Thure Lindhardt as Lars Olafssen in Eddie: the Sleepwalking Cannibal

Boris Rodriguez co-writes and directs his first feature film, Eddie: the Sleepwalking Cannibal, showing at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival (TFF) Cinemania section. Running the fine line between comedy and drama, the film tells the story of a washed up painter who develops a friendship with an offbeat mute named Eddie, who has pesky little habit of sleepwalking and eating humans. Here, Rodriguez talks about the talent in his film, the festival itself, and his future projects. 

Why make a film about cannibalism?
BORIS RODRIGUEZ: It was actually a co-writer friend of mine that had pitched the original story. At the time, it was taking place in the outer banks of Northern Carolina and it was [about] a werewolf and a novelist. He eventually went to Los Angeles and I came to Canada, and, therefore, North Carolina became the snowy mountains of Canada. The werewolf became a sleepwalking cannibal and the novelist a painter.

Speaking of the painter, how was it working with Thure Lindhardt?
BR: Working with Thure was amazing. He taught me so much about acting for film. He just looked at my script sometimes in the morning of, or the night before [a shoot] and he would scratch out lines of dialogue. I was like, ‘Oh my God! What are you doing? You’re killing the scene!’ And he just had this confidence in how much he could do just with his presence and his intention. I never worked with someone in that caliber, so I was worried, but then he would run the scene and it was all there. The collaboration created a film and a performance that I’m amazed at.

What are your expectations from the TFF?
BR: So far, the festival has already exceeded them. The expectations for the North American premiere were to garner a lot of attention so as to set up subsequent releases—hopefully, theatrical [ones]. We are definitely pushing for a theatrical release in Canada. The fact that Eddie was chosen to be a part of a small group of films in Cinemania is even more amazing.

What are you working on now?
BR: Both projects I’m working on are quite different. One is a psychological thriller about a kidnapping that takes place in Mexico and the other one is a Bollywood time-travel love triangle. Two completely different projects that speak to my sensibilities.

Eddie: the Sleepwalking Cannibal premieres at the Tribeca Film Festival on Friday, April 20

PHOTOGRAPHY BY LOIS SIEGEL FOR QUIET REVOLUTION PICTURES

Alex Karpovsky in Rubberneck

Alex Karpovsky is no stranger to film festivals. Having appeared in films debuting at Sundance, Abu Dhabi, and Raindance, among others, the actor/director is now tackling the Tribeca Film Festival (TFF). We spoke with Karpovsky about his two Tribeca film debuts and his character on HBO's newest show, Girls.

You co-wrote, directed, edited, and starred in Rubberneck. What gave you the gumption to do all of that?
ALEX KARPOVSKY: Rubberneck is my fourth movie, but it’s the first movie that isn’t a comedy. I wanted to do something different. I love thrillers, it’s my favorite genre as a viewer. So I always fantasized about making one, and finally, a little while ago, the opportunity manifested to make it in Boston with a filmmaker called Garth Donovan. It’s a slow-burning, character-driven, psychosexual thriller set in a laboratory on the outskirts of Boston.

What can you tell me about Supporting Characters, your other project, also premiering at TFF?
AK: Supporting Characters is a movie directed by Daniel Schechter. It’s a really funny, corky, moving comedy that focuses on two dudes, Nick and Darryl, who are film editors. While they’re sort of juggling the challenges of completing a film and working with a kind of problematic director, they’re also navigating through personal relationship issues, which come to the point of ripping their whole lives and friendship apart. I’m very curious to see how it plays at Tribeca.

What do you feel most comfortable working in, drama or comedy?
AK: Comedies. I don’t know why, but its sort of where I nurture more comfort and familiarity.
 
What can you tell me about Ray, your character on HBO’s Girls?
AK: Ray is a strange one. He basically tries to give the girls a sort of perspective. Even advice, at times, about their world view and their struggles and plights. But oftentimes, because of his own issues and his own anger, his words of advice and wisdom are anything but. And they’re just this tortured and very confused diatribes that have no applicability to these girls’ lives.

