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Tag: john-lithgow

  • John Lithgow to Play Roger Ailes in Fox News Movie

    John Lithgow to Play Roger Ailes in Fox News Movie

    John Lithgow
    EuropaCorp

    John Lithgow won an Emmy last year for portraying Winston Churchill in Netflix’s “The Crown.” Now, he’ll undertake his next transformation, this time as Roger Ailes.

    He’ll play the disgraced former head of Fox News in an untitled movie from Annapurna Pictures opposite Charlize Theron as Megyn Kelly, Nicole Kidman as Gretchen Carlson, and Margot Robbie as an associate producer.

    The project was written by Charles Randolph (“The Big Short”) and will be directed by Jay Roach (“Trumbo”).

    Ailes was a powerful media executive who launched the careers of Kelly, Carlson, and Sean Hannity, among others. He was a leading figure in Republican circles and helped elect Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. He resigned in 2016 after numerous sexual harassment allegations came out against him, the most high-profile of which were made by Carlson and Kelly.

    Casting will continue on the project, with likely characters including mogul Rupert Murdoch, former anchor Greta Van Susteren, and fired host Bill O’Reilly.

  • ‘Pet Sematary’ Remake Reveals Cast & Synopsis as Filming Begins

    Yes, add a new film adaptation of Stephen King’s novel “Pet Sematary” to your ongoing list of remakes and reboots.

    Last October, it was revealed that Paramount hired Kevin Kolsch and Dennis Widmyer to direct a 2019 version of the horror story, following the 1989 classic movie.

    Filming just began this week in Montreal, starring Jason Clarke and Amy Seimetz as a couple who move their young family to rural Maine and discover a burial ground for beloved pets — which turns out to be the gateway to something else.

    Entertainment Weekly revealed that Jeté Laurence, 10, will play Ellie, “a sweet and sensitive young girl who adores her cat Winston Churchill, or ‘Church’ for short.” She “wins over the heart of the old-timer who lives next door,” played by John Lithgow. EW added that 3-year-old twins Hugo Lavoie and Lucas Lavoie will play Gage, Ellie’s toddler little brother, “who is prone to wandering into trouble.”

    Here’s the film’s official synopsis:

    “Based on the seminal horror novel by Stephen King, Pet Sematary follows Dr. Louis Creed (Jason Clarke), who, after relocating with his wife Rachel (Amy Seimetz) and their two young children from Boston to rural Maine, discovers a mysterious burial ground hidden deep in the woods near the family’s new home. When tragedy strikes, Louis turns to his unusual neighbor, Jud Crandall (John Lithgow), setting off a perilous chain reaction that unleashes an unfathomable evil with horrific consequences.”

    Co-director Dennis Widmyer marked the first day of filming on June 18:

    “It” director Andy Muschietti previously said he wanted to direct this adaptation, but he’s pretty busy now with “It: Chapter 2.”

    “My affection for ‘Pet Sematary’ will go on until I die,” Muschietti told Entertainment Weekly last year. “I will always dream about the possibility of making a movie.”

    Well, wait your turn. This “Pet Sematary” is scheduled to open in theaters on April 5, 2019.

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  • 11 Things You Never Knew About ‘Cliffhanger’ on its 25th Anniversary

    While not quite as famous as “Rocky” or “First Blood,” “Cliffhanger” is nonetheless a must-watch for any Sylvester Stallone fanatic.

    And hard as it may be to believe, the film was released 25 years ago this week. Celebrate this death-defying action movie by checking out some fun facts you may not know about “Cliffhanger.”

    1. Star Sylvester Stallone is afraid of heights, and he has said that he took on the role specifically to help himself confront that fear.2. The aerial helicopter transfer scene broke the Guinness World Record for the most expensive aerial stunt ever filmed. Stuntman Simon Crane alone was paid $1 million for his participation, as the scene required the filmmakers to forgo the use of safety equipment.

