Friday, October 31, 2014

New York Film Festival & AFI Film Festival directors talk about Kristen



Introducing 'On the Road' in 2012

AFI Film Festival director, Jessica Lyanga.

What highlights can we expected from the Special screenings strand?

The Dardenne Brothers are returning to showcase Two Days, One Night and Marion Cotillard will also come to the festival, so that’s going to be spectacular. We have Olivier Assayas’ Clouds Of Sils Maria. We have Xavier Dolan’s Mommy. We have shown all his film and this is the first time he is coming. We have Timothy Spall for Mr. Turner. Julianne Moore from Still Alice will be there and that’s another great performance from Kristen Stewart. Tales Of The Grim Sleeper is a very LA story and Nick Broomfield will be coming.

Source


New York Film Festival director, Kent Jones.

I’ve seen you frequently at the festival leading panels and discussions on stage. How do you go about getting artists and performers to open up about their work?

You know, everyone is different. Everyone’s mind works differently. Every individual’s response to being in public is different in how they approach discussing their work. People [convey messages] with their demeanor and body language as well as hesitations and articulations. So that’s a human thing. Then there are people that I know really well, like Olivier or Paul, Fincher. They're different in the sense that we already know each other well.

But Kristen Stewart and I had never met and she did the press conference [for Assayas's Clouds of Sils Maria]. She was not just articulate but eager and excited by the idea of talking about the making of the movie. The movie is really very special to her. She doesn’t have the chance to work that way with American filmmakers. And that was great.

Source

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Thursday, October 30, 2014

Kristen will attend the Hollywood Film Awards on Nov 14



The Hollywood Film Awards will air live from the Hollywood Palladium on Friday, Nov. 14, 2014 at 8 p.m. ET on CBS, with a half-hour red carpet show airing at 7:30 p.m.

Julianne Moore will also attend.

Hollywood Film Awards

CBS Extended Primetime Schedule for Friday, Nov. 14:

7:30-8:00 PM, (live ET/delayed PT) COUNTDOWN TO THE HOLLYWOOD FILM AWARDS

8:00-10:00 PM, (live ET/delayed PT) HOLLYWOOD FILM AWARDS

10:00-11:00 PM, (live ET/delayed PT) THE CBS HOLLYWOOD AFTER PARTY
Following the Hollywood Film Awards broadcast, the festivities will continue with a live one-hour show that will feature interviews with honorees and look back at the evening’s highlights. “CBS This Morning” anchors Charlie Rose, Norah O’Donnell and Gayle King will host.

Possible Livestreams: One Two Three

Source Via

New 'Still Alice' clip


HD


Download the clip here.

Source HD YT & download thanks to @SomeLostBliss

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Teresa Palmer mentions Kristen





Via Via

Kristen talks about Eddie Redmayne



Kristen Stewart, who co-starred with Redmayne in the 2008 indie “The Yellow Handkerchief,” says he thrives on taking risks. “We had a great time together,” Stewart says. “This is not a word I use a lot, but it describes him perfectly. He is a fucking lovely man. And he’s astounding as an actor. He’s the type of actor, and guy, you want to go on an adventure with.”

Source: Variety Via 



New 'Clouds of Sils Maria' Clips (Italian dubbed)









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Monday, October 27, 2014

'Clouds of Sils Maria' will be released in the US on 27 March 2015



Juliette Binoche mentions Kristen (Vulture)



Your Clouds of Sils Maria co-star Kristen Stewart said that you wouldn’t say something as simple as, “I’m hungry,” that you would be like, “I have this deep need,” instead.

Juliette: [Laughs.] I can say, “I’m hungry!” I can say it right now! I’m hungry! Actually, right now, I’m hungry! [Laughs.]

Q: Well, you were the one naked and comfortable in Clouds, while Kristen kept her undies on and was uncomfortable, for the skinny-dipping scene…

Juliette: To show your body has to be a gift. It’s not easy. It takes a lot, in a way, but you have to be ready to surpass that when you’re an actor, because it’s not about you. It’s about someone else, which makes it stronger and more beautiful. For me, for that scene, because my character was going through an honesty, an inside nakedness, I couldn’t see myself holding back. She has to go in naked! So even though the water was cold — so cold! — the jump has to be without thinking. And it could also be because I’m older and there’s a freedom that comes with maturity, you know? We forget. We forget about that. We always talk about, “Poor us, we’re getting old,” but actually, we’re gaining something. We don’t focus on that. And I think that should be talked about in feminine magazines! [Laughs.]

Source Via 

Kristen's interview with Hello Magazine (UK)



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Half hour with... Kristen Stewart

A reluctant celebrity whose personal life attracts as many column inches as her professional one, the Twilight star talks of the rewards and pitfalls of fame.

She may be only 24, but Kristen Stewart already has the stellar CV of a Hollywood actress twice her age. After making her name in hit teen saga Twilight, she has since landed more grown-up roles. In the forthcoming Clouds of Sils Maria she plays the anxious personal assistant to an ageing actress played by Juliette Binoche, and in Still Alice she plays a daughter dealing with her mother's early-onset Alzheimer's.

Kristen given your own celebrity status, what perspective did you bring to your role in Clouds of Sils Maria?

Kristen: My character gets to say lines that are almost exactly how I feel about a lot of the nonsense that goes on in this business She also gets to criticize the way the press turns film-making and acting into a mass-consumption produc and superficial phenomenon, and it's a process I'm very familiar with. It was a lot of fun to say those things about the business.

Did it feel odd playing an assistant when you yourself have had assistants?

Kristen: I've had an assistant but I've never gotten into a co-dependent relationship the way my character and Juliette's do. I can understand how that comes about because being famour can be very isolating - people stop treating you in a normal way. In this story it was interesting to explore how the dynamic between these two women becomes more intense as they get to know each other better. An assistant has a difficult role to fulfil. You're not a mother, sister of even a friend, but in some ways you're all of those things mixed up together.

When filming, did you get feelings of déjà vu?

Kristen: I had to rein in the grin on my face [in a scene where a young actress is caught behaving badly by a news show]. I also had to make sure my cheeks weren't turning red when I said some of my lines because the way that I'm living gave them an irony.

The film shows how dangerous it can be when one's identity is defined by fame. How do you separate yourself from the business?

Kristen: It's part of my life and I enjoy the work so I don't think in those terms. I'm always working on something. When I finish a project I'm already thinking about the new one or reading scripts. I also enjoy writing, particularly poetry, which I'll sometimes read to friends. I'm shy and it's often easier to express myself through writing. I also read a lot of literature and I like it when people take the time to talk about a book. Sharing your love of a book can be a good way of connecting ot another person. Those stories then become even more special.

How do you react to press stories about you?

Kristen: I try not to get upset because it's simply the way the media operates. But people should understand that often the stories have very little truth to them. People have no idea what's really going on inside someone else's life. It's also very rare that things are black or white. The truth is often complicated.

So is it better just to ignore the gossip?

Kristen: It's usually a losing battle to get involved with that. All you're going is adding to the bullshit even when you're trying to be honest. And when you're dealing with something like a break-up, usually you're only going to make things worse and keep the story going.

