Victoria Bidewell in Derek Franson’s Comforting Skin.

Interview – actress Victoria Bidewell on Comforting Skin

- by Melissa Wade

We all want to feel comfortable in our skin. But what if that skin was so inviting that it became your sole companion, your lover – and a jealous, possessive and demanding one at that?

That’s the premise behind Comforting Skin.

Written directed by Derek Franson, the new Vancouver indie horror flick stars Victoria Bidewell as Koffie, a girl with a tempestuous tattoo. The movie is definitely worth a viewing – it screens Sunday April 7 at the Rio Theatre (more info here) – and part of that reason is Bidewell’s convincing portrayal of a vulnerable young woman, struggling to feel comfortable in her own skin.

The role demanded a lot from the Saskatoon-born Bidewell, who was awarded the Best Actress at the 2012 Fantaspoa Film Festival for her portrayal of the vulnerable Koffie. I spoke with her about her connection with the character, her co-star Tygh Runyan, and why every woman should try Pop Rocks instead of bath salts in the tub.

Melissa Wade: What attracted you to this role?

Victoria Bidewell: Well, it’s an actresses dream isn’t it? Have you seen the movie?

MW: Yes, I watched it yesterday.

VB: Oh, great. Well, it was a great script, a great part, and a very demanding and challenging role, and those are the kind of roles I’m interested in. It scared me [laughs]. I was just excited by it and fell in love with the part right away. I felt a connection to the character. I felt I understood her. I felt the part really captured the things that women in their twenties go through, not necessarily to the extent of the character’s mental issues, but the insecurities.

MW: How did you get into that very fragile state of mind?

VB: It’s just a matter of staying open. I try not to place any judgments on any character, and I think that helps me to really drop into my character. I had to spend a lot of time by myself doing a lot of self-reflection, and trying to connect to my own vulnerability.

MW: Did you discover new things about yourself through this role?

VB: Yes! I discovered that I’m not a victim. There’s always a need for love, to go out and get love, and find love, and that propels me every day, that keeps me pushing forward. I think that character does that. She has a lot of hope, and a very strong need to be loved, and I really related to that.

MW: What scene did you enjoy filming the most?

VB:  Definitely the scenes when I’m alone with the tattoo. I had a lot of fun. We did some crazy stuff. I’ve never done anything where I had to do special effects. It was a real learning experience. They would tell you where the tattoo was, and I had to imagine that.

And every scene with Tygh. He made me laugh.  He’s a really great, talented actor and I was very lucky that he played Nathan. I just had a blast with him.

MW: I could tell he was funny…

VB: Yeah, he’s just a really open, really fun actor to work with, very adventurous.

MW: What scene did you have a hard time with? Were there any in particular that you struggled with?

VB: A lot of the times when we were shooting outside, and it was very cold [laughs]. But the emotional stuff wasn’t a struggle. Once you’re in the character it just happens. But, I would say that sometimes it was very, very cold.

MW: I have to ask you about the scene with the Pop Rocks in the bathtub.  When I watched the scene I couldn’t believe it and thought to myself: I have got to try this one day. How did it feel?

VB: I laughed so hard. It feels like little tickles on your skin. I recommend every woman try it instead of bath salts [laughs]. It was a really fun thing.

MW: I’m wondering if I’m off with my interpretation of the film, so I’m going to ask you what you think. Do you think Koffie’s relationship with her skin is a metaphor for a woman’s relationship herself, ultimately?

VB: I’ve never heard it interpreted that way, but I really like that. I would say that it is. It’s such a hard time for us to get into our comfort zone and to really feel good about ourselves, looks-wise and body image-wise, to find that happiness and that self-love. I really think the film has a strong message there, without it really planning to have that message. It’s really beautiful.

MW: Yeah, I didn’t find it forcing any kind of message, but the subtext was there.

VB: Yeah, it’s like, here I am. I’m alive, and I want to have the best time in this body, in this design that I’ve been given and how can I do that.

VB: Well, thank you.

The post Comforting Skin (interview with actress Victoria Bidewell) appeared first on The Snipe News.

Serena Ryder at Vancouver Music Folk Festival, Jericho Beach Park, July 13 2012. Christopher Edmonstone photo

Interview—Serena Ryder

- by Fatimah Yasin

Millbrook, Ontario-raised Serena Ryder released her first indie record, Falling Out, at 17 in 1999. The Toronto-based singer-songwriter has since released four major label studio albums, including 2006′s If Memory Serves Me Well, a record of covers of Canadian songwriter-penned tunes, as well as a part-live record and numerous EPs.

Her 2008 album Is It O.K. won the Juno Award for Adult Alternative Album of the Year. The following year, she was nominated for a Juno Award for Artist of the Year.

We reached Ryder  in Toronto. From her newly renovated home studio in The Annex, she told the Snipe about her experience in making her latest album, Harmony.

Fatimah Yasin: So, you’re at your home studio right now, are you working on some things?

Serena Ryder: No, this is where I like to be when I do all my interviews. I feel like it puts me in the zone, it’s where I made the record.

FY: Yeah I was thinking, are you already getting back to work? You just released your album, you should take a break!

SR: Yeah [laughs].

FY: I actually heard your song “Stompa” a few days ago, on the weekend, actually. It was on the radio and I was with a bunch of friends, we were driving around and it came on, so I turned it up because it sounded good. We were all sort of grooving to it, and honestly I didn’t know that was you at that point so I looked it up and I was like, “Oh, it’s Serena Ryder.” I was driving and we were all grabbing our hands, stomping our feet, but I couldn’t stomp my feet though because I was driving so everyone else did that for me. It’s a great song

SR: That’s totally the purpose of the song; you just made my day by telling me that, that’s awesome. There’s so much going on, life can be really hard, and there can be a lot of crappy things happening. When a good song comes on or a song that makes you want to move around, it’s like everything is okay.

FY: I was reading an article on star.com, and you were quoted to say “I listen to everything and I’ve always loved everything”. Do you think that this album is a truer representation of the diversity in your musical taste? In what way?

SR: I’ve always been involved in multiple subjects. I’ve got constant things on the side, for fun. For this record, I really wanted to bring everything together. I didn’t want to separate any style; I didn’t want to separate any genre, or any topic or anything. I felt like it was really important to me to explore all the different parts of myself musically, and to explore the different parts of myself spiritually and emotionally.

So I was really conscious about trying to honor all the different messages and the different sounds that came out, and to not censor anything that was coming out of me because I felt in my head that it was the right sound for me, or the right vibe. I feel like we really limit ourselves by defining ourselves in a lot of ways. So, I didn’t want to define myself, I wanted to let the music lead me. And that’s what I feel. And that is what happened on this record. Being at home made for a really safe place to do it.

FY: Do you find that you’re more at harmony with yourself in this album? How so?

SR: Yeah for sure. I feel like I have endless possibilities with this, with where I could go musically and also with where I could go personally. I feel like this record just really solidifies that for me in general and also specific to my career.

FY: Behind the scenes, you talk about how we need to accept the different elements and emotions that comprise our being. Have you been able to explore this outside of music in different hobbies or interests?

SR: Yeah I feel like I learn a lot from people, and I feel like I learn a lot from my interactions with people and my reactions to people. I think that a lot of my interactions with people teach me about myself a lot more. I wouldn’t call it a hobby; it’s kind of changed my lifestyle. A lot of the time, I feel like we really put ourselves in a box by our reactions and judgement. I’ve been really paying more attention to how I react to the outside world, because I feel like it says a lot about your inside world.

You know even today, this morning, I was walking to the subway. There was this dude who was getting people’s change and sitting there because there was an excess of people so he had to be there, an extra person to help out. And usually you go underground, you go to subway, the people that are working there, they aren’t stoked about working there, they aren’t super happy or whatever. But this guy was all smiles, he was like “Hello, Good morning, have a great day” as you’re walking by, and most people were kind of ignoring him. And as I walked by, that really made me happy, that was awesome!

And my reaction to that was I smiled and I walked by but then I was like hey, maybe I want to let him know that was awesome. So I turned around and my boyfriend’s just like what are you doing, I turned around and walked back to him and said “You know that was really nice, it was really nice that you smiled and that you said have a nice day.” He seemed happy that I pointed that out. I’ve been trying to kind of do that a little bit more. People love it when you come up to them and you separate those walls.

FY: Not enough people do that.

SR: Yeah if you’re in the subway and you really like somebody’s shoes, you should say “Hey, I really like your shoes”. It doesn’t matter how they react, it’s about how you react. People love it, people love for those walls to be taken down. I feel like how that relates to my record and my life has just been huge.

Because you always put up your own walls and you can take down your own walls. And I feel like you know when it comes to defining yourself, and saying that you’re only one thing, it puts a lot of walls up around you. It doesn’t allow a lot of things to reach you and a lot of different styles and genres of music or ways of being, or belief systems. I feel like it can be really limiting.

FY: Yeah I feel like its using tunnel vision at times. We’re social beings; we want to talk to each other. Even though a lot of people don’t on the subway or the sky train here, people do want to. It’s nice engaging people sometimes and talking to them. It really opens you up.

SR: Yeah it’s embracing what makes us similar, you know what I mean. I feel like we’ve gone through a trend in the last hundred thousand years or something of humanity trying to embrace our differences and what makes us different and original. I feel like that’s really lonely, I feel like we should embrace what makes us the same, what pulls us together. We all want to relate to each other, so why not try and relate to each other by seeing how similar we are.

FY: … and you can only do that when you comment on the girl with the nice shoes in the subway or SkyTrain! [laughs] Yeah, I completely agree with that.

Who are some of your favourite artists? How have they influenced your style in this album specifically?

SR: In this album I feel like I was open to all of them, and I feel like I really realized, I kind of looked back and thought who was my first big gigantic influences when I was really really young, because that’s kind of when you start figuring out who you’re going to identify with, because it’s going to be a part of your identity for the rest of your life, you know. And this was a process I did after I made the record, just want to point that out because when I was making the record, I felt like I was really just open to whatever happened, you know what I  mean.

So afterwards I looked back after creating this and was like well, I’m hearing a lot of my influences. Some of my hugest influences when I was growing up, Bette Midler was gigantic for me. I was super duper into her big gigantic voice, I loved her voice, Bette Midler, Whitney Houston was huge for me in her first record, Tracy Chapman was huge, she was really cool, TLC’s record CrazySexyCool probably the most influential record of my life because I learned it front and back. Also Janet Jackson’s record, Janet, the one where she has her hair all curly and her hands are up, and it was a really really sexy record.

