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LONDON – Can you believe “The Hobbit” is coming to an end? Sure, there's a very valid argument the big screen adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's first Middle Earth novel didn't need to be three movies, but still. This is a project that has been on movie fans' radars for over seven years and it's finally (we think), finally coming to an end.

Earlier this month I crossed the Atlantic to talk with a number of the the principal stars of “The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies” and they had much to celebrate. The last installment includes some of the trilogy's best moments and long-awaited action scenes fans have been dying to see. Sitting down with the three primary elves in the series, Lee Pace (Thranduil), Evangeline Lilly (Tauriel) and Orlando Bloom (“LOTR” veteran Legolas), we discussed a number of topics including the protracted shoot and, after so much green screen work, experiencing the movies like any other member of the audience. One thing that viewers might find surprising is how little action Tauriel (Lilly), the leader of the Mirkwood Elven guard, found in the movie's epic confrontation. Considering the character, who was created for the movie, was initially sold as more of an action hero, Lilly couldn't believe it herself.

“I thought I would be doing a hell of a lot more fighting than I did,” she says. “Tauriel saw next to no action. She killed a couple of orcs on her way to save [spoiler] and that was it.”

One thing Lilly was happy to see were the fans who dressed up as Tauriel at San Diego Comic-Con this past summer.  

“I think I was worried about the possibility that nobody would every cosplay my character and people would only be angry about her being in the film, so it's a great encouragement when I see people dressed up as Tauriel,” she says. “It's sort of an affirmation that “we accept her into Middle Earth, we accept her into the fray of the Ringers and the whole culture of Tolkien.”

That's it for Lilly and Tauriel on the big screen, though… until it isn't, of course.

For more on “The Battle of the Five Armies,” watch the video interview at the top of this post.

“The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies” opens nationwide on Wednesday. 

The Chicago Film Critics Association announced 2014 superlatives Monday night and it was “Boyhood” — big shock — coming out on top. Also, in what must have been a heartwarming moment during the announcement dinner, “Life Itself” won Best Documentary.

Check out the nominees here, the winners below and the rest of the season's givings at The Circuit.

Best Picture
“Boyhood”

Best Director
Richard Linklater, “Boyhood”

Best Actor
Michael Keaton, “Birdman”

Best Actress
Julianne Moore, “Still Alice”

Best Supporting Actor
J.K. Simmons, “Whiplash”

Best Supporting Actress
Patricia Arquette, “Boyhood”

Best Adapted Screenplay
“Gone Girl”

Best Original Screenplay
“The Grand Budapest Hotel”

Best Art Direction/Production Design
“The Grand Budapest Hotel”

Best Cinematography
(tie) “Birdman” and “The Grand Budapest Hotel”

Best Editing
“Boyhood”

Best Original Score
“Under the Skin”

Best Animated Film
“The LEGO Movie”

Best Foreign Film
“Force Majeure”

Best Documentary
“Life Itself”

Most Promising Performer
Jack O'Connell, “Starred Up” and “Unbroken”

Most Promising Filmmaker
Damien Chazelle, “Whiplash”

The Academy has announced the seven bake-off finalists for this year's makeup and hairstyling Oscar race, and the only real surprising omission is Disney's “Into the Woods.” I personally thought it looked a bit, eh, theatrical and not quite camera ready, if you will. But I figured it would skate on in here.

Also missing, and a bummer in my opinion, is “Snowpiercer.” “The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies” might qualify as a surprising snub but then, this is how fatigue works (though the latest film might be my favorite of the entire Middle Earth saga).

The other two films we're currently predicting for nominations – “Foxcatcher” and “Guardians of the Galaxy” – are on the list, however. Along with…

“The Amazing Spider-Man 2”
“Foxcatcher”
“The Grand Budapest Hotel”
“Guardians of the Galaxy”
“Maleficent”
“Noah”
“The Theory of Everything”

I have a hunch “Theory” might be grabbing that third spot. But “Maleficent” is strong and “The Grand Budapest Hotel” could spread love here, too.

The nominees will be announced with all the rest on Jan. 15.

As David Letterman might quip: “Oprah… BAFTA.” It’s funny to think that Oprah Winfrey has been nominated for a BAFTA and not an Oscar this year — I’m sure that if the BAFTA voters had been tipped off that she wasn’t getting an Oscar nod, they probably wouldn’t have voted for her. Anyway, good sports that she is, she’ll be attending the ceremony, as confirmed today on a BAFTA guest list that also includes Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Amy Adams, Sandra Bullock and, of course, prohibitive frontrunners Chiwetel Ejiofor, Cate Blanchett and Lupita Nyong’o. (Best Supporting Actor? Search me.) The awards take place on Sunday. [Screen Daily]

The writers of eight of this year’s Oscar nominated screenplays convened for a 90-minute panel at the Los Angeles Film School. Listen in here. [iTunes]

A profile of the man behind the sound of the Oscar ceremony — yep, the one with the power to curtail rambling winners’ speeches. [Dolby]

Tom Shone on why Cate Blanchett ain’t losing Best Actress, however much people try to stir the Woody Allen controversy theory. [The Guardian]

Oscar winner Eva Marie Saint on “Hollywood’s different attitude toward older actresses.” [Variety]

Steve Pond on the PR offensive gearing up for Woody Allen. [The Wrap]

On the Oscar contenders taking the “slow but steady wins the race” approach. [New York Times]

Finally, the Producers’ Guild confirms a date for their 2015 awards. About time, guys. [PGA]

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Even after $102 million at the box office and an Academy Award nomination for Best Makeup and Hairstyling, “Bad Grandpa’s” Irving has just one thing on his mind: Yes, he still can’t get enough tail.

Irving sat down with HitFix last week to talk about his neverending quest for tail, Billy’s current status (let’s just say he’s under supervision), his affection for Helen Mirren and whether or not he has a ticket to the Oscars. It’s an incredibly unconventional interview, but if you’re a fan of “Bad Grandpa” you’ll probably eat it up.

OK, back to reality everyone…

Obviously, this is really Johnny Knoxville in character as Irving, but the “Jackass” star spent hours to transform into the geriatric horndog to demonstrate just how impressive Stephen Prouty’s nominated work is. It was a wonderful gesture by Knoxville and a rare second look at movie makeup in person (he also probably wouldn’t mind his production company earning an Oscar).