    3. While the movie is set in the Colorado Rockies, it was actually filmed in Italy’s Cortina d’Ampezzo-Dolomites mountains.4. Stallone paid $100,000 out of pocket in order to reshoot the rabbit hunting scene, as test audiences had a severely negative reaction to (shocker to no one) seeing the rabbit get killed.
    5. Test audiences also reacted poorly to a scene where Gabe makes an impossible 40-foot cliff-to-cliff leap. The original scene appears in the theatrical trailer, but it was re-shaped in post to look more plausible in the finished version.6. Christopher Walken was originally cast as the villain Qualen. John Lithgow was cast only after Walken dropped out before production began.

    7. Director Renny Harlin revealed that his first choice to play Qualen was actually singer David Bowie.

    8. Originally, the bat cave scene featured live bats, but they had to be removed and digitally added during post-production because neither Stallone nor co-star Janine Turner were willing to film near the animals.
    9. The film is dedicated to Wolfgang Gullich, who served as Stallone’s stunt double and died in a car accident shortly after production ended.

    10. In 1994, development began on a sequel called “Cliffhanger 2: The Dam,” which would have pitted Stallone’s character against a group of terrorists at the Hoover Dam.

    11. As recently as 2015, Stallone has voiced an interest in returning for a sequel, though no plans have materialized so far.

  • John Lithgow Admits to Skinny-Dipping and Wild Parties While Making ‘Footloose’

    Although he played the stern Reverend Moore in “Footloose,” it turns out John Lithgow was far from straitlaced while making the 1984 classic.

    While reminiscing for Variety about the movie with Kevin Bacon, Lithgow revealed that he and Dianne Wiest, who played his wife, went skinny-dipping in the pool on location in very conservative Provo, Utah!

    “I and Dianne Wiest, who were the preacher and his wife, we felt so old with all these youngsters, and you were the oldest among the youngsters,” Lithgow recalled after pointing out he’s 12 years older than Bacon. “We felt like we were the old ‘fuddie duddies’ … Somehow, I think in compensation for the fact that we were the conservative older generation, Dianne and I were wild. We had these parties — do you remember the parties? — where we would do soul train and dance.” Who knew?

    But it gets better: Lithgow then recalled, “We even took off our clothes and swam in the pool [at the hotel where all the actors were staying during filming]. There was a memo sent out to every member of the production the next morning from [producer] Dan Melnick that said, ‘Behave yourselves. It was directed to Dianne and me.” Even more scandalous? He added, “I do remember Lori Singer [who played his rebellious daughter!] followed us into the pool.”

    Although Bacon jokingly refers to the movie that gave him his big start as “the ‘F’ film,” they both have fond memories of making it.

    “It was actually a wonderful experience,” Lithgow said.

    Agreed Bacon, “It was great.”

    The whole interview will air on June 13 on PBS as part of Variety’s “Actors on Actors” series.

  • New Mom Jayma Mays Had No Objections to ‘Trial & Error’

    NBCUniversal Press Tour - 2017A few weeks after becoming a new mom, doesn’t everyone jump into a brand-new sitcom where they spout legalese in a Southern accent and work opposite one of TV’s most admired stars?

    No? Well, that’s how Jayma Mays does it.

    After her high-profile stints on the small screen on “Glee” and on the big screen in “Trial & Error” came her way – with a start time of just a couple of weeks after the arrival of her son Jude.

    In a candid conversation with Moviefone, Mays reveals the irresistible nature of the role despite sleep-deprived on-set hallucinations, navigating between her character’s and her own distinctive accents and the uber-considerate habits of her upcoming film co-star Tom Cruise.

    Moviefone: When you come off a show like “Glee,” I’d imagine that you have a lot of choices — or am I wrong?

    Jayma Mays: I feel like people say that, and they you go, “I don’t think I’ve had near enough choices,” now that you bring that up. I think you’re in a nice position to feel like you can maybe not take work for a while if you want.

    Not that you’re being plied with jobs left and right, but financially, you’re now positioned to make some choices. I guess that’s the best better way to answer that. I don’t feel that work’s being thrown at me. But definitely feel like I’m fortunate enough to be picky — pickier.

