Moviefone News Moviefone Copyright 2011, HuffingtonPost.com, Inc. Moviefone Good old fashioned elbow grease. <![CDATA['Dr. Cabbie': Adrianne Palicki, Vinay Virmani Movie Shoot Underway]]> Dr. Cabbie," the latest film from "Breakaway" writer/star Vinay Virmani and Quebecois director Jean-Francois Pouliot.

About a young Indian doctor who immigrates to Canada only to discover his degree isn't recognized, the film stars Virmani as Deepak, who finds another way to put his medical skills to good use: open a mobile clinic out of the back of a cab. And with shooting currently underway in and around Toronto, Moviefone Canada was able to go behind the scenes and visit the set, where we caught up with the cast and crew to uncover more details about the upcoming comedy.

Shooting a party scene in a large banquet hall in an Ontario suburb, it was one of the first times the entire cast was all together under one roof, and the energy levels were high. Virmani, who also co-write the script, was thrilled to see how everything was turning out, saying, "From what I wrote to how it's looking today, the film is a hundred times bigger and better and more beautiful than I could have ever imagined it."

That starts with the cast, which includes some familiar names. "We've been able to put together a very international cast: Kunal Nayyar from "Big Bang Theory," Adrianne Palicki, who's just such an amazing actress, a couple of actors from India," Virmani told us.

Pouliot was just as excited about his actors, saying, "Adrianne Palicki, never would've thought that we would've been able to get a star like that. And Rizwan [Manji] and Kunal, I mean, all these guys ... they're comedic machines, they have a sense of timing that's amazing."

Fresh off "G.I. Joe: Retaliation" and playing Deepak's love interest Natalie, it was that comedic element that drew Palicki, who said, "The fact that you just have this really earnest character who's doing these things that are kind of ridiculous keeps it light and funny. And then you have characters like Kunal's character, Tony, who's just an idiot. They just keep you laughing the entire movie."

Nayyar plays a fellow cabbie, according to Virmani. "He's the first friend that I make in Canada. He's nothing like my character Deepak. He's crass, he's loud, he's great with women, and I'm terrible with women in the film. But he teaches me how to loosen up."

And as excitement surrounding the film builds both locally and abroad, the good vibes are extending beyond the set. "Shooting in Toronto has been amazing," Virmani said. "People are so supportive of film, and every time they see our 'Dr. Cabbie' cab now, which is so outstanding, they cheer for it, and people take pictures of it."

"India's really buzzing as well," he continued. "We have one of the biggest stars in India, Mr. Salman Khan, who's now presenting the film. And that's what I mean that the film is a very universal story."

"Although it's a Canadian story, it applies to families and young individuals all over the world," explained Virmani. "And that's why you have U.S. stars associated to this, Indian stars associated, because there are some themes in there that apply to everybody."

For more on "Dr. Cabbie," stay tuned for our full set visit report later this year, when the comedy arrives in theatres this fall.
]]> Fri, 24 May 2013 17:25:54 EDT 3333660 <![CDATA['Fast and Furious 6': Ranking the Ridiculousness]]> Fast & Furious 3-6" director Justin Lin finally found the perfect formula with "Fast Five," mixing the series' trademark auto-lust with increasingly over-the-top vehicular mayhem. The result was a box office windfall, and a perfect storm of a summer movie that hit just the right tone of crowd-pleasing lunacy. So in an attempt to keep the good times rolling, "Fast & Furious 6" (or just "Furious 6," according to the movie's title card) transitions the franchise from street racing heist movie to a globetrotting action blockbuster.

After their last job left them with millions in the bank and a new addition to the family, Brian (Paul Walker) and Dom (Vin Diesel) are convinced to get back behind the wheel by special agent Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson), who needs their crew's racing prowess to stop a former SAS-operative-turned-criminal-mastermind named Shaw (Luke Evans) from building some kind of super-bomb, or something like that. In return for their help, Hobbs is willing to trade full pardons and the chance to go back home, and also reunite with one of the franchise's original parts Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) who, in addition to not being as dead as everyone thought, is now working with the enemy.

Despite upping the ante and the action, "Fast & Furious 6" isn't quite as fun as its predecessor, but any movie whose main selling point is watching a car take down a cargo plane is pretty much critic-proof. So instead of a review, I figured I'd run down some of the movie's more logic-defying elements, ranked from most believable to least.

21. "Fast Five" made over $626 million. This movie will probably make more.
20. The movie's plot is being favorably compared to a kid smashing his Hot Wheels together.
19. After six movies, Dom's motley crew of street racers has turned into "The Expendables" on wheels.
18. There's more than one team of mercenary drivers versed in "vehicular warfare" in the world. But not more than two.
17. The movie is self-aware enough to call out the fact that the bad guys are basically just evil doppelgangers of the "Fast & Furious" crew.
16. After a spring that's seen him barbeque hands to remove their fingerprints and fight alongside Bruce Willis and ninjas, "Fast & Furious 6" isn't even Dwayne Johnson's most unrealistic movie in theaters right now.
15. Out of all the soap-opera plots the filmmakers could've used to bring Letty back from the dead, Lin and screenwriter Chris Morgan chose "amnesia" over "evil twin."
14. Street racing can be used as a form of courtship.
13. Body-slamming suspects is an admissible interrogation tactic.
12. Chris "Ludacris" Bridges speaks fluent Spanish.
11. Paul Walker appears to think Interpol is pronounced "Interpool." And no one corrects him.
10. Michelle Rodriguez is still able to walk after fighting Gina Carano.
9. The filmmakers were able to find an actor that makes Dwayne Johnson look tiny by comparison: Danish bodybuilder Kim Kold.
8. Brian risks life in prison to find out this crucial bit of intel: that Shaw is well-connected and usually one step ahead of them. (Most likely because they waste time on things like this.)
7. None of the characters laugh when Hobbs explains Shaw's plan to build a technology-disabling bomb called "the Nightshade Device."
6. There's almost as much property damage in the movie's first chase through London as in the entire climax of "Fast Five."
5. A tank plows through oncoming traffic with less blood than an episode of "The A-Team."
4. In the movie's game of Rock, Paper, Scissors, Car beats both Tank and Plane.
3. The never-ending airport runway in the climactic scene appears to be longer than most highways.
2. "Fast & Furious 6" has a clearly defined theme. Yes, other than just "blow lots of stuff up."
1. Despite all of the above, I'm even more excited to see #7, thanks to the movie's post-credits coda. (Hint: STAY FOR IT.)

"Fast and Furious 6" opens in theatres on May 24.
]]> Fri, 24 May 2013 14:30:02 EDT 3333032 <![CDATA[Michael Cera: 'Arrested Development' Season 4 Shouldn't Be The Last]]> Arrested Development" airing on Netflix would've sounded more ridiculous than Tobias showering without his cutoffs. But after all the false starts, false hope, rumors and denials, fans of the beloved cult sitcom are finally getting more of the Bluths when the long-awaited fourth season premieres in its entirety on Netflix on May 26.

Of course, pretty much the day after "Arrested Development" went off the air in 2006, whispers of a potential comeback started working their way around the Internet. So you can forgive Michael Cera, who's since grown up from the endearingly awkward George Michael Bluth into an endearingly awkward leading man, for being skeptical at first about the TV family reunion.

Once word came that the show was being revived by Netflix as part of the company's original programming, Cera wasn't just back on board, he was in the writers' room as well, thanks to an invitation from series creator Mitchell Hurwitz. And with the premiere only days away, HuffPost TV recently spoke to Cera about his experience writing for the show, his willingness to return for a fifth season, and why it was fellow Canadian Leslie Nielsen that ultimately convinced him to come back (sort of).

HuffPost TV: So you're writing for the show this season as well. Are you just writing the George Michael episode, or did you contribute to other episodes?
Michael Cera: I was in full-time after I went in for the first time in July, and then I wrote with them through to the end. It was amazing. The first day I went in, we were working on George Michael's episode. But I didn't feel like I was thinking of it in terms of performing it. Basically when you're in there, you're kind of all performing it together. Just making jokes and trying to make each other laugh, so you get into that rhythm really quickly being in there with those guys.

What was it like filming this season after such a long layoff?
It was so strange. For me, it was really hard to process. It's just so uncanny, being in the room with everyone. We were all working on a scene together and watching people find their characters again, it was so surreal. And also, you know, I'm at a different point in my life now than I was when we wrapped. I was 17 when we wrapped and I'm 24 [now]. And that goes for everyone. Everyone's at a very different part in their life and a very different situation. So you're trying to deal with all that, while finding this tone again.

How long did it take you to get back into George Michael's character? Was there a big adjustment period?
There was basically one day early on, maybe my third day of working, where we had this really long scene to do, it was like five pages, and there were a lot of layers to it. Just a lot of complexities. The first third of that scene is in one episode, and then the middle is in a different episode, so you're trying to keep all these things in your head, and remember all the lines. And we didn't even rehearse, we just kind of jumped right into it. So we were shooting for like four hours, and it was with Jason [Bateman] and Alia [Shawkat]. And I'd say by the time we were done shooting that scene I remembered what it was like to work on the show. Just working off of Jason and how fast he was going, and just how sharp he was with the jokes, and his rhythm. Just keeping up with him got me back into the rhythm of doing those scenes.

Did you find that you had any more freedom knowing that this would be something that was produced for Netflix as opposed to network television?
From what I could tell, it seemed like there was total creative freedom for Mitch [Hurwitz], and support from Netflix. I'm pretty sure they said yes to everything he needed. In terms of budget and in terms of time, they were just completely supportive. It was very different from doing the show the first time, because this was almost like doing a movie. Because when you're doing the series, you'd spend five days doing an episode, and then they would have to edit it and then it would go on TV. But this was more like shooting a movie, because you just had to amass all this material over five months, and then he would go and edit it. So it could kind of get out of control. [Laughs] Because you don't have to actually be done with an episode, you can keep adding to it and the thing was constantly evolving and shape-shifting. So that was a great thing, and it came with its own set of challenges, I think.

