Michael Patrick Jann is best known for his work in comedy and as a cast member on MTV’s sketch comedy show “The State.” In 1999, he made his feature film directorial debut with “Drop Dead Gorgeous” which over the years has developed quite the cult following. With his second feature film as a director, “Organ Trail,” he got out of his comedy safety zone to enter the horror genre. Michael now returns to that genre again with his latest film, “Alma & The Wolf,” which stars Ethan Embry as a troubled police officer who investigates a mysterious wolf attack which happened to a high school classmate of his, Alma (played by Li Jun Li). The investigation becomes even more intense, however, when his son goes missing, and it puts him a collision course with an unbearable truth that can only stay hidden for so long.
I got to speak with Michael one-on-one recently about “Alma & The Wolf,” and we talked a lot about how comedy and horror deal with the various forms of suffering. Also, he discussed the challenges of filming on the Oregon Coast when the weather was really bad and cold, working with animals, and of working with his son, Lukas Jann, who plays Ethan Embry’s son here. In addition, this film also co-stars a classmate of mine from my University of California, Irvine school days, Beth Malone, who plays a rather nosy neighbor. It was great to talk with Michael about what Beth brought to her role and the movie, and it is always great to see her in anything and everything.
“Alma & The Wolf” is now available to rent and stream on select digital platforms. Please check out my interview with Michael down below, and I have also included a trailer for the film as well.
One of the many horror films coming to us in 2025 is arriving this week, and that’s “Alma & The Wolf.” Directed by Michael Patrick Jann, it stars Ethan Embry as Deputy Ren Accord, a very troubled man who has been thrust into a horrifying investigation he may not be fully prepared for. One day while driving on his usual route, he comes across Alma, played by Li Jun Li, who is walking alone in the rain while clutching to what is left of her dog. Alma tells Ren a wolf killed her dog and begs him to kill the wolf for her as an act of revenge. Wolves, however, are protected wildlife in the state of Oregon, so Ren tells Alma he cannot help her that way. But when his son goes missing in the Oregon coast, Ren comes to believe it may have everything to do with the wolf that killed Alma’s dog, and he becomes infinitely determined to find his son and kill the elusive wolf.
I was lucky enough to speak with Ethan Embry and Li Jun Li who are the main stars of “Alma & The Wolf” this past week. Ethan started off his career as a child actor, and he starred opposite Ed O’Neil in the John Hughes written and produced film “Dutch,” and he is best known for his roles in “A Far Off Place,” “Empire Records” and “That Thing You Do.” Li got her start as an actress in the theatre, and she later became known for her role as Iris Chang in the television series “Quantico.” In addition, she has received critical acclaim for her roles as Lady Fay Zhu in Damien Chazelle’s “Babylon” and Grace Chow in Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners.”
Much of my talk with Ethan and Li Li, as she likes to be called, was about acting and their choices. With “Alma & The Wolf,” they were involved in a cinematic production which had a very short production schedule, and I was curious how the speed of it affected their performances overall. Being an actor myself, I found their answers to be deeply informative and fascinating.
“Alma & The Wolf” will be dropped on streaming services starting on June 20, 2025. Please check out the interview below, and I have included a trailer for the film as well.
There is always a wealth of original content being dropped on Netflix from one month to the next, and one of the latest additions to its streaming service is a miniseries called “The Residence” which I watched all the way through in just one day. A murder comedy mystery created by Paul Williams Davies, based on Kate Andersen Brower’s novel “The Residence: Inside the Private World of the White House” and produced by Shondaland, the amazing television empire overseen by Shonda Rhimes, it tells the tale of the White House Chief Usher, A.B. Winter (Giancarlo Esposito), who ius found murdered in one of America’s most secured locations, the White House. Into the crime scene comes Cordelia Cupp (Uzo Aduba), a consultant with the Metropolitan Police Department and an avid birdwatcher, who is determined to find the culprit responsible. The problem is, there dozens upon dozens of suspects to consider, be it those with quite the public presence or the staff who works behind the scenes. Suffice to say, it proves to be one very long night for everyone involved.
