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Timothée Chalamet ‘Wept’ After Shooting 1 Crucial Scene in the Bob Dylan Biopic ‘A Complete Unknown’

Emma McKee — Fri, 29 Nov 2024 18:43:00 +0000

In the upcoming film A Complete Unknown, Timothée Chalamet plays Bob Dylan. The actor spent years preparing for the role and sings live in the film. During one scene, Chalamet sings the entirety of one of Dylan’s early songs. He admitted that he felt so moved by the scene that he went home and cried.

Timothée Chalamet went home and cried after singing a Bob Dylan song

In an early scene of A Complete Unknown, Chalamet performs the entirety of “Song ti Woody” to Scoot McNairy, who plays Woody Guthrie. Guthrie was Dylan’s hero, and he sought him out when he moved to New York. Chalamet sings live in the scene.

“His performance,” co-star Edward Norton told Rolling Stone, “is off-the-charts great.”

Chalamet said he felt very moved in the aftermath of the shoot.

“I went home and I wept that night,” Chalamet said. “Not only because ‘Song to Woody’ is this song I’ve been living with forever, and I felt like we brought it to life, but also because I felt like I could take myself out of the equation. The pride I was feeling had no vainglory in it. I just felt, ‘Wow, this is like old-school theater or something.’”

It made him feel proud of the film he was a part of making.

“We’re, like, bringing life to something that happened, and humbly and bravely going on this journey to hopefully bring it to an audience that otherwise wouldn’t know about it,” he said. “That felt like an honorable task.”

The artist spoke about what it was like to meet Woody Guthrie

Dylan discovered Guthrie before he moved to New York City. He admitted that his love of the artist was part of the reason he left Minnesota for the East Coast.

“Like seeing Woody Guthrie was one of the main reasons I came East,” Dylan told The New Yorker in 1964. “He was an idol to me. A couple of years ago, after I’d gotten to know him, I was going through some very bad changes, and I went to see Woody, like I’d go to somebody to confess to.”

Dylan said that the meeting didn’t go as planned, though.

“But I couldn’t confess to him,” Dylan explained. “It was silly. I did go and talk with him — as much as he could talk — and the talking helped. But basically he wasn’t able to help me at all. I finally realized that. So Woody was my last idol.”

Elle Fanning said Timothée Chalamet’s Bob Dylan voice is impressive

Chalamet said that he knew he had to sing live. The performance wouldn’t have felt right without it.

“You can’t re-create it in the studio,” he said. “If I was singing to a prerecorded guitar, then all of a sudden I could hear the lack of an arm movement in my voice.”

Elle Fanning, who plays Dylan’s girlfriend Sylvie Russo in the film, said Chalamet’s voice moved her to tears.

“We were in an auditorium, and I was sitting amongst all these background artists,” she said. “[Director James Mangold] would let Timmy come out and give the crowd a whole concert. He was singing ‘Masters of War’ and ‘A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall,’ and I was like, ‘Jesus.’ All of us were kind of shaking, because it was so surreal hearing someone do that.”

Elle Fanning Admitted She Was ‘Let Down’ She Had to Rehearse With Timothée Chalamet in ‘A Complete Unknown’

Emma McKee — Thu, 28 Nov 2024 18:29:00 +0000

This December, Elle Fanning and Timothée Chalamet will star in A Complete Unknown, a film that follows Bob Dylan from his arrival in New York to his decision to go electric. Fanning and Chalamet have acted alongside each other before, and they had a close relationship on set. Still, she admitted that seeing him at one rehearsal came as a major disappointment. She shared why she felt this way.

Elle Fanning shared why seeing Timothée Chalamet at rehearsal was disappointing

While Chalamet wasn’t very familiar with Dylan before he took on the role, Fanning had been a fan for years.

“I wrote ‘Bob Dylan’ on my hand every day in middle school,” she told Rolling Stone, adding, “It’s like I manifested this part.”

During preproduction, Fanning’s assistant informed her that she had a rehearsal scheduled with Dylan himself. Fanning could hardly believe it.

Bob Dylan | Lester Cohen/WireImage

“I was like, ‘Oh, my God!’” she said. “I was thinking about all these things to say and ask. I was picking out my outfit. ‘I’m meeting Bob Dylan today!’”

