“There’s nothing worse than miscasting,” casting director Laura Rosenthal told IndieWire. Not that she speaks from her own experience. As Todd Haynes’ go-to casting director since “Far from Heaven,” Rosenthal has assembled some of the most memorable casts of the last few decades, including “The Kids Are All Right,” “A Quiet Place,” “Chicago,” and “Analyze This.”
Now she and fellow acclaimed casting director Ellen Lewis — Jim Jarmusch and Martin Scorsese’s longtime casting director and the woman behind the casting of everything from “A League of Their Own” to “Killers of the Flower Moon” — are being honored by The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) with the retrospective series The Craft: Casting Directors Ellen Lewis and Laura Rosenthal, running June 1–16.
The series highlights some of their most acclaimed work, as well as some films that may not be as well known. Among the offerings being screened are Scorsese’s “Goodfellas,...
Now she and fellow acclaimed casting director Ellen Lewis — Jim Jarmusch and Martin Scorsese’s longtime casting director and the woman behind the casting of everything from “A League of Their Own” to “Killers of the Flower Moon” — are being honored by The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) with the retrospective series The Craft: Casting Directors Ellen Lewis and Laura Rosenthal, running June 1–16.
The series highlights some of their most acclaimed work, as well as some films that may not be as well known. Among the offerings being screened are Scorsese’s “Goodfellas,...
- 6/2/2023
- by Edward Frumkin
- Indiewire
Kjersti Paulsen was named the winner of the Semiramis Award for excellence in casting for her work on “The Innocents,” directed by Norway’s Eskil Vogt, at a ceremony Saturday at Torino Film Festival.
The psychological thriller about four kids who suddenly discover they have hidden powers celebrated its world premiere at Cannes, with Variety’s Jessica Kiang praising its “exceptional child performers.”
“The producer, director and I agreed on the importance of finding the right children and gave it the highest priority. All other characters had to wait,” said Paulsen before her win.
“My job is to create an environment where the children feel secure and can join in the role-play we bring them into. Then I need to determine the children’s capacity for empathy, their ability to listen to co-players, imagination and self-confidence.”
“The Innocents”
The award – established in 2016 by the International Casting Directors Network (Icdn) – is...
The psychological thriller about four kids who suddenly discover they have hidden powers celebrated its world premiere at Cannes, with Variety’s Jessica Kiang praising its “exceptional child performers.”
“The producer, director and I agreed on the importance of finding the right children and gave it the highest priority. All other characters had to wait,” said Paulsen before her win.
“My job is to create an environment where the children feel secure and can join in the role-play we bring them into. Then I need to determine the children’s capacity for empathy, their ability to listen to co-players, imagination and self-confidence.”
“The Innocents”
The award – established in 2016 by the International Casting Directors Network (Icdn) – is...
- 11/26/2022
- by Marta Balaga
- Variety Film + TV
Bill Treusch, an esteemed New York-based talent manager, died at the age of 80 following a long illness on Tuesday in New York City.
Through Treusch’s career, he was instrumental in finding and guiding the careers of Sissy Spacek, Richard Jenkins, Melissa Leo, Christopher Walken, Tom Hulce, Diane Keaton, Eric Roberts, Tom Berenger, Peter Weller, Viggo Mortensen, Carol Kane and Sandy Dennis among many other notable actors.
Treusch began his professional career as an autograph collector, then became the personal assistant to Montgomery Clift, who was a theatrical talent agent with Dudley Field Malone. Most notably, Treusch joined the casting office of Marion Dougherty where he worked with Juliet Taylor, Wallis Nicita and Gretchen Rennell as an assistant.
Dougherty noted Treusch’s great eye for talent and reassigned him to a position where his management career then flourished. This story was chronicled in the 2012 documentary “Casting By” from director Tom Donahue.
Through Treusch’s career, he was instrumental in finding and guiding the careers of Sissy Spacek, Richard Jenkins, Melissa Leo, Christopher Walken, Tom Hulce, Diane Keaton, Eric Roberts, Tom Berenger, Peter Weller, Viggo Mortensen, Carol Kane and Sandy Dennis among many other notable actors.
Treusch began his professional career as an autograph collector, then became the personal assistant to Montgomery Clift, who was a theatrical talent agent with Dudley Field Malone. Most notably, Treusch joined the casting office of Marion Dougherty where he worked with Juliet Taylor, Wallis Nicita and Gretchen Rennell as an assistant.
Dougherty noted Treusch’s great eye for talent and reassigned him to a position where his management career then flourished. This story was chronicled in the 2012 documentary “Casting By” from director Tom Donahue.
- 11/16/2022
- by EJ Panaligan
- Variety Film + TV
Bill Treusch, a longtime New York talent manager who once served as personal assistant to Montgomery Clift and went on help guide the careers of Sissy Spacek, Christopher Walken, Tom Hulce, Diane Keaton, Eric Roberts, Tom Berenger and numerous others, died Tuesday in New York City following a lengthy illness. He was 80.
Following his stint as Clift’s personal assistant, Treusch became a theatrical talent agent with Dudley Field Malone. He joined the casting office of Marion Dougherty where he worked with casting agents Juliet Taylor, Wallis Nicita, and Gretchen Rennell.
Although Dougherty believed Treusch was unsuited to casting, she recognized his eye for talent. Settled into Dougherty’s basement office, Treusch flourished and eventually founded his own one-man operation that evolved into Bill Treusch Management, a leading management company.
Working with film, television and stage performers over a career that spanned more than five decades, Treusch was instrumental in...
Following his stint as Clift’s personal assistant, Treusch became a theatrical talent agent with Dudley Field Malone. He joined the casting office of Marion Dougherty where he worked with casting agents Juliet Taylor, Wallis Nicita, and Gretchen Rennell.
Although Dougherty believed Treusch was unsuited to casting, she recognized his eye for talent. Settled into Dougherty’s basement office, Treusch flourished and eventually founded his own one-man operation that evolved into Bill Treusch Management, a leading management company.
Working with film, television and stage performers over a career that spanned more than five decades, Treusch was instrumental in...
- 11/16/2022
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
Click here to read the full article.
Bill Treusch, the admired New York-based talent manager who jump-started the career of Sissy Spacek and represented Christopher Walken, Diane Keaton, Viggo Mortensen, Richard Jenkins and many others during his five-decade career, has died. He was 80.
Treusch died Tuesday in New York after a long illness, his niece Shannon Treusch, founder and partner of the public relations firm Falco Ink., announced.
Treusch got his big break when legendary casting director Marion Dougherty recognized his eye for talent and gave him an office in her basement at East 30th Street in Manhattan. There, he launched Bill Treusch & Associates, later known as Bill Treusch Management. (The story is told in the 2012 documentary Casting By, directed by Tom Donahue.)
His firm started as a one-man band before evolving into a powerhouse management company.
He was especially helpful to Spacek, who was a struggling singer and actress...
Bill Treusch, the admired New York-based talent manager who jump-started the career of Sissy Spacek and represented Christopher Walken, Diane Keaton, Viggo Mortensen, Richard Jenkins and many others during his five-decade career, has died. He was 80.
Treusch died Tuesday in New York after a long illness, his niece Shannon Treusch, founder and partner of the public relations firm Falco Ink., announced.
Treusch got his big break when legendary casting director Marion Dougherty recognized his eye for talent and gave him an office in her basement at East 30th Street in Manhattan. There, he launched Bill Treusch & Associates, later known as Bill Treusch Management. (The story is told in the 2012 documentary Casting By, directed by Tom Donahue.)
His firm started as a one-man band before evolving into a powerhouse management company.
He was especially helpful to Spacek, who was a struggling singer and actress...
- 11/16/2022
- by Mike Barnes
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Colleagues of legendary casting director Mike Fenton remembered the industry veteran as a tireless champion of actors who had a keen eye for talent, a great sense of humor and a full life outside of work with a wide circle of friends.
Fenton, who died Dec. 30 at the age of 85, had nearly 300 casting credits to his name and helped launch the careers of such stars as Harrison Ford, Richard Dreyfuss, Drew Barrymore and Robert Downey Jr. He won the Casting Society of America’s Artios Award in 1996 for Best Casting for TV Nighttime Special for “Mr. Willowby’s Christmas Tree” and again in 2000 Best Casting for TV Miniseries for “Arabian Nights”
Graham Yost, screenwriter and showrunner known for “Broken Arrow,” “Speed” and FX’s “Justified,” became friendly with Fenton through a running club dubbed Flying Squirrels that the casting pro founded in the 1980s. Yost met his wife, Connie, through the group.
Fenton, who died Dec. 30 at the age of 85, had nearly 300 casting credits to his name and helped launch the careers of such stars as Harrison Ford, Richard Dreyfuss, Drew Barrymore and Robert Downey Jr. He won the Casting Society of America’s Artios Award in 1996 for Best Casting for TV Nighttime Special for “Mr. Willowby’s Christmas Tree” and again in 2000 Best Casting for TV Miniseries for “Arabian Nights”
Graham Yost, screenwriter and showrunner known for “Broken Arrow,” “Speed” and FX’s “Justified,” became friendly with Fenton through a running club dubbed Flying Squirrels that the casting pro founded in the 1980s. Yost met his wife, Connie, through the group.
- 1/2/2021
- by Jazz Tangcay
- Variety Film + TV
Legendary casting director Chemin Bernard has been honored by the Casting Society of America, which has awarded her with Emeritus Member Status in recognition of her “remarkable contributions to the organization, the profession, and the art of casting.” Bernard, who served as Csa president from 2006-08, was chosen for the honor by the Csa’s board of directors and by the Csa Black, Indigenous and People of Color Alliance.
“Chemin Bernard is an exemplary casting director who has built an esteemed career by championing actors and helping tell stories that make an impact on culture,” said Csa president Russell Boast. “She has been a cornerstone to our craft who continues to inspire the next generation of artists.”
“I am humbled by this honor and share it with the African American casting directors on whose shoulders I stand,” said Bernard, who is now retired. “My mission as a casting director was...
“Chemin Bernard is an exemplary casting director who has built an esteemed career by championing actors and helping tell stories that make an impact on culture,” said Csa president Russell Boast. “She has been a cornerstone to our craft who continues to inspire the next generation of artists.”
“I am humbled by this honor and share it with the African American casting directors on whose shoulders I stand,” said Bernard, who is now retired. “My mission as a casting director was...
- 9/10/2020
- by David Robb
- Deadline Film + TV
The Casting Society of America has set its 35th annual Artios Awards for January 30, 2020, with ceremonies to be held simultaneously in Los Angeles, New York and London. The awards honor the contribution of casting directors to film, TV and theater.
The Los Angeles ceremony will be held at the Beverly Hilton, with the other venues not yet locked down. Nominations in the TV and theater categories will be announced September 24, with feature film nominees to be revealed January 2 (see the full timeline below).
Timed to this year’s awards season, the society today also kicked off its inaugural archival project that features video interviews with some of the industry’s leading casting directors released each week leading up to the awards show. First up is Juliet Taylor.
Other subjects include Reuben Cannon, Mike Fenton, Jane Jenkins & Janet Hirshenson, Wallis Nicita and newly elected Motion Picture Academy president David Rubin.
