The Mix : What are people talking about today?

Tweeks: Tween Holiday Gift Guide

grid-8545197With only a couple weeks until Christmas, we Tweeks can’t stop thinking about what we’ll be getting (because duh…we’ve been totally good this year). But it’s also come to our attention that we’re not easy to give gifts to.  Anya prefers digital comics and Maddy can’t watch DVDs on her laptop, but you can’t unwrap a something that doesn’t physically exist.  So this where we talk about why today’s tweens are hard to shop for, ponder if buying fandom merch should be a personal purchase, and give some ideas on how to present the kids in your life with presents they will love.  We also have a companion Pinterest board with recommendations (& a peek at our wish list) if you haven’t done your shopping yet!

Dennis O’Neil: Guilty, Guilty, Guilty!

Well, I guess I was wrong and I guess I’ll take whatever heat there is, unless I can think of somebody else to blame. We refer to last week’s column in which I predicted that the CW televised enterprises, Flash and Arrow, were about to commit Crossover: that is, begin a story in one show and end it in the other. I jumped to a conclusion. What the programs in question really committed was Guest Star; each hero appeared in the other’s venue but the problems to be solved and the adventures to be had and the bad guys to be vanquished were unrelated.

And while we’re on the subject of bad guys… unless I suffered a fairly significant mental glitch somewhere between eight and nine last Tuesday, the Flash and company perpetrated a melodramatist’s sin by catching the villain off-stage and thus depriving we eager onlookers of what would naturally be the story’s (exciting) climax. We hear that the evil dude is at large and then there’s a brief scene in which he’s behind bars and then on to other concerns. I’ve been guilty of giving the antagonist short shrift in a story or two, mainly because I was more interested in other elements of the narrative so, being guilty of the same sin myself, I am throwing no stones. But this sort of thing is questionable technique and maybe we should all avoid it in the future.

Okay, that’s a quibble and on the bright side, the Flash-Arrow guest stunt put Emily Bett Rickards, who plays Arrow’s the charming and comely Felicity Smoak, on my screen twice in one week and that buys forgiveness (and yes, dammit, I know she’s young enough to be my great-grandchild.)

(Regarding Felicity: If she were canonized, would she be holy Smoak? Something for the show’s writers to consider and then immediately forget about.)

Word is that last night’s “winter finale” Arrow episode will feature a Batman baddie and if true this won’t be the first time Arrow’s people have rummaged in the DC Comics line. Are they trying to build a video franchise, as the company’s long-time arch rival, Marvel, is doing successfully in the world of movies? Motivate us watchers to tune into a DC show and not just another adventure of a super guy? That would be a tricky accomplishment, I think, and they’re probably not attempting it. No, they’re probably doing what the rest of us are doing, using what’s available to them and hoping that it works. Making it up as they go along. Okay by me. That’s what we and our various ancestors have been doing for about five million years and counting and, what the hey, it’s gotten us this far.

Michael Davis: Without A Doubt

My beloved New York City had, until recently, a law on the books known as “Stop and Frisk.” In a nutshell, it meant if a police officer suspects, for any reason, that you may be up to no good, they can detain and search you. Guess who the majority of people being stopped are?

Black and Latinos. Or, as they are known to NYC cops, niggers and spics.

A New York State Of Mind. Nov. 1, 2012 Michael Davis World

I forgot that I’ve written about this racist bullshit law before. (Stop and Frisk) NYC is going to appeal the court ruling. Of cause they are, because NYC is run by a bunch of racist motherfuckers. The law has done nothing to curb crime, and the vast majority of people stopped are young black men. What’s funny is the vast majority of people found with weapons were white guys.

Seriously. Check the stats.

I Read The News Today, Oh Boy, Aug. 16, 2013 Michael Davis World

What happens when I don’t take my meds and voicing my ire on Facebook is not enough? What happens when I’ve had enough of seeing Unarmed Black men choked because They Were Black? What happens when I realize that I don’t eat skittles anymore because it just reminds me of an unarmed Black Child Killed Because He Was Black?

The Middleman Aug. 15, 2014 ComicMix

My life is not my own. It belongs to any cop having a bad day. Any D.A. wanting to get an uppity nigger, regardless of proof. My life belongs to any white racist punk ass bitch drunk in a bar or any racist coward with a gun who hates hoodies.

