‘Breaking Dawn – Part 2’ actor Robert Pattinson accepts award on his character’s behalf. By Amy Wilkinson, with reporting by Josh Horowitz Robert Pattinson at the Los Angeles “Breaking Dawn – Part 2” premiere Photo: MTV News
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Edward Cullen Wins MTV’s Twi-Fight: See Robert Pattinson’s Reaction!
Whether you love or hate the idea of Disney acquiring and expanding the Star Wars franchise, you can’t say the House of Mouse isn’t treating Episode VII like the prestige project is deserves to be. Vulture reports that screenwriter Michael Arndt, who won an Oscar for his Little Miss Sunshine script, and was nominated for another with Toy Story 3 , is the leading candidate to write the new Star Wars script The website cites insiders who say that Arndt, who’s also the screenwriter for The Hunger Games: Catching Fire , has written a 40- to 50-page treatment, and will probably be one of the screenwriters on board when shooting begins in 2014. In addition to being a successful screenwriter who’s worked successfully with Pixar, Vulture notes that Arndt has lectured extensively on “why the original Star Wars ending is so creatively satisfying.” Turns out it’s not because there’s a big explosion at the end. Although the plot of Episode VII remains the subject of much speculation , Vulture indicates that Disney wants to bring back the three main characters from the original Star Wars : Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia and Han Solo. Reportedly, Harrison Ford is “open” to reprising that last role , despite his apparently conflicted feelings about the character that made him a bankable actor. More ‘Star Wars 7’ News: Harrison Ford Might Return As Han Solo − And Die Happy Luke Skywalker & Princess Leia Knew Of More Star Wars Episodes; Surprised By Lucasfilm Sale ‘Leaked’ Disney ‘Star Wars Episode VII’ Posters Revealed By Conan O’Brien’s Team Coco Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
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Woody-Wan Kenobi? ‘Toy Story 3’ Writer Hired For Next ‘Star Wars’ Trilogy Treatment
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While the style may not be his own, the actor tells MTV News how important it is to the character. By Kevin P. Sullivan Daniel Craig in “Skyfall” Photo: MGM / Columbia
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‘Skyfall’ Star Daniel Craig Doesn’t Take Fashion Tips From Bond
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To cast Sergeant Calhoun, the no-nonsense video game heroine with a heart in Wreck-It Ralph , director Rich Moore looked no further than Hollywood’s favorite ball-busting dynamite gal: Jane Lynch . Alongside John C. Reilly, Sarah Silverman, Jack McBrayer and a cast of fellow character actors and comic veterans, Lynch brings Calhoun to life with pathos and dimension, not to mention a burning passion for blasting evil space bugs into pixelated oblivion. Movieline sat down with Lynch to talk Wreck-It Ralph , the fun of bringing Calhoun to life, and how the film’s deeper themes of self-determination and destiny resonated with the once-aspiring actress who left home to pursue her dreams. But first, the whip-smart Glee fave spitballed an impromptu back story for her space warrior alter ego, known in the film only as Sergeant Calhoun… Only after watching the movie did I learn that your character’s full name is Sergeant Tamora Jean Calhoun. How much of a life before the game within the movie did you imagine for her? Tamora Jean. Tammy Jean! Get out of town. I’m going to write a whole story about her right now: She grew up as Tammy Jean in Alabama, and when she joined the military right after high school she said, “I’m no longer Tammy Jean – I’m not even Tamora Jean. I’m just Calhoun !” You know, there was a back story for my character that is revealed in the film; she was in love, and her husband-to-be was killed by the Cy-Bugs. Cy-Bugs! Her mortal enemy ! I wasn’t sure if anyone involved had seen MacGruber , but MacGruber shared a similar fate. With Will Forte? I love him. I wonder if we ripped it off from him… Did it mean a lot to you to be a part of a Disney film like this? How did you get the call to voice Calhoun? It was huge working with Disney – I mean, to be in a Disney animated film was so preposterous it wasn’t even on my bucket list. So that was a huge thing. Then John Lasseter, who heads up Disney Animation these days, invited me and Jack [McBrayer] and Sarah [Silverman] and a bunch of other great character actors to fly up to San Francisco about two and a half years ago to do a table read. It was like a field trip, we all met at the airport and jumped on a plane, then jumped on a bus… We spent the day with John and within six months we were recording here in L.A. They showed us a rough rendering of our characters and everything involved; Richard, our director, has been