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Interviews
Brazilian Babe Alice Braga Hunts Predators, Repo Men
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Interviews
- Published on Monday, 12 July 2010 20:17
- Written by Brad Balfour
Maybe it's because of her Brazilian genes that Alice Braga looks good even when sweaty after a jungle trek. Braga has become the go-to girl for sci-fi action thrillers, what with this year's Repo Men and the recently released Predators. This time, as the bust-ass female lead, IDF sniper Isabelle takes charge, with co-star Adrien Brody, of a pack of errant mercs, paramilitary types, rebels and hardcore criminals forced to band together in order to survive after they are mysteriously chute-dropped into an unknown tropical forest on a distant world. 
Chosen because they can kill without conscience, these warriors, some trained, some not, battle a pack of 10-foot-tall Predators who are hunting them as prey. In this vast jungle, these human predators must learn whom, or what, they're up against, and test the limits of their abilities, knowledge and wits in a battle of kill or be killed.
Having appeared in several films, most notably as Angélica in 2002's acclaimed Cidade de Deus, Braga landed her first US blockbuster with 2007's I Am Legend. Who else has starred in two apocalyptic films about the world's end within a year -- that Will Smith film and Blindness (2008) -- and survived?
Coming from a cinematic family -- her aunt is the great Brazilian actress Sônia Braga -- 27-year-old Alice Braga Moraes got started at eight being in a yogurt commercial. Besides her native Portuguese, this daughter of São Paulo, Brazil also speaks English and Spanish, and shows a sort of pluck that propels her career.
Braga has learned to endure all kinds of abuse whether it's rolling around in slimy traps, or having a hand rammed into her gaping wounds. Maybe because she neither has the tough-as-nail glare of Angelina Jolie or the towering power of Uma Thurman, she suggests both intelligence and vulnerability. That's something so noticeable when we talked for a few minutes after the Repo Men interviews.
Q: You've done a lot of futuristic movies lately; do you have an affinity for them? Do you look for science-fiction scripts or do they happen to find you?
AB: It was a happy coincidence. It was something that my mom always loved, so I grew up watching those types of films, but it wasn't something that I focused on. These scripts came to me; I read them, had fun with them and liked them. I really had fun because this type of film really opens a door for your imagination. It was a happy coincidence.
Q: When did you finish Predators?
AB: We wrapped the second week of January [2010].
Q: How was that experience?
AB: It was great, really nice, a lot of running around, running for my life as fast as I can. A great cast and crew. The photographer, Gyula Pados, was amazing. It looks really nice and the Predators are dark, and really, really, scary.
I think the fans are really going to be happy with it, at least I hope so. The director, Nimród Antal, is a fan of the films, so it was like a fan directing us. He was like a kid on set, and having that energy was really special.
Q: It was R rated; was it ever going to be a PG-13?
AB: I don't think they could have because there are some [really] dark scenes in it, like any other of this type of film. So I think it’s going to be hard. We never know what's going to happen or what the studio’s going to do in the editing. But it looks really dark, and I had fun doing it.
Q: Meeting you here, it's hard to believe they cast you as a tough "guy."
AB: Everyone tells me, "You look so much taller in the movies."
Q: Will you get your own action figure for Predators?
AB: I hope so. We did the scanning. I don't know if it was for action scenes or post-production things, but I really hope I have an action figure. I would love that.
Q: Your character is Israeli military?
AB: She is a sniper. She’s a Special Forces lady.
Q: So are you chasing the Predators?
AB: I’m being chased.
Q: Was Predators a hard shoot?
AB: It was a fun shoot. It was hard because of the weather conditions -- really cold and working outdoors. But it was a blast, and I think it’s going to be interesting.
Q: What’s it like acting next to some guy in a suit?
AB: Awesome. Truly, I had so much fun because in I Am Legend they were wearing suits with dots, so it's like Teletubbies.
I remember I took a picture when I met the guys because one of the guys who played the Predator -- he also played Jason -- Derek Mears, so he's big, and I was next to him barefoot. He's great. So having someone that tall, that big, with me -- and I’m like 5'3" -- that kind of vibe was great because it gives you [a sense of] that desperation.
Q: What was it like working with such different people on Predators? It has such an interesting collection of actors, like Topher Grace and Adrien Brody.
AB: It was great because I think they wanted to do something different. Having Adrien as the hero was not the obvious choice, but he did great. I thought it was a great choice just to play around with acting in an action film.
Q: Do you think it one-up the old movies?
