October 31st, 2011

Bert Portal Tells of Filming ‘My Week With Marilyn’

We’ve mentioned that we’re excited to see our own Bertie Portal of Facing the Atlantic in the new movie “My Week With Marilyn.” Now he’s interviewed in today’s London Evening Standard!

robert portal in my week with marilyn

It’s one of the most anticipated films of the year, telling the story of Marilyn Monroe’s visit to London and featuring a strong British cast.

Today a cast member from My Week With Marilyn – a biopic set around the time she filmed The Prince and the Showgirl with Laurence Olivier – said the performances of the leading actors were “uncanny”.

Kenneth Branagh, who plays Olivier, is so good it was as if Olivier had “come back from the dead”, according to actor Robert Portal.

The film, shot at Pinewood Studios and due to be released in Britain on November 25, centres on the week Monroe was looked after by Olivier’s employee, Colin Clark, played by Eddie Redmayne. Dougray Scott plays Marilyn’s husband Arthur Miller and the film also features Emma Watson.

Portal, 44, plays David Orton, one of the assistant directors of the 1957 film. He said: “It was great to film. The set was great and looks just like [The Prince and the Showgirl].” But Portal will not attend the premiere. He is taking part in a 3,000-mile expedition rowing a boat across the Atlantic to raise money for charity Facing The World. To donate, visit justgivng.com/facingtheatlantic.

“My Week With Marilyn” opens November 23 in the US, November 25 in the UK.

Woo hoo, Bertie!

October 31st, 2011

Stephen Moyer: “Everybody jump on!”

This video’s a bit of fun and a tad refreshing after all The Double videos and interviews. Steve’s witty as usual as he discusses the bromances on everyones minds these days.

Get More: Music News

October 31st, 2011

Everyone’s a Winner in Our Bill Compton Halloween Contest!

That’s right, folks! We had a hard time deciding on only two winners so decided to expand the contest to three winners. But we didn’t want to leave out anyone who put in time and effort for our little contest so we added two Honorable Mentions.

The Honorable Mentions go to … (drum roll, please) BillohBill for her Graveyard Sex Cake and Brenda for her rice-writing of Bill’s name necklace (we’re still wondering how the hell anyone can write on a piece of rice)! We’re sending each of you an autographed copy of Sheri R. Anderson’s book, “The Ultimate True Blood Trivia Guide.” Congratulations!

Third Place winner goes to … fbforbill for her Halloween portrait of Bill! You’ve won a print of a beautiful portrait of Bill Compton by Anima Eterna and signed on the back by the artist. Congratulations!

bill compton wants you

Our Second Place winner is … BillsNia for her amazing pencil sketch of Bill and Mosely! We hope you’ve taken Bill’s advice ’cause you’ve won an organic “We Recycle in this House” shopping bag signed by Steve! Congratulations!

bill compton and mosely organic shopping bag

BIG DRUM ROLL, PLEASE!

First Place goes to PwdlPal for her awesome and hilarious re-creation of first season Bill by her dog, Katie! You’ve won the grand prize, a Simply Moyer T-shirt autographed by Steve! Congratulations!

katie dog as bill compton

Katie as 1st season Bill

katie dog as bill compton

Who said anything about sex?

Thanks to our talented entrants for playing along with us. Happy Halloween!

October 29th, 2011

Stephen Moyer’s a “bad ass in real life”

So says Topher Grace in yet another interview from the press tour for “The Double”.   Yeah, another Steve and Topher interview, but we’re kinda enjoying their bromance at Simply Moyer HQ.

October 29th, 2011

Stephen Moyer Isn’t Sure He Likes His Own Accent …

… on screen. Steve mentioned in a recent interview that acting in his own accent sounds “weird”. “I always liked playing accents. One of the things that has just happened is, I just came off a job where I was using my own accent, and I haven’t done it for years. I called my wife [actress Anna Paquin, who plays Sookie Stackhouse on TRUE BLOOD], and I said, ‘I sounded really weird and I’m not sure I like it, because it’s the first time I’ve spoken [on screen] as me for so long.’ And so that was quite odd, because I’m always using an accent of some kind. Even when I was in England doing work, I played Northern and did lots of different dialects. So it was a really fun character to get my teeth into.”

