(l-r) ETHAN HAWKE and JULIE DELPY in “BEFORE MIDNIGHT.” ©SONY PICTURES CLASSICS.

By ANGELA DAWSON

Front Row Features

HOLLYWOOD—In a summer of sequels, one that doesn’t include explosions, car chases or special effects is “Before Midnight,” which revisits the captivating relationship between Jesse and Celine, as played by Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy.

The couple was first introduced onboard a European train in 1995’s “Before Sunrise,” he a young American getting over a breakup and she an idealistic student returning home to France after visiting a sick relative in Eastern Europe. The two travelers have an immediate attraction and on a whim decide to spend the day in Vienna, where they enjoy conversation, the scenery and romance. Though the romantic drama, directed and co-written by Richard Linklater wasn’t a box office hit, it became something of a cult classic among hopeless romantics, with its smartly written dialogue, believable actors and beautiful setting.

Though it ended with the two going their separate ways after a magical night, no one was ready to say goodbye to Jesse and Celine. The actors and the director reconvened nearly a decade later and decided to make a sequel. “Before Sunset,” released in 2004, finds Jesse and Celine reuniting unexpectedly in Paris. Older and wiser, the two are in the prime of their lives. Jesse has written a novel based on his magical day with Celine and Celine is establishing herself in her career and is a budding musician.  Hawke and Delpy, more experienced and mature as performers and filmmakers, helped out in the writing of the sequel, which ended with married Jesse listening to Celine playing a guitar in her apartment, with the implication that he was there to stay.

In “Before Midnight,” another nine years have passed and Jesse and Celine are now living together and have twin daughters. Jesse is a successful novelist, and Celine is a dedicated mother and environmentalist. They are enjoying the waning days of a vacation in Southern Greece along with Jesse’s son from his marriage. While their life seems perfect, cracks in their relationship emerge as the story unfolds. Their suppressed issues with each other emerge in a no-holds barred argument that erupts while they are supposed to be enjoying a romantic evening. As with the previous films, “Before Midnight” tells the story in a series of long scenes, filled with realistic dialogue (again co-written by director Linklater as well as Hawke and Delpy) that anyone who has ever been in a long-term relationship can relate.

The actors recently reconvened at a Beverly Hills hotel to talk about playing Jesse and Celine once again and reflecting on their 18-year collaboration.

(l-r) JULIE DELPY and ETHAN HAWKE in “BEFORE MIDNIGHT.” ©SONY PICTURES CLASSICS.

Q: The dilemma for the couple this time out is whether they will decide to go to the States to be closer to Jesse’s son or stay in France where Celine has a big job opportunity. How does a couple deal with a conflict that big?

Hawke: Part of the idea of the movie is that it’s very easy to look at a romantic relationship when there’s an obvious bad guy (like) when one person is an alcoholic or abusive. We thought what if you were to take two well-meaning people who actually love each other and want the best for each other? Could we paint that portrait? Anybody’s who’s been in a long-term relationship, whether it’s as dramatic as a choice of living in Chicago or Paris, it’s really about whether or not your lives are still on the same road.

Delpy: Here, there’s no bad guy, in particular. But they still have to make compromises and they argue about who’s making the most compromises and will those compromises jeopardize their relationship and their love? When you have a long-term relationship, you have to make choices. Their relationship starts with a choice that Jesse makes, which is to follow his heart. That comes with consequences and the film starts with the consequences of that choice. We find them in a situation where they have to make a choice again, where Jesse is suggesting he might want to move back to the U.S. But it might jeopardize their entire life and the life of a relationship.

Q: What’s interesting about these films are the long uninterrupted scenes. There’s a scene where you’re in the car talking on the way back from dropping off Jesse’s son at the airport that’s roughly 14 minutes long. Were you cognizant that this was going to be shot in one take and you’ve got the young actresses who play your daughters asleep in the backseat the whole time? What was the challenge?

Delpy: Just mentioning that scene gives me a flashback of anxiety again. (She laughs.) My heart is beating slightly faster.

Hawke: Me too. It was hot, incredibly hot.

Delpy: It’s hot and noisy with the sound of the engine and the road. It’s a whole combination of things. And then on top of that, we have to act those 13-14 minutes. Nothing in those scenes is improvised. Everything is scripted. There’s no other way to do them. There is this arc development. The scene sets up the whole movie. It was a challenge. I can’t explain it. It hurts my head just thinking about it. I have a headache just thinking about it.

Q: Do you think about these characters in between films?

Hawke: I remember doing something ridiculous like being at a deli and trying to shop with my kids, and trying to talk on the phone and having this thought, “I wonder if this happens to Jesse. Would this be a moment?” While nothing like that happened in the “Before Midnight” script, its an example of how over a period of years, you collect a few of those moments. There’s a certain tone, a mood and a theme to “Before Sunrise” and “Before Sunset,” and sometimes life pops up and it’s that tone and mood, and it logs in there as something.

Delpy: We have to think about their back story every time we start to write the screenplay. You can’t start writing the second screenplay or the third screenplay without knowing everything about what happened in between. I wouldn’t say Celine lives with me 24/7. Otherwise, I’d be crazy. (She laughs.)

Q: Do you relate to your character?

Delpy: I wanted to make sure Celine was depicted as a strong woman. She’s looking towards the future. She’s not someone who dwells in the past and she’s a very active person. She could seem at times vindictive and she’s not going to let someone tell her what to do or how it should be done. She believes that if they move to Chicago, it will destroy their relationship. I personally think she’s right (She laughs.) It’s important that she’s not just the wife of the writer. She’s her own person. Richard and Ethan and I have tried to make sure too that she’s not depicted simply as “the wife.” Otherwise, the relationship is out of balance. It would be a film about a guy who has a nice French wife. It was very important for us for it to be balanced, that it’s not a macho movie or a feminist movie. It’s very balanced, in that sense.

Q: Do you expect to do another sequel in nine years?

Delpy: We don’t know yet. I have no clue. We don’t actually think about the future. That’s how we operate.

Hawke: We’re just happy to be done with the third film. It was so much work.

Delpy: I can’t even think of the fourth. We might not do a fourth. This could be it. We made three. That’s a lot already.

Q: How have you changed as actors in the past 18 years?

Hawke: I like to say I learned how to speak on camera with “Before Sunrise.” As a young actor, you get asked to pose or affect an emotion, but Richard wanted Julie and I to gab, to talk and to be present in front of the camera, to not act.

Delpy: You’re rarely asked to do these big monologues or dialogues in movies. You might have it once every 10 films. You should see the screenplay. It could sound super boring if we’re not super duper natural at saying it. It sounds like we’re telling the story to someone we care for. So that’s the real challenge of these films. That’s been the challenge as actors every time. To tell a story on camera without sounding boring is the hardest thing. I’ve experienced it on other films and it’s really, really hard. It’s finding the right tone to do it.

Hawke: The lyrics change but the tune’s the same.

Q: What have you learned about yourself in the past 18 years?

Hawke: I’ve learned that I’m not as smart as Julie.

Delpy: (giggling) That’s true.

Q: Did you ever feel like you were going too far with the emotional part, like in the long hotel room argument sequence? Did you have to cry in between takes?

Delpy: It’s pleasurable for an actor to cry, to suffer onscreen; it’s a pleasant thing for an actor. When you see someone on camera crying and being hurt, they’re actually enjoying it. This is our training. (She laughs.) What’s most painful are the simple things. The walk Ethan and I do in that beautiful village was actually more draining as an actor. The fight scene is funny.

Hawke: What’s fun about it is that it was challenging. We dove into it. We were locked in that room for a long time.

Delpy: It was four days.

Hawke: The whole film had been building to that. We filmed that part of it in sequence. For us, it was a challenge but we were so glad to be there. We’d arrived where we had worked for nine years to get to.

Q: Has anything surprised you in making these three films?

Hawke: That’s the biggest shock. Eighteen years after Julie and I auditioned for Rick for “Before Sunrise,” this little romance, the idea that we would have this lifelong collaboration and that we would pour so much of ourselves into it, that’s the thing that’s a surprise.

Delpy: It’s very fulfilling. You go so deep into certain things in the writing and even emotionally. When I say we’re having fun doing the end scene, we’re having fun, but it’s also like moving a lot of things within us. It’s not as simple as having fun; it’s also complicated, those emotions and stuff. We’ve all been through those emotions in a relationship and it’s not a fun thing to go through. We know how heavy it is. We just try to be as genuine and honest as possible. What’s amazing is that people relate. Sometimes I feel like no one’s going to be interested in this. In the end, some people can relate which is, I guess, what cinema is about —for people to identify or dream.

Q: Did fan feedback from the first two films inform this one?

Hawke: There’s a moment in the hotel where the woman who works at the hotel asks me to sign the two books and talks about how important they are. It’s a slight homage of us putting the fans in the movie. Something about “Sunrise” and “Sunset” spoke to people. The people that it reached it spoke to them so there’s a little homage to that there.

Delpy: A lot of people come up to me and say, “Oh, I fell in love with my boyfriend watching that film,” or “We reconnected after five years because I saw ‘Before Sunset’ and he decided to call me after he saw the film.” So we are responsible for a few children a few marriages and a few kids. I feel like their godmother (She laughs.)

Q: Many of those conversations in this are familiar to people in long-term relationships. What do you learn as Celine and Jesse as you’re acting it about how to handle conflict?

