought they were so extraordinary that the story had to be told.

So much of the Emerson story is about the family. Joe may not have been quite as into music as Donnie was, but he was willing to put himself out there because his brother was into it. The parents were putting the farm up and taking a chance on their son. How important was it for all of you to tell the story of the parents, the family and how that related to the music?

Bill Pohlad: You could have told just the basic story of Donnie's recording, and then, and then it being rediscovered. But it was really, as I say, about the family and the interactions and inner relationships and how different that was for me. And for most movie audiences.

Donnie, it was a little bit darker than I expected. You look at the guilt that was built up and how you and Nancy had been working on music for many years and part of you was a little bit uncomfortable with going back to the old music when you had newer music. How important was it for you to look at both the eras of your music and the ways that things have changed over the years?

Donnie Emerson: I came to realize an appreciation of that other music that I did in the past. Trying to bring it forward, realizing how it was that my approach to doing that music was different than it was in different time periods. In the 90s, and then on to the 2000s and whenever. It was different. I started creating differently. Then I started appreciating how I used to record back then just using eight tracks. I pull that forward to what I'm doing now, which I still struggle with, because that's where the purity is in the music is being stripped down. You have to think ahead when you're recording like that. I'm trying to take that and appreciate that time period and bringing it forward. I get caught up in the DAW – digital audio workstation. You have all the tracks and it kind of dilutes your creative process.

Nancy Emerson: Can I say something about your question? Because I love that question.

Of course.

Nancy Emerson: When I was playing with Donnie, we’ve played together for 38 years so far. We’ve been married 38 years playing. We were doing some of his songs in the 90s and in the early 2000s. We've always done some of those songs from Dreamin’ Wild. He didn't care how we did it. I’d play congas. We'd have a saxophone player. He didn't care how we did it. He loved to create, so I said, “Donnie, you’ve got these songs. Can we use your songs?” That is the only reason why I play with them is because songwriting, [they are] original songs. But as soon as the album came [back] in 2011, got released in 2012, everything had to be exactly like the album. It almost drove me crazy because everything I was doing, he's like, no has to be like Joe and I did it. It’s been kind of tough.

Donnie Emerson: It’s been tough…

Nancy Emerson: The truth is, it is kind of dark, when you said the movies darker. It has been rough because he changed. All of a sudden, he had to conform to what the fans wanted, what the record label now wanted. Then the movie comes to pass. We're getting it now though. (laughs) We're working it out now.

Donnie Emerson: They’re sliding it in.

Nancy Emerson: They are his songs, you know? But we do our own songs together, too. But with Dreamin’ Wild, it was tough, because he's like, “It has to be done like this.” I said, “You do realize we're in 2012, now, and 13 and 14. Joe tried really hard at Bumbershoot [Music Festival] in Seattle and Joe’s like... (mimes drumming awkwardly) He's looking at Joe. This is 2014. I’m watching both of them. It's not sounding like the album live on stage in Seattle. But it is what it is. You got to come to peace with it.

What was it like to see Casey Affleck and Zooey Deschanel portraying you? Did you speak with them while they were working on the film so they could get a handle on who you are?

Donnie Emerson: Is that for Nancy?

That's for both of you.

Nancy Emerson: Casey got a hold of him about a year and a half prior on Zoom. He already was doing zoom, and phone calls. Then Casey was coming to our house. Casey spent a lot of time. He sat at our table. He stayed the night outside our house in a tent one night. He was cooking here. The man was watching Donnie like this. (Puts her face into her hand.) I could see Casey changing – his look, his mannerisms, everything within a year. Zooey, we didn't have as much time because she took the role closer to the film. But she's got it. She's a pro. She's got everything.

Donnie Emerson: I’ve got to say, there isone scene that I just absolutely love. Bill shot this scene where we go to the [news]stand for The New York Times. So real.

Bill, how involved were you in the casting process? When did you know that you'd found the right people to play the different characters?

Bill Pohlad: As a director, I oversee or make all the decisions with regard to that, because you have to know that these people can really deliver on the script. Obviously, I knew Donnie a little bit by this point, by the time we cast. You just see Casey as an actor and the work he's done over the years, and you kind of know or have a feeling that he can bring those two things together. Donnie has a particular style about him that you really want to be able to portray. I felt like Casey could do that without much work. I don't mean that. He obviously worked at it. But it seemed more natural for him to be able to slot into that kind of character.

This is the second music bio that you've done. You also did Love and Mercy, about Brian Wilson, who was mentioned in the screenplay of this film, too. Wilson is such an over-the-top genius, but he also had a lot of demons. On the other hand, Donnie and Joe were both much more normal, down to earth types of guys. Why did you think the fact that this was just about two brothers wanting to make music and going on over the years that adds interest to the story?

Bill Pohlad: Again, it depends on how you want to look at a character. You can take it as deep as you want. In other words, not to say that Donnie has as many demons as Brian does, or whatever, I don't want to compare those two like that. But I mean, you look at a person like Donnie, and the more you look at them, the deeper it becomes. I got to know Donnie over the period of writing the script and knew that there was a lot going on there that might not meet the eye. That was the desire to portray that.

How has the movie changed your live performances? Do you get more people coming in to see the shows now?

Donnie Emerson: Well, we've been off right now. We're getting prepared to go on tour. We've got a new agency that's going to be handling us. It's awesome, you know? We're going to be able to do the old stuff from the past and new stuff, as well. Obviously, Nancy and I wrote in the film together,

Nancy Emerson: The ending song “When A Dream Is Beautiful.” We've actually been promoting that and performing it in LA and New York. We're going to be doing that song. So the live performance scene, we've only did about three of them. Just to promote right now.

Donnie Emerson: It's not normal for us to do that, to not be playing. We're used to playing a lot. This is so not normal for us. We're, we're used to playing a lot of dates a year. But we decided to pull back and do more helping with the film, obviously.

Nancy Emerson: When we perform live again, it'll have a stronger purpose.

One last very quick question. Did your parents see the movie and what did they think? They played such a big part in the music, too.

Donnie Emerson: My dad's a quiet guy. He's quiet. But when he first saw the screen, what did he do, Nancy? He stood up.

Nancy Emerson: His mom and dad were sitting behind me because we all sat separately. But the mom and dad of course, sat together. I watched them smile and cry. I kept looking over. I didn't know what was more entertaining, the movie for me to watch, or watch them. (Donnie and Bill laugh.) They were loving. They live an hour and a half away from Spokane. They've come in three or four times so far to see the film. He's 92. She's 89, and she doesn't drive. She's never driven. But they're coming in for the movie.

youtube

#Donnie Emerson #Nancy Emerson #Bill Pohlad #2023 #Director Interviews #Dreamin' Wild #Jay S. Jacobs #Youtube

0 notes

popentertainment-interviews · 7 months

Text

Gareth Edwards

Dynamic Sci-Fi Director Envisions an Artificial Intelligence-infused World Decades From Now in His Latest Film The Creator

by Brad Balfour

Employing actors with global reputations and locations all over the world, master sci-fi film director Gareth James Edwards has now put out The Creator. The film considers the effects of the Artificial Intelligence revolution in technology some 40 years from now. It stands the Terminator premise on its head and drives a whole re-think on the supposed “menace” of AI.

As if it’s a metaphor for the Vietnam war as much as anything else, future America and its allies are in a conflict between the human race and the forces of artificial intelligence which have taken root in many Southeast and Far-East Asian countries. While AI-enhanced androids have merged with the general human population there, the USA has prohibited them and is committed to destroying Asia and its robotic allies.

Entering the mix is Joshua (John David Washington), a hardened ex-special forces agent grieving the disappearance of his wife Maya (Gemma Chan), one of the leaders of the Asian-AI community and resistance. After having been undercover among the AI community — where he met and wed Maya, Joshua had reluctantly been removed from the area. He had then been recruited to return and hunt down the Creator, the elusive advanced AI designer/programmer who has developed a mysterious weapon with the power to end the war and destroy Nomad, the American super weapon — a computer-enhanced airborne battleship. Ironically, it depends on sophisticated computer technology to fight its anti-AI war. Joshua and his team of elite operatives venture into enemy territory, invading the heart of AI-occupied territory to find and destroy Nirmata — an AI in the form of a young child.

Born on June 1, 1975, in Nuneaton, Warwickshire, the young Edwards admired movies such as the original 1977 classic Star Wars and went on to pursue a film career. The Welshman even cites George Lucas and Steven Spielberg as his biggest influences. He got his start in special visual effects, working on shows that aired on networks such as PBS, BBC and the Discovery Channel. In 2008, he entered the Sci-Fi-London 48-hour film challenge, where a movie had to be created from start-to-finish in just two days (which he won). Then he wrote and directed Monsters, his first full-length feature, which was shot in only three weeks. Edwards personally created the film’s special effects by using off-the-shelf equipment. Aside from its two main actors (real-life couple Scoot McNairy and Whitney Able), the crew consisted of just five people. The $500,000 thriller received a riotous reception and was released to great success.

The impact of Monsters resulted in Edwards becoming an alt-sci-fi movie-making star. With offers from major studios, Warner Bros. tapped him to direct an English-language reboot of the 1954 Japanese classic Gojira. His Godzilla re-visioning garnered mixed reviews but did tremendous box office. Following its success, producer Kathleen Kennedy had Edwards helm Rogue One: A Star Wars Story — a Star Wars spin-off — for Lucasfilm Limited. The film boasted a cast including Felicity Jones, Donnie Yen, Mads Mikkelsen and James Earl Jones among others.

Such an ensemble anchors this film as well. And while its story (co-written by Chris Weitz) doesn’t offer much of an innovative leap in a sci-fi narrative, it does have a spectacular view of an AI-infused future. The following Q&A is drawn from an appearance Gareth Edwards made shortly before the film’s release this week.

This is your fourth feature — and your fourth science fiction production as well. What is it about this genre that you just keep coming back to it?