If acting hadn’t worked out, Steve said that he’s not sure what he would be doing, but landscaping may have been an option. “In the summer holidays, I did landscape gardening for a friend. I used to dig holes and plant flowers and I got a fearful lot of knowledge about greenery, which I still retain, and so everywhere that I’ve lived is a little pocket of ground with a garden in it, that I keep going. So maybe, because I love the outside and I love gardens, I possibly would have ended up as some kind of landscape gardener. I don’t know.”

Steve also shares how his sister’s love of “An Officer and a Gentleman” influenced him, as well as how he found a familiarity with Richard Gere via their shared experience with musical theatre. “My sister is two years older than me, so growing up, when I was twelve, thirteen, she was fifteen, she loved OFFICER AND A GENTLEMAN,” says Moyer. “We had a VHS copy that she used to watch a lot and I absolutely love that movie because of that. I think it’s a great film. There’s an amazing fight sequence at the end of that film, where Richard’s kind of incredible. AMERICAN GIGOLO as well. Also, what people tend to forget about Richard is that he started out in musicals. And I started out in musicals. I think he was the first person to play Danny Zuko in GREASE on stage and I played Danny Zuko when I was seventeen. So I was peppering him with [questions about] that. I wasn’t actually peppering him with AMERICAN GIGOLO and OFFICER AND A GENTLEMAN, or any of those films. I was more interested in his musical theatre career. And so we found out that we’d sort of got a common thread and were not from dissimilar backgrounds, either. And so that was really fascinating, because I think he started thinking back to things that he’d sort of not thought about for awhile, so we had a lot of fun. We didn’t go into any WEST SIDE STORY numbers during our fight, but we did have a little croon every now and then.”

To read more of Abbie Bernstein‘s profile of Steve, including his discussion of the Russian martial art “Systema”, how he views Bill Compton’s accent as part of his costume, and how he avoids being typecast, please visit assignmentx.com.

October 28th, 2011

How Does Stephen Moyer Party on Halloween?

How does Steve spend his Halloween? Does he dress up? Do he and Anna go to awesome Halloween parties? Steve shares all of this and more …

“For the first year of the show, because the show wasn’t massive at the time, I just thought that it’d be funny to dress up and do that,” Moyer tells PopcornBiz of dressing up as his “True Blood” alter ego Bill Compton for a round of parties in Los Angeles. “You do get people going, ‘That’s good – you look just like the guy!’ You go, ‘Oh, thanks.’ So I did do that – I wouldn’t do it now, but it was funny at the time.”

"Wow! You look just like Stephen Moyer ..."

Despite being surrounded by vampires, werewolves, shape-shifters, fairies and other supernatural beings on a regular basis while filming the show, Moyer says he and wife Anna Paquin still get excited around Oct. 31.

“One of my favorite things every year post-Halloween is that we get sent pictures [from HBO] of all the Bills and Sookies that go to Halloween parties around the country,” says Moyer. “I’ve seen hundreds and hundreds of them. It’s very funny. Of course the ultimate sort of I suppose compliment is that Ed Helms played Bill in an episode of ‘The Office.’

Moyer, who last year dressed as Playboy publisher Hugh Hefner, says he’ll be hitting a favorite Halloween party – but without his wife. “There’s a good friend of ours called Michael Dougherty, who wrote ‘X-Men 2′ and is a great filmmaker in his own right – he did a film called ‘Trick ‘R Treat’ with Anna. He’s a very clever boy, and he has this amazing Halloween party where everyone dresses up. We’re not going to be together this year because my company and myself are producing a film that Anna is working in right this second down in Florida. So I will be going with my daughter. She will by my scene partner this year, as she always is at Halloween.”

The actor next has his own non-“True Blood” role ahead, in the spy thriller “The Double” opposite Richard Gere and Topher Grace. “It has a lot of homage to a certain style of filmmaking from the ’70′s and espionage thrillers John Le Carre and everything from the ’39 Steps’ to ‘Spy Games,’ or my favorite, ‘Three Days of the Condor,’ that kind of thing,” the actor says. “And there’s a lot in common with this and a film called ‘No Way Out,’ one of Kevin Costner’s early movies. It’s a fantastic film, and in fact they showed, Michael showed ‘No Way Out’ to the crew the night before we started shooting because he wanted to give everyone an idea of the color that he was trying to paint with.”

