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Travis Van Winkle on ‘The Last Ship’ and Filming in Tight Quarters

By
Rebecca Murray
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Travis Van WInkle The Last Ship Interview
Travis Van Winkle from ‘The Last Ship’ at the 2014 San Diego Comic-Con (Photo Credit: Richard Chavez)

Travis Van Winkle wasn’t bothered by working in tight quarters on TNT’s The Last Ship, a new drama series from producer Michael Bay. Being able actually to work onboard a real Navy ship helped the cast really get into their characters.

“It’s awesome. I loved it,” said Van Winkle when asked about the unique shooting experience while at the 2014 San Diego Comic-Con. “I loved being on a ship. To shoot on a live Navy Destroyer, there’s real guns around you, there are real Navy men and Navy women, it just feels more authentic when you’re on a ship, so who cares that it’s tight quarters. We’re on this crazy, huge amazing machine that can do extraordinary things, so I enjoyed it.”

Travis Van Winkle The Last Ship Interview

Can you tease what’s coming up for your character?

Travis Van Winkle: “I can give you a little hint without giving too much. Throughout the first part of the season, we know that my character has let himself down a bit in his leadership responsibilities because he’s got sidetracked with romance. So as the season progresses, my character really starts to align with what’s important and regain not only his own trust but the crew’s trust. So even though no one knows what’s happened yet, I know, or my character knows that he’s not being the leader that he knows he is. So throughout the rest of season, it’s just about building my way back into the leader I know that I am.”

Do you have any military background in your family?

Travis Van Winkle: “Yeah, my grandfather was in World War II, flew planes, and my mom and dad actually met in the Air Force and they fell in love in the Air Force. So my character is, I guess, living on that tradition.”

Are we going to see more with that romance?

Travis Van Winkle: [Laughing] “Does romance ever die?”

They’re not in a good place right now.

Travis Van Winkle: “What I love about this storyline is it’s difficult. Love is difficult sometimes and it’s hard. It doesn’t always work and there’s pain involved and sacrifice. So, throughout the season, I feel like it’s the push and the pull that everyone that’s ever been in love goes through. No one comes out of being in love unscathed. Pain is 100% reality of love and I feel like this relationship represents that, and there is a journey that continues down the road. I can’t say any more than that.”

Does the dog survive?

Travis Van Winkle: “No comment. I’m kidding, I have no idea. I haven’t read any of the scripts.”

There hasn’t been a whole lot of death so far.

Travis Van Winkle:There have been. Every one of my friends has died. Throughout the first five episodes, I’ve lost four people.”

But the main characters have all survived.

Travis Van Winkle: “Yes, I see what you’re saying.”

Will it get grimmer before it gets better?

Travis Van Winkle: “That’s usually what happens, right? It’s like any great song. It has to come up to this intense crescendo before there’s a release. The stakes, the intensity, the situations, the relationships, everything just escalates and escalates to the point where the finale’s going to leave you saying, ‘Oh, no, no…Season two.'”

What can you say about the finale?

Travis Van Winkle: “So the finale, I don’t know if I’m supposed to say this or not, but it’s a musical. They’re going to throw everyone just a curve ball.”

Like Grease?

Travis Van Winkle: “It’s a mixture. It’s a fusion, actually. It’s a musical fusion.”

What influence has Michael Bay had on the show?

Travis Van Winkle: “So this is my third time working with Michael Bay and one thing that Michael Bay brings is intensity. Whether he’s on set or not, that intensity resonates on set and it raises everyone’s standards. So I feel like working on this job even though he hasn’t been on set every day, or even that much at all, we know that his stamp is on this and that he’s going to be watching everything.

So everyone’s busting their ass and really extending past what they thought they were capable of to create the best possible product, and it’s a blessing to have him being the captain of this show because he’s known for action, he’s known for quality in movies. So to bring that to television, there’s this excitement and enthusiasm that all of us are carrying and we’re really doing our best to live up to that standard.”

Did he want you to play this particular role?

Travis Van Winkle: “I had to audition for this role, but my tape went to him and he was like, ‘Yes.’ I’m glad that I’ve worked with him prior. You keep working with the same people. If you create good relationships, hopefully, you continue to work with those people throughout the rest of your career and so far that’s proven that way with Michael.”

How much of you is in your character?

Travis Van Winkle: “Well, you know, Jack Nicholson says that acting is autobiographical so no matter what, big parts of me are for sure in this character. But my parents were in the Air Force, they met in the Air Force, they weren’t avid about the Air Force and so I didn’t grow up with this military structure. I didn’t grow up being told that I should go to the military.

Even though they came from the military, we didn’t really have a military family. But, it’s nice to carry on that tradition because that is where they met and my grandfather did serve in World War II and any of the armed services to me represent phenomenal, amazing people that are willing to sacrifice their lives for others, and what that stands for is something that I stand for so I’m just glad to be in alignment with that.”

Is this your first Comic Con?

Travis Van Winkle: “This is my first time and it’s awesome. You have fans here that really care and they love the work, so for me, this is a walk in the park. It’s nice to be around people that appreciate what you do.”




