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Conan The Barbarian /Interview/Extended Trailer

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18/08/2011 By In Interviews, Movies

Jason Momoa Interview


You look like you were born to play Conan and you said that you remember seeing the images as a child. I just wondered if Conan stuck with you at all growing up?
It did, man. I saw Frank Frazetta’s art and it seared on my memory. I love his paintings. They’re so amazing. The way he captures movement, the raw power and that whole world it makes you want to read the stories of Robert E. Howard. So I was a big fan.
Can you explain a little who Conan is? Perhaps for people who are not familiar with the original?
If you want me to explain the original movie you will have to go and watch it because it’s not my movie. But our movie, Conan is basically a man’s man, to me he’s a marine, he’s a pirate, a thief, he’s not a superhero, he’s the anti-hero. I really love the fact that he’s a warrior. He could be a king if he wanted to, he could be this rogue wandering warrior that lives in a time of Hyboria and Cimmeria that is this very violent and chaotic world of sorcery and magic and you’re going to watch him run it.
Can you talk about your preparation in achieving that body?
Lots of lifting, lots of eating boiled chicken and minimal vegetables. I did a lot of sword training, horseback training, a lot of cardio and obviously just trying to perfect that sword.
Your trainer said that you really took to the sword fighting like a duck to water. Did it feel that way to you?
Yeah, I wanted to be a samurai when I was little. I always loved samurai movies and I wanted to incorporate that whole level of elegance and just the code of the samurai to Conan. Also, I wanted to study big cats; I went to the zoo to study animals, the big lions and stuff, I thought it was very interesting.
So what was the most difficult part for you?
Keeping injury at bay. You do that many stunts you are constantly bleeding somewhere on your body. And, trying to stay fit and healthy while you’re doing all these very heavy stunts.
What was the worst injury that you had?
The first day that I got my horse, he bucked me off and I broke a rib. That sucked. I almost died a couple of times on the horse. Basically, anything on the horse—he was an evil bastard.
You have said before that you didn’t like horses. Is that why or did you not like them to start with?
I don’t mind them. I’m very good on them. I don’t like them because they’re very skitzy, they’re unpredictable. If I had a horse of my own, that I loved and fed and knew me, it would be amazing. You go from place to place to place, you make them wait around for twelve to thirteen hours, and then they have to be on point. They’re hungry and they’re tired. It’s an animal and you have to respect it. I think a lot of movies and sets don’t respect them properly, so it’s very hard to be on top of it while you’re around people that do not properly take care of them. So, it’s not their fault. I always use it as a joke. I do love horses, but I’d rather be on motorcycles.
When you first heard about this project, did you think ‘this is mine’? How did it come about for you? Were you approached?
The same casting director was in the room when I got Game of Thrones, and so they were like, ‘we’ve found our Conan’. I came back and Conan wasn’t cast yet. I came in and I talked to Marcus and we discussed what we wanted, how he wanted it and how I wanted to play it. We had a real mutual agreement on how we wanted to design it. And then we had to prove it to the powers that be. He was really in my camp, Marcus, once we proved it to them. This movie is a little bit different, it’s very violent. My biggest goal was to impress and make the Robert E. Howard fans really, really happy and the Dark Horse comic fans. You want to impress the source material people. To me, I wasn’t there to impress the Arnold fans because you’ve had that and I didn’t want to regurgitate a movie that had been done thirty years ago. We wanted to re-imagine the franchise. I think we came really close to Robert E. Howard’s stories.
How much of a say did you have in the re-imagining aspect of it?
A lot. I tried my hardest
What did you contribute?
The look of Conan. Obviously it’s my performance so how that handled. You know, little choices like when he gets a scar on his eye. It’s all small things. If you break it down scene to scene everything I do is character based. Liking shoving my finger into a nose… I wanted to have the small things like the way I fight with my father’s sword. I fight it reverse grip style from the Japanese Samurai. I fight in a completely different style. And have it always upside down. There are countless things that you put into it. The action was going to come easily, I wanted to make him human, I wanted to have him be vulnerable. You want to hit those moments as an actor where it makes him human, putting in a sense of humour. It’s all small moments and you can break it down scene by scene but that’s what you’re supposed to do as an actor. I wanted to incorporate Robert E. Howard’s quotes that weren’t in the scripts. “I live, I love, I slay, I am content”. “I will follow you to hell. If you hide from me I will tear down the mountains to find you and follow you to hell”. That’s all me taking from Robert E. Howard. I wanted to have that philosophy injected into the script.
There’s such a dearth of action heroes around today is this the sort of thing that you see yourself doing more of in the future?
No, I just really want to play Conan. I just want to finish off the series. I think if I do three of these could be great. I think that I want to write and direct and do other things. As far as super heroes go he’s amazing. I wouldn’t want to do anyone else.

Lionsgate presents CONAN THE BARBARIAN at UK cinemas Wednesday 24th August 2011.
www.facebook.com/conan3duk

INTERVIEW: Comedian Bethany Black

Bethany Black
28/04/2011 By In Interviews

Bethany Black is one of comedies “new breed”, making her mark on the scene after a steady succession of successes. She’s not only featured in magazines like Bizarre and Diva but has written for the Guardian as well and has shared stages with the likes of Omid Djalili, Alan Carr, Rhona Cameron, plus written for comedians as diverse as Brendon Burns and Jimmy Cricket. Yes, she’s quite a talented lady.