When she arrived at the rehearsal, however, she found director James Mangold and Chalamet. As it turned out, Mangold listed Chalamet as “Bob Dylan” on the call sheet for the sake of immersion. Fanning couldn’t help but feel disappointed.

“I’m probably the first person in life to be let down by having a rehearsal with Timothée Chalamet, right?” she said. “Like, the first girl in history.”

Monica Barbaro also played a love interest of Dylan’s in the film

Fanning’s character, Sylvie Russo, has a relationship with Dylan in the film. Monica Barbaro plays Joan Baez, who also had a romantic relationship with the songwriter. While Chalamet and Fanning were close on set, Barbaro said he kept her at a distance. This was in the interest of building realistic relationships between their characters.

“I had a lot of friends who were like, ‘Have you met him yet? Have you met him?’” Barbaro said. “But it just felt like the right thing to wait and just meet in the context of these characters … the way she saw Bob.”

Barbaro said Chalamet wasn’t completely Method on set, though.

“It wasn’t so full-on,” she said. “It wasn’t ‘Don’t look him in the eye’ or anything like that. We said hi, gave each other a hug. I was like, ‘I just saw Dune!’”

Elle Fanning said Timothée Chalamet’s voice gave her chills

Fanning said she was moved to tears when she first heard Chalamet sing in his Dylan voice.

“We were in an auditorium, and I was sitting amongst all these background artists,” she said. “Jim would let Timmy come out and give the crowd a whole concert. He was singing ‘Masters of War’ and ‘A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall,’ and I was like, ‘Jesus.’”

Timothée Chalamet | Gotham/GC Images

She said his interpretation of the voice had a powerful impact on everyone in the room.

“All of us were kind of shaking, because it was so surreal hearing someone do that. So perfectly done, but it wasn’t a caricature. It was still Timmy, but it’s Bob, and this kind of beautiful meld. That gave me chills.”

Afterward, Fanning overheard extras wondering if Chalamet was lip-syncing. He sang live in the film, though.

“I tapped them on the shoulder and I was like, ‘He is singing. I know he’s singing!’”

Bruce Springsteen Revealed How He Feels About Jeremy Allen White’s Singing Voice

Emma McKee — Sat, 23 Nov 2024 02:42:00 +0000

In the upcoming biopic Deliver Me From Nowhere, Jeremy Allen White is portraying Bruce Springsteen. The film will follow the musician as he worked on his album Nebraska, and Allen is singing in the role. Springsteen has visited the set and shared how he feels about the actor’s singing voice.

Bruce Springsteen shared his opinion on Jeremy Allen White’s singing

Springsteen has been involved in the production of Deliver Me From Nowhere.

“I’ve seen the scripts and I’ve talked to the director,” Springsteen told Zach Bryan in a conversation for Rolling Stone. “They’re just putting it all together, so I don’t have an awful lot to say about it, but I’m excited about it happening. It’ll be an interesting story.”

Bruce Springsteen | Etienne Laurent / AFP

He said he’s looking forward to the performances. He noted that getting his voice right could be White’s biggest challenge.

“It’s a lovely cast and I am involved a little,” Springsteen said on The Graham Norton Show, via People. “This is not easy to do because you can’t do an imitation, you have to do a personal interpretation.”

So far, Springsteen approves of how White is doing.

“It’s difficult but he is a great actor and sings pretty good,” Springsteen said.

Bruce Springsteen said he’s happy Jeremy Allen White is portraying him

According to Springsteen, he knew White was the right person to portray him after watching The Bear. The actor won an Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor for his performance in the show.

“I only had to see him on The Bear, and I knew he was the right guy because he had that interior life, but he also had a little swagger,” Springsteen told The Telegraph.

White admitted that he feels he has some things in common with the musician.

“Bruce Springsteen is — I mean this in the very best way — he’s a guy,” White told GQ. “He’s a jeans and T-shirt kind of guy. It was exciting to know going into this thing that we had at least that in common.”

The actor spoke about his preparation for the role

In his preparation for the role, White has worked with vocal trainers and met with Springsteen.

