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Post by Lauryn on Mar 13, 2010 13:08:18 GMT -5
R-PATTZ in METHOD 101 (not directed by Bill Condon)
R-Pattz: OK, um, class. Let’s start with Percy Bysshe Shelley. One of the brooding-ist of the Romantic Poets. [shakes head, tousling his dusky mane] And the dude had great hair. I hope you guys came in character.
Student #1: [shouts out] I tried to drown myself in the Med last week!
Student #2: [mumbles] Apple polisher.
R-Pattz: Awesome. [long pause] We’re all, ummm, uh, committed to ah, um, commitment. Or we wouldn’t be soakin’ up these Festival rays. [opens book] “Ode to the West Wind.” [long pause] Funny. That sounds like, um.. [trails off] I always wanted to be on that show “The West Wing.” But they have to talk so fast. And being um, inarticulate, ummmm, it’s, kind of, my thing.
Student #3: Our thing.
R-Pattz: Right. [in his best Al Pacino] This thing of ours. Where were we? Umm, poetry. Yeah. [recites]
As thus with thee in prayer in my sore need. Oh! lift me as a wave, a leaf, a cloud! I fall upon the thorns of life! I brood!
Student #4: I bleed.
R-Pattz: We all bleed in Method 101, Markowitz. What’s your point?
Markowitz: It’s bleed. ‘I fall upon the thorns of life. I bleed.’
R-Pattz: Ummm, I don’t think you’re getting it. I mean, there are lots of B-words, but give me the big Kahuna.
Markowitz : Brando?
R-Pattz: [considers] OK. Half point. And what would the big man upstairs say?
Class: [as one] Just brood, baby.
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Post by Ace on Mar 13, 2010 13:13:53 GMT -5
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Post by Lauryn on Mar 13, 2010 13:27:23 GMT -5
Well, I can't take too much credit. R-Pattz, Doctorate of Broodology parodies practically write themselves. And if that student really wanted to go the full Daniel Day Lewis in his Shelley portrayal he would have really drowned. And in the Bay of Spezia. Give him a C minus.
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Post by Ace on Mar 15, 2010 4:15:20 GMT -5
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Post by Ace on Mar 18, 2010 13:50:08 GMT -5
popwatch.ew.com/2010/03/18/the-greatest-trailer/'The Greatest' trailer: Carey Mulligan's in good company by Mandi Bierly Mar 18 2010 The trailer for The Greatest does everything right: It gives us a charming close-up of Oscar nominee Carey Mulligan ( An Education) early, plenty of shots of Pierce Brosnan in a blue dress shirt (which he should always be wearing), and a weepy, angry Susan Sarandon. Brosnan and Sarandon play the parents of a young man who dies in a car accident while on his first date with Mulligan after much eye flirting. Three months later, she shows up to tell them she’s pregnant and has nowhere to go, and they take her in. There’s a lightness about Mulligan that balances the darkness of the grieving family. “The girl who changes everything” can be an annoying, cliché construct in movies, but not when she’s played by someone as good as Mulligan. You believe her when she says she barely knew the boy, but he was the love of her life. I’m in. You? www.traileraddict.com/trailer/the-greatest/trailer
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Post by Ace on Mar 18, 2010 14:19:55 GMT -5
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Post by Ace on Mar 18, 2010 16:46:28 GMT -5
www.movieline.com/2010/03/greatest-trailer-spoils-how-carey-mulligan-will-look-when-shes-pregnant-among-other-things.phpMovieline: Greatest Trailer Spoils How Carey Mulligan Will Look When She's Pregnant (Among Other Things) Written by S.T. VanAirsdale | 18 Mar 2010 carey_mulligan_greatest_2mv.jpgThanks to our friends across the Web street for pointing out this trailer for The Greatest, which has actually been around for a while but bears noting for several reasons. First, if you’ve ever had the tabloid daydream of what Carey Mulligan will look like pregnant (and seriously, who hasn’t?), then this will finally realize that visual. Second, it’s a job well done that actually makes me want to see the film again. Third, if you have seen this already (it’s been on the festival circuit since Sundance ‘09), then you’ll know that for some reason it spoils the most shocking moment in the whole movie. Knowing that, if you’re game, it’s after the jump. It’d have been really easy for distributor Paladin to hand this whole thing over to the holy trinity of Susan Sarandon, Pierce Brosnan and Mulligan, who plays a teenager carrying her late boyfriend’s (Aaron Johnson) child. Brosnan and Sarandon play the boyfriend’s parents, awash in grief and thrust on to the defensive when the pregnant girl shows up at their door in search of aid. She gets it in the form of a room in the house and a tense, tenuous place in the family. Stoic old man Brosnan empathizes, riven old lady Sarandon revolts: “It should have been her that died! It should have been her!” Damn. But here’s a tip of the cap for emphasizing Johnny Simmons’s role as the younger brother, a druggy, mopey mop-top with jealousy issues and his own fragile sense of place in the post-sibling order of things. It’s a breakthrough performance for Simmons, though I guess I said that about Jennifer’s Body, too. Still, I’ll say it forever if I have to: This kid is terrific, as are all The Greatest’s youngsters, including Zoe Kravitz as another grieving teen. Anyway, exactly how the boy died isn’t necessarily the stuff of top-secret plot points, but the incident itself, early in the film, is a pulverizing big-screen moment given away here at minimal resolution and impact. Watch if you must, but only if you promise to do a deserving film the solid of buying a ticket when the opportunity arises. Which would be April 2. VERDICT: Sold!
