Premonition interviste, Interviste di solo testo senza foto o video

'Nip/Tuck' star plays dark character in 'Premonition'
By: Tessa Strasser
Issue date: 3/8/07 Section: WildLife

Julian McMahon's most famous for playing plastic surgeon Christian Troy in "Nip/Tuck." His latest role in thriller "Premonition" allows him to stop examining women's breasts - except for co-star Sandra Bullock's, that is. McMahon talks to us in a conference call about his attraction to darker roles, playing Bullock's husband, and why "Premonition" will still give you warm fuzzy feelings.

Wildcat: Do you enjoy more dark or off-center roles - not the totally normal guy roles?

Julian McMahon: Yes, definitely. I'm always attracted to something that is a little kind of skewed, a little kind of off. But I like those characters that are a little more extraordinary than just everyday life. That's what I kind of like playing, and that's what I seem to have spent most of my career doing.

W: What's the transition like for you, from TV to film and back and forth? What do you enjoy more?

JM: "Nip/Tuck," it's definitely a consistent grind. It's a lot of hard work. We're doing a seven-day work week, which means we have to get the episode in with seven days. We have mountains and mountains of dialogue, and it's all very emotional. So you can't just walk through it.

And then film - it depends on the film. The only thing about film is usually you just have a lot more time. I mean, "Fantastic Four" is a little ridiculous. You could do like two-eighths of a page a day and you're happy with it. On the "Premonition" movie, you do maybe a page or two a day, but it's still nothing compared to 10, 12 pages. The capacity of work is very different. They're both fun, but at the same time, they are different beasts.

W: What were the challenges of filming such a psychological role?

JM: I think that all roles are psychological. Just because it's been tagged as a psychological thriller doesn't mean that it's any more psychological for the actors than it would be when you're playing other roles. I think all roles are psychologically involved. I mean, that's the whole idea of an actor, is to look at a piece and kind of interpret it in your own way and evaluate it psychologically and emotionally and thoughtfully, and then come up with a character that is different from yourself.

W: How was working with Sandra Bullock?

JM: It's wonderful. She's everything you expect from what we've seen over many years, and she's more. She really is a pretty extraordinary woman.

W: What did you guys do to develop chemistry?

JM: Absolutely nothing. It just comes or it doesn't, you know? I feel like I have chemistry with anything. But then you've got somebody like Sandy, and you've got two personalities which just kind of play off each other. You can talk for hours and you can have a laugh, and you get each other's sensibilities and understandings, and you kind of connect. And I think that's where chemistry comes from, and it can't be manufactured.

W: What do you hope audiences come away feeling or contemplating after seeing "Premonition"?

JM: If you could walk away from that movie feeling like - it's that whole appreciate - just appreciate what you have a little bit. I think that that is really an important message. Stop looking over there and just look at what's right in front of you, and if you can, take a moment to appreciate what you have, because it's important.

Bullock weathers Premonition's strange days
Movies Features By Ian Caddell
Publish Date: March 8, 2007

LOS ANGELES—Sandra Bullock may appear to be living the American dream. In addition to being a movie star who produces her own films and those of others, she is also married with three stepchildren. She began to question the validity of the American dream, however, while reading a script for a film about a woman named Linda who assumes she has been living it until she has regular nightmares about the death of her husband. The film, entitled Premonition, opens next Friday (March 16) in Vancouver.

“I think this film shatters the idea of the American dream,” she says in a Los Angeles hotel's interview room. “I think the American dream can become a nightmare because it doesn't fit everyone. Then, when it is too late you think ‘Why didn't I do something differently?' When she discovers that she may be able to change the outcome of her life she has to think ‘Do I want to go back and make things different given that they still might not turn out the way I want?' I think that there are so many wonderful things in America, but everyone's dream should be unique to themselves. If you stick to the traditional American dream and get a house and two kids, then you assume that success is monetary success. That may shatter most people because they have locked themselves in a corner.”

In the film, Bullock's character returns from taking her children to school and hears a cryptic message from her husband (Julian McMahon) who is on his way to a sales meeting. A few hours later, a police officer comes to the door and says her husband was killed in a car crash. After telling the children about the accident and calling her mother to help her with them, she goes to bed assuming that she is a widow. When she awakes, her husband is back in bed beside her and has yet to go to his meeting. She begs him to stay, but when he leaves she gets on with her day. At the end of it, she goes back to bed. When she wakes up, the sink is filled with the mood-stabilizing drug lithium, it is several days later and her house is filled with people on their way to her husband's funeral.

