The Not Grammys Experience

John Waters, Grammy Nominee !This isn't The Music Experience but we should glance toward the Grammy nominees. Among the "record" and "song" of the year categories, which are kind of like the actress and actor to "album of the year"'s best picture --it's a tortured analogy, just go with it --  my votes would go to... no, I can't do it. No preferences. I like most of them but, frankly, they all remind me of other better songs especially "Chandelier" which is like "Umbrella: The Sequel" and "Fancy" which is like a weaker and more annoying Stefani track. Plus I thought "All About the Bass" was a two-for-one Novelty Song download deal with Nicki Minaj's "Anaconda" -- I had no idea it was respectable music! What would the Best Picture equivalent be at the Oscars?  I can't even imagine... 

But, again, not a music guy. Outside of movie music as an extension of a my cinephilia and musical theater as an extension of my inner soul (Proud Show Queen and I don't care who knows it... Haters gonna hate hate hate. Shake it off!) I don't think about music that much except to think "What should i put on my gym playlist to help motivate the exercize that I'm not going to do no matter how great the playlist is?!?"

Actors or Directors among the Grammy-nominated this year

• James Franco (Spoken Word nominee for "Actors Anonymous")
  I think it's worth noting that Franco has yet to win a major prize beyond a Golden Globe but he has now been nominated for the Oscar, the Emmy, and the Grammy Clearly has his sights set on a Tony at some point, too.  
• Cheyenne Jackson (Principal Soloist for San Francisco Symphony's version of "West Side Story" nominated for Musical Theater Album)_
• Neil Patrick Harris (Principal Soloist for "Hedwig" revival nominated for Musical Theater Album)
• John Waters (Spoken Word nominee for "Carsick: John Waters Hitchhikes Across America")

MOVIE RELATED CATEGORIES which are always a curious mix of Oscar years given differing eligiblity periods are after the jump...

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Quick Impressions: "Nervous Intern" in Gone Girl

New Series! In "Quick Impressions" we will be looking at the working actor in key movie scenes. Consider it a celebration of SAG card-holders everywhere and free advice for casting directors. Have you ever noticed how many people it takes to populate each film's world? So many showbiz dreams wander around on every film set and are embedded in each frame of your favorite movies, sometimes front and center but off to the side and in the background, too.

Today, we're talking to actor/dancer Brett Leigh who has appeared in two David Fincher movies, The Social Network (2010) and Gone Girl (2014) the latter of which is still in the top five box office six weeks into its release and now the year's biggest hit outside of all those CG franchises.

NATHANIEL: Tell us about your scene in Gone Girl!

BRETT LEIGH: It's towards the beginning when Nick Dunne asks Amy to marry him. I play one of the reporters at the table.  They cut the scene down but kept my line in there along with the girl sitting next to me. 

NATHANIEL:  I love that scene because it feel so performative, as if Nick & Amy are essentially acting out a traditional love story moment for the press. How was the experience and why are you billed as "Nervous Intern"?

BRETT: In scripts, as a general rule, you don’t ‘name’ characters if they aren’t plot changing or show up for several pages or scenes.  So when you have one liners, or help move the scene along as a character for a page or two, writers will just call them what they are:  i.e. ‘Courtier’, ‘Mail carrier’, ‘Nervous Intern’.  I have no idea why I was called ‘Nervous Intern’.  I don’t seem to be nervous OR an intern. [Laughs] The other people were called like, 'Fashionista', 'Above-it-all-Journalist'. I think it was Gillian Flynn's way of staying away from just  ‘Journalist 1, 2, 3, 4’.

I do remember the scene work and was quite pleasantly surprised at how serious Ben Affleck is on set - very good actor, very focused.  And Rosamund Pike was top notch every single take.  We weren’t given the full script, but in taping you could definitely tell Rosamund and Ben knew where they were in the story and where their characters were going.  Of course with David Fincher at the helm it’s quite impossible NOT to know where your character is and where they are going.  

You're also in The Social Network!

I play the frat guy hazing Andrew Garfield in the snow. It’s about 2 minutes and I have the majority of the lines.  

Did you fantasize about further terrorizing him as a supervillain when he got the Spider-Man part?

[Laughs] No, but I would really like to be in a comic-come-to-life movie.

Getting that Social Network part must have been amazing

I was coming back from overseas playing Riff/Action in the International Tour of West Side Story.  

Brett Leigh, center with bandana in the international tour of West Side StoryMy favorite musical !

I got a call for an audition and I was like “They’re making a movie about Facebook?”.  It sounded kind of ‘TV movie’ to me.  It all happened kind of fast.  I was called in about four times for this scene. After getting the role I found out more about who was directing and writing.  Thats when my mind was blown. David Fincher and Aaron Sorkin?!  I couldn’t believe I got the role over other Hollywood hopefuls and the timing worked out so well just getting back from a major theatre tour.

