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rebeccalouisaferguson · 2 months

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Rebecca Ferguson on the relationship with Sweden - and Swedish film: "Give me a role" The criticism after the TV4 interview: "I don't want to fuck it up"

LONDON. Rebecca Ferguson, 40, has left Sweden and is taking Hollywood by storm.

But beyond the successes with "Dune", "Silo" and "Mission: impossible", she is careful to nurture the ties to her home country.

"I don't get that many Swedish offers, give me a role", says Rebecca Ferguson to Aftonbladet Nöje.

The Hollywood star is sitting in a suite at the five-star Rosewood Hotel in Holborn in central London. Here, the blockbuster "Dune: Part two" has occupied an entire floor for marketing and interviews ahead of the premiere date, which in Sweden is February 28.

Since a couple of years ago, London is also Rebecca Ferguson's hometown.

"I left Sweden, after covid I really moved", says the actress.

She grew up in Stockholm with a British mother and a Swedish father, went to Adolf Fredrik's music classes and broke through as a 15-year-old with the TV4 soap "Nya tider" where she had the lead role as Anna Gripenhielm. This in turn gave her a role in the American-Swedish drama series "Ocean Ave".

After she moved to Österlen in 2007 to be in the BBC's Wallander film "Sidetracked", she chose to stay in Simrishamn in Scania. There she met the filmmaker Richard Hobert, who gave her one of the main roles in the feature film "En enkel till Antibes", where she played opposite Sven-Bertil Taube, among other things. Then the international career really took off.

Wanted to start a colony Rebecca Ferguson played the main role of Elisabet Woodville in the BBC series "The white queen", for which she was Emmy nominated, Jenny Lind in the musical "The greatest showman" (2017) and the British spy Ilsa Faust in several "Mission: impossible" films. But when she wasn't working with Tom Cruise, Hugh Jackman or Michael Fassbender, she tried to build a life on the plains of East Scania. Until a few years ago.

"I built a large farm in Knäbäckshusen and tried to create some kind of colony there, with a key box, so that people could come and go, she says. "But then I had a long conversation with my son where I really said "what am I doing?"

Until 2015, she was together with Ludwig Hallberg, with whom she has a 16-year-old son, Isac. But according to Rebecca Ferguson, the ex-boyfriend was not completely on board with the plans for an open-door farm.

"Ludde" said that "we are fine, we don't need a colony, we live here", and I felt that I needed to find a root somewhere. I needed to let go of Simrishamn and root in London.

Assistant and schedule Today, Rebecca Ferguson lives in Richmond in West London with her husband Rory, who she married in December 2018. Together they have a daughter Saga, who turns 6 this spring, and Rebecca Ferguson describes the puzzle of recordings, marketing and family life as a well-oiled machine.

"It works great. I have such a luxury. It's like running a business in that it's scheduling and I have people to help", she says.

Although life as a movie star is often changeable, Rebecca Ferguson makes sure that the children have structure in their lives.

"I have an assistant, but it's more of a family friend who helps with our daughter and makes sure to fly over my son. I am also extremely close to my son's father, we are very communicative and talk all the time. We are like a big family and it's like a puzzle, but it works."

Criticism after interview The relationship with the home country suffered a thorn in connection with an interview with Efter fem on TV4 in April last year, where she did not want to speak Swedish and questioned reporter Nanna Martorell's English skills.

A storm of criticism followed and Rebecca Ferguson was noticed, among other things, by the Instagram account "Dyngbaggegalan", which celebrates uncomfortable moments from Swedish television.

Rebecca Ferguson has said that she was saddened when she heard about the criticism after the interview and said that she did not recognize herself. Almost a year after the interview, which was supposed to be about the film "Mission: impossible: dead reckoning", she brings up the incident herself - when Swedish "Dune" colleague Stellan Skarsgård, 72, comes forward.

"Stellan, I love him. That Swedish root is so important. That's why I was so sad about the interview that took place between me and Nanna. It became such a big deal", she says.

"I was misinformed, I had no idea who I was going to meet, only that I had an angry journalist who was pissed off. They asked if they should cut her out but I said "no, take her in, why is she so damn angry?" So I went in with the gas at the bottom - and met the world's most beautiful woman."

Is there something still gnawing at you?

"The reason I bring it up is that the Swedish relationship, for example to Stellan, when I speak Swedish, feels so important. It is enough for someone to speak Swedish and I feel a sense of calm."

"Was extremely rude" Rebecca Ferguson is worried that the interview has given the Swedes a wrong image of her as an expatriate Hollywood diva.

"The only thing I needed to know was that Nanna is okay, because I was extremely rude to her. I called her, we had the world's conversation and now she gets any interview she wants," she says.

"But I don't want that role in Sweden. Sweden is the archipelago, semlor, Värmdö and my dad, Vasastan and Rörstrandsgatan – I don't want to fuck it up."

In addition to "Dune: Part two", this year Rebecca Ferguson is also currently in theaters with "Mission: impossible - dead reckoning part two". At the same time, she is recording the second season of the TV series "Silo".

Opens for Swedish film But despite a burgeoning Hollywood career, she keeps the door open to making Swedish films.

"It is not important in that way that I have to do culture in Sweden, but give me a script that is great, give me a role. I don't get that many offers so that would be great," she says.

In an interview with the British newspaper The Guardian in October 2019, the star said that "I don't get recognized and that suits me". According to Rebecca Ferguson, very little has changed on that front in the last five years - despite the fact that her CV has been significantly replenished.

""It's pretty cool when you're at a premiere, like with "Dune", and it's like a rock concert: thousands of people screaming when Timothée and Austin - and also me - come in. It has created such a large following, she says.

"Mission" was probably also a bit like that, with Tom. It's on a whole other level. I can imagine that many people in this film need security personnel when they are out and about. But I can only go where I want and do what I want."

Doesn't want to be seen as a diva Rebecca Ferguson estimates that four to five people a day come to her.

"They take a picture, you give them a small hug or a high-five, and move on," she says.

"There is probably a part of me that wishes I also needed to be snuck out of a restaurant from the back way, because there are so many people out there who just love me. It is the ego. But the sane part of me thanks God that I can go wherever I want with my children, my husband and my friends."

The same applies when she comes home to Sweden - which she is happy about.

"Sweden is somehow my soul. I wouldn't like to come to Sweden and it would have been the world's damned "hoppla". That's why I think I brought up this interview with Nanna again, that it hurts me that so many people saw a side of me that I'm not, which is a diva."

Rebecca Ferguson on… …to miss large parts of the "Dune" sequel's extensive PR tour:

"I'm filming "Silo" season two so I've only had to jump in now, it was no from my production company Apple because they needed to finish. Considering the strike (in Hollywood), we were behind in the filming. And I have had such FOMO. It's been a hell of a job, and at the same time quite nice, because I get anxiety on all these red carpets, I think it's quite tough."

…combining promotion of “Dune” in Paris with “Silo” recording in the UK:

"I worked during the day, flew into Paris, did interviews, changed, premiere, did the red carpet, then everyone else came, then we took one or two pictures, then I had to jump into the car, take off the corset and everything, jump into gym clothes, get on the train, take the 21 train back to London, drive to the hotel by the studio and then I was there filming all day."