Bullock says that while shooting any film can be difficult because the scenes are inevitably going to be done out of order, there is something particularly challenging about a film that leapfrogs days and then keeps returning to the beginning of the story. “I had the hardest time I have ever had working on a film,” she says. “Everyone involved in a film knows you are going to shoot the film out of sequence so you have to understand you are shooting the end at the beginning and the middle in the end and you have to go back to see what happened before you shoot a scene. In this film the character's days are out of order! Then you have to get to an emotional state of grief every hour of the day every day for three months. To make things worse, we were in Shreveport [Louisiana] with no direct flights home to Los Angeles. All I could do was trust the director [Mennan Yapo] because he knew where I was supposed to be at any time. But it was so hard on me that I didn't work for a year after that.”

Taking a vacation from acting is not always the best career move, but Bullock says that she really doesn't care about career planning. She says that her career has had so many ups and downs since she became a star with the 1994 film Speed, she has given up trying to take control of it or her stature in Hollywood.

“I could give a **** about my stature,” she says. “My stature has been knocked off the pedestal many times. If your movies don't perform the way they are expected to perform your stature is automatically knocked down a peg whether you like it or not. I couldn't control whether people liked me in the beginning so I won't be able to control whether they like me in the end. At some point you have this great epiphany where you think ‘Why don't I do what I want and try to read as little [about myself] as possible and get my feelings hurt as little as possible and just do what my gut tells me is the right thing to do?' The truth is that we [actors] could all eventually be replaced by video graphics and holograms so you can't worry about it [your career] because you will lose your mind.”

Romance, suspense fuel Bullock's 'Premonition'

March 8, 2007

Linda Hanson's seemingly perfect life gets pretty much destroyed with news of her husband's death in a monumental car crash. Or, does it?

After all, when Linda wakes up the next day, Jim Hanson is perfectly alive and well. Or, is he? Was it all just a "Premonition"?

Find out when the psychological thriller opens everywhere on March 16. For now, superstar Sandra Bullock answers five questions about her new film and some other stuff in her rich and famous life.

After "The Lake House" and now this, do you have an affinity for time-travel stories?

No, those were completely different scripts that were really good. That was a love story with parallel times that were different; this was a beautifully written thriller that actually had bigger meaning and incredible depth. It was also an incredibly complicated film, which I don't think is made a lot.

Do you think this is a love story as well?

Oh, absolutely, it's a love story, but I think (director) Mennan Yapo says it so beautifully. We're shattering the American dream. I think the American dream becomes a nightmare because it doesn't fit everyone, which is one of those things several people have encountered in life. When it's too late is when you think, "Why didn't I do something to make life better? What could I have done different?" In Linda's situation, it's "Do I want to go back and try and make things different, given that they might not turn out or I might not be wanted?"

Do you think you're more influenced by the American dream, having grown up here, or do you see that you stand on the outside of it because you're also European?

That's a really hard question to answer. There are so many wonderful things in America. I take and enjoy what I take and enjoy.

I think everyone's dream is and should be unique to themselves. I think that if you try to squeeze yourself into that whole thing of get a house, marriage, two kids, success equals monetary success . . . I think that it'll shatter most people because you've locked yourself in a corner.

I don't know what is influenced by my European side (late mother Helga was a German opera singer), and I don't know what's influenced by my American side (executive dad John is now CEO of Bullock's production company, Fortis Films).

It definitely is the land of possibilities, but there are other countries where there are extraordinary possibilities, too, for dreams and lifestyles and that sort of thing.

Did you have trouble not losing your place in this nonlinear story?

Yes, the hardest time I've ever had working. Films shoot out of sequence, anyway, which is nerve-racking, so everyday you're looking at the scene and going, "We're shooting at the beginning. We're shooting the middle at the end." You always have to go back and see what happened before the scene that you were shooting.

On top of having the days be out of order, the character's days are out of order. Then, on top of that, you have to get yourself to an emotional state of grief, and that's all the levels of grief every single day for 12 hours a day for three months in Shreveport, La., with no flight back home, stuck in this house, in this cocoon.

So, it was really hard for me. I'm thankful for it now, but I just didn't realize how hard a time I would have because I couldn't control it. Then, in the end, the director goes, "Oh, this is very good. This is where you're supposed to be." I wanted to slap him, but he was right. I also trusted him so much in that if I couldn't do something or if I really got lost or unraveled, I knew that he knew exactly where I needed to be at that time.

Julian (McMahon) and I were lucky that we could rely on this house, on the director, on the cinematographer and on the storyline to get us from beginning to end, but it was really, really hard, and I didn't have an easy time of it. It's probably why I didn't work for like a year after. I was like, "Whew! After that, I just need a vacation for 365 days."

