As a film that touches on a sensitive subject that affects the military it was important to know how the presentation was received. “When we went to Iraq,” America opened, “we didn’t screen the film…. We talked about it a lot with the soldiers there. In some cases, we showed them a trailer so that they got an idea of what it was. Just a couple of weeks ago we screened the movie in the installation at Fort Carson for approximately six to seven hundred active duty soldiers and their spouses. Soldiers who just came back from Iraq or Afghanistan or were going within a matter of weeks…. The response was just amazing and sparked really interesting questions and conversations. [Soldiers] wanted to share their versions of the story with us. It was the ultimate reward to see the film do what we all believed it could do, which was really relate to the soldiers and their families and also spark a conversation and make them feel like it was a compassionate portrayal and not a judgment or a political skewed or driven film that had a certain agenda.”

“I’ve traveled the world visiting our troops,” Wilmer added. “I’ve been to Iraq. I’ve been to Afghanistan. I’ve been to over nine countries and I couldn’t be more proud to have met thousands of soldiers and heard hundreds of stories. And that kept fueling me more and more to find the right vehicle and the right character that somehow would shine the light on something that was important to them.”

Considering the subject matter all of the roles carry a certain amount of weight and it would be easy to assume that America’s character, Sara, is her most challenging role to date, but America doesn’t necessarily agree. “I don’t know,” she admits, “I don’t think I can really compare it to anything else I’ve done. Every role I take on because it’s a challenge to me. I will say that this probably the most grownup role I’ve gotten to play. It had its challenges, but in some ways I felt I could relate to Sara. I could understand her as a woman outside of the military context.”

Wilmer also shared about his character Ray and how he fits into the bigger picture. “When you grab a character like this…we’re not telling the story of every soldier. My role in the movie specifically was to show the audience that I was truly the one guy [the main character] could relate to. We went through the exact same situation, except we’re both coping with it very differently. One thing I’m really excited about this movie is that I really do believe these characters. I believe they live and breathe and that they are really affected by this hard-to-control situation.”

To prepare for their roles, the actors who played soldiers received a few days of military training. “It was amazing,” Wilmer says. “We were with the National Guard in New Mexico. We got to sleep in the same facility as them. In fact, the platoon we were training with was going to Afghanistan a month later.”

America actually has two roles in the film. The onscreen role is obvious, but America is also the executive producer of The Dry Land. “I signed on solely to be an executive producer on the project and didn’t have any intention of playing Sara. As an executive producer I got to look at the picture as a whole and I had to think about James – our lead character – and what we needed to feel from him…and so I kind of came from a macro point of view of who is [Sara] in this realm of this film to really falling in love with this strong female character that just had love and compassion and wanted to heal her partner with love and strength and be the sole thing to bring him back. I fell in love with the role [Sara] played in this story.”

Watch The Dry Land when it opens on July 30 and perhaps you’ll fall in love with these characters as well.

Seacrest: Mike, [...] looking back at all the years of the Shrek films, what has been one your favorite moments of the past ten years?

Myers: I think when Jeffrey [Katzenberg] said, ‘Would you like to be in an animated movie?’, I said “yes”; he said it was called Shrek – I said, ‘That’s the worst title I’ve ever heard in my life.” [audience laughter] [... I]n the process, the first time I saw it with an audience, the line “But you are beautiful to me” got a gasp from the crowd, who were so into the whole romance and the whole heart of it. [...] I was so blown away that an animated movie could move people and that it was something that people could be invested in emotionally. I think that’s been the most satisfying thing to me.

Seacrest: Eddie, what’s been the secret to success for Shrek?

Murphy: The secret to success?

Seacrest: For this franchise, why has it been so successful do you think?

Murphy: I  think it’s really funny and very well made.

Myers: Hold on, I just went on for 15 minutes. I wish I had done that.

Murphy: I really do think it’s really that simple – it’s really well made and it’s very funny and it’s smart, and those things [...] add up to hits sometimes.

With Shrek and Fiona’s relationship being the catalyst of the outcome for all living in the land of Far Far Away, it was understandable that the chemistry between the two – and therefore Mike Myers and Cameron Diaz – was called into question.  As Diaz put it, “we get to take the journey with them of finding that love again. You open up on them sort of in routine of a life they have taken for granted [...] and then you get to see him journey back through, trying to regain and find his true love. And that ultimately is just a beautiful, lovely story. You just get to fall in love with Shrek and Fiona all over again.” Of course, as recognizable and talented the actors are, even they couldn’t take whole credit for the interactions between the characters they portray.

Myers: Well, the writing is so great, and all the filmmakers are so committed to it just being excellent that you’re just, uh –

Diaz: Following the script?

Myers: Yeah, well there’s that. But it’s kind of like a Lamaze birth back into the thing every time.

Diaz: I agree; it’s well-structured and it’s clear as to what the two of them are going through.