working on this for four years. He’s been in a little cave literally for four years and is just now seeing the light of day. Researching arcade games must have been more fun than your average movie prep work. I learned a lot about this world because I’m not a gamer, and am still not a gamer. But the whole world of the arcade, that resonates with a lot of kids. It’s geared toward children of today who know games like Call of Duty, which Hero’s Duty is based on, but there’s a lot more for the now-grown adults who played 8-bit games as children decades ago. Were those games in your life at all when you were a kid? Not a lot. I think I played Pac-Man a couple of times and I played Asteroids in college, but not obsessively or anything. Just at the bar. Your character is, interestingly enough, one of the only representations in Wreck-It Ralph of modern gaming – she’s the heroine of a first-person shooter called Hero’s Duty , and one of the sole female characters in this male-dominated world. But she’s also got a soft core inside that Jack’s character, Fix-It Felix, is able to find . He fixes my heart! And he doesn’t even need to use his magic hammer. No, just by looking at me with the honey glow. “Well, I’m getting the honey glow!” You two have so many great lines; were they all written beforehand or did you slide in some improvisation? They were all written, so I can’t take credit for them. We did improvise a little bit because I got to work with Jack in the sessions, but not a lot, but that always brings the chemistry element into it. Rich really loved that and the stuff we did in those sessions, he used it all. My favorite Calhoun line is “Flattery doesn’t charge these batteries.” I might try to use that in real life, maybe in a bar situation. Go for it! [Laughs] The big theme in this film for Ralph is that he’s turning 30 years old, facing a life crisis. He’s turning 30! I’d never looked at it that way – I’ve been going into adulthood, have been doing the same thing for 30 years and now I’ve got to shake it up. Wondering if you’re on the right path in life, or if that’s even something you can change – is that something you feel you can relate to? Oh, yeah. More about when you’re 20 and stuff like that, but when you’re going into 30 there’s a certain set of expectations that you should be into your adult life now, you should be into your purpose, and a lot of people aren’t. And, you know – should’ve, would’ve. Who knows when the right time is for that? But I think Ralph is at a point where he’s been doing the same thing over and over for years, how many times a day, countless times a day, and he’s not getting any appreciation for it. He’s not enjoying it. He’s not getting invited to any of the parties; he sleeps in the garbage dump. It’s awful. So he says, “You know what? I’m not going to do this anymore.” He thinks being a hero is about getting a medal, but he finds out that being a hero is all about his relationships. He meets Vanellope and cares about her and champions her, and he comes back to where he started, like Tennyson says, and it’s like he’s seeing it for the very first time. Everybody appreciates him now because when he left the game fell apart; he’s like the prodigal son. He takes pride in his work and he knows it’s not about a medal. I love the end of the movie; I burst into tears at that moment. Have you had any Ralph-like moments of revelation in your own life? Getting out of my hometown; going to college was what everybody did, but when I went to graduate school I didn’t have any support for that. Wanting to be an actress, it was like, find something you can do and learn to type. I got offered a scholarship to Cornell to go to graduate school and although my parents were like, “Wow! That’s really great,” they were like, “Theater? Theater ?” I was like, I’m going to do it anyway. I hopped on a train and went to Ithaca, New York. I worked to make money and was given a fellowship, and I taught a class in order to make money, but I did it on my own. What did you teach? Acting. It was part of my fellowship. I think we made $120 a week or something, but it was enough. It was enough in those days, anyway, to pay my rent and keep me in beer and coffee. The essentials! So I think we all have those things where we go, you know what – I’m not getting a lot of support here for this, but I just have to go. I have to go do what I need to do, and I have to take the chance. I can’t take one more day of being in the doldrums because that hurts too much. That’s what I love about this film; these are games, but they’re such metaphors for life. You’re playing your game, but you can “jump” your game. Wreck-It Ralph is in theaters; read along as Movieline gets way existential with star John C. Reilly here . Follow Jen Yamato on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
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Jane Lynch Talks Sgt. Calhoun And Her Own ‘Wreck-It Ralph’ Journey