The truth is, when we were doing the series on Fox, I was just focused on what I was doing and only peripherally tapped into whatever kind of network notes were being given. And it always felt to me like we were making the show we wanted to make on Fox. So I don't think it was creatively limited on Fox, although I'm sure they would've been probably encouraging Mitch to make the show less serialized and somehow more palatable. [Laughs] But the truth is, we made the show that we wanted to make that time too. I think because he doesn't really compromise in terms of the content.

News reports about "Arrested Development" coming back have been coming out since the show ended. Did you feel any pressure to deliver because there's been so much demand for this show?
I would imagine that when it's just a hypothetical thing, and it's just a concept, it would be probably really daunting for Mitch. But he's such a wonderful writer, and once he got his hands into it, it just took on a life of its own. And I think it's really high quality this season, I like it a lot. Those concerns subside, because you just do the best work you can while you're there. I think it's just putting yourself there is the daunting thing. I think it's really good, and I think everyone's really funny in it. And maybe if people watch it with a really high expectation, they'll maybe be disappointed because of the level of their expectation? I mean, people will react to it how they react to it, but I'm pretty sure it's really good. [Laughs] I like it anyway.

Can you tell us anything about where we're going to find the Bluths, where we're picking up from?
Everyone's caught up from where the series ended. Just kind of a quick recap, and then the story starts in present-day and moves forward from there. Every character has multiple storylines going on and they intersect. There are like a million background jokes. But also you'll see a scene the first time, and then in a different character's episode, you'll see the same scene with a new context and new information. And then the same dialogue that you've already seen will make sense in a different way. So those things are really very appetizing payoffs. And it's funny. I think on top of all that it's really funny and silly and just bizarre.

Are you game for the movie if it happens?
Yeah, that'd be great. I think the series, story-wise, cues up a movie nicely. I'd also be game to do another season. I think it works really well episodically, this show. So that would be fun too. But I do think it should continue, because there are a few things really nicely set-up. We'll see. I don't really know what would dictate that. Probably whether or not there was money for it.

What are your thoughts about working with Mitchell Hurwitz again?
Mitch is really very difficult to impress. He has a high standard, but he's not snobbish. He just has a high quality meter, I think. So he is very meticulous with story and with structuring, but after all that, the most important thing to him is whether it's funny or not. And if something is funny he'll make it work. If something is silly or just makes him laugh, he'll work it into the story and work the story around that somehow. And I think that's why the show is appealing, because it's got a really high joke rate, and a lot of them are funny. [Laughs] And he's also just so funny. He always makes everyone laugh. And in the [writers'] room, if you make him laugh, it's the greatest thing ever. And everyone tries to. Everyone just wants to make him laugh.

And also, Mitch being on set was amazing, because he would constantly reshape things, and whole storylines he would change on set, and then react to later. It was really inspiring to watch. It was impressive.

Did it take much convincing to get you to come back? Was it immediate, or did you have to think about it a bit?
Well, once the idea was mentioned of doing a series, that seemed to make the most sense to me. I was hesitant a while ago about doing a movie. I don't remember exactly why, except probably I was really overthinking [it]. I was really proud of the show, and I like things that end before their time, I'm a fan of that. And I'm a fan of getting out while you're ahead. I really was proud of the show as this kind of nice, short-lived work.

So I did have hesitation, but I remember when I came around was when I was watching a DVD of "Police Squad!," the Leslie Nielsen, Zucker Brothers show. And there was a "Making Of," and Leslie Nielsen was talking about when they went to make "Naked Gun" afterwards, he was so excited to work with those people again. And then I thought how fun it would be to work with all those people again and be around Mitch and them, and realized it would be an amazing opportunity. And the truth is, any time spent with Mitch in particular is always really informative for me. He's had a huge impact on who I am as a person, and my taste in things. A really big impact on my life.

"Arrested Development" can be watched on Netflix at any time, starting on May 26.
]]> Fri, 24 May 2013 13:52:00 EDT 3332413 <![CDATA[Just How Great Is The Great Gatsby?]]>

For almost 90 years, The Great Gatsby has confounded filmmakers looking to bring F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic work of American literature to the big screen. So you can't fault Baz Luhrmann for trying something different with his attempt to crack the supposedly "unfilmable" novel. Which, in this case, means shooting in 3D and adding Jay-Z to the soundtrack. Because, clearly, that's what was missing from the last four adaptations.

Here's a quick refresher on the plot, for those of us who haven't read the book since high school: Nick Carraway (Tobey Maguire) arrives in New York in the spring of 1922, landing next door to mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby (Leonardo DiCaprio), whose ability to host lavish parties is pretty much the only concrete thing anyone seems to know about him. Nick is fascinated by his neighbour's extravagance, and Gatsby in turn by Nick's relation to Daisy (Carey Mulligan), his lost love now living not-so-coincidentally across the bay with her old-money husband (Joel Edgerton).

But while Fitzgerald's iconic novel may be required reading for most English classes, should Luhrmann's flashy update be required viewing for audiences this summer? To help you decide, I broke down what's great and what's not so great about Luhrmann's reimagining.

Great: The Visual Spectacle
Nobody throws parties like Jay Gatsby, and no filmmaker does over-the-top extravagance like Luhrmann. And while it's easy to look at the director's choice to turn a Great American Novel into a sensory-overloading 3D carnival ride and cry sacrilege, it does work. Sure, hearing Jay-Z mashed-up with ragtime is anachronistic, and Luhrmann's camera can't seem to sit still for longer than two seconds, but the filmmaker's trademark style ends up fitting the material far more than it distracts from it. At one point, Gatsby asks if he's gone overboard decking out a tiny living room to impress Daisy. "It's how you wanted it," replies Nick. The same holds true for Luhrmann. His film may be an extravagant spectacle, but it's never too much.

Great: DiCaprio's Gatsby
If Luhrmann takes Fitzgerald's novel over-the-top, DiCaprio brings it back down to Earth. After starting out as a near-mythic figure whose on-screen introduction is accompanied by fireworks, DiCaprio's Gatsby slowly morphs into something far more relatable and tragic. It's a performance with a remarkable amount of depth and restraint in a movie otherwise marked by style over substance, and it helps keep The Great Gatsby grounded. The rest of the cast hit their marks with equal accuracy, especially Edgerton as Gatsby's rival for Daisy's affection, but make no mistake, this is Leo's party.

Great: The Soundtrack
Much has been made of Jay-Z's involvement in the film (he's credited as an executive producer), but setting period melodrama to a modern soundtrack has been Luhrmann's MO long before Gatsby. Featuring songs by everyone from Jack White to Florence + The Machine and Lana Del Rey, the anachronistic soundtrack fits fairly seamlessly into Luhrmann's modern reimagining, underpinning the movie's numerous pulsating party scenes. In fact, there's only one contemporary tune that feels distractingly out of place: "Crazy in Love." Sorry, Jay-Z.

Not So Great: The Film's Bookends
Whether the novel's "unfilmable" rep got into Luhrmann and co-writer Craig Pearce's heads or they just thought it was a clever addition, The Great Gatsby chooses to explain Nick's narration by setting him in a sanitarium (named after Fitzgerald's editor Max Perkins). There, he's encouraged to work through his "morbid alcoholism" by writing down his account of the summer he met his old friend. It's a dumb, hokey framing device, and adds to the film's pacing problems by pointlessly cutting away from Gatsby's lavish world to stale shots of Maguire hunched over a typewriter. For some reason, asking us to accept that a fictional character is simply narrating a story is too much of a leap, but the idea that he's writing an iconic work of literature under the offhand suggestion of his shrink isn't.

And when all's said and done, we're treated to a shot of Nick taking a pen and amending "The Great" to his now-finished novel's title page. I wish I was joking, but this really does happen. And it's the stuff Razzies are made of.

Not So Great: It's "Literary"
Which is to say, we see Maguire type, and then those words appear and float across the screen as he narrates. With a novel as beloved as Fitzgerald's "Gatsby," more renowned for its prose than its plotting, it's understandable to want to work in the book's more iconic lines, but unfortunately, it's done in the least elegant way possible here, capturing the words but not their meaning. And for all of Luhrmann's visual flourishes and modern touches, and DiCaprio's commendable performance, it's these curiously outdated elements and glossy superficial sheen that keep this Gatsby from being truly great.

The Great Gatsby opens in theatres on May 10.








]]> Fri, 10 May 2013 11:05:31 EDT 3252860 <![CDATA[Thomas Dekker, Shawn Linden Talk 'The Good Lie' and Campfire Tales]]> Shawn Linden, part of the inspiration for his new film "The Good Lie" came from childhood, when he and his friends would swap increasingly outlandish stories around a campfire, each trying to outdo the last. And Linden clearly put all that practice to good use in "The Good Lie," because we're guessing his friends (and just about anybody else, for that matter) would be hard-pressed to top the central tale in the filmmaker's sophomore effort.

Starring Thomas Dekker as Cullen Francis, "The Good Lie" is framed by a group of friends and a similar campfire tradition. But Cullen's story, which is slowly revealed in between these vignettes, is guaranteed to be far more twisted than anything his friends can come up with -- because it revolves around his recent discovery that the man who raised him (Matt Craven) isn't his real dad, a revelation that led Cullen on a quest to track down his biological father, the man who raped his mother 21 years earlier.

Part campfire tale, part emotional drama and part thriller, "The Good Lie" resists easy classification. Moviefone Canada spoke to Dekker and Linden about those formative campfire stories, including one that didn't make the cut, getting on the same page, and what to expect from a movie that defies expectations.

Moviefone: Cullen is a pretty demanding role for an actor. When did you know you'd found him in Thomas?
Shawn Linden: There wasn't really an audition, because I was looking for a personality that matched the character. So just talking to him personally reinforced what I'd thought before, that he's capable of doing this, of portraying this person who's the product of a really positive force and a really negative one.

Thomas Dekker: I guess that's me. [Laughs]

Does that sound accurate?
Dekker: I mean, any role that's a good one, that I want to do, my whole interest is in duality. So I never want to play something that's just good or bad. Because I think that's just more realistic of how people are. So this movie was perfect, because it's somebody who was grappling between rage and anger and frustration and sensitivity and sadness.