AB: I don't know if it will one-up [the original]. I hope it adds up more than anything else. I don't know if it ones-up the other ones. I think to become successful as the others I think it needs to add up. You cannot try to make something different because then you lose the fans. The best thing is to make a film for the fans. That’s why we’re making it.
Q: Is there a possibility to get your own franchise out of the Predators movie?
AB: I don't know. I would love to, but I have no idea. I'm totally open for anything. People ask me, "What type of films do you want to make?" I want to make films. I have a blast when I’m on set. Seriously, I’m a kid, ask anyone that worked with me or saw me on set.
Actually, what [director] Fernando Meirelles used to do with me on Blindness is he would keep me for last so that he could keep me on set. He knew that I wouldn’t leave. So if it comes up, definitely I would love to do more action and more stuff. I’m open for any type of acting.
Q: Have you talked to Fernando recently? Do you have any idea what he’s going to do next? Are you going to work with him again?
AB: I heard that he was going to do something with a Janis Joplin story or something, but I’m not sure. I heard that at a party at midnight in São Paulo, so that’s not a trustful source.
He was doing a really wonderful TV series in Brazil about Shakespeare. He’s been writing, and I think he’s probably in pre-production or something. As I was shooting Predators I was away for the past few months so I’m not sure.
Q: If you could work on any action film franchise or remake, do you have that ideal role in your head where you could be another kick-ass character?
AB: I never thought about it. I’ve always been a small, short girl so I never thought about myself running around and kicking ass and punching and shooting. In Predators, I’m a sniper and truly, my gun was the heaviest gun on set. It’s 14 pounds and everyone is with a knife, a pistol, and I’m with a [huge] rifle.
I totally love the challenge to portray someone like that character. It would be great if something comes up as another action figure. It’s a nice challenge physically and emotionally.
Q: Your career seems to be moving not only in a sci-fi direction but in an action film mold. The world needs a really big Latina action star. They’re looking to cast Wonder Woman right now.
AB: That’s great! But Wonder Woman is not going to be Latin for sure. With my accent?
Q: Linda Carter is half Mexican.
AB: Oh yeah but she didn’t have an accent like I do. That would be great though; Wonder Woman Latina. But I did City of God and Lower City and independent projects, and then I did some dramas. It was nice to face a film like Repo Men that has some drama, is a character that has some hard background stories but at the same time is running and training and firing. It’s cool.
Q: When did you do Repo Men?
AB: Right after, actually. I was shooting Blindness in Toronto and went to LA to audition with Jude [Law, co-star of Repo Men with Forest Whitaker] on a Saturday and then went straight back to Toronto to finish Blindness. Then I ended up shooting Repo Men in Toronto again.
My mom always asking me, “When are you going to do a romantic-comedy without monsters?” and I’m like, “Okay, that’s coming one day. Let’s work for it.” But this is a happy coincidence.
Q: Do you think your character, Beth, in Repo Men was plagued by a love for the surgery? Do you think she was addicted to the surgery or she was just going along trying to fix things?
AB: Miguel [Rosenberg-Sapochnik, the director,] and I spoke a lot about her past, about what she’s been through, what happened in her life, what was her background, why was she in that situation when we first see her in the film, just because I love doing that and Miguel also was really involved in the story.
We wanted to understand what kind of emotional state she would show up in. It’s just life; we created a little background, like some disease, some problem, some lack of health, addictions maybe. As soon as she started getting new ones then it became an addiction I think, because it’s kind of hard to say she had all those problems. It was mainly an addiction, but it’s hard to say that it was only that.
There was a line that ended up not in the film but is really fun. I looked at him and was like, “Did you get upgraded? Come on!” And that kind of line shows that she was always trying to keep up. It’s like us; you guys don’t have tape anymore.
We’re always upgrading, always doing something new. Everyone has the iPhone; in a week everyone’s going to have the iPad. We’re always upgrading all the time, so I feel that’s what Beth did. And it’s nice. If someone’s boring talking to you, just turn it down.
Q: How do you find the right level of empathy for a character that has so much of her body turned over to science and is a drug addict and does all those deals? How far do you go to make that character empathetic, and where do you stop?
AB: Empathetic in what sense?
Q: You want people to feel sorry for her so that you worry about her, but where do you stop? Because you also want her to be tough.
AB: I don’t know if I want people to feel sorry for her. I never felt sorry for her. I always try to not judge the characters that I portray. I try to just understand, and get meaning and belief in the characters. But I always tried to make her as human as possible.