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It looks like Jamie Foxx may join the second round of The Amazing Spider-Man , joining Andrew Garfield and director Marc Webb . Variety reports the Django Unchained star is in early talks to play Electro in the follow-up set for 2014. The character is a Spider-Man nemesis who acquires the ability to control electricity after he’s struck by lightning. The character first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #9 back in 1964. Lightning figures prominently in a post-credit sequence scene in The Amazing Spider-Man , hinting at the likelihood that Electro may appear in the sequel. Along with Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone is set to reprise her role, while Shailene Woodley is in talks to play Spidey love interest Marty Jane Watson. The Amazing Spider-Man took in over $262 million domestically and over $750 million worldwide this year. [ Source: Variety ]
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Jamie Foxx Eyes Spider-Man 2 Villain Role
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Flight , the first non-motion-capture feature Cast Away and Forrest Gump filmmaker Robert Zemeckis has directed in over a decade, is the kind of movie that, people like to bemoan, the industry doesn’t make anymore. It’s a solid, burnished work made about adults for adults and anchored by Denzel Washington in a role that calls for some classic star gravitas. It’s a mainstream film, but a consciously meaningful one, occupying that increasingly perilous mid-budget middle ground in a world continually drifting toward the opposing poles of massive blockbusters and scrappy indies. There’s not a superhero in sight and not a trace of nuance either — it’s the straightforward drama of a man forced by circumstances out of his control to confront the destructive way he’s been living his life. That Flight turns out to be a disappointingly standard addiction story in its second half also serves as a reminder that Hollywood tends to be more invested in these types of self-serious movies than most actual audiences. In its need to reach a smug, by-the-book end goal of redemption and recovery, the film sheds much of the life and complexity it shows in the beginning, devolving from a morally ambiguous story to a story all about its moral. Based on a screenplay by John Gatins ( Real Steel ), Flight ‘s opening sequences are a dazzling display of studio filmmaking at its limber heights. The camera follows Captain Whip Whitaker (Washington) out of a night-long bender and through the start of what should be a quick, routine Orlando to Atlanta flight. Halfway through, however, the plane malfunctions and things go wrong with terrifying rapidity. In the wake of the crash, friends and family mourn the lost while the press and public clamor for someone to blame, and we learn that Whip may be a great pilot — he’s his best self in the air — but he’s also a functional alcoholic in deep denial. It’s not Whip’s fault the plane starts to go down, but when it does he proves himself capable of grace under pressure in a situation the film portrays through some hair-curling images: people flipped and scrabbling around the ceiling of the plane’s fuselage, tearful panic, plummeting altimeters, flaming engines and the ground rushing up at an angle one never wants to see in real life. The dreamlike way in which Whip watches the wing of his plane take out a church spire in the seconds before impact, like a later shot in which a bloody tear trickles out of his damaged eye as he recovers in the hospital, presents a sliver of lyricism to the sequence and its stunned aftermath, in which Whip isn’t sure whether he’s a hero or a failure. Flight is so sensorially sharp and electrically present in its initial gambit that the movie’s descent into a trudging tale of a problem drinker in the second half brings the film to ground literally and symbolically. Washington turns in a smart, ego-free performance here that goes some way toward making Whip into a character whose fate we might care about. He’s a man who’s been ignoring his issues for so long we don’t at first grasp the depths of them ourselves — but his later cycle of self-abuse feels as familiar and repetitive as the flight scene itself feels fresh. Watching Whip sober himself up with some blow after a boozy dalliance with a flight attendant before traveling to the cockpit, we get the squirmy, tightrope-act sensation of observing someone disturbingly good at getting by while hammered. He’s experienced enough as a pilot and drinker to take off smashed and thread his plane through tricky, stormy weather. Watching him tempt fate again and again as he is investigated in te aftermath of the crash is far less compelling. Whip is looking for someone or something to force him to stop, and apparently a brush