Linden: Physically too. Like, look at his face. He looks like an angel and a devil had a one-night stand.

Dekker: [Laughs] There is that shot in the mirror where I look pretty f**king evil in this.

Linden: Yeah, your face has the capacity to look almost childlike and innocent and ... the opposite of childlike and innocent.

Dekker: [Laughs] Well, thank you, Shawn. I take that as a compliment.

Interview continues after trailer!


Was that quality at the top of your casting list for the role?
Linden: Absolutely. It was the number one thing that it needed. And it needed to go beyond just appearances.

Dekker: That was a really funny thing though: before anybody'd seen the film, and before I would tell them anything about the plot, I'd be like, "It's about me and my father." And they'd be like, "Who plays your father?" And they'd always go, "Matt Craven? Really? He plays your father? They thought you guys look alike?" I'm like, "No, no, no, no, no, that's the whole thing, you gotta wait for it."

You've mentioned that you and Matt lived next to one another during shooting. Was that intentional?
Linden: Oh yeah, for sure. We wanted them to be housed together. And by the end of it, they did pretty much get something close to a father/son relationship.

Dekker: We bonded very quickly.

Linden: Alcohol, it just makes things gel.

Since a story like this could have ended up coming across melodramatic, how did you make sure you avoided that?
Linden: We were trying to keep the pace of a thriller or a mystery as opposed to a drama, and because of the melodramatic elements, particularly in the beginning of the story, we were really trying to be careful to keep the clip up, and to keep things moving.

It's almost like there's two different movies going on here, with the campfire scenes and the thriller elements.
Linden: I think the campfire stories add a nice counterbalance to the soberness of the main story. We were allowed to be completely unrestrained morally and artistically with these stories. And the more we did that, the better. To me, it was like salt and pepper on the rest of the story. To have gotten just a straight-on story of a young man who goes off to find...

Dekker: It would've been too much.

Linden: Yeah, it would have been a bit of a downer. It would've been more of a "Canadian" movie.

Dekker: You know, it's funny, I had a little screening party for it back home in LA, and half the people, when it gets to the last campfire story were so excited it was back, because that was their favourite part of the movie, and then the other half yelled at the TV, "No!" Because they wanted to see what was going to happen with the main storyline.

Linden: [Laughs] Those are both perfect responses.

Dekker: Yeah, it was great. But I love the stories, and that last one is actually my favourite.

What about you, Shawn, do you have a favorite of the campfire stories?
Linden: I actually don't.

Dekker: There was a great one that we never even shot, right?

Linden: Yeah. I guess that one's my least favourite, the one that we didn't get to shoot. But I go through phases. Like, we've had this conversation before, and everybody else who'd been working on the film, we'd have to name our favourite. And it would literally go like, "My favourite's the vegetarian, no ... no, wait, it's the dog one. No, no, no, it's the nun one. No, no, no, no, for sure, it's the lumberjack one. Yeah, but the veterinarian one was pretty good ..." So I think that's good that there was no favourite, it just means all four of them wound up working out well.

What was the one that you ended up having to cut?
Linden: It was a story about an exploding fox. About two boys who jam a stick of dynamite up a fox's ass and let it go in a field, and it just takes a turn around and runs right back after them. So they're running from this flaming fox. And they jump in their pickup truck, and the fox runs under it, and it explodes. It blows them both up. Or it blows one of them up.

Dekker: That would've been a little pricey, that one. [Laughs]

Linden: And I'm pretty sure that's the only one that was based on a true story. I think that actually sort of, might've happened at some point in time in the southern United States.

What inspired you to come up with the rest of the story?
Linden: It was inspired by my own family, and by my own friends. My friends and I grew up going to the woods and trying to impress each other with how funny we can be, and how gross we can be. But the main story is about my family. My mother is adopted, so my grandparents are not my biological grandparents. But they were people who I grew up idolizing and fearing. They were the most impressive people that I've ever known, and the fact that they're not related to me by blood means zero. They are a piece of me as much as anybody by blood could be. And they define me as much as anybody else could.

So it was kind of playing with that idea. It gave rise to this story, and I was discussing the premise of it to my grandmother when she was on her deathbed. We had a big, long talk about the story and she'd said, "Well, when we were picking your mother out, that was quite a common occurrence, that they'd find that there's rape babies out there." And I'd thought that it was really rare, but she was like, yeah, it happened all the time back when my mother was younger. And you know, we got into talking about the story and developing it, and the next day she died, and suddenly everything that she had said, it got that shimmery resonance. That was the drive that got the script made.

The movie takes some pretty unexpected turns. Thomas, what was your first impression when you got the script?
Linden: Br-rilliant!

Dekker: [Laughs] I loved the narrative structure. When it got me was when the first campfire story happened. Because I thought up until that point that I'd really figured out what this movie was gonna be like. And it just threw me, like, "What the f**k?" And then when it got these horror/thriller elements near the end, I was just like, "This is so original and interesting." So, that's why I think we spoke for three hours when we first did, because I was asking questions and saying what I thought about it. And everything I was saying, you said it was pretty accurate. So I figured I knew what the movie was going to be.

"The Good Lie" opens in Toronto and Winnipeg on May 10.]]> Tue, 7 May 2013 10:56:49 EDT 3224933 <![CDATA[Just How Painful Is Michael Bay's 'Pain & Gain'?]]> Pain & Gain" is being billed as a "change of pace" for the blockbuster director since it only features small-scale mayhem instead of entire cities being leveled, getting Bay back to his "Bad Boys" action/comedy days and away from the loud but dumb special effects spectaculars he's delivered these last few summers.

To do so, Bay turns the clock back to 1995 (coincidentally, the same year "Bad Boys" was released) with a stranger-than-fiction true story about a trio of Miami bodybuilders and their bumbling criminal enterprise. Led by Mark Wahlberg as Daniel Lugo, Paul (Dwayne Johnson) and Adrian (Anthony Mackie) kidnap a local businessman (Tony Shaloub) in order to steal everything he has, because it's all part of the "American dream," according to Daniel. It's a typical rags to riches and back to rags tale, only on steroids.

The type of movie you'll either love or hate, "Pain & Gain" is already dividing critics. So which is it: painfully stupid, or a brilliant comedy about idiot crooks? I broke down the movie's various elements to help you decide.

Pain: The movie's runtime
At 2 hours and 10 minutes, Bay's new movie is painfully long. And while there's certainly a lot of story to tell when it comes to the Sun Gym gang's increasingly bizarre crime spree, "Pain & Gain" ends up feeling bloated, dragging considerably in the middle, even with most of the gang's post-score success edited down into one big montage. Bay should've taken a page from his bodybuilders and trimmed some of the fat, because less would've been more when it comes to "Pain & Gain." Instead, it's a movie that becomes more exhausting than entertaining by the final act.

Gain: Mark Wahlberg's performance
The runtime isn't the only part of "Pain & Gain" that's noticeably beefed-up; Wahlberg put on a seemingly impossible amount of muscle to play the gang's delusional bodybuilder ringleader. Obsessed with being a "doer" instead of a "don't-er" and reminiscent of "Boogie Nights'" Dirk Diggler, only with giant biceps instead of a giant, well, you know, Wahlberg plays this type of overly confident idiot extremely well. And it's a credit to him that Lugo remains compulsively entertaining even as his actions become increasingly harder to watch.

Story continues below slideshow


Gain: The rest of the cast
From Tony Shaloub as the world's least sympathetic kidnapping victim to The Rock playing a born-again ex-con who falls off the wagon and sports a seriously impressive collection of Jesus-themed T-shirts, the cast is the movie's biggest asset. Rebel Wilson continues her scene-stealing ways, aided by a potentially breakout performance from her sparring partner Mackie, and Ed Harris shows up towards the end of the movie presumably to remind audiences what a decent, mentally capable human being looks like.

Gain: Bay's sense of style
From his constantly moving camera to frenetic editing, Bay's signature style is definitely on display again in "Pain & Gain," but rather than devolving into the sensory overload of the "Transformers" trilogy, all the bright colors and chaotic flair plays far better here. And in spite of his downsized budget, the director deploys every trick he can think of to ramp up the movie's style, from freeze frames and slow-motion to constantly switching between film and HD cameras, and employing competing voiceover narration from all the movie's principal players. Meanwhile, title cards pop up occasionally to hammer home jokes, like a laundry list of the side effects of cocaine, or to remind us that "This is still a true story" in the middle of some increasingly outrageous action. And somehow it all works.

Pain: Bay's sense of humor
That said, a sophomoric sense of humor is as much a Bay trademark as explosions, and it too pops up from time to time in "Pain & Gain" to remind us that "This is still a Michael Bay movie," in spite of all the clever rapid-fire dialogue. Ultimately a movie like this comes down to balancing the tone properly, and it swings wildly here. Asking us to laugh at the misadventures of idiotic criminals is fine when they're merely bumbling through torturing a mouthy, unsympathetic multi-millionaire, but when it turns to real-life murder, it's slightly more difficult to smile along at the irreverent one-liners.

Of course, far more acclaimed directors than Bay have had similar difficulties when it comes to managing twisted dark comedies. And considering this is riskier territory than anything the blockbuster director's done in the past 10 years, there are enough positives to "Pain & Gain" to make us wish he'd concentrate on beefing up his resume by directing more scripts like this and fewer that are based on kids' toys.



]]> Fri, 26 Apr 2013 10:25:19 EDT 3162882 <![CDATA[Moviefone's Baseball Movie Starting Lineup]]> 42," which arrives in theaters this Friday.

Starring relative unknown Chadwick Boseman as the Dodger legend, "42" follows Jackie Robinson's barrier-breaking journey from the Negro Leagues to his first season with the Brooklyn Dodgers. And while the film's admittedly a little hokey at times, threatening to take a genuine real-life hero and reduce him to a formulaic icon, as a beginner's guide to one of sport's most rousing stories, it's hard not to root for "42."

