‘ ‘Video Games’ is a great song,’ he tells MTV News at Sundance about Del Rey’s ‘Saturday Night Live’ appearance. By Josh Wigler, with reporting by Josh Horowitz Andy Samberg Photo: MTV News PARK CITY, Utah — The critics have not been kind to Lana Del Rey following her recent performance on “Saturday Night Live.” “Wack-a-doodle” was how Eliza Dushku described it, while actress Juliette Lewis likened the performance to “watching a 12-year-old in their bedroom when they’re pretending to sing and perform.” At times, it seems that just about everybody has it in for Del Rey. But “SNL” castmember Andy Samberg is not so quick to criticize. Speaking with MTV News at the Sundance Film Festival — where he’s busy promoting his romantic dramedy “Celeste and Jesse Forever” — Samberg acknowledged the outcry against Del Rey but took the opportunity to compliment her. “People gave her a lot of crap. I saw it online. BriWi,” he said when asked about Del Rey, referring to “NBC Nightly News” anchor Brian Williams’ assessment of the performance as “one of the worst outings in ‘SNL’ history.” “But ‘Video Games’ is a great song,” Samberg added. Also there to offer support was Samberg’s “Celeste and Jesse” co-star Rashida Jones, who doesn’t envy anybody who has to grace the pressure-filled “SNL” stage. “It’s a tough venue,” she said. “You’re not actually performing in front of an audience; you’re performing in front of cameras. But I didn’t see it, so I don’t know.” “Yeah, I didn’t see it either, so I can’t really speak to it,” Samberg quickly added, followed by a long pause and an uncomfortable look. (Perhaps there’s something he’s not telling us … ) Samberg and Jones aren’t the only two who have come to Del Rey’s defense. Daniel Radcliffe, who served as “SNL” host during the singer’s appearance, has already condemned the way people criticized her. “It was unfortunate that people seemed to turn on her so quickly,” Radcliffe told the British media earlier this week. “I also think people are making it about things other than the performance. … If you read what people are saying about her online, it’s all about her past and her family and stuff that’s nobody else’s business. I don’t think [the performance] warranted anywhere near that reaction. The 2012 Sundance Film Festival is officially under way, and the MTV Movies team is on the ground reporting on the hottest stars and the movies everyone will be talking about in the year to come. Keep it locked with MTV Movies for everything there is to know about Sundance. Related Videos Sundance 2012: Interviews From Park City MTV News Extended Play: Lana Del Rey Related Photos Celebrities Hit The Ground At Sundance 2012 Film Fest Related Artists Lana Del Rey
Singer was seen in Park City at the red carpet for ‘Ethel,’ an upcoming HBO documentary. By Josh Wigler Taylor Swift attends the premiere of “Ethel” at Sundance on Friday Photo: Jonathan Leibson/ Getty Images PARK CITY, Utah — The Sundance Film Festival is no stranger to seeing masses of unexpected celebrities flocking to the snowy hills of Park City, but that didn’t stop the surprise appearance of singer/songwriter Taylor Swift from attracting a crowd. The “Back to December” singer hit Sundance on Friday (January 20) to attend the red-carpet premiere of “Ethel,” the HBO documentary chronicling the life of Ethel Kennedy. Indeed, a grand total of 23 members of the Kennedy clan were on hand, including the documentary’s director Rory, daughter of Ethel. What exactly prompted Taylor’s attendance at the “Ethel” red carpet? According to the musician herself in a recent interview with Vogue, Taylor had an encounter with the 83-year-old Ethel some weeks ago. Describing the woman as “effervescent,” Taylor said the meeting with the wife of the late Robert Kennedy left her feeling “starstruck” for the first time in her life. “The only time in my life I have ever been starstruck was meeting Caroline and Ethel Kennedy,” she told the magazine. “I got to spend the afternoon with Ethel a couple of weeks ago. She is one of my favorites, because you look back at the pictures of her and Bobby, and they always look like they are having the most fun out of everybody. You know, 11 kids, all these exotic animals on their property. I’ve read a lot about them.” Taylor wasn’t the only non-Kennedy who showed up to the “Ethel” red carpet. Sundance founder and legendary actor Robert Redford also hit the scene to show his appreciation and admiration for the project — and to pose for a few photos with Swift. The 2012 Sundance Film Festival is officially under way, and the MTV Movies team is on the ground reporting on the hottest stars and the movies everyone will be talking about in the year to come. Keep it locked with MTV Movies for everything there is to know about Sundance. Related Videos Sundance 2012: Interviews From Park City Related Photos Celebrities Hit The Ground At Sundance 2012 Film Fest Related Artists Taylor Swift
