Interviews
Zach Galifianakis Interview For ‘The Hangover Part III’
May 21st
It’s been two years. Phil (Bradley Cooper), Stu (Ed Helms) and Doug (Justin Bartha) are happily living uneventful lives at home. Tattoos have been lasered off, files purged. The last they heard from disaster-magnet Leslie Chow (Ken Jeong), he’d been tossed into a Thai prison and, with him out of the way, the guys have very nearly recovered from their nights prowling the seamy side of Las Vegas in a roofie’d haze, and being kidnapped, shot at, and chased by drug-dealing mobsters in Bangkok. The only member of the Wolfpack who’s not content is Alan (Zach Galifianakis). Still lacking a sense of purpose, the group’s black sheep has ditched his meds and given in to his natural impulses in a big way – which, for Alan, means no boundaries, no filters and no judgment – until a personal crisis forces him to finally seek the help he needs.
‘The Hangover Part III’ reunites stars Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis and Justin Bartha as Phil, Stu, Alan and Doug. Also returning to the cast are Ken Jeong as Leslie Chow; Heather Graham as Stu’s first wife, Jade; and Jeffrey Tambor as Alan’s father, Sid. Joining the ensemble for the first time is John Goodman, starring as the guys’ new nightmare, Marshall. Todd Phillips directs from a screenplay he wrote with Craig Mazin, who previously collaborated with him on the screenplay for ‘The Hangover Part II.’ The film is set for a May 23rd release.
Alan is not doing too well in the beginning of this film, and the guys stage an intervention in the hopes of getting him into a facility where he can get some help and put his life in order. Naturally, Alan is resistant, but he finally gives in to the promise of a road trip with his three best friends….
Zach Galifianakis: Yeah. Alan is having some kind of mid-life crisis…. if he was to live to 120 (laughs). Alan’s 60 years old, he looks good. But really, he’s having a bit of a mid-life crisis, even though he doesn’t really know it. The story for the third one starts basically when something happens to Alan’s life, he has a meltdown and he hasn’t been the most responsible adult there is. Alan has to be told he’s having a midlife crisis because he’s not aware of it. He has no idea. I guess it’s more like a coming-of-age crisis, but it’s hard to come of age when you’re already over 40. People are concerned, and they try to help Alan. But that’s how it starts: helping Alan. It’s so nice and innocent.
Tahar Rahim Interview For Asghar Farhadi’s ‘The Past’
May 20th
Following a four year separation, Ahmad (Ali Mosaffa) returns to Paris from Tehran, upon his French wife Marie’s (Bérénice Bejo) request, in order to finalize their divorce procedure. During his brief stay, Ahmad discovers the conflicting nature of Marie’s relationship with her daughter Lucie (Pauline Burlet). Ahmad’s efforts to improve this relationship soon unveil a secret from their past. ‘The Past’ is writer-director Asghar Farhadi’s follow-up to his Foreign Language Oscar-winning ‘A Separation.’ Tahar Rahim, Elyes Aguis, Jeanne Jestin, Sabrina Ouazani, Babak Karimi and Valeria Cavalli also star. Out now in France, look out for ‘The Past’ later this year in the UK and US.
Initially, you were due to make another film with Asghar Farhadi. What was that, and what happened?
Tahar Rahim: Asghar had seen ‘A Prophet,’ and he told me that was why he wanted to work with me. We met up and he told me about this project. It seems quite a while ago now, but I remember there was a man and a woman who fell in love over the internet. The writing came up against a specific problem: the use of a webcam (laughs). Anyway, we were supposed to see each other three weeks later, and during this meeting he told me the plot of ‘The Past.’ I asked about the other film. He replied that he’d rather make this one, because it was more personal for him. It came as a surprise, but since we hadn’t yet started working…
Nicolas Winding Refn Interview For ‘Only God Forgives’
May 20th
Bangkok. Julian (Ryan Gosling) runs a Thai boxing club as a front for a drugs operation. He has everything he wants for and is respected in the criminal underworld though, deep inside, he feels empty. When Julian’s brother murders a prostitute the police call on retired cop Chang – the Angel of Vengeance (Vithaya Pansringarm). Chang allows the father to kill his daughter’s murderer, then ‘restores order’ by chopping off the man’s right hand. Julian’s mother Jenna (Kristin Scott Thomas) – the head of a powerful criminal organization – arrives in Bangkok to collect her son’s body. She dispatches Julian to find his killers and ‘raise hell’. Increasingly obsessed with the Angel of Vengeance, Julian challenges him to a boxing match, hoping that by defeating him he might find spiritual release… but Chang triumphs. A furious Jenna plots revenge and the stage is set for a bloody journey through betrayal and vengeance towards a final confrontation and the possibility of redemption.
‘Only God Forgives’ reunites writer-director Nicolas Winding Refn with Ryan Gosling, the lead of his fantastic neo-noir crime drama, ‘Drive.’ Alongside Gosling, the likes of Kristin Scott Thomas, Vithaya Pansringarm, Tom Burke and Yayaying also star. Shot on location in Bangkok, the film’s score is by award-winning ‘Drive’ composer Cliff Martinez (Spring Breakers, Contagion). ‘Only God Forgives’ is set for a July 19th release in the US, while the film will open across the UK and Ireland on August 2nd.
After the great success of ‘Drive,’ why did you decide to make a medium budget film in Thailand? You had many offers from major studios. Why did you turn them down?
