The Point Radio: Vera Farmiga’s Scary Good Summer

In the span of less than a week, actress Vera Farmiga has grabbed an Emmy nomination for BATES MOTEL and has the Number One movie in the country, THE CONJURING. She talks to us about her recent entry into the horror genre, plus famous ghost hunter, Lorraine Warren, explains why the story behind THE CONJURING is all too true. And there’s news from ComicCon, including that Batman/Superman thing and Doctor Who looks for a new comic book home. This summer, we are updating once a week – every Friday – but you don’t have to miss any pop culture news. THE POINT covers it 24/7! Take us ANYWHERE! The Point Radio App is now in the iTunes App store – and it’s FREE! Just search under “pop culture The Point”. The Point Radio  – 24 hours a day of pop culture fun for FREE. GO HERE and LISTEN FREE on any computer or on any other  mobile device with the Tune In Radio app – and follow us on Twitter @ThePointRadio.

Transcript

Hello, it's Mike Raub. Welcome to The Point, where all parts of pop culture come together. An Emmy nomination and a number one film. Pretty good summer so far for Vera Vermiga and we'll talk to her about The Conjuring and why it is not just like Bates Motel.

Plus lots of news at the end of Comic Con. How about Superman, Batman and Ultron as well? I can't wait. Let's get to The Point. This is The Point, The Point radio, get The Point radio.

The latest entry into the movie horror genre is The Conjuring, which is based on a true story involving noted ghost hunters Ed and Lorraine Warren. The story is true, as Lorraine explained to me. I remember first going to that home in Rhode Island. And when you walked in that house, just walked in, just walked in the home, you felt the

vibrations. And when you looked at those children, oh that was terrible. That was terrible to look at those children. And they would hold on to me, you know, hold on to my skirt or hold on to me in some way. And the things that went on were horrible.

And where you could normally say, let's say a prayer. Let's say a prayer. Maybe that'll make you feel more at peace with God. There was no religion. They weren't even baptized.

And that's, imagine being in a haunted home, children, young children being in a haunted home and not having that spiritual protection that is so needed in all of us. And even beyond that, it got more intense. I remember this one day, my husband and I came in two different cars that day. I don't know why we were doing that.

Oh no, he had to pick up this professor in New Haven that wanted to see this. And so when I got there, I went down the stairs where he was. And he said, go up, go up. So you know, he didn't say why. So I turned around and I walked right upstairs.

When I walked up the stairs, there was a room that was a window on one side, but there was curtains on it. And the rest of the room was very, very dark. That was scary. It was very scary because in the back corner was this monstrous looking figure.

And I blessed myself, you know, and said, in the name of Jesus Christ, go away. And it's like glowed, like you returned a light on for more light. And so I didn't fly out of there. I walked out of there and went around the corner and there was the children. Can I sit with you?

Can I sit with you? Oh, it was terrible in that house. It was a very, very, very bad home. Lorraine is played by Academy Award nominee and recent Emmy nominee Vera Farmiga, who came away with nothing but respect for the person she's portraying.

When we met for the first time, I was so excited. I had done a lot of research prior. I had, there's a lot of information through the decades. There's so much footage. And I studied and the obvious questions are all answered time and time again.

And I loved, and I think really to me, I didn't see it as a horror story. I saw it as a love story. When Patrick's name was on the bottom of the cover page and the offer, and then I went online and the script was good. All these beautiful videos on YouTube and the union was ordained between her and Ed.

It was a match made in heaven. You can see that from their rapport with each other. It's so rare to have a coupling and love a decade after decade that is so full of honor and respect. And I mean, you look at each other in the eyes, you laugh at each other's jokes.

You listen to each other. It's such a beautiful love. And to me, and the compassion that they both possessed, it just to me, I always, like, what's at the heart of the story? What is at the core?

What is this? Yeah, it could be a successful film. We know the genre, but for me, it needs to be more like, what draws me to me was a story about compassion and empathy and concern for others and knowing when we need help and when we need to give help.

I asked Vera if she was a fan of the genre. Or it was something I was forbidden to watch. Yeah, no. My parents did always turn off the TV when they used to have those Freddy Krueger movies and as a result, I chased them because I was a forbidden fruit.