Myers: Mike Mitchell is a great director, Jeffrey’s a great filmmaker –

Diaz: The animators are [...] great actors. They’re really the actors, the animators who put the look in our eyes and the chemistry between us.

Director Mike Mitchell and producer Teresa Cheng went further into the mechanics of Shrek Forever After, this time in the realm of 3-D.

Question: What was your  inspiration for using 3-D for this particular sequel?

Mitchell: We use it for the roller coaster ride sequences when Shrek’s on a broomstick being chased by a thousand witches, but we also found that we could use the 3-D as a storytelling device and we really were conscious of that. [...]  I don’t know if an audience will notice any of that but it’s something you feel, much like surround sound.

Cheng: We wanted to use 3-D as a sort of immersive experience where you can hopefully as an audience member feel what he [Shrek] is feeling throughout the movie. [...] When things are in deep space, you sense the world is different for him, or when it’s chaotic, you sense that. If you actually notice what you’re sensing, we didn’t do a good job. If you feel what he’s sensing, what he feels, then we actually did a great job of making this an immersive experience for the viewer.

Television actor Jon Hamm, known to the relative masses as Mad Men‘s Don Draper detailed his experience with voice acting as follows:

Hamm: It was a lot easier. Certainly less demanded on me. My role in the film wasn’t nearly as large as my role on the television show, so that was a lot easier as well.  A whole different kind of acting and of being in a scene when you’re reading opposite people that have other constructed performances that you haven’t necessarily heard – and that again speaks to the incredible competence of the people that put this together to make that all seem seamless. I was learning as I went along, as who the character was [...] – because it was a new character it was constantly being shifted [...]. That was a really fun process to be a part of because it’s not happening live. It’s sort of deferred until they get it exactly right. And when you’re in the hands of people that want it to be excellent, that’s a very comforting and welcoming feeling. So, I tremendously enjoyed it and it was a very interesting thing to learn on the fly.

Interesting to hear were the actors’  real-life instances involving the star quality behind their characters’ voices:

Banderas: A woman came to me once in a supermarket with a little kid who was, like, five years old, and she said to him, “Look, look! This is Puss in Boots! This is Puss in Boots; can you do the voice?” And the kid just looked at me  and looked at his mother and said “That’s not Puss in Boots, Mom. That’s Zorro!” [...] What about you, Eddie?

Murphy: I’ve had people come up and do lines from the movie to me. They don’t really ask me to do [the voice]. The only time I’ll do the voice is [...] if I’m watching movies at home on the screen and the movie’s not good. I’ll have [a shadow puppet of] the donkey come up and do commentary. He’ll be like, “This movie ain’t shit! I don’t wanna watch this!” Sometimes I take the Shrek ears and I’ll have this shadow of me and Shrek… I’ve had some wild times in the house.

And what would any press conference be without the inevitable party question –

Question: Are there any fairy tales you’d like to re-write? Like I want to know what Don Draper would re-write.

Hamm: I think the great thing about this franchise is that it takes the kind of classic fairy tale thing and puts it on its head. [...] Not only this franchise  but there are several who have done that quite well. [...] I don’t think I could certainly do it any better than this; this is amazing.

Robinson: I would re-write The Lion King.

Hamm: With?

Robinson: I just, I wouldn’t let Mufasa die.

Shrek Forever After opens tomorrow, Friday May 21.

From the moment they walked in it was obvious that the actors were in high spirits. Samuel L. Jackson cracked jokes whenever he had the chance. “Don’t look so happy to see me now!” he announced as he came into the room. When asked if he relished playing a soft spoken, regular character as opposed to larger than life super heroes, Jackson quickly countered with, “Is that what he is? Soft spoken and regular? It’s as exciting to step into the skin of this particular character as it is to be Nick Fury or anybody else. It’s the story that’s the exciting thing and being able to service it and put that character on the inside of that story and have him be part of the dynamic of what’s going on between his character and Naomi [who plays Elizabeth in the film]. And move the story along in that particular way.”

Kerry Washington as Lucy.

Kerry Washington also shared thoughts about her character and her acting process. When asked about her very emotional scenes in the film, Washington was hesitant to answer. “I don’t really know how to answer that question – it’s such a tricky question,” she said. “[As an actor] You don’t prepare for a moment in the film; you prepare to be that person for the whole journey. What’s interesting to me about Lucy is that we meet her in a difficult moment. When I started doing research about her, I realized this is a women who has spent years undergoing infertility treatments, IVF, trying to get pregnant…struggling with that. Now she’s made this new decision to do something differently. She’s already at the end of her rope.”

Like other cast members, Jackson was more than happy to laud praise on writer/director Rodrigo Garcia. “Rodrigo did an amazing job of writing the story,” Jackson said. “How does [Rodrigo] get in touch with his feminine side that well to make that happen? I’m just glad that he wrote a role like [Paul] for a guy.”

On Rodrigo, Washington added, “He is a powerful observer. He really is an observer of human beings.”

