The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus Los Angeles, Ca

The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus Los Angeles, Ca, Colin Farrell says stepping in for the late Heath Ledger in the Terry Gilliam-directed “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus,” following the actor’s sudden death is an experience that nothing in his career will probably ever match.
Heath Ledger’s final film, “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus,” premiered in London to a star studded audience on Tuesday night.

Jeremy Piven, La Toya Jackson and “True Blood’s” Stephen Moyer were among the stars who stepped out to see the film, which Ledger was working on at the time of his death.

The cinema smorgasbord of the Toronto International Film Festival has something for all tastes, a place where zombies, demons and vampires share screen time with art films, Hollywood awards contenders and studio crowd-pleasers.

Michelle Williams Actress

Michelle Williams Actress, Michelle Williams has won a Best Actress Golden Globe for her portrayal of Marilyn Monroe, and this weekend New Zealand finally gets to see what all the fuss is about.

Williams puts on her best blonde wig, white dress and American accent for My Week With Marilyn, which follows Hollywood’s hottest screen siren during a visit to the UK while filming the 1957 film The Prince and the Showgirl.

The film is about Monroe but the accolades have all been for Williams. The awards – see them all here – say it all and reviews have been stellar, with TimeOut reviewer Francesca Rudkin calling her performance “dazzling”.

“This is no epic biopic but rather a breathy and saucy snapshot into the professional and personal life of Monroe,” Rudkin said.

“Still, the film needed to get Monroe right and Williams nails her with a performance that makes the film seem more substantial than what it really is; a gentle and amusing period piece set in the film industry.”

Heath Ledger, Brokeback Mountain Los Angeles, Ca

Heath Ledger, Brokeback Mountain Los Angeles, Ca, To prepare for her role in “My Week with Marilyn,” Michelle Williams learned to sing, dance, walk, talk and flirt like Hollywood icon Marilyn Monroe.

Her efforts earned her an Independent Spirit Award for Best Actress in Santa Monica, Calif., Saturday, as well as a nomination going into Sunday’s Oscar race. She picked up a Golden Globe Award for her performance, last month, as well.

Directed by Simon Curtis, the film is based on the memoir of Colin Clark, an assistant director on the 1957 film “The Prince and the Showgirl” who showed Monroe around England when she was there shooting the movie with Laurence Olivier, a classically trained actor and director alternately amazed and frustrated by Monroe’s talent, substance abuse, insecurity and Americanized approach to acting.

Williams plays the troubled sex symbol in the film version of Clark’s book, while British actor Eddie Redmayne plays Clark and Northern Irish Oscar nominee Kenneth Branagh plays Olivier.

“I’m not a singer or a dancer,” Williams told reporters in New York recently. “I hadn’t been on stage since I was 10 years old. And, in some ways because of that, I felt like a tremendous outpouring of joy. I felt like a little girl whose dreams came true for the first time. And I was able to tap into what I imagine made Marilyn Monroe so luminous in those singing and dancing numbers.”

Williams is the mother of a 6-year-old daughter with late actor Heath Ledger and a former cast member of TV’s “Dawson’s Creek,” who has earned accolades in the past for her work in the films “Blue Valentine” and “Brokeback Mountain.”

The actress said she tried not to let herself be overwhelmed by the task of capturing the unique spirit of such a well-known figure in “My Week with Marilyn.”

“What I experienced was when you’re in that state, your critical mind has to turn off,” explained Williams. “There’s no room for it because you are remembering steps and lyrics. It’s like patting your head and rubbing your tummy at the same time and maybe what makes the performances of hers so magical is that she’s not thinking.”

To successfully play Monroe, Williams said she needed “a tremendous amount of preparation and the willingness to start at the very beginning, to not know what to do to make mistakes along the do, to not be hard on myself for those and to realize that they are part of the process.”

Asked what he learned about Monroe while making the movie, director Curtis, who was sitting beside Williams, replied: “One of the things we, Michelle and I, talked about regarding Marilyn was just how intelligent she was and we were both touched by Marilyn’s hunger to be taken seriously as an actress.

“We both came to really admire and sympathize with her through our work on the film. And we hope audiences will do the same,” he added.

So, is Williams a follower of the absorbing, Method-style of acting Monroe is seen embracing in “My Week with Marilyn?

“I suppose whatever works,” Williams said. “For me, for this, I had never done anything that required so much technical know-how. This was the first attempt that I had made, really the first time I had actually admittedly started from the outside in. Because I knew I was going to have a very, very long way to go. Where I, Michelle, have wound up after 31 years physically is very different from Marilyn. And so for the first time, I started externally, which was a switch-up for me, but similar to Marilyn, I suppose. I’m not trained. I just popped in to classes now and then, read lots of books, and at 31, have made some kind of amalgamations, some sort of hodgepodge of my own personal experience, what I know works for me in the moment, what I have learned from other actors, what I’ve picked up from books, and I certainly don’t know what I would call it.”

