Best Supporting Actor

Oscars Q&A: Jared Leto: ‘I Didn’t Know If I’d Ever Make a Film Again’

November 30, 2013 By Thelma Leave a Comment

"Dallas Buyers Club" star Jared Leto

Ever since “Dallas Buyers Club” premiered in Toronto two months ago, the Oscar buzz has been building for Jared Leto, who plays a drug-addicted transgender woman with AIDS and a way with blush and lipstick.

Leto’s Rayon partners with Matthew McConaughey’s rodeo rider-turned-activist Ron Woodroof to bring potentially healing but illegal drugs to HIV-positive Texans in the wild west of the epidemic, the 1980s. However, the Thirty Seconds to Mars musician, 41, best known for TV’s “My So-Called Life” and Darren Aronofsky’s “Requiem for a Dream,” hadn’t acted for film in six years. While waiting in the wings to play a gig in Frankfurt on a successful world tour, the singer-songwriter paused to tell Yahoo Movies how Rayon lured him back in front of the camera.

Question: Jared, what reservations did you have taking this role as Rayon?
Jared Leto: None. None.

Q: Then why the long absence from movies?
J.L.: I had some hesitation about making a film. I hadn’t made one in six years. I didn’t know if I’d ever make a film again. [He takes a deep breath.] I’d made films for a number of years and I was pursuing other things, mostly Thirty Seconds to Mars. We’ve had more success than we ever dreamed possible, playing in arenas and stadiums around the world and making our dreams a reality. I was content and challenged and inspired and doing a lot of work with film. I was behind the camera a bit. I made a short film, a documentary, music videos, commercials.

Q: So, acting was never your first love?
J.L.: I started out studying to be an artist and painter. That’s what I thought I would be until I discovered photography and film while I was in arts school. I was at the School of Visual Arts at the time and quickly dropped out because I wanted to make art. I was too impatient to remain at the school.

Q: What helped change your mind and accept the part in ‘Dallas Buyers Club?’
J.L.: In some ways it was a test. I wanted to see if there was anything left in that world for me. I also fell in love with the role, with Rayon. It was an incredibly gifted group of people and I wanted to be part of it. I suppose in some ways I was seduced and wanted to experiment and see what it would be like to return to the screen.

Watch Jared Leto in action in a clip from “Dallas Buyers Club”:

Q: Did playing Rayon change the way you look at women?
J.L.: I have a newfound respect for what it takes to be a lady — and sometimes it takes a village. It wasn’t easy, but it was worth it: the waxing, the heels, the eyelashes, the wigs the skirts, the tights, off with the eyebrows, and on with the eyebrows.

Q: Was Matthew McConaughey’s involvement a factor?
J.L.: McConaughey was a big contributor. It was a definite plus that he was starring in the film. He’s a guy who’s been doing some phenomenal work. What an opportunity to get in the ring with somebody of his caliber. I thought that he and I could do something special.

Q: The characters the two of you play are opposites, yet complementary — Rayon’s flamingo pink, Ron’s green.
J.L.: I think they are definitely on opposites sides of the color wheel. They’re definitely flip sides of the coin. The thing of being on either side of the coin is that they both are very much a part of each other. They do speak to each other in a really polarizing way: the way they interact, the way they connect. They’re from completely different sides of humanity: One is a f–king cowboy from Texas, the other is a drag queen. In some ways it’s like the movie “Midnight Cowboy,” with Dustin Hoffman’s street urchin and Jon Voight’s slightly naïve cowboy. The characters are so different they somehow fit.

Q: When we talked to McConaughey in Toronto, he had high praise for you: “He got rid of all the s–ts and giggles, all the props, all the pansie-ations. He got rid of all those frilly things that would be legitimate.” And we observed that there was a scene where Ron puts on Rayon’s signature pink bathrobe reflecting how far his character has come. Can you comment?
J.L.: There’s a parallel moment where I wear Ron’s suit to see my father. The first and only time that I wear men’s clothing in the whole film and it’s Ron’s oversized suit. In that scene, because I had been wearing women’s clothes for so long, I felt like I was in drag.

Q: You must have movie offers flooding in. What’s your next step?
J.L.: My next step is on to the stage in Frankfurt in front of tens of thousands of people to play an incredible show with the rest of the guys touring Europe and then back to the states. I don’t know what the future holds as far as making films. There is so much that I love about film, and I’m always excited to see a great film. I’m really thankful to have played this part. It changed my life in many ways.

Watch Matthew McConaughey and Jennifer Garner talk “Dallas Buyers Club”:

Matthew McConaughey Talks Sharing Pink Robe With Jared Leto in ‘Dallas Buyers Club’

November 7, 2013 By Thelma Leave a Comment

Blink and you’ll miss Matthew McConaughey in a pink robe in “Dallas Buyers Club.”