Hawke: It’s so nice to be able to come up with the right witty response that you wish you had the next day.

Delpy: This is the ideal argument. We get to write it for, like, eight weeks. We get to revisit it, rehearse it. In real life, I don’t think I’m that good at arguing. I scream and I throw things around (She laughs). I’m joking. Actually, I don’t argue very much so it was a real stretch for me to write that scene.

Jordana Brewster reprises her role as feisty Mia in “Fast & Furious 6.” ©2013 Universal Pictures

By ANGELA DAWSON

Front Row Features

HOLLYWOOD—Jordana Brewster is calling from London where the night before she attended the glitzy world premiere of “Fast & Furious 6,” the latest installment of the long running high-octane Universal Pictures franchise.

The actioner, opening in time for the Memorial Day weekend, reunites Brewster with her “Fast” colleagues Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges along with fairly recent arrivals Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Sung Kang, who joined the festivities in 2011’s “Fast Five.”

Set primarily in London, with a few side trips to Spain and Scotland, “Fast & Furious 6” finds the drag racing outlaws living in luxury in various parts of the world. They also are wanted fugitives, having successfully pulled off a heist in Rio in “Fast Five.” Diesel’s Dom finds out that his girlfriend Letty (Rodriguez), presumed dead in a car explosion, is actually alive and working with a band of international mercenaries, led by former British Special Forces soldier Owen Shaw (“Clash of the Titans” star Luke Evans). He rouses his friends out of their quiet comfortable lives to help him find her.

Dark-eyed beauty Brewster reprises her role as Mia, Dom’s feisty sister who is now married to Brian (Walker), a former LAPD cop turned car-crazy renegade. The happy couple lives in an idyllic Spanish villa with their baby son Jack, but sort of miss the excitement of L.A.

The gang is nothing if not supportive of one another, so they’re willing to help Dom find Letty and bring Shaw and his dangerous crew to justice in exchange for federal immunity for themselves. That effort won’t be easy and involves a lot of fast and furious driving in old-school muscle cars with a climactic ending that blows away any chase scene previously seen onscreen.

Brewster, 33, is excited to reunite with her colleagues, who have become like family over the past 12 years, starting with “The Fast and the Furious.”  (She sat out “2 Fast 2 Furious,” and “The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift,” the second and third installments).

Justin Lin, who helmed the hit “Fast Five,” returns to helm this sequel, and delivers the type of over the top road action that fans have come to expect from the successful franchise. Brewster, who also stars on the rebooted “Dallas” series on TNT, racked up significant frequent flyer miles bouncing between Europe and the U.S. to perform in both projects. She wouldn’t have missed it for the world, she says.

Q: You saw this last night at the London premiere?

Brewster: Yeah, but I would have loved to see it with a real audience. I’m going to see it Memorial Day weekend, for sure.

Q: You shot this at the same time you were shooting “Dallas?”

Brewster: I was.

Q: How did you manage to do that?

Brewster: I was very fortunate in that the (“Fast & Furious 6”) producers worked it out, which was really great. It would have broken my heart to not be a part of it. I’m also part of the “Dallas” family. They just happened to coincide in terms of when they were shooting. What I would do was I’d get on a plane and fly from Dallas to Madrid, and then from Madrid to Tenerife (on the Canary Islands), and then I’d turn back around 24 hours later. I probably did that four or five times. Everyone was like, “Aren’t you tired? You must be so jet-lagged,” and I was like, “I get to fly first class and play with my friends and be a part of an unbelievable movie.” I was very happy to do it. When December came around and I had to slow down, I was kind of bored. It’s kind of a bummer.

Q: You get to play a mom in this to baby Jack. Was the baby played by twins? How was that experience?

Brewster: A couple of them were twins and sometimes they were different babies. We had a Spanish Jack, a British Jack and an American Jack. It’s not like we could fly the babies in. So that was really fun. Paul’s a dad in real life so he has such a way with kids. It was really nice nurturing that element and discovering that side of their characters.

Q: And preparing for the next generation of racers, right?

Brewster: Absolutely. I also loved watching Vin’s character. He was so vulnerable and so sweet when he looked at his nephew. I loved seeing that.

Q: You also get in on the action towards the end. Were you excited when you read the script and saw you were going to be part of that big finale?

Brewster: I’ve no clue how Justin (Lin) pulled that scene off but he did. He is such a wonderful, honorable person, and that’s pretty hard in this business, especially when you’re playing with as much money as he’s playing with. He just has not changed since I worked with him on “Annapolis.” He always looks at you and says, “I’ve got you. You will get your moment in the action scene. You’re character will retain her integrity.” He really delivers on that front. I can’t imagine how difficult that must be because there are so many characters he has to service. When we were talking about going back and forth from “Dallas,” he said to me, “I really need you in the sequence,” and I’m so happy I’m a part of it because it’s massive.

Q: After working with your co-stars for 12 years on and off, what’s your relationship with your co-stars?

Brewster: It feels a little bit like a family. Paul said earlier today that we might not always like each other but we always love each other. We’re so many personalities that we clash every once in a while, but for the most part, we have a really good time. I think we have each other’s back more than anything. I don’t want to let Vin down. I would be there for Paul no matter what. He’s a very good friend. That’s a really nice thing to have in this business. We’ve been working together for 12 years and we’ve all been a part of something that is so rare. We all feel very lucky.

Q: Do you have a favorite moment in this?

Brewster: My favorite scene as a spectator is when Michelle and Vin are drag racing. I thought it was really sexy.

Q: How many more “Fast & Furious” films do you think there will be?

Brewster: As long as the audience wants it and as long as they’re still welcoming us. Universal and (producer) Neil Moritz and Vin and Justin (Lin), they’ve all found a way to transform and evolve the franchise and it hasn’t gotten stale. As long as everybody’s being innovative and invests as much as they have in the past 12 years, it’ll keep growing, hopefully.

Q: Where would you like to see “Fast & Furious 7” go?

Brewster: I’d like to see Mia juggle being a mother and after the taste of adrenaline she got in “Fast Five,” she kind of has an itch for it. So I’d like to see how she balances that. She wants to set a good example for her son Jack and yet they still are a band of outlaws.

Q: Do you drive a domestic or import?

Brewster: An import.

Q: Have you ever gotten a speeding ticket?

Brewster: I’ve gotten two. I’m sure I’ve gotten more. There are certain phases you go through with your insurance. After three, you’re in trouble. So I’ve gotten two so far, and I really need to slow down. I tend to speed a lot in Texas because it’s really hard not to because there are so many wide-open spaces. I’m also a very impatient girl. (She chuckles.) I have to work on that.

Q: Can’t you just say you’re doing research for the next “Fast & Furious?”

Brewster: I should! Paul was saying he always gets off when he’s pulled over. But I guess I’m just not so lucky. I need to flirt a bit more.

Q: Speaking of  “Dallas,” you just finished the second season, right?

Brewster: Yeah. We just got picked up for a third season. It’s really exciting. It’s a similar feel in that I really know my cast members really well. I know the crew really well so I’m always excited to go back and work with them. The more comfortable you get on a set, the better you are and the more risks you can take. I’m really looking forward to seeing where Elena’s going, because I think she’s headed in a different direction, which is really exciting for me.

Q: The love triangle has been a big part of the show so far.

Brewster: The love triangle has dissipated. She’s no longer by Christopher’s side, supporting him, so I think she’s discovered something in the finale that sets her off against the Ewings, which I can’t wait to explore. She’s a strong independent character and I want to see her compromise her morals a bit more.

Q: How do you like doing TV versus film?

Brewster: I love the stability that TV offers. I like the pace. I enjoy that. I’m a creature of habit so I like knowing where I’m going to be next week and next month, and that’s really nice.

Q: You’re coming up on an anniversary in your life. You and producer Andrew Form have been married for six years.

Brewster: Yeah. Tomorrow. My husband better remember. (She laughs.)

Q: What is the secret of a happy marriage?

Brewster: Being honest, but more importantly, communication. I think that’s really important. When something’s off, you’ve got to talk about it so you can make it better before it gets too big. Seeing each other once every three weeks helps immensely. That’s important because he’s a producer and I’m an actor. It’s so hard to stay together one place at a time. So when we’re in L.A. together for a couple of months together, we really cherish it. He’s a very secure guy, which is very lucky when you’re making out with handsome actors. In my next movie, I’m with Patrick Wilson and in this one I’m with Paul Walker. He’s very secure, which is lovely.

Q: What’s the movie you’re doing with Patrick Wilson?

Brewster: I start it as soon as I get back (to L.A.). It’s called “North of Hell,” and Katherine Heigl also is in it.

Q: What’s kind of film is it?

Brewster: It’s a dark comedy. I’m really excited.

Q: Are you on hiatus from “Dallas”?

Brewster: They haven’t given us an official start date yet, but in the past we usually go back to work in late September.

Q: How’s everybody coping without Larry Hagman (who died last year)?

Brewster: He was such a huge part of the show. Honestly, it doesn’t feel like he’s left because his character very much is still the puppet master and we’re all the little marionettes and he’s pulling the strings and his trailer is still on set and he’s still on the call sheet so part of me always expects him to walk in to the make up trailer. I don’t think we fully have absorbed the fact that he’s gone.

Q: Do you feel the show has a life of its own with the new cast members?

Brewster: I felt like TNT and Warner Bros’ intention was always to integrate both generations and have them interact with each other. It all depends on the writing. If the writing continues to be good and there are as many twists and turns as there have been in the past, I think we’re good. I don’t have to make that decision, luckily.