with death while transporting more than 100 people in his care isn’t enough. Characters invested in Whip not being held responsible for the accident, for professional reasons or friendship — including Don Cheadle as his attorney, Bruce Greenwood as his union representative, Tamara Tunie as a flight attendant colleague and an amusing John Goodman as his drug dealer — try to protect him, but Whip doesn’t seem that committed to protecting himself. The forced spirituality of the film, which attaches a lot of meaning to the phrase “act of God,” is revealed in the weight it gives to the coincidences that trigger behavior. A smack addict named Nicole (Kelly Reilly), who eventually befriends Whip, reneges on her promise not to inject drugs after knocking the box containing her works onto the floor. Whip himself has temptation thrown in his face at the worst possible moment thanks to a neighboring door not being locked. Washington does find interesting sides to and knotty conflicts in Whip. His charisma, charm and competence don’t quite cover up a sharp and sometimes frightening edge, and it’s painful to watch the way he drinks, like it’s his duty to finish up all the alcohol in sight long after he’s stopped enjoying it. But the film isn’t as willing to push the character as much as the actor playing him, and the lack of mystery attached to whether Whip could be even partially at fault for what happened is ultimately as contrived as the big finish, which gives his character an unearned and unnecessary nobility. In the context of the film, the crash becomes the biggest and most distasteful act of god of them all, an elaborate, bloody way to get a guy to an AA meeting. Follow Alison Willmore on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
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REVIEW: ‘Flight’ Soars Then Nosedives Despite Denzel Washington’s Acting Aerobatics
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The Evil Dead Red Band trailer has arrived, and it turns out to be the same one that had audiences at NY Comic-Con screaming in their seats (and, apparently, leaking it on the web) . If you can stomach it, make sure to hang tight for the tongue-slicing scene at the end. It will make you talk funny for hours. I’ve also posted the trailer to Sam Raimi’s original 1981 film, The Evil Dead , so that you can compare elements of the first film with Uruguayan director Fede Alvarez’s remake . As with most contemporary reboots, Alvarez’s moves a lot faster. (He’s even lost the ‘The’ in the title for a more streamlined effect.) That said, the new trailer suggests that his Evil Dead will borrow some of Raimi’s filmmaking flourishes, particularly the way in which the camera would take the perspective of the evil spirit that infects the unfortunate cabin dwellers. Like the original, Alvarez’s version also has scenes involving evil vines and dismemberment by power tools, including what looks like a chain saw. Despite these similarities, when I interviewed Bruce Campbell at NY Comic-Con , he told me that the new Evil Dead, which opens early next year, will actually be quite different. For one thing, Campbell — who starred in the original trilogy and is a producer of the remake — said Alvarez’s version will be “dead serious” and won’t feature an Ash, the character he played. “There are no similar characters whatsoever. And we wanted that. That was intentional,” Campbell explained. “We didn’t want anything compared to anything. We didn’t want to put any burden on any actor to act like Ash or to imitate him.” Related Story: Read Movieline’s interview with Bruce Campbell. Read More at: http://movieline.com/2012/10/14/bruce-campbell-interview-evil-dead-remake-fede-alvarez-jane-levy-sam-raimi/#utm_source=copypaste&utm_campaign=referral Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
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WATCH: ‘Leaked’ ‘Evil Dead’ Trailer Is Now Official! Compare It To Sam Raimi’s Original
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Twenty additional chapters of R&B drama will debut on IFC November 23. By Nadeska Alexis R. Kelly in “Trapped In The Closet” Photo: IFC
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R. Kelly’s ‘Trapped In the Closet’ Episodes Teased In New Trailer
Actress sits down with MTV News to preview Wednesday night’s episode and explain why she admires her character’s spunk. By Christina Garibaldi Hayden Panettiere Photo: MTV News
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‘Nashville’ Star Hayden Panettiere Tells Fans To Get Ready To See ‘Angry Juliette’