McConaughey plays Ron Woodruff, a real-life cowboy diagnosed with HIV and told he has little time to live, only to find out the drugs needed to sustain him are unavailable in the United States. Woodruff travels south of the border for the necessary drugs and smuggles them back to Texas. With the help of Rayon, a similarly afflicted transvestite played by Jared Leto, Woodruff sets up a life-sustaining buyers club.

In the film, Woodruff walks through a scene in the motel suite that he shares with Rayon, his partner and friend. For some reason, Ron’s wearing Rayon’s pink robe. Say what?

We asked McConaughey about that cheeky moment at the Park Hyatt in Toronto and he Cheshire-Cat smiled and asked, “You caught that?”

“That’s my wife’s robe,” McConaughey explained, “The pink robe. And I wear it, too, in real life. And I put it on there with Rayon. It’s a wink: there’s [c***]-swinging Ron Woodruff wearing Rayon’s pink robe.”

It’s a sign of how far macho man and rodeo rider Woodruff has come since the doctors diagnosed him HIV Positive and he landed in the hospital bed next to Rayon, the flamboyant transvestite.

McConaughey continued: “He wouldn’t have come close to wearing that pink robe two months before. We’re the odd couple. It’s a great romance. The first place when we come together, Rayon was already an outcast. Ron becomes an outcast. Here’s Thing One and Thing Two, Ratso Rizzo and the Midnight Cowboy.”

Sure, the Oscar buzz has become a roar for Matthew McConaughey after a string of tremendous performances – “Mud,” “Magic Mike,” “Bernie” – that have culminated with “Dallas Buyers Club.” But what about Jared Leto? Clearly, there’s a Team Rayon movement forming already and the movie only just premiered in Toronto.

McConaughey happily shares a heaping Texas-size helping of praise for Leto: “Here’s a part that on paper is showy. This part shines. It’s also a part someone could come in and turn into a caricature and skip the humanity. Jared got rid of all the things to do [McConaughey shakes his hands in the air]. He got rid of all the [s**ts and giggles, all the props, all the Pansie-ations. He got rid of all those frilly things that would be legitimate.”

The star continued, “Leto came in after three or four years of not working. An actor could go I really need to make this count. He didn’t. It’s a very subtle and human performance. Rayon is in good hands. He cut out all the extra lagniappe, the etcetera. He kept Rayon real.”

And, it turns out that both men look good in pink chenille.

See Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto in the “Dallas Buyers Club” theatrical trailer:

Critic’s Pick: ‘Dallas Buyers Club’

November 7, 2013 By Thelma Leave a Comment

Jared Leto and Matthew McConaughey in Dallas Buyer's Club

Must-See Movies Beyond the Blockbusters

Matthew McConaughey is on a roll with his roles: killer, outlaw, stripper and sadomasochist, to name a few recent outings. And the Texan that started out in Richard Linklater’s “Dazed and Confused” and had a gift for John Grisham in “A Time to Kill,” gives each new character a sense of the frontier American male updated. In “Dallas Buyers Club,” directed by Jean-Marc Vallee (“The Young Victoria”), McConaughey embodies a Marlboro Man caught in a world that changed between puffs.

That certainly describes McConaughey’s Oscar-worthy performance as Ron Woodroof, a swinging, swaggering rodeo rider – and homophobe — that discovers he is HIV Positive in 1986. As a man that holds on to a bronco between his legs as long as possible for kicks and cash, this Texan, inspired by a real man, is not about to give a deadly diagnosis a pass. And, so, when the FDA refuses to make the treatments available that could possibly save his life – or at least prolong it – Woodroof creates a co-op called the Dallas Buyers Club to pool money and scour the globe for healing options. And, what the hell, he makes some bucks while he’s at it.

When the audience first spies Woodroof, the leathery dude’s having a three-way beneath the bleachers while in the adjacent rodeo ring, a bull gores a fellow contestant. It’s sex and death, baby, as Ron might say. Oh, and beer, too.

Ron is who he is — a swagger on two legs not an angel with wings. Woodroof doesn’t get the white glove treatment: He’s not a nice guy, or a particularly sympathetic character, but he turns a story about one man fighting the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s into an entertaining, even touching, Western with “High Noon” guts.

Jennifer Garner has a harder time navigating Dr. Eve Saks, the doctor who helps with Woodroof’s treatment, and ultimately befriends him, because her role is woefully underwritten. Not so that of Rayon (Jared Leto), the transgendered woman on the underground railroad of AIDS cures that Ron meets when they share a room at the local hospital.

Leto, the actor-musician (“My So-Called Life,” “Requiem for a Dream”), comes out of a four-year screen hiatus to nail the tragic beauty with her turbans and pocket books and pointed manicure. With Rayon, a character whose name is synonymous with synthetic, the Thirty Years from Mars frontman creates a damaged woman with a big heart that is absolutely genuine.

While recently, McConaughey has been on a juggernaut to Oscar recognition — “Killer Joe,” “Mud,” “Magic Mike,” and “Bernie” — it’s Leto that surprises with the unexpected depth and freshness of his performance.

Bottom Line: A tough slice of HIV history with killer performances from McConaughey and Leto.

