Category Archives: The Film Set

Thandie Newton: ‘Lost Work For Revealing Hollywood Sexual Abuse’

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thandie-newton-reveals-hollywood-sexual-abuseBrave and stunning actress Thandie Newton has spoken out about sexual abuse in Hollywood. The actress revealed in July that she was abused by a director when he put a camera between her legs during an audition, she even found out later that he had been playing the tape at private parties. She was also told by a director he would film above her bare breasts, but he didn’t. She says she also suffered “serious sexual abuse” from an ex-lover.

The 43-year-old claims Hollywood covers these incidents up. She told The Guardian:“Here’s the thing. I am so grateful for all that: ‘Zip it, Thandie! Zip it! Zip it!’ Because it made me more angry, made me want to talk more,”

She says that she won’t take the director to court at the moment. “You know, maybe that will happen. But he’s one person. I’m out for the whole f**king industry. I go for big. I’m not small. I’m vast.”

She refuses to be quiet about the experience “and sometimes it p**ses people off and they disinvite me from their lives. But I would rather lose friends for that one seed of doubt that might be in their minds.” She has also lost work because she spoke out about it. She said “there’s more infrastructure to cover up than there is to protect.” Thandie said she was recently diagnosed with endometriosis “And I really do think it was (down to) fury.”

What do you think?

Chris Pratt “My Son Thinks Acting is Stupid”

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Chris prattIt can be hard to impress your kids. Parents are often thought of as uncool and poor Chris Pratt has found that even being a famous Hollywood actor does not help. Chris’s four-year-old son Jack thinks that acting is “stupid”.

The truth came out when the 37-year-old was doing a Reddit Ask Me Anything segment where someone asked if his kid thought he was a firefighter. “”He knows I’m an actor, but he thinks it’s kind of stupid. haha! I suppose he’s right!!!”

He also said his wife Anna Faris was his favourite actress and that he would love to work with her one day.

He also told Entertainment Tonight that his son was a natural behind the camera.

“Jack has been on set to visit me on every movie I’ve done since he’s been alive, he’s getting really comfortable with the idea of sitting behind the monitors. He’s like a little director! There was a moment when he was behind the monitors where the director and the producer sit, watching what’s happening on camera. He had his cans (headphones) on and he was looking through his little glasses at the monitor, and he just said, ‘Can I get a coconut water? And he wasn’t like talking to anyone necessarily, which is totally terrible behaviour that we do all the time, where you just like throw a random request into the ether and expect someone to deliver it cause we’re totally spoiled brat baby actors.”

 

Mads Mikkelsen: ‘The Snobbery in The Acting Business is Enormous’

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snobbery in acting industry, snobbery, acting, Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen has told Rolling Stones Magazine that a lot of actors are snobby towards actors who do blockbusters. The actor has done a mix of indie and big budget films.

“The snobbery in my business is enormous. I did not grow up on deep Czechoslovakian dramas or French art films, I grew up with pop culture. So I would be a hypocrite saying I don’t love James Bond, and that I don’t love flying kung fu – ’cause I f**king love it.”

“I don’t think I would want to fly around on wires eight films in a row, but I love doing it, and I’ll do it again, at a certain point, though, you want to go the other way: ‘Please give me The Hunt again.’ Something small…, but if I do eight of those films, then I’ll go, ‘Please let me fly around with a sword again!'”

Their is a downside though, Mikkelsen said his audition for the Fantastic Four was embarrassing. He was asked in the casting office to pretend to extend his arms like a rubber man, he was so embarrassed that he thought, “I can’t do this anymore.”

Luckily he now says he does not have to audition anymore and generally books his job through simple phone calls.

 

 

Hugh Grant Saved a Fortune By Being His Own Acting Agent

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acting, acting advice, acting tips, own acting agent, hugh grant, acting agentsHugh Grant has had a career most actors would envy, and he didn’t get there by being stupid. He revealed that for four years he created a fake acting agent called James Howe Ealy, who was actually Hugh himself. He just used a fake email address. The actor said that he “saved myself an absolute fortune.” He also said: “He didn’t exist. It was me on a different email account,” He has an acting agent now and said that he had to stop because people asked to meet James in person and that he would accidentally sign off “Hugh” when he was drunk. Acting agents tend to take between 10-20% in commission so it would have added up to a pretty good sum.