Like I said, why not cut out the middleman out and kill myself?

The Middleman Revised Aug. 15, 2014 Bleeding Cool

Despite the often-racist policies of City Hall and its Choke-An-Unarmed-Black-Man-to-Death police force, NYC will always be my home.

The Great New York Con Oct. 29. 2014 ComicMix

No resistance, whatsoever. None. Nada. He made No Move to resist while they were choking him nor did he make any aggressive move Before they threw him to the ground. While on the ground he repeated, “I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe.” His death was Ruled a homicide by the Medical Examiner.

Oh, did I mention the choke hold the officer applied was illegal? That’s right,

NYPD Forbids the use of that particular way of restraining someone.

Why? Because, it may cause severe injury or death. Watch the video on line; don’t take my word for ANY of this.

So, with none of this in dispute, it’s clear to me the officer will not have to stand trial.

Why? He was an unarmed black man.

Duh.

My Facebook Status in response to: New York bracing for grand jury decision in police chokehold case. Dec. 1, 2014 2 days before the Eric Garner Grand Jury announcement. Yahoo News (AFP)

As if there was any doubt.

My Facebook Status in response to: Grand jury declines to indict officer in chokehold death of Eric Garner. Dec. 3, 2014 day of the Eric Garner Grand Jury announcement. (PIX)

No. No doubt at all. Those are just a few of thousands of words, in dozens of articles, I’ve written about race over the years. Most have been rants about how black men are targets nearly all have forecasted the trend of killing unarmed black men will continue.

My Facebook status on Dec. 1 if this year, wasn’t my reaction upon hearing the cop who shot Mr. Garner was free to live his life. I let everyone know two days before there was no doubt he would walk. No black person I spoke to beforehand thought the cop would get indicted.

Not a one. My Facebook post described the overwhelming evidence against this man. The tape was clear as day, this man was guilty as sin and I wanted it on the record I knew that cop would walk.

He walked.

Perhaps, for some, who believe I often play the ‘black card,’ my foreseeing this outcome with such certainty, would demonstrate to them racism does indeed exist in the age of Obama.

Not only does it exists it targets black man.

That’s the reality of black men in America. No, it does not happen to everyone, however, if you are not black but know someone who is black, they know someone it happened too, if not them.

I guarantee it.

I knew the cop would go free, but I wondered what explanation would the ‘man’ give when asked how that conclusion was reached. I would concede whatever bullshit reasons those fucking murderers on Staten Island gave for taking his life if they explained just one thing to me.

I’d accept, agree and explain why regarding the following:

Murderers: He should not have resisted.

I agree. His hands were up while stepping back. Clearly he was readying his Black Panda Strike.

Murderers: He was really fat.

Yep! Thousands of fat people die from choking every year. Mama Cass allegedly choked on a sandwich! She was Fat. Simple changes in his lifestyle, drinking more water, exercise, avoiding being Black. If he only did the latter, I’m sure he’d be alive today…and thinner.

Murderers: He should have not been breaking the law.

On this I could not agree more! This man’s crime, selling cigarettes is the reason this country is going to hell. Put him down. Put him down like the animal he and that other unarmed black fat kid shot in Ferguson were. I mean what is it with these fat black kids? The kid shot in Ferguson committed the second worst crime known to man, shoplifting.

Our police officers put themselves on the front line every. Let’s not forget that! Remember the confused young man whom shot all those people at a Batman screening? My God that poor misguided young man had enough firepower to start a war. The police managed to secure him without firing a shot! Now that young man can get the help he needs.

Just the other day some 12-year old black child was shot three seconds after the police rolled up. He was in a playground, playing with a toy gun. What else could the police do? Park their car a safe distance away and, using that for a shield, speak to the child through a loud speaker, which every police car has for reasons just like that?

No, absolutely not!

Someone may have shown up at the empty playground and if the child had a real gun no doubt would have been killed.

Again I’d concede every bullshit point to the murdering bastards of Staten Island, say one. His death was ruled a homicide by the Medical Examiner.

The Staten Island Medical Examiner.

Just on the basis of that, the Grand Jury should have ordered those cops to trial. Funny, no one addressed that during any of the post press conferences.

Those police officers murdered that man. Eric Gardner was murdered and the world knows it. How can anyone look at that tape and tell me how does this man deserve to die?