Until then, if he ever decides to go trick or treating in character as Bill again, Moyer wonders about the response he’ll get. “Maybe they’ll say something like, ‘Oh, you look like Ed Helms from “The Office.”‘

source

October 28th, 2011

Updated: More & Even More Moyer Videos for ‘The Double’

the double interviewHere’s another bit of the celebs.com interview and now one from wearemoviegeeks.com. The boys joke around a bit, admit to having an off-screen affair, and Topher Grace suggests that Steve should do a “Funny or Die” video. Turns out Steve’s been asked but hasn’t found time to film one. More twists than a barrel of pretzels!

“The Double” opens today in limited release.

October 27th, 2011

Six degrees of Danny Zuko: Stephen Moyer finds common ground with Richard Gere

From Screen Crave comes an interview with Stephen Moyer about his experience on the set of The Double. Read on for some interesting bits you’ve never seen before.

One of the things we like about The Double is its homage to multiple genres. You’ve got the perfect mix of the buddy and spy-cop thriller with a real Silence of the Lambs vibe. What about this project spoke to you?

Steve: I think you hit it on the head in many respects. My favorite stuff to watch if I’m looking on Netflix or iTunes is still the same. I go to thrillers. I want to see thrillers. I love the Bournemovies, The Conversation, Three Days of the Condor, and right back to 39 Steps. I love those films. I love the way they’re constructed. I love the way they make me feel. [I love] edge of the seat stuff, you know?

Steve on Richard Gere: I spent a lot of time trying to get information out of him. I’d pull up my director’s chair next to his and ask him hundreds of questions. I’m sure he was bored rigid with me by the end of the shoot.

Was there anything particular that he said to you that stuck or was it more just watching his performance.

Steve: Richard began in musical theater and I did too. I asked him a little bit about how he started out and I think he rather enjoyed going back over it a little bit. I don’t think its something he gets asked very often. So once we set up that common ground, we rather enjoyed going over it. He played Danny Zuko (from Grease) many years ago, and I played Danny Zuko when I was 17, so we talked about that and it was a lot of fun.

Steve on preparing for his character, Brutus: I spent a bit of time in the prison cell. We were working in a working prison in Michigan so that was very interesting because we had to get through a lot of security to get into the prison. The floor we were filming on had some solitary cells so I got put in one of the solitary cells for a while. I liked it. I liked the way it made me feel. I made them lock me in there in between takes. It was a lot of fun, but I wouldn’t want to spend much time there. I tried to use that as an idea of him. In that first scene, he has the ability to leave his cell and I based the idea on the fact that the character doesn’t have a chance to do that very often.

Spoilery if you haven’t seen the movie

Did you really swallow the batteries?

Steve: I’m rather proud of that shot.

It’s incredible but also disgusting.

Steve: I don’t think Michael will mind me telling you that I came up with how to shoot it. It was one of those things. There were lots of ways discussed of how to shoot it. I said the only way to make this truly work is if we do it in one shot. Film and theater and magic are about slight of hand and misdirection. And that’s all I’m going to tell you. I don’t want to give too much away for people reading this.

The entire articles is ready for you over at Screen Crave.

October 27th, 2011

Award Credits for Genre TV? Stephen Moyer Thinks It’s Time

Steve gave an interview to HollywoodOutbreak.com about how True Blood has paved the way for other genre shows. He specifically mentions that “American Horror Story” wouldn’t have been possible four years ago, and cites the popularity of “Game of Thrones” and “True Blood” as proof that genre is now mainstream.

It’s nice to hear how Denis O’Hare (Russell Edgington) sends e-mail messages to Steve about the crazy stuff happening on “American Horror Story.” Click the photo to listen to a portion of the interview.

stephen moyer at true blood press conference

October 27th, 2011

Video: Stephen Moyer Poses at TeenNick HALO Awards

stephen moyer smiles at halo awards“Nice smile young man!” shouts one photographer in this video of Steve on last night’s red carpet for the TeenNick HALO Awards. Steve then asks one of the photographers, “You doin’ the race this year?” A female voice replied, “Are you?”

We didn’t get an answer! Will Steve try again in the Toyota Pro Celebrity Race? Hmm …

Here’s another video of Steve on the red carpet where he claims to be from Albuquerque … click the photo and go to the 2:46 mark.

stephen moyer at halo awards

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