Tag: Direction of actors

Awards Chatter Podcast: Jesse Eisenberg on “A Real Pain,” Acting vs. Writing, and “The Social Network”

The Oscar-nominated writer (he’s a finalist for his semi-autobiographical original screenplay about a transformative trip to Poland) and actor (2010’s The Social Network) talks to THR about his life and career.

Scott Feinberg
January 28, 2025
The Hollywood Reporter

Jesse Eisenberg is the guest on the latest episode of The Hollywood Reporters Awards Chatter podcast. The 41-year-old actor, writer and director is best known for his portrayal of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in David Fincher’s 2010 masterpiece The Social Network. Fourteen years after receiving an best actor Oscar nomination for that performance, the former child actor is an Oscar nominee again, this time for the original screenplay that he wrote for a 2024 film that he also directed and stars in, A Real Pain.

The semi-autobiographical drama is about two very different cousins — one “successful” but anxious, played by him, the other struggling but charming, played by Kieran Culkin — who travel together to Poland to pay tribute to their beloved late grandmother. It premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, where Eisenberg was recognized with the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award, and at which its U.S. distribution rights were acquired for $10 million by Searchlight, which released it on Nov. 1, 2024. It has since garnered rave reviews — it’s at 96% on Rotten Tomatoes — and has grossed $16.4 million worldwide.

Over the course of a conversation at the Los Angeles offices of The Hollywood Reporter, Eisenberg reflected on how a shy and socially-awkward kid wound up on the stage and the screen in the first place, in films such as 2002’s Roger Dodger, 2005’s The Squid and the Whale and 2009’s Adventureland; what led him to begin writing, even as his acting career took off thanks to the commercial success of 2009’s Zombieland and 2010’s The Social Network, and why he shifted from penning scripts in the mold of Adam Sandler comedies to more personal material; how A Real Pain — the second feature that he wrote and directed, after 2022’s When You Finish Saving the World — essentially brings together ideas he first explored in other pieces that he wrote years ago; plus much more.

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David Fincher Talks To Us About Brad Pitt’s Crazy Schedule, The Complicated Sloth Makeup, And The Infamous Box As SE7EN Turns 30

The making of a masterpiece.

Sean O’Connell
January 2, 2025
CinemaBlend

Rain drenches an anonymous street in Los Angeles, which is standing in for an anonymous city that won’t be named. Two A-list actors, playing polar opposite detectives assigned to a frightening and ominous case, stand around and wait for their turn to step on set, where they’re poised to discover the next atrocity left for them by a mysterious serial killer named John Doe.

But in this specific moment, director David Fincher is just trying to figure out how to get the body of character actor Michael Reid McKay, transformed into the victim we’ll come to know as Sloth, onto the set without disrupting the man’s intricate makeup job.

That’s just one of many unexpected challenges facing David Fincher (Fight Club, The Social Network, Zodiac) as he labored on SE7EN, the mesmerizing dark-noir thriller that cast Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman as cops tracking a killer whose victims are modeled after the Seven Deadly Sins. It’s an ingenious hook, designed by screenwriter Andrew Kevin Walker. But it was Fincher’s meticulous execution of the crimes that burrowed under the skin of moviegoers back in 1995, and helped make SE7EN an unforgettable achievement that earned its place in the pop-culture pantheon of contemporary masterpieces.

I’m not sure Fincher knew he was creating a masterpiece at the time of filming. The former music-video director was coming off of a disastrous shoot with Alien 3, was focused on establishing himself and his own voice, and had to deal with a difficult schedule attached to one of his leading men. (More on that in a second). And then, there was this damn Sloth body… the one that wakes up mid-investigation, and scares the daylights out of John C. McGinley (Scrubs).

Speaking with CinemaBlend on behalf of a 30th anniversary 4K UHD release of SE7EN (which arrives on January 7), Fincher started reminiscing about that particular Deadly Sin.

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‘It Kind Of Is A Young Man’s Game’: David Fincher’s Blunt Comments On Retirement Bum Me Out As My Generation of Filmmakers Starts Calling It Quits

Sean O’Connell
January 7, 2025
CinemaBlend

Holt McCallany Answers Every Question We Have About “Fight Club”

By Roxana Hadadi, a Vulture TV critic who also covers film and pop culture
October 16, 2024
Vulture

Holt McCallany can talk for a long time about filmmaker David Fincher, with whom he’s worked three times. On the beloved crime-thriller series Mindhunter, which was unexpectedly canceled by Netflix after its second season. On Alien 3, the prison-planet sequel that was Fincher’s directorial debut and so plagued with interference from 20th Century Fox that Fincher wouldn’t talk about the movie for years. And on Fight Club, the cult classic that has been misinterpreted in bad faith since it came out 25 years ago. McCallany can mimic Fincher’s tone and jokingly recites his advice from years on set together. And he can just as vividly recall a grudge he’s harbored since the movie’s release.