Sarah Carter and Drew Roy on ‘Falling Skies’ and Relationship Drama

By
Rebecca Murray
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Drew Roy and Sarah Carter Interview
Sarah Carter in ‘Falling Skies’ season 4 (Photo by James Dittiger/TNT)

Our favorite alien invasion survivors have been split up for the first part of season four of TNT’s Falling Skies, which has meant couple Hal (Drew Roy) and Maggie (Sarah Carter) haven’t had a chance to work on their relationship. That changed with the July 27, 2014 episode and at the 2014 San Diego Comic-Con, Roy and Carter discussed how they’ve approached the season and what they hope is in the future for Hal and Maggie.

Sarah Carter and Drew Roy Falling Skies Interview

So far this season, you’ve been separated. How volatile will the reunion be?

Drew Roy: “This is the part that I’m most excited about out of the show, you can call me selfish, but it is kind of for a selfish reason, just to see how this whole thing’s going to play out. We’ve got this triangle going on and it really is any man’s game as to who you root for, who you don’t root for. It can change throughout the episodes, within the episodes. To me it’s like a little experiment that we throw everything on it, see what happens and then walk away and go, ‘Huh, that’s what happened.'”

Maggie and Ben are getting quite close…

Sarah Carter: “Well, that’s circumstances. I think everybody’s been split up and for Maggie not to have Hal, it’s pretty lonely. And also Ben is thrown into this pretty surreal world where his younger sister is all of a sudden this beautiful blonde young woman and ruling this cult-like environment. So the two of us bond over a reality check, basically. It’s only when Hal and Maggie come together things really pick up for the love triangle starting [on July 27].

It’s certainly justified like Drew was saying. All kinds of valid questions that will come up for fans, and people are going to like it, people are going to not like it. It was uncomfortable, I’ll just speak for myself. It’s a very uncomfortable season for me. Physically, too, actually. I don’t know, I’m excited. I’m really excited to see how people respond.”

Drew Roy:: “I really am.”

Sarah Carter: “It’s really sweet how much people love Maggie and Hal. You just feel the fans rooting for Maggie and Hal to make it.”

It’s seeing you apart after you were so close, after Hal’s infection with alien bugs, meeting Karen in the middle of the night and you finding out. To see you guys apart after that is like, “What?!”

Drew Roy: “Especially having left on such not good terms. We really only saw each other in the first episode of this season, and things weren’t smooth between us. So now all this time has gone by and how do they feel about each other? What will that first moment be like when we see each other? Will it be a happy moment? Will it be, ‘Oh, here we go again.’ Now a can of worms is back open. So there’s all of that that’s been building this whole time.”

Sarah Carter: “It’s been really cool for me, Sarah, not Maggie, to watch this season and be able to watch Drew play Hal in a completely different context. I’ve been excited about how much growth there’s been in his character in terms of his leadership and interacting with Colin. I love the Pope and Hal stuff. So I hope it’s been great for the fans to see both of us in different worlds and out of our little romance.”

When it came to the escape from the ghetto, how was filming that sequence?

Drew Roy: “We don’t really have soundstages but we shoot at […]this part of this outdoor studio that’d actually been several things. It’s where Pope and Weaver go down and the people confront them thinking there’s food there, and a couple other different things. So they had turned it into this long tunnel-looking things. We’re all packed in there super tight but there’s a ton of room on the outside where the cameras are moving, but we were all in there pretty tight. One of the most fun things I’ve had this season with this whole leadership aspect of Hal is that a lot of times I’m working with a large number of extras, which can either be very intimidating or very inspiring, because if you look at them as, ‘Okay, I’ve got to get them to do what I need them to do,’ it really does make you have to be a leader just in and of itself. So that was a really interesting thing I got to do, but that particular day, we got to run around, kill skitters, I always love killing skitters. I found this little pole, stabbed him a few times. Sometimes imaginary skitter, sometimes it’s a real guy in a suit and you’ve got to make sure you don’t actually kill him.”

What do you hope for the fifth season?

Drew Roy: “The way this season ends, it’s really hard to know which direction they’ll take it in. It really has a pretty culminating end. It doesn’t just end, but we’ve been building toward this one thing that you’re really about to start seeing in the next two or three episodes. We build towards it, build towards it, and then it sort of all happens. So depending on what they decide to do with it will really dictate a lot about next season, but I think we all have ideas of what we’d like our character to do and where to go and how to go.”

Sarah Carter: “The writers are great. They call us in every year before a new season and they totally listen to our ideas. Obviously they give us theirs. But I think we do have a good storyline, and actually the fans do too. We kind of feel the fan response, especially to this love triangle…I think knowing that people are rooting for Hal and Maggie is something the writers have to consider. So keep putting your ideas out there because it’s definitely evolving as we go.”




Interview with ‘Witches of East End’ Star Julia Ormond

By
Rebecca Murray
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Julia Ormond Witches of East End Interview
Julia Ormond and Mädchen Amick star in ‘Witches of East End’ (Photo by Sergei Bachlakov/Copyright 2014)

Season two of Lifetime’s Witches of East End has taken the story into darker territory, and that’s absolutely fine with Julia Ormond who plays Joanna, a free-spirited artist and mother who’s also a powerful witch. Sitting down to chat about the second season during the lull before the Witches of East End-themed Comic-Con party at the Tipsy Crow in downtown San Diego, Ormond offered her take on this season and the evolution of all the central characters.

Julia Ormond Witches of East End Interview

This has been an interesting second season.

Julia Ormond: “Good. Good, good, good, yeah, a number of changes.”

How far in advance did they tell you your character’s arc?