Besides, it's also the perfect excuse to play armchair GM and reflect on some of our favorite fictional ballplayers to ever lace up a pair of cleats. The ground rules? No real-life players, and no more than two names from the same movie. So in honor of "42," here's who cracked Moviefone's starting lineup. Feel free to nominate your own in the comments below.

]]> Fri, 12 Apr 2013 12:34:17 EDT 3070212 <![CDATA[Evil Dead: Will You Be Able To Handle It?]]> Evil Dead is "the most terrifying film you will ever experience." At SXSW, there were reports of audience members seeking shelter in the theater lobby midway through the premiere. And recent trailers show night-vision footage of audiences recoiling in fear, a marketing tactic used by a great many horror movies looking to prove their pants-soiling cred.

So just how scary is the new Evil Dead, directed by first-timer Fede Alvarez with the blessing and backing of original masterminds Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell? Well, it's probably safe to say it's not the most terrifying movie ever made. But after all the hype, if you're wondering if you'll be able to handle the 91 minutes of bodily dismemberment and geysers of blood, I put together a handy guide to help you decide whether to line up or run away.

1. Are you a fan of the original Evil Dead films?
Alvarez's remake ditches the campiness of Evil Dead 2 and Army of Darkness, instead going for a more straightforward retelling of Raimi's original, not exactly a laugh-a-minute tale of five friends trapped in a remote cabin and tormented by the ancient evil they unleashed. Nods to the original film abound, but prior knowledge isn't necessary.

2. Would you consider demonic possession to be a compelling allegory for drug addiction?
The lone major new wrinkle from Alvarez and co-writer Rodo Sayagues is the reason our heroes opt for seclusion: to help Mia (Jane Levy) kick her heroin habit. Which means when she starts seeing things in the woods, it's conveniently explained away as withdrawal symptoms. At least until she develops a husky demon voice and starts blood-vomiting on people, at which point we've officially left any allegory behind.

3. Do you expect your movie characters to be fully fleshed-out?
If so, Evil Dead's ultra-violence is going to be the least of your worries; you might not even make it through the relatively blood-less first act. Because while horror movies aren't typically known for their three-dimensional characters, the ones in Evil Dead exist solely to be de-fleshed in increasingly graphic ways.

4. Do you find hanging dead cats from the ceiling really spruces up a room?
Then not only will you enjoy Evil Dead's grimy aesthetic, but you might also have a future as a horror movie set decorator. When Mia and her brother (Shiloh Fernandez) return to their now-rundown family cabin, they find their fruit cellar decked out with goodies from the Martha Stewart Satanic Ritual Collection. (Bonus points if you've always thought human skin would make for a fine dust jacket.)

5. Are you terrified by expository dialogue?
If nothing's scarier to you than listening to characters recap pertinent information and spout unprompted dramatic backstory, expect to spend most of Evil Dead cowering in your seat and covering your ears. It's enough to make you wonder if a character cut her own tongue in half in protest.

6. Have you ever wondered how a person's forearm would hold up against a nailgun, crowbar, and/or shotgun?
Well, get ready to find out, because for some reason, the characters in Evil Dead seem to think that their forearms make for an indestructible shield against all manner of weapons. And that's to say nothing of the electric carving knife, hypodermic needle, boxcutter, and mirror shard that join the iconic chainsaw in Evil Dead's arsenal.

7. Do you believe dumb horror characters deserve what's coming to them?
Don't confuse the new Evil Dead with a modern meta horror movie like Cabin in the Woods. These characters do increasingly dumb things -- like open a book wrapped in barbed wire and ignore multiple warnings written in blood, or crawl into confining spaces as an escape route -- not because they're being ironic or self-aware, but because it moves the plot along. Expect to root for justice to be served.

8. Have you always thought an air-raid siren would make a good musical instrument?
Evil Dead's full-scale sensory assault doesn't just stop at graphic self-mutilation and buckets of blood, it also extends to the movie's score, which makes use of an air-raid siren in several key scenes. It's enough to make the Inception "brahm" seem subtle by comparison.

9. Do you trust the MPAA?
The new Evil Dead doesn't just push the boundaries of the R-rating, it practically obliterates them. And with each graphic full-frontal dismemberment or disturbing image of self-performed oral surgery, you can practically hear the cries of horror from every director who ever had to clip down a sex scene to avoid a dreaded NC-17.

10. Do you find gore scary?
Getting back to the movie's superlative boast, Evil Dead isn't exactly terrifying in the same way a good ghost story is. Apart from a few requisite jolts, this isn't a movie designed to make you jump as much as recoil in disgust. Instead, what it lacks in creepy atmosphere it makes up for in sheer volume of blood until, by the end, the movie's literally raining the red stuff. And where the Raimi original (and significantly more so, its sequels) mixed horror with a sense of humor, the only tension-relieving laughs come from just how absurdly over-the-top the nonstop blood and guts becomes. The new Evil Dead is certainly epically disgusting and hard to watch at times, but as far as horror movie scares go, it's actually surprisingly tame.

Evil Dead opens in theaters on April 5.

[WARNING: Graphic images and some spoilers ahead!]


]]> Fri, 5 Apr 2013 13:28:06 EDT 3021975 <![CDATA['How To Live With Your Parents': Brad Garrett, Elizabeth Perkins Talk TV Marriage, Parenting]]> How to Live with Your Parents (For the Rest of Your Life)"creator Claudia Lonlow, the inspiration for her new show hit a little closer to home. That's because almost 16 years ago, Lonlow and her young daughter moved back in with her parents.

And that's precisely what happens to Sarah Chalke's Polly, who, along with her daughter, moves in with her mom Elaine (Elizabeth Perkins) and stepfather Max (Brad Garrett) for the foreseeable future, thanks to a divorce and the pressures of a lackluster economy. But it's a decision Polly immediately regrets thanks to her parents, who have a much more laissez-faire approach to child-rearing than she does.

Of course, while much is made of Polly's frustrating parents, Garrett and Perkins see things a little differently -- it's Polly who's imposing on them. HuffPost TV recently spoke to the comedic duo about their no-longer empty nest, their instant chemistry, and their advice to parents in similar situations. The show premiered on April 3, yet Garrett and Perkins are already finishing each other's sentences like the old married couple they portray.

HuffPost TV: So what was it that appealed to you about the show? Had you always been interested in doing something with a twelve-word title?
Elizabeth Perkins: [Laughs] I was looking more for eleven or ten.

Brad Garrett: Yeah, it was longer. They trimmed it. Seriously, that's not a bit. But well, I wanted to work with two beautiful women who wouldn't call the authorities on me, and that was Sarah [Chalke] and Ms. Perkins. The pilot script really resonated with us.

Perkins: Thank you. It's a very interesting premise that I think is very relatable right now in today's economy. There are a lot of people getting out of college who can't afford to live on their own. In our case, our daughter Polly, who's played by Sarah Chalke, goes through a divorce and can't afford to live on her own. So she and her young six-year-old daughter move in with us, and we've been kind of loving our empty nest.

Garrett: Yeah, we love our empty nest. It's like, "What's going on?"

Perkins: Suddenly, there she is for the rest of our lives.

Garrett: With a needy kid. She's wonderful, but we have a life.

Perkins: We were enjoying the peace and quiet.

Since the show is based off creator Claudia Lonlow's real-life, did you two ever meet her parents?
Perkins: Oh yeah. [Laughs]

Garrett: Ironically, her dad is one of the co-owners of the Improv Comedy Club in Los Angeles, so I've known him for literally going on 30 years. And yeah, he doesn't like me, I don't think. But that's OK.

Perkins: [Laughs] And Claudia's mother, who was a former actress and a stand-up comedian, I got to spend a lot of time with her and base a lot of Elaine on her energy and her spirit. It was great to have them around.

Garrett: Yeah, it was a lot of fun. They're very eccentric...

Perkins: Very.

Garrett: And you know, they do a lot of things in the buff. Which has to stop.

Perkins: Yeah, they've got to stop that. And Claudia still lives at home, so...

Garrett: Yes, and her daughter's off to college. She's been there this whole time, and still isn't leaving.

Perkins: She's got her own little wing over there in the house. The parents are going to leave before she does. [Laughs]

When you know that your character's inspired by a real person, how do you make them your own? Is that a difficult process at all, especially after you've met them?
Perkins: No, you just gotta take poetic license. You just gotta let 'er rip, because you know, you're never gonna be exactly who that person is. And luckily, with Claudia's parents, they're very giving and very cool, and love what we're doing. And have nothing but positive things to say.

Garrett: And my guy in real-life is very boring. So I had to bring my B-game, for sure.

Perkins: Yeah, you definitely are more interesting. [Laughs]

Do you guys enjoy getting to play characters with seemingly no filter?
Perkins: Yeah, because we have such big filters in real life. [Laughs]

Garrett: Especially in real life. I'm kind of known for not having a filter, I'm doing pretty good now though.

Perkins: And I'm learning to be filter-free.

Garrett: Yeah, it's fun to play people that really have no boundaries.

Perkins: Right, because you can just sort of have a good time.

Garrett: Yeah, and what's fun on the set is comedically we all try things and swing for the fences. And Sarah Chalke is so wonderful to work with, comedically fearless, so I think that helps. Especially when you're discovering your character early on in the show.

Obviously the chemistry between you two is a big key to the show. Was it easy for you to develop that?
Garrett: You know, it was interesting. When I came along, I really wanted the role, and Ms. Perkins and obviously Sarah were already on board. And I did a chemistry read with Ms. Perkins to see if, you know, and it was just immediate that there was just something there.

Perkins: Yeah, we just clicked.

Garrett: She's a very generous, talented actor...

Perkins: Aw, so's he! We get along like a house on fire!

Garrett: But you have to be very transparent comedically as an actor, especially for a good ensemble.

Perkins: Especially when you're playing people who've been married as long as our characters have been married, there just has to be a shorthand.

Garrett: And I love how we're not picking on each other. We accept each other. We like each other. Sure, we have our little things, but...

Perkins: We're not this bickering old couple.

Garrett: Yeah, you know, there are people that are married a long time that dig it. I don't know of any, but they're there.

