Red Carpet: Jane Eyre... and Sebastian Stan?
Saturday, March 12, 2011 at 12:22PM 
Fassy, Mia and Cary Fukunaga at the NYC premiere
I MUST get to this movie this weekend. If Michael Fassbender as Mr Rochester and Mia Wasikowska as Jane Eyre weren't enough impetus, there are the fine reviews to consider, and Cary Fukunaga in the director's chair. (About that expression: How often do directors actually sit down? I always picture them walking around shouting orders and talking with their hands.) His debut feature Sin Nombre suggested that he was one to watch and he'd also have to go on the imaginary Calendar of Hottest Movie Directors ...though that's neither here nor there.
Did you see Jane Eyre (2011) last night or do you have to wait it out a bit? If not, what did you see / are you going to see this weekend?
These celebrities were also at the premiere to soak in the 29th film version of Charlotte Brontë's classic.
I always wonder why certain celebrities show up at certain things. What's the connection here? None of these people were in Cary Fukunaga's movie or this one. But here's what we imagine as connections: Alan Cumming is also, like Fassy, an X-Man, albeit not in the same installment; Debra Winger and Glenn Close came out to present themselves as cautionary tales for Mia, saying 'Gargantuan talent isn't everything. Win your Oscar* early early early or it never comes"; Rose Byrne is Fassbender's co-star in X-Men: First Class and she goes everywhere Glenn Close goes (at least in the public imagination now thanks to Damages); Sebastian Stan just came out to confuse us since he looks like so many other people.
About Sebs, I know it's probably not the role I'm supposed to associate with him but I have fondness because of his amusing Hathaway-Hate in Rachel Getting Married (2008).
Sebastian Stan, Roslyn Ruff and Hathaway in the great "Rachel Getting Married" (2008)
"Walter" just couldn't play nice with others!
His bit in Black Swan was also incisively wrought. Loved that tetchy 'I can't be bothered to disguise my boredom. It's ballet! I'm just here to get laid' look when the ballerina's day jobs came up. Maybe he's a great actor disguised as an interchangeably good-looking up-and-comer? He is from Romania and they do make good cinema. Yeah, yeah, I know he's also on TV but I can't watch everything.
Captain America and Bucky
Is he good on his TV shows? You tell me. We'll see him next as "Bucky" Robin to Captain America: The First Avenger's Batman as it were.
*I've said this before but it's always worth repeating: The Eighties were BRUTAL for great actresses. Isn't it the single decade (post silent films obvs) with the most never-won-the-Oscar important female stars?
Cary Fukunaga, Jane Eyre, Red Carpet Lineup, Sebastian Stan, X-Men
Reader Comments (17)
I was one of the 5 who watched and enjoyed Kings a couple years back, and he was pretty decent on that. There were certainly less impressive actors on that show.
Saw it last and all I can say is a sex bomb is born in Fassy.
It's no fair that Jane Eyre is only playing at four theaters its opening weekend. There have been posters up for this film all over the place and a pretty big-sized marketing blitz and they're going to roll it out in stages? No. I will not accept that.
Well, actually, I will. I have no choice. I have no reason besides that film to go into NYC this week and "but I want it now" is no longer a good enough excuse to pay $20 on a round trip ticket to see a movie.
Saw "Enter the Rain" last night, which was Spain's official Oscar entry this year. A great concept -- Spanish film crew in Bolivia shooting movie about Columbus finds itself in the middle of a war between the indigenous people (who they're hiring as extras) and the multinational corporation that's claiming rights to all the local water and charging extra for it.
There's a pretty good performance by Gael Garcia Bernal and a better one by Luis Tosar. The plot falls apart in the third act with a sort of unnecessary device to milk suspense. But it's worth seeing.
Actual conversation from yesterday at the movie theater:
WOMAN: When do you get Jane Eyre? Next week?
MANAGER: No, ma'am, I'm not sure when.
WOMAN: But the poster says March.
MANAGER: Yes, ma'am, but it's only in New York and LA right now, and then it will slowly expand.
WOMAN: I don't understand. Why would the poster say March if it's not coming out here in March?
You and me both, lady. You and me both. Meanwhile, got to see my first 2011 release yesterday: Beastly. Alternately not bad and too corny to take seriously. I wasn't disappointed, but I don't think I'll remember it.
I can’t understand why my local theater is still playing Big Momma instead of picking this one up.
Speaking of Jane Eyre, anyone knows when Gus Van Sant’s Restless which is starring Mia coming out? Is it kept in limbo or what?
Sebastian Stan is one of young Hollywood's most severely underrated actors. I was another one of the 5 people who saw Kings and I thought he was absolutely brilliant. Working on that show must have given him some confidence because he returned to Gossip Girl, the show which gave him his start, with a real swagger that wasn't present before. I was so excited when I heard he got cast in Captain America, not because I love comic book movies but because if it's/he's good, it should lead to some better, more complex roles like his one on Kings.
Sebastian Stan will co-star with Mia Wasikowska in A View From the Bridge, which starts filming in June. He'll be playing her boyfriend I believe.
The rumor is that Gus Van Sant's Restless will premiere at Cannes.
Glenn Close and Rose Byrne are normally in New York for 'Damages', and besides, Glenn and Mia just filmed Albert Nobbs together so she probably wanted to support her co-star.