Mary Elizabeth Winstead needed to prove herself. After years of hopping from genre to genre, she wanted to shed her Scott Pilgrim vs. the World dye job and bloody Final Destination 3 history and find a complex role that would be a game-changer for her career. Luckily, the stars aligned and landed her in front of Smashed director James Ponsoldt, where she not only impressed him enough that he didn’t audition anyone else for the role, but she also helped him cast her leading man, Aaron Paul . Mary Elizabeth sat down with Movieline ahead of the film’s Oct. 12 release to talk about crafting her recovering alcoholic character, Kate Hannah, preparing for the role without meeting anyone first — except for one wild night with Aaron — and sharing her modest, yet poignant, reaction to all of the well-deserved Oscar buzz. And as for all of those big blockbuster roles she’s been “passed over for” throughout the years? She spills about that, too, opening up about the truth behind failed negotiations and what she wants her career path to look like after Smashed . Smashed is a departure from your previous roles, including comedies like Scott Pilgrim and bloody gore like Final Destination 3 . Was it refreshing to play such a dynamic, dramatic character? Yeah, I mean it was such a change of pace. It was almost like changing careers because it was so different. It was great, and it was what I’ve wanted to do for a long time. I’ve needed to sort of prove myself in this capacity for a long time — I needed to show, at least to myself, that I could carry a really complex role, so I knew that I needed to do it for me. The fact that people are actually responding to it is sort of above and beyond what I even was hoping for. How did this role come to you? Did James [Ponsoldt] say, ‘Hey, I want you for this role?’ or did you audition? I had been seeking out smaller scripts. I had been really trying to find something small and intimate, so I had a meeting with Jonathan Schwartz, who is the producer of the film. I didn’t know what he was producing at the time, but I just wanted to meet him because I knew that he had some scripts in the pipeline. After he sent me this script, I just flipped out over it and called him immediately and was just like, ‘Please let me know what I can do to just get my foot in the door and be considered for it!’ So then he set up a meeting with me and James, which went really well. After that, I just sort of took it upon myself to do an audition tape; I taped probably like seven, eight scenes from the movie and sent it to James. And after he and the producers talked it over, they cast me, which was crazy! I expected them to sort of see every actress in Hollywood and go through that whole process, but they didn’t. They didn’t see anyone else. And so it was really, really, amazing. It’s hard to imagine anyone else but you in the role — you embodied Kate to a T. How did you prepare? Is there anything you did in the audition tape that made it into the film? Luckily whatever I did in the audition tape was enough to get me the part, but from my perspective, in retrospect, I feel like it’s terrible! [Laughs] I did so much more work on the character by the time I actually shot it that to me it’s like night and day. When I look at that audition tape, I feel like I’m acting , and I feel like I was able to get to a place by the time I shot the film where it wasn’t acting anymore. I was sort of scared, even after I did the audition tape and got the part, because I still didn’t feel like I had a handle on it at all. So it was scary to me almost to get the part because I was like, ‘Ooh, but I don’t know how to play this!’ So I worked really hard. I really wanted to make sure I did the part justice, and I did whatever I could. I spent a lot of time in AA meetings, I spent a lot of time with James just really carving out Kate’s backstory and becoming really, really specific about that. And just spending a lot of time on myself and my own issues emotionally. It was a lot like, just, therapy. Working through my own stuff. That ended up being the most important thing, the thing that connected me the most to the character — sort of relating my struggles to her struggles and my issues to her issues, and sort of linking those two things up. It was an amazing experience. Is there anything from Kate’s backstory that we didn’t see that you worked together with James on? We talked about her entire life. There are hints at it throughout the film — you see her relationship with her mom, you know there’s probably a lot of pain there, especially childhood pain. And so we fleshed that out quite a bit with her dad leaving and what age, what age did she start drinking and why, and what age did it become her identity to be the fun drunk girl, and how that became so much easier to be than to be herself. How it became easier to be the drunk girl than to be the girl with all of these problems. So that was the thing that we really focused in on. You said you went to some AA meetings to prepare. Was there anything else that you did? I’m sure you didn’t go on any drinking binges to get into your character… Yeah, I went on one! I went on one with James and Aaron! [Laughs] I hope you