Julia Ormond: “They don’t tell us stuff in advance at all, really. I mean, there was a little bit more sharing of some story stuff for season two as it came up, but pretty much, we get the script as we go into the next episode. So we really kind of don’t know. But the tone of the show is shifting. It was something from the moment they went from pilot to season one, they’ve sort of gradually been shifting and shifting and shifting.

I think it’s supported by the story because season one to me seems very much about four women who are witches trying to survive in East End, and then as the portal opens up, it kind of shifts into different realms. We don’t see Asgard, but it then becomes about beings trying to survive in a certain realm being attacked by other beings from Asgard.”

Do you prefer not knowing what’s coming up?

Julia Ormond: “It’s a mix. There is something about it, there’s something really fabulously immediate about doing TV. You get your script, you get what you’re going to do, you’re very focused on that day. But I also love doing research and I love having time to think things through, so there are aspects of it for me that are really challenging, especially if there’s a kind of lag time that I’m still adjusting to in terms of what we’ve shot and you see bits come out and then edited.

You shoot something and you make choices, and then you make other choices that you hope that would support, and then you see it and you go, ‘Oh no. That didn’t appear at all.’ But it’s interesting. There’s something fun about the immediacy of it.”

What do you like about the second season’s evolution?

Julia Ormond: “I think season one was finding its own voice in all reality and I hope it’s okay to say that. I think what’s really interesting is the tone of the show and I think season one, the way that it’s shot in season two allows us much more freedom as actors because there’s a movement and energy actually in the camera movement instead of it being slightly more still, or much more still.

Alan Arkush came on board and brought a lot of visuals that are organic to the story. He wanted to make it darker and he said, ‘You’ve got to have the visual matching the story much more.’ He brought in elements that he felt deliberately made it creepy. I think he’s done that very, very successfully. So they’re making a lot of visual choices that are different.

And then I think there’s something about the level of wit and warmth in it that I think is just in shift mode. It’s shifting in terms of I hope that it never loses it because I think it’s actually part of the genre. To me, however seriously we take it, it has to be somewhat tongue-in-cheek. It has to have a sort of Gremlins aspects, sort of ghoulish. You have to have those moments of looking at it as the audience and going, ‘Really?’ but be totally in it as character and that to me is the escapism of it. There’s got to be that kind of warmth in it, otherwise, it goes off the deep end into something else.”

That’s the secret ingredient on the show.

Julia Ormond: “Very much for us too. We’re constantly being reined in in terms of, ‘But can’t we?’ ‘Nooo.’ ‘You’ve got to…’ ‘No, you’re not allowed to.’ ‘But it would be really funny if we…’ ‘Nooo.'”

Can you talk about your character’s relationship with her son Frederick?

Julia Ormond: “For me, it’s been one of those things. It goes back to the question that you asked in terms of what you do, what you act and then what’s edited out and what comes out certainly have been different things for me. Part of that is accepting that in television, you have buildup in season one of something where somebody’s been rejected, somebody’s been left behind, this really painful thing. And then all of a sudden, the uber witch is just, ‘Oh, my son? Come on, then.’ And it’s like, ‘Wait a minute. Wait a minute, wait a minute. Are they supposed to be…?’

I think for me what it is is that for Joanna, she’s had so much loss of her children that something happens when Frederick comes back that I think she feels she has a second chance with somebody in one long continuous life. Nina Lederman is the head of Lifetime and it’s very funny. When she talked about Joanna, she described her as a witch in recovery. For me, Joanna is trying to play straight and she’s ready to forgive, so she’s very forgiving towards Frederick. I don’t believe that she is completely convinced. I think there’s something about her power that says he can stay near and if it goes wrong, we’ll deal with that.”




Noah Wyle and Will Patton Team Up to Talk About ‘Falling Skies’

By
Rebecca Murray
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Noah Wyle and Will Patton Falling Skies Interview
The cast of ‘Falling Skies’ season 4 at the 2014 San Diego Comic-Con (Photo by Richard Chavez)

Unfortunately, there’s only one more season of TNT’s Falling Skies. Fortunately, that should be enough time to wrap-up this alien apocalypse series starring Noah Wyle, Will Patton, Drew Roy, Moon Bloodgood, and Sarah Carter.

As season four continues, the cast of the popular series took part in a Q&A with Falling Skies fans at the San Diego Comic-Con. Wyle and Patton also sat down for roundtable interviews for more in-depth discussions of their characters.

Noah Wyle and Will Patton Falling Skies Interview

Your character is internalizing a lot more due to separation from his family. What can you tell us about the remaining episodes and the family dynamic?

Noah Wyle: “Well, to speak to the first thing you said, Tom does a lot less talking. He’s a lot more contemplative this season. Last season was about him trying to lead through words, speechifying a lot. He got elected President of the United States, and he was suddenly put in this position where he had to act like a statesman and inspire people with some rhetoric. I always felt like he was wearing a suit that didn’t really fit him but he was doing the best he could. He knew how presidents behaved, he knew what they were supposed to say, he knew what they were supposed to act like, so he was going through the motions, whether he organically felt like he was suited to the job or not.

This season, being isolated, I think he really starts to fixate on leadership through symbology. That was what the catalyst for the whole ghost storyline was, the idea of creating a mythic character that people could really find inspiration in that it was bigger than any individual man or action could be. That idea of building a myth and having that reputation extend beyond your circle of influence is part of the storytelling for the rest of the season. Eventually, he sort of becomes a man of action again but in the first part of the season, he’s pulling back from that, really assessing very soberly how he wanted to lead in the future was a big part of our decision making.”