Among those suspects is engineer Bruce Geller, an engineer who succeeds in getting the water pressure in the United States President’s shower just right after far too many tries. Bruce is played by Mel Rodriguez, a native of the Little Havana neighborhood in Miami, Florida, and a graduate of SUNY Purchase (State University of New York Purchase) which has produced unforgettable actors like him, Melissa Leo, Edie Falco, Wesley Snipes, and Ving Rhames among so many others. Mel’s most memorable appearances include playing Nurse Patsy de la Serda on the HBO comedy “Getting On,” Ernie Gomes on the Showtime drama “On Becoming a God in Central Florida,” Marco Pasternak on “Better Call Saul,” and Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Hugo Ramirez on “CSI: Vegas.” Suffice to say, he is a character actor who continues to find work in an industry which is notoriously hard to break into, and more power to him.
I was lucky enough to interview Mel about his role of Bruce Geller in “The Residence,” and it was a lot of fun talking to him about this Netflix miniseries and about other things. Those things included what he learned as a student at SUNY Purchase, why the scripts for this show were among the best he had ever read, and his memories of the late Andre Braugher who was originally cast as A.B. Winter before he unexpectedly passed away.
“The Residence” is now streaming on Netflix, and it is highly recommended by The Ultimate Rabbit as it is highly entertaining and wonderfully intricate. Please check out our interview with Mel Rodriguez down below.
I was lucky enough to attend an anniversary screening of Alexander Payne’s “Sideways” at Laemmle’s Monica Film Center in Santa Monica, California. I remember and watching and loving this film back when it was released back in 2004, and now it has reached its twentieth anniversary which just scares the hell out of me. This screening was followed by a Q&A with some of the film’s participants as well as the authors of the recently released book “Sideways Uncorked,” Kirk Honeycutt and Mira Advani Honeycutt.
But make no mistake, the real star of the evening was Virginia Madsen whom everyone who loves “Sideways” was truly thrilled to see. She portrayed Maya, the divorced waitress who captures the attention of the ambitious but very depressed Miles (Paul Giamatti), a writer who just might be about to publish his novel for the world to see. Madsen deservedly earned an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her unforgettable performance here. Cate Blanchett ended up winning it that year for her work in “The Aviator,” but there is no forgetting what Madsen did, especially after Maya’s speech about her love of wine.
Before “Sideways,” Madsen was best known for her work in movies like “Candyman,” “Electric Dreams,” “The Prophecy” and “The Rainmaker.” Around the time it came to audition for this now classic film, Madsen openly admitted her career was not doing well and that the odds were against her in playing Maya.
Virginia Madsen: There was talk about getting someone who had a bigger name, but I got the audition and I was working with a coach, so I was really, really ready. They weren’t giving us the whole script though, and then I said, well, can I just have a couple of more scenes, and they just sounded like me.
In addition, she was very familiar with the Santa Inez valley and the other areas which “Sideways” takes place in as she considers them her weekend getaway. Also, this film marked the first time Payne made a film outside of Omaha, Nebraska.
Virgina Madsen: I lived about an hour from there. I didn’t ever go wine tasting. I just went there to sort of be a hippie and climb trees and have this beautiful sense of serenity, so I knew what I felt like when I was in the valley. So, I just went to play myself.
And we can all agree that Madsen’s greatest scene in “Sideways” was when she talks to Miles about her love of wine as it seduces us every bit as much as it seduces Miles. As a result, this made her meeting with Paul Giamatti all the more agonizing.
Virginia Madsen: I loved the part where I talked about wine in that scene with Paul, so I just got this one chance in the room with him. So, I said I just love this screenplay, I love this role, and I love when she talks about the life of wine. I went into the monologue, which you were not supposed to do for the audition. He went, “would you like to do the monologue?” I said, “Yes, sure.” I was so prepared. The tone in the writing changes in that scene. And when it was over, we just looked at the casting director and he said, “You know, we should have everyone do that monologue!” He (Giamatti) wanted me, but it took a while to hear a yes. I knew who Paul was as an actor, and I knew we would have chemistry. I am never wrong about that.
