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Actors and Literature: Ethan Hawke, Hugh Laurie and Viggo Mortensen

Posted on February 23, 2010 Written by ripitup

Don’t you like actors when they are multi-dimensional? It must be much more fun to be able to write a novel when they don’t have to pay the bills with its sales. Sure, they would love to have many readers. What author doesn’t? But art is much more fun when you don’t have to worry about selling it. I did talk about actors making music before:

* Kevin Bacon and Keanu Reeves

* Shane West

* Bruce Willis and John Travolta

* Hugh Laurie and Band from TV

Now, it is time for novels and poetry:

Ethan Hawke

Well, we know Ethan Hawke is no stranger to writing scripts and we do love what he did with Julie Delpy and Richard Linklater, co-writing Before Sunset (The sequel to the amazing romantic film Before Sunrise). But he also writes novels. His first novel is The Hottest State. He later directed this into a movie of the same name in 2006. He also wrote the script and has a small but an important role in the film. Not an amazing film, but pretty good in all standards and I do love a multi-tasking actor.

His second novel was released in 2002 and it is called “Ash Wednesday: A novel”

All Posts on Ethan Hawke

– Lord of War starring Nicolas Cage, Ethan Hawke and Jared Leto

– Ethan Hawke trivia

– Brooklyn’s Finest starring Richard Gere, Ethan Hawke and Don Cheadle

– Cheating Celebrity Trivia: 8 Male Celebrities That Cheated (feat. Ethan Hawke, Jude Law,

Kevin Costner and more)

– Before Sunrise

– Before Sunset

– 10 Celebrity Break-ups You May Not Have Seen Coming

– 10 Most Entertaining Sci-fi Movies: Favorite Sci-fi Movies of a Non-fan

– Reality Bites starring Ethan Hawke, Winona Ryder and Ben Stiller

– Alias

Hugh Laurie

In addition to being a terrific actor, both comedic and dramatic, he is an apt musician. But as if talent and the British charm isn’t enough, Hugh Laurie is a writer too. His first novel The Gun Seller was a critically acclaimed crime novel. Another one called The Paper Soldier is on the way. Don’t you just love Hugh?

All posts on Hugh Laurie and Gregory House

Absolute Hugh Laurie and House Trivia: 21 Facts About Hugh Laurie and His TV Series House

Use of Social Media in TV Series featuring Castle, The Mentalist, House, Cougar Town and NCIS Los Angeles

Television’s 3 Most Brilliant, Emotionally Broken Men: Patrick Jane, Gregory House and Jack Bauer

22 Tall Actors From Hollywood

The British Actors We Love Part 2: The Hughs

Hollywood Stars in Friends, Including Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts and More

House starring Hugh Laurie

Actor Musicians and Musician Actors Part 4: Hugh Laurie, James Denton and Greg Grunberg a.k.a. The Band From TV

Viggo Mortensen

I first saw Viggo in a hugely underrated TV movie called Vanishing Point. It is fast, fun and interesting. Then I watched A Perfect Murder with Michael Douglas and Gwyneth Paltrow, where he played Gwyneth’s lover. The movie was a good remake and he does make a good bohemian artist with some shady intentions. So by the time he was Aragorn in Lord of the Rings, I was already a fan. But when I dug deeper into his history, I realized the guy was even more interesting than I gave him credit for. I’ll get into the details later but let’s just say that he writes poetry and does own a publishing house. Damn, the guy is hardworking.

I love all three actors and I have to admit I haven’t gotten to read their works. Yet. But I’ll. I just hope I have half the luck and talent these guys have…

Alias TV Show starring Jennifer Garner, Michael Vartan, Bradley Cooper and Victor Garber

Posted on November 2, 2009 Written by ripitup

Jennifer Garner as Sydney Bristow in Alias — Some of Sydey’s many disguises in Alias

Before 2001, I had no idea who Michael Vartan, Jennifer Garner and Bradley Cooper were. I had no idea the terrific actor that is Victor Garber existed and that Ron Rifkin made such a great villain. In 2001 – before Lost- there was Alias. The connection between the two shows? The creator/executive producer J.J. Abrams. The two shows could not have been more different. Yes, both include mystery, some unexplained supernatural possibilities (Alias will remember “Rambaldi”) and lots of action. But for the life of me, I can’t figure out why Lost became the phenomenon that it still is. Sure it is captivating and all, but Alias had created an addiction in me that Lost didn’t. For those of you who never caught Alias, here’s the plot (although I should mention that the order we are given the story is more complicated & intriguing than my orderly version).

