Continuing the Reader Appreciation Series, here's a conversation with John (pictured left) from Boston. He's been reading the site ever since it launched and hearing that warms the cockles of my heart. Loyalty is definite top ten top three material as character traits go, don't you think?
Nathaniel: Do you remember your first movie?
JOHN: I think my first movie was Cinderella. I was so frightened of the evil stepmother that we had to leave early. When I was young, every movie scared me. I didn’t sleep for years after E.T. (yet somehow/somewhere I became obsessed with this medium).
First movie obsession?
Probably Clue. I remember renting it when I was home from school with chicken pox in fifth grade. I probably watched it 10 times in one weekend. It is so campy, but so utterly entertaining. …and what a cast!!! Eileen Brennan as Mrs. Peacock and Madeline Kahn as Mrs. White are classic! I still bust that one out every once and a while.
I love that one, too. Mrs. White is the best in the movie but when I play the game though I am always Professor Plum or Miss Scarlet.
Mrs Peacock and Mrs. White
Okay, you're suddenly in charge of the cinema for a year. How do you wield this awesome power?
- Todd Haynes and Julianne Moore have to make at least 2 movies together
- Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts and Sandra Bullock are put on one year hiatus (Meg Ryan would be too, but what the hell has she done lately)
- No sequels
- No Oscar campaigns
- I decide all Oscar nominees and winners
Heh. Okay. Who are your three favorite actresses?
JULIANNE MOORE is the God to whom I pray. I saw her receive the Hasty Pudding award in February. She cannot be more awesome. There are too many awe-inspiring performances to name. JUDI DENCH continues to amaze me. I thought she could only be the strong, comic matriarch until she blew me away in Notes on a Scandal. MERYL STREEP is a given. She is so perfect every time out that I take her for granted. If she doesn’t win a third Oscar sometime soon there is no justice. Katharine Hepburn, Cate Blanchett, Julie Christie and Angela Bassett get special recognition.
Take one Oscar away from someone. Give it to someone else.
I can’t only do one here. I have to take advantage of the moment. I would go back to 1958 and give Susan Hayward’s Oscar for I Want to Live! to Rosalind Russell for Auntie Mame. Auntie Mame is my all time favorite and Russell is so spot-on. One of the best comic performances ever! Second, in 2005, I would take Reese Witherspoon’s Oscar for Walk the Line and give it to Joan Allen in The Upside of Anger. It is a major travesty that this performance was not even nominated (Keira Knightley in Pride & Prejudice…what was the Academy thinking?). That was definitely Allen’s best--better than her three Oscar-nominated, which are all fantastic.
2005's Film Bitch Gold Medalist Joan Allen has other fans. She shoulda won the Oscar.
Finally, I would take Kim Basinger’s 1997 Supporting Actress win for L.A. Confidential and give it to Julianne Moore in Boogie Nights. This is my third choice because I still have faith that Juli will win one day.
Have you ever dressed up as a film character for Halloween? Has a film character ever dressed as you?
Like so many others in the past, I was tighty whitey clad Tom Cruise in Risky Business two years ago for Halloween. I had the right hair at the moment . He’s not a film character, but Matthew Morrison’s Will Schuester definitely raided my tie/cardigan collection.
Okay John. Let's wrap up. The movie of your life. Tell us about it.
Stephen Daldry would direct the movie of my life starring James Franco (I am not scarred enough by the Oscar gig to not cast him). The movie is part Seasons 1-3 of Brothers and Sisters, part Mean Girls, part Into the Wild, part Latter Days, part The Devil Wears Prada, part…
So many parts!