FY: Is it the one where she sings “Love will never do…” does she have that one on it? I love that song.

SR: I don’t know that one.

FY: Oh you have to look it up, it’s amazing. It’s just a beautiful song.

SR: I don’t remember that one being there. But she had “like a moth to a flame, burned by the fire, my love is blind, can’t you see my desires? That’s the way love goes.” She had all that kind of stuff; it was like she was embracing her sexuality at such a huge time.

So yeah I feel like a lot of those influences really came out here for me, which was really nice. And I feel like a lot of them came out because I wasn’t really focusing on the acoustic guitar, I was focusing on singing and writing. I was writing the lyrics, and I was writing the melody. And I was able to have that sense of freedom in my voice where I could really play around.

When I got my guitar, when I was 14, I got my first guitar, for me the huge influences were Tracy Chapman, Ben Harper, Neil Young, Leonard Cohen, the Beatles, all of that kind of stuff, so it was all of my melodies when I first started writing songs. So I was going more towards folk music, and that’s where I kind of stopped writing and performing as much more soulful stuff.

FY: And during that time, is this something that you were thinking, like “Oh I kind of want to try something more soulful”?

SR: When I was making the record, what I wanted to do was record a record that I really loved singing and that was really fun for my voice, really playful for my voice. So I was really aware of melodies, I was having fun, like I was thinking would I sing this kind of stuff in the shower, you know.

The first record I recorded, I was like where would I sing this song? For fun in the shower it would more be an Ella Fitzgerald song, something like that. I would love to do a song that was really playful, and explore more vast territory, more vast melodic territory. I’ve always wanted to sing in my lower register, because I do have a really low voice. I have a pretty low voice. I found that when I was writing before, I would sing more to my mid/upper register, and I was thinking it would be nice to sing some songs that were pretty effortless, and effortless should be in your lower register, closer to your talking voice.

FY: The single “Stompa” has been playing on various radio stations throughout Canada. CHUM-FM music director Lisa Grossi said it could be your strongest song to date. What are your thoughts on this? Do you think that it is? If so, why?

SR: I feel like it’s the first of many strongest songs for me because I made it with a sense of openness and I feel like I honored the song more than my idea of what I wanted to write about. And that’s how I feel I created this entire record, so I’m super super excited about it. I think it may be the beginning of an awesome path for me because I had so much fun doing it. I feel like I’m having more fun that I’ve ever have and I don’t see that stopping.

FY: That’s great.

FY: What can we expect with your next album? What direction[s] do you envision it going in?

SR: I haven’t been thinking about it because I’m so into this record, it came out like three days ago. It’ll probably be in the next three to four years until another one, seems like the right amount of time between records.

The post Serena Ryder on her new album Harmony appeared first on The Snipe News.

Keegan Connor Tracy as the Blue Fairy in ABC’s Once Upon a Time

Interview with Keegan Connor Tracy

- by Elana Shepert

She plays the Blue Fairy on the whimsical ABC drama Once Upon a Time, and Robert Redford’s secretary in The Company you Keep, which was the Official Selection this year at TIFF. She also has a Best Supporting Actress Leo award under her belt, for her role as a heroin addict on Da Vinci’s Inquest.

Canadian-born Keegan Connor Tracy’s latest project is A&E’s chilling series, Bates Motel, which will air in 2013. A prequel to the the popular Alfred Hitchcock film, Psycho, the story focuses on a young Norman Bates, and his disturbing relationship with his mother, Norma. Keegan will play his teacher, Miss Watson. With a degree in social psychology, she is eager to explore the dysfunctional dynamics in the epic Bates tale.

We sat down with the lovely Ms. Tracy to discuss her newest role, motherhood, the Blue Fairy, and the perks of performance – like dress up!

Elana Shepert: So was the role of Ms. Watson a natural choice for you? Are you a horror fan?

Keegan Connor Tracy: I wouldn’t say that it’s my first genre. I’m sort of one of those die hard foreign film junkies. But I think I tend to bring humor to these kinds of shows that are dark. I think that’s where I often fit in with them. I like  left-of-centre characters that have some kind of problem, some kind of issue.

ES: What is this interpretation of the Psycho story going to be like?

KCT: We’re about to shoot episode three. I think that, based on what I’ve seen of it, the time period is different. They’re not placing it back in the time period it was, the 60s or when it took place, it’s modern and so there are all these modern issues  with the students around him and him.  The city where they live is ultimately going to play a bigger role in what goes on in his life than in the film. It’s not just his relationship with Norma – it’s the whole community that they live in. It has this whole underbelly of secrets.

ES: With the producers of Lost and Friday Night Lights on board, will there be a lot of suspense and mystery?

KCT: I would say that’s a pretty safe bet. There will be a lot of trap doors, and already in the two scripts that I’ve read, I’ve been going through it going, What! No way! I think there’ll be a lot of the no-way element, and if they can pull off what I’m seeing on paper it’ll be a great show.

ES: Of course you’re also in Once Upon a Time,  how powerful do you think the Blue Fairy is?

KCT: She’s kind of like the pope, but like old-school. Remember back in the time when the church, and the popes, and the Vatican, they were really really powerful on the grid, differently powerful, than kings and queens, and I think think this the same thing as the Blue Fairy. They’re in sort of a separate category of power. But no one who has power wants to relinquish it, and that is something that as an actor I want to explore, and we’ll see what happens now that magic is in the city. And I think the Blue Fairy wants her place in the sun again.

ES: Do you like playing dress up?

KCT: Oh gosh yeah. I keep hoping the Blue Fairy will have another costume. I just shot Revive Magazine, their cover shoot for their winter issue and that was great. I was wearing tens of thousands of dollars in diamonds. I also love hats. When I went to my grade eight graduation [in Sarnia, Ontario] I actually wore this perched hat with feathers all off the back of it. I’ve always worn hats. I was wearing a pink, ruched dress with one sleeve, with feathers – it must have looked like I was going to a wedding.

ES: You’ve said that this is the right time for fairy tales. Why is that?

KCT: I wonder if Once Upon a Time could have had this success had it come at the height of the dot com boom[word missing: wWhen everyone was feeling really good and had lots of money. They didn’t need that, but now things are bad. They can’t afford to go out and they can’t afford to get divorced sometimes.This is like romance and fantasy and fairy tales. There’s nothing in Once Upon a Time where you find  David sitting at his desk saying, “I can’t pay the bills”. I think there’s something about that and I think that’s why people are really gravitating towards this stuff.

ES: You’ve said you role in Da Vinci’s Inquest as a heroin addict was one of your favorites. Why is that?

KCT: I loved playing her. I remember standing on the corner of Main and Hastings with all the junkies around, and I swear when I was standing on that corner it was like channeling when that girl came out. She really had her own voice, she had her own thing that she was doing, and those are the roles that I love. And you don’t get to do them that often. The ones you can really inhabit, they don’t come around all the time.

ES: How has motherhood affected your career?

KCT: I felt very disappointed in myself that I was not a big star, for a long time, and then I had my kids and I kind of stepped back from the world, because I wanted to be there for them, and I kind of realized that if I had been a big star that I couldn’t be home with my kids. It changed my perspective on my career and what I deemed to be successful. My career didn’t change but my attitude about it did, and suddenly with that these roles started coming.

The post Keegan Connor Tracy – interview appeared first on The Snipe News.

American actress Alex Lombard has a role in the upcoming movie Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Killer.

Actress plays ‘light, comedic, flirty sexy comic relief’ in action-horror movie

- by Shawn Conner

In Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, a vampire played by Dominic Cooper takes Abraham Lincoln (yes, that Lincoln) under his wing. Cooper’s Henry Sturgess (could there be a more boring name for a 900-year-old vampire?) instructs Honest Abe (Benjamin Walker) in the art of vanquishing the bad vampires.

Fortunately, Cooper’s Sturgess gets to have a love interest – Gabrielle. She is played by Alex Lombard, a Charleston, S.C.-born-and-raised actress whose previous credits include the Christopher Nolan blockbuster Inception as well as recurring roles in the TV series Big Love, How I Met Your Mother and Days of Our Lives.

Lombard called us from her Los Angeles where she lives with her six-pound chihuahua mix, a few days before she was to leave for New York for the world premiere of AL: VH. We talked about about scripts under lockdown, the end of video stores and what she’ll wear on the red carpet.

Shawn Conner: When you first got the Lincoln script, was it just the scenes you were in?

Alex Lombard: Yeah, I just got my audition scene. It happened really fast. I was literally reading the book* on the way down there, on the plane to New Orleans. It was a really fun whirlwind adventure.

SC: When you got the full script, was it top secret, with your name on it?

AL: Oh yeah, I had to sign my life away in order to read it. They really scared me – for some reason I had two copies, one sent to me at home and another given to me when I got down there [New Orleans]. And every page is watermarked, with my name on it.

So I was lugging around the old one because I was too afraid to leave it anywhere. And I said to one of the assistants, “What would have happened if I had left the script in the hotel?” The assistant said, “Oh the hotel would have called us if they’d found the script.” And I thought, Oh my God. This is the real deal.

But you have to be like that now with so many spoilers and all the online stuff. I get it. And I’m used to doing this – Inception was even worse, it was like hanging out with the FBI.

SC: How long did filming take for your part?

AL: I was in New Orleans for a couple of weeks and we filmed in the French quarter in a beautiful historic home. It’s such a beautiful town anyway. It’s a magical city and even more so being on the film down there.

My part is small; I play Dominic Cooper’s girlfriend. I’m the light comedic flirty sexy comic relief. When Abe Lincoln first comes to Henry’s house he finds me there, he finds us in some compromising positions.

Alex Lombard with musician Moby at PETA event.

SC: It’s a summer blockbuster, there’s millions behind the marketing campaign. Is there some nervousness, or is everyone strutting around, pretty confident?

AL: I can’t speak for everybody else, but I’m super excited about it. I think it’s going to do really well. I think it’s a dream team. Nobody does action sequences like Timur [Bekmambetov, director] Tim Burton is a god, and Caleb Deschanel [cinematographer] who shot the movie – I think it’s going to be amazing. I’m super excited for it. I’m very confident in how it’s going to do.

SC: Is this the kind of movie you’d go see yourself?

AL: I would for sure. I’m a big fan of all of these guys. I loved Wanted with Angelina Jolie, that was the movie Timur did before this one.

SC: What are your favourite kinds of movies – are you a romantic comedy fan?