Then there came the time when Madsen met up with Payne about “Sideways,” and he offered her the role of Maya at the Chateau Marmont, something any actor or actress loves to be given the role of a lifetime at. But this also resulted in something actors might be reluctant to agree to.
Virginia Madsen: We met at the Chateau Marmont, and he said, “I want to ask you, would you do me the honor of playing Maya in my film ‘Sideways?’ And I was like, “Oh, well.” And he said, “I have one request though, are you willing to do this movie without makeup?” And I said, “Well Alexander, I’m not wearing makeup now, and that’s what I mostly do.” I did that in three films before that, and the greatest thing about that is you don’t have to get up quite so early. The only request I made back to him was, as long as I can wear mascara and some lip gloss on the date because, if a woman goes on a date, she’s just gonna do a little something, and he agreed to that. It seems to be nowadays more than ever this effort to make people look real, and they kind of look like hell, and that’s also distracting.
After all these years, “Sideways” has lost none of its power to entertain, be it in comedic or dramatic ways. Some films are quickly undone by time, but this one never will as everyone can relate to it and its characters in various ways. And when it comes to Madsen’s performance, she will make you fall in love with Maya every single time.
Actor and filmmaker Edward Burns comes from a family of cops, and he always relishes the opportunity to play one in a movie. In “Alex Cross,” he got to portray Detective Tommy Kane who is partner and childhood friend to Dr. Cross (played here by Tyler Perry), and the boyfriend of Detective Monica Ashe (Rachel Nichols). While at the movie’s press conference which took place at the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills back in 2012, he talked about what drew him to the role.
Burns said he was aware of James Patterson’s Alex Cross books and that he had read a few of them. The character he plays, however, is not actually in any of Patterson’s books and was an original creation for this movie. He ended up getting a call from the movie’s director, Rob Cohen, who was determined to make this particular Cross film more of an action picture than a police procedural.
Edward Burns: Rob told me that he wanted to develop this new character opposite Alex that’s sort of a best friend. He said we’ll be working on this script up until we shoot and that he’d love to have some input from me. Anytime a filmmaker says they want you to collaborate with them that gets an actor excited, so I jumped in.
When it came to establishing the relationship between Tommy and Alex, Burns said there are two scenes in the movie that give viewers insight as to when these two met and how their relationship has evolved over the years.
Edward Burns: The thinking was we became friends as kids, and when we were little, I was a little more of the protector of him. When we got older, bigger and smarter, he then became the guy that looked after me. That’s what the tone of the relationship is between these characters in the film, and in our last scene together in the car we reminisce about how our roles have changed over time.
For Burns the one fun thing about playing cops in movies is that there’s always that period of when you have to do tactical police training.
Edward Burns:We had a great time working with the guys from the Detroit SWAT team and police department, and that’s always a lot of fun. It’s amazing because you always have to keep relearning that stuff (sweeping a room and proper weapons procedure).
Some actors hate being typecast as cops, but Edward Burns appears to be happy to play as many of them as he can. We look forward to him playing as many more cops in the future, and we applaud him on his continued dedication to the realm of independent film.
“Alex Cross” is now available to own and rent on physical media and digital.
WRITER’S NOTE: This interview took place back in 2012 and may contain outdated information.
WRITER’S NOTE: This article was originally written in 2013.
Ever since she first found recognition for her character of Sookie St. James on “Gilmore Girls,” Melissa McCarthy has left an indelible impression on us all. After watching her breakthrough role as the abrasive and shamelessly raunchy Megan in “Bridesmaids,” a role which earned her a deserved Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress, there was no forgetting who she was. McCarthy wasn’t just funny in the role, she also made Megan a complex character with wants and needs we could easily relate to, and this made her performance all the more wonderfully memorable.
Now she gets the opportunity to put her comedic skills to solid use again in “Identity Thief” as Diana, a con artist who steals the identity of Sandy Bigelow Patterson (played by Jason Bateman) for her own benefit. This actually marks McCarthy’s first lead role in a motion picture, and it came as the result of Bateman loving her performance in “Bridesmaids.” The role of Diana was originally written as a man, but Bateman had the character’s gender changed to a woman just so he could get her cast in the movie.