But I didn't really watch. No, I maybe saw Nightmare on Elm Street that haunted me for a couple of years. Yeah. Orphan, again, to me, Orphan or Joshua, these aren't horrifying moments. But to me, I think there are more stories, like, for me, there's more, if I look at Base

Motel or Orphan or Joshua, these are stories about maternal struggle and maternal angst and various levels of it. Orphan was a couple who had experienced the most complex grief a couple can endure, which is a stillbirth and Joshua's psychotic postpartum depression. And Base Motel is a troubled mother herself who just wants her neurologically dysfunctioning

child to persevere and have a life that's enhancing to him. I don't look at these stories and say, oh, you know, just strong to female characters who possess, who their particular power is in their weakness, who are strong, strong female characters, but where their strength lies is in their weakness. Nevertheless, she's getting a little bit of a reputation both here and, of course, in

Bates Motel. She took time to point out that the parts are much different. I think they're radically different movies. I think in Base Motel, the monster is human. What's so monstrous is human madness and neurological dysfunction.

And here, we're dealing with the inhuman. I think it's two totally different stories and kinds of stories and kinds of horror. And it's funny, it's out of a roster of how many 40-plus films now, there might be like four films in this genre that I've done. So it doesn't matter.

Yeah, I think a radically different kind of movie for me. I've never explored the spirit realm other than perhaps higher ground. This is where spirituality is concerned and conceptualizing God for yourself and being in a role that instigates that kind of theoretical thought for me to define that. Also in the cast, actress Lily Taylor, who fills the pedigree of this particular cast,

makes it almost a turning point for movies of the genre. That's right. And I think it's showing that this genre, any genre, can have good acting or complexity or whatever. It's like, when I saw Insidious, I thought, the acting is fantastic in this.

I mean, obviously James is totally, he's totally, you know, he's in the zone. He's so talented. But what sets him apart, I think, is his empathy and his understanding that you can have depth in a genre. Like horror movies, you can have good actors in your horror movies.

Actor Ron Livingston is in the film as well, who talked about his previous experience with the spirit world. The closest thing I had was a bunch of years ago, I was at a party in Silver Lake, and I was having a conversation with someone who said, a friend of mine said his mother was a medium, and that he awakened one night to a bunch of, he was levitating above the

bed and a bunch of spirits were bouncing him up and down on the sheet. And I said, well, I have never, I don't know what to say, but I guess I'm the wallflower of the spirit world because I've never had anything like that happen to me. And as soon as I said it, the lights flickered, the candles on the table started shaking, and the whole room started moving.

And but it was the Northridge earthquake. Catch the Conjuring in theaters right now. Did you hear what happened to Comic Con? We got the latest in pop culture starting right now. In a four day run of news announcements, we're almost like a big game of can you top this?

learners and DC Comics may have come out on top of that whole game with their announcement that there'll be another Superman movie. And this one will feature Batman. The team up film was set for 2015, writing on the tales of Zack Snyder's successful Man of Steel reboot from this summer.

No word yet on exactly who will play Batman. Lots of speculation all over the internet about that. Of course, Henry Cavill, of course, still in as Superman for the film. Also announcements were made a comic con about a flash movie that will debut in 2016 and more talk about a Justice League movie now tentatively set for release in 2017.

Spoiler alert, it's Ultron and Avengers 2 that announced by Joss Whedon that of course it's Comic Con a few days back. Age of Ultron will be the name of the next Avengers movie, tying in some fashion to the recent miniseries from Marvel as well. But no plans announced yet on exactly how many elements of that series will tie into

the movie. Yes, Comic Con's still about comics and a number of publishers had big plans to announce to the fans, including Marvel talking about a whole run of new Marvel Now number one issues that'll be set in January of next year. They also announced plans to do more with a Marvel Man character, although nothing specific

on that. There'll be a sequel to Paul Jenkins and Andy Kubert's Wolverine origin miniseries and a Deadpool vs. Carnage crossover event as well. Marvel also announced plans to have more Lego themed variant covers as well at the end of this year and into 2014.