    What did you see in this role that you were going to be doing something different from anything else you’ve done?

    Completely different! First of all, when I read the script, I laughed out loud a few times. You read so many scripts and they’re all good, but you look for something that has a spark, and this one was making me laugh, and I was a huge fan of “The Staircase,” and have been for a while, watched it several times with friends. We were kind of cult fans of that, and I knew exactly where they were going with this.

    It was almost like, “Ooh, that hasn’t been done yet. We haven’t mocked that genre, and why not?” This seems like this should have aired forever ago. And knowing that they had great writers on staff in Jeff [Astrof]and Matt [Miller]: “OK, they know what they’re doing with this.”

    But the role in particular of Carol Anne Keane, I was like, “I’ve not done that. I think I can do it.” You always want to think you can do something. So I went in and auditioned, and we worked on some stuff, and talked about where he wanted her to go. I said, “I think I know what you want on this.”

    I was on the same page, as far as I feel like it’s got to be played straight. I feel like the straighter, the funnier. You’ve got to believe that you’re in this for the funny to actually work. Thankfully, they thought I was a nice fit for it. Yeah, it’s nice to do something so different and to feel like you’re exploring another side creatively as an actor.

    The format is very fresh and different. The acting choreography of shooting documentary-style, how was that adjustment?

    It was really interesting, actually. I found this more comfortable than say like, I did multi-cam a few years ago. I was out of my element with that. That was more overwhelming for me than this. I think often because this, strangely, feels like you’re doing more of a play because the cameras are kind of hidden. Not that there’s an audience, but there are cameras kind of hidden around because of the style, the way they need to shoot, and I found that really freeing.

    I didn’t feel like I was posing for camera. I felt like, “Oh, I can just kind of do the scene and they’ll catch what they need when they need to catch it. They’re doing their job and I just do my stuff. So I found that really freeing.

    The interesting part was not having down time because everything’s always being shot. So you don’t have that down time. It’s just go, go, go, go, go. But I found that very invigorating as well. But any time I had a break, I just had a kid, so any time I had a break I was running back and pumping, and then running back on set, and then running back and pumping, and running back to set. So it was an intense four months.

    You’re like, “What did I get myself into?”

    A little bit, yeah! It was my first, and I thought, “Yeah, you have a baby and then you just go to work.” I had no idea! Thankfully they were all incredibly supportive in allowing me to pump and do all those things I wanted to do as a mom

    There was a moment — this is the moment I always tell everybody — I was sitting in the courtroom, and it was a long day. Some of the scenes were quite long. I remember looking up and I was like, “Did I have a baby?” I was hallucinating. I was so sleep-deprived, and just so mentally exhausted. I was like, “I think I had a baby.” It was nuts. The first month for me was absolutely nuts.

    Obviously, John Lithgow’s kind of a legend. You’ve been around your share of legends at this point, but watching a guy like him do comedy and drama so brilliantly and on the turn of a dime, tell me about that.

    I do feel like he’s one of those actors that I will gladly say I’m envious of. I’m so envious of his talent, his ability to do that. When he’s funny, he’s funny. You’re crying with laughter. He’s just so brilliant. But then when he’s dark, he just goes there. His ability to do that I do think is something that I wish I had. Maybe that’s something you can grow into. Maybe that’s something you can learn from. Being around someone like that, and hearing that he was cast in the show, you’re like, “Oh okay, absolutely, sign me up.” Because he is a legend.

    Literally we would be doing scenes and I couldn’t stop laughing, and then go home at night and watch “The Crown” as him as Winston Churchill. The vast quality of his work in drama and comedy is just incredible. I’m absolutely envious of him.

    Tell me about her Southern accent.

    Yes. I hope I did it justice. I’m from the Appalachians, so I have a very unique accent — but where I’m from, it’s a very unique accent. I didn’t use that for this one, but – and I probably butchered it — I was trying to do a coastal South Carolinian accent. So it’s lots of round O’s. All those vowels are so round. So I was trying to do that, purely because I felt like she seems slightly well-bred, or she was trying to appear well bred, and I thought, “I find that accent to be very genteel.”