…"Dune" colleague Stellan Skarsgård, whose son Gustaf Skarsgård she also worked with, in the film "We" (2013):

"He has 150 children and his family is so damn cool. God I can see it in him. And I miss Gustaf, I haven't seen him for a long time. They are such a big family and so close."

…”Dune” director Denis Villeneuve:

"He is the best director I have ever worked with. I know that in Sweden we hate the word "normal", but he is adequate, normal and so damn stable. He is calm and it rubs off on others. He doesn't have an ego, he's shy, he's direct, has a plan, he's incredibly prepared, and you don't push him. And it's awesome."

…the collaboration with Villeneuve:

"I'm mischievous, I'm cocky, I talk before I think. When I'm sensitive, I talk. And he likes it. So he and I work great together."

…the Swedish traditions she misses in Great Britain:

"I want to start holding cancer plaques, wearing a hat and the whole choir. Midsummer must be in Sweden. I have to start booking to go over, if you could rent a small house in the archipelago and take friends there and spend midsummer. At Christmas we celebrate twice and mix Swedish and British traditions."

Translated from swedish for @rebeccalouisaferguson

#rebecca ferguson #interview #miscellaneous #denis villeneuve #stellan skarsgard #silo #dune part two #silo interview #dune interview

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weekendwarriorblog · 3 years

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The Weekend Warrior 8/20/21 - REMINISCENCE, PAW PATROL: THE MOVIE, THE PROTÉGÉ, THE NIGHT HOUSE, FLAG DAY, DEMONIC and More

Ugh.

Apparently, we have four or five new wide releases this weekend, just as we get into what I always lovingly referred to as “The Dog Days of Summer.” Thanks to COVID, that could be referring to almost every weekend this summer, but it definitely becomes more true as we get to the end of summer as many kids are returning to school, some of them wearing masks, others social-distancing, some just getting us closer to the herd immunity we were always heading towards… ha ha… that’s one way to see if anyone is even reading this column. Get Political!!

Presumably, the widest release this weekend will be the sci-fi noir, REMINISCENCE (Warner Bros.), starring Hugh Jackman, Thandiwe Newton, and Rebecca Ferguson, which is the feature directorial debut by Lisa Joy, the co-creator of HBO’s popular series, Westworld. Like The Suicide Squad, In the Heights, and every other Warner Bros. movie this year, Reminiscence will be released concurrently on HBO Max this Friday. Unlike any of those other movies, I honestly don’t think anyone will give a shit about getting off their asses to risk COVID in order to see this. And I say that a.) without having seen it; b.) knowing almost nothing about it; c.) not believing the poppycock that movie theaters are the death traps some claim; and d.) I already have a ticket to see it on Friday.

In fact, I almost feel like I shouldn’t do a lot of research into what this movie is about, because despite having seen the trailer a few times, I still have no idea. All I know is that it stars Hugh Jackman, and it’s science-fiction, and that’s enough for me! (I haven’t even watched that much of Westworld beyond the first season for no other reason except that I haven’t.) The plot according to IMDB is, “A scientist discovers a way to relive your past and uses the technology to search for his long lost love.” Good enough for me.

Okay, then, so basically it sounds like a Christopher Nolan movie like Tenet or Inception from a lesser-known director -- who also happens to be Nolan’s sister-in-law, because she’s married to the other Westworld co-creator Jonathan Nolan. See how Hollywood works?

Because of all the Nolan connections, maybe we need to look at something like Transcendence, the 2014 sci-fi thriller directed by Nolan DP Wally Pfister, which starred Johnny Depp, Rebecca Hall (coincidentally), and Paul Bettany. The movie opened in mid-April (a known dumping ground) to about $10.9 million in 3,455 theaters, and then tanked, making just $23 million domestically. (It made about $80 million overseas.) The fact that the title Reminiscence bears more similarity to Pfister’s movie brings another level of foreboding.

At the time, Depp hadn’t completely destroyed his career, and he still had a few bit hits under his belt, including Into the Woods and his final Pirates of the Caribbean movie in 2017, as well as Murder on the Orient Express. Jackman, on the other hand, is still in a better place career-wise, although he still owes much of his career to playing Wolverine in the X-Men movies for nearly two decades. He’s had one significant hit since Logan’s swan song, fittingly enough in 2017’s Logan, which grossed $226.3 million domestically. That was the PT Barnum musical, The Greatest Showman, which made $174.3 million over the holidays that same year, and that really centered around Jackman as a leading man. His next movie, the Gary Hart movie, The Front Runner, didn’t fare very well (less than $2 million gross), nor did the animated Missing Link, although the latter did get an Oscar nomination. The question is whether Jackman can do much to get moviegoers into an original science fiction movie with his mere presence.

Even the rest of the cast that includes Ferguson from Tom Cruise’s Mission: Impossible movies, Newton from… well, another one of Tom Cruise’s Mission: Impossible movies, and Daniel Wu from the series Into the Badlands and the most recent Tomb Raider movie. Again, take these three out of a franchise and who knows if there’s really much left?

I’m not even sure how many theaters Warner Bros. is releasing… sorry, I hate spelling out the title of this movie… into, but I have a feeling it won’t be that much more than 3,000, especially with the movie being readily available on HBO Max and all the week’s other movies being theatrical only.

Because of that, I’m very dubious about this movie making $10 million this weekend. In fact, I’m not even sure it can make $8 million this weekend. No, I’m probably going to go closer to $6 to 7 million on this, and even that might be overly optimistic.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to see Reminiscence in advance, so we'll just have to see what other critics who see it think about it. I’m not really expecting it to get too many good reviews, since it seems like the kind of movie that critics go to see begrudgingly, because they were assigned to see it, more than having any interest in it. And I was right.

On the other hand, I’ve already been seeing rave reviews about the animated PAW PATROL: THE MOVIE (Paramount), which I also haven’t seen, and in fact, I can guarantee that I will never see it. Why? Because I don’t have kids. Nor will I ever have kids. Nor do I know anything about this other than it’s about police dogs?

In fact, opening in 2,700 theaters, I wouldn’t be surprised if this rare G-rated movie ends up winning the weekend, or at least comes in second to Free Guy, despite many kids being back in school, kids being unvaccinated and more likely to get COVID by going to movie theaters, etc. etc.

If you can’t tell, I’m writing this while on a mini-vacation and I’m kind of in a “I just don’t give a shit” kind of mood right now, but as I said, I don’t have kids, and the only reason I know what “Paw Patrol” is because the people I know who have kids seem to know of the movie’s existence. Maybe even some of them will take their kids to see it or at least wait until it’s on Paramount+, which you know is coming.

I’m going with this making somewhere around $8 million this weekend, taking second place behind Free Guy, which should continue to do well with little other direct competition.

On the other, other hand (I have three arms, you know), I have had a chance to see the action flick, THE PROTÉGÉ (Lionsgate), directed by Martin Campbell of Casino Royale acclaim and Green Lantern… what’s the opposite of acclaim? That.