She has been performing stand-up since 2005, and before that says she found herself getting fired from every day job she ever had, she still holds the record for being fired from fourteen temp jobs in under a year, and her former recruitment consultants still twitch when someone mentions her name…

She lives in Manchester with her partner and is about to head down to London for this weekend’s Comedy Crawl where she’ll play on Saturday night (30th April) at Belushi’s.

Bethany Black

1. How did you get into comedy?

I got into comedy in a strange way, I thought there were only 4 places where people did Stand-up and that was The Comedy Store, Camden Jongleurs, Manchester’s Frog and Bucket and The Edinburgh Fringe.  I also thought that the process went:  phone up one of those places and ask for a gig.  Get a gig there that weekend.  A week later be putting together your own TV show for Channel 4.  and because that was how I thought it all worked and the comedians I saw on TV were all in their 30s and were all really funny all the time I thought that’s what you had to be.  My opportunity to give stand-up a go came when a friend offered me the chance to MC between the acts at a rock club in Preston called “Club Fuzzy”  which I did for a few months and then discovered that there was stand-up being performed all over the country in little dingy rooms above pubs.  So my first proper gig was at Manchester’s XS Malarkey which is the nicest gig in England on that week with a massive audience who were all comedy literate and up for a good time it was brilliant, and then every gig I did for a year afterwards in a dingy room in front of 5 people 4 of whom were acts was a massive dissapointment.

2. Comedy influences ?

My influences have been people like Richard Pryor, Chris Rock, Bill Hicks, Denis Leary, Peter Cook, Russell Brand, Jimmy Cricket, and every single person who was part of the Alternative comedy boom of the early 1980′s.  I’ve always been a comedy geek, since I was little I loved every single bit of comedy I could get my hands on.  Some of my earliest memories are of hiding behind the lounge door after my bed time watching The Young Ones, or Blackadder or Saturday Live and I would memorise whole scripts.  I started off telling jokes in the playground by telling jokes I’d seen Jimmy Cricket do on TV, and then when I was in my early teens it was about the time that Bill Hicks was doing UK shows and getting on Channel 4 and I loved watching his stuff, Dennis Leary too, but then when I started doing stand-up it was comics who really shared something of themselves that I loved, I love Richard Pryor he’s probably my biggest influence.  Russell Brand I also rate as one of the best stand-up comedians working today, once you get past the image and really look at the material he’s doing exactly what I think the best comedy is, taking that thing about yourself that you do and you know is stupid and that you’d normally never tell another human being about, and sharing it with a room full of strangers.

3. There’s a big scene in London but what about elsewhere in the UK?

I think if you’re in London it can seem like there’s nothing to leave London for, but if you’re from outside London as I am and you live outside London and work all over the UK you see that there’s comedy scenes everywhere these days.  Manchester’s got quite a big and vibrant comedy scene, where it’s small enough that newer acts don’t get eaten up by the open mic circuit as tends to happen in London, but big enough to help sustain and nurture new talent.

4. As a female comedian, do you feel it’s harder or is that something you don’t bother with?

I think it is harder for female comedians, but I also think that female comedians don’t like to talk about it because every time we do it gives the media another excuse to open up the “are women funny?” debate which is tired, the answer is yes women are funny, and they can be as funny as men and funnier, it’s just that when an audience sees a male comic die there are enough of them for it not to appear statistically significant.  If you’re a woman and you die on stage there’s more of a tendency for people to extrapolate from that one incident that no woman has ever been funny ever. The converse is also true however, and if you’re a good act right from the start then you’ll find that you stand out and are remembered and can progress very quickly. Over time I’ve had promoters tell me that they couldn’t book me as a last minute replacement because the person who pulled out wasn’t a woman, I’ve been told by a different promoter that I lived too close to the gig and that he’d want me as a last minute replacement if another lesbian comic pulled out last minute.  I’ve even had one promoter say, and I quote “My line-ups have been a bit cock heavy apparently so I thought I could get you on as the token tits for the evening.”  It was like being booked by Gene Hunt!  There appears to still be a level of 1970′s sexism at play in the comedy industry with certain people, however to focus on those is to distort what on the whole is a very supportive and fun industry.  There’s loads of promoters and acts who don’t think that gender is an issue and as scary as it looks from the outside the industry generally is very supportive of women comics.

