Interview – Page 2 – We Are Movie Geeks

WAMG Talks To JEFF GOLDBLUM: THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL

Welcome, beloved guest-to-be. Upon your check-in to THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL on Friday, you might meet a very important attorney that goes by the name of Deputy Kovacs, who is played by Jeff Goldblum in Wes Anderson’s new caper about friendship, honor, and promises fulfilled. This week, WAMG and a few members of the press sat down (in a roundtable discussion) with Goldblum to talk about the working with Anderson, upcoming projects, and memes. Check it out below!

THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL recounts the adventures of Gustave H, a legendary concierge at a famous European hotel between the wars; and Zero Moustafa, the lobby boy who becomes his most trusted friend. The story involves the theft and recovery of a priceless Renaissance painting; a raging battle for an enormous family fortune; a desperate chase on motorcycles, trains, sleds, and skis; and the sweetest confection of a love affair — all against the back-drop of a suddenly and dramatically changing Continent.

So, what’s it like being apart of the Wes Anderson World?

Jeff Goldblum: Fantastic. How long do we have?

15-20 minutes

Jeff Goldblum: We’ll get everything in. It’s fantastic. A real privilege. I’m very proud to be a part of this movie, and he’s a… I don’t have to reiterate, a very important and serious filmmaker and artist. What actor doesn’t want to be a part of that thing? And then him, particularly… he’s particularly a spectacular trip. He’s a great guy, and a real artist, and a real teacher. What’s it like? How would I know? Ten years ago. THE LIFE AQUATIC was when we met, and he’s always full of interesting guidance. He’s a style guide, and a travel guide, a location connoisseur. So, I think we went to some restaurant in New York, and we were put together, and he goes “Oh, well I like you” and I’m like “Wow! Really?” dah dah day… THE LIFE AQUATIC happened, and we stayed in touch over these 10 years, then I got an email that said “I’ve written this part, Deputy Kovacs”… It’s a big thrill, you know.

What’s it like? It’s very creative, you know, as you can see. I dig it. His aesthetic, in particular… the voice that he’s found, and had from the start in a brilliant way. I’m into it. It’s a beautiful thing. And then, you go on set and Adam Stockhausen, who’s here, the production designer – they collaborate, and he turns it into his vision. On that set, you’ve heard, is that department store in Görlitz that they turned into the hotel. It’s a great little installation and museum that you get to go, and I was kind of thrilled and knocked out by everything around me there… But, creatively, you get this script and it’s all rendered together beautifully. That document on it’s own is a beautiful thing. It’s beautifully put. He’s a wordsmith, and a literate blackbelt master. The story is gorgeous. And then, you get there, and I was doing that movie LE WEEK-END [mumbles] which opens a week after this [laughs]

Which you were amazing in?

Jeff Goldblum: Did you see that? I really liked that a lot. With Roger Michell, I loved… Jim Broadbent, Lindsay Duncan… but, I was there shooting that when they were in pre-production. So, I went over as per his request, and I saw the building, the set in that place, and everyone getting ensconced in that department store in Milena Canonero (Costume Designer) and all of her Italian artists. He and I went over to that hotel that we were going to be at. He was already ensconced in that hotel, and we had a, kind of, rehearsal, and he had renderings – beautiful drawings – of all of the characters with your face on it, and his idea for the costume, and the look of it. I saw that. And then Milena Canonero and I got together. Her team pulled several things. We tried on overcoats, hats, dah dah day… There was a guy with trays of vintage glasses, and in fact, I found the exact one there, and I was like “I’ve gotta go back to LA, but before I do… I know some vintage eyeglass people, and maybe I can take a look for myself” and I found them! I found those glasses, and I sent him a picture, and he said “Those are the ones. Bring those” so, I contributed that a little bit. That’s very creative. Then, at the time we rehearsed so called – I don’t think he did this with many other people, and it’s not his usual way… I said “I’ve already worked on this. I world it out” and I showed him what I was doing through few scenes, and he said “Oh, that’s good. How about this? Try this.” and I said “This?” and dah dah dah… we talked about it, and we talked in actorly ways. I think he’s an actors director, one could say, even though he has this fully formed aesthetic conviction which you join up with.

The marrying of an actor, and his whimsical and theatrical vision is very enjoyable, because he wants it to be filled with something honest, truthful, human, soulful, substantial… etc. So, in this so-called rehearsal, we got together and I said, you know “What’s the backstory? How long had I been working for this family?”. I had an idea about that. I had ideas about this whole world that he created, and this situation, and then finally I saw in this little event, in this character, in this scene with Dmitri, with Adrien Brody. What I’m thinking is it’s right what’s under the surface, that I’m catching the conscience of Dmitri here by saying “I think there’s bad stuff afoot here, and maybe we should turn this all over to the authorities. What do you think?” and he reacts how I fear, and suspect might be the case, and he “Don’t… Just keep your mouth shut and go along”.

At that point, I think my character for the first time is at a crossroads, and in an eventful way with the political goings on, and the clouds, and a storm brewing in this continent in the world, and in this family I have to go “Which side am I aligned with? Here’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to join the war. I’m going to be a soldier. My whole life is going to change starting now.” Then, as the story goes, I’m a casualty early on, so that’s the story. We talked about that, and went over it. Then… this is all an answer to “What’s it like to work with Wes” [laughs]… Sorry I’m so yappy. This is still on the first question. The tape’s run out. This blowhard [laughs] but hopefully this will help you. Let’s see. So, what was I going to say? So then, we rehearsed, and when I came back, and got on set, we’re kind of standing… he’s kind of Altman-esqu – I’ve worked with Robert Altman, and he’s making the shooting itself, the process an art piece – of its own. And the communal family, one of the themes in many of his movies, which he really enjoys. Kind of a beautiful experience. And it was. And a creative experience and a focused one. A blissful creative experience.

He’s the head chef in that feast and then you go to the thing and the actors, he designed it so the actors aren’t going back to traditional style trailers and da da da da da… instead you have a chef coming to make us dinner every night. So it’s really more like a troupe and family, than some of these movies. Some of these movies sometimes are. And he intends it that way, and then you hang around the set and watch him working and other people working, which is good. So finally when you get to your stuff… and he did a lot of takes on this movie, as you’ve probably heard, but in a way that’s very beautiful, and creative and enjoyable… and it’s the last chance you get to visit with this thing and make the raw material from which they come from. So it’s a great little sculpting collaboration of him going, “ok there’s that, how about another one about this for this section and ‘do that’ and ‘do that here’ and ‘ok try that and another one like that’ etc.” So it’s kind of like that, you get the idea?

It’s a very unique… you should never say very unique, that’s redundant… so it’s unique and very beautiful. AND! Oh I know something you may have been interested in, but haven’t heard – In a room, that’s communal in the hotel, he’s got not only books of research of old hotels and stuff like that, but a stack of movies. Along with the Stefan Zweig novels that he talks about, but he had a stack of movies that he said were the inspiration for what we were doing here. And I had never seen, ashamedly, GRAND HOTEL, TO BE OR NOT TO BE, THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER, THE MORTAL STORM, Bergman’s THE SILENCE, which takes surreal events surrounding a hotel. So you see it was all very educational and I liked that.