Sue Lyon starred in Stanley Kubrick’s screen adaptation of Vladimir Nabokov’s “Lolita” in 1962. @ MGM/Turner Entertainment

By JAMES DAWSON

Front Row Features

Baz Luhrmann’s garish adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby” managed to remain remarkably faithful to the classic novel’s words while altering its tone enough to turn that bitter morality tale into a flamboyantly over-the-top farce.

As one of many critics appalled by Luhrmann’s grotesque “Baz-tardization” of that book, I was challenged by somebody who liked the movie to name a film adaptation that actually did justice to its source material. No problem!

Choosing films for each decade from the 1930s to the present, and limiting the field to movies made from books I actually have read, these were the first titles that came to mind. Some are almost word-for-word print-to-screen translations, others vary wildly from the original text, but all stand as worthy and impressive companions to the works that inspired them.

1930s: “The Wizard of Oz.” The Victor Fleming film converted L. Frank Baum’s children’s fantasy into a musical, turned Dorothy’s silver slippers ruby red and changed the book’s ending, which proves that an adaptation (by Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson and Edgar Allan Woolf, in this case) doesn’t have to be a slavish copy of the original text to be a completely successful classic in its own right.

1940s: “Double Indemnity” and “The Postman Always Rings Twice.” It was so hard choosing between these two brilliantly noirish James M. Cain novels-to-films that I’m listing them both. The former became a 1944 Billy Wilder masterpiece that proved even Fred MacMurray could get down and dirty when a tough broad like Barbara Stanwyck was calling the shots. Two years later, Lana Turner and John Garfield steamed up the screen as another mismatched pair with a mind for murder.

1950s: “Rear Window,” adapted and expanded by John Michael Hayes from the short story “It Had to Be Murder” by Cornell Woolrich, became one of director Alfred Hitchcock’s most memorable films. Flawless casting of an immobilized James Stewart, an irresistible Grace Kelly and a villainous pre-”Perry Mason” Raymond Burr made this a fascinating film about a very special room with a view.

1960s: “Lolita” capitalized on its Vladimir Nabokov source novel’s notoriety with an ad campaign that asked “How Did They Ever Make a Film of ‘Lolita?’” Director Stanley Kubrick pulled off the feat by casting an impeccable James Mason as the erudite pedophile Humbert Humbert, Peter Sellers as his Quilty/guilty conscience nemesis and Sue Lyon as the titular object of his improper obsession. Black humor rarely has been as devious, dark or delicious.

1970s: “A Clockwork Orange” turned the Anthony Burgess novel into a pop-art dystopia with Malcolm McDowell as one of cinema’s most entertainingly amoral antiheroes. Yes, I realize I selected Kubrick films to represent two decades in a row, but genius won’t be denied. (And to address the obvious: I didn’t choose Francis Ford Coppola’s first two “Godfather” films for this decade’s picks because I never read the original Mario Puzo novel—which may not be one that most people would regard as a literary classic, anyway.)

1980s: “Blade Runner” made lots of changes (including the title, fortunately) to the Philip K. Dick SF novel “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” But director Ridley Scott, and screenwriters Hampton Fancher and David Peoples, retained the original’s bad-robot sense of paranoia and messy moral ambiguity.

1990s: “Fight Club” screenwriter Jim Uhls turned the cult novel by Chuck Palahniuk into a shockingly brutal but nastily hilarious blueprint for visionary director David Fincher. The movie’s ending is the exact opposite of the one in the book, but works so much better than the original that it’s hard to resent the change.

As for 21st-century adaptations that succeeded, the three most obvious choices may be director Tim Burton’s terrific take on Lewis Carroll’s “Alice in Wonderland,” Julie Taymor’s audacious and inspired gender-switch version of Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” and Rowan Joffe’s cleverly period-updated “Brighton Rock” (which easily stands alongside the excellent 1947 film version of that Graham Greene novel).

As for successful recent movies adapted from popular (as opposed to more traditionally classic) sources, Terry Zwigoff’s “Ghost World” and Stephen Frears’ “Tamara Drewe” made two wonderful graphic novels into equally enjoyable films. Ang Lee’s “Brokeback Mountain” expanded a short story into a cinematic masterpiece. “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets” and “Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events” became two of the best all-ages entertainments of the past decade.

(A case probably could be made that Peter Jackson’s movies of J.R.R. Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings” trilogy and “The Hobbit” belong on this list as well, but I never made it through even one of Tolkien’s books without skimming, so I have to recuse myself from passing judgment.)

So while director Luhrmann’s garishly goofy “The Great Gatsby” may be the cinematic equivalent of Weird Al Yankovic’s polka-crazed but lyrics-faithful rendition of Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody”—except without the intentional humor—never let it be said that successfully translating great books to the big screen is impossible. Sometimes, projects that get greenlit in Hollywood actually do manage to attain the desired ideal symbolized by the green light at the end of Daisy Buchanan’s dock.

(L-r) BRADLEY COOPER as Phil and KEN JEONG as Mr. Chow in Warner Bros. Pictures’ and Legendary Pictures’ comedy “THE HANGOVER PART III.” ©Warner Bros. Entertainment.

By ANGELA DAWSON

Front Row Features

By ANGELA DAWSON

Front Row Features

LAS VEGAS—This has been quite a remarkable year so far for actor Bradley Cooper. The Philadelphia native was nominated for an Oscar for his memorable performance in “Silver Linings Playbook.” He subsequently cemented his place as a solid dramatic actor in the critically acclaimed “The Place Beyond the Pines.” He landed the coveted lead role in an upcoming Steven Spielberg film. And he now returns in “The Hangover, Part III,” the third and final installment of the wildly successful comedy franchise.

Cooper, 38, reprises his role as fun-loving Phil Wenneck, a member of the Wolfpack, a group of friends who can’t help but get into trouble every time they go out and party a little too hard.

This time around, he, Alan (Zach Galifianakis) and Stu (Ed Helms) are back in Las Vegas to try save their friend Doug (Justin Bartha), who has been kidnapped by a gold thief (John Goodman). Goodman’s Marshall has nabbed Doug so the guys will retrieve the gold that was stolen from him by their old party pal Leslie Chow (Ken Jeong). Other returning cast members from previous installments include Heather Graham and Jeffrey Tambor. Joining the shenanigans in this finale directed by Todd Phillips, who also helmed the previous two, is Melissa McCarthy as a pawn shop proprietor.

Cooper recently returned to Sin City to reflect on his “Hangover” experience and what’s ahead.

Q: Do you have a memory of your favorite moment from the trilogy?

Cooper: We went to Venice and there was a windstorm.

Q: I’m impressed with how much heart this final installment has, and I was wondering if you had an idea beforehand where you wanted to see you character at the end of this trilogy?

Cooper: It’s more along the lines of where we wanted the movie to end up. I think we all think in terms of the story rather than each individual character. That’s what’s been so special about it. It does feel like a communal endeavor. The filming of the movie, the logistics of it, every day attacking a scene—it does feel like the four of us and ideas are thrown around and shared, and there’s no ownership at all. People sort of say that about collaborative experiences but this really is the case. It started in the first one but it really manifested itself in an economical way in the third one. (Zach’s) Alan is one of the most incredible creations of a comedic character in decades in film, so the fact that the story revolves around how the heck this guy is and how can we tame the beast was a wonderful choice that Todd Phillips made. Hopefully, (this is) the one audiences want to see. My hunch is it will be because there’s no more lost night. There’s no more inebriated devastation. It’s just let’s take care of our friend.

Q: Was there a moment during filming where you’re thinking, “I can’t believe what I’m doing?”

Cooper: Every day.

Q: What was your weirdest moment?

Cooper: The best part of answering that is going through and asking (myself) whether it was the baby in the closet or the monkey in the thing or the decapitated giraffe.

Q: Did you have any feelings about this one’s darker shift in tone?

Cooper: Well, there’s killing. If you talk to Todd, he would say the third is the darkest, based on the content. All of the characters are unhinged in the second one. They’re out of their comfort zone and in a foreign land. They’re screaming at each other. They’re trying desperately to make their way but it’s not working. This third one, the goal is to help Alan, to get Doug (Justin Bartha) back, but also to help Alan and be there for each other. So there were a lot more scenes in the third one that were like the first one of just driving in the car together—in-between moments that the second one didn’t have as much of because (Bangkok) was so chaotic. There weren’t these quiet moments by the roadside or finding a condom that he thinks is a snakeskin. Those sorts of things weren’t able to happen in the second one whereas in the third one there was that room. That was why I enjoyed the third one a lot. We all did because we got a chance to just sit with each other like we did in the first one.

Q: Did you all finish on the last day together and what was it like to say goodbye to this life-changing trilogy?

Cooper: Yeah. We were conscious of not making it a big deal. There was no clapping. There was a nice party on the stage.

Q: Where was that?

Cooper: It was on the sound stage at Warner Brothers but it wasn’t the last day. The last day was the coda scene that we shot recently. (It’s shown after the credits.)

Q: When did that happen?

Cooper: A month or two ago.

Q: Was it like, “Here we are all over again. Maybe we should consider doing a fourth?”

Cooper: No. That last bit was just a little bit of candy, not an opening up for another movie. The ending of the movie has closure and ties up everything that you didn’t even know wasn’t tied up, and moments from the first two movies.

