CHICAGO– “No soup for you!” is one of the most memorable TV catchphrases of the 1990s, uttered into immortality by actor Larry Thomas on “Seinfeld,” who portrayed “The Soup Nazi.” Thomas was in the Chicago area recently to act in “Mind Over Mindy,” a new comedy from writer/director Robert Alaniz.

Larry Thomas was born in Brooklyn, and has been a working actor since the 1980s. He made his appearance on “Seinfeld” in 1996, and garnered an Emmy nomination for his Soup Nazi role, and he also appeared in the final episode of “Seinfeld.” Since then, he has continued to do character roles in TV and films such as “Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery,” “Arrested Development,” “Scrubs,” a spoof called “Zero Dark Dirty” and Robert Alaniz’s previous film “You Don’t Say!”.

He also continues to appear as The Soup Nazi at events, including a recent 25th anniversary celebration of “Seinfeld’s” first season, when he threw out the first pitch at on “Seinfeld Night” for the Brooklyn Cyclones minor league baseball team.

Larry Thomas in Robert Alaniz’s ‘You Don’t Say!’
Photo credit: Sole Productions

HollywoodChicago.com talked to Larry Thomas at a break while on set with “Mind Over Mindy,” the most recent independent film for writer and director Robert Alaniz, who also participated in the interview.

HollywoodChicago.com: You are back collaborating with Robert Alaniz on his latest comedy, ‘Mind Over Mindy.’ Besides the fact that he asked you to be in it, what other points about Robert’s style brought you back to his set?

Larry Thomas: I like the way he works, he’s easy on the actors, making us feel like what we’re doing is right. He’s also very collaborative, he likes to work with with you on creating the character and establishing the different motivations for them.

HollywoodChicago.com: What is your role in the film and how are you approaching doing something different than what you did in Alaniz’s last film, ‘You Don’t Say’?

Thomas: Robert and I created this character together, he was writing ‘Mind Over Mindy’ while I was in town for the premiere of ‘You Don’t Say!’ We started talking about a therapist character, and what makes them crazy. We came up with an idea that he was schizophrenic, and we liked that because it was funny.

As we started working on it, and created a short film for the Indiegogo campaign of ‘Mind Over Mindy,’ it occurred to us that there was a lot of logic as to why this character was schizophrenic. Because he is a therapist, he doesn’t feel comfortable with his anger, so he has created another personality to feel the anger for him.

HollywoodChicago.com: How is it working out?

Thomas: It’s working out fine, because all of the dialogue is leading up to it. Tom – the main character in the film – keeps saying things that make me angry, and that creates the little outbursts of this other personality, so it’s actually working out really well.

HollywoodChicago.com: You were born Larry Tomashoff, and your origins allow you to play various ethnic roles over the years. What is your true ethnic origin and how do you think it allows the range of ethnicities that you’ve portrayed?

Thomas: I’m three-quarters Russian and one-quarter Romanian, I think it was that one-quarter Romanian that made me darker that other members of my family [laughs]. I somehow got stuck with the darkest coloring than anybody in my family. When I was a kid, people thought I was Italian, Greek or Middle Eastern. In junior college theater, directors always wanted to cast me to do ‘the foreign guy.’ So I did get good at doing dialects, which helps me a lot now, and now those are the types of characters I play.

Robert Alaniz: Larry and I were talking about that last night. I was referred to Larry when I did ‘You Don’t Say!,’ and I remember asking the director that referred him, ‘does he look Mexican to you?’ [Thomas portrayed a Mexican businessman]. And he said, ‘yeah, he could pass for Mexican.’ [laughs] That’s how I cast him.

HollywoodChicago.com: Okay, so when you and Larry were talking about ‘Mind After Mindy’ during your last film’s debut, how did you subsequently develop the character from there, and make it work for this film?

Alaniz: Larry and I had just made an appearance on WCIU-TV here in Chicago, which syndicates ‘Seinfeld,’ and since we had some time to kill I told him about the idea for a guy that dreams about this one girl, which ruins all his other relationships, and so he goes to see this therapist to understand the reason for all this. One of the things that bother me is that with doctors, there is always a bad one out there, and – as George Carlin once said – someone has an appointment to see him tomorrow.

So the situation was I could I take this therapist, who seems completely normal, and yet he has ‘something wrong with him.’ Larry and I started talking about it, and schizophrenia came up, which sounded fun. So what if the character was sitting and talking to the therapist, and another voice starts coming from the doctor. Larry started doing the voices, and it was really funny. So I wanted to give him a bigger part – because I really liked working with him on ‘You Don’t Say!’ – so I cast him as Dr. Fisher.

HollywoodChicago.com: You’ve done Middle Eastern characters, a perceived enemy of the United States. When you’re doing something like the spoof ‘Zero Dark Dirty,’ or the script allows you some room, what kind of subtlety do you want to create beyond just the instruction ‘be the enemy’?

Larry Thomas as ‘The Soup Nazi’ Photo credit: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

Thomas: It depends on the character, every role I do inspires me to want to do something different. When I played Osama Bin Laden in the film ‘Postal,’ I played him as kind of a frustrated figurehead, because he’s got an army of guys who think if they’ve killed they’ll have 100 virgins waiting for them in the afterlife. And that right there is what causes him trouble, because they can’t think on their own. I liked that idea, because he ends up in a management seminar at a Holiday Inn to figure out how to handle these guys.

In ‘Zero Dark Dirty’ I played a nice guy, kind of a dramatic part, in which I get to be sensitive and cry. I just wanted to do it because it gives people an opportunity to see another side of what I can do.

HollywoodChicago.com: You recently participated in the 25th Anniversary of ‘Seinfeld,’ celebrating your most famous role. Besides everything that character did for you, do you find after 25 years that your work should be separating you from him, or do you continue to want to celebrate him?

Thomas: I feel that my work separates me from him. Whenever anybody asks me whether I’ve gotten any roles besides The Soup Nazi, that’s obviously frustrating, but it also shows that people don’t recognize me in the other things I’ve done. Which means I’m doing it right as a character actor.

But the thing about The Soup Nazi that I love, and it goes on and on - people love the character because he is cool. I like being known for a cool character. For example, I was recently interviewed for Rolling Stone magazine, and the guy asked if I like being associated with the character. I replied, well let me put it this way, I’m being interviewed by the Rolling Stone [laughs]. Most of the time, I’m not even cool enough to read Rolling Stone. I do enjoy the connection.

HollywoodChicago.com: So besides any circumstance having to do with your most famous character, at what point in your acting career did you turn around and wonder, ‘how did I get here?’

Thomas: Every minute I wonder that. Back when I decided to be an actor, never in my wildest dreams did I think it would have happened like this. I may have had four or five scenarios I could have imagined, but none of them are this.

By PATRICK McDONALD Senior Staff Writer HollywoodChicago.com pat@hollywoodchicago.com

CHICAGO– What can be said for a man who has portrayed Jesus close to 5,000 times, and starred in the definitive Broadway and film versions of the most famous rock opera about Christ? Ted Neeley is as virtuous as his famous title role in “Jesus Christ Superstar.”

Ted Neeley had the perfect show business start when coming of age in the 1960s. After venturing out of his native Texas to find a music career in Los Angeles, Neeley landed the role of Claude in both the Los Angeles and New York versions of “Hair” in 1969. The director of that show remembered Neeley when he was casting for the Broadway stage version of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s rock opera, “Jesus Christ Superstar.” He understudied in New York, and played the role on Broadway and in Los Angeles. That garnered interest from the producers of the 1973 film version, and he portrayed Jesus once again for director Norman Jewison.

Ted Neeley, Superstar, at the “Hollywood Show Chicago” in 2013
Photo credit: Joe Arce of Starstruck Foto for HollywoodChicago.com

After completing the film, Neeley turned to acting, music and film scoring, including Robert Altman’s “A Perfect Couple.” But the specter of his most famous role continued to follow him. He reprised his Jesus in the late 1970s, and would produce a touring company of the show in the 1990s that ended up running five years. In all – including a revival of the show in 2006, Neeley has portrayed Jesus over 5,000 times.

The spiritual Mr. Neeley sat down to talk with HollywoodChicago.com last year at the “Hollywood Show” Chicago, an annual event in which fans can mingle, take photographs and get autographs from the celebrities who appear there. The next session of the “Hollywood Show” Chicago will take place in Rosemont, Ill., on August 15th-17th, 2014. For complete details and ticket purchase information, click here.

HollywoodChicago.com: What style of music inspired you to get into the 1960s rock scene and what got you the contract with Capitol Records back then?

Ted Neeley: What inspired me was growing up in Texas and listening to the radio, I would do impersonations of all the musicians I loved. I was a drummer and singer, and my group was a weekend human jukebox. We’d play and sing anywhere, and would take requests from the crowd, and if we didn’t know it, we’d practice the next day and have it ready the next night. That’s how I started.

The day after I graduated from high school, the band played our graduation party, then we packed up and played a graduation party 180 miles away, and then we kept doing that until we reached California. I would call the Musicians Union, and ask which bars we could audition at, play two weeks in a particular town, and move on.

HollywoodChicago.com: What happened when you finally reached California?

Neeley: There were clubs everywhere on the Sunset Strip. We auditioned for them all and never got turned down. We got hired everywhere we went, because we were doofuses from Texas who played all kinds of crazy music [laughs]. We played the Sunset Strip clubs like Whiskey-a-Go-Go, The Trip and The Red Velvet. This was right where the Hollywood actors, directors and producers would hang out. They liked what they heard, and soon we had a regular crowd hanging out wherever we played. The club owners loved us. We were like a karaoke band before the term, while groups like “The Doors” were doing original stuff.

HollywoodChicago.com: What was the range of your covers?

Neeley: We did everything. We’d do Elvis or Johnny Cash one minute, and then shift to Perry Como and Dean Martin. It was just a crazy act that would pack them in. We started doing private gigs after that, including some movie star homes. We once did a party at a house owned by Anthony Franciosa. It was a huge place. Everybody who was anybody was at this party. We were playing, and there – for example – was Steve McQueen watching us, and we were trying to be cool.

There was somebody leaning against a tree, and he kept watching us the whole night. Even when we came back from a break, there he was again. It turned out to be Alan Livingston, the president of Capitol Records. He signed us to his label based on that party at Tony Franciosa’s house.

HollywoodChicago.com: You worked throughout most of the mid-to-late 1960s. Would you say that you fully participated in the youth movement of the era, or were you too busy to notice?

Neeley: We participated. We left Texas specifically to do so, to tour and play music. We were invited to all the parties, and partook of all the ‘cookies,’ ‘candies’ or whatever was being served [laughs]. I wasn’t really as in to it as the others, but we were there.

HollywoodChicago.com: You were on Broadway with the legendary show ‘Hair’ in the late 1960s. How do you think that show changed the course of theater history, given that you followed up with the stage version of ‘Superstar’?

Neeley: It absolutely changed everything about musical theater. It happened because Tom O’Horgan – the director of ‘Hair’ – was able to sit down with Jim Rado, Gerry Ragni and Gait MacDermot [the creators of the musical] and take it off Broadway to develop it. He was a very creative man. Once the buzz started, it was a path for the show to Broadway. The investors on Broadway could actually come see the show before they put money into it, which was a great strategy. What we were doing on stage every night was happening in the streets. We became the authority on the movement, with the cast actually invited to colleges for lectures.

HollywoodChicago.com: What kind of relationship did you have with Norman Jewison on the set of the film version of ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’? What did he want from your interpretation that you hadn’t necessarily thought of, after you had done the character a number of times on Broadway?

Neeley: Without Norman Jewison, there never would have been a film version of ‘Jesus Christ Superstar.’ And it certainly wouldn’t have kept making the spiritual connection that it does to the world up to today. It was Norman Jewison all the way.

The story of Norman’s involvement with ‘Superstar’ is fairly miraculous. He was doing the film version of ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ in Yugoslavia, and Barry Dennen was in the cast – Dennen was at the same time working on the Pontius Pilate role in the recording of the ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ rock opera, in collaboration with the creators Anthony Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice. He let Norman listen to the demo songs to help him with the character, they weren’t even finished yet. Norman heard them, and asked who owned the rights. They were producing it on Decca Records, and Norman knew immediately that was Universal Studios. He called the studio, and told them that he wanted to purchase the underlying film rights to a project called ‘Jesus Christ Superstar,’ based on the three demo songs he heard.

Ted Neeley and Carl Anderson in the 1973 film version of ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’
Photo credit: Universal Studios Home Video

HollywoodChicago.com: What was Universal’s reaction?

Neeley: The executive there said, ‘what do we have to do with it?’ He didn’t even know that Decca was producing the rock opera. They bought the rights, and as soon as he finished work on ‘Fiddler,’ he started working on the film version of Superstar. He wrote the screenplay and put the unknown cast together. Everything that was the film version came from Norman Jewison. Everything I did came from his decision.

HollywoodChicago.com: Since you’ve portrayed him over 5,000 times, what is your personal relationship with Jesus Christ right now?

Neeley: I was born and raised in Texas, and knew as much about the Bible at ten years old as I knew anything. I’ve had a personal connection to God and Jesus since then, and I am a believer. The only thing I challenge in that relationship is what happens when religion becomes organized, and which interpretation do you believe?

My feeling about what Andrew and Tim wanted to do was to look at the last seven days of the man called Jesus of Nazareth, seen through the eyes of his friends and contemporaries. They saw him as a man, as they saw the divinity. We’re seeing Jesus in the rock opera before he died and before he was resurrected. In that connection, human beings can relate more to what they perceive Jesus to be.

HollywoodChicago.com: Have you experienced that absolution in the feedback regarding your role in the film and stage versions of Superstar?

Neeley: Apparently, because I’ve been hearing it for forty years – people say to me, ‘you brought me to my spiritual recognition.’ I always contend I’m a rock and roll drummer from Texas, what are you talking about? I recently saw the film again, for the first time on the big screen. I do see what they’re talking about in that experience. It was powerful and visionary, and beautifully plays up Andrew and Tim’s interpretation of the relationship between Jesus and Judas. The essence of that is Judas thought he was doing the right thing – it wasn’t about betrayal, but what he thought was his purpose and humanity. I’m not quoting the Bible, I’m quoting the philosophy of ‘Superstar’.

HollywoodChicago.com: What song from the show that you perform is based on the philosophy you’ve just espoused?

Neeley: The song ‘Gethsemane (I Only Want to Say)’. The lyrics to me are a conversation, just like I had with my father when I was a child. When I didn’t know something, we’d sit and talk. He’d give me answers, and I would ask questions. I’m not ‘Jesus talking to God’ in that song, but a son talking to his father. That is the way I perform and interpret that song.

HollywoodChicago.com: Finally, you had a unique relationship with the man who portrayed Judas opposite you so many times, the late Carl Anderson…

Neeley: We were on the road with the show for years. Three to six months is considered a success for most road companies. When we put together the movie’s 20th anniversary stage tour, we couldn’t find a producer that was interested. They loved the show, but they just thought there would be no demand. So we produced it ourselves.

We started the run in Baltimore, got the promoters together, and ran for two years there, and another three on the road. Carl and I were together more than any two human beings in the world during that time. We were the yin/yang of the show, because we knew if one guy needed it, the other guy had his back. It freed us to perform, because we knew we could try different things, and it was just brilliant.

HollywoodChicago.com: What story do you think best defines your connection and friendship?

Neeley: We did a church seminar, just to talk to people, and they were listening to us as if we were the real deal. It was two guys talking about the human nature of those divine characters. We were astounded that they were listening to us, I had to remind Carl ‘no profanity.’ He looked at me and said, ‘Neeley, all this time we’ve been together, why don’t we just get married?’ [laughs]

That, in a nutshell, was our relationship. We had wives and families elsewhere, but no matter where we would go we had the authority of those two characters, filtered through the relationship we had. We accepted the blessings of receiver and transmitter. Whatever the audience saw in us through those characters, we didn’t challenge it, we just accepted it. We were thankful for it, and let it be.

By PATRICK McDONALD Senior Staff Writer HollywoodChicago.com pat@hollywoodchicago.com

CHICAGO– Matt Walsh has been more visible lately, and it has much to do with his approach to character roles, beginning as Mike McLintock on the HBO series “Veep” and currently in the new film “Into the Storm.” For a Chicago native who began doing comedy improvisation here, he is moving on up.

Matthew Paul Walsh was born in Chicago, and graduated from Hinsdale High School. After college at Northern Illinois University, he became enamored of the improv scene in Chicago in the early 1990s, and studied under the master instructor Del Close. While dividing time between the Annoyance Theater and the ImprovOlympics (iO) in the city, he helped to found the “Uptight Citizens Brigade” (UCB), which also featured Amy Poehler, Ian Roberts and Matt Besser. The troupe got its own show on Comedy Central, and has opened UCB theaters in New York and Los Angeles.

Matt Walsh as Pete for ‘Into the Storm’
Photo credit: Warner Bros.

Walsh broke out from there, becoming a regular in the film comedies of director Todd Phillips, including “Road Trip,” “Old School,” “Due Date” and “The Hangover.” He is also notable for regular roles in HBO’s “Hung” and the TV series “Outsourced.” His character of Mike McLintock got married in the third season of “Veep,” and he continues to do character parts, with and without his mustache.

Two days before the release of “Into the Storm,” Matt Walsh talked to HollywoodChicago.com about his role as storm chaser Pete, his early days in Chicago and developing the oddball comedy of “Veep.”

HollywoodChicago.com: What did you learn on this movie set that you never have experienced before, despite being on several famous movie sets?

Matt Walsh: I got better as a ‘green screen’ actor, there was a lot of challenge in reacting to what was represented as tornadoes, which was added in later. It was people holding broomsticks and tennis balls, and me trying to stay in the moment and not laugh at the ridiculousness of it. It was a real lesson in imagination. I also learned about weather and storms, and became a better stunt driver. They let me do all the driving, except for the complicated moves like doing a ‘360’ after driving down an embankment, they were a bit afraid I would roll it.

