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Us the Duo

The Book Of Life

Michael Alvarado

Carissa Alvarado

The Book of Life is a story about relationships and going through whatever means necessary to be with the one you love. It comes as no surprise, then, that one of the prominent songs in the film is “No Matter Where You Are” by the talented husband and wife team, Us the Duo. It’s a song that captures all of the themes in the film and perfectly describes the relationship between the two main characters, Manolo and Maria, who are voiced by Diego Luna and Zoe Saldana. Shakefire sat down with Us the Duo’s Michael and Carissa Alvarado to discuss having their song in the film and their sudden rise in popularity over the last few months.

Us the Duo’s rise in popularity took off when they started posting six second covers of popular songs through the social media app Vine. Within a month they already had amassed one million followers.

“We were scratching our heads like, ‘How did this happen? This is crazy!’ explains Michael. “And we kept going. Every single day we’d make a new cover, we’d change our outfits, and next thing you know we have another million followers in another 30 days.”

That kind of attention landed them on Good Morning America and a record deal with Republic Records. “Now we’re at four million followers about and it’s all happened in a matter of six month so we’re trying to adjust to this life, you know. We’re used to just being at home and cutting our grass, and playing with our dog, and watching Home and Garden television.”

In addition to GMA and Republic Records, Us the Duo also caught the attention of the folks over at 20th Century Fox, who were looking for a song for their upcoming animated film, The Book of Life, that encompasses the themes of family, love, following passion, and writing your own story. Us the Duo’s “No Matter Where You Are” fit every one of the criteria.

The song is unique in that Michael and Carissa sang the song during their wedding in place of saying vows.

“It just became the perfect match for this particular scene in the movie that calls for this emotive capture,” he says. “It was really a great fit, and we’ve had such a blast working with the FOX team and so glad they thought of us for this opportunity.”

“It’s a pretty triumphant final scene, and it’s the apex of their emotions and their love,” Carissa chimes in. “They [Diego Luna and Zoe Saldana] do sing it, which is really crazy, because we’ve always wanted and dreamed for one of our songs to make into a feature film, but what’s even cooler about The Book of Life is that the characters are actually singing our parts. Zoe Saldana and Diego Luna are just amazing vocalists too and actors. It’s super cool to see that happen.”

For the film, “No Matter Where You Are” was given a Latin makeover, which Us the Duo had the pleasure of being involved in. It’s easy to just sign off ones music to be used in a film and then just walk away, but the song has such a personal connection to Michael and Carissa that FOX wanted them involved in the entire process of adapting it for the film.

“We came in at the very end process of the movie, and it was the like the last piece of the puzzle,” says Michael. “We met with the FOX team and marketing department over and over and just talked about how we wanted the song to be interpreted because the characters had not been animated to our song yet so we could tweak things around.They wanted to really understand the emotions that we had when writing the song. And we had a say in the arrangement and they brought in the orchestra from London. They had this whole orchestral scene to it and we got to hear every step of the way. When we see the movie, we can kinda see a culmination of both of our minds coming to life.”

But all of this sudden fame is still second to what they really care most about, each other.

“We got together, we got married, we played music for fun, says Carissa. “It wasn’t until after we finally got married where we were like, ‘Let’s seriously do this together.’ This is what we love to do. We love to just hang out with our best friend all day so this works out really well.”

“It was a natural fit,” adds Michael. “Like she said, we got married first so we figured out that we are in love and music was just an extension of that. It was kinda an afterthought. It’s a good balance to keep that in mind as this success continues so we can always focus on our marriage and our relationship first and music will come after that.”

Closing out the interview, I asked them each how they would describe their music to someone who never heard it before using only one sentence. After some quick thinking and a few do-overs, Michael said “Our music is an extension of our relationship one pop song at a time.”

“You pretty much nailed it. You took what I was going to say right out of my mouth,” Carissa responded with a big smile on her face.

As far as what comes next after The Book of Life, Us the Duo are currently touring the country with Oprah as part of her “The Life You Want Weekend” tour promoting the film in addition to their own music tour. You can see what cities they'll be in next on their official website. The Book of Life will be in theaters on Friday, October 17, 2014.

Artist(s):

Michael Alvarado

Carissa Alvarado

Band:

Us the Duo

Zane: The Interview (Addicted)

Matt Rodriguez — Thu, 09 Oct 2014 16:40:40 +0000

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Zane

Shakefire sat down with erotic fiction author Zane to discuss the upcoming film adaptation of her most popular book, Addicted. It her first feature film based on one of her works, although she is no stranger to the entertainment media, having already optioned one of her works for Cinemax.

Shakefire (SF): What has been the reaction to the film like?
Zane (Z): Everybody has said they’ve really loved the movie, which I’m very happy to hear. That’s what somebody wants to hear when they put a lot of time, energy, and passion into something. That’s my baby, one of them at least. I look forward to doing a lot more.

SF: How could a reserved woman such as yourself come up with such a dynamic script?
Z: Well I’m not always reserved. I think I’m a normal woman who is professional but also is very passionate. I’m passionate about everything in my life, my career. That passion trickles over into everything else I do.

SF: Does any of your real life scenarios factor into your work?
Z: Yes, all the time, haha. I never say which scenes in particular. A lot of my best friends are just tickled because they see stuff that they’ve done in my stuff. So there’s a lot of me and my friends in the different stuff.

SF: You had Christina Welsh and Ernie Barbarash write the screenplay for Addicted, but you’ve written plenty of your own work for cable. Why did you relinquish that control?
Z: We went back and forth. I was originally asked to write the script, but at the time I had so much other stuff going on. I just really didn’t want to do it so we had a lot of writers pitch. And they had to pitch a director to me as well and explain their vision of the story and how they would carry it out. A lot of the dialogue in the script comes directly from the book. There were certain things we had to change, but for me to take a 95,000 word book and to cut it down to about 20,000 words and really see the vision of how I could do that might have been a little bit of a challenge for me. Now having written my stage play based on a book, I feel like what I did with that was have the same characters, the same overall premise, and I never even looked at the book. Where I think with Addicted I would have been going back and forth.

SF: The film has been in development for almost 10 years now. What took so long to get it made?
Z: Well many many years ago we had a different director, a different cast, and we had a few shooting schedules, and for reasons that happened it didn’t happen. Lions Gate came back to me and said that this is the one we felt that got away and said they still wanted to do it. I said, “Okay, well if you really want to do it you’ll do it within a year” and that’s exactly what they did.

SF: Talk about the process of gathering this cast for the film. How closely did they resemble your original vision of these characters?
Z: When I wrote the book I really didn’t envision it as a movie. As far as Sharon Leal, when we were going to do the movie before she was one of the main contenders that we were going to have in the lead. When Billie [Woodruff] called me and asked me about Boris [Kodjoe] playing the husband that was a natural thing for me because I had already met him before. Once we had Boris as the husband the question became “who’s going to cheat on Boris?” With William Levy it made a lot of sense because this is a woman who has seen a lot of attracted men her whole life. She’s had men try to pick her up and just like the trailer’s called “Cross the Line” where everybody has fantasties, everybody has desires, but sooner or later they cross the line. So it had to be someone who has something that would just make her lose it, which is what happened in the movie. A lot of me so far have said to me that they were just upset at how quickly she gave it up. But we had to have someone who would make it seem like the woman would do that. William did a great job. That was actually, even though I think he’s done five or six American things since, that was the first major thing he filmed speaking English, and I think he did an amazing job.

SF: Do you feel it’s liberating to show woman having these experiences and showing control over their sexuality?
Z: Absolutely. I’ve always said that sexuality is usually the area a woman feels the least comfortable, but if they can feel comfortable in that area it generally trickles over to other parts of their life. Let’s face it, when women are sexually satisfied they have a different appearance about them. I was joking about in New York with Boris and William and I was talking about how I can always tell when my friends are not having sex because their skin’s dry, their hair is brittle, they’re like snap dragons. When they have a really good sex drive their skin is glowing, their hair looks great, and they’re coming over to my house baking red velvet cupcakes.

