| Christmas in Miami |
[24 Dec 2009|08:48pm] |
Photos of Matt jogging near his home in Miami on Tuesday are at PopSugar, E Online and here.
The Informant! will be released on DVD and BluRay on 23 February 2010. Extras include a commentary with Steven Soderbergh and writer Scott Z Burns and deleted scenes.
Critic Richard Roeper listed The Informant! in his favourite films of the year.
10. "The Informant!"
One of the most entertaining movies of the year -- especially if you get a bigger kick out of a well-delivered line of dialogue than another CGI explosion. I'm not sure why filmgoers didn't respond to Steven Soderbergh's offbeat satirical satire, based on true events. Matt Damon packed on the pounds, sported a cheesy mustache and created one of the most original characters of the year: Mark Whitacre, a corporate whistleblower/compulsive liar who is scary-smart and amazingly dim, sometimes in the same moment.
Matt talked about his culturally diverse family in this video at YouTube, including:
"My daughters are English, Swedish, Scottish, Finnish, Italian, Spanish, French, Argentinean and American. That says everything I think about this country and what it’s supposed to be about."
Actor Ben Stiller's challenge to Matt to help him build a school in Haiti is also at YouTube.
A revealing article with Matt, which is a version of an article previously linked, is here.
An interview with Marguerite Wheatley, who plays Matt's girlfriend in Invictus, is here.
Matt attended the second last performance of Kenneth Lonergan's play in New York last week - from the NY Post:
Seeing Matthew Broderick in "The Starry Messenger" last Friday was the starry audience of Matt Damon and Jules Feiffer...
Matt was third on a list of favourite male celebrities of the year at PopEater.
On the men's side, Depp earned 29 percent of over 58K votes. George Clooney followed him closely with 24 percent and Matt Damon rounded out the top three with 15%.
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| SAG Awards, various |
[18 Dec 2009|09:20pm] |
Matt was nominated for Best Supporting Actor in Invictus by the Screen Actors Guild - from the LA Times:
Best supporting actor also yielded no upsets, with the five nominees identical to the Globes' selections: Matt Damon ("Invictus"), Woody Harrelson ("The Messenger"), Christopher Plummer ("The Last Station"), Stanley Tucci ("The Lovely Bones") and Christoph Waltz ("Inglourious Basterds").
Reactions from Golden Globes nominees are at USA Today, Reuters, Access Hollywood and here. Matt did not release a statement about the SAG or Globe nominations.
They were joking about it on the set of "The Adjustment Bureau," where freshly minted Globes nominee Emily Blunt was working with Matt Damon, who scored a double whammy Tuesday with nominations for the comedy "The Informant!" and the drama "Invictus."
"I'm working with Matt today, who's got a doubleheader," Blunt said with a laugh, "so I just gave him hell because he's apparently trying to steal my thunder. He's the worst."
Her fiancé, John Krasinksi, read the list, so did Blunt have any inside scoop on her nomination for The Young Victoria?
"Oh, my God, none. None whatsoever, I promise," Blunt said.
She is wrapping up shooting in New York on The Adjustment Bureau, opposite fellow nominee Matt Damon (The Informant! and Invictus). "I can't believe he stole my thunder by being given a double header," Blunt said.
First item on Blunt's agenda when she wraps the film? Ending the diet she has been on to play a ballerina. "It's going to be carnage. This slimness is going out the window."
Morgan Freeman has hailed the Golden Globe nominations for Invictus as "wonderful news".
The 72-year-old actor plays Nelson Mandela in the film and is nominated for Best Dramatic Actor, while director Clint Eastwood is up for Best Director and Matt Damon is up for Best Supporting Actor at the awards in January.
Freeman, in South Africa to attend premieres of the movie, said: "I suspect we will do a little bit of celebration, not a whole lot, you know, but it's wonderful news."