Are there other genres…? I heard about this, films without robots in them and stuff. I think the best science fiction is a blend of genres. With my first film, I saw it as a love story meets science fiction. My second film, Godzilla, was like a disaster movie meets science fiction. Star Wars is probably a war movie meets science fiction. That’s a really good point because science fiction is at its best when it holds a mirror up to us. That definitely happens here. How did this come about? When and where did the inspiration hit you for The Creator? It was 7:32 p.m. on a Tuesday. There were numerous things that happened. I guess the most obvious one was after we had just finished Rogue One. My girlfriend — her family lives in Iowa — and I drove across America to go visit. As we were driving through the Midwest, there’s all sorts of farmlands with tall grass. I was just looking out the window. I had my headphones on and wasn’t trying to think of an idea for a film, but I was getting a little bit inspired. I just saw this factory in the middle of the tall grass. I remember it having a Japanese logo on it and I was thinking, “I wonder what they are making there?” Then I just started thinking — because that’s the way I am — my tendencies, it was like, “Probably robots, right?” Then I was thinking, “Okay, imagine you were a robot built in a factory. Then for the first time, you step outside into the field and look around and see the sky. I wonder what that would be like.” It felt like a really good moment in a movie, but I didn’t know what that movie was, and I threw it away. Suddenly he tapped me on the shoulder and went, “Oh, it could be this,” and these ideas started coming. By the time we pulled up to the house, I had the whole movie mapped out in my head, which never happens normally. I was like, “That’s a good sign. Maybe this might be my next thing.” It’s an original concept that you’re working with, how did you get New Regency on board as a producer?

I need to shout out to New Regency as you probably noticed in cinema recently, there’s very few original films being made. That’s because everyone’s gotten very gun shy with the franchises and IPs getting regurgitated a bit. Hats off to Yuri and Michael from New Regency for having the balls to take a big swing and do something like this. Some of my closest friends are concept artists and that’s probably because I know I need them to make my next film, so I asked all my friends… “Could you do some artwork for this idea I’ve got, I’ll pay you” and I started building up a library of imagery. Basically, I had about 50 images when I went into it. I kept it very secret because I didn’t want to put any pressure on it. I just went to New Regency and laid out all the artwork and talked them through the idea beat by beat — which I hate doing. I hate being a car salesman. I just wanted to hit play on the movie. That’s my favorite thing to do. Trying to sell it and speak with a microphone, it’s not my fun thing. You look at all that imagery and it was incredibly ambitious. The natural reaction was, “This is a $300 million film. We’d love to do it, but we can’t really do it.” I was like, “We’re going to do it very differently. We’ll film it with this very small crew and essentially reverse engineer the whole movie.” In theory, what you normally do is have all this design work and you have to build sets in a studio against a green screen — and it’ll cost a fortune. We were like, “We will shoot the movie in real locations in real parts of the world that look closest to what these images are. Then afterwards, when the film’s fully edited, we’ll get the production designer, James Klein, and other concept artists to paint over those frames and put the sci-fi on top.” Everyone was like, “It sounds great.” But basically, we had to really prove it to them. How many locations did you shoot?

On some of the other films I’ve done, I’m so lucky when I get away from the studio and go to a proper location a handful of times. On this one, we went to like 80 locations. We didn’t really use any green screen. There was occasionally a little bit here and there, but very little. If you do the math, and keep the crew small enough, the theory was that the cost of building a set — which is typically 200 grand apparently — you can fly everyone anywhere in the world for that kind of money. It was like, “Let’s keep the crew small and let’s go to these amazing locations.” We went to Nepal, the Himalayas, to active volcanoes in Indonesia, temples in Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam, and Tokyo for mega city stuff. Then we did a bit in Pinewood [Studios in London] using their stage and screen — everyone knows it from “The Mandalorian” — but the kind of special non green screen led screen environment.

Your antagonist in this feature is artificial intelligence — AI — but could your timing be any better?

The trick with AI is to get time in that sweet spot window where it’s before the Robo-apocalypse and not after — which I think is in November or maybe December. I think we got really lucky. The joke would be that when you write a film, especially a science fiction film, you avoid putting a date on it. I didn’t want to write a date for the movie because even Kubrick got it wrong. I was like, “Don’t write a date and then at some point, you have to. I did some math and picked 2070. Now I feel like an idiot because I should have gone for 2023. Everything that’s unfolded in the last few months or year is kind of scarily weird, especially when we’re showing it now. When we first pitched the movie to the studio, this idea of war with AI, everyone wanted to know the back story. Well, hang on. Why would we be at war with AI? It’s like, they’ve been banned because it kind of went wrong. But why would you ban AI? “It’s going to be great and blah, blah, blah.” It was all these sorts of ideas that you have to set up, that maybe humanity would reject this thing and not be cool about it. The way it’s played out, like the setup of our movie, is pretty much as it’s been for the last few months.

Set it up for us as the first scene begins?

To understand what’s going on, I would say, essentially, something terrible happened in America and AI got banned — it’s completely banned in the West. But in Asia, there was no such problem, so the world is divided in two camps. They carried on developing it until it was nearly human-like. So there’s this war going on over there — to wipe out AI [in Asia]. The person everybody’s after is called Nirmata — Public enemy #1 — which is basically a Nepalese word for the creator. From the Western perspective, this is the Osama bin Laden of our story. But from the Asian and AI perspective, this is like God.

When it came to prep and research, consulting with scientists and technological advisors, were you able to really dive into that?

That’s all I did for years. It was a bit like researching jet packs because I started writing this, I guess it was like in 2018, and it did feel back then like this was 30 years away. But when we were filming, we were in the middle of the jungle and driving to places when I got a text on my phone. There was that whole whistleblower account from one of the big tech companies thinking that AI had become self-aware. It really wasn’t on my radar back then in terms of being a reality, it was just something that [raised the question of] whether it’s a good or bad thing. In one way, humanity might get wiped out, but on the other hand, I get to make my dream film. So everyone wins.

What were some of the tools, some of the new innovations, when it came to cutting-edge technology, that you were able to take advantage of that didn’t exist when Rogue One came out in 2016?

Camera and film making technology has come a long way in the last few years. I needed the actors and me to have total freedom on set. Something we did on this film that was really important was that I wanted it to feel as realistic as possible. We would always be able to shoot in 360 degrees but the problem working against you when you try to do that in a film is [that] you have lights like we have here. The second you want to move the camera, you suddenly see the lights and you spend 20 minutes moving them. It takes forever to shoot a scene. The way we worked there was with really sensitive camera equipment in terms of how we could use the lights. They’re very lightweight. We’re all familiar with how lights have become. We thought we could set it up — you have a boom operator holding a pole with the microphone on. Why can’t you have a person holding a pole with a light on it? We had a best-boy type running around holding the light by hand. If the actor suddenly got up and did something — went over here and suddenly there was a better shot — I could move and suddenly the lighting could really be readjusted. What would normally take like 10 minutes to change was taking four seconds. We would do 25-minute takes where we’d play out the scene three or four times. It just gave everything, this atmosphere, this sort of naturalism and realism that I really wanted to get where it wasn’t so prescribed. Like you’re not putting marks on the ground and saying stand there. It wasn’t that kind of movie.

What about the casting process, particularly with leads John David Washington, Gemma Chan and Ken Watanabe?

With John David, we were casting the film during the pandemic. It was really hard to meet anybody but fortunately he lived in LA, and I just heard through his agent that he’d meet me any time I wanted to go for a meal. So I went to meet him, and he walked in — it’s the pandemic. He’s got his mask on, a Star Wars mask, like with the Star Wars logo on it. I initially thought, “He’s doing this because of “Rogue One.” He sat down and admitted that he’s a massive Star Wars fan and he’s like, “I’ve been wearing this mask every single day for like a year or whatever. It’s been for the whole pandemic. I thought about not wearing it to this meeting, but then it felt false, so I thought it’d be like a good ice breaker.” We hit it off straight away. I’d worked with Ken [Watanabe] before — he’s the only actor I’ve worked with twice. I don’t know if that says something about me. I always want to do something new and so for the longest time, I didn’t think about Ken for this role. The second he turned up on set, I felt like such an idiot, obviously it was supposed to be Ken from the beginning. Every time we held the camera up and Ken’s in the shot, it felt like this strange hybrid — it’s meeting Star Wars or something, which was exactly what we were going for. He gave us goosebumps. There’s something about that guy. He’s just got this face that, I think, is the reason he’s so successful internationally; it’s not really about what he says. He can convey so much with just his looks; he’s so good. How did you find the right Alphie? What was that casting process?

We basically did an open casting call around the world and I think we got hundreds of videos. Thankfully, I didn’t have to watch all of them. They sent me like the top 70 or something and then we met. I went to meet, I forget, about ten kids. The first one was Madeleine who plays Alfie. She came in and did this scene. We were all nearly in tears at the end. I thought to myself “This is weird and phenomenal. Maybe the mum was just brilliant at prepping her to get really upset just before she came in. There was some little trick going on. So we chatted a bit and we did some other scenes and then right at the end — I was a bit cruel — I was like, “Could we just try one more thing?” I just wanted to see if it was repeatable. “Can we do another scene?” I explained a different scene and we just improvised it and she was even more heartbreaking. I don’t know what we would have done if we hadn’t found the right kid. We got really lucky. I’m glad I live in the universe where that happened because the movie lives or dies [with her]. I hate movies about little kids because they can be so annoying and that was my biggest fear — are we going to do one of these really annoying kid movies? It was the biggest relief because she’s beyond her years. She was really something.

How was it working with John David Washington and vice versa?

She’s quite “method.” I can tell she does “method” a lot because we only knew each other during the filmmaking process. But it’s like she kept everybody at arm’s reach. I was allowed in a little bit. But she and John David were inseparable. He became a brother or father figure. I’m not sure which. What’s amazing is that I thought I was going to have to trigger it. So when we deal with sex and all the scenes, I need this to be like a documentary so we can pull this performance out of this, this girl without kind of like her having to act and she could act her pants off, you know what I mean? She was amazing at it. it was a director’s dream; you could just tell her what Alfie was thinking and this amazing performance came out. I’d look at the other actors and[think] be why can’t you be like this — what’s your problem?

Talk about filming those combat scenes and how did they differ from the ones in Rogue One? Obviously, we went to the Maldives and that wasn’t bad. We went to shoot real exterior locations. Everything in this movie is the closest thing we could do to be what the artwork suggested it should be. I glimpsed it a little bit when we were in Thailand. We needed to find a really technologically advanced factory. We looked everywhere. There were car manufacturing plants that were nervous about us filming but eventually we found a particle accelerator and it’s one of the most advanced, probably in the whole of Thailand. We were like, “Please, please, please, could you let us film.” It looked amazing. It had that whole circular thing going on. We went to visit, and they were like, “There’s no way you’re going to be allowed to film here.” They asked what do you want to do? Why are there people with guns shooting and explosions? This is like a multi-multimillion dollar facility with all these leading cutting-edge scientists. Then, at the very last minute, someone was like, “What filmmaker is doing this?” They were like, “It’s this guy from the States or whatever. He lives over there, but he’s English. And they go, “What films has he done?” They went, “He did this Star Wars film called “Rogue One.” And then, they were like, “Can we be in it?” We were like, “Sure, whatever. Everybody was in those scenes, with everyone running around. They’re nuclear physicists — they really are — and they were amazing.

