Recently in Actors Category

Actress Aria Wallace of Roxy Hunter answered my questions about her "real time" experiment -- 40 days without technology! This is a great idea to try with your family -- no cell phones, computers, or television -- listen to Aria talk about how slowing down, looking, listening, and even playing Clue was more fun and made her feel more connected to people. I love what she said about how much better it is to hear people laugh than to read "LOL."

Kaitlyn Maher, who enchanted millions with her appearances on "America's Got Talent," has a sweet, clear voice and a sunny personality. She is quite busy these days, appearing in Disney's new Santa Buddies DVD and singing on the soundtrack. And she has a new CD coming out in December, You Were Meant To Be. Two singles will be available for download next week on her website. She will soon star in a new Disney film, "The Search for Santa Paws," and is a special ambassador to help in the campaign to help poor children throughout the world. She has toured the US and abroad, singing before audiences in concerts, charities, and sporting events.

Imagine what she will do when she is six.

Yes, Kaitlyn is just five years old. And she and her mother Alison took the time to speak with me about what she is up to, from singing and song-writing to taking care of her baby brother.

Don't forget to check out my Santa Buddies giveaway!

NM: Do you like being the voice of Tiny the puppy in the new "Santa Buddies" movie?

KM: He's really cute! I love Tiny because he saves the day and is sweet and nice and cute, and he sings. He shares his love and that's what I like to do! I think it is wonderful that I get to sing in the movie. I love acting but singing is my favorite thing do to. The song in the movie is "The Christmas Miracle."

NM: How old were you when you started singing?

I was just one year old.

NM: Are there some Christmas songs on your new CD?

KM: "God Rest Ye" and "Away in a Manger." My favorite songs to sing are "Amazing Grace" and "Daddy I Love You." I helped write that song and another one called "Dreams Come True.

NM: Do you have a favorite toy?

KM: I have Samantha, the American Girl. We have some tea and we just play together and I read books to her. I sing to her a lot! I help my baby brother stack his blocks when he needs some help and when he can't reach something that he wants.

NM: And what movies do you like?

KM: I like to watch the princess movies, "Cinderella" and "Snow White."

NM: What do you love most about singing?

KM: I wanted to bless people and give them hope and help cheer up their day when they're having a bad day. I never really have a bad day, I'm always reading books and playing with my baby brother and going to school.

Edi Gathegi and Jamie Campbell Bower play bad guy vampires in "New Moon," the second in the "Twilight" series based on the best-selling books by Stephanie Meyer. I had a chance to talk with them about making the movie. They were enormous fun, exceptionally friendly and happy to talk about making the movie.

NM: To begin with, this film has a different director, Chris Weitz of "American Pie," "About a Boy," and "The Golden Compass." How will we see his influence on the story?

EG: Every director has his own unique style. Even in big franchise film series they'll often switch off. Chris knows how to direct big stories and he has worked with CGI and special effects. In terms of color scheme and tones, "Twilight" was very blue and "New Moon" is very brown, with the introduction of the wolves. It does look gorgeous!

NM: How do you develop your walk and other movements for these supremely graceful creatures, the Volturi?

EG: Stephanie Meyer said the Volturi glide. So it's not a clumpy foot stomp. It has to be liquid looking

JCB: My character is very still. For the one small bit of walking I did from my perch to my next perch, I was like a snake almost.

EG: We went to a moving like a cat workshop with exercises and cat movement. The idea is more like a tiger, lion, or panther. This is a new mythology of vampires, no fangs, no crosses. The Volturi have no blood in their bodies. They never have to move. There is a lot of stillness. We are not trying to pass ourselves off as human like the Cullens are.

NM: Tell me about the look of your characters. What do you wear?

JCB: The look of the Volturi is more stylish in its aesthetic. We are very well dressed even though we don't get out much. We take what we can from our victims, so it is not always coordinated.

EG: It was a collective ensemble, the group look. Laurent was more rock star-y. He's 300 years old, well traveled, picked from his favorite fashions of the day. He is fearless, doesn't have to impress anyone. If it pleased him, he would wear a bright purple Russian car salesman suit.

NM: What's the most fun about playing Volturi?

JCB: Getting to be incredibly evil and stare. We make use of the contacts, even though they are Irritating and decreased my vision.