Morgan Freeman, nominated for best Actor, Drama for "Invictus": "I want to thank the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for this tremendous honor. Congratulations to Clint Eastwood and Matt Damon on their nominations, and I extend my deepest gratitude to my producing partner Lori McCreary, and the entire cast and crew of ‘Invictus’ for their tireless work to make a film befitting of Nelson Mandela’s legacy. Playing Mandela was the greatest honor of my career, and I hope that I have done him proud."
Matt also received a Best Actor nomination from the Chicago Film Critics Society for The Informant - details at Variety with commentary at Cinematical:
In the acting categories, Jeff Bridges ("Crazy Heart"), Matt Damon ("The Informant!"), Jeremy Renner ("The Hurt Locker") and Michael Stuhlbarg ("A Serious Man") will compete against Clooney for best actor.
Michael Stuhlbarg (A Serious Man) is up for awards from Chicago and the Globes while Matt Damon despite nods for his work in The Informant! from both of those groups along with Detroit is seeing his double-dip this year shifting to a body-of-work nomination in the more recent and less interesting role of Rugby captain Francois Pienaar from Invictus.
Wesley Morris at the Boston Globe also discussed Matt's recent nominations:
Part of the other reason the better Tucci performance might have been glossed over is that it is essentially comedic. Which brings me to Matt Damon, and his uncannily deranged performance in "The Informant!" He’s been nominated in the supporting category for nailing a South African accent and looking quite convincing as a jock in "Invictus," but what he managed to do with the narration alone in Steven Soderbergh’s corporate satire was ingenious.
Damon basically peeled off layers of comedy in this performance until the pathetic man we're left with in the final minutes is a shadow of the slick nerd we meet at the start. Soderbergh could have spun the film as a drama – a la "The Insider." But it was cleverer – shocking, even – to ask Damon to make us laugh, which he does. How that choice has failed to appeal to the awards show where only actors vote is unfortunate.
And an article at Variety discussed Matt's two nominations for the Golden Globes:
Over on the men's side, it is Matt Damon who has a double this year and a corner on the biopic. He scores nominations for portraying two very real -- and very different -- men. In the comedy slot, he grabs a nom for his role as the chubby, egotistic whistle-blower Mark Whitacre in "The Informant." He also takes home a supporting actor nom for his portrayal of the buff South African rugby captain Francois Pienaar in "Invictus."
The shooting script of The Informant is now available, courtesy of Warner Bros' award site.
Larger photos of Matt and Lucy at the UNICEF Ball are in Chi magazine, available at Clooney's Cookie Crumbs.
Emily Blunt discusses The Adjustment Bureau at Movies Online, and Bryce Dallas Howard is asked about Hereafter at Collider.com.
A short version of Matt's interview with Dan Patrick is in Sports Illustrated's latest issue. Francois Pienaar talks about some Invictus filming tricks at this site and Leonard Maltin discusses his interview with the Invictus cast here. A report on the strong opening for Invictus in South Africa is at News24.com.
A reporter at the The Oklahoman got some scoop on True Grit and the promotional push for Green Zone:
Damon’s record of activism has helped in Oklahoma, as well. He participated in premieres of both "The Bourne Supremacy” and "The Bourne Ultimatum” that raised money for The Children’s Center in Bethany. In an exclusive comment to The Oklahoman, Damon discussed the possibility of future premieres, one of which could coincide with the release of his latest film with Paul Greengrass, "Green Zone."
"I don't have one scheduled right now... but I love it there," Damon said. "I know they're going to do a pretty big push for 'Green Zone,' so it might include a tour like that. I'm working at that time, I'm shooting the Coen brothers movie (a remake of 'True Grit') — I'll be in New Mexico around that time — so maybe they'll do one, but I'm not sure."
Update: The article written by Kyle Damon about riding the Cape Argus Cycle Tour with Matt in Cape Town is now available online at Bicycling Magazine.