Did the idea that you'd be playing grandparents take some getting used to at first?
Perkins: Well, they're grandparents, yes, but in a lot of ways they're almost younger-acting than Polly, Sarah Chalke's character. They're almost more free-spirited, they like to have more fun, they like to go out and do more things. They're more adventurous, more outspoken. So they don't really feel like "grandparents" to me.

Garrett: Yeah, nor do we like the term.

Perkins: No, I'm not a granny.

Garrett: Yeah, which is kind of fun, because as Polly moves home, she's the one who's more parental and all uptight. And that's kind of the twist on everything that we're trying to do.

When you're playing over-the-top characters like Max and Elaine, is it important to still find ways to identify with your characters?
Perkins: Well, you know, I just like to get high ...

Garrett: No, he doesn't mean in real life. He means in the show.

Perkins: [Laughs] There's a lot I can identify with in Elaine and a lot that I can't. I mean, I'm definitely not as outrageous as she is. But maybe I am a little bit.

Garrett: Well, I think we have to. You know, comedy, if I can for a moment...

Perkins: Please do.

Garrett: Is almost like a small flame. A small flame. And how much are we going to ignite it, and what are we going to add to it? Still, we are eccentric people, but we need to be grounded and believable so we can go that way, so we don't end up sketch-y or worse.

Perkins: Yeah, I can't really show up high.

Garrett: Yeah, she can't. I can, she can't.

Do you have any advice for parents if their kid wants to move back in?
Garrett: "No."

Perkins: Yeah, say "No." [Laughs] No, of course not.

Garrett: Listen, we're kind of helicopter parents in real-life. So, who could say no? I mean, how can you not be there for a kid?

Perkins: Yeah, I couldn't say no. I don't know of any parent who could, but that doesn't mean that it isn't a difficult situation. And you get through it the best you can. And sometimes there's a lot of humor involved, which I think is what our show's about.

Catch "How To Live With Your Parents (For The Rest Of Your Life)" on Wednesdays at 9:30 p.m. ET on ABC in the U.S. and City in Canada.

]]> Thu, 4 Apr 2013 13:44:12 EDT 3015139 <![CDATA['Orphan Black': 10 Things You Need To Know]]> Orphan Black," the new sci-fi series premiering on Space and BBC America on March 30.

And while good science-fiction always grounds its more out-there elements in something familiar, like a shared personal experience or universal theme, "Orphan Black" takes the idea of identity crisis and multiplies it. That's because the series star Tatiana Maslany doesn't just play one leading role in the new show, she plays enough to necessitate the use of a cheat sheet.

It all starts when Sarah (Maslany) witnesses a woman who looks just like her, Beth (also Maslany), jump in front of a train. And looking for a way out of her own less-than-perfect life, Sarah assumes her dead doppelganger's identity. But what was supposed to be an easy score becomes a lot more complicated when Sarah discovers a deeper mystery, and even more women who bare an eerie resemblance to her. And we're not talking long-lost twins.

With clones, secret identities and dangerous conspiracies, the buzz is building around "Orphan Black" as the next breakout sci-fi hit. HuffPost TV visited the show's set in Toronto while they were wrapping up filming for their initial 10-episode season. And while everyone was careful not to spoil any surprises, here are 10 things you need to know about the highly anticipated series. Think of it as your "Orphan Black" crib notes.

Everything's A Secret
I showed up to the "Orphan Black" set to watch an afternoon of filming and chat with the show's stars while they were shooting Episode 9 in the lower level of a working hospital. And when I got there, I was warned that I might see and hear a few things I wouldn't be able to write about. Turns out, no one had to worry, because the crew clearly received the "no spoilers" memo.

Even though the clone concept is already out there (following a strong buzz-building panel during the Winter Television Critics Association Tour in January), everyone was careful not to reveal too much about the show's central mystery, which meant even seemingly innocuous questions about prep work were potentially fraught with spoilers.

"I read a lot of books on ... well, I can't even tell you or talk about that either. I am cloaked in secrecy," laughed Dylan Bruce, who plays Paul, the boyfriend who Sarah assumes along with the dead woman's identity. "I think I would be giving away too much if I told you the prep for the role. But there was some serious prep that I took for the role that maybe I'll reveal a little later on in the series." Which means you just know that his initial role as Sarah/Beth's dutiful boyfriend grows significantly more complicated as the story unfolds.

Article Continues After Slideshow!


Including The Scripts
According to Bruce, the cast was kept guessing as well: "I kind of had a basic idea of what my character was gonna do and who he was from the beginning, but I had no idea that they were going to take it to the place that they took it." He continued, saying, "That's why it's so exciting for us to get the scripts when they come out, because we want to know what's gonna happen next."

Maslany explained the process, saying, "We get the scripts like a day before we shoot them, which is ridiculous, but I always trust that it's going somewhere cool."

"They turn me into a fan," said Kevin Hanchard, who plays Art, a homicide detective who's also Beth's (former) partner. "You're going down a certain line and then boom, there's that sharp left turn that no one saw coming."

It's a process that ensures the cast is kept on their toes and more importantly, don't unknowingly telegraph future reveals, according to Jordan Gavaris, who plays Sarah's foster brother Felix. "I know that they always say, 'Don't let them think that you don't know!' But the reality is, and for good reason, part of the magic behind the 'Orphan Black' universe is the fact that we're discovering things all the time," Gavaris explained. "The characters don't know, they are going down the proverbial rabbit hole with everyone else, the audience included."

But John Fawcett, the show's co-creator (along with Graeme Manson), said it was still crucial to make sure the actors weren't completely in the dark. "I found it was important to give them enough coming up that they could be prepared for it," said Fawcett. "A lot of the time, the big ticket item they do know about in advance. Because I think it's important for them to get their head around where the character ultimately is going to go."

The only one he was more judicious with was Maslany, reasoning that she had more than enough on her plate already. "Her head was just swimming with everything," laughed Fawcett. "It's like, you don't want to give her more information. She was just trying to keep so much in her head as it was."

Tatiana Maslany Is Poised To Break Out
Despite all the on-set secrecy, one thing everyone could tell me is how impressed they were with Maslany, and the sheer amount of work that went into not only leading the series, but playing its various clones.

"She's a savant when it comes to doing accents, and altering her mannerisms for each one of her characters. She's pretty wonderful. And I think that the audience is really going to fall in love with this girl," Bruce said of his co-star. From the sounds of it, the rest of the cast already has.

"It's extremely precise and technical, there's a huge amount of marks and stuff to cover," gushed Maria Doyle Kennedy, who plays Sarah's foster mother Mrs. S., and is an award-winning actor herself. "But every time she manages to deliver a performance I'm absolutely gobsmacked. I must say, I'm really, really properly impressed, and I like nothing, so..."

"She puts us all on her back and is basically carrying the show. And without her, the show wouldn't work," agreed Bruce. And Fawcett predicted, "She's going to blow your mind through the course of this season."

"If nothing else, even if you go, 'Well, I don't know, this show kinda went off the rails,' she will blow your mind, I promise," continued Fawcett. "She is the one that will make you come back and keep watching."

The Part Almost Went To Ellen Page Instead
Still, Fawcett told me that "Orphan Black" came close to starring another young Canadian actress instead: "When it came down to casting that character, you know who my two choices to cast that character were? It was between Tat and Ellen Page."

They had a similar style, and a similar background, but even though Page is the bigger name, Fawcett just kept coming back to Maslany, who the director had previously cast in "Ginger Snaps 2: Unleashed," the follow-up to his cult classic Canadian werewolf movie. Still, he wasn't ready to just hand her the role outright. He wanted to make sure she worked for it first.

"This is not a role that you can just offer to somebody. I refused to do that," Fawcett said. "Not to badmouth anybody, but then it's going to turn into "Ringer," right? You're gonna just offer it to somebody, you're not gonna know whether they have the capability to pull this off or not. You know, we're talking about multiple different accents, multiple characters."

So he and his producing partner Manson embarked on an arduous audition process. "It took me a long, long time. And even though I knew pretty early on about Tat, I knew that I wasn't gonna stop until I had basically seen everything and proved to myself 100 percent that this was the person."

Multiple clones meant each hopeful had to audition for multiple roles at once, and the trick was finding someone capable of playing them all equally well. "It was really hard, finding someone who you'd say, 'Oh wow, this person did it all, all of it.' Just across the board, all the different characters," explained Fawcett.

"And in the end, she annihilated everybody," Fawcett said of Maslany. "There really was no choice."

Mick Jagger Helped Get Jordan Gavaris the Job
As Felix, Jordan Gavaris is an integral part of the supporting cast. He's Sarah's confidante and a character who becomes embroiled in the series' central mystery along with her. But if it weren't for a certain Rolling Stones frontman, the role of Felix might have also gone to a different actor.

Gavaris explained that on the eve of his third audition, a friend of his called with some bad news. He remembers being told, "I've got to be honest with you, you're not going to get this role. They think you're way too young, and when you go in for the test tomorrow, just be prepared, it's not gonna happen."

But instead of resigning himself to defeat, Gavaris dug deeper. "I stayed up all night, I re-read the script, I kept looking for more," he said. "I thought, it can't just be a repeat of my two other auditions. I need to give them something more."

And he found his inspiration in an old music video. "I found this video of Mick Jagger and David Bowie doing 'Dancing in the Street.' And I thought, this was it! Mick Jagger had this wonderful, loose, sexually-ambiguous attitude," explained Gavaris. "I found this power for this character, who was sort of leading with his pelvis. And it worked!" he laughed.

But much like Johnny Depp and Jack Sparrow, Gavaris didn't stop at the Stones, mixing in a cartoon character for good measure. "I was reading it and rehearsing it with a friend and I was like, 'Felix the Cat, Felix the Cat, why can't I stop thinking about a cat?' And then I was like, 'Oh! A cat! ...You know, he is only nice about half the time. And he's kind of a bitch the other half,' " laughed Gavaris.

The Show is a Group Effort
As "Orphan Black" progressed, Fawcett and Manson began to see Maslany as more then just their main star, but also as a creative partner. "I just feel very, very, very fortunate to have her in this show with me," said Fawcett. "She's kind of become a collaborator of Graeme and I's."