AL: I love indies. My favourite thing is to find a little gem of an indie film.

SC: What was the last one you saw that you liked?

AL: II don’t know if it’s indie, but I really fell in love with Jeff Who Lives at Home with Jason Segal.

SC: Are you a Netflix person or video store person?

AL: We don’t have any more video stores in L.A. All the Blockbusters shut down. There’s maybe one I can think of called Vidiots in Venice [California] that’s still open.

On the one hand I love on-demand and Netflix, but then there are some more obscure titles or older ones that you really can’t find. That’s what I miss – I miss wandering the aisles of Blockbuster for hours. You just happen upon things in a way that you don’t online. You have to order it now, or buy it.

SC: Is there one movie in particular that made you want to be an actress?

AL: There’s one actress who made me want to become an actress, and that’s Meryl Streep. I don’t know if I have a favourite. I like her body of work so much. Her movies are super super heavy.

I would have to say my favourite female performance is Shirley MacLaine in Terms of Endearment.

SC: What’s next for you?

AL: I have a movie coming out called Man Without a Head. And I just finished developing a pilot with my writing partner, and we’re going to shop that around this summer.

And I wrote something that i’m going to star in and direct as well. It’s called Sophie and it’s a psychological thriller and it’s about ironic love in a modern age and it asks the question, can pure love exist in over-sexualized society?

SC: What was the inspiration?

AL: I always write about the same thing; I always write about alternate realities. I love writing stores about people going through their lives and then all of a sudden finding out what they thought was real isn’t real. I don’t know if you saw that show Awake, it’s about a guy who has an accident and he doesn’t know if he’s dreaming. He never knows which life is real.

For some reason I’m always drawn to that subject matter. I think it just terrifies me the most. You try to go through life and be a good person and what if one day you wake up and you realize you’re not who you thought you were, or you’re living an entirely different life?

SC: On another note, do you know what you’re going to wear at the premiere of Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter in New York on Monday [June 18]?

AL:  I’m not 100 per cent sure, I don’t want to say yet. I’m still picking.

Alex Lombard.

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter opens everywhere June 22.

Movie trailer – Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter:

*Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter is based on a novel by Seth Grahame-Smith, who also co-wrote the script as well as the screenplay for Dark Shadows and the novel Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.

The post Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter’s Alex Lombard – interview appeared first on The Snipe News.

Interview – Alexander Ludwig

- by Ria Nevada

A couple of days before the official opening of The Hunger Games, actor Alexander Ludwig enters the lavish boardroom of the Shangri-La Hotel in downtown Vancouver. Eager and excited, he’s here to talk to a group of journalists about his role as the villainous Cato in the movie, which is based on the titular Suzanne Collins bestseller.

The film depicts the world of Panem, which is divided into 12 districts that must sacrifice an adolescent male and female tribute every year for a deathly competition. The Games serve as punishment for a rebellion staged by its citizens 74 years prior. Only one victor remains after being thrown into an unforgiving arena. Ludwig’s character Cato is Katniss Everdeen’s (played by Jennifer Lawrence) biggest rival, the story’s protagonist. (Read our Hunger Games review – if you dare.)

I was able to catch up with the newly appointed teen heartthrob just days away from the film’s world premiere. As excited as he was about being a pivotal member of the blockbuster, he seemed equally enthralled to be back in B.C., his home province. Apparently he’s been missing its clean air and sprawling greenery since leaving over a year ago to join the theatre program at the University of Southern California.

Sure, he’s been enjoying the company of his cast members and other celebs like Mark Foster (from Foster the People) at James Franco‘s bar Writer’s Room in L.A. (and dodging TMZ cameras along the way). But he proudly maintains, “Vancouver is the best city in the world. Absolutely, hands down… What other city can you come to that’s just so fresh and the people here are so friendly and the quality of life is so amazing. I think that’s what makes us who we are.”

He’s gone the distance since his days in West Vancouver’s Collingwood School, appearing with high profile stars like The Rock in Race to Witch Mountain. Yet still can’t seem to wrap his head around all the screaming girls just waiting to catch a glimpse of him while on the Hunger Games promotional trail.

Surprised by the adoration from countless fans for the nefarious part he plays in the movie, he says, “It’s been super flattering. It’s really nice to be acknowledged for your work… Even this morning, going to a radio station, I had these girls following me. I wouldn’t wait five minutes for me, like I don’t really understand how this is happening!”

As modest as he was about the blushing teens waiting to pounce, he speaks confidently about the amount of physical and mental preparation he put into the role. A competitive athlete at heart, the physical aspect didn’t seem as much of a challenge. Like the “tributes”, as they’re called, chosen to fight to the death in the film, he speaks of how the young actors sized each other up as soon as training began. “We were all duking it out from the beginning… We had relay races and stuff, and it was all in good fun. But I’m a very competitive person at heart and that’s one thing (about his character) that I did relate to.”

Luckily, he also had the help of author Suzanne Collins and director Gary Ross to help him see the internal conflict that his character would have to project – being a heartless killer but one that was raised with this mentality as a means of survival. That’s some heavy material for a series geared towards young adults, something Ludwig was very aware of since signing on to the project.

He admits, “The reason I took the role was because of this one scene at the end of the film where you really see, even for a second, a glimpse of humanity in Cato. It kind of just goes with the whole message of the movie, which is really just hope. You know, hope that everyone will one day realize their faults and there’ s more to people than meets the eye. And I think Cato is in a way a little misunderstood… Even though what he was doing was horrible and unforgivable, you kind of see where he’s coming from.”

Digesting the film’s themes, you can not help but notice the similarities between our generation’s fixation on reality TV series and the hoopla surrounding the Hunger Games (also referred to as a “pageant”) in the story’s world. Ludwig draws a comparison between the two, saying, “Really, Suzanne Collins got the idea for these novels by watching a reality TV show… And then she switched to the news and the war in Afghanistan was on…”

He continues, “Our world is going down a weird road and there’s something to be said about a TV show that’s getting so much popularity because other people in the audience enjoys watching people fail. The movie made me take a step back and realize there aren’t enough shows that are applauding peoples’ successes… Those are the shows we should be watching. Not the Kardashians.” Honestly, wiser words could not be spoken.

The post The Hunger Games’ Alexander Ludwig appeared first on The Snipe News.

Gabrielle Miller plays a frustrated yet ultimately devoted sister to Ben Ratner in "Sisters&Brothers."

Interview – Sisters&Brothers’ Gabrielle Miller

- by Rachel Fox

Sisters&Brothers, the third of director Carl Bessai‘s trilogy of domestic dramas, features Gabrielle Miller as Louise. She finds herself having to deal with her brother Jerry (Ben Ratner), who is in the middle of a serious mental breakdown.

The role plays against type for Miller, who is probably best known to Canadian TV audiences for her role as Lacey on the comedy Corner Gas. But that’s her job. says the actress, who at the end of this month will perform off-Broadway in Frank Strausser‘s sexy comedy Psycho Therapy.

We chatted with Miller, on the phone from the kitchen of her Toronto home a couple of weeks before Sisters&Brothers‘ March 23 opening, about her new movie, corsets, and what’s up with Vancouver.

Ratner and Miller get physical.

Rachel Fox: You play the sister, a caretaker really to a man  in the middle of a schizophrenic breakdown. Do you have experience with this in your own life?

Gabrielle Miller: Yes, I’ve had relationships and experiences in my life with people that are close to me who struggle with mental health issues and addition, although not a lot of experience with schizophrenia. I did a little bit of research and interviewed someone who has experience and drew from my own as well.

Really, it’s about the relationship, and the type of relationship that they have with each other. That’s where I was coming from. It was really such an incredible experience because Ben is amazing. He’s really gifted and he is such a wonderful actor to work with and work off of. An opportunity to work with Ben and Jay [Brazeau] and Carl…? I was delighted.

RF: I really enjoyed the physical nature of the relationship you had with your on-screen sibling. In a lot familial relationships you often don’t have the sorts of boundaries that you would with other people in your life.

GM: That came about really organically, like all of it, because of the nature of the work that Carl does and because it’s improvised. You create those relationships and the character and the storyline beforehand, and then you get on-set and just go with it.

It was very frustrating [for the character] because she was trying to get clarity and understanding from him about what was going on in his life so she could help figure out the best way to assist him. It was really difficult to get a straight answer. I think that that’s just another level of communicating and self-expression, physicality, which sometimes I think is easier.

The scene where Ben and I get back from the police station and play basketball was one of my favourites. There wasn’t a lot of talk in that scene but it really established, for me, their relationship and the depth of care that they have for each other. It’s a very complicated relationship.

Movie clip – Sisters&Brothers

RF: Even still – when their story ends, you’re left with a sense of optimism. I think that’s the crux of the film.

GM: Yeah, I think that was them. They have each other. And no matter what was going on, or how difficult their relationship was, that was their person in the world. That was the bottom line; that depth of love for somebody.

That’s really Carl, too. I really love the incredible way he has of expressing those kinds of relationships. It is optimistic – all his films are. Family relationships really affect you in a huge way, more than any other relationship in your life sometimes, and he has a way of really connecting with that and telling stories everybody watching with can connect with, too. Everybody knows what it’s like.

Gabrielle Miller loving on her son, Mthobisi. Photo courtesy of Gabrielle Miller. Mike Tabolsky photo.

RF: You’re a Vancouverite, correct?

GM: Yes.

RF: In the past little bit we’ve either seen or are anticipating the demise of The Vancouver Playhouse, Book Warehouse, The Ridge Theatre, The Empire Oakridge Cinemas and The Hollywood Theatre. What is going on here?

GM: What. The. F**k? I’d like to know! It’s incredibly disheartening and so frustrating. Our city is full of artists, it’s such a thriving, creative place. So what is it? I don’t know. Why… is this happening? Do you know? Are we not getting the audiences that we need?

RF: Here’s my take – Vancouver is an expensive city to live. Just going out for a single glass of wine can turn into a $15 affair. One thing about New York City is that at 2 a.m. if you want to go out and have a $5, greasy-spoon diner cheeseburger made by some hairy-armed guy named Nick the Greek – you can. In Vancouver, it’s a $30, organic, heritage-bred bison burger on a gluten-free bun. So spending money on a ticket to a play can get pushed to the back burner, because everything else involved in maintaining a normal social life is so expensive.

GM: One thing I have to say that is frustrating sometimes, is that in Vancouver there is so much going on creatively and artistically and sometimes it feel like it’s not as supported as it should be. And I don’t know if that comes from audience interest or [ineffective] promotion, making people aware that it’s out there. But it shouldn’t look like this.