And then he made an animatic, and in our little section that he showed me early on in that rehearsal, pre-production thing, the section where Willem Dafoe is chasing me around the museum before he kills me, he said that this is taken from Hitchcock’s TORN CURTAIN. There’s a section where Paul Newman is being silently chased around, stalked, in this museum. So all of that, it helped terrifically. It’s like I say, very actorly. Even though you hear his voice do all the parts in the animatic, its creatively enflaming and actorly to try and bring yourself to and marry something from you with that vision.

Sounds like a great experience, was there any challenge to that?

Jeff Goldblum: Well, I like the challenge, I like a good, meaty experience for me. The challenge was to do what he needs and make it as good as he wants and as good as it can be. An opportunity like that is challenging and it makes you alert. A fellow like me trying to do your best and everyone else is kind of in that vain too. What else is challenging? Yeah, All the aspects of how this thing can work to try and skin the cat and hit the bulls eye, is it challenging to me? Yeah and I don’t do it lightly. He’s passionately devoting himself to the whole thing and I’m nothing if not conscientious, I must say, so I won’t bore you with it, but I’m going at it with everything I can and then the story off the character, to really get that is pretty good. That’s good. It’s not to fall short of it, but the idea is similar to something like Brandon in On the Waterfront. You know, I’ve been going along with this family, and now I’ve come to a point when I better decide where my bread’s buttered. And geez, I like that, it’s a big idea.

And like somebody said, his movies are full of real and big ideas, if you’re receptive to it of course. Outside there’s this frosting on the cake that’s glorious and trippy, but on the inside it’s like a meat cake like someone said. So inside you get a nice helping of protein and grilled meats. [laughs]

How much room do you have to bring to the character yourself?

Jeff Goldblum: I like little collaborations where the other thing happens, where it’s half-baked or its improvised and let’s develop it together and what do you want to wear, do you have an idea – all that. That’s fun to and I like that, but it doesn’t take anything away in fact its, for me, enflaming, like I say, and creatively inspiring to have somebody… that’s great. You wanna be in a movie where your part works. That’s the main thing. No matter how you beat yourself working on the thing, if it doesn’t work it doesn’t work, and that’s not up to you, so it’s great when it doesn’t depend on you and leap onto something that you know, “Hey here’s a team and here’s a thing that’s gonna work, and I gotta idea and he’s gotta idea and it’s gonna work together in a way that people haven’t seen you yet,” and that’s all delicious. If his tastes were different, if I didn’t dig his tastes, then that would be something else, but to jump on board something that’s… where you fill in something that’s already been done that ‘s delightful is really good… and then how do I describe… he’s not in any way… tight, constricted in his way of using you. He’s not only meticulous and full-blown and know what he wants, with a lot of passion and conviction. But he’s somehow, simultaneously free-spirited and loves actors and trusts you, appreciating you, but trusts you, and needs you to bring everything to it. Let’s talk about what I’m thinking and feeling underneath and putting it all out, detailing all of that stuff, finding the glasses and all that, but it really feels like a responsible adult, actorly, creative way to meet what he’s done.

Is part of the fun also working with a terrific cast?

Jeff Goldblum: Oh yeah, and as I was saying, he wants this kind of experience, so we were all staying in the same hotel. Oh yeah, Edward Norton is a sort of fountain of wisdom and information, I’m always interested in craft and I kind of was interested to see how people work and for me it’s a little like lessons at school. Ralph Fiennes was there the whole time I was there. I was there for about 6 weeks, shooting finally and watching him work, talking to him about all sorts of things that I wanted to ask him about. Tilda Swinton I’ve never met, but she’s exquisite and it was great to meet her and talk with her. Jason Schwartzman and Owen Wilson, great to be around and to make something with them. What a cast.

Do you know of the internet fame you have? Recent memes and videos…

Jeff Goldblum: Fine with me. It’s okay. I don’t really look for it. People send me a thing or two and that’s okay. I’m sure it will come and go.

When did you get the e-mail for the part and did you start working write away?

Jeff Goldblum: I should have written down the timeline exactly, but it was like a couple of months before I shot LE WEEK-END and before I had the experience in pre-production. So I worked on it for a month or two, so I had learned all my lines and it was enough time to learn my lines and to work on and get ideas about it. And then I shot LE WEEK-END and visited Gerlitz, and had the experience of the thing, and then it was another month I think that I went back to LA and found those glasses… worked on things more and came back. So something like that.

What’s coming up next?

Jeff Goldblum: LE WEEK-END. I did this play at Lincoln Center, ‘Domesticated’ by Bruce Norris, won the Pulitzer last year, interesting stuff. Shot a part in this movie called MORDECAIwith Johnny Depp, Ewan McGreggor, and Paul Bettany, and Gwyneth Paltrow. It’s by David Koepp, who wrote the screenplay for Jurassic Park. Then I went to Berlin and then New York, and now I’m here and I do Conan tomorrow and Craig Ferguson next week. Tomorrow night I play Jazz at Rockwell in Los Feliz. All the rest of the Wednesdays this month I’m playing. I also have a gig at Santa Anita, the horse race, where I’ve never been, for a few hours on Sunday.

Fox Searchlight Pictures in association with Indian Paintbrush and Studio Babelsberg present, an American Empirical Picture, THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL, directed and written by Wes Anderson and story by Anderson & Hugo Guinness. The film stars Ralph Fiennes, Tony Revolori, F. Murray Abraham, Mathieu Amalric, Adrien Brody, Willem Dafoe, Jeff Goldblum, Jude Law, Bill Murray, Edward Norton, Saoirse Ronan, Jason Schwartzman, Tilda Swinton, Tom Wilkinson and Owen Wilson.

The creative team includes producers Wes Anderson, Scott Rudin, Steven Rales and Jeremy Dawson, executive producers Molly Cooper, Charlie Woebcken, Christoph Fisser and Henning Molfenter, co-producer Jane Frazer, director of photography Robert Yeoman, A.S.C., production designer Adam Stockhausen, editor Barney Pilling, music supervisor Randall Poster, original music by Alexandre Desplat, associate producer Octavia Peissel and co-producer for Scott Rudin Productions Eli Bush.

FOR MORE INFO:

Website: http://www.grandbudapesthotel.com

AKADEMIE ZUBROWKA WEBSITE: http://www.akademiezubrowka.com/

THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL OPENS IN SELECT THEATERS ON FRIDAY, MARCH 7

WAMG Talks To TONY REVOLORI : THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL

Upon your check-in to THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL on Friday, you will be greeted by a young lobby boy named Zero – a bright brave, resourceful boy who immigrated on foot from Aq-Salim-al-Jabat. Played by actor Tony Revolori, the character of Zero serves under concierge Gustave H. (Ralph Fiennes) in Wes Anderson’s new caper about friendship, honor, and promises fulfilled. Yesterday, WAMG and a few members of the press sat down (in a roundtable discussion) with Revolori to talk about the incredible cast, slap takes, and mustaches. Check it out below!

Can you talk about what a communal atmosphere Wes [Anderson] created for you guys? It’s not like any other set… where you guys dine together and you were able to talk… Can you elaborate a bit on that?