All of us endure pain, sadness, loss. Life is not only happiness. But on the other hand, you can find love or happiness, or you can find anything else, so that’s the change she goes through her life. She’s giving up on herself when he finds her and that’s why I punch him in the face and am like, “Why? Why did you do that? You’re not going to save me right now. You’re going to go away.”
Who knows, maybe 10 guys did with her, or her family did with her, we don’t know. I just tried to create a character that was human more than anything. I think feeling pity is a really strong thing to feel for someone.
Q: Apparently, in the book version, your character had cancer which ravaged most of her body? Her husband at the time had been a doctor, so she got a discount, which is why she got so many body part upgrades -- he was just trying to keep her alive. By that time she was 74% artificial, and he couldn’t be with her anymore.
AB: [Miguel] didn’t say anything. No but I wish he did. The script was so different in a sense, so we tried to build the story and background. There were a lot of different versions of Beth and Remy’s love story in the beginning, and then it changed through the course of the film until we started shooting.
Q: Miguel said your character started out in a different relationship with Remy. What’s your reaction as an actress? You play a part a certain way, and then it’s edited and somehow it works in a completely other way that you hadn’t intended. What did you think when you see that?
AB: My mom’s an editor, so I totally understand editors, which is great -- It helps. I’m kidding. I grew up in this world. My father’s a journalist, but he directed a lot of TV shows in Brazil. I never think too much about what they’re going to do. I always try to grab the script and learn it by heart and focus on that, and whatever they want to do later they can do it. I don’t mind.
I’m passionate for the story and being part of something. That’s the most important thing. Funnily enough, in Repo Men, I prefer what I saw on the screen than what we shot. It works really nice. I don’t know how, because we had such a background in our minds – me and Jude, Beth and Remy – all the time that drove us through the journey towards the end of the film, and once we cut the part before they meet, where we meet them in the film, it could have gone wrong.
What is great is that it was done perfectly, and it was even better. I’m glad he took it off because the story is even sharper. I think more important than you as an actor is the storytelling. Of course as an actor you want to show your work, you want to be on screen, but being part of a nice story, it’s really special. So I do think as an actress you need to know how to understand and how to put yourself into it. Everything matters; don’t take anything for granted. Be present in the moment. That’s the best thing to do.
Q: At the end you’re still alive. Is there hope for a sequel that would include you?
AB: Maybe. I'll give you Universal’s number so you can ask them. Then I’ll give you mine, and you call me. I have no idea what they think of it. I don’t think so. I think the story’s done.
Q: Did you think of yourself as a female Terminator?
AB: The way Beth’s going, she probably can be a Terminator because the only thing’s real are the lips.
Q: One of those scenes near the end where he's taking the parts out of you is really sick but also sexy in its own way. It recalls the movie Crash. In filming that scene, how did you play it so that it was both passionate but kind of sick and crazy at the same time?
AB: When Miguel told me that he wanted to do that scene as a love scene I couldn't picture it. Once we started doing it I was just trying to figure out how to play it, not to be overly painful or only love and forget the pain. I tried to stay in the middle and to just bring truth.
It's interesting that both characters are so in love and they’re fighting for their lives, yet they’re so connected at that moment in the film. I think pain and love go together. If you're in love, you're going to feel pain and the passion increases the pain.
It's hard to explain with a logical answer, but mainly I do think that's what Miguel wanted, and I tried to put my heart into it and just bring it alive. It was fun to do it because it was so free to create anything. We are in sexual positions actually; it's like we're making love. It was a great idea.
For more by Brad Balfour: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brad-balfour
Staying Human in The Twilight Saga Challenges Actress Christian Serratos
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- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Interviews
- Published on Saturday, 03 July 2010 19:08
- Written by Brad Balfour
And then there's actress Christian Serratos's bespectacled Angela Webber, who kind of reflects the film's own core girl-geek squad.
After the 20-year-old Serratos made it into The Twilight Saga, she started to tour the con circuit making sure that the humans other than Bella weren't forgotten. So she made it to New York last October after The Twilight Saga: New Moon was released, then to Anaheim this April, and also found time to bare all for PETA. And her few moments of screen time in the installments reveals real flashes of talent -- part of what she discusses in this exclusive interview conducted during one of those con excursions.
It's not like she's a total novice. Though she has limited screen time again in the third installment, she occupies an incredible ringside seat to see this Virgin-Vamp saga emerge and track how everyone has evolved in doing it. As close-up to the media circus as anyone, Serratos has not only witnessed the Twilight phenomenon from the inside out, she has felt the glare of that white-hot spotlight that Kris Stewart and Rob Pattinson have been subjected to throughout.