It’s very, very upsetting about The Playhouse. I know about the chalk, about the playwright writing her play [in protest, Lucia Frangione reproduced her play Diamond Willow on the sidewalk from The Playhouse to the steps of City Hall] – there’s been a lot going on. Do you know what’s going on?

Miller on the red carpet at this month's Genie Awards in Toronto.

RF: I don’t think there’s really been a change, though people are clamoring. Did you see yesterday’s article in The Globe and Mail? It spoke to a lot of what you just said. I have no idea what’s going on here anymore; lately it just seems like the city’s focused on creating a thriving sports bar scene.

GM: It’s depressing! Because you know what, you can live in a beautiful city and have a ton of pubs you can go to go and have beer and fries at or whatever, but what do you want? Do you want to have a cultural wasteland? It won’t be good. It will not feel alive.

Culture and art is what speaks to the world about who you are, as a city and as a people. If you strip it, if you take that away – it’s bland. There’s nothing there.

RF: Theatres generally don’t open as much as they close.

GM: Already, it’s not like a city where there is a ton of theatres to begin with. We have these beautiful, incredible theatres and now one of the major players is being taken away. It is very, very upsetting and I think that it’s really not good, at all, for our city.

Vancouver really is my home. It is where the majority of my friends are and where I grew up and I love it and miss it. It really makes me bummed to hear about what’s going on.

Fun in the snow. Photo courtesy of Gabrielle Miller.

RF: You were a key player on one of the most successful Canadian television franchises ever, Corner Gas. You always hear about actors who have experienced that sort of success talking about typecasting or being pigeonholed, perhaps. Have you felt that?

GM: If I get that, it’s more with the public, which is lovely. People feel connected to you – you are there with them, in their home. That’s actually a positive thing. It’s nice to be a part of something that people enjoyed, had laughs over and shared time with their family. That’s a special thing that I have tons of respect for and I’m grateful for it.

As far as work: because I was an actor for a long time before I started Corner Gas, I had relationships with people before that knew me and had hired me on other jobs. I’m an actor. I feel supported. People know I’m an actor, and I haven’t really felt that it’s affected me too much.

Although, you know, it’s interesting… I may be working with someone who hasn’t worked with me before who may not be familiar with me and they’ll say, “Oh, this is a step outside of Lacey [Corner Gas character], is that weird for you?” And it isn’t; that’s what actors do. You play one character and you finish playing that character and then you move on to the next. That’s what your job is. I don’t feel like it’s affected me very much. It wasn’t a struggle for me, and if it was a struggle outside of myself it wasn’t something that I was necessarily very aware of. If it was going on, I’m glad I didn’t know about it! [Laughs]

Getting snapped at TIFF Bell Lightbox. Rachel Fox photo.

RF: Do you watch Downton Abbey?

GM: No, I haven’t but I’ve heard people are crazy about it!

RF: As am I. If there’s a Gibson Girl, a corset, and an English accent involved, I am there. You should be doing costume dramas.

GM: Oh my God! I want to so badly, Rachel, I can’t tell you. I would love that.

RF: This is really superficial but you have great hair. You could pull off a Gibson Girl. And you have a – how shall I put this? – a beautiful, untouched look about you.

GM: Aw, man, that makes me feel so good. That is something I would really love to do, and have wanted to do, forever. From your mouth! [Laughs]

Isn’t life an adventure? It’s so crazy; you never know what is going to be happening and what you’re going to experience. That is something that I love so much about the work that we do – all the new adventures.

Sisters&Brothers opens in Vancouver, Victoria, and Toronto on Friday, March 23.

The post Gabrielle Miller on her new movie Sisters&Brothers appeared first on The Snipe News.

Interview with Everything and Everyone director Tracy Smith

- by Rachel Fox

If the current negative and misogynistic (looking at you, Rush Limbaugh) state of our beloved patriarchy is getting you down, then consider getting out of the house and communing with your fellow sisters (looking at you too, men) instead.

Coinciding with International Women’s Day on Thurs, March 8, comes the 7th annual Vancouver Women in Film Festival. The four-day festival, put on by Women in Film and Television Vancouver, hosts numerous feature and short film screenings, panels, workshops, and master classes.

Rachel Fox, ever the enthusiastic and willing sorority cheerleader, interviewed director Tracy Smith in Vancouver last week. Smith opened up about her latest film Everything and Everyone, being a female film director in a male-dominated film world, why women’s film festivals are necessary, and how working as a PA on Stargate in the 1990s was akin to being in a penal (penile?) colony.

Jerry Wasserman, Ryan Robbins, and Gabrielle Rose in a scene from director Tracy Smith's "Everything and Everyone."

Rachel Fox: Tell me a little about your film Everything and Everyone [currently set to close the Vancouver Women's Film Festival on March 11].

Tracy Smith: Ian Tang [writer] and I worked on a couple of scripts before this, including Curse of the Jade Falcon. Ian is amazing with dialogue. We also did a horror film, which is out of my comfort zone, “No Means No”. We did it for the Bloodshots competition and ended up winning, which was fantastic. The genre was “rape revenge”. I made it as gruesome as possible and ended it with a woman getting her eyes popped out as she was raped. I think that sufficiently horrified people.

Ian  showed me the script for Everything and Everyone and it just seemed to hold a mirror up to the lives that we live in Vancouver. Rarely do we get ourselves reflected on screen. Rarely do we see our stories. It was so appealing to be able to dive into our world and show it as art, something our audience can connect with.

Movie trailer – Everything and Everyone

RF: Why do women need a film festival?

TS: Oh God, yeah. I worked for a couple of very powerful producers and one of them was always, like, “Why do you need a ‘Women in Film?’ We don’t have a ‘Men in Film Festival’.”

RF: Men are film.

TS: Right? That is always the answer. “You have the whole industry!”

I find simply that: guys will hire guys, because guys are buddies with guys. That’s just how our society seems to work. Genders are segregated in terms of who you’re friends with. And because film is so collaborative, you tend to hire your buddies. You tend to work with people you know. What happens is that it becomes this huge cycle; men typically have more power in our society, more positions of authority, so they will hire guys they know, or guys that they see themselves in. Rarely will they take a chance on a stranger, let alone a woman, who they can’t connect with or relate to.

Or, they don’t have the same stories. That is how our stories get lost – we don’t have the money or power that the majority of the film industry has. That majority being, men.

Short film – “No Means No” (winner of the 2008 Audience Award at Vancouver’s Bloodshots Festival):

RF: Your being a female filmmaker, having said that, puts you a little bit in the minority.

TS: Oh, really?

RF: I think so.

TS: I know that a lot of women, like Kathryn Bigelow, don’t want to be “ghettoized” as a female director; they want to be simply, a “director.”

It’s like Sidney Poitier in Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, where there’s that scene and he says to his father, “You will always think of yourself as a black man, and I am a man.”  There is a level of transcending the need for feminism by saying, “I am a director: I am not a ‘female director’ or a ‘woman director’.”

I think Kathryn Bigelow has done that, but for the majority of women, if we are not supporting each other then we will not be supported.

Brice Ferre photo.

RF: The same be said for many industries in society.

TS: Absolutely. It is so depressing!

When I started making short films, I thought, “I am going to have an all-female crew.” It was so hard to even get an all-female crew! I’d ask around, “Do you know a camera assistant?” And my response would be, “Do you know Bob, Billy, or Tommy?” Eventually I would get someone to give me the name of a woman; they’re just not ‘top of mind.’ They don’t get the opportunities because there are not as many of them and they don’t stand out as much. Whereas there are just so many men; they’re friend with each other and they share those opportunities with each other.

Short film clip – “Curse of the Jade Falcon” (winner of the 2008 Mighty Asian Movie Marathon):

RF: Is the climate for women any different than when you started – is it the same, better, or worse?

TS: It’s absolutely better. When I started as a Production Assistant it was on Stargate, and it was awful. I was one of the only female PAs on-set and I was targeted terribly by some of the male crew. One guy asked me out and when I said no, he threw a cup of water in my face. His boss sat me down and begged me not to sue.

Another time I was standing out by craft services – I was wearing fleece pants, 5 or 6 layers, it was freezing – this guy unzipped my pants, along the sides. This was in 1999, it wasn’t that long ago. I was like, “Is this really happening? Water getting thrown on my face and getting physically attacked on a film set in the 1990s?” It wasn’t that uncommon. It’s much better now, 13 years later.

You know, I kind of felt like I was visiting a penal colony – all these guys everywhere, and there were no women!

RF: A penile colony.

TS: Things like that don’t happen to you in a corporate office and half the people at the desks are women.

Lane Edwards, Chad Willett.

RF: What female films, directors, writers – that you have seen of late that have made an impression on you?

TS: We’re pretty lucky in Vancouver – there are a lot of female filmmakers that are so talented on an international level. Mina Shum, Lynne Stopkewich, Katrin Bowen, Monica Mitchell: they are very talented and they are working, which is fabulous. Just watching TV, it’s amazing how many female names come up as directors.

I adore comedy. Mindy Kaling, who plays Kelly Kapoor on The Office, has her own webisodes and writes and directs episodes of that show [The Office]. She is really breaking out. I think she is fantastic.

RF: Going back to Lucille Ball, Mary Tyler Moore, Roseanne,  and now Tina Fey – women have been influential and have maintained a higher, more powerful profile on TV for a long time. It’s interesting that you would mention webisodes. Is there something that sets film apart in that regard, in terms of the medium?

TS: Yes: bigger business, bigger money. In the 1920s, when it wasn’t a bigger business, there were far more women directors.

Actor Ryan Robbins (TV's 'Sanctuary') on set. Brice Ferre photo.

RF: Canadian Mary Pickford springs to mind; she helped to start United Artists Studio.

TS: Absolutely – and she had so much power. But as soon as the really big money came in, women were marginalized. There were decades when there were no female directors. When Elaine May directed A New Leaf (with Walter Matthau) in 1971, she was like, the first woman in 20 years to direct a Hollywood feature.

Video clip – “For Your Consideration: Women Directors Missing from the Oscars 2011″

RF: As a female director, do you have to work harder than your male counterparts?

TS: No, but your film has to be better though! [Laughs] That’s the thing with art; how much time and work you put in doesn’t matter. How good your film is – it’s the only thing that matters. You could put in very little effort and have a great film or put in a ton of effort and have a horrible film.