In Mother and Child Jackson has a romantic relationship with Naomi Watts’ character, Elizabeth. The two of them also share a love scene. In regards to working with Watts, Jackson said, “It was great. I know her socially…a bit. I know her husband better, because we worked together. Amazingly, the first thing we did was that scene in the apartment. Fortunately, I didn’t have to go through the normal stuff you go through when you do love-making scenes where you go ‘Where can I touch you? Where can I not touch you? I apologize for getting excited.’” He pauses and smiles. “’I apologize for not.’ You gotta let that go both ways! Fortunately, she was the one in charge. It worked out great, but we had a great working relationship.”

Mother and Child is going up against some stiff competition this weekend – another film that Samuel L. Jackson happens to be in as well. “Hopefully [Mother and Child] will find its audience,” he said. “It’s about real people and real relationships. Amazingly enough, this film has a lot to say about faith and Jesus and belief…and hopefully the faith-based audience will show up for this movie.”

Show your faith in well-crafted dramas and see Mother and Child when it opens.

Check back for our full review!

Wearing a fashionable, earth-toned pantsuit and sporting a feathery, pixie hairdo, Annette Bening sat down and almost immediately complemented the much more casual Rodrigo Garcia. “I’m going to feel like I’m going to be embarrassing him by singing his praises,” Bening opened, “but I’m going to do it anyway!” She laughed.

Her character, Karen, is a middle-aged woman who became pregnant at 14 and gave up her daughter for adoption immediately after birth. The experience changed her life forever and has given her a kind of closed-off, yet needy personality. Bening addressed that duality. “That’s in the writing, right? So what you’re pointing out – that paradox – it’s in the writing, so that immediately attracted me because it’s hard to find that. Of course it’s also nervous making as well, because you see it and you see the potential that’s there and then you think: well, I hope I can find that. If I didn’t know where it was going it’d probably be unbearable – some of the painful sequences. When it’s all on the page and you know that it’s there then you’re basically trying to follow what’s already there. I think the scars make sense. I believed her.”

While Bening performed her research for Karen as a middle-aged woman, she does recall a real life experience with a girl she knew when she was a teenager. “I can remember one girl…I’d known since we were very little and we actually ended up going through school together. Gorgeous girl. Really vivacious. What I remember is that thing of: ‘What happened to her?’ Because you were never really told explicitly what happened and suddenly she was gone. Well, she got sent away because she got pregnant. So the legacy of that is what I had to try to understand as best I could. So that got me into the present of the film – somebody who’d been through that [experience] who in some ways had been paralyzed by it.”

The character of Karen is a very good role that allows an actor to really showcase her talents. When it comes to finding well-written roles, Bening noted, “Well I’ve been lucky and I have a family so I don’t work all the time. I try to be pretty selective.”

Writer/Director Rodrigo Garcia

“Picky,” Rodrigo corrected and they both laughed. Still, Bening is happy having the choice to stop and start as she pleases, acting in film or on stage.

One of the more impressive aspects of the film is the fact that this uniquely female experience was written and directed by a man. Garcia quickly addressed that observation. “I was going to say that I don’t think it’s that female,” he says, happy that he caught himself. “I started writing [the film] when my children were little, so I was new to discovering the strength of that attachment, which I think particularly with your first baby there’s a day that it’s a little scary. On the one hand there was that bond. On the other hand I’ve always been interested in people who live their lives in the longing of an absent one. Whether it was someone who had died or someone who moved away or lovers that split up.” Garcia elaborated further, explaining that everyone understood these bonds and accepted them. Mother and child bonds were especially strong. “One of the reasons I made Karen so young when she had the baby was so that it was clear that she had not made an informed choice – that it was thrust upon her. The cruelty of being 14, making a 15-minute mistake still waking you up at night 35 years later. This was potentially powerful.”

Hopefully you’ll feel the same way when Mother and Child opens.

Check back for our full review!

One of the first things Emily Mortimer’s fans will notice about Alice Frumpton is that the character is different from what Mortimer has played in the past. “I was drawn to [the part] because it was different from the stuff I’d done before and I think that if there is any kind of plan to how I guide my career, it’s…to try to do things that are different from the last and try to not bore myself or anyone else in the process. And try not to do the same thing twice,” Mortimer says with a smile. “I don’t know if this is true of everybody, but it’s certainly true of me, but I think I’m best when I’m out of my comfort zone – it’s such an awful phrase – but I think that’s when interesting things happen when you don’t really know what you’re doing. And it’s dangerous to know what you’re doing too much. So that was part of the attraction that this was a different part from one I played before. And then of course it was impossible to turn down an opportunity of acting opposite Michael Caine. Who wouldn’t want to do that? And I was entirely un-disappointed by the reality of being with him in a movie. He was so great.” According to Mortimer Caine is very professional, but that he’s also a giggler and they would both burst into laughter during takes.