Prouty himself was on hand and also sat down to talk in detail about the makeup process on “Bad Grandpa.” As you can guess, the toughest part of the job was making sure the makeup looked realistic in sunlight. If not, it would ruin the undercover camera work that was a key element of the film’s production.

You can enjoy the interview with Irving embedded at the top of this post, and you can find out more about Prouty’s work in the interview embedded below.

Do you think “Bad Grandpa” will win the Best Makeup and Hairstyling Oscar? Share your thoughts below.

“Bad Grandpa” is currently available digitally and on Blu-ray and DVD.

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I can’t remember the last time there was this much active campaigning for the Best Original Song Oscar — perhaps this is what happens when the music branch actually thinks to nominate a handful of decent songs. (And “Alone Yet Not Alone,” but perhaps studios are capitalizing on the attention that scandal directed to the category in the first place.)

Disney’s holding concerts in jazz bars for “Frozen,” Pharrell Williams is generally inescapable on the scene, and now Warner Bros. is making moves on behalf of Spike Jonze and Karen O’s “The Moon Song,” the wispy, wistful love theme from “Her,” today releasing three versions of the song — one of them previously unheard — under the title “The Moon Song (Music From and Inspired by the Motion Picture Her).”

The first two versions are, of course, the one performed by Scarlett Johansson and Joaquin Phoenix in the course of the film itself, and the end-credits rendition by Karen O herself. The new one, meanwhile, sees the Yeah Yeah Yeahs frontwoman duetting with Vampire Weekend frontman Ezra Koenig. (That could really swing the vote with the Academy’s vast demographic of Vampire Weekend fans.)

The new recording is produced by J. Ralph, whom you may remember scored a surprise Oscar nod last year for his “Chasing Ice” theme “Before My Time” — also sung by Johansson. O describes the duet as “fulfilling a wish of my die-hard junior high self … It’s a dreamy tune.” (You can listen to the new version in the embed below.)

Will this make any difference? Not really, but it’s interest to see the effort. In most other years, I’d give “The Moon Song” a pretty strong shot at winning this, given their recent fondness for quirkier songs from more offbeat acts that play an active narrative role in films they actually love. With a more conventional powerhouse like “Let it Go” in the running this year, I’m less optimistic, but I’m rooting for them anyway.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mIpUDrt04Q&w=640&h=315]

They may never win the award itself, but independent animation distributors GKIDS have really settled into their role as the regular giant-slayers of the Best Animated Feature Oscar race: many pundits fail to give them due consideration when handicapping the category at nominations stage, yet their foreign titles have now repeatedly shown up at the expense of a studio heavyweight. They may have missed with a few shots on goal last year, but came back fighting this year, snaring a nod for French critics’ pet “Ernest and Celestine” as Pixar’s “Monsters University” failed to make the grade.

The film that effectively made GKIDS’ name, of course, was “The Secret of Kells,” a traditional Irish tale with a distinctive stained-glass aesthetic that stunned pretty much everyone by securing an Animated Feature nod in the 2009 race eventually won by Pixar’s “Up.” It was only the second feature the New York-based outfit had even distributed.

So it figures that GKIDS would remain loyal to “Kells” director Tomm Moore: it was announced today that they’ve struck a distribution deal for Moore’s follow-up effort “Song of the Sea,” a modern Irish fairytale with a similar 2D aesthetic, boasting the voices of Brendan Gleeson (also featured in “Kells”), Fionnuala Flanagan and musician Lisa Hannigan, among others.

Inspired by Irish “selkie” folklore (previously touched upon, if memory serves, by John Sayles in “The Secret of Roan Inish,” the film tells the story of a young boy and his little sister — the last living selkie, or seal-child — “who embark on a fantastic journey across a fading world of ancient legend and magic in an attempt to return to their home by the sea.”

Moore describes himself as “delighted” to be working with GKIDS again, while company chief Eric Beckmann describes the film as “something truly incredible.” From the few early images lurking online, it looks predictably gorgeous. No release date has been set, though I’m guessing it won’t surface for a while yet. GKIDS will surely be looking to score more underdog awards attention with this: discount it at your peril, folks.

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BEVERLY HILLS – “American Hustle” was well-represented at the annual Oscars luncheon on Monday. Bradley Cooper, Amy Adams, Christian Bale and David O. Russell were all in attendance, but sadly, one nominated member of the crew was not. The wonderful Jennifer Lawrence was unavailable to attend (Adams thought it might be due to “Mockingjay” production commitments). Yep, sorry internet. No J-Law gifs or memes for you to explode over this time around. Still, Adams and Cooper were happy to share the spotlight when they popped by the press room for a quick Q&A with assembled media.

This is Adams’ fifth Academy Award nomination and she revealed this time around her red carpet wardrobe will take a more personal approach. Adams declared, “Sometimes I feel like I am dressing in costume on the red carpet, but I can guarantee this year it is something I would wear. I’ll be myself.”

Could “myself” still mean a Dior, Versace, Armani or Prada? We’ll find out on March 2.

As for Cooper, he noted he thought it was “sort of crazy” Tom Hanks wasn’t there (interesting since Cooper arguably knocked the “Saving Mr. Banks” star out of contention for a supporting actor nomination) and reflected on the amazing opportunities he now has as a two-time nominee.

“I get to do the things I dreamed of as a kid,” Cooper said. “To be working with Clint Eastwood, I am absolutely living a dream. Working with David O. Russell and Cameron Crowe in the fall?”

Yes, it’s not a bad time to be Bradley Cooper or Amy Adams at the moment.  For more of their comments check out Adams video at the top of this post and Cooper’s embedded below.

“American Hustle” is still playing nationwide.
 

Always a bit of a unique take on the year, the International Film Music Critics Association’s annual assessment of the year in movie and TV scores has brought with it, well, something different. And looking across the nominees, it’s two genre films – “Evil Dead” and “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug” – that led the field with three specific nominations each. Though you could make it four for the former as composer Roque Baños was also nominated for Film Composer of the Year, alongside “Gravity” composer Steven Price, in fact, which I guess would bring its total up to three as well. The real champ, though, was composer Abel Korzeniowski, who landed six nominations across two films that were nowhere near this year’s Oscar race: “Romeo and Juliet” and “Escape from Tomorrow.” Check out the full list of nominees below and remember to keep track of the season via The Circuit.