Q: Are you guys going to collaborate again?

Cooper: We would love to. Zach had a good idea yesterday that we actually do film “Hangover 4” with just a Flip-cam.

Q: Have you played “The Hangover” slot machine yet?

Cooper: My mom has.

Q: What changes did you notice in (director and co-writer) Todd Phillips over the course of making these three films?

Cooper: I think he’s evolved, as we all have, and grown and evolved since the first film. Warner Brothers gave him creative flexibility to the nth degree for the first one, right down to marketing and everything. It is his vision executed down to us. Cinematically, you’re watching this guy just blossom. He’s got like a 110-piece orchestra scoring this third one as opposed to Kanye West scoring the first one, basically. The lenses he chose to use to film it are different and the scope is more cinematic. The movie is quite stunning visually and rhythmically. No comedy director makes movies like this. There’s not one that I can think of that does it quite this way. That’s really why we keep coming back.

Q: Without giving anything away, there’s a pretty amazing stunt you guys do hanging off a building. How much of that was you, or did you have stuntmen?

Cooper: It was a huge stunt. It was a building that we built on a sound stage. It was the biggest sound stage that Warner Bros had because it goes deep down into the ground.

Q: I understand you’re going to star in “American Sniper,” directed by Steven Spielberg.

Cooper: Yeah, we bought the rights to that about a year and a half ago.

Q: Is comedy still interesting to you now that you have done dramatic films?

Cooper: Of course. I don’t see it at all as separate things. As much as a drama “Silver Linings Playbook” was, there was a lot of comedy in it. We were very conscious of that as we were making it. Also, “American Hustle,” which is a David O Russell (directed) movie, has a lot of comedy in it. In an ideal world, the best dramas have levity in them so I don’t see it as two separate things at all. It’s really just (about the) filmmakers. I want to work with the best filmmakers.

(l-r) Liana LIberato and Aaron Eckhart in “Erased.” ©Radius/TWC. CR: Vero Boncomgpagni.

By ANGELA DAWSON

Front Row Features

HOLLYWOOD—Having just completed a six-week world press tour to promote the White House actioner “Olympus Has Fallen,” Aaron Eckhart is a bit jet-lagged.

“I had no idea what month it was or what country I was in or what day it was,” he says of his globe trekking adventure.

With barely time to get readjusted to being home, the handsome leading man is back on the road promoting another movie. This one is called “Erased.” It’s a spy thriller in which he is the star. It’s gritty, violent and action-packed, and he gets to be the hero as opposed to his previous role where he played a tied-up, kidnapped president waiting to be rescued by Gerard Butler’s character. It’s the kind of role that Eckhart relishes. He co-stars with former Bond girl Olga Kurylenko, who plays a duplicitous CIA agent and newcomer Liana Liberato, who plays his estranged teenage daughter, who doesn’t know he’s a spy.

Directed by German filmmaker Philipp Stolzl, “Erased” was shot in Brussels and Montreal and has a very European look and tone. Eckhart, who lived in France for a few years while growing up, got a chance to practice his language skills in French-speaking Belgium. The 45-year-old bachelor also got to play a father—a role he’d like to eventually play in real life.

Q: It’s interesting the juxtaposition of “Olympus Has Fallen.” In “Olympus,” you’re the guy they’re trying to save and protect, and in “Erased,” you’re proactive and out there kicking butt.

Eckhart: Thank God! I’ll tell you what, “Olympus” was a lot of fun to play, but to sit on your butt tied to a railing for an entire movie while somebody else is saving you (is dull as an actor) so it’s good to get out in “Erased.”

Q: What did you think of your lovely co-star, Liana Liberator, who was 15 when you shot this (and is now 17)?

Eckhart: I just saw her for the first time on this trip since we did the film. She’s grown up so much into a young lady. That was really the reason why I wanted to do the movie was that father-daughter relationship because I don’t have kids. In close quarters in a strange country, having to deal with the problems of a teenage girl liking boys, trying to get her to school, the grades, and then to have to go out and do what we do, I thought that was a fun premise.

Q: Can you talk about how you trained for the action sequences?

Eckhart: I trained real hard. I did jujitsu and MMA (mixed martial arts). I had a French Special Forces crazy man named Olivier train me who inflicted great pain on me and really taught me everything I know about jujitsu and all the fighting. It’s very important that I do all the fighting in the movie, and that it be real, and that I know what I’m doing because this is a smaller movie. When I got there, we had to get into it real quick. We didn’t have the time to choreograph these fights like you usually do with a huge film. So I had to know the language coming in, the submissions, and the handholds—all of that sort of stuff. It was fun but very dangerous. I peeled my thumb all the way back and ripped all the ligaments in my hand two days before we started filming. I just heard it rip, and I had to do the whole thing with my thumb (injured).

Aaron Eckhart in “Erased.” ©Radius/TWC. CR: Vero Bongcompagni.

Q: You have a great chemistry with Olga Kurylenko. How did you two work together?

Eckhart: She came in late to the movie, so there wasn’t a lot of time (to rehearse). I tried to make that character as sexy as I could. My impression was this girl and I were in Beirut together under very difficult situations in a shack with a candle and a can of tuna for three months. That’s how I saw us. We fell in love and basically had a mad love affair under insane conditions. That’s what I wanted in this movie. I thought that was pure Hollywood romance, but it wasn’t written in the script. And so, how do you take Olga’s character with this pretty cut and dry dialogue and try and make it sexy? I wanted it to be sexy. So, we tried that. We didn’t have a lot to work with in this case. They didn’t develop it that much. But I like Olga a lot. She came in and is a total pro. She’s very beautiful and a very good actor, and so it was very natural.

Q: How did you find it shooting on location in Montreal and in Brussels?

Eckhart: I loved it. Montreal was tough because it was winter going into spring. It’s very cold, but very beautiful. I tried to speak French the entire time because I lived in France for two years, so my French is a little bit sketchy. I tried to speak French the entire time, plus I speak French in this movie, so I wanted it to be passable. The main worry was the crews. How do you split a movie up and then work with European crews in an American action movie with a German director? Everybody was all over the place, but it was absolutely seamless. When you’re working in those big, huge train stations and out on the street and having all the different languages and the cafes, it just works for the movie. On that train, we had three hours to shoot the (scenes). That means to get on, not three hours to act. It’s three hours to get our stuff on, to set up, and shoot it. It was interesting working in that way, but it only enhanced it.

Q: When you were in Brussels, did you notice the diversity of the population there as depicted in film?

Eckhart: Oh yes. In fact, there’s a huge Arab population there, and I was living right in the middle of it when we were there. I don’t know where they’re from, if they were Tunisian or Algerian. I don’t know the specifics, but North African. And then, there were a lot of Southern Africans there as well. So they had all that population, all those restaurants, all those shops and that flavor. We filmed in it, which was really nice. And then, you had the traditional Belgium. And then, you had all the tourists on top of it, and they were in the movie, too. So it had a lot going on there. And then, the fact that I was American and everybody was speaking French. That kind of stuff keeps you on your toes.

Q: What do you remember most fondly about Belgium?

Eckhart: I had an Italian driver living in Brussels. He wouldn’t let me drink espresso unless he made it, because he thought that (the Belgians) were inferior espresso makers, and that since he was Italian and only Italians know how to make espresso, he would go to great lengths to give me my espressos whenever I needed them. I very much appreciated that … and I couldn’t tell the difference.

Q: Has that now ruined you for life?

Eckhart: No. I like diner coffee. (He laughs.) I’m a man of the people.

Q: Did he let you smoke a cigar inside the car?

Eckhart: No. I never would, but I do smoke cigars constantly, unfortunately.

Q: Since you’re not really a father, what did you tap into in order to get that emotion and develop that connection?

Eckhart: I thought I would have children by now. I did. It’s not planned that I don’t have children. Family has always been very important to me—the role of a father, my dad to me, how I would teach my children, developing their minds, and their formative years. And, these are Liana’s formative years when we made this movie. I’m always fascinated with how a person becomes a good quality person, a productive person, and how it happened to me, because I was a terror.

Q: A good terror?

Eckhart: No, not always. I come from very good parents, very smart, dedicated parents, who just had their 50^th wedding anniversary, and they’re good people. I think it’s the rudder there, that rudder in those turbulent waters, because they picked up and took us to England when I was 13. I lived Liana’s character in this movie. I used to hate my parents for that. I hated them vehemently, and I told them. It was very difficult to do. And then I came to love them for doing it. I’ve always been fascinated with that, and how you deal with issues today if you’re a parent: this whole drug issue, rebellion, cell phones, texting, the music and the fashions.

Q: Has your desire for parenthood changed as you’ve gotten older? Is it stronger? Is it different?

Eckhart: I was talking to somebody about this last night—a girl who would also like to have children. You know when people say to you, “I just always have known I want to have kids,” well I’ve never thought about it. I still feel like I’m dealing with issues with my job and myself. I’m so ambitious in my job. There’s nothing in me that’s pushing me to have kids, I have to say. I think it’s weird. It’s not how I thought I was going to live my life, but I would love to have kids, because now I have a ranch in Montana. The last time I was at my ranch, I was with my mom, and we were walking around. It was sunset and all that sort of stuff. I turned to her and I said, “I have to have kids now.” So that’s the closest I’ve come. I just have to find the right person.

Q: What do you have coming up next?

