TeenHollywood: Well, do you think this is a hopeful movie especially since your character makes the moral choice?
Jake: "It's very simple. I think if he weren't an analyst [for the CIA], I think the decision would be very different. But it comes to this [the rendition policy] doesn't work. This particular situation, it doesn't work. We always say 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it' but we never say 'if it's broken, don't use it' or 'if it doesn't work, don't use it'. I think that's kind of the decision he makes. I don't think this is a heroic move. This was a very practical move".
TeenHollywood: Reese, this is pretty serious subject matter based on real happenings. Why should audiences see this movie? Reese: "I think it's a film that has a lot of different, wonderful elements to it. There is definitely a romance to it. There are thriller aspects. It's not just a film about a message. I think it's a movie that asks a lot of questions and it really makes you think about a lot of the practices that are going on nowadays and whether or not they are legal or ethical or even constitutional". Source: www.teenhollywood.com
"For a role deliberately devoid of charisma, the always stellar Gyllenhaal turns in a powerful performance". Source: www.gazette.com
"There's some poetic pleasure to be had from watching Gyllenhaal drink and brood his way to a moral awakening..." Source: www.latimes.com
"Nora Zehetner's looks make her a natural femme fatale. The sloe-eyed 24-year-old actress's lithe neck, winsome lips, and ski-jump nose seem ready-made for film noir, even if she's best known for her role as Laynie Hart, the sweet-natured love interest of Ephram Brown on the WB teen drama Everwood. But while other prime-time players find the transition from tween-TV to dramatic-film roles challenging, Zehetner is starring in the perfect bridge: Rian Johnson's Brick, about a teenage boy (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) who infiltrates a teenage crime ring in search of his girlfriend's killer. The film, which won the Special Jury Prize for Originality of Vision at the Sundance Film Festival, is written in noirish period dialogue and features Zehetner as a woman of mystery--albeit one still in high school. "It's a classic detective story," she says, "but with a twist." Born in El Paso, Texas, Zehetner was raised in Dallas, where she attended the Texas Academy of Math and Science, a two-year post-high school program for students interested in engineering or medicine. She credits her academic adviser with encouraging her to move to Los Angeles to pursue acting when she was 18, but she recently discovered that her desire to act first reared its head a decade earlier. "I found my old journal from when I was 8," she recalls. "There's this entry from when I was sick and my parents couldn't take me to an open casting call. I'd written, 'I hate my parents.' I totally forgot about that. It's strange for an 8-year-old to feel that strongly, but it helps explain where I am today." A self-confessed movie addict who forgoes cable because, she says, it keeps her couch-bound, Zehetner will also appear in the upcoming postdivorce reconciliation film Conversations With Other Women, playing the younger version of Helena Bonham Carter's character. (Though Zehetner and Bonham Carter share similar profiles, it's The O.C.'s Rachel Bilson for whom Zehetner is most often mistaken.) And then there is Fifty Pills, a college comedy that's more in keeping with Zehetner's personal taste. "I'm a closeted teen-movie fan," she admits. "Not the bad-bad ones, but the good-bad ones. How great is Can't Buy Me Love?" Source: www.encyclopedia.com She starred in the lead role in Beneath, an MTV Films thriller which released in August. She has also completed work on Remarkable Power with Kevin Nealon, but a release date is notlisted and is working on another film entitled "Princess" [(a really fitting title for Nora)]. Source: www.watchingheroes.com WATCH NORA ZEHETNER VIDEOSin the SCREEN OF WEIRDLAND
"WRISTCUTTERS: A LOVE STORY is the next great American cult movie. At least, it should be; I've been wrong about such things before. I thought BRICK would take off even more than it did, and maybe it still will in years to come, but perhaps I can be more objective about WRISTCUTTERS since I don't personally know anyone involved with it.
You just can't go wrong with teenage suicide, road trips, and Tom Waits". Source: www.Lytrules.com "Donnie imagines himself a superhero: "What makes you think I'm not?" he teases Gretchen when she comments on his supernatural-sounding name. And in his English class he reads a composition about how he is destined to save "the children"... "because I am Donnie Darko." (Donnie definitely still identifies with kids, even as he tries to set himself apart from them, no matter how much he pines to be a grown up where hormones are concerned.) In the final part of the movie, Donnie the melodramatic, solipsistic teenager (not in a bad way -- he's just a teen) imagines a texbook teen-suicide fantasy in which he saves the world and everybody feels terrible, even though they don't even know of his heroic sacrifice on their behalf. The whole movie becomes a feature-film version of Elton John's quintessential 1970s teen-suicide anthem "I Think I'm Gonna Kill Myself," in which the protagonist relishes the idea of sticking around afterwards to see how his death affects others (and the moral flipside of John’s "Ticking," in which the hell-bent protagonist becomes a killer of others as well) -- a classic death-wish delusion of grandeur". Source: Roberebert.suntimes.com And "Wristcutters" is definitely something different, a dark comic fantasy about suicide victims who awake to find themselves in an afterlife that is far grungier and more depressing than the existence they departed. Fugit stars as twentysomething Ziya, who kills himself after breaking up with his girlfriend. "It's pretty dark," Fugit said with a laugh," but it's not overwhelmingly dark."