Do you believe in some sort of woman's intuition?

I think there are different words you can attach to premonition: intuition, gut instinct. People are psychic, are intuitive. People have dreams and some come true. I've had friends tell me, "Don't do this." When I didn't, I regretted it; when I did listen, I was thanking whoever it was. I haven't had a specific feeling that's come true, but I've had things happen that I can't explain that sort of helped me avoid something tragic.

I do think everyone has it. They say woman's intuition is when a mother knows her child has been harmed somewhere. They say twins have it, too. How do you explain that?

How do you explain people who nowadays are hired by the government who see things, and then they go there and they find the things that the people have seen? This is something that can't be proven by science. It's always swatted down and its validity is always sort of shoved aside, but I do feel that it's existed on whatever level since time has been around.

We believe in a higher power. So, where is the scientific proof on that, but we believe it and we have faith in it. Some of us do, some of us don't.

What was it like working with Julian? Had you met him before and did you have any preconceptions about him going in?

I didn't have preconceptions. We sort of have mutual friends and I've always heard about him, plus I heard about him from "nip/tuck." I hadn't really watched that much of it, but the first time I met him at my office, I felt like I'd known him, like he reminded me of friends of mine. I do admire him a great deal, as an actor, what with "nip/tuck" and all the other things he goes out and fights to do.

He's the kind of leading man that goes back to the classic times who can do anything — comedy, drama, whatever. Women love him, men like him and he's just a good guy. I felt like we didn't have enough time, but what we had to do, we did because we wanted to get our stories straight, that our marriage was like this or that up to this point.

I felt like Julian and Mennan and I were dropped off at the top of one of those extreme sports mountains by the helicopter, and we stayed there until we got the job done, and whatever happened there happened for a very good reason.

This was shot right after Katrina, right?

Yeah, we were supposed to shoot in New Orleans. It was one of those things where the state's film community said, "Please don't leave. We need this. There are other places to shoot." My choice was New Orleans. At the beginning of the film, I said, "I don't want to be too far from home. I want to be in the middle of the United States. I love New Orleans. Let's shoot there. They have great tax incentives and I love the way it looks, the way it feels."

Then, the storm hit and we couldn't do it, but Shreveport proved to be a great place . . . and it was actually good because when we didn't have something, we had to find it where we were. Since this is not a special-effects film, it actually helped, that frustration of not having what you wanted.

Did you see New Orleans and help out at all down there?

I worked a lot with the people of New Orleans, though unless you can build and you can restructure their utility system or return their electricity or get the government to start moving more quickly, there's nothing I could really physically do. But, there is a lot I can do for the people monetarily. You just hope to God that they get that help. It's not happening quickly enough, but it's the red tape of the bigger infrastructure.

As an "A-list" actress in Hollywood . . .

Thanks for saying "A-list" (laughs).

. . . what do you want to do with your status at the box office?

I could give a (darn) about my status. My status has been knocked off the pedestal so many times (laughs). If I don't perform the way that everyone expects, your status is automatically knocked off, whether or not you like it. You can't control that. I couldn't control whether people liked me in the beginning, and I'll never be able to control whether they like me in the end.

At some point, if you're lucky, you have that great epiphany: "Hm-m-m, why don't I just do what I love and try to read as little as possible, try to get my feelings hurt as little as possible, and just do what my gut tells me is the right thing to do with the people that make me better on the projects that I want?"

Tomorrow, everything could shift. It could all go to video graphics and holograms and we're no longer a viable commodity. So, you just do your thing rather than looking externally and fighting to keep that. You'll just lose your mind if you do that.

Do you believe in fate?

Don't know. I know I can look at my life and know why certain things have happened and why I sit here today and go, "Oh, wow, that's interesting. If that hadn't happened, something that I didn't like, I wouldn't have something good on Monday."

I don't know, though. Things are going to be what they're supposed to be. If that's fate, then maybe I do, but I also feel like you have an incredible amount of control in your happiness.

I think that a lot of people wait for that to come, but it has nothing to do with it. If you're complacent and you're miserable, you really need to look at yourself. What can you do to fight and make your life the life that you want? This is it, the one life you have. Why do we let the things get to us and make our lives difficult or sad that we can actually control? Some things you can't control, but why are we not fighting for our own happiness?

As the mother of two kids in this film, do you think about having children someday?

Here's the thing: I do have children. I married into children. ("Monster Garage" host/husband Jesse James has three: Jesse Jr., 8; Chandler, 6; and Sunny, 3.) I love those children. My concern and my love for those kids as a co-parent is no less than if I had that child biologically. I don't see the difference between that and having your own child biologically.