Tony Revolori: Absolutely. We would have dinners together every night, where you would have an extended, long table of stars, if you will. You would have Edward Norton to your right, Jeff Goldblum to your left, across from you Ralph [Fiennes], and to his side you would have Saoirse [Ronan] and Bill Murray. To the head of the table you would have Owen Wilson and Wes Anderson. It’s great to be able to talk with these guys and just hang out. You’re not even doing anything… You’re usually talking about the scenes you did today and how we did them, how they looked, and then you would talk about movies, music and just regular things really, which is quite nice to see people talking about things that are just quite normal and natural. It kind of takes the whole oh my God there’s Bill Murray, that out of the equation, which is quite nice. It was fantastic being able, even on sets they would have one green room which is where all the stars would stay. If you’re not being called or anything, you would stay and wait there. You would talk, again more about past experiences or whatever the conversation was started. It’s amazing to be able to feel comfortable with these people, especially for me who was someone much less experienced than these veteran actors. They helped me feel comfortable and they helped me build my confidence, which was quite nice, especially for this character. It’s very similar to that experience. He was very shy and insecure then grows into his confidence.

That’s really cute too. It reminds me of the table in the movie where all the servants eat.

Tony Revolori: Yeah, it’s exactly like that, except Wes is not talking and we’re not ravaging our food.

You share a lot of screen time with Ralph Fiennes. Was it very parental, a mentorship, between you two working on the film with him showing you the ropes?

Tony Revolori: Yea, a bit. Ralph, [corrects pronunciation] just to let you know. Luckily for me, a lot of people in this movie had a lot of weird names to pronounce, that’s fine. The thing that I did was that I let Wes introduce me, so it’s like here’s Ralph Fiennes. Ralph, that’s good to know. Here’s Saoirse. Saoirse? I would have never guessed that. You see her name and you think Say-or-rise.

She probably would have punched you if you would have said something like that.

Tony Revolori: Yea, she probably would have karate-chopped me like in Hannah. Working with Ralph was amazing. The mentoring thing, that’s what it was. He kind of gave off the impression to say look very closely and you’ll pay attention and learn a lot. I’m not going to tell you anything, just look and pay attention, and that’s the feeling I kind of got from him and that’s what I did. I picked up a lot from him who’s absolutely a genius in what he does, and I did pick up a lot from a lot of the actors and subconsciously probably in two years, in the next project I work on, I’ll be doing something and say oh, that’s what I took from The Grand Budapest Hotel. It was great. I remember I did ask him for one piece of advice, because I was nervous about doing the kissing scene with Saoirse. As you can imagine, I went up to him and I asked him so what do you think? What should I do? I’m kind of nervous. He looks at me, stares at me for a bit, smiles and says “Well you tell her… I’m sorry if I get aroused, and I’m sorry if I don’t.” I didn’t tell her that but it made me laugh. The way he said it was amazing and that’s what I needed. I needed someone to make a joke of it and I felt comfortable from that point on. He knew exactly what I needed to have done.

So how did that kissing scene work out?

Tony Revolori: Really good. We broke all our costumes like four times. You can imagine we went wild. Wes was like go for it. So it was a lot of throwing the hat, and as you saw my uniform, maybe you can’t see, but it has a lot of buttons. She would grab it and rip it, and the buttons ripped, which Milena [Canonero], our head of costume was absolutely furious about. It was great, and I had a lot of fun. We were laughing after every take. It was beautiful.

Did you have an idea of how you wanted to go into this film acting-wise? And how did you adapt, or change your style, to fit into a Wes Anderson world? Did you do your research beforehand with his films?

Tony Revolori: I had seen his films before; THE DARJEELING LIMITED, THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS, and THE FANTASTIC MR. FOX, so I know his work. I didn’t concern myself to watch any other of his films because I wanted to focus on this project. I didn’t need to see his other body of works. This is a movie I needed to pay attention to, and he has a very specific style of acting and everything, so he worked with me for months before. I would take myself reading the script, I would send it to him and he would say well, why don’t we try saying the line this way? So subconsciously, after these months of practice, I was there. So when all was said, it just came naturally and I knew what I needed to do. Once I was with Ralph in costume and on set, everything just clicked even further. And so I didn’t come in with a way to approach it, because he’s very particular. He knows what he wants and there’s nothing I need to do, I just need to follow his directions and go forward. Of course, it’s not limiting with him because he’s allowing these suggestions to be made, and allowing you to go forward. It’s beautiful to have someone who knows what he wants, so that way you can go forward and truly do what the director intends for this movie to look like.

What about the physicality and the pace of everything that’s happening? Is there something that you get from the page? Did you talk about that, or did that evolve on set?

Tony Revolori: Well, I mean, it’s a bit of everything really. Being on set, it’s a lot of running and a physicality thing for me. I was a character, I was a person who did most of the things. I hung off of a building for a bit, which was nice, even though I’m scared of heights. It’s great. You don’t pay attention to these things when you’re on set, you just do them. You just know you have to make this character feel as realistic as possible in his films, and there’s no thoughts of okay, I’m running at three times the speed that I normally would or anything. You just feel like okay, he wants it this way, how do I make this look real? Just forget everything else, this is my world and this is how they act, this is how they talk, this is how they move and that’s it.

There are a lot of adventure set pieces on this film. Were there any that were a lot of fun to be a part of, like the ski-chasing scene?

Tony Revolori: I’d like to say I was a part of that, but sadly they were miniatures which were beautifully made. I enjoyed that very much, but everything else was me. It was really nice. It’s quite amazing the way he does these things. He makes it feel like it’s just a small student film, yet you’re doing all these huge stunts and these huge sets that he built. So it’s quite amazing and I really enjoyed myself, as did many of the other cast, all of the other cast really. Everyone really enjoyed themselves very much. It was great to be running around and doing everything for 40 takes at a time and working with these actors. It was quite an experience.

What does a Mendl’s cake taste like?

Tony Revolori: Don’t know. I’m allergic to chocolate. I never tried it and I can’t try it ever.

[groans and such]

Tony Revolori: That’s the reaction I always get! I know, I know, allergic since I was 6 and never had a piece of chocolate ever since.

At 5 you were raking in the chocolate.

Ton Revolori: Oh yeah!— No. My brother was more of a chocolate monster, and I would eat the occasional Oreo and I liked Starburst, and then finally I tried an Oreo one day after sometime around 6 years old, and my throat swelled up and I couldn’t breathe. And we went to the doctor and he was like nope, no more. It’s funny for me now, because I can laugh at it, but back then I was like [gasp]. So no chocolate, no peanut butter, but that’s about it. Death by chocolate, that’s what my gravestone is going to be. Death by chocolate. Willem is going to be death by being pushed off a mountain and mine is going to be death by chocolate. What a way to go. But that’s the best way to go, right? Having a piece of chocolate, and then heaven.

I was going to say you could at least go to peanut butter but you’re allergic to peanut butter.

Tony Revolori: I’m allergic to peanut butter. I’m screwed, except for like—

So Reese’s is just a nightmare.

Tony Revolori: Oh yea! I’m just gone.