Just like I've never planned out my career in a specific way. I don't try to control the perception of me or make people think a certain way about me. I don't know how they choose: "Well, this is a different side of me people have not seen and so I will present that to them now." It's like: "Why are you doing this for other people? You should be doing it for yourself." I've functionned from that position sice I started, and therefore I really don't care about all that.

In what ways has success changed you?

Kristen: I don't feel any different from the girl I was before I became famour. It's hard to analyse it and compare how my life would have been if Twilight hadn't happened. Although, when I look at where I am, I can at least say I'm pretty happy with how far I've come.

You're also appearing in a film with Julianne Moore called Still Alice. Tell us about that...

Kristen: It was a very rewarding experience. Julianne Moore has been a huge inspiration for me. This film made me reflect on many things - the relationship between a mother and daughter, the importance of memory and how valuable our memories are to us. Also, it was the kind of story that made me think how lucky I am to feel happy.


MQ Source HQ Source via + transcript itsoktobeyou.org

New 'Still Alice' poster


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Friday, October 24, 2014

New/old photo + video of Kristen playing guitar with a friend



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Via YTvia

Peter Sattler talks about Kristen with Miami New Times




I've always thought Kristen Stewart as a terrific actress. You reached out to her for this role, right?

We did. We took a Hail Mary, and one of my executive producers was able to get it to her agent and amazingly, she wanted to be a part of the film. The reason I got kinda of obsessed with Kristen, once I allowed myself to imagine that she could potentially be interested in doing it, is because she has the perfect mixture of a very tough exterior but then soft, kinda chewy inside. You see that she's got an edge to her. She's a feisty girl, but you can see how, yeah, she would be a soldier. She could hold her own with these other people in her squad, but at the end of the day, you can feel, seeping out of that, kind of this residual emotion, and that very vulnerable side of her seeps through the cracks, and to me that's the perfect mixture that the character of Private Cole really needed.

I totally saw that. She really comes across as a hard person while slowly melting toward a truly sympathetic human being at the end.

Yeah, yeah. It's about stripping away those layers and the things that kind of make her character uncomfortable. It's like a character that's not comfortable in their own skin, which is why it's so satisfying for her to put on this "costume" of a soldier because she can just kinda pretend to be this soldier and not really get into that hurt and vulnerable part of herself. That's really what the movie, towards the end, is about. It's about opening up, and that takes courage. As we say in the tagline, "Connection takes courage."

I think sometimes she gets a bad rap. I've totally believed her as an actress.

Yeah, it's an interesting phenomenon, the phenomenon of Kristen Stewart, not just as a person or as an actress. It's a very unusual thing, and I've never really understood it. Like, I remember before the movie came out, a lot of people were like really shocked that she was gonna play a character in a film like this. I never understood it because she's been doing these really interesting films for her whole career. I think the problem is that there is a small percentage of people out there who only know her from Twilight. That's one series of films in an otherwise rather large body of work that has pretty interesting dynamics. It has The Runaways to comedy, like Adventureland, so it's interesting. You know what the great thing is though, now? It's really cool that the conversation around her is changing and everyone's really starting to talk about her in a much different light, and I feel really honored to have been a part of this kind of new wave of Kristen Stewart's career.

Read Peter's full interview with Miami New Times.

Camp X-Ray opens exclusively in South Florida at the Coral Gables Art Cinema today (October 24). There will be a red carpet premiere with director Peter Sattler at 7 p.m. who will introduce the film and entertain a Q&A after the screening, which begins at 8 p.m. There will also be drink and food. Visit gablescinema.com.

Source Via

Video: Olivier Assayas talks about 'Clouds of Sils Maria' and Kristen (Ioncinema)




Olivier mentions Kristen at 7.46mins.

Thursday, October 23, 2014

Kristen will be on the 'Indie Contenders Roundtable' panel at AFI Fest on Nov 9



Photo was from the AFI Fest app

An eclectic group of eight distinguished filmmakers who did celebrated work on independent films in 2014 will appear on the AFI Fest's inaugural Indie Contenders Roundtable, presented by The Hollywood Reporter and moderated by yours truly [Scott Feinberg], on Nov. 9 in Hollywood.

They are: writer/director J.C. Chandor (AFI Fest opener A Most Violent Year), writer/director Damien Chazelle (Whiplash), actress Marion Cotillard (Two Days, One Night), actor Jake Gyllenhaal (Nightcrawler), actor Bill Hader (The Skeleton Twins), actress Michelle Monaghan (Fort Bliss), actress Kristen Stewart (Still Alice) and actress Tilda Swinton (Snowpiercer).

The 90-minute conversation — which will touch on the panelists' 2014 performances, as well as their overall careers, influences and the challenges and rewards of working on indies — will take place at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel's AFI Fest Cinema Lounge in front of a crowd of 200 AFI Fest badgeholders and ticketholders. (Tickets will be available Friday.)

Video of the full conversation will subsequently appear on THR.

Source Photo

Wednesday, October 22, 2014

Video: Peter Sattler talks about 'Camp X-Ray' and Kristen



New/old BTS pics on the set of 'Camp X-Ray'


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New Sundance portrait + more quotes with InStyle


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When Kristen Stewart headed to a Los Angeles prison to shoot Camp X-Ray, she expected that her role as a soldier who befriends a detainee in Guantanamo Bay would be intense—but she had no idea that ghost hunting would be part of the job. Spending almost a month on the set of a deserted detention center, Stewart and her co-stars found themselves getting spooked more often than not when filming the powerful drama. We caught up with the cast at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, where they filled us in on the most haunting behind-the-scenes moments from the movie, out now.

One night after filming, the creepy surroundings got the best of Stewart. “It was really late, and I needed to blow off steam and be alone for a second,” she recalled. “I walked back to my trailer by myself, and I started running. I think I was even saying, ‘Leave me alone! I don’t care!’ as I was running.”

The ghosts on set weren’t all scary, and Stewart believes that one of them even helped her impress her male co-stars on the basketball court during breaks. “I literally felt like the court was haunted, and some little boy [ghost] was like, ‘I’m gonna make the girl win and piss off all the dudes on set,” she says. And when they weren’t practicing their free throws, the cast took part in other (ghost-free) activities. “We went bowling a lot, and then we built a golf course in the prison,” said co-star Lane Garrison, who plays a prison guard in the film. “Kristen’s a great golfer!”

Source Via

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Audio: Peter Sattler talks about 'Camp X-Ray' and Kristen (Directors Notes)



Click on the pic above OR listen at the source: Directors Notes

Via

Juliette Binoche talks about Kristen (Indiewire)




In "Clouds of Sils Maria," you play an aging actress who sort of gets threatened by a younger actress. I'm assuming you aren't actually threatened by Kristen Stewart or Chloe Moretz. Did you take on a mentor or teaching role during filming?