All he did was raise voice in frustration, telling the officers he did not feel like being harassed and choose not to be someone’s bitch that day. If this had happened to a white guy, Y E A H R I G H T, it would be the funny story he’d be telling at his company Christmas party. It would be a joke.

Well, the joke’s on Eric Gardner. He’s dead.

Some months ago I wrote an article about cutting out the middleman, “middleman” being the officer who’s going to put a bullet in my head if I dare to look at him the wrong way one day.  Why don’t I just put a bullet in my own fucking head because any fucking white cop can decide I’m the wrong nigger in the wrong fucking place at the wrong time.

More than one of my friends thought I was going to commit suicide. I’d just lost my mother she was everything to me the last of my family consequently, I’m now all-alone in the world.

At my annual dinner at the San Diego Comic Con last July, I broke down in front of some of the biggest names in entertainment, sports and finance, when that thought hit me while welcoming my guests. Trust me, you have not lived until you’re crying like a little girl and Neyo gets up and hands you a handkerchief.

This has been the best professional year of my life and the worse, absolute worse year of my life personally. So it’s fair to say my mental state is not one where a confrontation with a police officer because I’m just not in the mood to be treated like my fucking name is Toby is out of the question.

That’s fair to say but what’s blatantly unfair is ending up dead because I know my rights and the day I decide to practice them by not remembering my place, I’m choked or shot to death.

This is appalling beyond measure and as you can see from the new shootings almost every day of unarmed black boys and men, it’s common. Those on the far right no longer have to wonder why so many black people hate the police. It’s simple; many Black people hate the police for the same reason Americans hate terrorists.

They are killing our young men for no other reason than they feel they have a right to do so. They don’t, and America is letting them know it as I write this.

Dwayne McDuffie, Denys Cowan, Derek Dingle and I created Milestone to give young kids of color heroes that looked like them. The police were represented as heroes and role models and they are; just not where poor black kids live. Not where I grew up. I don’t live in the hood anymore but still feel the same way about police and with good reason. Since I’ve been living in my nice house on my nice hill, I’ve been stopped repeatedly and arrested once.

I don’t hate the police. I fear the police. This is not North Korea; no American should hate or fear the police except criminals. In guess that does mean I’m allowed, technically, I am a criminal, having taken a plea deal, rather than go to court on a charge, even with videotape evidence of my innocence.

That’s how much I fear the police and the courts. I still can’t bring myself to hate the police because I’m too smart to paint all police with one brush. It would appear that although I hold out hope that things will get better, as a black man, I feel it’s best for me to hold on to my fear and I will.

I don’t hate the police but without a doubt, some police hate me.

Because of that, in America today, I can’t breathe.

Mike Gold’s Got Plenty…

… of nothing.

Actually, that’s not true, but we (daughter Adriane and I)  spent the better part of the day wiring up new media gizmos and overhauling our Internet and fussing with the powers-that-be at the cable company, and we’re not done yet.

Ergo, I have no time and even less energy to pound out my weekly illumination.  Yep, I am getting old indeed. No more voluntary all-nighters.

So I’ll leave you with this single thought, one I passed on to artist extraordinaire ChrisCross yesterday: why does DC’s two-month Convergence stunt sound more interesting than the past three years of The New52?

Yeah, it’s a trick question. I just wanted to name-drop.

But if you’re truly dying to read something incendiary, try my column over at Michael Davis World this week. Yeah, it’s political. Real political. And incendiary. So there.

 

Dr. Demento documentary usurped from producers

  • News
  • December 9, 2014

smogberry“Under the Smogberry Trees”, the interview documentary about Barry Hansen, AKA Dr. Demento, has undergone a radical change in source and producer. Mr. Hansen’s representatives have reportedly seized control of the production from its creators, Meep Morp Studio, after a protracted series of legal saber-rattling and suspect behavior.

First started as a Kickstarter campaign in 2013, the project met its goals and the film had originally been planned for release this last August. But supporters of the film’s campaign received an email over the weekend from the studio reporting that Mr. Hansen and his company was now in control of the production, and would be responsible for the balance of all rewards, including the film itself.

