Blog Stage - Acting in Film, TV, Theatre - Backstage

Woody Allen? Not helping.

I've steered clear of the current Roman Polanski scandal, because it's a very polarizing topic that I don't feel I'm equipped to speak eloquently on. I think Polanski is a great filmmaker. I think he got a raw deal from the judge in his trial. I appreciate that even his victim believes he should be free. But I was also deeply affected by this excellent editorial from Kate Harding at Salon. She systematically tackles every argument in favor of Polanski--he had a tough life! The girl didn't look 13! The judge screwed him!--and repeats the simple fact that the man broke the law and should not receive special treatment.

Most of you have probably heard of or seen the list of supporters asking for Polanski to be freed. You'll note Woody Allen at the top--probably not the kind of endorsement Polanski was hoping for.

--Jenelle Riley

Is It Really Possible to Write About Acting?

The Guardian's theater blog asks today: "How do you describe great acting?"

Andrew Haydon finds it curious that theater critics (at least in the U.K.) tend to focus on the play itself -- whether the script, the content, the stage direction, the lighting -- rather than the performances of the actors on stage.

From "How do you describe great acting?":

Something I've been finding fascinating recently is how hard it is to write about acting, to put into words what an actor's performance is like. There just doesn't seem to be an appropriate vocabulary...

There are those old examples of Kenneth Tynan spending 90% of a review describing just one performance – say, Olivier in Shakespeare. If anyone wrote that sort of review now, I suspect they'd prompt a few letters to the editor asking what the rest of the play was like...

I would argue that the reason for this lies in the very nature of our culture and language. We are predisposed to talking about ideas and politics; we have a lot of words for doing so. Acting, on the other hand, is full of intangible qualities. Little wrinkles of the eye, the faint hint of a smile – it's a series of tiny moments that would take an entire newspaper to describe. There are a few shorthands for style: acting, like porcelain, tends to be fine. Sometimes it can be "broad" or "rough", while individual actors may even merit a couple of adjectives for their characterisation.

It's an odd problem, and I don't have any kind of solution. But it is intriguing to think that at the heart of writing about theatre, there is this strange void in language that means we can't ever say what we've seen. 

Who Else But Matt LeBlanc Could Play Matt LeBlanc?

James Hibberd reported earlier today for THR's "The Live Feed" blog that former Friends star Matt LeBlanc will star as himself in Episodes, a Showtime sitcom parody in which a BBC comedy series is turned into a dumbed-down American sitcom (think Coupling or The Office).

"I love it," said Matt LeBlanc. "I am really excited to be working with Showtime and the BBC. And I am so glad I got the part, seeing someone else play Matt LeBlanc would have been devastating."

That must have been awkward when LeBlanc auditioned to play himself. But seriously, who else could pull it off? Daniel Day Lewis? That guy can do pretty much anything. Shia LaBeouf? He seems to be cast in pretty much everything right now. And Megan Fox says in nearly every interview that she thinks she could be a good actress if she ever had to try -- so why not give her a shot at really stretching her range?

We guess Matt LeBlanc is still the best choice to play Matt LeBlanc, but what do you think? Leave a comment below with your casting suggestions.

Varla Jean de Havilland

Fans of the veteran cross-dress entertainer Varla Jean Merman (self-proclaimed love child of Ernest Borgnine and Ethel Merman), noted for her operatic voice and guzzling of cans of Cheez-Whiz during her cabaret shows, as well as those who cherish the guilty-pleasure 1964 Bette Davis-Olivia de Havilland film thriller Hush...Hush Sweet Charlotte are in for a treat. The zany spoof Shut Up Sweet Charlotte, written by Varla Jean and Matthew Martin, stars Varla Jean (pictured on right) as the ruthless villaness originally played by de Havilland, and Ricky Graham (left), in the beleagured heroine role, uncharacteristically played by Davis in the cult classic. The show  is currently on tour, playing two weekends in Southern California this month--first in Palm Springs, then in San Diego.

Bid On 'Inception' Set Visit and Lunch with Director Christopher Nolan!

To fans of movie sets, lunches, and film director Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight, Memento): Here's your chance to spend a lot of money. The Pablove Foundation is holding an online auction for the opportunity to visit the set of Nolan's new movie, Inception, including lunch with the director. As Collider points out in , "the set of Inception is closed to all outsiders and you’d probably get to see some really cool stuff."