Nicolas Winding Refn: Medium budget is an understatement, it’s more a very low budget film (laughs). It all started with my two-picture deal with Wild Bunch and Gaumont. ‘Only God Forgives’ was going to be our first collaboration. Then ‘Drive’ came along so I decided to make it and postpone ‘Only God Forgives.’ But the film was so firmly rooted in me that I had to make it. So even while I was making ‘Drive’ I was preparing ‘Only God Forgives.’ And I was indeed offered some financially very interesting propositions that I seriously looked into, but ‘Only God Forgives’ had haunted me for too long, I had to get it out before I could seriously consider other projects. And it started out as a normal fight movie, but because I was doing other stuff and becoming interested in other things it developed more into the idea of creating your own world – of a sort of dream world next to reality. Which is a bit like what ‘Drive’ is.
Oscar Isaac Interview For The Coen Brothers’ ‘Inside Llewyn Davis’
May 20th
‘Inside Llewyn Davis’ follows a week in the life of a young folk singer as he navigates the Greenwich Village folk scene of 1961. Llewyn Davis (Oscar Isaac) is at a crossroads. Guitar in tow, huddled against the unforgiving New York winter, he is struggling to make it as a musician against seemingly insurmountable obstacles-some of them of his own making. Written and directed by Academy Award-winners Joel and Ethan Coen, the film also stars Carey Mulligan, John Goodman, Garrett Hedlund, F. Murray Abraham and Justin Timberlake. Grammy-winner T Bone Burnett produced the film’s soundtrack which includes music performed by, among others, Oscar Isaac, Marcus Mumford and Justin Timberlake. ’Inside Llewyn Davis’ is set for a December 6th release in the US and a January 24th release in the UK and Ireland. Check out this brief interview with Oscar Isaac from the Cannes Film Festival below.
How was it discussing this character and finding this character with the Coen brothers?
Oscar Isaac: It was amazing; we kind of just formed it together. As soon as they cast me we started working on it and figuring out this guy. The truth is that it’s built a lot with just the context of the film, you know? And a lot of it was so underplayed and so quiet that it needed to be constructed in the full context of everything, with the music coming in…. and through the music, that’s where you truly see his soul come out, that’s his little blue bird that he shows to people. It was really just the three of us working together every day in very practical ways. It was interesting because we never really had conversations about his personality or things like that, a lot of that was written in the script and the story, a lot of that is laid out. The script was so good. He evolved very organically between speaking with the Coen brothers and even T Bone.
Bérénice Bejo Interview For Asghar Farhadi’s ‘The Past’
May 20th
Following a four year separation, Ahmad (Ali Mosaffa) returns to Paris from Tehran, upon his French wife Marie’s (Bérénice Bejo) request, in order to finalize their divorce procedure. During his brief stay, Ahmad discovers the conflicting nature of Marie’s relationship with her daughter Lucie (Pauline Burlet). Ahmad’s efforts to improve this relationship soon unveil a secret from their past. ‘The Past’ is writer-director Asghar Farhadi’s follow-up to his Foreign Language Oscar-winning ‘A Separation.’ Tahar Rahim, Elyes Aguis, Jeanne Jestin, Sabrina Ouazani, Babak Karimi and Valeria Cavalli also star. Out now in France, look out for ‘The Past’ later this year in the UK and US.
What was your first impression when you read the script of ‘The Past’?
Bérénice Bejo: I had to wait a month before I received it. I’d met Asghar, then I went abroad on vacation and I waited to find out if he was going to give me the script, and if he was going to offer me the role or not. When I finally got hold of it, I picked it up like a jewel, a rare object that I was lucky to have in my hands (laughs). I found everything in it that I liked in his previous films. A mood, characters who aren’t just monochrome, and who always retain a degree of mystery, and a complex story which continually makes the spectator change his or her mind. I finished reading it enchanted.
Bradley Cooper Interview For ‘The Hangover Part III’
May 19th
It’s been two years. Phil (Bradley Cooper), Stu (Ed Helms) and Doug (Justin Bartha) are happily living uneventful lives at home. Tattoos have been lasered off, files purged. The last they heard from disaster-magnet Leslie Chow (Ken Jeong), he’d been tossed into a Thai prison and, with him out of the way, the guys have very nearly recovered from their nights prowling the seamy side of Las Vegas in a roofie’d haze, and being kidnapped, shot at, and chased by drug-dealing mobsters in Bangkok. The only member of the Wolfpack who’s not content is Alan (Zach Galifianakis). Still lacking a sense of purpose, the group’s black sheep has ditched his meds and given in to his natural impulses in a big way – which, for Alan, means no boundaries, no filters and no judgment – until a personal crisis forces him to finally seek the help he needs.
‘The Hangover Part III’ reunites stars Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis and Justin Bartha as Phil, Stu, Alan and Doug. Also returning to the cast are Ken Jeong as Leslie Chow; Heather Graham as Stu’s first wife, Jade; and Jeffrey Tambor as Alan’s father, Sid. Joining the ensemble for the first time is John Goodman, starring as the guys’ new nightmare, Marshall. Todd Phillips directs from a screenplay he wrote with Craig Mazin, who previously collaborated with him on the screenplay for ‘The Hangover Part II.’ The film is set for a May 23rd release.
Rather than memory loss, this final chapter hinges on clarity, and things coming into full focus. At any point on the first movie did speak of making ‘The Hangover’ a trilogy….?
Bradley Cooper: The idea of doing a third film was so insane, because when we did the first one, never did Todd Phillips, Zach and Ed and I sit there and contemplate how we were going to wind up the story that started with a naked mans balls on my neck (laughs). We never thought, “How are we going to turn this into a trilogy?” (Laughs). So it is a bit crazy that we made a third one, but at the same time I would make eight of them because Todd’s an incredible director – I think he’s the best at what he does. And Zach and Ed, they’re just incredible actors and guys. And speaking as a fan, myself, watching these movies, the best part – and certainly the funniest – is putting it all together. It’s such a blast.