Mortimer also shared what attracted her to the film. “I thought it was really interesting and I was particularly impressed by Daniel Barber the director, when I met him and talked to him about it after reading the script. I thought the script was really gripping and interesting, but I was nervous about it because it’s territory that’s very familiar. You switch on the [television] and there’s 30 channels of TV showing cop dramas and it’s such familiar territory for audiences and I was nervous that there was potential for [the film] to fall into cliché. And then I watched a short film that [Barber] made that was nominated for an Oscar called The Tonto Woman…and it was very epic and [had a] kind of odd Western vibe to it and intense scenes between characters. Beautifully shot. Somehow the way the characters interacted in that film was really striking and unusual. [Barber] talked to me about his plans for this film and it was interesting and he used the Western as a model for the way that he approached this movie. I knew from talking to him that he had an auteur sort of take on the whole thing and that he was going to elevate it out of the TV drama territory that we’re familiar with and would raise it hopefully to something that felt more epic, strange and more fatalistic and kind of badass than what we’re used to seeing on the [TVs]. So there’s a lot of different reasons for taking the job.”

As a revenge tale, audiences should be prepared to see a bit of violence; however, viewers may be surprised at the level. It isn’t over the top, but it is visceral just the same. “I didn’t really talk to Daniel about how he was going to portray the violence before we started,” Mortimer confesses. “I was totally blown away by it and really taken aback. It’s very difficult to watch and I think that’s what’s interesting about the film. It is unseemly what goes on and it’s hard to stomach and it’s hard to accept what people do each other. It’s horrifying and I think it’s good it’s portrayed in all of its ugliness. This film certainly doesn’t glamorize violence. This is difficult and uncomfortable to watch as it should be. I wasn’t quite prepared for the level of intensity when I first saw it.”

For those who are familiar with the UK, the images may ring surprisingly true. “I became more and more convinced that this was really a problem as I was doing the film and I approached it with a tiny bit of skepticism in terms of the realities of what was really going on,” Mortimer said, “I thought it was a really interesting movie and I wasn’t doing it for political reasons. And the politics of the movie are kind of ones that – as a bleeding heart liberal – don’t necessarily agree with: you know, vigilantes doing away with hoodies as a way of dealing with the problem of gang violence in modern society. I did realize that it’s not just something that slightly right-wing newspapers bang on about to fear monger…there’s always a new story day after day of someone being stabbed and this gang violence and you start to sort of be wary of it a little bit, but actually having spent a lot of time – we filmed it all in east London Elephant and Castle, which is a really sort of dodgy neck of the woods in London and I spent a lot of time with a real life lady police detective who is the only female police detective in the whole of east London. And I realized this is really happening and it’s getting worse and I don’t know what one can do about it. I feel it’s something to do with the kind of longing to belong …for these guys to feel that they’re part of something and the communities they’re in don’t offer them that at all. These are really poverty stricken communities and everybody is living in often difficult and terrible circumstances. And there’s an abundance of drugs and deprivation and there’s no comfort to be had or feeling of belonging or that there’s any kind of hope. And these gangs offer them some kind of brotherhood in a world where there’s very little of that feeling. And that’s what I think is particularly heartbreaking about having spent time there. And a lot of the kids that were in the movie as extras – and even some of the principal characters – come from that world.”

Still, Mortimer’s political persuasion gives her hope that there are solutions to disaffected youth other than violence. “Some of the kids that were just from the local estates or projects, as you call them, would come and be extras in the movie and you just see people with such a hard veneer, but have a real longing for something else. These kids respond so easily and in a heartbreaking way to being given something to do. They really loved being in the movie. It was so cool to seeing the enthusiasm and excitement that was generated just from us being there and getting a chance to act in it and be part of something. I’m probably sounding like a bleeding heart liberal, but I really believe that that’s part of the problem anyway. These people aren’t necessarily a bad lot; it’s a problem that has to do with society and the way that we allow these neighborhoods to degenerate.”

Check back for our full review when Harry Brown opens on April 30.

“Actually, I started doing music,” Geo Santini confesses, “I was making beats and stuff like that. I was working in a studio in Freeport, Long Island and they were doing a lot of reggae music there…a lot of dancehall music. It ended up with this kid coming by and showing me this commercial he did at NYU. I just got fascinated by it, so I decided I would shoot a music video.” Shortly after, up and coming reggae artist Lexxus contacted Santini, requesting a music video. So with a $2000 budget he set out to film his first production. “I went to school for business and they had a film program and I hustled the kid [there] to give me a bunch of gear. We ended up shooting this video with a three-man crew, had no idea what we were doing. All of a sudden it turns out the video was a success in Jamaica. It was cool and I started doing a lot of music videos.” Amazingly, Geo Santini was only 17 when his career began. The jobs came easy and the money was great, but Santini couldn’t keep doing just music videos forever.