Did you ever get to meet F. Murray Abraham, your old counterpoint?

Tony Revolori: I did! I got to meet everyone. I was there on the first day they shot, even though I wasn’t shooting, to the last day they shot. I got to go to the wrap party, yay! I met everyone, and I did get to meet F. Murray Abraham. He was nice.

Did you interact in the making of the film, maybe inform each other’s how you’re approaching the roles?

Tony Revolori: No. We had a vocation, much like Mr. Gustave to Zero in the film. We had a vocation to never speak of our characters. It was unspoken, this thing we had. We never had to talk about it because Zero, when I play him, is so different from Zero when he plays him. He has an understanding of the older Zero that I could never achieve, because he has that age, experience and that knowledge, and I have an innocence and inexperience that Zero at this young age had. So there was no need for him to say or give me any advice.

I don’t know about you, but if I were ever to run into somebody who played the older counterpart of my character I would have tried to mimic all the movements that he was doing just to mess with him.

Tony Revolori: Well I joked, I mean he’s an amazing bowler and we went bowling one time. I joked, well, this is quite amazing! I’m going to be a great bowler one day. The way he does it, he curves it beautifully when he does strikes. And he’s strong too.

That’s the movie I want to see. I want to see F. Murray Abraham and his younger counterpart bowling, traveling through time.

Tony Revolori: Well, I’m not as great of a bowler. I mean I get an occasional strike here and there, but I’m a decent bowler. Somewhere around the 100 area.

We’ve heard about all the takes that you guys have had to do. Was there one day in particular that stands out? Because I heard you had to do 40 takes in one particular scene.

Tony Revolori: I feel like you know what you’re fishing for.

I’m not fishing! I’m not fishing!

Tony Revolori: You’re not fishing, all right. Well there is one story, and you almost got the number right too, which is quite fantastic. I’ll go full details. It’s somewhere around mid-shoot, they’re shooting all the prison scenes, which I’m in only one. I go in the first day, shoot for half a day, then go back to Görlitz where we were shooting, which is the next town over, where we were all based from. They shot the prison in this other very cold place. And so Ralph, Harvey [Keitel] and Wes were all there shooting. They were talking about the scene when they’re escaping, and they come out of the man-hole, and how they’re going to hug each other and leave, it can’t be too friendly, whatever. Harvey said “Well, you know what? Why don’t I, when I say bye to the kid, I give him a nice little slap?” Right? I was not there. I did not know. The day arrives on set. Oh, by the way, just a little thing that probably nobody’s ever told you is that Harvey slept in that prison every day that he was there. That prison was cold. It was like -7 degrees, which was freezing. I don’t know how he did it, I guess they warmed it up for him.

But why?

Tony Revolori: I don’t know man. He’s Harvey, but he did. So then back to the other one… I arrive on set, it’s this beautiful little farm. They built this man hole, blah blah blah. Take one, we’re going and they pick him out, he’s there. He did a couple of push-ups before, which I thought he was just getting pumped for the scene, but I know what it is for now. So push ups, stands up, see you latter Mister Gustave, gah! Good luck kid! And my face was so surprised. I saw the first reaction on tape, because I wanted to see it, and my face was so genuinely surprised. I didn’t know what to do. My mouth was gaping. I just looked forward like what the… and yea. Then about 42 takes later we stopped.

Did your cheek get a little numb?

Tony Revolori: Yeah, but we were in… Okay, first off, he slaps really hard. He’s an ex-marine. He doesn’t play around. There’s no kiddy slap for you. He’s an ex-marine. If you can’t take it, you’re gone. And it was cold, it was really cold, so it was like having ice on my face after he slapped me. So it was horrible, but we did it. Now it’s at 44. I saw him in New York and he slapped me two more times.

Oh wow, you guys have a slap counter now. [Laughs]

Tony Revolori: Yea. So How I Met Your Mother can’t have anything with me now.

So, what take did they use?

Tony Revolori: I have no clue. Somewhere around 32, or 33 I heard, but I endured those slaps for Wes. You’ve got to do what you’ve got to do.

Would you have been a little pissed that they would use take 2?

Tony Revolori: You know, they may have possibly used take 1. They didn’t tell me. They’re like no, we used 35. Probably, I don’t know, but it seemed like they used one of the later ones because the way it played out and everything.

Do you ever still rock the pencil mustache?

Tony Revolori: Yes I do.

Did you get good at it?

Tony Revolori: Yea, but my mom doesn’t buy anymore eyeliner pens so I can’t do it anymore. What can I do? I mean… I loved doing that. It was nice doing that. I didn’t know I was going to do it. I remember going to a fitting one day, or talking with Wes, I don’t remember what it was, and he said oh, by the way, you’re going to have a mustache. I’d seen all these guys go in with these great mustaches and things like that. I was like oh, but I can’t grow one. He was like oh no, don’t worry, you’re going to draw it on. I was like oh… well that’s weird, but okay. And so they drew it on and I had to practice to do it myself, because he didn’t want anyone else to do it but myself. For the rest of the film I did it. I did it recently and I still get it quite nicely in one stroke. But we were thinking of doing the whole burnt cork thing. You know, burn the cork, put it on here, but then it burned my skin and that didn’t work. Like it didn’t burn it, burn it, but it was kind of drying the skin and it didn’t work really well.

I feel like we’re hearing the tales of your face abuse for this movie.

Tony Revolori: Well… I mean, I don’t know. Zero’s such a character that a lot of things happen to him, but he just lets it slide because he does it for the people he loves. I love these people. If I was called back to Grand Budapest 2, a prequel or whatever, I’m there. I’m there in a heartbeat. You can abuse me more, I’m ready for it! No, he didn’t abuse me. That’s the wrong thing to say. He did not abuse me!

So, what are you working on next?

Tony Revolori: I just finished filming a movie in India, a Bollywood film which was an experience. It was all done in Hindi and I don’t speak a lick of it.

Are you dancing and the whole thing?

Tony Revolori: No. It’s very Slumdog Millionaire-type so I don’t know, they might call me back to do another dance number. I mean, a dance number but I’m not very good at that. It’s called UMRIKA with Suraj Sharma, the kid from Life of Pi. The first time director Prashant Nair and it’s an amazing film, I’ve had so much fun making it. I don’t know, I just hope to keep working now.

What’s your character?

Tony Revolori: My character is called Lalu, which means smart ass in Hindi. Talk about that.

FOR MORE INFO:

Website: http://www.grandbudapesthotel.com

AKADEMIE ZUBROWKA WEBSITE: http://www.akademiezubrowka.com/

THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL opens in select theaters on Friday, March 7

WAMG Talks BAD WORDS With JASON BATEMAN

Jason Bateman (Identity Thief) makes his feature directorial debut with the subversive comedy BAD WORDS. Last week, WAMG and several other members of the press sat down with him in a roundtable discussion to talk about his first time directing a feature film, F-words, and working with his young co-stars. Check it out below.