You did a lot of location work. Isn’t that right?

We went into real locations. We wanted it to feel like we were making a student film to some extent. But it got to the point where like that beach scene where Gemma’s running and there’s all that crossfire. It was the beginning of when the pandemic restrictions were lifted, and Thailand was opening up to tourists. They’re like, “You can film on this beach, but you can’t close it. so it’s like, “How are we going to do that scene where there’s tourists there. I don’t know what happens normally in Thailand at night on these beaches. But with the stuff that’s in the movie and the trailer, we didn’t close the beach. If you look carefully in the background, you can see cars and tourists, but one person came over and went, “What are you doing?” It was just the four of us with a camera running around so it didn’t look like this big, massive movie. The goal hopefully was that it all ends up on the screen. We tried to be very efficient about it.

So further along in the film, what do we see?

Further on the journey, we have Joshua and now Alfie. The best way to say it is that Joshua infiltrated the AI village with the insurgents and guerrillas. Basically they’ve abducted the child. As this is happening, it seems that the Americans have also arrived. Essentially these rockets ascend into the air, and they smoke out the whole village and then it all unfolds from there.

What would you list as your cinematic influences for The Creator? What movies should we see as companion pieces?

Since my first film, I put up posters in the edit suite of movies that had inspired the film I was doing. There are some really obvious ones you’d probably predict. But there’s a film called Baraka. The cinematographer from that film went on and directed another film called Samsara, which is one of the greatest movies ever made. Lone Wolf and Cub is a Japanese manga series. There’s a whole bunch of films called Sword of Vengeance. The really obvious ones are Apocalypse Now and Blade Runner. In terms of this film’s dynamic, maybe there’s a little bit of Rain Man [in it]. It’s a journey of someone normal and someone who’s a little bit special. And there’s Paper Moon, with its dynamics.

What was your inspiration behind the robot designs? And talk about working with your costume designer for the entire film.

A lot of the costumes were done by the WETA Workshop in New Zealand. Peter Jackson and ILM [Industrial Light and Magic] did all the visual effects — or a lot of them — plus some by the vendors around the world. We tried to summarize the design and aesthetic of the movie as a bit retro futuristic. Imagine if Apple Mac hadn’t won the tech war and Sony Walkman had. everything has this sort of ’90s/ ‘80s kind of Walkman/Nintendo thing. We looked at all the product designs from that era and riffed off little pieces and tried to put them into the robots. The tricky thing with designing robot heads was to pull from sources. We did a whole pass at one point where we took insect heads and then tried to make it as if that insect had been made by Sony — like the praying mantis — and changed it into product design. Then we took products and tried to turn them into organic looking heads. We took things like film projectors, vacuum cleaners — things like that — and then just messed around. I just kept experimenting; it was like evolution in real life, like DNA getting merged and trying to create something better than the previous thing.

Being a big science fiction director, who are some of the directors and writers that you looked up to and get inspiration from?

There are the obvious people — Steven Spielberg, James Cameron, Ridley Scott. It’s the high benchmark of essentially what we were trying to do. I’m not saying we got anywhere close to achieving it, but the goal of the movie was to try and go back to that style and type of film that we grew up loving, like the film was shot on 1970s anamorphic lenses and things like this. Actually, I hate writing. It’s like doing homework. The worst thing in the world is having to write a screenplay. The only way I can bring myself to do it is to lock myself in somewhere nice. I’m not allowed to leave until I’ve finished. I’ll stay there for like a month or something. I went to Thailand, to the exact place where the beach ended. I didn’t realize I was getting inspired for the movie. I just picked this nice resort, and it was like a recurring theme like in the Maldives and now this beach resort in town. Whilst I was there, a filmmaker friend who was in Vietnam said, “Come over and we’ll just do a little trip.” I went there and you can’t just go around that country and not think of all the imagery from films like Apocalypse Now. Now I can, but I was writing this science fiction film. So everything I was looking at in my mind was like robots, spaceships and things. You’d see Buddhist monks going to temples and I’d picture a robot Buddhist monk. I just spent the whole time going, “Oh my God, what is this movie?” This feels like there was something so appealing about it, this mix of Blade Runner meets Apocalypse Now.

What was the biggest challenge filming this? I wouldn’t say it was a particular thing; it was more just the duration of it. We started filming in January 2022 and we finished in June. We were there for six months and it was like nonstop 40-degree heat, people were dying every day. it was a dream looking back at it, to get to do that. But there was a point where you wanted to collapse and you felt like, “He’s only done seven days of filming and there’s still all that is still left. The first cut of this movie was five hours long and we had so much great, cool material but everything that’s in this film is all the best stuff. The editing process was basically like a game of Jenga where we would pull things out and see if we missed it or it fell apart. We had it packed by the end through the editors, but we finally got it down to two hours. It’s like the old adage “less is more” most of the time.

What are the highest and best values of humanity that you hope this movie ultimately illustrates? I hope some sort of empathy for others [is there]. That’s a strong value which is very important. When this film began, I obviously didn’t know AI was going to do what it ended up doing this last year. AI was really in the fairy tale of this story. We want to get rid of people who are different from us. All kinds of fascinating things start to happen while you write that script. You start to think, “Are they real? How would you know and what if you didn’t like what they were doing? Can you turn them off? What if they didn’t want to be turned off?” This sort of stuff started to play out which became as strong as the premise and that’s what I’m most proud of.

Two words for you: Hans Zimmer.

Everyone’s iPhone tells you the last 25 most played tracks or something like that. I looked at [mine] out of curiosity and I think 14 were Hans Zimmer tracks. I was like, “I don’t know how we get composer Han Zimmer, but we have to try.” Joe Walker, editor of Rogue One, assembled the film. He had worked with Hans a lot and was like, “I’ll talk to him.” We ended up in this strange situation where I had to call Hans whilst in the middle of nowhere; we were going to meet the head of the military in Thailand to get permission to film the Black Hawks for one of those sequences. It was this massive deal meeting that took months and months to organize. It happened to be the same moment that Hans was available to do a Zoom. We had to pull off the road. It was like a hotel in the middle of nowhere and they had Wi-Fi. I go in there and get Hans and the worst thing in the world is that they said you’ve got to leave in 30 minutes. You can’t stay because the whole military is waiting for us over here. I was looking at this clock and Hans started telling his anecdotes about The Dark Knight and Terrence Malick. All my life I’ve wanted to talk to him about these films and I have to go,” I’m really sorry, Hans, I have to leave now.” It was so against every bone in my body to come away from that.

Talk about working with Oscar-winning cinematographer Greig Fraser.

I obviously worked with Greig on Rogue One. Greig had to make this work as well. We were totally on the same page and Greig’s very rebellious. and despite how it might look because he’s, you know, doing his big movies. But we’re both during that, like the build up to this film, I got to go around one of these virtual reality studios where they had this poster on the wall as to how you make a movie. it was every part of the process, and I was just looking at it going, “What a strange thing to have. Why are they doing it? Why have they got this poster?” The guy who ran the thing came up to me and went, “Oh, I see you looking at the poster — that’s 100 years old.” When I looked at it, I realized the typography was like 100 years old. We haven’t changed how films are made in 100 years. We still do it the same way. With all these new digital tools and technology, there are other ways to make films. People like Greig and I really want to do things differently because that’s how you make a different type of movie. The process is as important as the screenplay to some extent.

Let’s talk about the opportunity and power of science fiction to drive social commentary and reflection.

I like science fiction because there’s a chance to sneak ideas under the radar. My favorite TV show growing up was The Twilight Zone which was in the ’50s and ’60s. Rod Serling, who wrote a lot of those shows, had said the reason he did science fiction was because he could get out from under the radar of the censors and say things you’re not normally allowed to say out loud. If you start to type and work out a film, and you go, “I want to make a film about this. It’s got to have this social commentary to it”— it will be a rubbish film. If you get attracted to an idea, there’s something primal about it that pulls you in. There’s something that needs to be said about this subject matter but about halfway through making or writing a film is when you start to realize what that thing is. It’s like a child who tells you what they want to be when they grow up. You learn what it is and then you try to help it along. Science fiction does it the best because we all go through our lives with certain beliefs, and they never really get tested. You do everything you’re supposed to do but science fiction says, what if the world had this different thing about it. Would your little idea still work, and you hit against the wall? The thing you used to think was true starts to be false. And you begin to question things. I love that kind of storytelling. I hope our film does a little bit of that.

[For fans of this film or any genre film, go to Big Apple Comic Con‘s Christmas Con, taking place in the New Yorker Hotel this December 16th, 2023, www.BigAppleCC.com. There are many opportunities to steep yourself in sci-fi and other graphic story collectibles. Get posters and other collateral available from The Creator and many others as your stocking stuffers.]

youtube

#Gareth Edwards #2023 #Director Interviews #The Creator #Brad Balfour #Youtube

7 notes · View notes

popentertainment-interviews · 8 months

Text

Nightly

Getting to Know Nightly

By Kayla Marra

Nashville-based alternative band Nightly is comprised of three incredibly talented musicians- Jonathan Capeci, Nicholas Sainato, and Joseph Beretta. Nightly (it’s an abbreviation for night, love you) got their start in 2016, working on several projects and EPs. They signed with Interscope Records in July of that year, with whom they released their leading single “XO” and debut EP“Honest.”

Nightly then went on tour as the supporting act for Ke$ha, The All-American Rejects, The Struts, NF, and more. In August 2019, the group signed a record deal with BMG, where they released their debut album night, love you.

Nightly is releasing their sophomore album wear your heart out on August 25th, and we had the pleasure of sitting down to chat with them about the story behind the album, their upcoming tour, and more.

Could you tell us a bit about who you are and what you do?

Jonny Capeci: For the band Nightly, I sing. My name’s Jonny, and this is Joey. He plays guitar, and then Nick plays drums. We live in Nashville, Tennessee.

If you could explain your sound/vibe in three words to a new listener, which words would you choose?

Jonny Capeci: Are these fun words or what you actually want us to sound like?