“I got stuck in a rut,” he says, “And I just decided I needed to do something. In 2005 I moved out here.” Networking with various people, Santini was convinced that he should forget shooting music videos and focus on shorts and feature films. To get his feet wet, he shot a short called Partners, which would later be developed into Hotel California. When I tell Santini that I wished I had seen Partners he quickly replies, “Oh no, it sucked. It sucked.” He laughs, “It sucked so bad. I won’t show anybody my shorts.” Fortunately, the feature version turned out to be a solid effort.

Hotel California is a crime drama and revenge tale. The film explores the meaning of friendship, the allure of drug trafficking and the danger of organized crime. Fans of the genre can pick up a copy for themselves. “I’m surprised it came out at all,” Santini says after recounting all of the marketing difficulties he went through after the film was finished. “You learn so much going through your first round.” Nevertheless, he’s pleased that the film is available now and hopes that it’s received the way he intended it to be. “I wanted Hotel to kind of feel like a graphic novel and be like a rollercoaster ride.”

On his directing style, Geo Santini takes a lengthy pause to consider his answer. “That’s an interesting question,” he opens, “I’m evolving. Now that I’m working more with actors and I’m also training [in acting] – and I’m also probably going to be in [an upcoming] play – it’s a different process of what’s going on. You have an idea and a vision and you know how you want them to look, but collaborating is a must. I know what I want to achieve and [my goal] is making the actor know that….” There are variations to his directing style of course. Santini likes to find out what his actors bring to the scene to see what works best. The most important aspect he looks for from performances is attention to detail. “Can I believe this actor is this character in different situations?”

After sharing short reviews about recent films with each other, Santini highlights two directors. “I look at guys like Tarantino and I look at guys like Scorsese. They have a certain path and whether you like their films or not, they’ve treated them with a certain class. The work shows the amount of imagination and love that they have for [their movies]. There are directors that want to be celebrities and there are directors that want to be artists. That’s the point.

“As an artist, you have to make a decision. What do you want to do? If you want to be an artist, this is what you have to do and you have to go for it. No matter what the outcome is, you gotta go for it, because you’re going to get slammed. When you look at stories like Jay-Z’s…you look at stories like 50…these people did it the way they did it, because they had no choice. You do it because you have to. I love those stories. In my career, like in 10 years, I want to be able to tell that story.”

There is no limit to Geo Santini’s aspirations. He doesn’t just want to be a director; he wants to be a force in the entertainment industry. “There are multiple levels of commitment to a project,” he explains. “I could produce a project. I love comedy.” Santini is toying with the idea of producing a sketch comedy show that he was involved in during his college days. “When I talk about directing, there’s a certain level of intensity. When I do that, [the film] is my baby.”

Santini’s second film, Madre De Dios is slated for 2011 and stars Barbara More and Julia Ormand. Madre De Dios, a beautiful tale set against the backdrop of the rapidly disintegrating Peruvian Rainforest is written and produced by Oscar Torres best known for the Berlin Film Festival’s Crystal Bear Winner Innocent Voices (Voces Inocentes).

We left just as the crowd starting filling the bar, but not before Geo Santini imparted a few pearls of wisdom for burgeoning film directors looking to break into the business. “You’ve got to envision it and you’ve got to be true. I think that everything’s about work. A lot of things out here are caught up in bullshit. I think if you’re true and honest to the work, the rest will follow.”

Working Author: What was it like to have somebody write this for you?

Miley Cyrus: It was cool because everything that I’ve done [has been a version of me], even Hannah Montana, which is a character and not me, there’s still elements that are very much like me, personally. It made it easier to go into something new, in a film that wasn’t based on Hannah Montana and wasn’t such a comfort zone, to make it a little bit more like me.

WA: Miley, this is a change for your career, especially with Hannah Montana ending now. How do you feel about that progression?

MC: It’s interesting to be doing press for this type of movie when, right now on the Disney Channel, it’s airing one of the last episodes of Season 3 and we’re finishing up Season 4. As a new chapter is beginning, one that has also been my life for the last five years is ending. It’s interesting to be leaving my security blanket behind, but also it’s also exciting by getting involved in this movie. The season needed a complete ending for Season 3 and our show deserved that too. It’s such a big deal in so many kids’ lives that I think they don’t want to see reruns forever. They want a really respectful ending. It’s been such an amazing journey.

WA: This is your first romantic role. So what did you learn from this experience that you’re going to take with you for the rest of your career?

MC: Once I saw one of the final edits…there are all these different things you pick yourself apart about…and I think you should just go into each day and give it your best. Don’t get too attached to anything. Everyone has their job. I know that everyone else is doing the best they can with what they do and I’ll do the best I can. So I just try to keep that in mind and just take it day by day and realize that at the end there’ll be an edit…. So just don’t criticize yourself.

RSG: In making this transition, how careful do you have to be in your choices and what you think about when you look at your work?

