Category Archives: Interviews

Film, Interviews

Interview: Sean Bean talks Wachowskis, ‘Jupiter Ascending’

Leave a comment

Even though his character dies in nearly every film and television project in which he stars, there’s no doubt that Sean Bean considers himself a very lucky actor, given that he’s been able to play so many memorable roles in the first place.

Whether it’s fantasy (“The Lord of the Rings,” “Game of Thrones”), action (“Patriot Games,” “GoldenEye”) or drama (“North Country”), Bean said he’s thrilled that he’s been able,  time and again, to land roles that place character and story at the forefront.

Bean said character and story are definitely at the front again with Lana and Andy Wachowski’s sci-fi epic “Jupiter Ascending,” the writer-director siblings’ long-anticipated intergalactic tale that’s opening in theaters Friday nationwide. The great thing about the Wachowskis, Bean told me in a recent interview, is that apart from their fascinating narratives, the innovative filmmakers are known for so much more.

“They’ve got a great reputation for doing lots of special effects very well, but they’re also great to work with, being on the set and focusing on the characters,” Bean said. “Without believable individuals in this story, you wouldn’t really go for the story. You wouldn’t feel anything for anyone. So it’s their combination of really good special effects, great imaginations and really well-drawn, three-dimensional characters that makes it work. They put a lot of emphasis on characters, though, because it’s important. You can empathize with them and their ambitions.”

Channing Tatum and Sean Bean in 'Jupiter Ascending'
Channing Tatum and Sean Bean in “Jupiter Ascending” (photo: Warner Bros.).

Bean stars in “Jupiter Ascending” as Stinger, the one-time commanding officer of Caine (Channing Tatum), a space warrior sent from the galaxies to Earth to find Jupiter (Mila Kunis), a humble Russian immigrant living in Chicago who also happens to be the reincarnation of a late, powerful intergalactic queen who ruled for thousands of years. Following an incident with superiors, both Stinger and Caine were stripped of their duties and wings, quite literally, and Stinger was assigned to an outpost on Earth, surrounded by Midwestern cornfields and beehives..

Bean said he was thrilled that Stinger, while very talented with weapons and hand-to-hand combat (he and Caine have a big throw-down at one point), is about much more than muscle.

“Stinger is quite an intelligent guy on the history of the universe with what happened and how everything was colonized,” Bean said. “He knows how for thousands of years things have been manipulated and controlled by certain individuals.”

Unbeknownst to Jupiter, one of the things being controlled is Earth itself — by the late queen’s power-hungry adult children, including the tyrannical Balem (“Theory of Everything” Oscar nominee Eddie Redmayne) — and its inhabitants are ripe for harvest.

Tim Burton Book 2
Click book cover for info on how to buy!

And while Bean, 55, doesn’t believe that aliens will be cherry-picking humans for dastardly purposes anytime soon, he does agree that there is other intelligent life out there. He said the universe is simply too expansive to believe that we’re alone.

“You can watch documentaries about flying saucers and think, ‘Rubbish,’ but ostensibly, there are so many billions of miles of space and galaxies — it’s infinite,” Bean said. “It would be strange if it were just us.”

Back on Earth, Bean said he’s not sure why the Wachowskis selected him for “Jupiter Rising” from among the galaxies of stars in Hollywood, but he’s glad they did because he deeply admires their work.

“I was flattered when they expressed interest in me and my agent gave me a few pages from their script because they’re so secretive,” Bean said. “I think they saw me in ‘Game of Thrones’ and various other things, but I don’t know why they thought of me. It’s great, though, because I love their work. They’re so original, avant-garde and don’t give a s—, really. They just make what they want to make that’s in their heads. That’s brilliant.”

Hot Toys Ichabod Crane
Click photo to learn how to buy!
Film, Interviews

Interview: Kevin Costner tackles race relations with ‘Black or White’

Leave a comment

The last time I talked with Oscar-winning filmmaker and actor Kevin Costner was for the political satire “Swing Vote,” which was easily one of the most underrated movies in 2008. Costner not only brought heart and passion to the role of a regular Joe who was about to cast the one vote that could decide the winner of a dead-even presidential election, but he also invested his own money in the project as one of the film’s producers to see his vision through.

More than six years later, Costner has brought another impassioned project to the big screen with “Black or White,” a film that takes on, in a brutally honest way, the touchy subject of race relations as a white man and black woman vie for custody of their mixed-race granddaughter. Like “Swing Vote,” Costner felt so strongly about the narrative of “Black or White” that he dipped into his bank account again — this time to the reported tune of $9 million — to make sure the film got made.

“I really couldn’t turn my back on the film once I read the script,” Costner told me in a recent phone call from New York. “When I couldn’t get anybody else to make the film, I walked down the hall to my wife and said, ‘I have to share this story.’ I said, ‘We have to be really honest with it and not soften one word. Let’s just stay with it’ and that’s what we did.”