“Our new archival project is the perfect way to ramp up to the 35th Artios Awards, as it allows us to further share the remarkable stories and acknowledge the lasting contributions casting directors have made to film, television and theater,” Csa VP Rich Mento said.
Here’s the full 2020 timeline:
August 28
Open 1st ballot – Television and Theatre
September 20
Close 1st ballot – Television and Theatre
September 24
Television and Theatre Nominees Announced
Open final ballot – Television and Theatre
October 7
Close final ballot – Television and Theatre
November 5
Open submissions – Features
December 6
Close submissions – Features
December 9
Open 1st ballot – Features
January 1, 2020
Close 1st ballot – Features
January 2, 2020
Feature Nominees Announced
Open final ballot – Features
January 15, 2020
Close final ballot – Features
January 30, 2020
35th Artios Awards...
The Los Angeles ceremony will be held at the Beverly Hilton, with the other venues not yet locked down. Nominations in the TV and theater categories will be announced September 24, with feature film nominees to be revealed January 2 (see the full timeline below).
Timed to this year’s awards season, the society today also kicked off its inaugural archival project that features video interviews with some of the industry’s leading casting directors released each week leading up to the awards show. First up is Juliet Taylor.
Other subjects include Reuben Cannon, Mike Fenton, Jane Jenkins & Janet Hirshenson, Wallis Nicita and newly elected Motion Picture Academy president David Rubin.
“Our new archival project is the perfect way to ramp up to the 35th Artios Awards, as it allows us to further share the remarkable stories and acknowledge the lasting contributions casting directors have made to film, television and theater,” Csa VP Rich Mento said.
Here’s the full 2020 timeline:
August 28
Open 1st ballot – Television and Theatre
September 20
Close 1st ballot – Television and Theatre
September 24
Television and Theatre Nominees Announced
Open final ballot – Television and Theatre
October 7
Close final ballot – Television and Theatre
November 5
Open submissions – Features
December 6
Close submissions – Features
December 9
Open 1st ballot – Features
January 1, 2020
Close 1st ballot – Features
January 2, 2020
Feature Nominees Announced
Open final ballot – Features
January 15, 2020
Close final ballot – Features
January 30, 2020
35th Artios Awards...
- 8/22/2019
- by Patrick Hipes
- Deadline Film + TV
• /Film Rip Peter Mayhew, Chewbacca actor in the original Star Wars films
• Film Comment a wonderful anecdote-filled interview with the legendary casting director Juliet Taylor Dangerous Liaisons, The Exorcist, Close Encounters, Schindler's List, and Broadway Danny Rose are among her many classics.
• Deadline It's official: Michelle Pfeiffer, Lucas Hedges and Tracy Letts to headline French Exit...
• Tfe ...our earlier report about Michelle's interest in doing this movie
• Slate thinks the romcom Long Shot is actually pretty feminist (though it's initially strange to hear that claim about yet another movie where the schlubby guy gets the hot girl)
More after the jump including Lucy Liu, an 80s singer coming out, the Karate Kid, the German Oscars, upcoming stage musicals based on movies, and more...
• Film Comment a wonderful anecdote-filled interview with the legendary casting director Juliet Taylor Dangerous Liaisons, The Exorcist, Close Encounters, Schindler's List, and Broadway Danny Rose are among her many classics.
• Deadline It's official: Michelle Pfeiffer, Lucas Hedges and Tracy Letts to headline French Exit...
• Tfe ...our earlier report about Michelle's interest in doing this movie
• Slate thinks the romcom Long Shot is actually pretty feminist (though it's initially strange to hear that claim about yet another movie where the schlubby guy gets the hot girl)
More after the jump including Lucy Liu, an 80s singer coming out, the Karate Kid, the German Oscars, upcoming stage musicals based on movies, and more...
- 5/4/2019
- by NATHANIEL R
- FilmExperience
For the tenth consecutive year, thousands of movie lovers from around the globe descended upon Hollywood for the TCM Classic Film Festival. The 2019 festival took place Thursday, April 11 – Sunday, April 14, 2019. Over four packed days and nights, attendees were treated to an extensive lineup of great movies, appearances by legendary stars and filmmakers, fascinating presentations and panel discussions, special events and more.
Our favorite festival, Wamg attended the screening of Steel Magnolias on Friday and it was fantastic! In attendance to speak before the film was screenwriter Robert Harking, who based the original play on his sister (the character “Shelby” portrayed by Julia Roberts in the film). He talked about his many inspirations for the characters – mostly women he knew growing up in the South. Fun fact: He also mentioned that Julia Roberts wasn’t the first choice for Shelby. Meg Ryan was originally cast but then dropped out because she...
Our favorite festival, Wamg attended the screening of Steel Magnolias on Friday and it was fantastic! In attendance to speak before the film was screenwriter Robert Harking, who based the original play on his sister (the character “Shelby” portrayed by Julia Roberts in the film). He talked about his many inspirations for the characters – mostly women he knew growing up in the South. Fun fact: He also mentioned that Julia Roberts wasn’t the first choice for Shelby. Meg Ryan was originally cast but then dropped out because she...
- 4/17/2019
- by Melissa Thompson
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
TCM took over the famed Chinese Theater in Hollywood for four days earlier this month for its 10th annual classic film festival. Network honchos hailed the festival as their biggest ever with 129 separate events. The film screenings had movie fans scrambling all over town for viewings, discussions and info sessions, sometimes successfully and sometimes with disappointing results. Below, take a look at my first-hand account covering the 2019 TCM Film Festival for Gold Derby.
Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan reunited for the opening night screening of “When Harry Met Sally,” which celebrated the film’s 30th anniversary. Along with director Rob Reiner, the two provided many memories of the film and yes, of course, reminisced about the film’s famous delicatessen scene. Crystal was also honored the next day by having his footprints placed in the forecourt of the famed Hollywood landmark theater.
See Watch dozens of our fun video interviews...
Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan reunited for the opening night screening of “When Harry Met Sally,” which celebrated the film’s 30th anniversary. Along with director Rob Reiner, the two provided many memories of the film and yes, of course, reminisced about the film’s famous delicatessen scene. Crystal was also honored the next day by having his footprints placed in the forecourt of the famed Hollywood landmark theater.
See Watch dozens of our fun video interviews...
- 4/16/2019
- by Robert Pius
- Gold Derby
Somehow, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences decided that a huge box-office wasn’t reward enough for blockbusters and created a Best Popular Film category, presumably to draw higher ratings and attract a younger demo to their telecast. Since the members seem to be in the mood to accept change, why stop there? Let’s add four more categories that will honor those behind-the-scenes talents who rarely get their due.
Here are my suggestions.
SEETom O’Neil on Oscars shame: Omg, who wants to win Best Unpopular Picture?
1. Best Motion-Capture Performance
Ever since Andy Serkis assumed the identity of that nasty ring-coveting gremlin known as Gollum in “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy, there’s been a push to recognize those who put dots all over their bodies so digital cameras can capture their movements while never being seen on the screen. Serkis is considered the master of the art,...
Here are my suggestions.
SEETom O’Neil on Oscars shame: Omg, who wants to win Best Unpopular Picture?
1. Best Motion-Capture Performance
Ever since Andy Serkis assumed the identity of that nasty ring-coveting gremlin known as Gollum in “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy, there’s been a push to recognize those who put dots all over their bodies so digital cameras can capture their movements while never being seen on the screen. Serkis is considered the master of the art,...
- 8/17/2018
- by Susan Wloszczyna
- Gold Derby
The guild award nominations keep coming in. The Casting Society of America has announced the nominees in its feature film categories for the 32d annual Artios Awards, which honor outstanding achievement in casting. “Arrival,” “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them,” “Hidden Figures,” “Nocturnal Animals” and “The Girl on the Train” all picked up nods in the big-budget drama category, with “Captain Fantastic,” “Jackie,” “Lion,” “Loving” and “Manchester by the Sea” doing likewise in the studio or independent drama field.
Joel McHale will host the Los Angeles ceremony, while Michael Urie is on duty at the New York ceremony; both take place on January 19. Full list of nominees below.
Read More: SAG Film Nominations Surprise With ‘Captain Fantastic,’ Emily Blunt, and More
Big Budget — Comedy
“Deadpool” — Ronna Kress, Jennifer Page (Location Casting), Corinne Clark (Location Casting)
“Hail, Caesar!” — Ellen Chenoweth, Susanne Scheel (Associate)
“La La Land” — Deborah Aquila, Tricia Wood...
Joel McHale will host the Los Angeles ceremony, while Michael Urie is on duty at the New York ceremony; both take place on January 19. Full list of nominees below.
Read More: SAG Film Nominations Surprise With ‘Captain Fantastic,’ Emily Blunt, and More
Big Budget — Comedy
“Deadpool” — Ronna Kress, Jennifer Page (Location Casting), Corinne Clark (Location Casting)
“Hail, Caesar!” — Ellen Chenoweth, Susanne Scheel (Associate)
“La La Land” — Deborah Aquila, Tricia Wood...
- 1/3/2017
- by Michael Nordine
- Indiewire
On Saturday night, Lynn Stalmaster will become the first casting director ever to receive an Academy Award as he’s presented an Honorary Oscar alongside documentarian Frederick Wiseman, editor Anne V. Coates, and Jackie Chan.
Stalmaster has cast countless classics (“The Graduate,” “West Side Story”) and helped launch the careers of actors like John Travolta and Jeff Bridges. Yet, for the Academy, and its relatively new casting director branch, honoring the casting veteran has a deeper meaning and potentially larger implications.
Casting directors remain the only job in the opening titles of a movie that doesn’t have its own Oscar category, but with Stalmaster receiving his award on Saturday many feel it is simply a matter of when, not if.
The job of casting director is one that Stalmaster invented with Marion Dougherty (she passed away in 2011) after the studio system crumbled in the 1950s. However, it’s only...
Stalmaster has cast countless classics (“The Graduate,” “West Side Story”) and helped launch the careers of actors like John Travolta and Jeff Bridges. Yet, for the Academy, and its relatively new casting director branch, honoring the casting veteran has a deeper meaning and potentially larger implications.
Casting directors remain the only job in the opening titles of a movie that doesn’t have its own Oscar category, but with Stalmaster receiving his award on Saturday many feel it is simply a matter of when, not if.
The job of casting director is one that Stalmaster invented with Marion Dougherty (she passed away in 2011) after the studio system crumbled in the 1950s. However, it’s only...
- 11/9/2016
- by Chris O'Falt
- Indiewire
We're about one month away from the announcement of this year's Honorary Oscar recipients. They're usuallly announced at the end of August for a November Governor's Awards ceremony. This year's ceremony will be on November 12th. Last year rumors circled that it was Doris Day's turn but that didn't turn out to be accurate. For the past two years, The Film Experience has tried to make up for the dearth of movie site reporting about the Oscar Honorary careers (beyond the sharing of press releases / YouTube videos of their speeches) with mini-retrospectives so we're always hoping they'll choose well to give us wonderful careers to discuss right here.
Let's reprint a list of worthies we shared a year or so ago, with a few adjustments, in case any of the elites in the Academy are undecided about who to put forth or get behind for these coveted honors.
James Ivory...
Let's reprint a list of worthies we shared a year or so ago, with a few adjustments, in case any of the elites in the Academy are undecided about who to put forth or get behind for these coveted honors.
James Ivory...