Film Score of the Year
“Evil Dead” (Roque Baños)
“Grand Piano” (Víctor Reyes)
“Gravity” (Steven Price)
“The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug” (Howard Shore)
“Romeo and Juliet” (Abel Korzeniowski)

Film Composer of the Year
Roque Baños
Laurent Eyquem
Abel Korzeniowski
Steven Price
Brian Tyler

Breakthrough Film Composer of the Year
César Benito
Sarah Class
Alexander Ebert
Laurent Eyquem
Steven Price

Best Original Score for a Drama Film
“The Best Offer [La Migliore Offerta]” (Ennio Morricone)
“The Book Thief” (John Williams)
“Copperhead” (Laurent Eyquem)
“Romeo and Juliet” (Abel Korzeniowski)
“Summer in February” (Benjamin Wallfisch)

Best Original Score for a Comedy Film
“Instructions Not Included [No Se Aceptan Devoluciones]” (Carlo Siliotto)
“Quai d”Orsay” (Philippe Sarde)
“The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” (Theodore Shapiro)
“This is the End” (Henry Jackman)
“Venus in Fur [La Vénus à la Fourrure]” (Alexandre Desplat)

Best Original Score for an Action/Adventure/Thriller Film
“Grand Piano” (Víctor Reyes)
“Iron Man 3” (Brian Tyler)
“Passion” (Pino Donaggio)
“Rubinrot” (Philipp F. Kölmel)
“Stalingrad” (Angelo Badalamenti)

Best Original Score for a Fantasy/Science Fiction/Horror Film
“Escape From Tomorrow” (Abel Korzeniowski)
“Evil Dead” (Roque Baños)
“Gravity” (Steven Price)
“The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug” (Howard Shore)
“Star Trek Into Darkness” (Michael Giacchino)

Best Original Score for an Animated Feature
“The Croods” (Alan Silvestri)
“Epic” (Danny Elfman)
“Frozen” (Christophe Beck)
“Planes” (Mark Mancina)
“The Wind Rises [Kaze Tachinu]” (Joe Hisaishi)

Best Original Score for a Documentary
“Africa” (Sarah Class)
“Anne & Alet” (Mark Rayen Candasamy)
“Die Nordsee: Unser Meer” (Oliver Heuss)
“Space Shuttle Columbia: Mission of Hope” (Blake Neely)
“Tim”s Vermeer” (Conrad Pope)

Best Original Score for a Television Series
“Czas Honoru” (Bartosz Chajdecki)
“Da Vinci”s Demons” (Bear McCreary)
“El Tiempo Entre Costuras” (César Benito)
“Game of Thrones” (Ramin Djawadi)
“Isabel” (Federico Jusid)

Best Original Score for a Video Game or Interactive Media
“Assassin”s Creed IV: Black Flag” (Brian Tyler)
“Beyond: Two Souls” (Lorne Balfe)
“Company of Heroes 2” (Cris Velasco)
“Puppeteer” (Patrick Doyle)
“Remember Me” (Olivier Deriviére)

Best Archival Release of an Existing Score – Re-Release or Re-Recording
“Breakfast at Tiffany”s” (Henry Mancini) – Intrada
“QB VII” (Jerry Goldsmith) – Prometheus/Tadlow
“The Salamander” (Jerry Goldsmith) – Prometheus/Tadlow
“The Wild Bunch (Jerry Fielding) – Film Score Monthly
“Wyatt Earp (James Newton Howard) – La-La Land

Best Archival Release of an Existing Score – Compilation
“Doctor Who: The 50th Anniversary Collection (Various Composers) – Silva Screen
“Lethal Weapon Soundtrack Collection” (Michael Kamen, Eric Clapton and David Sanborn) – La-La Land
“Michel Legrand Anthology” (Michel Legrand) – Universal/Écoutez le Cinéma!
“Varèse Sarabande: A 35th Anniversary Celebration” (Various Composers) – Varèse Sarabande
“The X-Files: Volume Two” (Mark Snow) – La-La Land

Film Music Record Label of the Year
Intrada Records, Douglass Fake and Roger Feigelson
La-La Land Records, MV Gerhard and Matt Verboys
Moviescore Media Mikael Carlsson
Prometheus Records/Tadlow Music Luc Van de Ven and James Fitzpatrick
Quartet Records Jose M. Benitez

Film Music Composition of the Year
“The Book Thief” from “The Book Thief” (John Williams)
“The Grand Finale” from “Escape From Tomorrow” (Abel Korzeniowski)
“Abominations Rising” from “Evil Dead” (Roque Baños)
“Beyond the Forest” from “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug” (Howard Shore)
“A Thousand Times Goodnight” from “Romeo and Juliet” (Abel Korzeniowski)

If you look here and there on the web these days, you might notice that more than a few outlets are now cooking up their own “top 10 shots of the year” pieces. Here we are in our seventh year of producing such a collective, but imitation is flattery, and frankly, I'm glad others have caught on to the idea. Singular images and the thematic impact they make are as subjective as anything else we end up praising at the end of a given year, so having separate takes on the matter is only a good thing.

But I'm also confident in the value of what we have to offer on the subject every year, which is a unique take on the specific images chosen from the horses' mouths: the cinematographers themselves. An aside on that…

Late last year, the International Cinematographers Guild saw fit to hand me a pretty trophy in recognition not just of the work I put into these kinds of pieces throughout the year, but our coverage of the craft of cinematography in general in this space. It was a huge honor, one that couldn't have meant more coming from anyone else, honestly. The idea that there's a level of appreciation for the spotlight we shine below the line is as gratifying as anything in my work over the years.

In acceptance, I made it clear that they were basically handing me an award for having a blast. Because I truly relish the opportunity to get on the phone with people like Roger Deakins, Sean Bobbitt, Masanobu Takayanagi, the late Harris Savides, Wally Pfister, Bob Richardson and more this time of year, to pick their brains, to discuss their work and to boil down their thoughts on this and that film to that most singular, cellular of elements: the film frame.

Sometimes, of course, it's more than just one frame. Sometimes it's a drawn-out composition that digs in and stays. Other times, it's a clever move of the camera that dazzles or immerses. Whatever the case may be, the heart of this annual piece is an examination of how what we see on the screen informs the greater impact of a film, how what a DP captures through that aperture becomes the essence of our passion and how the resulting, indelible imagery stays with us as an everlasting footprint revealing the soul of a work of art.

So, as it pertains to this space, “The Top 10 Shots of the Year” is a reflection on the most significant, though perhaps not always the most obvious, visual elements of a film year. And 2013 had plenty of wonders to offer – so many, in fact, that the density of quality seen elsewhere in this competitive awards season played itself out on the ballots of the American Society of Cinematographers, as a tie led to seven feature film nominees rather than the usual five.