“I’ve got a really talented group of people helping me train vocally, musically, to get ready for this thing,” he said. “I’m also really lucky [that] Bruce is really supportive of the film. And so I’ve had some access to him and he’s just the greatest guy.”

Jeremy Allen White | Bobby Bank/GC Images

He’s also immersed himself in concert footage and interviews to get a better sense of Springsteen as a person and performer.

“Also, there’s just so much footage,” he added. “It’s really great to go down a YouTube rabbit hole and find him at all these different periods in his life and be able to listen to his speaking voice as well as his singing voice. That’s kind of been the deal, just listening to him a lot and watching him a lot. It’s been really fun preparing.”

The film will receive a theatrical release in 2025.

‘Wicked’ Author Gregory Maguire Said Oz Is Similar to 1 Country

Matthew Trzcinski — Fri, 22 Nov 2024 13:34:00 +0000

Most children’s books are forgotten immediately, but the best of them put a spell on adults. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is so good that it inspired numerous adaptations, including Gregory Maguire’s Wicked and the upcoming movie of the same name. Maguire revealed his opinion on why Oz isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.

‘Wicked’ author Gregory Maguire explained why we keep returning to Oz

During a 2024 interview with Paste, Maguire discussed the enduring appeal of Oz, the setting of L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and its many sequels and adaptations. “Oz has always, I think, implied America, by the way that Baum designed it,” Maguire opined.

“But because Oz was originally made both broad and indistinct that has left people who came later, like MGM, like The Wiz, like me, like [Wicked musical writers] Stephen [Schwartz] and Winnie [Holzman], that has left us lots and lots of acreage in which we can find a patch that had not been developed, make it our own and claim to be just as American as any other iteration of Oz.”

Maguire compared Oz to the notion of American identity. “In the same way, every American says, ‘You know, I’m an American too,'” he added. “It’s been so endlessly renewable because its original depths and metrics were purposefully vague and purposely varied.”

Gregory Maguire was asked if he invented villain origin tales

Maguire’s version of Oz first appeared in the 1995 novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West. Since then, it has become common for pop culture to give established villains sympathetic backstories. The Star Wars prequel films showed us that Dark Vader was once an innocent boy. Dracula Untold told us that the world’s most infamous bloodsucker loved his son. The Joker is a protagonist now. Every other Disney remake has to tell us why its bad guy has a point or two.

Maguire was asked if he took credit for popularizing villain origin stories. “I think that the fact that Wicked was so successful means that there’s been a lot more of that that’s been done by other artists,” he said. “But I think with all immense respect and gratitude to Winnie and Stephen for what happened in the play and how they decided to mount the story and tell it, I think that in fact the play, by a thin margin, manages to avoid turning Elphaba into a civilian saint.”

What ‘Wicked’ could do to our culture

So where does the world of Oz go from here? Baum’s original Oz books are in the public domain, so anyone can use its characters for any purpose. Judging by the intense marketing campaign behind Wicked, it looks like the movie is going to be a big hit. Will it inspire a new generation of artists to take their own balloon rides to Oz to interpret its setting and characters in new ways? Or will it inspire a new generation of villain origin stories? At this point, it feels like every villain has inspired a sympathetic portrayal, so the latter might be difficult.

If Oz is anything like the United States, it has the capacity to be recontextualized for centuries to come.

Timothée Chalamet Admitted He Would ‘Go to Sleep Panicked’ While Playing Bob Dylan

Emma McKee — Thu, 21 Nov 2024 21:20:00 +0000

This year, Timothée Chalamet will portray Bob Dylan in the film A Complete Unknown. Chalamet spent years preparing for the film and fully immersed himself in the role. He said he worried that any sort of distraction would take away from his careful preparation.

Timothée Chalamet said he experienced stress while playing Bob Dylan

Chalamet spent five years preparing for his role as Dylan. The part started to seep into his regular life; he brought a guitar to other film shoots and slipped in and out of Dylan’s voice during interviews. He said he worried that any distraction could take him away from his careful preparation.