“I remember sitting in a dentist’s office, and the TV happened to be The Rosie O’Donnell Show. She’s talking about Fight Club and she says, ‘Whatever you do, don’t see Fight Club. It’s demented, it’s depraved. I don’t think I’ve ever hated a movie more.’ I’m thinking, Gee, Rosie. Do we go on TV and bad-mouth your show? Is this really necessary, this kind of abuse?” McCallany says. “It angered me. I won’t pretend otherwise, because we were very proud of the film, we had worked very hard on the film, and we were very loyal to David.”

In Fincher’s adaptation of Chuck Palahniuk’s novel, McCallany plays The Mechanic, a devoted follower of anarchist philosopher Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt) whose unflinching glare and menacing physicality are always in service of Durden’s anti-consumerist ideas. McCallany exudes such certainty of self that once you notice the Mechanic cheering in the background of fight scenes, doing chores in The Narrator (Edward Norton) and Durden’s dilapidated mansion, or threatening to “take” a police commissioner’s testicles with a knife, you’ll keep looking for him, wondering what those wild eyes and set jaw are getting up to. The Mechanic tightened McCallany’s relationship with Fincher (who had previously wanted him for a small role in Se7en), and his melancholy-yet-adamant delivery of the film’s iconic mantra — “His name was Robert Paulson” — indicated how fully he could inhabit heavies with a heart.

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Lex Fridman Podcast: Kevin Spacey, Power, Controversy, Betrayal, Truth & Love in Film and Life

Lex Friedman
June 5, 2024
Lex Friedman Podcast

Kevin Spacey is a two-time Oscar-winning actor, who starred in Se7en, The Usual Suspects, American Beauty, and House of Cards, creating haunting performances of characters who often embody the dark side of human nature.

OUTLINE:

0:00:00 – Introduction
0:02:44 – Seven
0:06:24 – David Fincher
0:14:16 – Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman
0:19:46 – Acting
0:28:10 – Improve
0:36:54 – Al Pacino
0:40:38 – Jack Lemmon
0:49:55 – American Beauty
1:10:04 – Mortality
1:12:52 – Allegations
1:30:50 – House of Cards
1:49:25 – Jack Nicholson
1:52:27 – Mike Nichols
1:58:01 – Christopher Walken
2:05:08 – Father
2:14:00 – Future

Listen to the podcast:

Apple Podcasts
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In Conversation: David Fincher and The Crew of “The Killer” in New York

Tomris Laffly
October 28, 2023

David Fincher discusses the making of The Killer with Sound Designer Ren Klyce, Editor Kirk Baxter, and Writer Andrew Kevin Walker, after the screening for the press in New York. Hosted by Tomris Laffly.

(Video clips recorded with a phone from the audience, with not very good audio and, for some reason, with each video clip edited in twice).

In Conversation: David Fincher and Michael Fassbender with Rian Johnson on “The Killer” at the Academy Museum

Rian Johnson
November 15, 2023
Netflix: Behind the Streams

Director David Fincher and actor Michael Fassbender discuss making The Killer with moderator Rian Johnson at The Academy Museum in Los Angeles.

Watch The Killer on Netflix

In Conversation: David Fincher and The Crew of “The Killer” in New York

October 27, 2023
Netflix: Behind the Streams

David Fincher discusses the making of The Killer with Writer Andrew Kevin Walker, Editor Kirk Baxter, and Sound Designer Ren Klyce, after the “Tastemaker” screening for The Academy at the Whitby Hotel in New York.

Watch The Killer on Netflix

Holt McCallany Talks to David Fincher about “The Iron Claw” and the Role of a Lifetime

By David Fincher
December 29, 2023
Interview

After casting Holt McCallany in Alien 3 and later in Fight Club in the types of tough-guy roles that have largely defined his four-decade career, David Fincher finally let the 60-year-old actor showcase his softer side as FBI agent Bill Tench in Netflix’s psychological thriller Mindhunter. It was that performance, in which McCallany was able to balance steely professionalism and quiet melancholy, that earned him a meeting with director Sean Durkin, who was looking for the right person to play the patriarch of the Von Erich clan in The Iron Claw, his biopic of the legendary Texas wrestling dynasty. As Fritz Von Erich, a loving but severe father who pushed his four sons (played by Zac Efron, Jeremy Allen White, Harris Dickinson, and Stanley Simons) beyond their limits—often with tragic results—McCallany is earning the best reviews of his career, and even, to his own shock, some Oscar buzz. As he told Fincher over Zoom a couple of weeks ago, he’s still letting it all sink in.

