Richard Dreyfuss

Interview: An Ice Cream Social With Oscar Winner Richard Dreyfuss

PatrickMcD — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 21:46:55 -0600

CHICAGO – Actor Richard Dreyfuss is comfortable. This was on display as he was eating ice cream while talking about his career and life, just before an appearance at the brand new Hollywood Palms Cinema in Naperville, Ill.

Dreyfuss made a huge splash in the 1970s starring in the triptych of classic films: “American Graffiti,” “Jaws,” and “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.” He won his Best Actor Oscar – the youngest actor in Academy Award history to do so at the time – playing Elliott Garfield in the comedy, “The Goodbye Girl.”

Oscar-winning Actor Richard Dreyfuss in a Candid ‘Close Encounter’ at the Hollywood Palms Cinema in Naperville, Illinois, September 19th, 2009
Photo credit: Joe Arce of Starstruck Foto for HollywoodChicago.com

He continued with great films throughout his career, including roles in “Down and Out in Beverly Hills,” “What About Bob?,” another Best Actor nomination for “Mr Holland’s Opus” and “W” as Vice President Dick Cheney.

Now “semi-retired,” Mr. Dreyfuss puts his energies into the Dreyfuss Initiative, a non-profit foundation to encourage the teaching of civics in American schools.

HollywoodChicago.com caught up with Richard Dreyfuss during the grand opening week of the spectacular new Hollywood Palms Cinema in Naperville, Illinois, where he was introducing a couple of his films. His talked about his early career track, his passion for activism and a surprising story about the film “Always.”

HollywoodChicago: Your mother was a peace and political activist and you were a conscientious objector during the Vietnam War. How important is that background activism to your life and how does it manifest itself in your personal philosophy today?

Richard Dreyfess: It’s an incredibly profitable position (laughs).

I come from a very politically active family and my grandmother is always saying to me ‘I’m rolling over in my grave if you don’t say something.’ So it’s a little eerie, but then I say something.

HC: You played a number of conservative political archetypes: the fictional Bob Rumson in ‘The American President,’ Al Haig in ‘The Day Reagan was Shot’ and Vice President Dick Cheney in ‘W’. What did you connect to as an actor that allowed you to create characters that have personal ideologies that are opposite to your own?

RD: What is the difference between that and any actor playing a bank robber like Dillinger? A bad guy is a bad guy. Inside every actor is a fantasy that you fulfill and some of them are fantasies of being a great father or a great lover or a swashbuckler or Adolf Hitler or Jesus Christ or Dick Cheney.

Richard Dreyfuss Enjoys a Treat at the Hollywood Palms Cinema in Naperville, Illinois, September 19th, 2009
Photo credit: Joe Arce of Starstruck Foto for HollywoodChicago.com

HC: What perspective did you gain about the life cycle and the American experience playing Mr. Holland, from a young man to middle age, especially since it was set during a similar era that you had lived through?

RD: It was clear to me before then, but brought home pretty vividly, that there are three acts in life, and you either know that you’re entering your third act or you don’t. Sooner or later it becomes inescapable, because there is something screwed up about ‘homo sapiens 4.1’ update. And it is constantly crashing.

When you walk by a window when you are 10 years old, you look 10, you feel 10. There you walk by when you’re 15 and you’re 15. But when you get to age 45, there is a little disconnect, as if the film is out of synch. And at 55, there is a definite disconnect between what you’re seeing and how you’re feeling.

And then one day you walk by a window and you say, who the f**k is that? And you realize that’s you, and it’s an old Jewish man in the window.

I don’t think God set out to do that. I think there is going to be another update. And in that update, everybody will have a secretary and no one will be out of synch with their age.

HC: In the 1960s, in all the parts of episodic television that you did, was there ever an opportunity to be a regular on a show, and what do you remember most about those days?

RD: I was the happiest unemployed actor in Hollywood. And I taught a class in how to be the happiest unemployed actor in Hollywood. And I interviewed casting directors, writers and producers of TV shows. And the only requirement for the class was that you already had to be a member of the guild.