The actor also said during an interview with Howard Stern’s SiriusXM show that he believes having affairs is the key to a good marriage. The father-of-four has two children with current girlfriend Anna Eberstein and two with ex-girlfriend Tinglan Hong. Hugh said that the did not think humans were built for  “40-year-long monogamous, faithful” relationships.

“I always admire the French and the Italians who are very devoted to their marriages, They take them extremely seriously, but it is understood that there might be other visitors at 5 o’clock in the afternoon. You just never boast about. They never say anything, but that’s what keeps marriages together.” Hugh said.

What do you think?

 

If you are an actor then check out my book How To Be a Successful Actor: Becoming an Actorpreneur. It is available in print and in all eBook formats on both Smashwords and Amazon.

 

 

 

 

 

WHY I TRADED IN A HIGH-FLYING CAREER IN THE HOTEL INDUSTRY TO PURSUE MY ACTING DREAMS, AND HOW I DID IT

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By Peter Meyer, author of The Boy from the Wild

Most of us dream about quitting the 9-5 (or is that the 8-7) rat race, but few ever do.  The author Peter Meyer is proof that following a dream can be more than just a daydream. He hung up his suit and left a highly-paid job in the hospitality industry to embark on a career as an actor – and was soon rubbing shoulders with Brad Pitt.

I grew up in the hospitality industry, quite literally. I was born and raised on a game reserve in South Africa that my father created. It had a safari park, a five-star hotel and a conference centre. It was once known as Safari World and its pioneering fusion of Disney-style theme park and nature reserve  made it akin to a real-world Jurassic Park

When I was older, I graduated from Les Roches Hospitality University in Switzerland and went on to work all around the world in places including the UK, Jamaica, Saudi Arabia, Dubai and Kuala Lumpur.  I worked in different director roles in sales, marketing and business development for groups like Hilton, Rosewood Hotels & Resorts, JA Resorts & Hotels and then YTL Hotels.  At one point I was even one of Hilton’s youngest directors at 26 years old.  I had it all going for me – the experience, the qualifications, the connections, the lifestyle and so much more…. but then it all changed.

In 2014, I dropped everything to spend time with my father after hearing he had a very rare form of terminal cancer.  My father was my life and an incredibly special person, so I was going to be by his side.  After I lost him I lost a part of myself and realised that you are vulnerable – and that life is governed by time that we take for granted.  I tried to get back into hotels and got a huge position in Kuala Lumpur but was ultimately in a very bad mental state and lost my zest and desire for the industry.  I was missing my dad plain and simple.

By chance a short while later a family friend suggested that I try acting and modelling for fun, and at least until I’d planned my next move.  So, a short while later, I signed onto a website that was a portal for jobs in that industry.  Within the space of a few days I was contacted by a production company, which asked me to do a TV commercial for Ford.

I did the shoot and was told I was a “natural” and was advised to do more! Two weeks later I got a call from a director making an independent British film and I got a tiny part as a news anchor with some lines.  It was then that I realised how much I loved acting and it woke me up out of semi-depressed state for my father.  I decided to see where it went.

Suddenly I was getting acting and modelling roles and even got my first lead in a short film within three months of starting.  My biggest came when I got a call to audition for Allied with Brad Pitt and got the smallest part to sing.  Sadly, the role was cut but I was still an extra and got picked to be near Brad Pitt and enjoyed getting to know him. I then got chosen to work as an extra next to Liam Neeson this time on The Commuter.  He partly inspired my book “The Boy from the Wild”.  In less than 18 months all this had happened.  I was also doing a lot of plus size modelling and was Tesco’s first plus size male model wearing Jacamo.  But I have also modelled internationally with groups such as El Corte Ingles wearing Hugo Boss, GANT, Ralph Lauren and more.  Who knows what’s next?

I’ve gone from surviving animal attacks and snake bites on a safari park to surviving the concrete jungles of Hollywood.  How, people ask?  Well, get headshots, get a showreel, get an agent, brand yourself to get your followers and have passion.  If you are determined and do what you love then you will achieve.  Sometimes you have to risk it to get the biscuit. A dream is yours and yours to fail, so don’t let it.

The Boy from the Wild by Peter Meyer is out now, priced £9.99 in paperback and £3.99 as an eBook. It is available for sale on Amazon UK. Visit  www.petermeyer.com

Debra Messing ‘Pressured’ to Go Nude in A Walk in the Clouds

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Debra_Messing_at_the_2009_Tribeca_Film_FestivalDebra Messing has revealed she was “pressured” to shoot a nude scene in 1995 film A Walk in the Clouds by the director Alfonso Arau and the film’s producers.