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Post by Ace on Mar 26, 2010 3:09:35 GMT -5
"The Greatest" Los Angeles PremiereActress Carey Mulligan, writer/director Shana Feste, actor Pierce Brosnan and his wife Keely Shaye Smith and actor Johnny Simmons arrive at "The Greatest" Los Angeles Premiere at Linwood Dunn Theater on March 25, 2010 in Hollywood, California. Click images for larger versions
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Post by Ace on Mar 26, 2010 14:00:06 GMT -5
BBC How things have changed for Carey Mulligan news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/8589452.stmPierce Brosnan has been heaping praise on young British actress Carey Mulligan, who stars alongside him in new drama The Greatest. Brosnan, who also produced the film, spoke to the press at the LA premiere. He said: "You want the best for this young woman. She's a beautiful young lady. And she has the whole open road ahead of her. And when you work with talent like that and it's so potent, it's just a delight to see. So you cannot but wish her the best." Academy Award-nominated Mulligan also walked the red carpet and spoke highly of co-stars Brosnan and Susan Sarandon. She said: "You know, they both really kind of embraced the whole family of the film really. And Susan, you know, she lived in New York, and she had us round to her house for dinners. And her sons were involved with the film. And so she really kind of mothered us. And Pierce was just brilliant. I mean, he was the producer as well. And had a real connection to the story. And put himself into it a hundred per cent." The film explores how a grief-stricken family deals with the sudden death of their teenage son and grapples with the news that a girl he loved is pregnant. Carey portrays the young mother-to-be. Brosnan plays the father of her high school crush and Susan Sarandon plays his mother. itn.co.uk/c07ec175e5406fdfb4404c2e2078f026.html
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Post by icy1979 on Mar 26, 2010 15:52:44 GMT -5
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Post by Ace on Mar 26, 2010 17:44:29 GMT -5
There's also a video interview with Carrie Mulligan, Feste and Pierce at the link www.ontheredcarpet.com/2010/03/susan-sarandon-is-acting-machine-carey-mulligan-says.htmlSusan Sarandon is acting 'machine', Carey Mulligan says Friday, March 26, 2010 Posted by Rachel Smith Who's Who's the Greatest? Susan Sarandon may be, at least according to co-star and Oscar-nominated actress Carey Mulligan, who says she was "lucky" to have worked with the veteran performer, whom she dubbed a "machine". Their film The Greatest, which also stars Pierce Brosnan of James Bond fame, is set to open in New York and Los Angeles on April 2. "The subject matter was so harsh sometimes and sad and a lot of people have to, I sometimes have to go into a bit of a dark hole when I’m dealing with that kind of stuff and she (Sarandon) can just switch it on and off like that," Mulligan told On The Red Carpet's Rachel Smith at the recent Los Angeles premiere of the film. "She’s like a machine. She’s incredible." The movie follows a family’s tumultuous journey after their older son is killed in a car crash. Mulligan plays a woman who shows up on their doorstep after his death, informing them she is pregnant with his child. the family takes her in reluctantly and her presence then both distances and bonds the family. "Every morning I had to remind myself to not be intimidated but at the end of the day when you’re directing these incredible actors, it just makes you look really good as a director,” director Shana Feste said. "I was just like, 'I’m going to look really good at the end of this', because they are absolutely brilliant." Brosnan said his participation in the movie as both an actor and producer was a no-brainer due to Feste’s delivery of a "beautiful script on a very hard topic" along with an "impeccable" cast.
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Post by Krebbie on Mar 27, 2010 9:55:21 GMT -5
The trailer was great. This is one I might actually want to see -- if it comes here before going to DVD.
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Post by Ace on Mar 30, 2010 17:32:28 GMT -5
www.hollywoodchicago.com/news/10282/hollywoodchicagocom-hookup-35-chicago\-passes-the-greatest-pierce-brosnan-susan-sarandon HollywoodChicago.com Hookup: 35 Chicago Passes to `The Greatest' With Pierce Brosnan, Susan Sarandon Submitted by HollywoodChicago.com on March 30, 2010 CHICAGO – In our latest romance edition of HollywoodChicago.com Hookup: Film, we have 35 admit-two passes up for grabs to the advance Chicago screening of "The Greatest" starring Pierce Brosnan, Susan Sarandon and Carey Mulligan (from "An Education")! "The Greatest" also features Aaron Johnson, Johnny Simmons, Kevin Hagan, Miles Robbins, Cara Seymour, Ramsey Faragallah, Colby Minifie, Zoë Kravitz, Portia, Michael Shannon, Dante E. Clark and Ron Scott from writer and director Shana Feste. The film opens on April 9, 2010. To win your free pass to the advance Chicago screening of "The Greatest" courtesy of HollywoodChicago.com, just answer our question below. That's it! This screening is on Monday, April 5, 2010 at 7:30 p.m. in Chicago. Directions to enter this Hookup and immediately win can be found beneath the graphic below.