weren’t on a bike. No, not on a bike. James was our designated driver. And it was in part to get into character, but it was mostly for us to feel the dynamic with each other — what we’re like when we’re drunk. Because the couple is like that so much; it’s how they spend their lives together, is drunk. So we wanted to kind of start off with that. And also it helped because Aaron and I didn’t have any rehearsal time. We had only met each other once before. It was a good way for us to get to know each other really fast. You know, when you sort of go out and get drunk with someone, you become close pretty quickly. [Laughs] It was a nice way to sort of expedite that process. And by the time we showed up [on set], we felt close enough to be able to go to those places together. Was Aaron cast before you or after you? After me. Everyone was cast after me. It was like a total shock. It was so crazy. I had no idea that the supporting roles were going to end up being these incredible actors. I mean, that really took it to a whole new level. I knew it was an incredible script, I knew it was an incredible part I was dying to play, but I sort of thought it was a tiny movie, that it was probably going to be all unknowns, and we were kind of just going to try to get people to see it and do our best. And then when they started telling me who was going to be playing the other roles, I was like, ‘Oh, people are going to see this! This is a real movie! This is really happening!’ [Laughs] So, yeah, that was incredibly exciting. And you mentioned that you and Aaron had only met once or twice before. Did you do a chemistry read together or did you meet at all? No. I kind of knew that Aaron was everybody’s favorite. He was my favorite, he was everybody’s favorite. [Laughs] We had talked about a lot of people for that part, but he was the only one that everyone agreed on. We’d come up with other names, but it would be very polarizing. Like, one person would be like, ‘That person would be great!’ and another person would be like, ‘No! Definitely not!’ [Laughs] But Aaron was the first name that came up that everyone went, ‘Yeah! That would be great.’ I still wanted to meet him, just because I didn’t know him personally. I knew he was an incredible actor and I had such admiration for him, but I also knew that I needed to work with somebody in that role who was going to be really open and who was going to be someone I felt comfortable with, because you have to go to a lot of humiliating places doing a role like this. You don’t want it to be someone who you feel like is going to be closed off or is going to be too cool to really give anything back. From the moment I met him, he was so open and warm and genuine and lovely, and just the sweetest person. And now I feel like everybody else knows that he’s the sweetest person in the world, but I’m like, how didn’t I already know that? [Laughs] I shouldn’t have even had to have met him to find that out. But it was great, and after I met him, I sort of told everybody that he was perfect, and then he came back. Honestly, your chemistry reads like you’ve known each other for years. Although their love story is far from perfect, If you take the alcohol out, could you see their relationship continuing? For me, having learned a lot about alcoholism and AA from researching the character, I’m very much of the feeling that they can never be together, as heartbreaking as that is. Just because no matter what they have that co-dependency that they’re naturally going to want to fall back into. And it would be such a struggle for them to have a normal, healthy relationship that it would make them both really tempted to go back to alcohol. And I think as an alcoholic, you have to really keep yourself in the most healthy of environments at all times. So I think for her it would just be a mistake to put herself back into that really unstable place. But I do love the fact that the end is so hopeful for him; that he is going to figure his life out. And that one day, I do think that they could be really great friends. I think there’s a lot of love there and they will be able to be in each other’s lives, but I don’t see them ever being a couple. The craziest part for me was that you don’t really see how damaged Kate’s life is until she really hits that downward spiral. That’s the thing. It certainly isn’t a message movie by any means, but we are kind of making a point that even if you stop drinking, it doesn’t mean your life suddenly becomes easier — it actually becomes harder in a lot of ways because you have to deal with your pain. It’s better, but it’s hard. It felt like a very realistic portrayal of alcoholism, especially with Kate’s two split personalities. How did you balance the dynamic of both opposing sides of her persona? What’s great about it is that it just felt like, for the first time to me, that I was playing a really whole