Whatever you guys think is most representative of you!

Jonny Capeci: Maybe alternative.

Joey Beretta: I would say new favorite band.

That’s perfect! That’s all you need to know.

Joey Beretta: (laughs) Jonny got one word and I got three!

Nick Sainato: Super vibes.

Joey Beretta: Super vibey?

Super vibes and super vibey, I think both are fitting. Congratulations on the release of your newest single and music video “like i do” Could you tell us a bit about the songwriting process for this track?

Joey Beretta: We had most of the record done. We only had three or more songs left to fill. We knew the vibe that we wanted to go for. I tried to explain this the other day and I did such a bad job, so I’m trying to do a better job. I saw this thing on TikTok. It was a video of Coldplay. They were playing “Clocks” and there's that iconic riff that goes throughout the whole song. So, we wanted a riff like that to base the song on. It started on piano. Actually, Nick was playing piano and came up with this riff. We changed it to a couple of different things. It starts out on synth and there are strings that do it in the outro.

Joey Beretta: The guitar does it. The vocals do it. When you listen to the song in the session itself, you can hear, it's like that through idea of that part. But it changes what is doing it the whole time. It's how it started, but then we got away from that once we got the meat of the song written. We were like, Oh, this is actually super sick.

Jonny Capeci: Yeah. We loved how, after the first chorus, it completely changes to guitar and drums that don't come until after that, and then the bass comes in, in the first chorus. We were trying to change elements as the song evolved. But pretty much once we had that progression, the song came out super-fast. We had the verse and chorus done really quickly. It's definitely one of my favorites on the album, and it was very easy to write, which is always nice.

That’s awesome! What made you choose this as the next single?

Jonny Capeci: We always have a hard time picking what the songs are that come out before the singles. Because I think all of us have songs that we thought could be, and people on our team same thing. This was, I think, the one song that everybody pretty much agreed on at this time. It's just more of an easy decision than other singles.

Rather than creating a traditional music video, you donated to Wags and Walks in Nashville and took three of the adoptable dogs out for the day in Nashville. That’s incredible. How did this idea come up? Walk us through that process.

Jonny Capeci: I'm going to be honest with you. It was actually our manager's idea. We had a few different vibes that we wanted for other songs that we knew. This one we were a little unsure of. So, she came up with the initial idea. We were like, yeah, that's amazing. So, can't take credit for that one. It was a genius idea by our manager.

Jonny, I heard that you actually adopted one of the dogs! Tell us about that experience and decision.

Jonny Capeci: Yeah. I don't know. I wasn't even really thinking about getting a dog, but then hanging out with them that day and just seeing her, I was like, maybe I'll just go meet her, hang out with her. Then I was like, I can't leave her. The other thing, too, is, she's been in the foster system for her entire life, and she's like seven months old. So I was just like man. It sucks because they live in the same place, for, like two weeks at a time and they go back to a pound. She's been in and out of pounds her whole life. I was just like I can't stomach that. I’m not letting her do that again. It was very impulsive. I thought about it for like a few hours, and I was just like, alright. I got to get her.

Joey Beretta: She’s literally the best dog ever, though.

Jonny Capeci: I did luck out. She’s very well-behaved.

Did anyone else consider getting a dog?

Joey Beretta: Well, what's funny is that my wife made me promise I wouldn't bring home a dog because we had just gotten a puppy, and I actually had his (Jonny’s) dog for the video. The second I met her I was like; I'm going to take this dog home and it's just going to ruin my entire life, but I don't care because she's so perfect. Then he ends up adopting her and she ends up over at my house like five days a week, which is amazing. She and my dog get along.

Jonny Capeci: We work over here at Joe's place, so I just bring her over. The two of them just hang out and play.

Joey Beretta: All three of the dogs from the video did get adopted. They all found a home, which is awesome. We're really, really proud of that.

You guys really made a difference in their lives and I’m sure all of the shelter’s dogs as well.

Jonny Capeci: We’re just really grateful to have fans that give us a platform to be able to do something like that. So, we really have them to thank. We just feel lucky that we get to be able to do something like that.

Do you have a specific writing process for all of your songs? Or do they flow differently?

Joey Beretta: Usually before this album, [it] was all over the place. Jonny would come up with an idea, or we build a track and then write something over it, or a guitar part or something. But I feel like this album, we very intentionally plugged in as many instruments as we could, and we would all just jam, someone would come up with something. Someone would be playing drums or whatever, and then we'd get an idea and then write a song to it, which is why I think the album has a real fluidity to it. Every song is different, but it all makes sense together, which was really exciting for us because we had never really just sat in a studio for two months and just wrote a big body of work.

Nick Sainato: With older songs, sometimes you'll have a song for six months, a year, or it's like half a song and then you'll finish it six months later. This album, we started in January, we finished in March, basically. We had those songs for that period of time. I think you can tell like what Joe saying, it just feels super cohesive. It's not just a random song from two years ago. It's all from this era where we were jamming and all together just making music.

You can really tell when you listen to the tracks that they came naturally, and everything does flow very well and is very cohesive. I can see that. Your new album wear your heart out drops on August 25th, which is the day that this is being released! Could you tell us a bit about the inspirations and story behind this album?

Jonny Capeci: We toured for most of last year. We were on three tours, then we did a bunch of one-off shows. So we were gone the majority of last year, except for maybe a couple of months, and we wrote a bunch of songs in those couple of months. We actually had a Dropbox folder with a bunch of songs. We got through the year of touring. We just came out of the period of COVID and not being able to tour. That’s where our first album was written and was really locked in the house. We had a different perspective on songs, I think, and what we wanted to play live. We threw everything out that we did before, or at least put it to the side. We were feeling this energy that was like, we want to write something that really represents what we want to tour, thinking about it like that. That was a huge inspiration, just like Joe was saying, where we would plug in instruments and jam. Whereas before it'd be like, I have a song idea for this, and it's more starting from a conceptual place. This was less conceptual from the onset. As we were going through, I think we really found that what was just in our subconscious actually did tie together. It's more of a dancey love song album, whereas some of our stuff previously had been a little sadder. That was just what was in our brains and came out. We didn't necessarily sit down and think, we're going to write this type of album, and this is what the theme is. It just came out because I think we had all this built-up energy from the tours that we were really wanting to get out. It was the first time we've done it like that, and also the first time we've written an album in a short time period. Our debut album again happened by accident, where it was like we wrote some songs, we released them, and then COVID hit and all that stuff, and we just kept releasing songs until it became an album. This was our first intentional time period for writing an album.

It sounds like there are very nice, bright, happy vibes in this album, which I’m sure fans are ecstatic to hear. If you could assign one color to wear your heart out which would it be?

Jonny Capeci: I’m just going to say this because we've done it in a lot of branding for the album and it feels like that to me. I’m going to say disco silver. We use the disco ball in a lot of the videos and stuff, and it just feels representative. Because you see a disco ball and it makes you want to dance, makes you think of moody lights and stuff. I’d say that’s mine.

Joey Beretta: I’m very colorblind so this is a hard question for me. What do you mean “colors”? Do you mean color? (laughs) I just always say blue because that’s the best color that I see really well.

Nick Sainato: I want to say red because that’s what we used a bunch but some of it also feels pink. It’s kind of lovely. I’m going to say light pink.

Joey Beretta: Something about disco silver just feels good, you know?

I wasn’t expecting disco silver, but I see the vision.

Joey Beretta: If someone says their favorite color is disco silver, I want to be their friend instantly.

Nick Sainato: It doesn’t compare to disco green.

Joey Beretta: See, I don’t know what that means but I know what disco silver is. This guy’s got colors coming out of everywhere!

Jonny Capeci: Crayola, where you at?

Crayola needs to hire you and sponsor you for the next drop!

Joey Beretta: You just pulled two great colors out of your brain there somewhere.

Which song are you most excited to perform live if you had to choose one?

Joey Beretta: To perform live or favorite song in general?

We can do perform live and also favorite song. Double answer!

Jonny Capeci: I don’t know yet because we haven’t performed any of them. I feel like I have three. I would say “the feeling,” “wear your heart out,” and “shirt.”

Nick Sainato: You can’t take my song! I’m going to say “shirt,” obviously “like i do,” and “dry eyes.” We played that one time at a one-off show, and it felt sick. But I’ll say “shirt.”

Joey Beretta: My favorite song on the album is my “boys.” That's going to be really fun to play. Jonny’s first guitar solo ever recorded on an album is in that song. Very exciting. It took many years to convince him, too, but he's a really great guitar player.

Jonny Capeci: I’m more of a chords guy.

Joey Beretta: He’s more of a virtuoso but he won’t say that. [My favorite song] to play live, I’m more of a sappy guy live, I feel like “radiohead” is going to be awesome live. That's probably the one I'm most excited for. Just for the (sings riff) … Nick's our resident actual music theory knowledge guy. So he'll say things like Major two.

Nick Sainato: You know exactly what I'm talking about.

Joey Beretta: I only know because he taught me. But I don't know them really. I just pretend to.

It's always good to have a guy around like that. You got your color guy, you got your music theory guy, what else do you need? Speaking of performing live, you’re heading out on the wear your heart out tour in October! Which cities are you most pumped to perform in, and are you visiting any cities you haven’t before?

Jonny Capeci: We're playing cities that we've never headlined in, like we’ve only ever opened shows in, which would be Seattle and Portland. We’ve never headlined in those two, so that’ll be really fun as far as to play. New York is super fun, Nashville is always super fun, but I will say we did like a half tour last year, just the east coast. So we haven't headlined on the West Coast for a while, so I'm definitely excited to go back and play Los Angeles and all the stuff on the West Coast that we haven't done in a long time. Salt Lake City, all that.

Joey Beretta: Nashville is always a blast, and Chicago is incredible. Charlotte was great.

Nick Sainato: Every city’s so different.

Jonny Capeci: They’re usually all great.

This tour is obviously going to be great because the album is great. Lastly, do you have anything you’d like to say to the fans coming out to see you on tour?

Jonny Capeci: I think it's maybe a little bit of what I was saying earlier when we were talking about the music video that we did. We just feel grateful that they have given us. Otherwise, we'd still be in our mom's basement, playing music and having to work a job we don't like. So yeah, we're just really grateful. I know myself, as a music fan that goes to shows, what a pain it can be at times to get tickets, get parking figure out, if you're traveling, where you're staying and all that stuff. We're really lucky to have a lot of fans that do travel. We’re just really grateful. I think it's going to be a lot of fun, too. We're going to give our best effort to make it just a super engaging and fun show. Come ready to dance.