How did all of that boil down in my own little image diary of the year that was? Have a look below at part one of that assessment, and be sure to circle back tomorrow for the finale.

#10

“PRISONERS”
Director of Photography: Roger Deakins, ASC

“We always talked about it being front-on with the reflection. But on the day, the action was taking longer than Denis thought we could really hold and we were just looking around for another shot so he could condense the action and the cutting. We looked at the side shot and decided that was a better shot anyway. It's tracking in because of the interaction between the reflection and his silhouette, but also the idea of this pressure mounting on the character. It seemed to emphasize that. The shot came about from our conversations in prep and our discussions of the script and breaking it down, 'These are the kinds of shots we'll do for that scene,' and then on the day just finding it, really.”

– Roger Deakins

I went back to “Prisoners” a couple of times this year to just absorb the craft. Denis Villeneuve is a truly special filmmaker with an already refined and honed sense of voice and visual storytelling. He and his team elevated this material considerably, and none more so than celebrated DP Roger Deakins.

The interesting thing about the cinematography, though, is it's so roundly exceptional. It makes it hard to suss out a definitive frame. But I knew there was something lurking in there. And as I slowly took to a motif of shooting subjects through windows, this particular image really just seized me. It's the dramatic turning point of the film, really, evangelical rhetoric playing over a radio in the background, only further embossing its thematic implications. It's a brave shot for such a moment, particularly in a studio thriller, and that just makes it of a piece the film overall. (For more, check out our interview with Deakins here.)

#9

“INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS”
Director of Photography: Bruno Delbonnel, ASC, AFC

“It's a turning point in the movie, this scene. It's basically when Oscar decides that he's going to give up, so we had a lot of discussion with Joel and Ethan because of the context. It happens in a concert hall, which is a club, different than The Gaslight, obviously. But it was not like an audition on stage. So there was something about intimacy that we wanted to keep. He picks the one song that you shouldn”t sing if you're doing an audition, you know? The mood of the whole scene was conveying this despair, somehow. His failure. And the push-in was basically to kind of emphasize as if something was happening or could happen, and never happened.”

– Bruno Delbonnel

“Inside Llewyn Davis” is one of the most exquisitely shot films of the year, but much like “Prisoners” (which was, funnily enough, shot by the Coen brothers' usual DP of choice), it doesn't lend itself to singular eye-popping images more so than an overall sense of compelling atmosphere. There are moments that stick out for some – a cat's reflection in a subway car window, for instance – but the shot that really spoke to me might seem unremarkable at first glance. Indeed, being one of the first stills released from the film, it's overly familiar at this point.

But Delbonnel lays out the reasoning well above, and seemed more interested in discussing this shot than any other. It's a slow push in on the eponymous Davis as he sings a centuries-old ballad called “The Death of Queen Jane” for the “gatekeeper” record producer, Bud Grossman. For me, it's the point of the movie, an artist laid bare met with a dismissive, “I don't see a lot of money here.” But as Delbonnel explains, it builds passionately, purely, as if to a final, yearned-for release, and then…nothing. The entire movie is in this shot. (For more, check out our interview with Delbonnel here.)

#8

“NEBRASKA”
Director of Photography: Phedon Papamichael, ASC

“That's one of those shots that's kind of representative or typical of the compositions of this film, where we try to place things in these oners and leave them alone and let the audience sort of be able to take in the frame and discover the details rather than cutting to inserts. It allows you time to scroll the frame and discover little details without being manipulated into, 'This is what we want you to look at right now.' We found that house and we didn't touch anything; it just had all these great textures on the walls. And the whole sequence is very economically shot. There are probably six or seven shots altogether and it's all natural light.”

– Phedon Papamichael

The decision to shoot Alexander Payne's “Nebraska” in black and white, as explained by Phedon Papamichael in our longer interview with the DP, was forever a part of the project's DNA. The goal was to capture a stark landscape where seemingly nothing happens, providing a glimpse of a simple reality one would yearn to rise above.

Many of the film's most beautiful moments are reduced even further, though, and I was quite taken by what this particular image seemed to be saying. It's part of a fluid shot that settles into this frame before fading to the next, so if you blink you might miss it. But a son looking through a tattered doorway at his father who is himself peering through a family window long forgotten, it just really resonated, the framing like some cinematic matryoshka nesting doll of remembered childhoods. (For more, check out our interview with Papamichael here.)

#7

“SPRING BREAKERS”
Director of Photography: Benoît Debie

“Harmony said he wanted the movie to look like a candy shop, very colorful, and I thought maybe it would be great to use colors we don't use so much in cinema – purple or pink or yellow, something quite strong. It was a good movie to experiment with those colors. When I went to Florida, we started to scout at night, and when the night is coming, you start to see different colors, neon signs, sodium lights. It's very interesting. So I started to understand the city and how to light the movie to catch that feeling. This was a tricky shot because I was alone inside the car with the actress to shoot her in profile with a walkie talkie, talking to the girls: 'Okay, window one, window two,' to coordinate the shot.”

– Benoît Debie

Benoît Debie was featured in this column a few years ago for his amazing work in Gaspar Noé's “Enter the Void.” He nearly took the top spot that year, in fact. He is absolutely one of the most interesting photographic voices (so to speak) in film today and it's high time he branched out into higher profile work so more people can see what he has to offer.

All of that is a long way of saying Harmony Korine was smart to tap Debie for his neon-twisted teen escapist kaleidoscope “Spring Breakers.” This shot in particular is a bit of a stunt, but it's gorgeous throughout, regardless of the movement. And it's really made by the sounds of Nicki Minaj's “Moment 4 Life” playing over the car stereo as two of the film's protagonists hold up customers at a local restaurant, obsessed with the greener pastures of another life at whatever cost. And that's not to say this is a Bonnie and Clyde film – it's a state of mind film, and this shot, I think, understands that.

#6

“GRAVITY”
Director of Photography: Emmanuel Lubezki, ASC, AMC

“The first thing we started working on with this movie was a very simple storyboard of the film. And this image is one of the few images that started in the storyboard and survived the whole process of the movie. It was a very specific idea Alfonso had, that after going through all of that, when Sandra finds herself safe and is able to breathe again, she goes through some sort of a rebirth; it's the beginning of the change of the character. It was one of the hardest scenes to shoot in the entire movie because matching the virtual cinematography with the live action was incredibly hard. And it's one of the things that we couldn't do in the light box. We had to create a different methodology to this scene.”