The film's producers were already terrified he would get hurt—and that was before our tenuous situation as tandem first-timers was compounded by the high winds. Matt is smart enough to know that the producers weren't being paranoid, that hundreds of people were counting on him to be in top form the following morning. But he is also athletic, competitive and confident in his physical ability: When he was five, I watched him tie a towel-cape around his neck, climb to the top of a jungle gym, and—before I could stop him—launch himself off the top, believing that he could fly.
Despite the cape, he'd broken his ankle.
"Let's do it," he said.
Support vehicles pulled over to check on us, including one filled with movie producers. One of them rolled down the window and shouted, "This is ridiculous—hop in the car." Another said, "We'll do a press release describing your mechanical issues and the wind, and no one will fault you for stopping."
"No way," said Matt. "We're gonna finish this thing."
The Adjustment Bureau was scheduled to wrap filming in New York yesterday (Thursday).
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| Two Golden Globe nominations |
[16 Dec 2009|01:06am] |
Matt has received Golden Globe nominations in two categories: Best Actor in a Comedy or Musical for The Informant and Best Supporting Actor for Invictus. The full list of nominees is here.
Matt was also nominated in the Supporting Actor category for Invictus in the Critics Choice Movie Awards (Broadcast Film Critics Association).
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| UNICEF ball, various |
[13 Dec 2009|07:32pm] |
More photos from the UNICEF Ball in Los Angeles on Thursday are at PopSugar, Mr Paparazzi, Marie Claire, Monsters and Critics and Holy Moly. Lucy is pictured below with Elisabetta Canalis (George Clooney's girlfriend) and Lauren Sanchez (Extra reporter and wife of Matt's agent Patrick Whitesell). Reports from the event are at Hello, EOnline, and People, with video at Access Hollywood.
     
Clooney and Canalis's affectionate vibe was infectious at their table: Jolie and Pitt whispered in each other's ears throughout the night, Barroso nestled into Damon's shoulder during the performances, and Heming lovingly adjusted Willis's tie before his onstage appearance.
Among those in attendance were Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, and Matt Damon and his wife Luciana, with whom Elisabetta enjoyed a giggle.
After dinner, the couple braved the rain to attend an afterparty at Il Piccolino in Beverly Hills. Clooney and girlfriend Elisabetta Canalis, Damon and wife Luciana, Cindy Crawford and husband Randy Gerber, and Willis and new wife Emma Heming also attended the private party at the small Italian restaurant.
The bash continued until around 2 a.m., when all of the celeb guests had personal umbrella-holders walk them to their waiting cars.
Fun sports-based interviews for Invictus are at Dan Patrick's show and the Scott Van Pelt Show. Matt's radio interview with NPR's 'All things considered' show is here. An interesting interview with the sound designer for Invictus is here. A review from the South African Times Live is below.
"This is a really complicated story," Damon says, "and any movie that's gonna be two hours long, you're going to have some simplification. Each character is going to stand in for a different perspective."
The performances are similarly amazing. Damon bulked up to resemble Pienaar physically and hard work with a dialogue coach left him with an excellent South African accent. Audiences will not cringe, as we have had to cringe so many times in the past. It's a hard-working, detailed performance and the sequence on Robben Island, entirely silent, allows us to see in his eyes what he is too choked up to say out loud.
The producers of Invictus discussed the casting of Matt at Film Review Online, and Clint and Francois discussed Matt in George Christy's column here. Cast member Leleti Khumalo also discussed Matt at SA's Saturday Star.
Question: Can you talk about casting Matt Damon?
Lori McCreary: We all thought Matt Damon was a brilliant idea, and I would never have thought that we could get the likes of Matt Damon for this film, although with Mr Eastwood and Mr Freeman it was a little easier. We had three icons, so I was very excited about it.
Mace Nuefeld: The power of the story won him over, and for us he’s got such a natural athletic physique and way about him that I thought he was a natural for the part.
Lori McCreary: And his accent was genius.
Francois found Matt to be "a great bloke… I was struck by his humility, being the success that he is, and I loved his wicked sense of humor."