Make sure to purchase/stream wear your heart out, out everywhere on August 25th! Click here to see if Nightly is coming to a city near you this fall: https://www.nightloveyou.com/shows/

youtube

#Nightly #Wear Your Heart Out #2023 #Music Interview #Kayla Marra #Youtube

4 notes · View notes

popentertainment-interviews · 9 months

Text

Allie Colleen

Who Allie Is

By Dave Parsons

For a new recording artist like Allie Colleen, it can be tough just getting started. You travel all over the map, anywhere they want you to play, paying your dues and finding your audience. You end up playing at far off places like the Marshall County Fair in Moundsville, WV, which is where we caught up with her.

“I got a job, which was an artist as an acoustic act first,” Allie Colleen explained to me before the show. “That was easy because you just played what people wanted to hear. You played what they wanted to sing along to. That's what you did. It was easy and it was very cool. It taught me a lot about singing, but I didn't learn about what I wanted to do on that stage until I got the people behind me to do it, and to really get that guitar out of my hand. I got to start singing like: What does Allie perform like? What Allie likes to sing…”

This self-knowledge helps the audiences to get an idea of Allie’s music as well, which is outlaw country. She continued explaining – often speaking in the third person – how her knowledge of herself opens her music up to others.

“I feel like just knowing Allie as an artist, the album that we do have out shows you exactly who and what she is as a songwriter, which I'm very proud of,” Allie says. “Going forward, these songs like ‘Halos and Horns’ that we have out of singles for people to check out, [that] is what I wait for all night in that set. it gets to be Allie. Whether she absolutely kills it and it's a success or if she crashes and burns, it's nobody but Allie.”

Allie sounds like 1,000 other singer songwriters in Nashville, who come to town with a dream, and pockets of songs that are like their children. In her case, though, she is a little different. She has a dad that has sold 183 million albums in his career. Allie Colleen is the youngest of Garth Brooks’ three daughters, but you won’t hear covers of his music in her show.

“It's been really amazing because a lot of the shows I hear ‘I heard from a friend of a friend who you were, that's why I came. But I heard your music and liked it and now I'm just here for Allie,’” she explains. “The conversation ends exactly where I would want it to. I'm not ever mad or upset in any way about how people find out about my music, who I am, or what it is. But you're going to leave being an Allie fan. That is the goal.”

It's a worthy goal. However, she does realize that her father’s reputation can color what the audience assumes of her.

“I sometimes get anxious that it also brings an expectation,” Allie says. “We're nothing similar. I mean, we're the same exact person when it comes to dad and daughter. I'm him 100 %. But when you look at two artists, we don't really do the same thing. I don't care what brings you to my show, but please come with a desire to learn who Allie is.”

The folks in Moundsville learned who Allie is as she took the stage. Opening with “Smoke Show” and following with a cover of the JoDee Messina hit “I’m Alright,” the crowd was listening and receiving the 17-song set Allie Colleen offered. Explaining most of the songs before she performed them gave a deeper understanding what she was trying to say as an artist. The story behind “Make Me A Man” showed her heart for family. The intro and delivery of a song not yet recorded called “While We’re Still Friends,” had her and the audience in tears.

The delivery of “Halos and Horns” was delivered with a deep passion for the material. Even the cover of “Strawberry Wine” that closed her set sounded new given a slightly different arrangement.

Overall, the 90-minute show at the fair was time well spent for those in attendance, and getting to hear an artist do almost their entire debut CD is a treat, particularly when you are offered the meaning behind those songs as well. I’m very sure that Allie reached her goal in Moundsville. The audience left knowing who Allie Colleen is.

Setlist: Smoke Show / I’m Alright / Don’t Give Your Heart To A Cowboy / Plain’ House / Blame it On The Weather / Fallin’ / Feels Like / Stones / Pink Lemonade / Make Me A Man / Tattoos / Blame It On The Wine / While We’re Still Friends / Halos and Horns / Sex On Fire / Rolling Stone / Strawberry Wine

youtube

#Allie Colleen #2023 #Music Interview #Dave Parsons #Youtube

2 notes · View notes

popentertainment-interviews · 10 months

Text

Tom Hanks, Scarlett Johansson, Jason Schwartzman, Bryan Cranston, Adrien Brody, Jeffrey Wright, Stephen Park, Rupert Friend, Hope Davis, Maya Hawke, Jake Ryan and Wes Anderson

Take Us Down To Asteroid City

by Jay S. Jacobs

No one in filmmaking has such an eccentrically idiosyncratic narrative voice as Wes Anderson. The acclaimed writer/director has been putting his very distinctive stamp on films for nearly 30 years, producing such unique entertainments as Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums, The Darjeeling Limited, Moonlight Kingdom and The French Dispatch.

Anderson’s latest ensemble piece is Asteroid City, the story of a bunch of strangers who meet in a desert town in New Mexico in the 1950s right in time for an alien landing. (Of course, like all of Anderson’s films, this thumbnail sketch only touches on the levels of the narrative.)

As often with the cast, the film has a star-studded ensemble of stars who were dying to work with the filmmaker, including Tom Hanks, Scarlett Johansson, Jason Schwartzman, Bryan Cranston, Adrien Brody, Jeffrey Wright, Stephen Park, Rupert Friend, Hope Davis, Maya Hawke, Jake Ryan, Steve Carell, Margot Robbie, Live Schreiber, Matt Dillon, Ed Norton and Willem Dafoe.

The below discussion is culled from a virtual press conference which we attended in which many of the stars and the writer/director of Asteroid City discuss the experience of making and the meaning of the film.

On the inspiration for the film:

Wes Anderson: Oddly, that's not a question I've been asked specifically. The quick answer would be usually, for me, starting to write a script is usually not an idea for it. It's a couple of ideas. Two or three things… Roman Coppola and I wanted to write a part for Jason Schwartzman at the center of a movie that would be something he hadn't done before. We didn't really know what it was, but we had a few notions about what this character was going through. We were interested in the setting of 1950s New York theater. [A] golden age of Broadway-ish thing. We thought we'd tell a story of the play they're putting on. The original thing was it was a play called Automat and was going to all be in this automat. Then we decided it's too small. So we expanded it to the desert. I guess it then became something like this interaction of a black and white New York stage and a color cinema scope-ish western cinema story. Everybody's both an actor and the role they're playing, they mix together. That is how I got the idea for Asteroid City.

On finding out they would be a part of the film:

Jason Schwartzman: It was July of 2019. July 11th, 2019, actually. It was my anniversary. I was going [out] with my wife, but Wes was calling, so we pulled over. He said what I'm sure everyone here gets excited to hear, which was, "I've got an idea for something. I'm working on it with Roman. I can't tell you much, but we have an idea for you for something. We're going to work on it, and we'll get back to you when it's more completed. But you should be excited." That's a really rare, nice thing to get.

Tom Hanks: I met Wes at a restaurant in Rome about, I'm going to say, 15 years ago. It was a long time ago. Ed Norton said, "Hey, we're having dinner at this place in Rome."

Wes Anderson: Nino's.

Tom Hanks: This sounds like a movie from the 1960s.We were there, and part of it was like, "That's Wes Anderson?"I would imagine, the spectacle, the pompous or smoking a pipe, like what you did. We didn't talk about anything at all. I don't know if I said at that point, "Hey, come on, man, let me into that rep company of yours. Give me a call." And [years later] this came about literally because of a lovely email that said, "Would you like to come and join us?" And I said, "Yeah. Sure….” I haven't seen a Wes Anderson movie that I didn't wish that I was in. So it was great to be a part of this. The role was great. I think you used the reference of, "We're looking for a retired Ronald Reagan type." And I go, "I'm your man. I can do that.”

Jake Ryan: Yeah, after Moonrise [Kingdom], we sort of kept in touch. You had me be a part of a bunch of different projects that you were working on at the time. I would like to think that I had matured a little bit and [laughs] vaguely understood what I was doing at this point. So when I got the audition for this, I mean, you knew me.

On working on the film:

Bryan Cranston: I remember writing to Wes a little earlier after we had finished the film, and I said, "How are you feeling about it?" Quite honestly, Wes said, "I think it might be a really nice poem. I don't know about a film just yet." Because you were still in the throws of post and editing. He was just still trying to figure out where it was going…. The types of characters that he is imagining in his head. We can only take a glimpse into the head of Wes Anderson. We can't live there. That's his domain. We can only visit.

Jeffrey Wright: It was really like an equation that we had to figure out. And we figured it out. It was the wildest, strangest thing. I loved finding the answer.

Scarlett Johansson: What's unique about it is we're all circling the same thing. It's that sense of comradery that you have. One of the things that really touches me about the movie was how supportive all the performances are of one another in this way that's very noticeable. Maybe because we're all inside it but every performance stands out, but they make this beautiful sort of orchestra, the pieces all together.

Tom Hanks: For the end-up days to the Wes Anderson gravy train, the folks that were there for the first time, I wondered if we got to have ideas. Do we get to come in and say, "I was thinking about this?" We asked some of the veterans of it. "Do we get to say, 'How about this?'" And they said, "Yeah, sure. Sure, sure." We would, but then you would say, "Well, we don't have enough set to shoot that." That would be something. But I found you to be just as flexible as anybody would be, provided you're not going so far out of the realm of what you're going for.

Scarlett Johansson: Wes and I talked, tried to figure out the old Hollywood star. I was the Midge Campbell character. We shared some ideas about what type of a person this could be, or what kind of career she could've had. Did she come through the Actor's Studio? What did she sound like? I mean, I liked Bette Davis. She felt like Bette Davis feels. When you watch her, she seems comfortable in the space she takes up. I felt like that could be a good beginning. Also her voice, actually. She has a little bit of that Mid-Atlantic thing. Understanding where that came from, all that stuff was helpful.

Wes Anderson: Like Bette Davis, you said, "comfortable in her space," and it's a space that she's created, and a voice that she's cultivated – you know, an invented one.

Rupert Friend: There was so much freedom in that. One of the things we've talked about a lot is that Wes wrote one of his more succinct stage directions in the scene where we have our musical number, and it just said, "They dance." That was it. We kept saying, "When's the choreographer coming? When's the rehearsal?" It was like, "Oh, yeah, another time, another time." We got there, and we hadn't had any of that. It was just a kind of go for it. That feeling of exuberance. I remember it was actually an amazing moment.