Watch McConaughey and Garner discuss their “Dallas Buyers Club” roles:

Viggo Mortensen Reveals How He Became Freud in ‘A Dangerous Method’

January 2, 2012 By Thelma Leave a Comment

Sigmund Freud, Viggo Mortensen, A Dangerous Method, David Cronenberg, Michael Fassbender, Keira Knightley

Viggo, Siggy; Siggy, Viggo

Here’s my interview with Viggo for Yahoo! Movies the day he won the Golden Globe nomination for playing Freud in A Dangerous Method:

Fresh from his Golden Globe supporting actor nomination for playing the proud papa of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, “A Dangerous Method” star Viggo Mortensen, 53, talked exclusively to Yahoo! Movies about brilliant thinkers — Freud, Carl Jung and director David Cronenberg — and his A-list co-stars Michael Fassbender and Keira Knightley.

Thelma Adams: At the movie’s core is a mentor/pupil, father/son relationship between Freud and Jung. You’ve now made three movies with Cronenberg — “A History of Violence,” “Eastern Promises” and, now, “A Dangerous Method.” Is there a parallel?

Viggo Mortensen: To some degree it’s similar in the sense that, to start with, Jung and Freud had a great deal of affection for each other. With David, our friendship is first and foremost: respecting and liking, and a similar sense of humor. I’ve learned a lot and stretched with him. In “Eastern Promises,” he asked a lot of me and I asked a lot of myself.

TA: And with Freud, is there more scrutiny because it’s a historical character whose reputation precedes him?

VG: Freud was even more of a stretch. And, as for my friendship with David, at least so far we haven’t had the oedipal thing that was played out by Jung and Freud. We get along and hopefully we’ll continue to do so.

TA: Do you have any plans to collaborate again?

VG: David always has a couple of things cooking. One possibility is to do a sequel to “Eastern Promises.” The end left you wondering what would happen to my character now in that criminal London subculture. It was an ending that asks for, or allows for, a sequel like the “Godfather,” like Michael Corleone. What will happen next? I’m not a fan of sequels, although “Godfather 2” was as good as the original, maybe somewhat better. With David you can count on something interesting. He’s never done a sequel before. It’s not like with Woody Allen where he gets to do a movie every single year.

TA: That may not be a bad thing — some times I wish that Allen would take a year off and meditate…..MORE….on the Yahoo! Movie website

Yahoo! Exclusive: Four-time Oscar nominee Kenneth Branagh on Marilyn Monroe, Michelle Williams, ‘My Week With Marilyn’ — and ‘Thor’

December 30, 2011 By Thelma Leave a Comment

Branagh, Olivier - how do you act dead handsome?

Here’s another interview for my series on “The Reel Breakdown”:

Kenneth Branagh, 51, has been rocking both ends of the movie spectrum. He’s getting Oscar buzz — and a Golden Globe nomination — for playing actor-director Sir Laurence Olivier in the art-house hit “My Week With Marilyn” opposite Michelle Williams. It’s the story of the tensions on and off the set of “The Prince and the Showgirl” (1957) as chronicled by lovesick production assistant Colin Clark (Eddie Redmayne). And last summer, the Irish-born actor scored a global hit directing the Marvel comic blockbuster, “Thor.” He talked exclusively to Yahoo! Movies about Hollywood goddess Marilyn Monroe, and having a blast playing with gods — and Hollywood cash — on the set of “Thor.”

Thelma Adams: What are your impressions of Marilyn Monroe, the woman and the myth?

Kenneth Branagh: I didn’t know enough about her childhood to know that something that had happened there had produced this sadness. She always brought this extra bit of atmosphere, even when she was gushing and laughing. Was it the product of a tough childhood or emotional scarring? Or was it the sense of isolation when she was such an enormous movie star, while not getting consistent satisfaction from her personal life? I was always intrigued by that.

TA: What was your sense of Marilyn before you made the movie?

KB:The Marilyn I was most familiar with was from “Some Like It Hot“: angelic and fun and sexy and quite mature, less gushy than in the other movies. I so wanted to be in that cabin with Tony Curtis and Marilyn [when her character seduces his on a yacht]. It really carries a very strong sexual charge. It gets under the skin a bit. That was her very best to me. I just wondered about this sadness, and I was pretty sure Michelle Williams would bring it in.

TA: Obviously, Williams delivered. She’s also nominated for a Golden Globe. What do you think was her take on Marilyn?

KB: Williams was really smart to understand that the Marilyn we see in the film, who seems determined to prove that she is a great actress, arrives in England as an already fictional character, who is a woman named Marilyn, who is not Norma Jean, who doesn’t speak in that orgasmic whisper, or walk that exaggerated walk with her knees locked together. What I could see in Michelle’s eyes as I acted opposite her was Marilyn’s confusion. She presented a Marilyn who was really in search for herself — and she was looking in England to see if she could find the great actress, at the foot of the great actor. [Read on for the full interview]