The movie stars Samuel L. Jackson and Michael Keaton, but more importantly, it stars… the awesome Maggie Q from Mission: Impossible III! (See a pattern in this week’s Weekend Warrior?) Most will probably know Ms. Q from her run as Nikita on the show of the same name, and she’s definitely back in that mode for this action-thriller in which she plays an assassin looking for the killer of her mentor (Jackson) which puts her at odds with another assassin, played by Keaton. I loved the fact that Maggie appeared in three very different movies last year from Sony/Blumhouse’s Fantasy Island and two other movies that ended up going to VOD, but the former of these shamefully opened with just $12.3 million over Valentine’s weekend and then it quickly got destroyed, first by the release of Blumhouse’s The Invisible Man in its third weekend and then by COVID, because theaters shut down in its fourth weekend. It made less than $50 million worldwide, which is a shame, because I actually liked it.

This is another case where I don’t know how many theaters it’s getting, although I do know reviews are embargoed until sometime Thursday evening, which is never a good sign, and actually, I can’t even tell you if I liked it or hated it until then, so… I guess we’ll have to go blind on this one, assuming Lionsgate will dump it into around 2,300 theaters with very little promotion. Even though action has been faring well this year, I have a feeling this will struggle to make $3 million this weekend.

Mini-Review: As I’ve probably mentioned, I love Maggie Q whenever she’s in any movie, but she’s particularly good in this sort of action role that requires a little more of a dramatic touch than we’d normally get from a man in this type of role. Sure, we can be slightly worried when there’s a movie with a female lead both written and directed by men, and some of those worries are founded, but Ms. Q always finds a way to bring more to her roles, and that’s the case here as well.

The general plot is that her Anna is an assassin and when her mentor Moody (Jackson) is murdered, she sets out to find his killer or killers, which brings her back to Vietnam where she runs headlong into another known as Rembrandt, played by Michael Keaton. At the same time, Moody has set Anna on a mission to find a boy whose father was assassinated 30 years earlier, as she learns that the two things are connected.

Written by Richard Wenk, who has quite a bit of experience with this sort of action movie, having written Denzel’s The Equalizer movies, as well as a few of The Expendables movies, he gives the movie enough story and characterization to separate it from the normal trashy action movie where that stuff isn’t important. For instance, giving Maggie’s Anna a full backstory with Samuel L. Jackson’s Moody, her blues guitar-playing mentor, or having her be interested in books and running a bookstore.

Unfortunately, the movie is kind of erratic, comical sometimes but deadly serious for the most part and the flirtatious relationship between Anna and Keaton’s character leads to some super cringe-worthy moments. While the action and fight choreography is pretty solid, the fact that 69-year-old Keaton doesn’t seem to be doing much of the actual fighting is a little too obvious. (Is he trying to be Liam Neeson now?) The way the violent fighting leads the two of them into bed also feels problematic. I generally abhor any sort of violence against women, but at least Maggie Q makes her character look super-tough and able to handle anything.

I wasn’t as keen on the film’s multiple twists in the ending or the flashback to Anna’s past, which seems to come far too late in the movie. In general, women are going to HATE this movie and I know exactly why, but men will probably enjoy it for just as many obvious reasons. All-in-all, it’s not a terrible throwback action movie that only sometimes goes off the rails. Rating: 6.5/10

Next, we have another highly-acclaimed horror film that played back at the Sundance Film Festival back in 2020 (like the recent Nine Days) with David (The Ritual) Bruckner’s THE NIGHT HOUSE (Searchlight Pictures), starring Rebecca Hall as Beth, a teacher whose husband Owen shot himself but not after designing and building their house on the lake. Shortly afterwards, weird things start happening and Beth thinks the house is haunting, but then she discovers a mysterious mirror image on the other side of the lake, and things start getting even weirder.

Definitely don’t want to say too much about this, because whether you like it or not might rely on whether you like the twist(s) in the movie, and I’m not sure that average moviegoers will like them as much as the type of person that goes to the Sundance Film Festival.

Hall is one of my favorite actors, because I feel she can do anything but she’s also very underrated. I mean, she can play a role in Iron Man 3 (one of the best things about that movie) or a movie like Transcendence (mentioned above) or Godzilla vs. King Kong or do comedy like ...um… Holmes and Watson, if anyone would consider that “comedy.” What she hasn’t been able to do is really get people out to theaters with her presence, although one of her more successful non-Marvel movies was Joel Edgerton’s The Gift, and she’s done a couple other good thrillers.

On top of that, the movie is still sitting pretty with 90% on Rotten Tomatoes, which makes one wonder if Sundance buzz is able to transcend the 20-month gap since a movie’s premiere, and Nine Days seems to say otherwise. Another thing going in The Night House’s favor is that there’s been quite a bit of horror movies in recent months, which means this trailer has played in front of a lot of them.

I’m not really sure why Searchlight didn’t put this concurrently on their streaming partner Hulu, but maybe they’re giving theatrical another chance even with COVID still being a concern to many, but maybe not the fan of horror who might want a little escapism. This is only opening in about 2,000 theaters, and I think that might make it tough for it to make more than $3 or 4 million.

Mini-Review: Like with Maggie Q above, Rebecca Hall is an actress who I honestly think can do no wrong. Therefore, David Bruckner’s thriller might already have a bit of an advantage, because I assumed (correctly) that this movie will feature a lot of the filmmaker’s camera trained on her at all times capturing her every emotion, every fear and facial twitch.

As mentioned above, I don’t want to say too much about the plot beyond what you can easily watch in the trailer, but this is only partially the movie you might be expecting. Sure, there’s a good amount of eerie creepiness as Hall’s character tries to find whatever is haunting her house after her husband’s suicide, as well as discovering the identical house that may or may not be in a dream. (It's that kind of movie.)

Much of the film is kind of slow and mopey, and even funny in a weird way, since Hall’s character seems to be going crazy and her behavior (and performance) is quite erratic because of it. Think of it a bit as if you can imagine Hall going into crazy Nicholas Cage moments over the course of the movie or acting that way towards her friends, including Sarah Goldberg’s Claire, who always seems to be saying the wrong thing around her BFF.

One of the things that tends to work about Bruckner’s film is that you’re never quite sure what exactly is happening, but it keeps you interested enough to want to know where it might be going. The other great thing that works even moreso is the film’s amazing score and sound design that helps to keep the viewer on edge through all of the film’s ups and downs.

As the film went along, I presumed correctly that there would probably be some sort of semi-inane M. Night Shyamalan twist, and in some ways, I was right. I certainly didn’t hate the twist when it showed up (or the second or third twist), but I know plenty of fans of more straight-ahead (translation: bad) horror that might be thrown off and even perturbed by so many twists.

The Night House may ultimately be too smart or clever for its own good, since it’s being sold as a straight-ahead ghost story with the twist of this mirror house, but that’s really something that’s very much only on the surface. Any problems with the movie are countered by the fact that Hall is just so good at selling its strange concept.