So there was about 500 people in the audience and I would do topics like ‘How to Take Over an Interview,’ ‘How to Make Your Agent Your Best Friend’ and ‘How to Make a Casting Agent Wake Up in the Middle of the Night and Say I’ve Gotta Get Richard a Job.’ And there was ways to do that.

The only argument I’ve had on these times, and I still have it, is when I say I never had a picture or a resume. The kids go nuts, they never understand. And I say what is the point of having a picture or a resume? To be remembered. But you know that most of the time that picture goes right into the waste basket.

I’d rather run my car through a building. Then you’ll remember me. I don’t want to waste my money on a picture.

Richard Dreyfuss and Patrick McDonald at the Hollywood Palms Cinema in Naperville, IL, September 19, 2009.
Photo credit: Photo credit: Joe Arce of Starstruck Foto for HollywoodChicago.com

HC: Having worked with many of the great contemporary film directors, what do you think the biggest contribution will be from them and the era you’ve worked in when the history of the first 100 years of film are written in the future?

RD: First of all, it’s not over. Second of all, we’ve already decided that the early 1970s were the golden age. And I don’t know that it was, but certainly the directors and writers were allowed more freedom of choice. And when their films became successful the studios then said, now that you’re successful we’ll decide these things and everything changed.

One corporate head of one of the studios lost his credibility completely and utterly with one sentence. He visited one of his sets, which happened to be one of my sets, the largest indoor set ever built. And he looked around and said, ‘why aren’t all these people working?’ And that was the end of an era. (laughs)

HC: Since you co-starred with her twice, in totally different roles, what is your favorite Holly Hunter story?

RD: My favorite Holly Hunter story is a performance she gave Off-Broadway. Which was so great it was like weird.

As far as stories, I don’t really catalog my mind like that. But on the set of ‘Always’ [1989], we were so in love with the original version, ‘A Guy Named Joe’ [1943] that we were paralyzed. When you watch the film, you see it. There is a sense of a sacred don’t-f**k-with-that-movie. It paralyzed the film.

HC: You speak often of perspective and enlightenment, especially from an educational standpoint. With the complete information age available on a desktop computer and internet line, do you think the future of education will be more expansive or simply more narrowed to individual tastes, because of the nature of our choices?

RD: That is entirely and completely up to you. You have to answer first a very important question – who runs what? Do you run the technology or does the technology run you? If you decide the technology, as we seem to be, that the technology runs us, we are doomed. There will not be a ‘city on the hill’ and our children will never believe that there was.

If, however, we believe we control our technology and we can make it was it needs to be, then we could fulfill the ‘magical mystery tour’ of the internet – which is both magic and mystery – because we have never had a tool which was potentially infinite. And that is what the internet is. If we can manage to keep it infinite and at the same time decide on a standard research methodology, there will be no ending.

Actress Karen Allen introduces ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’ on September 25th & 26th at the new Hollywood Palms Cinema in Naperville, Illinois. Click here for ticket information.

By PATRICK McDONALD
Senior Staff Writer
HollywoodChicago.com
pat@hollywoodchicago.com

Interview: Nia Vardalos on Her Life as Greek Goddess, Gabby Awards

PatrickMcD — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 15:23:26 -0600

CHICAGO – In making a Chicago appearance at the Gabby Awards, which honored prominent Greek Americans, actress Nia Vardalos justifiably follows through on the heritage displayed in her hit “My Big Fat Greek Wedding.”

HollywoodChicago.com was on the Red Carpet at the event, and got to briefly interact with vivacious Ms. V, who also was promoting her current film, “My Life in Ruins” with her co-star Alexis Georgoulis.

Nia Vardalos at the Gabby Awards, Chicago, June 19, 2009.
Photo credit: Joe Arce of Starstruck Foto for HollywoodChicago.com

HollywoodChicago.com: You are one of the notable graduates from Chicago’s Second City troupe. What lesson or lessons from those years has sustained you in your career?

Nia Vardalos: There is no crying in comedy (laughs). You’ve got to be tough, and the Windy City sure teaches you that when that wind takes you, push back.