Nearly a month after its Oscar-qualifying run found it alienating critics in New York and Los Angeles (and almost two months since indelibly, ignominiously entering the zeitgeist as The Daldry ), this week finally finds Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close reaching theaters nationwide. And while roughly half of reviewers to date have lauded director Stephen Daldry’s adaptation of the Jonathan Safran Foer novel, the other half has issues — big issues — with everything from lead actor Thomas Horn to Daldry’s handling of the book’s central tragedy of 9/11. It’s no Jack and Jill , but that’s no reason not to throw on a raincoat and go frolic in the bile. Wish you were here, David Denby ! 9. “Despite its overweening literary pretensions, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is about as artistically profound as those framed 3-D photos of the Twin Towers emblazoned with ‘Never Forget’ that are still for sale in Times Square a decade after 9/11. It’s Oscar-mongering of the most blunt and reprehensible sort.” — Lou Lumenick , NY Times 8. “Poor little Oskar! Such an adorable, pint-sized heap of neuroses. What better mouthpiece for an author, or a filmmaker, to use as a way of exploring the personal cost of a great communal tragedy. Do you get the idea that Oskar must emerge from his own teeny-tiny personal prison and, yes, embrace the world? Never has the tragedy of 9/11 been made so shrinky-dinked.” — Stephanie Zacharek , Movieline 7. ” Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close isn’t about Sept. 11. It’s about the impulse to drain that day of its specificity and turn it into yet another wellspring of generic emotions: sadness, loneliness, happiness. This is how kitsch works. It exploits familiar images, be they puppies or babies — or, as in the case of this movie, the twin towers — and tries to make us feel good, even virtuous, simply about feeling . And, yes, you may cry, but when tears are milked as they are here, the truer response should be rage.” — Manohla Dargis , NY Times 6. “Oskar is a nasty piece of work. On that dreadful day, Oskar comes home early from school. He hears his father’s voice messages. He hides them from his mother, Linda (Sandra Bullock). He denies her listening to Tom tell her he loves her. Oskar is selfish. He sneaks out and buys an identical answering machine, records the identical outgoing message, and keeps the old one for himself. He counts his lies. Oskar has ‘head-up-his-ass’ platitudes and has read too much Jean-Paul Sartre.” — Victoria Alexander , Film Festival Today 5. “Almost half a century after Dallas, I still have trouble watching film of President Kennedy’s assassination. Yet Stephen Daldry’s screen version of the Jonathan Safran Foer novel, adapted by Eric Roth, proves hard to handle for other reasons. The production’s penchant for contrivance is insufferable —- not a single spontaneous moment from start to finish -— and the boy is so precocious you want to strangle him.” — Joe Morgenstern , Wall Street Journal 4. “Mixing the horror of 9/11 with a cutesy story about a boy’s unlikely quest just comes off as crass. Throwing a tragic old man on top — to no apparent purpose, really — cheapens things further. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is the kind of movie you want to punch in the nose.” — Tom Long , The Detroit News 3. “[I]t will always be ‘too soon’ for Extremely Loud And Incredibly Close , which processes the immense grief of a city and a family through a conceit so nauseatingly precious that it’s somehow both too literary and too sentimental, cloying yet aestheticized within an inch of its life. It’s 9/11 through the eyes of a caffeinated 9-year-old Harper’s contributor. GRADE: F” — Scott Tobias , AV Club 2. “Thomas Horn is a terrible actor; I don’t want to call him annoying because that might be the way Oskar is written, but dammit, I wanted to throttle the twerp pretty much for the whole movie. This film is so spectacularly bad that the bar for pretentious, deep-thoughts movies has been lowered roughly the length of my middle finger.” — Capone , Ain’t it Cool News 1. “This is a film so thoroughly rotten to its smarmy and diseased little core that tearing into it here hardly seems an adequate method of dealing with it — going after the negative with battery acid and a sledgehammer might be closer to what it deserves. This is a film that takes one of the most terrible tragedies in our history and reduces it to a level of kitsch that makes a painting of the burning World Trade Center done on black velvet with a sad clown on the side bearing witness seem dignified by comparison.” — Peter Sobczynski , eFilmCritic Reviews via Rotten Tomatoes Follow S.T. VanAirsdale on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