- 7/19/2016
- by NATHANIEL R
- FilmExperience
Many of Woody Allen’s female characters tend to be defined by a certain neurosis fueled by their rightful eagerness to be fulfilled. They want to live without restrains. This subtle frenzy translates into thorny relationships and emotional distress. They are never one-dimensional, and regardless of how small the part is, his muses always get the chance to play intricate roles deserving of their talent. It’s because of this that it’s surprising how long it took for actress Parker Posey to get on Allen’s radar.
Posey has had a more than extensive career on film and TV since the early 90s, but has rarely been given projects that could transform her from a fantastic hidden gem into a household name. However, she might be just fine with smaller audiences as long as her work is appreciated. In “Irrational Man” she plays Rita, a science professor who finds the possibility of escape and a new beginning in Joaquin Phoenix’ character. She is disillusioned with her current marital situation and fantasizes with a romanticized existence overseas. She craves not a carnal passion, but a reason to be passionate about life.
When talking to Parker Posey one can sense the vulnerability of a sensitive artist and the gratitude of a person who doesn’t take anything for granted. She attributes her successes to a large portion of luck served by the universe and the conscious decision to be resilient. Luck usually finds those who don’t give up. In Allen’s latest work, Posey gets a chance to turn a few scenes into memorable snippets of melancholic humor as if written just for her. As she puts it, her career has happened between luck and resilience, though it’s really talent that has filled the gaps and granted her longevity in this cutthroat endeavor. Here’s hoping working under Woody Allen’s wing turns her occasional good fortune into a constant stream of meaningful parts.
Aguilar: Besides the fact that this is a Woody Allen film, why did you feel attracted to play this woman looking for something new and refreshing in her life?
Parker Posey: She was my age [Laughs]. She is a real woman and she is a teacher. I’ve had some great teachers and I always wanted to play a teacher. They have a way of commanding the classroom and being influential in their students’ lives. I had some really cool teachers, so that was one of the attractions to the role. Also working with this kind of writing, even in the 20 pages that I received, which is natural and complex. I play I complicated woman at a certain point in her life where she is not sure that she is living to her full capacity. Her desires aren’t being met and she feels flat. She is catering to this fantasy, which we all sometimes do. Her fantasy to escape is almost met, and she tethers on it. She is conscious that it could happen but it might not.
Aguilar: She desperately wants to go to Spain with Joaquin Phoenix
Parker Posey: That’s right [Laughs].
Aguilar: In terms of Woody Allen, who writes very interesting women in all his films, how was the experience of working with him?
Parker Posey: It was exciting, scary, exhilarating. He is a great independent filmmaker and a well-oiled machine. He is geared to be very subtle and very perceptive. He creates an energy and a focus on set that I like. I love working with people like him.
Aguilar: Where you intimidated or anxious about working with a legendary filmmaker like Woody Allen?
Parker Posey: Absolutely! I was totally intimidated and nervous. There was lots of sweating and it was summertime [Laughs]. That’s sort of part of it. I always have this dialogue on how this movie would be my last, how I’m not very good, and how I don’t know how to do it anymore. It’s tough. It’s always a relief when something seems to translate. I don’t really know what that is or how, but I’m relieved. I never like looking at myself on screen. I blink really fast or hum if I have to sit through a screening, but I love this movie and I’m so happy that I’m part of it.
Aguilar: You also worked with Joaquin Phoenix who has such a big personality on and off screen. How was the experience of playing one of his complex love interests?
Parker Posey: Amazing! I had always wanted to work with him. I feel a kinship with him. He is very true to his own nature, his own sensitivity, his creativity, and to his own waters. He is such an artist. When you work with someone who’s got a lot going on, you just jump in with him, focus on him, and swim in the same pool. [Laughs]. We moved very fast and with the right tonal quality. I just trusted Woody that I was hitting the right notes.
Aguilar: What's your process like when creating a character like Rita? She is in the film only in a few scenes but she definitely makes an impression by being so uniquely intriguing.
Parker Posey: I probably make things even more complicated than they have to be. I have images and memories of teachers from my past that made an impression on me. Rita is a science professor. It’s a field where there are mostly men and I like playing strong women like her. We see her just so briefly throughout the film. She dips in and out and I shot for 7 days over 7 weeks. For that time I was just walking around with Rita in my mind in Newport to dig into the film and her life. That was my work.
Aguilar: You've also worked extensively in television, what's different for you between working on feature films and working on episodic content?
Parker Posey: Well there are so many different styles now. Comparing “Louis” to “The Good Wife,” I think they are very different and they are both television. There is a pace to TV and an intensity to it now. Working with Louis C.K was more on the vein of working with Woody for me, and I like that realism.
Aguilar: Is there a particular director you’d love to work with? You’ve worked with Woody Allen now, so the sky is the limit.
Parker Posey: Working with directors you have to be right for their world. It’s tougher now more than ever for directors to get their movies made that are not blockbusters. It’s hard even for the auteurs to get financing for their films. Having said that, I’d love to work with David Lynch, Steven Soderbergh, and all the great directors that you would think that I would want to work with [Laughs.] You just go along and hope to get lucky. I don’t really have much control over my career and whether or not I’m right for a story. Being right for “Irrational Man” was pure luck.
Aguilar: There has recently been a lot of discussion about women being unfairly underpaid in comparison to their male co-stars. Whats; your take on this issues?
Parker Posey: It’ always been like that. It’s so strange that there is still inequality. Sadly it’s still a man’s world, but hopefully we’ll see that change.
Aguilar: Do you hope that with new distribution platforms emerging in the entertainment industry there will be more for room for diverse content and more interesting roles for women?
Parker Posey: I hope that with these new distribution models, with companies like Amazon, there is a new type of movie or TV viewing experience with long-form dramas or novels that are turn into miniseries. I hope we see a shift because studio movies are mostly pleasing a world market, but there are lots of people who would love to see quieter more intimate stories.
Aguilar: Now that "Irrational Man" is out and this cycle is almost over, what are you working on next?
Parker Posey: I’m in Woody’s next movie. I’m in the new movie that Tim Roth, Uma Thurman, and Steven Fry are in called “The Brits Are Coming.”
Aguilar: Seems like it’s a very productive year.
Parker Posey: Lucky. An actor’s career relies on a lot of luck. Being in the right place at the right time. I was at the Krakow Film Festival in Poland when I met Juliet Taylor, Woody’s casting director. That’s how I got cast in the film.
Aguilar: I’m sure it involves luck, but also lots of resilience in such a competitive world.
Parker Posey: Oh my God! Yes! It really is. It’s interesting to talk to the press. They see my career from the outside and it’s lasting, but it’s definitely been a struggle especially in the culture where we are seeing the attention of viewers moving towards video games and social media. But I think there are still stories to be made and new platforms for material that I can work in. I have faith in that.
Posey has had a more than extensive career on film and TV since the early 90s, but has rarely been given projects that could transform her from a fantastic hidden gem into a household name. However, she might be just fine with smaller audiences as long as her work is appreciated. In “Irrational Man” she plays Rita, a science professor who finds the possibility of escape and a new beginning in Joaquin Phoenix’ character. She is disillusioned with her current marital situation and fantasizes with a romanticized existence overseas. She craves not a carnal passion, but a reason to be passionate about life.
When talking to Parker Posey one can sense the vulnerability of a sensitive artist and the gratitude of a person who doesn’t take anything for granted. She attributes her successes to a large portion of luck served by the universe and the conscious decision to be resilient. Luck usually finds those who don’t give up. In Allen’s latest work, Posey gets a chance to turn a few scenes into memorable snippets of melancholic humor as if written just for her. As she puts it, her career has happened between luck and resilience, though it’s really talent that has filled the gaps and granted her longevity in this cutthroat endeavor. Here’s hoping working under Woody Allen’s wing turns her occasional good fortune into a constant stream of meaningful parts.
Aguilar: Besides the fact that this is a Woody Allen film, why did you feel attracted to play this woman looking for something new and refreshing in her life?
Parker Posey: She was my age [Laughs]. She is a real woman and she is a teacher. I’ve had some great teachers and I always wanted to play a teacher. They have a way of commanding the classroom and being influential in their students’ lives. I had some really cool teachers, so that was one of the attractions to the role. Also working with this kind of writing, even in the 20 pages that I received, which is natural and complex. I play I complicated woman at a certain point in her life where she is not sure that she is living to her full capacity. Her desires aren’t being met and she feels flat. She is catering to this fantasy, which we all sometimes do. Her fantasy to escape is almost met, and she tethers on it. She is conscious that it could happen but it might not.
Aguilar: She desperately wants to go to Spain with Joaquin Phoenix
Parker Posey: That’s right [Laughs].
Aguilar: In terms of Woody Allen, who writes very interesting women in all his films, how was the experience of working with him?
Parker Posey: It was exciting, scary, exhilarating. He is a great independent filmmaker and a well-oiled machine. He is geared to be very subtle and very perceptive. He creates an energy and a focus on set that I like. I love working with people like him.
Aguilar: Where you intimidated or anxious about working with a legendary filmmaker like Woody Allen?
Parker Posey: Absolutely! I was totally intimidated and nervous. There was lots of sweating and it was summertime [Laughs]. That’s sort of part of it. I always have this dialogue on how this movie would be my last, how I’m not very good, and how I don’t know how to do it anymore. It’s tough. It’s always a relief when something seems to translate. I don’t really know what that is or how, but I’m relieved. I never like looking at myself on screen. I blink really fast or hum if I have to sit through a screening, but I love this movie and I’m so happy that I’m part of it.
Aguilar: You also worked with Joaquin Phoenix who has such a big personality on and off screen. How was the experience of playing one of his complex love interests?
Parker Posey: Amazing! I had always wanted to work with him. I feel a kinship with him. He is very true to his own nature, his own sensitivity, his creativity, and to his own waters. He is such an artist. When you work with someone who’s got a lot going on, you just jump in with him, focus on him, and swim in the same pool. [Laughs]. We moved very fast and with the right tonal quality. I just trusted Woody that I was hitting the right notes.
Aguilar: What's your process like when creating a character like Rita? She is in the film only in a few scenes but she definitely makes an impression by being so uniquely intriguing.
Parker Posey: I probably make things even more complicated than they have to be. I have images and memories of teachers from my past that made an impression on me. Rita is a science professor. It’s a field where there are mostly men and I like playing strong women like her. We see her just so briefly throughout the film. She dips in and out and I shot for 7 days over 7 weeks. For that time I was just walking around with Rita in my mind in Newport to dig into the film and her life. That was my work.
Aguilar: You've also worked extensively in television, what's different for you between working on feature films and working on episodic content?
Parker Posey: Well there are so many different styles now. Comparing “Louis” to “The Good Wife,” I think they are very different and they are both television. There is a pace to TV and an intensity to it now. Working with Louis C.K was more on the vein of working with Woody for me, and I like that realism.
Aguilar: Is there a particular director you’d love to work with? You’ve worked with Woody Allen now, so the sky is the limit.
Parker Posey: Working with directors you have to be right for their world. It’s tougher now more than ever for directors to get their movies made that are not blockbusters. It’s hard even for the auteurs to get financing for their films. Having said that, I’d love to work with David Lynch, Steven Soderbergh, and all the great directors that you would think that I would want to work with [Laughs.] You just go along and hope to get lucky. I don’t really have much control over my career and whether or not I’m right for a story. Being right for “Irrational Man” was pure luck.