person. Because we all have so many different sides to our personalities, but you just never see that on screen. I think that’s why it’s so surprising that it feels so different, because we’re not used to seeing people on screen show so many different sides of themselves — we’re not usually really allowed to since characters are usually more one-dimensional. So I loved that; I loved being able to do that. I felt like I was able to bring all the different shades of my own personality to her, and there was nothing that I had to shut off. Your chemistry with the entire cast — including Nick Offerman’s offbeat character, Megan Mullally as your boss, and Octavia Spencer as your sponsor — was incredible. How did you form that dynamic? I think it was just luck, and James casting the right people. We didn’t have any rehearsal time — we didn’t even meet! Aaron was the only person I even met before we started working. Did you all even do a read through together or did you just jump into it? No, we just showed up and just did the scenes! It was just one of those lightning in a bottle things where everything just comes together and everyone was so wonderful. We were very lucky. The most surprising part was that most of the cast were comedic actors playing straight. What was that like, both in and out of character? It was just really lovely. It was such an amazing group of people who are all just lovely human beings. They’re all super funny, but not in that way that they have to constantly be telling a joke or constantly getting attention — not in that way at all. Just lovely people to be around. So it was a comfortable, relaxed environment, and it was sort of like the film. We would go from laughing together to talking about more serious things. We just felt like a family. It just felt like a place that you could really be yourself, which was the ideal environment for a film like this. Now that you’ve done such a big drama, what’s next? Rom-com? Adventure? I know you’ve seemingly been passed over for some of those big blockbuster roles, including Cobie Smulders’ role in The Avengers . But if you took that role, do you think you would be where you are now? And do you have any hopes to be that big blockbuster star? Yeah, I mean, it’s funny, because some of those roles — well, the majority of them, I was just plain passed over for them [Laughs] — but some of them I actually chose not to do as well because I don’t really just want to be the blockbuster star, and I don’t necessarily want to sign onto seven films in a role that I’m not really passionate about. That’s actually happened several times as well, where in the news it sort of seems like, ‘Oh, she lost the part,’ but in reality, it just falls apart in the negotiation process and you realize that this isn’t really something I’m passionate enough about to agree to ‘X, X, and X,’ and sign the contract on. [Laughs] So that’s happened a bunch, too. Because I do really want to do films like this. That’s the majority of stuff I want to do. But unfortunately, you don’t get paid to do films like this! [Laughs] You get enough to go to a nice dinner. That’s basically the money that you get paid. So you do have to think about your career and making a living and how you’re going to do that. Going forward, I would love to work with directors like Rian Johnson and Joss Whedon; people like that who are doing big films but do have really independent voices. That’s kind of what I want to focus on, is always working with people with at least an independent point of view, even if it’s not an independent film. Well, on that note, congratulations! For this film, you already have a lot of Oscar buzz. What, in the perfect situation, would you like to happen next whether you win an award or not? I think for most actors, because we sort of have to tell ourselves this, we always say, ‘Oh, it doesn’t mean anything to win an Oscar!’ It certainly isn’t a goal that you want to set yourself up for, because then you’re just setting yourself up for disaster. Because how many people actually win an Oscar? So I would certainly never imagine that for myself, but the thing about those kind of awards are that they are completely life-changing. You’re given a power that so few other people in the industry have. And so that’s the thing, that I would sort of just want to use … for good! [Laughs] I sound like a superhero. But to help make good movies. I would love to be in the position where my name is a name that is large enough in some capacity to make things happen in the industry. To be able to fund a small film or be able to discover a new voice and give them a platform. That’s something I would really love to to do. Smashed hits limited theaters in New York and Los Angeles on Oct. 12. Alyse Whitney is an editor at Wetpaint Entertainment. You can follow her on Twitter @AlyseWhitney .
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