Mr. Bateman stars as Guy Trilby, a 40-year-old who finds a loophole in the rules of The Golden Quill national spelling bee and decides to cause trouble by hijacking the competition. Contest officials, outraged parents, and overly ambitious 8th graders are no match for Guy, as he ruthlessly crushes their dreams of victory and fame. As a reporter (Kathryn Hahn of We’re the Millers) attempts to discover his true motivation, Guy finds himself forging an unlikely alliance with a competitor: awkward 10-year-old Chaitanya (Rohan Chand of Homeland), who is completely unfazed by Guy’s take-no-prisoners approach to life.

Have you always wanted to direct and did you look back at all the directors you’ve had to draw on those experiences?

Jason Bateman: I don’t want to get caught saying the cliché, “I always wanted to direct,” but in any profession, I’m sure you guys — well, I don’t know but I would assume, if not all of you guys but most of you guys — look at the jobs of the people around you and some that are above you, and you spend enough time doing what it is you’re doing that you want to challenge yourself to see if you can do a little bit more and maybe even help the process of those that would be doing the job you’re doing now. It was always just about me appreciating how complicated that position could and should be. The more I learned about all of the contributions of all the departments, the more I wanted to have the privilege of that responsibility. I didn’t want to get the opportunity as a result of some sort of contractual perk and jam job. I wanted to earn it. I wanted to not be asked but I wanted to make sure that it was the appropriate time. And I asked and I asked and I asked people who were brutally honest and very objective and they said, “I think that the industry would welcome that. I think you could attract a group of actors that you would be proud of. I think you could attract a bunch of people below the line that would be incredible.” So I started looking at some scripts — three in particular and this was one of them — and I said, “This seems like the kind of scope that I would be responsible to take on and this is the kind of comedic tone I think I could navigate well.”

The tone is so important. Were you clear or did everyone understand that’s what the script called for?

Jason Bateman: I was pretty clear, I think, with the few people I had to talk to. It’s not a huge cast so I spoke as specifically as I could to them and also to the department heads and gave them some films to sort of compare it to perhaps. The visual style of it I thought was very, very important for the audience. Consciously or subconsciously, we as audiences are aware of what to expect based on a palette that you’re looking at sometimes, and certainly with music, so I was really excited to be the person that guides all of those efforts.

What kind of films did you recommend?

Jason Bateman: The kind of comedies that are character driven as opposed to plot or coneept driven. Yes, this has a pretty sticky concept, but it’s succeeds or fails based on the authenticity of the characters in it. In other words, it’s a straight drama to everyone that’s in the movie. Character comedies that are done by people like Paul Thomas Anderson or David O. Russell or the Coen brothers… even Quentin Tarantino… Those guys are incredible craftsmen with their filmmaking. But, they have a very keen sense of comedic tone that’s not reliant on some big board concept.

As a young actor you excelled at adversarial relationships with adult characters. In this, you got to kind of flip it and be the adult in this situation. Was that on your mind at all?

Jason Bateman: That’s interesting. Not really. From playing little assholes, [laughs] I was aware that whether you’re a little asshole or a big asshole, you need to be somewhat excused for your assholiness – for people to enjoy it. Or, you’re just hateful and people won’t like you. You need to like the person that’s doing these things so you can laugh with them instead of being repelled by them. So, there’s an obligation as an actor to play flaws and vulnerabilities in humanity inside of a character – whether it’s written in the script or not. Sometimes it’s just a vulnerable look that you can wear on your face as opposed to one of arrogance or cockiness. That’s hard to write in a script. I knew there was that cocktail that we had to play with.

In the poster, it looks like you are starting to say words…

Jason Bateman: I think he is starting to say, “Friend.” [Laughs] Or f…unny meeting you here. It’s definitely an “F.” And… it looks like me! [Laughs]

There are so many bad word in the script. Did you fight ever have a moment where you said “Oh, we have to eliminate this part”?

Jason Bateman: Were we aware maybe we shouldn’t make it quite as dirty sometimes?

Yea.

Jason Bateman: Yes, there were certain drafts of this script that went a little bit too far at certain points and there were plenty of points where it didn’t go far enough. As Andrew and I worked on the script for a long time we just always kind of tried to make those adjustments, those ads or those cuts through the lens of why is this guy here? What’s going on? How is it a drama for him and not a comedy? At the core this guy has had his feelings hurt. He is lashing out and he’s trying to get back at whoever hurt his feelings. And so he’s emotionally injured. If the spitefulness, if the petulance is coming out of that as opposed to just being arbitrarily mean to somebody, then it was fine. It it was just arbitrarily mean, then it had to go. As far as the number of “F” words we did not try to hit a certain number. I wouldn’t try to keep it under a certain number, but no one needs to see another spelling bee movie. And no one needs to see ABOUT A BOY again. It was a great movie and we were trying to do something different here. Spelling bee happens to be the environment where this bad decision kind of plays out, but there was a necessity to keep some edge to this film and some dirt under its nails because it’s an adult going through something that’s deeply emotional to him and often times that’s not pretty and one can lose one’s dignity and that should feel dramatic at times as well as ___.

How did you enjoy directing yourself?

Jason Bateman: There was a checks and balance system that was eliminated, which is not terribly responsible or advised in most circumstances, but this was a character that I felt I could handle. There is a part of me that is this guy. I’ve got him where he needs to be… in a cage, but I knew how to access that guy and I felt like I had a good shot at playing him in a way that was vulnerable, somewhat redemptive. That was the biggest challenge of… I took a couple of big swings at some actors that could definitely do it. Much, much bigger stars than I’ll ever be, but they were busy or not interested and before we started going to people that might be a little bit more risky as far as hitting that narrow target. I said, well why don’t I just do it? That way I increase my chances of hitting this narrow target of tonal accuracy since I’ll be able to control it in front of the camera and behind the camera. And since we had this truncated shooting schedule, I knew I didn’t have the luxury of time to do four or five takes where you work out a creative negotiation with the actor about you know you seem a little angry there and I’d love for you to be a little kinder there and now all of a sudden you need to be moving on to the next scene.

You’ve worked with some amazing directors, and your whole career you’ve been on sets… Did anything surprise you about directing? Is there anything that you didn’t expect when taking on that role?

Jason Bateman: Um… pre-production and post-production is something that I’ve never been exposed to. I was pleasantly surprised that you could accomplish a lot during pre-production. There are so many things that you want to do with every department on the set, that you just don’t have time to either execute or discover. So, you have these weeks and weeks to, sort of, live with these people, and the script to figure out “Ok, what are we trying to do in this scene without saying it. If we pull the dialogue out can we do it with a lens? Can we do it with a light? Can we do it with a piece of music? Can we do it with a location?” Sure, you have time to discover that stuff on set sometimes, but for the most part you don’t. You just kind of have to execute, execute, execute… That was really kind of fun, and gratifying to me – to pick how we got to shoot every single scene so that we didn’t lose those creative opportunities, and still be malleable on the day, but everything was shot listed, everything was storyboarded, and everything was planned out so we could kind of have fun, and not be so pressured that we would miss something that might be a better idea on the day.

They say to never work with children or animals, but it doesn’t seem to be an issue in this film. How was your experience working with your young cohorts?

