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NEWS FILM MUSIC CULTURE EVENTS DVD GAMING SPORTS MEDIA BLOGS The Channel Surfer DVD Dish interviews Movie Reviews Projections Special Features FILMINTERVIEWS THE idEs Of MARcH evan Rachel Wood is ready to “kick butt.” By FReDeRiCk MinTCheLL hollyWood iS littered With the ghoStS of child stars past. For every Jodie Foster and Jason Bateman, there are dozens, if not hundreds, of formerly precocious child actors who weren’t able to make the transition to adult stardom after they reached voting age. Evan Rachel Wood appears to be one of the lucky ones who have been able to successfully make that leap. Wood has a theory for her successful transition: “I never did young, cutesy roles. I was always kind of doing adult material, so it was easier for me to have an ‘in’ to that world. I was always playing older than I was, so I think that helped.” She started acting at the age of 5, and her breakthrough role was arguably on the critically lauded series “Once and Again.” She went on to receive more critical acclaim on the big screen in movies like Thirteen, The Upside of Anger, Running with Scissors, Across the Universe and The Wrestler. After enjoying acting success at an early age, though, Wood knew she had had to evaluate her goals when she got older. “I took time off to really get to know myself – to figure out if this is what I really wanted to do and not just something FILMINTERVIEWS A BiRd Of THE AiR Jackson hurst takes the lead. By aRieL PaReDeS after WatChing ‘inSide the aCtorS StUdio,’ you hear a lot about the survival jobs that actors have had to take before becoming successful. We’ve heard it all, from being a pizza delivery boy to the stereotypical server in a restaurant. Everyone’s road to becoming a working actor is unique, and Jackson Hurst’s story is as interesting as they come. You wouldn’t guess that one of the stars of “Drop Dead Diva” and lead in the upcoming film A Bird of the Air was once a financial guy turned nightclub manager. “I got a business degree and I’d been working for CitiFinancial doing independent sales leading this double life for awhile – doing crazy independent films late night and on the weekends and then running staff meetings at work,” shares Hurst. Ultimately, he made a drastic and life-changing decision. “I quit my job, sold everything and packed up whatever I could in my car and moved from Dallas to Austin, Texas,” he says. “I was running a night club in Austin and it was a pretty crazy experience, but I managed to clean myself up and stay focused and that’s when I got Living Proof.” He adds, “The funny thing is, I’m scraping by in Austin 8 Campus Circle 10.5.11 - 10.11.11 I was good at. This is a weird business, and it could be here today and gone tomorrow. What would I do? I’ve been doing this my whole life. The only other thing that I was really passionate about was psychology. That’s kind of what I do – I analyze, and I pick people apart. I have to get inside people’s heads. Through that, I’ve become interested in [psychology]. I’d still actually love to go back to school to study it.” She might have to put those college aspirations on hold for a while since the past year has been another banner one for the actress with roles in the Emmy-winning HBO miniseries “Mildred Pierce” opposite Kate Winslet and in another HBO production, the cult fave “True Blood.” She will soon be seen on the big screen again in the George Clooney directed The Ides of March, co-starring fellow child actor refugee Ryan Gosling (“The Mickey Mouse Club”). But don’t assume that fame is going to Wood’s head just yet. “I’m here, so I better be well-behaved so I stay here. It’s been such a great year, and I feel like I’m ready to embrace this as my life choice and stay focused on it and stay committed to the idea [of being an actor]. Now I’m just having fun, and I’m really lucky because I worked really hard to be here.” In Ides she plays an intern working on a presidential campaign. Surrounded by a cast of heavyweights that include Oscar nominees/winners Clooney, Gosling, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Marisa Tomei and Paul Giamatti, hers is a pivotal role in that her actions set off a chain of events that affects everyone else in the film. As the United States is about to become inundated with the 2012 presidential election, don’t be turned off by the movie’s subject matter. “There’s no hero and no villain,” says Wood. “It makes you question. It’s not about politics. It’s about people and games and moral dilemmas. Will you compromise yourself for the greater good?” leading this ridiculous lifestyle, then I booked ‘Drop Dead Diva’ and they put me up in this fancy five -star hotel for six weeks, and I’m thinking ‘I’m really an important guy,’ while shooting the pilot. But after shooting, I had to give it up and go back to the grind and run the nightclub again!” Hurst was wise though and didn’t succumb to the Hollywood pitfalls. ‘“I didn’t want to be another statistic in L.A., so I gambled and stayed in Austin which ultimately paid off. I made my start in Austin with some great opportunities,” he says. “After I shot my first season of ‘Diva,’ I finally made the trek out to L.A.” After playing one character for a few seasons, it’s nice to switch things