Tom doesn’t want to be labeled the hero. Is that why he wore the mask?

Noah Wyle: “I think he doesn’t want the recognition but I think he also knows the Ghost can live on beyond Tom Mason. Once he goes up on the ship and everybody starts putting on the same disguise and running around, everybody gets to taste a sense of what it’s like to be their own leader. At the prison camp, the fact that we were isolated, Matt gets to be a Tom Mason in the school. Anne gets to be a Tom Mason in the search for Lexi. Everybody gets to be a leader in their own right in the storyline that they’re isolated. And then we bring everybody back together again and then have to reassess, now that everybody’s had some independence and some autonomy and responsibility, how do we fit back together and who’s going to lead.”

Weaver has experienced a tragedy with Jeannie. What can you tell us about the mindset you have to put yourself into to just keep going?

Will Patton: “You know, Weaver’s been fighting for the Second Mass so long that it’s become just a part of him, even though this could have brought him down. Somehow he’s brought back in through Matt, through Tom, through the way Jeannie behaved in the end, the fight that she put up so that there’s something in him that the Second Mass has become so much a part of his soul that even the most horrible thing that could happen, he’s still fighting for this thing that’s been so intense for him that he can hold on to that to live. He can hold on to our family, to the family.”

Your performance was intense.

Noah Wyle: “Thank you very much for recognizing. It’s pearls before swine oftentimes up there on the set. He gives performances that aren’t always captured on film that we don’t always edit it properly.”

Will Patton: “That’s right, for all of us.”

Noah Wyle: “There are moments of truth that he brings to it that are the anchors that allow everything else to be plausible. He can believe that this girl’s got alien powers and control the weather because of the way that he interacts with his child.”

How was coming back from season three and jumping into season four in this brand-new world?

Will Patton: “It was intense, really intense for me, going from what we developed as a core for ourselves and all of a sudden, boom, completely upset. I had a really hard time making that shift.”

Noah Wyle: “I’ve got three answers to that question. One is I got some time off which was f*cking great. I went home and saw my kids. Second answer is it empowered everybody else’s character in a way that they couldn’t be empowered if they’re part of the group, so it fleshed their characters out for that part of isolation, so it’s worth it. The third is purely practical, which is that as you all know, we’ve had a regime change every year behind the camera.

We’ve had five show runners in five seasons, very atypical to have five different writing staffs. So how does a new writing staff that doesn’t know these characters come on to an already moving freight train? You blow it up, it fragments everybody, and you start from scratch. You say everything that’s defined you to this point no longer defines you. Everything you think you are, you no longer are. You are a cypher and we’re gonna rebuild you.”

Will Patton: “It’s screwed up in a way.”

Noah Wyle: “But it allowed our writers to find their footing, and then when they did, then the characters’ voices come back to themselves.”

Rhona Mitra on ‘The Last Ship,’ Viruses, and Reuniting with Eric Dane

By
Rebecca Murray
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Rhona Mitra The Last Ship Interview
Rhona Mitra at the 2014 San Diego Comc Con (Photo by Richard Chavez/ShowbizJunkies)

Rhona Mitra (Strike Back) stars as paleomicrobiologist Rachel Scott in the hit TNT series The Last Ship now airing season one on Sunday nights at 9pm ET/PT. The setup of the show finds the world’s population decimated as the result of a fast-spreading, unstoppable virus, and Rachel Scott is one of the few scientists left able to work on developing a cure.

Onboard the U.S.S. Nathan James, Rachel and the ship’s crew, led by Captain Tom Chandler (played by Eric Dane), race against the clock to try and save the world.

At the 2014 San Diego Comic-Con, Mitra spoke about her character and her off-screen research into viruses.

Rhona Mitra The Last Ship Interview

Where did your fascination with viruses come from?

Rhona Mitra: “I am fascinated with all things involving neurotoxins, so not necessarily viruses but neurotoxins because they have become one of our species’ greatest threats in the last, definitely last half century leading to neurological diseases due to something that I went through myself.

So I was already very in touch with the world of virology, talking to scientists just through my own interest to see what impact various different things are having on us as a species, so various different threats, whether it’s GMOs, chemtrails, EPAs, heavy metals but fundamentally neurotoxins that are hitting our central nervous systems that are creating a defunct species out of us. I find that to be a very poignant subject matter. So this being a virus that’s coming in as another thread, it just seemed like another avenue to explore and uncover, and to dissect and hopefully overcome.”

What did you study?

Rhona Mitra: “I did some studies with neurotoxins. Two years before I started working on the show, I’ve been talking to virologists and doing my own research on the causes of neurological diseases and neurotoxins and the solutions and remedies for neurological diseases – all-natural might I say. So the study of plant medicine and environmental remediation.”

How is your experience filming on the ship?

Rhona Mitra: “It’s been extraordinary because I’m a foreigner, so I’m sort of being welcomed aboard Team America and I’m not military in this. I’ve played military in the past so it’s a lovely thing to take off the suit, if you like, and be the rogue element in a very strict environment, but also adhere to their world and learn from their world. I look at it from a place of I just see boys and girls. I just see men and women. I don’t see flags. I don’t see badges. I don’t see hats. I think it’s an extraordinary environment for an orphanage, a generation of people who need a place to go, to serve and be proud. It’s a place that I see that isn’t really about war.