Rating: 7/10

Lastly, there’s Sean Penn’s film FLAG DAY (MGM), which may or may not get a wide release -- I'm going to guess not, but just in case it does, I might try to figure out how it might do. It tells the story of lifelong criminal and con-man Jon Vogel (Penn) as seen through the eyes of his journalist daughter Jessica (Penn's daughter, Dylan Penn). Based on Jessica Vogel's book "Flim-Flam Man: The True Story of My Father’s Counterfeit Life,” the movie covers Jessica's entire life from when her father left her and her brother Nick (played later by Hopper Penn) and mother Patty (Kathryn Winnick) through her own troubled life to when she takes back her life to succeed as a journalist. Also starring Josh Brolin, Dale Dickey, Regina King (blink and you'll miss her), Eddie Marsan and more, it's opening on Friday.

Without knowing whether Flag Day actually is getting any sort of wide release or will just be put into a few hundred theaters, but as you'll read in my review below, it's a very strange movie for MGM (or rather, United Artists Releasing) to have picked up before it premiered at Cannes, because it's just not that great, and it certainly isn't something that might do well in a wide release. Even if somehow MGM gets this movie into 1,000 theaters this weekend, I’m not convinced it can make a million dollars, because I just don’t think many if any people really know about it. Maybe it didn’t turn out to be the awards contender MGM hoped to release it later in the year, but it’s also strange for it to be opening a week after Respect, which I expect to do quite well in its second weekend. I’m just going to assume this will be in a few hundred theaters, and that’s about it.

Mini-Review: I really didn't know much about this movie going into it, other than the fact that it was directed by Penn, co-starred his daughter Dylan, as well as his son, Hopper. (Okay, maybe I didn’t know that last part.) What I didn’t know was that it was about a notorious counterfeiter named Jon Vogel, as seen through the eyes of his journalist daughter Jessica, and as with most of these type of memoir adaptations, it’s only going to be as interesting as how the story is told.

Penn has proven himself to be a decent filmmaker and storyteller, but here, he’s going for something arty that’s almost Terrence Malick-like at times, but needlessly so, because it just feels like he’s trying to make up for the flaws in the story by throwing in things like shaky camera work, overusing voice-over narrative and frequently leans on its soundtrack to try to make up for the weak storytelling.

On the other hand, if Penn was trying to create a great showcase for his daughter Dylan, Flag Day does a great job doing just that, and when you first see her on screen, you might be thrown off by how much she looks like her mother Robin Wright when she was much younger. It’s somewhat interesting to note that Sean Penn has never appeared in a movie he directed, which is only odd because you would think that being in scenes with other actors would make it easier to direct them. (I learned that from Jason Bateman, oddly.) In fact, the very best moments in Flag Day are those between Penn and his daughter, although there's still a lot of overacting and melodrama.

Honestly, I’ve met people like Jon Vogel, who are just constantly trying to make money however they can without worrying about who they hurt with their dishonesty. Because of this, I couldn’t fully get behind the father-daughter aspect of the story vs. just being interested in Jessica’s own personal growth.

In other words, maybe Flag Day should have been prefaced by "Based on a Dull Story,” because it just never really connected with me even though there were a scattered few moments that worked.

Rating: 5/10

Presuming that Flag Day isn’t going nationwide into over 500 theaters (and even if it does, it won’t be in the Top 10), here’s what the Top 10 should look like.

1. Free Guy (20th Century/Disney) - $15 million -47%

2. Paw Patrol: The Movie (Paramount) - $8.4 million N/A

3. Reminiscence (Warner Bros.) - $6.2 million N/A

4. Jungle Cruise (Walt Disney Pictures) - $5 million -45%

4. Respect (MGM) - $4.8 million -45%

5. Don’t Breathe 2 (Sony/Screen Gems) - $4.6 million -57%

7. The Night House (Searchlight) - $3.3 million N/A

8. The Suicide Squad (Warner Bros.) - $3.2 million -57%

9. The Protege (Lionsgate) - $2.6 million N/A

10. Old (Universal) - $1.4 million -41%

District 9 director Neil Blomkamp returns with the horror film, DEMONIC (IFC Midnight), in which Carly Pope plays Carly Spenser, who learns her estranged mother Angela (Nathalie Boltt) who disappeared years earlier is now in a coma, although new technology has been created as therapy that will allow Carly to enter her mother's brain and communicate with her. What could possibly go wrong? I mean, read the title and take one effin’ guess.

I went into this one fairly hopeful that maybe Blomkamp had figured out a way of getting out of director’s jail after the last few duds by essentially going the M. Night Shyamalan route i.e. making a super low-budget horror movie without stars that can let him show people that District 9 wasn’t a fluke. But unfortunately, kids, Demonic does the exact opposite, because it’s one of those horrible high concept tech-driven horror movies (not unlike the Blumhouse model) that gets so bogged down in a premise that should thrive on its simplicity that it just fails to keep the viewer entertained, let alone scared.

As soon as Carly enters the mindscape that is her mother’s brain, you know you’re in trouble, because it looks like a scratched DVD or an old video game that’s gotten dirty and is now skipping or crashing just as you’re almost past the hardest level. Yeah, it’s that kind of movie, and after Carly’s first horrific experience in her mother’s brain -- I mean, just writing that and knowing my own mother makes this a scary idea -- you wonder why she’d go back and do it again.

On top of that, there’s just so much exposition with Carly talking about her mother’s disappearance, but before you can get bored, something weird happens like her best friend turns into some weird creature and gets pulled into the mix of whatever is possessing Carly’s mother. I won’t say too much more, because like with The Night House above, you shouldn’t know too much. Unlike that movie, as you learn more, you become more annoyed with the whole idea.

Then on top of that, Pope just isn’t a particularly dynamic actress, so she does little to elevate the weak material, and when her dumb-ass BFF shows up at 3 in the morning, the banter between them is so cringeworthy, you might wonder who wrote this crap. (Surprise: Blomkamp did, so he can’t even blame how bad this movie is on the script.) There’s also what looks like a scary chicken, which just makes the whole thing more laughable than scary.

Demonic is a truly awful movie, taking Blomkamp further down the spiral of a filmmaker that was obviously a one-trick pony and doesn’t seem to be able to prove otherwise.

Rating: 4/10

Now available on digital is Gracie Otto’s documentary, UNDER THE VOLCANO (Universal Pictures Content Group), which premiered at the SXSW Film Festival in March, and I absolutely loved it, though that shouldn’t be too much of a surprise to anyone who knows about my background working in recording studios. The doc is in fact about the Air Studios Montserrat that the late Sir George Martin built in the Caribbean in the ‘70s where some amazing artists like The Police, Duran Duran, Mark Knopfler and others recorded some of the classic rock records of the ‘80s. Of course, like the movie Rockfield: The Studio on the Farm about Rockfield Studios in Wales, I’m a complete suck for these movies about legendary recording studios where great music was recorded, because it feeds one of my primary interests in life: music and specifically the history of rock music. I’m actually going to have an interview with the filmmakers over at Below the Line sometime soon, so you can read a lot more about the movie then.