It's interesting, because I read in an interview -- and I don't really read interviews -- that Olivier said that there were moments when I was showing up Kristen, showing her how to act. For me it's never been like that. Sometimes I push her, because I know her potential. When you see that, it's very exciting as an actor to go and push someone. I think deep down I would like to teach one day. It's about mothering, about giving birth, a midwife kind of situation, and there's something very rewarding in a very hidden place. When you see somebody transforming and growing, it's such a reward because it gives hope to everybody. With Kristen, in the films she's done, I don't think she ever really experienced how amazing she is. Actually, when I saw her in interviews, the way she listens and the way she answers, I said, "This is a great actress." Just the way of receiving and giving back. I think she has an amazing career in front of her, and she's gonna surprise us.

Source Via Via

Monday, October 20, 2014

Old Elle US outtakes now in UHQ


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Thanks to @kstewartfans

'Still Alice' and 'Clouds of Sils Maria' will both have special screenings at the AFI Film Festival in November


Press release by the AFI Film Festival

AFI FEST’s Special Screenings are CLOUDS OF SILS MARIA (DIR Olivier Assayas);  STILL ALICE (DIR Richard Glatzer & Wash Westmoreland).

Click on each film's title to go to their AFI Film Festival page.


CLOUDS OF SILS MARIAActress Maria (Juliette Binoche) struggles to return to the stage play that made her famous 20 years earlier, but this time in a different role, and opposite a rising young starlet.  DIR Olivier Assayas.  SCR Olivier Assayas.  CAST Juliette Binoche, Kristen Stewart, Chloë Grace Moretz, Lars Eidinger.  Switzerland, Germany, France.

SCREENINGS
  • Egyptian 11/07/2014, 9:30 p.m. 
  • Chinese 1 11/12/2014, 12:00 p.m



STILL ALICEJulianne Moore gives a heartbreaking performance as a linguistics professor facing early onset Alzheimer’s disease in this festival favorite.  DIR Richard Glatzer & Wash Westmoreland.  SCR Richard Glatzer & Wash Westmoreland.  CAST Julianne Moore, Kristen Stewart, Alec Baldwin, Kate Bosworth, Hunter Parrish.  USA.

SCREENINGS
  • Egyptian 11/12/2014, 8:00 p.m. plus a post-screening Q&A with Kristen & Julianne Moore.
  • Chinese 1 11/13/2014, 2:30 p.m.

The AFI Film Festival runs from 6 November - 13 November.

Read more on the festival, venues and how to get tickets here.


New fan photo of Kristen (15 October)


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Photo appears to be taken the day Kristen taped the 'Tavis Smiley' show, October 16.

Source Via

Sunday, October 19, 2014

New/old photo of Kristen on the 'Camp X-Ray' set with co-star Anoop Simon


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AnoopSimon I'm happy that i am getting private messages and praise all day today, since fans have been getting a chance to watch "CampXray". As one of the only real Military Iraqi War Veteran who was an actor in this film, I am proud with what Dir.Peter Sattler accomplished. Especially with the respect and honor that Kristen has for our Armed forces and the rest of the cast. Peyman's performance was amazing as well... The movie is not to sympathize with the terrorists but for the innocent who were wrongly accused and labeled as such. Heck i served my nation and fought the fight to bring the bad guys to justice so out of all, I know that there is evil and then there are those who are wrongly labeled. Definitely watch it, research the topic, and see the message that we were trying to portray.

It is playing in select theaters and is on Video on Demand, so check with your local cable providers for showtimes ... I am so blessed that i got chance to work with the amazing cast and crew, all of who became colleagues and friends now.

Via

Saturday, October 18, 2014

'Camp X-Ray' poster and old stills now in UHQ


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Thanks to @Kstewartfans 1 2

Peter Sattler mentions Kristen in 'Camp X-Ray' (3 interviews)




How does someone who’s lesser known in Hollywood go about establishing themselves in an industry predicated on name and prestige?

It’s a huge challenge. That’s why I got out of film school. If you look at my IMDB page, I worked every job under the sun. I was a grip, I was a key grip, I was a PA, I was a graphic designer in the art department. I did everything because I love films, but it takes a while for a writer to mature and to write something that is powerful and grown-up. So for the last ten or twelve years, I was doing mostly re-writes for the studios. So I got a little toe-hole in some of that. Really, the film happened for two very important reasons. One is that a very good friend of mine, David Gordon Green, an amazing filmmaker who I’ve known since school, really championed me in getting this made. The other was that the script really resonated with Kristen. And once Kristen comes in, all of a sudden we’re in. Once Kristen says, “I believe in this guy. He’s a first-time director, but I believe in his vision” then everyone else rallies around and we start to work within a budget.

Where did the idea for her character come from?

I realized one story that hasn’t been told about Gitmo is about the poor soldiers who have to clean up the mess. You know? Like, these grunts on the ground who actually have to deal with the decisions that are being made in Washington. I felt such sympathy for them, given what they go through and how impossible the mission the army has given them down there is.

Why did you choose to make your first movie a war film?

It’s not that I wanted to make a war movie, so much as I wanted to make a movie about something that mattered. In the movie, when someone asks Kristen’s character why she came down there, why she joined the army, she responds with, “I wanted to do something important.” I feel the same way. That’s why I want to make movies and make art. I love popcorn movies and all, but if I’m going to put my heart and soul into a project, it has to be something that matters.

You set up this very claustrophobic environment, accentuated all the more by the acting and the music. What were some of the struggles you faced with staging and making each shot interesting within the confines of such a small space?

You put your finger right on the nose of it. Directorially, you have a film where half of it takes place between two characters who, for the most part, can’t move; there’s very little blocking that can be done, and on top of it, all their interactions take place between a four or five inch window in the same room over and over again. So you’re right, the challenge is how you make that interesting and convey the monotony of that situation without boring your audience. Me and my cinematographer James Laxton talked very carefully beforehand about how each scene evolves because we wanted to make something austere that’s not too flashy. One specific point I can talk about is when the camera breaks the wall and goes inside someone’s cell. You may not notice while you’re watching, but subconsciously all of a sudden you’re inside [one of the detainee’s] cells on the other side of the glass. That occurs when we start to feel more sympathy for him. Towards the end, we do this thing where we swing the camera totally around and now it’s Kristen’s character who feels trapped behind the door. It was not an easy thing to do, but everyone involved in the movie were interested in taking challenges.

What was it like working with Kristen?

Kristen’s amazing. The first thing to know about her is how down-to-earth, passionate, and intelligent she is. The way she approached the character was so thorough, and because she’s so creative, she’ll invent moments for you. It’s so helpful. She’s also very different from Peyman [Moaadi]; you have to direct both in very different ways. Peyman is very used to long rehearsals, and that’s because he’s a writer and director himself and comes to it with the eyes of an author wanting to get every shot right. For Kristen, it’s much more about capturing the raw emotion. It was very interesting working with both of them and all three of us had a very enjoyable collaboration.

Read the full interview at the source: Bullett Media

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I’m really excited for this film, since we get to see a new side to Kristen Stewart.

It’s a really remarkable role for her and I’m excited for people to see this side of her. You know, everyone knows her from these fun…movies that she’s done, but she’s really a remarkable actress capable of an incredible amount of subtlety and nuance, which is really what this role thrives on. So, I’m excited to be a part of this transitioning and redefining of what people expect from her.

I read that you read and directed this film. What was the inspiration for the film?