If you can find your audience, it doesn’t have to be the best film. It just has to be a really good film that your audience connects to. Not everyone is going to connect with it. And there is a big gender divide in terms of audience; women want to see women’s stories and men like to see men’s stories. Yes, there are crossovers and this isn’t black and white, and I’m generalizing.

I want to see women’s stories, and I want to tell stories that I want to see. I hope that I can tell a story that’s universal and personal and at the same time and it’s something people can connect to.

RF: What are you most looking forward to about the festival?

TS: It is one of the few places where you feel a sense of community. It’s like a little high school reunion every year. You get those connections, you see those people, you network – and I always tend to find crews for upcoming projects at the festival!

For more information and tickets, go to Vancouver Women in Film and Television.

The post Are things turning around for women filmmakers? appeared first on The Snipe News.

Director Michael Dowse enjoys the occasional fireside chat. Ryan West photo.

Interview – Goon director Michael Dowse

- by Rachel Fox/Michael Dowse photos by Ryan West

Die-hard hockey fan and actor Jay Baruchel (Million Dollar Baby, Knocked Up) made a bold move when he decided to switch positions by teaming up with co-writer Evan Goldberg (Superbad, Pineapple Express, The Green Hornet) to pen the script for the new hockey comedy Goon.

The movie, which stars Baruchel, Seann Michael Scott and Liev Schreiber, is based on a 2002 book by Doug Smith. “It’s a very loose adaptation,” laughs Goon director Michael Dowse during an interview at the Shangri-La Hotel in Vancouver. “The real Doug Smith was a boxer, a hockey player  and a mall cop in Massachussetts and that’s where the similarities end.

“Jay changed the character of Doug to reflect his late father’s experience, trying to play hockey as Jewish player in Montréal,” Dowse told us. “He wanted to personalize it. You write what you know.”

I had the chance to sit down with Dowse, whose resumé includes both of the FUBAR films and long-standing cult favourite It’s All Gone Pete Tong, recently during a promotional tour for Goon, which opens Friday, Feb. 24.

Movie trailer – Goon:

Rachel Fox: Are you a sports fan?

Michael Dowse: I am a huge sports fan. I played football in college.

RF: Your hockey team is the…?

MD: Montreal Canadians.

RF: I interviewed Jay Baruchel at the Whistler Film Festival; he mentioned he was more of a Habs guy…

MD: Same team. [laughs]

"Goon" screenwriter and star Jay Baruchel onstage at the Whistler Film Festival, December 2011. Rachel Fox photo.

RF:  Right. I knew that. Doug’s father in the film is played by Eugene Levy, who is sort of the Canadian Jewish go-to Dad at this point. What was it like working with him?

MD: A dream come true. At lunch I would pick his brain. He’s Earl Camembert! He’s amazing, and a great writer, too.

The biggest comedic influence in my life is SCTV, which I grew up watching. I have this thing in the back of my head, which is that I want to work with all of the members [of SCTV] that I can. What we tried to do with him, to make it a little different, was to have him be more serious. He was great at that.

RF: Seann William Scott is in the film, too – sort of an American Pie reunion, of sorts.

MD: Yeah, a little bit. I am sure the Americans are going to have a hard time figuring that out. “It’s Stiffler but that’s Jim’s dad…” They actually made the reunion right after.

Clip - SCTV:

RF:  Let’s talk about the history of the hockey movie.

MD: It’s a spotted history, to say the least.

RF: What’s your favourite?

MD: Well, Slapshot has to be my favourite. It’s probably everybody’s favourite. It is the best hockey movie ever made.

In Quebec, there’s a ton of great hockey films. The Rocket, Les Boys. Even [Quebecois television series] He Shoots, He Scores [Lance et Compte], which I watched religiously, because it has titties in it, when I was thirteen…

RF: They’re still there.

MD: In Quebec, they seem to be able to really handle a good hockey movie but in English Canada, I don’t know what it is… The goalie’s gotta be a chimpanzee -

RF: I don’t think I’ve seen that one.

MD: MVP: Most Valuable Primate. Or it’s a musical. Or it’s the Tooth Fairy. We all recognized that there’s a void to fill and I couldn’t be happier to make it authentic.

Clip – Slapshot

RF: There are some pretty hardcore sequences in the film. You have actors on skates.

MD: The main thing I was trying to bring to it was the speed. That’s what I love about the game, is how fast it is and how quickly it can change. That’s what I think separates hockey from most other sports, is how quickly the players are moving.

We wanted to make it look as real and authentic as possible, and that starts with skating. All the actors took it pretty seriously. I think they recognized the permanence of film and their ability to look like asses if they don’t know how to skate. I think that scared the hell out of them.

Liev Schreiber as veteran enforcer Ross Rhea in "Goon."

RF: So you had hockey boot camp?

MD: Seann is from Minnesota, so he is like, a quarter Canadian. He could skate a little bit. Liev is from Long Island, so he could too. But yeah, they trained for 6-8 weeks. Marc Andre Gagnier took it extremely seriously (not that the other guys didn’t). He trained his ass off.

RF: There’s a lot of blood in the film, and a feeling of the violence. It’s a definite part of hockey, albeit a controversial one. To some degree it’s celebrated, right?

MD: I don’t think we’re celebrating the violence. What we tried to do was celebrate this really misunderstood position in professional hockey. We wanted to show their bravery and their athletic virtuosity; it’s a tough thing to do. And there’s a great sense of sportsmanship. I wasn’t trying to glorify the violence; I was trying to be realistic with it and show the impact these guys have… have the audience experience what these guys experience. And I wanted to do good hockey and fight sequences, too. It’s funny; because it’s on a rink people think it’s glamorized, but if I was doing some cop film they probably wouldn’t care.

Director Dowse wears his heart on his hat. Ryan West photo.

RF: My favourite parts of the film were the off-rink scenes involving the relationship between rookie goon Doug (Seann William Scott) and his rival, the veteran enforcer Ross (Liev Schreiber). They really counterbalanced the notion of violence for the sake of violence; it humanized that aspect.

MD: Exactly. That’s a huge thing we wanted to get across, that these guys are all friends and they all know each other. They’re like soldiers.

I think one of the sad things about what happens to these guys is just how disposable they are. In terms of the role of the “enforcer,” we’re starting to see the sole idea of a guy who is only there to fight, he doesn’t really have a place in the NHL anymore. I think what’s cool about the position is that it’s almost coming back to the way it was in the 1980s, where you have guys that can fight but they can also score 20 goals. They don’t have guys who can just fight, but players who are a little more fleshed out. I think if the “enforcers” start to play more hockey they’d probably have less problems in terms of the exit strategies of these guys. But I’m not a hockey player; I think these decisions are really best left to the leagues and to the NHL.

Goon opens across Canada on Friday, Feb 24.

The post Actors on skates – the new hockey movie Goon appeared first on The Snipe News.

Ben Ratner portrays Jerry, a man suffering from schizophrenic affective disorder, in a scene from Sisters & Brothers.

Interview with Vancouver actor Ben Ratner

- by Rachel Fox

As Vancouver-based actor Ben Ratner introduces himself to me at the start of our interview, he quietly yet effectively manages to assert himself as simultaneously sensitive and something of a veteran. “I’m going to speak extra slowly since you’re recording,” he said. (Slowly.) “I’m not on lithium right now.”

A familiar face on the Canadian independent film landscape, the Leo-award winning actor (Mount Pleasant) and director (Moving Malcolm, in which he worked with the late John Neville) is gaining notice for his portrayal of Jerry, a man in the middle of a schizophrenic break, in director Carl Bessai‘s Sisters&Brothers.

Set for a Canadian release in the spring of 2012, the large ensemble also features Gabrielle Miller (Corner Gas, Call Me Fitz)  as Jerry’s devoted sister Louise, tasked with the familial responsibility of helping Jerry cope with and manage his disease. Sisters&Brothers is the third in Bessai’s largely improvised trilogy (Mothers&Daughters and Fathers&Sons; both feature Ratner) and premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, screened at the Vancouver International Film Festival and recently opened Toronto’s mental health-themed Rendezvous with Madness Festival.

Rachel Fox: You’ve worked with director Carl Bessai, who is known for working very organically with his actors, several times. Can you talk a little about the process on this film?

Ben Ratner: The way I work with Carl is, I throw as much stuff as I can at him and let him shape it and guide it. I came to the table with a lot of ideas but things changed and we worked on it for the better.

I had a conversation with a friend about the character, and though I had researched schizophrenia he asked, “Well, who was this guy before the mental illness took over his life?” And that was a key idea for me; not playing a mental illness but playing a person. Once I knew who this person was the manifestations of his illness became much more apparent. So, much of the storytelling and the behaviour in the film came out of that. Once that character had been created with research and collaboration, the really interesting thing was working with the doctor Carl consults with and going through my list of all the behaviours of this character and all the things he does in the storyline; checking everything off. It was very satisfying. There’s so many different kinds of schizophrenia with various behaviours and challenges.

RF: You did due diligence insofar as staying true to a real person rather than a caricature.

BR: In my family I have a sister who is quite severely autistic. My mother is part of a group for mothers with children with challenges of various kinds; some of her closest friends are women who have schizophrenic children. Certainly, I didn’t want to be offensive or untrue with anything I brought to it. I also read a book called, After Her Brain Broke which was written by a friend of my mom’s [Susan Inman] about her schizophrenic daughter. For sure, any actor wants to make it as real and true as possible. But the movie isn’t all about this guy, so you can only spend so much time in the details of things.

Ben Ratner, Gabrielle Miller in a scene from "Sisters&Brothers."

RF: It must have been challenging then, to find a balance between portraying something that is authentic but still entertaining that is in keeping with the overall tone of the film.

BR: Of course, we wanted to make it entertaining and enjoyable to watch. That was the great challenge as we were shooting it. Carl was very concerned, and kept saying, “This just isn’t very funny.” And it wasn’t. I was having a really hard time trying to adjust it to being lighter and more humorous because it just didn’t feel authentic to this character… you know there could be other characters that could have a lightness to them.

I’m not sure exactly what Peter Sellers’ character had in the film Being There, but that was a film that had such a whimsy and a lightness with a character who was in his own world mentally. But schizophrenia will not have that lightness – it’s a really torturous disease. To try to make it funny just isn’t truthful. These poor people are inundated with terrifying images and sounds and feelings constantly, so there’s not too much humour in that. I guess the funny thing is how they try to overcome it and try to deal with it. I know Gabe [actress Gabrielle Miller] had a really hard time trying to make it funny and it was torturous to have to deal with this character! Thank God we only shot for four or five days. It wasn’t a lot of fun at the time, unlike Fathers&Sons where we just laughed for the whole shoot. This film was quite like being in a dysfunctional family for 15 hours a day for a few days.