Nia Vardalos on the Red Carpet at the Gabby Awards, Chicago, June 19, 2009.
Photo credit: Joe Arce of Starstruck Foto for HollywoodChicago.com

HC: One of the legends of “Greek Wedding” is that you pioneered a type of hyper-local marketing, literally building an audience town by town, screening by screening. Do you think that type of promotion is less possible now or can it still work?

NV: I think it is less possible now because the theater owners gave us a long time to hold ‘My Big Fat Greek Wedding’ and now you have less of a chance to do that. We now have to urge people to go to a film early in the run, but when you’re up against goliath films it’s a little more difficult.

But at the same time you can’t stop making little movies. We do what we can. We put them out there, if people find them, great, if not there is always the DVD release.

Nia Vardalos and Patrick McDonald, Chicago, June 19, 2009.
Photo credit: Joe Arce of Starstruck Foto for HollywoodChicago.com

HC: You are a notable columnist for ‘The Huffington Post’. What do you find most different in blogging versus doing screenplay or stage writing?

NV: You know what I love about blogging? It’s actually less difficult because nobody edits you on The Huffington Post and on Anderson Cooper, no editing. I wrote a piece for Arianna [Huffington] titled ‘The List’ and a second piece for Anderson Cooper called ‘What’s the Big Fat Deal’. They are not like a studio, that’s for sure. It was like my first screenplay, nobody edited it.

HC: You are probably one of the most representative members of the Greek heritage. How has it informed through your career and your philosophy?

NV: Not to compare myself, but like Robert DeNiro and Martin Scorsese, I like to explore my heritage. My next movie, ‘I Hate Valentine’s Day’ has nothing to do with a Greek holiday, but I figure since I’ve got this nose (laughs), I want to tell Greek stories.

Nia Vardalos current film is ‘My Life in Ruins’. Check local theaters for showtimes. Read the HollywoodChicago.com interview with “My Life in Ruins” co-star Alexis Georgoulis.

By PATRICK McDONALD
Staff Writer
HollywoodChicago.com
pat@hollywoodchicago.com

Interview: Charming, Authentically Greek Alexis Georgoulis Debuts in ‘My Life in Ruins’

PatrickMcD — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 07:12:01 -0600

CHICAGO – When Nia Vardalos, the bride in “My Big Fat Greek Wedding”, went to Greece to film her new release – “My Life in Ruins” – she also had to find a hunky Greek co-star. Enter Alexis Georgoulis, in his American film debut.

Rating: 2.0/5.0

An unknown who had done obscure Greek films and TV shows, Georgoulis is embracing and absorbing his lucky break.

In the opening week anticipation of My Life in Ruins, Georgoulis sat down and talked with HollywoodChicago.com.

“For me it was like a god came down to earth and said, ‘Would you like to do this?’” he recalled, laughing.

“I was giving a performance in a theater, and afterward a Greek casting director came to see me and asked me if I’d like to audition for an American movie,” he added. “I said why not, but in what language? He said English of course. Okay, I thought to myself, I have to learn English.”

Nia Vardalos and Alexis Georgoulis in ‘My Life in Ruins’
Photo credit: Fox Searchlight Pictures

Nia Vardalos portrays Georgia, a Greek American professor who can neither find love nor a proper academic job while living in Athens. Working as a lowly bus tour guide through the ancient ruins of Greece, she even gets the short end of the stick with her customers, mostly boorish Americans and Europeans, including a rascally senior citizen named Irv (Richard Dreyfuss).

Alexis Georgoulis plays Poupi, the transforming bus driver who is smitten by Georgia. As they and their fellow travelers tour the ancient sites, mystical bonding begins to occur, with Irv leading the way with his special brand of optimism. Like the gods and goddesses of Greece, Georgia and Poupi have to co-mingle in their own special destiny.

Georgoulis described his anxiousness with being on an American-style movie set for the first time.

“The first day we were shooting a scene where Nia was checking out of the hotel and I had just shaved my beard,” he said. “I went behind her, I said ‘Kali Mera’, which is good morning in Greek. She was just suppose to ignore me. We did it once, okay, twice, three times…then Don [Petrie, the director] said once more for the actors.”