SF: We see so many romance writers like yourself, but there’s something about what you write that keeps your fans coming back for more. How would you describe your writing?
Z: I think it’s just my vivid imagination. I think I write outside the box. I have a very unique writing style and keep it very real. I’m very detailed. I think most of it comes from the fact that I really dig deep into creating my characters where people really feel these characters and become engrossed in them. I remember when I first wrote Addicted and put it online there were people online actually having arguments about Zoe and Jason like they were real people. That’s when I knew I had something.

SF: What is it like being a Black woman in Hollywood who is so open about sex?
Z: I’ve never really dealt with criticism to be honest. I know I got here because my parents had sex; I don’t know about ya’ll. It’s a very natural part of life. I was really shocked when I first started doing this when there was all this backlash and stuff, and that’s one of the reasons why I really continue to do it. On one hand, there are those people saying all this stuff, but on the other hand there were women emailing me all around the world like, “Thank you for letting me know I’m normal.” I feel like woman, if we’re going to have sex and most of us are, why shouldn’t we enjoy it as much as men? That’s my whole thing. Why should we just be a vessel for the man’s pleasure? We should be just as satisfied from the process as men. A lot of men didn’t realize, or still don’t, that women are more sexual in nature than men.

SF: What do you hope your fans get out of the film?
Z: I hope both men and women understand how important it is to communicate in a relationship and to realize that even if you feel the relationship is in good standing sometimes that’s not the case and when your mate is trying to discuss something with you, really hear what they’re saying instead of just ignoring what they’re trying to tell you. Also, I hope people will take away the fact that sexual addiction is really a true disease. Just like other addicts, you can lose everything from having that addiction. And also more importantly there’s nothing wrong with going to get therapy. There are a lot of people walking around every single day who have not dealt with something, and I hope that this is a catalyst to spark them to want to deal with it, which is what the book has done for a lot of people.

Addicted opens in theaters on Friday, October 10, 2014.

Talent:

Zane

Kat Graham: The Interview (Addicted)

Matt Rodriguez — Thu, 09 Oct 2014 15:21:16 +0000

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Kat Graham

Shakefire spoke with actor Kat Graham who stars as Diamond in the upcoming exotic romance drama Addicted alongside fellow actors Sharon Leal and William Levy. Most known for her work on the hit television series The Vampire DIaries, Kat has gained quite the following over the years. In our interview, Kat discusses branching out into different roles and what working on Addicted means for her.

Shakefire (SF): How exciting was it to play in this type of film that is not really common in the urban subset?

Kat Graham (KG): I think you just answered your own question. It’s such a rarity to have this type of film in an urban market. That’s what makes it so exciting. You’re seeing it pop up a lot with the likes of No Good Deed and all these incredible films that are coming out where you get to see African-Americans portrayed in a different way and you get to see different aspects of that role and that life. I think it’s good for the mass media to see African-Americans portrayed in different ways and us as African-American actors to take on different roles. I hope that now people can start to see that every woman and man are multi-dimensional. We go through the same things that other households go through. We don’t have to have perfect homes and sometimes we don’t. There are relationships and breakups. We really have had to fight to get away from a lot of stigmas.

SF: What attracted you to this role?

KG: The legwarmers [laughs]. Uh, no. Bille Woodruff is a great friend and I really believe in everything he does. I believe he has reasoning for everything that he does. Besides the fact that it isn’t a typical film, I wanted to do something a little different; I wanted to be a part of something that was different, something that would push the needle. That’s really it. I don’t get to do a lot of projects period because of Vampire Diaries so I wanted to make sure that the project that I did next would connect me to the African-American community because I’m a Black girl, I’m a Liberian girl, and I want to be able to be a part of that. I wanted to be a part of a film that people look like me and people that look like me would go see a film like this. It’s important to be a part of that community and to raise that community as an African-American woman.

SF: How would you describe your character Diamond?

KG: I did some work with Ivana Chubbuck, who is my coach. Tasha Smith actually works with her, too. We wanted to create something that wasn’t just the regular neighbor girl. Anyone can play that and I had the opportunity to do something a little different with already a character that’s a little different. I ended up creating some really weird and cool things.

SF: What are your thoughts on actual sex addiction?

KG: It’s totally real. I think there are people all over the world and there might be some who are reading this interview that need to know they have support if they need it and to take yourself seriously, with any addiction whether it’s sexual or otherwise. The disease is real and you should never make light of it. I think it’s good to know yourself too. This film is all about making choices and making decisions based on who you are, and it’s important to know who you are and whether that’s you know you’re addicted to something or it’s your happily married partner. Either way you have to start by knowing yourself.

SF: Talk about filming in Atlanta. That played a big role in the film and with Vampire Diaries you’ve no doubt spent a lot of time in the city.

KG: I really love the mayor here. I love Kasim Reed. I think he’s been so supportive. I met him I think the first year I came out here and he was at an Atlanta event and you could see that he was all about the city growing and empowering the people and empowering the state. It was really great to see that from six years ago to now and see how much more has come into Atlanta. It’s so great to film here because you don’t have the paparazzi. You don’t have the Hollywood bs. You don’t have the Hollywood attitudes. People are family people. They don’t care about what you do for a living or if you’re famous or not. If you’re a good person, you’re cool in Atlanta. That’s the rule. I’ve taken that back with me to California and into my life. I don’t know how anyone of us would have been if we had blown up and been in California and everyone making a stink over you like you’re some hotshot when the reality is we’re working actors. You’re replaceable. You have to bust your butt. You have to create good work. Especially for me, being African-American, and being able to see all the entrepreneurship that is happening, to see all these successful African-American people, which is why Addicted is also so great because it focuses on Zoe who has her own art agency and she’s a successful Black woman. You don’t see that in a lot of major motion pictures, but that exists in Atlanta. That’s common. And I love being around that. That is really awesome and has empowered me for being here for the past six years. I get to see that everywhere I go. I see successful African-American agencies and people and that’s just the norm in Atlanta.

SF: Have you read Zane’s books at all?

KG: I hadn’t until Addicted. I knew about. She’s a very sweet, reserved woman. Then you see this and you’re like, “Excuse me!? Who are you?” I love woman like that. Julie Plec, who wrote Vampire Diaries, is similar to that. I feel that those kind of women you got to look at and be like, “I know you’re capable of something because you’re so sweet and reserved.” They come out with these incredible ideas and projects and this kind of limitless, especially women. Women are placed on this independent thinking, fully in control place. I really like her and would love to be a part of what she does in the future, and I’ll be keeping my eye on what’s next for her. Even if it’s just another book I want to read it.

SF: What attracts you to these unique roles?

KG: With doing roles, when you start off as an actor you don’t get a lot of, not that you don’t get a lot of choices, but if all you do is act, you’re probably broke in the beginning. You’re just auditioning; it’s a hustle. You’re not like, “I’m not going to do that because I’m too good.” No, that’s how you put food on the table. You’re an artist. For me, I was so broke when I booked Vampire Diaries. I had $0.86 to my name. Now I have a choice to, not that I can be that picky, but I feel that I have a responsibility now that so many people know me and follow my work, that I have to be careful about what I play and what projects I do next and who I work with so I am a bit more particular about stuff. At this point I want to do films that break the mold. That’s what I’m interested in. I’ve seen so much of the mold and I see people still trying to shove African-Americans in that mold or minorities, minorities overall in that mold. It breaks my heart because us as human beings should be so beyond that at this point. It’s up to us as artists to hold a responsibility for our community, for each other, to create roles that elevate the consciousness of the world.

SF: How is it being a Black woman in Hollywood, especially in a time right now where it looks like Black actresses are in a good place?

KG: It’s tough. It’s exciting when you see things like Scandal and Viola Davis and my stuff and that. I love that there are films like Addicted and even James Brown’s Get Up and we were talking about No Good Deed. That stuff is coming out and it’s great, but when I’m not happily surprised like, “Oh wow, this came out and there’s not a token person in the side of the poster!” When I can look at a poster and not be excited that that’s not happening then it won’t be so hard. Its really up to us as creators, you guys as writers, you guys as the media. You guys have a responsibility to ensure and protect the artist and the artist protect the people like you guys that come out with this. It’s a social responsibility. Like I said, there are great roles out there, but I also turn down about 90% of the things I’m getting offered because they’re not elevating of a woman period, let alone an African-American woman. If anything, if you put certain people of minority in a place of power sometimes it attracts even more racism and even more discrimination. I see a lot of it in politics. I see a lot of it everywhere. It sucks and eventually it will fade away, but we have to continuously hold ourselves to a higher standard and we have to do good work as artists and good work as reporters and as people that are connecting the public to the artist.