Peter Sattler: You know, I’d always been interested in Guantanamo Bay, but it started when I’d seen a documentary and started to see what it was like now. And I saw now that, basically, these detainees and soldiers are just walking around. They’re stuck there and they just kind of start to talk to each other. Just seeing that kind of dramatic setup, with these two people stuck in a room together, being at the tip of both of these sharp and political forces aiming at each other, but at the end of the day, they’re just these two everyday people–they’re just these two poor schmucks stuck down there–that strange dramatic relationship fascinated me and that was the impetus for the whole film…The whole thing came to me in a flash.

[I thought] “What a perfect little film.” It’s character-based, it’s a very small, contained and personal way to touch on a much larger subject that is fraught with such intellectual and political minefields, but to me, this was just the perfect way to address it and to brush across it without making the movie all about Guantanamo and all about one political message. That’s not what the movie is about. It’s about people.

I also read that you’d changed the main character from male to female. What was the impetus for that decision?

Peter Sattler: You know, that was very early on when I was thinking about the film. I was thinking about [it focusing on] two guys and…actually writing it more, I was struck by first, in my research, that a lot of women are down there. There are a lot of women guards down there, so that inspired some of the reality behind it because also…in a film, you want to have as much conflict between characters as possible.

[Having a male character and female character] made these characters so different, especially given the very complicated relationship that a Muslim needs to have with a woman and the various taboos that exist in there. It’s so fascinating, and on top of that, being a woman in the army. That’s intense. I mean, it’s a very honorable and great thing, but there are pressures. There are sexual pressures, there sexism, there’s all these things that all factor in to affect that relationship and, at the end of the day, put so much pressure on these characters[.]

How was it directing the cast, especially Stewart? How was it to see the actors embody your characters?

It was really amazing and really remarkable because the movie lives and dies by these two characters[.] I had a vision in my head and on the page of what they were, and at the end of the day, it’s all about seeing those characters come to life. And the remarkable thing is that Kristen and Peyman aren’t just actors, but they’re remarkable artists in their own right. They love to create their own art. Peyman has written and directed numerous Iranian films and Kristen writes and plays music and all these things, so as a director, it’s great.

I can tell these actors what to do all day long, sure, but it’s so much better when you have someone to collaborate with and they give you ideas. All you have to do as a director is filter that and channel that energy and say, “I love your ideas, and of those five ideas, this is the one that’s right for the movie.” They can just throw them at me and I can be the filter them and suggest and help channel and help steer that energy. It’s so much easier when someone’s coming at you with this force and throwing things at you instead of having to try and get it off its feet…With some scenes and some actors, is to just make it feel real and to just have something on screen.

When you have actors like Kristen and Peyman, [just] based on cold reads from them, it’s amazing because they’re inventing stuff. They’re doing things on screen. They’re filling every moment with nuances and idiosyncrasies. Then it’s easier, because as a director, all we need to talk about now is how do we shape and choose and decide the exact path this film is going to take.

What do you hope audiences take away from “Camp X-Ray”?

You know…there’s a feeling that I love in art and movies that…we all as humans–and this sounds cheesy–are connected. There’s this shared bond and there’s this communal experience that we all have. That’s what the film is all about. There are these two people and everyone’s telling them that they’re enemies and they’re set up in this position to be enemies, but they find a way to look at each other not as cardboard cutouts of a soldier or of a quote-unquote terrorist, but as human beings. To me, that’s one of the most powerful emotions on the earth. I love when movies make me feel connected to everyone else, especially in the modern age. We’re all so isolated and we’re inundated with quick black-and-white answers. So, when you can feel that connection to another human being, it’s the most powerful thing in the world.

Read Peter's full interview at the source: Shockya

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There’s a great line in the film where Sgt. Cole says that “I wanted to do something with my life,” which is how she ended up in Guantanamo since she came from a small town. Coming from Indiana, was that your way into writing that character?

Absolutely. With a film like this one, it’s a very intimate film about very deep personal things and as a writer, you have to write from a place that you know. So there are pieces of me in Kristen’s character, there’s a lot of me in Peyman’s character and people I know are mixed into that. But you’re right, I came from a small town and I remember very consciously having the feeling when I was in the middle of high school this desire to do something important with my life. I didn’t want to just get a regular job and get married and have some kids. I don’t know how to describe it, but I know other people have the same feelings and they just verbalize it in different ways, so that’s something I wanted to put in there because I enjoyed illustrating the irony of that.

This girl really wants to do something important and she goes out and takes this big adventure, joins the army to get out of her comfort zone and is proud of the big step that she’s taking to leave her small town roots and maybe go see the world, then she ends up in a place where the purpose is very muddled. I really love that irony because that’s a very universal thing that everyone encounters in life. We all kind of look towards the future and look outside of ourselves and say “You know what, if I just get to go do that, then that will make me happy and that will be it,” but when Kristen’s character basically gets what she asks for, she realizes it wasn’t the way she imagined it.

It’s something I’ve always been very conscious of. I also like the unspoken idea of, [which is] very subtly dropped in the movie, that these detainees wanted to do something important as well. They wanted to fight for a cause and you can argue to say that cause is extremely flawed and that’s not what the movie’s about, but there is a commonality between soldiers on both sides of war.

I’ve heard at one point, you were talking to Peyman about his character and he actually changed your mind about a certain trait of his. Would your ideas about what you were making as you were filming?

Anytime you make a piece of art that is as large an undertaking of so many different moving pieces and so many other collaborators having their fingerprints on it, a film evolves and it grows. It’s like raising a child. You can guide it in the right direction, but there’s a point where it will just take on its own life. You can say that’s a bad thing that you lose control, but I think it’s a great thing because you discover things along the way. That happened a lot with Peyman and Kristen in terms of really shaping and molding these characters through rehearsal and then through filming because they’re amazing actors, but Peyman and Kristen are also very interesting and intelligent human beings and you’d be a fool not to let them have a say in what these characters are going to be.

So I thrived on those discussions when Kristen or Peyman would come up and try to argue with me that something should be different. It was great because ultimately, as the director you’re just the gatekeeper. If Kristen can come up or Peyman can come up and say “Hey, I just thought about something, I think we should do this,” then it’s like “Hey, let’s take it to trial and I’ll hear it out” and run the pros and cons of everything that I know about the film, then if it wins, I’m like “Great, you won, we get to add this new thing to the movie.”

[..]

But to go back to your question about Kristen’s character was going through, I think as an artist you want to do one big piece of work that will live beyond your years. After I made the movie, I realized some girl in Kansas may watch this movie 10 years from now and it’s going to move her. That’s all I ever wanted out of film because I adore it as an art form, as a piece of entertainment, as everything — I just wanted to add to that conversation. I wanted to make a film that I could drop into the bucket of all these amazing other films in as much as I remember when I was younger and you first see some film and it changes your life. I wanted to hopefully create something that would have that experience on someone else.