Maya Hawke: Wes has just sort of cut all the fat and ridiculousness out of the moviemaking process. So many times when you have a scene partner, you have to establish a bond. You have these chemistry reads. It's like, "Oh, we're all going to meet, and we're going to talk, and you guys are going to get to know each other." Instead, Wes is like, "Why don't we just have dinner every night together? Wouldn't that be fine? Actually, you guys are off tomorrow, you should go for a walk." And we just did. We went for a bicycle ride. So often you're on hold when you're doing a movie. You get brought in and you sit in your trailer, and you wait. Wes has fixed that. You're always on hold 100 percent of the time. But you don't feel like you are because he's taken you out of this magical, wonderful place where you get to be both engaged in other people doing their work.

Scarlett Johansson: That's how it feels on the set. When I got there, my work was truncated into a short period of time. I could not have done it without having my scene partner, Jason, there. He was immediately completely available, present, rehearsed. It was just like falling into this comfortable pocket, you know?

Tom Hanks: You know those old movies about Hollywood where they're on the lot, and somebody is a cowboy, and there's a showgirl, and there's a Roman gladiator, and there's a guy dressed up like he's in Charles Dickens? That's what it's like hanging around getting ready to work. We're all in our costumes all day long.[clears throat] We're all dressed in these different things. We're all on hold ready to go do the work on the set. We're just incredibly focused and concentrated.

Jeffrey Wright: Basically, you're trapped. [laughs]

Maya Hawke: But you want to be trapped.

Adrien Brody: Then we all stay in the same hotel, and then Wes will say, "Oh, we got to go." Several of us will hop on a golf cart with Wes fully dressed in character. And so they'll be alien and a cowboy and a…

Tom Hanks: … A showgirl…

Adrien Brody: … or some children hanging off the back. Then we just make our way with a golf cart on the edge of this road through town, through Spain, and arrive upon this magnificent set. That is just mind-blowing. That is just as spectacular as it looks in the movie. Show up fully ready to roll and jump right into the scene, and let's get cracking.

Wes Anderson: Well, we did it under COVID protocols. I realized, I think we've been bubbling our movies for 15 or 18 years. [laughs] It wasn't that different from the usual.

Rupert Friend: I don't know if you saw this, Wes, but when we did that [dance routine], I threw my hat in the air, and behind the camera that day, Bill Murray had come to visit set, and he just caught it at the exact moment. It was just perfect.

Maya Hawke: I remember sitting and watching Scarlett and Jason do those incredible scenes between that window. I would come and sit next to Roman at his little monitor and watch them. Then after a little while Adrien would come over and he'd be sitting there, too. We were all engaged in the movie as a whole.

Jason Schwartzman: Over the years, we've been through so many different things. But it's fun to come back and to share the things that you've experienced with someone that you know and love. It's about going off and having adventures. It's like Halloween, dumping out your stuff, seeing what you're interested in.

Bryan Cranston: It's so specific and so dense with detail that it is sometimes, I have to read it a couple times to really get a sense of what we're doing. This is a movie about a television show that's doing an expose on a theater piece. That in itself is kind of a Russian doll thing. Then there's the actors who are also playing. So when you read that in script form, it can be a little daunting.

Hope Davis: The piece feels theatrical… It feels very loose, the way my early days in the theater felt. We were all jumping around in the desert with air guns in our hands. It had that kind of looseness. Movie making can be very slow and dull. This just felt so alive and so playful. It reminds you why you got into it in the first place for me.

Scarlett Johansson: This is so vivacious. It feels so exciting. Even just to be a new actress coming on the set just to watch other actors performing. It's a very unique experience for a film, I think.

Tom Hanks: There’s a very convivial atmosphere that we are all very much attracted to. That is the secondary experience. The work that we do on the set is incredibly focused and there’s nobody who works harder at this than Wes. Because Wes doesn’t walk away saying, no, that’s good enough.

On experiencing the finished film:

Stephen Park: It's just a beautiful realization of everything that Wes has prepared us. To actually see the film, it's mind-blowing. I saw it first just with my wife. Then I saw it again at Cannes the second time, and I felt like I hadn't seen it before. I was really struck emotionally the second time in a way that I wasn't the first time. I feel like I'm looking forward to seeing it again tonight, because I know I'm going to see all these new things. There's so much to savor in this movie.

On the subject of grief in the film:

Jason Schwartzman: With grief, my experience is that there’s no wrong way to feel if you’re grieving. If you don’t feel sad when everyone else is sad, that’s okay. It’s worse to feel bad about not feeling a certain way that everyone else is feeling. You just feel the way you feel. That’ll be okay. Just trust that. I didn’t think about that while we were doing it.

Scarlett Johansson: It’s the enormity of this grief. My character says I don’t want that feeling so I’m just going to not have it. Which is so great and convenient. I mean, especially if you’re an actor. It’s perfect. You just do not have that feeling and erase it. Maybe you don’t want to either, and that’s perfectly fine. That’s the world that she’s living in.

Jason Schwartzman: When I saw the movie and Adrian’s character says, “Just keep doing it.” To me that’s what it is. Don’t feel bad about it. Don’t worry about how you’re feeling. Just feel it. It’s okay. Just keep going. This movement really kind of hit me when he said that.

Scarlett Johansson: It’s funny too, because I think when we have the conversation about what connects us… Not necessarily helpful for a father of four kids, but I think it gives them both permission to be living just in the moment that they want to be in and that’s fine. You don’t have to feel obligated to, as you were saying, have a moment they’re supposed to be having or whatever. That’s what they recognize in each other in that window of time.

Wes Anderson: I guess we have these milestones in our lives and particularly as you get older. The dead begin to pile up. You go through this thing where you start to say, “I cannot believe how often you say the person who I would actually like to hear his or her point of view is this one, and I’m never going to get the answer to this question I want to ask. I will never get the answer.” That just starts to happen more and more and more. Just the power of these losses, it’s among the key milestones. At least that’s my experience. I guess you circle back to these things that you can’t quite find the answers about.

youtube

#Tom Hanks #Jason Schwartzman #Bryan Cranston #Adrien Brody #Jeffrey Wright #Stephen Park #Hope Davis #Jake Ryan #Wes Anderson #2023 #Asteroid City #Actor Interviews #Actress Interviews #Director Interviews #Jay S. Jacobs #Youtube #Scarlett Johansson

29 notes · View notes

popentertainment-interviews · 10 months

Text

Sean Claffey

Director Tackles Income Disparity and Other Economic Travesties Through his Doc Americonned

by Brad Balfour

At CraicFest 2023, director Sean Claffey debuted his powerful doc Americonned. It offers commentary by various political and sociological experts and an examination of ordinary citizens’ lives in order to address the impact that super-capitalists – the one percenters – have on the world at large and on America in particular.

According to Americonned, pernicious power junkies and the super-rich suck the economic life out of the middle and working classes – while contributing little in return. The movie shows the struggles of American families to balance out the inequities through various means such as union organizing. With sympathy for middle-class workers, the film explores the outrageous attempt to color them as lazy. It addresses the notion that we must make sure workers are paid what they’re worth instead of being paid what’s minimally possible.

With more than 25 years in the film industry during which Claffey made features, industrial documentaries and commercials, he employs his experience to make a film which grapples with compelling and controversial issues. As Claffey explains in the following Q&A, he is drawn to emotionally challenging projects and embraces the rigors of getting the story right, even under the most arduous circumstances.

What made you crazy enough to make a movie like this?

I come from an immigrant Irish family that landed here in extreme poverty. There was a path to the middle class that existed then. It was helped greatly by unions. As I see that path erode more and more, it's really important that we fight back to keep it open. We need to keep people in the middle class from falling out of it. That's what made this country so amazing. America used to be the number one [home for the] middle class in the world. Now we're at number 12 and falling rapidly.

When you make a movie like this, do you consider what kind of an audience you're going after? Who do you think is the audience?

We were really focused on getting our message out to everyone, not one political party or the other. We looked at it and could see that both political parties really contributed to this fall. Maybe one more than the other. Certainly, one is now moving into an authoritarian position. So we called up both parties and we showed where they failed the working and middle class in this country.

When you planned this film, did you have an idea of how you were going to structure it and where you were going to go with it? Or did you just start shooting, figuring that you would tap into some lucky moments as we see in the film?

We definitely had a structure. We wanted to interweave several families who were suffering with the activists who are carrying on the fight. The experts basically tell the tale of how we got here and how we might get out of it. It did take left and right turns and U turns, though. Stories that we thought would work out led to dead ends. Others that we didn’t know would be anything actually became some of the major points of the film.

Was this planned before the 2020 election or during it? Did you decide to make it after?

We came up with this idea in 2009. I had three companies in the film business and lost all of them. We definitely saw that banks got bailed out and people didn't. So we started then but had a false start and ran out of money. Making these things is very difficult. But we started again in earnest about three and a half years ago.

Before the election, and before COVID, did you think that Trump was going to lose? Or was that a lucky break for you?

When he was first running a year before we were doing this, a friend of mine, a producer, bet me that he was going to win. She's from Italy. I was like, “No way. Absolutely not. Not in a million years. From a native New Yorker: we know his shenanigans here.” Yet he won. I was hoping that he wouldn't, but he did. Then by 2020, I was hoping again that he wouldn't win. The reason we got Trump is because we let down swaths of this country. They've been trying over and over again to make it but can't. When you try everything and still can't pay the mortgage – you lose your house, you lose everything – you start to get this mindset. I've spoken to many of those people who want to burn it all down.

One of the great lucky turns in this film is the situation with unionizing at Amazon. You had no idea how that was going to work out, but it really did work out in your favor. At what point did you know you wanted to try and follow it? At what point did you know, “Wow, we really hit a home run.”

I met Chris Smalls who organized the Amazon labor union in Staten Island before he ever thought of unionizing. They protested. Basically [Amazon] was making employees work without masks. People were getting sick and dying, so he stood up, He was a supervisor there and people were getting sick in the building and passing out. They’d just move them aside and put a new person in their place. So he started a protest long before the union. They thought about making a union. I was like, “Oh, there's a union thing going on in Bessemer. Let's all drive down.” We drove down with his whole team and we're in an Airbnb, but the local union wouldn't even meet with us. They snubbed us. When the team got snubbed, I was like, “Just start your own union.” I could see that it kind of clicked with them. But I want to say right here, that I didn't do it. They made the decision on their own. I might have been a spark, but they worked like 300, almost 400 days straight – seven days a week, three shifts. It was a huge effort.

