Should Trevor Noah’s Tweets cost him his job as the new host of "The Daily Show"?; “Furious 7” director James Wan (left, with Vin Diesel) reveals why he needed to finish the film after the death of actor Paul Walker; The L.A. Philharmonic completes its tour of Asia, jet lag and all.
Trevor Noah keeps his 'Daily Show' post after controversial tweets
Comedy Central yesterday named the largely unknown Trevor Noah as its replacement for Jon Stewart on "The Daily Show." But the network’s bold announcement quickly turned a little sour.
By the end of the day, the South African comedian’s Twitter feed had been scoured and he was was accused of sending Tweets that were anti-Semitic and sexist.
One such Tweet from 2009 read: “Almost bumped a Jewish kid crossing the road. He didn't look b4 crossing but I still would have felt so bad in my german car!” Another Tweet said of the Argentine soccer star Lionel Messi that he “doesn't go down easy, just like jewish chicks.”
Comedy Central responded just a few hours ago with this statement:
.
stands with
— Comedy Central Press (@ComedyCentralPR)
.@ComedyCentral stands with @Trevornoah. pic.twitter.com/UnL4DZFjee
— Comedy Central Press (@ComedyCentralPR) March 31, 2015
Noah responded to the controversy over twitter:
To reduce my views to a handful of jokes that didn’t land is not a true reflection of my character, nor my evolution as a comedian.
— Trevor Noah (@Trevornoah)
To reduce my views to a handful of jokes that didn’t land is not a true reflection of my character, nor my evolution as a comedian.
— Trevor Noah (@Trevornoah) March 31, 2015
So, for now, it looks like Noah will survive this firestorm. The Frame's John Horn spoke with Rick Ludwin, former head of late night at NBC, and Andrew Wallenstein, the co-editor-in-chief of Variety, about the severity of Noah's tweets and how Comedy Central handled the situation.
Correction: The headline of an earlier version of this post accidentally mis-identified Trevor Noah as Trevor Nash.
LA Philharmonic ends its tour of Asia in one piece
Touring Asia as a member of one of the world’s top orchestras seems like a pretty sweet deal: fly to Hong Kong, Shanghai, Seoul and Tokyo. Eat great food. Stay in nice hotels. And get paid.
But being an orchestra member on tour also means being ready to perform at the highest level, at every concert, no matter where you are. Or what time your body thinks it is.
Philharmonic violinist Elizabeth Baker says "jet lag can be hard to overcome in those first few concerts." She has played with the orchestra since 1987, spanning from the Esa-Pekka Salonen days to current artistic and music director Gustavo Dudamel.
"I have a memory of a tour that started in Asia with Esa-Pekka," Baker says. "The last piece on the program was 'Bolero.' This is when I realized that conductors also can suffer from jet lag. We started at a slower tempo than normal. Esa-Pekka had a tendency to draw things out a little bit as the end approached. Except that it was getting more and more and more drawn out. I think it was, for me, the slowest 'Bolero' on record.
Jet lag isn't the only physical complaint on tour. Andrew Wachtel is the L.A Phil’s physician. He travels with the orchestra.
"It’s common for people to get food poisoning when they’re traveling," Wachtel says. "If you’re performing something like [Mahler's Sixth Symphony], which is almost an hour-and-a-half, and you’re having food poisoning and you have to possibly have to run to the bathroom or be nauseous in the middle of it, it’s a bit awkward. Where are you gonna go in the middle of the stage? We have a lot of Pepto Bismol and they have to make sure they’re feeling like they can perform, or sometimes they can’t perform that night.
Principal oboist Ariana Ghez was one of many Philharmonic musicians who fell ill in Caracas three years ago. She had to miss a concert: "When we went down to Venezuela, a third of the orchestra got really sick."
Elizabeth Baker says that in many cases musicians will go on even if they’re not feeling well. Sometimes the performance depends on it: "If you’re a solo woodwind player, for example, if you have a solo and you have a fever and feel pretty bad, you still have to go out there and do it.
Life on the road presents specific challenges for instruments as well as people. Musicians who play reed instruments such as the oboe and bassoon need to be aware of changes in humidity and altitude. Again, oboist Ariana Ghez: "I make sure I know if there’s a city with a high altitude. We have to make our instruments for whatever space and climate we’re in."
There’s also the issue of adapting to new concert halls in each city. Assistant conductor Mirga Grazinyte-Tyla serves as the ears of the orchestra during quick acoustic rehearsals in each new venue.
Grazinyte-Tyla says the concert hall in Seoul was very “bright,” so the orchestra had to play more softly there. Otherwise, aside from severe jet lag, this tour was fairly smooth.
But with all of these potential difficulties — and the huge effort and expense required in transporting the orchestra — why tour at all? Deborah Borda, president and CEO of the L.A. Philharmonic, says it’s partly about visibility, but also about the music. She says that facing all these difficulties is actually good for the orchestra.