"I've never led a series before," Maslany said. "I've never been in the prep stages of a series either, so I've never gotten to develop characters with directors and producers, and the hair and makeup team." But it's obvious from even the few hours I spent on set just how quickly she took to it, and how much input is encouraged from her and the rest of the actors.

Watching the cast and crew run through a particularly complicated scene involving clones and stand-ins, Maslany jumped from chair to chair, working through multiple angles at once, and offering suggestions for how the scene could play out for both of her characters.

When I sat down with Gavaris afterwards, he raved about the working environment, saying, "You saw the vibe in there, it's so collaborative, it's so inclusive. And even down to the finest details, we are making creative decisions, down to body positions."

And while you might think opening the floor up to all those different opinions would slow the production down, it actually seems to help speed things up. Every clone scene takes extra time, extra prep work and extra attention to detail before they can even think about filming. Which means detailed rehearsal and blocking saves valuable time later on.

"On a TV schedule, it's really not easy," explained Fawcett. "Because you're basically shooting a scene in layers, with costume changes. You have to have something that you're gonna do with your crew while there's a big costume change going on."

And according to Fawcett, what I saw was nothing compared to other episodes. "In the finale, I shot a very complex scene with three girls. Three girls and a moving camera," he reminisced, when I spoke to him a few weeks after the season had wrapped. "But it's such a great scene. I knew that I really had to do something exciting in the finale with three clones in a room, for the audience."

But the logistical challenge (some might say nightmare) excited Fawcett too. "I just wanted to do it for myself as well. I wanted to see these three moving around in space and interacting. It's what got me excited about the show," he explained. "The idea that one actor was going to play multiple roles, and that there were going to be these scenes where she was playing various characters within the same scene."

A Clone By Any Other Name
So, just how many different characters does Maslany play? Well, getting back to that secrecy thing again, I never got an exact number. "We can say three, but there's way more than that," the actress teased.

And if you're having a hard time keeping track at home, just think about the poor actors. "Today, I'm doing three characters," Maslany told me. "So I started the day as so-and-so, and then now I'm this one, and then at the end of the day I'm..." She trailed off, either to avoid risking spoilers, or confusing herself any further.

"It's a very bizarre thing to keep track of, but the thing is, the writing is such that these characters' voices are so clear on the page, I can hear them, I can see them," Maslany explained. Still, this show involves some serious mental gymnastics.

"I have to compartmentalize my brain a bit, and be like, 'OK, where is this person at, and how much do they know? And what do they know that that person doesn't?' And then technically, playing scenes opposite myself is a nightmare-slash-hilarious-slash-the weirdest shit ever," she laughed.

It was tricky for some of the other actors too, at least at first. "It can get confusing," admitted Gavaris. "It was much more confusing in the beginning. Sometimes there were a lot of questions like, 'Who are you in this one right now?' "

"It's absolutely outrageous. I only did my first clone work about a month ago," said Doyle Kennedy. But she credits Maslany for making it work. "She's so good, you're just reacting to another character. You're just thinking about the character that you're with."

Gavaris agreed, "What really amazes me the most is Tat's ability to fall so freely into each person. And they're not just Sarah and the clones. Each clone has its own identity. You take any clone in the show and it could lead the series."

And despite the added confusion, the cloning angle came with one major benefit for the rest of the cast, as far as Bruce was concerned. "With the cloning concept, if someone gets killed, there's always a possibility to bring him back as a clone, right?" he laughed. "So that's good for an actor to know as well. A little bit of job security."

"Orphan Black" Was a Decade in the Making
When "Orphan Black" finally premieres on March 30, it'll have been a long time coming. Fawcett told me he first came up with the initial premise of a woman watching her double jump in front of a train as far back as 2002. But while he'd originally conceived it as a feature film, he and Manson just couldn't crack the story. So instead, it sat on the back-burner while the two went off to other projects, until they hit on the idea of turning the concept into a TV series instead.

"I think because of the nature of the premise of "Orphan Black," we realized that it was such a complicated idea that we couldn't solve it in a two-and-a-half hour format," explained Fawcett. "We sat down and we went, 'OK, if this were a series, do you think we could finally come up with the answer?'"

Fawcett credits shows like "Lost" and "Battlestar Galactica" for helping show him the way, saying, "It had never really occurred to me to make a television series before. But things changed in the last decade, and I found that a lot of the things that I was being inspired by were television."

You Haven't Seen Anything Like This...
Despite the sci-fi influences, both the cast and crew believe they've hit upon a formula that's unique enough to stand out in the crowded marketplace. "It's so different than anything I've ever come across or seen. I don't think it relies on gimmicks or tricks or anything like that at all," said Hanchard, "There's a lot of really cool shit that happens in this show."

Maslany was drawn to the human drama as much as the sci-fi aspect, saying, "Just the complexity of the characters and the way the script is written, it's entertaining, it's funny, it's dark as hell, and it's bizarre." Fawcett agreed with that sentiment, saying, "I think the thing that people are gonna be surprised by is the sense of humour that our show has."

Gavaris elaborated, saying that in spite of the sci-fi premise, "Orphan Black" is rooted in a gritty realism. "There's drugs, there's sex, there's lying, there's murder, there's cheating, there's death. There are all the recipes for a disaster, and we don't apologize for any of it," he explained. "And you basically either take the characters for who they are and you like them, or you don't. They're not heroes, they're anti-heroes. But in the end, because they're just surviving, there is a sympathy there."

And The Possibilities Are Endless
But for Bruce, the biggest plus of "Orphan Black" is where it can go from here, thanks to its central premise. "It's just like a Pandora's box of great ways that we can take the show," he said. "It's only been opened a little crack, so there's so many different ways that the writers can really explore this theme."

"It's a universe unto itself and the rules are dictated by the writers and the directors and the creators, so it's kind of a cool free-for-all," agreed Maslany.

And Fawcett acknowledged already having worked out with Manson where a second season could go, even if that changed a bit over the course of filming. "We certainly know where Season 2 wants to go, and that is good. But I think that it's a little bit more complicated now. We added some paint to our corner at the end of [Episode] 10 that we need to figure out how to get past."

It's a challenge Fawcett and Manson are up for though, if given the chance. "Obviously, there's also a bigger picture to the whole thing, which is a question of, 'How long are we gonna [run], will we get another season, will there be a Season 3?' " Fawcett said. "It's fun to think about though, because it's a concept that expands rather than contracts."

For his part though, Fawcett is confident in the show's prospects, saying, "I feel the show does have that thing in it that I know makes it exciting. Because I've been excited about it for the last 10 years."

We're about to find out if audiences agree.

"Orphan Black" premieres on Saturday, March 30 at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT on Space Channel in Canada and at 9 p.m. ET/8 p.m. CT on BBC America in the U.S.
]]> Thu, 28 Mar 2013 13:36:59 EDT 2972315 <![CDATA[Leslie Mann on Why 'This Is 40' Is Nothing Like Her Real Life]]> Judd Apatow and Leslie Mann are beginning to find out.

With "This Is 40," Apatow had Mann, his real-life wife, and their two daughters Maude and Iris, reprise their "Knocked Up" roles alongside Paul Rudd for a "sort-of sequel" about the lovably dysfunctional family coping with the mid-life milestone. And because of the casting, many people assume the film is essentially a big-budget dramatization of what happens in the Apatow household. But Mann would argue that couldn't be further from the case when it comes to Debbie and Pete.

With "This Is 40" set for Blu-Ray/DVD release tomorrow, Moviefone spoke to Mann about working with the ageless Paul Rudd, her newfound aversion to yelling, and the only way she would return to play Debbie for a third time.

Moviefone: Am I at the beginning of a long day of press, or somewhere in the middle?
Leslie Mann: You're the first one. So you'd better make it good.

Nice, so I get to ask you the same questions as everybody else, but I get to do it first. I guess I'm going to start with my most hard-hitting question then...
"What was it like working with your children?" [Laughs] "Now, how was it working with Judd? And does it feel like..." [Laughs] I could run them all for you right now, if you want.

I was planning on getting to those later. What I wanted to ask was, does Paul Rudd have a portrait of himself that's aging in his attic somewhere, like Dorian Gray? It's like he's aging backwards, it's so weird.
[Laughs] I know, he looks really good, doesn't he? It's crazy. I don't know what's happening, and we're all aging around him. That's where you're supposed to say, "No, you look like you're aging backwards too."

That was my follow-up question. Was it easy getting back into it with Paul?
Yeah, it was super easy. We're very comfortable with each other, he's like my brother. We had a lot of time to rehearse together and just talk everything through. And you know, we see Paul and his wife Julie all the time. So yeah, it was really comfortable and easy.

At what point did you start to think there was enough to Debbie and Pete to continue their story with a spin-off?
Well of course there would be. But I guess when Judd said to me that he wanted to make a movie about the characters from "Knocked Up," Pete and Debbie. And then it was like we couldn't stop talking about it. We had endless ideas and stories and it was just fun to talk about. For years, we had so much fun talking about it. So that's how we knew that there's more to say.

When you're making a movie with your family like this, does that development stage just sort of stretch 24/7, or do you try and set barriers between family time and work time?
No, for some reason, we don't. Well, because it's so fun to talk about, and it's fun for the girls too. And you know, we're doing what we love doing, so it's not like a job, where we're not having a good time talking about it. We're actually enjoying ourselves. So it was fun, because we're always working on something, but it's working on the thing that we love doing. So, yeah, we didn't have any boundaries with work and then family time, it all bled together.

Is it more fun working with your kids now that they're a little older?
It was. I mean, it was fun when they were little also, but now it seems like Maude understands acting on a different level. Before, she just kind of did what we told her to do, and now this time around, she really she wanted to do a good job and cared about learning about it, and doing the best she could. So that was fun to watch. And then watching her kick ass was fun, really fun. And Iris is so funny, so yeah, it's fun to watch them grow and be such great little actresses.