I come from a theatre and ballet background so to transition into film with such an amazing director has been awesome.  I feel like I have been in the corps de ballet for two Fincher films. 

I hope you get a third and that we see you in a film musical some day!

Thanks for your attention dear readers. You can follow Brett Leigh on Twitter @BrettLeigh. He is also a Director/Writer and recently completed this short film "American Day". It's funny and sad simultaneously. Check it out...

COMING SOON: You tell us. Do you like this series idea?
Do you ever think about actors way down the cast list that might be one lucky break away from larger roles? 

Stage Door: Two Hunks

Billy Magnusson as "Rapunzel's Prince"If you're looking forward to Into the Woods, you should familiarize yourself with one of its two Prince Charmings. The Observer has a great profile of rising star Billy Magnusson who is in a new play called "Sex With Strangers" with Breaking Bad's Anna Gunn. We heart him here at TFE from the moment we first noticed him in his eventually Tony nominated role in Vanya and Sonya and Masha and Spike (reviewed). He played Spike in all his shirtless Sigourney's- boy-toy glory. We'd also seen him as one of the dumbest jocks ever committed to film in Whit Stillman's Damsels in Distress but either he hadn't yet perfected his sleight of hand with this 'type' or you had to be paying closer attention.

He was fun on The Leftovers a couple of weeks back, too, as a man who sold artificial look-alike corpses of your vanished loved ones. And if you've tried watching that show you'll know how surprising it is to call anyone "fun" within its creepy miserabilism. Frankly the show could use more gallows humor like it had during his intoxicating appearance.

I love this observation from the Observer profile:

On Screen and Stage Billy Magnusson often plays what I have started referring to as the Billy Magnusson Character: infectiously high energy, slightly drunk, and constantly hitting on an older woman. Oh, and he's got to take his top off. Just rip the thing off. Seriously like right now.

...What makes the Billy Magnussen Character so compelling is that he'll simultaneous play both to and against type.

I recommend that you familiarize yourself right quick with this Billy Magnussen Character. His Twitter and Instagram are fun too with cameos from co-stars of note like Kathy Bates & this one of Meryl Streep at the first sing-through of Into the Woods a year ago this month.

In other stage sex symbol news, how's this for shameless and thoroughly modern self-promotion....?

You almost never hear about actors from stage touring companies but a dancer named Mark MacKillop who played Riff in a recent West Side Story production, is selling a book compiling every photo taken of himself in hotel rooms on the road when he was lonely.

[NSFW photos after the jump...]

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"Share a Diet Coke with..."

Whenever I buy a Diet Coke I feel friendless because invariably I don't have friends in town with the random name I get. The other day I got a "Maddy" and a "Rick". But look what one of TFE's favorite loyal readers, Evan, saw in the deli!

How great is that?

Talk about accidental brilliance. Sadly these West Side lovers were discovered on the East Side. "East Side Story" just doesn't have the same ring to it. 

The most exciting "Share" I've ever gotten is this one. He's fictional but you can't have everything. 

My Link Will Go On

Baz Bamigboye talks to an acting coach about the lead acting nominations
Washington Post Nick Davis dispels five Oscar myths
Buzzfeed Jennifer Lawrence and the types of Cool Girls
In Contention on the first Oscars concert. Sounds like it needs to become a tradition!
New York Theater on that West Side Story screening with Rita Moreno last week (I so wish all these things weren't happening DURING Oscar season. I have no time. Sad face.)  

BDCWire You know the McConaissance has gone over big when Matthew McConaughey starts winning comparisons to Brando and de Niro
VF live blogs the 1993 Oscars - twenty years ago looked suspiciously like now with Leonardo, an AIDS drama and more...
MNPP a review of Enemy which has been intermittently flashing into my brain since Toronto
Carpetbagger on the pundit confusion and predictions for the big night
Salon a reminder: Jennifer Lawrence doesn't want a second Oscar right now
We Recycle Movies charts some Oscar stats involving Best Picture and the original vs adapted situation 

Fun Interactives
Slate is really killing it this year and I'm not saying that because they did such a great job with my acceptance speech piece. This "name that screenplay" quiz is super weird/hard/gripping... I didn't do as well as I was expecting (I did get Braveheart, Crash, Schindler's List and Chicago on their first word clues but the rest were much harder for me)  but it was exciting to play. They've also got a tool where you can adjust percentages of what will win Best Picture based solely on math of which "lower" categories mean the most to a Best Picture win. It's worth noting that before you even begin they have Gravity as the projected winner with 37.5% to 12 Years' 35.1% and American Hustle's 27.4% so that's their baseline.  The percentages adjust as you click on winners. But usually Gravity comes out on top. (sigh) 

Today's Must See
People magazine did a little photoshop wonder pairing the nominees (and Tom Hanks?) with their younger selves with conversations. It's super cute/cheesy but somehow kind of wistful at the same time - neat trick.

Are you afraid of me? That's all right – I'm afraid of me, too."