Read the full interview at the source: Moveablefest

Via @KstewAngel



Friday, October 17, 2014

Peter Sattler talks to Indiewire about 'Camp X-Ray' & talks about Kristen




Peter Sattler didn't know much about Guantanamo Bay before he started writing his directorial debut, "Camp X-Ray." Like most Americans, he had the stark facts: torture, dubiously tried detainees, and a big political quagmire. But what interested him more than ideology was the humanity of the place."I wanted to capture the emotional zeitgeist of Guantanamo Bay," Sattler said. "What does it feel like to be down there?" After conducting intense research and making contact with ex-guards, Sattler found a discrepancy between the reality of the detention camp and its overblown media image. "We have this image of Guantanamo Bay as this very heightened, intense place, with barbed wire and torture," he explained. "But when I looked at what's actually going on there, it's very mundane! Yes, it's punctuated by these moments of violence and insanity, but a lot of it is this very banal stuff."

Did he still want to make the movie? Absolutely. "I'm drawn to very small stories inside of big situations," said Sattler. "I love films that have a very relatable, very everyday quality, but are wrapped up in an extraordinary shell." "Camp-X-Ray" was clearly borne of this sentiment; the film is predicated on a thick layer of dramatic tension, but the most compelling scenes are the subtle windows into what constitutes "normalcy" at Guantanamo. "As an ex-soldier who'd been stationed down there once told me," Sattler said, "you have 90% boredom, 10% insanity. How do you convey that monotony without boring an audience?"

For Sattler, the answer was to distill the political tension into two diametrically opposed characters. "Soldiers aren't supposed to talk to detainees," he said. "I felt like the detainees must want to talk to the soldiers. How crazy would it be to have someone ignore you for an entire day? So, as a writer and a dramatist, I was so curious as to what these two people's conversations would be like." To heighten the dichotomy, Sattler wrote the detainee (Peyman Moaadi) as gregarious and emotionally erratic, while the soldier (Kristen Stewart) is tightly-wound and difficult to read. He also created an age gap in order to explore universal themes like the pursuit of a meaningful life. "I was really fascinated by the ages of these soldiers down there. They're so young! So I started thinking about the film in terms of a 'quarter life crisis' film. What would it be like for a young girl? You're worried you're never gonna do anything that matters with your life. So I transposed that onto this girl. And this desire to go find herself in the army." Ultimately, this theme is the nexus of the soldier-detainee relationship. "I think everyone craves purpose in life. Whether you're a militant terrorist or a soldier, humans crave purpose. That's what drives us."

The character's interactions evolve from a lurid game of cat-and-mouse to meaningful attempts at connection, and Sattler chronicles them with an understated emphasis on emotion as opposed to diatribe. "What's on the page doesn't matter. What matters is what you're capturing on the camera," Sattler said.

While filming, Sattler encouraged the cast to rewrite their own lines in order to enhance authenticity. "Ultimately, it has to work for the actors," he said. "In saying it, and in reading it, Peyman or Kristen understood what that beat was about. And they understood it so well that they could experience it on their face. We cut a lot of monologues because we realized we didn't even need the rest of the line. A lot of it is learning that you can do so much with so little." But prioritizing subtletly didn't have to come at the cost of confronting some of Guantanamo's harshest realities. The film tackles suicide, various methods of torture, and heavy existential themes to boot. "You can't just be cavalier about it," said Sattler. "You're shooting some really intense stuff and you have to create an environment that fosters that intensity from your actors."

It's every first-time indie director's dream to write a hot-button script, cast a famous actor with an established fan base in the lead role, direct the film yourself, and premiere it at Sundance. This was Sattler's reality.

"When you're just starting out, you have no currency," he said. "The only currency you can really create in Hollywood is a hot script." But even an absorbing script about a hot-button issue like Guantanamo isn't guaranteed to secure financing. What it did do, however, was attract Kristen Stewart.

"Kristen read it, and she loved it," Sattler said. "It's just as simple as that. She told me she hadn't done a movie for two years. And when she sat down she said, 'You know, I was waiting for something to grab me." 

"Having Kristen attached helped everything," Sattler said. It was not only the vote of confidence the film needed to get financed, but it also attracted other seasoned cast members to the project, such as Peyman Moaadi and John Carroll Lynch. "You can call someone and say, 'I'm making an indie film about Gitmo,' and they'll say, 'And?' But if you call and say, 'I'm making an independent film. It's about Guantanamo Bay. It stars Kristen Stewart,' they're like, 'Oh, really!'"

Sattler can't sing Kristen's praises highly enough: "She took a real leap of faith jumping into this role. It's a very challenging role for anyone to master." "Camp X-Ray" also bolstered Kristen's career by helping to diversify her public image. "Based on the reviews she's been getting, people have been really surprised that she pulled off this nuanced and internalized role," said Sattler.

"I'm extremely proud that people are starting to look at her in a different way. There's been this great renaissance in the way people think about Kristen. And that's all to her credit, because she made a very conscious choice to make some bold, aggressive moves in the movies she was doing. I'm super excited to be the first film in this new chapter of Kristen Stewart."

Source

Peter Sattler talks about 'Camp X-Ray' and Kristen (Stage Buddy)



Clouds of Sils Maria just screened at the New York Film Festival and it was great, have you seen that yet?

No, I still haven’t seen it cause Kristen won’t show me all these movies she’s been doing. I’ve also been busy, so I’ll just have to bug her to send me a copy.

You need to see it! And I’m only bringing it up because other than Adventureland and Into the Wild, everyone pretty much just associates Kristen with Twilight.

What about The Runaways, man? Don’t forget Runaways! That movie is amazing! That’s the one that I saw and I was like “whoa, this girl can act!”, cause she’s also in Panic Room and has small parts in some cool movies but when I saw Runaways I thought “she’s for real!”. I saw it years ago, but from that point on I was like “Twilight is just an aberration, this girl is cool, there’s something about her that’s really rad!”

In The Runaways though she’s really explosive, while in Camp X-Ray you have her hide inside this shell of sorts…

One of the things that Kristen’s really great at is, she has this great toughness to her but she’s also very vulnerable, and it’s that mixture of things that made me think I couldn’t not have her in the movie, because it’s perfect for this soldier that she’s playing. She has to have this tough facade because she’s a soldier, she’s surrounded by these aggressive dudes all the time so she has to keep this thick skin, but underneath it all there has to be this wound, this vulnerable child. Kristen can express that in a perfect way. She’s also an amazing actress when she doesn’t have lines, she can do so much without saying a single word. In this film she barely has any lines and all the emotion comes from her face and it’s so powerful and raw. When you catch Kristen and she’s really feeling a moment and you capture that on film it is the most magical thing on earth. It is like capturing lightning in a bottle!

I don’t know much about the army to be honest, but I found it interesting that the film is basically about a young woman who doesn’t know what to do with her life, so she decides to hide in the army, it gives her the perfect place where she doesn’t have to “be”...

That’s exactly right! I was talking about this with Kristen the other day, I think of Camp X-Ray as a quarter life crisis movie, when you’re at that stage in life when you’re getting out of college and go from being a child into becoming an adult. Many people look at the grown up world and realize things aren’t black and white, so people need to find some dogma to believe in, something to cling to, so you’re exactly right, I think this character is trying to escape herself and literally put on this soldier costume. She’s uncomfortable in her own skin so she tries another skin on. Of course in the end she realizes she needs to open up her inside and actually deal with what she’s feeling.