Jason Bateman: They were great. The kids on the stage were very into it, and very professional. Rohan [Chand] who played Chiatanya was… I think he’s 19 [laughs], or something like that. You’ll have to check his papers. He was very professional, and he knew all of his lines, and my lines. He was a very skilled actor without being obnoxiously precocious. There wasn’t that switch with the kids… That hamburger switch, where they’re like “This is great!” and then the camera goes down. I encouraged him to be every bit of the kid that he is, and a lot of that was helped by me remembering how I liked o be treated when I was that age acting. You wanna be treated like an adult, but you also want to have fun. You want to feel safe. I was his buddy as much as his director, and his co-actor. We had a really good time. I’m so proud of him, and I’m really excited for people to see how good he is in this film. He’s the heart and soul of the movie. It’s tricky… You want to lead with that, and you want to tell everybody how great the kid is, yet then people are going to think it’s ABOUT A BOY [laughs]. Literally and figuratively. The film is not soft, but there is a great emotional, heartwarming byproduct of this very prickly journey that you have to go through to then see and appreciate, but if you lead with that, you’re like “I got it. I’ll go watch the Disney channel and get my gist of that”… This was not that.

Were his parents or guardians, were they onboard with everything that he had to do? Obviously there’s some…

Jason Bateman: His dad was with us the whole time and he was a part of every single decision. He was in there with us during rehearsals, and I kept checking with him with Rohan’s comfort level with hearing these things, seeing these things, saying these things. His mother, they live in New York, his mother had to stay in New York and she calls in every once in awhile, particularly that night with the prostitute in the alleyway. She was just curious on how that scene was going to be shot, how much Rohan was going to be exposed to that, as was the social worker who was on the set. The school teacher has to always be there for a kid under 18. We were very sensitive to that. He wasn’t there for any unnecessary coverage, and sort of singles that we did on Marzipan where you wouldn’t see Chiatanya in the shot, he would be gone. We tried to be really responsible with that.

What have you learned as an actor, coming out of this? Going now”That’s why that director was doing that on that film I was in years ago”… Something that makes you think “Oh, now I see it from the other side that I never had.”

Jason Bateman: I mean, things become, you get a sense of what a director’s challenges are on the set, surely, but all of those assumptions were verified. Why after lunch does the stress level go up? Why do you point the camera one way in the morning versions one way in the afternoon? It’s this whole sun position and all of this kind of stuff. It was verified to me that it is beautifully complicated, and it’s a deep, deep responsibility that I’m so lucky to be given.

But you’re doing it again apparently.

Jason Bateman: Yea. Start in May.

So you liked it. You really liked it.

Jason Bateman: I never want to do anything else.

Really?

Jason Bateman: It’s the greatest job in the world. You get to create worlds for people. We all go into a movie theater and ask to be taken somewhere. It’s nice to be asked to drive. It’s a lot of responsibility that goes with that, so you have to make sure you know what you’re doing, and if you don’t then you have the responsibility to ask because it’s very, very involved. It’s 360 degrees. It’s all senses and you’ve got to keep the ball in the air for an hour and a half. It’s a deep, deep challenge and it asks me to call upon everything that I’ve learned since I’ve started. I think, going back to how I’ve started, wouldn’t you all want to be in a position where it demands that you utilize all that you’ve learned? And we all kind of try to mold our position into demanding that, and certainly directing is that for me. I would hope that everybody has an opportunity to be able to use all that stuff.

The tension between father and son is such a specific theme in this movie. I was wondering where you were sort of going through your script, how much of that idea stuck with you and made you want to pursue this particular project?

Jason Bateman: Certainly I, as everybody, have a deep relationship with my mother and my father and that informs a lot of the decisions I make in my life, as I’m sure it does with you guys. A writer writes what a writer knows and an actor acts the characters as if they’re a part of themselves. Thematically, that sort of father-son dynamic was certainly attractive to me. I won’t bore you with all the specifics of my personal childhood. But my dad played a huge, huge role in my life and continues to. He’s the reason I wanted to be an actor, certainly the reason I wanted to be a director, taught me everything I know about acting and really defined my taste in films and in directors. This was nice.

Kathryn [Hahn] said that her family is funny. How about yourself? You’re a funny person but how…

Jason Bateman: My family is pretty funny. My mother’s British so she’s got a very dry sense of humor. That’s where I got that kind of thing from. And my sister is obviously very, very funny. She’s spent a lot of years on a very funny show. My dad’s got a very dry sense of humor too so I appreciate comedy a lot. I imagine her family is a lot funnier than mine, given how funny she is. She’s a lot funnier than I am.

You’ve done acting, you’ve done directing. Would you put more of a hand into writing one of these days?

Jason Bateman: I like contributing to the writing as a director, because quite frankly it’s a lot easier. Writers have I think one of the more difficult jobs in the world, whether it’s screenwriting, being a novelist or whatever. You’re dealing with a blank page. That whole story of Mel Brooks and Anne Bankcroft, she came home from work one day from acting and she said to Mel, her husband, “Oh I’m so tired.” “Was it a tough day?” he said. “Mel, it was the hardest day ever. You have no idea how hard acting is.” And he held up a blank piece of white paper and said, “No, writing’s hard.” It is all about disciplining all your choices down into a certain funnel and deciding you can write anything, you can go anywhere. There’s so many forks, and distilling all that down into something that truly works is a big challenge. So I like to kind of come in and attempt to fix things that are already there as opposed to creating them.

FOR MORE INFO:

Official site: BadWordsMovie.com
Official Facebook: www.facebook.com/BadWordsMovie
Official Twitter: @BadWordsMovie
Official hashtag #badwords

BAD WORDS opens in select theaters March 14th and expands across the country on March 21 and March 28

WAMG Talks THE BAG MAN With CRISPIN GLOVER

THE BAG MAN, the all new crime thriller starring John Cusack, Rebecca Da Costa, Robert De Niro, and Crispin Glover opens in theaters today, and in support of the film I talked to star Crispin Glover about what attracted him to the role, his own films, and the appeal of touring to promote a film. Check it out below.

THE BAG MAN is a taut crime thriller that follows the story of JACK (John Cusack), a tough guy with chronic bad luck but human touches. Hired by DRAGNA (Robert De Niro), a legendary crime boss to complete a simple but unusual task, the plot centers around the anticipated arrival of Dragna who has summoned JACK and a host of shady characters to a remote location for unknown reasons. Over the course of a long and violently eventful night awaiting Dragna’s arrival, Jack’s path crosses that of RIVKA (Rebecca Da Costa), a stunningly beautiful woman whose life becomes physically and emotionally entangled with Jack’s. When Dragna finally arrives on the scene there are sudden and extreme consequences for all.

Not only are you an actor, but you are a writer and a director who has been touring with his your own films. What attracted you to THE BAG MAN, because you must have a lot of option?

Crispin Glover: Well, I’m glad that it seems like I have a lot of options. Sometimes it certainly feels like that, but I don’t know if I always feel like I do. It’s funny. But, I did like the dialogue for THE BAG MAN. Specifically, it was the dialogue. I thought that the dialogue was very well written, and it became apparent immediately who that character should be, and how I should look and play it. How I should sound. I’m realizing, while doing these conversations, that I actually didn’t have a huge preparation time. I knew that I wanted to have facial hair for it, and I think I had less than two weeks to grow out the facial hair. I wanted a little bit more time just for that, but we had just those two weeks… and it worked out. It looked enough like what I wanted it to look like. For it to be proper. Of course, that wasn’t the only thing. There was the dialogue. That was important. Like I was saying, it was well written dialogue and very imperious to what was going on.