Because I was away this weekend, I wasn't able to get to any of these. Sorry, publicists!

ON BROADWAY (Kino Lorber) MA BELLE, MY BEAUTY (Good Deed Entertainment) BARBARA LEE: SPEAKING TRUTH TO POWER (Greenwich) CONFETTI (Dada Filims) CRYPTOZOO (Magnolia) COLLUSIONS (Vertical) Next week, we're back to just a single new wide release -- thank you, God! -- and it's the Universal/Blumhouse remake of the cult horror classic, CANDYMAN.

Incidentally, I couldn’t write this column weekly without the fantastic data found at The-Numbers.com. The site continues to maintain one of the best box office databases on the internet, and I appreciate that being available to us.

#The Weekend Warrior #Reminiscence #Paw Patrol #Flag Day #The Night House #Demonic #The Protege #Movies #Reviews #box office

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rebeccalouisaferguson · 3 years

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"I always just rode the waves,” Rebecca Ferguson says with a shrug. The comment hangs in the air, as if the Anglo-Swedish 37-year-old is only now processing that a combination of currents and tides has led her not just to an acting career but to the brink of big-screen stardom.

“I’ve never been ambitious,” she says. “I’ve always thought that that was a bad thing.” She’s seen others in the industry consumed by constant striving and asked herself why she hasn’t hungered for fame since childhood, slept in cars outside castings, barged into directors’ offices or thrown herself in the path of a producer. “But should I not be burning for this? Out meeting people and networking for the next job?” says Ferguson, who has chosen the sort of quiet, private life outside the big city that so many actors claim to crave. “My life just took another turn. But I’ve always thought: Am I where I should be?”

At the moment, on this late July day, Ferguson is slumped in the backseat of a Mercedes-Benz sedan, crawling through rush-hour traffic on the M4 out of London. She is capping off a hectic week during a particularly busy period. Most immediately, she’s coming from a table read for Wool, the Apple TV+ adaptation of Hugh Howey’s bestselling postapocalyptic trilogy. Ferguson is both the star and, for the first time, an executive producer. “I’m sitting in all the different rooms, listening and learning like the students,” she says. She’s filming Mission: Impossible 7, her third tour of duty in the long-running series that first brought her widespread recognition. She’s also promoting the film Reminiscence, the sci-fi noir written and directed by Westworld co-creator Lisa Joy in which Ferguson stars opposite Hugh Jackman. And now she is starting a press push and festival prep for her role as Lady Jessica ahead of the much-delayed release of Dune (in theaters October 22), director Denis Villeneuve’s reimagining of Frank Herbert’s novel. “After this film, I think everyone will see what I see in her,” the filmmaker says. “She has a beautiful, regal, aristocratic presence, elegance. But that was not the main thing: The most important thing for me was that depth.”

After tracing a long, meandering path, Ferguson has landed in a rare and rarified position: ascendant in her late 30s (still an anomaly for women in the film industry) and sought after by some of the biggest names in the business. “When you meet Rebecca, you just see it. She’s very open, candid, collaborative, hardworking, funny—and not pretentious,” says Tom Cruise, who handpicked Ferguson to star opposite him in the Mission: Impossiblefilms, which are known for their demanding shoots. “She just rose to the occasion every single time.”

In February 2020, when the pandemic began, Ferguson left Venice, where she’d been shooting Mission: Impossible 7, and hunkered down with her husband, their 3-year-old daughter and Ferguson’s 14-year-old son from a previous relationship at their farm in Sweden. After four months, Ferguson returned to the M:I set and basically hasn’t stopped working since.

Dune has sat idle for far longer. By the time the movie premieres, more than two years will have passed since it wrapped. Ferguson recently asked to screen the film again: “I miss it,” she says. She ended up bringing along her Mission: Impossible co-star Simon Pegg. After the credits rolled, Pegg broke into a smile and wrapped her in a congratulatory bear hug. “That’s all I needed,” she says.

Despite being a sci-fi epic based on a novel from 1965, Dune feels “very timely,” Ferguson says, pointing to its handling of environmental issues, religious zealotry, colonialism and Indigenous rights. The plot of the film, which cost an estimated $165 million, centers on occupying powers battling for the right to exploit a people and their planet, named Arrakis, for melange (or spice)—the most valuable commodity in Herbert’s fictional universe, a substance that provides transcendental thought, extends life and enables instantaneous interstellar travel. “Spice,” Ferguson says, “is equally about the poppy and oil fields.”

Ferguson’s Lady Jessica is a member of the Bene Gesserit, a powerful secretive sisterhood with superhuman mental abilities. She defies her order by giving birth to a son, Paul (played by Timothée Chalamet), who may be a messianic figure. “She basically just f—s up the entire universe by having a son out of love,” says Ferguson. In her hands, Jessica is equal parts caring parent, protector and pedagogue. Among the skills she wields and teaches Paul is “the Voice”—a modulated tone that allows the speaker to control others.

The movie was shot in Norway, Hungary, Jordan and Abu Dhabi, whose desert landscape stood in for Arrakis. Filming there was particularly arduous, as temperatures exceeded 120 degrees Fahrenheit, limiting the shoot window to only an hour and a half each day at 5 a.m. and again at dusk. “We were running across the sand in our steel suits being chased by nonexistent but humongous worms,” Ferguson recalls, referring to the sand-beasts later rendered in CGI. “To be honest, it was one of the best moments ever. It was the most beautiful location I’ve ever seen.”

Back in London, Ferguson is approaching home. She leaves the following day for a small town on the coast of England, where she plans to spend her first vacation in two years and to do some surfing. “Let’s hope it’s good weather,” she says. “If not, I’ll surf in the rain.” Not that she’s the sort to paddle out into storm swells. “I think I’ve managed to stand on a board once in my entire life,” she says. “But it was quite a high. Complete surrender to the waves and total control all at once.”

Born Rebecca Louisa Ferguson Sundström to an English mother and Swedish father, Ferguson grew up bilingual in Stockholm. She immersed herself in dance from a young age, enjoying ballet, jazz, street funk and tango. Despite being shy and prone to blushing and breaking out when forced to speak publicly, Ferguson found she was at ease in front of the camera. She dabbled in modeling and then, at 15, attended a TV casting call at her mother’s urging. Ferguson ended up getting the lead role in Nya Tider (New Times), a soap opera that became wildly popular, splashing Ferguson’s face into Swedish homes five times a week.

When her role ended about two years later, Ferguson was adrift. She had no formal acting training to fall back on, no clear sense of how to steer a career and no major connections to the industry. She had a short run on another soap and appeared in a slasher flick and a couple of independent shorts, then…nothing. “I was famous in Sweden, but I didn’t really have an income anymore,” she says. “So I went and I worked in whatever job I could get.” That meant stints at a daycare center and as a nanny, in a jewelry shop and a shoe store, as well as teaching tango, cleaning hotel rooms and waitressing at a Korean restaurant. She eventually landed in a small coastal town named Simrishamn, where she lived with her then-partner and their toddler son, content to be a where-are-they-now celebrity.

