After what seems a positive stint doing theater in London (once again), Kidman is prepping for the promotions of the American adaptation of the Oscar-winning Argentinean film Secret in their Eyes, which also stars Julia Roberts and Chiwetel Ejiofor.
Here’s a nice interview, conducted by Lee Daniels (who gushes about her), with some very nice photographs by Fabien Baron.
Go straight to Interview Magazine’s website for it and more photos.
I’m on a high after watching Shunji Iwai’s The Case of Hana & Alice, which is honestly just wonderful. The film opened back in February with both Yu Aoi and Anne Suzuki back in their roles and promoting the film. I ran into a short interview they did for Filt for their Feb-Mar’15 edition, which feature this beautiful picture of the both.
… and their 3D pencil doodle.
All photos by Fumihito Katamura.
Here’s a great interview with Doona Bae where she talks about her beginnings as an actress, what her most cherished film project is, what was it like to do Cloud Atlas without knowing how to speak English, her close relation to Lana and how she “gets” her acting, and how she wants to do a Stephen Chow movie.
Oh, and why she doesn’t like to use makeup when acting.
Here’s the link to the Prestige Interview.
I’m a little sad that her presentation at the Shanghai Film Festival got cancelled because of MERS, but I totally understand the measure. Also- Yay! Sense8 got renewed, so I’m getting myself more Doona. We all love Doona Bae.
I like these one-on-one interviews, especially when you have performance-oriented people. Too bad Nawazuddin Siddiqui doesn’t feel comfortable speaking English- 1. Maybe these Meeting Ground interviews are always in English. 2. If they’re not necessarily in English, I wouldn’t understand a thing he says in Hindi. xD
This time Kangana Ranaut and Irrfan Khan are one-on-one after the commercial success of Tanu Weds Manu Returns and Piku, respectively. In the brief 20min interview, they talk about acting nuances with a super brief Acting 101, as well as people’s obsession with Box Office numbers (in this case, making the 100 crore club), the -now- discerning audience (and the massy one), not longer being a working actor who needs to constantly do movies to make a living, being an outsider, PLUS! the strength and vitriol that is social media.
Happy watching!
On the Box Office obsession and audience talks, it’s a general worldwide problem, you guys. Last year headlines declared How to Train your Dragon 2 a box office flop when it made “just” $50M USD. Joining the $1B USD club is big on studio heads, and having the most profitable franchise is a plus for actors.
The audience everywhere is half and half- good movie don’t make money, bad movies that make loads. The audience and press vitriol on review and social media. They’re not solely Bollywood problems ;)
Oh, man~ my Japanese has gotten so bad. Or at least, my non-food related Japanese. I ran into these interviews Yu-chan did to promote the release of her last interview-PB Yu Diary book, which includes the nugget that she almost quit acting at age 23. But please, feel free to guide me through all these chunks of text.
The other interview includes info on the process of making the book… as well as these three photos of her.
— August 20th 2015 —
Ran into more shots of this shoot [1][2].
Todo lo que se diga de mí es mentira, no soy Doña Diabla, ni una mujer sin alma, ni mucho menos China Poblana que se queda con lo que no es suyo. Con la imagen que el público tenía de mí, no hubiera podido vivir, me conformaba con que dijeran que soy la mujer más bella del mundo, salí de El Peñón de las Ánimas y llegué a París como La Bella Otero, he sido una eterna enamorada, pero no soy una diosa arrodillada. He sido La Generala de mi pueblo en Sonora, así como Doña Bárbara, La Mujer de Todos, me conocieron como La Devoradora porque todos eran los ambiciosos que querían a la Maclovia de Pátzcuaro.
Everything that’s been said about me is a lie, I’m not Doña Diabla nor the Woman Without a Soul, much less a China Poblana that keeps what’s not hers. With the image the audience had of me, I wouldn’t have been able to live, I settled for them saying I was the most beautiful woman in the world. I came out of The Rock of Souls and made it to Paris as La Belle Otero, I’ve been A Woman in Love, but I’m not The Kneeling Goddess. I’ve been La Generala of my hometown in Sonora, just like I was Doña Barbara, One Woman for All. They knew me as La Devoradora because everyone else were the overambitious that wanted the Maclovia from Patzcuaro.