Aguilar: There has recently been a lot of discussion about women being unfairly underpaid in comparison to their male co-stars. Whats; your take on this issues?
Parker Posey: It’ always been like that. It’s so strange that there is still inequality. Sadly it’s still a man’s world, but hopefully we’ll see that change.
Aguilar: Do you hope that with new distribution platforms emerging in the entertainment industry there will be more for room for diverse content and more interesting roles for women?
Parker Posey: I hope that with these new distribution models, with companies like Amazon, there is a new type of movie or TV viewing experience with long-form dramas or novels that are turn into miniseries. I hope we see a shift because studio movies are mostly pleasing a world market, but there are lots of people who would love to see quieter more intimate stories.
Aguilar: Now that "Irrational Man" is out and this cycle is almost over, what are you working on next?
Parker Posey: I’m in Woody’s next movie. I’m in the new movie that Tim Roth, Uma Thurman, and Steven Fry are in called “The Brits Are Coming.”
Aguilar: Seems like it’s a very productive year.
Parker Posey: Lucky. An actor’s career relies on a lot of luck. Being in the right place at the right time. I was at the Krakow Film Festival in Poland when I met Juliet Taylor, Woody’s casting director. That’s how I got cast in the film.
Aguilar: I’m sure it involves luck, but also lots of resilience in such a competitive world.
Parker Posey: Oh my God! Yes! It really is. It’s interesting to talk to the press. They see my career from the outside and it’s lasting, but it’s definitely been a struggle especially in the culture where we are seeing the attention of viewers moving towards video games and social media. But I think there are still stories to be made and new platforms for material that I can work in. I have faith in that.
- 7/20/2015
- by Carlos Aguilar
- Sydney's Buzz
Everyone knows Woody Allen. At least, everyone thinks they know Woody Allen. His plumage is easily identifiable: horn-rimmed glasses, baggy suit, wispy hair, kvetching demeanor, ironic sense of humor, acute fear of death. As is his habitat: New York City, though recently he has flown as far afield as London, Barcelona, and Paris. His likes are well known: Bergman, Dostoevsky, New Orleans jazz. So too his dislikes: spiders, cars, nature, Wagner records, the entire city of Los Angeles. Whether or not these traits represent the true Allen, who’s to say? It is impossible to tell, with Allen, where cinema ends and life begins, an obfuscation he readily encourages. In the late nineteen-seventies, disillusioned with the comedic success he’d found making such films as Sleeper (1973), Love and Death (1975), and Annie Hall (1977), he turned for darker territory with Stardust Memories (1980), a film in which, none too surprisingly, he plays a...
- 1/24/2015
- by Graham Daseler
- The Moving Arts Journal
Because the Casting Society of America shifted the date of its Artios Awards, this year’s nominees include films released theatrically from July 1, 2013 to Dec. 31, 2014, paving the way for last year’s Best Picture winner to nuzzle its way into contention along with 2014 hopefuls like "Birdman," "Boyhood," and "Selma." With categories ranging from Big Budget Drama to Low Budget Comedy, nearly every film that one expects to make the cut made the cut. And then some. The Csa’s nominees put "Guardians of the Galaxy" side by side with "Wolf of Wall Street," "Whiplash" with "Inside Llewyn Davis," and Disney’s "Planes" with "Frozen." If you were dreaming of a re-evaluation of "We’re the Millers," your time is now. 2015’s bicoastal Artios Awards will be hosted by Patton Oswalt (Los Angeles) and Michael Urie (New York City). The evening will also honor two-time Academy Award®-nominee Richard Linklater ("Boyhood...
- 1/6/2015
- by Matt Patches
- Hitfix
The Casting Society of America has super-sized its Artios Awards feature film nominations this year, honoring 42 different films and putting some of 2014’s top contenders in categories where they’ll compete against 2013’s awards movies.
For its 30th annual ceremony, the awards for casting directors have moved from their usual fall slot to a late-January date that placed them in the middle of awards season. To accommodate the new date, this year’s eligibility period spanned 18 months instead of a single year, encompassing films released in the second half of 2013 and all of 2014.
See photos: The 17 Breakout Stars of 2014:...
For its 30th annual ceremony, the awards for casting directors have moved from their usual fall slot to a late-January date that placed them in the middle of awards season. To accommodate the new date, this year’s eligibility period spanned 18 months instead of a single year, encompassing films released in the second half of 2013 and all of 2014.
See photos: The 17 Breakout Stars of 2014:...
- 1/6/2015
- by Steve Pond
- The Wrap
Guardians Of The Galaxy, Into The Woods, Big Eyes and Gone Girl are among the feature film nominees announced today for the Casting Society of America’s 30th Annual Artios Awards. Winners for film, television, theater and new media categories will be announced January 22 at simultaneous award ceremonies at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles and 42West Cabaret & Lounge in New York City. Patton Oswalt will host in La and Michael Urie in New York.
Csa also will honor Richard Linklater (Boyhood) with the Career Achievement Award, Rob Marshall (Into The Woods) with the New York Apple Award and casting director Ellen Lewis with the Hoyt Bowers Award. Due to the Artios Awards date change this year (from November to January), the eligibility period for film projects was expanded for this award ceremony only, to include films released theatrically from July 1, 2013 through December 31, 2014. Here’s the complete list of...
Csa also will honor Richard Linklater (Boyhood) with the Career Achievement Award, Rob Marshall (Into The Woods) with the New York Apple Award and casting director Ellen Lewis with the Hoyt Bowers Award. Due to the Artios Awards date change this year (from November to January), the eligibility period for film projects was expanded for this award ceremony only, to include films released theatrically from July 1, 2013 through December 31, 2014. Here’s the complete list of...
- 1/6/2015
- by The Deadline Team
- Deadline
The casting director profession has received some very deserved attention and awareness over the past year, from the Academy's decision to give casting directors their own branch (if still no Oscar category), to the HBO documentary "Casting By," to Woody Allen's open letter in support of his longtime casting director Juliet Taylor and her instrumental role in the success of his films. Now the Hollywood Reporter has posted their hour-long Casting Directors roundtable discussion, with Taylor ("Blue Jasmine"), Ellen Lewis ("The Wolf of Wall Street," "Her"), Patricia Dicerto ("Blue Jasmine"), Laura Rosenthal ("Kill Your Darlings") and Jennifer Euston ("Orange Is the New Black," "Girls"). Watch below. ...
- 1/7/2014
- by Beth Hanna
- Thompson on Hollywood
Juliet Taylor, Ellen Lewis, Patricia Dicerto, Laura Rosenthal and Jennifer Euston reveal secrets of their craft and why women rule their industry. THR senior editor Stacy Wilson asks the roundtable guests how they felt after hearing former DGA president Taylor Hackford say in Casting By: "Casting directors don't direct anything," and therefore don't deserve to be recognized with their own Oscar.
- 12/13/2013
- by THR Staff
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
In a recent open letter to the Hollywood Reporter, Woody Allen offered support for the notion of Academy Award recognition for casting directors—and upheld as an exemplar of why such recognition is needed Juliet Taylor, who has cast every one of Allen’s films since 1975. “My history shows that my films are full of wonderful performances by actors and actresses I had never heard of and were not only introduced to me by my casting director, Juliet Taylor, but, in any number of cases, pushed on me against my own resistance,” Allen wrote. He went on to identify Jeff Daniels, Mary Beth Hurt, Patricia Clarkson, Mariel Hemingway, Dianne Wiest, and a young Meryl Streep as actors he would never have cast if not for Taylor. “I owe a big part of the success of my films to this scrupulous casting process which I must say if left to my...
- 11/22/2013
- backstage.com
By Lee Pfeiffer
"Casting By" is an extraordinary new documentary by filmmaker Tom Donahue who spent years accumulating interviews and archival materials for this look at the contributions of casting directors to the motion picture business. Most people are well aware of the important roles that composers, costume designers, editors and production designers play in the creation of movies-- but if you say "casting directors", the average person's eyes glaze over. Sounds boring, doesn't it? Donahue's film sets the record straight, pointing out that casting directors are often responsible for bringing to life some of the film industry's most memorable characters. So important is their contributions that Donohue found enthusiasm among esteemed filmmakers and actors to participate in his documentary even among those individuals who are not prone to generally giving interviews. In the film Woody Allen, Clint Eastwood, Robert De Niro, Martin Scorsese, John Travolta, David V. Picker, Robert Redford,...
"Casting By" is an extraordinary new documentary by filmmaker Tom Donahue who spent years accumulating interviews and archival materials for this look at the contributions of casting directors to the motion picture business. Most people are well aware of the important roles that composers, costume designers, editors and production designers play in the creation of movies-- but if you say "casting directors", the average person's eyes glaze over. Sounds boring, doesn't it? Donahue's film sets the record straight, pointing out that casting directors are often responsible for bringing to life some of the film industry's most memorable characters. So important is their contributions that Donohue found enthusiasm among esteemed filmmakers and actors to participate in his documentary even among those individuals who are not prone to generally giving interviews. In the film Woody Allen, Clint Eastwood, Robert De Niro, Martin Scorsese, John Travolta, David V. Picker, Robert Redford,...
- 11/21/2013
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
Woody Allen has been a major cultural presence for more than half a century now, and though he got his start in stand-up (for more of which, see below), most of those 50 years have been spent making movies, beginning with 1965's “What's New Pussycat?”. In that time, the man has worked with an absurd array of actors, helping to forge and reforge careers and paying attention, to this day, to performers he thinks are undervalued by the rest of Hollywood: see for instance his recent praise for Louis Ck, a fellow writer, comic, actor and source of quotable remarks on masturbation.The Hollywood Reporter carries an interesting addition to Allen's advocacy for performers, in the form of an open letter calling for an Academy Award for casting directors. Allen credits his longtime collaborator Juliet Taylor for his work with a number of greats, and even points to her as the...
- 11/1/2013
- by Ben Brock
- The Playlist
Woody Allen has penned a rare open letter to Hollywood, via the Hollywood Reporter, wherein he supports his longtime colleague and casting director Juliet Taylor, with whom he worked on "Blue Jasmine." Read below. The letter is timely, as Tom Donahue's documentary "Casting By" hits theaters in New York November 1, and Los Angeles November 8. The film makes a plea for the Academy to fully recognize casting directors, as it does other filmmaking professions that have Oscar categories. Earlier this year the Academy created a Casting Directors Branch, but that doesn't necessarily mean that a Casting Oscar is on the near horizon. Allen's letter:In my case certainly, the casting director plays a vital part in the making of the movie. My history shows that my films are full of wonderful performances by actors and actresses I had never heard of and were not only introduced to me by my casting director,...
- 11/1/2013
- by Beth Hanna
- Thompson on Hollywood
Since the Academy created a casting directors' branch earlier this year, there's been a growing debate over whether or not a new Oscar category should be created for them. One person clearly in the "pro" camp is Woody Allen, who has written an open letter in praise of their work -- and, in particular, that of his longtime collaborator Juliet Taylor, whom he credits with introducing him to the work of such actors as Dianne Wiest, Jeff Daniels and Patricia Clarkson. (Wait, he worked with Clarkson in 2009 - bit slow on the uptake there, Woody!) "Because my films are not...