Rubberneck and Supporting Characters premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival on Friday, April 20

PHOTOGRAPHY BY GARTH DONOVAN

On an unseasonably warm day in Brooklyn, we visited with Paul Blackthorne, star of ABC’s newest series, The River. Seeing as the show is set in the humid Amazon and Blackthorne plays the oft-sweaty film producer tasked with documenting the rescue mission of a wildlife explorer, the day’s weather could not be more fitting.

You spent most of your childhood as an army brat in the UK and Germany. What was that like?
PAUL BLACKTHORNE: It was a textbook childhood. That of an only child of divorced parents desperately seeking approval [laughs]. Seriously, I saw the world through the eyes of an ‘army brat’ and I honestly have very fond memories of my time in both the UK and Germany.

You were great as Captain Andrew Russell in Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India. What was it like being in a Bollywood movie and learning Hindi?       
PB: At first, I wasn’t sure what do to with the offer and I was constantly questioning if I should commit to the project. My friends looked at me like I was nuts. In the end, it was a terrific script and an amazing journey through India.  I also had the opportunity to learn to play cricket, badly, and learn Hindi, even more poorly.

The River has a paranormal edge to it. Can you tell us more about the plot?
PB: This is a group of ordinary people asked to accomplish the extraordinary. Not only do we need to find a ‘needle in a haystack,’ but we also suddenly have to deal with things beyond the realm of normal. This show truly is a paranormal adventure with more than its fair share of scary moments.

What is the biggest misconception about you?
PB: I am not sure if this is a misconception, but many people don’t realize I also have a love for photography. Well, to be honest, I enjoy taking photographs and I will let the masses decide if I am truly any good at it. I’m a bit of an oddball who plays cricket badly, speaks a dash of Hindi, and I have some of my best conversations with my dog.

Read more from Joshua Estrin at popmuncher.com.

Linda Cardellini and John Slattery in Return

Set to star in her first feature lead role in this month’s Return, Linda Cardellini discusses the timeliness of the movie, working with costars Michael Shannon and John Slattery, and what's still in store for her.

What made you decide to take on Return and play such a complex character?
LINDA CARDELLINI: After ER, I slowed down and decided that I would wait until I found something I was really moved by to work on next. I was in New York when I got the script for Liza [Johnson, director]’s movie, and I just thought, “Wow! What an amazing role for a woman!” and for anybody, for that matter. There have been stories about people returning from war throughout movie history, but the way she spoke about  the intricacies of this woman coming back and the slow unraveling of her life, and the small details that told the story, rather than a huge catastrophic event that told the story – I just found that would be so interesting and delicate to play .

How did you prepare for the role? How was the experience of playing a woman coming back from war?
LC: It was very enlightening. I think so many of us hear about the war every day, and know of people who have been over there. But I don’t think that we know quite enough about it as citizens. To me, it was a great responsibility to try to learn as much as I could. I tried to speak to as many women as I could, but I also spoke to men. I really liked how Liza wrote it. Because, even though it is told by a woman, I think that there are certain things that are common thread for any soldier who might have gone over there.

How was working with Michael Shannon and John Slattery?
LC: They’re fantastic. They are both really funny and warm, and incredible actors. It was so great for me, because I spent so much time on screen alone. It was so great when they showed up because they completely changed the energy and [lent] so much support to my character and so much more life and texture to what she was going through.

Any future plans you’d like to discuss?
LC: I’m due to produce a child any day now! I’ve [also] been working on writing and have something in development, and, if that happens, it’ll be something I might be interested in starring in, writing, and producing. I’m spreading my wings a little bit.

Return opens in New York on February 10th.

