Columns
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“The Second Movie I Operated On”: Camera Operator Lou Barlia on Love Story
When I revisited the classic tearjerker Love Story last month, I was struck by the intimate connection between the actors and the camera; at every given moment, Ryan O’Neal and Ali MacGraw’s doomed young lovers seemed perfectly showcased for maximum emotional impact, every gesture and expression captured from the proper distance and in perfect proportion from shot to shot—undoubtedly one of the reasons the film was the most popular of its year (1970), whether audiences were conscious of the delicacy of the framing or not. What’s all the more impressive about Love Story’s camerawork is how off the cuff some […]
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Back to One, Episode 145: Julia Sarah Stone
You’re about to hear the name Julia Sarah Stone quite a bit. The young Canadian acting phenom is turning Hollywood heads with a focused talent and poise well beyond her years. Her latest movie, the unique sci-fi thriller Come True, which has been wowing audiences at festivals, is opening Friday March 12th from IFC Midnight. In this episode, she talks about the “playable” characteristic that helped her performance in that film, the traps actors easily fall into when they lay in the emotion while losing sight of basic aspects such as motivation, and why she always wants to be a […]
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Back to One, Episode 144: Chin Han
Since playing Lau in The Dark Knight, Chin Han has been on a Hollywood run, acting in blockbuster action movies like Ghost in a Shell, Skyscraper, and Captain American: Winter Soldier, as well as work on a less grand scale for Steven Soderbergh, Gus Van Sant, and the celebrated Netflix series Marco Polo. Now he stars in the eagerly anticipated new Mortal Kombat movie as the shape-shifting villain Shang Tsung. I asked him how he dealt with the history, fan passion and anticipation for the character in his preparation and how it affected him during production. He talks about his […]
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Back to One, Episode 143: Alison Wright
She’s probably best known for her Emmy-Nominated performance as FBI secretary Martha Hanson on FX’s critically acclaimed series The Americans, and now Alison Wright has breathed life into another complex character in yet another hit series—Ruth Wardle on TNT’s Snowpiercer. In this hour, she gives us a peek under the hood of her craft and we get closer to understanding how she’s able to bring such naturalism and depth to all her performances. She talks about her early fascination with “The Method” that led her to the Lee Strasberg Institute, her “thought-linked” approach to the text which she developed over […]
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“Am I Going to Have to Reshoot Half of This Movie?” Howard Deutch on Some Kind of Wonderful
Writer-director John Hughes had just begun to make a name for himself with three films he made for Universal (Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club and Weird Science) when Ned Tanen lured him over to Paramount with an overall deal designed to turn the filmmaker into a mogul. In less than three years, Hughes wrote, produced, and/or directed five movies for the studio (Pretty in Pink, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Some Kind of Wonderful, Planes Trains and Automobiles and She’s Having a Baby), all of which have now been reissued on Paramount’s “John Hughes 5-Movie Collection” Blu-ray with a generous supply of extra […]
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“We Weren’t Trying to Go for an Exact Imitation”: Dialect Coach Audrey LeCrone on Judas and the Black Messiah
Deputy chairman of the national Black Panther Party Fred Hampton was a stirring orator, firing hearts and minds out of slumber and into action against US capitalism. So clear and infectious was Hampton’s guidance against the country’s racist and classist economic system that the FBI and Chicago police department assassinated the 21-year-old as he slept. In documentaries like The Murder of Fred Hampton, which don’t circulate enough, Hampton is seen delivering his famous speeches at rallies, casually moving fellow Panthers with his warmth in a mock trial at the headquarters, mingling at the Free Breakfast for School Children Program and […]
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Back to One, Episode 142: Olivia Cooke
Olivia Cooke had no formal training and claims to have no real process. Is she just a natural? A freak of nature? How else to explain the incredible range and astounding talent of this rising star? I first took note of her work in the black comedy Thoroughbreds, and then Steven Spielberg’s Ready Player One and the British mini-series Vanity Fair. She is on fire now with three new films, Little Fish, Pixie, and last year’s Sound of Metal. I ask her to break down one amazing scene in the latter, and she talks about the advantages of its immersive […]
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Back to One, Episode 141: Delroy Lindo
There are several moments in Delroy Lindo’s performance as Paul in Da 5 Bloods where I believe the voiceless (Black solders who never came back from Vietnam?) speak through him. Sure that might be hooey, but the very idea that I believe it says something about his incredible work in Spike Lee’s celebrated Netflix film. On this episode, I ask Lindo to break down the filming of the gripping monologue that is the centerpiece of that performance, and about his initial apprehension and ultimate acceptance of the MAGA aspect of Paul’s character. He takes us back to his first formative […]
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Back to One, Episode 140: Christina Anthony
Christina Anthony plays Denise on the ABC series Mixed-ish. She generously gives us a fascinating inside look at working on a sitcom from the point of view of an actor who is totally new to the process. She tells the story of sitting at a table read 90 minutes after being cast on the show following years of struggling through more than 100 fruitless pilot auditions, talks about how her Chicago theater roots still pay dividends in her work, getting used to the idea of rotating directors, knowing when to speak up about issues with the script, and how she’s […]
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“The Ceilings were Only 8 1/2 Feet High”: DP Tami Reiker on Shooting One Night in Miami with Jibs and Finishing Production after COVID
In February of 1964, Cassius Clay defeated Sonny Liston at the Miami Beach Convention Hall to become the heavyweight champion of the world at the age of 22. He spent the night celebrating with Malcolm X, Jim Brown and Sam Cooke. Within two weeks of the fight, Clay announced his membership in the Nation of Islam and changed his name. Within a year, both Cooke and Malcolm X were shot dead. By the summer of 1966, Brown had retired from football at the age of 30. Based on the 2013 play by Kemp Powers, One Night in Miami offers a fictitious […]