- 11/1/2013
- by Guy Lodge
- Hitfix
Director writes open letter in support of his longtime casting director, who he credits as being instrumental in his films' success
• Woody Allen on Blue Jasmine: 'You see tantrums in adults all the time'
• Readers vote: the 10 best Woody Allen films
Woody Allen has weighed into the debate over whether casting directors should have their own Oscar by writing a letter to industry trade magazine the Hollywood Reporter outlining the contribution his own casting director, Juliet Taylor, has made to his films.
Allen writes: "My history shows that my films are full of wonderful performances by actors and actresses I had never heard of and were not only introduced to me by my casting director ... but, in any number of cases, pushed on me against my own resistance."
He continues: "If it were up to me we would use the same half dozen people in all my pictures, whether they fit or not.
• Woody Allen on Blue Jasmine: 'You see tantrums in adults all the time'
• Readers vote: the 10 best Woody Allen films
Woody Allen has weighed into the debate over whether casting directors should have their own Oscar by writing a letter to industry trade magazine the Hollywood Reporter outlining the contribution his own casting director, Juliet Taylor, has made to his films.
Allen writes: "My history shows that my films are full of wonderful performances by actors and actresses I had never heard of and were not only introduced to me by my casting director ... but, in any number of cases, pushed on me against my own resistance."
He continues: "If it were up to me we would use the same half dozen people in all my pictures, whether they fit or not.
- 11/1/2013
- by Andrew Pulver
- The Guardian - Film News
Casting directors are an integral part of the filmmaking process, according to Woody Allen, who wrote an open letter to The Hollywood Reporter in support of a new push to create a casting category at the Oscars.
In the letter, Allen credits his own longtime casting director, Juliet Taylor, with introducing him to actors he'd never heard of before, and along the way helping launch the careers of Hollywood heavyweights like Meryl Streep, Jeff Daniels, Mariel Hemingway, and Patricia Clarkson. Allen added that while the casting process "bores and embarrasses" him, Taylor's knack for picking the right people for the right parts helped each of his movies significantly.
"Because my films are not special effects films and are about human beings, proper casting is absolutely essential," Allen wrote. "I owe a big part of the success of my films to this scrupulous casting process which I must say if left...
In the letter, Allen credits his own longtime casting director, Juliet Taylor, with introducing him to actors he'd never heard of before, and along the way helping launch the careers of Hollywood heavyweights like Meryl Streep, Jeff Daniels, Mariel Hemingway, and Patricia Clarkson. Allen added that while the casting process "bores and embarrasses" him, Taylor's knack for picking the right people for the right parts helped each of his movies significantly.
"Because my films are not special effects films and are about human beings, proper casting is absolutely essential," Allen wrote. "I owe a big part of the success of my films to this scrupulous casting process which I must say if left...
- 10/31/2013
- by Katie Roberts
- Moviefone
This story first appeared in the Nov. 8 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Tom Donahue's documentary Casting By, which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival in 2012, uses the careers of casting directors such as Marion Dougherty, Lynn Stalmaster and Juliet Taylor -- between them responsible for the ensembles of such films as Midnight Cowboy, Manhattan, Bonnie and Clyde and The Graduate -- to lament that casting is the only "single-card" opening credit that isn't recognized by the Academy Awards. With Casting By opening in New York on Nov. 1 and a week later in Los Angeles, Woody Allen wrote to
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- 10/31/2013
- by Woody Allen
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
John Travolta certainly knows the value of a having a casting director in his corner.
If not for the faith a legendary one named Lynn Stalmaster had in his talent, the enduring star might never have won the role of "Sweathog" Vinnie Barbarino in the sitcom "Welcome Back, Kotter" ... which set him on a course of fame that exploded soon afterward with the successes of such movies as "Saturday Night Fever" and "Grease." Travolta is among those paying tribute to "my beloved Lynn" (as he puts it) and others in the documentary "Casting By," which has its HBO debut Monday, Aug. 5.
"I wouldn't be here today if it weren't for Lynn and his so believing in me," Travolta recalls for Zap2it. "At age 18, I was up for the movie 'The Last Detail,' in the part Randy Quaid eventually played. Lynn was just hellbent to get me cast in that,...
If not for the faith a legendary one named Lynn Stalmaster had in his talent, the enduring star might never have won the role of "Sweathog" Vinnie Barbarino in the sitcom "Welcome Back, Kotter" ... which set him on a course of fame that exploded soon afterward with the successes of such movies as "Saturday Night Fever" and "Grease." Travolta is among those paying tribute to "my beloved Lynn" (as he puts it) and others in the documentary "Casting By," which has its HBO debut Monday, Aug. 5.
"I wouldn't be here today if it weren't for Lynn and his so believing in me," Travolta recalls for Zap2it. "At age 18, I was up for the movie 'The Last Detail,' in the part Randy Quaid eventually played. Lynn was just hellbent to get me cast in that,...
- 8/5/2013
- by editorial@zap2it.com
- Zap2It - From Inside the Box
Yesterday I thought about casting director Juliet Taylor probably more than anyone on the planet who isn't Juliet Taylor. When her name came up on the screen in Woody Allen's trademark font during Blue Jasmine I smiled -- I love that font and those familiar names so much. I recalled that she'd narrowly missed our top ten for "Women Who Deserve an Honorary Oscar", winning the most votes for anyone not in the writing/directing/acting/producing fields. Her resume is astounding featuring the massive Woody Allen filmography and non Woody films as famous as The Exorcist, Taxi Driver, Terms of Endearment, The Stepford Wives and Interview with the Vampire (so you can probably thank her for Kirsten Dunst). We made that list in the hopes that someone with pull in the Academy would read it and think 'huh. These are great ideas to course correct!'
Woody Allen...
Woody Allen...
- 8/1/2013
- by NATHANIEL R
- FilmExperience
When an actor is invited to a party celebrating casting directors, he or she RSVPs an emphatic yes. And so it was that the July 29 premiere party (at the HBO screening room and later at Manhattan’s Gramercy Park Hotel) for Tom Donahue’s documentary “Casting By”—premiering on HBO Aug. 5—was a particularly star-studded affair. As people chatted and flipped through the “Casting By” issue of Backstage, bold-faced names including Martin Scorsese, Parker Posey, Zach Grenier, Stephen Lang, and Dana Delany mingled with Donahue and casting directors Joanna Colbert, Amanda Mackey, Juliet Taylor, and Ellen Lewis. Following a screening of Donahue’s film—which included a discussion with Donahue, Taylor, and moderator Scott Foundas—much of the audience trooped over to the Gramercy Terrace for cocktails inspired by some of the movies discussed in the documentary. A favorite among the crowd was the Sting, a highbrow bloody mary made...
- 7/31/2013
- backstage.com
I was just thinking a couple of days ago how lucky Woody Allen has been to have had the assistance of Juliet Taylor for the past 4 decades. Allen pays Taylor...
- 7/31/2013
- by Ryan Adams
- AwardsDaily.com
Woody Allen's latest film "Blue Jasmine" stars Cate Blanchett, Alec Baldwin, Louis C.K., and numerous other recognizable faces. Recognizable all except for one: that of Annie McNamara who plays Jasmine's close friend Nora. "Blue Jasmine" is her first movie. Though she's acted in theater for years, McNamara's only other film credit is a horror short from 2007 called "Pumpkin Hell." So how did a virtually unknown actress get a role in the latest Woody Allen movie acting alongside Cate Blanchett? First, act in an eight-hour play. McNamara is a member of the Elevator Repair Service theater ensemble, the company who created "Gatz," a production of "The Great Gatsby" where the entire text is read aloud on stage as actors bring the story to life. Longtime Woody Allen casting director Juliet Taylor saw the lengthy production at The Public Theater last summer and called in three of the show's actors. "I was already like,...
- 7/26/2013
- by Casey Cipriani
- Indiewire
For actors, the casting director is the biggest star there is, and with the upcoming release of HBO's "Casting By," we take a look at some of the industry's biggest names and asked them how they cast some high-profile projects! ‘Casting By’ Aims to Give Casting Directors Credit Where DueThe new HBO documentary “Casting By” turns the camera on the people across the table. How Andrew Dice Clay Beat Out Louis C.K. for a Part in Woody Allen's ‘Blue Jasmine’Both actors appear in the new Woody Allen film, but casting director Juliet Taylor explains how the controversial comedian Clay was better for the part than the more likeable Louis C.K. 'Kinky Boots' Cast Features the Stars of the Audition RoomCasting directors Bernard Telsey and Justin Huff assemble a cast of hard-working musical theater actors for Tony-winning "Kinky Boots." Casting Directors Laura Schiff and Carrie Audino Create...
- 7/25/2013
- backstage.com
Beginning with 1975’s “Love and Death,” Juliet Taylor has cast every Woody Allen film—a roster that spans from “Annie Hall” to “Crimes and Misdemeanors” to “Midnight in Paris.” “He makes a movie every year, and around Christmastime he’ll call,” Taylor says. “Sometimes we’ll start casting it even before I’ve read it. He’ll just say, ‘Well, I have this character…’ Then he’ll describe it to me, and we’ll sit around and talk about who might be right.” Taylor praises Allen’s work ethic and also his openness to input from the people he works with. “He likes to know if you like the script, if you like the characters. He leaves himself extremely open, so that makes it a very fun process.” Taylor’s latest collaboration with Allen, “Blue Jasmine,” opens July 26 and stars Cate Blanchett as an upper-class Manhattan housewife who, in the middle of a personal crisis,...
- 7/25/2013
- backstage.com
During the recent Flashback Weekend 2012 horror convention in Chicago, this writer introduced the very lovely Linda Blair before a special screening of The Exorcist benefiting The Linda Blair WorldHeart Foundation, and here are some highlights.
Presented in a stunning 2k restoration at the Muvico Theaters in Rosemont, Illinois, The Exorcist (and Blair, too) looked better than ever, and before the screening started, the outspoken actress shared her thoughts on William Friedkin's iconic film and how her life forever changed after The Exorcist.
Linda Blair on how she landed the role of Regan in The Exorcist:
So, let me tell you a little story about The Exorcist. The first interview was with the casting director in New York, who actually casts a lot of Woody Allen's films; her name is Juliet Taylor. I was 12 years old. I went in and I read a sheet of paper, and it...
Presented in a stunning 2k restoration at the Muvico Theaters in Rosemont, Illinois, The Exorcist (and Blair, too) looked better than ever, and before the screening started, the outspoken actress shared her thoughts on William Friedkin's iconic film and how her life forever changed after The Exorcist.
Linda Blair on how she landed the role of Regan in The Exorcist:
So, let me tell you a little story about The Exorcist. The first interview was with the casting director in New York, who actually casts a lot of Woody Allen's films; her name is Juliet Taylor. I was 12 years old. I went in and I read a sheet of paper, and it...
- 8/20/2012
- by thehorrorchick
- DreadCentral.com
Juliet Taylor has been casting movies for Woody Allen since the early 1970s, yet she still finds a special kind of thrill in embarking on a new project for the celebrated auteur. In the case of "Midnight in Paris," Allen's time-hopping love letter to the City of Lights, Taylor immediately recognized that it was a different sort of project for the filmmaker. "I thought it was unique, for sure," she says. "It was very exciting; it's a movie he's been trying to make for a few years and was very eager to do, and all of the ingredients fell together perfectly this time."The first—and perhaps greatest—challenge was finding an actor who could properly inhabit the central role of mild-mannered screenwriter Gil. Taylor says she and Allen talked for a month about many possible actors and angles for the part. "We really wanted to set the tone of the film in.