(more…)

Box Office Democracy: The Imitation Game

Benedict Cumberbatch month rolls on here at Box Office Democracy. Last week we had his turn as an obnoxious egotistical wolf and next week we’ll have him as the voice of a megalomaniacal dragon but this week we get to see him act with his whole body in The Imitation Game. Finally we get a big screen look at the face that launched a thousand tumblrs. I don’t know if it’s overexposure or the breaking of some kind of spell but I fear I’m turning on Cumberbatch and at just the worst point in his career, certainly as far as the fine people at Marvel are concerned.

I’m sure Alan Turing was a fascinating person but I sincerely hope the people who knew and loved him would say more about his character than, “probably two parts BBC’s Sherlock and one part Sheldon Cooper” but that’s what the character is for most of this film. He’s great at playing that type, I never once wished Jim Parsons was in this film, but it’s not a new place for him as an actor and it’s disappointing for a movie that has such grand ambitions leaning on what is essentially type casting for most of the film. The scenes where he’s not playing that awkward know-it-all are primarily ones where he’s dealing with his homosexuality and how uncomfortable he is by how closeted he must be. Cumberbatch is fantastic in these scenes; he plays that nervous energy with just a light undercurrent of anger so well. I wish we had more of this work and fewer scenes of him showing up laypeople with his dizzying intellect; I’m quite bored with all that right now.

Other than my disenchantment with the lead actor the rest of the movie is really quite something. The rest of the cast is quite good. Keira Knightly does some exceptionally good work and her line about being a woman in man’s job meaning she doesn’t have the freedom of being an ass is destined for gif set immortality on the Internet. Matthew Goode pops off the screen in the limited time he has, his exceptional work is the takeaway for me and I hope this gives him more attention and leads to more and better work for him. Charles Dance continues his tour of being every unpleasant person with a British accent in all of media. Allen Leech is apparently not Sean Astin and you cannot convince me that he isn’t part of some Hollywood plot to clone Astin to make sure there’s always a broad shouldered redhead around, they look exactly the same it’s uncanny.

There’s a good script here but I can’t help but feel like some kind of Academy Award consultant came in and mucked it up. I’m quite sick of movies about World War II but I’m still a sucker for the emotions it can conjure up. I always fall for the stories of sacrifice, of working together, I can even get jazzed about military logistics if you give me a chance. The Imitation Game has all of that and some rather compelling characters. It works just fine at the base story but then there’s a couple things grafted on to it that feel forced and wrong.

There’s a frame story around the wartime story about police slowly realizing they can charge Turing with gross obscenity for homosexual acts and it culminates with Turing introducing the idea of the Turing test to the investigating detective and asking him after hearing his whole story if he believes Turing to be a real person. I’m quite sure nothing like that ever happened but with the Turing test being the most enduring part of his work there seemed to be this need to shoehorn it in to the movie and it takes what should be a top scene and makes it feel overwhelmingly fake. T

here’s also end cards where they praise Turing for his work and mention that generations of scientists would continue work on Turing machines and then on a separate card they say “now we call them computers” and, yeah movie, I got that they were making a computer. It also felt like a movie trying to make itself more important by underscoring how important the subject is. I know it’s Weinstein and I understand at this time of year they’re only swinging for Oscars but it needs to feel slightly less contrived.

Emily S. Whitten: Combatting Fear

What do we seek in life, when we get right down to the basics? And, particularly for those of us in creative fields, how is our drive to create and share our creations tied to what we are seeking?

I can’t speak for everyone, but I can look at myself. I seek both lasting and reliable personal connections, and the chance to make a difference in the larger world. To shape the world just a bit – to share a thought that’s dancing just behind my eyes, and throw it out into the sea of people that make up this world, to see if it strikes a chord. To discover: are there others out there like me? Do they get what I’ve put out there because they see the world the same way? Or does it make them see things differently somehow? Does something I’ve done change someone? Or make them feel better, or happier, or understood? Does it tug at the emotional core we all have but don’t always understand, or does it make them laugh, or cry, or feel, or think? Does it matter to someone?

We all want to know we matter, but a lot of us are afraid to really put ourselves out there for fear that we will discover we don’t. This can especially be a problem for those of us in the creative fields. I write this as someone who regularly faces the fear of getting too far into an idea or finishing it because I don’t know if the finished project will live up to even my own expectations, let alone another’s. And as someone who hesitates to send that finished project out into the world, because what if it’s something I think turned out well, and then I discover that people don’t care, or worse, that they hate it?