5. What’s the worst thing that’s ever been heckled at you?

Heckling happens fairly rarely, and because of the nature of what I do my average heckler is usually a shy woman who’d never speak in front of a crowd who’s got sucked along with what I’m doing and thinks we’re having a conversation and accidentally speaks in the gap between jokes.  That said, I do also go to some fairly dark places on stage so I’ve had some absolute horrors, getting called a “fat fucking lesbian!” was fairly horrible, the handful of times I’ve had audience members threaten to rape me after a gig have been horrible too, A few months back 20 cops raided the venue where I was about to go on stage and when I did finally get on stage a local drug dealer wandered in and started threatening me, and there’s nothing you can do with that, it’s his pub.  I once had a Polish guy ruin a gig I was hosting where I was just about to bring on the first act by shouting out and engaging me in conversation before shouting loudly “I have cancer, I will die soon.”  And that sort of thing takes the atmosphere out of a room like you wouldn’t believe.  But my personal favourite bad heckle I ever got was someone who shouted out “You’re a cunt… and you’re not funny!” I think the “and” is the worst bit of that, that I’ve upset him so much that he’s got a two part heckle lined up, as if he’s thought, “this is preposterous I’m getting a whole list of grievances here, I’d better air them before she adds too many and I can’t remember them any more!”  He’s thought it through, and the two things are separate of each other.

6. What other festivals are you playing this year?

This year I’m playing Download and The Brighton Fringe and a couple of Biker Rallies so far I may pop up at a few more, I’ll have to see

7. How is it playing festivals compared to “normal” gigs?

They can be a different beast entirely, sometimes they’re lovely because at festivals there’s also music and the people who’ve come to see you are chilling out and taking time out from seeing the bands so there can be a more considered response, sometimes though they can be tough and can get quite rowdy, but I’m good with rowdy.

8. Comedy seems like an ever changing, competitive game – what is it you want to get out of it?

I’m getting everything I ever wanted out of it.  I get to make a good living doing the only two things I’ve ever been any good at: Showing off and telling stories.  Comedy is an art, therefore there is no end product, just a constant reinvention.  I didn’t get in to comedy to become an actor or a TV presenter or to get out of doing comedy, I got in to it because I love making people laugh and I love learning how to do it and I love trying to present things that people don’t normally think about, big ideas that may be scary to them, in a way that stops them from being scary.  You get out what you put in, and I love what I do.

9. Aside from other comedians, what else influences your stand-up?

Outside of comedy my influences are people like Johnny Cash, Johnny Rotten, Nick Cave, Poly Styrene, Tony Benn, Michael Moore, my mum and dad, Carl Sagan, Andy Warhol, Yoko Ono, The Manic Street Preachers, Ai Wei Wei, My partner the wonderful Rosanne Robertson, David Lynch, John Waters, Dr Bob and Bill W,  Malcolm Gladwell, Newton, Einstein, Plato, Ghandi, and Rocky Balboa.  All people who either help me to see the world in a certain way that makes it less scary and easier for me to manage living in, or are people who who are just themselves almost in spite of the world.  People who stand up and say “this is me and you can accept me or not but whether you do or don’t won’t change who I am or how I behave.”

10. Who are you looking forward to seeing at the Comedy Crawl this weekend?

I’m looking forward to seeing Nat Luurtsema as I think I was there at her first gig and I don’t believe I’ve seen her live since and I’ve seen bits and pieces and know that she’s awesome these days.  I’m also looking forward to seeing Phil Nichol because Phil’s always brilliant live, and also Paul Foot who I love watching and love watching the audience especially those who’ve not seen him before just to see their faces as they go from incredulity to confusion to either loving him and not being able to stop laughing or just not getting it.  It’s wonderful to see and Paul is just so inventive and a wonderful wonderful man.

11. For those who haven’t seen you before – what can we expect from Bethany Black?

Basically I show off for a bit and tell some stories, it’ll take you on a bit of a rollercoaster ride and you’ll find yourself laughing at some stuff you never thought you would.  It’ll be a little bit dirty and a little bit silly and a little bit political (not in a Ben Elton way)  and you’ll leave with a TV theme you’d forgotten about rattling round your head for a few days afterwards.

12. Who would you like to share a bill with, choose one of each – past, present and future (new up and coming talent)?

If I could share a bill with anyone I think it’d be Richard Pryor, Brendon Burns and Kai Humphries.  Kai’s just amazing the first time I gigged with him he was doing an open spot and I was closing and he was nearly impossible to follow.  I think he’s destined for massive things, though me saying that may well be the kiss of death for him.
You can see Bethany on Saturday (30th April 2011) at The Comedy Crawl, doing her routine at Fat Tuesday and Old Rope at Belushi’s.  Tickets are £20 for one day, or £35 for the whole weekend.

INTERVIEW: Stand Up Comedian Phil Nichol

Phil-Nichol
27/04/2011 By In Interviews

This weekend the country gathers together to celebrate a Royal Wedding, but while your Grandma gets smashed on Pimms under the bunting, all the real people will be flocking to Camden on the 30th May to watch The Comedy Crawl.  We’ve managed to wangle our way on to the press list for the festival, so we’ll be spending the weekend sashaying from venue to venue, pint in one hand, pen in the other, to bring you highlights from some of the world’s top comedians.

Until then, we’ve been hassling some of our favourite comics until they agreed to let us interview them for the site. First up is Canadian funny man, Phil Nichol, 2006 winner of the If.com Eddie award, respected theatrical actor and former member of musical comedy trio, Corky And The Juice Pigs. I managed to catch Phil on the phone a few weeks ago (after he’d just suffered the indignity of a bank cashier queue), and gently quizzed him.

