« December 2011 | Main | February 2012 »
The following "Auditions at a Glance" calendar conveniently organizes projects by the date and day-of-the-week that the projects' auditions are taking place, to help you schedule your plans.
Click on any of the following links to see the casting and job notices related to the dates and project titles highlighted below.
Continue reading "California Auditions at a Glance – Feb. 2-10" »
The following "Auditions at a Glance" calendar conveniently organizes projects by the date and day-of-the-week that the projects' auditions are taking place, to help you schedule your plans.
Click on any of the following links to see the casting and job notices related to the dates and project titles highlighted below.
Continue reading "New York Auditions at a Glance – Feb. 2-10" »
The following "Auditions at a Glance" calendar conveniently organizes projects by the date and day-of-the-week that the projects' auditions are taking place, to help you schedule your plans.
Click on any of the following links to see the casting and job notices related to the dates and project titles highlighted below.
Continue reading "Regional Auditions at a Glance – Feb. 2-10" »
Okay, I predicted the SAG Award winners pretty well, though I don't know if anyone saw Jean Dujardin coming. Besting the odds-on favorite George Clooney, "The Artist" star walked off with the award for Outstanding Performance By A Male Actor In A Leading Role. Which raises the question: Could Dujardin pull a Robert Begnini and walk away with the Oscar? In 1999, the Italian actor bested the likes of Tom Hanks, Ian McKellen, Nick Nolte, and Edward Norton to win the prize for his work in "Life is Beautiful." (Something that didn't please Nolte, if you read the last paragraph from our recent SAG Roundtable here.)
I'm hoping this means the race is still wide open, and Brad Pitt or even Gary Oldman might be able to pull off a win. I'm a little sad, as it feels like "The Descendants" has gone from front-runner to forgotten. It looks like the screenplay award will go to "Moneyball" and director Alexander Payne will lose to DGA winner Michel Hazanavicius for "The Artist." For some reason, I feel like voters never completely connected with the film--how else to explain the lack of a SAG or Oscar nom for Shailene Woodley?
And while Dujardin won in his category, "The Artist" did not win Best Ensemble, which instead went to "The Help." Does this mean "The Help" could take Best Picture at the Oscars? Well, yes, but probably not. Best Ensemble is very different from Best Picture, and I think it's still "The Artist" for the win. It's just hard to argue with "The Help" cast--so many great actors at play, with not a single weak spot in the entire ensemble.
Some other questions from last night: Did anyone see Malcolm McDowell seemingly yelling at his date when they cut to him? Could Jessica Chastain be any more gorgeous? Did you know Amanda Plummer was Christopher Plummer's daughter? And don't you think Steve Buscemi deserved his dual wins for Actor and Ensemble of "Boardwalk Empire" just for his "Coach Bert" sketch on SNL?
Full list of winners from last night here.
--Jenelle Riley
The SAG Awards are this Sunday, 5pm Pacific/8 pm Eastern on TNT/TBS. You can follow my Twitter feed to and Back Stage's Twitter feed to see how we react to the winners. But first, a few predictions...
Female Actor in a Supporting Role:
BÉRÉNICE BEJO / Peppy - "THE ARTIST"
JESSICA CHASTAIN / Celia Foote - “THE HELP”
MELISSA McCARTHY / Megan - “BRIDESMAIDS”
JANET McTEER / Hubert Page - "ALBERT NOBBS”
OCTAVIA SPENCER / Minny Jackson - “THE HELP”
Who will win: Octavia Spencer should walk away with this one, barring an upset from Melissa McCarthy or a massive swell for "The Artist." Still, Spencer was beloved in a huge film, so expect her to go home with at least one award.
Male Actor in a Supporting Role:
KENNETH BRANAGH / Sir Laurence Olivier - “MY WEEK WITH MARILYN”
ARMIE HAMMER / Clyde Tolson - "J. EDGAR"
JONAH HILL / Peter Brand - "MONEYBALL"
NICK NOLTE / Paddy Conlon - “WARRIOR”
CHRISTOPHER PLUMMER / Hal - “BEGINNERS”
Who Will Win: A great group of guys, and had "Warrior" been seen by more people, I think Nick Nolte might have a shot. But it's a guarantee that Christopher Plummer will continue his winning streak by taking home the SAG Award.
Female Actor in a Leading Role:
GLENN CLOSE / Albert Nobbs - "ALBERT NOBBS”
VIOLA DAVIS / Aibileen Clark - “THE HELP”
MERYL STREEP / Margaret Thatcher - “THE IRON LADY”
TILDA SWINTON / Eva - “WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN”
MICHELLE WILLIAMS / Marilyn Monroe - “MY WEEK WITH MARILYN”
Who Will Win: In the Viola vs. Meryl race, I give the edge to Viola Davis. More people have seen the movie, and you can't argue with greatness. Which is not to say that Streep isn't great...but her movie isn't.
Male Actor in a Leading Role:
DEMIÁN BICHIR / Carlos Galindo - “A BETTER LIFE”
GEORGE CLOONEY / Matt King - "THE DESCENDANTS”
LEONARDO DiCAPRIO / J. Edgar Hoover - "J. EDGAR"
JEAN DUJARDIN / George - "THE ARTIST"
BRAD PITT / Billy Beane - "MONEYBALL"
Who Will Win: Conventional wisdom says this belongs to George Clooney, and it probably does. But I still think Brad Pitt will ultimately take the Oscar home, and may even cause an upset at the SAG Awards.