Inception is "a contemporary sci-fi actioner set within the architecture of the mind." Very few details have been revealed and Nolan has been extremely tight-lipped about his new film, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Ken Watanabe, Joseh Gordon-Levitt, Marion Cotillard, Ellen Page, Michael Caine, and more.

The auction ends today, Sept. 30 at 17:46:39 PDT. Bidding is currently at $1,625. All proceeds will be donated to charity. For more details about the online auction, continue reading below or visit the eBay auction site.

Phony Film Producer Lures Boston Actresses

Late last week, WCVB TV in Boston reported that at least nine women in the Boston area, including actress Krystal Kenville (pictured at right), thought they were auditioning for a Hollywood movie. Instead, they became victims of a scam by a phony movie producer who tried to get them to perform sex acts.

From TheBostonChannel.com:

Kenville is one of nine actresses who have contacted Boston police to report an encounter with the fake producer. Police said the man contacts the women through their online listings and meets them in the Faneuil Hall area where the so-called tryouts begin...

“[As part of the required audition scene] I kissed his neck and whispered and rubbed his arm and he said, ‘Do it like you really want the job,’ and I had to stop,” said Kenville. “And he said, ‘Do it like you really want this job!’ And so finally I said, ‘No, I’m not doing this.’”

Boston police are working to investigate and catch the phony "producer" before he strikes again, and are encouraging any other possible victims to come forward. (Watch the video or read the full story at The Boston Globe.)

'Enron' Heading to Broadway

Wall Street might still be reeling, but New York theater-goers will soon be reminded of that other financial scandal: Enron is headed to Broadway after its upcoming West End run. Producers announced earlier this month that playwright Lucy Prebble's new play, a mix of fact and fiction that "utilizes music, movement and video to explore one of the most infamous scandals in financial history, reviewing the tumultuous 1990s and casting a new light on the financial turmoil in which the world finds itself in 2009," would open on Broadway in April 2010.

But Back Stage just received the first official casting notice from Actors Equity, which confirms that "the Broadway production will use an all-American cast" (instead of current star Samuel West and cast members Gillian Budd, Peter Caulfield, Howard Charles, Andrew Corbett, Amanda Drew, Susannah Fellows, Stephen Fewell, Tom Godwin, Tom Goodman-Hill, Orion Lee, Eleanor Matsuura, Tim Pigott-Smith, Ashley Rolfe and Trevor White). The play will open late April on Broadway for an open-ended run, but no theater has been confirmed.

Available roles include: Jeffrey Skilling, Andy Fastow, Ken Lay, Claudia Roe, and others. Telsey + Company will hold Equity principal auditions Oct. 12-14 in NYC. For more info, be sure to pick up next week's Oct. 8-14 issue of Back Stage or search casting notices at BackStage.com.

Actorfest Twitter Contest Week 2 Winners Announced!

'Matthew Modine Saves the Alpacas'... and Bad Reviews

The L.A. Times Culture Monster pointed out over the weekend that the Geffen Playhouse is taking advantage of bad reviews for its limited run of Matthew Modine Saves the Alpacas in a new ad. By adding exclamation points to creatively-edited critics' quotes, the ad suggests that the play is a campy comedy that's so bad it's good -- when in fact, critics mostly panned the show and found very little to enjoy about it.

"What we were up to in this ad was to use the words in the reviews to point up how funny and silly the show is," said Ken Novice, managing director of the Geffen Playhouse.

In Blaire Singer's satirical new play, "Modine plays a version of himself -- a movie actor well past his peak fame who embarks on a journey to save a rare species of mammal in order to revive his career." French Stewart (3rd Rock from the Sun) and Peri Gilpin (Frasier) also star. Below, Culture Monster's David Ng points out the differences between some of the quotes and original reviews.

Cell Phone Interrupts 'A Steady Rain'

Last Wednesday's performance of the new Broadway play A Steady Rain, starring Hugh Jackman and Daniel Craig, was interrupted by the ringing cell phone of an audience member either too rude or too terrified to reach down and turn it off.

Lucky for us, TMZ has retrieved what looks like camera phone footage (oh, the irony) of the incident, including Jackman and Craig's angry -- but still in-character -- responses to the interruption:

Crappy sound and audience applause tend to mask the ringing itself and obscure the actors' words in this video, but you get the point. At least Jackman didn't freak out a la Patti LuPone...

-- Daniel Lehman