So are you excited about the upcoming comedy crawl?

Yes, I’m very excited.  The Camden Crawl is going to be phenomenal.  Amazing.  Especially the comedy portion of it.  Particularly the fat old Tuesday Rope, or whatever it’s called.

What’s the deal with that – do you get enough time to check out the other acts, or is it in and out for you?

Well, I’ve never done the crawl before, so I don’t know what to expect.  I’m assuming that what will happen is I’ll have booked myself into lots of little slots here and there.  One of things I’m looking forward to is going to check out the music and just sort of spend the day. . . You know it’s sort of like a beautiful in city festival, and I’m a big festival goer.  One of my passions is discovering new music, and seeing and catching things before other people latch on to them, so it’s a great opportunity for both comedy fans and music fans who want to do that to just go sample little bits and pieces of everything.  I mean, the comedy line up I’ve seen is phenomenal, so if you want to go see some people you know and love, they’re on, but also there’s these little surprises all through the day because most people who are on the line up are actually exceptional

Are there any bands you’re planning to see while you’re there?

I thought what I would do is I would go into it the way I go into most festivals, which is knowing as little about it as possible and being pleasantly surprised by what’s on.  One of my favourite things to do is to open the pamphlet, put my finger down, and go and see whatever my finger lands on.  And of course the atmosphere in Camden is going to be electric – it’s always had a sense of group cool to it.  Even if you spent the whole weekend sitting on a beer patio, sucking back beers and having conversations with strangers, that would still be a great day.  If the weather stays the way it is now, it’s going to be awesome.  But then, sometimes for comedy, it’s better when it rains because people go inside, so sunshine can be a mixed blessing.

Comedy has exploded in the UK in the last few years, with loads of new acts coming up the ranks. How do you feel about certain comics who seem to be using the stand up circuit to secure a cushy presenting job on TV?

I have no problem with them whatsoever.

<pause>

I don’t comment on other people’s success, I celebrate what my friends do, and when they get nice cushy jobs.  I mean, tv presenting is a lovely job – it’s not stand up comedy – and I’m assuming that – well, I don’t know who you’re talking about exactly – but the people who I know that get those jobs will continue to do stand up just because once you’ve got the stand up bug, it’s really hard to give it up.  Even now, this year, you’re finding older comics like Phil Jupitus going back to the stand up circuit and folks like Stewart Lee who have never left it, who were all valid comedians in their day, and I think still have a lot to say and the skill to say it.

I’m actually quite glad I got a positive response to that question.

Really?  I just think it’s funny – I’ve been in comedy for a long time and I’m not a purist.  I think it’s very easy for a young comic to be idealistic.  It’s almost like a bit of comedy dogma, I think, to be against certain things and to be for hating hack comics, and hating Jongleurs.  It just seems like a) a waste of energy – you’re not going to do anything about it, it’s not going to go away and b) so what?  If you want to be a political cutting edge stand up comic that nobody’s heard of, you can do that too.  That’s quite a common road for a lot of people, when they’re young, and then they get into their 30s and 40s and realise “oh, maybe I was being a little idealistic about whether other people care about what I do”

<laughs>

It’s the difference between being a metal artist and a pop artist.  I don’t think either care about the other one.  Just do what you do and enjoy it, and the crowd will come to you.

Music plays quite a big part in your act.  What do you think about the new wave of comedians, like Flight Of The Conchords, that have clearly followed in Corky and The Juice Pigs footsteps?

I love the Flight Of The Conchords!  They’re friends of mine, I was very pleased with not just the two of them, but Rhys Darby and the radio series.  I mean they had Daniel Kitson on the radio series, and people kind of forget that.  They had a cutting edge crew.  I’ve been to New Zealand, and I love the comedy scene there.  I’m really, really proud of anyone from New Zealand who can make a break, nevermind international success.  Not to mention that the Conchords are really nice people.

I like musical comedy to an extent, when people are writing original songs – again I’m not a purist, so a comedian can stick their nose up and say “anyone can play a guitar”, but that’s not actually true or else everyone would be playing the guitar.  You have to give them some credit.  Like any craft, if you look at the best of it, which in my mind would be Bill Bailey, or possibly Tim Minchin at the moment (I imagine it’s only a matter of time before we see Tim at the Oscars ceremony) – that’s what musical comedy at its best can be, but at its worst it can be somebody just changing the words around in a song.  But if that makes an audience giggle on the night, then no one’s hurting anybody.

I used to be more critical when I was younger, then I just realised I’d rather be a comedian than a critic.  Leave that to the critics, I’ll get on with being funny

After the absolute farce that was Sachsgate, Russel Brand and Jonathan Ross seem to have created an environment in the UK where comedy is scrutinised very closely.  Has this had an effect on the way you edit your material?