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF RETURN-FILM.COM

Sir Ivan Wilzig

Infamous for his cape bedazzled with a peace sign and his annual Hamptons “castle party,” musician and philanthropist Sir Ivan Wilzig is living his version of the American dream—his latest single, "Live for Today," was a top ten hit in the U.K. The son of Siegbert Wilzig—Auschwitz survivor, banking and oil tycoon and philanthropist—Sir Ivan spent 20 years dutifully plugging away at his father’s Trust Company Bank before making a U-turn into a music career at the age of 45. “I never had any banking aspirations. I had showbiz aspirations since I was five years old,” says Wilzig of his ultimate departure from banking. No matter his direction in life, Sir Ivan remains dedicated to philanthropy—a value instilled by his father—through his Peaceman Foundation, which aims to eliminate hate crime and assists those suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. We spoke with Sir Ivan to learn more about his music (which he describes as “technippie,” or techno-hippie), his mission and his eccentric lifestyle. 

What kind of music did you listen to when you were growing up?
SIR IVAN WILZIG: Elvis Presley. But I was weaned on Motown. The three big albums that were my biggest influences were The Greatest Hits of the Temptations, The Four Tops and The Supremes.

Why did you choose to cover John Lennon’s Imagine for your first single?
SIW: Well, in the late ’90s I just felt the world was taking a turn for the worse with events like the murders of Matthew Shepard, James Byrd, Jr. [and] all the seemingly daily bombings in Israel—a murder every week. World events and news drove me to believe that people needed to hear the words of Imagine again. I feel like Lennon was a prophet and we didn’t take the warnings the first time and paid for it. I decided after that that all my songs would be from the ’60s or have ’60s-type lyrics.

What did your father think of your trading banking for music—and a cape?
SIW: My dad didn’t think much of it at first because he wanted stability for us, and he didn’t think the entertainment business was stable. He knew it was a one-in-a-million shot to become a famous entertainer. But he and my mother always encouraged me to sing as a hobby. They took me to all the Broadway shows as a child.

Are you happy with the choice you made?
SIW: Well, I’ve had seven singles and all of them have charted on Billboard. So I’m seven for seven.

All of your work has been with cover songs. Will you transition to original songs?
SIW: I wrote my first three original songs recently with a writer and a producer who works with American Idol-level talents and I will be recording them soon.

What will those songs sound like?
SIW: Still in the vein of wanting to help and heal the world. One song is a campy, cult-like song of a utopian world without bullies—La-La Land is the name of that song. The others are a bit more serious.

How does your look, namely the cape, fit your musical persona?
SIW: The things I wear and the parties I throw both draw attention to me as an artist so that people realize that the banker Ivan no longer exists and that I’m all about being the artist. I wear the peace sign because it represents how sincere I am about it. It all draws attention to the charity and the music.

Sir Ivan's second album is planned to be released in 2012 and will feature contributions from Debbie Gibson and Kimberley Locke.

We know him as Lafayette, True Blood’s gumbo-slinging cook-cum-vampire blood dealer known for his flashy headwraps and trademark quips (“Hooker, please.”). But Nelsan Ellis is more than the sum of his character’s parts. The Alabama native moved to Chicago at 14, fell in love with acting and moved again to attend New York’s prestigious Juilliard School, where his play, Ugly, won Lincoln Center’s Martin E. Segal Award. A role in the HBO movie Warm Springs, alongside Cynthia Nixon and Kenneth Branagh, solidified his passion for acting and snowballed into a television and film career that brought True Blood calling.

What went through your head when you got the call to audition for True Blood?
NELSAN ELLIS: Just another call.

How did you perceive the character of Lafayette when you first read the script?
NE: I perceived [him] like a drag queen. But that’s not what they wanted.

What did they want?
NE: They wanted something more real. A drag queen isn’t a mix between man and woman. A drag queen aspires to be a female impersonator or a woman. Lafayette is not that. [True Blood's creator] Alan [Ball] wanted a man who was tough yet feminine and just so happens to wear lipstick and makeup and a head wrap when he wants to. I mean, he was asking a lot.