RF: There definitely is a balance there; Jerry’s condition and his life is juxtaposed with a fair amount of irreverence. The storyline roots for comedy within his personal tragedy.

BR: That comes from the ensemble, and from my end, I do have an understanding of that – from having an autistic sister. Although she will require care for the rest of her life, she certainly has enlightened everyone in her life just through her innocence and her honesty. It can be hilarious, too. You roll with the punches, you know?

Ratner, left, in a scene from "Fathers&Sons."

RF: There’s no happy ending for Jerry and Louise, is there?

BR: Thank God it doesn’t have a happy resolution. When we shot it we did do a couple of different takes and I really didn’t want to do them because it ended up feeling totally inauthentic. As it happened Carl found a better resolution which read like, “It’s not gonna be easy but she’s gonna hang in there with him.

RF: What, if anything did you learn from playing this character? Did it change you?

BR: That’s an excellent question. Part of what you do [in working with Carl] is these interview sequences – we shoot the narratives, the multi-character scenes, and then after that we shoot the interviews where we sit down individually and Carl interviews us in character.  There was a lot of feelings and ideas that came up for me that would not have had we not already shot the other scenes; one of which was a deep sense of vulnerability and shame about my behaviour. I knew everything I had done and put the other characters through and how disturbed they were by me. I felt really kind of, ashamed about that, and very… regretful about some of the things I had done.

So that became very real, about how difficult it must be for people with schizophrenia to know that they’re unwillingly causing so much harm and so much hurt to people they love and people who love them. And, just a sense of exhaustion; I did it for four or five days and to live that way all the time. What a burden that must be, to carry that intensity of feeling non-stop. I am sure that some of the medication takes away some of that suffering but it just creates other challenges. I was just exhausted and my voice was thrashed from all the yelling and screaming. I just felt really remorseful about the pain I had inflicted upon the people around me. So that made it very real, for sure. I really understood how these people just can’t “turn it off”. That was a big one.

Louise helps Jerry into a car in "Sisters&Brothers."

RF: What resonated the most with me after the film involved your storyline and, specifically, the very physical nature of the way you and Gabrielle Miller played off of each other. I liked watching that and related to it, the way your character who were clearly at odds were also free enough to invade each others personal space.  That was a great display of intimacy. Did you plan that?

BR: It happened organically, and that’s why we wanted Gabe to do the part. She can’t help but work that way – she’s all instinct. Gabe’s a special actor because even though she’s completely instinctive she knows the requirements of telling a story and she knows how to give the director what they need to tell different beats [of a story]. I knew what I was going to be doing – I didn’t know that Gabe was going to be that tough with me, that if I was going to be physical she was going to be physical and give it right back. I didn’t know she was going to be that loving with me.

That really created that relationship – we’d fight, and then she’d take care of me. We’d fight, then she’d take care of me. We’d fight, then she’d take care of me. Our storyline could’ve gone a very different way if it had been a different actor who might not have had the fortitude to keep coming back for more. That made that sister a very special sister to this guy, because no matter what he did, she just hung in there and kept coming back for more. And that is  a very powerful choice to make, to focus on the love and not the dysfunction. So many of the other storylines are more about the dysfunction and the hostility between siblings; and with what Gabe did, she just made it purely about the devotion of a sister.

Ben Ratner gets snapped at TIFF 2011. Rachel Fox photo.

RF: Would you play a character with mental illness again?

BR: I’d love to do it again; I feel like I’m just starting to understand it. I’ve played characters with addiction issues and an autistic character before. This is the first time playing a full out schizophrenic in the middle of a break. There’s one moment in the film where I talk about what a sister means to me [in the interview sequence]. When I look at that I feel like that’s the truest, clearest thing I’ve ever done on film. It was a real truthful, clear, uninflected moment.

I think those things are like a light at the end of a tunnel; you take on a challenging character and it can be tumultuous and dark and you can make a lot of mistake and there can be a lot of obstacles but hopefully you come out with a little bit of clarity. I feel like I did that on this one. I came out with some clarity and I’d like to try and do this again; start from this place and go into it with more clarity. I’d welcome that challenge.

The post Ben Ratner rolls with the punches appeared first on The Snipe News.

Interview – Color Me Obsessed director Gorman Bechard

- by Shawn Conner

Hailed for their songcraft, worshiped for their stick-it-to-the-man attitude, beloved for the recklessness of their live shows, The Replacements have attained near-mythic status.

Gorman Bechard‘s new documentary will no doubt add to the myth. Made without the participation of the band, Color Me Obsessed doesn’t even draw on videos or live footage. Instead, Bechard – a writer and filmmaker with six novels and several movies to his credit – has assembled footage of interviews with fans, including musicians, famous names like Dave Foley, and your average 40-something nostalgic still carrying a torch for the band’s breakthrough 1984 album Let It Be.

Bechard, who has been touring his doc to various cities, brings Color Me Obsessed to Vancouver for a screening and post-show q-and-a at the Waldorf Dec 2. (To enter to win two passes to the screening, leave a comment below naming your favourite Replacements song. We’ll make the draw noon Thurs Dec 1.) We reached the long-time Replacements fan at home in New Haven, Connecticut, to talk about Replacements burn-out, the band’s reputation and Pat Sajak.

Shawn Conner: Is this the career trajectory you’ve planned, or is this just where things have taken you, from novel to film to documentary?

Gorman Bechard: It’s all where things take me. Right now I have four films in development and I’m finishing up another novel. It’s sort of, I hate saying this, but it’s what I’m in the mood for in the moment, or what really starts snowballing.

When we started the doc, we had a bunch of different projects we were floating around, and this one started to snowball out of control, and we just went with it.

SC: Well it has a ready-made audience, but how big is that audience?

GB: I don’t think it’s just for Replacements fans. My favourite responses are from people who are not Replacements fans. Because the film is about the passion you feel for a band, and how a band, no matter what the band is, becomes a part of your life. I don’t care if you were living in New Jersey in the ’80s and you’re a 15-year-old girl and you fall in love with Bon Jovi -  Bon Jovi will be part of your life until you die.

That is what this film really speaks to; how music affects us. Some of the best comments I’ve had were from people who’ve said, “I had no idea who the band was but I loved this movie, it’s about passion.”

SC: You’re film isn’t concerned about the band’s story so much, is it?

GB: It definitely covers the story of the ‘Mats, right from handing over the demo tape, every single ‘Mats legend, story, everything is covered in this film. It is also very much the definitive biography of the band – a lot more than if they’d been in it. You have people with nothing to lose telling the story.

SC: Are people coming up to you and wanting to share their Replacements stories?

GB: Absolutely. I’ll get emails, or people will come up afterwards, or they’ll ask me some of the same questions that I ask people in the film, like why this band, tell us about your favourite gig, tells us your favourite song, things like that.

SC: Did you come away from this experience liking them as people more or less, or liking their music more or less?

GB: Surprisingly I ended up liking them even more, which is pretty amazing to me. Because I really, really love this band. They were always my favourite band and to come away liking them even more is crazy.

SC: I know you’re not that concerned with the gossip-y elements of the story, but over the years I’ve heard anecdotes and friends tell me things that have left the impression that generally these were not nice people… except Bob [original guitarist Bob Stinson]. Did you find that?

GB: Not really. Especially Bob – he came across as a saint, as just the nicest guy. And for every person I had who called Tommy [Stinson] a little snot, I had someone who said he’s a great kid.

SC: What kind of obstacles did you encounter making the film? You bypassed talking to the band and trying to use live footage, so that must have made things easier.

GB: When we were trying to get famous people and going through their agents, but really, for the most part people came out of the woodwork. It took on a life of its own.

SC: How come you couldn’t get Pat Sajak [reportedly a huge Replacements fan]?

GB: We tried, but we were not anywhere near the same place, and we couldn’t afford to fly to Vegas. That would’ve been funny, just him being on-screen.

SC: Were there any other famous Replacements fans you discovered?

GB: The ones that are in the film we knew about; definitely Sajak was probably the big surprise. But going into it we were pretty much were well-versed in who loved the band.

SC: Is there another documentary to be made, one with rare footage and old interviews with the band?

GB: There’s hardly anything. That’s a huge thing right there. Secondly, I hate saying this – it’s the same reason I don’t like The Ramones movie, End of the Century. If you were to do it that way, every frame of the movie would scream “This would be great if only Bob was alive.” I watch End of the Century and I think man, if they’d only made this movie two years earlier, when Joey was alive. Here you have the heart of the band, but he can’t speak for himself. You can put all that stuff together, but all it’s going to be is a VH1 special. For me, this band deserved something more than a VH1 special.

SC: So what are your plans for the movie? How many screenings are left?

GB: They keep growing. We have New York this week, Minneapolis, Omaha, Vancouver, Brussels – which is cool because we’re playing with Grant Hart – and we’re probably doing some screenings early next year. But then we’re going to come out on PPV in late spring or early summer.

SC: So if people want to see this they have to get their ass to a screening! Nice. Oh and I wanted to ask, Dave Foley [of Kids in the Hall] is in the movie?

GB: I’d always known him as a big [Paul] Westerberg and Replacements fan, and he was super nice and one of those people I was thrilled to speak with. One of my favourite quotes from the movie is, someone once asked them [Kids in the Hall] if they wanted to be the Beatles of comedy. And one of the other guys, Kevin McDonald, said “No. We want to be The Replacements.”

Color Me Obsessed official website

The Replacements' Sorry Ma Forgot to Take Out the Trash (1981).

The Replacements' Stink EP (1982).

The Replacements' Hootenanny (1983).

Let It Be (1984).

Tim (1985).

The Replacements' Pleased to Meet Me (1987).

Don't Tell a Soul (1989).

The band's swan song, All Shook Down (1990).

The post Win tickets to The Replacements documentary appeared first on The Snipe News.

The Thing opens Oct 14.

Interview – The Thing’s Jonathan Lloyd Walker

- by Shawn Conner

The Thing opens in theatres nationwide tomorrow (Oct 14). Despite its title, however, The Thing isn’t actually a remake of the 1982 John Carpenter classic. Instead, it’s a prequel, brought to us by the producers of Dawn of the Dead and director Matthijs van Heijningen, from a script by Eric Heisserer (Final Destination 5). The cast includes Mary Elizabeth Winstead (Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World, Death Proof), Joel Edgerton (Warrior, Animal Kingdom) and Jonathan Lloyd Walker.