Not me personally, because no one knows who I am.  The funny thing is, you have to go really far to get a headline like that, or be a really well-known comedian to get that sort of attention.  I think comedy is very dependent on taste, it’s subjective, it’s impossible to judge whether someone’s really kidding or not.  Afterwards, if they say they’re kidding, you have to take it at face value.  I mean some comedians, if they say that they meant it as a joke, you have to accept it that way.  I know it’s an easy get out, but in most cases it’s true.  We’re there as the last stand for any sort of dissent in a country which seems to be turning into a voluntary police state, where people are all afraid to say things and point the finger at each other, and look over their back yard fences at each other.  Comedians seem to be the one group of people who talk about these strange things – because we SHOULD be laughing at them.  If we suppress them, they come out as a repressed response which is usually criminal or at the least immoral.  I think comedy is very positive, the more black and dark it is, I personally think, the better it is: the better for the psyche of the general public that’s taking it in.  Even if they’re immediate reaction is “I hate that”, it’s doing them some good.

If they’re feeling something, at least they’re feeling.

Well, it means they’re discussing it.  Frankie Boyle, I guess, would be the man of the moment. He’s taken and rationalised his jokes as to what he meant by them after the fact: what he meant by them, was to be funny, first and foremost, and frankly, the people who were hurt by them should be the only people who were offended by them, not anyone else who’s taken offence on their behalf.  That’s just heading towards fascism.

Do you find it easier to win an audience over with controversial subject matters if you pitch it to them in song form?

No, absolutely not. It’s easier to win an audience over with really straightforward observational comedy about things that happen to them, like having your bike stolen, or losing your credit card and spinning out a funny routine about it, because that’s what most people relate to from 16 to 60 years old.  Controversial material either takes an audience of people who already know who you are, so it’s not that controversial for them, or people who already agree with what you think, so it’s not controversial to them in the least.  If something is controversial to people, then you have to be quite a wily comic to pull it off and/or be doing your own show in a venue where there’s nothing on before you or after you to make it understood.

You won the If.com Eddie award in 2006.  What kind of effect does that have on a person’s career?

Well, I can only speak from personal experience.  If you look through the list of Perrier award winners, where every single one of them has gone on to larger success…  Even some of the nominees have.  I won the If.com comedy award and I tend to think I’m the George Lazemby of comedy award winners.  I’m like the James Bond that no one will remember.  It was a great thing to be recognised, finally, for the amount of work I’ve done in my career, and for that specifically I was very proud of it.  I don’t know if it’s really changed my career, but then I wouldn’t know.  I’m doing the things I want to do, but then I was doing the things I wanted to do at the time, anyway.  Maybe it’s provided a way for other people to promote my shows, and that’s good.  Any kind of attention helps, doesn’t it? Because of the style of my show I don’t really get a lot of corporate, and I don’t really do TV or advertising (not for ethical reasons, just for professional ones).

I’ve started a theatre company that’s in its sixth year and I’m producing more shows and original plays, I’m writing the best stand up I can write, including 3 live shows since the award which have picked up critical acclaim, I’ve travelled the world and I live in a nice part of London surrounded by a great group of friends.  Everything seems to be going quite well.

The first few years afterwards, it seemed like I expected more, but at the same time the comedy world has changed here a lot.  Someone pointed out to me that it took Johnny Vegas almost 5 years to become established after he’d won his award.

Well, George Lazemby is now regarded by most film critics as one of the most accomplished Bonds, so there’s still time.

Well that’s why I used the example.  Awards to me are silly, because I saw my friends doing better shows, and they didn’t get nominated or even looked at, and they might have gone home feeling they were unsuccessful.  I don’t think it’s great to separate and to say that one’s better than the other.  If you understand that it’s just someone’s opinion, then it’s nice that their opinion was that they liked me.

What’s the worst experience you’ve ever had on stage?

Well, there’s been loads of bad shows, and they still happen regularly. The most recent was doing a BBC comedy live show in front of a group of Nathan Barley’s – all these london hipsters who think they understand comedy inside and out even though they’ve only been to a handful of comedy shows.  Most of them were probably desperately trying to get in to television and radio, and for some reason I jarred with them because my show tends to play to more of a club type crowd, and they were there to be seen to be cool, and not to enjoy the comedy.  They just sat there like a group of X Factor judges, and when I told them they were being ridiculous, they all got the huff.  It ended with me asking them to heckle – they couldn’t even be bothered to do that, they were so lazy.  That for me was probably the worst experience, not because my feelings were hurt, but because I lost my temper and became infuriated at how preposterous they were all being, with their funky haircuts and their stupid glasses.  The audience didn’t understand why the comedians weren’t having a good time, and it’s really simple.  There’s an unwritten contract between audience and comedian: the more you laugh, the funnier the comedian feels, the funnier he’ll be, the more you laugh and the cycle continues.  I guess I was also upset, because those people in the audience are likely to be the driving force in the next generation of TV and radio.  I’d much rather being doing a gig in the heart of Essex, from people who’ve spent their day painting houses, or something, who really need a laugh, and get a good response, than play to a crowd of Hoxtonites.

Any plans for Edinburgh this year?

Yes.  I’m doing my solo show, The Simple Hour, that’s on at The Stand at 8.50 every night.  It’s my 13th solo show, and the first time I’ve written an hour of stand up.  I usually do monologues, or character pieces, but this time I’ve stripped it right down to the type of material I do in clubs.