Eckhart: I have a movie coming out called “I, Frankenstein.” I play the monster Frankenstein. It’s a different look at him. It’s a movie about good and evil, and I am proficient at the Filipino martial art of Kali stick fighting. (He laughs.) I know, I know. (“Frankenstein” author) Mary Shelley was ahead of her time. I’m also producing some movies.

(l-r) Lily Collins and Michael Angarano star in Craig Zisk’s “The English Teacher.” ©Nicole Rivelli.

By ANGELA DAWSON

Front Row Features

HOLLYWOOD—In his feature directorial debut, “The English Teacher,” Craig Zisk has a cast that would be the envy of any veteran filmmaker: Julianne Moore, Greg Kinnear, Nathan Lane, Michael Angarano and Lily Collins. The Dallas native considers himself lucky, but he also knows he had good material, having spent six years sifting through dozens of screenplays before he found “the one” penned by husband and wife writing team Dan and Stacy Chariton.

“I knew from the first page it had the right tone and the right attitude, and with the right cast it could really be something special,” he says by phone. “The Cheritons wrote an amazing script and I knew I could do something with it that I could make even better.”

Though new to feature-length filmmaking, Zisk had honed his directing skills on episodic television. His credits include “Nurse Jackie,” “Weeds” and “The United States of Tara.”  He won a Golden Globe for the CBS comedy “Brooklyn Bridge,” and earned multiple Emmy nominations for his work on “The Larry Sanders Show” and Weeds,” including a nomination for Best Director for a Comedy.

“The English Teacher” tells the story of a 40-something small town Pennsylvania English teacher (played by Moore), who has committed her life to her students and literature. Bookish and single, Linda Sinclair devours classic literature but has never had a true romantic adventure. Out of the blue, former star pupil Jason (Angarano) arrives at her classroom, dejected that no one in New York will produce his plays now that he’s out of college. He complains his overbearing physician father (Kinnear) is insisting that he give up his dream of being a playwright and, instead, wants him to go to law school.

Appalled that anyone would give up their dream, Sinclair agrees to read Jason’s play and finds herself completely moved by the dark, angst-ridden drama, so much so, that she passes it along to the school’s flamboyant drama teacher Carl Kapinas (Lane), who also is impressed with it and agrees with Sinclair that it should be produced as a school play.

The school’s principal, however, wants to make changes to the play, namely the climactic suicide of the story’s protagonist. The changes don’t sit well with Jason, who threatens to pull the plug on the entire show if his work isn’t performed as he wrote it. Sinclair assures him she and Kapinas will pretend to write a new ending to appease the principal, but the original version actually will be performed.

As production of the play gets under way, Sinclair and the 20-something Jason find themselves sexually attracted to one another and have a one-night fling. This causes problems later when Sinclair spies Jason making eyes with the beautiful Halle (“Mirror, Mirror’s” Lily Collins), one of the stars of the student production, and she plots her revenge. Her half-baked scheme backfires, nearly costing her her job when her own indiscretion with Jason is revealed. With her career in near ruins, Sinclair must find a way to put things right with Jason, his father, Halle and school officials. After all, in the words of the Bard, “the play’s the thing.”

Zisk, whose own career in storytelling was inspired by a caring teacher at his Dallas prep school, says making his first feature film was a rewarding experience, and he is looking forward to making other films as well as continuing his career as a TV director.

Q: How was this experience for you?

Zisk: It was an amazing experience from beginning to end. It’s been the most rewarding project I’ve ever worked on.

Q: What made you decide it was the time to make the leap from television to film directing?

Zisk: I’ve been very fortunate to work on a lot of great projects. I’ve been reading feature scripts for about five or six years. Some of the things that were coming my way were really in my wheelhouse, and the opportunity to do a feature has been very enticing. But I knew waiting for the right piece of material was going to benefit me in the long run.

Q: Was Julianne Moore already attached to the project when you came on board?

Zisk: When I first met with the producers (Naomi Despres and Robert Salerno), she was not involved. They were securing the financing. I knew the majority of financing would come through as soon as it was cast. We talked about casting at that meeting. I was giving them my pitch of how I saw the movie and at the top of my list was Julianne.  It was about seven months later when they got back to me and said Julianne read the script and loved it. How quickly can you come to New York and meet with her, and we’ll see if we can make this happen?

Q: I guess the other cast members followed suit, once Julianne was on board, right?

Zisk: It never hurts to say, “I’ve got this really great script and Julianne Moore’s going to star in it. Would you be interested in coming on board?” Nathan was at the top of my list for Carl, the drama teacher. Greg Kinnear really loved the script when he read it and he really pursued the part. I was shooting a show at the time, and his agent said he really wants to meet with you. He came and met me at Warner Bros. and we had a nice lunch during a break. He had such passion for his work. When you have someone who really wants a part that badly and you know he is talented, it’s so set up for success. I feel that way with everybody. Michael (Angarano) was very similar. We’d seen a lot of people for (Jason). A friend of mine recommended Michael. He was shooting “The Brass Teapot” at the time in Canada. We were Skypeing and I was giving him notes and he was doing audition tapes for me and sending them back and I was giving him more notes. I knew he was the guy. Lily, similarly, read the script and loved it. We met for breakfast one day and I was enchanted as anyone would be if they were having breakfast with her. She’s really lovely, and she did a great job.

Q: Greg and Lily also co-star in another new release, “Stuck in Love.” Is that a coincidence?

Zisk: They did that movie afterwards. Lily had just finished “Mirror Mirror” with Nathan before doing this. The Six Degrees of Lily Collins didn’t need to go that far out. (He laughs.)

Q: It seems the trickiest casting might be Jason, because that character is deceptive with Julianne’s but you also root for him.

Zisk: It was tricky. You either got the brooding kid who you were rooting for or the kid that was so soft, is he worth being concerned about. Michael just hit every note. He understood the material so well. We’d talked through each scene the day or two before we’d shoot. We’d go over every beat. He was so on point with understanding that this is a guy you have to like. You have to root for him even though he’s being childish, but in a lot of ways Julianne’s character also is somewhat immature. She wants to do the right thing but keeps stepping in the bucket. They’re all flawed characters that need each other and are learning life’s lessons in self-discovery. For Michael, he was the perfect mix of childishness and charm.

Q: You have a device of a British narrator throughout. Did the Cheridons’ original script have the narrator? How did you end up casting British actress Fiona Shaw?

Zisk: It originally was scripted that way. We may initially have been thought of Maggie Smith because (the narrator) has that iconic “(Prime of Miss) Jean Brody” voice. I interviewed Fiona over the phone and as soon as she spoke I heard the narrator’s voice in my head. It was reminiscent of all the Merchant Ivory movies. Those were a big influence on me in terms of the look of the movie. We shot it in anamorphic format. I wanted a big screen feel to it. We were making this period piece set in the modern day.

Q: Julianne has a traditional English teacher look, especially at the beginning where the color of her wardrobe is very drab, but then becomes vibrant as the story goes on. Was that intentional?

Zisk: Our costume designer Emma Potter will definitely thank you for that. She was amazing. Yes, it was intentional. I’ve always tried to incorporate color themes into my work. I felt that choosing the colors of the walls in the classroom to make her blend in at the beginning and then how it contrasts with her wardrobe after she’s had her tryst with Jason would help her pop more. We were really conscious of everyone’s palettes but especially Julianne’s. She was onboard with the ideas from the very beginning. The first time I met her, she brought her own style and ideas, which made it even better.

Q: Was there a teacher in your life that made a difference?

Zisk: It was my seventh grade English teacher, John Connolly. I grew up in the Dallas, Texas and went to a St. Mark’s, a prep school. It was very competitive and I wasn’t always the greatest student in the world. He knew it. I picked him to be my advisor. He had taught my brothers as well. He was kind of an old curmudgeon-y guy but very funny. He would play old “Bob & Ray” cassettes for us in the morning before we’d start school. He was a big influence on me. I remember we’d have to recite a poem we’d memorized every week. One time we had to memorize The Gettysburg Address. He came to me on the first day, pulled me aside and said, “I know and love you but tomorrow when I say, ‘Who wants to do it?’ you’re going to put your hand up first. I’m telling you, you’d better be prepared.” It was a life-changing moment for me. He got it through my thick head that I had to do the work, and I became a much better student after that.

Lorenza Izzo (second on right) and other survivors try to rescue an earthquake victim in “Aftershock.” ©2013 Radius/TWC

By ANGELA DAWSON

Front Row Features

HOLLYWOOD—On February 27, 2010, an 8.8 magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of central Chile. It was 3:34 a.m. Up and coming Chilean director Nicolas Lopez was at home in bed. Actress Lorenza Izzo was at a club in Valparaiso, a little buzzed from a night of partying.

Lopez, a burly fellow resembling a young Peter Jackson, remembers being shaken awake and turning on a light only to see his Nintendo Wii console flying across the room. Izzo, just 19 at the time, recalls dancing with a friend one minute, and then the next minute trying to feel her way through the rubble of the club, discovering her friend under a pile of debris. Both of his hands were missing. In the chaos, Izzo and others searched the floor for the severed limbs, finally managing to get the badly injured man to a hospital where his hands were reattached.

In a way, Lopez and Izzo were lucky. In all, more than 500 people were killed, hundreds were injured and thousands lost their homes and property in that horrible event, which was followed by a tsunami that ravaged several small coastal towns in the Latin American country.