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Post by Ace on Mar 31, 2010 6:37:58 GMT -5
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Post by Ace on Mar 31, 2010 6:41:54 GMT -5
www.observer.com/2010/culture/age-griefNY OBSERVER: The Age of Grief By Rex ReedMarch 30, 2010 | 7:47 p.m THE GREATEST RUNNING TIME 98 minutes WRITTEN AND directed by Shana Feste STARRING Pierce Brosnan, Susan Sarandon, Carey Mulligan, Michael Shannon Grief comes cloaked in as many forms as the tragedies that cause it. Almost all of them are on view in The Greatest, a somber, sensitively acted, intelligently penned and sincerely directed film about the untimely death of a much-admired young man, the profound impact it has on his family and the various ways the people who love him learn to express their mourning. The usual grumpy cynics will undoubtedly call it sentimental and manipulative. Ignore them. In spite of an unfortunate title that invites critical puns, The Greatest is cut from the same bolt of emotional genre fabric as the 1980 classic Ordinary People—a rare bird among films because it is strong and filled with extraordinary human values that remain foreign to most hermetically sealed studio packages. The title refers to the boy who departs too soon, not to the movie itself, which may also depart too soon depending on box office grosses, but not because it’s undeserving. In the opening scene, two lovers on their way home from a date stop their car unwisely to declare unconditional affection, and in a shattering moment of smashing steel and grinding chrome, they’re broadsided by another vehicle. The boy, Bennett Brewer (Aaron Johnson), a teenage icon everybody calls “the greatest,” dies in the wreckage, leaving behind a fractured Brewer family forced to deal with the same crisis in different ways. Grace, the unhinged mother (Susan Sarandon), slowly cracks up. Dad Allen (Pierce Brosnan) is a brilliant math professor who hides his pain so successfully inside his heart that he stops sleeping, avoids any mention of loss, forgets how to balance a simple equation and ends up in the hospital. Younger brother Ryan (charismatic newcomer Johnny Simmons), who both worshiped and resented Bennett’s place in the family structure, suffers from an inferiority complex that eventually drives him into rehab. Then, with the unexpected jolt of a knock on the door, Bennett’s 18-year-old girlfriend, Rose, who survived the accident, arrives three months pregnant with no other place to go; Rose is played with earth-shaking truthfulness by the enchanting Carey Mulligan (Oscar-nominated for An Education). The Brewer family is turned inside out, and the film explores raw, warm, gentle, enraged and heart-rending conflicts that lead to valid human drama. While Rose struggles to win the family’s trust and love for their unborn grandchild, people sign her belly like a yearbook, the kid brother turns to drugs, the father learns the restorative value of openly sharing his pain with others and Grace slavishly visits the driver of the other car (Michael Shannon), who is hauled away for previous crimes after he regains consciousness. In an effort to turn her favorite son into a martyr, she ruins everyone else’s life, too. Some of the family members’ actions are tender, others are terrifying, all seem like genuine and credible steps toward redemption. Meanwhile, bring plenty of Kleenex and apologize to no one for the tears that are inevitable. Susan Sarandon has traveled this road before, especially in the sucrose melodrama Moonlight Mile, where she played the novelist mother of a murdered girl whose fiancé (Jake Gyllenhaal) moved in and mysteriously cured her writer’s block when she embarked on a book about her dead daughter. (“Fuck the perfume, give me the warts!” she whooped in the final reel.) As a family drama about the death of a prodigal son, The Greatest falls, as I mentioned earlier, in the much more distinguished tradition of Robert Redford’s Ordinary People. A debut effort carefully written and directed by Shana Feste, it offers a nuanced diagnosis of people in both their goodness and imperfection, with a touching screenplay that focuses on the actual things people do and say in survival mode. This is not the kind of personal movie Hollywood knows how to make very often, and God knows it is not the kind of movie Hollywood ever knows how to sell. (Already they’re asking, “Does it have legs?”) It’s not Avatar, but in an equitable movie world, there should be something for everyone. One caveat: If it’s true, as they say, that as one door closes, another door opens, I feel that perhaps in The Greatest too many doors open too fast in time to meet the deadline for a happy ending, but this is just a small hangnail amid the manicured strengths of a film of maturity and courage, one that kept me consistently engaged. Quite an accomplishment, really, for a new filmmaker on her first date with a camera.
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Post by Ace on Mar 31, 2010 6:57:36 GMT -5
Looks like four theaters in NYC/LA for the April 2nd opening. Chicago is scheduled for April 9th and if that's so it's probably scheduled for other top 10 markets. NEW YORK CITY:City Cinemas Village East 181-189 Second Ave. - New York, NY 10003 12:20 | 2:50 | 5:00 | 7:30 | 9:55 City Cinemas Paris Theatre 4 W. 58th St. - New York, NY 10019 11:00 | 1:00 | 3:00 | 5:15 | 7:30 | 9:45 LOS ANGELES:Edwards Westpark 8 3755 Alton Parkway, Irvine, CA 92606 12:20p 2:40p 5:00p 7:30p 10:10p Arclight Cinemas: Hollywood11:15AM 12:35PM 1:30PM 2:55PM 3:45PM 5:15PM 6:05PM 7:35PM 8:30PM 9:50PM 10:50PM (with a 12:01 midnight screening on Thursday ) Interestingly, The Ghost Writer will still be playing at both L.A. theaters for it's seventh weekend.