Now the role of a con artist is a challenging one to make the least bit sympathetic, but McCarthy proved to be up to the challenge. She got her start at The Groundlings which is an improvisational and sketch comedy troupe located in Los Angeles, but while this character would have made for a hilarious five-minute sketch, McCarthy realized she had to do things differently in a feature length motion picture. She made this clear in her interview with Amy Longsdorf of Delaware Online.
“I wanted to make sure Diana wasn’t just a one-dimensional, mustache-twirling villain because I thought that while that’s kind of interesting for a scene, I don’t know how to play that for a whole movie,” McCarthy told Longsdorf. “I love the thought of someone doing criminal acts but not doing them to be menacing. She does them because she’s lonely and doesn’t have anyone. She kind of steals identities so she can go out to a store and pretend to have these lives. She can pretend to have a husband and a family, pretend to be engaged.”
Whether it is film or television she is doing, McCarthy is a comic force of nature and she appears fearless in what she will do to get a laugh. This was especially the case when she hosted an episode of “Saturday Night Live” and came close to swallowing a whole bottle of ranch salad dressing. I was lucky enough to attend the “Identity Thief” press conference which I covered for the website We Got This Covered, and I asked her if there ever is a limit to how far she will go for a laugh, or if she is willing to do anything to get one.
“For me, I think as long as it makes sense for the character,” McCarthy said. “I like to see if you can, on the worst day or the most extreme circumstance, I like to see how far you can push it. But to me it’s not funny anymore if it doesn’t make sense. And I don’t like to do anything that’s mean-spirited just because I don’t find it funny. I’d rather be the jackass than make fun of somebody else because that just seems too cheap and easy. So those are my only limits.”
The one thing, however, that McCarthy was more fearless about than getting laughs was doing her own stunts. It turns out that she tried to do as many of them as possible on the set of “Identity Thief,” and Bateman was stunned at just how far she was willing to go. She even volunteered to do the stunt where Diana gets hit by a car, and it does look very painful when you watch it onscreen. McCarthy ended up admitting to Kevin P. Sullivan of MTV News that she and Bateman did a lot of hand-to-hand combat in order to make their fight scenes look more believable.
“We hurt each other the most, for real, and the most exhausting,” McCarthy said. “You’re just covered in bruises and muscles are ripped.”
Many also wonder where McCarthy comes up with the inspirations for each character she portrays. It is said most actors base their characters on people they grew up with or whom they remember from their hometowns. McCarthy herself was raised on a farm in Plainfield, Illinois, and during the press conference she realized that her upbringing still plays a big part in the roles she chooses.
“In terms of the characters I think are really fun to play, a lot of times it’s someone in my head saying I know that woman,” McCarthy said. “There are women like that in my hometown and there’s one like that the Midwest. I guess I do kind of always go back to that them and draw from there because I really love them. I find them great and interesting and quirky and eccentric. I think everything that any actor does, I would assume, is shaped by how and where they grew up. I steal a lot from a lot of Midwestern women that I weirdly watch, that’s what I should say.”
We are going to be seeing a lot more of Melissa McCarthy in the near future as her star continues to rise in Hollywood. In addition to her television show, “Mike & Molly,” she has a number of starring roles in movies coming up like “The Heat” with Sandra Bullock. No matter what that thoughtless snob Rex Reed may think of her, McCarthy is a superb comedic actress who has many unforgettably hilarious performances left to give the world.
SOURCES:
Amy Longsdorf, “Melissa McCarthy morphs into ‘Identity Thief,'” Delaware Online, February 9, 2013.
WRITER’S NOTE: This article was originally written in 2012.
Don’t get me wrong, Richard Gere has played many likable characters in movies like “Pretty Woman” and “An Officer and a Gentleman,” but it’s when he plays despicable ones that he truly excels as an actor. The latest example of this is his brilliant performance as Robert Miller in “Arbitrage,” the movie which marks the directorial debut of writer Nicholas Jarecki. Robert is a hedge fund magnate who is desperately trying to cover up his instances of fraud, cheats on his wife, and willfully deceives his children. On paper this character is a jerk, but the beauty of Gere’s performance is how he keeps us rooting for him regardless of this fact.
