Columns
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Back to One, Episode 70: Greg Kinnear
He started out as a TV host in the ’90s, but Greg Kinnear quickly made the transition to leading man thanks to legendary directors like Sydney Pollack and James L. Brooks investing in his acting talent. An Oscar nomination for As Good As It Gets followed, and he’s been making movies ever since, Little Miss Sunshine, Auto Focus, Little Men, to name just a few. This Summer he has three movies out — Brian Banks, The Red Sea Diving Resort (Netflix), and Phil, which he also directed. In this episode, we discuss the importance of tone, his penchant for playing […]
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Back To One Ep. 69: Ruben Santiago-Hudson
Actor/writer/director Ruben Santiago-Hudson is the kind of artist whose awe-inspiring dedication to the work can almost be overwhelming. He won a Tony Award for his performance in August Wilson’s Seven Guitars. His autobiographical play Lackawanna Blues was a sensation at the Public Theater and went on to be an award-winning HBO film. He started directing plays (particularly Wilson’s) and is now one of the most sought-after directors working in theater. His production of Jitney on Broadway won the Tony award for Best Revival of a Play. As an actor, he can currently be seen on Showtime’s Billions and recently on […]
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Jennifer Kent on Shooting The Nightingale One-Camera, Contractually Obligated Aspect Ratios and Directing from A Handheld Monitor
Australian filmmaker Jennifer Kent’s first two movies present different parental nightmares. In The Babadook, a mother’s fear that she doesn’t love her son manifests itself in the form of the titular monster. In her latest, The Nightingale, a young woman explores the extremes she’s willing to go to in order to punish someone who’s harmed her child. Set in the early 1800s, The Nightingale stars Aisling Franciosi as Clare, an Irish prisoner finishing out the final days of her sentence in servitude to brutal British soldier Hawkins (Sam Claflin). When Hawkins rapes her and attacks her family, Clare sets out […]
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“There Is No Video Village”: DP Robert Richardson on Shooting Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood in 35mm
During lunch break on a Western TV series, fading star Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio) settles into a director’s chair next to his nine-year-old co-star. The young actress is armed with a Walt Disney biography, Dalton a pulpy Western novel. The girl asks Dalton about the story in his book and he recounts the tale of an over-the-hill bronco buster that eerily mirrors his own circumstances. Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood is a loving valentine to an era of studio filmmaking that was coming to an end in 1969, but it’s also a rumination on the inevitability of aging and mortality […]
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Back to One, Episode 68: Damon Herriman
It’s rare for one actor to be cast as the same real-life character in two different productions almost simultaneously. When that real life character is Charles Manson, that makes some news. Australian actor Damon Herriman has taken on this challenging role in both Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood and the second season of David Fincher’s Netflix series Mindhunter. Herriman is perhaps best know for playing Dewey Crowe in the series Justified and currently plays Paul Allen Brown in Perpetual Grace LTD. We talk about the character of Manson, how good writing makes for good acting, and why […]
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Panavision’s Dan Sasaki on Customizing Lenses for Once Upon a Time In Hollywood
If you’re reading this story in hopes of gleaning the magic recipe behind Panavision’s increasingly popular “detuning” process, sorry to disappoint you. Panavision Senior Vice President of Optical Engineering Dan Sasaki will divulge no such details. “I wish I could. Unfortunately, that is a process we like to keep secret,” said Sasaki, who began his career at Panavision in 1986 as a lens service technician. “What I can say is that it’s a process that is continually evolving.” Sasaki will, however, happily talk about being a second-generation member of the Panavision family, the storied history of the C Series anamorphics, […]
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Back to One, Episode 67: Kevin Corrigan
Kevin Corrigan will always have a special spot in the Back To One pantheon, not just because he was the very first guest, but because he set the stage for the discussions on the craft of acting that were to come—personal, steeped in the work, confessional at times, often inspirational, always educational. In this hour, he shares some more inspiring personal experiences from a life in acting, and also talks about the work of those who’ve inspired him, from his friend Natasha Lyonne and his current co-star Pete Davidson, to Marlon Brando, Glenda Jackson, Taylor Negron, the actor Bob Dylan, […]
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“If I’m Not Nervous About Getting Fired Between Wrap and Dailies…I Probably Didn’t Push Myself Hard Enough”: Cinematographer David Klein Discusses his Emmy-Nominated Work on Deadwood: The Movie
When HBO pulled the plug on Deadwood a dozen years ago, it left the denizens of the lawless South Dakota boomtown dangling at the end of a Season 3 cliffhanger. The show’s ostensible hero (marshal Seth Bullock, played by Timothy Olyphant) and villain (saloon owner Al Swearengen, played by Ian McShane) were left equally battered and bruised by a common enemy in ruthless mining magnate George Hearst. Imagine if the original Star Wars trilogy ended after The Empire Strikes Back and you’ll get a sense of the incompleteness that has haunted Deadwood fans over the years – myself included. HBO […]
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Back to One, Episode 66: Jesse Eisenberg
While he might be best known for his Oscar-nominated performance as Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Network, Jesse Eisenberg’s preternatural ability for making unique characterization choices has won him roles in wildly original films, both indie and studio, such as The End of the Tour, Adventureland, Holy Rollers, American Ultra, Zombieland, and two of my favorites, The Squid and the Whale and The Double. Now he continues that trend with Riley Stearns’ The Art of Self Defense. In this half hour he talks about the effort he put into finding the right tone to play the absurdity in that film, […]
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Back to One, Episode 65: Emmy Harrington
I first was introduced to the incredible talents of Emmy Harrington on the set of Caveh Zahedi’s The Show About The Show, where she plays “Slut Machine,” and witnessed, first hand, her ability to adapt to all types of run-and-gun shooting environments and unorthodox directing styles and deliver a great performance take after take. You can also see her work in shows like High Maintenance and Jessica Jones, and an award-winning film she wrote, directed, and stars in — Two Little Bitches — is currently making the festival circuit. I sat down with her a couple of days after directing […]