There's always a challenge in making a documentary. There's an enormous amount of competition and, certainly, a lot of films that deal with left-of-center issues. I don't even like the terms left and right or progressive. Progress is not about standing still. Everything else is either standing still or going backwards. You have the challenge of convincing people that this is an initiative that concerns them without rubbing them the wrong way. Maybe it doesn't address the issues the way people think they should be addressed. How did you know that you want to continue this?

I was going to finish this film no matter what. COVID hit and it got really hard to make this film. We went around, risked our lives in the beginning of COVID not knowing what the outcome could have been. So the movie was getting made to the point where I was like, “If nobody picks it up, I will put it on YouTube.” Now, of course, you need to recoup your money; otherwise you'll go broke. But yeah – nothing was going to stop us from finishing the film.

Now that you’ve finished, what’s been the response? People seem to be getting attracted but you still want to get it into the biggest festival. What happened there?

The big festivals just flat out turned us down. You know, we take on Amazon in a negative way – it becomes the villain standing in for many other corporations. But you go around to the festivals and it's the Amazon documentary award, right? So do you think we even have a shot at that? Whether it's on purpose or subconscious or there subliminally. But we got very lucky and have gotten limited theatrical distribution. We're going to be in New York, DC, Boston, San Francisco and Seattle. There are additional theaters that are asking us right now as we speak, for New Hampshire and Florida. After that, we're going to be streaming on many different platforms.

You've been getting good responses at festivals. The crowds come up to you. What do people want to do? Are they ready to finance the next film?

We've gotten great responses interestingly enough, from both sides of the aisle – conservatives as well as liberals and everything in between. Everyone knows something is wrong and we really expose it and dig down into the history. Once people see through it, you can't unsee it. There's a meticulous way it's being done. We expose that completely. Everyone wants the same thing – to have a house, a good job, and have their children do better than they're doing. The division is on purpose. But we're talking about somebody in a dress that's drinking a beer that they don't even like – that's becoming a divisive thing. When so much money is being stolen from the middle class, it’s all done on purpose. They pull it off – the think tanks – they think about it and push it out there. The talking points go out every Sunday night or Monday morning and you just hear it. They regurgitate stuff just to divide us against our own economic best interests. And they've been doing it for a while. They're really, really good at it.

Do you think it's part of your Irish experience or Irish tradition that you make a film like this and support the causes it supports?

I’ve always been a little rebellious. I don't have a problem standing up against powerful people for things my family has been doing for probably a lot longer than I even know, hundreds and hundreds of years. I grew up with that instilled in me: if something's not right, we need to stand up to it, no matter what. Because if we don't, then everyone else suffers.

You grew up here in New York? Have you been back to Ireland? Have you tapped into a lot of your Irish community?

I grew up in New York my whole life. I have definitely been to Ireland a bunch of times. I have family there. I'm part of that Irish American community and this year I got to help lead the parade as a New York City aide to the Grand Marshal. It's been an epic year for me personally.

What county are you from?

My family is mainly from Donegal but also the Midlands.

You’ve built up new bonds with different people. You've continued with your relationships with the Amazon people. What new relationships were built for you?

Finding the experts was challenging. But once we started getting a few of them, like Nick Hanna, they were amazing. He's a billionaire but he’s fighting for the middle class. He's really aligned on the whole thing. Once we got him, it was much easier to get the rest of them like Kurt Anderson and Jake Packer. We knew that we had to get the interview. So we hopped in my car, filled it up with camera gear and looked at the weather report. We have to get over the Rockies but there's a massive storm coming in Brooklyn. We drove 70 hours straight, only stopping to fill up for fuel and to eat, usually done at the same time. And we made it. We hit the Rockies just as snow started falling. Snow everywhere but we were able to get to Seattle where he was, and it really started the journey [of the film.] We drove 3,400 miles across the country traveling through 23 states. We really got a sense of people that are suffering and what’s actually on the ground. I don't think I quite understood that just being a New Yorker.

Was this the biggest challenge you've had in your life?

Biggest long-term challenge? When we started filming, we filmed a few people in New York but then my mom passed away right in the beginning. I was like, “Well, I'm either going to go into depression or we're going to finish this thing.” We drove up to Seattle and dedicated it to her and a couple of other people we lost during the filming. We ran out of money a bunch of times, burned up the credit cards multiple times and I almost missed my mortgage payment. It was intense with some really low lows. But it's getting out there. So it was well worth it.

Have you always meant to be a filmmaker or were there other things? Or did you just fall into this?

I started out in theater behind the scenes, as a technical director, set design. Then I switched over to film and got to work with some really great directors like Spike Lee, the Coen Brothers and many, many others. I worked with some really bad directors, as well. Then I started doing TV pilots and whatever.

This type of film is really a calling – to expose injustice and shine a light on problems like this. Is this what makes you tick? Once you make a film like this though, does it mean that you’re either going to go further mad or you're going to change the course of the world?

I think you have a little of both. I have an idea for the next one. It's going to be about democracy and if you have a tool right now or whatever you can do [to maintain it]. The authoritarians are on the rise if we don't stop them. We can't wait for someone else to do it because no one's going to do it. It's got to be all of us.

You've done the festivals and met people. What is the best or most interesting experience you've had as a result of touring the festival circuit?

Having a full house, watching them cry, get angry, have hope and stand up and applaud. That made me think that it was all worthwhile.

What was the most interesting question you've had so far?

People don't really comprehend that this was all done on purpose – it was planned. I'm talking about the financial organizations [extraction of money] from the middle class. They're looked upon by a few tens of thousands of people as just something to extract from. Audiences are blown away by that. They want to know more about how we all let this happen and how do we not know about this?

It risks making you cynical because capitalism isn't going away. Can we fix capitalism?

The most important thing is democracy. We get confused with capitalism and democracy and when these are just economic systems. I think there should be a blending of them. If just extreme examples – if there's a depression, there should be more socialism. If there's a natural disaster, then we should turn the socialism up. If it's boom times, you raise taxes. There needs to be this constant balance. But most importantly, it needs to be a democracy for the path to the middle class that’s maintained. It will change with technology if we don't make it more fair. We talk about this in the film. Curt Anderson says, if we don't make it fairer now, with AI and robotics which is slated to take place, about 46 to 47% of all American jobs are at high risk. We're talking about doctors, accountants, radiologists. I mean, this is like the white-collar thing. What happened with NAFTA to the blue collar [workers] – it's still happening now. The CEO of IBM said that he's going to get rid of every single human job he can this year.

They can't get rid of film journalists. I'm sure of that anyhow. On that note, how do you envision things moving forward for you and for the future of America?

About half of Americans between 18 and 65 medium wage is $10.35 an hour. That’s insane. With most places in the country, you have to drive to work. How do you afford a car, rent and food on $10.35 an hour? You can't even buy a burrito. It's insane. The price of eggs is more than that. I’m going to keep fighting and exposing injustice wherever I can. And for America, we're at a turning point, we may swing authoritarian or fascist with these high levels of income inequality.

[This award-winning documentary opens theatrically in New York (Cinema Village), Los Angeles (Laemmle Monica Film Center) and major cities this June with a VOD release in the US and Canada on major platforms to follow. Not Rated/ 96 Minutes/ Feature Documentary/ USA]

Social Media/Website:

@AmericonnedDoc #americonneddoc

youtube

#Sean Claffey #2023 #Director Interviews #Americonned #Brad Balfour #Youtube

0 notes

popentertainment-interviews · 1 year

Photo

Matt Damon, Viola Davis, Julius Tennon, Marlon Wayans and Alex Convery

How Is the Air Up There?

By Jay S. Jacobs

Air Jordan has conquered yet another facet of pop-culture. The biofilm Air has gotten some of the best reviews of the year since it was released to theaters last month. The film, about the pursuit of future sports icon Michael Jordan by a third-rate sneaker company called Nike, in a deal which ended up making them all insanely rich, seems like an odd subject for a hit movie. But somehow, it works.

A passion project for long-time friends Ben Affleck and Matt Damon (Affleck co-starred and directed, Damon plays the lead), the story was always about more to them than just the production of a shoe. It was about dreamers, family, innovation and belief.

The screenplay – by first-time screenwriter Alex Convery (who was not even born when this story was taking place in 1984) – attracted not only Affleck and Damon, but a cross section of some of the biggest names in Hollywood, including Viola Davis, Jason Bateman, Chris Tucker, Chris Messina and Marlon Wayans. Like the filmmakers, they did the film for love of the subject and the script.

And the fact that it was – at least loosely – about one of the biggest names in sports history was just gravy.

This Q&A was derived from one of two virtual press conferences that we attended a few weeks ago, when Air was about to premiere in theaters. (Another one, with Ben Affleck, Jason Bateman, Chris Tucker and more, was published in time with the theatrical release.) Now that Air is getting its release on Amazon Prime, here is the second conference.

I will have to say from GOAT to GOAT – what must it be like to get a cold call in which the greatest basketball player in the world says you are the only person who can play his mom? Talk about that phone call.

Viola Davis: I didn’t get that phone call. I just got the trickle-down message. Listen, I wish it were my style to like to get into best, great… it doesn't help me at all. But it is flattering. Because I do go in with a sense of “do I belong?” imposter syndrome. So, it's nice to feel wanted. But then the next thought is, now I got to step into the role. If you watch videos on Deloris Jordan, she is a study in Zen neutrality. The woman is very, very steady and quiet. I would imagine that even when she gets mad, she's probably very, very, very steady. (laughs) So, to really just envelop that spirit and everything was a challenge for me, because I'm the woman who always has a chip on your shoulder. I go on in bombastic. It was both flattering, challenging, and then just a joy to work with Matt and Ben, and all these terrific actors. Me and Julius still talk about it to this day. One of the greatest experiences.

True. Everybody just comes and joins and makes I feel there's a family affair. I think it comes from Matt, you and Ben, the way you guys went about assembling this group of folks. Talk about all of the high priority that you have this film; honoring the sports, honoring the artists that you brought along to it, honoring Michael Jordan. How did you guys balance that as you were trying to tell the story?