up. Hurst plays Lyman in the new film A Bird of the Air. He is a tragically introverted man who works for the Highways Department as a courtesy patroller. He holds a very sad secret that is risked being exposed when he meets a very chatty and quirky librarian named Fiona (Rachel Nichols) and a mysterious parrot that flies into his home one night. A literal and metaphorical journey begins to unfold. What drew Hurst to the role and how did he manage to get into the mind of this very quiet character? “I actually isolated myself quite a bit in order to play Lyman. He’d been through so much,” replies Hurst. “At first on paper he could seem quite boring, but I thought he was so interesting and had a lot to offer. I saw him as a guy that had no social graces but was really successful in his own way. He just always wanted to be prepared for everything.” The rest of the cast also contributed to the film being a wonderful experience for Hurst. “Rachel Nichols is great, the chemistry was there immediately. She has a strong personality and I also do, so we butted heads but in a creative way. She was so good at Campus Circle > Film > Interviews evan Rachel Wood and Ryan Gosling in The Ides of March After doing dramas and some comedies [possibly including the upcoming It Is What It Is with Sigourney Weaver], would Wood want to jump on the superhero bandwagon? “I never get offered superhero movies. People have [a preconceived] idea about me. I have a black belt in tae kwon do. I can kick butt. I wasn’t good at ballet,” she admits, “I was always a fighter I guess.” After a suggestion that maybe Weaver could pull some strings and have Wood cast as the new Ripley [from the Alien movies], she replies, “I would love to be a Ripley or a Sarah Connor [from Terminator 2]. That I would love to do, but [those roles] are few and far between.” Would you want to bet against anyone who can navigate the shark-infested waters of Hollywood? I sure wouldn’t. And with her black belt, I certainly wouldn’t want to be the casting director to say no to her for a role as a “kick-butt” action heroine. The Ides of March releases in theaters Oct. 7. Campus Circle > Film > Interviews Jacksin hurst and Rachel nichols in A Bird of the Air playing Fiona,” Hurst muses. “We worked with three parrots throughout the film, one was like a puppy, one was middle aged and a really old, ornery one like a bitter aged man ... All of them would bite you, it was a matter of when they were gonna snap at you. I had as much fun with these birds as I did with the other actors.” This film was also Margaret Whitton’s directorial debut, and Hurst couldn’t have been happier. “Working with Margaret Whitton was great. She gave me the freedom to create the character which is what I needed to work with Lyman.” A Bird of the Air releases in select theaters Oct. 7. Saeed Adyani Richard Foreman, Jr.
THECHANNELSURFER YOU ARE NOW LEAVING WISTERIA LANE after eight sudsy seasons, those “Desperate housewives” bid adieu. By hiko MiTSuzuka a SeeMingly happy Wife and Mother naMed Mary aliCe pUtS a gun to her head and pulls the trigger ... and an idyllic neighborhood is never the same. Not since “Knots Landing” have television viewers been so enraptured by the weekly dramas of a bunch of cul-de-sac-dwelling suburbanites. For the past seven years, Wisteria Lane on ABC’s “Desperate Housewives” became a ground zero for soapy fun. It quickly became a place where secrets – along with several criminals – are harbored, where wealthy former models sleep with their gardeners, where neglected wives go off their rockers and shoot up supermarkets, where accident-prone single moms get kidnapped by vengeful ex-cons, where on-the-lam families hide out from eco-terrorists, where shady politicians get skewered by picket fences during tornados, where airplanes crash into holiday parties, where serial killers hold pregnant women hostage, where bitchy real estate agents get electrocuted by telephone poles, where ... You get the idea. Debuting on Oct. 3, 2004, “Desperate Housewives,” in a way, filled a void left by four sexy women who used to chat and gossip over lunch and see each other through some juicy trials and tribulations. If “Sex and the City” celebrated the comedic dramas of female, urban singles, then “DH” went further and celebrated the comedic dramas of female, suburban marrieds (and divorcées). Instead of sitting around a table and supporting each other while sipping cosmos at a trendy Manhattan hotspot, Susan Mayer, Lynette Scavo, Gabrielle Solis and Bree Van De Kamp sat around a kitchen counter supporting each other over cups of coffee. However, while brushing up on the history of femme-centric television, one might discover that gathering around a table to dish about love, lies and life in general was originally an art perfected by four Miami seniors named Dorothy, Blanche, Rose and Sophia. “The Golden Girls” essentially invented the TV girl-talk forum the moment they broke out the cheesecake and sat down to vent their problems. So it may come as no surprise that Marc Cherry, “Desperate”’s creator, had been a writer on the classic sitcom during its last two seasons. The “Golden” influence on “Housewives” is evident. “DH” also filled another void in prime-time television. It brought back the nighttime soap to small screens