    It switches a little from the pilot to the second episode, because you get your bearings straight, and you’re like, “I think she should sound more like this…” So that’s why I particularly picked that accent. I know I butchered it from time to time. I hope I did it some justice. My dad’s family is all Carolinian, so I hope that I kind of can make some of them proud.

    How did you navigate your own accent when you got into acting? Did you have to figure out other ways of doing line readings?

    My accent’s a little screwed up. I think probably because when I moved to LA, I did have such a thick Southern accent, and I knew that I needed to get rid of that — or traces of that — because you need more opportunity, right? You’re not always going to get cast as a Southern person. So while I was doing that, I met my husband who’s English. So now I find that I kind of go in and out of a bit of English, which is very similar to the Southern accent. We have very similar lilts and cadences, so I naturally kind of fell into that pattern. So my accent’s completely screwed up!

    Having an accent like that is wonderful to feel like you’ve got something like that for the character, something to hold on to. It’s an identity straight away that I find really kind of relaxing to settle into. It’s harder work because you’re thinking about, ‘Oh, that should sound that way.” It adds an extra layer of work sometimes. But once you get settled into it, I feel like it’s really nice way to sometimes even approach the character, because it gives you a little something to hold on to. That’s the best way I know to describe that.

    Do you have anything coming out around the corner film-wise?

    Yes, I did a Tom Cruise film last year, which was really fun, and I was playing an assistant D.A. in that, actually. She’s Southern, but she’s from Arkansas, so it’s a different Southern. That I think is supposed to come out at the end of this year — they’re calling it “American Made” now. They changed the title a few times. That was just like a highlight of my life working with Tom Cruise as well.

    Everybody thinks they know Tom Cruise, one way or the other. What was the fun discovery of Tom, the real Tom, for you?

    I was surprised, yet everyone says this, at how warm and welcoming he is. I flew out to Atlanta to meet him for the audition. He called the night before the audition. I’m assuming it’s his way of making you feel slightly more comfortable around him. It’s wonderful awareness I think he has on his part of knowing people might be a little intimidated by meeting me. I’m assuming, this is me like projecting.

    He and I have talked about that exact thing — knowing people see him as “Tom Cruise” at first.

    Yeah, so it was so kind of him to do that, and it did make me feel more relaxed. I felt like I knew him really quickly. I think for a big star to have that ability to make you feel at least like somewhat of an equal, or to feel comfortable around you, must be a difficult thing to do, but it’s one of the kindest things you can do I think as an actor, to let other people feel relaxed around you so that we can do our job to help you, and you help me, and all that.

    So he was above and beyond one of the nicest people I’ve ever met. And his reputation — people say that all the time about him, and I 100% get it. I get why he’s a big star. Why would you not want to work with him? He’s amazing!

  • Netflix’s ‘The Crown’: How John Lithgow Conquered Fear Itself to Play Winston Churchill

    After 3rd Rock From the Sun” and “Dexter” — the actor certainly qualifies as an eminence grise among his peers. And now he gets to play the ultimate elder statesman: Sir Winston Churchill.

    Lithgow is the sole American among the cast of “The Crown,” the lavish new Netflix series about England’s royal house of Windsor from creator Peter Morgan, the writer who a decade prior crafted the screenplay for the film “The Queen,” featuring Helen Mirren‘s much-awarded portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II. “The Crown,” which premieres Nov. 4, turns back the clock to 1947, chronicling an era including her wedding, her coronation as monarch in 1952 and the earliest years of her reign.

    Churchill, of course, was a renowned figure during the period as the indomitable British prime minister who helped chart the Allied victory over the Axis powers in World War II, and he was well into his 80s when he began his second stint as prime minister just as the queen began her rule. And as Lithgow reveals to Moviefone, all the acting awards on his shelf didn’t quell an initial trepidation when it came to taking on one of the most influential, revered and recognizable figures of the 20th Century. But he quickly realized that the only thing he had to fear was fear itself.