The film is also about globalization in a way, cause we have these two characters from opposite sides of the world, who meet by chance. How did you come up with the idea of putting these two people together?

For me the model was always movies like The Defiant Ones or Hell in the Pacific, because I love situations in which you have these two antagonistic characters that because of the environments they’re in, have to find a way to work together. The film started when I did some research and realized that these soldiers and detainees are just stuck there and they coexist in this world. Having the model of the films I mentioned, I thought this would be a perfect way to tell the story of these characters. These camps must be so weird, these people are different culturally, they’re pitted against each other, everyone is being told they should hate each other, but somehow they’re all stuck here. Both of the characters in my film are utterly lonely for some reason and so, they find this unlikely connection which saves both of them.

You also highlight how boring life in the army can be…

I’m obsessed with institutional mundanities. I also love the small idiosyncrasies of life and things like that, first of all because doing the research I realized this was real, a soldier actually told me I’d captured the 90% boredom, 10% insanity of being in the army. But we also have this image of Guantanamo Bay as being this action packed world, but in reality it’s probably just a lot of boredom and waiting around. To me this was both fascinating and relatable because in many ways this was just a crappy job, and that’s something we can all relate to, even if you haven’t been in the army.

Your use of space in the film is fascinating, would you say your career in art direction had anything to do with this?

I was a graphic designer yeah, I’ve done every below the line job in movies, from PA, to grip...but I love film because it’s a mixture of every artform under the sun. I love graphic arts and I was doing art for movies for years and it’s definitely always influenced my eye. I adore Stanley Kubrick, he’s like my god, there’s always this balance in his work which was useful to me because my film is set in an institution and the walls need to reflect this rigidity. To do this we used handheld outside and then locked up, tight, graphically balanced shots inside just to convey the strictness of the space. Also the exploration of that space was really important, and we did some conscious things to reflect that, for example we always kept the axis on the same place, she’s always looking one way, he’s always looking the other way...we also needed for this space to feel familiar. I like movies where I understand the space where I’m in, the geography is important to me. When you walk in a room you can determine the size instantly, but in a movie sometimes you don’t know. Some action movies drive me crazy because I don’t understand what’s happening, it messes with my mind, I’m anal about that stuff. So in my movie I wanted for people to have a sense of this space, which I did by having Kristen’s character push a book cart through the whole set.

Speaking of love, it’s interesting that you didn’t feel the need to create a platonic romantic relationship between the two characters in your film.

This movie isn’t about romantic love, I wanted it to be something deeper. And in movies once two characters have sex, the conflict’s gone, and I always think the courting was so much cooler and exciting. In a movie essentially you’re stirring together a recipe for emotion, one of my favorite recipes is bittersweet. I don’t trust happiness to some degree, if you give something a sweet happy ending it doesn’t resonate with the real world.

But there is a lot of chemistry between Kristen and Peyman! Since you shot the movie in 21 days, how did you have time to develop this chemistry?

We had a couple weeks of rehearsal which was good, but mostly those two had an instant chemistry. Since they’re both such good actors and they’re so intelligent about film in general, not just as actors, but like filmmakers, we talked about the characters and we would hang out a lot. We built a circle of trust at the beginning. I wanted to create a cool crew where everyone trusted each other and would make the actors feel comfortable when they were doing their emotional scenes.

Going back to the military for a second, since you pretty much went through every single possible job within the hierarchy of filmmaking, I was wondering if you saw any parallels between that and the army structure?

Oh my god, yeah! That’s why I’m fascinated with both of these worlds. Trying to do anything in this world takes military precision, all the army is trying to do is make something happen. Armies aren’t about killing people, they’re about achieving goals. If your goal is to occupy a hill, they come up with a plan. And film is the same, that’s why so many assistant directors come out of the military. Our AD and one of our associate producers were in the military. Also, you’re all going on this journey together, trying to slay this beast...and yeah, with this ranking, I think when you set out to make your first film it’s interesting to have experienced what it’s like to be in all those other jobs. You learn things and when you’re in the director chair, you know how to to command this people. It’s like being a conductor too, if you know how to play everyone’s instrument, they’ll all sound better.

Full interview at the source.

Via

Nicholas Hoult talks about 'Equals' & mentions Kristen with Collider



Extracts from the interview regarding 'Equals':

You’ve been doing a lot of cool work, especially in the last two or three years.  What has it been like for you winning the actors lottery?  Because you’re one of the few people who have really won the actor’s lottery in terms of different types of performances and the directors you get to work with.  What’s that like for you from the inside?

HOULT: I think you just – either it’s very cold in here or you gave me chills by saying that.

But it’s very true though.

HOULT: Because I do feel very lucky and fortunate whereby, even in this year or in the last twelve months, you can go from doing X-Men, which is a franchise I grew up watching I was a kid and suddenly you’re in the corridors of Cerebro with Hugh Jackman thinking how did this happen?  Then I can do a little indie film like Kill Your Friends, which is like this satire comedy playing another interesting character.  That’s the main thing, looking for interesting characters, good directors, and experiences where you’re growing and learning.  Yeah, I can do that, and go do an action car-chase film, and then go and do this last film I’ve just finished called Equals, which is one of the best experiences I’ve ever had on a film.  So you sit there and you’re just like…very lucky.  I love acting.

He has presence on screen and you buy into what he’s selling.  It just feels authentic when he’s doing stuff.  Let’s talk about Equals, because I love Drake’s work.  I think he’s a really talented director.  For people that don’t know, tell people what it’s about and the fact that you got to film all over the place.

HOULT: Yeah, we filmed all over Japan and Singapore.  You know from Drake’s work, he’s all about love stories, he’s all about connection, humans…just that, he’s all about that.  It’s honestly one of the best experiences I’ve ever had on a film.  I felt really inspired working with him and Kristen each day.  I’d sit down and I’d be like, “Wow.”  His style of filmmaking, I love.  There’s so much soul in it.  I’ve seen little clips of that film now and it evokes so much emotion and he evokes so much on set.  I felt as though – I haven’t seen it, I don’t know – but in terms of my acting, it felt like the best experience in terms of him guiding me and just wanting…it’s simple what he asks for.  He wants you to be vulnerable and he wants you to be honest.  He’s like, “You don’t have to portray anything.  Don’t say anything if it doesn’t feel real to you.  Just be honest.”  This is the first time he’s worked with a script, but there would also be a fair bit of improvisation and…yeah, sorry [laughs].

The film’s about this kind of futuristic world where humans destroyed the world, and then they’ve kind of made this collective where everyone works for space travel and all that stuff, but because human emotion was essentially what caused us to destroy the world, now when you’re kids you get genetically modified essentially so that you don’t feel and you don’t feel love.  You’re not like an autobot, you can still create and you can still work.  It’s all still there, but the soul’s kind of been taken out of you.  Then my character starts to see things in this world, it all starts to unravel around him, and he starts noticing Kristen Stewart’s character and he’s like, “Hang on a minute, there’s more here going on and I’m starting to feel things,” and then the movie takes off from there.

So basically the modification maybe has failed a little bit.