“It was something I would go to sleep panicked about, losing a moment of discovery as the character — no matter how pretentious that sounds — because I was on my phone or because of any distraction,” he told Rolling Stone. “I had three months of my life to play Bob Dylan, after five years of preparing to play him. So while I was in it, that was my eternal focus.”

He wanted to step away from his life and into Dylan’s.

“He deserved that and then more … God forbid I missed a step because I was being Timmy,” he said. “I could be Timmy for the rest of my life!”

Timothée Chalamet’s co-stars said he tried to stay in character as Bob Dylan on set

Chalamet acted alongside Monica Barbaro, who plays Joan Baez in the film. She said that while he was friendly, they didn’t talk much. Chalamet was trying to stay in character. She recalled a time when they were talking in between takes, and Chalamet started to slip out of his Dylan accent.

“And at that point,” Barbaro said, “I think we both were just like, ‘Nope, no more talking!’”

Edward Norton, who plays Pete Seeger, said he appreciated the way that Chalamet tried to stay in character.

“He was relentless,” Norton said. “No visitors, no friends, no reps, no nothing. ‘Nobody comes around us while we’re doing this.’ We’re trying to do the best we can with something that’s so totemic and sacrosanct to many people. And I agreed totally — it was like, we cannot have a f***ing audience for this. We’ve got to believe to the greatest degree we can. And he was right to be that protective.”

He said one scene was particularly affecting

In one of the film’s early scenes, Dylan sings to Woody Guthrie in his hospital room. In the scene, Chalamet sings the entirety of the song “Song to Woody.” When he went home for the night, he cried.

He felt proud of what they were accomplishing with the film.

“We’re, like, bringing life to something that happened, and humbly and bravely going on this journey to hopefully bring it to an audience that otherwise wouldn’t know about it,” Chalamet said. “That felt like an honorable task.”

‘Wicked’: Cynthia Erivo Deeply Relates to Elphaba’s Differences, Admits She’s ‘An Odd One Out’

Lucille Barilla — Thu, 21 Nov 2024 14:53:01 +0000

Actor Cynthia Erivo can relate to the differences felt by Wicked‘s Elphaba. The Tony, Grammy, and Emmy award winner felt a kinship to her film role by admitting she is “an odd one out” in the same way Elphaba never fit in throughout her life.

In ‘Wicked,’ Cynthia Erivo’s Elphaba stands true to herself

As one-half of Wicked‘s female leads alongside Ariana Grande’s Glinda, actor Cynthia Erivo found Elphaba’s differences relatable. The character of Elphaba has suffered prejudice and discriminatory behavior throughout her life due to her green skin. Thus, she aspires always to do good, despite others’ negative opinions of her looks.

While promoting the film on The View, Erivo explained that she found kinship in the role and called herself “an odd one out.”

“When I first saw it [Wicked] I saw something in the character. That feeling of being on the outside, being a bit different. Not fitting in. There was something about it that felt familiar,” Erivo began.

“I felt like it was important to be part of that storytelling,” she continued. “Because I understood it. I think I’ve always felt like I was different. I think I’m a bit of an odd one out, often,” the actor added.

Cynthia Erivo admits her differences set her apart in the entertainment industry

Continuing to share her thoughts with The View panelists, Cynthia Erivo went into detail about how her differences set her apart in the entertainment industry. Erivo admits she’s always stuck out compared to others.

“I walk into the room and particularly in this field of work, I’m different,” she explains. “There aren’t many who look like me. I stick out and I don’t know how to be anything other than that,” the actor continued.

“It’s always difficult to be anything but myself. The space isn’t always there for you. Over time it’s been hard to get here. It’s taken a lot to get here,” she concluded of her journey in the industry thus far.

Erivo starred in The Color Purple on Broadway from 2015 to 2017. She subsequently appeared in numerous television and movie roles, including Harriet, The Outsider, and Genius.

The actor is one award away from EGOT status. Thus far, she has won a Tony Award for her portrayal of The Color Purple‘s Celie in 2016, a Grammy (The Color Purple, 2017), and a Daytime Emmy (Today Show, 2017).