– Emmanuel Lubezki

The task of good film marketing is to find the images that really speak, not only to the outward experience of the film, but also to the inward thematic experience. So Warner Bros. has been smart to use this “in utero” moment from Alfonso Cuarón's “Gravity” in a number of the film's marketing and awards campaign materials this season, a  beautiful, striking, deceptively simple (like the film itself) frame that lays out everything the movie is about.

Emmanuel Lubezki sums it up perfectly in the quote above, but to reiterate, it's a movie about rebirth, about how pain and loss can serve as incubation for fortification and release. It was a hugely difficult shot to pull off (Lubezki only touches on it at the end of the quote) but the payoff was considerable. Fun fact: the window portal in this shot is not accurate to the actual design of the International Space Station, which drove director Alfonso Cuarón crazy, but he agreed with Lubezki that providing that space for light was better for the integrity of the shot. (For more, check out our interview with Lubezki here.)

Continue to part two and the top five shots of the year!

***

The top 10 shots of 2014

The top 10 shots of 2013

The top 10 shots of 2012

The top 10 shots of 2011

The top 10 shots of 2010

The top 10 shots of 2009

The top 10 shots of 2008

The top 10 shots of 2007

Hugh Jackman’s stint as Oscars host remains one of the best, largely because he was part of an overall show with an amazing vision from director Bill Condon and producer Laurence Mark. That came after a few impressive stints emceeing the annual Tony Awards, including one such Emmy-winning example in 2004.

He hasn’t hosted the show in nearly a decade but it’s just been announced he’ll be back for a fourth time at the 68th annual Tony Awards on Sunday, June 8, 2014.

“We are thrilled to have Hugh Jackman return to host the Tony Awards,” said CBS exec Jack Sussman. “Hugh is the ultimate performer – actor, singer and dancer – he does it all, second to none. He is a consummate entertainer and the one you want out there hosting your live television event.”

RELATED: Cyndi Lauper and ‘Kinky Boots’ rock the 2013 Tony Awards

Adds Charlotte St. Martin and Heather Hitchens of The Broadway League and the American Theatre Wing respectively, “Hugh is an extraordinary talent and loyal supporter of the Broadway community – whether he is on-stage or in the audience – and we are honored to have him back as host.”

Jackman is also a Tony winner himself, by the way (Best Leading Actor in a Musical for 2004’s “The Boy from Oz”) and received a special citation for his contribution to the theater community in 2012.

New York theatre-goers, what are your favorites for kudos this year? Sound off in the comments section.

When Pharrell Williams was confirmed last week to perform his Oscar-nominated “Despicable Me 2” track “Happy” at the Academy Awards, there was no doubt that this news would follow in short order. Yes, Idina Menzel will be performing “Frozen’s” anthemic power ballad “Let It Go” on the show too.

The Oscars have been inconsistent in recent years about featuring live performances of the Best Original Song nominees, but there was no way that  producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron were going to pass on the prohibitive frontrunner in the category: written by husband-and-wife team Robert Lopez and Kristin Anderson-Lopez, Menzel’s catchy number is the first Disney theme in years to have crossed over into the general cultural consciousness and Billboard Hot 100 alike.

The only question was whether they’d go with Menzel, the Tony-winning Broadway diva who voices Princess Elsa in the film, or tween favorite Demi Lovato, whose pop rendition of the song has also hit the charts. The cynical side of me was predicting they’d keep their demographic bases covered with a Menzel-Lovato duet, which would hardly have been been kind on the latter — but they’ve probably been wise to keep it simple with the song’s original onscreen interpreter.

Now, will the category’s remaining nominees, U2 and Karen O, also be invited to perform on the show? I see no reason for artists of such magnitude not to be, even if their songs aren’t equivalent hits. Watch this space.

I think most would agree that the Oscar season has felt especially long this year — how did we tolerate it running to late March for seven years? With BAFTA winners the only new information we’re likely to receive in the next three weeks, it’s time when the conversation can really pall, and mountains get made out of molehills. Mark Harris refers to the questioning of Cate Blanchett’s Best Actress chances following the reignition of the Woody Allen scandal as an example of this souring. But it’s not all bad, he says: “The biggest fights about 2014″s Oscar contenders have not been about their aesthetics but about their politics and morality … I”m going to raise my half-full glass and give a mild cheer for the fact that they”re happening at all.” As always, a good read. [Grantland]

Nathaniel Rogers serves up some memories from the 1993 Oscar race, 20 years ago. I still think it’s one of the best years they ever had. [The Film Experience]

Thanks to Nathaniel for pointing to this strange list of the “Top 5 Oscar Surprises” on the Academy’s official site. You’d think they, of all people, would remember that two of those weren’t surprises at all. [Oscar]

Andrew Romano speaks to the ubiquitous composer Alexandre Desplat — nominated again this year — about, well, how he stays so ubiquitous. [The Daily Beast]

James Toback on a Hollywood miseducation, and losing at the Oscars. [Vanity Fair]

Ben Beaumont-Thomas lists 10 things we learned from yesterday’s Oscar nominees’ luncheon. [The Guardian]

The Academy implores this year’s Oscar winners to speak “from the heart, not a list.” [Variety]

“The Grandmaster” leads this year’s Asian Film Award nominations. [Screen Daily]

Danish director Gabriel Axel, whose lovely film “Babette’s Feast” won the 1987 Best Foreign Language Film Oscar, has passed away aged 95. [Hollywood Reporter]

http://players.brightcove.net/4838167533001/BkZprOmV_default/index.html?videoId=4911753364001

BEVERLY HILLS – It’s been a much different awards season for Sandra Bullock than when she won her first Oscar a little less than four years ago. She became the frontrunner after that year’s Golden Globes and you could sort of tell the pressure got to her toward the end (not that she wasn’t her always down-to-earth, affable self). This year, Cate Blanchett has been in the driver’s seat for most of the season and if Bullock won it would be something of an upset. Still, the blockbuster star shows no signs of abandoning ship. There is a joy in how she lovingly and energetically discusses director Alfonso Cuarón and “Gravity,” unarguably the best film she’s ever starred in.

On Monday, she joined many of her fellow nominees at the annual Oscar luncheon. She didn’t have to make a quick trip to the press room, but discussing “Gravity” has clearly never been a chore for Bullock. At one point she was asked about whether it was difficult to trust Cuarón on such a risky endeavor. Her response speaks volumes.