- 11/25/2011
- by help@backstage.com (Sarah Kuhn)
- backstage.com
Woody Allen is back on sparkling form as Owen Wilson finds himself on the expat literary scene of 20s Paris
Few directors have given me more pleasure over the past 40 years than Woody Allen, so it is a great relief to see him emerge after a fallow period of disappointments and disasters with his best film since Everyone Says I Love You in 1996. Midnight in Paris is a cinematic soufflé that rises to perfection, a wry, funny, touching picture, pursuing some of his favourite tropes and themes but with sufficient asperity to give a sting to the nostalgia it embraces. Standing in for Allen himself and dressed similarly in plaid shirt and khaki trousers, Owen Wilson plays Gil, a youngish Hollywood screenwriter and would-be novelist best known for his skills at rewrites, a diffident, humorous man with a great respect for high culture and a love of popular art but...
Few directors have given me more pleasure over the past 40 years than Woody Allen, so it is a great relief to see him emerge after a fallow period of disappointments and disasters with his best film since Everyone Says I Love You in 1996. Midnight in Paris is a cinematic soufflé that rises to perfection, a wry, funny, touching picture, pursuing some of his favourite tropes and themes but with sufficient asperity to give a sting to the nostalgia it embraces. Standing in for Allen himself and dressed similarly in plaid shirt and khaki trousers, Owen Wilson plays Gil, a youngish Hollywood screenwriter and would-be novelist best known for his skills at rewrites, a diffident, humorous man with a great respect for high culture and a love of popular art but...
- 10/8/2011
- by Philip French
- The Guardian - Film News
A select few directors – Terrence Malick, Quentin Tarantino, Woody Allen et al – have A-list stars queuing up to be in their films. What makes them such actor magnets?
It's been described as the most unorthodox and potentially audience-alienating film to come out of Hollywood in decades – but that didn't stop the A-list queuing up for a part in Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life. Brad Pitt's face – a handsome, chiselled cliche of mainstream Hollywood glamour – may adorn the front of the gossip magazines more than it does the lobby posters in your average indie filmhouse, but he said himself at the Cannes film festival that he jumped at the chance to sign up for Malick's project, knowing his commitment would ensure the film's production.
Malick is a curious figure, one of a short list of directors who, despite their penchant for making controversial, intense films that squirm awkwardly...
It's been described as the most unorthodox and potentially audience-alienating film to come out of Hollywood in decades – but that didn't stop the A-list queuing up for a part in Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life. Brad Pitt's face – a handsome, chiselled cliche of mainstream Hollywood glamour – may adorn the front of the gossip magazines more than it does the lobby posters in your average indie filmhouse, but he said himself at the Cannes film festival that he jumped at the chance to sign up for Malick's project, knowing his commitment would ensure the film's production.
Malick is a curious figure, one of a short list of directors who, despite their penchant for making controversial, intense films that squirm awkwardly...
- 6/24/2011
- by Jane Graham
- The Guardian - Film News
Updated through 5/12."Film festival opening night films are famously cursed objects," writes Scott Foundas for the Film Society of Lincoln Center, "less often chosen for their artistic merits than for their ability to placate — or at least not offend — the opening-night constituency of politicians, bureaucrats and important benefactors who rarely resurface over the ensuing days, thereby allowing the festival to get on with the business of being a festival. Some other times, the film in question is simply the only one that was willing to pick up the tab for the opening night party. But if such curses exist to be broken, then Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris, which tonight opens the 64th Cannes Film Festival, is the enchanted object that lifts the spell." It is, he argues, "one of his masterpieces — a movie about the romantic pull of yesteryear that ends up, most unexpectedly and movingly, as an eloquent defense of today.
- 5/12/2011
- MUBI
Woody Allen rewrote Midnight In Paris after casting Owen Wilson because he thought the actor seemed too much like a surfer to play an "East Coast character".
Wilson plays Gil, a man who finds new adventures while wandering the French capital, in Allen's latest romantic comedy - but the director admits the funnyman wasn't exactly what he originally had in mind for his leading man.
So Allen decided to rework his script to give Wilson a more laid-back role.
He tells the Hollywood Reporter, "The lead was a more East Coast character in the original script. (Casting director) Juliet Taylor suggested Owen Wilson.
"I had always been a fan of his, but always felt that he has a very West Coast persona. He belongs very much at home on a beach or with a surfboard. So I rewrote the script, making the character a West Coast character. I sent it to Owen and I was very lucky he wanted to do it.
"(Rewriting) does happen, and I’m happy to do it if I can get an actor like Owen, who is a strong person to play something. Then I am perfectly willing to rewrite a character if I can rewrite it. Of course, there are some characters that you could never change. That would ruin the story. But very often you can adjust a character. If you have a strong personality, sometimes it requires an adjustment."
Midnight In Paris is to debut at the Cannes Film Festival in France on Wednesday.
Wilson plays Gil, a man who finds new adventures while wandering the French capital, in Allen's latest romantic comedy - but the director admits the funnyman wasn't exactly what he originally had in mind for his leading man.
So Allen decided to rework his script to give Wilson a more laid-back role.
He tells the Hollywood Reporter, "The lead was a more East Coast character in the original script. (Casting director) Juliet Taylor suggested Owen Wilson.
"I had always been a fan of his, but always felt that he has a very West Coast persona. He belongs very much at home on a beach or with a surfboard. So I rewrote the script, making the character a West Coast character. I sent it to Owen and I was very lucky he wanted to do it.
"(Rewriting) does happen, and I’m happy to do it if I can get an actor like Owen, who is a strong person to play something. Then I am perfectly willing to rewrite a character if I can rewrite it. Of course, there are some characters that you could never change. That would ruin the story. But very often you can adjust a character. If you have a strong personality, sometimes it requires an adjustment."
Midnight In Paris is to debut at the Cannes Film Festival in France on Wednesday.
- 5/11/2011
- WENN
He is not now, nor was he ever, a matinee idol, a chameleonic star, or the go-to guy for second-banana roles. But Wallace Shawn has amassed an astonishing number of rich, varied credits—as an actor and as a writer. The actor who plays Vizzini the Sicilian evil genius in "The Princess Bride" also penned the provoking play, later a screenplay, "The Designated Mourner." His ultra-disturbing anti-war play "Aunt Dan and Lemon" clashes in our heads with the Republican Stuart Best on "Murphy Brown." Or, maybe that's all just good acting—even with what others term his speech "impediment." Nonetheless, judging from various interviews, Rex the anxious, insecure dinosaur in the "Toy Story" series may be among the closest characters to Shawn's view of himself. And yet we can still visualize him talking, at length but fascinatingly, at dinner with the co-writer Andre Gregory in "My Dinner With Andre."On...
- 1/21/2011
- backstage.com
Ellen Lewis on Michael ShannonWhen I was asked to write about an actor I love, Michael Shannon immediately jumped into my mind. It probably stems from the fact that I'm from Chicago, where Michael lived and worked for many years.In 1998 Paula Muzik, an agent in Chicago, called to tell me about Michael, who was coming to New York in the play "Killer Joe." There was an intensity and disturbing quality to Michael's performance in "Killer Joe." Combined with his physical presence and dark humor, he slightly frightened you. He was unlike any actor I had seen before, and it was exciting to think about the roles one could try him for.Years later I was casting "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead" for Sidney Lumet. Sid's office at the time was at Sound One. Casting for Sidney, as other casting directors can attest, is an amazing experience—and unusual,...
- 7/7/2010
- backstage.com
link: http://makingof.com/posts/watch/96/juliet-taylor-discusses-casting
Juliet Taylor sat down with MakingOf to talk about the need to always try and get it right when it comes to casting films. Throughout this segment, Taylor also discusses her process when working with directors like Woody Allen and shares her dislike for the phrase "discovering people." She admittedly likes to rebel against that expression and feels fortunate that she was lucky enough to discover actors like Meryl Streep when they were first starting their careers.
Taylor has worked in casting for more than three decades and has collaborated with some of the industry's most respected directors including Mike Nichols, Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese.
Click here to view the full interview.
Juliet Taylor sat down with MakingOf to talk about the need to always try and get it right when it comes to casting films. Throughout this segment, Taylor also discusses her process when working with directors like Woody Allen and shares her dislike for the phrase "discovering people." She admittedly likes to rebel against that expression and feels fortunate that she was lucky enough to discover actors like Meryl Streep when they were first starting their careers.
Taylor has worked in casting for more than three decades and has collaborated with some of the industry's most respected directors including Mike Nichols, Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese.
Click here to view the full interview.
- 1/12/2010
- Makingof.com
With vast experience on stage and screen (big and small), Eileen Dietz' career has woven a path in-and-out of the horror genre. While horror fans will no doubt associate the actress with her role as the face of evil in William Friedkin's Oscar-winning 1973 film The Exorcist, Dietz has many stories to tell. Fangoria's Australian correspondent Lee Gambin recently sat down for a one-on-one interview to discuss her career and craft.
Lee Gambin/Fangoria: What were some of your very first jobs in the entertainment industry, as I understand you started super young and how did the Neighborhood Playhouse Theatre School benefit you as a young actress?
Eileen Dietz: I worked at a Summer Stock company in Kalamazoo Michigan. It was a very bad place and the director of the theatre only brought me up there to rob me of my innocence if you know what I mean.
Lee Gambin/Fangoria: What were some of your very first jobs in the entertainment industry, as I understand you started super young and how did the Neighborhood Playhouse Theatre School benefit you as a young actress?
Eileen Dietz: I worked at a Summer Stock company in Kalamazoo Michigan. It was a very bad place and the director of the theatre only brought me up there to rob me of my innocence if you know what I mean.
- 11/29/2009
- by no-reply@fangoria.com (Lee Gambin)
- Fangoria
Casting Directors: Juliet Taylor and Patricia Dicerto Writer-Director: Woody Allen Starring: Javier Bardem, Penélope Cruz, Scarlett Johansson, Rebecca Hall The Pitch: Best friends Vicky (Hall) and Cristina (Johansson) travel to Barcelona, Spain, for a summer cultural tour that offers unintended views on love in its infinite variety after they meet an earthy artist (Bardem) and his sometime wife (Cruz).Despite rumors, this Woody Allen opus is not porn involving Penélope Cruz and Scarlett Johansson, nor were the principals precast through Hollywood hobnobbing. Long associated with Allen as his indispensable casting directors, Juliet Taylor and Patricia Dicerto worked as hard as always to bring actors of the first water to the project — and convince the maestro that each actor would perfectly embody his quirkily vulnerable characters. Javier Bardem and Cruz were "very clear, obvious choices" that Allen wanted from the outset to play the Spanish couple whom Vicky (Rebecca Hall) and...
- 12/11/2008
- backstage.com
"Meet Joe Dud", er, "Meet Joe Black", an otherworldly romantic saga starring Brad Pitt and Anthony Hopkins, plods with such lifeless sluggishness that its 2-hour, 58-minute duration seems more like seven weeks and seven days.