At noon every day I’m doing a theatrical monologue with Dave Florez – Somewhere Beneath It All, A Small Fire Burns Still.  It’s a pretty twisted and funny, darkly sad piece.  The Comedians Theatre Company is producing that, as well as another new piece of work – Cul De Sac – in association with The Pleasance and producer Richard Butler, which was developed through our, Itch: A Scratch program, and written by comedian Matthew Osborn.

We’re also hoping to put on a production of Ken Campbell‘s translation of the German play School For Clowns, but that’s not been confirmed yet.  We’re also going to be putting on our Itch show with a number of comedians, including Jack Whitehall, Jo Caulfield and Hattie Hayridge to name but a few, which has got quite an exciting group of people.

We’re also taking our weekly new material show, Old Rope, which is run from the Phoenix Bar in Cavendish Square, London, up to Edinburgh.  I run it alongside Tiffany Stevenson and it’s our way of facilitating comedians looking for a platform to try out new stuff.  Hopefully, we’ll be doing it every night in The Gilded Balloon, as we have for the last three years.

Any tips for the Comedy Crawl?

Take a chance.  Go see something you don’t know.

You can see Phil on Saturday at The Comedy Crawl, closing Fat Tuesday and Old Rope at Belushi’s.  Tickets are £20 for one day, or £35 for the whole weekend.

Alternatively, you can catch Phil Nichol’s and Tiffany Stevenson’s new material night, Old Rope, at The Phoenix (Cavendish Square) every Monday night.

The Brothers Bloom – Interviews

bb
01/06/2010 By In Interviews, Movies, Trash

It has been over five years since Rian Johnson wowed the film world with his ultra stylish neo-noire film, Brick.

With anticipation building towards his long awaited follow-up, The Brothers Bloom, a globe-trotting comedy about the last great adventure of the world’s two best con men. We sit down with the stars of the film; Adrien Brody, Mark Ruffalo and Rachel Weisz for their thoughts on the project, what it was like to work with Johnson and having the chance to take a break from the serious roles they usually attach themselves with.

MARK RUFFALO (STEPHEN BLOOM)

Tell us a bit about your character in the film.

I play Stephen Bloom, who is a conman extraordinaire. He’s the mastermind of this duo of conmen brothers, and he writes these long, sprawling narrative con jobs. He has a deep love for his brother.

How is this different from some of the other characters you played, given that this is more of a comedy caper?

It’s totally different from a lot of the stuff I’ve done – it goes mostly into comedy, it’s pretty flight of fancy, whimsical…

Did you enjoy that about Rian Johnson and his style? Were you a fan of Brick?

I hadn’t seen it until I got this role. And then I saw it and was really impressed with him and loved how he could bring us into another world, this alternate universe.

Was shooting in a variety of international locations challenging or exciting?

It was challenging and exciting. We were all over Eastern Europe, and it has a real old feeling and people still dress formally there at times, so the way we looked and felt was really informed by the places we were in – Prague, Belgrade, Montenegro. We were all over Eastern Europe. It was a lot of fun, actually.

Now I know that you, Rachel and Adrien are known primarily for some more serious performances in your careers. Did the three of you have fun on-set, or was it a method set? How did it work, doing something so comical?

It works really well, I think. It’s easy for a dramatic actor to come into the comedy world, I think, especially this kind of world, because it’s all still based in reality, to some extent. It’s a very playful group – you didn’t mention Rinko in there – but she has also done a lot of drama too. We had a lot of fun, we goofed around a lot, and where we had to dive down into the more dramatic stuff – the love story, the family story – it’s very satisfying. It pays off very well.

One last question: so if you’re the Brothers Bloom, and Adrien plays Bloom, does that mean he’s Bloom Bloom?

[laughs] No, he has a name that was so ridiculous that we just stopped calling him that and just made him Bloom.

RACHEL WEISZ (PENELOPE STAMP)

Tell us a little bit about your character and what she does.

I play Penelope Stamp, and she is a Jersey heiress who had a very dysfunctional childhood. She’s hardly been out at all – she’s been in the house for all of her adolescence and her 20s. She’s decided that while she stays at home, she shouldn’t waste time, so she develops a huge range of hobby skills, ranging from juggling chainsaws to karate to playing the accordion – many, many strange and bizarre hobbies. She becomes the mark for two conmen, played by Adrien Brody and Mark Ruffalo, and Rinko is the pyrotechnics expert of their team – she’s called Bang Bang. They pretend to her that they’re smugglers, and they ease her out of her very sheltered existence and take her on this incredible, romantic, mystery, action adventure love story caper.

How is this different from the roles that you played in the past?

This is completely, utterly different from anything that I’ve played. I think Rian, the writer/director of the film, has a completely unique imagination, so I don’t think any of us have done anything like this movie. But I guess for me, the main departure would be that I’ve done more dramatic roles, and this is. I would say, more comedic.

Actor and conman. Similarities?

Definitely! To be a conman, you have to be a great actor, and to be an actor, you have to be a good conman or woman. You’ve got to believe in it so much that other people believe you.

Tell me a little bit about working with Rian.