HollywoodChicago.com: You are playing a non-comic character. What is different about creating a character in that mode rather than your usual comedic and or other fun persona?

Walsh: I feel there is more research involved in a dramatic role. I’m trying to understand the world they live in, in this case the guy is an expert on meteorology and storm chasing, so I did the research on that. In comedy you are focused on the jokes, and where the laughs are, and it seems like in my case it’s been closer to my sense of humor or my sense of self.

HollywoodChicago.com: We grew up in the first golden age of the disaster movies in the 1970s. Which ‘70s film or archetype do you compare ‘Into the Storm’ with or any specific disaster hero from that era can you compare to your character?

Walsh: I’d love to be compared to Han Solo, even though ‘Star Wars’ is not a disaster movie. [laughs] Well, the Death Star does explode. I’m thinking of ‘Earthquake.’ ‘The Killer Bees’ and ‘The Towering Inferno.’ I like to be the guy in ‘The Killer Bees’ who gets the idea to drive the Volkswagen Beetle into the Superdome to save the city. I want to be the guy with the bright idea who risks his life to save others.

HollywoodChicago.com: You’ve described your character as ‘a jerk storm chaser whose life obsession is to shoot a tornado.’ What is the key to playing a jerk, as opposed to a likable character, and do you prefer playing jerks?

Walsh: I am good at playing jerks, but counter to what I said, I approached Pete as not a jerk. I focused on someone who had to manage his squad of storm chasers like a military operation – we were at danger’s edge, we had to be efficient and we had to drive at high speeds to intercept something that’s very tricky – so there is no time for deliberation or conversations about feelings. It has to get done, so you’re like a football coach or a military leader. That was the approach, it wasn’t necessarily ‘jerk forward,’ there were reasons behind him.

HollywoodChicago.com: Most actors are also movie buffs. Again, in comparison to when we were kids, what do you find interesting about the summer movies battles, and the roller coaster rides that the movies have become?

Walsh: I think it’s become harder and harder to get people into movie theaters, so you have to make films that are big screen and full sound experiences. The smaller films can be watched on Netflix or On Demand, and nothing is missed in the experience. I think comedies are better with an audience, because laughter is contagious and it feels better in a crowd, and of course the action and super hero movies play best on that big screen.

HollywoodChicago.com: Let’s go back to your beginnings in Chicago as a student of improvisation. What can you tell us about the legendary Del Close that the rest of the world doesn’t know? What do you think made him so different when it came to expounding on the virtues and theories of improv comedy?

Walsh: He was a tortured individual. The first impression of him is as a bit mean and ornery, but that was because he did have a lot of demons. I had sympathy for that, and I learned most of it afterward through reading about him. He was intimidating to me, so I didn’t know him that well, as I was studying with him.

As far as improv theory, he was the guy in Chicago. He carried the torch for long form improv and the method called ‘The Harold,’ and treated it as its own art form, not necessarily as a process to develop a script or sketches. He brought the art form to a place in which audiences paid to see it.

HollywoodChicago.com: Do you remember the meeting of the Uptight Citizens Brigade comedy troupe in which you were named - what were the circumstances, who came up with it and why?

Walsh: My memory – and Ian and Matt may have a different memory – was that when we did shows at a club called The Roxy, we had a bit where we did intentionally bad improv games – ‘give us a name of a tuber, and a reason to kick a homeless person’ – which was deliberate post modern comedy. At the end of it, we would come up with a pretentious name, like we are ‘Citizens for Social Justice.’ One of those names that came up during that time was ‘Uptight Citizens Brigade.’ Matt and Ian may have a different take.

HollywoodChicago.com: Did you ever sat down and write the history?

Walsh: No, but we’ve just done a 400 page book on the type of curriculum we have at our theaters. We have a specific take on teaching long form improv, so we wrote a sort of textbook on the subject, that just came out.

HollywoodChicago.com: What is it about the zeitgeist of Todd Phillips that brings your sensibility into his universe? What magical aura do you bless upon his productions?

Matt Walsh in Chicago, August 6, 2014 Photo credit: Patrick McDonald for HollywoodChicago.com

Walsh: Maybe I’m Todd’s good luck charm, but he really took a shining to me the first time I auditioned for him. He appreciated the improv skills I brought to ‘Road Trip,’ and he seemed impressed about the contributions an improviser can bring to a film, and also I have an ‘everyman’ look that fits a lot of comedic roles. Todd gave me my biggest breaks in film, and he’s a sweet and great guy.

HollywoodChicago.com: What is the difference in character persona between the mustachioed Matt Walsh and the clean shaven one. What would the two talk about?

Walsh: The mustache is his own person, and has his own writing staff, and was booked on ‘Into the Storm’ a year before I was attached. [laughs] You’ll have to talk to the mustache. Next question.

HollywoodChicago.com: In ‘Veep,’ they never mention the party that Vice President Selina Kyle is affiliated with, but there seems to be implications regarding party politics. Since there are only two major political parties in the U.S. currently, which elements of each are apparent in how the production approaches the show?

Walsh: I remember in the first season, she was progressive on the environment, which is a progressive concern. But she’s made so many compromises during the three seasons, that I honestly feel she sways back and forth. It’s tricky, because like all politicians, she is navigating the middle ultimately, to get the most people to like her. In truth, both parties pander, and compromise extremely.

HollywoodChicago.com: What is the process for that wild dialogue that has come out of the show?

Walsh: We make fun of ourselves and we make fun of each other. The way the process works is that the writers come in with a first draft script, we rehearse that script, and in that rehearsal we can improvise new scenes, new lines and can contribute to everything. We workshop it, the writers take notes, and then the next draft becomes closer to what is eventually seen.

HollywoodChicago.com: How do feel about the arc of where your character is going on the show?

Walsh: I love that Mike got to be happy. You only heard bits and pieces the first two seasons – like he had a dog and a boat. But now you see he has a life, and the fact that he got to be happy in it was really satisfying for me.

HollywoodChicago.com: Finally, what is another good use for Pete’s tornado filming machine, the Titus?

Walsh: It would be great in a parade, obviously, or in a car show. If you had to, you could plow a field with it. I’d love to see if it could go through a half pipe at a skateboard park. [laughs]

By PATRICK McDONALD Senior Staff Writer HollywoodChicago.com pat@hollywoodchicago.com

CHICAGO– When the assignment was to find a comedy team to take on impersonating police officers, funny men Jake Johnson and Damon Wayans Jr. – of the TV series “New Girl” – fit the uniforms perfectly for the new film, “Let’s Be Cops.” Add in the always hilarious Rob Riggle, and let the games begin.

Riggle is a well known comic character presence on “The Daily Show” and films like “The Hangover,” “21 Jump Street,” “Big Miracle” and the upcoming “Dumb and Dumber To.” Riggle is also famous for having served in the Marines and Marine Reserves for a total of 23 years – retiring as a Lieutenant Colonel – and began his comedy career after his first military stint.

Damon Wayans Jr. and Jake Johnson in ‘Let’s Be Cops’
Photo credit: 20th Century Fox

Damon Wayans Jr. and Jake Johnson are practically a comedy duo. They portray pals Coach and Nick on Zooey Deschanel’s sitcom “New Girl,” and are best-friends-turned-fake-policemen in “Let’s Be Cops.” Wayans comes from the comedy family of his father Damon, and his uncles Keenan, Shawn and Marlon – The Wayans Brothers - and also was on ABC-TV’s “Happy Endings” sitcom. Jake Johnson is doing more film work, having appeared in the independent favorites “Safety Not Guaranteed” and “Drinking Buddies,” and has a role in the 2015 film “Jurassic World.”

HollywoodChicago.com interviewed all three co-stars of “Let’s Be Cops,” and found out about a prank that Jim Carrey liked to play on the Wayans family.

HollywoodChicago.com: Damon, what attracted you to ‘Let’s Be Cops,’ and how did you know you could make the character of Chang work?

Damon Wayans Jr.: Initially, what attracted me to the film was the premise. It’s like a twist on a pretty familiar genre, the cop comedy, and the twist is they’re not really cops. I liked that they got into a lot of trouble because of that, and I liked the action at the end. When I heard that Jake’s name was floated around as the co-star, I called him and said I’d do it if he did it. They helped my decision.

HollywoodChicago.com: Jake, in the way you interpreted your character, you seemed to really be into being a fake cop. What inner Serpico or Barney Miller did you access to pretend to love being a pretend cop?

Jake Johnson: Mine was David Caruso from ‘N.Y.P.D. Blue.’ This is Caruso before the CSI‘glasses’ bit. When he was a young redhead kicking ass on that show, he was awesome. It was a fun character, and I’ve always wanted to be a cop – in a portrayal, not on the streets [laughs]. Damon and I, when we talked about it, wanted to do something different. We liked that world, but wanted to give it a slant.

HollywoodChicago.com: Rob, I have a serious question, since you’re ex-military. Since you know the routine and methods of battle strategy, do you think the police in America are becoming too militarized or that the crime is such that we need those types of society calming techniques?

Rob Riggle: I don’t know if I can speak to it, because I don’t think I know the situation well enough, as far as what is happening on the streets for cops. What I do know is that you don’t want a society without laws. I’ve been in countries where there is no law, and it’s a terrifying place to be, unless you have a gun, and even then it’s still a tough situation. Law and order should be the order of the day.

HollywoodChicago.com: Damon, you were juggling two popular sitcoms at once. What did realize were the two biggest differences or even more strange similarities between the characters of Brad [‘Happy Endings’] and Coach [‘New Girl’]?

Wayans I always felt that they were really different. That’s what attracted me to the Coach character on ‘New Girl.’ He was nothing like Brad, who is a metrosexual type guy who is happy to be with his wife. Coach is opposite, the fighter of love, but at his core he is very sensitive. As far as their similarities, the writers often have like-minds when it comes to comedy, and both those shows have pop culture references, so often they’re in the same ballpark when it comes to jokes.

HollywoodChicago.com: Jake, what was the key to creating that delicate dance that you and Olivia Wilde had in ‘Drinking Buddies,’ and was the final scene already in the script when you read it or did it come from the evolution of the production?

Johnson: First, the chemistry is built out of Joe Swanberg’s style. It’s a credit to him as a director that there is no script, everything is improvised. Everything is meant to be natural. You have a solid outline, but he does some really unique things as a director – one of which is that we all name our own characters. That might seem insignificant, but it really made me care about the character, because I named him after my new nephew Luke. I know that someday my nephew would watch it, so I wanted it to be good. Also he lets us create our own backstories, and didn’t add anything to that.

As far the ending, we knew Luke and Kate [Wilde’s character] weren’t going to be together. The premise of the film is that Luke was with someone who is great, but then he had somebody else who he really kind of wanted, even though he knew they would be bad for each other. Luke was on the edge of settling down, but he wanted to look one more time. That was the movie Joe, Olivia and I talked about, we didn’t know how the ending would come out, but we knew they inevitably would not be together.

Rob Riggle is Office Segars in ‘Let’s Be Cops’
Photo credit: 20th Century Fox

HollywoodChicago.com: How many ‘takes’ of the ending was there?

Johnson: We did it once. Joe has a great line, ‘let’s allow ourselves to be happy with it, and move on.’ The director of photography covered the scene and got what he needed, it felt right, and we allowed ourselves to be happy with it.

Riggle: I was suppose to do a part in the film, but I couldn’t get out of hosting the ESPN Awards.

Johnson: In everything I do, I try to get Damon or Rob into, because not only are they amazing talents, but great guys. So when you work with people that you know are good – and when the lights come on they’re going to deliver – we always try to pull each other in.

HollywoodChicago.com: Rob, what were your favorite sitcoms as a kid?

Riggle: There were only three channels back then, and I wasn’t a going-out kind of kid, so it was the ‘Love Boat’ and ‘Fantasy Island’ Saturday line-up on ABC, and my dad would make popcorn, and we’d watch it. We also loved ‘Monday Night Football’ and ‘Dukes of Hazzard.’ I could do that line up now and be happy.

HollywoodChicago.com: You’ve done a number of TV sitcoms. What is the hardest part of getting the rhythm of those things right, especially in the era of more commercials than show in that half hour?

Riggle: I’ve never been a regular, so I get to come in and have some fun, and not have to worry about a rhythm, other than that story that week.

HollywoodChicago.com: Damon, when did you realize as a kid that the family business was comedy. When did you first put two and two together, and what was the weirdest encounter you’ve ever had with a Wayans Brothers project, as far as how you came across it?

Wayans As a kid, I never thought about it like that – I have a huge family. For all those doing comedy, there is just as many not doing it. There are just as many flight attendants and med students in the family as comedians. It was always a balance.

Dad was good friends with Jim Carrey though, back in the ‘In Living Color’ days, and Jim would always be at the house. That would be fun, because he’d always be doing something crazy. I remember once he waited for us to come home, and then fell out of a tree onto our car, and his face slid off the windshield like a cartoon. And this was at nine o’clock at night [laughs].

HollywoodChicago.com: Jake, you have been in Comedy Central’s ‘Drunk History.’ Do you like your history written by the winners or do you prefer Howard Zinn’s ‘People’s History of the United States?’

Damon Wayans Jr., Jake Johnson & Rob Riggle in Chicago Photo credit: Patrick McDonald for HollywoodChicago.com

Johnson: When I was in high school, I loved Howard Zinn, because I wanted to realize the world was terrible, and that everyone was a liar. But the older I get, the more I flip it [laughs]. Now I know it’s more complicated, and there are two sides to every story. I think Zinn’s history is correct, but at times I can live too much in that world, and forget to enjoy the good things in life.

HollywoodChicago.com: Rob, who drinks more off duty … Officer Franklin from ‘The Hangover’ or Officer Segars from ‘Let’s Be Cops’, and why?


Riggle: Officer Franklin for sure. He lives in Vegas, he’s a wild man and he’s using tasers illegally. And he screams while he does it [laughs].

HollywoodChicago.com: This is one for all of you - if you were the show business police, which celebrity would you arrest and what would you charge them with?

Riggle: I’d arrest Damon and Jake for being too sexy.

Johnson: I’d arrest these show business executives. They’re creating a new business model – the good part is that more people have access to more show opportunities, but the bad part is that they’re not giving any development money and calling everything that has potenital a ‘presentation.’ It’s exciting because people get to make ‘pilots,’ but if it gets picked up nobody who made the presentation makes any money. The people giving the opportunity for that presentation will make money if the show succeeds, but no one else will.

They are smart and smooth about it, but I would arrest them for ‘dividing the pie so much much that eventually there will be no more pie.’ Cool it, you greedy bastards. In saving money, you’re giving us less quality.

By PATRICK McDONALD Senior Staff Writer HollywoodChicago.com pat@hollywoodchicago.com

CHICAGO– Mention Bill Daily’s name and you might experience puzzlement. But mention Roger Healey of “I Dream of Jeannie” or Howard Borden of “The Bob Newhart Show” and there will be instant recognition for one of TV’s favorite supporting characters. Bill Daily also grew up and started his career in Chicago.

His family moved here in the late 1930’s, and Daily attended Lane Tech High School in the city. He worked his way up the show business ladder by doing stand-up and music for clubs in the area, attended the Goodman Theatre School and worked as a floor manager for a local TV station, WMAQ. It was through those connections that he met his future co-star Bob Newhart, who was beginning his stand-up career as well.

Bill Daily at the “Hollywood Show Chicago” in 2013
Photo credit: Joe Arce of Starstruck Foto for HollywoodChicago.com

He eventually made his way to Hollywood, and began working on TV in small parts on shows like “Bewitched” and “My Mother the Car.” In 1965, he was cast as Roger Healey on “I Dream of Jeannie,” and would play that memorable comic part for five seasons. After Jeannie was canceled, old Chicago pal Bob Newhart tapped Daily for the role of next door neighbor Howard Borden on “The Bob Newhart Show.” Daily was with that series until it ended in 1978. Afterward, he made numerous TV guest star appearances through the late 1990s, and did some radio from 2006 to 2009 after he retired in New Mexico.

Bill Daily appeared at the “Hollywood Show” Chicago, an annual event in which fans can mingle, take photographs and get autographs from the celebrities who appear there. The next session of the “Hollywood Show” Chicago will take place in Rosemont, Ill., on August 15th-17th. For complete details and ticket purchase information, click here.

HollywoodChicago.com: What did you take with you from your Chicago roots that has stayed with you throughout your life?

Bill Daily: I’m 86 years old, I have trouble remembering yesterday [laughs]. I loved the people, the charm and being the only Irish guy in my neighborhood, around Ashland and Chicago Avenue. I went to grammar school in Logan Square, went to high school at Lane Tech, and studied acting at the Goodman Theater. I got my first job working on the Cubs games for WGN-TV, and was a floor director at WMAQ-TV, the NBC affiliate in Chicago.

I did all this despite being dyslexic, and had a hard time reading, so I naturally became funny to overcome it. I would have been nothing if I hadn’t been dyslexic, because when you can’t read, you’d better be funny. so that’s how it all worked out.

HollywoodChicago.com: You had your first encounter with Bob Newhart when you were both young stand-up comedians in Chicago. Can you describe those first, early days with him?

Daily: Bob is the nicest human being you’ll ever meet, but not so great to work with – he’s so smart he never wanted to rehearse. So we’d have to get up in front of a live audience with little rehearsal, the pressure was on. But he is one of my best friends, and just a great guy.