“I had watched him for so many years and had longed to work with him,” Bullock said. “I honestly never thought in a million years I would be able to work with him. It was always a joke in our office every time we had a project – ‘Do you think we should send it to Alfonso Cuarón?’ – when we knew very well he only did his own material. I trusted him 100%, because you had the body of his work as proof. We didn’t know what we were making, really. It was unknown territory, but we kept looking back at the work he’s done so far, thematically, visually and emotionally. And it wasn’t supposed to be a big blockbuster film. It was sort of an avant-garde, esoteric film about loss and adversity in space. So, being on that journey that you knew you could trust 1,000% is what made it so easy to go into the day. Not having any idea whether it was going to work, whether you were physically hurt, but you knew you had Alfonso there. So, you knew you were in a great place. Whether the film worked or not I don’t think it crossed anyone’s mind. It didn’t cross mine. I trusted him explicitly.”

Bullock also discussed the wonderfully kind crew in the United Kingdom, watching the film for the first time at the Venice Film Festival and how it touches moviegoers. You can watch all of her remarks in the video embedded at the top of this post.

“Gravity” is still playing nationwide, available on digital download today and will be released on DVD and Blu-ray on Feb. 25.

http://players.brightcove.net/4838167533001/BkZprOmV_default/index.html?videoId=4911753370001

BEVERLY HILLS – Jonah Hill loves Martin Scorsese. Not only did the master filmmaker guide him to his second Academy Award nomination for “The Wolf of Wall Street,” but Hill was so eager to work with him he did it for scale. And considering “Wolf” had a budget of $100 million-plus, the actor might want to reconsider his representation.

Hill took a few minutes Monday during the annual Oscar Nominees Luncheon to speak to the press about his Best Supporting Actor honor and he showered Scorsese with love.

“Martin Scorsese is my favorite filmmaker of all time,” Hill said. “‘Goodfellas’ is the movie that made me want to make movies. Money is never a concern [when you can work] with people like Martin Scorsese. I would paint his house if he asked me to.”

Frankly, we believe him.

Hill’s next new film is the highly anticipated “22 Jump Street” and he already has another project in the works with “Wolf” co-star Leonardo DiCaprio. Find out more about that movie, whether Hill saved the acceptance speech for his last nomination and more in the video embedded at the top of this post.

“The Wolf of Wall Street” is still in theaters nationwide.
 

BERLIN – To briefly compare two comedies that have no obvious points of comparison whatsoever, “A Long Way Down” gets precisely one thing right that “M*A*S*H” does not: suicide is not painless. Not for viewers of the former, at any rate, as each mirthless minute of Pascal Chaumeil’s wretched suicide-club farce prompts a fresh and previously unfamiliar grimace; rarely has such a comic premise been so exhaustively milked, as if to perversely prove its breathtaking lack of potential. “Still not laughing? Good. Now, try this cerebral palsy joke!”

The list of subjects that can’t be made funny in the blackest of comedy contexts is an increasingly short one, and suicide is certainly not on it — as “Harold and Maude” so gloriously proved in 1971. But just as there’s human truth in absurdity, bad taste requires an awful lot of good judgment; not having read it, I don’t know if Nick Hornby got the balance right in his divisive 2005 novel, but it certainly hasn’t been flattered by Chaumeil and screenwriter Jack Thorne’s cloth-eared screenplay, which alternates between hooting at its cartoonish quartet of end-of-their-tether characters and treating their largely ludicrous issues with patently disingenuous sentimentality.

“A Long Way Down,” then, centers on four otherwise disparate individuals who meet by chance one New Year’s Eve on the roof of a London tower block popular with locals looking to plunge to their deaths. After dissuading each other from jumping, they resolve to hold off until Valentine’s Day instead, forming an emotional support group in the meantime.

You’d do the same, of course. Who wouldn’t want the emotional support of Pierce Brosnan’s disgraced TV presenter and convicted statutory rapist? (This BBC Films production could hardly have come along at a worse time: following the recent Jimmy Savile scandal, asking the audience to engage with a fictional celebrity who admits to having slept with a 15-year-old is, well, optimistic.) Who wouldn’t delight in the company of Imogen Poots’s spoiled, drug-addled politician’s daughter, or Aaron Paul’s embittered rock star turned pizza-delivery guy? Clearly not Toni Collette’s sweet, sad-sack mother of a CP-afflicted son, who gratefully takes up with all three for reasons unknown.

Together, they form a foursome of failure akin to a parallel-universe “Wizard of Oz” collective, hitting the media trail to publicize their joint near-death experience and, in doing so, rediscovering their hunger for life. (Or money, whichever comes first.) None of this sounds especially amusing on paper, though I suppose it could be spun into the kind of chaotic media satire (more D.B.C. Pierre than Nick Hornby) where no one emerges clean.

That’s not the target in “A Long Way Down,” which does it damndest instead to haul this alienating scenario into the cheery self-help universe of Hornby’s other, more successfully filmed work: whether you’re a middle-aged lech, a struggling single mom or a manic-pixie-dream-girl with a missing sister, your problems aren’t so dissimilar that you can’t be rescued from the brink with a friendly heart-to-heart and a raucous middle-class vacation in Tenerife. That’s a stunningly banal conclusion for a comedy that assigns itself such difficult material, and one that inadvertently diminishes any number of serious concerns — cancer, disability, substance abuse, sexual abuse — in its jaunty short-cut to hugging and learning.

Given such toxicity in its comic DNA — I’ll leave aside the Poots character’s flippant digs at cerebral palsy, which aren’t even daring enough to draw gasps — “A Long Way Down” is at its best when it’s merely inept. Scarcely one correct decision of direction, construction or characterization has been made across its 96-minute running time. For starters, cinematographer Ben Davis appears to have shot it with masking tape over the viewfinder; stray heads, elbows and shoulders interrupt frame after frame, mirroring the script’s equally luckless pursuit of cluttered, freehand energy.

Chaumeuil is a proficient handler of frisky Gallic romcoms (notably the vastly popular “Heartbreaker”), but this material just isn’t in his language, either verbally, tonally or socially: the film’s depiction of the UK media scene, for example, could hardly be more clueless. If you can’t get the real world right, it’s harder still to invert it comically, and harder still when your most proudly repeated gag is piggy-backing on the five-year-old “Fucking Matt Damon” meme. All four (usually) likeable stars, sadly, go down with the ship, either checking out of proceedings entirely (Paul, in particular, appears to be nervously eyeing escape routes throughout) or mugging frantically on the spot. Neither approach is more effective than the other; in a film titled “A Long Way Down,” there’s only one way to the bottom.