As ‘Wicked’s’ Elphaba, Erivo was painted a special color green

Cynthia Erivo spoke to Elle and described the hours-long process of being painted green every day for the role of Wicked‘s Elphaba. On Broadway, the process is streamlined to a half-hour or less. However, as the film character shows more skin than the stage role, it took anywhere from two to four hours per day to get greenified.

Wicked‘s makeup artists created a special green color for Erivo. It was affectionately named “Cynthia Green” and it was made with the actor in mind.

“Depending on how much green we were doing—head, chest, hands, full body—it could take up to four hours. Everything was particular, right down to my eyebrows,” Erivo explained of the daily process of greenifying.

“[My makeup artist] created a vacuum form so the freckles would stay in the same place every day. I have a million piercings, so they brought in a prosthetic artist, who created basically a shell for my ears—those aren’t my ears,” she admitted.

Wicked makes its theatrical debut beginning Nov. 22, 2024. Wicked, Part 2 will be released on Nov. 21, 2025.

Timothée Chalamet Refused to Take ‘the Easy Way Out’ While Preparing to Play Bob Dylan

Emma McKee — Thu, 21 Nov 2024 03:21:00 +0000

This December, Timothée Chalamet will portray Bob Dylan in the film A Complete Unknown. The movie will follow a young Dylan from his arrival in New York City to his decision to go electric in 1965. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and strikes in Hollywood, Chalamet had years to prepare for the part. He worked hard to accurately portray the legendary musician.

Timothée Chalamet prepared tirelessly for his role as Bob Dylan

Chalamet had five years to prepare for his role as Dylan. He said that in this time, he became a Dylan obsessive. He began pushing himself further to embody the part.

“I had to push the preparation, the bounds,” he told Rolling Stone, “almost to psychologically know I had pushed it.”

Chalamet worked with a series of coaches to hone his guitar and harmonica playing, singing voice, dialect, and movement. He sang live on set and played the guitar because he didn’t think his performance would feel authentic otherwise.

“You can’t re-create it in the studio,” he argues later. “If I was singing to a prerecorded guitar, then all of a sudden I could hear the lack of an arm movement in my voice.”

His guitar teacher, Larry Saltzman, said Chalamet worked tirelessly to master the instrument.

“He never wanted to take the easy way out,” Saltzman said. “If I presented something to him like, ‘OK, this is the real way, but there’s a little bit of a shortcut,’ his answer to that was always ‘Don’t show me the shortcut.’”

Timothée Chalamet said he sees his own career in Bob Dylan’s

Chalamet admitted he didn’t know much about Dylan before accepting the role. As he learned more about the artist, he saw pieces of himself in him. He said the early stages of Dylan’s career mirrored his own in some ways.

“If he couldn’t become Elvis or Buddy Holly immediately he found Woody Guthrie and stuff that was a little more accomplishable, and happened to be really good at it,” Chalamet said. “And that immediately hit a bone with me.”

Chalamet explained that he initially wanted roles in large franchise films, but found that he was only able to land parts in indie films.

“I was knocking on one door that wouldn’t open,” he said. “So I went to what I thought was a more humble door, but actually ended up being explosive for me.”

He explained that he sees his starring role in the Dune films as his “going electric” moment.

He revealed 1 scene that he found particularly moving

In one of the film’s early scenes, Dylan sings “Song for Woody” to his hero, Woody Guthrie, in his hospital room. Chalamet performs the song from beginning to end in a performance that co-star Edward Norton described as “off-the-charts great.” Chalamet said he felt very affected by the scene.

“I went home and I wept that night,” he said. “Not only because ‘Song to Woody’ is this song I’ve been living with forever, and I felt like we brought it to life, but also because I felt like I could take myself out of the equation. The pride I was feeling had no vainglory in it. I just felt, ‘Wow, this is like old-school theater or something.’”

He said he felt honored to shed light on a historical moment.

We’re, like, bringing life to something that happened, and humbly and bravely going on this journey to hopefully bring it to an audience that otherwise wouldn’t know about it. That felt like an honorable task.”

