April 9, 2021
ET Canada
At the 36th annual Santa Barbara International Film Festival, Amanda Seyfried was presented with the Montecito Award by her “First Reformed” co-star Ethan Hawke and “Mank” director David Fincher, who both shared their respect and admiration for the star. While accepting the award, Seyfried said she was proud of her work and thanked her family for supporting her throughout her career.
Oscar nominees Amanda Seyfried, Trish Summerville, Gigi Williams and Colleen Labaff spoke with THR’s Scott Feinberg.
Scott Feinberg
April 9, 2021
The Hollywood Reporter
“He’s extremely efficient, so the team around him has to be very efficient as well,” says Trish Summerville, Mank‘s Oscar-nominated costume designer, as we — along with the film’s best supporting actress nominee Amanda Seyfried, who plays actress Marion Davies, and best makeup and hairstyling nominees Gigi Williams (the makeup department head) and Colleen Labaff (the assistant head hair stylist) — discuss the film’s Oscar-nominated director, David Fincher, during an episode of THR Presents.
Mank, a Netflix film about the alcoholic screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz and the writing of the 1941 classic Citizen Kane, was designed to look and sound as if it was made during the same era as Kane. This required special attention from each of these four women. Seyfried had to adopt a pre-Method style of acting. Williams and Labaff had to recreate the looks of specific famous people from that time. And Summerville had to design or obtain clothing that was not only period-appropriate, but that also looked right in black-and-white.
“You guys are geniuses,” Seyfried says to her three fellow artists, noting that without their contributions she could never have given the career-reinventing performance that she did.
Fincher is famously a perfectionist, sometimes shooting dozens upon dozens of takes, and is also regarded as intimidating by many who don’t know him, as was the case for Seyfried and Labaff prior to Mank. But Summerville had previously collaborated with him on music videos, 2011’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and 2014’s Gone Girl, and says, “Every time I work with him I feel like I become a better filmmaker, I become better at my job.” Adds Williams, who worked with him on Gone Girl and the 2017-2019 TV series Mindhunter, “I just adore him — he has made me a better makeup artist.”
Whatever Fincher does, it clearly brings out the best in those around him, at least on Mank, which landed 10 Oscar nominations, four more than the next-most-nominated film this year, including best picture.
Jessica Radloff
April 7, 2021
American Cinematheque
Mank Craft Panel with cinematographer Erik Messerschmidt, production designer Donald Graham Burt and costume designer Trish Summerville, moderated by Jessica Radloff. Presented by the American Cinematheque on Saturday, April 3, 2021.
Eric Roth with co-producer Douglas Urbanski and cinematographer Erik Messerschmidt on the set of Mank (Gisele Schmidt-Oldman / Netflix)
Riley Chow
April 6, 2021
Gold Derby
“It’s going to be a short entrance and probably exit, not that I didn’t enjoy it,” laughs Eric Roth in his exclusive interview with Gold Derby about his foray into film producing with “Mank” for Netflix. Roth is such an industry veteran that he won the Writers Guild of America’s lifetime achievement award back in 2012. With screenplay credits going back five decades, including his Oscar-winning screenplay for 1994’s “Forrest Gump” and 2018’s “A Star is Born” earning him his fifth Best Adapted Screenplay nomination, “Mank” represents 76-year-old Roth’s debut as a film producer. He now has his first Oscar in the Best Picture category for his first time in contention.
Wendy Mitchell
March 3, 2021
Netflix Awards FYC
A conversation with Cinematographer Erik Messerschmidt, ASC, Production Designer Donald Graham Burt, Set Decorator Jan Pascale, Costume Designer Trish Summerville, and Makeup Department Head Gigi Williams on behalf of Mank. Moderated by Wendy Mitchell.
JL Pomeroy
March 28, 2021
Costume Designers Guild Awards (Twitter)
Join us on another installment of Behind the Seams: Runway to the CDGA! This week, our host JL Pomeroy is joined by nominees Trish Summerville (Mank) and Michael Wilkinson (Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey).
Jazz Tangcay, Senior Artisans Editor at Variety
March 24, 2021
Netflix Film Club (YouTube)
Join a who’s who of behind-the-scenes talent for a Women in Film discussion about their work on Netflix‘s Oscar®-nominated slate this year, including:
Edith Bowman
January 18, 2021
Netflix UK & Ireland (YouTube)
Riley Chow
March 23, 2021
Gold Derby
“I didn’t want the movie to be a parody of black and white,” reveals “Mank” director of photography Erik Messerschmidt in an exclusive interview with Gold Derby about the greyscale cinematography of the period biopic on Netflix. “I was concerned that that could absolutely happen and if we leaned into it too heavily that the audience would be distracted by the fact that they were watching a black-and-white film,” continues Messerschmidt. He muses, “In many cases, by the way, the photography doesn’t have to take the front seat.” Messerschmidt concludes, “I adored the experience of shooting in black and white. It was fantastic and it was a challenge that I’ve never really had before.”
March 22, 2021
Producers Guild of America
This illuminating roundtable features the 2021 nominees for the Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures.
Participants include: Monica Levinson (Borat Subsequent Moviefilm), Charles D. King (Judas and the Black Messiah), Todd Black (Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom), Ceán Chaffin (Mank), Christina Oh (Minari), Dan Janvey (Nomadland), Jess Wu Calder (One Night in Miami…), Ashley Fox (Promising Young Woman), Sacha Ben Harroche (Sound of Metal) and Marc Platt (The Trial of the Chicago 7).
Moderated by PGA President Lucy Fisher.
Our nominated producers discuss how their films, whether long in development or securing financing on the cusp of production, were driven by a sense of authenticity to their subjects and in some cases, an urgency to reflect the current cultural and political climate.
Recorded live on Saturday, March 20, 2021 during ‘A Day with the PGA Awards Nominees.’
Presented by The Hollywood Reporter. Additional sponsors include: General Motors, Greenslate, Honolulu Film Office, Panavision, Light Iron and Produce Iowa.
The Producers Guild of America is a non-profit trade organization that represents, protects and promotes the interests of all members of the producing team in film, television and new media. The Guild invests in its core values that benefit the industry at large. These values are rooted in facilitating employment of its members, advocating for sustainable practices in production that minimize human and environmental harm, ensuring a set culture that advances safety and creates viable pathways into the guild for the next generation of producers, particularly those from populations under-represented in the industry. Year-round it hosts a number of educational, mentoring and professional networking programs.
Follow the PGA: Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIN, Twitter, YouTube.