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Post by Ace on Mar 31, 2010 13:38:24 GMT -5
www.movieline.com/2010/03/pierce-brosnan-interview---the-greatest.phpThe Movieline Interview Pierce Brosnan on How The Greatest Tapped Into a Terrifying Night He'll Never ForgetWritten by Kyle Buchanan | 31 Mar 2010 In Shana Feste’s new drama The Greatest, Pierce Brosnan and Susan Sarandon play parents who are grieving the car accident death of their teenage son (Aaron Johnson) in wildly different ways: he’s buttoned-up and avoiding the issue, while she lashes out at others, including their younger child (Johnny Simmons) and the woman (Carey Mulligan) who’s pregnant with their late son’s baby. It’s heavy material, and Brosnan was originally reluctant to sign on: the 56-year-old actor has dealt with his own fair share of grief in real life — his first wife Cassandra died of ovarian cancer in 1991, and his son Sean was almost killed in a car accident in 2000 — and Brosnan was unsure if he wanted to go to those emotional places while filming. In an interview with Movieline, Brosnan discussed how he changed his mind, the guilt he feels over using his personal experiences as an actor, and his take on the evolution of the suddenly white-hot Mulligan. When I talked to Johnny Simmons about this script, he said he was so excited to delve into a darker role and more emotional story than he usually gets to do…and those were the exact reasons you thought you didn’t want to do the script. Have you gotten to the point where you think, “I’ve done roles like this and I know what they take out of me”? Was that your concern? Yes, I suppose so. Just knowing that to play a grieving father who’s lost his son…how do I relate to that? Well, I relate to that through my own life’s experiences. To almost lose a son on a dark Malibu night, a feeling I’ll never forget and a night I’ll never forget, you know that you’re gonna go there, that you’re going to have to dig into that hurt. Just that alone is not an area where you get excited and think, “Oh great, I’ll do it!” At the same time, though, there is a want, a desire to do the work. It comes with an ambivalence. Does reliving those emotions provide any sort of catharsis for you? You touch on the relevance of your own life. You go to that sense memory. Then, you try to let the text of the story at hand have some marriage with that feeling that you can remember and have some sense of performance. It comes with a certain amount of guilt of using your own life, but that’s what you do as an actor. You use the emotions and experiences in your life, the moments you felt fear or happiness or joy or anger or remorse. It depends on how well you do it. Your character is very repressed throughout almost the entire movie, but in a quirk of scheduling, you actually shot his cathartic emotional breakdown on the first day of shooting. When something like that happens, are you essentially working backwards from that for the rest of the shoot? You know, you read the text over and over until it’s clear in your mind. You know that’s the aria, the high C of the character where he’s going to, the transformational moment. You’d rather it wasn’t Day 1, but it had to be. Hopefully, you’ve plotted it out intelligently, and at the same time you don’t know exactly what you’re gonna do. In the moment, you just go for it, and we didn’t say less or more or anything like that — nothing was discussed. It was just what you see there, done in one or two takes. Your character is able to sort of compartmentalize his grief, while his wife lashes out at him for it, because she’s living with it every moment. Could you recognize those coping mechanisms? I could sympathize and empathize with both parties as an actor. My character is so emotionally adrift and so fearful of letting the demons come up. I don’t know. I don’t know if I have an answer for that, really. Carey Mulligan was an unknown when you made this film together, and today, she’s an Oscar-nominated actress in a high-profile relationship with huge films on the way. When you see her now, does it seem like she’s changed at all? No, she’s still the same Carey. She has a sheen to her, a gloss to her now. She sparkles. It’s been good; she’s a young woman, blossoming. It’s been a joy to see that and be part of that, and to feel some participation in her career. She’s the best, she’s like a daughter, a young woman you’ve discovered. To be there at the beginning of her career is such a gift. You want the best for her, you want to see her walk off with that Oscar next time. I thought she was incredible in An Education. You were also a producer on the film, alongside your partner Beau St. Clair. Yes. I mean, the experiences Beau and I have had on our films are always productive and enjoyable, and we set up an atmosphere where people can do their best work. I don’t believe in screaming and shouting and threatening and hollering. I really dislike that enormously. I have seen it, and usually you just stand back and let them have their say until they exhaust themselves. There was a lot of buzz on this film going into Sundance last year. Did that help or hurt it? Oh, it helped. Positive remarks like that are welcomed, and you need that when you have so few resources to get the film out into the public. You pray for that, you want it. And then it met with quite a few obstacles on its way to theaters. It’s taken a long time. As a producer, how do you deal with that? One is powerless to do anything, really. The company that bought it fell apart at the seams, and thank God for Mark Urban, who’s risen valiantly with this film on his shoulders. The movie will be seen, it will have its day in the sun. We didn’t go into this thinking we were making a blockbuster or anything. It’s a quiet, beautiful chamber-piece production, something that’s really deep and moving and hopefully cathartic for the audience and actors. To weep, to cry, to move people…it’s as simple as that. You’re reuniting with Greg Kinnear, your costar in The Matador, for your next film Salvation Boulevard. I play this mega-church preacher who’s building his church on this hill, and Greg’s my disciple. [Laughs] What will your chemistry be like in this film? It remains to be seen. It’s an ensemble: Ed Harris, Jennifer Connelly, Marisa Tomei, Ciarin Hinds. Anybody could steal thunder in this one, it’s a well-rounded piece. That and The Greatest are both indie movies. Some film actors aren’t used to those short shoots, but you came from the television world, where you shoot a lot of pages very quickly. Oh, yeah. Did that teach you the discipline you needed for films like this, both as an actor and a producer? No question. Doing episodic TV was a huge training ground. It was like doing repertory theater in the old days, where you do two or three plays a week. In TV, the process of it is that you think on your feet and you’re constantly in motion and constantly learning your lines and making decisions. Some are good, some are crap, some are great, some are different. I love the world of independent filmmaking, and I’ve been part of it for such a long time. Every now and then, a studio gig comes along, which is fruitful, bountiful and lovely.