Monday brought yet another Oscars nominee luncheon and, more importantly, a class photo of the nominees for the 86th Academy Awards. 

While a number of famous faces including Jennifer Lawrence, Judi Dench, Michael Fassbender and Chiwetel Ejiofor were unavailable to attend the soiree still attracted a who’s who of Hollywood star power. Leonardo DiCaprio, Meryl Streep, Christian Bale, Matthew McConaughey, Sandra Bullock, Bradley Cooper, Amy Adams and more had fun talking to their idols and peers at the annual Beverly Hilton bash.  Oh, and some famous musical faces showed up too including this year’s Grammy king Pharrell Williams and the one and only Bono.

To check out a larger version of the always fun to explore class photo, click here.

For all the photos of the nominees check out the embedded gallery below.

Look for video from all the nominees later tonight and tomorrow on HitFix.

Final voting for the 86th Academy Awards is just four days away, but Monday allowed this year’s nominees one more stress-free event before it all gets “oh, so serious” again. For the public at large, the annual Oscar Nominees Luncheon is a celebration of the honorees as they all crowd into one room to take the “Class of” photo. It’s also a huge press opportunity where the contenders can subtly communicate their final pitches in hopes that a stray Academy member will read it or hear about it on TV.

According to media on hand who’d endured the luncheon interview room before, the talent that wandered in to take questions was much more impressive than in years past. No doubt, just a reflection of how competitive the season has been and how much is still on the line. While Jennifer Lawrence, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Michael Fassbender were unable to attend, contenders such as Matthew McConaughey, Cate Blanchett, Bradley Cooper, Christian Bale, Sandra Bullock, Lupita Nyong’o, Bono, Pharrell Williams and Amy Adams all stopped by for a light afternoon meal.

Here are the nominees’ thoughts on the day, their films and the Oscar season in their own words.

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June Squibb (Best Supporting Actress, “Nebraska”)

On being invited into the club:
“It’s very exciting. I feel like I’m a part of a community; those of us who are lucky enough to be nominated are gathering to celebrate together. I saw Lupita [Nyong’o] upstairs and other people I’ve known.”

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Lupita Nyong’o (Best Supporting Actress, “12 Years a Slave”)

On whether she saw all this coming:
“I didn’t expect anything. No, there is no way I could have dreamt any of this stuff up. It has been an incredible journey. It’s an adventure and a very exiting one and a very rewarding one and a very revealing one as well.”

On her birthplace, Mexico:
“I have a warm place in my heart for Mexico and I do for my other country as well, Kenya. I have been celebrated in other places and also in America and many different places in the world. That is a humbling experience to have so many people embrace you. That is the beauty of film. It brings so many people together.”

On the nomination and thoughts on winning:
“It’s a recognition of the highest — everyone regards the Oscars as the ultimate stamp of approval and I don’t know. I guess we’ll see.”

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Alfonso Cuaron (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Film Editing, “Gravity”)

On what his film means to audiences:
“First of all it’s the emotional experience of the film. We go through adversity every single day of our life and those adversities shape who we are. Our attitude toward adversity. In many ways it’s about embracing their adversity.”

On “Gravity’s” Latino support
“I’m very grateful with the Mexican crowd and the whole Spanish gang who have been so supportive about this process. Since the moment the movie has been released through all the celebrations.”

Alexander Payne (Best Director, “Nebraska”)

On what films served as inspirations:
“That’s always a hard question to answer. I just liked the screenplay. I just liked the deadpan humor and the sadness underneath and the austerity and it was about kindness. I just saw the Oscar-nominated short documentaries yesterday and they are fantastic. I recommend watching the Osar-nominated short documentaries. No concrete films inspired it. I was inspired by my own relationship with my own aging parents.”

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Jonah Hill (Best Supporting Actor, “The Wolf of Wall Street”)

On reuniting with Leonardo DiCaprio on a new film:
“We wanted to work together again and we have the same manager, Rick [Yorn], and he was trying to find another project for us to act in. And this story about Richard Jewell came to us and we were both so moved by it it was something we had to do.”

On working for scale in “The Wolf of Wall Street”:
I wouldn’t care honestly. Martin Scorsese is my favorite filmmaker of all time. “Goodfellas” is the movie that made me want to make movies. Money is never a concern [when you can work] with people like Martin Scorsese. I would paint his house if he asked me to.

Does he still have his unused acceptance speech for “Moneyball?”:
“It’s in my safe. I figured I could just change some of the names from the ‘Moneyball’ speech. The possibility of winning seems so insane to me. It seems so indulgent to me. I guess I will write one just in the one-in-a-billion chance it happens.”

Steve McQueen (Best Picture, Best Director, “12 Years a Slave”)

On the recent success of Solomon Northup’s novel on the New York Times bestseller list:
“For me it was always my ambition to get this into schools when I read it for the first time. We have made this film and it’s not bad and we have recognized this novel, which everyone will now know his name, which is fantastic.”

Have audiences embraced the film or are they still concerned about the intense violence?:
“For sure. Look at the box office here and the box office in Europe. We passed the $100 million mark. It proves it’s not a question to raise anymore. All audiences are interested in challenging films.”

On trying to have fun during awards season:
“Someone told me very early on — beforehand I wouldn’t have done this — but someone told me, ‘This movie is more important than you.’ I understood that and I took that with me. And actually it’s been wonderful. What is happening is a great debate. Every Q&A has been like a Town Hall.”

On the emotional difficulty of making the film:
“Well, that wasn’t actually the case. We came together as a group of filmmakers, grips, gaffers, electricians. It was a foundation of people, a family, to make this film. As a group we made this movie. It wasn’t at all a burden. As a collective we came together to make this film. It was an honor to make Solomon Northup’s story.”

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Bradley Cooper (Best Supporting Actor, “American Hustle”)

Does he have a good luck trinket or charm to bring to the ceremony?:
“Trinket? That’s a good idea. I’ll have to think about that. Any suggestions?”

Any favorite performances among the other nominees?:
“There are a lot of great people nominated this year. I wish Tom Hanks was in there. Sort of crazy he is not.”

On staying humble in Hollywood:
“It would be hard not to. I get to do the things I dreamed of as a kid. To be working with Clint Eastwood. I am absolutely living a dream. Working with David O. Russell and Cameron Crowe in the fall? I keep waiting for [the Oscars publicist] to take me away. [Laughs] Maybe it was the way I was raised?”