Petrie directed his actors to then improvise the next couple of takes. Alexis responded to a particular action by Vardalos.

“Nia looked at me straight in the eyes and kisses me,” he said. “Ah, I thought, this is improvisation.”

Alexis Georgoulis and Patrick McDonald, in Chicago on June 2nd, 2009
Photo credit: Patrick McDonald, HollywoodChicago.com

“So I tried to give back, hugging her, kissing her, back and forth for about twenty minutes. Then Nia’s husband, Ian Gomez, got into the frame and started going ‘oh baby’ and I thought, what is going on here?”

It turned out that Vardalos and Petrie was playing a little prank on the newcomer.

“It was a way just to welcome me,” he remembered, laughing. “They treated me like a part of the family. They really helped me, especially Nia, to make me feel comfortable and loose as an actor.”

Even though it was an American movie production, the film was shot in Athens and the surrounding historic ruins. Georgoulis spoke about giving his fellow cast and crew members the red carpet treatment in his own country.

“I felt like the tour guide,” he said. “Not only around the ruins but in showing off Athens at night. I welcomed them like the Greeks of the ancient times. I felt like they were in my house and I wanted to be the greatest of hosts.”

And how did the film capture his native Greek culture?

“It doesn’t miss anything, but it also can’t show everything,” he reflected. “Greek culture is 2,500 years old, so there is an amalgamation of cultures and ethos. It picked up some aspects of our people and presented them in the film. And whatever you pick up, that’s how the Greeks are.”

Finally, the pragmatic Alexis Georgoulis, while excited for his first big break, mostly understands the journey and craft in his chosen profession.

“As an actor, I don’t have any specific roles I want to play. For me, every role has the same difficulty and the same challenge,” he concluded. “You just have to open yourself, let yourself feel and then express. This process is always the same and you always have to start from scratch.”

’My Life in Ruins’ features Nia Vardalos, Richard Dreyfuss, Alexis Georgoulis, Rachel Dratch and Ian Gomez, is directed by Donald Petrie, and opens June 4th. Check local theaters for film and showtimes.

By PATRICK McDONALD
Staff Writer
HollywoodChicago.com
pat@hollywoodchicago.com

Blu-Ray Review: Oliver Stone’s ‘W.’ Disappointing Film, Great Blu-Ray

BrianTT — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 19:08:08 -0700

Blu-Ray Rating: 3.5/5.0

CHICAGO – What happened to Oliver Stone? Despite strong performances by Josh Brolin, James Cromwell, and Elizabeth Banks, “W.” is one of the most inert, middle-of-the-road movies that this once-controversial auteur has ever made, helped on the home market by an excellent Blu-Ray release but still a little “eh” as a film.

The previews and advertising campaign for “W.” made it out to be a satirical jab at the most openly ridiculed President in the history of the United States. The satirical use of “What a Wonderful World” over footage of the last eight years and the tagline on the great posters - “A life misunderestimated.” - promised a no-holds-barred skewering by one of the best filmmakers of the last quarter-century.

W. was released on Blu-Ray on February 17th, 2009.
Photo credit: Lionsgate

So why is “W.” so dull? The balance between the decisions that Stone and writer Stanley Weiser made that had a humorous angle - like recreating the infamous pretzel-choking incident - and the depressingly dramatic ones result in a film that too carefully walks the line. Stone and Weiser don’t find enough comedy in the story of the world leader who plunged a large section of the world into anarchy, but are clearly not interested in a straight-up drama either.

W. was released on Blu-Ray on February 17th, 2009.
Photo credit: Lionsgate

The dramatic inertness of “W.” makes for one of Stone’s least powerful films. It’s still a decent movie because of the stellar ensemble and highly underrated lead, but it should have been great.

The lack of a narrative through line - most of “W.” plays like a greatest hits album of Bush moments from his first term - leaves Stone with nowhere to focus his passion. Whether you love him or hate him, Oliver Stone’s best work has always been a passionate filmmaker.