    What was the experience like being the sole American in the cast? Was it a really educational thing? A culturally enlightening thing?

    John Lithgow: It was the best eight months of my professional life. I just had a wonderful time. I mean, I’ve done a lot of work in England. I went to drama school for two years in England way, way back. I worked with the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre, and I’ve played lots of Englishman to the point where half of America thinks I’m English, and half of the U.K. thinks I’m English.

    It’s not a role I would have ever dreamed of casting myself in. I was so surprised when [executive producer Stephen] Daldry called and offered it to me. The big challenge was just overcoming this feeling that all eyes are on me, more than any of the other actors in the cast.

    Also, of all the cast of characters, Churchill is the best known. Even more well-known than the queen, and as an old man. I was playing him as an old man. I was playing him 10 years older than I am. So for all those reasons, I simply had to forget about what other people think.

    Did you hesitate to take the role? Churchill’s such an icon of historical significance.

    Oh, I wasn’t going to say “no” to it. My agents called and I said “yes” within the first 30 seconds. Because of Churchill, because of Peter, because of Stephen Daldry and Netflix. It just immediately seemed like a dream job. It completely disrupted my life. I mean, eight months in England. My wife took a sabbatical and joined me for six months. We lived the life of an English couple in North London, and had a completely wonderful time.

    You just felt that you were working with the best of the best. The actors — Alex Jennings, Dame Eileen Atkins, Claire Foy, Vanessa Kirby and Matt Smith — are just remarkable people. Some of whom I’d worked with. Eileen Atkins is an old, old friend. Alex Jennings is a great friend. But all of them were working stiffs in London theater, and the best of the best.

    You’ve done the three-camera sitcom format before in front of a live audience, and done hour-long drama for cable. How does this experience compare?

    It was very much filmmaking. You felt like you were doing absolutely top of the line movie-making. All of the designers were Oscar-winning, Emmy-winning, multiple Emmy-winning designers. You just felt like you were in very good hands, and they were going to do everything they could to make your performance work. I just had to do my part and learn my lines.

    How long did it take to get into hair and makeup every day?

    Actually, very quickly. We tried to do as little makeup … it was all done with a wig — an extraordinary wig that made me even more bald than I am! And something inside my mouth, to just change the shape of my face, but nothing painted on.

    What were those nuggets of gold you found about the real Churchill in your research that you were able to hang some of your performance on?

    There’s a remarkable little scrap of video, I believe this story is correct, they were trying to decide who was going to give the big Tory television speech in like the first year it was ever on television. And they basically auditioned Churchill, and there’s this little scrap of this with the clapper — “Winston Churchill, take one” — and he speaks [imitates Churchill’s grumble] a bit of doggerel verse, and he spoke the first sentence, and then dried, he couldn’t think of what was next.

    And he suddenly [sputters animatedly as Churchill] talked off camera. “I can’t remember a thing!” That little moment was the real Churchill, as opposed to the public Churchill, and it was a moment when he was trying to do his best to present the public Churchill. That to me was like opening a door in a dark room and having light pour in.

    Afterwards, I discovered a remarkable video in the Churchill Museum, which was all MOS — you didn’t hear any dialogue. It was total silence. But he was just so animated. You think of him with long … pauses … between … his … words. No, he spoke extremely fast, to the point where you could barely understand the man.

    Why do you think Churchill put on that persona in public?

    He was an orator. He was a politician and an orator. There was a wonderful actor-ish streak in him. He loved to move people. He had an extraordinary wit. He loved to make them laugh. He also loved to stir them … Everything you already know about Churchill, I think, is true.

    He was deeply patriotic in the sense of the entire empire. He was the only Victorian. He was the only person who had served under Queen Victoria. His view of England was the view of the very center of a huge empire. So, for him, growing old was facing mortality, but it was also watching the empire fall apart. So a man with a lot going on emotionally, as an old, old man.