Several Screen Actors Guild award nominees took risky bets that paid off; Singer-songwriter Gaby Moreno rewrites some holiday classics; and director Laura Poitras talks about her Snowden documentary, "Citizenfour."
Taking risks in Hollywood pays off for some Screen Actors Guild Award nominees
Hollywood types love to gamble. Just ask Ben Affleck. But very rarely do they actually go all in with their own careers.
If you look at the nominations for the Screen Actors Guild awards that were announced Wednesday, it’s easy to see that several performers who made a big bet on themselves cashed in nicely. In several categories, actors who either produced their own films or slashed their normal salaries collected nominations.
Reese Witherspoon, for starters, was nominated as outstanding female actor — as SAG calls the category — for her starring role as a woman looking for meaning while hiking the Pacific Crest Trail in “Wild.”
The actress personally paid for the rights to Cheryl Strayed’s memoir of the same name, largely because she felt it offered a great female role that was absent from most studio films.
Witherspoon: I read it in 48 hours, I just thought it was riveting. I called my agent that night and said, "I don't know who this woman is, but I have to talk to her tomorrow." She got me her number and I called her. I think I surprised her on the phone, and I just said, "This is one of the most important books I've ever read."
Witherspoon and her partner, Bruna Papandrea, produced “Wild,” and Witherspoon also produced “Gone Girl.” She says she is determined to keep looking for movies featuring strong parts for strong women — something the studios have almost completely abandoned.
Meanwhile, Jake Gyllenhaal was nominated by SAG for top actor for his performance as a creepy and amoral TV news videographer in “Nightcrawler.” It’s a big departure from the big-budget films he made like the $200 million “The Prince of Persia.” Gyllenhaal also produced “Nightcrawler.”
Gyllenhaal: We had to sort of beg, cheat and lie a little in order to get the movie made for $8.5 million over 26 days. I was involved immediately from the jump. I was involved in all of the questions and all of the issues that a producer would have and I was on all the phone calls. You know, it really helped because there were a couple of things that came up that would get in the middle of our schedule and I would — no matter what — say, "This is partly my movie and I'm producer on it and I'm not leaving it and it doesn't matter what offers I have as an actor."
Gyllenhaal continues to look for personal and professional challenges. He’ll make his Broadway debut next week in the new play “Constellations.”
With the “Hunger Games” blockbusters, Julianne Moore pulls down huge paychecks for playing rebellion leader Alma Coin. But she more typically gravitates to movies made on a much smaller scale — and those are the ones more likely to be noticed at awards time.
She’s landed a SAG nomination for outstanding female actor for her role as a 50-year-old academic diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease in "Still Alice." As you read Moore's comments, keep in mind that big studio films typically shoot over the course of three months.
Moore: This is a movie we made for $4 million in three-and-a-half weeks — not even a year ago. So the fact that we even got distribution is astonishing. We're really, really happy about that. And the fact that it's getting attention. Wow, how lucky are we?
“Boyhood” was nominated by SAG’s ensemble award, which is its equivalent of the best picture Oscar. Cast member Ellar Coltrane made quite an investment too, but it had nothing to do with money.
Coltrane was just a 7-year-old kid growing up in Texas when he signed on to be part of Richard Linklater’s 12-year endeavor. It was a tremendous leap of faith. Coltrane ended up pledging a lot of his childhood to making the movie, without knowing how it would unfold or if he’d gain anything from it career-wise.
Coltrane: Early on I was a pretty out-there kid and I didn't really go to school, so they had to tone down my fashion sense and taste in movies a little bit. I was a little bit begrudging, I think, like, Oh, why do I have to act like such a dork? But, yeah, I definitely became more excited and just kind of grateful that I got to work on it and invested more of my self into it.
“Boyhood” turned out to be more than worth the risk. The film not only was a breakout hit on the art house circuit, but it’s also considered one of the leading contenders for the Oscars.
In addition to “Boyhood,” SAG’s other best ensemble nominees are “The Imitation Game,” “The Theory of Everything,” “Birdman” and “The Grand Budapest Hotel.” The awards will be presented on January 25th.
Documentarian Laura Poitras was scared the government would shut down 'CitizenFour'
Laura Poitras's past films, "My Country, My Country" and "The Oath," both explored post-9/11 America and the effects on the rest of the world, but her newest film, "Citizenfour," examines what our country can do to one of its own.
"Citizenfour" tells the story of famous NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. Poitras was in Hong Kong with Snowden and journalist Glenn Greenwald when Snowden first leaked his documents in 2013.