Who inspired that feminine aura that Lafayette possesses?
NE: My mother. I’ve seen my mother and I know my mother inside and out. I can mimic her. I can be her; because part of her spirit is in me. So in order to make Lafayette real, I literally channeled my mother to make his movements, his speech and his behavior natural and not like ‘Nelsan putting on gay,’ which would just offend the gay community. I channeled my mama.

You have a love interest this season. How do love scenes challenge you as a straight man portraying a gay relationship?
NE: It’s odd. You have to get used to another penis, another man, another hairy dude and all the things that come with another dude that all the chicks complain about. When we kiss and we’re cutting each other from our hair, or man-breath, or man-smell, because I’m a musty dude, I feel sorry for him a lot of the time. [But] if I’m squeamish or complaining you won’t know; that’s how it’s supposed to be. We are a gay couple and we try to make this love real, and I hope we succeeded.

	Ellis as Lafayette on True Blood

There aren’t many mortals left on the show. Ever wish your character had special powers?
NE: I like being mortal. When you get power, things get less fun because your control is so absolute. When you’re mortal, there are so many more tricks you can play and do to maneuver in this world because you don’t have the power. The survival playtime is, to me, more fun. I don’t want to be a vampire. If I’m a witch, then I would want to blow or possess the power of fire—so I could burn some mugs up.

What is it like working with Alan Ball?
NE: He’s genius. I mean, the man does nothing by mistake, it’s all by design. Even when I talk to him about character choices and scenes and plotlines: ‘Maybe we should do this and maybe we should do that,’ and he goes ‘No, this is why this is the way it is.’ And he breaks it down and I go ‘Oh, well no wonder you’re Alan Ball, because you’re so frickin’ smart.’

The plotlines unfold at such an exponential rate. Do you have reservations about where the show is going?
NE: I have reservations on how big it’s getting—the bigness of it. I don’t want to spread too far out because I think the audience’s attention span is a little short and that they fall in love with snapshots. When it gets so large to where the actor in the world can’t keep up, then I’m like, Maybe it is getting too big. But other than that, no, you don’t really question too much what Alan does because obviously something is working.

Did you have any clue that the show would blow up like it did?
NE: No. The second season premiere was madness. That’s when everybody’s lives changed, where you have to move to a different place where no one has access to you. We were just like, Well, I guess I have to change gyms.

Vampire show fans are hardcore, like, Trekkie hardcore.
NE: They’re very much like Trekkies. They’re loyal, they’ll dress up like you, they know your birthday and your mama’s name.

Is that flattering, scary or both?
NE: Scary. It’s flattering when a fan is flattering. When they’re coming up telling you your girlfriend’s last name and where she works and who your mama is and where you grew up and all this stuff, then you’re kind of like…. It’s life changing. Where you go changes. What you say changes. Who you let into your circle changes. You’re not even a celebrity, you’re just somebody who’s on a show that’s popular for the moment. All of the sudden you’re like, Jesus, I need to move into a house with bushes.

Working in the oversaturated vampire genre, do you worry about getting typecast?
NE: Not as a black man, no. I would get typed with the character I’m playing, not the genre. Because I’ve done all kinds of movies while I’ve been on the show, and none of them were related to sci-fi. But, I’ve also been offered gay roles out the wazoo.

Who in the business has given you good advice and helped you get where you are today?
NE: I would have to say Robert Downey Jr. first, then John Malkovich, then Jill Right. Also, Jamie Foxx, Cynthia Nixon and Kenneth Branagh. He was the first person I worked with; he taught me set etiquette.

Native New Yorker Dylan O’Brien was just another teenager until a series of homemade YouTube videos caught flame. Riding high on his YouTube success, at 19-years-old, O’Brien took a leap of faith and chose to pursue an acting career rather than college. Soon after that decision, O’Brien was cast in the series remake of the 1985 movie Teen Wolf, as well as 2012’s teen romance flick The First Time. We chatted up the MTV star on the differences between life in New York and LA and how he parlayed a YouTube hobby into a full-fledged acting career.

Do you miss the east coast?
DYLAN O’BRIEN: Everyday. It’s just like… Things make sense over there.