and tweaked the genre in a way that made it more easily digestible for the savvy audiences of the 2000s. It introduced three-dimensional characters we grew to love, placed them in sudsy situations in a believable way and recognized the absurdity of some of them through delicious one-liners and tongue-in-cheek dialogue that remained consistent throughout the years. While many complain that the show never regained its mojo after that stellar first season – especially after sitting through the much-maligned second season (Alfre Woodard’s got her son locked up in the basement!) – I pity those who were quick to give up and tune out. Having learned their lesson, producers delivered a third and fourth season that reminded loyal followers why they kept coming back to the Lane (new gay neighbors, back-from-the-dead spouses and Dana Delany, oh my!). Then came the high-profiled stunt for the show’s fifth season, that five-year jump into the future. Partners swapped, children grew up and a new villain moved in (Neal McDonough’s bent-on-revenge Dave). As for season 6, fans were given a double dose of mystery when the Bolen family arrived in town (See “Torchwood”’ John Barrowman get blown up in a Prius!) and the Fairview Strangler terrorized the neighborhood (Poor Eddie!). And the writers must have been getting a little nostalgic when they brought back first-season Man of Mystery Paul Young for the seventh and penultimate season (More revenge! This time with a switched-at-birth twist!). Clearly the show is a liberal dressed in a conservative’s clothing. The fictional and picturesque town of Fairview is located in the conveniently ambiguous “Eagle State” (Anywhere, U.S.A.). It’s neither red nor blue but a bold shade of purple, maintaining its appeal to moms in Missouri as well as party boys in West Hollywood. This couldn’t be exemplified any more than in Marcia Cross’ Bree, who was modeled after Cherry’s very own mother. Bree may be an uptight, church-going, gun-toting Republican with a penchant for pie-making, but she’s got a gay son and a less-thanperfect daughter she loves with all her heart. And now that the groundbreaking dramedy’s eighth and final season has kicked off, Become a CAMPUS CIRCLE Fan on Facebook http://bit.ly/dhFhEE ContinUed on page 11 >>> “will satisfy your gruesome expectations.” -Eric Kohn, indieWIRE MIDNIGHT SHOWS FRIDAY & SATURDAY! CAMPUS CIRCLE MOVIEREVIEWS A F I L M BY TOM S I X 1 0 0 % m e d i c a l l y i n a c c u r a t e . WWW.IFC.COM LANDMARK THEATRES NUART THEATRE 11272 SANTA MONICA BLVD. (310) 281-8223 LOS ANGELES Where soldiers come from (International Film Circuit) Jury award winning documentary of the SXSW festival, Where Soldiers Come From provides a look into who the soldiers are that protect our social liberties. Director Heather Courtney dives head first into trying to assess the true affects that the War on Terror has had on the American people. Courtney details the journey of three friends from Michigan: Dominic Fredianelli, the creative and artistic leader of the group; Cole Smith, the comedic and lighthearted gun-toting philosopher; and Matt “Bodi” Beaudoin, the hardcore conservative of the group. We see the soldiers’ journey, from friends looking to just enlist in the National Guard as way to earn the quick $20,000 signing bonus, free college tuition and to be all they can be. The trio feels this can just simply be something to do every month. Once they start National Guard troop training, they quickly change from out of shape partiers to somewhat trained soldiers. This transition is one of the great things about Where Soldiers Come From. We get to see the reality that comes with their growing up in such a stressful wartime situation. The group’s thoughts of just being weekend warriors takes a turn for the worst as the friends are deployed and sent to Afghanistan, thrust in the middle of war sweeping for roadside bombs and investigating hostile insurgents. After repeated bombings and attacks on their convoys, the three friends are no longer carefree but have become trained warriors. Just as the group is becoming engrained in the military lifestyle, they return home with the feeling of now what? The trio falls back into normalcy at home, and this was the best part of the film, as you get to see how tough it is being a soldier in combat and then coming back home to simple everyday life. This is what I saw as the biggest problem with being a soldier: It is a career that you just can’t turn off. Where Soldiers Come From is told over a four-year time-span in which the friends truly grow up and become adults. As the film progresses, we see that with growing up comes responsibility and fear of many things, including failure, lack of economic prosperity and feeling no purpose in life. There are many fears that plague most young Americans, but in Courtney’s documentary we see these fears are only magnified when you have been fighting to stay alive in war. Where Soldiers Come From doesn’t deal with an original concept of friends going to fight in war, but it does a persuasive job examining their specific journey, which viewers will enjoy. Grade: B + —Sean Oliver Where Soliders Come From releases in select theaters Oct. 7. Campus Circle 10.5.11 - 10.11.11 9
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