Riding high on three Emmy nominations for last year's Robot Chicken DC Comics special, the series will have another one this year. The DC special two will be Villains in Paradise, featuring an ongoing story arc where the daughter of Lex Luthor marries Superboy the Teen Clone of Superman. Also official air date for the special yet, but it'll air sometime at the end of this

year and the beginning of next as the new season of Robot Chicken begins on the Cartoon Network. IDW has announced a new set of volumes that fans should enjoy, including a new one dedicated to John Romita's work on Spider-Man and a Marvel covers volume that'll collect some of the very great covers from the 60s and 70s, all in beautiful IDW hardcover packaging

and both set for release sometime early in 2014. Biggest buzz right now is about the Simpsons Family Guy crossover. It's actually an episode of Family Guy called The Simpsons Guy, but it features all the voice talent from the show, including Julie Kavner, Yardley Smith, Hank Azaria and more. Not many more details are out yet, but we'd look for this one more than likely not in

the coming season, but in the one after that. The USA series Covert Affairs is back on the network for the summer for season four. There's also a prequel web series being done as well. It's called Sights Unseen, all the undercover that takes place before the series began and before that particular character lost his sight.

There'll be a new episode every week for the next six weeks at sitesunseen.usanetwork.com. DC is leaked at Amanda Conner and Point show host Jimmy Palmiati will be writing a new ongoing comic based on Harley Quinn for the company. Amanda and Jimmy are writing the comic and Amanda will do the covers, but the artist for the series hasn't been named and the book is set to premiere sometime before the end

of this year. ABC has announced the official return date for some of the series that we're waiting for. For example, Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. debuts on September the 24th. That's a Tuesday at 8 p.m.

Once Upon a Time Wonderland premieres at 8 p.m. on October the 10th, but before that, on Sunday, September 29th, another season of Once Upon a Time hits ABC. IDW and BBC are ending their partnership for Doctor Who comics. The final issue will be the Doctor Who 50th Anniversary special, which will be an interesting story that brings a Doctor and the TARDIS into our universe with a number of different

possibilities including him meeting the guy who plays him on television here, which would be Matt Smith. It's been December, after that, it's up in the air who will be publishing Doctor Who comics. Look for an announcement about that sometime over the next few days.

Rob Liefeld is back in the news, this time getting a movie deal for his 1990s heroine Evangeline and a star for it as well. Former MMA fighter turned actress Gina Carano, recently from The Fast and the Furious, will be playing a role in the film. Stop the search for a screenwriter begins for the project, that to start in the next

couple of days. Dynamite Comics has unveiled a lot of new projects this year from Comic Con, starting with a series based on The Twilight Zone, written by J. Michael Streszinski, also a revival of Heroes, the NBC television show from a few years ago. This is being dubbed as Heroes Season 5 and it's written by Cullen Bunn from The Sixth

Gun. That'll be set for sometime later in the year. Howard Chacon will return to a mini-series based on The Shadow once again, that'll be called The Shadow Midnight in Moscow, and there'll also be a series based on the animated Fox show Bob's Burgers as well from Dynamite.

The point, the point, here's what's cool. Another scorching week in the East and a lot of cool stuff in the comic store, which again I hope yours is air conditioned. It starts with a collection of Steve Ditko's work for Warren magazines, creepy from back in the 60s and the 70s.

Some of Steve's work here, absolutely gorgeous and it's an inexpensive hardcover too, just under 20 bucks. Second issue of Batman Superman hits this week from DC as does two more tie-ins to the Trinity War in Constantine No. 5 and Justice League Dark No. 22. And there's a director's cut of Superman Unchained No. 1 also this week from DC.

The Rocketeer Spirit team up begins with Pulp Friction No. 1 from IDW. And from Image there's the third issue of Bounce, a second printing of Lazarus No. 1 and a new issue of Lazarus No. 2 also this week from Image. That and lots more waiting for you at a good comic store. Find all the latest ones with the Comic Book Locator Service, 1-888-COMIC-BOOK with a free

app that's available in the iTunes App Store or you can try another source too which is a website called FindMyComicShop.com. And as of the podcast right now we're back at the end of the week with a whole run of things to share with you from Comic Con. Exclusive talks with some of your favorite stars about what's going to be happening in

the big TV season. It begins in just a few short weeks. And there's plenty of pop culture to cover between now and then on The Point Radio. And get the point radio.com on your iPhone, your iPad with a free app available right now in the iTunes App Store under Pop Culture and The Point.

Or use the app TuneIn Radio and listen to us free on your Android or your Blackberry too. Now this podcast in particular is on great websites like ComicMix.com and MichaelDavisWorld.com. You can also check us out at the iTunes Podcast Director. You can subscribe to us there.

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