Topped with appealing stars and awash with lavish production values, this Universal release's problem is not with the fixings, but with the bottling.
Under director Martin Brest's maudlin, heavy hand, "Joe Black" has no fizz, only fizzle. With Pitt's golden presence, it will likely open to sparkling numbers, but negative reaction to the movie should quickly bury "Joe Black".
Running the gamut of demographics, from teenage girl fans of Pitt to aficionados of classic-style romances, word-of-mouth (including reviews as incendiary as this one) will put the nails in this film's commercial coffin. As an allegory about death, "Joe" is a stiff; as a romantic comedy, it's mirthless; and as a spectacle, it's a drudge.
Based loosely on both the stage and screen entity "Death Takes a Holiday", Pitt stars as an enigmatic outsider, named Joe Black who seeks out a very wealthy champion of business, Parrish (Hopkins) on the cusp of the guy's 65th birthday. It's a particularly heady and unnerving time for Parrish, who, naturally, reassesses his life, both professional and personal. Black comes to him in the form of voices, and in a matter of urgency: Parrish is experiencing physical signs of an impending heart attack and he must confront his own mortality. Appearing at his door and giving him a new lease on life is Joe Black, the personification of death. Fearing his imminent demise, Parrish lets Joe Stick around and help him impart his wisdom to future generations and, thusly, Joe grants him a reprieve.
Swathed around this layered and multigeneric plot line are big-think sentiments and laudable notions: wealth doesn't buy happiness, seize the day, don't settle for less, etc. Unfortunately, these thematics are trumpeted so relentlessly, ladled out in such repetitive heaps that they mush together as merely irritating sermons. The multidimensional story is so dourly executed that it's as if the Swedish Film Institute had suddenly taken over a Frank Capra project and sucked the life's blood from it. Not all the tuxedos in closetdom, not all the violins in all the symphonies, not all the rays of golden-time lensing can belie the fact that "Joe Black"'s essence is embodied in such a desultory, grim script.
Usually when one espies four screenwriting credits, one shudders at the possibilities for alternate sensibilities or atonal inconsistencies; in this case, we fear that the screenwriting credits did not accurately include hundreds more who may deserve credit, including, perhaps, the entire senior partnership of a corporate law firm, so painstakingly dotted is every dramatic "i" and so listlessly crossed is every comedic "t." The viewer who does not understand a plot or thematic point in one scene (falling asleep would be an excuse), however, should not have to worry -- there will be six or seven subsequent scenes that detail the same stuff. While the jokes are not that original, they are repeated in mathematical variation, reincarnated in all their permutations. Most woefully, the dialogue is of such a snitty, overvarnished and gratingly crude nature that what little polish "Joe Black" might radiate is mitigated by such witty repasts as "I don't give a shit", with such finery being immediately bow-tied with swelling violin music.
Pitt's performance is somewhat entertaining, particularly in the film's early parts when he studiously emits a Robert Redford circa 1975 turn, including the Redford-ish flourish of clumsily munching food while serving up casual iconoclasm.
Unfortunately, Pitt abandons the Redford turn and the remainder of his performance seems otherwise inspired: it's so somnambulistic that one guesses he either based it on rewatching " Star Trek" TV classics or has embraced herbal supplements big-time. It's astonishingly uncharismatic and scattered. Joe Black comes off as a confused house pet. In Pitt's defense, this quadri-penned screenplay (Ron Osborn, Jeff Reno, Kevin Wade, Bo Goldman) is so turgid and stolid that character personalities are merely stereotypical, broad caricatures. There is virtually no idiosyncrasy in the writing, other than the cloying ingredient that Joe Black favors peanut butter as his favorite food. Peanut butter jokes (where he gobbles it in inappropriate settings) soon become stale.
Still, there are unexpected flourishes from Pitt, most memorably a hospital scene where Pitt converses with an old Jamaican woman in Jamaican. His quasi-voodoo is uproarious: imagine if Jimmy Cliff had spent 20 years in Belfast and acquired a bit of a brogue.
What's really good about Pitt's participation, though, is that he looks really terrific in a tux, and, quite sagely, director Brest makes ample use of that excellency. It's hard to recall a film, past or present, in which the star made more, well, star entrances -- appearing midscene from behind curtains, mounting stairwells, entering boardrooms, etc. -- than this one. As if these visual treats were not enough, "Joe Black" is always heightened by the ever-eager string work and oboe-ish cadenzas. But often these technical flourishes fall flat: "Joe Black"'s big love scene between Pitt and Claire Forlani is so florid and gooishly golden that one's mind wanders, wondering where the usually omnipresent peanut butter might be when it is clearly needed.
Other performers fare better than the beleaguered Pitt. Hopkins' spry performance as the man of mettle millionaire is a high point, while for the most part, the other players suffer from the wafer-dimensioned writing. As the sensitive daughter, Forlani's performance -- consisting largely of piercing her eyebrows -- lacks appeal. Among supporting suits, Jeffrey Tambor is well-cast as Hopkins' suck-up son-in-law, convincing as an oily and insincere user, while Jake Weber is appropriately smarmy as a household snake-in-the-grass.
Under Brest's overripe wand, the technical contributions are well-executed but, alas, only serve to muddle and distend the story line. Given the tediously dowdy screenwriting, the lavish technical contributions are akin to putting a cummerbund on a pair of bib overalls.
Still, highest praise to production designer Dante Ferretti for capturing the humor in the ostentation; in particular, his re-creation of an overblow party setting is so hilarious in its hideousness that should Guber and Peters ever team to head a studio again, they might put him on permanent party-planning retainer.
Indeed, "Joe Black"'s pumped-up fireworks/party finale, with enough gunpowder to fuel every Chamber of Commerce's Fourth of July blast, is emblematic of "Joe Black" -- bombastic but empty.
MEET JOE BLACK
Universal Pictures
A City Light Films production
A Martin Brest film
Producer-director: Martin Brest
Screenwriters: Ron Osborn, Jeff Reno, Kevin Wade, Bo Goldman
Executive producer: Ronald L. Schwary
Director of photography: Emmanuel Lubezki
Production designer: Dante Ferretti
Editors: Joe Hutshing, Michael Tronick
Co-producer: David Wally
Music: Thomas Newman
Costume designers: Aude Bronson-Howard, David C. Robinson
Casting: Juliet Taylor, Ellen Lewis
Associate producer: Celia Costas
Sound mixer: Danny Michael
Color/stereo
Cast:
Joe Black: Brad Pitt
William Parrish: Anthony Hopkins
Susan Parrish: Claire Forlani
Drew: Jake Weber
Allison: Marcia Gay Harden
Quince: Jeffrey Tambor
Running time -- 178 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13...
Topped with appealing stars and awash with lavish production values, this Universal release's problem is not with the fixings, but with the bottling.
Under director Martin Brest's maudlin, heavy hand, "Joe Black" has no fizz, only fizzle. With Pitt's golden presence, it will likely open to sparkling numbers, but negative reaction to the movie should quickly bury "Joe Black".
Running the gamut of demographics, from teenage girl fans of Pitt to aficionados of classic-style romances, word-of-mouth (including reviews as incendiary as this one) will put the nails in this film's commercial coffin. As an allegory about death, "Joe" is a stiff; as a romantic comedy, it's mirthless; and as a spectacle, it's a drudge.
Based loosely on both the stage and screen entity "Death Takes a Holiday", Pitt stars as an enigmatic outsider, named Joe Black who seeks out a very wealthy champion of business, Parrish (Hopkins) on the cusp of the guy's 65th birthday. It's a particularly heady and unnerving time for Parrish, who, naturally, reassesses his life, both professional and personal. Black comes to him in the form of voices, and in a matter of urgency: Parrish is experiencing physical signs of an impending heart attack and he must confront his own mortality. Appearing at his door and giving him a new lease on life is Joe Black, the personification of death. Fearing his imminent demise, Parrish lets Joe Stick around and help him impart his wisdom to future generations and, thusly, Joe grants him a reprieve.
Swathed around this layered and multigeneric plot line are big-think sentiments and laudable notions: wealth doesn't buy happiness, seize the day, don't settle for less, etc. Unfortunately, these thematics are trumpeted so relentlessly, ladled out in such repetitive heaps that they mush together as merely irritating sermons. The multidimensional story is so dourly executed that it's as if the Swedish Film Institute had suddenly taken over a Frank Capra project and sucked the life's blood from it. Not all the tuxedos in closetdom, not all the violins in all the symphonies, not all the rays of golden-time lensing can belie the fact that "Joe Black"'s essence is embodied in such a desultory, grim script.
Usually when one espies four screenwriting credits, one shudders at the possibilities for alternate sensibilities or atonal inconsistencies; in this case, we fear that the screenwriting credits did not accurately include hundreds more who may deserve credit, including, perhaps, the entire senior partnership of a corporate law firm, so painstakingly dotted is every dramatic "i" and so listlessly crossed is every comedic "t." The viewer who does not understand a plot or thematic point in one scene (falling asleep would be an excuse), however, should not have to worry -- there will be six or seven subsequent scenes that detail the same stuff. While the jokes are not that original, they are repeated in mathematical variation, reincarnated in all their permutations. Most woefully, the dialogue is of such a snitty, overvarnished and gratingly crude nature that what little polish "Joe Black" might radiate is mitigated by such witty repasts as "I don't give a shit", with such finery being immediately bow-tied with swelling violin music.
Pitt's performance is somewhat entertaining, particularly in the film's early parts when he studiously emits a Robert Redford circa 1975 turn, including the Redford-ish flourish of clumsily munching food while serving up casual iconoclasm.
Unfortunately, Pitt abandons the Redford turn and the remainder of his performance seems otherwise inspired: it's so somnambulistic that one guesses he either based it on rewatching " Star Trek" TV classics or has embraced herbal supplements big-time. It's astonishingly uncharismatic and scattered. Joe Black comes off as a confused house pet. In Pitt's defense, this quadri-penned screenplay (Ron Osborn, Jeff Reno, Kevin Wade, Bo Goldman) is so turgid and stolid that character personalities are merely stereotypical, broad caricatures. There is virtually no idiosyncrasy in the writing, other than the cloying ingredient that Joe Black favors peanut butter as his favorite food. Peanut butter jokes (where he gobbles it in inappropriate settings) soon become stale.
Still, there are unexpected flourishes from Pitt, most memorably a hospital scene where Pitt converses with an old Jamaican woman in Jamaican. His quasi-voodoo is uproarious: imagine if Jimmy Cliff had spent 20 years in Belfast and acquired a bit of a brogue.
What's really good about Pitt's participation, though, is that he looks really terrific in a tux, and, quite sagely, director Brest makes ample use of that excellency. It's hard to recall a film, past or present, in which the star made more, well, star entrances -- appearing midscene from behind curtains, mounting stairwells, entering boardrooms, etc. -- than this one. As if these visual treats were not enough, "Joe Black" is always heightened by the ever-eager string work and oboe-ish cadenzas. But often these technical flourishes fall flat: "Joe Black"'s big love scene between Pitt and Claire Forlani is so florid and gooishly golden that one's mind wanders, wondering where the usually omnipresent peanut butter might be when it is clearly needed.