Q: Now that you know the characters, do you just go with it or do you rehearse?
CS: We definitely go over our stuff, our lines and work together, even off-set when we want to. The only real rehearsals are to get the stunts down. So the Cullens and the vampires have to deal with that.
Q: Did the mood on set change over time since everyone was already like a family, or was there more pressure because of the success?
CS: If anything, it went the other way. Once everyone realized how intense it was, everyone calmed down and relaxed. "Let's not think about it. Let's just do what we're here to do, make the fans happy and go home."
Q: Are the scripts tight or are there some things you make up while you're shooting?
CS: A lot of the improv was literally us trying to make each other mess up. It ended up working. It's really cool. It's funny to see what scenes they end up taking.
Q: It seems like all the actors have built a real sense of family.
CS: They have.
Q: Your character lasts throughout the series, so you're there for the long haul.
CS: Yeah. It's been great. Everyone is definitely close-knit. Everyone is family -- we all take care of each other. We all pick on each other and so it's great. I love everyone.
Q: Do you feel you learned anything from the more experienced actors on Twilight?
CS: Peter [Facinelli], who plays the dad, Dr. Carlisle -- he's pretty fatherly on set. But we all learn from each other.
Q: Do you guys crack each other up on the set?
CS: Yes. They're not specifically planned. We just mess with each other in general. I'm usually picked on the most. I'm not kidding. I'm an easy target. They like to mess with me.
Q: What did you do to immerse yourself in the whole vampire universe?
CS: What was really cool about this particular project is that we didn't have to. I mean, we did and we could, but we had the book.
Q: So you read the book beforehand?
CS: Oh, yeah.
Q: Some people advise that you shouldn't read the book before the role, and others go the other way.
CS: I couldn't help it. I remember being on the third one, and the fourth wasn't going to come out for another week or so. I could not possibly read just one page a day. I would go through a hundred pages a day. So I would force myself to just do one page a day, because I had to have my daily dose, but I didn't want to finish because I didn't want to have to wait.
Q: Have you met Stephanie Meyer?
CS: Yeah, she comes to the set a lot. She's really hands-on. She's really cool. I got a chance to meet her kids and talk to her about the movie and how she came up with it. She's really nice.
Q: Have you ever discussed your character with her?
CS: Yeah. She gave me solid little tips and stuff and told us little tidbits about our characters. I think that a lot of what she told us is now in the public and so everyone really knows the inside stuff.
Q: What is your favorite Twilight character?
CS: It would probably be Edward -- Edward and Alice. He's like the perfect guy ever, and [she] is pretty, sassy and cool. She's got a lot of great one-liners.
Q: Have you seen other vampire movies?
CS: Yeah, I've seen other vampire things, but not necessarily for research.
Q: There’s one, Daybreakers, where all the vampires are going to die because they're losing their blood supply.
CS: That sounds cool. I definitely want to go watch some of the other vampire flicks. I guess I have to go see that.
Q: What do you think of the vampire TV shows?
CS: I think it's cool, a vampire phenomenon. I have not watched any of them. I really want to get into True Blood because that's the one that everyone talks about.
Q: Do you have any dream projects you'd like to do?
CS: Sure. I'm very open to anything. I'd love to play someone who's insane or something, just so I can go flake out. I like a superhero. I know that's ironic. That's where we are, but seriously, it'd be really cool to play a superhero.
Q: Are you an anime fan?
CS: I'm really not. I'm not a really big comic book person. I know the typical Spider Man and Wonder Woman and Storm and that stuff. Don't quiz me, because I'm not good at things like that.
Q: Are you a fan of specific characters?
CS: I guess if anything, it would be [I Love] Lucy. I do have a lot of Lucy stuff.
Q: What about being in a Lucy biopic?
CS: That would be so cool. I know every single episode. The newer stuff would be Friends. I've seen every episode one too many times. I watch them for like the fifth time, each episode, and I still think they're funny.
Q: You seem to have your share of one-liners. Do you have a comic side to you?
CS: Yeah. That's how I started.
Q: When you think about your next project, do you want to look for a comedy, coming off of Twilight?
CS: I really like comedy. I'm into doing comedy. It'd be fun. [And] I would definitely like to do something a little more dramatic.
Q: Do you also sing?
CS: I do. I took a break from that when I got Twilight because it took up a big chunk of time. I'm going to get back at that, though.
Q: What are your influences?
CS: I listen to the Mars Volta and Fiona Apple every day. I feel if you do write music, you write what you listen to and you couldn't possibly write in another genre. So those are the two that I usually use.