It’s about a unified force, and the military outfits that I’ve worked with in the past, the common denominator that I find between the men and women who are at war, whether it’s the army or the Navy or the Navy SEALS, SAS is that there’s a feeling of a unified pride in being able to show up and do your best. That’s what I see. The rest of it, and this amazing machine and who made that and there are these guns and they’re so expensive. I’m like, ‘It costs how much? And it destroys what?’ And I’m a pacifist so I’m the sort of hippie on the ship. I find myself in these environments though that are very testosterone-driven and I connect to the human element, so it’s lovely to see that and feel that.”

How did the men make you feel welcome?

Rhona Mitra: “I’m fortunate I’ve worked with Eric Dane before. Years ago we did a shoe called Gideon’s Crossing so he was one of my first friends that I met when I came to Los Angeles. He’s like old family so that’s an easy one. I don’t know if you’ve met the other chaps but they are all – we’re really lucky because not all casts are as even-keeled. We’re all like a bunch of cubs. We all just muck around and no one’s got an ego, which is an incredibly rare thing. Everyone’s super excited to work and show up every day and do their best.

It’s a really unusual group of people and there’s no diva, no one wants to be bigger or better than anyone. Everybody’s just on an even keel. The military also will kind of extend that because I think the uniformity of our surroundings puts everybody on best behavior, so everybody plays nice. I did make Eric, when he came out in his white uniform first, I said, ‘Okay, for a minute you’re going to be Richard Gere and I’m going to be Debra Winger and we’re having this moment and you’re picking me up.'”




Movie Review: ‘Magic in the Moonlight’

By
Kevin Finnerty
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Review of Magic in the Moonlight
Colin Firth as Stanley and Emma Stone as Sophie in ‘Magic in the Moonlight’ (Photo by Jack English © 2014 Gravier Productions, Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics)

“My mental impressions are cloudy,” says Sophie Baker (Emma Stone), a spirit-medium. “Are they cumulus clouds or cirrus?’ replies Stanley Crawford (Colin Firth), a great magician and first-rate fake spiritualist debunker in Woody Allen’s comedy film Magic in the Moonlight.

Approached by his only friend Howard Burkan (Simon McBurney), Stanley travels to the Côte d’Azur mansion of the Catledge family, where he’s determined to reveal that the so-called clairvoyant Sophie, who’s staying with the family and has the mother convinced she can communicate with her dead husband, is nothing more than a con woman and a fraud. This becomes more and more difficult, however, after spending only a little time with her, Sophie begins to reveal things about Stanley’s life that she has no way of knowing. This causes Stanley to begin to wonder if Sophie is the genuine article and to consider that perhaps there is more to life and the hereafter than meets the eye.

Stilted and tedious, Magic in the Moonlight fails to be either magical or romantic. Colin Firth is perfect as Stanley Crawford, the arrogant Englishman illusionist who prides himself on being smarter than anyone he knows or has ever met. Firth’s the absolute best thing about the film. Emma Stone gives perhaps her worst performance to date – yes, even worse than the Amazing Spider-Man films – as Sophie, the spirit medium who might just be the real thing. It’s an uneven, unconvincing, and overdone portrayal of a woman who is either an outstanding con artist or a true clairvoyant. She also has zero chemistry with Firth, which makes the second half of the film, as the two are supposed to be developing feelings for each other, uncomfortable to watch.

The script is incredibly weak, especially for a Woody Allen film, and Magic in the Moonlight becomes too painfully predictable halfway through. A perfect example of this is when Stanley and Sophie are driving back from town and the car breaks down…what should happen next? Why, a rainstorm, of course…Oh Please!!

Sadly, Magic in the Moonlight is a forgettable and uninspired film that should be missed.

GRADE: D+

Magic in the Moonlight is rated PG-13 for a brief suggestive comment, and smoking throughout.




Dave Bautista’s Looking for More Comedies After ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’

By
Fred Topel
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Dave Bautista Guardians of the Galaxy Interview
Dave Bautista as Drax the Destroyer in ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ (Photo © Marvel Studios)

Dave Bautista’s a thundering presence in the WWE ring and on the screen in Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, but simply starring in action films isn’t what Bautista sees when he looks to his future in films. Bautista’s earning rave reviews for his performance as Drax the Destroyer in Guardians of the Galaxy, and audiences and critics alike are applauding his deadpan delivery of some of the movie’s best lines.

In support of the movie’s August 1, 2014 theatrical release, I had the opportunity to speak with Bautista about tackling the role of Drax and now being a part of the Marvel universe.

Dave Bautista Guardians of the Galaxy Interview

Did you ever think you would get to do comedy coming from WWE?

Dave Bautista: “I hoped so. I had hope. That was one of the challenges was getting out there and getting people to see that I was interested in doing this type of stuff – stuff other than action films.”

I think the one thing people take for granted about professional wrestlers is at least 50 percent of your job is public speaking.

Dave Bautista: “Right, right. The WWE is very press friendly, very fan friendly, and we also do a lot of charity stuff so we’re out there. We’re put in the public a lot. It’s one of those things that was real uncomfortable for me when I first started because I was kind of an introvert. I actually had some serious issues when I first started. Throughout the years I got a little more comfortable with it.”

Did James Gunn give you more direction than other directors you’ve worked with?

