TOP 100 ACTOR SITES
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| Probation for 'Hills' Stephanie Pratt LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Court records show Stephanie Pratt will serve three years of informal probation after pleading no contest to a lesser charge in a drunken driving case.... hosted.ap.org |
Katie and Peter squabble over daughter's hair Peter Andre is furious with Katie Price for straightening his daughter's hair. breakingnews.ie |
Still Walking Tolstoy was wrong about happy families being all alike and unhappy families being unhappy in their different ways. In the movies, dysfunctional families are all too alike, while in real life happy families have to work hard at strategies that provide them with a satisfying modus vivendi. In Hirokazu Kore-Eda's impressive Still Walking, a middle-class Japanese family come together for a characteristic bout of mutual irritation and destabilisation at the home of a constantly bickering father and mother, a retired general practitioner and his wife who live on a steep hill near the sea. It's a hot summer's day, the 15th anniversary of the death of their beloved younger son, Junpei. In addition to the older son, a daughter and grandchildren, they've invited out of sheer perversity the 25-year-old, dim-witted, overweight lad whom Junpei died saving from drowning, and they subject him to insults and humiliation.The older son, currently between jobs, is mocked by his self-centred father while his patient, loving wife and her young son by an earlier marriage are patronised by the querulous, bitchy mother. The sister, who has plans to move back into the parental home, gets on everyone's nerves, as does her posturing husband and noisy children.Out of filial piety alone, the older son suffers the verbal slings and arrows his parents propel in his direction, and he takes his family along to visit Junpei's grave where his mother proceeds to throw away the flowers left by an earlier mourner. The film is delicately observed in the subdued fashion of Ozu but reverses the situation of Ozu's masterly Tokyo Story, where a thoughtful, loving elderly couple is callously treated by ungrateful children, with only a dutiful daughter-in-law to act in a kindly, welcoming fashion. The director of this quasi-autobiographical picture suggests (as does his apparent stand-in, the older brother, in a coda set a decade or so hence) that family life is to be nourished and cherished. Many, however, will come away thinking of Philip Larkin's poem, "This Be the Verse", and nodding in agreement with his advice to "get out as early as you can/And don't have any kids yourself".DramaWorld cinemaJapanPhilip Frenchguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Meet the painter Anthony Hopkins Actor, director, screenwriter, composer – and now painter. Anthony Hopkins has been busyAnthony Hopkins is at home in California – ÂMalibu to be precise, on the beach. It is late afternoon, the sun is dipping, everything is lovely. I am at home in London. It is 1am, cold and windy, and I am dribbling into my sofa.The phone goes. It is Sir Anthony, to talk about his paintings. Next month the first British exhibition of his art will open in London, followed by Âanother show in Edinburgh. In recent years, the 72-year-old actor has become something of a renaissance man: in 2007 he wrote, directed and scripted a film called Slipstream. Last year, his composition The Masque of Time was given its world premiere by the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. Now there's the painting.Hopkins's paintings are varied and variable – ranging from traditional landscapes to much darker and more garish images. I am looking at an idyllic scene when he calls: corn fields, white-blue skies and reds blobs that could be cattle or haystacks. It's all very calm. Well, yes, Hopkins says, so it should be. He has everything he wants: his lovely third wife Stella, success, health. "Over the years, you settle into a Âcalmness. I suppose what you're Âobserving is my state of mind or state of being." But while he talks, I am looking at a painting that is anything but calm: a blood-red face, outlined in yellow, unsmiling and harsh. This is more how I imagined Hopkins's work would be: restless, melancholy, haunting.The Welshman has played pretty much every kind of role there is, Âduring a long career on stage and film. But there are two roles he excels in: the quietly repressed (such as the butler Mr Stevens in The Remains of the Day, for which he was Oscar-nominated) and the hammily monstrous (Hannibal Lecter, for which he did win an Oscar). Perhaps it is not surprising that he does these two extremes so well. ÂHopkins, who left his first wife when his only child was tiny, has implied in interviews that he is a little Âemotionally stunted; he claims that, because he went to boarding school, he never really understood the Ânature of family or the role of a Âfather. And, as he will freely admit, he has been monstrous in his time. There are Âmyriad stories of him Âraging against light and dark in his Âalcoholic years, improvising on stage because he had forgotten his lines – sometimes Âbrilliantly, often Âappallingly. But he stopped drinking a long time ago, in 1975, and for now there is the calm."Oh, I had a grand old time. I was a wild boy, yeah! Van Gogh type. I wouldn't have missed it. It was a lot of fun. I lived it up a storm. But it would have killed me. Over the years you get a little smarter. You slow down a bit, but I'm in full vigour. I'm on the Âtreadmill every day and I lift weights and I'm very strong and powerful."Strength is a recurring theme, as is family. He talks at length about his mother and father, the bakery they ran in Port Talbot. "They never had