What's more cathartic for you -- getting to fake yell at your own kids, or getting to yell at someone else's kid?
[Laughs] You know what? I don't like yelling, so neither one feels good. It gives me pressure in my head. But I don't like it. I used to like it, I used to feel a little sense of relief or release after yelling at someone, but now it just hurts my head, so neither. I don't like yelling, period.

But you're so good at it. Why do you think you end up having to yell in these movies so much then?
Am I yelling a lot? Tell me where I yell, and I'll tell you why.

Well, obviously you're yelling at the kid, Joseph.
That's not really yelling yelling ... well, because it's funny. That's what people dream about doing, when somebody's mean to your child. Parents fantasize about going up to that kid who's mean to their child and telling them to f**k off. That's the truth. And every parent will tell you that they wish that they could tell off the bully. So that's just like a fantasy. And it's funny, people love that. So people can live vicariously through Debbie in that scene. [Laughs]

Do you think people overstate the autobiographical element of the movie just because you and your kids are in it?
Yeah, definitely. But I've realized that no matter what I say, people kind of have their own opinion about it, and their opinion doesn't usually change. They're going to think what they think and it's fine. It doesn't really bother me. It did at first, because I watched the movie, and I don't feel like it's my life at all. I think there are similarities just in the way that every couple who's been together for a long time or who have children, they struggle with a lot of the same things that Pete and Debbie are struggling with. But I think we took it to the extreme for the movie, or I guess comedy's sake, and so then it's not really my life at all. I can relate to some of the ideas, but no, it doesn't feel autobiographical. This is definitely fictional. [Laughs]

Would you have any interest in checking back in with this family in another five or 10 years, or are you done with Debbie and Pete?
I feel like I'm done with Debbie and Pete. Maybe if I divorce Pete and marry someone else, that could be interesting. [Laughs] But as of now, no, I'm good. We had fun, but yeah, not right now.

"This Is 40" will be available on Blu-Ray/DVD on March 22, 2013.

]]> Thu, 21 Mar 2013 16:25:50 EDT 2926487 <![CDATA[Steve Carell vs. Jim Carrey: Who's More Incredible?]]> Steve Carell and Jim Carrey square off as rival magicians who find Las Vegas isn't big enough for both of their supersized egos in The Incredible Burt Wonderstone. From longtime 30 Rock director Don Scardino, the film stars Carell as the title hero who, together with his partner and childhood friend Anton Marvelton (a perfectly-cast Steve Buscemi), has been at the top of the Vegas magic scene for the past decade. Now though, Steve Gray (Carrey), a Criss Angel-style street magician, is threatening their dominance and making their act look stale. (Those spangled velour jumpsuits don't help.)

Bruce Almighty marked the last time Carell and Carrey went up against one another, but for this rematch, Carell's the headliner and Carrey the foil. So which comedy heavyweight comes out on top in The Incredible Burt Wonderstone? To find out, I broke down which of the film's two main acts deserves top billing.

Venue:
For the past ten years, Burt and Anton have been packing capacity crowds into their own personal theater with their names in lights out front as headliners at Bally's, former home to Vegas acts like Dean Martin. Steve Gray, meanwhile, takes his popular cable show, "Brain Rapist," to the Vegas streets, former home to thousands of drunk tourists sleeping one off. But both are looking for upgraded digs in the brand-new casino of Vegas mogul Doug Munny (James Gandolfini). Still, I'm giving this one to Gray, because what street magic lacks in prestige, it makes up for in low overhead.

Winner: Carrey

Costumes:
Watching The Incredible Burt Wonderstone, you can't help but feel for Carell, who's forced to brave the desert heat in varying combinations of velour and rhinestones for Wonderstone's decidedly old-Vegas costumes. But at least he gets to take the jumpsuits off from time to time, unlike his perma-spray tan. The worst Carrey has to wear was a pair of leather pants, and while I doubt they breathe much better, Carrey ought to be thanking his agent that his character's wardrobe was inspired by Criss Angel and not Siegfried and Roy.

Winner: Carrey

Repertoire:
As Gob Bluth would say, these aren't tricks, they're illusions. But whatever you call them, Wonderstone and Gray's styles couldn't be more wildly different. Carrey's Gray is a mashup of Criss Angel and David Blaine, and his repertoire mainly involves feats of masochism that play to Carrey's own bag of tricks: it's all big stunts and showy slapstick, like spending a night on hot coals or holding his pee for a week. Burt and Anton's act may be more old school, but it's also better developed, thanks to some special consulting from David Copperfield. Acts like Hangman and the Burt Locker might actually be something an audience would pay to see. Not to mention, Burt's slight of hand is much more useful when it's time for the movie's obligatory sex scene, even if you'll spend half of it wondering just how Carell managed his biggest magic trick of the whole movie: getting Olivia Wilde to film a sex scene with him.

Winner: Carell

Assistants:
Carell's Wonderstone has an ego so big he needs to sleep in a bed built for 12; either that, or he's just a man who likes having company. Because at various stages of the movie Carell gets to partner up with Buscemi, who's perfectly-matched as Burt's "magical friend," the aforementioned Wilde, unwittingly thrust into the role of their assistant, and Alan Arkin as Burt's childhood hero Rance Holloway. All three help keep Wonderstone's pompous act from getting stale or overplayed, though it would've been nice to see more from the underused Buscemi and Wilde. And all Carrey gets to work off of is a team of extras and nameless assistants there to hand him props and otherwise get out of the man's way.

Winner: Carell

Showmanship:
Admittedly, Wonderstone's routine is a little dated, and that's not just referring to using the Steve Miller Band's "Abracadabra" as Burt and Anton's theme song. After a decade doing the same show over and over again, Burt's just going through the motions at this point. And that could've just as easily described Carell lately. So after years of sad-sack film roles, it's fun to watch the comedian act like a self-important ass, even if he's just doing a budget Ron Burgundy imitation. Still, watching Carell attempt to roll through an evening of Burt and Anton's Magical Friendship sans Anton is a reminder of the man's A-list comedy talent.

Carrey plays to his strengths as well, and his face is no less elastic now than it was in his prime. But much like Carell's Wonderstone, Carrey's star doesn't shine quite as brightly as it used to, and his personal brand of over-the-top slapstick doesn't play as well as it did back when he was headlining movies like Bruce Almighty, a problem The Incredible Burt Wonderstone ultimately suffers from as well.

Winner: Carell

Final Tally: 3-2, in favor of Carell. His movie may not be all that incredible, but Burt Wonderstone still comes out on top.



]]> Fri, 15 Mar 2013 11:50:46 EDT 2884065 <![CDATA[Canadian Screen Awards Winners: 'War Witch,' Martin Short Come Up Big]]>
And with Martin Short as the evening's emcee, there was no Oscar-style drama to be found on stage at the Sony Centre for the Performing Arts, especially not with "War Witch" (also known as "Rebelle") completing a near sweep of the film categories and "Flashpoint" landing a pair of major TV honours for best actor and best drama series.

"War Witch" Cleans Up
Though it may have come up empty at the Oscars last week as Canada's official foreign film nominee, the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television clearly felt differently about writer/director Kim Nguyen's acclaimed French-language film. So much so that Sunday night's show could've been named the first annual "War Witch" Awards considering the sheer number of trophies the film took home. The Congo-set child-soldier drama turned out to be a big winner on its home turf, picking up honours early and often, winning a stunning 10 of the 12 Screen Awards it was up for.

In addition to Best Picture, Nguyen won for both his original screenplay and directing and called the evening "really overwhelming," saying. "I'm completely aware that this film is a challenge for the audience, and that this subject is so tough that not everybody wanted to go see this film." So Sunday's accolades meant a lot to Nguyen, who reflected on the film's eight-year-long journey by saying, "It's been an amazing ride."

Cinematographer Nicolas Bolduc agreed, calling winning big at home "so much more fun. Winning somewhere else, it's not the same feeling, it's not the same sort of energy." Hearing your film called to the stage 10 times presumably helps.

One Night Is Better Than Two
Meanwhile, the Academy hopes that Sunday night's festivities are the start of their own exciting journey, as the inaugural Screen Awards look to celebrate Canadian talent in one star-studded night as opposed to two separate events. And so the 90-minute telecast took turns alternating between honouring Canadian film and TV, though additional television awards were handed out during an industry gala held last Thursday.

Still, while combining the two industry celebrations into a single event might sound like an odd idea to some, it's just good business sense, according to Kevin O'Leary of "Dragon's Den," a Best Reality Show winner. "The more we can focus the light on Canadian media, the better it is for the country, the content we create, and hopefully makes us more globally competitive," said O'Leary. "This is certainly one of the biggest events I've ever been to in Canada, and that's great."

Martin Short had his own reasoning as to why the pairing was a good idea, joking, "After a season of awards shows in the United States, one wonders, isn't it a good idea to combine some of these?"

But for CBC's George Stroumboulopoulos, the real benefit will be felt five years from now, when TV and film talent that met at events like the Canadian Screen Awards begin to collaborate. He called Sunday night's red carpet one of the most exciting he's been on, saying, "Look at the star power that's out there. Big names, cool names."

Canada's Got Talent
Those big names included everyone from Sandra Oh and Kristin Kreuk to "Bachelor Canada" Brad Smith, who was on the receiving end of a few of Short's digs. Metric singer Emily Haines was on hand to accept the award for Best Original Song for her contribution to the "Cosmopolis" soundtrack, even though David Cronenberg's latest film didn't manage an invite to the ceremony for either the filmmaker or a certain "Twilight" star.

It wasn't an entirely Canadian affair however, as James Cromwell showed up to accept the Best Actor award for his starring role in Canadian drama "Still Mine," and Bollywood actress Seema Biswas won for Deepa Mehta's "Midnight's Children." Still, the evening was all about celebrating the best in Canada's homegrown talent, like Sarah Polley, who won best documentary for "Stories We Tell," or Jay Baruchel, who earned multiple nominations for his hockey comedy "Goon."

Short Earns Good Reviews
But the evening's biggest star had to be Martin Short, who brought his trademark manic energy as the show's host, from flying in on wires for his opening number to hopping into Glenn Healy's arms and pretending to be a set of bagpipes for reasons yet to be determined. He also took a dig at recent Oscar winner "Argo," quipping, "I flew in on Air Canada. Or as Ben Affleck calls it, American Airlines."

