Interview: Alfre Woodard on Her Favorite Roles

Alfre Woodard has been an American treasure on screens large and small since the early 80s when she first broke through in a big way with her Oscar nominated supporting role as "Geechee" in Martin Ritt's Cross Creek (1983). Yesterday we learned that Alfre will be co-starring in a new series pilot "State of Affairs" starring Katharine Heigl as a CIA Operative. Woodard is tapped to play none other than the President of the United States who Heigl counsels.

That'd be shocking given how slowly American politics moves toward inclusiveness, were it not for Woodard's natural gravitas. Last year, that formidable screen presence was put to uncommonly good use as the fascinating Mistress Shaw, a slave who married her master, in the Best Picture winner 12 Years a Slave. We recently celebrated that small but pivotal role right here in our own awards.

With 12 Years now on DVD and the announcement of her new role, it seemed like a perfect time to look back on her career beginning with that amazing cameo and working our way backward to her favorite roles. They might surprise you...

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ICYMI

I know you didn't read everything. So I'm giving you homework on a weekend. But easy fun homework. Highlights from the week that was...

Jake Gyllenhaal doubled-up for the trippy Enemy
Kate Winslet finally got her "Star"
Sofia Coppola might direct a new version of The Little Mermaid
Rob Lowe turned 50 so we looked back
Colin vs Ralph (VOTE NOW!) in the latest 'Beauty vs. Beast', In Bruges style
Streep vs. Bridges in The Giver trailer 
Pixar announced more sequels 
Finally... Ryan Gosling and Christian Bale might do biopics on Busby Berkeley and Steve Jobs respectively

And while we wait for Spring movie season to really start we also revisited some older films. Anne Marie's "A Year With Kate" finally made it through Katharine Hepburn's rough RKO period-piece era and somehow Anne Marie entertained even when the film's didn't. She's about to hit the real classics starting next Wednesday so you'll want to be here. We also celebrated two Peter Sellers films with 50th anniversaries: The Pink Panther and The World of Henry Orient. And for Eternal Sunshine's 10th Anniversary the return of the communal "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" series and had the best turnout ever with 32 shots. Please do join us next Tuesday night when we look at the Best Shots from L.A. Confidential and make it 33 by posting your favorite.

"Did you just call us prostitutes?"

Bouncer: All right, down the street."

Regan: Did you just call us prostitutes?"

Katie: Did you just call us prostitutes?"

Posterized: Lars von Trier

Denmark's most important and most self important troublemaker Lars von Trier is back with the two-part Nymphomaniac. Charlotte Gainsbourg stars as the title character and recounts her lifelong sexcapades. Is there really 5 hours of story to tell? Or is it just hard to edit yourself when you're doing something vignette style? And how do we count this in his filmography anyway... as one or two films?

Is it really one film delivered at two separate chunks or two separate films? Not that Von Trier's filmography is easy to parse in the usual way, making posterized a bit more challenging. [more...]

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Hand Jobs To Christian Bale

JA from MNPP here - you've probably heard by now that David Fincher is being lured towards making a movie about Apple co-founder Steve Jobs via a script by Aaron Sorkin; the big news yesterday was that Fincher told Sony that the only way he would make their silly little computer movie is if he could have the actor Christian Bale handed to him on a platter to play the leading role.

They say the film "consists of three long scenes regarding Apple's buzzed-about product launches" - sounds like a jazzy spot for a serious thespian to play around in (DiCaprio certainly relished those sequences in The Wolf of Wall Street) and Bale's nothing if not serious.

Indeed hearing their names together just now I wonder why they have never worked together before - Fincher's hundred-take slogs seem like just the sort of punishment Bale's inclined towards. They'll make the best sado-masochist duo since Dan Ackroyd and Rosie O'Donnell went looking for an Exit To Eden. (I hope that makes the posters.)

And yes Bale's pretty perfect casting looks-wise... but so was Ashton Kutcher, so let's gauge such things via talent, and Bale's surely proven more than enough of that over the years. (Patrick Bateman Forever.) What do you think of this possible movie? Do you think these guys can squeeze more juice from the fruit (groan) of technology, or was the anti-charm of the Zuckerberg clan too much for you already?