MC: I’ve gone these last five years of doing Hannah Montana and everyone telling me what to do and now it’s kind of up to me and what I think is right in my career. I have to be careful in a sense not to lose who I am and the Miley Cyrus factor by doing other characters, but I still want [people] to know who I am, but I want to extend my audience and continue to do what I love, but give myself new challenges and not do the same person over and over again.

WA: What was your first impression of Liam?

MC: I got a little bit nervous about how big he was [height-wise]. I was going to have to stand on apple boxes or something. I was a little bit intimidated. Even though I’m really the one intimidating someone else. They kept telling me that [Liam] works a lot in Australia. He’s awesome. So I was little bit nervous with everything. I didn’t want to be the one who made the final decision [about Liam], because if he turned out to be crazy I didn’t want to be the one who ruined the whole thing. He ended up being awesome and it was so fun. I was a bit intimidated which is hard for someone to do that to me.

WA: We’re used to seeing you play such a sweet girl. How difficult was it to channel the inner rebel? Did you talk to anybody, like any other teenagers?

MC: I got to drop the guard for a little while and I got to throw all the fits I wanted to in the past year on-screen. It was fun to not have to go into work and be exactly what was on the page. I felt like Julie Anne gave us a lot of freedom to add our own things. I think that made it easier.

WA: What aspects of Ronnie to you relate to most?

MC: I was glad I got to have some part in music in the film. It wasn’t necessarily singing, which is what everyone always wants to put me into. I didn’t necessarily want to do that. I don’t want that to be the thing I always lean on, but I definitely relate to the music. The [love for] animals was really cool.

WA: When describing your character’s journey you say that she finds happiness through faith, love and friendship. What do you mean by faith?

MC: Faith can be believing in yourself or believing in a higher being that’s watching over you. It can mean anything, but I think the advantage is having something to lean on and that’s what [Ronnie] didn’t have. I think if Ronnie had something to lean on it was Will, it was her dad and finally a new friendship.

WA: A story like The Last Song can teeter into sentimentality. How did you find the line and not cross over?

MC: I think Julie Anne helped me with that the most. For a sad scene I thought my character should cry, but [she said] no, the whole end of the film – the last 40 minutes can’t just be crying. It has to have some kind of dimension to it. I think that was the biggest thing I learned. I had to realize what it’s going to be like when you are watching an hour and half film and you don’t just want to see one type of emotion.

The Last Song opens on March 31. Read Working Author’s full review here.

As soon as all of the talent walked into the room it was obvious they were in a fantastic mood.

“Put your recording device next to the actor you like best of all!” Craig Ferguson commanded as he and his three other cast-mates took their places at the table. Then they introduced themselves so that they could be identified easier during playback. At which point Ferguson ribbed Gerard Butler for the pronunciation of his name. “That’s a ridiculous affectation that somebody around here used when they came to America!”

Once everyone settled in, Jay Baruchel fielded the first question regarding how he was able to play Hiccup so authentically and if he had to channel his inner rebel. “It was very easy,” he confessed, “I mean, look at me. I spent plenty of time behind closed doors [as a teenager], writing and drawing and doing whatever – escaping into my daydreams.” Then Ferguson leaned over to whisper something in Baruchel’s ear. “That’s not appropriate,” Baruchel responded, but more whispering prompted him to exclaim, “I was training my dragon! Am I right? Am I right? It means masturbation!” After the laughter died down, he continued, “I think for any kind of us weird kids that’s what happens. I think Hiccup’s a great kind of analogy for every kid that isn’t playing sports in high school.”

“I think Hiccup’s a great analogy for every kid,” Butler corrected, “because even when they’re playing sports there’s still that coming-of-age thing where you want to get the girl and you want your friends to love you and you want your dad – your family – to appreciate you. I don’t think there’s any teen in the world who doesn’t go through that process of feeling awkward and feeling the odd one out. I just think it’s very in accordance with myth and history that we all go through that same thing, but I think what Jay is saying is even more appropriate for someone like…Jay who, by the way, still locks himself away to train his dragon. I meant that in the best way!”

America Ferrera added, “Aside from being the outsider and the dorkiness and the wanting to be accepted, I really related to – as a kid – wanting to be great in some way.”

Switching topics, it’s interesting to note that Butler’s character speaks with a Scottish accent, which some may find odd for a Viking. Butler responded by asking, “Why would you choose me when [Jay and America] are doing an American accent? The least Viking accent you can imagine!” As a nod to fellow Scot Ferguson, Butler added, “This was the only movie that I ever made or will make that after watching it for the first time realized that my accent was not Scottish enough, especially after hearing Craig’s. I felt like I was stuck in the middle so I felt like it needed a bit more, because I think a strong Celtic accent lends itself to Viking-ness. I think a strong Celtic accent lends itself to any warrior breed.”

Regarding his favorite part of doing the film, Butler said, “I think maybe the best thing was the treat that you get at the end of it to see it all come together, because really as much as I think everyone in this cast is fantastic, I think the real geniuses are the guys who wrote it, directed it and the animators who created it. Because when you see it you go, ‘Wow!’”