Stone and Weiser focus most of their piece on the days leading up to the war, especially the construction of the “Axis of Evil” speech, intercut with the more compelling story of a little boy lost always trying to impress his daddy. His early years are sketched out as a man who jumped from job to job and saw his family name as a burden more than a gift.

The scenes between George Sr. (James Cromwell) and his controversial son are easily the best in the film. We’ve all seen most of the dramatic beats of the White House material in “W.” but scenes like the one where his parents try to talk him out of running for Governor feel more refreshingly new. They are easily the strongest in the film.

The modern era material feels surprisingly underdeveloped, like a press secretary hitting key talking points but missing the meat of the story. I never felt like I was actually watching Dick Cheney, Colin Powell, and Condoleeza Rice, always remaining aware of the good impersonation by Richard Dreyfuss, better one by Jeffrey Wright, and downright awful one by Thandie Newton.

W. was released on Blu-Ray on February 17th, 2009.
Photo credit: Lionsgate

What is memorable about “W.” is in what Stone gets out of Josh Brolin and James Cromwell. These are two of the best performances of 2008 and it’s criminal how little Josh was mentioned in the Best Actor race. He’s better in this than Pitt in “Benjamin Button”. He gets underneath Bush’s skin, doing much more than an impression. A scene where he whines about his father giving him a gift because dad can only write kind words instead of saying them perfectly captures something about Dubya that hadn’t been before.

On one more positive note, master cinematographer Phedon Papamichael (“Walk the Line,” “Sideways”) shoots the film brilliantly. Like every Stone film, it looks great.

And it looks even better on Blu-Ray. Lionsgate is growing in the Blu-Ray market after releasing a few titles with excellent transfers including “The Midnight Meat Train” and “Saw V”. A studio that somewhat struggled last year in HD has moved to the forefront of the field with transfers that have very rich color palettes and crystal clear picture, even in the darker scenes.

“W.” is presented in 1080P with a perfect English 7.1 DTS HD Master Audio Track. A very good collection of special features include a commentary by Stone, “Dangerous Dynasty: The Bush Legacy,” “No Stranger to Controversy: Oliver Stone’s George W. Bush,” “W.” Filmmakers Research and Annotations Guide, deleted scenes with optional director commentary and the theatrical trailer.

A nearly flawless video and audio transfer and an excellent collection of special features. It’s starting to become a pattern with Lionsgate. If only the movie itself had lived up to expectations.

‘W.’ is released by Lionsgate Home Video and stars Josh Brolin, James Cromwell, Elizabeth Banks, Ellen Burstyn, Richard Dreyfuss, Scott Glenn, Toby Jones, Stacy Keach, Thandie Newton, and Jeffrey Wright. It was written by Stanley Weiser and directed by Oliver Stone. It was released on February 17th, 2009. It is rated PG-13
.

By BRIAN TALLERICO
Content Director
HollywoodChicago.com
brian@hollywoodchicago.com

First-Look Production Still: ‘Leaves of Grass’ With Edward Norton, Richard Dreyfuss, Susan Sarandon

HollywoodChicago.com — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 15:40:26 -0700

CHICAGO – HollywoodChicago.com has just received a first-look production still for the comedic thriller “Leaves of Grass” in which Edward Norton stars as twin brothers.

The film recently wrapped production in Shreveport, La. “Leaves of Grass,” which is written and directed by Tim Blake Nelson (who also co-stars), is due out in 2010. Richard Dreyfuss, Keri Russell and Susan Sarandon also star in the film. The first-look production still is below.

The first-look production still of Edward Norton in the 2010 film “Leaves of Grass”.
Image credit: Glen Wilson

Here’s the plot description for “Leaves of Grass”:

In “Leaves of Grass,” Bill Kincaid – a college classics professor (Edward Norton) – is lured home from the Ivy League to the backwoods of southeastern Oklahoma by his identical twin (also Norton).

The twin is a hedonistic, pot-smoking career criminal. Kincaid finds that Plato and Marcus Aurelius have ill-prepared him for dealing with a gang of homicidal yokels.

By ADAM FENDELMAN
Editor-in-Chief
HollywoodChicago.com
adam@hollywoodchicago.com