Short was quick to defend fellow awards show host Seth MacFarlane, however, saying, "I thought Seth was fantastic, he was adventurous and himself. I think it's really a daunting thing. You don't want to be too bland, you don't want to [go] too far."

Stroumboulopoulos, last year's Genies' host, thought that Short nailed that delicate balance. "I think Martin's doing a great job," he said. "Martin's fearless out there, and I like the fact that he's taking runs at everybody. I think that's really fun, it's what he should do."

The press room clearly agreed, cheering Short during his post-show press conference. But despite the good reviews, the beloved actor isn't sure if he'd come back next year if asked, joking, "I can only fly so many times. That harness chafes."

]]> Mon, 4 Mar 2013 10:37:30 EST 2805569 <![CDATA['21 and Over': By the Numbers]]> 21 and Over," which is another feature-length ode to drunken debauchery, only set at college instead of Vegas.

It all starts when Casey (Skylar Astin) and Miller (Miles Teller) show up to surprise their high school buddy Jeff Chang (Justin Chon) and take him out for his 21st birthday. The only problem is, he has an important med school interview the next morning, and a seriously intimidating doctor dad (Francois Chau) who's more interested in pressuring his son into following in his footsteps than celebrating his birthday.

But because one quick beer and a midnight curfew wouldn't make for much of a movie (let alone a 21st birthday), the trio's semi-responsible evening soon turns into a marathon night of bar-hopping, which makes a seemingly easy task like taking a passed-out Jeff Chang home into an epic quest.

So just how wild did the guys' night get? And can "21 and Over" possibly reach the debased heights of "The Hangover"? To find out, I crunched the numbers.

(As always, like Jeff Chang's memory the morning after, the following math may be a little fuzzy.)

Favors Dr. Chang had to call in to get Jeff his interview: A lot
Air horn blasts it takes to convince Jeff Chang to come out: 4

How many drinks Jeff Chang agrees to have: 1
How many drinks Jeff Chang actually has: 5 or more pints, 3 body shots, 3 regular shots, and the better part of a bottle of whiskey

Bars legally entered: 8
Parties attended: 2
Sororities infiltrated: 2
Campus hospitals and jails visited: 2

Time of Jeff Chang's important interview: 8 a.m.
Time Dr. Chang is picking him up: 7 a.m.
Time his friends promise he'll be home by: 12 a.m.
Actual time he arrives home: 6:51 a.m.

Screen time Jeff Chang spends conscious: 20 percent
Screen time Jeff Chang spends unconscious: 80 percent

People who know where Jeff Chang lives: Jeff Chang
People who don't know where Jeff Chang lives: Everyone else

Times characters refer to Jeff Chang by anything other than his full name: 1

Bouncers humiliated: 4
Drinking games played: 7
Shots downed: At least 10
Shots fired: 1
People trampled by a buffalo: 4
Number of windows Jeff Chang gets thrown out of: 2
Number of windows your "best friends" should throw you out of: 0

Instances of nudity (female): 3
Instances of nudity (male): 5
Spankings administered: 4
Brandings administered: 2
Tube socks worn in a way they weren't intended: 2
Circumcisions performed via stuffed animal: 1
Feminine hygiene products eaten: 1
Innocent bar-goers urinated on: 7-10
Projectile vomits: 1

Time it takes the characters to figure out the movie's "big reveal": Over 85 minutes
Time it takes the audience to figure out the movie's "big reveal": Under 15 minutes

Bad decisions made: Countless
Total alcohol consumed: Enough to fell the average adult buffalo

"21 and Over" opens in theaters on March 1.

]]> Fri, 1 Mar 2013 10:53:51 EST 2789559 <![CDATA[Ashley Bell on Bending Over Backwards For 'The Last Exorcism: Part II']]> The Last Exorcism: Part II" and you know that Ashley Bell is tough -- not only did she literally bend over backwards for that painful-looking pose, the stunt sent her to the doctor afterwards and she still came back for more.

It was all worth it for Bell though after the Eli Roth-produced original "Last Exorcism" proved to be her breakout role, earning Bell praise for her natural acting as much as her unnatural contorting as the possessed 16-year-old Nell Sweetzer. And after an Independent Spirit Award nomination and an "Oscar-worthy" label bestowed by The New York Post, Ashley is back at it for "Part II," which picks up a few months after the first movie left off. Now broken and traumatized, Nell can't remember much of what happened to her as she attempts to put her life back together. But the evil that once possessed her isn't done with Nell just yet.

With "The Last Exorcism: Part II" hitting theaters Friday (and "The Marine 3: Homefront," also starring Bell, coming to DVD March 5th), Moviefone spoke to the up-and-coming actress about continuing Nell's story, what drives her to push her body to such extremes, and the possibility of a Part III.

Moviefone: After the first movie became such a fan favorite, have you been hearing a lot from fans about the sequel?
Ashley Bell: People are really excited, yeah. There's been such a huge response to the trailer and the poster, because everybody thought it would be a found footage film. And the fact that it's gone from found footage to straight narrative is really getting people excited. It was something they didn't expect. And I think that's what audiences are going to see when they finally see the film. There are some twists and turns in it that people won't see coming.

At what point did you know you were going to make a second movie?
I hoped to step back into my Doc Martens again. But it was a while before I got the phone call that there was a sequel in the works, because Eli Roth wanted to make sure there was a really strong story. And what's exciting about "Part II" is it's Nell's story. It's a continuation of the first film, and we see this girl that's just shell-shocked, she doesn't remember anything. And here she is, she's thrown into New Orleans, she's thrown into Mardi Gras, there's temptation everywhere. And she has to choose between good and evil.

How was it moving from a more supporting role to the lead?
Oh, it was very exciting. It was a huge honor to get the call and to hear the script was the continuation of Nell's story. But then in going to do it, I really wanted to try to one-up myself from the first one, especially physically. You know, the back-bend was a huge part of the first film. And for "Part II," if you've seen the trailer, there's this levitating back-bend, which was just a huge day to film. It was a day where the whole crew was on set to make the rigging of it possible, and there was a stunt team on set, and I was only OKed to do it eight times and we did it about twenty times. And Ed [Gass-Donnelly], the director, conducted it almost like a piece of music, it was just this huge swell of a moment. It was very exciting to be in the center of it.

Did they give you any CGI help this time around to take some of that physical load off you?
Everything that I do is me. That is all me. No CGI for me. [Laughs] I managed to pull it off myself.

How much of a toll does that take on you?
Well, you know, it's funny. I actually have a stress fracture in my vertebrae. I went to my doctor and he's like, "Have you done any gymnastics or any contorting or hyperextending?" And I said, "Well, one thing comes to mind..." So I have the X-rays to prove it. That being said, it is a stress fracture, it's not a trauma fracture, so I can continue to do this intense physical work, I just need to be put back together again.

How much input do you have when it comes to those scenes? Do you develop them together with Ed in terms of figuring out what stunts you'll be doing?
He was so interested in being true to the character of Nell, and would ask me if something didn't feel right or what would she maybe say instead. And then certainly for the backbend, there was a conversation about what things I could do, where do we wanna take it, how far do we wanna push things? And being a part of those conversations, it's always just such an honor as an actress, to be asked, "What do you think?" I never thought I would get asked that question. It surprises me every time somebody asks me my opinion, and to be able to collaborate like that is really a rarity.

Does actually doing the contortions and back-bends yourself help you get into a scene more?
It does, very much. It's so funny that people use the word contorting, because I never even knew I could do any of this stuff. For the [original] callback, I got asked to be exorcised in the room, but in terms of physically doing things, I didn't know what was going to be required of me for the first film, so I just prepared for everything. And Daniel Stamm ["The Last Exorcism" director], the night before the exorcism scene asked if I had any ideas and I said, "Well, I can do this," and I did the back-bend. And he said, "Okay! I'm going to change some stuff." And I had no idea it would be this poster image for both films.

I'd imagine your co-stars must appreciate it as well, getting to play off that.
Yeah, you know, it's funny. It took two days to film the main exorcism scene for this film. And everybody knew what was going to happen in the script. Everybody learned their lines, everybody was ready to go. But then in the room when it's all happening live, you get into the moment of imagining that the whole battle is going on inside you emotionally and spiritually and you're acting it out... [Laughs] It takes it to a whole new level! And everybody had something to play off of, yeah. I would start bringing it up, and then they would start screaming and trying to control the environment as their lines are coming out, they're trying harder and harder, which would only provoke me to go more and more. And it just keeps on building. So those scenes are really cool, they're exhilarating to be a part of.

How much does a role like this stick with you after you're done filming?
As much method as I've studied, I'm not method in that sense. Otherwise I think they would have to hire a real exorcist to come on set, I would torture the crew. [Laughs] But this one did hang with me a little bit more. Physically, I guess I got that stress fracture, which I'm kind of proud of. I think of it as a war wound. [Laughs] And also, the demands of the character were different, because in this one Nell's going through so much shock, she's so broken. So I took a lot of ballet to prepare for the role, but also to get that very gaunt look that she has. She's had everything taken away from her and just she's riddled with anxiety, so I wanted to inhabit that look. And it was very physical. I could lose weight while filming and everything was due to the nature of the role, it was just very demanding. But you know, that's where things get fun. I always dread when they yell cut on the last scene. For me, working is fun. It's the times in between that are work.

Would you be up for doing a third movie if this one does well?
Well, at the risk of giving a spoiler, I think there's always another dance to be had with the Devil.

I know that Eli Roth has said that they have an idea of what a third one could be. Has he discussed that with you at all?
I'm so happy Eli said that. [Laughs] Yes, I do know what a third one could be. I think this one, the surprise at the end of this film, the twist that it takes, I don't think audiences will see coming. It's a turn that only Eli Roth could pull off, and I would be very excited to see what more trouble Nell could get into.

"The Last Exorcism, Part II" opens in theaters Friday, March 1.

]]> Fri, 1 Mar 2013 10:24:06 EST 2789225