If you read this blog and/or have stumbled upon a post on the subject or -somehow- seen my comments on social media or… maybe a review or feature I’ve written, you’d know I’m not very fond of Sonam Kapoor [1]. Or I wasn’t. At the moment, I’m not sure anymore. A while ago, I saw her on Khoobsurat, which in normal circumstances I wouldn’t have picked, but it was Disney (!) so I couldn’t help myself.
It’s perfectly fine light entertainment, though I think this is the first time I’ve seen a Disney movie where our female protagonist gets (though admitedly quite endearingly funny) pissed drunk, who then later accepts a bottle of soda with ruffies to end up kidnapped (don’t worry, it’s still Disney so nothing happens), and finally ends up with a (hot) prince that was engaged to some other woman. Anyway~ since then, I found myself not hating Sonam as it seems like she’s TRYING. Like- you can sense a change of pace/vibe.
Dolly ki Doli doesn’t look awful.
And in this segment for Anupama Chopra’s The Meeting Ground, Rajkummar Rao (who is also in DkD) makes her palatable. It gets a bit awkward when they keep going on their talk on star children and their upper hand in the industry. Sonam tries to make a point, but Angelina Jolie didn’t make her starring debut in a studio picture with a brand director. Angelina’s credits went from a small role in one of her dad’s films, to straight-to-video releases and shorts until Without Evidence.
Gwyneth and all her Gwynethness is a bit more lucky, but not as lucky as star children in India. TV Movie debut directed by her dad, small role on a movie until she cameo’d on godfather Steven Spielberg’s Hook. It wasn’t until a few years later when she landed Se7en with Fincher and PTA’s Hard Eight.
Nobody goes to Eva Amurri or Rumer Willis and tells their parents Susan Sarandon, Demi Moore or Bruce Willis, “I want to launch your daughter with this banner.”
LOL, this seemingly harmless post turned into a rant. But honestly, no one would care if a star child would begin with small roles in movies, working their way up. Instead, they are given starring roles in medium-big budget films to launch them.
Rant over.
I said it before and say it again~ the best thing to come out of Angelina Jolie’s Unbroken was to see Miyavi being fabulous on carpet events in the US where so many oblivious in the west got to see him. [My favorite is Lainey who’s gushed over Miyavi twice] And now to see him on Ellen playing his guitar- that’s really more than I could hope for.
And I love that he did a bit of What’s my Name on top of Let Go.
Of course I’ve managed to watched Haider already. Three times. Over the weekend. In a month, I see it topping my list of favorites this 2014. Anyway~ there is a wonderful wordy article on Tabu by Raja Sen — titled The Stunning Actress Who Dared to Age, Seduce Her Son— and Confound Bollywood — where he sings praises left and right of Tabu’s latest performance [which has, in fact, trumped all her performances], and talks about her most (critically and commercially successful) notable roles.
In other news, it’s unlikely Rajeev Masand will take off the geo-block on his YouTube account, but the Actress Roundtable [1] is available on the IBN website. It’s got some very good moments, despite the Me, Me, Me, It’s All About Me attitude certain someone displayed. I was amazed. I always expect it, but this is taking it to a whole new level. LOL
Yu Aoi has a brand new book release simply titled 8740 DIARY 2011-2014, which is (from whatI was able to get) a collection of text and photos gathered between those years from different directors, screenwriters and co-stars. I am pretty sure there were texts from Shunji Iwai, Yuki Tanada and photographer Yoko Takahashi among many others.
The book is fairly priced… and the yen is down, so I think I might get it. We’ll see. In the meantime, Yu’s been promoting it with this cute little video for MORE Magazine, as well as the customary press event.
You can get the book on HMV Japan, which is my usual choice for Japanese items, even though YesAsia also delivers (but I find it extra pricey for them).