So when Poitras stopped by The Frame, we asked her about filming a story that was happening in real time, protecting her data from the U.S. government, and the state of whistleblowers in contemporary society.
Interview Highlights:
A lot of documentary filmmaking is often told from the point of some perspective — it might be time, it might be distance — in which you're looking back at events. The events in this film are unfolding in front of your eyes, in real time. What was that like as a filmmaker, to be witnessing the narrative tell itself as you were there?
It was definitely the most extraordinary filming experience I've ever been in. Being in this hotel room in Hong Kong and having these meetings with a source who actually had documentation of the most secretive agency in the world, and one of the most powerful agencies in the world. Being there with [journalists] Glenn Greenwald and Ewan MacAskill, with them receiving this information and Snowden trying to explain the technicalities...we were all worried that someone was going to break the door down and try to stop us from working. So it was pretty high-stakes, and I was pretty nervous. I've worked in conflict zones, and this definitely felt more scary.
What were you nervous about?
I was nervous that the government would come in and shut us down. Certainly I was nervous for Snowden and his circumstance: he had taken enormous risks and we know that the government has come after journalists in unprecedented ways in recent years.
I've worked with James Risen with the New York Times, and the government is trying to get him to talk about a source. The government could have tried to charge me and Glenn. They talked about James Rosen being a conspirator in the Stephen Kim case, so that's the government's position right now, to really come down on sources and journalists.
Have you had any contact with the U.S. government or the NSA regarding your footage? Have they tried to reach you and get it?
[laughs] Those are interesting questions. Before I went to Hong Kong I had a lot of meetings with lawyers. Some said it was risky to go and The Washington Post advised me not to, but then I had lawyers who said, "Obviously you're acting as a journalist." Though one lawyer said, "If you bring a camera it makes it more risky" — because of the threat of subpoenaing my material.
So I edited everything in Berlin and we took extreme measures to keep the footage secure and encrypted, with the concern that either the material would be subpoenaed, or worse, that they could try to raid our editing room and take everything. We protected it all, even all the outtakes, with encryption and strong pass phrases. In terms of whether or not I've been contacted, I haven't been, but—
As far as you know, you haven't been contacted.
Well, I know they're paying attention to me, but they're not sending me letters or calling me on the phone. Or calling my lawyer.
How does it change the story you're telling when you find yourself a subject of the film itself?
It was obvious that the viewer needed to know that I was a participant and [that] Snowden reached out to me. I like to make films that draw the audience in and take them on a journey, and I didn't want this to be all about me, so it was about trying to figure out the balance between how much of it would be subjective and how much of it would be what I love to do, which is this cinema verite, where you see things unfold in real time. When I'm working that way, I do my own camerawork.
So in the hotel room, I didn't have a crew, there wasn't anyone doing sound. I wasn't hiding behind the camera; I was actually operating it. I felt that what was unfolding was a rare moment of journalism and I was trying to document it. Usually in these situations, the source won't reveal their identity, so you can't see it. You read about it, and then maybe years or decades later the source will come forward, like Deep Throat. But in this case I could film it, so I was interested in creating a record of what happened.
While you were making this film, or even now, did you feel that the government was tapping your phones or looking into your email?
What do you think?
[pause] I think the odds are good. But they're probably tapping a lot of people's.
Yeah, I think so. I've been working in Berlin, and I have some sources in the German Intelligence Agency that say that I'm lit up like a Christmas tree in terms of my communication.
Use cash, don't have a mobile phone, and send letters, not e-mails.
You know, that's the reality. After I got back from Hong Kong I put my cell phone in a drawer and didn't use it for a year while I was editing. I figured that if they wanted to know where I was, they'd have to spend some money to find out. I wasn't going to just broadcast my location. And that's kind of a scary situation for a journalist. You have an obligation to protect sources, and this digital technology makes that very difficult.
What kind of steps did you have to go through to protect your footage in post-production?
After being in Hong Kong, I got on a flight to Berlin, and we put all the footage on encrypted drives. The editor, Mathilde Bonnefoy, and I began editing, and for a while we were the only ones who had passwords for the material. Then we shared it with a very small group of people that we trusted.
And then when the film got further along we worked with many funders and distributors who needed to see the film. We made them come to Berlin and we took away their cell phones, which they didn't like. But people were great. That was actually a surprise, just how supportive people were to help us make this project, and there were risks involved. We didn't know what the government was going to do.