And yet, I have, at various times, managed to overcome my fear and send things out there (this weekly column included) and through this have at least learned that no matter what the reaction (whether it’s someone who loves it, someone who disagrees, someone who vehemently insults you, or someone who tells you you’ve won the prize / contest / awesome person medal of the week), at the end of the excitement, I am still standing. And I learned that I don’t regret having taken the chance, because acting is always better than doing nothing out of fear. And that I still have the desire to continue to create and share my work. That is such a reassuring thing to remember, at the dark hours of 3 a.m. when you think no one in the world will care about this thing you are spending your time on.

As someone who’s right there with you if you have suffered from this creative (or general life) fear as well, I think the root of a lot of our hesitation to live fully is the fear that we will give our all and find out that we don’t matter or people don’t care the way we want them to, and that this will steal our joy in creating (or living). But living in fear profits no one. There is nothing personal to gain by not taking a risk except for the absence of a fleeting hurt or pain; but along with that absence comes so many emotions that are long-lasting and even worse – guilt, regret, self-loathing, feelings of failure, feelings of uselessness or worthlessness. And those negative feelings tend to have a way of multiplying and reinforcing each other in an endless loop that’s hard to escape. That loop is not something anyone would choose if faced with the direct choice; and yet so many choices we make (or opt not to make) will lead right there.

We may think that by staying in the safe places within ourselves and not sharing our deeper thoughts or creations we are protecting ourselves; but really what we’re doing is stagnating, and denying ourselves the opportunity to experience or do great things, and to actually obtain what we are seeking – relationships with kindred spirits, and the knowledge that we do make a difference, whether it’s to another individual or to a whole sea of fans. Whether it’s brightening someone’s day, or making them think, or inspiring them, or instilling a lifelong appreciation of our work in someone else, it’s something we will only gain by, as Billy West is wont to say, “being fearless.”

So how can we be fearless? Well, one thing to do is to remember, especially when creating, that the whole point is that what you’re doing is something fun, that you enjoy and are passionate about. And to also remember that if you like this thing you are doing, then it’s very likely that someone else out there on this big, big planet will like it too. After all, we’re all special, but we also share commonalities. That’s what makes the world interesting. Another thing to remember is that when people do tell you they appreciate your work, they mean it. If someone goes through the trouble to contact you and tell you they like your creation, or to re-post it, or discuss it, or anything like that, they like it. And it’s important to let yourself accept that as much as you would the dark thoughts about how maybe no one will like it, and to remember it.

It’s easy to say we should remember these things, but we all know it can be much harder to do. What stops us? Why do we get to a certain point, and then – bam – fear moving forward. Well, for me, sometimes once I get to a place where I can really see where my idea is going, my mind starts racing ahead to all the great ways it could play out, and I can really envision the possibility for something big; and the thought of being able to see it and not actually achieve it hurts. And I draw back from that anticipated hurt, unsure if I am more than just a person having a little fun with things. Unsure if I can be a “real” creator. But the thing about real creators, at least the ones I’ve talked to and who would have to be considered “real” because they are objectively successful, is that they’ve generally all felt some variations of fear (and usually continue to, at least sometimes). And more than that, have encountered some form of rejection. And then, they were able to push past those things.

What if your fear is that you aren’t good enough to be in that group of real creators? Well if you weren’t at least capable of getting to that point, you probably wouldn’t be so excited about creating (not the idea of creating, or the idea of how rich or famous you might be after creating, but actually creating). The drive to create is what makes for good creations – our passion is what builds worlds. Do you really, desperately, want to create something amazing and see it become concrete? Then you have the spark, and you have the ability (or can work at developing it), and you really, truly, just have to face the fear of failure and force yourself past it, to sit down, commit to your creation, finish it, and send it out into the larger world. And to face the fact that there may be rejection, and you may need to learn more, and think about your process, and work harder, and polish your creations, and send them out again.