EG: That's the funny part! We are supposed to be the most gorgeous, perfect vision creatures in the planet, and with the contacts in, none of us can see!

I love Ellen's interview with Gabourey Sidibe, who plays the title character in "Precious." Director Lee Daniels told the New York Times he knew it would be difficult to find an actress to play the role of an abused pregnant teenager who weighed 350 pounds.

"I couldn't call Hollywood and say, 'Send over all your 300-pound black girls,' " Daniels explained. "They'd laugh"....Daniels saw 500 girls, including one of his nieces. Ten finalists, none of whom had ever acted before, were put through an aspiring-thespian "boot camp." "It was kind of like 'American Idol,' " Daniels said. "But I still wasn't happy. We were weeks away from filming, and I still hadn't found Precious."

But when he met Sidibe, he knew he'd found his star.

Unlike Precious, Sidibe is well spoken and cheerful. "I'm not her," Sidibe said emphatically. "But, when I was 14 or 15, I saw myself in a different way. Back then, I envied a life that I'd made up in my mind. I broke free of that unhappiness and I decided to change -- I was going to be happy with myself. No matter what I look like, no matter what people think." Daniels realized that Sidibe's attitude was crucial to playing Precious.

In this interview, Sidibe talks about how the love she shared with Mo'Nique helped them get through the most brutal of the movie's abuse scenes. It is a thrill to witness this talented young woman's confidence and joy. Like Ellen, I want her to stay just who she is.

The interview has to wait until the week the movie opens, but I have to post this right now. Zac Efron is one of the most gracious, considerate, and all-around classy performers I have ever interviewed. Stay tuned for the...

Interview coming...stay tuned!...

OMG. Tomorrow I will be interviewing both Zac Efron (for his new film, "Me and Orson Welles") and two of the stars of the upcoming "Twilight" sequel, "New Moon." I think it's fair to say I am VERY EXCITED. Stay...

My good friend and fellow critic Tim Gordon and I went to hear hip-hop artist/actor/philanthropist Ludacris speak at the National Press Club on Friday. He was there to talk about his foundation and the work it does in Atlanta and...

Talking with Raven-Symone on the telephone, it was easy to imagine that I was really speaking to Iridessa, the character she plays in the new DVD, Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure. She has such a sparkly quality, I could...

NM: You conveyed so much in your body language when you get hugged by the Sy character. How did you create that physicality? MS: You know what? It just happens. It just naturally happened that way. We did it once...

Disney star Tiffany Thornton sings the classic "Some Day My Prince Will Come" on the spectacular new release of Disney's very first animated feature, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. It is a two=DVD set with both Blu-Ray and regular...

Anna Maria Perez de Tagle is one of the bright new stars who "light up the sky like a flame" in the new re-booting of the 1980 classic film, "Fame." I was lucky to get to interview her about the...

Has there ever been a better movie entrance line than "Anybody got a match?" delivered by 19-year-old Lauren Bacall to 40-something Humphrey Bogart in To Have and Have Not? Bacall said her iconic look, head tilted a little downward, glancing...

Patrick Swayze died today as he lived and performed, with class and grace. Swayze's association with iconic appearances in Dirty Dancing, Road House, Point Break, and Ghost are so towering that we forget sometimes what range and skill he showed...

Two awful movies released last week, "Extract" and "All About Steve," give me an opportunity to discuss one of my favorite topics, character actors. One of the best appears in both of them, the wonderful Beth Grant. Character actors are...

Molly Ringwald has a touching tribute to John Hughes in today's New York Times. While she had not spoken to the very private writer-director for 20 years, she and co-star Anthony Michael Hall spoke on the phone about the way...

Slate has put together a magnificent compilation of some of Meryl Streep's best accents but what I think of when I watch this is the astonishing range of the performances behind them. It is almost impossible to imagine that it...

Hugh Dancy plays the title role in "Adam," the story of a man with Asperger Syndrome, a form of social dyslexia that is on the autism spectrum. As the movie begins, Adam's father has just died and he must learn...

The young stars of Race to Witch Mountain talked to me about making the movie, a re-imagining of the Disney classic, Escape to Witch Mountain, about a brother and sister with extraordinary powers. AnnaSophia Robb and Alexander Ludwig could not...