Other performers fare better than the beleaguered Pitt. Hopkins' spry performance as the man of mettle millionaire is a high point, while for the most part, the other players suffer from the wafer-dimensioned writing. As the sensitive daughter, Forlani's performance -- consisting largely of piercing her eyebrows -- lacks appeal. Among supporting suits, Jeffrey Tambor is well-cast as Hopkins' suck-up son-in-law, convincing as an oily and insincere user, while Jake Weber is appropriately smarmy as a household snake-in-the-grass.
Under Brest's overripe wand, the technical contributions are well-executed but, alas, only serve to muddle and distend the story line. Given the tediously dowdy screenwriting, the lavish technical contributions are akin to putting a cummerbund on a pair of bib overalls.
Still, highest praise to production designer Dante Ferretti for capturing the humor in the ostentation; in particular, his re-creation of an overblow party setting is so hilarious in its hideousness that should Guber and Peters ever team to head a studio again, they might put him on permanent party-planning retainer.
Indeed, "Joe Black"'s pumped-up fireworks/party finale, with enough gunpowder to fuel every Chamber of Commerce's Fourth of July blast, is emblematic of "Joe Black" -- bombastic but empty.
MEET JOE BLACK
Universal Pictures
A City Light Films production
A Martin Brest film
Producer-director: Martin Brest
Screenwriters: Ron Osborn, Jeff Reno, Kevin Wade, Bo Goldman
Executive producer: Ronald L. Schwary
Director of photography: Emmanuel Lubezki
Production designer: Dante Ferretti
Editors: Joe Hutshing, Michael Tronick
Co-producer: David Wally
Music: Thomas Newman
Costume designers: Aude Bronson-Howard, David C. Robinson
Casting: Juliet Taylor, Ellen Lewis
Associate producer: Celia Costas
Sound mixer: Danny Michael
Color/stereo
Cast:
Joe Black: Brad Pitt
William Parrish: Anthony Hopkins
Susan Parrish: Claire Forlani
Drew: Jake Weber
Allison: Marcia Gay Harden
Quince: Jeffrey Tambor
Running time -- 178 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13...
- 11/9/1998
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
You can judge a society by the kind of people it celebrates, Woody Allen declares in "Celebrity", an acerbic and hilarious takedown on our culture's infatuation with such "15 minutes of fame" types as hostages, criminals, supermodels, actors and the scores of unlikely oddballs who scorch to national attention.
Winding his send-up around his prototypical story line of squirrely writer going through midlife crisis, this latest black-and-white Woody should cause much celebration for Miramax. Not just smart, it's also accessibly funny and should reach a wider audience than Allen's usual demographic of the upscale, neurotic intelligentsia.
Kenneth Branagh steps in for Woody in this latest opus, replete with all the tics, stutters, flounders and hypertensive screwiness. He's Lee Simon, a travel writer lurching through a midlife crisis, both professionally and personally: the novel is not going well (he's thinking of doing a screenplay) and his long-term marriage has reached the doldrums. His literary conceits occasion him to think he's a T.S. Eliot figure, namely J. Alfred Prufrock, measuring his life "out in coffee spoons" and, in like grandiose manner, deciding to "eat a peach" -- namely go after a shapely blonde model/actress (Melanie Griffith) who pays him momentary heed when he does a puff piece on her.
Narratively, "Celebrity" promenades down the same epicene streets that Allen invariably treads: the comfy boulevards of the homo snobbium whose pitter-patter, upper-class ennui is oh so taxing and debilitating. As Lee laments, it's the "Age of Psychiatry" where people have become so civilized that a new barbarity has, accordingly, developed from their surface sophistication. Indeed, thematically "Celebrity" is a bit of a stern sermon: While Allen laces his preaching with slapstick (both verbal and physical) as opposed to fire and brimstone, the overall message is the same -- it's a putdown of the sophisticated world of the artsy elites whose values and ethics are transitory and trendy and whose lives, accordingly, are fractured and unsteady, with no firm guideposts, either moral or traditional, to give them firmament. It's in Lee's genuflection, his writerly forays into the upper-crust world of media celebrity and the hoity-toity that Allen's satiric humor is most bilious and, wonderfully, uproarious. Whether skewering supermodels, action movies, literary stars, snooty N.Y. Times reviewers, auteurs or other poseurs, Allen's humor strips bare the "discreet charm" of the cultural elite.
As the flibbertyjibbit writer, Branagh brings a bevy of squirming contradiction to his performance. He's a tweedy Woody no less, alternately sympathetic and loathsome. Other performances are equally inspired. As his addled, high-strung wife, Judy Davis, once again, bristles with so much craziness and hysteria that all the Saint John's Wort in the world couldn't cure her, while Griffith oozes callow cruelty as a supermodel/ actress. Credit casting directors Juliet Taylor and Laura Rosenthal for the inspired assemblage of players and real-life drop-ins. Leonardo DiCaprio does a perfect turn as a coke-crazed star-of-the-moment, while Winona Ryder is beguiling and treacherous as a self-centered temptress. The slew of "celebrities" who drop in for a cameo meld perfectly, adding an apt neo-Warhol smell to the proceedings. Among them: Donald Trump and Joey Buttafucco.
Allen's terrific troupe of tried-and-true technicians, including production designer Santo Loquasto and costumer Suzy Benzinger, bring the right high sheen and polish to this decayed upper-crust world. Loquasto's bric-a-brac and settings reveal the slight bases of these character's shallow lives, while Benzinger's plumery is the perfect adornment to this "Emperor's New Clothes" environment. As ever, the ever-conflicted Allen (part aesthete and part hedonist) mixes his story with wonderful, contrapuntal tones, including Sven Nykvist's spare lensings, which infuse a Bergman-esque darkness and abyss-like quality to this world. Stuart Copeland's chipper compositions illuminate its screwy vitality. And, oh so delectable, the scrumptious big-band sounds -- most memorably a smudgy trumpet on "A Slow Boat to China" -- give old-time backbone to these thin and tacky times.
CELEBRITY
Miramax Films
A Jean Doumanian production
Producer: Jean Doumanian
Screenwriter-director: Woody Allen
Executive producer: J.E. Beaucaire
Co-executive producers: Jack Rollins,
Charles H. Joffe, Letty Aronson
Co-producer: Richard Brick
Director of photography: Sven Nykvist
Production designer: Santo Loquasto
Editor: Susan E. Morse
Costume designer: Suzy Benzinger
Casting: Juliet Taylor, Laura Rosenthal
Black and white/stereo
Cast:
Lee Simon: Kenneth Branagh
David: Hank Azaria
Robin Simon: Judy Davis
Brandon Darrow: Leonardo DiCaprio
Nicole Oliver: Melanie Griffith
Bonnie: Famke Janssen
Dr. Lupus: Michael Lerner
Nola: Winona Ryder
Supermodel: Charlize Theron
Tony Gardella: Joe Mantegna
Director: Greg Mottola
Running time -- 112 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
Winding his send-up around his prototypical story line of squirrely writer going through midlife crisis, this latest black-and-white Woody should cause much celebration for Miramax. Not just smart, it's also accessibly funny and should reach a wider audience than Allen's usual demographic of the upscale, neurotic intelligentsia.
Kenneth Branagh steps in for Woody in this latest opus, replete with all the tics, stutters, flounders and hypertensive screwiness. He's Lee Simon, a travel writer lurching through a midlife crisis, both professionally and personally: the novel is not going well (he's thinking of doing a screenplay) and his long-term marriage has reached the doldrums. His literary conceits occasion him to think he's a T.S. Eliot figure, namely J. Alfred Prufrock, measuring his life "out in coffee spoons" and, in like grandiose manner, deciding to "eat a peach" -- namely go after a shapely blonde model/actress (Melanie Griffith) who pays him momentary heed when he does a puff piece on her.
Narratively, "Celebrity" promenades down the same epicene streets that Allen invariably treads: the comfy boulevards of the homo snobbium whose pitter-patter, upper-class ennui is oh so taxing and debilitating. As Lee laments, it's the "Age of Psychiatry" where people have become so civilized that a new barbarity has, accordingly, developed from their surface sophistication. Indeed, thematically "Celebrity" is a bit of a stern sermon: While Allen laces his preaching with slapstick (both verbal and physical) as opposed to fire and brimstone, the overall message is the same -- it's a putdown of the sophisticated world of the artsy elites whose values and ethics are transitory and trendy and whose lives, accordingly, are fractured and unsteady, with no firm guideposts, either moral or traditional, to give them firmament. It's in Lee's genuflection, his writerly forays into the upper-crust world of media celebrity and the hoity-toity that Allen's satiric humor is most bilious and, wonderfully, uproarious. Whether skewering supermodels, action movies, literary stars, snooty N.Y. Times reviewers, auteurs or other poseurs, Allen's humor strips bare the "discreet charm" of the cultural elite.
As the flibbertyjibbit writer, Branagh brings a bevy of squirming contradiction to his performance. He's a tweedy Woody no less, alternately sympathetic and loathsome. Other performances are equally inspired. As his addled, high-strung wife, Judy Davis, once again, bristles with so much craziness and hysteria that all the Saint John's Wort in the world couldn't cure her, while Griffith oozes callow cruelty as a supermodel/ actress. Credit casting directors Juliet Taylor and Laura Rosenthal for the inspired assemblage of players and real-life drop-ins. Leonardo DiCaprio does a perfect turn as a coke-crazed star-of-the-moment, while Winona Ryder is beguiling and treacherous as a self-centered temptress. The slew of "celebrities" who drop in for a cameo meld perfectly, adding an apt neo-Warhol smell to the proceedings. Among them: Donald Trump and Joey Buttafucco.
Allen's terrific troupe of tried-and-true technicians, including production designer Santo Loquasto and costumer Suzy Benzinger, bring the right high sheen and polish to this decayed upper-crust world. Loquasto's bric-a-brac and settings reveal the slight bases of these character's shallow lives, while Benzinger's plumery is the perfect adornment to this "Emperor's New Clothes" environment. As ever, the ever-conflicted Allen (part aesthete and part hedonist) mixes his story with wonderful, contrapuntal tones, including Sven Nykvist's spare lensings, which infuse a Bergman-esque darkness and abyss-like quality to this world. Stuart Copeland's chipper compositions illuminate its screwy vitality. And, oh so delectable, the scrumptious big-band sounds -- most memorably a smudgy trumpet on "A Slow Boat to China" -- give old-time backbone to these thin and tacky times.
CELEBRITY
Miramax Films
A Jean Doumanian production
Producer: Jean Doumanian
Screenwriter-director: Woody Allen
Executive producer: J.E. Beaucaire
Co-executive producers: Jack Rollins,
Charles H. Joffe, Letty Aronson
Co-producer: Richard Brick
Director of photography: Sven Nykvist
Production designer: Santo Loquasto
Editor: Susan E. Morse
Costume designer: Suzy Benzinger
Casting: Juliet Taylor, Laura Rosenthal
Black and white/stereo
Cast:
Lee Simon: Kenneth Branagh
David: Hank Azaria
Robin Simon: Judy Davis
Brandon Darrow: Leonardo DiCaprio
Nicole Oliver: Melanie Griffith
Bonnie: Famke Janssen
Dr. Lupus: Michael Lerner
Nola: Winona Ryder
Supermodel: Charlize Theron
Tony Gardella: Joe Mantegna
Director: Greg Mottola
Running time -- 112 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
- 9/11/1998
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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