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Amy Adams (Best Actress, “American Hustle”)

On what she’ll wear at the Oscars:
“Sometimes I feel like I am dressing in costume on the red carpet, but I can guarantee this year it is something I would wear. I’ll be myself.”

On what she enjoyed most about “American Hustle”:
“Working with the actors that I got to work with. Christian Bale, Jeremy Renner and Jennifer Lawrence — I think she’s busy with ‘Hunger Games’ and I don’t think she’s here today — it was such a great opportunity to work with them.”

On working with director David O. Russell:
“David has a way of challenging an actor past what he’s capable of. He keeps on you and he stays on you for what he saw in you when he wrote the role. You get to create these characters you haven’t had in your repertoire before.”

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Sandra Bullock (Best Actress, “Gravity”)

On working in the United Kingdom:
“It was probably one of the most beautiful experiences I ever had coupled with I was living in the most beautiful place, and to go to a soundstage for four months with the nicest group of people, most patient group of people… They had so much riding on them, new technologies, it should have been a very stressful situation and every day was so kind.”

On what made her trust Alfonso Cuaron:
“I never thought in a million years I would be able to work with him. It was a joke in the office [that we’d offer him something] but he only directed his own scripts. I trusted him 100%. We didn’t know what we were making, really, but we kept looking back and it wasn’t supposed to be a big blockbuster film. It was supposed to be an avant garde, esoteric film about loss and trust set in space. He made it so easy to make it through the day. Whether the film worked or not, I don’t think it crossed anyone’s mind. It didn’t cross mine. I trusted him.”

When she watches the film does she have the same emotional reaction audiences do?:
“Normally we don’t. You have seen so much of it by the time you see the film. George [Clooney] and I saw nothing. We saw a black box with wires and camera equipment. We knew how emotional it was on the page. We didn’t have that experience until we saw it together at Venice. You [watch] it for the third time and you see something in the background you didn’t see. A very emotional and visceral experience for the moviegoer. I think everyone was having a reaction to the film because of something that was happening in their own life. Sort of what you like when you read a book. I think that was incredibly brave on his part. It was his job to figure out how to make that moment so everyone could step over it.”

Matthew McConaughey (Best Actor, “Dallas Buyers Club”)

On what he’ll do if he wins:
“I am gong to celebrate no matter what. This is my time to be nominated. If I ever get nominated again? Who knows? But there will never be another first time.”

On what has surprised him about the Oscar journey so far:
“I think one of the surprising things is that we have six nominations for this little film that we thought would never get made. Getting it made, we thought, was a huge victory. That surprised me. I thought it had the potential to be something special, but as you know, there is no guarantee. That stuck with people and they are shining a light on it. Other than the whole process? I have had a good time doing it. I think it has to do with the experience I had. I can talk about this experience with Ron Woodroof for the rest of my life.”

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Cate Blanchett (Best Actress, “Blue Jasmine”)

On her gorgeous silver dress and this recognition:
“Thank you. I made it myself. [Laughs.] Sometimes you are ready to take a role by the teeth and having worked so long and intensely in theater and it felt like a synthesis of my work on stage and on screen. These roles don’t come around every day.”

On her character’s amazing wardrobe in the film:
“They all had to go back at midnight. Everything had to go back. I think the entire costume budget was less than the Hermes bag, which was also borrowed.”

On this being her sixth nomination:
“Is it? That’s great. This one certainly took me by surprise. I threw myself at the role and you have bits of nervousness and trepidation with the role, but it’s always a thrill. Especially since I’ve been away at the Sydney Theater Company, so it’s exciting to have something to come back to.”

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Leonardo DiCaprio (Best Actor, “The Wolf of Wall Street”)

On the controversial reaction to his film:
“Look, there is a lot of disgusting behavior in the movie and it was very much a reflection of this. We as filmmakers wanted to display this part of humanity on screen, this irresponsibility. Scorsese isn’t someone who spoon-feeds an audience. I’m not going to judge these characters. I’m going to show them as who they are. And also, you have a protagonist at the end who doesn’t get his due and proper. That’s why his films are timeless. They are not specific to that period. It’s portraying a part of humanity and all its truth. Those are the type of films I want to be part of. All of us were playing a character with no moral compass and were consumed with power and wealth. We looked at it like a gigantic Bosch painting. Pure debauchery. It was entertaining.”

On his relationship with director Martin Scorsese:
“It’s easy for me. I was inspired by his work. He’s one of the first filmmakers who, as a young man, I became transfixed as an audience member. He inspired my whole generation. Everybody I grew up with is influenced by him and is the biggest fan of his work: film history, what cinema means as an art form and to our very culture. His relationship with me has to do with the fact we share similar tastes and I’m willing to do whatever he wants on screen. I think ultimately we gain more and more trust with each other as the years go by.”

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David O. Russell (Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, “American Hustle”)

On the recent, drastic transition of his career with “The Fighter,” “Silver Linings Playbook” and his latest:
“I am definitely a late bloomer and I definitely needed to grow up. The first set of movies and the second set of movies. From the ears up is one thing. From the feet up is a different thing. The last three films have been from the feet up. I feel very clear and that can only happen after you’ve been humbled or gotten your head on straight.”

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Jared Leto (Best Supporting Actor, “Dallas Buyers Club”)

On how his youth and his mother influenced him:
“We were born very poor and into pretty humble surroundings and my mother always wanted to do something better for her life. She was a dreamer, a worker. I think the biggest inspiration she gave me was to dream and the work it takes to make dreams a reality. You get these opportunities to stand up and stay something. The best part is to thank people who have believed in you for so long. She’s the best.”

On his sports jacket and shiny shoes:
“I don’t dress up very much, you know. I just saw them and thought it would be fun. I don’t wear a lot of suits and sports jackets. You want to feel like yourself and not your agent.”

On the last time he underwent an intense physical transformation for a role:
“I gained 67 pounds for a little film called ‘Chapter 27.’ My mom and my brother saw it. No, I would never do that again. It’s really brutal and it’s not a lot of fun and it’s really bad for your body. I would never gain wait again for a role.”

On being heckled at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival last week:
“I think ‘heckler’ is a bad term. It was a debater, someone who needed to take a public moment to say what was on their mind. I think it’s healthy. I think it’s positive. It’s not like I can’t learn anything. I’m all ears. I think the planet is better for all those interactions.”