HollywoodChicago.com: I read that you were involved in his famous Abraham Lincoln stand-up bit, where Bob plays a press agent talking to him on the phone …

Bill Daily and Barbara Eden Photo credit: Joe Arce of Starstruck Foto for HollywoodChicago.com

Daily: I was working as a director at WMAQ, as I said. I was helping to produce an awards show, and at the time Bob was still my accountant [Newhart’s pre-show business job]. Right before the show, the engineers went on strike, which meant I had more minutes to fill. I knew Bob had the Abraham Lincoln Press Agent bit from playing the local clubs, so he went on the show, he did the bit, and just killed. After that, he was signed to do comedy albums, movies and such, but that was the break. I never told that story before.

HollywoodChicago.com: The late, great Larry Hagman had his difficulties on your show in the late 1960s, as it is documented that he was part of the L.A. party scene. How did you help him get through that period as a co-worker and friend?

Daily: He had a drinking problem, but I loved working with him. We were a true team – he would rehearse, he’d go over and over stuff, and he was brilliant, even when he was drinking. I loved the man.

HollywoodChicago.com: You only managed to do one feature film, Walt Disney’s ‘The Barefoot Executive,’ in which your co-star was a chimp. Was there any other films you auditioned for, but somehow didn’t get?

Daily: I had to audition to the chimp, because he had a tendency to be mean to his co-stars [laughs]. At one point, I had to throw him out of an airplane, but he really liked me – but even then, he would snap at me if we had too many takes. I didn’t get much opportunity in film, but I did something late in my career called ‘Alligator II: The Mutation’ (1991), which was beyond horrible.

HollywoodChicago.com: The great Marcia Wallace told me that you love women more than any man she ever knew. What was your best opening line?

Daily: I was always funny, so that makes it easier. I’m not the type of guy who wants to hang around guys, I love to hang around women. They are funny, smart and easy to be with, but I was mischaracterized as a womanizer. I was married to my first wife for 30 years, but I didn’t love her, so it seemed I was going out on her. When I met my second wife, I was madly in love with her, and that made all the difference.

HollywoodChicago.com: Turnabout is fair play - tell me something about Marcia Wallace that the rest of the world doesn’t know.

Daily: We both didn’t make any money on the Newhart show initially because of the contract structures in those days. Also later we sat next to each other on the game show ‘The Match Game.’ She was always brilliant, charming and funny.

By PATRICK McDONALD Senior Staff Writer HollywoodChicago.com pat@hollywoodchicago.com

CHICAGO– Once Jeff Bridges and Meryl Streep are locked into a film about a society that limits its emotions and memories, how do you find the teenage actors to play opposite them? Australian Brenton Thwaites, and Israeli-born Odeya Rush passed the audition, and they join the Oscar winners in the adaptation of “The Giver.”

The popular book series sold 10 million copies in the 1990s, and it deals with a society that has comfort and order, but little emotion or memories. Brenton Thwaites portrays Jonas, who accepts his assigned job as “Receiver of Memories” and begins a journey with the current Receiver, portrayed by Jeff Bridges. Oyeda Rush is Fiona, one of the community who starts to have feelings that Jonas wants her to act on, and they are both seen as threats to the society by the Chief Elder (Meryl Streep).

Odeya Rush in Chicago, July 30th, 2014
Photo credit: Joe Arce of Starstruck Foto for HollywoodChicago.com

The Australian born Thwaites was on a couple of popular TV shows there, but desired to expand into international cinema, and landed supporting roles in this year’s “Oculus” and “Maleficent.” Odeya Rush was born in Israel, but moved to the U.S. at nine years old. Her first big film was “The Odd Life of Timothy Green” (2012), and she followed that up with the independent film “We Are What We Are” (2013). She has a high profile role in the upcoming film adaptation of the ‘Goosebumps’ book series.

HollywoodChicago.com interviewed both of these remarkable young actors, and they had opinions on a range of issues, both inside and outside their roles in “The Giver.”

HollywoodChicago.com: As actors in this style of story, how do you compromise having limited emotions or memories, when inherently we all do. What was the key to that subtlety?

Brenton Thwaites: In the film, it’s all about being happy and comfortable, in exchange for the limitations on emotions and memories. It was about working with the director, looking in the book and knowing the continuity. There was a certain level of curiosity that I had to think about. The character of Jonas does reach outside the boundaries, which comes from a level of curiosity.

Odeya Rush: I think my character [Fiona] in the beginning is naive and content, which matches the atmosphere. As she goes through her arc, it’s about the state of confusion as she finds out more about the emotions of anger and love. It’s the discovery of those emotions, from a place of not understanding them initially.

HollywoodChicago.com: As you are both in a society as teenagers, do you think we’re heading towards a world like in ‘The Giver’ or are we heading somewhere else?

Thwaites: I don’t know is the answer, but the world of ‘The Giver’ is a peaceful monotony. There are so many people who don’t have peaceful lives who would look at that world and would want to live there – not having to worry about food or security, plus not having to have the anxiety of finding a spouse or dealing with the world of children. I don’t know if we’re going there as a society, but I do know that people observing it might find it comfortable.

Rush: It’s somewhat of the same reason that ideologies like Communism were set up. People were in great desperation and poverty, and there was a promise of equality, beauty and goodness. But then people realized that they didn’t have much freedom individually, with government assigned jobs and housing. It limited the individual’s growth.

HollywoodChicago.com: We are the sum of all our emotions and memories. Which emotion or memory affects you the most in your life, and how do you think you’d be different if you lived in a society like ‘The Giver’?

Thwaites: My fear is the emotion I would hate to lose. It inspires me to keep going, and conquer those individual fears step by step. The overcoming of those fears is key for me.

Rush: I would say love, I think my love for my life, the people in it and what I do is what propels me forward. Whether it’s helping someone else or doing something that improves my life, it’s all coming from that source of love.

HollywoodChicago.com: You are both veterans of big time production movie sets. What is the key to feeling comfortable when you first get there, and how have those rituals of comfort changed as you get on more sets?

Thwaites: I try to embarrass myself in some way before I start shooting, in front of the crew, the director or everyone. It relaxes me, and I want to feel relaxed. Pros can get there quickly – I’m not a pro. [laughs] If I embarrass myself, I get rid of my nerves.

Rush: There was no way to prepare for this set, for example, and meeting Jeff Bridges, Meryl Streep and [director] Phillip Noyce. But they were so nice, and when I felt comfortable because of that, it makes everything much easier. It’s always nerve racking for me the first day, but that’s part of it, and it’s why I want to keep doing this – because it’s a job that you never get used to, and it never will feel like the same thing.

Brenton Thwaites in Chicago, July 30th, 2014
Photo credit: Joe Arce of Starstruck Foto for HollywoodChicago.com

HollywoodChicago.com: Brenton, What did you observe about Jeff Bridges in your scenes together that you have placed in your ‘list to remember’ as an actor?

Thwaites: He really worked with Phillip in developing his character, and as I found my character, I observed that he really works hard at getting there himself. Jeff really prepared his character, how he walked, talked, even his wardrobe and beard. I’d see him practicing at the start of the film, and he doesn’t take anything for granted.

HollywoodChicago.com: Odeya, what do you learn differently about being an actor when you are on the set of an independent film like ‘We Are What We Are’ versus a huge set like ‘The Giver’ or the upcoming ‘Goosebumps’?

Rush: I also just did an independent film called ‘See You in Vahalla’ that was a 14 day shoot. I think with those types of films, we’re going a lot faster. When I work with someone like Phillip, I know I can get as many takes as I need. With an independent, we shoot four scenes a day, and they move on quickly. There is much more work that you have to do yourself.

When I was on the set of ‘Goosebumps,’ a huge movie on a huge set, the director Rob Letterman had a lot of rehearsal in preproduction, and would take suggestions from the cast and incorporate them. That seemed more like an independent film, but I guess it just depends on the filmmaker, more than the budget.

HollywoodChicago.com: Brenton, you went from Australian television to international movie star in three short years. What was the key from moving locally to internationally, and who or what was instrumental in getting you there?

Thwaites: Well, you have to learn to do an American accent – that was years of practice and failure. [laughs] My manager helped me get my work visa and gave me feedback, but the most instrumental people were my family. My mother and sister was so supportive, they were the ones that said go for it. If you make it in Australia, it can be very comfortable, and the hours are much shorter. It was a happy life, but I broke away and took the risk, not even calculating it. I had the support, so it was cool.

HollywoodChicago.com: Odeya, speaking of the upcoming ‘Goosebumps’ movie – what can fans of the books expect from the film version, that in your opinion will satisfy their expectations regarding the book-to-film?

Rush: They’re going to be happy about all the monsters they get to see, their favorites in one movie. People love the author R.L. Stine because he combines the scares with a twist, and we have a twist coming. It has humor and heart, and Jack Black is so funny. Anything he does – a different facial expression or a random song – he just comes up with it. He just goes off.

HollywoodChicago.com: What do you think is in Australian culture that allows it to produce so many movie stars? Is it something in the attitude or the courage of the actors?

Thwaites: It’s a couple things. In our culture, it’s adventurous and travel oriented. If you ask an Aussie to go to India, they’ll say when is the next flight. [laughs} Part of it is in that willingness to travel. Also we have a relaxed culture in Australia, I feel like that comes in to play with our acting. There aren’t as many consequences. If we’re good at something, we’re good at it, we don’t need to sell ourselves beyond that. We roll with the times.

HollywoodChicago.com: Finally to both of you, what adventure in acting do you still want to go on?

Thwaites: I still want to keep making movies, so the next one is the next massive adventure. I’d like to keep traveling while I do that, in countries I’ve never been to before.

Rush: There are so many places I’ve yet to see, and people I’ve yet to work with – so it’s about the surprises in whatever comes next.

By PATRICK McDONALD Senior Staff Writer HollywoodChicago.com pat@hollywoodchicago.com

CHICAGO– When the skeletal remains of a long-lost animal is discovered and pulled from the earth, does anybody really own it? That is the question in the new documentary, “Dinosaur 13,” directed by Todd Miller. It’s the story of discovering those dinosaur bones and the implications for the person who exhumed them, Peter Larson.

“Dinosaur 13” ended up being “Sue” – named for the actual person who first saw the bones, Susan Hendrickson – the most complete Tyrannosaurus Rex specimen ever discovered. Sue now resides in the Field Museum in Chicago, but her journey to the final resting place was fraught with the 20th Century notion of who owned her. Director Todd Douglas Miller combines archival footage, news reports and re-creations to unfold the only-in-America story of the final journey to rest of a long dead creature.

Peter Larson Works on Sue Around the Time of Discovery in ‘Dinosaur 13’
Photo credit: Lionsgate

Peter Larson led Sue’s discovery team, and extracted the bones of the T-Rex back in 1990. His agency, the Black Hills Institute, is a for-profit collector of fossils. In the dispute over who owned his discovery, he was persecuted by the U.S. government, accused with after-the-fact criminal charges and saw his discovery locked in a warehouse for three years.

Todd Miller and Peter Larson sat down for an interview with HollywoodChicago.com, and spoke of the making of the documentary, and the twisted karma for a giant reptilian animal who passed away millions of years ago.

HollywoodChicago.com: Todd, this is your feature documentary debut. What attracted you to the subject and how did your point of view evolve as you were preparing the film?

Todd Miller: It began by my reading of the source book, ‘Rex Appeal,’ co-written by Peter and Kristin Donnan Standard, and the whole idea for the film sprang out of that. I was enamored with the subject, and visualized everything that was in the wide-ranging topics in the book – including the science of the Tyrannosaurus Rex. There was so much passion in the book, which included Peter’s ordeal, that I thought it needed to be seen on the big screen in a documentary.

HollywoodChicago.com: Since you were prosecuted in the 1990s, we have since lived through a age in which financial firms can bring the American economy to the brink of Depression, and yet no one goes to jail. How has your perspective of justice changed since you when through your Kafka-esque experience, and where do you believe the focus is on prosecution by the United States government?

Peter Larson: Certainly I find problems with the lack of prosecution in certain financial areas, since my convictions were based on essentially not filling out some forms. My federal prison experience wasn’t all bad, I got to learn things there that were helpful to me, I just never understood the logic behind it.

HollywoodChicago.com: Todd, you had re-creations in the film. How do you decide what re-creations to do, based on a visual acuity that you want for the film? Did you go back after seeing a cut and decide that more re-creations would make the story better visually?

Miller: When I first pitched the film it was going to use first person interviews, but we were rarely going to see them on film. I intended to go back and use re-creations on all the interviews, and macro-shots of descriptive elements like fog rolling in on the discovery site. We wanted to make a more artistic piece, but once we started our subjects started handing us more and more archival footage that I never knew existed. Once I started getting that, we combined it all.

HollywoodChicago.com: Who tipped off the feds regarding the initial raid on your business, which confiscated Sue? What factors of that tip caused the large numbers of federal agents and legal prosecutors in this case?

Larson: We don’t know exactly where that came from, whether it was the owner of the lands Maurice Williams or the Indian tribe making the complaint or even a fellow scientist. What we do know is that the U.S. Attorney Kevin Schieffer made a big show of the confiscation, and it was a publicity stunt.

Miller: I don’t think that matters, because it was Schieffer making the decision to move ahead with the raid to begin with, based on the filtering of what information he had.

The T-Rex Named Sue is ‘Dinosaur 13’
Photo credit: Lionsgate

HollywoodChicago.com: Todd, time has an interesting place in your film. You are cognizant of time in association with Sue’s incarceration, the period of the jury deliberation and finally the timing of getting a record auction price for the bones? What were you trying to communicate with your timeline?

Miller: The story is told over a ten-year period, and it was very complex. It was almost hard to digest, and [to] keep it straight. The bones of Sue are on one journey and Peter is now on his own divergent path. In going back and forth, I just wanted to keep it in perspective. Somebody mentioned at a screening that the music had a particular time signature in certain parts of the film, and asked if that was intentional. Of course Matt Larson – the composer of the film – and I said ‘Yes’ [laughs].

HollywoodChicago.com: Peter, there is an old adage, credited to the film ‘All the President’s Men,’ in which we all should ‘follow the money.’ Since you are in the business of selling fossils, how did your enterprise meld with enterprises that eventually had Walt Disney, McDonald’s and seven million bucks at an auction at Sotheby’s?

Larson: When Kevin Schieffer saw Sue, he told the press we had to save her, because our Institute was going to sell it to the highest bidder. Then, of course, when all the court battles were done, the federal government put her up for auction on behalf of the land trust owner, Maurice Williams. It was ironic, and further it was ironic that they accused us of ‘making money for our work,’ and then McDonald’s and Walt Disney bought it, and they certainly make money for their work.

HollywoodChicago.com: Todd, In the old cliché of truth being stranger than fiction, what is the strangest element to this story, that you think would never be believed if it was told as fiction?

Miller: Definitely when Peter was checking into the federal prison, and the prison guard showing him the reason for incarceration – ‘failure to fill out forms.’ That was the craziest thing, the man did 24 months based on a clerical error.

HollywoodChicago.com: What do you think this situation says for the character of Maurice Williams, who took your initial payment, and then sued you for more? Did he ever give back that initial payment?

Larson: No he didn’t. He wasn’t a nice person.

Miller: Even worst than that, when Peter was out of jail in his probation period, he was in a phone booth while on another dig. Maurice Williams spies him, and rides up in his pickup truck – and this was after he’d got the 7.6 million dollars from Sue’s auction – gets out of the truck, goes up to Peter and sucker punches him, and threatened his life. That tells you who Maurice Williams is.

HollywoodChicago.com: What are both of your perspectives on the antiquities of the earth? Since man made up the concept of land ownership, who are we beholden to when it comes to that ownership, especially in the case of fossils?

Larson: Wherever we have sedimentary rocks, we have fossils. Those fossils are washing them out all the time, and being destroyed by the same elements that are exposing them. We have a responsibility to save as much of that as possible, and it doesn’t have to be a certified doctor of Paleontology to do this. We have a responsibility to make sure that these fossils end up in a place where scientists and the public have access to them. There are a large majority of fossils that are in private ownership, but there are truly are items that belong in a museum, and Sue was one of them.

Miller: What I would add to that is sentiments I’ve heard from other scientists – there were no boundaries in the days of the dinosaurs. So the idea of keeping things in particular states or particular countries is a dated concept.

Larson: And museums not only have an obligation to preserve things as best they can, but I believe they have an obligation to disperse that knowledge around the world. The fossils of this planet belong to everyone on this planet, and it helps us to understand that we live in a very special place. And if the end of dinosaurs are any indication, we have to take care of this special place we live in.

By PATRICK McDONALD Senior Staff Writer HollywoodChicago.com pat@hollywoodchicago.com

CHICAGO– There might not be a more unusual movie this year than “Land Ho!” The film follows two “golden boys,” sixtysomethings Mitch (Earl Lynn Nelson) and Colin (Paul Eenhoorn), as they take an Odd Couple-type trip to Iceland. Writer/director Aaron Katz (“Dance Party, USA”) breaks that ice between the two men.

Katz had both a co-director and co-writer on the film, Martha Stephens, and the one-of-a-kind line readings from lead actor Earl Lynn Nelson (“That’s me, baby!”). Nelson is a retired surgeon, as he is in the film, and he steals the show as a profane, pot-smoking senior who is looking for adventure, and takes Paul Eenhoorn’s Colin along for the ride. What is unique about this situation, beyond Nelson, is the vast and awe-inducing setting of Iceland, and the very human story of two disparate gentleman trying to figure out one of the more confusing times of life.

Co-Writers/Directors Aaron Katz (left) and Martha Stephens, with Earl Lynn Nelson on the Set in ‘Land Ho!’
Photo credit: Sony Pictures Classics

HollywoodChicago.com talked to Aaron Katz by phone, and he related his own adventures with the filming of this saga, and the buoyant and almost magical journey he has led by taking the steps toward being a filmmaker.

HollywoodChicago.com: What was the inspiration for this unusual story? What prompted you to pursue it?