"Wristcutters" is one of 16 films in the festival's dramatic competition and had its premiere on Monday in the Park City Racquet Club. "I hear people really liked it and responded well to it," Fugit said.
His co-workers have nothing but praise for Fugit. "Ziya is such a tricky part. He's the most important person in the movie," said Shea Whigham, who plays his constant companion Eugene, and who originally read for Fugit's role. "He's the one character you relate to and really like, but that's not an easy thing to do with this material.
"Patrick couldn't smile a lot, because his character isn't supposed to. So he had to act with his eyes."
Director Goran Dukic calls Fugit a natural. "It's unbelievable how talented and how centered Patrick is. He could have it all but chooses not to."Fugit also plays guitar in the band Mushman, fronted by his best friend, David Fetzer. The band's name refers to late actor Steve McQueen, who used it as an alias. "He would check into hotels under the name Harvey Mushman," Fugit said. "(McQueen) was pretty cool, and we couldn't think of anything better. So it stuck."
Given his musical aspirations, Fugit was thrilled to see one of his "Wristcutters" co-stars was Tom Waits. "Yeah, that was definitely a perk." Source: Deseretnews.com
PATRICK FUGIT VIDEO
Shannyn Sossamom (the offbeat beautiful Mikal in "Wristcutters") and A VIDEO FROM WARPAINT, THE BAND WHICH SHANNYN SOSSAMOM PLAYS THE DRUMS IN:
October 15 - Arriving At The Ed Sullivan Theatre In NYC At Wednesday's Rendition premiere, Reese Witherspoon and Jake Gyllenhaal offered no clues as to their current status: Friends? Lovers? Former either? The two did not share eye contact on the red carpet and came together only briefly at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences theater to flank their director, Gavin Hood, for a quick photo before once again going their separate ways.
The two share no scenes in the political thriller, which opens Oct. 19. Witherspoon plays a pregnant Chicago woman who travels to Washington to investigate the disappearance of her Egyptian husband, who is being tortured in the Middle East under Gyllenhaal's supervision.
"It's interesting how our stories intersect even though we don't talk to each other in the film," said Witherspoon, who arrived in a teal Nina Ricci gown. "You're anxious to see what other people do with their side of the movie."Witherspoon's own children never got to meet Knight because "they were in school." The actress, whose divorce from Ryan Phillippe became final last Friday, is trying to convince her kids — daughter Ava, 8, and son Deacon, almost 4 — to dress up like a rock band for Halloween, "but they're not into that."
Because of the various locales, much of the cast did not even meet during the shoot, though they shared other connections. "This is increasingly the way it is with complicated interwoven plotlines," said Meryl Streep, whose ice-cold politician never crosses paths with Gyllenhaal. But Streep has her own personal memories of Jake as a boy. "He was a friend of my son (Henry) in grammar school and would come over to my house to play. I remember … his sister, Maggie, was having a '20s speakeasy party, and the boys were bartenders."
J.K. Simmons' character also shares no scenes with Gyllenhaal, but was nearly his editor (J. Jonah Jameson) when Gyllenhaal was lined up to take over for Tobey Maguire in Spider-Man 2. "Tobey is Spider-Man, hopefully forever more in Spider-Man 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8, but Jake would have been great," said Simmons, who has heard more Spidey films are in the works.
Gyllenhaal was sporting a beard for his new role in Brothers, playing Maguire's sibling. Both men dated Kirsten Dunst, but that topic, along with their Spider-Man connection, is off-limits.
As for not working with half his Rendition cast, Gyllenhaal admitted, "It's a little awkward not knowing them. I was pretty confident that the film would all come together when you're dealing with Meryl, Reese, Peter (Sarsgaard) and Alan Arkin." Source: www.Usatoday.com
TeenHollywood: Well, do you think this is a hopeful movie especially since your character makes the moral choice?
Reese: "I think it's a film that has a lot of different, wonderful elements to it. There is definitely a romance to it. There are thriller aspects. It's not just a film about a message. I think it's a movie that asks a lot of questions and it really makes you think about a lot of the practices that are going on nowadays and whether or not they are legal or ethical or even constitutional". Source: www.teenhollywood.com
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