While such a recent natural disaster may not seem a likely backdrop for a Hollywood horror story, Eli Roth, the filmmaker behind the uber-gory horror flicks “Hostel” and “Cabin Fever,” saw possibilities. A friend of Lopez, whose successful Spanish-language comedies were making him a rising filmmaker in South America, Roth saw a perfect opportunity for them to collaborate. Thus was borne the idea of “Aftershock,” a horror movie involving a group of young friends that have to fight for survival following the 2010 Chilean earthquake and its aftermath.

Roth, 41, decided to pay a visit to Chile and see the devastation for himself. As Lopez described the terror of living through the quake and showed him the wreckage of broken buildings, Roth suggested they make a movie together.

“I told him, ‘let’s do an English-language high-octane horror movie,’” recalls Roth, who speaks with the staccato-like enthusiasm of his filmmaking hero Quentin Tarantino, who directed him in “Inglourious Basterds.”

Lopez’s description of the history of the scenic coastal town, along with the tour of ruined buildings, gave Roth ideas for the script.

He recalls, “He showed me the tunnels that connected the church monasteries with the nunneries and told me ‘that’s where the priests and nuns would go to have sex. If a nun got pregnant, that’s where they’d kill the babies and hide the bodies.’ I said, ‘We gotta put that in the movie. This is crazy!’ He also talked about the prisons breaking open. You couldn’t call the police or fire department. There were prisoners running around everywhere. So we talked about the collapse of society—literally and figuratively—the veneer of society. Everyone behaves and then this happens and then you go back to some survivalist primal state.”

Roth and Lopez, along with Guillermo Amoedo wrote the script, which Lopez directed and which Roth produced and stars in.  Roth plays the title character, Gringo, who is visiting friends in Chile. They tour a local vineyard, where they meet some attractive women and invite them to a local club that night. Actress Izzo was cast as a beautiful bilingual beauty named Kylie, who joins Gringo and his friends at the club for a night of partying but winds up enduring the worst night of her life. The true story of her friend’s severe injury caused by the earthquake was incorporated into the script.

As Gringo (an unflattering term for an American), Roth plays a recently divorced tourist with an eight-year-old daughter back home in America whom he misses. Gringo is rusty in the dating department. He doesn’t realize in this high-tech age, you’re not supposed to actually call a woman for a date—you text her.  He also doesn’t realize that his local friend’s more direct and aggressive approach works better than the aloof and laid-back effort he is making to woo one of the ladies he met earlier in the day.

All of these mundane concerns go out the window when the room starts rocking, and it’s not the dance music that’s bringing down the house.  One of Gringo’s friends loses a hand, which is sliced off from falling debris. As they try to get the injured fellow out of the building and to a hospital, they have to fight with other frightened survivors, who are all trying to reach safety. Soon the entire town is in chaos as emergency service workers are overwhelmed as aftershocks continue to destroy the town. Looters and even escaped inmates from the local prison pose additional threats to Gringo and his friends as they try to protect and save their female companions.

Sitting at a séance table at Hollywood’s private Magic Castle club, Roth says it was important to him for the movie to look realistic and to minimize the use of visual and special effects.

“So many disaster movies look like you’re watching someone else play a videogame,” he laments. “It’s fun, but you don’t feel the connection because they don’t really blow things up. We wanted to really destroy and smash things with as little CG as possible and make this intense thrill ride.”

As with his previous films, Roth was able to maintain control of the budget by not hiring big name Hollywood actors—he is easily the most recognizable face in the cast, aside from a brief cameo by “Spring Breakers” star Selena Gomez.  In addition to Izzo, the film stars Hungarian actress Andrea Osvart, Chileans Ariel Levy and Nicholas Martinez and Natasha Yarovenko, a Ukrainian actress.

Roth says he was so impressed with the cast and crew he worked with on “Aftershock,” he used many of them again to make his next film,  “The Green Inferno,” a horror movie set in the Amazon. Izzo stars in that as well as the pilot episode of “Hemlock Grove,” a horror series produced by Roth and available on Netflix.

“I want to do the same thing (Spanish filmmaker Pedro) Almodovar did back in the day with Penelope Cruz and Antonio Banderas,” says Roth. “I just want to use our own crews and build our own stars and start our own factory, making genre movies.”

While Roth is better known for producing and directing, his success in front of the camera in Tarantino’s “Inglourious Basterds,” in which he played “Bear Jew,” a fearsome Jewish-American soldier who is part of a plot to bring down Hitler, has been encouraging.

“Quentin said to me, ‘You proved you can act. You acted next to Christoph Waltz, Brad Pitt and Diane Kruger, and you acted under me directing. You can now write great parts for yourself,’” he recalls. “It hit me, I’d never taken myself up on that. So when I wrote the character Gringo, I was thinking it is in my zone. I know I can play funny and dorky, but I also liked the idea of writing this character who’s a modern, single dad.”

Roth, who is single in real life, says the character is a composite of people he knows.

“All the guys I know that are divorced have absolutely no game with the ladies,” he says with a laugh. “Gringo’s not a bad-looking guy but clearly he was much cooler 15 years earlier and now doesn’t understand how (the dating scene) works, and is frustrated by that. It seems so important to him until everything’s put into perspective by the earthquake.”

The catastrophe in “Aftershock” is a metaphor for life, he says.

“There are the things that seem so huge, and then the next thing you know, you’re looking for your hands,” he explains. “That’s what life is like. We put such importance on these minor problems, and it generally takes a tragic event to put everything in perspective.”

While director Lopez says he’s concerned that he might face some heat when “Aftershock” opens in Chile, Roth says he doesn’t think it’s too soon for a movie involving the Chilean earthquake to come out.

“I think people are going to love it,” he says confidently. “We didn’t make the serious Oscar-movie about the earthquake. It’s fictional. What we did was make a movie that shows Chile as fun and beautiful. It starts off in the vineyards and clubs. Even Valparaiso looks beautiful. Plus, the Chileans love horror. In Latin America, thrillers and horror movies do very very well.  My films have done particularly well down there. It’s set in Chile and people are getting a thrill. It’s a popcorn movie. It’s a fun date movie and an action movie. People are watching this from a completely different perspective. We’re not approaching it as holy subject matter.”

Roth just wrapped production on “The Green Inferno,” a horror movie about a group of plane crash survivors in the Amazon, which he shot in Chile and Peru.

“I had an amazing experience,” he says. “I’d love to shoot more movies there. There is such an incredible wealth of talent down there. The people are great. And they have opposite seasons so when things slow down in Hollywood after Thanksgiving, I just go there and turn up the heat and start shooting there.”

Promoting “Aftershock,” “The Last Exorcism II” (which he produced) and “Hemlock Grove” in quick succession has kept the multi-tasking Roth pretty busy lately, but he vows he’ll get back to writing another screenplay soon.

“I’m so focused right now on getting the music and sound just right for ‘The Green Inferno’ that it’s hard for me to think creatively about anything else,” he says, adding that he would like to premiere that film at next year’s Toronto International Film Festival.

“The plan right now is just finish the movie,” he adds before getting up to leave.

Rebecca Hall stars as Dr. Maya Hansen in “Marvel’s Iron Man 3.” © 2012 MVLFFLLC. TM & © 2012 Marvel. CR: Zade Rosenthal

By ANGELA DAWSON

Front Row Features

HOLLYWOOD—Joining Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle and the rest of the returning cast for the third installment of the box-office juggernaut “Iron Man” franchise, based on the Marvel comic book, are native Brits Guy Pearce and Rebecca Hall. Pearce, who grew up in Australia, plays Aldrich Killian, a scientist who heads a biotech firm and holds long-term animosity for Downey’s Tony Stark (Iron Man’s billionaire alter ego). Hall plays Maya Hansen, a botanist who had a one-night-stand with Stark in 1999.

Pearce and Hall, better known for their work in smaller, less flashy films, recently spoke about becoming part of a Marvel superhero movie franchise and living up to audience expectations with their characters. Another challenge was trying to maintain believability in the visual effects-laden movie directed by “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang’”s Shane Black, who co-wrote the screenplay with Drew Pearce (no relation to Guy).

Q: Did you have any trepidation about coming into this franchise, and what special emotional and physical challenges did you face in tackling your roles?

Hall:  There’s trepidation when you get involved with any job. But I think it would be tremendously egotistical of me to suggest that I was in some way carrying the weight of the franchise, so there wasn’t that kind of fear. It was more the feeling you get going to an amusement park and going on the scary rides. It’s exciting. You know what you’re getting into. It might be a bit scary, but you know it’s going to be fun, and you can get off and leave at the end. Of course, any job is scary, but you tackle the challenges head on and hope for the best.

Pearce: Yeah, I think the same, really. You do feel kind of nervous about any film you take on. If I feel inspired by a job enough to sort of want to take it on, then any kind of concerns that you have, you’re prepared to sort of face. I don’t think I really had any concerns that would have stopped me from doing it. I’m certainly aware that there are a lot of fans behind the comic strip films, and obviously these “Iron Man” films.  But you’re in good hands with these guys. And ultimately you just want to make sure you can bring a truth to the character you’re playing. As far as any sort of challenges, there’s quite a lot of the green screen stuff. (To Hall) I know for you that that was probably the first time you really did that, right?

Hall: Yeah, first time.