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Post by Ace on Mar 31, 2010 13:41:53 GMT -5
screencrave.com/2010-03-31/interview-pierce-brosnan-for-the-greatest/Screencrave: Interview: Pierce Brosnan for The GreatestNot long ago we had the chance to talk to Pierce Brosnan about his latest role and producing project, The Greatest with Susan Sarandon and Carey Mulligan (read interview). This is one of his best performances to date. There is something so satisfying about watching Brosnan when he’s vulnerable and real – he completely entrances you. Yes he may look good in a suit and know how to make shooting a fake gun look real, but the man can act. In The Greatest, he plays a character whose son is in a car accident, and as he says below “it was me”. It’s a subtle performance about him trying to keep everything together while the strings are coming loss – thanks to the director Shana Feste who allowed for scenes to breath when needed, you finally get to sit with Brosnan and see what he’s capable of. As I was reading through this transcription, I can’t help but remember the way Brosnan spoke about the film. Not only did he bring a sense of expertise and charm when he walked into the room, but also a sense of calm and clarity that is hard to get from some actors. He took his time answering questions and was very meticulous about everything he said. For those of you looking to be a part of the film-making process, in front or behind the camera, listen to what he has to say about film, it’s some much need honest advice… This film is about all these characters dealing with grief individually, how do you create an environment where everyone can collaborate but you’re able to sort of operate in scenes independent of one another? Pierce Brosnan: I’m not sure I can answer that question, really. This was a four-week shoot with maybe four days of rehearsal prior, so everybody had to be on their game. You didn’t have much room to wiggle around and say let’s talk about it or let’s discuss it; you really had to be prepared. That’s the exhilarating part of making films like this, independent films, where you have four weeks, the budget is slim, the schedule is tight, and if the script is fighting fit and good, and then you go shoot it and hopefully you have people and players who are prepared. You can’t work yourself up into the scene, you can say, well, I need three to five takes to get into the scene; scene one, first take, you’d better be there with the performance – and everybody was. It was fun, it was very concentrated; everybody supported Shana. Shana, a young woman, she [directed] with maturity and great observation, and John Bailey was her godfather – he was there constantly with her, and that was a joy to see. Our cast, Susan [Sarandon] and myself, we know our way around the ropes, and that was it. It’s pretty simple, really. It’s a very simple business, and certain egos and people want to complicate it and tend to make it more than it actually is, but you act, you pretend – pretend you know what you’re doing and act as if you know what you’re doing. Just do something! Talk about your relationship with Susan. What was the process of establishing how your characters interacted – did you do it together or individually, or is that once again part of acting? Brosnan: Part of acting, yeah. Actors have done this for many years – you have a past history you share. She and I didn’t go into the nuances of who were and how we met – did we? No, we didn’t – and first day’s work was the scene in the bed with me grieving. That was the first day of filming, and I wished that it hadn’t been, but in hindsight it was a blessing. Because I was so terrified of showing myself; I had never really shown myself like that before. Susan was there at the end of the bed, and she’s a formidable actress. So you kind of know that you’ve had a history of love and life – you just know that. It’s just a given that these two people love each other, and they’re a middle-class, bourgeois family; he’s a mathematician and he lives for numbers. So you get all of this; it’s a quick assimilation, this past history, and the rudiments of acting – where are you, what do you want, how do you get it, why, how. So the score was fairly well drawn-out, and then we would go do it. How was Shana as a first-time director? Brosnan: She has a real grace and elegance and you just feel secure. You feel that you’re being taken care of and that you can go to her with any problem. And you want to work for her – you want to perform. She just gets that naturally. She’s sincere and she’s articulate, she’s erudite, she’s present, and has a good sense of who she is, so all of those ingredients make you as an actor want to leap off. And like I said, on the first day at work there was nowhere to hide, so you just had to go for it. we didn’t discuss how big or how loud I was going to cry or emote; just know that this