Octavia Spencer and Kevin Costner in 'Black or White'
Octavia Spencer and Kevin Costner in “Black or White” (photo: Relativity Media).

Opening in theaters nationwide on Friday, “Black or White” stars Costner as Elliot, a successful Los Angeles attorney struggling with the sudden death of his wife, Carol (Jennifer Ehle). Together the couple raised their late daughter’s young girl, Eloise (Jillian Estelle), but with Carol’s death and Elliot’s drinking problem, Eloise’s paternal grandmother, Rowena (Octavia Spencer), seeks full custody of the child.

Complicating matters is the re-emergence of Eloise’s recovering drug addicted father, Reggie (Andre Holland), who claims he is clean enough to take on parental responsibilities, and the implication by Rowena’s attorney brother, Jeremiah (Anthony Mackie), that Elliot is racist.

Given ongoing debate about race relations in the U.S., Costner said he was well aware of the hot-button issue he was about to press, but said the story of “Black or White” was too compelling to back away from.

“I felt the film had to be made because it felt so honest to me,” Costner said. “It felt like there were things in the script that a lot of people wanted to say and wish they could say, but don’t know how to actually articulate it. The film doesn’t pull a single punch. It’s not politically correct, but it’s not cruel. It’s actually warm. People who feel worn about by this race thing, I hope they see it. I’ve made a lot of different kinds of movies, so if I tell you I think everybody should see this, I really mean it.”

Among the subjects is something Costner believes will reverberate with audience members from the black community — a plea for a black man to stand up and take responsibility for his family instead of abandoning them and resorting to criminal activities. It comes in a compelling scene in which Jeremiah, even though he’s acting as his attorney, admonishes Reggie for his lifestyle and behavior.

“Anthony Mackie’s character really lays out his nephew with things he wanted to say as a person and for his own culture and for his own generation. He was saying, ‘Straighten up, man,'” Costner said.

Costner noted, however, that writer-director Mike Binder’s script was “even-handed,” and it required him to go to some uncomfortable places as an actor. Without question, one of the most daunting scenes came in courtroom testimony in which Elliot was forced to testify about some previous racial remarks.

“My character in that courtroom room says s— that made me think, ‘My God, I have to say this?'” Costner said. “It was a bit of miracle that it got made, and I do believe it has a chance to be a classic. I know that I was a different person after I read the screenplay, and I know, watching audiences, that people are different after seeing it.”

While Costner said he felt compelled to make the film after reading Binder’s script, the subject of race relations is something he’s wanted to put on the big screen for a long time.

“I grew up around race issues. It wasn’t around people who were angry, but people who used the N-word very casually,” said the California native, who turned 60 in mid-January. “Again, it wasn’t out anger, but more because of ignorance with jokes in the ’50s and ’60s. It’s no longer appropriate, which I’m glad to say. It’s concerned me how we’ve treated each other, so this movie goes right to the bone. Sometimes a movie can start a conversation, and this is important to me. I’ve learned a long time ago, if I treat something with importantly, chances are it will be taken that way.”

Costner well knows “Black or White” won’t be the be-all, end-all solution for race troubles in today’s society, he’s glad to have had the opportunity to make some sort of difference. Progress has been made over the years, he said, but he also believes society has a long way to go.

“My children know nothing about race, but that doesn’t mean the issues of people being marginalized and discriminated against aren’t happening every day as we speak,” Costner said. “Racism is alive and well, and we need to get hip to that. There’s progress being made, without a doubt, but there’s a whole group of people who don’t feel that. There’s a level of empathy that goes with that, but you can’t just snap your fingers and say, ‘Come on, pull yourself by your bootstraps and get over it.’ That’s a little bit unrealistic because the veil of being black in America is a heavy one.”

At the very least, Costner hopes ‘Black or White’ gives the issue more clarity as the country strives to move forward.

“We have to grow as a society. How do we do that? I don’t know. I’m not Solomon; I’m a filmmaker,” Costner said. “I thought if I were going to make a film that dealt with this, it needed to play it right to the bone.”

Books, Film, Interviews

Interview: Tim Burton photographer, writer Leah Gallo talks ‘Big Eyes: The Film, The Art’

Leave a comment

Director Tim Burton’s acclaimed new film “Big Eyes,” of course, tells the strange but amazing true story of famed big-eyed children paintings artist Margaret Keane created and her fight to reclaim her identity. And thanks to the sharp lens of Burton’s longtime photographer, Leah Gallo, the film and Keane’s portraits are being examined more in-depth.

New on store shelves and with online retailers Tuesday, “Big Eyes: The Film, The Art” (Titan Books) features behind-the-scenes and photographs by Gallo during the production of the film, which recently earned Golden Globe nominations for stars Amy Adams and Christoph Waltz, and songwriter Lana Del Rey – and a win for Adams in the Best Actress in a Comedy or Musical category. In addition, Gallo includes several of Keane’s original paintings, as well as rare, behind-the-scene photos of the artist at work.