My priorities, my love, my wants, my wishes for them, my discipline, my rules, my fun is because of my children. I have them. I'm lucky. I also wonder why you guys are always wondering what's going on in my reproductive system.

Well, because you seem to love children.

I love them enough to know that some people shouldn't have them and there are so many children in our United States that have no homes, that have no place to live, whose parents have dropped them off on the doorstep. What are we doing about that?

What are we doing about taking care of our elderly? What are we doing about taking care of those people who have gone to war and fought for us and are now in Walter Reed Hospital which has now been blown open? What are we doing?

Let's take care of what's right in our neighborhood. If everyone looked in their two-block radius and said, "I'm going to take care of this right here. I'm going to be responsible for this right here." If every neighbor did that, do you know how much more functional we would be?

So, you ask the question about babies and I know it's a fun thing to print. "When is she going to get pregnant?" Well, it might happen and it might not. But, I'm the luckiest woman sitting in this room because of the children that I have in my life. I would not change that, and I would not want it to go backward or forward, and whatever happened I hope would be a blessing to them because I'm already blessed. I'm already there.

What brought you back to work?

This story. This script and the fact that they were willing to wait. I said, "Are you willing to wait until the next year because I just want to be — well I just want to be married for a year." They said, "Fine, we'll wait," and they did, which was nice.

What's going on with your production company?

We're getting ready to put together a comedy.

Who's in it?

You know what? I'm not going to talk about it because all the deals aren't signed and as soon as I bring it up to you, it'll fall apart.

Do you have a favorite of all the movies you have done so far?

I don't. I think they're all personal. I have no idea because, if you pick one, you're leaving out something else. Then, I'll go home and I'll go, "No, it's that one."

What are you wearing?

I haven't the slightest idea. My jeans, my boots, I have no idea who it is. T-shirt? Just say a gray, draping T-shirt.

Bullock's benevolence is not lost on McMahon

Julian McMahon, perhaps known best to film fans as Dr. Doom in "Fantastic Four," plays dead-again, live-again hubby to Sandra Bullock in "Premonition." A legitimate TV player as lead cad of cable FX's "nip/tuck," McMahon has nothing but grand things to say about his movie co-star.

"Sandy is an extraordinary person, beyond what we all see and beyond what the public persona is and all that stuff," he says. "She is just really amazing. "We spent two or three weeks together before the movie, just talking about life and love and hope and lust and people and things. We learned a lot about each other very quickly. By the time we started shooting, I felt like we knew each other quite instantly.
"On top of that," McMahon added, "while we were (filming) in Shreveport, La., right after Hurricane Katrina, here's this woman, who really doesn't have to, doing everything she could to help people who had no more homes, no more identity, no clothing, no nothing. She's just a very beautiful person."

— John Urbancich

Poi parla molto bene di Sandra e, alla domanda "quali sentimenti speri di suscitare nel pubblico dopo aver visto Premonition?" Julian risponde "smettere di guardare lontanto ma soffermarsi su quello che stà proprio davanti a noi e, se possibile, prendersi un momento per apprezzare quello che abbiamo, perchè è molto importante"
E' veramente bella questa ultima frase di Julian.

CMAHON TOO SCARED TO `SNEAK A PEEK' AT BARE BULLOCK


Australian actor JULIAN MCMAHON kept eye contact with PREMONITION co-star SANDRA BULLOCK during a naked shower scene in the film because he didn't want to have to answer to her husband - for sneaking a peek. MCMahon admits he was the envy of many friends when they learned he'd be baring all with Bullock, but he didn't dare make a move to capture the actress in all her glory. He says, "Have you seen her husband, JESSE JAMES? He's kind of a big dude. You would not take a peek."

10/03/2007 01:44

Come sarebbe che Julian parlava di lussuria con Sandra... allora la scena sotto la doccia non è l'unica cosa che potrebbe non far molto contento il marito

While Linda's world is disintegrating, Jim's life is progressing in sequence. The result is an exciting roller-coaster ride where the lines between dream and reality are blurred and the only certainty is the emotional thread binding the couple together. The movie forces audiences to re-examine their own lives and pose questions that shake the very foundation of their daily grind. According to McMahon, that is the key premise of Premonition. "If you can walk away from it and appreciate what you have, I think that's the important message of this movie."