SF: Ultimately, what do you want people to take away from your role in the film?

KG: I would like people to walk away knowing that the only person that can judge you is God and to not put pressure on yourself to have to be perfect. Be who you are, without apologies.

Addicted opens in theaters on Friday, October 10, 2014.

Talent:

Kat Graham

Michael Cuesta: The Interview (Kill the Messenger)

Matt Rodriguez — Thu, 09 Oct 2014 13:27:49 +0000

Kill The Messenger

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Michael Cuesta

Kill The Messenger

Shakefire sat down with Kill the Messenger director Michael Cuesta to talk about taking journalist Gary Webb's story of exposing the government's involvement in smuggling drugs into the United States during the 80s. Cuesta has made quite the name for himself, having worked on hit television shows like Homeland and on numerous films. Kill the Messenger also marks the third colaboration between Cuesta and lead actor/producer Jeremy Renner, having previously worked together on 12 and Holding and the pilot for The Oaks.

Shakefire (SF): How did you get involved with the film?
Michael Cuesta (MC): Well I came very late to the film. The script was adapted in like 08 by Peter Landesman, who was a journalist for I don’t know how long. He’s now working in Hollywood doing script doctoring and getting his own film going. And Scott Stuber at Universal developed it from the book, from Nick Schou’s book Kill the Messenger, as well as Gary’s book Dark Alliance. So the script came to me for I would say three reasons. My representatives brought it to me. I was halfway through the filming of Homeland, the second season. I was an EP and then directing the episodes. Obviously I think that’s one reason because “Oh, a CIA guy,” which is a typical business thing. It’s like, “Oh, put him in that box.” But also I had a working relationship with Jeremy [Renner]. Jeremy and I did a small film in 2005 together called 12 and Holding. A little movie, and he played a very interesting, very likeable character. He had just come playing Jeffrey Dahmer. We really liked working together and we stayed in touch and I did a TV project with him, a pilot that didn’t get picked up for FOX right when The Hurt Locker was breaking, but we stayed in touch. And when this came out and it came to me and Jeremy was attached. He was the thing that got the project out of turnaround. He was pretty adamant that he wanted me helming this because he trusted me with his performance. So that’s how it came to me and when I read the script I was like, “I remember the story.” I didn’t know the personal part of Gary’s story and the suicide; that happened many, many years later. I didn’t know the specifics of the story. I didn’t know the cast of characters like the amazing courtroom scene, which is really true, where he wrote the questions for that lawyer. So that’s real. I’ve never seen that as a set piece and to be able to realize that was really exciting.

SF: If this story came out nowadays with how prevalent social media is, do you feel it would have gone away like it did because it’s kinda been forgotten?
MC: If it came out now? I guess it depends where it comes out. Right now it seems who really breaks stories? How do the stories get big now? CNN? It seems like CNN and MSNBC or FOX News even. It’s these three stations that we all sort of flick back and forth on, at least I do. Or the New York Times, or someone writes an incendiary article in the New Yorker or something I guess. You know Gary, when they printed it, they were the first newspaper to use the internet and that was the first story to use it. That’s one of the reasons why it broke so big because people were clicking. What Gary was adamant about was doing that because the story had a high unbelievability factor to it so he put all the sources in there and all the links. Now when they do that now, I’m not familiar with how many journalists do that with the story online where you can really go check the sources. We don’t really get into that. I mean it’s mentioned in the movie briefly, but that’s I think something that made the story so incendiary and how it spread like wildfire. But it took the African-American community to blow it up and it took Maxine [Waters] and Reverend Al [Sharpton] and all those people who held those rallies. Maxine to this day stands by it.

SF: Talk about adapting this true story and combining that with the fictionalization of making a movie. I enjoyed how you injected clips from the news and interviews into the story.
MC: Yeah, the script had very little of that. It’s very much a post-production medium, like making a documentary to pull stuff. I knew we wanted to do something with the war on drugs, and Peter, his first draft had some references to it, just quick little bits, but always knew that this is going to be me in the editing room for seven months to figure out how to do it. So that was a good part of it. I had someone constantly researching anything to do with even as deep as Iran-Contra, which by the way, just to be clear Iran-Contra is not this. I mean, it is, but it wasn’t raised in Iran-Contra. Very little of it was. As far as the truth and did this really happen, we combined a lot of things and moved things around. A lot of Gary’s personal like didn’t go where the affair happened and things like that. We moved things around and Sue Webb, his wife who I spoke with extensively, was totally fine with it. She understands we were making a movie, too, so this is based on a true story. It’s not like a dramatization of exactly what happened. It was tricky. I have to say, though, movies are a director’s medium because I didn’t adapt the script. The script’s given to me, then I have to now take it. It’s a baton, and then I have to sort of fix things, because there were things in there that were so blatantly not true. There were things I had to change in script and also in post-production that even we didn’t know. And then the whole thing with Gary’s suicide. It happened six years after the mob piled on. He committed suicide and there was this idea of the producers wanting to put that in the film and use that and I was, for a while, really insecure about it. As a filmmaker, do you really need this, and I just can’t go there. He wasn’t murdered; he committed suicide. There was proof. He sent letters to his kids, Gary was a manic depressive and there’s other things we don’t totally go into and he struggled with that all his life. Ultimately, when he died he was depressed and shot himself. The idea of not bringing that into the movie, because if you bring that into the movie it becomes a conspiracy movie. It becomes who killed Gary Webb, rather than the story about that Gary was discredited for doing the right thing. I do believe, ultimately, that was his death. Going up the escalator was my way of doing a very simple poetic moment of a guy just leaving and he went out with great dignity and nobility at that speech. So to leave that part out was a decision I made.

SF: Obviously Jeremy Renner is the cornerstone of the project. Can you tell us about assembling the rest of the cast?
MC: Jeremy was also a cornerstone of that as a producer. He did have to make a call every once in a while. We went to Ray [Liotta] and I was like, “Jeremy, Ray hasn’t read it yet. Call him. I know you know him through your blah blah blah in LA.” And Jeremy had to put his producer hat on. Typically actors just show up and do their work, but he did help out with that. It was easy because all these guys were very important to the film. They were all the steps of piecing the story together. They were all the parts; they were all important roles. So getting people wasn’t hard. What’s wonderful is they’re very open because they’re clueless. Who knows most about what this film is? Me. So they were very much on the set behind what I needed to do and how I saw the scene.

SF: Can you talk about filming primarily in Georgia and creating these scenes in Nicaragua and the prison all located in the state?
MC: Look, if I could I would have went to the Caribbean, Puerto Rico, where you could get a tax rebate, etc. DC, we got DC, that was real. We all went to DC at the end and we shot for two days. It was great. We ended the film there with Michael Sheen. You know, I was worried a little bit, but when I started getting all the stuff from Sue, his wife, on what their house looked like I was amazed. It looked very close, the way it sat on the street, to foliage around it and this one neighborhood where we filmed his home. And then the newsrooms are the newsrooms. They’re all interior so they can be shot anywhere. Atlanta is good. It works kinda like LA. It’s got a lot of looks. You can get a good urban look. That whole street scene, the abduction, it’s supposed to be Panama. It’s this one weird street in downtown. It looks Caribbean because of the way it’s painted and it has these old bus stops or something. As soon as I saw it I was like that’s it, I’m done, it’s there.

SF: How has your work on Homeland, because these two are somewhat in a similar vein, influence your work with Kill the Messenger?
MC: You know, I would say it’s a really smart, well-made procedural. I saw, at least the first half of the movie as Gary puts it together, as really just a straight procedural. A guy’s putting a story together, what are the beats? Homeland was a lot of that. Homeland is about the internal workings of the CIA and is completely fictional. Just the complexity and imperfectness of how our government works and how just people are in both pieces.