HOULT: Yeah, so basically there’s this thing called “SOS”, which is Switched On Syndrome, and it’s 
a utopian world, but if you get this disease you’re taken to “the den”, which is this horrible place where essentially you end up dying and it’s all over.  Yeah, feeling is not what they do.  So then it was amazing because you’re playing this character who has never experienced or felt all these things before, so you’re doing all these things, which is kind of similar in some ways to the character I played in Warm Bodies where its that thing of awakening and then feeling too much, not being able to handle it, and wanting to try and get away from it – we’ve all been there.  You know what?  I just can’t wait for people to see that film.  I can’t wait to see it.

I can’t wait either.  Especially when it’s filmed around the world like that, because it adds so much production value to something when you’re filming on location in real places, and maybe places that are off the beaten path.

HOULT: Yeah, and it’s also the look of it.  The look of it and the music.  Drake created this thirty song playlist for me, which before going up to do the movie I’d listen to it pretty much every day and walk around and just hear this music.  On set I’d be playing it the whole time in my ears, and he’d play it on set as well for kind of the mute stuff where me and Kristen are doing scenes but the sound’s not going to be used, he’d have the music playing.  I called him Dream Flare, Dream Flare Doremus [laughs].  He loves a bit of flare in his movies.  It’s shot beautifully.

I would expect nothing less.  Whiplash was shot and wrapped in October and then they premiered at Sundance.  Has he mentioned to you that maybe he’s going to try or is it too soon?

HOULT: He’s already in the edit.  I don’t think it would be ready for Sundance, I think he probably needs more time with it – not needs more time with it, but you know.

Are you doing anything before X-Men or do you need to take some time to decompress and enjoy that buzz of Equals?

HOULT: Yeah, at the moment that was kind of a sign that I don’t want to work for a little bit.  It’s kind of changed what I want to do.  It’s changed my perspective on acting a fair bit.

You take it home with you.

HOULT: Yeah, which was nice to then go on to Equals.  Because it’s like this serene utopian world where you feel nothing.  They’re the perfect antidote to each other where they couldn’t be more different.  And then Kill Your Friends is this kind of music industry film in the ’90s where I play an A&R manager called Stephen Stelfox who’s basically driven by fear of everything and a bit of a psychopath.

Are you allowed to skateboard while you’re filming?  Because I have a friend who’s broken a few things.

HOULT: Yeah, I got told off on Equals because I did come off one day and then the next day Drake saw me with a massive bruise all down my arm.  He was like, “How did you get that?”  I was like, “I fell over.”  He was like, “Have you been skateboarding again?”  “Yeah” “Nick…”  I was like, “I’m done.  Stopping.”

[Laughs] Did you just turn white from nervousness?

HOULT: It was just one of those things where the disappointment was like reeking out of him and I was like, “Oh no, I was an idiot.  I’m sorry Drake.  The movie means more.”








Peter Sattler, Payman Maadi & Lane Garrison talk about Kristen in 'Camp X-Ray'



Peter Sattler

I recently saw Kristen at one of the New York Film Festival screenings of “Clouds of Sils Maria.” Have you had a chance to see it?

PETER SATTLER: She’s great I haven’t seen Clouds yet but I’m excited to see it. She’s been doing a lot of great work and I’m honored for “Camp X-Ray” to be one of the first movies out of the gate to show this new side of her. It’s not really new because she’s been doing edgy work like this, but it’s cool for people’s perception of her to start to change a little bit.

The first thing I thought of when I saw your film was that it was like the beginning of “Zero Dark Thirty,” and we haven’t seen films like that in awhile. Where did the idea come from for this movie?

SATTLER: We have this sequence in the beginning that’s like five-minutes of “Zero Dark Thirty” and then we totally change and it evolves into a very opposite type of film, a smaller intimate character study. I’ve always been interested in Guantanimo Bay because it always seemed like such an absurd situation, such a weird thing that exists down there. I can’t believe no one’s doing anything about it. I was watching some documentaries, did some research and realized that the detainees and guards are just stuck in this room together. Nowadays it’s not gory and gross, it’s more boring and white wall and there’s just cinderblocks and institutional rules. I had the idea to do a two-hander, kind of in the vein of “The Defiant Ones” or “Hell in the Pacific” about these two people on opposite sides of a war who have to find a way together because they’re stuck in this situation. They have to find a way to co-exist.

It’s tough subject matter. How much research did you put into it?

SATTLER: Lots and lots and lots of it. While I was writing the script, which took a good deal of time, I just consumed every memoir, watched every documentary, read every article I could find to really understand the details of what life was like down there, but the even bigger challenge was to wrap your head around what does it feel like to be down there? What’s life like there, for both soldiers and detainees? They’re both going through a terrible experience. That was a greater challenge because that’s something you have to intuit from reading between the lines.

The film rests on Kristen Stewart because that’s who Americans mostly know. How did the casting come about and how did you get her to be your lead?

SATTLER: Kristen hadn’t done a movie in two years and we were fortunate enough to get it to her. She had been in a film that a good friend of mine, our executive producer David Gordon Green, had done before and so honestly she told me that she really responded to the script, she knew this girl and really wanted to take that risk and bring this character to life. Peyman Moaadi, I had not seen “The Separation” before. My casting director said, “You have to look at Peyman, this guy’s amazing.” He is, he was, and continues to be a remarkable actor, but also a really wonderful human being, as is Kristen. It was a great mixture and a great opportunity for us to have two amazing actors to work with, and their hearts are totally in the right place to make a movie like this. There’s no ego involved, everyone was just really committed to this crazy piece of art we wanted to make.

Although Kristen is more recognized for her high profiled studio films and Peter more recently for ‘A Separation,’ what did you do to get them to be seen in a different light?

SATTLER: I think with Kristen and Peyman they’re such talented actors that it was never about trying to pull anything out of them, it was more about filtering what they were throwing at me. They brings so much to the table as an actor that all I had to do was shape the performance. They’d say, “What about this?” “No, that’s not right for this scene, try this instead.” Peyman and Kristen are very different actors. Peyman has a very studious approach, he’s a writer and film director himself so he can approach these scenes in an authorial way and knows what it means for the larger story arc, whereas Kristen is more about living a true and honest moment. With her it’s mostly about trying to find ways to make the scenes feel fresh and not stale. She works best when she’s flying by the seat of her pants. It’s hard because in film you have to repeat scenes over and over again and do different takes. Kristen’s always had this side of her, like in “Runaways” or “Panic Room” or “Welcome to the Rileys.” She’s always been there, but has spent a lot of time doing popcorn movies which are great, but she has a broader reach of desires. As an actress she loves stretching herself, showing people sides of herself that she hasn’t explored.

Were their any liberties taken as far as the treatment of these individuals?

SATTLER: We worked religiously to try to get every moment as accurate as possible to the best of our ability with the detainees. We knew if we got something wrong someone would see it and they’d hold our feet to the fire on it, so we were very meticulous about getting all these details right. I talked to a couple of guards afterwards and lawyers who have been out to GITMO and they’ve all complimented us on capturing things. There’s a lot of challenges in trying to make a movie this small, you’re trying to create something out of the void, but those can be overcome with just raw will power. We also have some very intense emotional scenes in this film, and it’s a challenge to write them and to direct them, to edit them. It’s so important that the audience feel that emotion and it come across as real and genuine. If it feels false, one wrong edit, one wrong line and the whole interchange can seem false. There’s some really tense emotional scenes to pull off towards the end but you have to ’cause that’s where the real heart and soul of the movie lives.