Dave Bautista: “James was much more interactive than any other director. I haven’t worked with all that many, but he was much more interactive. He was just always there, always on set with us, always talking to us and guiding us through it. It just felt like he was constantly there with us, rather than sitting behind a curtain somewhere watching a monitor. It just felt like he was always interacting with us. The whole way through, even through auditioning and rehearsal, he was just always there in the mix.”

You and Zoe Saldana both play painted characters. When you interacted with each other and handled each other, would the paints rub off and mix?

Dave Bautista: “We had different types of paint. I think Zoe’s might have been more of an oil-based and it was constantly coming off, so they were retouching it. Mine was more of an alcohol-based, I think, so once it was on there, it was really on there.”

Was being shirtless the whole movie just like working in the ring?

Dave Bautista: “No, it was weird because the tattoos are prosthetics which they glue on. Then through the layers of paint…I tell people I just felt like I had a spandex shirt on. That’s what it felt like, I had a very tight shirt on.”

Were you forbidden from doing some stunts that would have been easy for you just because on movies they don’t let the actors do all of the dangerous physical stunts?

Dave Bautista: “No, they actually let me do quite a few. The stuff that they kept us away from was a lot of the wire works stuff, stuff that was really going to yank you and jar you. Especially the stuff that they would have to do over and over and over. They thought that was a bigger risk and it was more likely that I might come up with an injury. The smallest injury, twist your ankle or something, that might slow down production. Things like that.

All the fight scenes and stuff, we went through months of stunt training and stuff like that. I actually got to do a lot of that stuff, the smaller stuff on our own.”

Did you work any of your own moves into Drax’s repertoire?

Dave Bautista: “I did actually, some. Not so much my wrestling stuff, but some of my martial art. I’ve been a practitioner of Filipino Kali for years and they let me do a little bit. It made sense since Drax uses knives. Yeah, I definitely got to interpret a little bit of that into it.”


Where you a comic book fan and a Drax fan?

Dave Bautista: “Before I got this audition I had never heard of Drax or Guardians of the Galaxy and I think most people are going to probably say the same. Yeah, even growing up, I wasn’t the type of kid to pick up a comic book and read it. I was the type of kid who would pick it up and look at the pictures. I got most of my entertainment from cartoons, from TV and from movies.”

Was the audition full of other big guys like yourself?

Dave Bautista: “As far as my role, they were pretty big. I think Jason Momoa was auditioning, Djimon Hounsou was auditioning for Drax. There were a couple of other names but those are the kind of really, really big names, especially Djimon, such a well established and talented actor. I found this out after the fact. I really wasn’t aware and I was reading internet rumors to see what was going on. I don’t know if you’re familiar with Marvel, they’re just so hush-hush about everything.”

The humor in the movie, Drax especially, is so deadpan. Was that easy to get?

Dave Bautista: “For the most part it was pretty easy playing a straight man, especially to Chris Pratt. But thank God for editing though because there was more than a few cases where I just burst out laughing because we were having so much fun on the set. A lot of stuff that we did that actually made it to the final edit was off-the-cuff stuff. It was improv stuff. It was honestly one of those things where every other take you’re just dying laughing.”

Did you expect a superhero movie to have so much emphasis on the comedy?

Dave Bautista: “No, I really didn’t. When I first found out and the role I got a little familiar with that, and of course James Gunn – it kind of seemed odd that he was going to be directing a superhero movie. If you’re familiar with his stuff, he’s got a dark, twisted sense of humor. After reading the script it just made sense. When we actually started filming is when it really started to take the picture and see how refreshing it is. I saw the movie in its entirety for the first time on Friday, and then after seeing it all put together and pieced together, it’s new and fresh, and it’s just so fun.”

Working on the set, could you imagine what is was going to look like finished because so much of it is post-production?

Dave Bautista: “No. I mean, you could so much because some of our sets were very elaborate. I think you just don’t get a sense of how beautiful and colorful this film is until you actually see it. Visually it’s an amazing movie with all the scenery and the colors. It’s beautiful.”

What are your favorite superhero movies so far, besides Guardians?

Dave Bautista: “I’m a huge Iron Man fan. It’s always awkward when people ask because I have to be honest, I love the Dark Knight series. I thought it was awesome. I’ve always been a Batman fan, I always will be. I’m a Marvel fan now and I’m loyal to Marvel, but at the same time being a superhero geek, I love Batman.”

How about just general action movies, since you were a Van Damme fan?

Dave Bautista: “Yeah. I think Jason Statham is awesome, but actually I’m one of those few people who would rather see him doing stuff like Snatch. I love all the action stuff but that’s when I became a fan of his, from Snatch. I like the Guy Ritchie stuff a lot, Lock, Stock, & Two Smoking Barrels. I’m a fan of that stuff.

If Guardians of the Galaxy becomes a bigger part of the Marvel universe, are you open to appearing in other movies or even on their TV series?

Dave Bautista: “Yeah, for sure. It’s such an amazing opportunity being part of the Marvel family. Yeah, of course I would do anything, even outside the character of Drax. I would love to do anything Marvel related. I’m really hoping this will open up other doors, other avenues of films. I really want to do some more dialogue-driven stuff and character-driven stuff. Hopefully this will open some doors to do some other roles.”

Are you still set to play Tong Po in Kickboxer?

Dave Bautista: “Yes, which I’m so tickled about. It’s just a nostalgia thing for me, I think. It just brings you back. I was such a fan of the movie when I was younger. I’m kind of excited. They’re still revamping the script so we haven’t gotten the final script, but I’m really excited about it.”