Q: Have you thought of bridging the two interests and doing musicals?
CS: That would be really cool. It would have to be a really bomb musical.
Q: A vampire musical.
CS: A vampire musical. That would be really cool. I'd be down for something like that. It would have to be something really creepy, like Repo. I feel if it's going to be a musical, it has to be really edgy.
Q: Can you imagine a Twilight musical?
CS: Imagine Robert [Pattinson] singing as Edward Cullen? That would be cool.
Q: The emotions in the film would [work] for breaking out into song.
CS: I feel that, too. It's actually funnier when you really think about it.
Q: Whom else do you admire?
CS: I love Sandra Bullock. I think she's really cute. Chelsea Handler, although she's more of a comedian, but I still really love her. Ian McGregor—love him. Parker Posey. So many.
Q: Do you have actors you want to work with that you especially admire? I can see you doing something like Parker Posey, who does all kinds of interesting roles.
CS: Right, and that's why I love her. There's nothing ordinary about the things that she picks. I think that you have to have guts to do some of things that she's done.
Q: Are there directors you want to work with?
CS: Gus Van Sant would be really awesome. I like Gus Van Sant. I like Steven Soderbergh. The guy that did Pan's Labyrinth — Guillermo del Toro. And Steven Spielberg, naturally, just because he's Steven Spielberg. But there's a whole list of people. I wanted to work with Catherine Hardwicke before I got to work with Catherine Hardwicke. So I got to check that off my list and that was really cool.
Q: Would you work with her again?
CS: Oh God, yeah. I love Catherine.
Q: Whom do you get excited about meeting in the business?
CS: The J's from America's Next Top Model. I saw them at this US Weekly party and they were fabulous. I couldn't even go up to them. I just wanted to watch them, how they work, so that I can imitate it. They're so cool. Love that show,
Q: Do you get recognized a lot for Twilight or even for Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide?
CS: Yeah. It's usually when I'm in a Twilight-oriented environment. I do a lot of the Twi-Cons and I get recognized a lot. But I don't wear my glasses on a daily basis. Those are the ones that I wore in the film. So it's pretty easy. I just take off my glasses.
Q: You haven't had to suffer too badly from the press, right?
CS: Not too bad. There have been a couple of incidents. You think that you can ease into it. Not with this project. It's going to be hardcore.
Q: Do you keep the fans in mind while making the film?
CS: Absolutely. When we first started working on it, we all did our research. We went online and saw what the fans had to say because this is definitely a fan movie. We love the fans.
Q: Has there been something that a fan did that made you nervous?
CS: There was one guy in Vancouver. I don't even think he was fan. I didn't get close enough to ask. He sat outside our place. We had a Starbucks across the street, so we'd go over there every day. He would follow me.
My friend came into town and I told her about it. We were having fun with it and trying to get away from him. We went behind the Starbucks into the alley, to go home because it connected. So we were strolling along, cracking up because we lost him. All of a sudden, he comes up the alley.
Q: Do you ever think about not taking parts that give you a high profile?
CS: You're definitely right, yeah.
Q: You were on Hannah Montana?
CS: I was on one episode and in one scene. Alexa—that was the character's name. I was having a party and I wanted to invite everyone, and that was it.
Q: Was it a big adjustment living in Vancouver?
CS: No, I love traveling. I love going to other places. It may be hard when I get there, like it was in Germany. I don't care. I like seeing a new place.
Sometimes we're only there for a millisecond and all you get to see is things on a taxi ride to the airport. I still think it's cool. You walk away with souvenirs, like different currencies and stuff. That's fun.
Q: What's the farthest you've traveled so far?
CS: Germany. It's so cool. They have amazing architecture. That place is beautiful.
Q: Do you ever get jet lag traveling all over the world?
CS: I don't anymore. I think I've gotten used to forcing myself to fall asleep at a certain time because I have to wake up early.
There are definitely days where I feel too tired and I feel my body can't take it and I feel like I'm going to pass out. Other days I'm just stoked.
You have to wake up around 4:00 in the morning because we have 4:00 A.M. pick-ups. So sometimes we're like, "No, we're not getting up." That's why it's really cool to have everyone living next door to you in this big house. They just bang on your door. I don't know how many times we've woken up each other banging on the door, half asleep, saying, "Get up."
Q: How much time do you have in between to do other projects, and what opportunities has this opened up for you?
CS: It's opened up a lot of doors. There are a lot of opportunities that get shot our way, which is great. But they've been doing these so quickly that no one really has time to do anything else. When they do, it's very planned out and very coordinated. So there's really no time for random things.