Ferrera, who had seen the film in different stages with rough drawings, echoed his thoughts. “In the scenes where it wasn’t fully animated – where it was a voice to a stick figure – there wasn’t that emotional connection as when the animators do their work and create the humanity in the characters through their animation. They’re more than half the performance, I would say.”

Despite the bawdy humor during the interview, How to Train Your Dragon is completely safe for families looking to have a wholesome time at the theater. Look for my review this Friday.

We don’t start immediately and I pass a few moments making small talk about how long he’s staying in California and what he thinks of the weather. He replies in deliberate, but near-perfect English that he’s just come in from the east coast where it’s really gloomy and that he’ll be leaving soon to go back to Seoul, Korea. Then I turn on my recorder and we get to the issue at hand – Bong Joon-ho’s latest film Mother.

In this Korean film, a single-mother struggles with raising her beautiful, yet mentally slow adult son, Do-Joon. Both of their lives become much more complicated when a local girl is murdered and Do-Joon becomes the number one suspect. With all of the evidence stacked against him and with expensive defense lawyers looking for a plea bargain that includes years of jail time, Do-Joon’s only hope is his mother who must face dark realities to prove her son’s innocence. Along the way she demonstrates the unshakable bond all mothers have with their children.

As the screenwriter that created the story, it’s interesting to know why Bong Joon-ho chose this subject matter. “It was for the actress Kim Hye-ja – the Mother character. It was for her actually,” he says. “I really wanted to work with her. She started acting before I was born, but I remember seeing her on TV as this mother figure. Whenever I turned on the TV she was always there and she played…a great mother.” On creating the character, Joon-ho says, “I wanted to take a different approach with her…sort of give her a crazy, obsessive mother character. No one really agreed with me, but whenever I saw her I saw someone that was a bit crazy, like the character she played on TV. I wanted to make this story and luckily [Kim Hye-ja] wanted to take on this character that was different from what she’s used to being.” He adds that this story is a different look at the mother figure.

This new take explains why the mother-child relationship is told against the backdrop of a murder-mystery. Joon-ho readily admits that the two concepts don’t typically go together, but he wanted a new approach to the genre and put the mother figure in a perilous situation. He also adds, “I always love murder-mystery and crime-drama – my favorites.”

Kim Hye-ja, who has over 50 years of acting experience in Korean film and television, plays the Mother in the film. She confessed that the very first scene they shot took 18 takes and she feared that she was ruining the movie. Joon-ho laughs at the thought. The scene in question was technically difficult and required a lot of camera movement. “There’s a very long tracking shot. Track around and then pan and track. The scene was just very chaotic. It wasn’t that I was pestered or that there was any tension between us. [The scene] was just a complicated shot. I explained to [Hye-ja] ‘it’s not your fault.’ A small extra key, a mistake, you know, camerawork. I explained many things, but she [was convinced] ‘no, the director hates me.’”

“She was quite nervous,” he adds. “She’s been acting on TV for over 40 years, but this is only her third film.” Despite her decades of experience, Mother represents the very first time Kim Hye-ja was slapped. Joon-ho relates that, unfortunately, the slap had to be real considering the shot. Since Hye-ja commands an impressive amount of gravitas in Korea there weren’t many actresses who were willing to slap her, so Joon-ho cast a theater actress with experience in physical acting.

Regarding his directing style, Bong Joon-ho confesses that in his previous films Memories of Murder and The Host he allowed room for actor improvisation. This time around, his direction is heavier handed in particular scenes, simply because there was something specific he was trying to get from the actors. That’s not to say that the actors didn’t have any input. “In the case of Kim Hye-ja, her understanding from just reading the script itself was very intuitive. Obviously, she has a lot of ability, so some of the comments she said gave me more of an understanding of the [character] too – her take on it.” One of Hye-ja’s insights is how much the son means to the mother. Do-Joon is not only her child, but also fills the role as her husband and father. “I wanted to have an almost [romantic] relationship between the mother and son and the fact that [Hye-ja] saw that in the bigger picture was very interesting.”

Mother is very Korean and some American audiences may not understand why certain things happen in the film. For example, it’s not uncommon for children to live with their parents until closer to their 30’s whereas Americans are happy to oust their offspring as soon as possible. While Bong Joon-ho understands these cultural differences, he’s not interested in cutting together a Western version of his films. “There’s really only one way to edit a film and, for me, that’s hard enough. To do a director’s cut or an extended version would be so much harder for me. [A Western version] isn’t something that anyone’s asked me to do, but really there’s just an edit for me, whether it’s for Korean audiences or Western.” He notes that The Host is being remade for American audiences without his involvement.

Fortunately, the parent-child relationship is universal and every audience will be able to appreciate the themes in Mother. Look for the film in theaters on March 12.

Check back at Working Author for my full review.

