The Glamorous Life of a Movie Star
Tuesday, December 19, 2017 at 10:17AM by Jason Adams
That there is a shot of the actor Tom Hardy on the set of Venom, the forthcoming Spider-man spin-off starring him as Eddie Brock, the dude who gets taken over by a gooey tar-like alien symbiote (we already saw this happen to Topher Grace in the third Sam Raimi movie) and proceeds to go a lil' wacky. Tom Hardy does good wacky! There have been a few brief videos popping up on social media this week (see here) that involve Hardy flopping around on the pavement in twenty degree weather - what a weird life actors have!
Venom is being directed by Zombieland and Gangster Squad's Ruben Fleischer and he's managed to gather up quite the killer cast for his comic-book film - besides Hardy there's Riz Ahmed, Jenny Slate, Woody Harrelson, and Michelle Williams! Imagine these actors in a movie actually about something! There was a funny chat with Williams that popped up yesterday about the movie (which she can of course say nothing about yet because you know how these things roll) that just oozed with... enthusiasm? Sure, enthusiasm:
"I’ve done one other movie where I was asked to track a tennis ball with my eyes and pretend it was a giant creature thing. Not my favorite thing in the world to do, but it is a skill set and I’m trying to learn it."
Reader Comments (7)
Reason #32 not to come for Meryl Streep.
http://www.awardsdaily.com/2017/12/18/meryl-streep-responds-rose-mcgowan-wasnt-deliberately-silent-didnt-know/
I'll just take "movie actually about something" as a dig at the director and not the genre and not be disgusted.
I've not been wowed by Williams since her 1-2 of Wendy And Lucy and Incendiary nearly 10 years ago, but those answers made me fall in love fast.
She just refused to lie, didn't she? Amazing.
No I think you probably should be disgusted then, Volvagia. ;)
Honestly I can love a superhero (or in this case super-anti-hero I guess) movie but I am just feeling way burned out right this minute. Way more money is being poured into these things than I am feeling a return in kind for. If one Justice League was actually worth the 85 Call Me By Your Names that it cost then maybe I'd feel a little less cynical right now but every single one of our great actors are being swallowed up by this machinery and it makes me sad sometimes.
I've adored Williams in some films and found her very mannered and very flat in others. Given how unenthusiastic she seems about the material, I'm guessing we probably should not expect her to wow with this one ... and as we all know, it IS possible to wow with a performance in a superhero film. I'm guessing the film she's referring to where she had to track a tennis ball with her eyes was that Wizard of Oz movie she was in, which she was incredibly dull in.
The antidote to superhero film fatigue is to vote with your money. Just don't go to them! When they weren't being released every week, I used to get more excited for them, now I might catch one or two a year. Maybe. I thought this past year was pretty great--I loved both Wonder Woman and Spiderman. Spiderman was such an unexpectedly pleasant surprise! The reality is that when these sorts of movies are done well, they can really be a blast.
JJM: I mean, I'd guess part of the reason Michelle Williams agreed to this, if she agreed past one movie, is...well...Ann Weying did wear the symbiote in the comics. So, don't be surprised if she has it for at least a scene of this.
Volvagia - I'd imagine that Michelle Williams has as much knowledge of what a "symbiote" is as I do (ie. zero idea).
I think she is pretty explicit about the reasons she chose to sign on -
1) She would like to work with Tom Hardy
2) Her agent has made clear that, in order to continue using her name to finance Kelly Reichardt films, she needs to have a "bankable name" in the future. And that will come from her perceived bankability and recognition in effects-driven big-budget movies. So she chose this one to try and improve her craft (and not another one because those didn't have Tom Hardy signed on).