I knew Dame James would pop up here.
The 80's were not brutal for great actresses. The 80's were a freaking nightmare for every great actress in their prime not named Meryl Streep! All the other great one's were snubbed by the AMPAS. When I think that Kathleen Turner, Gleen Close, Debra Winger, Sigourney Weaver and Michelle Pfeifer are all Oscar-less all I wanna do is cry and scream WHY GOD, WHY???
13 nominations between those 5 actress in the 80's and 0 Oscars. ZERO. That's totally depressing.
Victor -- thank u. i know i'm not making this up. seriously what was with AMPAS in the 80s when it came the greats? it was SO SO frustrating. this past decade's frequent losses for Bening/Moore were nothing compared to it.
lea: He plays an illegal Italian immoigrant in the movie. I hope he pulls off the accent.
I also wonder whether Sebastian Stan (I know him from Hot Tub Time Machine) will duke it out with Mike Vogel as Hollywood's hot interchangeable supporting dude. I think Stan's looks are more elastic than Vogel's though.
Nathaniel,
I think we are the only 2 persons on earth that keep going back the 80's Academy Awards and suffer for their choices in best actress.Yes, I'm Oscar-obsessed and I need rehab!
I can totally deal (as much as it hurts, and it hurts so bad!) with Bening and Moore being Oscar-less, because I can think of reasonable explanations for each of their loses (and that is a completely different topic). But best actress in the 80's? That was pure madness! Some of their choices make no sense at all when you look back 20 years!
Jodie Foster in 88? Cher in 87? (Sorry ladies, LOVE you both, LOVE Cher in Moonstruck, HATE Foster in The Accused, but LOVE her almost everywhere else). They were the weakest of their field, and Jodie's film was just bad. (Yes, i'm just pretending that Melanie Griffiths is an Oscar Nominee. Whenever I see her name as one of the 88 nominees I just read "Susan Sarandon in Bull Durham". That's my coping mechanism).
And all the love for the old ladies? Katherine Hepburn, already a 3 time winner, really deserved a 4th Oscar in 81? NO! Geraldine Page, who should have won 20+ years earlier had no business winning in 85. And let's no talk about Jessica Tandy in 89, please. The Oscars have always loved the "hot young new pretty girls" and suddenly in the 80's when we were all blessed with a master class of "hot young new pretty girls" they choose to reverse their pattern and reward the old ladies? Where was this felling of rewarding the veterans instead of the new princesses in 1954 to stop Grace Kelly to steal Judy Garland's Oscar.
I know, I'm REALLY SORRY that I'm bashing and trashing dead old ladies that had wonderful carrers every single one of then really deserved an Academy Award. But not in the 80's!!
I can survive with Shirley MacLaine winning in 83 (but I prefer Streep and Winger to her) - after all, she was a victim of the same crime she commited: taking home someone else's Oscar. She really deserved an Oscar for The Appartment but we all know that a tracheotomy/almost dying Liz Taylor was too much to pass. Seriously, just pretend its 2008, voting second phase of the Oscar race and suddenly Angeline Jolie starts to almost die every days for weeks. Imagine the media coverage. Under the same circusntances Jolie would have beaten the unbeatable 2008 Kate Winslet.
84 is a weird year because I don't like any of the nominees and my favorite female performance of that year was snubbed (I'm talking to you Mrs. Kathleen Turner in Romancing the Stone). And Sally Field second Oscar gave us that speech, so she's forgiven.
Sissi Spacek in 1980 and Meryl Streep in 1982 are, for me, the saving graces of the 80's.
And, the point I've been avoing all this post: the deaf girl. I just gonna say it beforehand, I'M SORRY, I have nothing against Marlee Matlin, who I think is good actress (loved her as the deaf lawyer in My Name is Earl), or to any other person with any physical (or mental) disability, but she only won because she is deaf. That's the real story. She didn't gave the best performance of 86. The AMPAS didn't have to reward her in 86 to say "hey, we don't have anything against people with disabilities, we like then!", because they already did that way back in the 1940's with Harol Russell. The 1986 best actress should in the hands of Sigourney Weaver or Kathleen Turner. Marlee Matlin had no business being the youngest best actress winner! The youngest best actress winner should be Isabelle Adjani, but that's the 70's and they were almost always good with the actresses in the 70's.
Good God, this comment have become giant and I could still write more. I could write a book on how the Oscars have screwed the best actresses of every generation ever since the Academy early days. The one's they got right they usually got for the wrong performance, and with that denied someone else a deserved win.
I will now stop before this comment becames bigger than the original post.
Victor -- i feel your pain as you know! glad to give you a place to vent.
Nathaniel - Thanks man. Love your site, been following you for years.
And thanks again for a space to say all the crazy stuff that comes to my oscar-obsessed mind. I tried to blog before (in my mother language, portuguese) but gave up shortly because no one cared/readed and I didn't have the strength to keep going, even if no one is reading. And to blog in english about films that most of the times I haven't seen yet, because they haven't been released in Brazil seems pointless and extremely complicated since my writting skills in the english language are the equivalent of a 10 (or even less) years-old english speaking native.
I'll save you the trouble of watching icky television by assuring you that, yes, Sebastian Stan is one to keep an eye on. He's managed to be impressive on shows where people were dead set against giving the actors any credit; I really like him.