SF: We’re in this crazy transitional period of film and television. Having worked in both, what’s your general opinion on where the line is between the two formats and what’s more interesting?
MC: Well you hear it all the time, it’s called major television right now. I think it’s because the advent of cable, premium cable and basic cable. That’s what it is, not having to answer to advertisers. The major networks are all about the commercials. They’re about keeping you watching the show to watch that Amex ad that’s going to come off that Act Three act out. I think most network television is total crap and I can’t watch it. I directed two network pilots that have been picked up and I just thought of it as just a movie or like that, but once I started editing I had to give it to them like that. I think because the way TV is now, I think television is more cinematic. TV tends to be, I have to say, the better part of television is really about the writing. It’s about the writing and I find most movies are about the marketing. Even the specialty indies are like how do we market this? It comes from that mindset. What’s the poster look like? Who’s in it? TV it’s about the scripts. If it’s really good writing they’ll make the pilot and hope it gets picked up. Look at Mad Men and all that. Also television a medium where you can explore a character with time. That’s why I like it too. It’s never about film or television, though. It’s really about the project and what medium is the best to tell that story.

Kill the Messenger is out in theaters on Friday, October 10, 2014.

Talent:

Michael Cuesta

Will Poulter & Kaya Scodelario: The Interview (The Maze Runner)

Matt Rodriguez — Thu, 18 Sep 2014 11:34:22 +0000

The Maze Runner

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Kaya Scodelario

Will Poulter

The Maze Runner

Shakefire (SF): How was it filming in the South?
Will Poulter (WP): It was great. I love the South. It’s really fun. People are so friendly. The food is insane. It’s just crazy hot. Louisiana was just madness. I think it was like 108 degrees close to 110 one day. It was nuts. It was the end of May beginning of July so it was the kinda hot period. That was actually all part of the challenge in shooting. It meant our jobs were easier in a way because you can’t fake that.

Kaya Scodelario (KS): I love it. I think it’s one of the most interesting places I’ve been in America. I find LA weird; I find LA a bit boring. There’s nothing there. In the South I love it. You can feel the culture, the history. Everyone’s got stories to tell. People are so friendly. I felt so at home.

SF: Can you talk about the sets of the film, especially the Map Room?
WP: Yeah, the map room is phenomenal and one of my favorite features of The Glade. It’s really incredible. A lot of what we see, pretty much all we see, in The Glade is there actually. The walls were extended in CGI and so too were the walls surrounding the Maze. We had 20 foot replicas. We see it’s big and they functioned, opening and closing. It meant we always had something to react off for a more naturalistic performance I think. That was something Wes was really keen to create for us. He didn’t want us to be acting against blue screen for the entire time. He just didn’t believe in that. And that was really great for us, really comforting as actors. We had to know that the visual effects, though there were many, weren’t going to shroud the acting experience or in anyway contend with our performances. So yeah, CGI was just added to parts that were already there. And the Maze was phenomenal.

KS: I think it’s really special to see that level of craftsmanship. There was a huge amount of crew there for months and months before we got there.I think that’s probably going to become rarer and rarer to see things that humans have built for the movies. It’s so exciting it’s like being a kid again. That’s what we dreamt what movie sets would look like, and maybe in 20 years time it won’t be like that. It’ll just be a giant blue screen. So I think it was special to get to see that and get to see all the locals building it all in a day. It felt like they were a part of it as well. I met some great characters that were there, and I love that kind of side of it. It felt kinda rare, which was kinda sad, but it was special.

SF: What was it like working with Wes, who is making his directorial debut with The Maze Runner?
KS: I get a buzz working with first-time directors. I’ve been so fortunate to work with really incredible first-time directors that just do things differently and aren’t afraid to rock the boat a bit with producers. Wes is just great. We were all kinda like, “He’s a young guy. We really like him. We get on with him. Is he going to be able to handle it? Is he going to lose his cool? He comes from a background of special effects. Is he going to know how to talk to us as actors?” And we ticked every box and we waited and waited for the day to come where he’d crack and he just never did. He never did. Not once did he raise his voice. Not once did he lose his cool. He was in control and he gained our respect straight away. He just has both sides of the coin, which again is so rare. And I think in 10 years time we’ll be like, “We got to work with him first.”

WP: Definitely. Wes Ball’s got potential. He has an unbelievable ability to present characters and not allow the narrative to get muddled in anyway. He’s just a brilliant storyteller.

SF: What attracted you to your characters in the film?
WP: I kinda wanted to play the dick. I really did. I wanted to play the guy who’s less likeable, certainly, and someone who’s, to me, very layered and a complex individual. I think behind the whole tough guy exterior is a little fear and he’s quite cowardly. So that was interesting for me to play someone who defended not only who he was but his home so defensively. He’s very territorial, almost animalistic in that sense. But just to be part of this project on a very fresh take on a trending theme in movies. To be part of a very unique story and to work among people like Kaya and such an awesome group of young up-and-coming actors was really exciting.

KS: I liked a lot of things about her. She’s a mystery. You kinda don’t find out anything about her. I like that it’s a journey. You have to commit to the three stories to really get who she is. I like that she makes certain decisions that a lot of people won’t agree with. It’s very human. For some reason we’re kinda scared of seeing a woman like that in film sometimes. We like them to be softened and delicate and do the right thing. I like that she doesn’t follow that pattern. When she arrives she’s not shaking hands and wanting to make friends. She’s straight away like, “Who the fuck are you guys? I want to get out of here. I don’t want to meet you. I don’t want to go on a date with you. I want to know who I am.” I love that focus. I love that bravery and that strength in her. I can’t wait if we get to do the second book. She makes this decision and a lot of people are going to be angry with her and not agree with her. I think to get to explore that as an actor is really great because I don’t even know if I’m going to agree with her or not, and I’m kinda interested to see how I can work through that.

SF: What was your experience like being the only girl on set?
KS: Honestly I never felt like the only girl on set. We were friends straight away and that’s special on any job. I love going to work with my friends. They didn’t treat me like a girl; they treated me with the same respect as anyone else. They didn’t change how they behaved in front of me, which I really liked. They’d still made their dick jokes, and fart, and perv and that was cool. That’s who they are. I love being around that. My friends back home in London, I’ve got a lot of guy friends. I’ve worked with a lot of guys that I really respect. It just felt like friends. And also there were a load of girlfriends that would come and visit. I flew my best friend Paige out. And I did need girl time and I had that as well.

SF: Your character you’re most known for is Effy from Skins is a lot like Teresa in that she’s mysterious and strong. Who do you think you relate more to?
KS: I think for me the reason I love Effy is that when I speak about her, when I think about her I feel something. She had so much going on up here, she’s such an interesting character to play from a mental health point of view. Whereas with Teresa there’s no memory, there’s no backstory, she’s just coming into the world again. She’s being reborn and she’s building her way up while Effy’s issues were always about dealing with the past, or not dealing with the past. And it was tough playing her for four years. I don’t know if I could really go back there. It was good at the time because I was going through those things personally, but now in my 20s I’m ready to explore something different, but she’s always really special to me.

SF: Will, what challenges did you have to face with balancing your character between being the somewhat villain of the film but also someone who looks out for the whole community.
WP: What’s awesome about this experience is that it was very collaborative. Wes engaged us every decision and he really took on our thoughts and welcomed our input. My concern with Gally initially just based on the book was how villainous he was. He was kinda an outright bad guy. I think what we tried to do with the script, we all agreed on this idea that Gally needed to be a little more justified, a little bit more understandable at times, a little bit more accessible. I think he need to voice the opinion of that group who may not be the majority. That group who don’t always be with Thomas, who appears a bit rash and lacking in sensibility. Gally’s the one who assesses things a little more conservatively. He sticks his hand up and says that this has been working for the last three years, why are we all of a suddenly following this newbie into what seems to be darkness? So yeah, what I hope comes across is the idea that although Gally isn’t the nicest boy in the world he goes about voicing his opinion in quite a heavy handed way, there is sense to this and there is an intelligent basis to the points that he raises.

SF: What is the most powerful scene for each of your characters?
KS: For me it’s the moment being up in the tree with Thomas, for many different reasons. It was a day where I spent the whole day with Dylan and I got to know him as a person really well. Got to know him as an actor. We kinda sized each other up as actors and learned how we could work together and clicked really well. That’s why I’m so excited to work with him again hopefully. We kinda have a buzz between us. And also for my character, that’s her one moment of softness. She allows herself to be scared and it’s really important to show that it’s only with Thomas that can happen because that sets up that connection for the next three movies and books. And it’s not romantic. It was our way, in the book they have a telepathic relationship, and we couldn’t do that in a movie because we were worried it would be cheesy. It’s just something that can’t really translate, so we just used that moment, that scene, to establish that connection and show that there is something there between them.