And to recognize that facing your fears is an ongoing process, and one which may require conscious work to practice successfully (this also applies to other things you are afraid of in life, work, or relationships – face your fears and work on them so you can take that risk, or you may regret it and be unable to go back!). I write about this subject with passion, in part because these difficulties are things I face as well; and these are words and ideas I have to remind myself of very often. No matter how gung-ho we are about our creations or our desires to achieve what we want, there is always going to be fear and apprehension lurking somewhere in the background. The key is not to deny it, but to recognize it, give it a hard look, realize that giving in to it literally brings us nothing, and tell it to take a nap for awhile so we can get some real work done.

You can’t win every second of every day; but you can work on trying to make those doubtful, fearful seconds dwindle to their rightful place – a quiet check on potential realities and possibly on your ego, that don’t actually stop you from enjoying the hell out of your life and creative process.

So go enjoy the hell out of things! And until next time, Servo Lectio.

 

The Point Radio: Goodbye SONS And Hello MARCO POLO – Begin The Binge

Most new TV series have a few episodes shot before they debut and then can feed off of viewer reaction from that point. In the case of the new Netflix series, MARCO POLO, all ten episodes were shot months before their debut this Friday. We talk with the cast about the good and bad parts of that, plus the show’s core relationship between hero and villain. Speaking of bad guys, SONS OF ANARCHY fades out tomorrow night and Katey Sagal shares her regrets while Kurt Sutter gives us some exclusive news on his next TV project.

THE POINT covers it 24/7! Take us ANYWHERE on ANY mobile device (Apple or Android). Just  get the free app, iNet Radio in The  iTunes App store – and it’s FREE!  The Point Radio  – 24 hours a day of pop culture fun. GO HERE and LISTEN FREE  – and follow us on Twitter @ThePointRadio.

Zoe Saldana on Make-up, Stunts, & being a Guardian of the Galaxy

guardians_of_the_galaxy_zoe-saldana-e1417889974304-4516267Q: So did all cast members get their make-up done together?

A: No, we didn’t; we had separate bungalows. It was only when we were all on set, all grey or green or blue and we couldn’t touch anything because we would just smear paint and stuff all over everything. We’d all sit together and Dave would be eating a super-healthy meal, I’d be having some fish and chips and Chris would be asking me: ‘So how’s the texture? Do you like the fish?’ He couldn’t eat it himself because he was on a strict diet so he was always asking me what my food tasted like.

Q: How did you while away the long hours in the make-up chair?

A: Listening to music, talking… Sometimes I’d ask about Dave and was told, ‘This dude is meditating – he sits there and doesn’t move for hours’ whereas sometimes they couldn’t even get me to sit down in the chair. My make-up artist, who I brought over from the States, would go ‘You need to sit down, get your dog and take a nap, otherwise we’ll be in trouble because I have to work on you’. My dog and I would wake up and we’d both be green!

guardians-of-the-galaxy-e1417890089913-4103914Q: What’s worse, putting the make-up on or taking it off?

A: Putting it on, trust me. When it comes to taking it off I think it’s easier because you know you’re just 30 minutes away from being in a hot tub and then bed. You’re literally ripping it off your face. The skin is flexible and it perspires and it’s ready to have that layer removed so it’s much more cooperative. They also have all these awesome solutions. It took four and a half hours to put it on and maybe an hour and 15 minutes to take off.

Q: You’ve spoken about Dave being very shy. Is it safe to assume from your outgoing personality that you’re far from shy yourself?

A: I’m not shy at all. My mum has asked me to be a little more shy! She’s sometimes like ‘Can you just shut up?’

star-lord_drax_and_gamora-6137524Q: Since you both have athletic backgrounds, did you and Dave do a lot of your own stunts?

A: We’re every stunt coordinator’s nightmare and every director’s dream. Directors wish their actors could do more of the physical stuff, more of the stunts, just so they don’t have to cut from a wide master shot into a tight close-up. With us, James was able to use many of our medium, master and close-up shots particularly with me, Dave and Chris. The stunt people don’t really like it because we come in and we learn everything within two tries. They get kind of p****d off because they don’t get to work as much. On the other hand, the stunt people who are playing your doubles are super-excited because they get to act [when they’re doubling for an actor]. They don’t have to spend the whole time just falling and getting hurt.