What’s a good reason to go see “Camp X-Ray”?

SATTLER: I think people should go see “Camp X-Ray” because it’s gonna show you a side of Guantanimo Bay that you’ve never seen before. I think it’s gonna be a very eye-opening look at what it’s really like down there, but it’s also the element of, “Wanna know what life at GITMO is like? Check this out.” More importantly, this is a film with a very human message. It’s not a feel-good film, you can’t really do that in Guantanimo Bay, but it’s about how two people in the worst situation on Earth can still find a reason to make a connection. When two strangers can make a connection that is more than just superficial there’s something really magical in that. That’s what it’s all about. It’s a very tender film.

Source BlackFilm

Payman Maadi

Mehdi Zokaei: Tell us about your new film. 

Payman Maadi: This film is about Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba, where they hold terrorists. I play the character of Ali, that for 8 years I am innocent and for 8 years I am there.  The guards watch us very closely to make sure that the prisoners don’t kill themselves. Kristen Stewart plays the guard who watches my character in the film. The relationship between my character and the guard speaks to humanity, not about race, religion, rank, nothing like that.

MZ: Did you know Kristen Stewart before working with her on this project? Had you met before?

PM: I knew that Kristen Stewart played in the Twilight films and is a very successful actress, but I heard that recently she wanted to steer away from those kinds of roles and take on more serious ones.
Our story began a few months ago when Peter Sattler sent me a script while I was in Iran. Because I am someone who is currently writing my own scripts, in this respect of reading scripts I am very critical. I really liked this one.

One day, he came on Skype, as I had known talked to him before. We had a lengthy discussion about the script and after an hour and he said that Kristen wanted to speak to me. Kristen and I spoke a few days later and she said that she didn’t sleep well the night before as she watched A Separation, because the film deeply affected her. She liked the film and my performance, and we continued talking.
The following week, I came to America, where I went to Peter Sattler’s house and met with Kristen along with Lane Garrison, who played in Prison Break.

MZ: What did you talk about there?

PM: Kristen said she knew a lot about me, including that I performed in a play written by the late Samuel Beckett. The more I spoke with her, I realized that she has a lot of knowledge about theater and books, and I appreciated that.

We talked about the characters in Camp X-Ray and we would talk every day, over lunches and dinners.

MZ: What do you think of Camp X-Ray director and writer Peter Sattler? And how was his film received at festivals?

PM: I knew Peter Sattler from before, a really great human. Behind any big project, a great man is standing. Peter Sattler is this kind of man. Like Asghar Farhadi, a great director, a great man, who was behind A Separation.

I am very to be in the first film by Peter Sattler. This film was at the Sundance Film Festival and they gave him a lot of great feedback for it. Critics gave great reviews for it, and now it will be going to festivals in France, England, Abu Dabi and others.

In this film, I don’t play an Iranian, I play ‘Ali’. I was glad to see that not one Iranian is imprisoned in Guantanamo.

MZ: What do you expect from Iranian audiences in regards to this film? 

PM: Because this film not political and more of a human story, I expect that Iranians will come see the film as critics gave us praise for the film. I would like to see Iranians come and support this film by watching it.

Source Javanan

Lane Garrison

What is it that sets Peter Sattler apart as a filmmaker? Why do you believe he’s going to have a long career?

Lane Garrison: “Well, working with directors and, especially as an actor, you want somebody that has a clear-cut vision. I mean, nowadays because of the editing process and everything else, you’ll get guys who are just technical directors, who will shoot 30 different ways just because they’re just going to let somebody choose the scene. Whereas Peter, even if you had an idea, Peter would really think about it before he’d give you his answer and usually it was, ‘No. I see it as this,’ which is great.

Kristen and I wold come to Peter like, ‘What if this?’ and he would give us the time of day and he’d be like, ‘No, I think it’s more like this.’ It’s almost like you’re going into war to begin with. You want to follow the general who’s got the vision, and he definitely has that. It’s his storytelling and I just see him doing great film after great film. In fact, I’ve been bugging him, saying, ‘Hurry up with your next one because I want to be in it!’”

This was a very emotional project so how did you deal with that on the set?

Lane Garrison: “We were dealing with some intense material and obviously there was dark and powerful stuff going on, so Kristen and I, because of that, in between takes we built a driving range at the prison. We’d play basketball. She’s a phenomenal athlete. I’m a big athlete. We would be joking in between takes just to lighten the mood because where we were shooting and what the subject matter was.

I loved working with her. She is a true professional and she is incredible in this movie. This is the best thing she’s done. It’s her best performance yet and it’s going to put her in another league.”

At the end of the day when the shoot was over, was it easy for you to fall asleep?

Lane Garrison: “You know what? It wasn’t with this one. I mean, I took a lot of memories with me, and a lot from the past too, and I’ve really lived in this guy’s shoes. Luckily it was only just under a month we shot this film, which is incredible. So luckily I didn’t have to live in that world for too long. But, yeah, I definitely took this guy home with me.

It’s funny. Kristen used to joke with me and when I’d come to set and in between takes, she’d just say, ‘You’re a little too good at this. You’re taking this a little too far.’ I had to walk away from it, from playing Randy when we were done. I really believe that people are going to respond to this film and respond to all the actors in it and the storytelling. I’m glad that I went to that dark place and I’m glad that I emotionally got there and lived in that world, so I think it definitely helped.”

You were talking about Kristen’s performance and there’s one scene in particular that was very powerful between the two of you. How difficult was that to film?

Lane Garrison: “It’s always an interesting thing because you’re filming something that’s so intimate, yet there’s 100 people watching. It would be one thing if it was like this passionate love scene but this was kind of aggressive, violent, and uncomfortable, and I think it helped us having everybody there because we wanted it to feel uncomfortable. Now, I will say that in between each take I was definitely running to the craft service cart and popping breath mints like there’s no tomorrow. [Laughing] Just to make sure Kristen’s like, ‘Oh my god, you have perfect breath!’ It was kind of funny in that sense.

But working with Kristen, she’s a young actress who is a movie star. She’s going to go so far because how trusting she is and how willing she is to go through whatever level we need to go to to get the performance. And we just went all in. It’s not in the film, but on the first take I told her to hit me as hard as she could. I said, ‘Do not hold back.’ We’ve earned that trust and she did it. I got so angry that I punched through the wall. I punched straight through the wall and went insane. I thought that for sure that would be in the movie. Everybody was clapping and going nuts and it really helped set the tone for that scene. It didn’t make the film because Peter felt like he wouldn’t have been redeemable after that, after going to that level. I was shocked by it, Kristen was shocked by it, but I understood when I saw the film. But having that happen on the first take helped us get to that intensity. It’s actually my favorite scene in the movie.”

Source showbizjunkies

Via @KstewAngel