Some of the other actors have talked about the improvisation on set. Did you do that as well, and do you prefer an environment where you are free to do so? Or, do you prefer sticking to the script?

Crispin Glover: For me – I don’t know about the other actors – I did not improvise in the traditional sense that people are thinking of with improvisation… where the actors are coming up with dialogue. I did not do that on this. I don’t think there is a single word that I say in the film that is not written in the screenplay. On occasion, there have been films where I have improvised in that kind of traditional idea, but that is pretty rare. I usually don’t. Usually I’m sticking pretty close to what’s written. I would say out of… I’m forgetting how many films that I have been in. I look at the IMDB sometimes to remind myself. I would say, if I had to – I’ve been in – I don’t know. Including television for me from when I was a teenager, I think I have somewhere between 50 and 60 credits. [IMDB credits 61] I can’t remember what it is now. Out of those, I would say there’s only 2 or 3 where I’ve really improvised dialogue. I usually don’t. I’m very comfortable with it if it comes to it. The way I studied acting , from age 15 to 20, many of my classes were improvisation with technique as opposed to improvisation with comedy. So, I have no problem with it. Also, a part of my training was scene study. Generally you are taught to say the lines, and if you stick with that there is an improvisational element within the thought process , underneath the lines, which is ultimately the most important aspect. What did happen in the scenes that I shot – not all of them, but certain scenes – we did a fair amount of takes, and interpretations of how to play those lines where we would just, kind of, keep going, and do multiple runs of a scene. But, we would stop and talk about it too. It was interesting. I enjoyed it. That’s not always that common to do, and I did enjoy that aspect. I wouldn’t call that improvisation in the way that it’s standardly used. We were sticking with the lines, but playing with the interpretation of how to play it. You can have different intentions in what you are getting at while saying the same dialogue. There was one scene in particular where we were kind of going through it, and then came to the realization that – because the way that the dialogue was written, you could interpret it multiple ways as to what someone is thinking about, and that can give a very different feeling as to how you are saying the same dialogue but it means something quite different from what you – by playing it with one intention, with a different thought process behind it.

This is David Grovic’s first feature film, but he has a few acting credits under his belt. Do you find it beneficial to work with directors who have acted before?

Crispin Glover: I did not know that he came from a background of acting. I realized when I saw him – he’s in the film. What I do know is that he funded the film. I don’t know if I’m supposed to say that or not [laughs]. I don’t know exactly what his business is, but he self financed the film, which actually, for me, that’s something that I was interested in because I do that as well. He’s financially independent. I’m not. I have to work in what my chosen profession is, which is acting, which is fine. I’m glad to do it. It is interesting to me when somebody is an autocrat. When you fund your film you can be limited by monetary decisions, but you can go into areas of what you want to do. I like that. I like when a director isn’t beholden to someone who is essentially the entity that it funding the film and has the final say of what the content is. When somebody funds the film themselves, they are the final say for the content, and I do like that better. I think, ultimately, it’s a much more individualized thought process… rather than when someone has to worry about, particularly, what a corporation wants the content to be. My own films, like my first film WHAT IS IT? specifically is a reaction to that. I tour with two different live shows, and two different feature films . People can find out where I’m going to be, with what chosen film by logging on to CrispinGlover.com.

But David was – it was apparent that he understood enough, certainly about acting, to let thought process be open, and that’s incredibly important. I’ve worked with writer/director’s that – first time writer/director’s – that make the mistake of getting into the word, and feeling like the word is the final element when it’s not. It’s what is under the word. That’s what is important. I’m sure David knew that. It was apparent. The fact that he is involved as a performer means that he has to be able to relate to that, and he certainly – obviously he understood working with good actors. He hired Robert De Niro, so [laughs] he has to understand something about that, for sure… and he did. When I read the screenplay though, Robert De Niro was not attached to it. I didn’t know about that. I did like the dialogue enough. That was what struck me about it.

You’ve been touring for some time now with your two films. What is the most rewarding part about doing the old-school theater tours, and getting to interact with the audience?

Crispin Glover: It’s complicated, because… What I call it is vaudeville distribution, because a lot of the venues that I’m at are part of what were the vaudeville circuit, and these are 35mm movie houses that, for the most part, don’t entertain as much live performance as maybe they have cinemas. I’m quite convinced that – and I’m already seeing signs of it since I’ve been doing this these past 9 years – is that it’s going to become more popular. I think you’re going to see a lot of filmmakers that are going to start touring with their films. There are a few reasons. There’s a strong business incentive to do it. On top of that, the audience interaction is a real thing. What people get out of that interaction is extremely valuable. A lot of these studios keep coming up with ideas of “what can people not get at home” when it comes to 3D, or what have you. Ultimately, anything that you can put out digitally… people are going to be able to get at home, except for living, breathing humans interacting with them. You cannot replace that. Vaudeville once was the form of entertainment in the United States for more than 100 years, and live performance is still maintained. I strongly feel that this aspect will remain, and probably increase once people realize that interaction with humans… humans are social animals. They learn, and think, because they are interacting with other human beings. That is not to be underestimated.

You are currently working on new project, and I’ve heard that you have shown about 10 minutes of it. Can you tell us a little bit about it?

Crispin Glover: Yeah. In parts 1 and part 2 of what will be a trilogy, and I think that I already said that people can find out where I am going to be by going on to CrispinGlover.com, but part 3 … I’m not shooting that right now. Sometimes I see it written that part 3 of the trilogy is , but it’s not. This is a separate feature film that I’ve been developing for a number of years. I’m shooting it at my property in the Czech Republic. This is a film that I’ve been developing for my father and myself to act in together. He and I have been in 2 films together, but we’ve never had a scene together. We’ve never acted together. This is the first time he and I have acted together, so I’m excited about it. I’ve complicated it by purposely not putting the title out. There’s so much misinformation that goes into it… like on IMDB. Already I’ve seen so many incorrect things. There is 20 minutes of edited which are contiguous that I am showing at the shows, and I still have quite a lot more to shoot. This is a project that I am in the midst of, and it’s hard to calculate how long these things will take when you fund your own films and on a limit budget. It takes time, but I’m very excited about it, and I’m looking forward to seeing people at the shows, and showing them this new footage as well as the two feature films that I’ve been touring with for this long amount of time. They’re solid underpinnings, and there’s a lot to talk about. I’m glad to say that it’s still going, amazingly, after 9 years of touring. There’s still stuff to talk about.

THE BAG MAN was co-written by David Grovic and Paul Conway, and is David Grovic’s directorial debut. The film has a running time of 108 minutes and is not rated by the MPAA.