Matt Damon: It all started with the script, really. That's down to Alex at the end of the table. I just thought it was so great. I didn't know the story. Then it was step by step, I’d say, because the first step was getting the blessing of Michael Jordan. Before we got too excited, Ben said, “we should go see him.” My kids were out to something in New York, and I couldn't go. So, Ben went to Florida to see Michael. Michael said, “It's fine to make the movie. It's okay with me.” But Ben said, “Well, what I really would love to know is what's most important to you.” It was out of that meeting that he said, George Raveling, Howard White and then he started to talk about his mom. Ben called me afterwards and said, “Mike was very intimidating guy.” (laughs)

Yeah. He told us about it.

Matt Damon: He's an intimidating guy. He's an icon and he's all of these things. He has all this meaning for all of us. Ben said, “He had this look on his face when he spoke with his mom that I’d never seen before.” So, we felt like well, now we know what the movie is. He said, “The only bad news is, we have to get Viola Davis. If we don't get Viola Davis, we can't make the movie.” So, that was when we started thinking about how to expand Deloris. That's really one of the great things about this cast, that everybody is really a filmmaker. These two sitting next to me [Davis and her husband Julius Tennon] are A-list producers. The Woman King, anybody? Marlon, Chris, they're writers as well as actors. They're filmmakers. Jason Bateman is a director. We really lean on our actors. Part of our process has always been – from Good Will Hunting all the way through today – to lean into what your actor is bringing. The actor always is in the moment and always knows. We had these conversations with Viola, like “If it doesn't feel right, what did you feel like here?” That's always the way to the best scene.

One of the things I loved about this is it's subtle with all of the very big statements that it makes. One of my favorite subtle moments was when you walk into the Jordans’ home, and Julius, your character, James, greets him, and he just lets him walk on back to where Viola Davis was going to sit him down, and just keeps working on the car. Talk about the subtleness of your character.

Julius Tennon: What I wanted to do was bring dignity and levity to Mr. Jordan. Obviously, I've seen video of him. I've seen him with his son. The father that is proud of his son. A man that's protective of his wife. That's when I said that whole thing about Deloris, call me if you need me. Let her go do her thing because I know she could do her thing. I wanted her to know that I'm there. I'm just going to do what I normally do in the course of a day. He was just a simple man. A blue collar guy. I just wanted to depict that.

Viola, talk playing that dynamic of a couple on screen.

Viola Davis: Well, let me tell you something. That is our dynamic in real life. Julius has told me since we got together, he said, “V, when you come home and it’s late at night, you make sure you don’t get out of that car until the gates close. If someone’s following you, you lay on that horn and I’m going to come out with my baseball bat, and I’ll drop their ass.” (Everyone laughs.) I laid on the horn once by accident, coming home at three o'clock in the morning. I counted to five. Julius came out with the baseball bat. I knew. I was like, “That’s it! I'm going to marry him. That’s my dude.”

Marlon, I loved you in this. It was such a great portrayal. What was crazy about the man that you're portraying in real life, is it was like learning about Hamilton. He did that? He did this? He was there? What was it like for you? Was that all their baked into the script? Did you go on a discovery journey of your own?

Marlon Wayans: I was the first one to shoot. I got the call on Friday, and we were filming on Monday. So YouTube was my friend. (laughs) Crash course on YouTube on George Raveling. I learned a lot about him. I learned he was a fantastic man. He himself was the first like black coach to win a national championship. He coached the Olympic team. He's from Jersey. There was a lot that I picked up. When I read the monologue, and the fact that that was real, and that he still has the “I Have a Dream” speech in his possession, I thought that it was an amazing character to play. The more you research, the better you can do in terms of your performance. I love that when we went on set, Matt and Ben were like, “We’re not impersonating. You can bring you to it.” That's always to an actor the best thing you can do, when I can mix that person with my emotions and what I bring. The script was already written so beautifully, but we got to play. I could get out of my head and really have fun. That's what it was. When I left the set, I just felt like if every day on that set felt like the first day, that's going to be a magical movie.

Alex, was this a story you knew so much about already? Are you even an ‘80s baby?

Alex Convery: No, I’m not. I’m a ‘90s Chicago kid, which is where the Bulls and Michael Jordan and that connection comes from. I came to the story… Like everyone else I was locked up during those first couple months of quarantine watching The Last Dance and there's a little five-minute clip about Nike and just how Air Jordan came together. I was at a point in my career where you're trying to write a script that gets noticed. When you can explain the movie in one sentence, right? It's a story of how Nike got Michael Jordan, it just it has that ability to go to the top of the pile. People will give it a bit more of a chance. But like everything comes down to character. So, the question was, who can be the protagonist and the engine of this movie? Finding both Sonny and Deloris was really to me what elevated above just a movie about a shoe and Michael Jordan. Finding the human elements in a very big movie. I kind of call them big little movies. The little being: this is just a movie about a shoe deal, right? It takes place over a week or so. It's small in scope. But the big part is when you say it's about Nike and Michael Jordan. You could talk to 100 people on the street and all 100 of them are going to know who Michael Jordan is and what Nike is. To me, that's what elevates it above just a movie about a shoe.

There is a certain pigheadedness needed to achieve a dream. Sonny Vaccaro could be rude to people, how were you able to make him lovable?

Matt Damon: A lot of it was really there on the page with what Alex wrote. Sonny, we were really trying to capture the spirit of these people in this time, more than anything. Not exactly who said what, at exactly what moment. All of these people on the Nike side independent of one another have talked about this time was such nostalgia. That's what we were trying to create. Remind people they were the underdog, which is such a weird way to think of Nike now. Before this incredible deal, they really were, these renegades, outsiders. That was really what we were trying to get. The characters all had this incredible, infectious energy that was really jumping off the page. The script was really quite something.

Viola, Ben Affleck told us that he felt directing you is one of those impossible, aspirational dreams.

Matt Damon: He didn’t feel that way about directing me. (laughs)

What was it like working with Ben? Also, It feels like you had to undo your experiences in Juilliard to be less expressive as Deloris. She’s just so focused.

Viola Davis: That's who she is. Once again, Zen neutrality. That's what I see with this woman, this incredible woman. I wonder if she plays poker.

Matt Damon: She did. With this deal. (laughs) She played the greatest hand of poker of all time.

Viola Davis: Here's the thing with Ben… and Matt. But Ben, you trust him. There's a lot of times you go on set, you don't trust anyone. Because truth be known, there's a lot of people in our profession who don't know what they're doing. (laughs) I'm not saying that from any place of condescension or giving anyone shade. Everyone sees the result of a movie or a career, but they don't see the journey. It's the journey, it’s the process where you see the artistry. The people who actually know what they're doing and know how to piece it together. Know what they want. Know what they're seeing in the camera. It's not working. Knowing how much, how little. I've had a 40-year career where I trusted certain people, and they have done me wrong. Because you don't always see it. You do need help sometimes. I trusted him. I trusted what he saw. I trusted his process. I trusted this choice, even in the actors, that they were going to deliver. Then you have to ultimately trust that he chose you for a reason, because that's the one thing that training school beats out of you is any sense of competence and level of mental health. But yeah, trust is what I’ll say.

Matt, as a producer, was it hard to make the film feel like a big crowd pleaser, even though it's a smaller story?

Matt Damon: Yeah, I mean, I'm bringing my kids to the premiere. It's totally appropriate for them. It really is one of those stories that comes along, and you go, “Wow, this is really for everybody.” We used to call them feel good movies. That's really what you know what it is. You should leave the theater with a skip in your step.

I know the reception down in Austin (the premiere at SxSW), was just off of the charts. That wasn’t your first Austin premiere? You've obviously been down there before?

Matt Damon: No, that was my first one.

What was it like?

Matt Damon: It was incredible. I knew we were in good shape when Viola walked on screen and the crowd went crazy. I was like, “Oh, this is good. This is going to be good.” Yeah, it was really cool. I've been to so many film festivals, and that one just felt like everyone was so excited we were there. So excited for the movie. There was just a great energy in the room. I'll never forget it.

I obviously have been cheering for you like that as just a journalist. But I have never imagined it's not very often that you can feel like what's like to be a Beyonce-like superstar, Taylor Swift-type reception. What was that like for you to experience?

Viola Davis: Awesome. Julius is an Austinite.

Julius Tennon: I’m an Austinite.

Viola Davis: Born and bred. A lot of family members

Julius Tennon: It was cool being back at the place. I didn’t see many of my family members, but the reception was awesome. It was incredible, electric.

Marlon, you said you did this in just a weekend of studying for it. The Martin Luther King aspect of it, was that part of it too? George’s activism? He was more than just a coach; he really was somebody that was an advocate for those athletes and professionals that straddled both.

Marlon Wayans: Raveling is an amazing dude with an amazing story. He actually was at a young age down there at that rally. He had a long, long career of that. Just to be able to know you're doing a movie about… I mean, it's such a small part, but they say there's no such thing as small roles, only small actors. With this one, it was a small but pivotal role. You feel it when you look at the script. You go, “I got to do this.” So many times you think about a scene but then you look at the meat within the scene and the character that you're portraying. Then you look at the whole picture and you just go, it’s something I have to do. There's no way you don't do something like this. An opportunity to play with all these legends and just go bring your best you. There's a great scene. I'm very, very proud to be a part of this picture.

What would you say is something about this film that will surprise people?

Matt Damon: Well, if you don't like Viola, me, Michael Jordan and Ben, you probably shouldn't go. (Everyone laughs.) No, I really do think there's something for everybody in this one. It's not a strictly sports movie. I think for the sports aficionados, they'll love the behind the scenes, behind the curtain type of stuff that's in here. But I think it surprised a lot of the people who weren't expecting it. It sneaks up on you. Because of the role that Viola plays and how she takes over the movie. I do think there will be something for everybody in this one.

Marlon Wayans: You just feel good. You leave the movie, and you feel good as a human with an everyday story. We all have dreams. We all have something that we want to do. Everybody tells us we cannot do it. Just the fact that this man made that happen and look at the iconic thing that was spawned from Michael Jordan signing with Nike. This shoe. This brand. This thing that changed pop culture. In a huge way, I just think it's a very powerful movie. It started with something small; a person with an idea and a gut feeling to make something happen. We all as people, every artist up here, had an inspiration, a gut feeling about what we wanted to do in this lifetime. Everybody [was] telling us no. We every day make it happen.

Julius Tennon: Absolutely.

Matt Damon: Well said.

Julius Tennon: That was awesome.

youtube

#Matt Damon #Viola Davis #Julius Tennon #Marlon Wayans #Alex Convery #2023 #Actor Interviews #Air #Jay S. Jacobs

3 notes · View notes