Aaron Katz: I have a co-writer and co-director on the film, Martha Stephens, and it was she that proposed that we make the film. She called me in January of 2013, and said ‘why don’t we make a movie together.’ I said maybe, but what is the premise? She said, ‘what if we took Earl Lynn Nelson to Iceland’? I said that sounds like a good idea.

We had both been developing bigger projects that were moving slow, so the idea was to do something that would be energizing and adventurous. Right around the same time I saw a film called ‘This is Martin Bonner’ – a film by Chad Hartigan – that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival two years ago. It starred Paul Eenhoorn, who I thought was the perfect balance to Earl Lynn. Having those two guys and their voices in mind when we were writing the screenplay was essential.

HollywoodChicago.com: Isn’t it strange to be in your thirties writing a film about people in their late sixties?

Katz: It wasn’t about the age gap, it was about these two guys. That is the movie we wanted to make.

HollywoodChicago.com: How were Earl and Paul able to develop the chemistry between them once you got on set, both in the negative and positive scenes?

Katz: We shot all the Kentucky portions of the film in May of 2013, just to see what it was like when the two guys were together – it also helped in the co-director part of it, since Martha and I had never done that before. And we wanted to show people that this film was a good idea. So we shot a 12 minute segment, that was reduced to five minutes in the movie, to show off the chemistry between the two. Right from the first moment they met each other, they both loved and were irritated in their interactions. In real life, they sort of adopted what their characters do in the movie.

HollywoodChicago.com: How did you approach the destination of Iceland within your movie, and how did you want to communicate its character?

Katz: Iceland is an incredible place, so we were just responding to what was right in front of us. In the past, all of the films of Martha and I have done had taken place either in where we once lived or where we were currently living, so we were familiar with that kind of territory. In Iceland we were tourists, so we approached the film from that point of view.

It was two guys reading a guide book, seeing what they could see. Even the big ticket tourist traps in Iceland were incredible. It’s hard to describe, but there is a physical reaction to the sights of Iceland. It’s like something I’ve never experienced before. We wanted to capture that joy when you are at these places.

HollywoodChicago.com: What do you think you were communicating about the men in Earl and Paul’s generation. Besides what was happening to them on the surface, how did you include their past experiences and history?

Katz: I don’t think we were trying to say anything in particular regarding their generation. If anything, since we were writing with their voices in mind, we would later give them latitude in how they wanted to say particular things, or their opinions on some of the issues we were writing about – we wanted them to speak their way, because we hadn’t lived their lives. We just tried to get them into a place where they could speak for themselves.

HollywoodChicago.com: There were a couple of things that I found intriguing in the film – the marijuana use and the references to women that Earl would use. What was the context, when you both were putting together the screenplay, that had those bits of eccentricity come through?

Katz: Well, one of the things was about contrasting the beauty of Iceland with juvenile humor, like smoking weed. Also, that is Earl Lynn Nelson’s real personality. [laughs] He is the same in life as he is on screen. If you ask him how much of that character is you, he inevitably replies, ‘That’s me, baby!’ He means it, he is that guy. He loves life, and it may be rough around the edges, but that’s what makes him so human and so lovable.

HollywoodChicago.com: How the heck did he end up in a major motion picture, with only two other credits before him?

Katz: He is Martha’s real relative. His relationship with his female relative in the movie, that was Martha’s real relationship with him in life. He is a surgeon, for example, in real life. Any room that he’s in, everyone is drawn to him, and he has no background as a professional actor. He’s just so un-self conscious, he’s simply being himself.

HollywoodChicago.com: I saw your first credit was a short called ‘Hoopla.’ How did that credit get you to the next phase in your career?

Katz: Well, that didn’t get me anywhere. [laughs] That was my senior thesis in film school. I went to the University of North Carolina School for the Arts, and that is where Martha Stephens went, that is where my Director of Photography Andrew Reed went, and other folks on the film also went there.

Right after school my first feature was ‘Dance Party, USA’ and we made that film in Portland, Oregon – where I was from – for literally no money. We borrowed equipment and had about $2000, and we just did it anyway we could.

The Two and Only: Earl Lynn Nelson and Paul Eenhoorn in ‘Land Ho!’
Photo credit: Sony Pictures Classics

HollywoodChicago.com: How did you get that film in the mainstream?

Katz: I had no idea about the business side of film. My school did a tremendous job teaching me production and film theory, but very little about being a recent film school graduate who wants to make the films that reflect what they want to make. The steps between those two points are almost impossible to conceive of – so we decided to make ‘Dance Party, USA’ on our own.

That was 2004, and ultimately it played at South by Southwest. That’s the transition point that helped me to move on. It was the head programmer at South by Southwest that year who made the difference. He was trying to find new filmmakers so he went through every submission and he was trying to find films that had a different point of view. We were accepted, and it was the first time I was able to show something I had made to the film community at large.

HollywoodChicago.com: Is there a director that you love so much, that you will oftentimes put a hidden tribute to them in one of your films?

Katz: No, not in particular. Generally speaking, I don’t ‘steal’ things. But there are little things, like when Earl Lynn is reading out of the Iceland Guide Book – that was inspired by the Chris Farley sketch on ‘Saturday Night Live’ in which he reads out of the Zagat Guide. The idea is that what is being read is so far apart from how it’s read, it’s just a funny bit.

HollywoodChicago.com: What did you learn on the set of ‘Land Ho!’ that you hadn’t thought of before, and how did that come out in the finished film?

Katz: It was more about something I had been learning, but it was solidified on this film. That lesson was embrace the unexpected and don’t be afraid to be adventurous. Because there were two directors on this film, it was a comedy and Earl Lynn has such a big personality, in a way it gave us license to be more adventurous. It reminded me to consider all the things that are crazy, because you just never know.

HollywoodChicago.com: Finally, at what point in your career did you turn around and think, how the hell did I get here?

Katz: Pretty much every step along the way, because filmmaking is so hard – especially the business part of it, in connecting with the audience. If I have to pick one moment, it was probably Sony Pictures Classics buying this movie. It happened at Sundance – just like when I was a teenager and read that deals go down at the Festival late at night – that’s what happened with ‘Land Ho!’ That was such a surreal moment. Here was a film that I’m incredibly proud of, and here are the best distributors in the business doing a deal for it. About 4am on that Sundance night, I had that realization.

By PATRICK McDONALD Senior Staff Writer HollywoodChicago.com pat@hollywoodchicago.com

CHICAGO– One of the notable films to kick off the autumn film season is writer/director Ira Sach’s “Love is Strange.” The story of two men in a longtime gay relationship, who finally can marry – but whose lives go off track unexpectedly – features brilliant performances from veterans John LIthgow and Alfred Molina.

Ira Sachs is a veteran writer and director himself, on his sixth feature film. He first got noticed with “Forty Shades of Blue” in 2005 and “Married Life” two years later. The latter film featured Chris Cooper, Patricia Clarkson and Pierce Brosnan. After some great reviews for his fifth film “Keep the Lights On” (2012), he is back with “Love is Strange,” a personal and subtle character driven story.

Ira Sachs (center) with Leading Men Alfred Molina and John Lithgow of ‘Love is Strange’
Photo credit: Sony Pictures Classics

HollywoodChicago.com sat down to interview Ira Sachs, as his life is reflected back in his films, a journey that relates to both the then and the now.

HollywoodChicago.com: I’m sure many people have been referencing the situation in Chicago involving Colin Collette and William Nifong [Collette was fired as a choir director in the Chicago Catholic Church after pictures of Nifong proposing to him surfaced], which is exactly what happens in your film. What incident inspired your take on the situation depicted in the film?

Ira Sachs: I read about a case in the Midwest, in which I know little about on purpose. When I was developing the story, I wanted to make a love story. And when I read about the incident about a Catholic choir director, who was fired when the Church found out about his gay marriage, we thought that would be a great start for a dramatic story. You can call this a drama or it can also be called a remarriage comedy.

When I was in college I read a book called ‘The Pursuit of Happiness,’ which was all about the remarriage comedies of the 1930s and ‘40s – like “His Girl Friday” and “Palm Beach Story.” All of which were about how a couple splits up and we watch them get back together. So in our film, that was the plot turn that gives us insight into their relationship and the surrounding relationships of their families.

HollywoodChicago.com: Ben and George are gay men of a certain generation, with Ben already an adult when Stonewall occurred. What specific statement did you want to make about the suffering and freedoms that occurred in Ben and George’s lives, since they had been a committed couple through so many eras of gay liberation?

Sachs: One thing that I feel is very specific to these characters is that they’re not activists. I think it comes from a type of humility that comes from their backgrounds as people. On the other hand, they are very confident about who they are, so even though they’re not politically fighting, they are ‘being’ in a very certain way.

That was something, that for me as a gay man, was very hard-won. That didn’t seem to be the challenge, at least in the Ben and George we meet. There is a sense in the film, in the scene in which they’re in the oldest gay bar in New York City, they talk about their friend named Frank. For us, in this very short scene, we see a lot of history – the history of them as a couple and the history of their community – Frank’s disappearance can be traced to the AIDS crisis. These two guys are survivors, and you can understand that through the scene.

HollywoodChicago.com: You explored a different kind of gay relationship in ‘Keep the Lights On.’ What fascinates you about your generation of gay men who took so many risks to understand their role in finding relationships?

Sachs: Many people have told me that this film is ‘of the moment.’ But to me what seems timely about the film is that I couldn’t have made it five years ago, because I wouldn’t have had the optimism that I have now. This is a very hopeful film, and I’m in a relationship that I’m hopeful about, and raising kids. In conclusion, I’m glad I’ve worked a lot of my shit out [laughs].

HollywoodChicago.com: Do you think there is an equivalent film in cinema history that has an ‘of the moment’ feel that ‘Love is Strange’ has?

Sachs: There is a movie called ‘Nothing But a Man’ from the mid 1960s. It’s about an African-American couple who get married in the south, and the film follows how the marriage dissolves. So much of it seems as if their love is corroded by the culture they live in. We’re not stronger than our culture, and the reason I’m able to make this film now relates to the laws changing. It’s the impact of the laws changing, which is not insignificant.

HollywoodChicago.com: You had a younger male character, Joey, who is typical of how a large percentage of households are now raising teenagers – open to understanding homosexual without being gay themselves, and accepting gay fellow travelers in their own generation. How do you think this inclusiveness will affect attitudes in the future, contrary to our generation thinking that homosexuality was a separate and frightening issue?

Sachs: I just came from a wedding between two men that have been together for 15 years, and here we were in Orange County with 200 family members running around, and gathering for the ceremony. This is the new ‘now.’ All the feelings we have about how people are about comes from what we learn, it’s really the theme of the film on some level, it’s about education.

Everybody’s Talking: Alfred Molina and John Lithgow in ‘Love is Strange’
Photo credit: Sony Pictures Classics

HollywoodChicago.com: How about the learning experiences of teenagers?

Sachs: In many ways, I’m sympathetic, because I think whenever you have a teenager in the house, you have an alien. It’s not necessarily about homophobia, you just don’t know who that person is at that age, and it makes people jumpy [laughs].

HollywoodChicago.com: Both Molina and Lithgow are straight men, although Molina said in the Variety article that ‘they are the gayest straight men on the planet.’ Did you audition any gay actors for the roles? Do you think the tenor would have been different if it were gay actors, or was it just a matter of getting the right chemistry?

Sachs: You don’t audition name actors. You make offers. I had a sense of what Alfred and John could do. A lot of my job is to actually go and watch their previous work, and understand them in the context of the story. There were definitely openly gay actors on my ‘list,’ but we ended up with these two men and I feel really blessed that was the case.

They were asked in this film to do two things that they hadn’t been allowed to do previously. First, to be the lead actors and second, to perform in a naturalistic register, which is not often what people expected of them in their work in other media, particularly TV. We all had a love for the 1970s performance style in the films at the time, nuanced and tight and subtle. It turns out that both of them are brilliant at doing that.

HollywoodChicago.com: Anything else you’ve learned from them as you got to know them on the promotional tour?

Sachs: I’ve learned a lot recently from Alfred and John, even more than when we shot the film. I’m watching John portraying King Lear for Shakespeare in the Park, working on a new play on Broadway and writing books. I’m experiencing his passion, and its something I can learn from as a creative person.

I also found out that people don’t know the country of origin for Alfred Molina, because he so transformative. People were asking me if he was French, was he born in Mexico? Luckily we’ll finding out more of who he is, one of the most buoyantly generous people I’ve ever worked with, and that comes through in his character in the film.

HollywoodChicago.com: In that same article in Variety, you revealed you were the first openly gay individual in your high school in Memphis. What can you tell us about that time in your life that is a lesson about tolerating differences, and coming to a freedom in our own souls?

Sachs: I was lucky to have a family that was very embracing, that is definitely an advantage for me. I believe that my personal suffering has been equivalent to what I hope is my level of empathy for other people. I became sensitive, and I believe that is part of my job as a director.

I’m raising children now, and they are growing up in a stable environment. My husband and I live next door to their Mom, and we’re co-parenting. They know they are loved on a daily basis, and I’m praying for them to have less suffering because of that love.

HollywoodChicago.com: Which era of gay life from 1900 to now is most fascinating to you as a storyteller, and how would you potentially put that to screen?

Ira Sachs in Chicago, August 14, 2014 Photo credit: Patrick McDonald for HollywoodChicago.com

Sachs: What was extremely inspiring in that sense is within a eight minute film I made called ‘Last Address,’ which is available on line. It was about a group of New York City artists who passed away from AIDS, and I went to their last place of residence. It was about the loss, but also about the presence. In the process of making that film, I became very familiar with a certain subculture that were living in New York City in the late 1980s – they passed from the early gay liberation freedoms through the AIDS crisis. Knowing those artists was deeply significant, because they were so radical. They were not looking to be loved, but to make images that were different.

Personally, making that film was transformative. First, I did it without ‘permission,’ I made this film purely independently – I made it at the top level as an artist, and it was empowering because it made me feel young again.

HollywoodChicago.com: Back to the movies, which directors influence you the most, and do you ever pay a tribute to them with certain scenes in your films?

Sachs: Look at the poster, it’s my homage to ‘Midnight Cowboy.’ [Pictured above] I carried that image of Ratso Rizzo and Joe Buck from the film, because I felt these were men from the outside who took New York by storm – it’s like the ‘Muppets Take Manhattan’ [laughs]. It is directors like John Cassavetes, Yasujiro Ozu and Ken Loach who I have discovered in recent years, and they are part of my creative influence.

My film ‘Married Life’ was influenced by the high melodrama of early studio films, especially Joan Crawford films. Joan Crawford taught me who a movie star should be.

HollywoodChicago.com: I find that the gay liberation movement has had challenges in our lifetime because of the specter of prejudice, the stereotyping based on one or two images, and the AIDS crisis. In your experience, what did you see as the breakthrough for gay liberation, that led to the current climate of marriage and mainstream acceptance?

Sachs: I think that the breakthrough came from familiarity, and I hope that people who leave this movie will accept a couple like Ben and George. That is where the transition happens. It was a series of small steps in our lifetime, one step forward and one backward.

If we look at this situation in Chicago, in a way it’s terrible, because a man lost his job because he became engaged to someone he loved. On the other hand, there were 700 people at a meeting voicing their opinions on the situation, and the openness of that experience is extremely significant. This is a battle that is similar to the civil rights movement. The shifts are happening within the conflict, they are not separate from the conflict.

By PATRICK McDONALD Senior Staff Writer HollywoodChicago.com pat@hollywoodchicago.com

CHICAGO– iO Chicago continues the Grand Opening at its new venue with one of its most famous alumni – the illustrious Joel Murray. Besides opening the seventh season of “Mad Men” with a brilliant monologue as Freddy Rumsen, Murray brings his “Joel Murray & Friends” show to the new iO Chicago on August 30th.

Murray is the youngest of the famous “Murrays of Wilmette, Illinois,” which includes brothers Brian-Doyle, Bill and John, plus sister Nancy. He is also one of the earliest members of the former Improv Olympics – now called iO – which grew from its modest beginnings in Chicago with founders Del Close and Charna Halpern to their latest multi-theater venue on Kingsbury Street. Joel Murray comes back to his roots with “Joel Murray & Friends” in The Mission Theater at the venue, which will feature some other famous iO alumni including Jack McBrayer (“30 Rock”), Mitch Rouse (“According to Jim”), Kevin Dorff (“Conan”), Laura Krafft (“The Colbert Report”) and Pat Finn (“The Middle”). To get more details and to purchase tickets, click here.

’Joel Murray & Friends’ at the iO Chicago on August 30th
Photo credit: iO Chicago

Murray has also been busy as of late in his acting and voiceover career. Besides making a comeback on “Mad Men” with the Freddy Rumsen character, featured prominently in Season Seven, Murray was the voice of Don in last year’s “Monster’s University.” He will be also featured in an upcoming Chicago-based independent film, “Open Tables,” and will go back to TV directing for Tim Allen’s “Last Man Standing.”

Murray talked via phone again to HollywoodChicago.com, about his upcoming iO show and his latest career successes.

HollywoodChicago.com: Tell us about the origins of “Joel Murray and Friends,” and how did you assemble the dream team of players for this upcoming Saturday night?

Joel Murray: I was doing a show at ‘iO West’ in Los Angeles a couple times a month, and doing it with some old friends around my age. They weren’t necessarily the best improvisers, so I thought about all the guys who used to be so good, but wasn’t doing that type of comedy anymore. So I grabbed a bunch of people like Kevin Dorff and Mitch Rouse, and brought them back. On stage, I would tell the story, they would improvise, and half the time I would be able to improvise as well. It became a great thing – our ‘bowling night’ – and we’d all get together and have a really good time. It’s nice to surround yourself with great improvisers and funny people – it makes me look so much better [laughs].