SF: Franchises like The Maze Runner have hugely passionate fans. How do you deal with the pressure and expectations of fans?
KS: You don’t think about it until the work’s done. That’s the most important part. When you’re on set coming into any character you put your full focus into that instead of thinking about fans or about this side of it or anything. When you’re there on set it’s about that. And that goes for whatever budget you’re on, whatever set you’re on, whoever the director is, whoever the actor is, it always has to be that same focus. And then you kinda get to this point and you stop to see it. It can be overwhelming and kinda scary, but I think Wes has done such a good job at keeping fans a part of this project. From the very beginning before any of us was cast he would chat with them on Twitter. He showed the first concept art on Twitter. Every time one of us was announced he would tweet us. I think he really made the fans of the book a part of this movie and they support it. They want it. They really want it to happen. They’ve all been excited.

WP: And their enthusiasm from the get-go, from the moment we were announced as being involved, really just infused us, fueled us, on set. It was always a reminder how great it’s going to be if we do a good job as opposed to it being some pressure that made us less confident or worried or out of our zone on set. It’s not progressive to be daunted by the pressure. You’ve just got to embrace it and take it on. It’s a little bit like performing into a live crowd.

Talent(s):

Will Poulter

Kaya Scodelario.

Taraji P. Henson: The Interview (No Good Deed)

Maria Jackson — Thu, 11 Sep 2014 13:43:26 +0000

No Good Deed

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No Good Deed

Taraji P. Henson

Academy Award nominated actress, Taraji P. Henson is on a tour to promote her co-starring role in the new thriller, “No Good Deed”. Henson not only stars as Terry, the suburban mom who is lost in a rocky marriage when she finds the handsome and charming Colin (played by Golden Globe winner Idris Elba) knocking on her door pleading for help, but also produced the film. Henson was not only instrumental in making sure that “No Good Deed” got to the silver screen, but also in making sure that Idris Elba became her co-star.

At a recent roundtable Henson discussed fighting to get “No Good Deed” made, what it was like to film a thriller, to become a producer, and reflects on the ten year anniversary of “Hustle & Flow”.

Shakefire (SF): I notice that there are not enough African American thrillers in the theaters. How do you feel about that and what do you think we should do to make it better?
Taraji P. Henson (TPH): Here’s a start right here. We really had to fight to get this made, because it hasn’t been done. And people frown, “Oh, it’s never been done, it’s uncharted territory!” Somebody has to take a risk. I think they were smart for doing this because now studios are like, “Oh, my God! Yeah!” Everything is about casting and script. If the script, the material is good, people are going to go. They won’t care what color the cast is.

We literally had to fight for this. They were like, “Oh, just do a comedy!” I was like, “NO, I will not do a comedy!” Not with these two actors! You have a Golden Globe winner and an Academy award nominated actress, these are respected actors in the game. They could totally do this. I’m so glad we fought, because this is the beginning. And that’s why I took the project. I was thinking, “When is the last time I saw a women stand up for herself and not be the victim in a thriller?” J-Lo in “Enough”, Julia Roberts in “Sleeping with the Enemy” That was how many years ago? It’s time! It’s time. And I think, women, no matter what color you are, mothers everywhere will identify with Terry.

SF: What was it like shooting in Atlanta?
TPH: This is my fourth movie here, but I love. It’s like coming home for me. The air is clean, you can see the stars, southern hospitality—I love that. I’m a southern girl at heart. Grew up in the city, but I spent a lot of summers in North Carolina with my grandmother. People like to feed you [laughs]!

“Girl, you look skinny, you need to eat!” I love that aspect. It’s just a sexy city. I’ve seen it grow over the years. I’ve always loved Atlanta; it’s just a booming metropolitan city. It’s really sexy here [laughs]!

SF: Are you a fan of thrillers yourself?
TPH: Not really, I’m a scary poo. I’m a chicken baby poo, all of that! I don’t want or like anything that makes me scared or gives me nightmares! I decided to stay in a five bedroom house, by myself while filming a thriller. We did all night shoots, so imagine me coming home, it’s dark, my assistant is leaving me, “Ok, I’ll see you in the morning!” I’m like, “Wait, wait, do you want to spend the night?” [Laughs]

And there was one room in the house that was locked. I swear to God, Jason was behind there! There was a long hallway to get to my bedroom and it felt like The Shining. I would literally run in the house, lock the door, set the alarm, and RUN to my bedroom, close the door and put a chair under it to go to sleep with the covers over my head! I will never do that again. That was so dumb!

SF: I want to talk about working with Sam a little bit. What was he like? Does he allow you to improve a little bit?
TPH: Yeah, I mean, everything in the script was really on the page. I love scripts like that because then when I’m improving it feels like I’m doing the writers’ job. The only time I feel like I need to improve is to make [the writing] better. I don’t remember ever doing a lot of adlib in this movie.

He [Sam] was comfortable with Idris and I. He was very easy to work with; I totally trusted him and his eye. I love Sam and I hope we get to work together again. I love his accent too.

SF: Was it a bit of a culture shock for him doing a film in the south? Sam being British and all?
TPH: I didn’t feel that from him. It almost felt like he had been to Atlanta before and knew the culture. I never even thought about it. He would go to the clubs with us! “Look at Sam!” [dances] We had a good time on the one day we had off.

SF: Did you do any of your own stunts in the film?

TPH: Well, you know, safety is first, because if you lose one of the lead actors suddenly we don’t have a movie! Idris and I were very adamant about making it look as real as possible, so we would do the stuns all the way up until the bookcase came crashing down on our head. Then it’s like, “Ok, can I swap out?” Or like when he threw me over the chair, that was clearly a stunt double. However for the most part, all that jumping on his back was real.

SF: Talk about working with Idris.
TPH: He’s ugly, he’s fat and he has a dumb accent! No, Idris is great. He is very charming, very charismatic. To me, charming, charismatic people make the best bad guys because even though they’re really twisted, you kind of want them to get away a little bit. You don’t want to play a bad guy that everyone hates anyway because then you lose the audience. I thought that was very important when considering who we cast as Colin. We didn’t want people to actually hate him. You want to see why he ended up like that.

I really enjoyed working with him.

SF: What was it like producing the No Good Deed?

TPH: Actually, it was tough, man! The best performance was talking Idris into doing it, because he had already booked Mandela. He was on his way to South Africa and I was like, “Oh, oh, not so fast! You said you were going to do this movie and my son is about to go to college, and I had that movie set aside for his tuition. Please, [fake cries] you have to do this! I’m a single mother!”

I pulled the “single mother card”, yes, I did! Whatever works! I just realized that being a producer you must have the gift of gab. You’re not just dealing with the actor. You’re dealing with the actor, the actor’s ego, and the actor’s team and their ego; because the team always has an opinion. So, I have to figure out how to get around the team and talk to the actor and say, “I’ve never seen you play this role before. Isn’t the whole objective to show your range?” It’s tough. A lot of people don’t return your calls or they don’t read the script. I get personally offended by that [laughs], even though I know I shouldn’t. It’s probably karma because I didn’t read every script!

SF: You mentioned going to clubs. Did you have time to immerse yourself in the music scene at all?
TPH: Well, yeah, with other projects where I had a weekend. This project we literally worked six days a week; Sunday was our only off day and I honestly couldn’t get out of bed most times. Night shoots, you know?

SF: What is your next music project? Are we going to see an album coming out any time soon?
TPH: No album! Honestly, I think I missed that. The patience it takes. The music industry is very shady and I don’t have the patience for it. I’m too old, I think I missed that. Eventually, I’ll end up on Broadway doing a show or a musical. I don’t wake up every day and vocalize; it’s not my first passion. I’m not tone deaf, but I don’t think I’m trying to go toward—I don’t have the patience for that!