She also pointed out when Monroe was acting, the inventors of the Method, in which actors attempt to actually conjure the feelings their characters are experiencing to convey realism, were some of the most highly regarded teachers in the United States.

“The people who were driving the Method were actually alive and in the room and how exciting would that have been?” Williams wondered. “To be directed by [Elia] Kazan and have [teacher Lee] Strasberg by your side. So, now we sort of get secondhand information. It’s sort of the soup of the soup. It’s passed on and similarly, literally, whatever works. I’m not beyond doing rain dances or whatever. I’m still experimenting, too. I’m still finding out what works for me. And I think the reason that keeps me acting, that keeps me excited about it, is that I’m still learning about it. The answers change and new information comes in all the time that transforms how I’m going to do what I’m going to do.”

The actress admitted that, growing up, she was more interested in the image and mystique of Monroe than she was in her body of work. However, she has since become a fan of her oeuvre.

Among her favorites, she revealed, is the classic “Some Like It Hot.

“I’m also pretty fond of ‘The Misfits,’ maybe because it was a shot, sort of her only shot, she had problems with the role, but it was her only shot at a serious part,” Williams noted.

She went on to say she wishes Monroe could have experienced the freedom she has to choose her own projects. Monroe died in 1962 of a drug overdose at age 36.

“To work outside the studio system, to not be bound to playing the same roles, to not be a contract player,” Williams reasoned. “To not, basically, be on salary and not have to take what’s given to you. I wish she had a good experience with choices and independence.”

“My Week with Marilyn” is in theaters now.

Famous Who Died Young

Famous Who Died Young, It’s as common in Hollywood as the rags-to-riches tale: stories of stars who died young.

Actor Heath Ledger, who died Jan. 22 in New York, and Brad Renfro, who died just one week earlier, join the ranks of artists, actors and musicians who died before their 30th birthdays, often during the prime of their careers.

Heath Ledger, 28

Ledger was found dead in his Manhattan apartment Jan. 22, surrounded by bottles of prescription drugs. An initial autopsy was inconclusive, and a medical examiner said further tests would be needed to determine Ledger’s cause of death. The actor, recently separated from actress Michelle Williams, his former fiance and mother of his 2-year-old daughter, is expected to be remembered as one of best of his generation. He got an Oscar nomination for playing a gay cowboy in “Brokeback Mountain” and is slated to appear as the Joker in the new Batman movie, “The Dark Knight,” this summer..

Brad Renfro, 25

Renfro made his acting debut in 1994 at age 11, playing the title role in “The Client” alongside Susan Sarandon and Tommy Lee Jones. He went to on star with Brad Pitt, Robert DeNiro, Kevin Bacon and Dustin Hoffman in the 1996 film “Sleepers.” Renfro quickly became a teen heartthrob, and his acting talents had critics thinking he’d last in Hollywood. But legal troubles and struggles with drugs and alcohol hindered his prospects.

In December 2005, Renfro was arrested during an undercover drug sweep in Los Angeles and charged with attempted possession of heroin. He later admitted to having used heroin and methadone and was sentenced to three years’ probation. Renfro went to rehab in 2006, but in 2007 he violated his probation by not enrolling in a long-term drug treatment program, People magazine reported. He was found dead in a Los Angeles apartment Jan. 15 after a night of drinking, according to the Los Angeles county coroner. An official cause of death has yet to be determined.

Aaliyah, 22

Aaliyah Dana Haughton, known simply as Aaliyah by hip-hop and R&B fans, was one of the industry’s most promising female stars. Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., she appeared on “Star Search” at age 10 and performed with Gladys Knight at age 11. But it was her debut album, “Age Ain’t Nothing but a Number,” that got the attention of hip-hop heavyweights. The album went platinum within months.

R. Kelly, the singer who helped write and produce Aaliyah’s album, married the 14-year-old singer. (He was 27 at the time.) Vibe magazine published a copy of their Illinois marriage license, dated Aug. 31, 1994, which showed the starlet’s age had been listed as 18. Their marriage was annulled in February 1995. Aaliyah went on to release “One in a Million” at age 17, which was certified double-platinum within a year. She followed that up with “Aaliyah” in July 2001, after landing her first major film role in 2000’s “Romeo Must Die.” One month later, shortly after wrapping production of her music video for the single “Rock the Boat” in the Bahamas, Aaliyah and members of her record company boarded a small plane to fly back to the United States. The plane crashed shortly after takeoff, and all aboard were killed.