The Will & Grace star starred opposite Keanu Reeves in the film, it was her first major film and was not a pleasant experience. She also said that she contacted her agent about the directors request and was then informed she would likely be fired if she said no.

She went on to say that she was berated after approaching Arau about the scene. “Your job is to get naked and to say the lines. That’s it,” he reportedly said. When the time came to film the scene the filmmaker made her feel uncomfortable “He lifts (the sheet up), scans my naked body, then drops the sheet on top of me like a used Kleenex,” she said at the MAKERS conference in California, “He walks away without a word…The whole thing was a power play, a game. And the goal, to demean me, to strip me of my power and make me feel on a cellular level his dominance over me.”

 

In the end only her back was exposed in the film. The 48-year-old actress also reportedly had issues with Alfonso after he berated her for how she looked.

“How quickly can we get a plastic surgeon in here’, ‘Her nose is ruining my movie! I can’t do this! Look at this!”‘ Alfonso reportedly said.

Messing was “frozen, horrified, mortified” and “felt deep shame” about her Jewish heritage after his comments.

Monday Club A Collective For Actors and Creatives

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ttf-photographer-tom-metcalfe-1Monday Club is a collective of creatives who meet once a week as a company of actors, dancers, writers, directors and more to generate new ideas and to share skills from our various artistic backgrounds. We encourage collaboration and the development of new writing and performance, and support individuals in the exploration and achievement of their artistic goals.

TAKE THE FLOOR

Take the Floor is an exciting new scratch night, hosted by Monday Club at Chelsea Theatre. The night promotes new work within all forms of the arts and forges connections for collaboration between these varying mediums. At the event, we encourage creative support between participants and we provide ‘no pressure’ networking opportunities. All of our pieces are handpicked from a variety of promising new artists with fresh and dynamic ideas.

The evening begins at 6pm when visual artists exhibit their new work in and around the bar. The auditorium then opens at 7pm for a number of eclectic ten-minute performances on Chelsea Theatre’s wonderfully spacious stage. The twenty minute interval sees the first of our selected singer-songwriters perform in the bar, with the second musician playing at the end of the night, when performers and audience members discuss what they’ve seen, and perhaps even swap details for future collaboration over a very reasonably-priced drink at the bar.

Following our first Take the Floor in October, writing partnerships have been formed, advice has been shared from participant to participant, and pieces shown have continued on their various trajectories with feedback from our Take the Floor audience to help shape their development.

A celebration of diversity and collaboration within the arts, Take the Floor is a stimulating evening of creativity for those interested in seeing short bursts of varied entertainment, and those who are looking for inspiration to create their own work.

Visit www.mondayclub.co.uk to find out more.

Date: Sunday 15th January 2017

Time: 6pm for visual art; 7pm for performances on stage

Location: Chelsea Theatre, 7 World’s End Place, King’s Road, London, SW10 0DR

Tickets: £6 for one or £10 for two tickets for the whole night; £3 entry on the door for music only.

Tickets available from www.chelseatheatre.org.uk soon!

Take the Floor is run by James Bailey, Charlotte Whitaker, Robyn Hoedemaker and Guy Remy.

info@mondayclub.co.uk

 

Michelle Williams: “I Have Struggled To Find Acting Work For Three Years”

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michelle williams i haven't find work in three yearsActress Michelle Williams has opened up about her difficulty finding acting work in the past three years.

She is getting acclaim for new film, indie drama Manchester by the Sea, which is one of only three films she has been in since 2013. In an interview with Porter magazine she put it down to trends:

“In the past three years I have found it really hard to get work, It is very seasonal, you know, your popularity or marketability or whatever these things are, and I’ve been like in a little bit in a winter… My expectation, because of my early experiences, is failure, and so when something good happens for me, I am dazzled by it, I am like on my knees, I am just so grateful, so happy, so excited, because it’s not what I expect,”

Luckily she has two films coming out in 2017 Wonderstruck and The Greatest Showman.

The 36-year-old actress is also worried that roles might dry up when she turns 40.

“People talk about it like it’s a sort of cliff that everybody gets pushed off! It’s hard to imagine that you’ve reached this kind of age where suddenly the rug is pulled from underneath your feet.”

 

What do you think?

 

If you are an actor then check out my book How To Be a Successful Actor: Becoming an Actorpreneur. It is available in print and in all eBook formats on both Smashwords and Amazon.