man’s been holding back, he’s losing his wife and he’s losing his life, and we just went for it. Did she provide you with a pretty complete portrait of the character, whether she talked to you about the details or they were in the script? Or did you have to research or do other work to come up with who the character was? Brosnan: The character is me. It’s me. It’s Pierce, it’s not a transformation. It’s just, what if I were a professor and this was my work? And it’s me but it’s not me; he lives in a classroom, he lives by his computer, there’s a way of work and a way of his clothes and what does he wear, how does he walk. He’s a really kind, generous fellow, so you kind of do all of this homework and you put it into the domesticity of the story. I don’t know – When I was a younger actor I used to look for the quirks and the kind of shadow moves. You thought, oh, I’ll do this and I’ll do that and I’ll get a character [and ask], oh, what’s he twitching about, what’s he doing there, as opposed to just really saying the lines. If you’re cast correctly and you understand, then just say the lines, as simply and as clearly as possible. Do you feel like your approach in general is to say that “what if I was this guy” as opposed to that sort of transformation? Brosnan: Transformation comes with relaxation. That comes with the confidence of just being with the text and taking the time to say the lines and listen. If you do that, some actors just know how to do that from the get-go. Carey Mulligan says she’s untrained, but she’s brilliant because she’s so natural. Then you have someone who’s trained and they have done Shakespeare, and then you put them in front of a camera and it’s like, what are they saying? So to me it’s a constant work in progress, cinematic acting – working in front of the camera and being confident and relaxed and all of that. Is producing exercising a different kind of creative muscle? Brosnan: Oh, I love it. I really enjoy it. Beau St. Clair and myself, we’ve made eight movies so far, and each one is indelible and each one we have complete ownership of; we built them from the ground up. We found the scripts, sat there and read it, talked about it, who do we get the money [from], how do we get the money, what’s the budget, does it need a rewrite, can we afford a rewrite, can we do this, and then we’re ready to go. So it’s a great feeling, and then to go on the first day and see that you have a cast and crew, how good are the drivers, how good is the makeup, how good are the lighting guys, is everybody behind us on this, is everybody doing this for the right reason; we’re trying to create a work environment that is safe and exhilarating where people can work to their highest potential. So yes, I really enjoy that. And no, I don’t want to direct (laughs). But yet I do think I want to direct. I don’t know but I’m so terrified of it. I like producing, but producing in the sense of instigating, just finding the techs, and when it comes down to it, Beau does the heavy lifting. And she loves doing it – she likes doing the budget and the scheduling and all of that that really confuses me. I like that “right this way, Mr. Brosnan.” “Can I get you a cup of coffee? Here’s your motor home.” I’ll have a tuna sandwich and a milkshake and I’ll do my little scene and go home. Do you have a favorite character out of the many different ones you’ve played? Brosnan: I think Julian in The Matador is the most-rounded and the most transformative of the characters I’ve done. I like him a lot. He was so outrageous and audacious and irreverent, but I don’t know. That comes to mind. My style of acting and what I’ve done is fairly keeping within my range as and actor as I’ve grown, and in the last years I’ve kind of grown and stepped out and took time to explore and play and do characters, dress up, put on fake noses and funny voices. Have you found that people are more receptive to you now playing those different kinds of roles, since it seems like it can be limiting if you’ve been successful with certain kinds of characters. Brosnan: Yeah. Well, because you’ve kind of given branches for so long, and then it’s time to do something else – and Matador was one of those sharp left turns that was just like, oh, wow, that’s who he is. I’d forgotten it myself, because when I was much younger and before America, there was all of this character and change. And then I kind of got easy with Remington Steele and that kind of performance – oh, I can just play myself and do light entertainment! But then that becomes really shallow and boring and you end up looking like wallpaper, and then it’s time to act (laughs). See Brosnan alongside Mulligan and Sarandon this Friday, April 2nd in select theaters! (Note: The reason there is no trailer with this post is because I feel like it gives far too much away. Trust me, the less you know about the film the more you will enjoy it!)