The group for Saturday night at the iO Chicago came about because people happened to be in Chicago at the same time, doing other shows there. Then it became like a fantasy football draft, I picked up T.J.[Jagodowski] and Dave [Pasquesi] from their show off ‘the waiver wire.’ It’s a brand new theater – near where the hookers used to be when I was in Chicago in the early 1980s [laughs]. It’s a big joint, with four theaters, rehearsal rooms, beer gardens and a rooftop deck. It’s quite a complex.

HollywoodChicago.com: When you get back your improvisation roots, what feels best about a great performance in those shows, as opposed to great performance with a scripted show or TV or the Movies?

Murray: The immediate response, obviously, you have an audience laughing right in front of you. You know when you’re killing. When I’m doing a single-camera comedy show, you don’t know if stuff is working. In T.J. and Dave’s new theater at the iO, ‘The Mission,’ the audience is right at ground level, eye-to-eye with us.

HollywoodChicago.com: How does the audience help to create the atmosphere that allows the improvisation format to flourish?

Murray: Chicago has the most intelligent improv audiences in the country. They applaud connections, great moves, even attempts at connections. They are with us even when we know we did something wrong. It’s a smart house, because apparently one out of every three people in Chicago are improvisers [laughs]. The energy you get off of a great audience when they’re laughing, makes us that much better and keeps me on my game.

HollywoodChicago.com: How was iO an ‘anti-Second City’ when it started out, or do you consider it a sister theater to that Wells Street institution?

Murray: It was Del Close and Charna Halpern’s baby, and Del taught a different and slower long form improv, with no time limits. You had time to feel things out and learn how to act. That’s why I think some really good actors have come out of the iO. You do scenes to be in scenes, and the comedy comes out of the interruption of those scenes or the situation you’re in, as opposed to it just being a funny premise. It’s always been about ‘following the fear,’ as Del used to say, and you would just trust that you were heading somewhere.

It wasn’t an ‘anti-Second City.’ It was about doing the work. Nobody was anti-anything, it was just an additional level of training. We’d be doing a show on a Monday night back then, and often the guys from The Second City at that time would come and watch us. It wasn’t about the competition, as it was just another art form going on. These guys were hip to comedy, and wanted to see what we were doing. We were firm believers in seeing other stuff, and then to go close the bar talking about it.

Joel Murray as Freddy Rumsen in the Seventh Season of ‘Mad Men’
Photo credit: AMC Network

HollywoodChicago.com: There are so many myths and legends regarding the late improv guru Del Close. What can you us about him that you think the rest of the world doesn’t know?

Murray: Here’s a story that illustrates Del. The first time I met him was in the offices of ‘Saturday Night Live,’ during the period when my brother Brian was working for the show, and it was being produced by Jean Doumanian, who took over when Lorne Michaels temporarily left the show in the early 1980s. Brian was going in to pick up his paycheck, on a day when the atmosphere was really tense, you could tell.

So this guy walks into the office we’re in, and he has green Dickey’s pants on, with a safety pin for a fly – and that wasn’t a fashion statement – and he started with, ‘hey, the Murray boys, you guys got papers or a pipe?’ That was Del Close. We told him we weren’t carrying, so he scurries off. He came back with a loaded pipe – ‘success!’ – and sits at Jean Doumanian’s desk, and lights up. Of course Jean walks in, but what had just happened was she’d just been fired from the show. She saw Del and said, ‘it’s not a good time.’ And he blows out this enormous hit of pot, and replied, ‘Yeah, for you.’ We just all started laughing, we couldn’t help it.

HollywoodChicago.com: That’s a pretty fantastic introduction …

Murray: Yeah, Del was just an odd bird. He was a guy who had cat hair on his shirt all the time, and the worst taste in shoes you ever saw. But he was a great teacher, who had no problem yelling at folks or kicking people out of class who weren’t cutting it. They don’t do enough of that these days, tell people that this work is not for them. But Del would do that, and very quickly, he didn’t waste their time.

HollywoodChicago.com: When were the circumstances in bringing Freddy Rumsen back for the last season of ‘Mad Men’? And what kind of tone did you and Matthew Weiner want to set for that amazing monologue that begins Season Seven?

Murray: It was all about what Matt wanted to do to open it, I was kind of kept in the dark about what my role would be. All along in doing the show, he would tell me where I needed to be, it’s all in his head. It’s his baby, and he deserves the credit.

But the monologue did hit me like a ton of bricks – I’m opening the season? Wow. I worked hard at getting it memorized. I had it down, and it was a long spiel. We did the first take, which was a long camera pull-out from my enormous face. I did it all in one take. The cameraman came up to me afterward and said, ‘you know, you didn’t blink.’ That was an odd thing to say to an actor, but I knew I had at least four more takes. Apparently, I was so into it, I didn’t even blink my eyes for the whole two minutes [laughs]. After all was said and done, I really enjoyed it.

HollywoodChicago.com: Finally, after the recent one-two punch of ‘Mad Men’ and ‘Monster’s University,’ what job do you anticipate next as your career moves forward?

Murray: I’m excited to get back into TV directing, I’m going to direct Tim Allen’s ‘Last Man Standing,’ which is really getting much funnier since it has found its legs. I used to direct on ‘Dharma and Greg’ [Murray also had a supporting role on the show] ‘The Big Bang Theory’ and ‘Still Standing.’ The four-camera method is like a big Sudoku. At first, it’s hard to position the cameras and action, but once it’s in place, it’s an autopilot thing. I’ve always wanted to do that for later in my career, it’s a great gig, and I hope I get to do more of it.

As far as the actor’s life, who the hell knows? You audition and you put your hat in the ring. I keep doing these smaller films hoping that one of these director kids will be my Wes Anderson, and it takes off. I write, I direct, I act, I do voiceover and hopefully the fish will bite, if you put enough lines in the water.

HollywoodChicago.com: Anything else you want to say about the live shows coming up this weekend?

Murray: Well, with the team I have, they’ll also be working on Friday and Saturday. There is going to be good shows all weekend. The ticket prices also include all you can eat and drink, so ‘take [Chicago accent] dat dere.’ I’m looking forward to performing in Chicago, seeing some other performances and seeing the hometown folks.

By PATRICK McDONALD Senior Staff Writer HollywoodChicago.com pat@hollywoodchicago.com

CHICAGO– The short film gets its due this upcoming weekend, as the 2014 “Shortcut 100 Film Festival,” produced by Nebula Creatives, unreels on August 31st at the Chicago Filmmakers Loft, on Clark Street in the Andersonville neighborhood. Rujanee Mahakanjana is one of the producers of the festival, and the founder of Nebula Creatives.

Rujanee Mahakanjana is originally from Bangkok, Thailand, and moved to the U.S. to study as a teenager. After receiving her Masters in Studio Art in 2005 from Northern Illinois University, she moved to Chicago to pursue a career in installation art and interior design. At the same time, she became interested in filmmaking as an expression, and after doing some short films she released her mock documentary feature, “Man and His Erections” in 2009. One year later, she premiered her narrative feature “Parallel Universe,’ and she spoke to HollywoodChicago.com about it in 2010.

The Syrian Documentary ‘Not Anymore’ is Part of the Shortcut 100 Film Festival
Photo credit: SyrianRevolutionFilm.com

She recently morphed her production company, “Rujanee in Space,” into “Nebula Creatives,” and is producing the Shortcut 100 Film Festival for the second time. The eleven films in the fest represent U.S. and international filmmakers, with a variety of topics and genres. The festival begins at 3:30pm on Sunday, August 31st. For location details and to purchase tickets, click here.

Rujanee Mahakanjana sat down for a second time with HollywoodChicago.com, and talked about the Shortcut 100 Film Festival philosophy, and her own career plans.

HollywoodChicago.com: This is the second annual Shortcut 100 Film Festival. What is the origin of the name and festival, and what is your goal for producing it?

Rujanee Mahakanjana: The Shortcut 100 Film Festival came from an idea from my original production company, ‘Rujanee in Space.’ I wanted to collaborate with other filmmakers, artists and designers, to bring people together to network and have their work shown. On our side we wanted also to give back to the filmmakers by providing a prize, and give back to the community by donating a portion of our ticket sales.

HollywoodChicago.com: Eleven films make up the festival, with eight different countries represented. Which films do you feel will surprise or move the audience the most, and why?

Mahakanjana: All of them are moving and impressive. We started with a local and U.S. policy at first, but once we opened it up internationally we began to see films that haven’t been heard of or known. For documentaries, I’d say the Syrian war film ‘Not Anymore’ is a highlight, very touching and meaningful. In the narrative film category, ‘Indigo’ is visually attractive, and has a meaningful concept behind it. For animation, there is a piece called ‘Haiku 4: STILL,’ a reviewer said that it’s a black hole combination of Tim Burton, David Lynch and William S. Burroughs.

HollywoodChicago.com: This is truly an international festival, with submissions from all over the world. How, in your opinion, does the short film bridge a cultural gap between countries better than a feature length film can?

Mahakanjana: I think really it’s because that people have shorter attention spans. The internet era has shortened films to three minutes or less, filmmakers need to make their statements fast, and that becomes more engaging and memorable. It’s challenging for filmmakers to do the short form and make it have a strong message at the same time. If it works, I think the audience gets a bigger impact, and they think about it longer. That’s a very powerful gesture.

HollywoodChicago.com: Which type or genre of short film do you think works best, or is it just a question of what the individual filmmaker can accomplish within that format?

Mahakanjana: The point is that everyone who makes movies, with few exceptions, has come from the short film. Feature films get distribution, short films do not. In the Shortcut 100 Film Festival, we want to bring value back to what a filmmaker accomplishes in that shorter timeframe, and give that artist the feedback they wouldn’t get elsewhere. It’s all about recognition, and giving back to the filmmaker community.

An Image from ‘Indigo,’ Featured in the Shortcut 100 Film Festival
Photo credit: Indigo-film.com

HollywoodChicago.com: We first met you on this forum in 2010, when you premiered your feature film, ‘Parallel Universe.’ What projects have you completed since then?

Mahakanjana: Since then, I have restructured my production company, and renamed it Nebula Creatives. Nebula is based on my old company ‘Rujanee in Space,’ because I still want to remain there, but it has come to represent a bigger universe. [laughs] The goal is to bring together artists, designers and filmmakers in a collaborative space, to make something great together. We want to make it a support based community.

HollywoodChicago.com: You began Nebula Creatives in 2013. What projects are pending through this film and artist cooperative, and what do you want to finish soon?

Mahakanjana: The first thing coming up is a short film called ‘Out of Sight,’ about a female photographer who starts having vision problems, and begins to go blind. The story is about her relationship with her eye doctor, and how strange it becomes. She has a vision of traveling through the universe. It features Emily Bennett, who did some work here on ‘Chicago Fire.’

HollywoodChicago.com: As both a design artist and filmmaker, what medium do you feel you have expressed yourself more fully in, and what does that expression mean to you?

Rujanee Mahakanjana of the Shortcut 100 Film Festival Photo credit: © Michael Elyea

Mahakanjana: My background is in design, and I’ve used many mediums in that pursuit. It is filmmaking that seems to be the art, for me, that has been least difficult to produce. In the past, I would have a problem with space and material issues with other media, but with filmmaking – because of the cooperation with other people to accomplish the finished product – it becomes something that becomes more meaningful.

HollywoodChicago.com: What mood or circumstance keeps re-emerging in you in regards to your roots in Thailand? Since you’ve been in this country nearly as long as you were in your country of birth, what feels most American about you?

Mahakanjana: What keeps coming back from Thailand is a sense of gratitude. I always appreciate what people do and their accomplishments – and that comes directly from my roots – because it’s in the culture. In America, I’ve felt open about everything, and that freedom was tied into leaving Thailand, with the willingness to learn more than what I already knew. I live to jump into new things, it makes me happy, and that motivates me to jump again – mostly into subjects or work that I have no clue about. [laughs]

HollywoodChicago.com: What do you think distinguishes the Shortcut 100 Film Festival from similar fests like it?

Mahakanjana: It’s a great festival, it has good intentions, and positive ideas behind it. We all are a group of filmmakers who collaborate with other filmmakers, for filmmakers. We understand how much it took to get the films here, and relate that energy back to the shorts in the festival, and see it through. It’s about something more, the meaning that you can take home with you from those films. And afterward, we have free beer and a networking gathering at nearby Hopleaf Tavern in Andersonville.

By PATRICK McDONALD Senior Staff Writer HollywoodChicago.com pat@hollywoodchicago.com

CHICAGO– When sequels are made, they are rarely better than the original and often have different cast members. “Dolphin Tale 2” defies both of those conventions, and the returning cast delivers the goods – including Ashley Judd, Morgan Freeman, Harry Connick Jr., and the teenage actors Nathan Gamble and Cozi Zuehlsdorff.

Both 17-year-old actors are experienced veterans in show business, and both began when they were eight years old. The first “Dolphin Tale” film was Zuehlsdorff’s debut, and Gamble had his first movie role in the Best Picture Oscar nominated “Babel” in 2006. Zuehlsdorff can also be found on the Disney Channel’s “Mighty Med” TV series, and Gamble had kid roles in “Marley and Me” and “The Dark Knight.”

Cozi Zuehlsdorff and Nathan Gamble of ‘Dolphin Tale 2’
Photo credit: Warner Bros.

The two bright and intelligent actors sat down to talk with HollywoodChicago.com, regarding “Dolphin Tale 2” and their careers, including a lively debate on the type of fish “The Incredible Mr. Limpet” was. Suffice to say that the 17-year-old actress was correct, and the aging film critic was wrong.

HollywoodChicago.com: What have you both learned about marine biology and dolphins in general since you’ve now done two films?

Cozi Zuehlsdorff: We’ve got our degrees! [laughs]

Nathan Gamble: For me, they surprise me each time you get in the water with them, in how easy it is to connect with them. They are very human-like, and I treated Winter just like any human co-star. These creatures have nothing to compare themselves to, because they are so different and so unique.

Zuehlsdorff: And it was cool, as you mentioned, that we learned so much science behind them, through working with the trainers and doing background on our dialogue in the scripts. We learned even more in the second film, especially regarding the anatomy of the dolphin and how their lives are.

HollywoodChicago.com: This might sound strange, but what have you both learned about being actors by interacting with a dolphin?

Gamble: When I did the first film, I thought, ‘oh I’m going to be working with an animal.’ Now my attitude is that I’d act with them like I act with Harry Connick Jr. or Morgan Freeman. They are that sociable.

Zuehlsdorff: I can see it with Nathan and myself, with Winter and Hope [the dolphins]. But also, something I learned from underwater acting, is that if you do a smile happily that it’s magnified, so you look strange. You have to learn to do a half smile, then it translated to normal. The underwater perspective inflates you. [laughs]

HollywoodChicago.com: What was the easiest part of portraying Sawyer and Hazel this time, and what was the most difficult part?

Zuehlsdorff: What was easiest is that Charles Martin Smith wrote and directed the second one so beautifully, that I actually slipped into the feelings that you get when you’re a teenager, trying to understand about being an individual. The hardest part for me was being angry for a portion of the film. I’m not that kind of person.

Gamble: The dialogue in the film was so easy to latch onto. The hardest part is that although Sawyer has broken from his shell a little more, he’s still a reserved and shy person. I’m not that at all.

Zuehlsdorff: That was great acting, because I’ve never known you to be shy in your real life.

Cozi Zuehlsdorff, Harry Connick Jr. and Morgan Freeman in ‘Dolphin Tale 2’
Photo credit: Warner Bros.

HollywoodChicago.com: This is Charles Martin Smith’s movie, since this time he wrote the script, directed it and had a small part. What felt different about this sequel than the first one because of Mr. Smith’s influence this time?

Zuehlsdorff: It didn’t feel that different. Charles was as involved in the first one as this one. He commits to the dialogue, and he immerses himself in the experience. He makes sure the whole experience is immersive, so we feel very comfortable. We can place ourselves in the scene exactly how he imagines it. You end up trusting him, because of that, because he knows what colors he wants.

HollywoodChicago.com: Cozi, since both you and Harry Connick are play the piano, how has he helped you with keyboard technique and how have you helped him as an actor?

Zuehlsdorff: I showed Harry the ropes. [laughs] I don’t think I helped Harry as an actor that much, except that it’s easy for him to have a daughter on screen because he has three in real life. Can you imagine me helping Harry with acting? Never. [laughs] Regarding keyboard technique, he showed me some bass notes and jazz play. You couldn’t ask for a better music mentor.

HollywoodChicago.com: Nathan, one of your major scenes in “Dolphin Tale 2” is with Oscar-winner Morgan Freeman. How has being around this top level cast of actors, including Ashley Judd, Harry Connick and Kris Kristofferson, allowed you to absorb their techniques and ways of approaching acting?

Gamble: Each actor has different qualities that I learned from – Ashley gave me so much in each scene, she really is a phenomenal actor, and makes each take a new version of the scene. This gave me, as a newer actor, something to feed off on. With Morgan, he is the kind of person you want by your side in any scene, because he’s ‘Morgan Freeman.’ That was very special. Working with him one-on-one was a dream come true.

HollywoodChicago.com: Cozi, it said in your biography that you were home schooled. What curiosity do you have about kids who have gone through the regular school system, and what advantages do you think you have because you were homeschooled?

Cozi Zuehlsdorff, Nathan Gamble in Chicago, August 22, 2014 Photo credit: Patrick McDonald for HollywoodChicago.com

Zuehlsdorff: I have some good friends who do public school, and I am very interested in what it’s like – especially in comparison to the movies I’ve seen about it. [laughs] Seriously, that’s all I know. There are many advantages, I work at my own pace so I control my free time. I had to really learn self-motivation. Most people tell me ‘I’d love to stay home all day and watch TV in my pajamas.’ The myth of the pajamas happens to be true, [laughs] but everything else is about self motivation. You determine how awesome your education can be, in many ways.

HollywoodChicago.com: Nathan, you’ve played enough characters now to answer this question. Which of those other people felt closest to who you are, and why?