When fame again came calling, Ferguson ran away. She was at the flea market when she recognized the acclaimed Swedish director Richard Hobert, and he saw her. As he shouted her name, Ferguson grabbed her son, who lost his shoes and sausage, and fled. “I panicked,” she says. “I don’t know why.” When Hobert eventually caught up to her, Ferguson tried to act nonchalant as he proceeded to tell her he’d admired her work and pitched her on the lead role in his next movie: “I’ve written this role, and I think I have written it for you. Do you want to read the script?”

Her work in Hobert’s A One-Way Trip to Antibes earned her a Rising Star nomination at the Stockholm International Film Festival. She quickly got an agent in Scandinavia, then one in Britain. On her first trip to take meetings in London, she read for the lead in The White Queen, the BBC adaptation of Philippa Gregory’s historical novels about the women behind the Wars of the Roses. Ferguson got the part, and her portrayal of Elizabeth Woodville, queen consort of England, earned her a Golden Globe nomination and the admiration of at least one Hollywood heavyweight.

Ferguson was in the Moroccan desert filming the Lifetime biblical miniseries The Red Tentwhen the assistant director whisked her off her camel. “We’re going to have to pause shooting,” he said as he asked her to dismount. “Tom Cruise wants to meet you for Mission: Impossible. We’re going to fly you off today.”

Cruise had seen Ferguson’s work in The White Queen and her audition tape and couldn’t believe she wasn’t already a major star. “What? Where has this woman been?” Cruise recalls exclaiming to his new Mission: Impossible director Christopher McQuarrie. “She’s incredibly skilled,” Cruise says, “very charismatic, very expressive. As you can tell, the camera loves her.” Ferguson landed a multi-picture deal to star opposite Cruise in the multibillion-dollar franchise. He and McQuarrie built out the role of Ilsa Faust for Ferguson, creating the anti-Bond girl, an equal to Cruise’s Ethan Hunt. “We could just see the impact she could have,” he says. “She’s a dancer. She has great control of her body, of her movements. She has the same ability to move through emotions effortlessly.”

Ferguson threw herself into the films and quickly found a shorthand with the cast and crew. “There was a dynamic that worked very well with all of us,” she says. “One of the things I absolutely love is doing all the stunts.” That physicality has given her a reputation as an action-minded actor. “It doesn’t matter that I’ve done 20 other films where I don’t kick ass,” Ferguson says. “Mission comes with such an enormous following. That was what made my career.”

Ferguson’s M: I movies bracket a number of films in which she played opposite marquee names: Florence Foster Jenkins, with Meryl Streep and Hugh Grant; The Girl on the Train, with Emily Blunt; The Greatest Showman, with Hugh Jackman and Michelle Williams; Life, with Jake Gyllenhaal and Ryan Reynolds; Men in Black: International, with Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson; The Snowman, with Michael Fassbender; Doctor Sleep, with Ewan McGregor. And now Dune, opposite Oscar Isaac, Javier Bardem, Zendaya and Chalamet, whom she calls “one of the best actors, if not the best actor of his generation—of this time.” She was similarly impressed by Zendaya, who plays the native Fremen warrior Chani. “She’s quite raw and naughty and fun,” says Ferguson. “She has an enormous f— off attitude.”

When Ferguson first spoke to Villeneuve about appearing in the movie, “he started telling me about this woman who was a protector, and a mother, and a lover, and a concubine,” she recalls. “I was like, ‘I’m sorry. You want me to play a queen and a bodyguard? And you want me to kick ass and walk regally?’ I was like, ‘Denis, why would I want to do that? That’s the last thing I want to do.’ ”

After the call, Ferguson says, “I went downstairs to my hubby and said, Oh, my God, he’s amazing, but I’m not going to get the job. I just criticized the character.” Ferguson worried she was being cast as a stereotypical “strong female character,” where “it’s constantly, ‘She looks good, and she can kick.’ That is not what I want to portray.”

Ferguson hasn’t always been able to work with collaborators who’ve given her the space to question or opine. “I’ve been bashed down. I’ve been bullied,” she says, though she opts not to say by whom. That was never a concern with Villeneuve, who welcomed her critique. He and his co-writers had already decided from the start to make women the focus of their screenplay adaptation, and he promptly offered her the part.

“I want Lady Jessica to be at the center, the forefront. For me, she’s the architect of the story,” Villeneuve says. “I needed someone who will convey the mystery and the dark side of the film in a very elegant and profound way. Rebecca was everything I was hoping for. She’s so precise. She brought a beautiful, controlled vulnerability—it becomes very visceral on-screen.”

Ferguson vaguely recalls trying to watch the 1984 version of Dune, directed by David Lynch, in her youth, but she fell asleep. And she had never opened Herbert’s novel until being offered the part in the new adaptation. As she dug into the book, she says, she learned that her character was subservient and far more like a concubine, forced to eat alone in her bedroom, not spoken to and not allowed to speak. Ferguson ended up relying primarily on Villeneuve for her research and prep—his notes and comments, his references and the pages in the book he suggested she focus on. “I would feel ignorant not to have read Frank’s book at all,” Ferguson says, though she admits there are parts of the sprawling novel (which Villeneuve is splitting into two films) she’s only skimmed. “I have to finish it.” That will not happen on her upcoming vacation, however. “Absolutely not,” she says “I am surfing.”

By the way, if you saw, I am snaking on the ground, snaking around my room to get good Wi-Fi—it’s not some dance or yoga thing,” Ferguson says. “You have to do that in this old house.” It’s a week and a half after our first meeting, and Ferguson is at her new home, a more than 500-year-old property southwest of London that has, over the years, been home to numerous English Royals. It’s more spartan than stately now. “Empty except for a rock star,” she says, turning her phone’s camera to reveal a framed duotone poster of Mick Jagger that’s leaning against the wall. “We haven’t even started renovating.

Ferguson has returned from her holiday fortified and with renewed confidence, thanks in part to her success on the surfboard. “I went up nearly every time,” she says cheerfully, “but the waves weren’t very high.” She shrugs. “I was proud. I was up. I rode them, not the other way around.”

After years of going with the flow, Ferguson is eager to replicate that sense of control in her career. She values her role as an executive producer on Wool, she says, “because I am, for the first time, a part of it from the beginning.” She relishes weighing in on every aspect, from casting (the show recently added Tim Robbins) to cinematography to her character—which has not always been easy for her. “Why do I feel it’s difficult to speak up? I still battle with these things,” she says. Alluding to those times she was pushed around in the past, Ferguson says, “I was angry, but it was more me getting off at ‘How can I let that happen? Why am I letting myself react this way?’ And I take it with me to the next thing where I go, ‘OK, how do I stop that from happening?’ ”

She is learning that she can ride on top of waves without giving up her agency or maybe just let them break against her. “I want to feel I can go home and think, That was a hard day or that pissed me off—and that’s OK,” Ferguson says, with a nod and tight smile. “Because I still stood there as Rebecca. I didn’t shift.”