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Post by Ace on Mar 31, 2010 19:41:14 GMT -5
www.collider.com/2010/03/31/carey-mulligan-interview-the-greatest/Carey Mulligan Interview THE GREATEST by Sara Wayland Posted:March 31st, 2010 at 5:00 pm The Greatest is an intensely emotional drama from first-time writer/director Shana Feste, that explores all aspects of love - first love, lost love, the love of a parent and a couple’s second chance at love. When Allen (Pierce Brosnan) and Grace Brewer (Susan Sarandon) lose their teenage son Bennett in a car crash (Kick-Ass star Aaron Johnson), their family fractures to the point of breaking, until the appearance of a young woman named Rose (Carey Mulligan) helps everyone put the pieces back together. Actress Carey Mulligan shot The Greatest two years ago, before all of the current buzz surrounding her. She admitted that telling such an emotional story was challenging, especially with only 28 days to shoot the film, but that she got closer to her co-stars than she ever had on almost any other film, as a result. Check out what she had to say about approaching her role after the jump: Question: How did you approach this role? Carey Mulligan image (2).jpgCarey: There wasn’t a huge amount of pre-production, or a great amount of research or development because we had three days to rehearse. We came together and go to know each other, and Susan [Sarandon] ushered us into New York like the mother of New York. We had big dinners at her house with her family, and her sons both worked on the film. It was a small crew. There were no trailers or dressing rooms. We just got ready in whatever room was available, wherever you were shooting. Because of that, we were all together a lot. And, the script gave us everything we needed. We played, but there wasn’t a huge amount of time to do lots and lots of takes and do lots of choices. You had to go in with an idea. But, the four of us just felt comfortable enough to try stuff and worth together. I had an idea of who she was from reading it, and then we just played around with it when we got on set. Is it a real challenge to play these emotional scenes with people you don’t know that well? Carey: No. You’ve got to do that. I’ve done lots of supporting parts where I’ve had to do that. In Brothers, I was only in one scene and that was quite heightened. In that case, you’ve just got to trust the writing and trust the director. Actually, on this, even though it was such a short period of time, we probably got closer than I have on a lot of jobs because it was so small and because the central cast was quite small. Most of my scenes were with Pierce [Brosnan] and he’s the easiest person to get on with. Susan is as well. Johnny Simmons, who plays Aaron Johnson’s brother in the film, is awesome. You’ve got all the nerves, and acting in front of a stranger for the first time is nerve-wracking, but it’s that way with anyone, whether it’s the director at an audition or another actor. Pierce was a producer, so I wanted to be what he wanted me to be for the role because he invested himself in this film, in a lot of ways. But, we got all of that out of the way in the three days that we had to rehearse. We didn’t have much time to be nervous because it was a 28-day shoot and we just had to get it done. It was really fast. What was Shana Feste like, as a director? Is it easier for you, as an actor, to have a director who is also the writer, in case you have any questions about the script? Carey Mulligan image (4).jpgCarey: Yeah, that does make a difference. Also, Shana was really generous with her script. She’s not precious about the writing. Sometimes you don’t want to insult someone by questioning a choice that they’ve made, and we rarely had reason to do that, but she was so open with it. It was her first film, but she had complete command of the set. It was a really male-dominated crew, as it is a lot, and that didn’t phase her at all. She had a really experienced DoP and they worked together brilliantly. She understood what she’d written and she knew what she wanted without dictating your choices. She was brilliant. The decision to put most of your scenes with Aaron Johnson in reverse chronological order and sprinkled throughout the film came during editing. Was that a big surprise to you? Carey: Yeah. It was great, though. I hadn’t imagined it that way. I had only imagined it in the script, and it was all chronological, but I think that worked. You’ve been through a lot since An Education, haven’t you? Carey: Yeah. It’s been 13 months, on and off, talking about An Education. When did you make The Greatest, in relation to An Education? Carey: We started An Education in late February 2008, and filmed that for seven weeks. And then, I went to Chicago and did a week or two on Public Enemies, which all got cut, but I was in that very briefly. That’s why I died my hair, back then. Then, I went to L.A. and auditioned for The Greatest, and then went home for a couple of weeks, and then went out to New York and shot that in the summer. That was how it worked, and that was two years ago.
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Post by Ace on Mar 31, 2010 20:24:30 GMT -5
www.buzzine.com/2010/03/pierce-brosnan-interview/ Pierce Brosnan Interview The GreatestEmmanuel Itier: The scene where you and Johnny Simmons were coming back from the cemetery — the long, lingering shot of you there in the backseat — how tough was that to get?Pierce Brosnan: I can’t remember how many takes. It said in the script that they sit in silence and look out the window. The positioning was me in the middle. I was really wondering why no one was talking to me, and I was wondering what time lunch was. I thought, “Where’s my per diem? What am I going to do tonight? When am I going to have dinner?” That’s the kind of flippant answer to it. But you read the text and you put yourself in the story. You’re constantly revising, as an actor. You’re looking at where you’ve come from and where you’re going — previous circumstances. The previous circumstances of that moment in time were just grief, pain, loss… Absolutely rudderless. No words to express the feelings. You can’t reach out to him and you can’t reach out to her, and they’re all isolated. So, simplicity. She kept it going and then the camera rolled, and then the big discussion of, “Do we put this in the movie? Is it too long? Is it too uncomfortable? Is it going to hold?” So we went with it. EI: It probably feels even longer than it looks onscreen. What do you think?PB: A second in reality is two seconds onscreen. The camera plays with time, and performance always elongates things. I thought it was very courageous. I had no real say whether to cut or not to cut it. I thought it was good. I gave me tuppence worth. I think it’s a wonderful way to allow the audience into these characters’ worlds. EI: When you’re producing a movie like this one and other you’ve done, what’s your first duty to the film? Is it as a producer or as an actor who’s playing a character?