Gamble: I did this film in Canada called ‘The Hole’ [2009], directed by Joe Dante. I portrayed this loud, obnoxious and quirky 12-year-old. I definitely related to him.

Zuehlsdorff: Are you calling yourself loud and obnoxious?

Gamble: I can be sometimes.

HollywoodChicago.com: Which movie dolphin do you think will eventually be the most legendary and why – Flipper, The Incredible Mr. Limpet or Winter?

Zuehlsdorff: The Incredible Mr. Limpet is a fish, not a dolphin.

HollywoodChicago.com: What?

Zuehlsdorff: The Incredible Mr. Limpet was played by Don Knotts, and he was a fish.

HollywoodChicago.com: I guess I’ll have to look it up. I’m being homeschooled [Mr. Limpet is a tilefish].

Gamble: That’s more than I knew. I’ve never even heard of The Incredible Mr. Limpet.

Zuehlsdorff: Okay, definitely Winter will be the most famous, because she is the only one out of all of them that is inspirational.

HollywoodChicago.com: You’re telling me Flipper is not inspirational?

By PATRICK McDONALD Senior Staff Writer HollywoodChicago.com pat@hollywoodchicago.com

CHICAGO– War is on the country’s mind once again, and in this week’s film releases, “The Guest” is coming to theaters. The main creative team behind it – lead actor Dan Stevens, screenwriter Simon Barrett and director Adam Wingard – weave a tale of a soldier that metaphorically reminds us that something is wrong.

Dan Stevens is a British actor, best known for portraying Matthew Crawley on the mega-popular “Downton Abbey.” His cool and collected returning soldier, the title character in the film, is effectively detached and present at the same. He will also be featured in the upcoming “A Walk Among the Tombstones.” The screenwriter/director team of Barrett and Wingard are horror story veterans, having contributed to segments in “V/H/S” and “V/H/S 2,” and having made the feature film scare, “You’re Next.” There is a maturity and reflection in “The Guest” that places it above normal scary movies, plus a purposeful tribute to the 1980s “Terminator” style of science fiction.

Dan Stevens Takes Aim in ‘The Guest’
Photo credit: Picturehouse

All three of the filmmaker participants sat down with HollywoodChicago.com, and spoke of the background iconography in the film, while still noting that what is within the story of “The Guest” is what makes the best statement about what the film is.

HollywoodChicago.com: Dan, how did you want to both honor the service of soldiers and show the character of David’s obvious backlash from the war?

Dan Stevens: As fantastical as this film is, we at least wanted to root it in at least one reality, in order to further explore the fantastical. One of the forms that has interested me – and this goes back to ancient texts like ‘The Iliad’ and ‘The Odyssey – was the very deep love that soldiers have for each other. If we are to believe David and the bond he has with Caleb, and since he goes to visit Caleb’s family because of this conditioning, he then can produce ways to assist them that are unorthodox.

One of the themes that excited me when I read the script – and what Simon was keen to explore – was in David going somewhere to help, but actually wreaking utter devastation. That can be applied to some global and political situations, and while we’re not making a direct comment on that. it certainly a backdrop.

Simon Barrett: Going somewhere to help and being perceived as the enemy is certainly a relevant thing right now. We didn’t want to overtly comment on that because none of us have served. But I did feel we were able to address it through the metaphor of a thriller movie. That was talked about at an early stage.

HollywoodChicago.com: Simon, what was the inspiration for the screenplay? How did you combine the peculiar post war energy of today’s veterans with the science fiction of the story?

Barrett: When I first conceived of the screenplay, it was back in 2007, while the Iraq War was still going on. There were a lot of films coming out of the industry that addressed the war, but mostly what they had to say was ‘this is bad.’ I was watching those films, and I thought a thriller would be interesting, but I didn’t know how to pull it off.

The idea of taking it into a science fiction direction came from a conversation with Adam about his love of ‘The Terminator.’ The tone of this type of 1980s style is when it clicked for me. Instead of having a veteran dealing with emotional issues, let’s have a guy with actual experimental conditioning, and it can serve as a metaphor for that stuff if you want it to, or it doesn’t have to if you’re not looking for it. If anything, you’re looking at a soldier who can shut down his emotions at will.

Director Adam Wingard, Screenwriter Simon Barrett On Set for ‘The Guest’
Photo credit: Picturehouse

HollywoodChicago.com: Adam, this is symbolic for so many issues having to do with the war – PTSD, veteran’s issues, even the gun fetish of some Americans. Besides the surface orientation of the story, what did you want to communicate about David’s plight and the plight of the family?

Adam Wingard: I don’t like to overly analyze things until they are completely over. You set up a lot of things, you know that they’re going to fall into place and you just have to trust that the subtext is there. As far as the plight of the family and David is very straightforward – it’s what you see on screen.

Stevens: From a cinematic point of view, though, it was a digestion and processing of the conflicts the film depicts. We’re all of a similar age, and we were all exposed to non-ironic glorification of a certain type of movie violence. There is as much of that in play as the direct depiction of actual confrontation.

Barrett: It’s different as to how the audience responds to David’s violence toward the high school bullies versus later in the film, when the violence takes on a much darker tone. Yet it’s the same character responding in the same way.

It was important that in addition, the family’s economic situation was shown. We knew we were making a fantastical situation, but there was also a father who didn’t have the best job – we wanted an accuracy there.

HollywoodChicago.com: Dan, as someone from Britain, you didn’t grow up with some of the American culture that was on display in ‘The Guest.’ Which element of the family and town life in the script particularly fascinated you, different from your culture or upbringing?

Stevens: We were exposed to the same things, just from a different angle. The American paradigm was everywhere in England, especially in the 1980s and ‘90s. It was the figure of the ‘High School Coach’ was a backdrop to my preparation for the film. His position as a patriarch is a curious phenomenon in America. Also, I’m learning about the U.S. state by state, and we shot near the desert in New Mexico. That was new to me, and I thrust myself into the landscape, both psychologically and visually.

HollywoodChicago.com: Simon, the government is interestingly and symbolically portrayed in ‘The Guest.’ It is said that technology always outpaces the killing aspect of war. What were you trying to say about that in regard to what David is?

Barrett: We were less interested in commenting on the government, than commenting on the government’s relationship to the corporations who are producing these defense systems. That relationship, between major defense corporations and the American government, is the bane of our existence now. The contractors seem to cause some of the tragedy.

Wingard: I’m fascinated with the classified nature of technology, we only find out about it much later. Whenever the government shows off something, like a new stealth aircraft, you’ve got to assume that the technology is completely out of date, or else why would they be showing it? The general American public, I think, is always 20 or 30 years behind the real technology of war.

HollywoodChicago.com: Adam, you use a Halloween ‘funhouse’ as a setting towards the end of the film. How were you going to use that judiciously, without just cheaply scaring people?

Dan Stevens, Simon Barrett & Adam Wingard of ‘The Guest’ Photo credit: Patrick McDonald for HollywoodChicago.com

Wingard: The original ending of the script set the finale at the high school itself. But horribly unfortunate – but fortunate to the story – was the rash of spree shootings on campuses, so we couldn’t do anything like that in a high school. We had set up the time line for Halloween, but we didn’t have anything to tie it all together. That’s when the gears were shifted, and that’s where the Halloween funhouse concept came in.

I feel that ‘The Guest’ is Simon and I evolving away from straightforward horror. It was an opportunity to show we have a real knowledge and control over the horror elements, and we can look at it in a different perspective. In a way, the Halloween funhouse is a metaphor for the types of films we’ve made, it is a good time and not taking it too seriously. The whole thing is a fun ride, and we wanted to end it on that note.

HollywoodChicago.com: Despite all the research the three of you did regarding war and veterans, what do you think you or the average American citizen will never understand about a battlefront, and how does that affect our attitude toward starting conflicts again?

Barrett: That question is best asked to someone who has actually experienced the terror of the battlefield.

Wingard: We’ve had scares in our lives, maybe even a near death experience, but in my mind you have to amplify that by a thousand to even get close to a war type of terror. I’ve watched a lot of World War II DVDs, there is something that fascinates me about that battleground. At the same time, I’m very glad I’ll never experience that – hopefully – but there always is going to be an aspect of me that wonders what that overwhelming sense of war’s explosive madness is like.

By PATRICK McDONALD Senior Staff Writer HollywoodChicago.com pat@hollywoodchicago.com

CHICAGO– What is wrong with our future? The Young Adult category of future fiction seems to think we’re all doomed, what with “The Hunger Games,” “Divergent” and now “The Maze Runner” film adaptations. The latest “Maze” take is pretty darn good, though, thanks to actors Dylan O’Brien, Kaya Scodelario and Will Poulter.

Will Poulter may be most familiar to audiences, having had his character suffer many indignities in last year’s “We’re the Millers.” The British actor’s career is heating up, as he is set to star in the upcoming war film, “The Yellow Birds.” Dylan O’Brien portrays the title character in “The Maze Runner,” and gets a “Beatles Scream” treatment when introduced because of his starring role on MTV’s “Teen Wolf.” The British actress Kaya Scodelario is known for the BBC-TV show, “Skins,” and has a memorable intensity in “The Maze Runner.”

Dylan O’Brien and Kaya Scodelario Share a Moment in ‘The Maze Runner’
Photo credit: 20th Century Fox

All three actors – in the early phases of their careers and in their early twenties – talked to HollywoodChicago.com about “The Maze Runner,” their careers, and representing a generation whose future is much brighter than what is written in their texts.

HollywoodChicago.com:‘The Maze Runner’ has a different tone than most movies with this style of story. Since this was director Wes Ball’s first feature film, what did he want the cast to be most aware of in establishing the finished tone in the film?

Dylan O’Brien: The intensity of it all, the focus on the relationships and the focus on the kids in the insane circumstance. We were making a science fiction movie, and nothing else. There is no romance at the helm of it, it’s a sci-fi film surrounding these average, normal and relatable kids.

Kaya Scodelario: What Wes talked to me about was he didn’t want it to fit within that Young Adult category. He wants audiences to walk in and enjoy the film for what it is, and not have to be a ‘fangirl’ of the book series. It does work, and he set out to make a movie that he wanted to make, for himself and his heart.

HollywoodChicago.com: The-teenagers-in-a-dreadful-future-world is one of the hottest story subjects of the moment. Since you guys are recent teenagers, why do you think this type of story is so appealing to the young adult crowd?

Will Poulter: I feel like that young people of late – and the internet is probably responsible for it – feel as if they have more options in which to express themselves. They think their opinion matters more, because we’re in touch with the outside world through technology.

Our generation, I think, feels an opportunity to be influential. So when you project a world in which younger people are given an opportunity to make change, they are depicted as taking action. That is what the future feels like. Young people taking on more of a role. We’re going to be responsible for the change.

HollywoodChicago.com: What can you get from a film based on a source novel that is different from just doing a script that is new?

O’Brien: There are more source references, obviously, and it can’t hurt us. It helps in that it gives more ideas and more complete vision of a character. We read the script first before we read the books, and the spirit of the characters are in that script. So when we go to the books, there is more. It expands the consciousness of a character study.

Scodelario: The two times I’ve done book-to-film adaptations I’ve been told not to read the books first. I quite like that, because that’s how I like to work. As an actor, I try to put myself into that person, and be organic. So when I finally reach out to the book, there is so much more in that. For me, I have to have the script first.

O’Brien: I do like reading the script first, because then I can come at it with original instincts, and the book can fill those in. The instinct leads the way.

Will Poulter Portrays Gally in ‘The Maze Runner’
Photo credit: 20th Century Fox

HollywoodChicago.com: Dylan, you are a producer of short films and a musician, besides being an actor. What fuels your interests in the arts in several different types of disciplines, and how does making your own films and being in a band make you a better actor?

O’Brien: One of the tools I used when I first started acting was coming at it from a technical standpoint. Since then, I’ve picked up skills from working, either with other actors or from the directors I’ve encountered. It’s useful to know how things are going to be cut in a film, and what the shot is, and it becomes instinctual as to how I approach a scene. There are other actors I’ve met who have no idea what goes on at the other side of the camera – in a way, that’s beautiful, because they go about it in a different way – but for me it’s better to be able to adapt to blocking and come at it with my ideas.

Music is just something I’ve done as a second hand to acting. I thought at first I was going to music school, until at the last second I went to film school. When the acting opportunity came along, it was just something to add to the storytelling aspect of what I wanted to do in film. It was a foot in the door.

HollywoodChicago.com: Will, you have reached that certain point in an actor’s career in which everything changes, and suddenly you have offers and auditions for films that you never expected. What was the role that changed that career landscape for you, and how do you personally decide what is best for the direction of your career?

Poulter: I have an amazing team, who are overqualified to look after me since I’ve signed with them. [laughs] It’s been a sweet experience, and made things a lot easier, especially for auditions, and I think I’ve progressed enough to earn my place in some of those rooms. As far as the breakout it was ‘We’re the Millers,’ just because I think it just helped introduce me to a wider audience, at least from a comedic standpoint. I am looking forward to this film coming out, because it’s a major platform, and a platform that we feel excited to be a part of – it’s been a great ride so far.

HollywoodChicago.com: Kaya, since you were the only female in the man group in this film, what did you learn about male bonding that you hadn’t observed before?

Scodelario: They were a lot more sensitive than I thought they’d be. [laughs] It was a group of boys with a bit a femininity in each of them, and they weren’t afraid to show it. For example, if I needed advice on shopping or fashion, there were people I could go to. There were little bits of women in all of them.

HollywoodChicago.com: Dylan, you were in a film called ‘The First Time,’ which was how characters who found each other connected and fell in love. What do you find different from a fictional portrayal of that phenomenon versus what happens in real life?

Kaya Scodelario, Will Poulter & Dylan O’Brien of ‘The Maze Runner’ Photo credit: Patrick McDonald for HollywoodChicago.com

O’Brien: It can be very much glamorized in a fictional tale. In reality, it’s scary when it’s real, and it can be awkward. When you’re in high school, when you first start having these feelings, you have no idea what to do with them, and both parties tend to make asses of themselves. [laughs] It’s like the guy thinks he’s embarrassed himself, and the girl can do no wrong. [Kaya laughs at this]

But in reality, the girl feels the same way on the other side. That’s what is so beautiful about that dance. Movies used to do that, but it’s become kind of lost. It’s something that is put on a pedestal in films, a kind of movie magic. The realness and the authenticity, has been kind of lost.

HollywoodChicago.com: Will, you have been cast in ‘The Yellow Birds,’ a story of a soldier in the Iraq War, and you’re currently in pre-production. What personally changed in your viewpoint about the military in your research of the character?

Poulter: I have background with family who were in the military, and I’ve always been interested in it. When I was younger, I hounded my uncle and grandfather for stories about it. What I learned very quickly was that my view of war was fueled by the movies, and in approaching the film I need to be more authentic. My relatives withheld information of course, and what I loved about the ‘Yellow Birds’ script is that it didn’t withhold the impression of conflict. I have far more respect for persons of service now than I ever had watching war movies when I was growing up.

HollywoodChicago.com: If you all were to run through a maze that represented your own lives, could you name a couple of obstacles that you think would be in the way to get you to the next level?

O’Brien: A ‘Confidence Wall.’

Scodelario: Wow, a metaphor and everything. [laughs] For me, it’s the element of not being trained. Everybody expects a British actor to be trained. I didn’t get that training, but I’ve become more okay with it.

Poulter: I love Dylan’s Confidence Wall, because so much of this business is wrestling with your own thoughts and psychological barriers. The wall I guess is my own psyche, and I just need to relax to get through it.

By PATRICK McDONALD Senior Staff Writer HollywoodChicago.com pat@hollywoodchicago.com

CHICAGO– Reeling32, the Chicago International LGBT Film Festival, had a sensational Opening Night on Thursday, September 18th, 2014. The festival began with “Boy Meets Girl,” featuring Michelle Hendley in her debut performance, and directed by Eric Schaeffer. Both star and director attended the Opening Night.

“Boy Meets Girl” tells the story of Ricky (Hendley), a transgender girl from a small town, who accepts the world as it is around her. Hendley is a transgender actor, and brought a perfect balance of humor and valor to the role. Eric Schaeffer is a veteran director of television and film, including the indie favorites “If Lucy Fell” (1996) and “Mind the Gap” (2004). This is his ninth feature film.

“Reeling32,” the 2014 Chicago LGBT International Film Festival has an incredible line-up of films, events and parties until closing night on Thursday, September 25th. Theater venues include the historic Music Box Theater, Landmark’s Century Centre Cinema and Chicago Filmmakers. Click the link below the interviews to check out details on the entire line-up of happenings.

HollywoodChicago.com was on the Red Carpet on the Opening Night of the Reeling32 Film Festival, and captured the following interviews with Michelle Hendley and Eric Schaeffer of “Boy Meets World”

Michelle Hendley, Lead Actress in “Boy Meets Girl”

Michelle Hendley on the Red Carpet at Reeling32 Opening Night, Sept. 18, 2014
Photo credit: Patrick McDonald for HollywoodChicago.com

HollywoodChicago.com: What was it like portraying a character in ‘Boy Meets Girl’ that so closely aligns to your actual life?

Michelle Hendley: This was my first movie role in anything ever, so I would say it was a pretty good stepping stone into acting. Ricky isn’t completely like myself, but our lives have a lot of parallels. It was comforting, since this was all so new to me, that I just had to bring myself into the role.

HollywoodChicago.com: What was the most amazing parallel that you found between you and Ricky?

Hendley: That other people find us so empowering. I just live my life, and people I encounter seem so moved by it. That’s humbling and pretty cool.

HollywoodChicago.com: At what point in your life did you know you felt different than how you’d been born, and how did you first deal with the truth of it?

