Local Woman Watches Another Scorsese Movie; Parade TBA
Parade cancelled after same local woman arrested for blasphemy
Both begged their higher up to let them quit, but were told no
Neither have won an NBA championship
They both have a red headed friend who told them in confidence “I’m not like these other men. I mean, they’re good enough, They’re good men. But they’re weak. One’s worse than the other, where’d you find them?”
Green Goblin vibes
Both love washing feet
Both were born on 3rd August 1964
Crucifixion is neither’s preferred method of death
Gary Payton came in halfway through and took over his role
Ask Jeremy Strong about how he develops any character and you’ll always get a rich, layered answer. The case is no different for his critically acclaimed turn in James Gray’s semi-autobiographical Armageddon Time.
“Stella Adler said that sometimes you have to be as large as life in terms of characters. But this character was all in the details, you’re seeing an intimate examination of a family, so trying to balance those ideas while bringing a fully formed three dimensional character to life was a tremendous challenge.”
Strong plays Irving Graff, patriarch of a middle-class Jewish family in Queens, New York, circa 1980. A plumber trying to prepare his sons for the cruelty of an unfair world by toughening them up, Strong’s performance conveys that he’s trying his best to be a father, but he’s not emotionally equipped to do so.
Much has been made of Strong’s exhaustive preparation for his acting roles, and this film was no different. “James took me on a tour of his old Queens neighbourhood, allowing me to immerse myself in the milleu. One of the challenges of making the character of Irving come alive is understanding his complex nature; he has a goofiness, a softer side, but he exacts these brutal punishments on his son. It was extremely difficult for me to understand how you can balance these conflicting ways of being.”
Elaborating on his process, Strong continues.
“An integral part of playing any character is for me to be able to immerse myself within them, for both myself and the audience, it’s important to see me - the actor - disappear. I know well enough not to inflict damage on those in my personal life, so in order for me to prepare effectively, I staged what came to be known as The Rehearsal. I believe it’s an old Lee Strasberg technique, but I commissioned a set recreating every detail of the house we’d be using to film Armageddon Time, down to the inch. Then, after a brief but thorough audition process, I cast two sons and a wife, and we lived together in the set, allowing the character of Irving come to me naturally. We practised different scenarios and constructed dialogue trees, trying to put this character in as many situations as Irving could find himself in, helping me find how he would react. The intricacies, the details - did my mood change depending on the fit of my slacks? Which Madballs were most effective to pelt at my sons if they disrespected me? - To me, these are the things that make a character. And then of course, by the time I got to film the real thing, I was exhausted. Mentally, physically and somewhat spiritually drained.”
One must of course ask then, how did he manage? Did he use the exhaustion to his advantage, did it give him another level of immersion to his performance? He takes a beat before answering, his eyes displaying a glint of Irving’s charm.
“No, I just did a half baked impression of Matthew Macfadyen. Did you watch even watch the film?”
Magic Mike first gyrated his way onto our screens back in 2012 – the brainchild of star Channing Tatum, drawing on his real-life experience working as a dancer, and director Steven Soderbergh. Eleven years later, the pair have reunited for the franchise’s third and final instalment, Magic Mike’s Last Dance, and the actor promises that they’re returning to where it began: the dancing.
After a period of soul-searching, and a lengthy hiatus from films, Tatum is back. Jayson - the 24-year-old Celtics phenom - announced that he will be viewing Magic Mike’s Last Dance after the NBA’s All Star break. “I’m saving it as a treat, if I’m honest. I know it’ll be in the second week after opening, and obviously it’s the first weekend that really matters in terms of numbers, but I mean, I have a job. Yeah, I’m excited, it’ll be cool to see what Mike’s up to now.”
When asked what spurred this return after his extended respite, he replied “I don’t know what to tell you. I was kinda iffy on XXL, but if Soderbergh’s back, I’m back.”
Magic Mike’s Last Dance will be released 10th February, 2023.
That’s it for this week! Thank you for reading, I leave you with this mystery: Why does Terry Kiser - most famous for the role where he played a semi-re-animated dead man - have a wikipedia photo that makes him look like a semi-re-animated dead man? A Hey Laker Girls mystery.