What does New York have that LA can’t touch?
DO: Where do I start? Chinese food, pizza, bagels… My favorite pizza place is Sutton Pizza. My favorite bagel place is actually a bagel place in New Jersey called Bagels 4U.

For the role of Stiles, did you take any cues from Jerry Levine’s 1985 portrayal of the character?
DO: It’s got to be different and it’s got to be reinvented for the next generation. But, with that said, I think there are certain things that Stiles needs to have, which Jerry Levine, obviously, is the originator of. He’s got to be cool, but in a weird way.

Have you always wanted to act?
DO: I guess on some level, but I never really thought it was a realistic thing until it just kind of happened to me. I guess I had always been toying around with a camera and making my own little videos since I was ten.

Right. You have a YouTube claim to fame.
DO: Yeah, my YouTube videos. That was just something that I liked to do. And I didn’t want anybody to see. God forbid if any of my friends saw, or anyone from my school. I was terrified to put it on YouTube.

How did you go from YouTube to MTV?
DO: This woman came to a little league game I was coaching [and] said she had seen my videos and asked if I wanted to be a part of a web series that she was doing. That was my first “acting” experience, I guess. They basically told me they would take me on and send me on auditions. I just had stuff to reconsider and I went home and I talked about it with my parents. I decided that I wasn’t going to go to Syracuse University, which is where I was intending on going.

It sounds like you made the right decision.
DO: Yeah, and now I’m acting every day. I just got off my first lead in a movie. It was just incredible.

FROM LEFT: Anne Meara, Minka Kelly, Conchata Ferrell, AnnaLynne McCord and B. Smith

Restaurateur and lifestyle guru B. Smith recently made her Off Broadway debut in Love, Loss and What I Wore (through May 29). Based on Ilene Beckerman’s bestselling book of the same name, the show portrays an intimate collection of stories and recollections by Nora and Delia Ephron. Both satirical and highly relatable, the subject matter is triggered by clothing and accessories which recall memories and anecdotes that women of all ages will be moved by. 

How did this project come to you?
B. SMITH: After meeting the producer and discussing how acting was one of my first loves, one thing led to another and she asked me if I was interested in joining the show.

Your monologue about undergoing breast cancer treatment was heart wrenching. How does you playing that role make you feel?
BS: As an actress you always want roles that are poignant. I lived the role mentally, which helped me to play the role physically.

What do you love about the play?
BS: The stories and the actual presentation of poignant, sad, happy, emotional female experiences; they make me proud to be a woman.

This is such an intimate, yet fast-paced production and each actor plays so many different characters. Was it difficult to connect to each part?
BS: Not at all. The play is written so well and the characters are so colorful and rich that I easily relate to many of the stories with myself, or my many friends who have had similar experiences. 

What outfit or accessory recalls the most powerful memories for you?
BS: What I wore to marry Dan Gasby, my soul mate and business partner: a beautiful, formal satin evening gown with a white fur stole. I felt like a queen—a young one at that!

Fernando Garibay in the studio with Lady Gaga

In the middle of our cross-continental phone call (I in New York, he in Los Angeles), just as I’m commenting that Lady Gaga never seems to stop working, Fernando Garibay, Gaga’s musical director, goes silent. Fearing the call had been dropped, I repeat “hello” a couple of times before he returns, apologizing: “Sorry! That was Gaga’s camp calling me on the other line.” He goes on to explain that the pop star is still making tweaks to her upcoming album Born This Way, out May 23.

Fernando Garibay

“She’s constantly working on making the songs better, down to the very last moment,” says Garibay. “Just this morning she had another change for a vocal. She’ll record the vocal off her GarageBand [Apple app] in her hotel room and then we implement it in a couple of hours. She never stops.”