Hendley: I always felt different. I dressed the part when I was young, and played with dolls. It wasn’t until I was a teenager that I assessed that part of myself. I looked more into it then, went to my parents about it – they were supporting and loving – and I decided this is what I needed to do for myself.

HollywoodChicago.com: You use cyberspace as a forum for expressing the stages and circumstances of your full transition. How do you believe the miracle of the internet helps persons that have similar circumstances to you?

Hendley: I would have not have started by YouTube page, until I saw other girls doing it. It’s a community, and it’s incredible – that was something I didn’t have growing up in Missouri. On the internet they were so many that were willing to share their stories, and when I saw that, and it made me feel better, I wanted to share myself with the world as well.

HollywoodChicago.com: What is the most personal element of yourself that we find in your film?

Hendley: There was one scene in which I am called out, and torn down, on a basic and fundamental level. It shatters the character. To get to that point for the film, I had to let myself feel that way. It was pretty deep and pretty emotional, but it made the scene work, and I was proud of it.

HollywoodChicago.com: Did you find that to be cathartic, and did you find that it unburdened you more personally?

Hendley: A little bit. One of the other actors in the film, Alex Turshen, told me that I had to exorcise those emotions, to get it out of me, and I don’t need to revisit them. It was very powerful.

HollywoodChicago.com: Finally, when you talk about the love of what your life has become, given the trials it took to get here, what’s the first thing you talk about?

Hendley: The fact that I have a very strong and supportive network of friends is at the forefront of what pushes me in my life. It helped me to be who I am today for sure, and I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for those people in my lfie.

Eric Schaeffer, Director of “Boy Meets Girl”

Director Eric Schaeffer and Michelle Hendley Answer Audience Questions at Reeling32 Opening Night
Photo credit: Patrick McDonald for HollywoodChicago.com

HollywoodChicago.com: When did you first have the germ of the idea for this film?

Eric Schaeffer: There wasn’t a ‘ah-ha’ movement. I make a TV show or a movie, then I turn around and think, what am I going to do next? I was just thinking about it, and actually this film is thematically similar to all my previous films. It’s about finding love, experiencing friendship, having a spiritual life, feeling alienated and in the end wanting a unification of spirit. My films are very human and work to break stereotypes. I thought, how can I achieve that type of movie, where people can see it in a fresh way? It was a path into subject matter that is important to me, in a way that audiences can see it.

HollywoodChicago.com: Sexual identity and self-identification has gotten much more loose in the younger and more-open late-teen and early twenties generation. How do you think that will affect overall attitudes when that generation gets older and in power?

Schaeffer: Well, the ones who are comfortable and ‘out’ in the identifications of who they are, I would hope that continues. And when they get power, they will yield it in a way that will be helpful to further the cause against misinformation and bigotry in that area. I would hope that, but who knows? Only time will tell.

HollywoodChicago.com: What fascinates you about the history of sexual identity, and the psychological ramifications of the closeting most people had to do up to the late 20th Century?

Schaeffer: I don’t think it’s dramatic to say that anybody who closeted their desires, especially their sexual desires, are at the forefront of emotional and physical violence. When they self-hate in that way, by squashing their true selves, it manifests into hating everybody else. It could range from politicians who speak against a sexual preference, but practice it, to actual physical or psychological abuse.

HollywoodChicago.com: You had an ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ moment in the film, how did you feel confident that the story that came before it was enough to generate that moment?

Schaeffer: I’m a big fat romantic at heart. One of the greatest reviews I ever got in my life is when a writer said that my film ‘If Lucy Fell’ reminded them of a Preston Sturges movie. There is a resonance to the films that I love from that era, which have a fairy tale element to them, but are also grounded in radical reality. I feel like it’s not an easy fence to straddle, because we experience life in all emotions at once, and I want that to come through in my films.

HollywoodChicago.com: When you talk about your love for filmmaking, what is the first thing you talk about primarily?

Schaeffer: It’s the feeling that I am unifying people. It’s the feeling I get when I’m in the audience at my film, and I hear a laugh, that they are laughing through their identification with the human condition. And that in a world of daily fractures, what a great gift to experience. If I can be of small service or help in that area, then it is gratifying for me. That’s what I talk about.

By PATRICK McDONALD Senior Staff Writer HollywoodChicago.com pat@hollywoodchicago.com

CHICAGO– How do you interpret an odd British storybook called “Here Be Monsters!” into a mainstream animated film? By taking the main characters – called ‘The Boxtrolls’ – and putting them up front. Animation veterans and co-directors Graham Annable and Anthony Stacchi got the assignment, and deliver the goods.

Both creators have been around the animation block, but this is Annable’s first major animation directorial effort. He cut his teeth as a comic book artist and video game director, and was a story artist on the recent “ParaNorman.” Stacchi was previously a co-director on “Open Season” (2006), and started his animation career as a story artist on the classic “Antz” (1998). He also worked on visual effects for the classics “Back to the Future” (1985), “Ghost” (1990) and “Hook” (1991). The animation of ‘The Boxtrolls’ was produced by Laika Entertainment, who also produced the stop motion films “Coraline’” and the aforementioned “ParaNorman.”

Characters Looks in ‘The Boxtrolls,’ directed by Graham Annable and Anthony Stacchi
Photo credit: Focus Features

Both directors sat down with HollywoodChicago.com to talk their film, careers and love of the art of movie animation.

HollywoodChicago.com: This was inspired by the Alan Snow storybook ‘Here Be Monsters.’ What elements of that book, besides the Boxtrolls, were adapted to make this completely new story?

Graham Annable: The villain, Archibald Snatcher, is very similar to villain in the book – we loved that character. The main thing we took out of Alan Snow’s book was the core story, about an 11 year-old boy who has to come above ground for the first time during the daylight and tries to figure out who he is and where he came from. That simple human story became the core of the film as well.

We worked on this for years. We did versions of the script and even story reels in which many more elements of the book were present. We started paring it down based on complexities and if it was unnecessary to the core story. We combined the above ground people and created the Portley-Rind characters, Winnie and her father. All this distillation was nicknamed ‘ruthless economy.’ [laughs]

HollywoodChicago.com: What was the specific appeal – either story or illustrative – of ‘Here Be Monsters,’ that you wanted to replicate when you were animating the story?

Anthony Stacchi: The world that Alan had created in that book seemed tailor-made for a stop motion movie, the setting being this steam punk, fantastical London/Paris/European cityscape, in a mix of eras. Our art department was eager to create this world, because it took all their skill sets. It’s far more detailed than anything we’ve taken on before.

Annable: After ‘Coraline’ and ‘ParaNorman,’ the company’s ability to create elaborate sets, combined with the size of the computer graphics department, allowed us to take on a film of this scope. It’s driven by the art of stop motion, but we couldn’t have made it without our effects department.

HollywoodChicago.com: The story is rooted in British literary iconology. How do you feel it translates to American audiences or will British people get it more?

Stacchi: We joke about the fact that ‘ParaNorman’ was a take on a New England American town, directed by two Brits, and here is a British source being done by two Americans.

Annable: This is our revenge. We saw how they made us look, so we didn’t have a decent set of teeth in the whole film. [laughs]

Stacchi: There are universal themes with the coming-of-age story and Snatcher attempting to join another social class, who doesn’t want him. It speaks to everyone who has aspirations.

A Stop Motion Figure is Manipulated by Hand on the Set of ‘The Boxtrolls’
Photo credit: Focus Features

HollywoodChicago.com: Graham, this is your first animated film as director. What specifically did you set out to learn in the driver’s seat, and do you feel you accomplished those learning goals?

Annable: I think survival was the biggest key. I had worked as a storyboard artist on ‘Coraline’ and ‘ParaNorman,’ and I thought I knew what was going after it was all done. We just had to look at the story reel and reproduce it with puppets. But I learned how overwhelming the amount of details and the decisions that went on behind it, when I took on the director role.

I equate it to being a guy who got really good at making paper airplanes, I could make the wingspans and fly them nicely across the office. And then all of a sudden, when I went from the storyboard to the director’s chair, it was like going from those paper airplanes to being behind the controls of a 747 jet. [laughs] All the concerns that we had to take on were just astronomical.

HollywoodChicago.com: Tony, Going back to your first jobs on ‘Back to the Future’ and ‘Ghost.’ what kind of inventions were helpful in creating the effects in those films, and how have those inventions evolved as you have grown with the industry?

Stacchi: I started in computer animation, and then went to the studio level at Industrial Light & Magic [ILM] and those films. In those days, they still had a model and carpentry shop, and they still were doing optical effects [effects inside the camera]. When I came into Laika Entertainment, it was a classic animation studio under one roof. The backlot was there, and all the production process was in one area – as opposed to the dark room full of computers, which is what a lot of animation has become.

This film fulfilled a lifelong dream in working in the classic Hollywood style, under one system. I also worked with a lot of artists and production people that I’ve known and admired for years.

HollywoodChicago.com: Graham, you came from a comic book background, what interests you about the focus of comics at more of an adult audience than a children’s, and what do you feel caused that particular phenomenon?

Annable: As a comic book artist, it surprised me that comics had at one time just been locked in the superhero genre aimed at kids. For me, when I was working on video games years ago, I had lost the ‘drawing part’ of myself that I loved when I started as an artist. So I began doing comics on the side, around the late 1990s, and at the time I felt it was being underutilized in its storytelling element. Whether they are specifically for adults or kids, it didn’t feel like the storytelling was there.

And then the boom came shortly thereafter. I recently went into a comic shop in London, and the main floor was devoted to the type of alternative comics I do, with themes and topics like a bookstore. And on the lower floor, tucked in a corner, were the superhero comics. So that switch has been amazing.

HollywoodChicago.com: Tony, what is easier today for an animator from the breakthroughs you made as story artist on ‘Antz’ to the complex designs and executions of ‘Boxtrolls’?

Graham Annable & Anthony Stacchi in Chicago, August 21, 2014 Photo credit: Patrick McDonald for HollywoodChicago.com

Stacchi: The actual development of the stories haven’t changed since Walt Disney was doing it. The role of the storyboard artist is like writers with drawings. You are building the story with those boards rather than a pen. That hasn’t changed.

The shift for me came with ‘Toy Story’ and ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas.’ I feel that my generation came of age out of that toy box and the ‘Nightmare’ time. That way, we can make stories that we’re interested in as adults, not just the kid’s stories.

HollywoodChicago.com: For both of you, what are you favorite examples of ‘cartoon physics’ – for example, when the coyote lingers in the air before crashing to the ground?

Annable: I just immediately think of animator Tex Avery. Anything he did defied those laws, and it’s still entertaining to watch.

Stacchi: In animation circles, there is an argument whether its a genre or a medium. For me, the seven minute short at Warner Brothers, that is the perfect distillation of what animation can do. Within the confines of the frame, anything can happen. A cartoon cat can have a question mark appear over his head, and then he can use those question marks to swing over buildings that are alive. That kind of chaos is animation at its purest.

HollywoodChicago.com: When do you believe the new golden age of animation began, and do you see it peaking right now or still climbing?

Stacchi: No one recognizes a golden age until 30 years after it happens. [laughs] As I mentioned before, for me it’s ‘Toy Story’ and ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas,’ for they appealed to both kid and adult sensibilities. That changed the paradigm for me.

By PATRICK McDONALD Senior Staff Writer HollywoodChicago.com pat@hollywoodchicago.com

CHICAGO– Opening Night for the 50th Chicago International Film Festival is October 9th, and their official portrait on the poster this year was again photographed by the iconic lensman Victor Skrebneski.

The Official Poster Portrait for the 50th Chicago International Film Festival, by Victor Skrebneski
Photo credit: Chicago International Film Festival

Skrebneski unveiled the portrait – entitled “The Next Generation” – last month at a highly anticipated reception, that also opened an exhibition of his previous poster artwork. The portrait for the 50th Chicago International Film Festival looks to the future, in a whimsical take on Skrebneski’s signature style, and it joins a gallery of his poster stars over the years, which includes Orson Welles. Bette Davis, Anna Nicole Smith, Dennis Hopper and Andy Warhol.

HollywoodChicago.com was at the event, as the attendees gasped and cheered when the beautiful image was revealed. Later, Victor Skrebneski talked about his life and work in a brief interview. The 50th Chicago International Film Festival opens October 9th, 2014, with “Miss Julie,” directed by Liv Ullmann.

Photographer Victor Skrebneski (right) and Chicago International Film Festival Founder Michael Kutza at the Unveiling Photo credit: Patrick McDonald for HollywoodChicago.com

HollywoodChicago.com: What was the first image – maybe even as a child – that you can remember being photographic for you?

Victor Skrebneski: It was the first image of my sister that I photographed when I was very young. She was my model. I only had one light, and I didn’t know where to put it, so I put it really close to her. That didn’t work, so I kept pulling it back until I got what I wanted. I actually display that picture often. I was 14 or 15 years old at the time, and my sister – a beautiful girl – was two years older.

HollywoodChicago.com: What brought you to that point, with a camera and the use of light? How did you start taking pictures of people?

Skrebneski: It was about shooting my girlfriends, and at that time they thought I was a photographer. [laughs] I have a terrific photo in same era – of Jane Twaits – and she dressed like a flapper from the 1920s. I had a thin table from approximately that time, and that’s another great early picture.

HollywoodChicago.com: What brought you to that point, with a camera and the use of light? How did you start taking pictures of people?

Skrebneski: As close as I can remember, it would be Orson Welles. I was shooting for Warner Brothers at the time, and I arrived promptly at where we were meeting, and he was 45 minutes late. He was always late. The lighting and camera were all set up, but I started packing up, because I figured he wasn’t coming. As I soon I started doing that, he walked in.

After I introduced myself, he looked around and said, ‘Okay maestro, let’s begin.’ He called me that because he would light a set the same way I do, and he knew what light would be on him. That was the photograph.

By PATRICK McDONALD Senior Staff Writer HollywoodChicago.com pat@hollywoodchicago.com

CHICAGO– What happens when too much truth is exposed, and those who will feel the backlash from that exposure are too powerful? The new film “Kill the Messenger,” directed by Michael Cuesta, seeks an answer to that question through the true story of journalist Gary Webb, a victim of his own investigative reporting.

Jeremy Renner portrays Webb, a newspaperman for the smaller market San Jose Mercury News. Webb discovers a connection between the influx of crack cocaine into U.S, inner cities during the 1980s and the CIA-backed Contra rebels in Central America Nicaragua. His reporting opens a Pandora’s Box of implications, including his employment, family and the competitiveness of bigger newspapers, who missed the story. Webb’s life becomes a surreal nightmare, just because he kept the truth alive.

Michael Cuesta Directs Jeremy Renner (left) in ‘Kill the Messenger’
Photo credit: Focus Features

The director of “Kill the Messenger” is Michael Cuesta, a veteran of TV and film. After debuting with the feature film “L.I.E.” in 2001, he became a prominent television director with credits including “Six Feet Under,” “Dexter,” “Homeland” and “Elementary.” The release of “Kill the Messenger” is his fifth feature film, and his second with actor Jeremy Renner. Cuesta sat down with HollywoodChicago.com, for a background interview on the issues and answers in his excellent and telling paranoid drama.

HollywoodChicago.com: One of the greatest moments of journalism was the circumstances behind “All the President’s Men.” What does “Kill the Messenger” say about journalism today, that contradicts the almost heroic courage displayed in that previous generation?

Michael Cuesta: Since the Reagan administration, the media has become more of a conglomerate, and is driven by profit. In doing that, the appeal has to be for a middle base because of ratings. Also the media became more pro-American around the time of Reagan, emphasizing what Katharine Graham [former publisher of the Washington Post] once said, ‘we live in a dirty and dangerous world, there are some things the public should not know.’ That idea is perpetuated in the ‘insider journalism’ that takes place in Washington.

HollywoodChicago.com: There has been an emphasis, especially since 9/11, that the government is here to “protect the homeland,” and has given itself unprecedented powers to do so. We see an exploitation of that power in “Kill the Messenger.” How are those powers, in your opinion, even more dangerous today than shown in the film?

Cuesta: I think what we are fighting is scary and serious. The Middle East is a mess. Arming multiple sides in these wars is hard to understand, and that’s when it gets scarier. I hope these current feelings are not exploited as they were after 9/11.

HollywoodChicago.com: Obviously broadcast journalism first, then the internet, has changed the way journalism is supported. What do we lose when funding is cut off for basic reporting, and how do you think the power we spoke of in the previous question can take advantage of it?

Cuesta: That begins with less investigative journalism, there are less watchdogs. The journalism of Gary Webb, as represented in the film, is a dying breed. And now, television news has given over to just opinion, with each network trying to satisfy their audiences.

I’m proud of the film because it does shine a light on the importance of guys like Gary Webb. One of the reasons I had Jeremy Renner wear reflective sunglasses in the film, is that I wanted him to be viewed as a ‘good cop.’

Andy Garcia and Jeremy Renner in ‘Kill the Messenger’
Photo credit: Focus Features

HollywoodChicago.com: When Ray Liotta appears in the film, it is reminiscent of Mr. X in JFK. Since his character is so crucial to what Webb is going through, how did you want to approach the scene, and how important was it to get Liotta to communicate it?

Cuesta: One thing about Ray in the film, it was important to keep him very still in the scene. I wanted him to be a ghost, to minimize his movements, and just have him glide across the floor. The approach was almost Charles Dickens-like – the ghost of the past comes in to provide some explanation, and I wanted to give it an Ingmar Bergman feeling. From Gary’s point of view, it’s what he needed, and inspires him to keep digging, Liotta represents the truth standing in front of him.

HollywoodChicago.com: The rest of the casting was very precise as well, with character faces making the symbolic points for many of the crucial characters. Which of these faces really surprised you in post production, as far as there skill in creating something beyond the dialogue?

Cuesta: Jeremy Renner. The scene when he is leaving his family on the driveway, and the scene in which he breaks down a bit, but pulls it together for his son. Those moments with Jeremy, what was under the words in the pain he was feeling, was the transfer moment between father and son.