Big Eyes Book, Leah Gallo Derek Frey
Left: ‘Big Eyes: The Art, the Film.’ Right: Leah Gallo, Derek Frey.

Gallo, a Pennsylvania native who first worked on “Sweeney Todd” in 2006 and officially started with Tim Burton Productions in London in 2008, said while companion books have been produced for all of Burton’s films since the film about “The Demon Barber of Fleet Street,” there was a burning creative desire to make sure “Big Eyes: The Film, The Art” made it to shelves.

“We thought ‘Big Eyes’ was a very special film, and while it’s not as fantastical as ‘Alice in Wonderland’ or ‘Dark Shadows,’ the film reflects the interesting history of Margaret Keane’s life and artwork, so there was a lot to say and show with the book,” Gallo told me in a recent call from London. “About half of the book is about the making of the movie, and the other half is her actual artwork. It’s the first time her artwork has been published since the ’60s.”

Interview: Tim Burton talks “Big Eyes”

Gallo, who previously edited and wrote “The Art of Tim Burton” (Steeles Publishing) in 2009, said “Big Eyes: The Film, The Art” was very much a “hurry up and wait” process, while she and Tim Burton Productions designer Holly Kempf need to line up a publisher and take care of other business matters. Amazingly, Gallo, who also co-edited the book with Kempf, said the production of 192-page tome was completed in a very intense two months.

Starring Adams as Margaret Keane and Christoph Waltz as her husband, Walter Keane, “Big Eyes” reveals a complicated time in Margaret’s life in the 1950s and ’60s where Walter scammed the public and art world into believing he was the creative genius behind the art of the big-eyed children, until Margaret found the courage to expose the hoax to the world.

A 10-years-in-the-making passion project for screenwriters Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski (who also co-wrote Burton’s “Ed Wood”), the film also stars Krysten Ritter as Margaret’s best friend DeeAnn, Danny Huston as San Francisco newspaper columnist Dick Nolan, Jason Schwartzman as a snobby art dealer and Terrence Stamp as a pompous art critic. The real Margaret Keane actually appears in cameo in the film, too, sitting on a park bench in an early scene while Adams and Waltz “paint” nearby.

“Big Eyes” once again has personal meaning for Gallo in that it’s executive produced by Derek Frey, her husband who has also been a collaborator of Burton since “Mars Attacks!” in 1996. The book captures Burton in a very unique environment that the filmmaker hasn’t visited for 20 years — a small-budgeted movie — and Frey believes the intimate atmosphere brought out something unique in the filmmaker.

“It’s probably the smallest movie Tim has ever made,” Frey told me in a separate interview. “He kept saying, ‘I’ve made a movie for this budget before, but that was “Pee-wee’s Big Adventure” in 1985.’ Because of that, ‘Big Eyes’ was a very different approach for Tim as a filmmaker. It was like he cleared out of his life all the big Hollywood franchises and all the movies that came with extra baggage, like a remake or a reinterpretation, and took on something that he could make his own and run with it. I’m really glad he did it.”

Tim Burton Book 2
Click book cover for info on how to buy!

Behind the ‘Eyes’

Gallo said the book features interview excerpts from Adams and Waltz, naturally, as well as Burton, whom she sat down with on a couple different occasions to discuss the film. And while talks with Burton all the time as one of the core members of his office, interviewing him for the “Big Eyes” book was fun and unique because she discovered little tidbits of information from him that she never knew before.

“In ‘Big Eyes,’ I found out there’s a little bit of (famed Italian horror director) Mario Bava in the film. It’s subtle, but you can see it in some of the lighting, it’s really interesting,” Gallo said. “It’s fun being reminded again and again how deeply Tim thinks about things. It may not seem so obvious, but he thinks these things through a lot. There’s a lot going on in his head.”

As Gallo found out, she wasn’t the only one fascinated by the untapped corners of Burton’s mind. Among the cavalcade of creatives she interviewed that have worked with Burton on many occasions — including costume designer Colleen Atwood and composer Danny Elfman included — the common theme she encountered that was that his collaborators keep working with him because they want to access those untapped corners, too.

“Getting perspectives of Tim in the interviews really made me aware of how admired he is. It’s easy to forget that when you work with somebody every day that they’re a creative genius,” Gallo said, laughing. “And then, after interviewing people who have worked around him before who’ve been in the film business for a long time, and hearing about their awe and admiration of him and illustrating all of his creativity, it reminds me that he’s pretty great at what he does.”