SF: You’re definitely a role model for young African-American women. Do you feel any pressure when going about your daily life to be example? How do you handle that?
TPH: No, I don’t put that kind of pressure on myself. I have respect for myself. I have morals and values. I don’t have to prove anything to anybody; this is just who I am. I have a son, first off, so there are certain things that I can’t do—my child has to respect me. If he’s going to go out into this world and respect women, it starts with his mother. It has nothing to do with being a role model. I can’t raise everybody’s child and I am human. I am flawed and just as screwed up as the next person, so if someone decides to choose me as a role model, I’m honored. But do know that I am not perfect!

SF: Sam Miller has also acted, besides directing. Do you think that helped him with this?
TPH: Absolutely. He just knows! There are some directors that don’t know how to talk to actors and where they are and how to help them enhance exactly what they have. You just have to know how to talk to an actor and he does. I had no issues with him directing me at all. I hope we get to work together again. And he’s so damn cute! I just kept pinching his cheeks! I know he was wondering, “I am not five! Why does she keep pinching my cheeks?” It was the accent!

SF: So Terry and her husband have marital issues in the movie. What was their back story coming into where we see them in film?

TPH: That was part of my homework. I just figured that it was beautiful in the beginning; they’ve got the seven year itch. She has two children, lost herself, and has postpartum depression— which really happens! She had a toddler and an infant, so she was fresh post-partum from the first time and it just kind of lingered along. She was a district attorney, she put a lot of bad guys in jail and now all of a sudden she’s frumpy and she doesn’t feel sexy anymore. She’s got food and poo all over her! This is not the Terry that once was before the marriage and the kids. That’s what her husband fell in love with.

And y’know, sometimes as women we lose ourselves in the family and the man and [Terry] is a prime example of what happens. And that affected her choice making and decision making, because if she was the Terry from before, she would have never opened the door for that guy. She would’ve questioned him right away, “Why’re you in my neighborhood? People don’t just walk up to the door. We don’t even have sidewalks! Who are you?” But because she was fresh off of her husband leaving her with her kids, she’s feeling very, very vulnerable. No man has looked at her and said she’s sexy in how many years? And here this fine man is at the door saying these things? You know, she’s just lost herself a bit. Ironically enough, this man shows up and it’s a blessing and curse, because through that she finds her strength and herself again. She got it back though; she had no choice.

SF: We’re approaching the 10th year anniversary of “Hustle & Flow”
TPH: Really?

SF: Isn’t it crazy? 2005! How do you look back on that now? It was such a groundbreaking moment in film. What do you think of it in retrospect?
TPH: God, I didn’t know it’s been ten years. I’m excited to be working with Terrence Howard again in “Empire”. Wow, it was just a great experience. Again, it was one of those projects that nobody believed in. The industry was like, “A black pimp and a white ho’?!?! NOOO!! Nononononono!” [Laughter] But we’re all artists, so we read deeper than that. Everybody that was on that project was there because they believed in the story; they believed in the people and the script was amazing! We all got paid peanuts to do it, so literally everyone was there because they wanted to be there. That’s very, very rare. As a producer now, it’s like “Geeze Louise, I want to do a ‘Hustle & Flow’!” You know that movie that the studio thumbed down and then at Sundance they’re in a bidding war!

SF: How do you know which project is right for you?
TPH: First of all, I look at the character and if it’s something I haven’t done before, then I’m automatically interested. I like to push and challenge myself. I like to do things I haven’t done before. I’m a trained actress, so you can’t pigeon hole me. I can play anything. I could play a man! I can’t wait to do that. I just love what I do. I’m creative person and I have to stay creative or I’ll just wither up like a raisin. Its starts with that question, “Have I done it before?” Then I read the script. If I’m asleep by page five, then clearly it’s not a good script. But if it’s a page turner and it makes me scared—anything that makes me scared and nervous, I have to do it. I have this thing where I have to overcome fear.

SF: This was such an emotional rollercoaster for your character. Did you shoot the film in order?

TPH: No.

SF: That must’ve been tough!

TPH: Yeah! The first day, we didn’t have time and we had to hurry up. We had a limited amount of time with Idris and then we had to get him out. That’s why we filmed six days a week. And I told Idris, “I will work seven days a week, whatever it takes.” I just felt this movie was so important that I was really, honestly willing to work seven days.

I finished “Person of Interest” ran to the car, went to the jet, came here and began shooting the next day. And we started with the big fight scene that first day. I was exhausted coming off of that grueling schedule with “Person of Interest” right into another grueling schedule, but with a different character. How do you prepare? I had no time! But I was living with script for about four years, so I knew who she was. It took us three days to film that big fight scene too.

SF: Well, I’m really excited about “Empire”!
TPH: Me, too!

SF: Can you give us more information on the show is going to be about?
TPH: It’s a around a record label that my and Terrence Howard’s character started when they were really, really young. They have two sons. He’s the talent and I was the manager. But the way we acquired the money to start the label was illegal, because we were selling drugs. We got busted and my character made the ultimate sacrifice, like mothers do. She’s not the talent so if her husband had gone away [to prison], who was going to feed the kids? So, she took the fall.

The crazy thing about Cookie is that she has so much pain. She goes away for seventeen years, meanwhile, the record label is about to go public. All these years her husband has been building up his steam, building up Empire to its name and it’s about to go public. She’s been in jail watching it all happen and no of them came to visit her, except one of her sons. She gets out of jail and it’s like, “I’m coming to get what’s mine. You’re not going to leave me to rot in some prison cell. I started this.”

So now the company is going public, Terrence Howard’s character has to choose—it’s very “King Lear”—which son is going to take over in case something might happen to him. Then it becomes the battle of the brothers. It’s very “Dynasty” meets “Sopranos” meets hip-hop version of “Glee”

SF: I saw it was a musical as well. Are you going to be singing?
TPH: Yes, it’s a musical. Timbaland is going to be doing the music. I’m faux playing the piano in the pilot, but it’s more about me managing my son and Terence is managing one of the other sons and we’re battling each other. It’s really good. Just get ready for the Cookie Craze. You’ll understand when you see it.

SF: You said you like challenges and you like pushing yourself. Besides playing man, what else would you want to do that you haven’t done yet?

TPH: A superhero, iconic figure. I believe Terry was a superhero but she didn’t have the cape! I want the cape! And I want special powers!

SF: Thank you.
TPH: Thank you! Are you kidding? This was the best part of the day!

Talent:

Taraji P. Henson

Samuel L. Jackson: The Interview (Captain America: The Winter Soldier)

Peter Oberth — Tue, 09 Sep 2014 13:19:59 +0000

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Samuel L. Jackson

Captain America Interviews

AN INTERVIEW WITH SAMUEL L. JACKSON FOR THE BLU-RAY AND DVD RELEASE OF CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER

Marvel’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier is the second chapter in the thrilling Captain America movie franchise. The exhilarating story follows Marvel’s First Avenger, Captain America, along with Black Widow and their new ally The Falcon as they battle their most mysterious and powerful enemy yet, the Winter Soldier.

With the blockbuster superhero movie about to be released on 3D Blu-ray, Blu-ray, DVD and Digital HD, we catch up with Samuel L. Jackson – who stars as Nick Fury – to find out about her experience on the iconic Marvel project…

Also, read our interviews with: CHRIS EVANS | KEVIN FEIGE

SHAKEFIRE (SF):

What went through your mind when you first read the script for Marvel’s Captain America: The Winter Solider?

SAMUEL L. JACKSON (SJ):

I’m always excited to do more with this character, especially because Nick Fury seems to grow with each film. When I read the script for The Winter Soldier for the first time, I realized that it was more than just a comic book feature. It had intrigue and it was complex.

SF:

What do you think surprised the audience the most about the new movie?

SJ:

I’m sure a lot of young people were surprised when they watched the movie because they actually had to think about something other than what’s going on. They had to figure out a plot. Things like that always excite me. When I put on the eye patch this time, I was looking forward to doing a lot more compelling things than I had done before. After reading the script, I realized I was going to have the opportunity to do a lot more with this character.

SF:

What do you think of the villain of Marvel’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier?

SJ:

I think that it’s really difficult to have a great hero movie unless you have a really, really, really great villain. The greater the villain, the greater the movie – and there’s a really great villain in this movie. And the great villain is not just the villain that we see on screen.