#rebecca ferguson #interview #dune interview #mi7 interview #wool interview #tom cruise #denis villeneuve #mission impossible #dune 2021

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rebeccalouisaferguson · 3 years

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After joining the Mission Impossible saga, the Anglo-Swedish actress stars in "Dune", the new film by Denis Villeneuve. Even as she tries to experiment with new roles, almost every part of her, whether it's action or science fiction, represents strong characters. After all, she admits, this is "an excellent time to be a woman in the film industry."

Perhaps she is the best secondary character in “Dune”, Denis Villeneuve's film based on the famous science fiction novel by Frank Herbert. Mother of the protagonist, concubine of his father, Lady Jessica Atreides is also part of an esoteric female secret society that points to the birth of the messiah. By definition, in short, her story does not revolve around her: she is in the back, moves in the shadows while her son evolves and understands the greatness of his destiny. "When I read the script I was afraid of becoming just a teapot," Rebecca Ferguson says in an interview.

The idea of becoming the equivalent of an object of surrender did not win her over. "Then I understood its depth." For her, the 38-year-old Swedish-English queen of the blockbuster, since 2015 a regular presence in the "Mission Impossible" franchise and committed in 2021 to other sci-fi thrillers such as "Reminiscence" together with Hugh Jackman, this is «an excellent time to be a woman in the film industry, ” she said: the roles are more interesting and she considers herself lucky. “Lady Jessica is a strong character. Her complexity lies in the fact that it is she who with her choices gives rise to chaos and pays the consequences, even putting her son's life at risk ».

The landing in the universe of "Dune", together with other actors of the caliber of Timothée Chamelet, Javier Bardem, Jason Momoa and Zendaya, is the natural outcome of her career, played on the vein of science fiction, action and thriller. The blockbuster is its dimension: after some successful Swedish fiction ("Ok, I'm a famous soap opera actress in my country. And now?") she comes on the wave of the Nordic hype instigated by the books of Stieg Larsson. On the BBC she plays an unscrupulous noblewoman in “The White Queen”, a 2013 miniseries and soon after is noticed by Tom Cruise. "When they called me to tell me he wanted to talk to me I was in Morocco, in the middle of the desert, riding a camel named Barbie."

For her, who had made her debut in Stockholm with a career as a model (immediately finished with it), along with years of dancing and singing, the path is drawn: she is an Mi6 English spy in "Rogue Nation" in 2015, she does not change her role but only nationality in "Despite The Falling Snow", in 2016, returns to singing in "Florence Foster Jenkins" and dabbles in the psychological thriller with "The Girl on the Train". At that point she tries science fiction with "Life", in 2017 and she returns to the psychological thriller as a very independent policewoman in "The Snowman". The following year she is still in "Mission: Impossible - Fallout", in which she returns surprisingly in the role of Ilsa Faust and we notice how sentimental feelings develop between her and the character of Tom Cruise (she herself, she says, had a crush on the American actor as a little girl, like millions of her peers. Unlike them, she will be able to confess it to him as a colleague).

Against all her expectations, Rebecca Ferguson also works on a horror film ("Genre I've never loved"), but with "Men in Black" signs another deal in "Mission: Impossible", which will be released in theaters in 2022 and books "Dune". Each time she jumps from one role to another, being careful to avoid characterizations and stereotypes. Almost. “When Denis [Villeneuve] introduced Jessica's character as 'strong woman, we see the film through her', I thought, 'Oh no, she's like Ilsa Faust and all the other queens I've played.' How can I get out of it? "

Some compare her, given her nationality, to Ingrid Bergman, but she prefers a comparison with Isabelle Huppert because "she is unpredictable". For this she tried to tear apart the idea of the femme fatale in "Reminiscence" and for this she gave more depth to Lady Jessica, trying to highlight the contradictions of an unscrupulous matriarch who suffers from the choices she imposes on the others. If it worked, we will see in the second part of "Dune" when it arrives.

translated from Italian for @rebeccalouisaferguson

#interview #rebecca ferguson #dune interview

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rebeccalouisaferguson · 3 years

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Dune actress Rebecca Ferguson: "What happened to me is unusual"

It's in the middle of summer when I meet Rebecca Ferguson via Zoom, she's in a hotel room in London, I'm on holiday in northern Uppland. It is said that the interview will take place in English, which feels very odd, especially as we have known each other for ten years. Do you want from the production company to keep track of what she says? Do you think that in Swedish I should ask improper questions? I do not know, but okay then, we do the interview in English instead of starting to fuss.

The production company just mentioned is behind the current feature film Dune. It's a sci-fi movie with a complicated plot, so we'll leave it there. However, we can talk about the fact that in the film she plays the mother of Timothée Chalamet (known from the hit Call me by your name), who in reality is twelve years younger than she is. Rebecca is silent for a few seconds and then says:

- You know, magic on screen magic.

Another costar is Stellan Skarsgård, who plays a grotesquely fat evil man. I tell her that Stellan has seen the film and that he says that Rebecca is brilliant in the role.

- Oh my God. He. Stellan's game. His appearance, he is grotesque, strangely sexual and beautiful. He's amazing!

Rebecca is now used to playing against not only Swedish icons, but also against megastars such as Tom Cruise, Hugh Jackman, Meryl Streep, Hugh Grant, Michael Fassbender and Emily Blunt. It is difficult to understand that just ten years ago she considered giving up her acting career - she lived in Simrishamn, had been in the TV soap Nia Tider and made small roles in some movies. A random meeting at a market in his hometown changed everything.

Director Richard Hobert was looking for an actress for his upcoming film A One-Way Trip To Antibes. He writes in an email:

"There is a shimmer around Rebecca, a charisma that makes her appear in a crowd. That was when I suddenly saw her among all the tourists at a flea market in Simrishamn in the summer of 2011. It was a strange experience because I had searched in my memory for several weeks for the name of a young unknown actress that I saw in a TV soap a few years earlier and captured by. I was convinced that she would be right for the female lead in A One Way Trip to Antibes. And then she suddenly stood in front of me in the market. After a audition, the role was undoubtedly hers."

The film received good reviews, a foreign agent caught the eye of Rebecca and not too long after that she had tested for and got the lead role in the BBC series The white queen. Result: a Golden Globe nomination and a career abroad that began to go straight up with rocket speed. She got the female lead in Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation. Anyone who has seen her enter that film wearing a long, yellow dress will not forget it, nor her contribution to the film's action scenes. Great success - and for the first time, a female actress returned in the next Mission impossible film. Mission impossible: Fallout was also a great success, and sometime in the next year comes Mission impossible 7, where Rebecca will return again. She will also be in MI: 8.

- I do not know when that shooting will begin. The pandemic has meant that the seven is not quite ready yet, and once it is, many will probably need a long break before they start filming again, she says.

Ten years ago she lived in Simrishamn with her partner Ludwig and their son Isac. She had bought an old windmill, which she wanted to restore. When she and Ludwig separated, he kept the mill, and Rebecca bought a large farm with large plots of land that year. At that time she told me:

- I buy old things that fit into the house and I build there. I love working with my hands, but it's hard to find antique floorboards. And it's expensive.

But now she has sold the farm.