Tim Lammers reviews movies weekly for “The KQ92 Morning Show” with Tom Barnard on KQRS-FM, “Paul and Jordana” with Paul Douglas and Jordana Green on WCCO Radio, “It Matters with Kelly Cordes” on WJON-AM, KLZZ-FM, “Let’s Talk Movies with Tim Lammers” with Tim Matthews on KRWC-AM, “The Tom Barnard Podcast” and “The BS Show” with Bob Sansevere, and reviews streaming programming on WCCO Radio’s “Paul and Jordana” as well. On TV, Tim has made hundreds of guest appearances on NBC affiliate KARE on the news program “KARE 11 News at 11”.

Copyright 2015 DirectConversations.com

Film, Interviews

Interview: Sienna Miller humbled by playing Taya Kyle in ‘American Sniper’

Leave a comment

Film nominated for 6 Oscars Thursday including Best Picture

By Tim Lammers

It’s been a whirlwind year for heralded actress Sienna Miller, landing not one but two pivotal roles in two of the year’s most acclaimed films: “American Sniper” and “Foxcatcher.”

In oddly timed bits of casting, though, Miller plays the eventual widow of two real-life men who met tragic deaths early in their lives. Even in the face of tragic storylines, it’s hard to say no when acclaimed directors come calling, especially when it’s the likes of Clint Eastwood for “American Sniper.”

“I would have been happy to make the tea on Clint’s set much less be a part of the actual film,” Miller told me, humbly, in a recent call from New York City. “He’s phenomenal. As a young girl dreaming of being an actress, he’s one of the people I dreamed of working with. I still can’t believe this has all happened.”

Sienna Miller in 'American Sniper' (photo Warner Bros)
Sienna Miller in “American Sniper” (photo Warner Bros.).

Opening in theaters nationwide Friday, “American Sniper,” based on Chris Kyle’s best-selling novel of the same name, tells the harrowing true story of the Navy SEAL (played by Bradley Cooper), who is credited with being the most prolific sniper in American military history. The film nabbed six Oscar nominations Thursday, including Best Picture, Best Actor for Bradley Cooper and Best Adapted Screenplay.

Miller stars in “American Sniper” as Taya Kyle, who unwaveringly stood by her husband’s side as he endured the stress and danger of the battlefield in Iraq over four tours of duty; and found herself challenged by the deep, psychological effects the war had on Chris when he returned home to be with his wife and two young children.

“Ultimately, the title is ‘American Sniper’ is story about Chris Kyle, but I think his and Taya’s relationship is a huge part of the book and the film,” Miller observed. “I do think by looking at the relationship, it grounds the war. It helps you find the human behind the Navy SEAL. It shows what the man faced while trying to raise a family and be a husband, but it also shows the immense sense of duty he felt to serve his country when he wasn’t in active service. He felt that there were people dying that probably wouldn’t be dying if he had been there. I think that dynamic is really interesting, because his relationship with his family was a huge part of his life and was well-represented in the film.”

Bradley Cooper in 'American Sniper' (photo Warner Bros)
Bradley Cooper in “American Sniper” (photo Warner Bros.).

Miller, who was cast in the film last March and began shooting in May, worked very closely with the real-life Taya Kyle during the production, gaining access to communication between the couple when Chris Kyle was serving abroad.

“Taya is so unbelievably open, and so wanted this film to be a good representation of his and Chris’ relationship. She was just the easiest woman to talk to and so generous,” Miller said. “She kept all of their email correspondence while he was on his tours, and let Bradley and I have access to them. There were hundreds of really interesting emails, and she let us go through them so we could get a sense of what their relationship was like.”

In addition to the emails, Miller said Taya Kyle was open to any question she wanted to ask.

“Of course, there were questions you have to ask and you have to be really forensic in your examination of someone if you want to do them justice, but at the same time, she never made me feel uncomfortable at all,” Miller said. “She said, ‘Just ask me anything. I want to help. I want you to get this right. Please don’t be shy or worry about me getting upset.’ She told me almost everything, and we became really close as a result of that. So, while by nature I feel uncomfortable to ask those sorts of questions, I felt I had to serve the film and serve the performance and do my work.”

While she naturally respects Taya Kyle immensely for what she endured while her husband was alive and the harsh circumstances she’s faced since — including a defamation suit filed by former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura transferred to the widow after Chris Kyle’s untimely death in 2013 — she also feels a greater sense of appreciation for members of the military and beyond.

“I have such a new-found respect not only for the men and women in the military and who are serving in combat, but the spouses left behind,” Miller said. “I think in a way they’re making as much of a sacrifice because it’s impossible to raise a family and not know every day whether your husband is going to live or die. It has to be an unbelievable situation to find yourself in. Of course, Taya Kyle understood who her husband was, but at the same time, it’s an enormous sacrifice on both sides. Before I started the film, I hadn’t given enough thought to that.”

MORE: Sienna Miller talks about Jesse Ventura lawsuit against Taya Kyle