So, how does Gere manage to make such an unlikable person so fascinating and relatable on screen? Audie Cornish of NPR’s “All Things Considered” asked him this question as she couldn’t get past the fact that Robert Miller is a “monster” and yet still wanted him to get away with what he did.
“Isn’t that funny? I mean, that’s one of the uniform things and kind of mystifying things,” Gere said. “And the comments I’ve gotten back, even from very close friends, that they’re very angry with me, that they care about this guy and want him to get out of trouble, although they’re well aware the guy is a jerk, as you say, and makes some very bad decisions in his life and has a kind of a mindset that you go, huh?”
“But look, that’s my job, is to make characters human, to make them knowable on some level,” Gere continued. “I think it had root in when you spend time with even supposed monsters, there’s a human being there. And in storytelling, you’ve got to find that human being.”
This humanity certainly shows up in the scene between Robert and his daughter, Brooke (played by Brit Marling), where he has to break her heart by telling her the truth of his fraudulent activities. What he is doing to her is terrible, and yet you still feel for him as he tries to explain how his business really works. Regardless of all the bad things Robert has done, there’s no doubt as to just how much he loves his family.
“That was a scene we (Gere and Marling) worked on a lot, and in the end, it came out of an improvisation actually, that she’s not my partner, that she works for me,” Gere said. “And I found myself almost in an animal growl saying everyone works for me. And I think that was the truest moment with this character, that that’s his mentality – horrifying but true. I mean, he’s naked in that moment.”
Another great scene in “Arbitrage” has Robert to do the right thing only to see him look for another way out. Being the reckless gambler that Robert is, he always seems to find another angle which can keep him up and running for yet another day. Gere remarked about how his sister, who is a psychiatrist, found this moment in the film especially fascinating.
“That mentality of I’m always going to find a way out, always find a way out. I think it’s that kind of a gambler’s thing,” Gere said. “Well, I’m down to my last penny, but I’m going to turn that penny into two pennies, and I’m going to get out of this. It’s a really interesting kind of person that never truly gives in. Now, if you’d imagine they were in the service of something extraordinary on the planet, what they could achieve, I guess the hope for me is, is that the people who are so effective in the world and can do this stuff, which is just ultimately pretty silly, just the accumulation of wealth, if they were putting their minds and their talents and their skill towards being of service and responsible on this planet, man, this will be a garden.”
Whether or not he is playing good or bad guys, Richard Gere always comes across in his performances as someone we want to support. Regardless of whether he plays a self-serving defense attorney in “Primal Fear” or “Chicago” or portraying an infinitely corrupt cop in “Internal Affairs,” there is something about this actor which is always alluring. Just don’t expect him to explain what it is because even he’s not sure:
“I don’t know. I don’t know what that is. I suppose it’s some peculiar thing I’m able to do. I don’t know. It’s certainly nothing I work at or particularly aware of in the process.”
Perhaps it’s best he does not find out because we want to see him giving more great performances like this one in the near future.
WRITER’S NOTE: This article was written back in 2012.
Robert Zemeckis’ “Flight” ended up surprising us all by being a riveting character driven film as opposed to your average Hollywood action movie. It is filled with a number of great performances from very talented actors, and one of the most notable is Kelly Reilly’s as former photographer Nicole Maggen. When we first meet Nicole, she is in the throes of a nasty heroin addiction that almost claims her life. While in the hospital, she meets airline pilot William “Whip” Whitaker (Denzel Washington) who is going through his own substance abuse issues and becomes a kindred spirit of sorts as they both look for ways to escape their demons.
For Reilly, “Flight” marks the first American movie she has appeared in. Before this, she was best known for playing Mary Watson in the “Sherlock Holmes” movies, and she starred opposite Michael Fassbender in the unnerving horror film “Eden Lake.” When it came to playing Nicole in “Flight,” she explained to Christopher Rosen of the Huffington Post how she goes about preparing for a role.