SF:

How did it feel to be returning to a blockbuster Marvel movie set with actors like Chris Evans and Scarlett Johansson?

SJ:

It’s always a great, great joy to know that I’m going to be back in a space with all the people that I enjoy working with. It’s also a great joy to be able to do the things that I did on a very small scale when I was a kid. You know what? This is a dream come true. You sit there and you read comic books when you’re a kid, and you wonder if there’s a world like that out there. Then you grow up as an actor and they start making movies about these worlds. That’s when you start to wonder, ‘How do I get in that movie?’ And then, the next thing you know, you’re inside it and you’re thinking, ‘Yeah!’ It’s great. They are all pluses.

SF:

Robert Redford is a stellar addition to the cast of Marvel’s Captain America: The Winter Solider. What does his presence bring to the film?

SJ:

There’s a certain amount of gravitas when you have an actor like Robert Redford in a film, even though I’m sure quite a few of the kids watching the film are going to say, “Who is he?” Their parents will have to tell them. It also changes the audience that we may get for the film just because he’s there, because they understand he has a certain amount of respect for the work that he does and the kind of things that he attaches his name to. In that sense, I’m sure we will get a new audience, which is great.

SF:

Would you agree that the movie feels like a 1970s political thriller in some ways, which is another reason why Robert Redford is a great addition to the cast?

SJ:

Sure. It has a real Three Days Of The Condor aspect to this film. I love that.

SF:

In that sense, the movie’s directors – Anthony and Joe Russo – insisted on a real world grounding for Marvel’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier and its political themes. How did that affect your experience?

SJ:

I don’t like working on films that aren’t grounded in some way. It doesn’t have to be a ‘real world’ grounding, but once I know the ground rules of the world that they’re in then I would want them to adhere to those ground rules. We’re constantly trying to make sure that everything makes sense in terms of what we did in the earlier movie and how everything is connected. I’m one of those people who insists on things like that, even in that crazy car chase.

SF:

At the beginning of Marvel’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier, a certain amount of time has passed since the iconic events of New York in Marvel’s The Avengers. What has changed in Nick Fury’s world during this time?

SJ:

He’s gotten the S.H.I.E.L.D. initiative passed and they are building the bigger, better heli-carriers that he wanted. Captain America is still trying to find his way in this world and he’s starting to realize that the price of freedom has changed in terms of how the government protects its people. They protect them with fear rather than with patriotism.

SF:

How would you describe the relationship between Nick Fury and Steve Rogers [aka Captain America] at the start of the movie?

SJ:

Steve still doesn’t trust Nick Fury, but he understands and knows that his heart is in the right place. They are both patriots; they just come from a different era. Their relationship is semi-adversarial but they both have a great amount of respect for each other.

SF:

Ideally, what do you want audiences to feel after they’ve watched the movie?

SJ:

I want them to be excited, period. I want them to understand that they watched a film that was about more than just things blowing up and superheroes fighting each other. I want them to understand that there was a political consequence there. I want them to know that we have made a statement about the price of freedom and what it actually is, and that redemption is still possible. That’s how I’d like the audience to feel.

Talent:

Samuel L. Jackson

Kevin Feige: The Interview (Captain America: The First Avenger)

Peter Oberth — Tue, 09 Sep 2014 13:01:40 +0000

Captain America: The First Avenger

Captain America: The First Avenger

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Kevin Feige

Captain America Interviews

AN INTERVIEW WITH KEVIN FEIGE FOR THE BLU-RAY, DVD AND DIGITAL HD RELEASE OF CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER

With the blockbuster superhero movie about to be released on 3D Blu-ray, Blu-ray, DVD and Digital HD, we catch up with producer Kevin Feige to find out about his experience on the iconic Marvel project…

Also, read our interviews with: CHRIS EVANS | SAMUEL L. JACKSON

SHAKEFIRE (SF):

How does the tone of Marvel’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier compare to the tone of the first Captain America movie?

KEVIN FEIGE (KF):

They are very different. Marvel’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier is an action film and a contemporary thriller; and it takes place entirely in the modern day. Marvel’s Captain America: The First Avenger was a World War II film. Steve Rogers’ origin is in World War II and that was very important to introduce his character, but at the end of that film we see his first adventure in the modern day. This film is all about Steve’s experience in finally coming to terms with living in the modern day. It gave us an opportunity to make a very, very different film.

SF:

How would you describe your experience of working with the movie’s two directors, Anthony and Joe Russo?

KF:

It was great. The Russo brothers have done an amazing job for us on this movie. It’s the first time we’d ever worked with two directors, so we weren’t quite sure what to expect – but they’ve been director-partners for many years and they’ve been brothers their entire life. They certainly have the banter down pat.

SF:

Why did you decide to hire the brothers to direct this huge Marvel blockbuster?

KF:

We have a very simple way that we choose directors at Marvel. They have to have done something we felt was really cool, at least once, but it doesn’t have to be another big movie. I love the work that the Russos have done on TV, in particular with Arrested Development and Community, which is much cooler than any televised sitcom has reason to be. We got them in the room because I was a fan.

SF:

How did that first meeting go?

KF:

We started pitching them the storyline and the 70s thriller theme, and they immediately got it and started building on it. They’re very, very clever and they elevate material. That’s what we wanted, somebody to take our ideas for a contemporary version of Captain’s story and to translate The Winter Soldier comic book by Ed Brubaker onto the screen. They pulled it off.

SF:

What’s the first step in the process of translating a comic book story to the big screen? And how faithful do you remain to the original stories?

KF:

All of our movies start with a pile of comics and a blank sheet of paper. In this case, the comics were Brubaker’s The Winter Soldier run because it was so well done. The tone of that comic was of a conspiracy thriller and we wanted this tone for the movie. Plus, the main antagonist, the Winter Soldier, is revealed to have a very deep connection with Captain America. We love that. Whenever you can find a villain who has such a personal connection to your hero, you run at the chance to use it. We changed some things because the story has to take place in our cinematic universe, but mainly we wanted to keep to what the comic had established.

SF:

What does the dynamic between Captain America and the Winter Soldier bring to Steve’s character?

KF:

Well, so much of this movie is about Captain coming to terms with the fact that he can never go back to where he’s from. He can’t return to the 1940s, so when he thinks he’s finding his place in this world and he’s learning how to deal with it, something from the past comes back and unsettles all of that. That thing, of course, is the Winter Soldier.

SF:

Can you talk about the pairing of Black Widow and Captain America in Marvel’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier?

KF:

The notion of teaming Chris Evans and Scarlett Johansson as Steve Rogers and Natasha Romanoff [aka Black Widow] was very exciting to us. On the surface, Steve is very black and white with a very moralistic centre. Black Widow has been a spy since she was a little girl and she deals – like Nick Fury does – in shades of gray. Putting those two together was going to add to a lot of fun conflict.

SF:

Robert Redford brings a lot of cachet to Marvel’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Why was it so important to cast him as Alexander Pierce?

KF:

It was the highlight of our careers at Marvel to have Mr. Redford come on board. This film was designed to be a big Marvel action film but, at the same time, we wanted it to be a kind of political thriller. When you look at the best political thrillers from the 1970s, almost all of them starred Robert Redford. Three Days Of The Condor was a big influence for us. And I think he recognized that. He has grandkids that are fans of our films and he said he wanted to do a movie that his grandkids could see. It was beyond perfect.

SF:

How would you describe your experience of working with Robert Redford?

KF:

It was an amazing experience. Having him play Alexander Pierce – the man who recruited Nick Fury into S.H.I.E.L.D many years ago – allowed us to continue to explore the mythology of S.H.I.E.L.D and of Marvel. It was amazing to have an actor of the caliber of Robert Redford in the center of that.

SF:

Can you explain how the political thrillers of the 1970s inspired Marvel’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier?

KF:

We want all our movies to be in slightly different genres and to be different from each other. We would get bored making and watching these movies if they were all cookie-cutter copies of each other. Iron Man 3 is different from Thor: The Dark World, which is different from the 70s thriller of The Winter Soldier. We are still in a big Marvel action adventure movie but we add a different texture and tone. The elements of Captain America being on the run and struggling with a looming conspiracy within the government and S.H.I.E.L.D set this one apart.