In the original he paralyzes the hero’s brother. Is your Tong Po going to be even more deadly and vicious?

Dave Bautista: “I hope so.That’s the way I’m envisioning him when I see Tong Po. That’s my reference right now, until I get the script I really won’t have another reference. That’s what made me love the movie, it’s what made Jean-Claude Van Damme that underdog that you wanted to root for, is only because Tong Po was so damned menacing.”

Do you want to dip your hands in glass like they did, too?

Dave Bautista: “I hope that it will be somewhat along those lines, maybe even a little bit more drastic. I really don’t know how they’re going to change it. I think it’s going to have that same feel to it, but also they’ve got to make it fresh and new. They’ve got creative people on this so I’m sure they’ll come up with something really cool.”

Originally that wa a Thai character in the movie. Are they going to adapt it to you?

Dave Bautista: “They’re going to have to because I’m not going to be speaking Thai anytime soon. I’m sure there’s going to be some twists and turns. It’ll make sense; it all comes together. They’re going to, of course, have to revamp it a little bit and refresh it and make it make sense.”

I know RZA is secretly making a Man With the Iron Fist sequel. Are you going to return as Brass Body?

Dave Bautista: “I hope so. I’m kind of hearing this as we go along, just like you are, but I hope so. As of yet, I’ve not been offered anything and definitely haven’t shot anything. I would love to return as Brass Body.”

– By Fred Topel

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Movie Review: ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’

By
Ian Forbes
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Guardians of the Galaxy Movie Review
Gamora (Zoe Saldana), Rocket Racoon (voiced by Bradley Cooper), Peter Quill/Star-Lord (Chris Pratt), Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel) and Drax the Destroyer (Dave Bautista) in ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ (Photo © Marvel Studios)

If there’s a cinematic printing press right now, it’s being held by the folks at Marvel Studios. Following a shaky start with films like Daredevil, Elektra, The Fantastic Four, and Hulk which didn’t get the supervision they needed, the folks at Marvel organized themselves and managed to create a cohesive vision for their comic book properties. Of course, that’s only the stuff that Paramount is helping out with. Let’s just ignore the mistakes still being made by Sony and Fox with Spider-Man, the X-Men, and the Fantastic Four for right now.

Well, after a string of origin movies that led to being able to pull off The Avengers, now Marvel is moving through their cinematic phases and key to the future of their slate is the newly released Guardians of the Galaxy. What? You’re not familiar with this franchise? Don’t fret, you’re not alone. Even as a Marvel comic book fan back in the day, my only exposure to this group was in its previous incarnation … which involved an entirely different group of heroes … and a very different version of one character that actually made it into the film.

For those of you not into the nitty gritty details, just know that if Marvel is playing their cards right, the foundation for a huge, ginormous, mega, large, grand, ridiculous, and potentially awesome cross-over event truly begins with Guardians of the Galaxy. They’re a group of anti-heroes, criminals with good hearts basically, who band together by circumstance and find that their collaboration is a win-win. If you want the details, there’s this thing called the Internet. Use it.

Anywho, the basic plot here is that this rag-tag group of outcasts band together to oppose the potential destruction of a planet with roughly 12 billion people on it. Along the way there will be oodles of hand-to-hand combat, futuristic weapons, witty one-liners, and a soundtrack stuffed with recognizable and catchy tunes (I found the use of The Runaways’ Cherry Bomb quite effective).

Key to the film’s success is Chris Pratt is in his highest profile role to date. With his humor and the ability for audiences to relate to him, he’s perfectly cast and is the glue that binds together the team. Zoe Saldana and Bautista make for good warriors so that made sense for the roles that they portray coming off their respective work in Colombiana and the WWE/F. Perhaps the oddest thing is that the two most recognizable names in the cast (Bradley Cooper and Vin Diesel) provide voice work for CGI characters. Now, they do a fine enough job but you could have cast just about any good voice-over artist to do the same thing. I suppose it helps your marketing and makes the producers feel better about the $150 million dollar budget in getting them on-board so it is what it is. Not much of a issue for me really, just funny.

So is there a bigger downside than unnecessary voice-over casting? Actually, not really. People hold The Avengers up as the gold standard for Marvel movies and I’d generally agree with that. Despite the many, many elements that made no sense, at least it had Joss Whedon at the helm to maintain the right tone, actually understand the characters, and bring his own brand of storytelling to the table. Pretty much all the stand-alone movies are cookie cutter, paint by number jobs devoid of any real personality (unless Robert Downey Jr. or Tom Hiddleston are actually on-screen).


What Guardians of the Galaxy has going for it is director/co-writer James Gunn. While his work has largely been outside the mainstream, those who know it have appreciated his perspective and ability to blend humor in with other genres. Case in point is the fantastic Super, which I likened to a far more realistic version of Kick-Ass if I remember my own review well enough. Being familiar with his work, I was excited to see what he’d bring to the table and my expectations were met and exceeded.

Combining his script, direction, and the playful yet appropriate casting, Guardians of the Galaxy turned out to be the very best Marvel has cranked out yet. It’s packed with action, plants its tongue firmly in cheek, and doesn’t bog down the pace of things with clunky attempts to add pathos. Gunn is able to tell essentially five origin stories while still pushing the plot forward and even setting the groundwork for the future Marvel movies that will likely tie into events set in motion with The Avengers and continued here.