"It’s a kind of crucible that the orchestra goes through," Borda says. "And the more you do that, the greater the orchestra grows to be."
The musicians agree. Those very hardships, and the mutual effort to cope with them, form bonds that might not exist otherwise. Tom Hooten plays principal trumpet for the Philharmonic.
"Last night, for hours, we sat and talked about our personal lives," Hooten says. "For me it creates a better environment to make great music onstage.
Joanne Pearce Martin is the Philharmonic’s keyboardist, playing piano on this tour. She says there's something particularly valuable for the musicians getting out of Los Angeles: "We’re such a car culture. We play our concerts and then we get in 80 different cars and go to our homes. We don’t often have the time or energy left to go out and socialize. When you're on tour and you’re sitting on airplanes, it’s a lovely time to get to know your colleagues."
How low-budget horror films helped James Wan direct 'Furious 7'
As of press time, the "Fast and Furious" series has grossed almost $2.4 billion at the box office since the first installment debuted in 2001, making it one of the most valuable franchises in film today. So it was a bit of a surprise when James Wan was tapped to direct "Furious 7," the last film of the series.
Prior to "Furious 7," Wan had never directed anything close to a big-budget action flick. His experience lies in low-budget horror films, though he's no stranger to success — he directed "Saw" and "The Conjuring."
When Wan stopped by The Frame recently, we talked about shooting action for the first time, developing a recognizable style and finishing the movie to honor Paul Walker.
Interview Highlights:
How did your experience shooting low-budget horror films prepare you for a big-budget action movie?
The best thing about low-budget filmmaking, whether it's a low-budget thriller or a low-budget drama, is it forces you to be creative. When you're forced to make a movie with very limited resources, that kind of problem solving really helps you in the long run with with future films that may cost a lot of money to make.
I think Sam Raimi said that he was most creative when he had next-to-no money to work with to make his movies. The moment he had money, though, anything he asked for, they would make it happen. It's creative in that respect, but at the same time it also meant that whatever you can think of, people can make it work for you.
Because you have to be so creative, you develop a signature, something unique to the way you direct. Did your style find its way into this movie as well?
I think aesthetically my style is something that I've developed over the course of the six, seven movies I've directed now, and while the movies are pretty much shaped by the budget and resources I've had early on, in a lot of weird ways I see a lot of similar approaches that I did in my very first movie, "Saw," that I had to apply to "Furious 7."
In "Saw" I had such little money and so little time to shoot that film -- I think I shot 'Saw' in 18 days. I realized I had to really dig deep into my back of cinematic tricks to make the movie not look too cheap, shot on time, and on-budget. I had to cut around a lot of issues and I never thought I would have to do that again, but I found myself doing that in a huge way on "Furious 7," having to cut around a very big problem in this film. And that is, of course, no longer having Paul Walker around.
Paul Walker died pretty much halfway through filming. Is that about right?
That is about right.
Obviously there is a huge psychological, personal, and emotional shock to that. Once that's passed, you're talking using the skills you've developed as a low-budget filmmaker to craft a performance where you no longer have your lead actor.
I think the hardest part was just getting around the initial heartache. It took us a while to come to terms with the fact that Paul had passed on. After that, the reality of trying to finish this movie sank in, but it was very clear to all of us from early on that we had to finish this film for Paul to honor his legacy and his memories.
Without giving anything away, the ending of the film is, for an action movie, oddly emotional and somewhat out of character for this kind of film. How do you weigh and balance action and emotion?
The emotional part of it comes in waves. I joke and I say that I have a big bag of cinematic tricks, but in this movie I've literally exhausted every single one of them to make this work. Finishing this with visual effects to complete Paul was not something that we had factored in.
You have to bare in mind that the movie had a certain schedule, and to now have to include such a huge monumental undertaking was so big for all of us. We had very little sleep getting this movie finished.
It was a challenge of trying to find ways to rewrite the script, going back to the drawing boards, and asking, "What do we have from previous 'Fast' movies that we could potentially salvage?" We also had to figure out what had not been used on previous films, and maybe the movies might be other ones from outside the "Fast and Furious" world that we could use to help us out.
I want to say that there have been a lot of producers out there that have worked with Paul that, without even thinking twice about it, said that they would let us use their films.
You actually ended up using dialogue from other films?
We ended up not using dialogue from any other movie, but having said that, having some of what Paul might have done in other films to put into the rough cut meant gave us a direction to move into. We knew what we could do moving ahead.
Even though they might not actually be in the final movie, it was very helpful. Obviously, using doubles for visuals and having the visual effects team was helpful as well.
Do you actually know anything about cars? Do you know the difference between a carburetor, and fuel injection?
I just know the basics. [laughs]
What? That the gas pedal makes it go, and the break makes it stop? [laughs]
Yeah, exactly. I know that if you push this, it goes faster, and if you push on those it stops the car. People ask me what kind of car I drive, and I am very proud to say I drive an electric car.