Elle Fanning Said Everyone on Set Was ‘Shaking’ When They Heard Timothée Chalamet Sing as Bob Dylan

Emma McKee — Tue, 19 Nov 2024 19:22:00 +0000

In the film A Complete Unknown, Elle Fanning acts alongside Timothée Chalamet. Chalamet plays Bob Dylan, and Fanning plays a version of his girlfriend Suze Rotolo, renamed Sylvie Russo in the film. Fanning has been a fan of Dylan for years, and she said Chalamet’s vocal performance as the musician blew her away. She shared what the reaction on set was like when he began to sing.

Elle Fanning shared how people reacted to Timothée Chalamet singing in ‘A Complete Unknown’

In his preparation for A Complete Unknown, Chalamet worked with a vocal coach, guitar teacher, and harmonica teacher. He played and sang live in the film, insisting that recordings would not have the same effect.

“You can’t re-create it in the studio,” he told Rolling Stone. “If I was singing to a prerecorded guitar, then all of a sudden I could hear the lack of an arm movement in my voice.”

Fanning said she teared up the first time she heard Chalamet sing on set.

She said that everyone in the auditorium had the same reaction as her.

“All of us were kind of shaking, because it was so surreal hearing someone do that,” she said. “So perfectly done, but it wasn’t a caricature. It was still Timmy, but it’s Bob, and this kind of beautiful meld. That gave me chills.”

When Chalamet finished singing, Fanning overheard extras discussing whether or not he was lip-syncing to an actual Dylan recording.

“I tapped them on the shoulder and I was like, ‘He is singing. I know he’s singing!’”

Elle Fanning admitted she was disappointed to go to a rehearsal and find Timothée Chalamet

Fanning said that her longtime love of Dylan led to a disappointing moment. Her assistant informed her that she had a rehearsal with Mangold and Dylan scheduled.

“I was like, ‘Oh, my God!’” she said, adding, “I was thinking about all these things to say and ask. I was picking out my outfit. ‘I’m meeting Bob Dylan today!’”

When she arrived, however, she found Mangold and Chalamet, with Dylan nowhere in sight. She realized that Chalamet was listed as “Bob Dylan” on the call sheet.

“I’m probably the first person in life to be let down by having a rehearsal with Timothée Chalamet, right?” she said. “Like, the first girl in history.”

She shared why her character has a different name in the film

While Fanning’s storyline in the movie stays mostly true to Suze Rotolo’s life, her character is named Sylvie Russo. Fanning said this was because Dylan asked for his former girlfriend’s name to be changed.

Bob Dylan and Suze Rotolo on the cover of “The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan” | Blank Archives/Archive Photos/Getty Images

“[She was] a very private person and didn’t ask for this life,” Fanning said. “She was obviously someone that was very special and sacred to Bob.”

A Complete Unknown will hit theaters on Dec. 25.

Hugh Grant Hates How His ‘Notting Hill’ Character Handled 1 Scene: ‘Despicable’

Mandi Kerr — Mon, 18 Nov 2024 22:25:00 +0000

Sorry, Notting Hill fans. Actor Hugh Grant is not a big fan of William Thacker. The actor, 64, described his character in the 1999 romantic comedy as “despicable” thanks to one scene the women in his life have asked him about for years.

Hugh Grant asks himself the same question about his ‘Notting Hill’ character William Thacker

Grant revisited Notting Hill, the 1999 rom-com directed by Roger Michell, during a video interview with Vanity Fair. In it, he revealed whenever he watches the movie, one question comes to mind.

“Whenever I’m flicking the channels at home after a few drinks, and this comes up, I just think, ‘Why doesn’t my character have any balls?’” Grant said of William “Will” Thacker.

In the movie, the Golden Globe winner plays a travel bookstore owner whose life in the Notting Hill neighborhood of London, England, changes when American movie star Anna Scott, played by Julia Roberts, visits the store.

An unlikely relationship soon blossoms over a stolen book and a spilled glass of orange juice. Anna and William try to make their romance work despite having very different lives.

Notting Hill has since become a popular rom-com—Dakota Johnson even called it the inspiration behind her acting career—perhaps most memorable for the scene where Roberts’s character says she’s “just a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her.”