FOR MORE INFO:
Follow @TheBagManMovie on Twitter / #TheBagMan
Like THE BAG MAN on Facebook
Follow TheBagManMovie on Instagram

THE BAG MAN is in theaters now

WAMG Talks To Skylar Astin, Camilla Belle, Chad Michael Murray And Herschel Faber About CAVEMEN

CAVEMEN is a romantic comedy about how – with a little help from our friends – true love isn’t as evasive as it seems. During a recent press day for the film, I spoke with stars Skylar Astin, Camilla Belle, Chad Michael Murray and director Herschel Faber about filming a love story in LA… and just who has the sweetest dance moves out of the bunch. Check it out below.

Cavemen follows LA playboy Dean (Skylar Astin) who is fed up with one-night-stands and empty relationships and realizes that he wants something more out of life than just a party. With a little inspiration from his nine-year-old nephew and his best friend Tess (Camilla Belle), Dean decides to try his hand at finding true love for the first time – which proves to be much more difficult than he thought in modern-day Los Angeles.

CAVEMEN is written and directed by Herschel Faber, and stars Skylar Astin (Pitch Perfect), Camilla Belle (10,000 B.C.), Alexis Knapp (Pitch Perfect), and Chad Michael Murray (One Tree Hill). Produced by Herschel Faber, Joe Fogel, and Cole Payne with co-production by Jeremy Loethen and Jamieson Stern. Executive produced by Kurt David Anderson, John Michaels, Reza Mirroknian, Mary Weldon, and John Wynn. With cinematography by Nic Sadler, music by Ronen Landa, and film editing by Robert Schafer.

FOR MORE INFO:

FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/CavemenTheMovie

CAVEMEN is in Theaters and on VOD now

Dan Fogler Talks DON PEYOTE + Secret Projects

Two weeks ago I posted the first part of my most recent interview with Dan Fogler, which you can check out right HERE. In that video, we mostly talked about his graphic novel MOON LAKE which is available now for anyone looking for a last minute Christmas gift. I promised there was more and I wasn’t kidding. After going through 40+ minutes of footage, here is part 2 in which I chat with Fogler about several upcoming projects including DON PEYOTE, Kyle Newman’s BARELY LETHAL & his hope for a FANBOYS 2.

As you may remember from previous articles, DON PEYOTE is Fogler’s second film behind the camera and stars himself along with a ton of great celebrity cameos including Anne Hathaway, Josh Duhamel, Topher Grace, and Jay Baruchel. Having seen a nearly finished cut of this psychotic acid trip of a film, I cannot wait for it to be unleashed upon the world. But until then, this video will have to do…

While chatting, Dan also gave us a very exclusive brief sneak peak at a super secret project that he is working on. It is so secret that it had to be put in a second video just in case the powers that be make us take it down. I’ve already had to blur out some of the clip he shows us. Dan refused to give me any hard details and swore me to secrecy on the little bit he did divulge. All I can say is that he is working with some awesome people on it and it may involve a fair bit of action. Enjoy!

Jerry Cavallaro – @GetStuck – www.JerryCavallaro.com

WAMG Interview: THE MEN OF CHUCKY

Yesterday I posted my interview with The Women of Chucky (Fiona Dourif & Danielle Bisutti) which you can view right HERE. Today it is the men’s turn to talk about 25 years of blood and plastic. Just in time for Halloween, below is my full interview with creator Don Mancini, the voice of Chucky Brad Dourif & O.G. Andy Barclay (Alex Vincent). Check it out, then pick up your copy of CHUCKY: THE COMPLETE COLLECTION for a marathon of bloody fun!

THE MEN OF CHUCKY

Jerry Cavallaro – @GetStuck – www.JerryCavallaro.com

NYCC 12: Saturday & Sunday Recap

Shockingly, I arrived for my second day at NYCC with enough time to walk around the convention a bit before my first & only scheduled interview for the weekend. I didn’t mention it in yesterday’s coverage because I wanted it to be a surprise but one of the reasons I headed home early after NYCC yesterday was to watch THE BAY. Why did I need to see this flick you may ask? Because my roundtable today was with the legendary Barry Levinson, director of THE BAY as well as some other flicks you might have heard of like RAIN MAN, DINER, and SPHERE. Speaking with him was an incredible experience and I will have a full recap of the roundtable posted soon.

At the roundtable I ran into Mike Spring of DVDSnapshot.com, who I first met at the convention a few years back. We chatted for a bit before I once again made my way to the show floor. Seeing the massive wait at the IGN theater and the general overcrowding of NYCC, I decided it would be best to skip the panels since they were going to be live-streamed anyway for anyone interested in checking them out. I also assumed they would be made available afterwards although that seems not to be the case, at least not officially.

While passing the Magnet Releasing booth, I saw that director Glenn McQuaid was signing posters for VHS. I stuck around for a few minutes to get a really quick interview, which you can check out right here:

After some more aimless roaming of the overcrowded show floor, I stopped by the Archaia Comics booth to say hi to our good friend Dan Fogler (FANBOYS, BALLS OF FURY). We talked about setting up an interview in about 2 weeks to discuss DON PEYOTE, as well as a plethora of other projects he is working on.

My Sunday at NYCC consisted of more of the same; navigating my way through waves of costumed fans eager to throw down hard-earned cash. The one exception being the hour or so I sat down for a panel. My first and only for this year was an impromptu panel hosted by Sean Astin, which was created last minute thanks to a petition he himself started. He was one of those people with a decent-sized line of fans waiting to meet him the past three days in the autograph area.

Watching Sean Astin take command of the whole room, telling incredibly detailed and personal stories about his entire career, I gained a newfound respect for the man. Unfortunately the panel ran long and I was unable to interview him afterwards as I had discussed with whoever was assisting him for the day. Shortly after, security began their “hard close” of the convention and I was yelled at for not exiting promptly.

Jerry Cavallaro – www.JerryCavallaro.com

WAMG Interview: Evan Kelly – Director of THE CORRIDOR

Evan Kelly’s debut as a feature filmmaker is THE CORRIDOR, an independent film that crosses genres and tells a fascinating story of five friends reunited in an isolated cabin in the woods. THE CORRIDOR made it’s North American premiere during the 2011 Fantastic Fest, which is when I first discovered and thoroughly enjoyed the film. THE CORRIDOR opens theatrically on March 30th, 2012. I have had the privilege to speak with Evan Kelly about the film and his experience as a filmmaker. Continue reading below to find out what he had to say…

Continue reading WAMG Interview: Evan Kelly – Director of THE CORRIDOR

Interview with Fatal Pictures’ FAMILIAR Producer Zach Green and Director Richard Powell

I’ve now had the pleasure of screening two of Fatal Pictures’ short films, WORM and FAMILIAR. As part of my ongoing commitment to highlight and support independent filmmaking, I seized the opportunity to speak with producer Zach Green and director Richard Powell of Fatal Pictures to talk about these and other films and filmmaking in general… Continue reading Interview with Fatal Pictures’ FAMILIAR Producer Zach Green and Director Richard Powell

THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL OPENS IN SELECT THEATERS ON FRIDAY, MARCH 7

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THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL opens in select theaters on Friday, March 7

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BAD WORDS opens in select theaters March 14th and expands across the country on March 21 and March 28

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THE BAG MAN is in theaters now

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CAVEMEN is in Theaters and on VOD now

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