Cast of a Motion Picture:
"THE ARTIST"
"BRIDESMAIDS"
"THE DESCENDANTS"
"THE HELP"
"MIDNIGHT IN PARIS"
Who Will Win: Tough call. These are all great ensembles, I wouldn't begrudge any of them winning. Right now, "The Artist" has a lot of momentum, and people love the film. But the powerhouse ensemble of "The Help" might be too much to beat. Giving the edge to "The Help." For now.
--Jenelle Riley
“It’s all going to the same playbook over and over,” admits Joyful Noise director Todd Graff. “Not only is it people performing, but performing in competitions and benefits and big final numbers.”
With a filmography that also includes the musical features Bandslam (2009) and CAMP (2003), it is hard to deny the existence of a pattern on the director's resume. Projects that celebrate diversity among young performers have become Graff’s de facto calling card. It's a seemingly natural extension of the career he launched as a pre-teen actor on The Electric Company, the landmark 1970s TV variety show that famously introduced to wider audiences a young—though by no means teenaged—Morgan Freeman.
Back Stage caught up with Mr. Graff in between final sound-mixing sessions for Noise to reflect on the 10 years -- and three seasons of Glee -- since the making of CAMP, and the joys of being “pigeonholed.” (We should all be so lucky.)
Billed as "a comedy about drama" and released to positive reviews but little promotion on the arthouse circuit, CAMP may not have garnered much attention at the box office, but thanks to DVD and frequent airings on IFC, the film steadily earned bona-fide cult favorite status among legions of young performers who could appreciate its spot-on ribbing of the hilariously age-inappropriate repertoire sometimes found in adolescent theater programs.
Continue reading "Camping It Up With ‘Joyful Noise’ Director Todd Graff" »
...but comedy is hard. So goes the old saying, and any actor worth their salt will tell you it's true. It's much easier to wring tears than laughs, so why are comedies so disdained when it comes to movie awards? The latest in this debate come to us courtesy of Mary Pols of Time Entertainment, with her piece on why Melissa McCarthy doesn't deserve her Oscar nomination.
First of all, I sort of loathe the whole "deserve" argument. I saw a lot of this yesterday against Jonah Hill's nod for "Moneyball," and it just reeks of an anti-comedy sentiment. Hill is terrific in the film, which is essentially a tw0-man show between him and Brad Pitt. If Pitt is so deserving, doesn't some of the credit lie with his scene partner? Isn't what Hill does the definition of a "supporting actor"? It seems people are more annoyed by the idea that a comedy icon like Hill is now an Oscar nominee. There were some very funny tweets along the lines of: "When '21 Jump Street' ads play, they can now say 'Oscar nominee Jonah Hill.' " But come on--no actor has a perfect record. Kim Basinger won an Oscar for the first good movie she ever made! (And personally, I think "21 Jump Street" looks awesome.)
My main problem with Pols' story--aside from the fact she misspells Carey Mulligan as "Cary," which is kind of unforgivable for a major website--is that she contradicts herself. She wants to have it both ways, saying how great McCarthy is, then calling her unworthy. While admitting McCarthy's work is "hilarious," Pols at first makes a strong case for the nod, saying: "Because of the level of improvisation involved in making Bridesmaids, it is safe to say McCarthy wasn’t just bringing smart words on a page to life." But then she turns around and calls it "a comic sketch that could comfortably live only within an ensemble." That's the point--McCarthy is a great supporting player. And of course, characters can only exist in world their film creates. And for the record, McCarthy actually made it more than just a sketch. The most tender moment in the film occurs when McCarthy's Megan assaults Kristen Wiig's character, telling her life is biting her in the ass. It's a wonderful, original moment that is simultaneously hilarious and heartbreaking.
Pols also complains that "it is a very broad, one-note performance," which I find odd, as she says Mulligan deserved the nomination more. Mulligan's role as a depressed, promiscuous chanteuse in "Shame" is the epitome of one-note. But because it's a drama, she gets praised.
Another thing I noticed: Pols feels the need to frequently point out McCarthy's size, sometimes disguising it as a compliment: "Before and after she hoisted her considerable bulk onto a sink to defecate, McCarthy did do something special — she played Megan as a large, red-faced person who did not understand, did not even consider, that people might recoil from her or treat her as anything less than a pretty, stick-thin bridesmaid." Actually, Megan's weight is never a factor. And "considerable bulk" is, at best, unkind--she also calls her character "grotesque." But then Pols tries to have it both ways, saying: "Yes, it was empowering that [she]...wasn’t ashamed of who she was or what she looked like, but she was also blindly intent on taking what she wanted." The subtle implication is that she should have been ashamed, just a little.
In a tweet posting the story, Pols said: "OK, get mad at me!" I'm not mad. I think Pols is entitled to her opinion, just as I'm entitled to think Albert Brooks should have been nominated before Max Von Sydow--though I wouldn't say Von Sydow didn't "deserve" his. And I don't think she believes her own argument, as she goes out of her way to praise McCarthy's performance. But the entire thing reeks of discrimination against people of size and comedy. When "Bridesmaids" first came out, I immediately said McCarthy deserved an Oscar nomination--but never really expected her to get one. I'm thrilled the Academy agreed. McCarthy doesn't just spout funny lines, she creates a fully realized character who expresses herself with all of an actor's tools. She's as good as fellow nominee Jean Dujardin is with facial expressions alone. As my friend Sarah said, "She deserves 10 nominations just for the shot with the van full of puppies."
--Jenelle Riley
The following "Auditions at a Glance" calendar conveniently organizes projects by the date and day-of-the-week that the projects' auditions are taking place, to help you schedule your plans.
Click on any of the following links to see the casting and job notices related to the dates and project titles highlighted below.
Continue reading "California Auditions at a Glance – Jan. 26-Feb. 3" »