What solidifies the movie as the best of the bunch is that it should appeal to both comic book fans and those who know nothing about the books. Hell, most comic book fans don’t know the majority of these characters either. As much fun as I had watching Lucy the other week, Guardians of the Galaxy really is the king of the summer movies (sorry, Godzilla). Anyone who’s been wanting a 2014 summer spectacle movie that will justify the ticket price and demand a big tub of popcorn be purchased along the way has finally gotten what they’ve been waiting for.

One note I should make is that there was no big reveal at the end of the credits on the print that I was able to watch but who knows if something will be added later. And just remember that you can skip the extra costs and forgo the 3D, it was nothing special and that money is better spent on concessions.

Oh, and seriously. If there’s one soundtrack you want to own this year, it’s this one. I’m not even sure loss of hearing is a good enough reason to dislike it.

GRADE: A-

Guardians of the Galaxy is rated PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi violence and action, and for some language.




Behind the Scenes of ‘The Boxtrolls’ with Elle Fanning and Isaac Hempstead-Wright

By
Fred Topel
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Elle Fanning and Isaac Hempstead Wright Boxtrolls Interview
Winnie (voiced by Elle Fanning) and Eggs (voiced by Isaac Hempstead Wright) in LAIKA and Focus Features’ family event movie THE BOXTROLLS, opening nationwide September 26th. Credit: LAIKA, Inc. / Focus Features

Isaac Hempstead-Wright provides the voice of ‘Eggs’ and Elle Fanning lends her voice to ‘Winnie’ in the animated comedy The Boxtrolls directed by Graham Annable and Anthony Stacchi, and based on the book by Alan Snow. The Focus Features and LAIKA film employs stop-motion animation as did LAIKA’s previous releases Coraline (2009) and ParaNorman (2012), and the trailers show The Boxtrolls will have a similar look to the studio’s past films.

Isaac Hempstead-Wright, best known as Bran Stark in Game of Thrones, said he didn’t even have to take time to think about his answer when he was asked to be a part of The Boxtrolls. Hempstead-Wright was anxious to be a part of LAIKA’s universe as was his co-star Elle Fanning.

“I was familiar with it because of Coraline. My sister did the voice of Coraline so I knew about how long it took and how amazing they made everything,” said Fanning during our interview at the 2014 San Diego Comic-Con. “I’ve always been interested in miniature things growing up, so to me it was so intriguing. They sent me the script and a big booklet of all these drawings of what they wanted the Boxtrolls to look like and the world they created, the colors. They had a picture of Winnie, a sketch, which was not quite what she turned out to be. It was in the beginning stages and they were just trying to figure out her clothes and her hair. But right away I wanted to do it. I haven’t done much animation and I like trying all things.”

The two young actors also discussed the process of providing voices for the film and a little about their characters in this interview from Comic-Con:

Focus Features and LAIKA will release The Boxtrolls in theaters on September 26, 2014.

The Plot:

The Boxtrolls is a family event movie that introduces audiences to a new breed of family – The Boxtrolls, a community of quirky, mischievous creatures who have lovingly raised an orphaned human boy named Eggs (voiced by Isaac Hempstead-Wright) in the amazing cavernous home they’ve built beneath the streets of Cheesebridge.

When the town’s villain, Archibald Snatcher (Ben Kingsley), comes up with a plot to get rid of the Boxtrolls, Eggs decides to venture above ground, “into the light,” where he meets and teams up with fabulously feisty Winnie (Elle Fanning). Together, they devise a daring plan to save Eggs’ family.




Exclusive Interview with ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ Co-Writer Nicole Perlman

By
Fred Topel
-

Nicole Perlman is the co-writer of Guardians of the Galaxy, one of the summer of 2014’s most anticipated theatrical releases. Not bad for her first on screen screenwriting credit. As I found out from the following interview, Perlman actually wrote the first script for Marvel before they even hired James Gunn. Naturally writer/director Gunn ran with it, but Perlman was able to specify some of the things he added and what was already in her original script during our chat.

Guardians of the Galaxy launches Marvel’s cosmic universe with Peter Quill/Star-Lord (Chris Pratt) uniting with Gamora (Zoe Saldana), Drax the Destroyer (Dave Bautista), Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper) and Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel). Perlman discussed some of the specific characters (though we avoided true spoilers) as well as her upcoming screenwriting projects and the Marvel movies that never were.

Watch the interview:

Guardians of the Galaxy opens in theaters on August 1, 2014.


The Plot:

From Marvel, the studio that brought you the global blockbuster franchises of Iron Man, Thor, Captain America and The Avengers, comes a new team—the Guardians of the Galaxy. An action-packed, epic space adventure, Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy expands the Marvel Cinematic Universe into the cosmos, where brash adventurer Peter Quill finds himself the object of an unrelenting bounty hunt after stealing a mysterious orb coveted by Ronan, a powerful villain with ambitions that threaten the entire universe. To evade the ever-persistent Ronan, Quill is forced into an uneasy truce with a quartet of disparate misfits—Rocket, a gun-toting raccoon, Groot, a tree-like humanoid, the deadly and enigmatic Gamora and the revenge-driven Drax the Destroyer. But when Quill discovers the true power of the orb and the menace it poses to the cosmos, he must do his best to rally his ragtag rivals for a last, desperate stand—with the galaxy’s fate in the balance.

– By Fred Topel

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