HollywoodChicago.com: We saw in the film that Gary Webb began to live in a cocoon of paranoia. Who or what, in the context of the film, caused this feeling in Webb?

Cuesta: It was the newspapers, not looking out for one of their own. And he was brought down for profit reasons, a corporate mentality of that time [mid-1990s], which has only gotten worse. The bigger papers were undone by Gary’s smaller market reporting, because he exposed them as missing what was in front of them.

HollywoodChicago.com: You had a controversy regarding the NC-17 rating for your film ‘L.I.E.’ What is your opinion of the ratings system, and how do you think it most affects films such as ‘L.I.E.’ in how they are perceived in the marketplace?

Michael Cuesta in Chicago, September 16, 2014 Photo credit: Patrick McDonald for HollywoodChicago.com

Cuesta: Ratings are the Antichrist, and the ratings board are hypocrites. The bigger films will always get the rating they want, because they will give the ratings board an onslaught of alternate cuts – sometimes just taking out one frame – burning them out to get the rating they want. ‘L.I.E.’ was a smaller film, and we did one trim, which was all we could afford to do. They slapped it with the ‘NC-17,’ and the distributor said screw it, we’ll take the publicity associated with it, and it did get press.

HollywoodChicago.com: How did your work on ‘Six Feet Under’ change your perception of death? Do you believe our consciousness will survive the demise of our bodies?

Cuesta: I was only a guest director, but ‘Six Feet Under’ did make us laugh in the face of death. The whole theme was living with death, and it was really smart because it showed that it was all around. Because the circumstances were so f**ked up among the living, death didn’t seem as big a deal in that context.

HollywoodChicago.com: It is said that the TV show ‘Elementary’ – for which you directed the pilot – is superior to the more lauded Benedict Cumberbatch ‘Sherlock,’ but in a different way. What did the production want to do to make this ‘Sherlock’ stand out?

Cuesta: I approached the pilot like a movie, and I think the New York City setting is great, because of the fish-out-of-water element. And also Holmes as an addict, we embraced it, because we felt it made him more vulnerable and accessible. I wanted the character to be scrappy, like Sid Vicious, and it went on from there.

By PATRICK McDONALD Senior Staff Writer HollywoodChicago.com pat@hollywoodchicago.com

CHICAGO– The stylings of author Zane, who has dominated the best seller list and pay cable networks for several years with her steamy and sensually oriented stories, gets to the big screen with the recently released “Addicted.” Actors Boris Kodjoe and Tyson Beckford are part of the ensemble cast.

“Addicted” is the story of Zoe (Sharon Leal), whose life seems perfect with her husband Jason (Boris Kodjoe) and three children. There is something missing from her life, however, and she begins a series of affairs with other men. This leads to an addiction with the thrill of the hunt and capture, and the number of conquests puts her on a dangerous path that could cost Zoe her husband, family and perhaps her life.

Boris Kodjoe in ‘Addicted’
Photo credit: Lionsgate

Boris Kodjoe is a former college athlete (tennis) who became a model and actor after a back injury sidelined his sports ambition. He broke into feature films with Gina Prince-Bythewood’s “Love & Basketball” (2000), and has worked steadily ever since, notably in “Resident Evil: Afterlife” (2010) and “Baggage Claim” (2013). Tyson Beckford is known more for his fashion modeling career, but had a memorable role in “Zoolander” (2001) that jump started his acting career. “Addicted” is his 13th feature film.

HollywoodChicago.com interview both performers, as they talked about the themes presented in “Addicted,” and the perception of African-American men in society.

HollywoodChicago.com: Given the subject matter of this story, what do you think of the fact that everybody’s individual desires are their Achilles heel, and that the societal structure of marriage and monogamy are against the grains of who we are as animals?

Boris Kodjoe: Nature versus nurture, that is a centuries long discussion. There are cultural issues involved here, even now we have some cultures practicing polygamy. My grandfather had eight wives in Ghana, Africa. So who are we to say what is right or wrong? I think the key to this question is to do what is right with your partner. If both of you are in accord as to how you will practice the relationship, then that leads to harmonious accord. If one thinks it’s okay to have multiple partners and the other does not, then there are problems.

It’s about communication. It’s important give each other the space and freedom to express what we need and want. It’s something you have to figure out whether you can live with, respect and still love.

HollywoodChicago.com: There are perceptions that the structures of marriage, fidelity and parenting have disintegrated to a degree within the African-American culture. What factors have you observed do you think have motivated that?

Kodjoe: There are socio-economic reasons. Americans in general have existential fears. When you have three or four jobs to support your family or survive, relationships come last. When that happens, people feel undervalued and taken advantage of, and then relationships start to splinter.

Tyson Beckford: It’s the little things…having meals together or helping your kid with homework. So much of that goes away when you’re a single parent hustling to pay the bills, not staying on top of what your kids are doing. Also the community doesn’t watch out for kids like they used to – if I rode my bike past where I was allowed to be, usually one of the neighbors would report back to my mother. [laughs] That’s changed, because kids are growing up differently now, and not interacting as much.

Tyson Beckford in ‘Addicted’
Photo credit: Lionsgate

HollywoodChicago.com: There is a difference between desiring someone and taking care of their emotional and intellectual state. How does that difference, in both of you opinions, either enhance or destroy those two sides of our coupling?

Kodjoe: I think it’s the question of the responsibility you feel for somebody else, and their emotional well-belng. There are one night stands, relationships, marriage – again it comes down to defining it for yourself, and giving your partner the right to do it as well. That is addressed in the film, because women in general don’t feel they have the freedom to do that, they feel like they’re being judged if they do that. And that is what causes many people’s secret lives, in trying to fulfill a certain fantasy.

HollywoodChicago.com: There has been a debate recently on the way that African-American men are treated in society, because of how laws have been structured today and in the past. What do you both think it will take for American society to get over the way this treatment is unfairly applied, or do you think the resentment it generates will just make it get worse?

Kodjoe: It starts with acceptance. You can’t tell a rape victim, for example, that you understand. That is the wrong beginning of the conversation. Because you don’t, and you can’t possibly understand because it hasn’t happened to you. So it begins with acceptance. You have to accept what a person has gone through, and how it manifests in problems that they are facing.

So for a white person to tell a black person that they understand is completely wrong. What they need to say is ‘I accept the fact that you are angry, that you’ve been scorned and scarred, please share with me what it is like.’ That is where it starts. And then we can have a conversation, close the gap and bridge the divide. It’s something to build on.

HollywoodChicago.com: What do you think of the assertion that we’re ‘post-racial’?

Kodjoe: I think it’s bullshit. It’s not true, and it’s most likely never to be true. There will always be racism and discrimination, because when we feel uncomfortable in our own skins, we have to judge somebody else. What I always suggest is to spread compassion and love. Let’s try that, and see if that can influence some people who weren’t about that before. The issue can’t be solved, but I want to influence my environment in a positive manner, love and compassion is my contribution.

Beckford: I saw that Hillary Clinton acknowledged that there is racism in America. For somebody who is potentially running for president, that is a good first step, to recognize that. She said that you can’t empathize with someone until you’ve lived in their skin.

HollywoodChicago.com: Tyson, models tend to have interesting stories of how they realized they would go into their profession. What was your story, did you realize you wanted to do it yourself or did someone encourage you to do so?

Boris Kodjoe & Tyson Beckford in Chicago, Sept. 25, 2014 Photo credit: Patrick McDonald for HollywoodChicago.com

Beckford: My mother actually encouraged me to get into the profession, I never wanted to do it. I was always more into acting. She pushed me into it, and modeling just took off more than acting initially, so I rolled with it. And now I’m going back to acting, and I’ve been satisfied with my career.

HollywoodChicago.com: Boris, you were in the classic ‘Love & Basketball,’ directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood. In your on-set experience, is there a way a woman director approaches story material that you find different than a male influence?

Kodjoe: First, everyone is different in their regard to individually approaching their art. Gina is very smart, and an excellent director, she’s meticulous and prepared. I like to make the distinction between a director who is prepared and one who goes with their gut. Somebody said in filmmaking, the only thing that doesn’t cost money is preparation. It makes for a smoother ride on set and it generates more trust with everyone.

HollywoodChicago.com: Tyson, you of course appeared in ‘Zoolander’, in which male models were reduced to some very funny stereotypes. Can you give an example in the real world of modeling that is as weird or funny as what was depicted in ‘Zoolander’?

Beckford: The ‘Blue Steel’ pose is real, Ben Stiller just gave it a name. Every model has those type of expressions, and they go to them. It was my first big film, and it got mixed up in the post 9/11 stuff [shots of the World Trade Center had to be digitally erased from the film]. Everything surrounding the junkets and press were cancelled, so I never got to experience the boost of the moment. But it still lasts to this day, because it’s so funny.

By PATRICK McDONALD Senior Staff Writer HollywoodChicago.com pat@hollywoodchicago.com

CHICAGO– In America, we all came from somewhere, and there is always that other “home.” Brothers/filmmakers Tirf Alexius and Remoh Romeo – twenty-plus years removed from their native Haiti after moving to Chicago – go back to their homeland after the 2010 earthquake, and captured that journey in the new film, “Lakay.”

“Lakay” means “home” in the Haitian language of kreyól – the film is being presented in English and kreyól – and the brothers travel to search for relatives in the aftermath of the earthquake. What they found besides that family is a sense of identity, a fuller appreciation for the country and culture they left as children. Everything they expected to explore became something else, while the devastated island country of Haiti struggled to regain a foothold after the destruction.

Remoh Romeo and Tirf Alexius Explore Their Haitian Childhood Home in ‘Lakay’
Photo credit: 4 Features Film Co.

Remoh Romeo is the older of the two brothers, whose father came to America in the 1970s looking for employment opportunities, and settled in the northern environs of Chicago, Illinois. The brothers had half-siblings left behind in Haiti, and it was that family they were seeking in the film. Romeo and Alexius are entrepreneurs, and found success in the music business before before expanding into acting and filmmaking, which they studied at Columbia College in Chicago. They released a feature film in 2013, “Critical Nexus,” and pride themselves on learning the film business from all angles, including marketing and distribution.

HollywoodChicago.com interviewed the filmmaking brothers, about their remarkable journey and production. We can go home again, with Tirf Alexius and Remoh Romeo, in “Lakay.”

HollywoodChicago.com: From the moment your mother told you ‘Haiti is broken’ – after the earthquake – what was the process that had you both thinking we need to go back, and we need to bring a film crew to document the journey?

Tirf Alexius: Initially, when my mother told me that, I wasn’t thinking of going back right away. We spent the days afterward assessing whether my brothers were okay, and what the next move would be. We started sending aid and supplies, in relief mode, while still working to find out if everyone was okay. It was during dinner one night around that time that my wife just looked at me and realized, ‘okay, when are you going?’ She knew that I couldn’t stand being removed from it, and needed to go down there.

Remoh Romeo: To add to that, once he had that conversation, to me it became automatic that we’d be going. I was on board. When we were planning to go, we knew we had a duty to our brothers first, but also we were filmmakers, and we wanted to shed some light on the situation. We knew we could provide some awareness to the situation that Haiti wasn’t getting. We considered it a dual purpose.

Alexius: We wanted to capture a Haiti that people weren’t seeing. There was good coverage, but I always felt that something was missing. It became the regular ‘Haiti is the poorest country in the Western hemisphere’ on repeat, and we wanted to seek the richness of the country.

HollywoodChicago.com: Let’s go back to the day you were on the plane, going back to Haiti. Can you both remember a private thought or anxiety as you were riding through the sky on your way there?

Alexius: It was a bit scary because I didn’t know what to expect. While we were doing the preparations, people were telling me not to go. But since I am Haitian, how can I not go to Haiti? It was that outside negativity that had me questioning it a bit.

Romeo: I was excited, and had nervous anticipation as to what I would remember from when I was a kid. I had no fear, it was just more about a nostalgia in wondering whether it looked the same.

HollywoodChicago.com: How much government interaction did you have in preparing the production. Were they interested in what you were doing?

Alexius: We were going there for personal reasons, so we were avoiding government interaction, so we could travel freely. We wanted to keep under the radar. But once we got there, the government was very cooperative, because we wanted just to capture our story, and subsequently their story.

Romeo: In the media, the Haitian government are always being bashed. I told Tirf I didn’t want any politics involved in this journey, it isn’t a political story anyway. It was hands off regarding that subject.

HollywoodChicago.com: Since you were both small children when you came to U.S., at what point in your development did you realize you had the Haitian narrative, or was it overshadowed through you journey as lower middle class persons of color in the U.S.?

Alexius: Basically, I didn’t realize just how Haitian I really was, until I went back to Haiti. I knew our family ate certain food and had our rituals and ways, but we worked hard also to be ‘American.’ I had to go back to find myself as a Haitian. Everything that we had been before was so Haitian, but I didn’t realize it until I went back.

Romeo: I was nine years old when we came here, and we didn’t want to be the kids in school who had an accent. We worked to lose as much as possible, and speak perfect English. We spent twenty or so years running away from being Haitian, and of course when I got older I started to appreciate who I was and where I came from – and the earthquake and our journey there put it in perspective.

Sweet Home Chicago in ‘Lakay’
Photo credit: 4 Features Film Co.

Alexius: The realities of growing up in Chicago meant there were many elements to overcome, and then add the other layer that we’re from the islands. We’re black and we’re Haitian. It was like a jab punch, and then an uppercut. [laughs]

HollywoodChicago.com: One of the most precise framing devices in the film was the conversation on the porch. with your friend Hugh Grady, at your family’s old multi-flat in Rogers Park Chicago – in the middle of a cold winter. What was the origin of that idea, and what freedom did it give you in post production that surprised you?

Alexius: We knew that if we were going to tell this story, that it needed a setting. Why not go back to our beginnings? And our beginning was that porch. We were also open to whatever developed while we there, and allowed ourselves to go to some of the darker places in our childhoods. We didn’t prep the scenes or talk to each other beforehand, but being on that porch and talking, we had conversations we never had as brothers, living and working together for 30 years.

Romeo: The porch was like a magical key, that opened up a box that we didn’t expect – whatever inhibitions we had felt before suddenly melted away on that porch, it just all poured out.

Alexius: While we were in post production, we just kept saying ‘this is great in itself,’ so we knew we made the right decision for including it.

HollywoodChicago.com: In the film, Tirf, you speak about being “embarrassed” about your Haitian heritage, to the point in which you were lying to people about it. At what points in your lives did you begin to gravitate back to the Haiti in you, and what was the starting point to the journey back that became ‘Lakay’?

Alexius: My wife was actually the one who would talk the most about it, regarding my name or something I would say, she’d always introduce me as Haitian. I would always cringe as a reflex, just because of my thought processes regarding being within the heritage. Finally, I asked myself why do I still feel this way? It took that type of exploration. Then I had my daughter, and she is Haitian, and I just wanted to embrace it.

Romeo: Mine is a bit different. When I found out that Wyclef Jean from the Fugees was Haitian, at that point I started embracing my identity, because at the time we were making music as well. If they were accepting, it’s okay to be Haitian.

HollywoodChicago.com: One of the great innovations in the film, which many have argued against, was to create two versions – English and kreyól. When you dream in kreyól, what do you dream about, and is the tone of those dreams different in nature?

Alexius: Memories are images, they don’t necessarily have words. More recently I have been dreaming in kreyól ‘tone,’ because we translated the film ourselves.

Romeo: We all sat down and argued about the language in that translation. It had to stay in context of the film, because of what is translated has to carry the weight and emotion of the dialogue in action on screen. It adds an epic quality to the story.

Alexius: The feedback on the translation has been tremendous, people love it. The Haitians feel the film is about them, and there is a level of detail that says we desired to be authentic as possible.

HollywoodChicago.com: What was the freakiest commonality, completely out of any context or thoughts about the journey and project, that you had with your half brothers?

Tirf Alexius & Remoh Romeo, October 12, 2014 Photo credit: Patrick McDonald for HollywoodChicago.com

Alexius: We laughed about it, but we all had the same demeanor, like it was completely natural. [laughs] For example, we all stood the same way. One of my brothers also looked like my Dad, who passed away quite a long time ago.

Romeo: We all just looked alike. I make a reference in the films to our foreheads, they were just all the same. You can’t deny the similarities.

HollywoodChicago.com: You spoke briefly in the film about accompanying your Father on jobs, to translate for him. I see both bravery and fear in that destiny. What is an example of the bravest things you’ve ever saw your father do, and what keeps coming back about your family’s fear of America?

Alexius: For me, when my father went to work, even though he didn’t speak the language. That was the bravest thing I witnessed. I just had to go and translate for him.

Romeo: He stepped into a ‘no man’s land’ at a much older age, he was in his fifties. It’s different then when you’re younger, and I always thought that was really brave.

HollywoodChicago.com: And the fear?

Romeo: I have to say it was economic. My Mom and Dad worked hard for what little we had, but always wanted us to respect our schooling, to get to a better place, to better what they had.

HollywoodChicago.com: Finally, when all was said and done involving the idea, filming, editing and completion of the film, at what point during the process did each of you have your most emotional moment, based on that journey that occurred, and result of it all?

Romeo: I knew in the midst of the project that we had something special, and I always envisioned how people would respond to it. When we did the private screening in Miami, the audience responded exactly how I hoped they would. For me, that was the most emotional affirmation. At the Q&A, people weren’t asking questions as much as just affirming what they had just seen. That was my proudest moment.

Alexius: When I saw the finished product, I started reflecting about my whole life, the one here and the one there. To come to a place where I could really embrace those two parts of me, and really be proud – not just of the heritage, but what we had done. To finally say, this is all good.

By PATRICK McDONALD Senior Staff Writer HollywoodChicago.com pat@hollywoodchicago.com