SF:

As you branch off into more sequels and other franchises, what key components do you look for in a story?

KF:

You always want to make sure that it’s a story you want to revisit. With Captain America, it made sense to do another one because we hadn’t spent much time with him in the modern world. In the first movie, he wakes up in modern day New York at the end of the film. In The Avengers, he has no time to breathe because he is meeting all these other characters and he’s battling with aliens. This is the first time he can settle into what his life means in modern day.

SF:

Why do you think Captain America has become such a popular and endearing character to audiences around the world, and not just the American market?

KF:

I think people relate to the character of Steve Rogers more than his nationality. There is a wish-fulfillment aspect to him; he’s a good and noble guy, and people aspire to be that. He isn’t affected by ego or wealth; he is the polar opposite of Tony Stark [Iron Man].

SF:

What is your proudest achievement in creating this epic, new Captain America movie?

KF:

For me, it was the tone. The idea of doing a sequel to a film – or a sequel to two films because this is really a sequel to The Avengers as much as it is a sequel to Captain America: The First Avenger – is a delicate balance. It was difficult to say that we were going to do a sequel and make it in a different genre from the first one. That is what our directors, the Russo brothers, pulled off in an incredible way. I couldn’t be happier with the result.

Talent:

Kevin Feige

Chris Evans: The Interview (Captain America: The Winter Soldier)

Peter Oberth — Tue, 09 Sep 2014 02:28:37 +0000

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Chris Evans

Captain America Interviews

AN INTERVIEW WITH CHRIS EVANS FOR THE BLU-RAY AND DVD RELEASE OF MARVEL’S CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER

With the blockbuster superhero movie about to be released on 3D Blu-ray, Blu-ray, DVD and Digital HD, we catch up with Chris Evans – who plays Steve Rogers, aka Captain America – to find out about his experience on the iconic Marvel project…

Also, read our interviews with: SAMUEL L. JACKSON | KEVIN FEIGE

SHAKEFIRE (SF):

What went through your mind when you read the script for Marvel’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier?

CHRIS EVANS (CE):

When I read the script, it didn’t feel like a superhero movie; it felt like a very grounded political thriller with a 70’s espionage vibe. It still had the action sequences, the dialogue and the tone of a superhero movie – but I talked to [the movie’s directors] Joe and Anthony Russo and they had such a good vision for it. The direction where they wanted to push the film is a bit of a deviation from the Marvel formula in terms of tone. I was all for it. Anything that Marvel wants to do, they’re going to do well.

SF:

How does the story of the sequel compare to Captain America: The First Avenger?

CE:

There’s so much information that you have to cram into origin films that you can’t dive into the character struggle. Captain America’s biggest struggle in the first movie was not being able to physically achieve what he wanted to achieve. In The Avengers, we had so many characters coming to the table that we couldn’t spend too much time with anyone. In this movie, you get to see a little bit more of an internal battle with Captain America. He’s such a selfless guy, so it’s hard to see him find conflict because he will just take it on his back. It’s nice to see him at odds.

SF:

What else is new in the sequel?

CE:

Robert Redford! Marvel does an amazing job of finding great people to fit certain roles, and we’ve got a lot of great new people in this movie. Between Robert Redford, Anthony Mackie and Emily VanCamp, there are a lot of great people on board.

SF:

What’s it like to work alongside Robert Redford?

CE:

Robert Redford is amazing. It was pretty intimidating at first because he is a living legend. However, it’s always a treat when someone you look up to lives up to the expectation. He could have very easily come on set and hijacked the film; not just as an actor, but as a director with all his experience. He could have easily taken over. Instead, he showed up with the utmost professionalism. On the first day we filmed, we shot until 1am and he stuck around for my off-camera scenes. He really is an example of what it is to be great.

SF:

What did you enjoy the most about working with the movie’s directors, Joe and Anthony Russo?

CE:

Anthony and Joe are great. They are very normal people. You talk to them and you feel very comfortable; there is not much you can’t say to them. They are wildly articulate with their vision, and they know what they want. They have conviction. The most comforting thing an actor can feel from a director is that they know what they want. They have answers to questions. These guys know film. They know what’s good and what’s bad. You trust their internal barometer. As an actor, it’s a very comforting thing.

SF:

How did it feel to wear the Captain America costume again?

CE:

I thought it was supposed to get more comfortable, but it always feels like it gets tighter. It’s got worse. I’m not joking! To be honest, they always make improvements on the costume in every movie and it is the type of thing that loosens up once you get a good sweat going. It’s great.

SF:

Is it exciting to wear the costume again?

CE:

Sure. It’s very exciting to wear it again, but a lot of it has to do with the fact that you know you’re making good movies. If you were disappointed with the previous film, it would be hard to mentally prepare yourself for living in that costume for four or five months. But since Marvel can’t stop making quality movies, it’s exciting and it’s humbling and it’s an honor to jump back into the costume – no matter how uncomfortable it is.

SF:

How long does it take to get into the costume?

CE:

Getting into the suit is not a one-man job. You need someone else to help you, but you can probably get into it in around five to seven minutes. It starts to get tricky if you have to go to the bathroom because it’s not built that way. If you have to go, the whole thing might have to come off!

SF:

Captain America’s friendship with Sam Wilson – aka The Falcon – blossoms in this new movie. How would you describe the relationship between these two characters?

CE:

Captain America is still a man out of time. Even though he’s become acclimated to this modern era, he’s still relatively alone. In a way, Steve Rogers is a celebrity. He wears a mask when he fights, but everybody knows what he looks like. He’s been frozen for seventy years and there’s a feeling of alienation that can come from that, but Sam Wilson treats him like a regular man. Instead of trying to talk to him as Captain America, the superhero, he talks to him as a soldier. There’s a bond that is formed very quickly and it’s certainly something that Steve Rogers needs at this point in his life.

SF:

How would you describe Captain America’s relationship with Black Widow in the movie?

CE:

Steve Rogers and Black Widow are very different people. Black Widow has made a life out of deceit and being a spy, but Steve Rogers’ life is saturated in value and honesty; he couldn’t lie if he wanted to. They are an interesting pairing and an odd couple, but they have to trust one another in this movie in a way that they’ve never trusted each other before. They don’t exactly approach things the same way, but they are forced to work together and they end up learning quite a lot from each other, too.

SF:

What physical training did you tackle in order to prepare for the highly physical role of Captain America in the sequel?

CE:

We tried to step up Captain America’s fighting ability in this movie. Part of that involved making him move in a more acrobatic, fluid style, so we did about a month of gymnastics classes to prepare for the fight choreography – and it was so much fun. There was a lot of rolling and tumbling and flipping and spinning. There was a lot of trying to keep things fluid and coordinated, and not stepping on your own feet. I was like a little kid!

SF:

What can you tell us about the action scenes of the movie?

CE:

There are a lot more fight scenes in this movie. It’s a whole new level of combat, so there was a lot more training and a lot more choreography. In order to make those scenes look right, you have to know the choreography inside and out.

SF:

You are contracted to play Captain America in six Marvel movies. Was it tough to commit to the character for such a long period of time?

CE:

It’s a tricky situation because it was 2010 when we started this, but we won’t finish until maybe 2017 or 2018. Who knows when this is going to be all said and done? That’s a big chunk of time, so it was very daunting. It was a big commitment and a lifestyle change, too.

SF:

You’ve mentioned in the past that you were initially hesitant to sign up for the role because you didn’t want to be typecast and you were worried about losing your anonymity. How do you feel about it now?

CE:

Had I not done these movies it would have been the biggest mistake of my life. It really would have been my biggest regret, and there are plenty. It’s changed everything for me. It’s enabled me to do things outside of these movies, but it’s also comforting to know that you’re making good movies. It would be a nightmare to be trapped in this contract if you were making films that you weren’t proud of – but Marvel has the Midas touch. Every time I suit up, I know that I’m making something of quality, and it’s rewarding on every level. Thankfully, I had the right people in my life pushing me to make the right decision. I couldn’t be happier.

Talent:

Chris Evans

Fred Schepisi: The Interview (Words and Pictures)

Matt Rodriguez — Fri, 06 Jun 2014 12:51:35 +0000

Words And Pictures