We’re keeping an eye on Teresa’s three upcoming projects: ‘Wish You Were Here,’ ‘AWOL’ and ‘Warm Bodies.’ By Kara Warner Teresa Palmer in “Wish You Were Here” Photo: Hopscotch Films Amazingly enough, our week of Ones to Watch in 2012 profiles is coming to an end. Over the past few days, we’ve highlighted a few of the stars who we feel will make the biggest impact in Hollywood this year. They are the rising stars of action, drama and blockbusters, who have the potential to be future award winners. The latest One to Watch is Aussie-born beauty Teresa Palmer, who fits into all of those categories and has not one, but three movies in which audiences can see her this year: the Australian indie and official Sundance Film Festival selection “Wish You Were Here” opposite Joel Edgerton, ’60s-set war drama “AWOL” with fellow Aussie and One to Watch Liam Hemsworth and “Warm Bodies,” a zombie romance based on Isaac Marion’s acclaimed novel. MTV News was lucky enough to catch up with Palmer recently to talk about her expectations for the year and what she loves most about her upcoming films, as well as the status on Six and that “I Am Number Four” sequel. MTV News : With the new year just getting started, do you have any specific goals or expectations for yourself? Teresa Palmer : Every year, I write a very elaborate journal, which I find to be very therapeutic and such a nice tool to have. This year, my New Year’s resolutions and goals, I had eight pages worth of stuff. Mainly it was goals that I’ve set for myself, and I know it’s going to be a busy year. I’m sure it’s going to be full of peaks and valleys, but I tend to do that every year and stick to what those goals are. MTV : We’ve seen you in plenty of films before this year, but how is 2012 different from other years? Palmer : This is the first time I’ve had three films come out in a year. I’m really excited because I’ve balanced between doing a big studio film, which I’ve been doing a lot in the last few years, with a cool independent. I have a cool independent film coming out called “Wish You Were Here” with Joel Edgerton and it’s Australian, which is super exciting for me because I haven’t been back to Australia to work in a few years. And then of course I have “Warm Bodies” coming out in August and then I have a period piece which is a much smaller movie again, set in the 1960s around the Vietnam war, called “AWOL,” and that’s with Liam Hemsworth. They’re just very different characters. I couldn’t really draw any similarities between the three girls that I play, and that’s certainly a draw card for me when I select the project. It’s just exciting, the diversity in the roles this year. It’s great. MTV : We’ve been following “Warm Bodies” for a while now. It’s a very different film from what people think. How do you describe it? Palmer : “Warm Bodies” is a truly unique zombie film. Yes, it has those elements of a zombie movie, and for those who embrace that genre, they’re not going to be disappointed because we have a lot of those typical action sequences in zombie films, but really, at the heart of the story is this relationship between R and Julie, and it’s unlike anything I think you’ve seen on film before. It’s so sweet, and there’s a lot humor. It really is, believe it or not, grounded in a reality. I think people can absolutely relate to R, who plays our lovable zombie. He’s an outsider, and it’s very much an “Edward Scissorhands”-type story and it’s really beautiful how this romance blossoms. It was such a strong script and truly very special, and that’s what drew me to the project in the first place. It’s just exceeded my expectations throughout filming, and the little of what I’ve seen I’m really excited about, I think more so than any other film I’ve been in, which is a great step for me. And I get to see a lot more when we start doing in a few weeks. MTV : How would you describe the look of the film? Palmer : It’s a dark, bleak world. There are 400 humans left in society, so it’s very much that postapocalyptic world. Empty streets, a huge deserted airport, which always makes for an interesting backdrop. There’s a lot of beauty, though, and it surrounds. I think another character in the film really is the music; it’s celebrated in our movie. It’s just a very eclectic film in the way that we have eccentric pieces and really interesting graffiti that maybe not everyone will notice, but so much effort was put into the look of the film, the backdrops and sets and just the feel of it, that I think it’s going to be really interesting on film. We have the production designer who did “Super 8,” among a bunch of other films, and it is really epic. MTV : Is there room for a sequel, or do you feel it’s a standalone film? Palmer : I would love, love to go back and play Julie. I certainly already miss R, and I said to [director] Jonathan Levine just recently “I miss them both so much.” I miss R’s sweetness and how beautiful he is to Julie and how much he takes care of her. He’s struggling so much with being bottled up in a zombie, he doesn’t like his existence in that way, and we sort of help each other to grow. I love that. I would be so excited to do another film. At the moment, it lends itself to the one film, but we all sat around drawing up possible ideas in the air, and Isaac Marion was on set with us, and he said he has a couple of ideas. If anything, there might be a prequel, but right now, it’s a standalone film. I guess it just depends. MTV : Have you had any more discussion on the character of Six and a sequel to “I Am Number Four”? Palmer : I have been poking around asking about that a little bit. I think of all the films I’ve done so far, that’s the character who is most celebrated to me. I meet people who come up to me on the street and say all my lines from “I Am Number Four” and they really loved Six, which is exciting. I’ve been asked that question a lot recently; I really don’t know. I think at the moment, there are no plans to make a sequel, which is a bummer, but you never know. It really depends on how all those sales go, the DVDs and those numbers. It’s a money game, I guess, so we will see, but I would love to play her again. What are you waiting for? Your must-see movie needs your support. It’s time to show character, poise and heart. Vote for your picks now at MTV Movie Brawl 2012 ! For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com . Related Videos 2012 Ones To Watch
Earlier today Essence Magazine announced the lineup to their annual Essence Music Festival in New Orleans July 6 – 8. Mary J. Blige, Fantasia Aretha Franklin, Charlie Wilson, SWV, Dru Hill, Ledisi, Estelle, Goapele, Vivian Green, and many more are slated to perform over the three-day event. Click here to check out the full roster. Excited about the Louisiana function? Plan on heading that way come July? Let us know. RELATED STORIES: Kelly Rowland To Be Honored By Essence Magazine D-Wade and Gabrielle Union Talk About Love In Essence Magazine [PHOTOS]
Nearly a year on from its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival, director Tony Kaye’s ensemble drama Detachment is readying to make its debut on VOD and in theaters. This calls for a poster! Movieline’s got your first look at the one-sheet — featuring leading man Adrien Brody and a high school classroom in desperate need of a janitor — after the break. From this site’s Tribeca review : Detachment follows substitute teacher Henry Barthes (Brody) through his extended stay at a Queens high school, a borderline war zone where students would sooner drop a loogie than an apple on an instructor’s desk, and where city administrators openly link plunging property values to plunging test scores. This is where contemporary education has gone to die, slowly and painfully. Henry swims through an ensemble-cast cosmos of lifers Their banter — about a dead colleague here, a popped pill there — keeps them sane and human enough amid the savagery. They’ve all but given up on the kids, defecting to the private sector when the hopelessness of teaching public school finally becomes one humiliation too many. After a while, in fact, Detachment feels as though Kaye is telling a ghost story — a novel, really, with characters and back stories fluttering through magic-hour prisms and saturated nocturnal light, their yelps and groans and pleas and dins and salutations and whispers hand-stitched into narrative breaths, their memories folded into daydreams and pummeled into nightmares, these fluorescent-lit cathedrals of learning dismantled before their inhabitants’ eyes, finally windblown into oblivion. The film demands being taken seriously even as it testifies to its own futility, like the obituary of some household name you loved as a kid. It’s point-blank blame and benediction of teachers themselves, resolving only to leave you wondering how things got so bad while also wondering why no one told you sooner how bad they’d been getting. Resolving, that is, when it’s not suggesting you never listened in the first place and most definitely aren’t listening now. Bam. Also check out Movieline’s interview with Brody about the film; Tribeca Film will uncork Detachment on Feb. 24 via Movies On Demand, iTunes, Amazon Watch Instantly, VUDU and other platforms before opening it theatrically in select cities beginning March 16. Visit detachment-film.com for more info.