“I just got up one day – bored,” G. Anthony Joseph says bluntly after recounting his pre-Hollywood life, “This can’t be all there is.” After founding one of the largest martial arts schools in Trinidad, Joseph decided to pursue acting, landing a few roles on the stage and on television. Despite his success in Trinidad, Joseph was convinced that his future was in the United States, so he and his wife took a leap of faith and moved to Hollywood.

G. Anthony Joseph subjected himself to the life of most struggling actors. He worked several jobs to the pay bills, took acting classes at night and picked up acting gigs when he could – many of which were USC student films. “An interviewer once asked me, ‘When did you sleep?’” Joseph recalls fondly. “I said, ‘Traffic lights!’” During those hard years he wrote a screenplay that interested a television executive in Trinidad, so Joseph teamed up with a director he liked working with at USC – Ric Moxley – and they made the film. From those meager beginnings, Joseph has landed guest-starring roles on several series, such as American Family, JAG and The District. Not satisfied with simply being an actor, G. Anthony Joseph founded the independent film production company Tritan-Northstar Entertainment. “I’m only about maybe 50% of where I want to be,” he says, “But the good thing I love about my life now is that I’m calling the shots.”

Joseph’s natural instincts and savvy intuition have paid off thus far with the success of his most recent film Contract Killers. He beams with pride when he talks about the film and he takes the time to mention everyone that contributed to the production. “I would like to thank all my cast and crew that has made Contract Killers such a  growing success including Dave Cabral, Ian Philip and Andre Powder at Galt Alliance Films, Carla Foderingham at the Trinidad and Tobago Film Commission,  my cast Frida Farrell, Nick Mancuso, Christian Willis, Paul Cram, Steve Boergadine, Rhett Giles and Lee Sherman.  And the constant support and encouragement from Christopher George, Gerry Wolff, Michael and Marie Lattuca, Mary Dee and my consulting producers on Contract Killers, Richard Chin Fatt and Julian Caine.”

What’s most impressive about Contract Killers is that it’s a high-octane action movie produced on a moderate budget. Since most viewers have very high expectations for action movies, filmmakers are wise to steer clear of this genre unless they have the money to meet viewers’ demands. Instead, Contract Killers acclimates the audience to the reduced budget, using affordable substitutes – like a dirt bike instead of a motorcycle, for instance – and then amazes viewers with a fantastic set piece that involves an attack chopper. Joseph shared an embarrassing story regarding that scene, which was actually supposed to have multiple helicopters. “The end was supposed to be these 10 or 15 SWAT guys flying over the city and [the heroine] runs into a city building. [The SWAT guys] rappel down into this building trying to get her and there’s this whole chase through the city. We planned this thing out for six months.” Then the management providing the helicopters pulled out. “I cried,” Joseph confesses. “I went down on my knees in front of everyone; I didn’t care. I cried. I could not even move.” He laughs about it now. Regardless of the ending, audiences obviously enjoyed Contract Killers. The film garnered wins for “Best Feature Film Award” at the Orlando Film Festival 2008 in Florida and “Best Picture Award” in September 2008 at the BBF Film Festival in Philadelphia. Contract Killers was nominated four times in July 2008 at the Action on Film Festival in Los Angeles, and won awards for “Best Action Sequence in a Feature Film” and “Best Break Out Female Star – Frida Farrell – In a Feature Film.”

“I am finally finding this niche and doing it well,” Joseph says of his films, “And because of that, these next couple of ones I’m doing are actually coming through at a much bigger budget. I can now take hundreds of thousands more and make it look like millions more.” In regards to his upcoming film Trafico, Joseph says, “You never know who’s watching. Some investors saw Contract Killers. They found this really good director, Mirwan, and just decided this was the project we were going to mount.” For Trafico, Joseph wanted a story that was edgier and had more of a point of view. While details are scarce, the plot revolves around retired US bank robbers, living in Trinidad. Circumstances force them to plan one more heist, which puts them in the crosshairs of the local drug lords. While the cast hasn’t been finalized, industry veterans appear to be drawn to the project. Joseph is in the middle of early negotiations with Tom Sizemore and Michael Rooker. Eric Roberts and several other high profile stars are also rumored to be interested as well. Filming is scheduled to begin in April.

It’s always refreshing to meet someone like G. Anthony Joseph. His goals are ambitious. His energy is overflowing. And his positivity is infectious. Furthermore, he never forgets that he’s dealing with people and not simply a means to an end. He remembers this credo when choosing business partners. “It’s 80% who you are. The rest is putting the deal together. I think the best deals come out of personalities first, deal second….I think people forget about the human element. When someone walks in for a meeting, the first thing I think of is “can I get along with this person for the next 10 years?”

The best part about G. Anthony Joseph is that he’s genuine and happy to talk unguardedly. He shared personal details about his kids and lovely wife of 23 years, his love for the Rat Pack and even offered to bring this writer out to Trinidad to find a nice girl. “I am who I am,” he says, “and I’m going to enrich the world any chance that I get.”