Q: You started out pretty much as a kid. How does it feel maturing through this whole process? Do you take it less seriously because you see it for what it is?
CS: I don't think I take it less seriously...
Q: Will you do more risky roles, ones with more sexuality or nudity in them?
CS: I don't know about that. But I don't mind risqué or edgy. Nudity? I feel it's super-important when it comes to some projects, and I feel it's completely ridiculous and stupid when it comes to others. So it would definitely depend.
Sherie Rene Scott Gives Audiences "Everyday Rapture"
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Interviews
- Published on Wednesday, 30 June 2010 21:41
- Written by Frank Lovece
She earned a Tony Award nomination for Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and originated the role of the sea witch Ursula in Broadway's The Little Mermaid. Yet Sherie Rene Scott still calls herself "a semi, semi semi-star" in her Tony- and Drama Desk-nominated semi, semi semi-autobiographical Broadway show Everyday Rapture, which runs throug
h July 11, 2010, at the American Airlines Theatre.
Scott's not-quite one-woman-show, which earned equally rave reviews Off-Broadway last year, was a quickly slotted replacement for the Roundabout Theater Company's Lips Together, Teeth Apart, shuttered during rehearsals after co-star Megan Mullally pulled out.
For Scott, 43, that became the kind of now-go-out-there-and-come-back-a-star break of which showbiz legends are made. After many theater roles including Amneris in Broadway's Aida and the title role in the Off-Broadway musical Debbie Does Dallas, she seems happily overwhelmed by all the attention she's getting for her show about, well, getting out there and trying to be a star -- even when you come from a Mennonite family.
Scott, who with husband Kurt Deutsch co-founded the Grammy Award-winning cast-recording label Sh-K-Boom Records (pronounced "shik-a-boom"), spoke in her backstage dressing room shortly before earning Tony Award nominations for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical and, as co-writer with Dick Scanlan, Best Book of a Musical.
Q: One reviewer, writing about the show's original Off-Broadway run, compared you favorably to Bette Midler as a "diva-as-trash-goddess." How does one take that?
SRS: One doesn't. (laughs) The word "diva," I don't even know what that means; I'm so not a diva. But I love that I've created this character who is a diva, and it's fun to play this character who happens to have my name, this character who I think is much less insightful than I like to think I am, and this character who is wrong in all the right ways -- that kind of foul, sexy, grungy [persona] that I am more interested in [playing] than some kind of, I don't know, ingénue part, I guess. Old ingénue!
Q: People call Everyday Rapture semi-autobiographical, but as you say, the show's Sherie is just a character. How much should we take as genuine? Are you really half-Mennonite --referring to the generally Amish-like religious group -- for instance?
SRS: In a way. A funny thing happened when [co-writer Dick Scanlan and I] were writing. When I would write completely factual stories, everyone thought I was making them up. So what we were able to do is write stories that are really genuinely true, but are not necessarily factual.
Q: So about the half-Mennonite thing…?
SRS: That's true. My dad wasn't -- my mother married a non-Mennonite.
Q: So when she married a non-Mennonite, your mom was shunned?
SRS: Her whole family was almost shunned. [Her church] stopped shunning with my mother. Most Mennonites don't shun.
Q: Have any Mennonites complained about the show?
SRS: No; Mennonites love it.
Q: Mennonites come see Broadway shows?!
SRS: Oh, yeah. There are different levels. None of my family's been to see the show, though. They're not interested in theater; never were. But now my mom says she really wants to see me on The View; that's her dream. Barbara Walters did love the show, I have to say.
Q: This theater used to be the Selwyn back in the good ol' days of Times Square B-movies and peep shows. Do you remember that 42nd Street?
SRS: I would try not to walk down it. When I was in [the rock opera] Tommy [beginning in 1993], we used to trade stories about what heinous things were said or done to us on the way from the subway to the St. James Theatre. I remember we'd see baby carriages and think it was tantamount to child abuse! It was usually a crazy person carrying around a voodoo doll or something.
A friend's mother came from Canada, and in-between shows she was going to go see a movie. And she wanted to go see that new Kevin Costner movie that was playing on 42nd Street: Dances with Foxes!
Q: (laughs) How long did it take her to find out it wasn't Dances with Wolves?
SRS: Not too long. At first she thought, "This is New York -- maybe all movie theaters have people in raincoats with odd smells." I think it was very soon into the previews [that she caught on].
Q: In your show, one conceit is that Idina Menzel had actually replaced you in Wicked. That really happen?
