Hans Linkin' Andersen
Thursday, March 1, 2018 at 1:45PM • The Undefeated an amazing longread about the careers of several non-household name black actors from 1990s television series
• Coming Soon Ansel Elgort in talks to play fairy tale writer Hans Christian Andersen in an original screen musical composed by Stephen Schwartz (Wicked). The huge success of La La Land and Greatest Showman is already taking effect which is nice because we were worried it wouldn't.
• /Film Kristen Wiig in talks to play the villain Cheetah in Wonder Woman 2. Looooove this idea
• MNPP Armie Hammer getting his chest waxed. Nooooo
• The Guardian Casting for Quentin Tarantino's Charles Manson movie has begun. Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio are officially returning to the director's filmography. Margot Robbie might be joining them.
• Coming Soon Have any of you read the Witchers series of fantasy books? It's being adapted to Netflix series with several characters confirmed
• NPR profiles the three awesome Octogenarians up for Oscar this year: James Ivory, Agnes Varda, and Christopher Plummer
• TFE ...and in case you missed it, we just interviewed James Ivory
• Variety Chris Hemsworth may star in a Men in Black spinoff because no franchises die anymore
• Into Film inspired by Lady Bird, a list of 10 other great debut films by female directors.
Stage (Pssst. Tony Season is almost upon us)
• W Magazine Lee Pace sorta comes out... in that tortured 'I won't say it, but I'm saying it' Jodie Foster kinda way in this interview about taking on the Joe Pitt role in the revival of Angels in America
• Theater Mania Harry Connick Jr is now in rehearsals for the debut of a new musical based on Best Picture winner The Sting. It's going to premiere at New Jersey's Papermill Playhouse (which is a great place to see shows)
• Show-Score A list of all the current NYC stage shows offering lottery tickets (i.e. cheap seats for lucky winners) not that I want to give myself competition as I'm already losing Angels in America and Frozen daily. But these lotteries do actually send people to shows every single day who couldn't afford it otherwise. I only ever enter sporadically (if I remember / am dying to see a show / friends visiting NYC etc) and I've won thrice over the years and seen West Side Story, Wicked, and Kinky Boots quite cheaply. Though I suspect it's harder to win now that all the lotteries are online instead of in person (i.e. less commitment to enter so way more competition).
Exit Video
Christine Baranski talks about filming Mamma Mia 2 and does a really bad Cher impression!
Reader Comments (14)
The Undefeated piece is a great read. I've always admired actors like those featured who quietly but sturdily build long-lasting careers doing often thankless work. They are the true unsung heroes of the medium. Bianca Lawson -- daughter of actor Richard Lawson who's married to Beyoncé's mother -- literally has been playing a teenager for most of her career (Save the Last Dance, anyone?).
Lee Pace...sigh. The only people who get their knickers in a bunch regarding questions of their sexuality are those who are uncomfortable with theirs. Sexual orientation itself may be personal, but it certainly isn't private. If that were the case, we wouldn't constantly see people holding hands in public, displaying pictures of their significant others at work, going on dates in communal spaces, etc. Daily we are faced with evidence of others' sexuality without thinking twice about it, so I wish that people who aren't ready to come out head on would stop using the "private life" excuse as their shield. By all means, be as evasive as you want about the topic; just don't be so disingenuous about the reason.
I clicked on the Armie Hammer article and sleuthing commenters have decided that he was getting his chest massaged and not waxed. (I used to wax my chest regularly and it fucking HURTS! Just use Nair, dude!)
The Undefeated longread was great! I loved reading about Kim Coles. Jezebel just did a great interview with Erika Alexander last week. It's like a "Living Single" resurgence!
As to Pace's comments - I don't think we spend enough time thinking about how atypical the entertainment industry re: the expectation of highlighting such matters. Business people promoting a new project aren't interviewed about their personal life. A university professor who writes a new book isn't asked about hers on the book promotion tour. Yet it's completely the norm in entertainment to expect actors and singers to answer all kinds of questions about their personal life. Especially in a business era in which more and more it's deemed inappropriate to raise such topics, it's curious to me that questions about this are just deemed a normal part of working in that field. I loved the Bernadette Peters interview that was recently highlighted here, and if she won't talk about her private life in interviews, that's reasonable to me. It doesn't affect how much I love and am affected by her work. And I don't see why Lee Pace should be expected to answer questions differently than she does.
I guess I'm crazy. I saw the Lee Pace quote on another website (Greg in Hollywood), and I was confused. I could have sworn he came out a while ago. Or maybe someone outed him? Either way, I agree with ScottC - it is sad that interviewers still feel it's appropriate to ask personal, and yes intrusive questions about people's lives just because they are entertainers.Surely there is so much more about someone you can ask about besides who are you dating...
As far as The Witcher goes? Haven't read the books, but HAVE played the third video game, a truly FANTASTIC Western RPG, the whole way through.
I wish Lee Pace the best. I'm a fan. But if he didn't want to answer questions about homosexuality, he shouldn't have taken the part of Joe Pitt in Angels in America.
Torn about Pace. I do kind of think the added expectation of a performer being frank about their personal life is silly and limiting, and it's pretty ballsy to ask that question straight up, so I see why he was flustered. But it's commonplace and if it bothers you that much, perhaps being a star performer isn't the profession you should have aimed for, especially given the role your playing at the moment.
Peter & Scott & all -- my issue is not with his caginess about it so much but with his hypocrisy. He directly states that gay actors should play gay roles and then doesn't want to talk about his own sexuality even though both of his Broadway outings have been in classic gay plays! It's just so silly. It's 2018. There are now plentiful actors who have proved the lie that you can't get work if you come out. There is nothing stopping Lee Pace but himself.
Plus sexuality isn't private (though sexual behavior is). Everybody is constantly announcing it in public and in conversation "my wife this, my husband that, my girlfriend my boyfriend" etcetera etcetera... plus who they hold hands with, kiss, etcetera
Tommy -- no, he never came out. It's just the internet has been talking about him as a gay man (and Ian McKellen accidentally 'outed' him in an interview a few years back) for awhile -- particuklarly because people believe he's dating Richard Armitage his Hobbit co-star.
Pace opened the door then got unreasonably defensive when Moylan took it as an invitation to cross the threshold. I don't think the question was any more out of bounds than any regarding how an actor's specific experience informs a specific performance. It still was about the work. It's not like he was asked whether he's team bottom, top, or vers.
Nathaniel-I hadn't thought of it in that way and I agree with you
Nathaniel is exactly right. If Pace believes that gay actors should play gay roles, how would he/we know if that's happening unless we know if the actor is gay? How else would we know that unless the actor says it him/herself?
Speaking of (non) gay actors for gay roles, how do we feel about Ansel playing Hans Christian Andersen?
"Plus sexuality isn't private (though sexual behavior is)."
Sexuality is not one and the same as forming of sexual *identity* though.
How you understand and deal with your identity are subject to experiences, ideas, influences that may create conflicts for them (unbeknownst to the public.)
Expediting someone's forming, or "accepting", their identity can be painful without knowing all the relevant details of their lives.
Helping to make that process a healthy and supportive one is the ideal. But the internet is often less about ideal mental health and well being, than tribal ideals.
@Kate - well said, but again, it was Pace that stated gay actors should play gay roles. This profile was regarding his project that is relevant to that statement so asking him about his own orientation was a totally logical follow-up question. However, he didn’t have to answer it. He could have chosen not to. But to criticize the question as “intrusive” is confusing at best and hypocritical at worst.