“If it’s there in the script it makes your life a lot easier,” Reilly said. “You’re not searching for something. You’re not trying to figure out how to make this character believable or real. You’re not trying to skirt around bad writing. This character, to me, just jumped out. I already felt a kinship to her; I wanted to play her. I knew that this sort of addiction that got hold of her so tightly was a symptom of this woman’s heartbreak. I knew there was somebody underneath worth fighting for. There are all these stereotypes of heroin addicts being junkies or dropouts or people who we shouldn’t care about. I just thought that can’t be true. They’re somebody’s son or daughter; they’re human beings. They’re just lost. That is something John Gatins got in his script. I really wanted to play that rather than the stereotype of the heroin addict.”
When it came to playing a heroin addict, Reilly explained to Rosen the amount of research she did to better understand her character. She spent a lot of time on Google learning about those addicted to this particular drug, but that only gave her so much information. But while I was at “Flight’s” press conference at the Montage Hotel in Beverly Hills, Reilly went more into depth about who gave her the answers she needed to know the most.
“I did consult a wonderful guy called Mitch in Atlanta who helped me understand the inner life of a heroin addict as much as one can without experiencing it, and he really did open up his story to me,” Reilly said. “There was a technical side of it as well as he taught me how to inject heroin without really injecting heroin. I wanted to honor the truth of somebody in that situation, and I think that was the most difficult part without ever having experienced that.”
But despite “Flight” gaining strong critical praise for its direction and performances, Reilly doesn’t see herself being nominated for an Academy Award. When it comes to the Oscars, they tend to honor the showiest performances above all others. Reilly’s performance as Nicole is powerful largely because it is an understated one which does not draw too much attention to itself. She explained this in more detail to Rosen.
“I know there is a lot of buzz around Denzel and the film. A few people have kind of suggested that it could be a possibility for me. I don’t see it myself,” Reilly said. “That’s just not me being humble or anything. I genuinely don’t imagine that to be the case. Mine is more of a quiet performance and I don’t think it’s an award winner. I still feel incredibly flattered to have people even suggest that. As much as it was never a dream of mine — a dream of mine would be to be on stage in New York — it would still be a mind-blowing thing to happen especially for something you feel proud of.”
Michael Caine once said that in the theater you play a character, but in television and film you are the character. Some of the greatest performances I see from actors in movies come from those who inhabit their characters more than play them, and Kelly Reilly’s performance in “Flight” is no exception. While we all love the showiest of performances, it is those subtle ones which deserve the most credit. My hope is that the Oscars will prove Reilly wrong and give her the credit she deserves for her work here. It’s one of the best portrayals of an addict I have seen ever since Michael Keaton played one in “Clean and Sober.”
WRITER’S NOTE: This article was originally written back in 2012.
Sir Anthony Hopkins has played real-life people in movies such as President Richard Nixon in “Nixon” and John Quincy Adams in “Amistad,” but he was initially hesitant about playing the brilliant filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock in “Hitchcock.” The master of suspense has been imitated so many times over the years to where it seems impossible to portray the man without it feeling like it is a joke. Hopkins, however, was won ever by the film’s director, Sacha Gervasi, who told him, “You’re not Alfred Hitchcock, you’re Anthony Hopkins playing him.” From there, Hopkins knew he would be portraying Hitchcock without ever having to do a mere impersonation of him.
Hopkins actually had the unique privilege of meeting Mr. Hitchcock while he was alive. It’s always great fun to hear from actors who have met the highly esteemed filmmaker as the majority of us have only seen him from a distance. We all wondered what Hitchcock was really like as his films generally delved into the pitch-black darkness of humanity, and that had many assuming he was a somewhat disturbed human being himself. Hopkins described the experience of meeting Hitchcock to Fox News.
“I met Hitchcock in Hollywood in 1979. He had just been awarded his knighthood and I was with my agent, and his agent in fact, George Chasen,” Hopkins said. “This was many years ago. I saw Hitchcock sitting in the restaurant and I said to my agent, ‘I’d love to meet him.’ He said ‘I’ll introduce you.’ So, we walked out of the restaurant after we finished our meal, and Hitchcock was sitting there drinking a large brandy. And George said ‘Congratulations Sir Alfred,’ and he said, ‘Thank you very much George. How are you?’ and George said, ‘This is my client Anthony Hopkins,’ and (Hitchcock) said ‘Charmed, I’m sure, very good luck to you.'”