Being injured is worth it if it the children are okay. That’s how Brad Pitt summed up his recent injury at the Palm Springs International Film Festival gala this weekend, explaining to the press corps that he hurt himself when he suffered a fall while carrying daughter Vivienne. The upshot: Viv is fine. He walks with a cane now: “When [Maddox] was younger, I took a fall and cracked my elbow because I wanted to make sure he didn’t have the fall,” said Angelina Jolie, by his side. “Every parent has injured themselves at some point,” the father of six added. “Every parent will stand in the line of fire for their kids so it’s a normal thing.” So is Brad milking the injury at home? “He’s not that kind of guy,” she said . “He does everything still.” “I’m proud of him every single day,” Jolie said of Pitt, who was presented the Desert Palm Achievement Award by his Moneyball co-star Jonah Hill. Get well soon, Brad. But nice cane man. [Photo: WENN.com]
It’s been almost two years since Tank dropped his fourth album, Now Or Never . He has been in the studio putting the final touches on his upcoming fifth effort, Savior . The first single from the set is “Next Breath.” Tank’s latest single doesn’t break new ground. It’s more of the smooth melodies and harmonies Tank is known for. There’s no exact date for Savior’s release. However, The Urban Daily will keep you posted. Is the track worth repeated spins? Let us know. Next Breath by ATL REC RELATED POSTS: Tank- “I Can’t Make You Love Me” Kanye West, Mary J Blige & Jill Scott To Headline Essence Festival The Top 10 Sexiest Male Videos Of All Time
2011 was a year of awful celebrity meltdowns and unimpressive Oscar bait , but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t a fabulous time for Movieline. After the jump, I’ll revisit my 10 favorite stories of the year — including the one that tainted hydrangeas for eternity. · Madonna Hates Your Flowers The most important filmic milestone of the year was W.E. , Madonna’s 100% adored feature that made a splash at Venice. Though I’d love to philosophize about that three-hour De Beers commercial some more, I’d prefer to revisit the W.E. scandal that rocked my year: Madonna’s disparaging comments about hydrangeas. Priceless. · Immaculate Conniptions I verged into vulgarity this year, testing my YouTube mettle with my new web series Verbal Vogueing . It’s immature, and therefore I’m proud of it. · Baddest (And Best) Movie Ever: Clue I’ve been chronicling Bad Movies We Love for over a year, and none were as good, ridiculous, legendary, poignant, or senseless as my favorite movie of all time, Clue . I ranked its 25 best moments for you. · Big Trouble for Sean Penn and Madonna in Little China: Shanghai Surprise I’m a human being, so I understand that Shanghai Surprise is an awful movie. But I still celebrate it because I truly love its campy, half-baked, shittily acted, abysmally conceived story. Revisit with me. · Helena Bonham Carter Throws Her Hat of Birds at Melissa Leo Julie Miller and I thought long and hard about this year’s Oscar for Best Supporting Actress and dreamed up an ideal scenario where Hailee Steinfeld wins the trophy and Melissa Leo, Helena Bonham Carter, Jacki Weaver, and Amy Adams fight near the footlights. My favorite line? Julie’s: “Christoph Waltz announces that the Best Supporting Actress Oscar is sponsored by Chili’s.” · Who’s Afraid of Shrieking Supporting Actresses? Oscar History! My favorite. I ranked the nuttiest, Oscar-winning supporting actress roles of all time, and a towering, drunken tour de force clocked in at #1. “Violence! Violence!” · Final Destination 5: Only 9 More Destinations Before It Starts to Get Really Final I love horrid movie posters, and Final Destination 5 ‘s was certainly the most disturbing of the year. Look, it’s a skull! A novelty golf bag! A beagle! Joan Rivers! · Extremely Loud and Incredibly Trivial Thomas Horn, the child star of the new and bad movie Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close , was once a Kids Week victor on Jeopardy! . Because I’m a trivia nut, I decided to judge his performance in the Tom Hanks/Sandra Bernhard joint based solely on his performance behind the Jeopardy! lectern. I am so nice. · Tales of Endearment Shirley MacLaine blessed the L.A. Film Festival with personal stories about Marilyn Monroe, the Rat Pack, Billy Wilder, and Alfred Hitchcock. I sat and gawked, loving every minute of it. Jack Black was there too, but who wants to hear about that? · I Say “See Ya” to Pia Finally, from the catacombs of our American Idol coverage is the one week America really got the vote right — when it sent home that overblown, scathingly dull soulster Pia Toscano. Hope you’ve enjoyed the year in cinematic news!