Q: I can’t think of any other actor who has three franchises going at the same time…

A: Wasn’t there someone who had two, like Sylvester Stallone? For many years Sly had First Blood and Rocky, right? [Laughs] And now it’s me? Believe me, this was never planned. In between these big films, I do films like Nina, Out of the Furnace and Blood Ties and Infinitely Polar Bear is coming out next year. It’s just that the big movies happen to get seen more than the small-budget ones I do, but I’m happy with it. I like playing roles where women have more significance – they just happen to be set in space and they just so happen to be made by filmmakers like James Gunn, James Cameron and J.J. Abrams. That’s not a bad list of filmmakers to work with so I say, ‘You know what, I’ll be green here, I’ll be blue there, I don’t care!’

Q: Speaking of Nina, how was it playing Nina Simone in the biopic?

A: It was a very tumultuous affair and I loved making it. We did it with so much love and I think her story is definitely worth telling.

Q: What have you learned from doing so many green screen movies?

A: It’s helped me appreciate the technicalities of filmmaking. It’s also taught me that the best thing is to always remain open and that there’s no such thing as a stupid question. Ask every single question that you can and try to work with filmmakers who will never lose patience with their actors. It’s important for a director to provide as much information, especially when we’re working with things that we have to conceive out of thin air. You can’t just expect an actor to understand: ‘Oh, there’s a dinosaur coming at you”. OK, so I’m going to automatically know how big it is and what it sounds like? I need details. How close does he get to me? How tall is he? What will the impact be of his cry when he’s screaming at me or when he’s blowing smoke or air in my face? James Cameron will bring you speakers that are twice your height and he’ll search the internet to find any sound that resembles as closely as possible the sound he’s looking for. He’ll play it to you seconds before he starts the scene and that is so helpful. I learned to always ask a lot of questions. It’s super-important.

Q: And how was Guardians director James Gunn to work with?

A: He was very generous with all the information we needed to have. He’d show us the animatics, he’d play the music, he’d explain the moment to us and how he envisioned it if we were not capturing the emotional beat as he wanted. He was very much invested even though he was taking care of ten thousand million things at the same time. You don’t want to feel afraid to ask a director something and if you do then that’s not a director you should work with after that.

Q: Do you think James learned anything from you?

A: [Laughs] How to be cool! No, I’m joking. I hope he did learn something. I really feel the wise directors are the ones who learn from their actors in terms of: ‘How can I be a better director? How can I be a better captain? I feel James is not an egotistical person. He’s very passionate and he’s also a little stubborn but in all the right places. He’s like good cholesterol. That’s James Gunn. We had moments where people thought it was tense because I was asking questions or trying to do something one way because I believed in it and James wanted me to do it another way, but we never argued; it was never a hostile environment. Sometimes Chris would go through the same thing — it was just a passionate moment between all these artists who really care. James never abused his power by saying, ‘Just do it like I said’. He was like, ‘Please trust me, do it this way and we’ll see’. If we did it his way and it didn’t work he’d say really quietly ‘Alright, do it your way’.

Q: Was there a defining moment when you decided you wanted to be an actor?

A: I was a ballet dancer for so long, but when I realized I had reached my limit and that I couldn’t go any further I knew I wanted to pursue acting. That’s one thing you don’t use as a dancer – your voice. [Laughs] And the one thing I use most in my life is my voice so it’s wonderful to get to express myself artistically through the biggest instrument I use. I auditioned for the Scarecrow in The Wiz and my mum went with me because she wouldn’t let me go anywhere alone. She did not think I was good, and I remember we had that conversation of ‘Baby, if you’re going to do this, we need to figure out a plan, like taking a class’. I did and I started reading a lot. There was this book that Judi Dench wrote that said there was a moment where, before an actor can be this or be that, the actor must simply be. I thought that to have absolute presence was to absorb everything that’s thrown at you. I’ve been getting paid for it ever since and [laughs] I haven’t needed an excuse to quit or to do something else.

Q: Do you collect all the action figures based on the characters you’ve played?

A: Here’s the thing. I have nieces and nephews and when they find them in the house, they take them and they end up broken. So there’s no point in me collecting them. One day I walked in to find my niece playing with all the Star Trek figures and eating chocolate at the same time. I was like, ‘It’s OK, take them, I don’t need them, I don’t have to sell them later for $100.’

Mindy Newell: One So Right, One So Wrong

“You are a traitor and I am the fucking CIA.” – Carrie Mathison

Have you been watching Homeland this season?