Paul Peterson was one of my first celebrity crushes when he appeared on The Donna Reed Show. He was briefly a Mousketeer at age 8 and played Cary Grant's son (with Sophia Loren as his babysitter) in the affecting romantic...

Jeff Daniels is interviewed in the current issue of Esquire, where he made an important point about the difference between the way a character actor and a star approach a role. Stars like to be likable. The Squid and the...

"In the Loop" is a scathingly funny satire about politics and politicians. While it names no names of individuals or countries or conflicts, it is inspired by the British and American government in the run-up to the Iraq war. But...

D.W. Brown has trained, directed, and coached hundreds of actors and is co-artistic head of the distinguished and successful Joanne Baron/D.W. Brown Studio. His new book, You Can Act!: A Complete Guide for Actors is both practical and inspiring with...

You know them. That is, they look familiar, but you might not be sure if that is because you saw them in a movie or because you saw them on a train. These are character actors, the indispensible performers who...

Oscar-winner Karl Malden died today at age 97. Read the superb obituaries from Adam Bernstein of the Washington Post and Jim Cheng of USA Today. Bernstein described his appeal very well, saying Malden "excelled in plainspoken, working-class roles." He had...

We mourn the loss of the beautiful and talented Farrah Fawcett, who died this morning after a long bout with cancer. She came to attention as the athletic Jill on "Charlie's Angels." Her dazzling smile and girl-you-wish-was-next door look quickly...

Fans throughout the world mourn the loss of David Carradine. The son of actor John Carradine ("The Grapes of Wrath"), he first achieved success as the star of the television series "Kung Fu," where he played a mysterious Western character...

In "Downloading Nancy," British actor Rufus Sewell plays the husband of a troubled woman (Maria Bello) who develops a tragic relationship with a man she met online (Jason Patric). Sewell often appears as smoldering, brooding characters and is perhaps most...

Movie critic Shawn Levy, author of the superb books King of Comedy: The Life and Art of Jerry Lewis and Rat Pack Confidential: Frank, Dean, Sammy, Peter, Joey and the Last Great Show Biz Party, has a new book...

Jason Dolley of the Disney Channel's popular series Cory in the House stars in Hatching Pete, now out on DVD with another family-friendly feature, "Dadnapped." He found time to talk to me between finals in his college classes, and I...

More from the "NatM: Battle of the Smithsonian" press conference: Ricky Gervais, creator and star of the original British version of The Office returns as the director of New York's Museum of Natural History. He said that he loves...

Yesterday, I attended a press conference at the historic Smithsonian Castle and had the immeasurable and almost-surreal pleasure of sitting opposite Ben Stiller, Amy Adams, Robin Williams, Owen Wilson, Ricky Gervais, director Shawn Levy, and screenwriters Robert Ben Garant and...

In an exclusive interview for the new Star Trek 1-6 movie box set, Whoopi Goldberg interviews the captains of the USS Enterprise, to boldly go where no interview has gone before....

A fond farewell to Bea Arthur, best remembered as the strident, ground-breaking "Maude" and as Dorothy on "The Golden Girls." I loved her duet in "Mame" and I loved her gutsy bravado and brilliant comic timing....

"American Violet" is based on the true story of a woman who helped to expose corrupt and racist law enforcement in her Texas community with the help of the ACLU and local counsel. Dee, the lead role, is played by...

Mary Anne von Kappelhoff -- better known as Doris Day -- turns 87 today! She could do it all -- comedy, drama, music, romance. She is best known for her light romantic comedies but her signature song comes from a...

The loss of the lovely, charming, elegant, and talented Natasha Richardson is terribly sad. Her greatest opportunity to show what she could do as an actress was on stage. She won a Tony award for her performance in "Cabaret" on...

Actress Amy Walker's astonishing virtuosity with accents is on display in this popular YouTube clip. Can you guess which one is her real native-born accent?...

It was a thrill to attend a small reception in honor of the new film, "The Wrestler," and get a chance to talk with director Darren Aronofsky and co-star Marisa Tomei. The title role is played by Mickey Rourke, in...

David Schwartz of the Museum of the Moving Image has a thoughtful essay on the showbiz satires and family psychodramas of Ben Stiller to accompany the museum's salute at their annual gala last week. It has often been said that...