W.E. wasn’t just an undertaking for Madonna, who directed her Wallis Simpson/Edward VIII biopic with all the lavish heft of a gigantic watercolor landscape. It was also a labor of love for Andrea Riseborough, the 30-year-old actress playing Simpson, the American socialite whose romance with Edward led to his abdication of the throne in 1936. The film’s most enjoyable asset, Riseborough was saddled with making the polarizing Simpson a wholly charismatic figure — an Evita without the benefit of torch songs. She succeeds, and with her thoroughly photogenic Edward (James D’Arcy) in tow, she softens W.E. ‘s melodrama with fantastic ease. We caught up with Riseborough to discuss her fascinating director , her feelings about the subject matter, and the zaniness of the Venice Film Festival . You’ve been promoting this movie nonstop for months! Are you sick of corsets and gorgeous costuming at this point? Are the constraints of the couture caving in on you, so to speak? That’s very funny! No, I’m very much enamored with every different period. It’s so funny because people often say — or people talk about period pieces — and I never really faction different periods or divide them from one another. I just think that really everything is of a specific period whether it be 2016 or 1810. It was extraordinary, the architectural feats that some of the couture gowns entailed on W.E. entailed. You have no idea. It was extraordinary. But is it daunting to think of committing so much to the look and feel of a period piece again? It’s something I’m very familiar with. Because whether it is 2016 or 1810, it’s very arduous. Specificity in any project, even if it exists in the abstract [Laughs] or it exists in an alternate reality, there’s always a vision that everybody adheres to. Everybody very much passionately leans toward expressing that vision and the way we share it with the world. It’s something that’s very familiar to me, actually, I suppose is the answer to that. It’s something I enjoy very much. It’s transporting. You are stunning in this movie. You really have the face of a beautiful silent screen star, or a young Bette Davis. Have you seen Dark Victory ? Oh I have, yes! Very much a part of my lexicon as a child. Did you think your throwback looks would aid you in getting cast? Because you would definitely fit in with the stars of Wallis Simpson’s time. Not really, because when I’d been sent the script, I thought it was very unique. I wanted to explore a little more and was interested certainly in the character that was Wallis Simpson, when I went to meet with the director — but when I met her, I actually had what could only be described as sandy blonde hair and a false tan. I was playing a modern character elsewhere. I’d never seen myself in one particular period. I know that my face is pretty plain and can look reasonably attractive but can also look horribly unattractive, and it’s been something that’s been a real benefit to me — being a blank canvas. Muscularly, I can mold it anyway that I want to, if need be. Or I can completely relax it! So, no, I didn’t think that — no. What I saw ahead was like with any role, the journey of a transformation that was something so utterly far away from myself. It was something and is something I’m very fulfilled by. For the record, James D’Arcy also looks just like Anthony Perkins. You can tell him I said so. [Laughs.] Nobody’s ever told him, but I can e-mail him if you like! [Laughs again.] E-mailing him now. Madonna is known for being able to choose forthcoming trends, own them, and bring them to the pop culture fore. Before you met her, did you have any idea what would impress her, based solely on your knowledge of her before W.E.? Did you use that insight to get cast in the film? My desire was not to impress; I wanted to see what fueled her passion for the story. I wanted to know what her vision was for it, and whether she would