For Hopkins, a key importance for him was getting the look of the famous filmmaker right. The fact is he is far slimmer than Hitchcock was, and Hitchcock famously known for being overweight. It was up to Academy Award-winning makeup artist Howard Berger to transform Hopkins into Hitchcock. In a conversation with Andrea Mandell of USA Today, Berger talked about doing six makeup tests with Hopkins before filming on “Hitchcock” began, and they experimented with all sorts of prosthetics to get the look right.
“I think the biggest challenge was finding the right combination of Alfred Hitchcock and Anthony Hopkins,” said Berger. “We knew from the get-go; we didn’t want to completely cover and disguise Tony. As Hopkins became more comfortable with the character, slowly we started to strip things away.”
Berger went on to describe the end result of his work as being a portrait of Hitchcock on Hopkins. The makeup process took two hours each day to complete, and this included applying a prosthetic jowl and neck pieces to Hopkins. In addition, Hopkins took to wearing a bodysuit and brown contact lenses, and he also shaved “a patch of hair at the back of his head to replicate the director’s hair pattern.” With the makeup done, it freed Hopkins to concentrate on the inner life of his role as opposed to the physical aspects of it. In the end, this is what actors need to focus on the most when playing any role.
But the one thing you will not find Hopkins doing during shooting is staying in character when the cameras are not rolling. Right now, the movie “Lincoln” is in theaters, and it stars Daniel Day Lewis as President Lincoln. Stories from that set have described Lewis as staying in character throughout the shoot to where other actors kept referring to him as Mr. Lincoln. In talking with Philip Sherwell of The Telegraph, however, Hopkins made it very clear how this method of acting is completely unnecessary for him.
“I think that’s a lot of crap,” Hopkins said. “I just don’t understand that. If actors want to do that, fine. If they want to be miserable, that’s up to them. I’m not interested. It’s a job. Who the hell wants to be with some miserable grump because he wants to get his performance right, so you have to call him this or call him that? It’s so boring. I’ve been with actors like that and… they’re unpleasant to work with and I don’t think they’re always that good either.”
With all the great performances he has given throughout his illustrious career in “Silence of The Lambs,” “Remains of the Day” and “Titus,” Anthony Hopkins doesn’t need to stay in character a whole day in order to give audiences a confident performance. His role as Alfred Hitchcock in “Hitchcock” is just the latest example of the kind of work we can always expect from an actor of his caliber. Hopkins never takes the easy way out with a role, and he understands it is the inner life of a character that the actor needs to work on. As for how he looks on the outside, that is someone else’s concern.
Recently, I was listening to an episode of Mick Garris’ podcast “Post Mortem” in which he talked with those involved in the horror genre who are currently walking the picket lines for the Writers Guild of America strike. In his conversations with Leigh Whannell, Darren Lynn Bousman and “Fright Night” director Tom Holland, I came to see how those who make scary movies are the nicest and most kind in the business as they constantly wish the best for one another. In any other part of Hollywood, jealousy typically rears its ugly head to an infinite degree as insecurity remains a constant.
I was reminded of this while watching the documentary “Hollywood Dreams & Nightmares: The Robert Englund Story” as it brings together a plethora of horror actors and filmmakers such as Eli Roth, Tony Todd, Lance Henriksen, Adam Green and Lin Shaye among many others. But regardless of their love of horror films, they are mainly here to talk about the actor who originated the role Freddy Krueger in Wes Craven’s “A Nightmare on Elm Street.” What results is a documentary which delves deeply into Englund’s career and ponders whether is best to be known for portraying one character or many.
Directors Christopher Griffiths and Gary Smart take their sweet time looking over Englund’s acting career, and it is great to look at when he started as this is something I have not seen enough about, His parents were not keen on him becoming an actor as they felt he was destined to become a lawyer. Hearing this, it kind of sounds like he had Kurtwood Smith’s character from “Dead Poets Society” as a father (“You’re going to Harvard, and you’re going to be a doctor”). Nevertheless, he idolized Steve Allen, and the acting bug bit him really hard.