Grazie Lovecole
Stando così le cose, il tempo per i film ci sarà sempre, più difficile per un nuovo telefilm...
La frase su Premonition è bella, e ricordo che una cosa simile era stata detta anche in una delle recensioni al film

Come sarebbe che Julian parlava di lussuria con Sandra... allora la scena sotto la doccia non è l'unica cosa che potrebbe non far molto contento il marito

Nella prima intervista Julian dice che ama rappresentare i personaggi un pò dark e fuori dal comune perchè hanno qualcosa di straordinario piuttosto dei tipi normali.
Poi fà il paragone tra l'esperienza televisiva e quella cinematografica.....Nip/Tuck lo coinvolge molto anche perchè è molto impegnativo, si lavora sette giorni su sette e si fanno passare 10 o 12 pagine di dialogo al giorno. I tempi del cinema invece sono molto diversi, nei Fantastici Quattro si fanno poche righe di dialogo al giorno e su Premonition una pagina o al massimo due. Entrambe le esperienze sono divertenti ma sono piuttosto diverse.
Poi parla molto bene di Sandra e, alla domanda "quali sentimenti speri di suscitare nel pubblico dopo aver visto Premonition?" Julian risponde "smettere di guardare lontanto ma soffermarsi su quello che stà proprio davanti a noi e, se possibile, prendersi un momento per apprezzare quello che abbiamo, perchè è molto importante"
E' veramente bella questa ultima frase di Julian.

Che sarebbe più o meno: Lui è il tipo di uomo dei tempi classici che può fare tutto- commedia, dramma e qualunque altra cosa. Le donne lo amano e gli uomini lo apprezzano, lui è semplicente un bravo ragazzo

Altre 3 interviste, rimpinguiamo questo topic


"All of his suits are a little shorter than they should be," he said of Jim. "They're nice suits because he has to dress well for work [as a car salesman]. But I liked the idea of him buying the suits because he needs to, not because he's into a certain look."

Local girl doubles in 'Premonition' By WARREN ARCENEAUX
AMERICAN PRESS

Seven-year-old Sulphur native Madison Fuselier worked on the filming of the movie "Premonition" last year, serving as the photo double for Shyann McClure, who appears in the movie as Megan, the youngest daughter of Sandra Bullock's character.
The movie was filmed in Shreveport in February 2006. When the casting company for the movie contacted Shreveport-area talent agencies looking for someone who could stand in for McClure, Fuselier got the call.
SPECIAL TO THE AMERICAN PRESS
Madison Fuselier, left, and actress Shyann McClure on the set of "Premonition." The movie is now on screen at United Artists 10 and Cinemark 14.
"Her talent agency, Michael Turney agency, received a call, looked through their records, and Madison matched up well with Shyann; they were about the same size," said Denise Hollingsworth, Fuselier's mother.
Madison said she had fun on the set, particularly when she got to go on camera.
"It was fun. I went up and hugged the dad, then walked into the school and came out," she said. "We would go play in Shyann's trailer. I had a good time being there."
Madison and older sister Morgan signed with the Turney agency after impressing them at a convention for agents last year.
"They went to a convention in South Carolina in January to meet with agents from all over the world," said Hollingsworth. They had to do runway modeling, sitcom acting and commercials. From that, the Osbrink Agency of California called and asked if we could move out there before they started shooting all the pilots. We have seven children so that was not an option. They liked Madison because she was older and smarter, but smaller, so she could play younger roles, down to a 4-year-old." Fuselier was on stand-by most of the time she was on set. "The kids can only work so many hours per day, so when McClure's time was up, they used Madison for scenes in which the character was in the background," Hollingsworth said.
"There was a lot of sitting in the trailer, from noon until 4:30, waiting for them to tell us if they would need Madison. Most of the time they did not and we had to drive back home, but they did film her a couple of times. In one scene she was playing hopscotch, in another she hugged the dad, played by Julian McMahon. He was really nice. He told Madison he had a 6-year-old daughter with the same name and talked with her for a while."
Fuselier got a taste of the star treatment.
"She had her own trailer and did makeup and wardrobe with all of the stars," Hollingsworth said. "She really wanted to meet Sandra Bullock but never had the chance."
Fuselier and McClure hit it off. "Madison got to play with McClure, who was also in Welch's juice commercials," Hollingsworth said. "They would go to her trailer and in the trailer they set up to have school for the kids. Bullock bought toys for them, too."
The family had to deal with a tragedy while the filming was going on.
"We filmed Feb. 6 and Feb. 8. On the day in between, our cousin Kinsey Golden-Roden was killed in a car accident," Hollingsworth said. "It turns out the movie centers around Bullock's character having a car accident in which McMahon's character is killed."
Despite all of the waiting and not getting the chance to chat with Bullock, Hollingsworth said the experience was a good one.
"It was fun just to be on the set and see how everything is done," she said. "We have not seen the movie yet and are not even sure they used Madison, but she had a good time and it was a good experience for her."