All of her hard work isn’t for naught. Her latest single, “The Edge of Glory,” which was produced by Garibay, shot to number one on iTunes in 22 countries. Garibay calls the song—inspired by the moment her grandfather passed away—the “epitome” of the album. (The track begins with a heartbeat and ends with a flatline.) Garibay insists that every song on the album, which was largely written and produced in a studio-equipped tour bus, is the direct result of something that happened in Gaga’s life or on the Monster Ball tour.

“Picture this,” he begins. “Gaga’s walking off stage—she’s pumped full of adrenaline—she comes in, and we start. I play her these chords, and immediately she’s like, ‘Put up the mic!’ And off the cuff, from her head, she recites this whole song.”

Because the process of making Born This Way was so defined by the constraints of life on the road, Garibay and the other producers, RedOne and DJ White Shadow, developed a system for the flow of ideas and division of labor. “[The producers] had these secret USB flash drives that we’d carry around with us,” he says. “As soon as [Gaga] had an idea, she would assign it and I would direct how it was implemented.”

In addition to producing, Garibay plays guitar, keyboard, drums and bass and has worked with artists like Britney Spears, U2 and Enrique Iglesias. Still, he insists that working with Gaga is not like working with other contemporary artists. “I have full freedom to explore,” he explains. “My job primarily is to facilitate her vision, whatever that involves, whether [it’s] getting behind a keyboard and playing parts, cutting a vocal or making the track. If I were her, what would I do? I keep asking myself that question when we’re making our records. If I were her on stage, what would I want to hear? If I can’t get those answers from her I just go with my gut, but she’s leading the ship.”

As far as his own musical influences, Garibay notes Duran Duran, Soft Cell and growing up in East L.A., where he lived on the same street as Dr. Dre and Will.i.am. Combined with Gaga’s experiences coming up in New York, the aural composition of the album is eclectic but the message is unified. Garibay describes the album as “made with love and made for fans.”

“The statement of Born This Way is really important. You were born who you are. Why should you not be accepted or allowed to worship anything you want because of how you were born?” he says. “Everything Gaga expresses is genuine and real, and the same with the people who work around her. We’re all the same.”

FROM LEFT: Will Blagrove, Franklin Ojeda Smith and Sean Kirkpatrick between takes of Cost of a Soul

Inner-city slums are often compared to war zones, a comparison that might seem extreme until you consider this: US soldiers in Afghanistan are in constant mortal danger, but at least their families don’t become collateral damage.

First-time writer and director Sean Kirkpatrick brings this conundrum to vivid, harrowing life in his breakout film, Cost of a Soul, which traces two veterans who come home from the Iraq war, only to find themselves trapped in the same slums they joined the military to escape. The movie won AMC’s Big Break Contest and opens this week at select AMC theaters. This distribution would be a major achievement for any first-time director; it’s even more impressive in light of Kirkpatrick’s meager $100,000 budget. “I’ve looked into the stats, and it’s the largest theatrical opening for a film of our budget, ever,” Kirkpatrick says.

With his blue eyes and glowing skin, Kirkpatrick could be described as fresh-faced—until he talks about North Philadelphia, where the movie was filmed and which he knows first-hand from his former job installing surveillance cameras. “It was mandatory that I get a license to carry a weapon in those neighborhoods,” he says. “If you’re putting a surveillance camera near a drug dealer’s place of business, they’re not too happy with you.”

His street smarts paid off when he was filming Cost of a Soul on location in one of the murder capitals of the country. “We didn’t have money for police escorts, so we built community relations. We had a group of people who were well respected in the community who supported us and essentially protected us.” Kirkpatrick is justifiably proud that he earned the trust of locals. “Once people heard what the story was about and saw the integrity of the production, they embraced us.”

The film itself is as impressive as the story behind it. The high-contrast, sepia-toned cinematography and the moody jazz score create a jittery, tragic atmosphere, and the main characters are portrayed with honesty and grace by Chris Kerson and Will Blagrove. Most of all, Cost of a Soul establishes Kirkpatrick as a rising talent to watch. 

Cost of a Soul opens May 20 at AMC’s Empire 25 and Magic Johnson Harlem 9 theaters.