SRS: No, I wasn't in Wicked.
Q: Was she okay with being a presence in your play?
SRS: She came to see it at [Off-Broadway's] Second Stage; she and [husband] Taye [Diggs], and they got a real big kick out of it.
Q: The whole Idina Menzel riff was a very funny bit. That and the one about strangling the cat.
SRS: Yes. Any kind of cat strangulation usually goes over well.
Everyday Rapture
American Airlines Theater
227 W. 42nd St
New York, New York 10036
(212) 719-1300
Runs through July 11, 2010
For more by Frank Lovece: FrankLovece.com
Exclusive: Author Danny Peary on "Baseball's Reluctant Hero"
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Interviews
- Published on Friday, 25 June 2010 02:43
- Written by Brad Balfour
I was never much for sports even though I grew up in a town like Cincinnati where the Reds were kings. When I was in junior high, if the coach put together a playing squad, which ever side lost the coin flip, they got me. So I never got into sports beyond collecting baseball cards and eventually I sold them preferring to amass vinyl records, read comics and see movies.
But I never forgot that 1961 season when the Cincinnati Reds battled the New York Yankees in the World Series (they lost) and Roger Maris beat Babe Ruth's batting record of 60 home runs in one season. At the time, I had a vague appreciation of the impact of this feat but over the years, after all the steroid charges leveled at players who went on to beat Maris's record, I came to appreciate the enormity of his toppling Ruth's place on Olympus.
What I didn't get until I read co-authors Tom Clavin and Danny Peary's book Roger Maris: Baseball's Reluctant Hero (Touchstone/Simon & Schuster) was the contextual significance of this act, what it reflected of the culture at the time and, more importantly for me, it humanized a shy ball player who I had previously cared little about because I was more into rebellious rockers or loner film stars than team-conforming sports figures.
In fact, I would have looked askance at the book or Maris' story if it hadn't been co-written by Peary, who also happens to be the guy who wrote a series of film books including Alternate Oscars (1993); Guide for the Film Fanatic (1986); Omni's ScreenFlights/ScreenFantasies: The Future According to the Science Fiction Cinema (1984); Cult Movie Stars (1991) and the three Cult Movies books.
Being the film and genre geek that I am, I had read most of his books and they were a big part of my cinematic education -- so when Danny e-mailed me about his new book, it aroused my interest; especially to understand how his fascination with film transfers to that of his interest in sports, particularly baseball.
Now his writing partner, Clavin, seems particularly well-suited to complement Danny with his own set of literary achievements having written 11 books on pop culture and sports, and he has been a New York Times reporter as well.
So I sent off to a set of questions to Danny cross-referencing his fascinating book about an under-regarded sports figure with his love of covering films.
Q: How would you describe the difference in writing about film and sports.
DP: Film is an art, and art tends to be subversive so the people who read my film writing tend to be receptive when I express any left-wing bias. I don't necessarily censor myself when writing about sports but I am aware that my audience is more conservative, so I make sure I'm clear with what I write when I venture on the baselines, rather than assuming that everyone automatically understands and agrees with what I'm saying.
Otherwise, I think I write similarly, not writing for other writers in my field but hoping to stimulate readers, even surprise them with my unusual takes on subjects. I always view myself as an outsider looking in, so my thoughts are typically different from others, which I believe is my most positive attribute.
When I write about both, I try to share my passion, which has been there since childhood, and to be somewhat conversational because I am revealing my thought process as I try to discuss a film or sports event and in many cases "figure it out" as a detective would. Readers respond, I think, because they can relate to how I try to find the keys to a mystery.
I love exploring themes in movies and in the lives of ballplayers like Roger Maris, and movie people. That usually leads to my emphasizing to the reader that a director, screenwriter, character, manager/coach, or ballplayer makes huge (though often seemingly subtle) choices, going in one direction and not in another, at pivotal points in the "storyline." I do care about the "Who?" and "What?" but the question I always want answered in film or sports is: "Why?"
Q: Because Roger Maris has been dead since 1985, you were obviously unable to interview the main character for your biography. What were the advantages and disadvantages of that?
DP: I found it amusing that a couple of Roger's teammates told me that when they asked him questions he might not give a reply until the next day, if at all. They loved Roger and that was fine with them. Maris was at best an inconsistent interviewee and could be dreadful even when he tried because not only did he not want to talk about himself, but also he could never figure out what reporters or readers would find important. So even if he patiently answered questions, he would never offer anything that wasn't asked for specifically.