"Matt worked out very hard, got into terrific shape, and by structuring set-ups and camera angles, you can make a person look the way you want them to look" offers Clint. "He did a lot of weightlifting, put on a lot of muscle, did sprints, which he’d never done before, and some boxing."
And although she did not interact with Damon too much, [Khumalo] describes [Damon] as a "sweetie".
"You just fall in love with him. And he is hot," she laughs.
Previews and positive reviews of The People Speak are at NY magazine, the LA Times and the Boston Globe - below. Matt's interview with Howard Zinn on CBS is here.
The special is a collection of live readings of little-known speeches and letters collected in Howard Zinn's revisionist-history tomes A People's History of the United States and Voices of A People's History of the United States, read by such sincerely sincere actors as Matt Damon, Josh Brolin, Viggo Mortensen, and Danny Glover, in a manner that, says Damon, "hopefully won't put you to sleep."
Turns out the documentary, whose readings were filmed on stages in Boston (at the Cutler Majestic Theatre) and Los Angeles, works beautifully. The stars bring a full sense of drama and import to the voices of our democracy without turning the production into a pile-on celebrity vehicle. While an alternate to the History Channel movie featuring unknown readers would undoubtedly have its own virtues, "The People Speak" has vitality and momentum thanks to the skills of the performers. These seasoned actors and singers are able to highlight both the particulars and the general significance of the material they’re given.
Matt and Josh Brolin discussed The People Speak at EW, with some excerpts below (not online). Another photo of the pair with a quote is online.
They're more than just pals: They're also among the stars and executive producers of the History channel's The People Speak (Dec. 13 at 8 p.m.), a celeb-filled collection of dramatic historical readings. But when EW got Josh Brolin and Matt Damon in a room together, all they really wanted to do was compare the size of their...vocabularies.
Brolin There's already 96 hours of readings. And we'll film more and create Internet spots.
Damon There'll be a growing archive of voices of the past, performed by actors.
Brolin This is going to billow exponentially. [To Matt] That's pretty good, right? "Billow."
Damon I like it. I've never heard "billow" used before [when speaking to the press].
Question: Were you good history students?
Damon I was fine. But if I could go back and go to college again, I would be a history major, definitely, instead of English and literature.
Brolin And Chris Moore, he was a history major. You talk to Chris and you talk to Howard Zinn, and they have this plethora of knowledge of the truth of what happened...
Damon You just said "plethora."
Brolin Thank you. I'm raising the bar. He's getting angry at me.
Damon I'm down two nothing--"billow" and "plethora." Shutout.
Brolin Why are you even asking him questions anymore? He doesn't know how to speak.
You guys are also starring together in the Coen brothers' next film, True Grit?
Brolin Yeah, he got the bigger role. I don't know how that worked. I thought they were my friends. Obviously not.
Damon [Laughs] Wow. That's hurtful. Just hurtful.
Matt received a nomination as Best Actor for The Informant by the Detroit Film Critics Society. He is discussed as an Oscar contender in two categories here, and Roger Friedman also rates his chances at Showbiz 411.
Matt Damon was so good in Steven Soderbergh’s not totally cooked, "The Informant!" If the movie had been better Damon would be up for a lead actor Oscar. But it's not, so we turn to "Invictus." Damon is pumped up and buff as South African rugby captain Francois Pienaar. He’s also got the accent down so perfectly — and apparently the rugby, too — that you forget Damon isn’t a blond, white South African. Damon’s trajectory from "Good Will Hunting" to here is astonishing.
He's never embarrassed himself, and has chosen roles with a consistent approach. Without being showy, he's become a dependable Hollywood star in the old sense. And he can handle sensitive material, comic, and action of course (See under "Bourne.") Morgan Freeman has an easier time in "Invictus" because we know a lot about Nelson Mandela. In a script that doesn't do much to flesh out characters, Damon creates Pienaar from nothing, and holds up his end of the film beautifully.
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