While he was determined to become a stage actor, thinking it would be a fair business (no business ever is), he eventually made his way to Hollywood where he made his film debut in “Buster and Billie.” It was interesting to learn that he was typecast for years as a southern redneck for years, and his breakthrough role turned out not be as Freddy, but instead as resistance leader Willie. This brought him worldwide fame, playing one of the nicest aliens in a show filled with devious ones. And then came the child murderer who haunted and killed the younglings on Elm Street. From there, audiences around the world would quickly forget he ever placed nice guys.
Back in the 1980’s, there was no escaping Freddy Krueger as he was literally everywhere. On top of appearing in “A Nightmare on Elm Street” and its many sequels, there was also the television series “Freddy’s Nightmares,” and I believe there was even a rap album. I mean, let’s face it, everyone had a rap album back in the 80’s. Whether it was a good rap album or a horrifically awful one is open to debate.
This is the part of the documentary I was especially interested in because, while Englund never lacked for work in the 80’s, I wondered how he felt about being known for this character more than any other he has ever portrayed. As actors, we yearn to have a career like the ones Meryl Streep and Robert De Niro have as they continue to have the fortune to portray a sublime variety of characters to where it appeared as though they could play anyone and anything. But being typecast seems like a lifelong prison sentence to where no one will let you get paroled in this lifetime.
While I hoped Griffiths and Smart would have dug deeper into Englund’s typecasting as it clearly had an effect on the work he was able to do outside of Elm Street. He makes clear at one point about how he was forced to turn down several roles because of his involvement in the franchise which built up New Line Cinema, and that must have wounded him more than we see here.
An example of this typecasting comes when Englund and others talk about his role in “The Phantom of the Opera” in which he plays another horribly disfigured character, but one who is madly in love with a soprano singer and kills others to steal their skin and apply it to his mangled face.. And yet, when this particular film was being released, its American poster featured a picture of him as Freddy taking a mask off. While Englund was trying to do something a little different, Hollywood still played it safe by reminding audiences he was Freddy.
But the real surprise and satisfaction I had with “Hollywood Dreams & Nightmares” was seeing how Englund looks at his fame as a “happy accident.” Whereas some actors have been desperate to escape the horror genre, Englund has found a wealth of opportunities within it which he may not have gotten elsewhere. Even in movies like “The Mangler,” “Wishmaster,” “Urban Legend,” “2001 Maniacs,” “Hatchet,” “Zombie Strippers” and “Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon,” he has had the good fortune to portray a variety of characters to where you have to envy what he has accomplished in his long career.
Also, this documentary makes it very clear how nice a guy Englund is in real life. This shows in the way he talks and acts around others, and from the various participants who are interviewed throughout. While he may have a dark side, and everyone does by the way, it’s usually the nicest people who end up portraying the most devilish of characters. Some may disagree, but judge not lest ye be judged.
And again, the horror community on display here seems like a great group of people as everyone speaks warmly of one another. Considering how maligned a genre it has been made out to be by many critics and the touchiest of individuals, we see how it deserves to be taken much more seriously. Whether you like horror films or not, the majority of them are not crap or easily disposable.
While this is not a groundbreaking documentary in any way, shape or form, “Hollywood Dreams & Nightmares: The Robert Englund” gives us a memorable portrait of an actor who never set out to be a horror icon but became one out of sheer luck and with the help of engine oil he put into his hair for his Freddy audition. Watching Englund here reminds me of how actors can never really prepare their careers as they may end up in a far different place than they ever dreamed. Like the Rolling Stones said, you can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometime, you just might find you get what you need.
One more thing, I do hope Englund gets to play Freddy Krueger one more time. His appearance on “The Goldbergs” should not be the character’s swan song. Maybe they could do something along the lines of “Logan” where we see an old age Freddy. Hey, maybe even a musical would work. Just get Baz Luhrmann to direct it and it will be spectacular! I can see it now:
The Ultimate Rabbit 