PB: It was to play the character first. Beau [St. Clair] and I have made, I think, eight movies now, and all the movies I’ve been in. We keep talking about finding material that I’m not going to be in, but I like to act and this was a piece that Beau sent me. I read it, I was moved by it, and I threw it under the bed and said, “Okay, let’s let sleeping dogs lie,” so to speak, but Beau was very tenacious and said, “Look, have a look at it again. Read it, because we can make this movie.” So I read it and so, “Okay, let’s do it. Lets produce the movie.” We met with Shana [Feste], and she’s very erudite and passionate. I said, “Good.” It came together so quickly and effortlessly, it was amazing. We said, “Good. Let’s make it. Let’s move. Let’s get Susan [Sarandon], Carey Mulligan…” and before you knew it, we were in New York rehearsing for four or five days and then shooting. EI: Did you shoot in Long Island?PB: Nyack was the town we were in. It was almost like a workshop. It was almost like, “Let’s go make a movie,” and then we did, and it’s been two years now since we did it and launched it at Sundance, so it’s strange coming back around to it after that period of time. EI: When you’re meeting with first-time directors or younger filmmakers — you mentioned Shana and her passion — what is it that you’re specifically looking for in a director? Is it a quality that jumps out at you within four or five minutes?PB: Courage, strength, being able to articulate ideas and to be able to get on with people and to have a healthy sense of their ego. You don’t want to be working with screamers or shouters — people who are going to fall apart come day one when they can’t think on their feet and have to compromise a shot or a location. She had all those ingredients that seemed to make sense in a room. She talked a good talk and ultimately walked a good walk as well. John Bailey was an incredible benefit to have because, within her lexicon of films, Ordinary People was the blueprint for our film. John Bailey shot that, and we got him and he was just such a fine figurehead for her. Then you see young Carey Mulligan opposite Susan Sarandon, and you see this admiration with both actors. EI: Shana mentioned that she went into this movie believing she had two movie stars, and now of course it’s come out with three post-An Education. As a producer, did you have input on Carey, or had you seen An Education prior to shooting The Greatest?PB: I hadn’t. I’d heard about An Education, and Shana came out to where I live in Kauai and she wanted to show me the girls. She came out for the weekend. We sat down and I looked at all these girls’ work, and there was only one girl, and that was Carey Mulligan. EI: Was that an audition tape you were watching?PB: It was a screen test. They were all good, but there was only one that you went, “This girl is amazing. It’s incredible watching her.” I know the text and I’m reading the text, and I’m watching her, and there’s just such a natural, organic, intuitive performance. So that was the one that I hung my hat on, and we all agreed, and we could see that she was just so gifted. Johnny as well. Johnny is such a young actor but so beautiful. You see that kind of talent and sense of themselves in the performance, and it’s just intoxicating. It’s like, “Wow, I wish I was that good when I was that young.” EI: You’ve been doing this now for something like 30 years. Do you feel like you’re still learning at this point?PB: Yes, you do. You learn from the young ones. You learn from the old ones. You just learn. It’s a constant state of exploration and constructing and destroying of yourself, in some regards. How do you really just nail it down? The next one is going to be that one, I feel. EI: Are you producing your next one?PB: No, I’m just a hired hand. It’s a good one. EI: Are you still looking at material to produce at this point?PB: Yes, Beau and I have another piece that we’ve just set the wheels in motion on. We’ve got a director. It’s a comedy. EI: Are you going to film in Ireland anytime soon?PB: I don’t think so, no. EI: Is it getting tougher to shoot over there?PB: I don’t know. I haven’t been there in ages. It probably is. EI: I hear that the money…if it’s tight here, it’s really tight over there.PB: Yes, they’re going through hard times again, and they’re kind of used to hard times over there. They’re a pretty resilient people. I’d like to go back to Ireland, I really would. Beau and I are just kind of slow and steady. One film after another… EI: Are you going to be in the next film you and Beau are producing?PB: Yes. EI: Can you say anything about it yet?PB: It’s a romantic comedy. EI: A leading lady yet?PB: We don’t have her yet, no. We’re still talking about them though. “Maybe this one; maybe that one. Why not her…?” EI: What about the next film you’re in — the one you’re not producing? What is that?PB: We start the 27th of April. It’s called Salvation Boulevard. I play a mega-church preacher who’s building his church on the hill. Greg Kinnear is my disciple. I get into a bit of trouble at the beginning of the movie. Ed Harris is the atheist. Jennifer Connelly is Greg’s wife. EI: Are you going to get in trouble with the Pope or something?PB: No, he has a sense of humor, I’m sure. It’s from a Larry Beinhart book of the same title. This young director has taken it and really molded it. His name is George Ratliff. He did Joshua and Hell House, so he knows this whole kind of religious world. EI: I heard you say that you decided to play this character before you became a producer. What was it about this character that made you want to get involved?PB: It was the whole story. I just thought it was a beautifully rendered piece of storytelling and had a simplicity and a complexity to it. I thought it was heartbreaking. I thought it could break the hearts of the audience and make them cry, and make them feel and touch them. Hopefully, at curtain’s end, it can make them feel hopeful and that it was a good hour and a half spent in the cinema. For people who have found themselves in tragic circumstances, maybe there’s some healing for them — something to hold onto. I just thought it was a great piece of writing and a good way to spend the summer making a movie. It was there and it had to be done. My producing skills of picking up the phone and trying to get someone like Susan Sarandon or Carey Mulligan — luckily I have a partner in Beau Marie St. Clair who loves the details of the story-boarding and the money. I just say, “Do we have enough money? Do we have enough time? Can we keep going?” She finds the time and the money and allows me to get on with play-acting.
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