Grant hates the ‘awful’ moment Will doesn’t stop Anna from opening the door to paparazzi

He continued, revealing the Notting Hill moment he’s still not a fan of all these years later. “There’s a scene in this film where [Roberts’s character Anna] is in my house and the paps [paparazzi] come to the front door and ring the bell,” Grant recalled. “And I think I just let her go past me and open the door, and that’s awful.”

For those who don’t remember, Anna goes to Will’s house to hide from the paparazzi after scandalous photos from her past resurface. Soon, though, their romantic bubble bursts when cameras show up on his doorstep, and the two part on bad terms. Anna’s exact words are “I’ll regret this forever.”

Grant went on, saying the scene’s been a topic of discussion in his own relationships over the years. “I’ve never had a girlfriend, or indeed, now wife [Anna Ebertstein], who hasn’t said, ‘Why the hell didn’t you stop her? What’s wrong with you?’ And I don’t really have an answer to that.”

The Heretic star shared he acted out the scene as “it was written,” but he still thinks his character is “despicable, really.”

Where to watch ‘Notting Hill’

Want to watch Notting Hill and decide just how “despicable” Grant’s character is? Good news—there are a few different places to watch the rom-com.

First up is Peacock. Notting Hill is currently available on the streaming platform, meaning subscribers can watch the movie at no cost. For those who don’t have Peacock, other options are available but they cost a few dollars.

Notting Hill is available to rent on Apple TV+, Amazon Prime Video, Google Play, and Fandango at Home starting at $3.99.

Why Some ‘Heretic’ Screenings Come With Smell-O-Vision

Matthew Trzcinski — Fri, 15 Nov 2024 00:59:46 +0000

The horror movie Heretic starring Hugh Grant is surprisingly focused on food. Some Heretic screenings are making use of a marketing ploy called Smell-O-Vision. The directors of the film had a strong reaction to this decision — which they did not make themselves.

The idea of using Smell-O-Vision at ‘Heretic’ screenings made the director’s laugh

We don’t think about it, but a lot of horror films center on food. From the barbecue of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre to the meat pies of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street to the stuff from The Stuff, we occasionally find horror in what’s on our plates. Heretic might be the first scary movie with a plot that revolves around blueberry pie. Interestingly, some theaters are showing the film with a Smell-O-Vision gimmick that lets viewers smell blueberry pie while the film plays.

During a 2024 interview with GQ, Heretic director Bryan Woods discussed this unusual marketing ploy. “It was a crazy idea that [film studio] A24 came to us with, and frankly, it made us laugh,” he recalled. “They’re doing it in [indie cinema chain] Alamo Drafthouses, where you’re already talking about bringing food into the building while you watch a movie, so the idea of resurrecting a multi-sensory experience as a theatrical gimmick is extremely amusing to us. And [co-director] Scott [Beck] and I are huge proponents of the theatrical experience. Whatever gets people to go to the movie theater, that is where it’s at with us.”

The directors of ‘Heretic’ said horror is the exception these days

Beck was asked why horror movies seem to do well in the streaming era — an era where movie theaters seem to be in terminal decline. “I think because people like being provoked; if they’re living relatively safe lives, it’s a way to go into the darkness in a safe space,” he replied. “I also think horror is a unique Trojan horse to wedge in headier ideas, things that might challenge you.”

Woods got a little more provocative. “I wonder, and maybe this is a controversial thing to say, have movies just gotten boring?” he said. “And to your point, Scott, horror is provocative by its nature, and there’s something exciting about going to a horror movie.”

Is using Smell-O-Vision at movie screenings a good idea?

Horror movies provoke people. Smell-O-Vision provokes as well. On one level, getting a big whiff of blueberry pie during a movie screening is a sensual experience. On top of that, some people see Smell-O-Vision as a low-class idea that should have been left behind with 3-D and many other goofy gimmicks that B-movie studios used to get people in theaters during the 1950s. Heretic was made by arthouse studio A24 and it seems designed to be taken seriously. That makes its use of Smell-O-Vision feel out of place.

On top of that, the world seems more and more infatuated with camp humor. A24’s willingness to work a little joke into certain screenings shows that they don’t take themselves overly seriously. It’s also nice to see that Hollywood is beginning to realize that they might have to market films more creatively.

Whether you like Heretic or not, it’s nice to see an old gimmick come back.