A UK-born, Vancouver-based actor, Walker plays a British radio operator in the movie. Walker’s other credits include Traitor with Guy Pearce and Don Cheadle; Transparency with Lou Diamond Phillips, Estella Warren and Deborah Kara Unger; Shooter, directed by Antoine Fugua (Training Day) as well as Red with Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, Helen Mirren, and John Malkovich. He’s appeared in the TV series Flash Gordon, V and Smallville. He’s also a writer who is developing a new science-fiction TV series, Out of Time, about a female agent dispatched from the future to hunt down some fugitives who have escaped to our time.

We reached Walker on the phone, post-Thursday-morning-workout.

Jonathan Lloyd Walker. Kevin Clark photo

Shawn Conner: So have you seen the finished version of The Thing?

Jonathan Lloyd Walker: I saw a rough cut during pre-production, then I went down for the official premiere Monday night in Los Angeles.

SC: So what are some of the differences?

JLW: We’d re-shot certain elements back in January. The studio wanted us to change some of the interplay and ramp up the horror and the creature moments. They changed a whole chunk of the ending. I think for the most part the film achieves what it set out to do, which is to be a good and faithful prequel to Carpenter’s movie. At the tail-end of the film, there may be too much CGI for my tastes, but the creature stuff is still compelling, and all the taut character beats in the first two-thirds when we’re all mistrusting of each other, all that still works.

SC: This is a story that has gone through its own metamorphosis, from short story ["Who Goes There?" by science fiction writer John W. Campbell] to the original [1951] Howard Hawks version to the John Carpenter remake, and now a prequel. How aware were you of that whole evolution?

JLW: Obviously I saw the Carpenter movie when I was a teenager, and I was really really impressed with the film. I do remember coming out of the theatre with my friends being both excited and frightened. It was so visceral, and so terrifying. I came from that background. In preproduction I got to see the Hawks version of the film. Also they gave out to all the crew and the cast the novella that all of the stuff was based on.

Jonathan Lloyd Walker in a Flash Gordon promotional pic.

SC: Reading the description of the plot of The Thing [2011], the movie I’m most reminded of is Alien.

JLW: There are parallels to be drawn there. You have a female protagonist who starts out as somewhat of a quiet follower who takes on more of an assertive role and drives things forward. She uses her guile to confront the creature. I would say the climax of the film – and I don’t think it’s any closely-guarded secret that the climax takes us into the spaceship – once you get it there yes, it very much feels like Alien. But I would say the first two-thirds of the film are very faithful to the Carpenter movie.

SC: Are prequels the new sequels?

JLW: At the end of the day it’s about finding the best, freshest way to bring new life to a classic. If that’s better told in an origin story or a prequel than a sequel, then so much the better. If you go back to Casino Royale, it is really a prequel, we meet James Bond before he’s given the license to kill. That’s a prequel that works very effectively. Whether it’s a trend that will carry on, I don’t know. I would love there to be a sequel to The Thing, because I think there is a lot of creative mileage you could get out of that that would take it in a new direction. I hope sequels are not dead.

SC: You’ve been in some fairly big movies with some big-name stars. I don’t want to put you on the spot, but can you tell us – which movie had the best catering?

JLW: [chuckles] Usually, the bigger the project, the higher the budget and the bigger the star-power, the food is better because they have to cater to some bigger egos. I would have to say Red had the best food.

Jonathan Lloyd Weber takes cover in Red, a very well-catered motion picture.

It was a stellar cast, six Academy Award winners, and 20 Golden Globe nominees or winners. When we were shooting part of the movie in Toronto we were shooting in a hotel. What they would do – we were staying at a different hotel – they would pick us up, drive us to this other hotel, and most of us with a significant role in the movie were given this other suite in this other hotel where we were shooting.

So when it came time to eat we asked, Should we go down for catering? and they said no, go ahead and order yourselves room service. That was at the Royal York in Toronto, which is not a cheap hotel. So a lot of the other actors, at lunchtime, were ordering themselves a big steak. So I quickly jumped on that bandwagon. I can remember sitting in a room with Brian Cox and John Malkovich having a big 14-ounce steak for lunch.

SC: I was hoping you were going to say you were in a room eating steak with Helen Mirren.

JLW: Helen’s a lovely women, I did hang out with her on a few occasions. A wonderful woman, very down to earth with lots of great stories. Whilst regal in presentation, she’s very very love and warm, and a great person to work with.

The Thing opens Friday Oct 14 at a theatre near you. Check local listings.

The post Jonathan Lloyd Walker on The Thing appeared first on The Snipe News.

Interview with Blue Mountain State’s Tammy Gillis

- by Shawn Conner

“The ski and maple syrup capital of Manitoba.” That’s the slogan for McCreary on the Prairie town’s website.

It’s also the hometown of Tammy Gills. Now based in Vancouver, the actress was “discovered” at a Winnipeg bar while taking pre-law at the University of Manitoba.

Gillis started out modeling, then enrolled in the University of Winnipeg’s theatre program. After living briefly in Florida, she returned to Winnipeg, got work in TV and movies, and moved to Vancouver, where she’s worked on Reaper, Battlestar Galactica, Endgame and more.

Most recently, she’s shot episodes for HBO Canada’s Less Than Kind, a Winnipeg-shot and -set series, and Spike TV’s college football comedy Blue Mountain State. Stealing Paradise, a Montreal-shot TV movie in which Gillis appears with Rachael Leigh Cook, aired on Movie Central in July.

We met Tammy at a Main Street coffee shop, where the actress chatted about small-town Manitoba, her connection with Winnipeg band The Weakerthans, and her obsession with True Blood.

"Discovered" in a Winnipeg bar - Tammy Gillis.

Shawn Conner: So the story is, you were discovered in a bar in Winnipeg?

Tammy Gillis: For modeling, yeah. It was called Monty’s. In university, me and my older sister and two friends that I met in university all lived in a townhouse. Four girls in a townhouse – trouble. And then the bar was right at the end of our street. This girl came up to me and asked, “Have you ever thought about modeling?” And I was like, yeah, right. But she gave me her card and started talking to me. I looked up the company and went for a meeting.

SC: One of the shows you’ve been in, Less Than Kind, is a shot-in-Winnipeg show about the North End of the city?

Tammy Gillis: It’s hilarious, ‘cos you watch it and you’re like “That is Winnipeg.” And I love the opening song, [The Weakerthans'] “I Hate Winnipeg”. It’s weird the connection there – I was in a music video for The Weakerthans, before they were kind of anyone. They made me eat a flower on camera. They’re like, “Smell the flower. Love the flower. Eat the flower.”

SC: The good old Weakerthans.

Tammy Gillis: Everything comes back to Winnipeg.

SC: Tell me a little bit about Blue Mountain State on Spike TV. I watched an episode and there were tequila shots…

Tammy Gillis: It’s raunchy. Some of the stuff they do – they push the envelope as far as they can. Because there’s no nudity. They get as close as they possibly can. It was a really fun show to work on. How could you not have fun when there’s 200 young guys every day? It’s funny, we’d have lunch in this giant skating rink three quarters full of cast and crew and it was 75 per cent guys. It’s sort of like being in college and being involved with the football team.

SC: And Stealing Paradise is a movie you shot in Montreal that started showing on Movie Central in July?

Tammy Gillis: I never saw it ’til they sent me a DVD screener. It had already been on two weeks and everyone I knew had already seen it!

SC: When you’re watching, do you wonder, “Why did they choose this take instead of another?”

Tammy Gillis: [pause] I can’t become that attached to it anymore. I know there are reasons they chose it – lighting, the camera jiggled, or there was sound in that take. And it kind of sucks sometimes. But you do your stuff, you do the best you can, make it as interesting as you can from moment to moment, then it’s out of your hands.

SC: Are you able to get involved in the story while watching?

Tammy Gillis: I was kind of into it. Just working with everybody, especially Rachael [Leigh Cook] and Graham [Abbey], we hung out and went out together a bunch of times. It was exciting to watch because of them. I can get hooked into a really bad TV show or movie if I know people in it.

SC: And you’re obsessed with True Blood?

Tammy Gillis: Obsessed! Oh my God. I talked to my agent this morning, he’s like “You’re going to freak out. They just released a breakdown for a new character and you’re pretty much perfect for it.”

I read for Sooki [Anna Paquin's character] originally, a couple of years ago. As soon as I read it I thought, “I love the idea of this show.”

SC: Ideal role?

Tammy Gillis: Definitely comedy. I’d also love to do something with guns and running and shooting.

SC: You haven’t done anything like that? What about on Battlestar Galactica?

Tammy Gillis: I had a gun but I was just pushing people around. I’d rather be in a car chase. I did an episode of Reaper where we did a little bit of that and it was so fun – I got to be in the car with the stunt driver and I had to lean out the window and point my gun.

SC: Just a typical Saturday night in McCreary.

Tammy Gillis: They had to tell me to stop smiling, I was having so much fun.

The post Tammy Gillis: ‘Everything comes back to Winnipeg’ appeared first on The Snipe News.

Dominic Cooper in The Devil’s Double (2011).

Interview – Dominic Cooper

Dominic Cooper is receiving raves for his dual portrayal of Uday Hussein and his body double, an Iraqi soldier named Latif Yahia, in The Devil’s Double. For the role, the British actor has risen to the occasion by creating two indelible characters who often share the screen. This technical accomplishment threatens to overshadow the movie, which also stars French actress Ludivine Sagnier and has a few moments of nail-biting suspense.

Cooper got his start in the stage production of The History Boys, and a singing/dancing role in the movie version of Mamma Mia! gave his career a boost. This summer he’s also appearing at your local multiplex in Captain America: The First Avenger (as Howard Stark, Iron Man’s dad), while in November he’ll be seen again in My Week With Marilyn. And he’s got a starring role in next summer’s Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. Previous credits also include Tamara Drewe with Gemma Arterton and An Education.

Shawn Conner: What kind of research did you do for The Devil’s Double?

Dominic Cooper: Well, I really liked the idea of being the same person playing both those roles. I was intrigued to know how it was going to work. They needed to look alike. If you look at the photos it’s very very hard to tell them apart. He was forced into some very volatile situations. People had to believe it was the same person. If the audience for a moment weren’t sure who they were watching, the whole thing would fall to pieces. So that aspect was terrifying.