holidays. Dad worked 4am till 7pm. Then he went to bed. He was a strong man. And just before he died, he started painting. I've got three of his paintings here. My mother painted, too – beautiful flowers. They worked so hard; they gave me my values." When he was young, his father would leave a loaf for him in the oven. "And I'd cut it up and eat it. I was like a Âsavage. I'd stuff it down with butter, peanut butter and bananas. I was a monster. Of course you become Âaddicted to that. And that's my biggest downfall, bread – the sugar in the bread, I guess."This is another thing that's changed: his diet. He used to eat junk on film sets, and put on loads of weight. How much? "Oh, I'm not going to tell you." Whisper it: it's just between me, you and Guardian readers. "Oh no, oh no ... I was about 230lb. I'm down to 180 now. Good weight."A few years ago, it was reported that Hopkins was giving up acting. "No, I didn't actually say that," he says gruffly. "I was doing Titus [with director Julie Taymor], which was a very complicated film. We were Âworking at 4am and I was sitting in the freezing rain, covered in mud, and I said to someone: 'I think I've had it with this business, I'm a bit too old for this.' And someone said: 'Are you going to retire?' and I said: 'No, it's just a bit tough.' The Mail got hold of it and said: 'We hear you're retiring.' I said no, and it was in the press the next day. I was tired. Actors say this sometimes."Actually, he says, his passion for Âacting has returned since he started composing and painting. "When it comes along, I enjoy it more because I'm laid back. My mind is clear, my body is clear. I'm fit and well, so I can apply all my strength and power to the movie."Well, relatively laid back. Another story emerged a few months ago: that Hopkins had been reunited with his Âestranged daughter, Abigail. I tell him it was great to read this. Silence. Then a bark. "No, that's not true at all. No, I haven't seen her for years. No, that was some crap, that probably came from that garbage in the Mail. They're a bunch of assholes. I've had no Âcontact with my daughter for years. That's her choice. Anyway, you move on. If people don't want to bother with me, fine. You know, God bless them, and move on. I don't hang out with negative people or people who bitch and moan about the injustices of the world. I don't waste any time with Âpeople like that."Has this always been his philosophy? "Always. I don't like freeloaders, I don't like people who are negative. There was a guy here. I used to meet him for lunch. I always ended up picking up the tab. By the time I'd finished having lunch with him, I wanted to commit suicide because I felt so guilty about being happy when this guy was so fucking miserable. If people don't want to know me, then fine. I'll see them the next decade. Just get on with it. If you don't like life, do something about it, but don't bother me with it. Don't Âinfect me with your plague." He pauses. "I'm a pretty tough guy, you know. I'm a pretty hard man. I've got a lot of compassion, but I don't waste time with people. Don't fuck with me, and I'll stay out of your way if you stay out of my way."In 2007, when talking about the Âfailure of his second marriage, Hopkins is reported to have said: "I'm devious, cruel, cunning and addictive." Is that another fiction? No, he says. "I don't think I'm devious any more. Maybe I was in my drinking days. Devious? Well, I'm an actor – all actors are Âdevious. What was the other one? ÂAddictive? Well, yeah, I like all the bad things in life. I used to love the booze. I like to do everything at great speed. That's an addiction, I guess. But now I've deliberately turned the dial down. I don't live at that pace any more."The playwright David Hare, who Âdirected him in a production of King Lear, once said: "Tony is permanently in the grip of feelings he can't control." Roger Donaldson, who directed him in The Bounty, said Hopkins scared him to death. If he met his younger self, what would he make of him? "I wouldn't have wanted to meet myself as I was 30 years ago. I was horrible." He thinks, and reassesses: "No, I was just a bit confused, like all young Âpeople in the acting business. I look at them now and think, I've done all that, and try to smile about it. I don't want to ever go back." One reason he is so happy in LA, he says, is that it's easy to be Âsolitary. "I don't have any friends in the acting business. I keep well away from them." Has he always been a loner? "Oh yeah. Do my own thing. Not answerable to anyone."A happy marriage, his painting, composing, writing and acting (he has roles in the upcoming The Wolfman, and Thor): ÂHopkins couldn't be more content. But, as he's keen to stress, that doesn't mean he's getting soft. There is still plenty to grump about. He turns his Âattention to today's male movie stars and their Âpenchant for mumbling (Hopkins has always prided himself on his diction). "Why don't people speak properly? There are a lot of young kids, good Âactors, but they are so macho they think it's sexy to whisper. I don't know what the hell they are talking about. They may as well put subtitles on them. I teach Âacting classes at UCLA, and I stand there and say: 'I can't understand one word you're Âsaying, so how d'you Âexpect me to sit in the audience?'"What advice does he give them? "Clarity and courage, and just get on with it. That's my philosophy. Stop Âtrying to impress people by mumbling, because it's boring, and stop belly-Âaching. I don't waste time, you know."PaintingAnthony HopkinsArtTheatreSimon Hattenstoneguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Diddy splashes out for son's sweet 16 P. Diddy bought his son a $360,000 (€254,000) car for his 16th birthday. breakingnews.ie |