Of course I would have loved to have spoken to Maris but I'm not sure he would have given me anything better than what Tom and I found in our research, taking a few good lines he said in, say, 1960, and a few good lines in, say, 1967, and a few more good lines he said long after he retired, and putting all those lines together to make one solid interview.
That he didn't want to write an autobiography or have anyone write a bio about him, and didn't want a TV-movie made about 1961 (long before Billy Crystal's HBO film 61*) tells me he wouldn't have been a great interview for this book. There were four things I really would have wanted to talk to him about and fortunately late in the research I discovered he did touch on three of them late in his life.
He said overall he was happy that he played major league baseball despite his miserable treatment in New York; he thought he was foolish for sitting out a game after hitting his 60th homer although he had only a few games left to try to break Babe Ruth's record -- because he said the difference between having hit 61 homers and 60 was enormous; and he believed he would have had a much better career if the fans hadn't booed him, which, he finally admitted, really hurt him. I would have liked to have asked him about the fourth subject, his relationship with his strange mother. But I'm sure he would have refused to tell me anything.
Q: By their very nature, ballplayers seem more taciturn than actors being more physical and less in their heads. Do you draw a distinction between interviewing performers and ball players?
DP: That hasn't been my experience with ballplayers. Roger Maris, a shy, private Midwestener who had many family secrets, was an exception because he never liked answering questions after 1960 -- although most ballplayers aren't always patient about answering the same old questions after games, particularly losses. It's not always cool to talk to reporters. Young ballplayers aren't particularly worldly and unless they came from Japan or Latin America don't have particularly interesting life stories, but they are media savvy at least.
Although Maris would have tested me, I prefer interviewing older ballplayers -- my big baseball book was about 1947-1964 -- because if they know you are a true baseball fan and know of their careers and all the obscure people they played with, and, thus, can ask interesting questions, they will talk endlessly about their fascinating lives and careers.
Most of the old-timers didn't go to college or even finish high school, but I've never walked away thinking that they were anything less than smart. Maybe it's because they can tell I'm genuinely grateful to them for their contributions and making my childhood wonderful and they appreciate that I'm a fan first that we instantly bond and they feel they can give me their "A" answers.
With film people, I am rarely interested in their personal lives,or anything about their main squeezes and the names of their dogs. I always like talking about the movies and their characters. I think they appreciate that I'm not into "stars" and will ask questions that make them think and say things about the movie they never thought of until then.
Q: You've a learned a lot about a life that lead up to those two great years of ultimate success with the Yankees and of the hidden conflicts both in Maris's personal and professional life. How did you contextualize all that incorporating the big themes in his life.
DP: The two major reasons we wanted to do a biography of Roger Maris were to relive the greatest summer of our childhoods, when Maris bested [Mickey] Mantle in an incredible home-run race and broke Babe Ruth's unbreakable single-home run record on the last day of the season, and, having been witnesses, to correct to wrong impression today that Maris wasn't a great player who had many more than two outstanding seasons (he was an All-Star before he played for the Yankees) and isn't worthy of being regarded as a hero and a Hall of Famer.
We knew going in that Maris's sorry reputation today is the result of his being the first sports celebrity that the changing press of 1960-66 tried to destroy with unfair, negative coverage. But as researchers we set out to figure out why the writers, particularly in New York, tried to destroy Maris's psyche and image and turn the fans against him. We found that it was because they never wanted Ruth's record broken, they wanted their idol Mantle to break it if anyone did, and they were angry at Maris because didn't trade them interesting quotes for favorable coverage and in 1962 boycotted them.
Also we wanted to know why Maris was so ill-prepared to be a celebrity and handle the media, beyond that fact that he was shy and a Midwesterner who believed inquisitive reporters were intruding on his privacy. We talked to family and friends from the time he was an infant and discovered that he was so tight-lipped because he'd grown up keeping family secrets. His own parents hated each other and fought constantly, often when drinking; his mother had affairs everyone seemed to know about; and there was drinking, feuding, and dysfunction on both sides of the family.
Maybe to forget his early years, he didn't even tell people that he was born in Hibbing, Minnesota (famous for Bob Dylan and Kevin McHale) rather than Fargo, North Dakota, or that he and his parents and brother changed their name from Maras. Perhaps even more significant is that Roger was uncomfortable boasting about his accomplishments because he felt he was having the career that his one-year-older brother Rudy was supposed to have before contracting polio, which we think was the pivotal moment in Roger's life.
Maris always thought that Rudy was the better athlete and would have hit 62 homers if given the chance. He was wrong.
For more by Brad Balfour: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brad-balfour