Ultimately, Lee Tamahori the director and I talked a lot abut how each of the characters was different. Rather than me going and doing a lot of research, it was more about understanding who Uday was by going back to the basics, about asking what makes these men who they are, then thinking about them physically – how do they move in their environment, for example.

Uday is much bigger, he takes up more space in a room, then you think of Latif rippped form the front lines, he’s smaller, and much more watchful. You immediately you have two very different takes on human nature. So it was more about finding the essence of that, about how they moved and how they talked, then rebuilding these people so you are always aware who you are watching. It was more about the way they constructed their sentences, rather than me going into huge realms of back story.

SC: Were there any false starts at the beginning?

DC: I’d already done an audition. So it was more about just really having to get the levels of emotion right. Ultimately I had to go extraordinarily far. Everything about Uday was really unthinkable, and I had to go as far as possible. I had to let Lee guide me as to whether it was too much or too little.

SC: I get the impression you’d work with Lee again, given the right material.

DC: I really renjoyed his energy. I was exhausted at times from jumping between the two characters from moment to moment. But I was so exhilerated by the process of it. I can’t explain how wonderful his energy was. He was really having to make decisionss spontaneously. He would have to decide on takes that I had just done so I could react, and that’s quite a decision to make immediately. Usually you have all this time, you can decide in the editing process, but he had to do it on the spot.

Dominic Cooper and Ludivine Sagnier in The Devil’s Double (2011).

SC: And so how is that a different experience from working on something like Captain America?

DC: It’s a totally different experience altogether. I was moved by involvement within this unique small set. We were all having to come up with ideas. I grew up on film sets and I love the collaboration. With Captain America, you’re in awe of all the machinery around you but you’re a much smaller cog. You can be there for not weeks at time, and then you come in and do your work.

SC: Your next movie is due out in November, My Week With Marilyn. What can you tell us about that?

DC: I think it’s a wonderful little look at this week in her [Marilyn Monroe's] life, when she came to London to shoot a movie [The Prince and the Showgirl, 1957] and had this fraught relationship with Laurence Olivier [Kenneth Branagh]. I play this friend of hers, a photographer. I think it’s really exciting to get to the inner workings in some fantastical way of someone we’ve been obsessed with for all these years.

The Devil’s Double opens Aug 12 in Montreal and Vancouver.

Dominic Cooper in The Devil’s Double (2011).

The post Dominic Cooper on The Devil’s Double appeared first on The Snipe News.

Interview – 3D filmmaker Roham Rahmanian

- by Clinton Hallahan

Like it or not, 3D movies are probably here to stay. Between the east of “major event” marketing it enables, increased ticket receipts for studios and increase in difficulty they pose to pirates with designs to distribute screeners, 3D is just too good a proposition to pass up for the makers of blockbusters.

But what about movie-goers? While in many cases 2D ticket sales outpace 3D and loud voices from critics and filmmakers alike decry the presentation issues and economically inspired addition of bad 3D effects in post production, many still call 3D the future of cinema.

To answer some burning questions to do with 3D film, The Snipe spoke to Roham Rahmanian, a Vancouver-raised 3D filmmaker quickly becoming an authority on the subject. Rahmanian’s credits include 127 Hours, as well as skateboarding and music videos. He has also been selected to produce the 3D aspect of photographer Michel Comte’s feature film Madame Butterfly.

Roham Rahmanian: 3D (stereoscopic) is not superior to traditional photography. Just like color is not superior to black and white photography. This is a new medium. It has its own unique qualities and is in its early stages of development. There are so many new advantages in the stereo world; you can interact with your audience in ways you could never imagine. People will lose themselves in movies all over again. Yes, there is some apprehension towards 3D, but realize we’ve spent one hundred years making our three-dimensional world into the perfect two dimensional one; so it will take some time before we fully embrace 3D entertainment. This is not about the new RED or ALEXA camera, it’s about a whole new level of artistry.

The post Vancouver’s wizard of 3D appeared first on The Snipe News.

Miranda July in a scene from The Future (2011).

Interview – Miranda July

- by Shawn Conner

Miranda July‘s The Future opens in many major cities today, and it’s tempting (and awfully easy) to position the low-budget indie film as an antidote to this summer’s noisy, generic and just plain dumb blockbusters. But, uh, it kind of is.

The follow-up to her 2005 critical and commercial hit (for an indie film) Me and You and Everyone We Know, The Future follows a young-ish couple, Sophie and Jason, at a crossroads in their lives. Like all of July’s work, it is light without being fluffy, observational without being hamfisted and quirky without being ironic. Fans will love it; detractors probably won’t be converted.

We chatted with the woman whom co-star Hamish Linklater calls “the Queen of Indie Filmdom” over the phone while she was in Toronto to promote the movie. We touched on the writing process, her other projects and some of the problems (and solutions) in making The Future, her novel and the filthy songs she put on the mix CD for her co-star, Hamish Linklater.

Watch – The Future (HD trailer):

Shawn Conner: I think a lot of people would think that, what with success, however modest financially, of Me and You and Everyone We Know, that you would have no trouble getting financing for a second movie.

Miranda July: I also was looking for money in the heart of the recession. People just more than ever wanted some kind of guarantee. You needed like a big movie star to get anyone to care at all. And I was sort of open to that and I met with a lot of more well known actors who just weren’t as right for the parts. Ultimately I had to go with the people who were willing to support this movie with these exact actors and they were all European investors. It wasn’t much but it was enough.

SC: That got me wondering, while watching the end credits and seeing all those German names, if there were any awkward casting decisions like in [the Woody Allen movie] Bullets Over Broadway, where they had to cast the gangster’s moll…

MJ: [laughs] Yes, even in so much as any part we could get someone with a European passport in the role we had to do that. There are some weird things – an unusually  high number of smaller parts have people with accents, like the vet. I don’t even know what accent that was.

SC: I wanted to know a little more about Angela Trimbur. Were those dance videos part of her audition? [Trimbur plays a co-worker whose YouTube dance videos are the envy of July's character Sophie.]

Angela Trimbur in The Future.

MJ: Those were some really fun auditions. People would have to be able to act, and they’d do their little scene from the script, then they had to do a dance. [laughs] We’re just sitting in these chairs watching these women dance. All different kinds of dances. Angela came in fully in character, but I didn’t know if she was a character or not because I’d never met her. It was kind of almost like a Jersey Shore thing she was doing, it was a lot more exaggerated than what ended up in the movie. That dance she worked on with a friend of hers. I kept my distance from it, because I knew I would just mess it up. She was working very purely within the form already.

SC: And you found one of the actors through Pennysaver, which we don’t have in Canada, it sounds like a cheap print Craigslist?

MJ: It’s like the classified or nickel ads, most people throw it out, it just comes with the junk mail. During a particularly procrastinating time of working on the script, I began reading the ads and started calling people and asking if I could interview them. I became curious. Who doesn’t have computers now, why wouldn’t these people be using Craigslist? And thinking that it wasn’t actually that easy to see what isn’t on the Internet – you kind of feel like it’s the whole world and it’s actually not.

So I met all these people, so many amazing stories. And one of them was this old man, Joe, who had this whole collection of sort of raunchy, sweet cards that he’d made for his wife over the years. Not that he was selling, but I just noticed them in his house. And he just was an amazing guy, and I asked him if he would be in the movie ‘cos he was just so much more interesting than anything I was working on at the moment.

Hamish Linklater and Miranda July in The Future

SC: But his character was already written in–?

MJ: No, I wrote all that in. I had this sort of predicament, that Jason was going door-to-door, selling the trees, and I knew he had to meet somebody, something transformative had to happen. And I had so many bad versions of that until I met Joe.

SC: So much of writing a script is problem-solving, isn’t it?

MJ: Yeah. And that’s a good example. It wasn’t good to begin with, I had to live my life to find the solution.

Miranda July tries out her dance moves in The Future.

SC: And now those Pennysavers interviews are going to be your next project?

MJ: Yeah, right. That’s a book that’s done that comes out in the fall, it’s the first thing I’ve done that’s really not fiction. It was so interesting having the “I” actually be me, you know? I’m so used to making these characters that really are not me at all. And then I’m working on a novel. Which will not be out in the fall. Or anytime soon.

SC: That’s good to know, as someone who enjoyed your short stories. I actually listened to the audio version. Anything stand out about recording the audiobook for No One Belongs Here More Than You?

MJ: The people who record those record a million and one people reading, and I remember at first I just read them how I read them, and there was this “Is that how you’re going to do it?” kind of moment. They didn’t say it exactly but there was this sort of this uncomfortable look. I perform, and I guess they eventually realized my sheer commitment, I guess it’s just my way of reading, over time they were won over to it.

SC: So you weren’t hired to read the new Tom Clancy novel..

MJ: No, no offers came in.

SC: Your movie is coming out in the summer, amdist all these big blockbusters, and it just seems that the gap between big movies and small independent films has never been wider. Is this discouraging or empowering?

MJ: It’s pretty weird because we’re all in one world. There are only so many critics, they’re all reviewing the same movies. It’s strange when you’re finally sharing a space with those movies, even a movie theatre in some cases. It’s totally discouraging, it’s not good for me that no one wants to fund these movies. They exist, they’re just not made.

It kind of also means that you come off seeming a lot weirder, like the space itself is very conservative. So it’s like you’re in the ring alone. And I’m kind of like, hold on here, there’s a whole history of pretty weird things that have been done in movies. This is not even that weird. But just in the context of this particular moment it looks that way.

SC: In that same interview, Hamish was talking about the two of you exchanging mixed CDs when he got the role, and that yours was totally filthy… I’m wondering what songs you put on yours?

MJ: Uh, I think I put, I’m trying to think, there’s a Liz Phair song, “Flower”, I think there’s a part that’s like… “I want to fuck you,” I don’t know, something.

SC: “I want to be your blowjob queen.”

MJ: Right. Well, I’m just trying to break down these barriers, and Sophie is a girl who came of age in the ’90s. And this song… I don’t know, I was just trying to think of what was around then. And then I think there was this Unrest song, it’s always a little confusing to people, I think the chorus is “I want to be your skinhead girl”. The lyrics are like “I want to fuck you all the time.” But there was probably 15 other songs that were very sweet. Those ones obviously made a huge impression [laughs].

The Future opens in theatres in select cities Aug. 5.

The post Miranda July on The Future appeared first on The Snipe News.