- It was very sad to have to do it, but I'm at the wrong age and I do not live there. I was simply not ready to buy a big house and lots of land, it should be owned by someone who really lives there. My plans were to create a farm, but I'm not there.

Rebecca about moving to London with her new family

- I love Simrishamn, my son lives there and I have a place in the city. But now London is my home.

With her family, husband Rory (his last name is still unknown and asked about his profession, she has answered "entrepreneur") and daughter Saga, Rebecca lives in Richmond, a affluent neighborhood close to the garden mecca Kew Gardens, the Thames and Pinewood Studios where many movies recorded.

- Previously, I had to live in an apartment in Notting Hill, but I am not a city person. In Richmond I have the park and I often rent a boat and go out and row on the Thames.

How does she view her "journey" today, from thinking about giving up on a career to being a sought-after world star a decade later?

- What happened to me is unusual. But I rarely stop and think. I'm moving forward. I'm lucky enough to get great deals and they take time. I never thought this would be possible, but it has just continued. I'm lucky to have this much work.

During the pandemic, she has both worked and been free (the recording of MI: 7 was shut down for five weeks). She has visited Sweden, she has lived at home in Richmond. Filming with all the restrictions it entailed has been "inconvenient".

- Very impersonal, very much packed in plastic. But it's a pandemic. We have been able to film. I do not complain. I do not understand how people dare to complain. We are lucky, we have a job. I have basically been filming since August last year, with MI: 7 and with extra scenes for Dune. And now you and I can sit here and talk to each other, though not in the same room, and create memories.

translated from swedish for @rebeccalouisaferguson

#rebecca ferguson #interview #dune interview #mi7 interview #mi8 interview

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rebeccalouisaferguson · 5 years

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The Power of Rebecca – Grazia Italia (April 2019) By Christiana Allievi

It was Queen Elizabeth, Tom Cruise's partner in Mission: Impossible and now she is the witch Morgana. Rebecca Ferguson always plays untameable women because, she says, she must be respected inside and outside the set.

At first glance you understand why so many have compared her to the great Swedish actress Ingrid Bergman: once crossed, her liquid eyes halfway between grey and green remain etched in the mind forever.

I meet Rebecca Ferguson at the Ham Yard Hotel in London. Those who follow her from the beginning will remember this 35-year-old actress, with a Swedish father and an English mother, for the mini-series The White Queen: her Queen Elizabeth earned her not only the Golden Globe nomination, but above all made the actor Tom Cruise chose her as a female co-star of Mission: Impossible, where she played agent Ilsa Faust for two films (the third will be released in 2021). From there the ascent was unstoppable: now Rebecca is shooting Denis Villeneuve's Dune, and will soon be on the set of Reminiscence, for the second time alongside actor Hugh Jackman after The Greatest Showman.

One of Ferguson's great merits is the ability to always interpret untameable women who are able to put male protagonists into the limelight. Although, Rebecca admits, conquering success in a world like that of cinema has not been easy: “But now men have to understand that we are in a new society. Their place can be next to us women, no longer a step forward.”

Now the actress arrives in theatres in the role of the witch Morgana, the antagonist of King Arthur in the film The Kid Who Would Be King, directed by Joe Cornish (in cinemas April 18). Revisited in a modern setting, with young actors wearing hooded sweatshirts and sneakers, it is the legendary story of the child who finds the magic sword Excalibur and brings together a group of knights and becomes a leader.

Is it true that you were working on Mission: Impossible - Fallout when they suggested you to the director for the role of Morgana, the central figure in Arthur's story? I didn't even have time to read the script, I met Joe in a bar and he told me for an hour and a half the story, making the voices of all the characters. At one point I looked at him and said, "I haven't read a line yet, but you've won me over." I accepted like this, on the spot, without a contract.

What made you trust him? Joe has worked out the story in his mind for decades, after seeing Excalibur by John Boorman and E.T. by Steven Spielberg, then it took him seven years to write the script. When you have a project that is a dream, every time you talk about it you burn: it was this that won me over.

Morgana is a strong woman with supernatural weapons. What powers did you use to push yourself through a world dominated by men? Ours is a hard battle to fight, this is undeniable. But not long ago I was reflecting with a friend that perhaps we are talking too much about the victimisation of women in society and little about what men are learning to become "feminists" in their own way.

Are you saying that we don't ask ourselves enough about the identity of the male? Obviously there are so many male chauvinists and we women are not yet paid fairly: that is a chapter that cannot be forgotten. However, around me, I see so many kind, welcoming men and I feel like an equal.

Is it like that on the set too? When I work, with 75 percent of men around me, I feel like a human being, and I act like one. I never feel like a victim, I'm rather strong and independent. I want to be treated like a person, not a woman.

In Mission: Impossible - Fallout more like a superwoman. They are explosive films: you always change cities, and you never know the story you're shooting until the editing is finished.

What is Tom Cruise like? He is always in motion, like a summer butterfly. When you meet him you understand that he is a superstar because he arrives with a crowd of collaborators, but then, when you're alone with him, you feel like you're with a kid.

He is said to be a perfectionist. Yes, everything must work, Tom is like that. I don't know how many years he had when he started working and producing Mission: Impossible, but now he has a tribe-based spectre he made of trainers, doctors, cooks. When you work, with him you have everything you need to be able to do the follies that Tom will give you. And, if you think you can't do it, there are always stand-ins.

Director Steven Spielberg called Cruise "the best director who has never made a film." He's absolutely right. I don't know if the idea of getting behind the camera makes him nervous, but he would really be a good director, because he always knows very well what he wants.

Have you ever asked Cruise why he chose you? No, I was too happy when they called me and I didn't want to break the spell.

You have a son Isaac, from your ex (Ludwig Hallberg, from whom she separated in 2015), and a second child from your husband Rory, married in January. Is it true that you conceived in a break from filming Mission: Impossible - Fallout? Yes, I thought we would have had at least six months of rest after, instead we immediately started shooting again.

What's it like to be a working mum again? It's about having excellent organisation. First, I sat with Isaac's father, who thank God is my best friend, and we organised the roadmap by crossing the film's locations with his vacation days. Not much has changed since then, but now I work a lot in London and New York. However, I try to keep my routine even when I'm on the set, it's very important to stay healthy.

At the end of the day, do you manage to get out of the character you are playing? I have no major problems returning to me: if I am in London, I put on my jeans and go for a walk on the Thames. Otherwise, when I'm in Sweden, I dive into nature or go to Copenhagen, Denmark, where my son studies. It's just an hour and a half by train.

You made your debut with a soap opera, Nya Tider, at the age of 16, and the success was such that you moved to live on the Swedish coast to escape fame. I am a person who isolates herself a lot, I love being with friends and when I am walking alone in the woods, I gather mushrooms for me living with the outdoors is fundamental.

What is the best advice you've ever received? "Never leave home for more than three weeks." Meryl Streep taught me that, and it's fundamental: if you don't see someone for more than 20 days, they stop missing you.

#rebecca ferguson #the kid who would be king #interview #kid interview #photoshoot #us instyle shoot #long post

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