respond to what I could her offer her as a potential duchess. I think it would’ve been — I would’ve been somebody else, actually. It’s not who I am, I suppose. I was interested to see what our complicit working relationship would be. That was exciting to me. The story of the duchess was something I thought would be potentially interesting to excavate. I wanted to see within what framework that might possibly happen. She, very fortunately, responded to what I had to bring to her. Really, we were artistically complicit from that point on, from the outset really. She’d seen me play Margaret Thatcher and this other character before, so she had a good grasp on the reality that I could inhabit somebody who existed and somebody who was young and innocent — this other character was young and innocent. One interesting thing about W.E. is the sheer continental difference in knowledge about Wallis Simpson. In the U.K., everyone knows. In the U.S., plenty of people know nothing about that era of British history. Oh, don’t do yourself down! I’m trying not to! But there’s definitely a gap in awareness about who Wallis Simpson was. How do you feel addressing that with different markets for the film? I think, really, the story transcends any historical context you might feel you need to put it in. Interestingly, of course, it was a reality. But what we have portrayed is our perception or version of the truth, Madonna’s version and vision of a woman who really existed. The heart of the piece is the thing that’ll tap on the door of the common man, if you will. Because, I hope, that was the thing that originally tapped on the door of the common man — every one of the working class areas that Edward visited, the working men so very much appreciated him, took him into their homes in a way that a prince had not been taken in before. It’s that same honesty and love and truth, I think, that people will feel and respond to. Wallis, she’d seen the writing on the wall. She ended up being as trapped as she imagined she would be, if he should abdicate, which he did as you know. It’s impossible for any one person — I mean, let’s not even reduce it to gender — it’s impossible for any one person to live up to the responsibility of the kingdom. How does one man fulfill a partner who has given up such an awful, awful lot for their relationship? Do you find yourself sorting out the fair criticism of W.E. from what might be considered a biased response to your director? Has the criticism been fair? I really believe that people have their own relationship with it. And I say “with it,” I mean everything that the film is. We were all part of making it. They can choose to absorb it and gain what is valuable from it any which way. I really have no opinion on it, to be truly honest, Louis. I know I’m incredibly honest to be part of something I found beautiful. That’s really all I know. Talk about the Venice Film Festival, where the world got its first taste of W.E. and the first swarm of responses to the film hit. Seemed pretty manic at the time. How do you remember it? It felt incredibly special. It was almost like our first offering at something we’d been so lovingly baking. The explosion that then ensued was quite breathtaking. It was almost funny being so surrounded by love. I’m just speaking as honestly as I felt it! Lastly, I heard you say that you and Madonna connected deeply in researching the “geeky” minutia of Wallis Simpson’s life. How deeply did that fixation go? Oh my gosh, that is such a long answer, Louis. Her fastidious research has no bounds! And that’s where the answer lies. When you approach something that you’re ignited by and are passionate about in such a way, really, until it seems to you’re getting to the point where no stone is unturned, only then can you stop. When you imagine chronicling an entire woman’s life from age 29 to 70, everything that went before 29 — since it must be taken into account — and everything that went after, you can imagine that’s no small feat. I ferociously lapped that up. I enjoyed it so much. But none of that is worth anything if you can’t just trust that it’s been inside of you so you can be present when you’re living out what might’ve been their life. Follow Louis Virtel on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter . [Top Photo: WireImage]