DAVID FINCHER: Hey Holtster! How have you been?

HOLT MCCALLANY: I’ve been great David, because there were a couple of articles, one in Variety, one in Vulture, that picked me as somebody who could get a possible Academy Award nomination for Supporting Actor, even though it’s going to be a very tough year.

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Holt McCallany as Fritz Von Erich. By Devin Yalkin

Variety Awards Circuit Podcast: Danielle Brooks (“The Color Purple”) and Holt McCallany (“The Iron Claw”)

Clayton Davis
December 14, 2023
Variety

Also on this episode, “The Iron Claw” actor Holt McCallany talks about playing the legendary wrestler Fritz Von Ehrich in Sean Durkin’s powerful new drama. He discusses coming to peace with many of his scenes that were cut from the film, and what we can expect from his upcoming directorial effort “The Star Maker” after getting script notes from David Fincher.

A quintessential “that guy” performer in the eyes of most audience members, this veteran character actor boasts over 80 credits in a three-decade career, including turns in “Nightmare Alley” and Netflix’s “Mindhunter.” As the hardened patriarch of a family of pro wrestlers in A24’s sports drama, McCallany exudes an intense and thorny power, expertly revealing the dangers of a particular form of pressurized ambition. It’s a performance that’s reminiscent of J.K. Simmons Oscar-winning turn as the abusive music teacher in “Whiplash.”

How Kerry O’Malley Delivered an Unforgettable Turn as a Secretary with Secrets in David Fincher’s ‘The Killer’

Matt Donnelly
December 14, 2023
Variety

SPOILER ALERT: This post contains spoilers for David Fincher’s “The Killer,” now streaming on Netflix.

The next few months will be stacked with conversations about the year’s best film performances, but we’d be remiss to let 2023 go dark without mentioning one of its most exciting turns: Kerry O’Malley in David Fincher’s “The Killer.”

A veteran working actress who has appeared on “1923,” “Grey’s Anatomy” and in features like the “Annabelle” franchise, O’Malley more than held her own alongside Michael Fassbender and Tilda Swinton in the unexpectedly funny tale of a contract killer gone haywire.

O’Malley stars as Dolores, an average-seeming New Orleans woman who serves as dutiful assistant to a lawyer (Charles Parnell), who also happens to dole out high-paid hit orders on the rich and powerful. Fassbender, a protégé of Parnell’s, has been betrayed and seeks revenge — but must first tangle with Dolores, who confuses his own sense of vigilante justice with her pragmatism and air of innocence.

O’Malley’s sequence in the film makes for some of the most riveting character work we’ve seen from Fincher as of late. Dolores is a woman fully aware of how she earns her living, yet appeals to a broader sense of empathy in the viewer (and her own potential murderer). In a chat with Variety, O’Malley discusses auditioning virtually with Fincher, working with Fassbender and the “banality of evil.”

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Actors on Actors: Michael Fassbender & Carey Mulligan

December 10, 2023
Variety (YouTube)

In their Actors on Actors conversation ‘Shame’ costars Carey Mulligan (‘Maestro‘) and Michael Fassbender (‘The Killer‘) reminisce on working with Steve McQueen and talk about the directors they worked with on their current projects, David Fincher and Bradley Cooper.

Variety Actors on Actors presented by AIR from Amazon Studios.

From ‘Shame’ to Netflix Films: Michael Fassbender and Carey Mulligan on Rejection and Being So in Character You Act Without Thinking

Kate Aurthur
Photographs by Alexi Lubomirski
December 10, 2023
Variety

In “Maestro” and “The Killer,” the characters played by Carey Mulligan and Michael Fassbender exist in different worlds. Mulligan’s Felicia Montealegre Bernstein, an up-and-coming actress who becomes conductor Leonard Bernstein’s wife and soul mate, breathes rarefied air among East Coast artists from the 1950s through the ’70s. Fassbender’s tightly coiled, mostly silent assassin, meanwhile, travels the world seeking vengeance, while keeping his focus by doing push-ups on his fingertips.

Twelve years ago, though, Fassbender and Mulligan inhabited the same toxic universe, as dysfunctional siblings in 2011’s “Shame.” The film was writer-director Steve McQueen’s bleak, sexually explicit examination of sex addiction through the eyes of Fassbender’s character, Brandon, a New York City executive brought low by his self-destructive desires. Mulligan’s Sissy, a lounge singer, was sorrowful and also boundary-less.

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