Homeland suffered not a sophomore slump but a jumpy junior year, which im-not-so-ho, admirably redeemed itself with the emotionally tortured final story arc of CIA agent Carrie Mathison (the magnificent Claire Danes) and her lover, the “almost” terrorist Marine Sergeant Nicholas Brody (the brilliant Damien Lewis), which left Carrie pregnant, Brody dead, and viewers wondering, “Where do they go from here?”

Well, where they went has been one brilliant roller-coaster ride.

The season four premiere was a two-hour feast of Carrie Mathison six months after the death of Brody, with the geography shifting from Kabul to Istanbul to Washington, D.C., as Carrie coped with a failed drone strike and the death of the CIA station chief in Istanbul at the hands of an angry mob.

Oh, and the reality of her (detached) motherhood, which included Carrie deciding to drown Brody’s child in the bathtub. But was that real? Or only the tortured dreamscape of a woman in torment over sending her lover on a mission that led to his death?

And that was only the beginning.

The show this season has been leaner, meaner and more complicated than ever. It revolves around the ramifications of that drone strike gone wrong in the first episode, by which, instead of killing a terrorist leader as it was meant to, the Americans rained death down upon a wedding celebration. There are no easy questions and there are no easy answers, as Carrie, Quinn (Rupert Friend), new CIA Director Andrew Lockhart (Tracy Letts) and Saul (the glorious Mandy Patankin – and if he doesn’t win an Emmy for his work this season I’m never watching the Emmys again) deal with the twisting truths, lies, and complicated relationships that define United States foreign policy in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the Middle East.

Homeland has reached season episode nine, titled “There’s Something Else Going On,” which aired two weeks ago and left viewers and critics alike with their jaws on the ground and in agony over the fortnight break. I have been avoiding spoilers – not my usual policy, as I am a spoiler whore – over what happened last night (in Mindy-time, tonight as I’m writing this) in episode 10, which is significant.

Reading what is to happen usually only whets my appetite to see the spoiler played out on screen with the nuances of the actors adding more depth to the written word – but this time I have luxuriated in the suspense and the “What the fuck!? What the fucking fuck!! – to quote Lockhart in episode 9 – aggravation of having to wait two weeks for answers. And I wasn’t alone. Yep, Homeland was the topic of conversation around the OR table for the last two weeks. Those who hadn’t seen it yet were all “Shut up! Shut the hell up!” and those of us caught up were all “Two weeks! How could they do that to us!”

I don’t want to give you any actual spoilers as to what created all this exasperation, but I will give you two hints. Think RPGs and Benghazi. Of course by the time you read this, episode 10 will have aired, releasing all the pent-up frustration, so it’s all rather a moot point. I’m only hoping that after the two-week bye (to borrow a sports term), the producers and their team don’t come on the field lazy and fat, but sleek and muscled and ready to win.

•    •    •    •    •

I have a place where dreams are born / And time is never planned. / It’s not on any chart, / You must find it with your heart, / Never-never land.” – Neverland, Mark Charlap, Julie Styne, Carolyn Leigh, Betty Comden, and Adolph Green

Of course, there was Peter Pan Live! to look forward to and to help bide me over.

I have loved the musical, based on J.M. Barrie’s classic tale, ever since I saw Mary Martin as the boy who refused to grow up back in the dark ages of television. And I also have had a special relationship to the show ever since I played Peter at Camp Monroe the summer I was eight years old. I remember as clearly as if it was yesterday all the words of every song and much of the dialogue; none of the joy has left, despite the 52 years laying between the then and the now. “Second star to the right and straight on ‘til morning” will always be the direction of my life.

I so wanted it to be good.

Allison Williams was… fine. Yes, she can sing, but there was something wanting in her portrayal, some impish mischievousness missing, some boyish callousness and selfishness lacking.

Christopher Walken was an embarrassment. Was he actually reading his lines from cue cards? Sure seemed that way to me. With memories of Cyril Ritchard as Captain Hook haunting me, I just could not believe what I was watching. Honestly, I was cringing for him.

And why were the Lost Boys so grown up? They seemed more like the Lost Gen-Xers. And what was with those German schoolboy costumes? Left over from last year’s “The Sound of Music Live?”

Ecch, there was so much wrong with it. Not even the clapping of every single child in the world could bring this “Tinker(ed with)” Peter Pan to life.

 

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