Rian is a delight to work with. I think he’s definitely the most laid-back director I’ve ever worked with. He’s not controlling or bossy – he just likes everything to be easygoing. But he’s a really talented director, so when you’ve roamed too far into the dark, he’ll kind of ease you back in.

As long as we’re saying nice things about people, let’s talk about working with Adrien, Mark and Rinko.

Oh, I haven’t got anything nice to say about any of them! [laughs] Adrien Brody and Mark Ruffalo play brothers, so they spent a lot of time together off-set to get the brotherly-buddy feeling going. They’re very mischievous, funny, very imaginative and very quirky guys. Rinko actually couldn’t speak a word of English – she’s Japanese – and by the end, she could really communicate. She’s also a very quirky, powerful and interesting person.

ADRIEN BRODY (BLOOM)

Tell us a little bit about the character you play in The Brothers Bloom.

I play Bloom, who is the younger brother of a conman duo. They were orphans, and in their desire to survive in a tough world, they started this conman team, in which my older brother created these elaborate schemes that I was the main character in. Within that, I think it created a problem for Bloom because he only had that, at the end of the day. He had nowhere else to turn, no father figure. He just had these characters. So when the cons where finished, he really had not much more than the shell of a man.

You’re in this film with Rachel Weisz and Mark Ruffalo, and the three of you together have been in quite a few serious movies. What was it like trotting around the globe and having such a fun, adventurous atmosphere? Was that fun off-set and on as well?

Yeah, I just finished telling stories of Mark rolling down a hill in Romania, coming across bears… You know, it was a real adventure. Travelling is very exciting and I think it paralleled the story that the characters were going on – we were constantly in new places, both off screen and on.

What was it like with Rachel, seeing her comedic side come into play?

I don’t see actors as limited as people perceive them. I don’t see people as not having this comedic element. She is absolutely amazing in this film. People have a sense of humour, it’s just that certain roles don’t have room for that.

What was it like working Rian Johnson, and had you seen his first film Brick?

I love Brick! It’s an incredible piece of work. He’s a real artist. Rian is also a very thoughtful person – the environment that he creates on set is very easy-going, and I think that lends itself to creativity. Working with other like-minded people is fun.

You also had some great stuff in the film with Rinko Kikuchi. Tell us what it was like working with her.

Rinko is such a breath of fresh air – she’s just such an alive being. She’s just great, fun, daring and uninhibited. I played a character that was very inhibited, so it was very fun to interact with her wildness. She’s amazing – she steals the show and doesn’t say a word!

The Brothers Bloom is released nationwide, in selected cinemas, from Friday

The Losers – Interview

Thelosers
20/05/2010 By In Interviews, Movies, Trash

 

They may not be the A-Team or have the cheese quality of the upcoming Expendables but The Losers have at least three things going for them over its two main rivals: the incredible acting talents of Zoe Saldana – famous for her break out turns in the ground-breaking Avatar and last year’s Star Trek – Jeffery Dean Morgan – a comic book veteran after the brilliant Watchmen – and Idris Elba – Stringer Bell from the pheomenal series, The Wire. Enough said.

We take a bit of time out to talk to the stars, regarding their roles, in the upcoming film.

How physical was this movie? Zoe has some scenes where we see you flying through the air. Was it as physically demanding as we, the audience, think it is?

JEFFREY DEAN MORGAN: Yeah, it is.

ZOE SALDANA: Yeah.

JEFFREY DEAN MORGAN: With this movie in particular, we wanted to do as much as we possibly could as far as the action sequences and stunts. We trained a lot. We got to Puerto Rico, what, two weeks before, I think, principle photography began, just for training purposes, which was great in another respect. We bonded as a cast and the only way this movie truly works is because of the chemistry. And we got that from fight training. We kind of fell in love with each other while beating the crap out of each other, which is pretty cool. And Zoe did everything.

ZOE SALDANA: [Laughs] It was exhausting, and the reality is that it’s fun. It looks great. And it’s the least that I can do. We have very privileged professions and for three months, we get paid a lot of money to give the audience a really good adventure. And I’ve always been one of those that if I can tell that was not the actor doing that stunt, I’m lost. You’ve lost me. It could be in the beginning of the movie, halfway through the movie or whatever. And we really wanted to go as far as we could physically go and the reward, I can’t even explain to you what it feels like when you get to see a scene and you get to see your entire team—from your director to your actors and even your stunt coordinator—and everybody’s gleaming. You feel really happy and proud of yourself. So, that’s good.

JEFFREY DEAN MORGAN: Not to mention seeing the final result.

ZOE SALDANA: Yeah. It’s just great.

JEFFREY DEAN MORGAN: We get to sit down in that movie theater and see it for the first time, and we’re really happy to see all that hard work up on the screen. It’s cool when you see these fight sequences and I remember very well Roque punching me. [Laughs] Or Zoe kicking me in the head. And that’s there on the screen; we’ll be able to look at that forever. It’s a good deal.

When you knew you were doing this movie, did you rush to read the graphic novels, or did you stay away from it?