Pearce: I’d done a bit of green screen stuff before. On some level, it’s actually kind of fun because you’re relying on your imagination. In this, it actually wasn’t so extreme that you were trying to imagine a person in front of you that actually wasn’t there or anything like that. But you’ve got a visual effects team sort of working away constantly, and they’re sort of showing you previews of the scene you’re meant to be doing, and then how it’s actually meant to look. So you’re in really good hands on a visual sense as well.

Q: Many years ago at junket, I asked you if you could imagine being in a superhero movie. At that point, you seemed kind of amused by the idea, but now here you are. So do you think at this point that everyone ends up in a superhero movie?

Hall: I’m not sure that it’s obligatory, but I think it might be getting that way, yeah.

Q: What inspired you to do this one?

Hall: It sounds a slightly flippant response, but it was a combination of “don’t knock it ‘til you try it,” and this one seemed like one that would be very fun to try and one that I admired. I remember going to see the first “Iron Man” film and thinking, “What an unusual thing that they’re not casting action heroes, they’re casting Robert Downey Jr. and Gwyneth Paltrow (who plays Stark’s love interest Pepper Potts, who runs his company). This must be interesting.” And I remember watching it and thinking it’s not just about the action sequences and the thrill ride or whatever, it’s also about the repartee and the wit and the dialogue. And there was something of a sort of screwball battle of the sexes comedy going on that I loved. And I thought that this would be a great thing to be a part of.

(l-r) Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) & Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce) in “Marvel’s Iron Man 3.” © 2012 MVLFFLLC. TM & © 2012 Marvel. CR: Zade Rosenthal.

Q: Guy, can you talk about coming to set for the first time, getting used to this sort of Marvel-style of moviemaking? We get a sense that Robert sort of leads the charge among the acting troupe, and kind of helps set the tone.

Pearce: I don’t know that I really got a sense of what sort of Marvel moviemaking is like, necessarily. Shane (Black) and Robert (Downey Jr.), obviously, were sort of leading the charge, as you indicated. I guess, in the end, lots of films kind of feel the same, once you’re standing there in front of the camera, and you’re just trying to be convincing and doing what you need to do. But I think the interesting thing about doing this was that there were two previous films that were successful. Rebecca and I had seen both of those films and were big fans of them. We really admired them. And so it was interesting to sort of step into something that already existed.

Q: And working with Robert?

Pearce: Obviously, working with Robert is something quite specific because he’s the genius that he is. He’s a lot of fun (and) he likes to improvise. You’ve really got to be on your toes. But I think every film you do feels very different from the last film that you’ve done. So I didn’t sort of think, “Oh, wow, this whole Marvel universe feels extremely different to anything else that I’ve done.” I mean, obviously, we were really aware of the visual effects that were going on behind the scenes. They were literally sort of rows of people sitting behind us at the monitors with laptop computers, kind of mocking up versions of what things were going to look like. That doesn’t often happen on a $2 million Australian movie, so that was kind of different. You’re aware of the visual effects world that I think will be incorporated later.

Q: Guy, we see you in the film’s first and third act, but there are 13 years of your character’s story there that don’t appear onscreen. How much of that do you work out as back story with Shane Black or writer Drew Pearce as a part of creating your whole character?

Hall: (Joking to Pearce) It’s all in the sequel.

Pearce: (Joking) Yeah, that’s right. Or in the prequel (he jokes). No. We just sort of talked about the development of the company that he’d begun, I suppose, and the effects that (the experimental biological program) Extremis had over that period of time. We see a couple of clips, obviously, when Tony’s in the television van and he’s seeing moments of Killian in front of his people, sort of talking to his team, and you sort of see slightly different looks. You see the kind of progression of his look, I guess. It was just a matter of talking through that, and making sure we kind of understood, for example, when Gwyneth would have worked for Killian and for how long for, etc., but it was fairly sort of straightforward stuff to understand.

Q: I actually felt like your back stories with Tony and Pepper, in particular, were so specific, it felt like there had been scenes shot and then cut of flashbacks. For example, we see a fraction of a second of you on top of the building waiting for Tony, and he never shows. Was there more material shot but not used?

Pearce: No, there wasn’t.

Pierce Brosnan as Philip and Trine Dyrholm as Ida in “Love Is All You Need.” ©Sony Pictures Classics. CR: Doane Gregory.

By ANGELA DAWSON

Front Row Features

HOLLYWOOD—It’s hard to believe that former Bond-man Pierce Brosnan is turning 60. While his scruffy beard and salt-and-pepper hair may signal that pending milestone, the square-jawed Irish actor remains leading man handsome.

He calls on a Friday afternoon from Los Angeles where he is promoting his newest film, the Susanne Bier-directed romantic dramedy “Love is All You Need.” Yep, like the Beatles song. This film isn’t about the Fab Four, though, but about Philip, a workaholic British widower living in Denmark who finds amour in Italy, while taking a rare break from work to attend his son’s nuptials. The object of his affection just happens to be the mother-of-the bride (Danish actress Trine Dyrholm), who is physically on the mend after a bout with breast cancer but emotionally dealing with a philandering husband and self-esteem issues.

The story rings close to home for Brosnan, whose first wife, Australian actress Cassandra Harris, succumbed to ovarian cancer in 1991. Having lost a wife to the disease, the project meant more to Brosnan than just another acting gig. He also didn’t want to let Bier down.

As he approaches his seventh decade, the versatile handsome actor is introspective about his life and career. He is looking forward to seeing his children marry and becoming a grandparent someday. Having put the James Bond spy character behind him, Brosnan is planning to play another secret agent in an upcoming film he also is producing. He will play Devereaux, a spy dealing with his past. The action drama is based on the novel “There are No Spies” by Bill Granger.

Q: This movie is very moving, especially for those who have a direct connection with cancer.

Brosnan: Yes, It’s a hard road at times. No one escapes the suffering of harsher days. I’m a man who lost his wife to ovarian cancer so I could identify with the character, Philip, in his mourning and grief, and being a father and being a single parent. It had deep resonance in my life. Those are certainly some of the reasons I said yes to the project. More importantly, it did it because of Susanne Bier’s work and the director she is, the woman she is as a filmmaker. It was very captivating. My involvement began as a simple request from my agent, who said that she was interested (in casting me). I read the piece, and it just touched and moved me. I saw that it could have meaning out there for the people who have endured such stories.

Pierce Brosnan as Philip and Trine Dyrholm as Ida in “Love Is All You Need.” ©Sony Pictures Classics. CR: Doane Gregory.

Q: Was there any particularly difficult scene to shoot either emotionally or physically?

Brosnan: The most challenging one was our first scene together—Trine and I—where I talk about the lemons and the lemon groves, just because of the dialogue and the effusive quality and nature of this, talking about lemons and oranges. I found it was tricky. But the rest was relatively easy because when you work with great actors, they make you real. They surrender to what they’re doing and they make you more real. These actors I worked with—this company of actors—were all so splendid and so nuanced and rich in preparation and rich in inventiveness that I just had to sit back and keep it as simple as possible.

Q: Was the ending always as it is in the final cut? Did the script change at all?

Brosnan: To the best of my knowledge, there were a few different endings, but the one we have is so indelible in my mind. It certainly is a tricky scene. You don’t want it to be sentimental but at the same time you want to have sincerity and honesty of playing and not just being maudlin. It was a tricky scene because we were losing the light and there were the expected technicalities of the day.

Q: You got a chance to film in Italy. And you have other films you’ve worked on or about to work on. Do you bring your wife (Keely Smith) and kids (Dylan, 16 and Paris, 12) with you when you’re on location?

Brosnan: Well, this particular film the boys were at school so it wasn’t possible. By the time they were out of school, I almost was finished with the film. So they went back to Hawaii where we have a house. They didn’t join me. That’s a hardship in the line of work that I do. But the next (film I did) was in Paris and we got to spend the summer in Paris together.  That’s a film I made with Emma Thompson called “Love Punch,” which is coming out later in the year. So it depends on the nature of the beast. The next one I have to do is (on location) in Belgrade, Serbia. I don’t think that they’ll be joining me because they’ll be at school.

Sebastian Jessen as Patrick and Pierce Brosnan as Philip in “Love Is All You Need.” ©Sony Pictures Classics. CR: Doane Gregory.

Q: When I first heard the title of this film, I thought it was going to have something to do with the Beatles. What does the title mean to you? Is love all you need?

Brosnan: The essential thing in life is love. From love springs … it’s the platform for how you live your life—love and only love and the generosity of that love and how you cultivate it yourself on a daily basis—within your work, within your marriage, within your friendships. The title changed, though. The script originally was called “The Bald-headed Hairdresser,” which is funny, and a completely different movie and yet the essence of it is exactly what you see in the film now. “Love is All You Need” is an unabashedly romantic title and I definitely think it’s the backbone of humanity.

Q: Your character arrives in Italy for his son’s wedding. Have you seen any of your kids walk down the aisle?

Brosnan: Not yet. I’ve not experienced that.

Q: Is that a milestone you look forward to?

Brosnan: I do. I think about it. I think about my time of being a father and husband. Certainly, as I approach the age of 60, I look at my sons and I hope and pray that I’ll get to see grandchildren and see them meet good partners in life. I have three sons and two stepchildren, grownups now, from another time. I do hope for such occasions in life.

Q: Do you think you’ll be an easygoing father in law or will you strike fear into your daughters-in-law?

Brosnan: No. That is not my way. I will be a kind, understanding father-in-law.

Q: At the beginning of the film, Philip’s staff throws him a surprise party. How do you feel about surprise parties?