JEFFREY DEAN MORGAN: I had a little bit of work with the graphic novel world doing Watchmen, which I love. I think it’s such a great foundation to build off of. And what Jamie Vanderbilt did was to even expand on it more, as well as Sylvain, who shot this movie in such an original way. I mean, we, as actors, didn’t know where the cameras were half the time. The palette he used was very much ripped right from that graphic novel. So, it’s a great way to make a movie on these graphic novels. It’s such an invaluable foundation for making a film. As actors, you have this skeleton, or even sometimes more than a skeleton of a character that you get to build on. And the producers and director really gave us a chance to expand on what Andy [Diggle] and Jock did with the graphic novel, which was awesome.

How do you balance between spectacle and character, because part of this is standing in the right place so when the pyro goes off you don’t get hurt. Is there a struggle between those two, getting the action right, but also the character?

ZOE SALDANA: It’s trust. When you have the most amazing, professional crew, you know that if you fall they’re going to catch you. And if they don’t and I fall, they better run, ‘cause I’m relying on the fact that I’m going out and guiding myself with everything that they’ve done and they’ve basically choreographed for me. But it’s with the intention of getting it done, but not getting hurt. So when you have that trust then you can really focus on your character and on what you’ve been rehearsing and working really hard to accomplish.

I’m also one that if I don’t feel that I can trust my stunt coordinator or I can’t trust the camera department or I can’t trust the director, I’m not going to put myself there. And I think that we all have that. You just have to have a certain line, so that I kind of stop here.

IDRIS ELBA: Yeah, when you go to the set, there’s an element where you see the performers and they’re doing these real stunts right before your very eyes. But you see them and their faces are still alive and they’re smiling. I think we have an element of that, especially in this film where we have a crew that loves us and we’ve been doing this film for a while. They want to see how we’re going to do this stunt and still act. And that’s one of the challenges that just keeps the whole thing alive.

It’s kudos us to each one of us if we can throw a joke in while we’re doing something really cool and dangerous. Jeffrey would do it all the time and just give me a wink and shoot. And it would just be those subtle things, just to let the audience pick up on that, and it just also makes it feel cooler and just real.

Can you talk about the distinctive action and comedy blend that this movie has?

ZOE SALDANA: This takes it back to like the ‘80s kind of action movies where there’s a bad guy and there are the good guys. And it is obvious that they’ve been wronged and they have to come and bring justice for all and save the day. It’s fun because it also feels morally kind of coordinated.

Zoe, was there a point where you had to decide which way you have to go in which scene, where you’ve got to pull back on the sex appeal and be more of the kick-ass girl? Was there a line you had to cross?

ZOE SALDANA: I think that for men, that line just doesn’t exists. There’s never enough sexuality in a woman that a man might say, ‘That’s a little too much or something.’ And for me personally, there’s not enough. If anything, I would do everything just really harsh or whatever. So, thank God that Sylvain always managed to meet me in the middle or push me into the middle and sometimes when I felt like it was unnecessary to be too sexual, like now it’s about outwitting something, as opposed to out-sexing the situation. Then it was always like a negotiation, but the reality is that we’re also soldiers. Men, as trained soldiers, they’re going to try to do whatever it is in their power to get the mission done. And for a woman, it would be no different. She’s just a soldier, period. So if her physical assets are a weapon that she can use, then by all means, we’re not overly exploiting this. If she’s a soldier, she’s going to do whatever she needs to do to get it done.

Do you think that comic book fans will embrace this movie?

JEFFREY DEAN MORGAN: All you can hope for is positive reaction for the work that you do. I mean, we all go into these projects thinking they’re going to be great, and that’s our goal. Whether or not that happens, once it goes through the editing process, you know we don’t have control over that. And we don’t know what the hell’s going to happen.

So, having seen this movie, I was really proud of it. It’s exactly the movie we wanted to make and we made it for as much the fans as we did for anybody. There is a little bit of a chance to have a little bit more fun with this and do more of what Idris had said earlier, a Lethal Weapon type of vibe. It’s really going back to what Joel Silver became Joel Silver doing. We were very happy with it. And I think it even plays beyond the fans.

IDRIS ELBA: Way to bring it home.

The Losers is in cinemas nationwide from 28th May 2010.

Wee Gondry Update

greenhornet3
17/03/2010 By In Interviews, Movies, Trailers

The Green Hornet coming to the end of its production Gondry spills on more plans.
First up, The We And The I is an experimental project based on his book, You’ll Like This Film Because You’re In It. Says Gondry: “When I wrote this book, I always wrote ‘I did this,’ or ‘we did that,’ and my publisher said, ‘We have to do something for the we and the I.’”

Okay. So what’s it about? “It’s about the group effect, how people in groups transform when the group is dislocated, because everyone jumps out of the bus at different times, there is a smaller group and how the relationships evolve.”

“It’s kids on a bus, it’s more like a social thing. It’s not well-known actors, it’s going to be kids from a school in the Bronx. I love kids and just regular people too because they are not polluted by the medium. They come as they are and they have beautiful stories to tell, so I want to show that.”

So far so typically odd. But Gondry is never one to stay in the same place too long, so he’s got another idea in the making, this one an untitled time travel flick that he wants Ellen Page to star in. (more…)