Brosnan: I’ve had surprise parties in my day, and I’ve enjoyed them. Yes, I don’t have problems with surprise parties.

Q: How do you feel about turning 60 (on May 16)?

Brosnan: It’s certainly a time to reflect and, above all else, it’s a time of gratitude. I’ve created a body of work in films that perhaps some continuity to my own life and to the time that I have. (I think about) having created a family and I have a great sense of humble gratitude and awareness of precious time—past, present and future. So it’s a celebration.

Q: May I just ask you one Bond question?

Brosnan: (pauses) Um-hum. Go ahead.

Q: Did you watch the James Bond tribute at the Oscars and if you did, what did you think of it?

Brosnan: I didn’t see it. I was working. I couldn’t see it but I heard it was wonderful. And I participated in one of the documentaries for the Bond movies. It was a part of my life and now it’s another man’s job and he does greatly.

Q: OK. Back to the film. You and Trine have a marvelous scene where you dance. Are you a good dancer in real life?

Brosnan: I’m a very good dancer. And I’m a very good singer. (He laughs.) I used to do a lot of dance workshops. I trained as an actor so dancing is very much a part of an actor’s training.

Q: Can you tell me more about this film you did with Emma Thompson?

Brosnan: It’s a suburban heist movie. Then there was another one I did with Toni Collette based on a Nick Hornby novel, called “A Long Way Down,” which is about four people who decide to commit suicide on the same night. Those are in the can and coming out later this year. And then I’m about to go off with my own company and make a movie called “November Man,” which is a spy genre piece.

Q: Is that through your production company Irish DreamTime?

Brosnan: Yes. I’m producing it.

Michael Shannon as Richard Kuklinski in “THE ICEMAN.” ©Millennium Entertainment. CR: Anne Marie Fox.

By PETERSON GONZAGA

Front Row Features

HOLLYWOOD—Workhorse actor Michael Shannon (“Take Shelter”) had an unusual path to his career. He made his professional debut a quarter-century ago in the music video “House of Pain” by heavy metal act Every Mother’s Nightmare. (He played a troubled teen running away from an abusive home.)

It was the stage, though, that really drew him in. Shannon worked for years in Chicago honing his craft in various productions. Eventually, the lean, intense-looking performer got noticed by Hollywood. His breakthrough role came in 2008’s “Revolutionary Road,” where he handily stole scenes from Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet. The Lexington, Ky. native was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in that drama. Since then, audiences have gotten to know Shannon in other roles, including his federal agent character Nelson Van Alden in the hit HBO series “Boardwalk Empire.”

In “The Iceman,” directed and co-written by Israeli filmmaker Ariel Vromen, Shannon plays a character on the other side of the law—real life serial killer turned mob hit man Richard Kuklinski. Kuklinski was a calm and cold-blooded killer who led a double life: he was a family man with a loving wife Deborah (Winona Ryder) and children, as well as a ruthless and efficient assassin for mob boss Roy DeMeo (Ray Liotta).

In an interview, the 38-year-old Shannon talks about getting into the skin of Kuklinski, who claimed to have killed more than 100 people before he died under suspicious circumstances in 2006, and the nail-biting experience of shooting the film quickly and on a tight budget. He also spoke about his upcoming turn as Superman’s nemesis in “Man of Steel” and dealing with fans.

Q: How did you become familiar with Kuklinski?

Shannon: I watched an interview he did from prison. They showed (an edited version of) it on HBO, but I saw the full interview, unedited, 20 hours, 10 times. That’s how I got to know him.

Winona Ryder as Deborah Kuklinski and Michael Shannon as Richard Kuklinski in “THE ICEMAN.” ©Millennium Entertainment. CR: Anne Marie Fox.

Q: What did you discover about him?

Shannon: I discovered a lot of things. He’s a very complicated person. It’s hard to get to know the guy because you’re not sure when he’s telling the truth. He contradicts himself all the time. But the one thing that seems pretty apparent to me is that he’s a very sad lonely person that’s been in a lot pain his whole life. The one thing that meant everything in the world to him had been taken away forever.

Q: He’s obviously a sociopath. He doesn’t have a moral compass, right?

Shannon:  I’m not sure if he was without a moral compass at all. He does have certain rules of what he does. He doesn’t hurt women or children or kill them. The way he looked at it, if he didn’t kill most of the guys he killed, someone else would kill them. For me, I don’t think that the world needs to know more about sociopaths. I’m not on a crusade for the world to know. The only thing that makes Richard Kuklinski interesting to me is the tenderness I believe he had in his heart, under all the layers of rage and fury, there was this little fragment of tenderness that he wouldn’t let go of and that he did everything in his power to protect his family from himself. That’s what I found interesting about him.

Q: What was it like the first day of shooting?

Shannon: That’s the first time I met Ray Liotta. A lot of the day I was thinking, “That’s Ray Liotta. He was in ‘Goodfellas.’ He was in ‘Something Wild.’  He’s really good. Oh yeah, he’s freaking me out. I don’t know what he’s going to do next.” The big issue we had when we were shooting that scene was this whole thing of me not eating vegetables. I’m trying to figure how I’m supposed to be picking out mushrooms from an omelet. We were wondering if mushrooms were really a vegetable. Do they really count as vegetables? That was the big question of the day.

Q: Winona Ryder, who plays your wife, said the scene in the kitchen where you lose it was totally unrehearsed and she was surprised by your performance. What made you go in that direction? Also, how badly did you hurt yourself?

Shannon: I tripped over a table. It wasn’t very bad at all. It was a scratch. I’ll show you. Oh no, it’s not there anymore. (He laughs.) Unfortunately, that happened on the first take. We had a very slippery coffee table and so I was walking to the table and stepped on the coffee table. I was like Kathy Fleming and I was skating across the table. There’s a Kathy Fleming who’s an ice skater, right?

Q: Peggy Fleming.

Shannon: Right, Peggy Fleming. So I fell, and I was trying to keep it hidden from Winona. Winona is a very delicate individual and I knew (the blood would) freak her out. So I was crossing my legs. Between takes, I’d go stand in the dark in the backyard. It was a major injury. But I’m here. I’m still fine.

Michael Shannon as Richard Kuklinski and Ray Liotta as Roy Demeo in “THE ICEMAN.” ©Millennium Entertainment. CR: Anne Marie Fox.

Q: Before you kill one character (played by James Franco), you give him a minute to pray for help. It felt spontaneous and so natural. Was that scene part of the script?

Shannon: That’s actually a story Kuklinski tells a lot. (On the tape) the interviewer says, “Do you ever regret any of these?” And he says, “Yeah. I have one I regret. The time I made a guy pray to God. I shouldn’t have done that.” That’s why that scene’s in there. We had a hell of a time getting James Franco to pray. He didn’t want to pray. I don’t know if he’s anti-religious or something. He just wouldn’t pray. Ariel is like, “You’ve got to pray. You’ve got to pray to God. That’s the whole point of the scene.” He wouldn’t do it.

Q: I know this is not a message movie, but what do you want the audience to get from it?

Shannon: I think it’s a really good example of how living a double life is a bad idea. You should try to find someone that you’re comfortable being in all situations that has continuity and so that you don’t have to keep big secrets and drive yourself crazy. I think a lot of what he was suffering from got progressively worse and worse the longer he tried to keep all these secrets. Secrets are poison.

Q: The relationship with your character and his daughters are very nice. You have a daughter. How’s your relationship with her? Was your own personal experience useful in the film?

Shannon: Yeah. Sure. I mean she’s four. She’s a lot younger than the girls in the film. My daughter is my most favorite person in the world. The father-daughter thing is very powerful. I’m a very different father than Kuklinski.

Q: Was it pretty relaxed on the set despite the subject matter?

Shannon: No. It was hard! Like I said, “We didn’t have much money and very little time.” We were barely making our days. It was like the Millennium Falcon trying to fly out of the Death Star. It was a very nail-biting experience, but we made it.

Q: Was there one pivotal moment in your life when you said, “Yeah I got to be an actor?”

Shannon: I kind of felt that way when I got to Chicago, when I started doing plays in tiny theaters. I wouldn’t make any money or get paid anything. There’s this one theater I loved. It was in a basement of a restaurant. It was just a concrete room with folding chairs. We’d do plays down there. I can’t think of any one moment (that it struck me). It was kind of like Chinese water torture, bearing into your skull and eventually you can’t resist.

Q: In “Man of Steel” you play General Zod. Is it daunting to think about kids are going to be buying your action figure Might be harder to go out in public without being recognized?

Shannon: I don’t know. I’ve been getting a lot of that with “Boardwalk Empire.” When you’re on TV, you become part of people’s ritual. You’re in their house once a week and they feel like they are getting to know you. I don’t mind it. I mean, I guess I’ve been thinking about getting a hat and sunglasses or something. I can’t drive around in Town Cars. That would drive me insane. I like to walk and go out and take the subway. I just have to deal with it.

Q: Are you based in New York?

Shannon: Yeah. I live in Brooklyn.

Q: Are celebrities more invisible in New York?

Shannon: Yes and no. I get plenty of well-wishers. It’s not really a negative thing as long as they don’t expect to be my best friend.

Q: How do you handle it if someone comes up to you for your autograph?

Shannon: Okay. Let’s do it. You be the fan.

Q: Can I have your autograph?

Shannon: Yeah! Sure! You got a pen? Here. All right. Thank you! Thanks a lot. Take care. Have a nice day. Bye-bye.