THE BACKGROUND

Jennifer Garner as Sydney Bristow

Sydney Bristow (Jennifer Garner) is a promising college student, with a great boyfriend Danny (Edward Atterton) and loving friends (Will and Francie; played by Bradley Cooper and Merrin Dungey). Her estranged father Jack (Victor Garber) is a businessman she barely talks to and her mother died when she was a kid.

What she told Danny and her friends:

Graduation is taking a tad longer, since she is “working at the finance department of a bank called Credit Dauphine”.

REALITY, as Sydney knows it:

It’s not really a bank. It is SD-6, a secret branch of the CIA and Sydney is a secret agent there. She fights well, speaks many languages and knows her hi-tech gadgets, prepared for every mission by the fast -talking and nice geek Marshall

(Kevin Weisman). Every time she tells her friends, she is going on a business trip, she is actually going on a deadly assignments with her partner/trusted friend Dixon (Carl Lumbly). But Danny proposes ans she feels obliged to tell him. So she does..

He gets into shock and leaves a drunken message on her machine. The agency guys has him killed. Why would CIA kill an innocent civillian? They wouldn’t. They also wouldn’t go after her to kill her.

REALITY

She’s rescued by her absent businessman father and is told the truth: SD-6 is not CIA, in fact SD-6 is an enemy of CIA. Also, he is not a businessman; but a senior SD-6 agent. He offeres Sydney an escape route. But Sydney is upset and she wants vengeance. So she proves herself useful to her boss Arvin Sloane (Ron Rifkin). She further proves her loyalty by undergoing tests/interrogations and is cleared. After all, she is the best agent they have. Then she goes to the real CIA and joins them.

There she meets her “handler” Michael Vaughn (Michael Vartan– the guy who is supposed to tell her about the counter-missions. Oh,that’s right! Now she is only pretending to be loyal to SD-6, while being true to the actual CIA. Now each mission has a counter one, making the timing harder, the missions more dangerous. She also has to pull this off under the unsuspecting nose of her SD-6 partner, who is genuinely a good guy that doesn’t know what SD-6 is really up to…

Then of course her father isn’t really only SD-6. He is also CIA, and he is loyal to them, not Sloan.

It is full of action. Car chases, gadgets ( lipstick with cameras and all that nice stuff), disguises, plane crashes, travelling all over the world- even 3-4 countries in each episode back to her resident location: Los Angeles.

MISSIONS

Jennifer Garner as Sydney Bristow

Michael Vartan and Jennifer Garner in Alias.

Of course as smart, gorgeous and dangerous as she is, Sydney is only human and taking all of the below very badly:

Arvin Sloane:

*Arvin is the man whom she regarded as a father figure until he turned out to be a psychopath and her fiancée killed. He also sent men to kill her. We also know he has lied to her everyday, since her recruitment. Now she has to see him everyday and smile to his face; so that she can bring the whole organization down when the time comes.

Not to mention the fact that she has to live with the fact that she worked for that organization for 7 years, thinking that she was helping the government whereas she had been betraying it.

Jack Bristow

* What is worse than an absent father? Probably a father who lied to you all your life, and seems to be revealing the truth at his own convenience: Oh yes, he has more secrets. He is not just SD-6, he is also CIA-a double agent. He also seems to be deprived of emotion. The guy has a poker face that makes him a great agent and the social bonding skills that make Hugh Laurie’s House seem like a teddy bear. He does love his daughter but he really has to work on the honesty issue. Her mother may not have been a school teacher after all. Telling what happened to her will be a spoiler, sorry…

WILL & FRANCIE

Will and Francie played by Bradley Cooper and Merrin Dungey

*Oh, she has great friends who know nothing about this secret life so she can only talk about trivial stuff with them and hang out. They love her and for the lives of them can not figure out why Sydney doesn’t leave her boring bank job. Pl?us, Will is a journalist and nosy by nature; and he suspects Danny’s murder was no ordinary crime. If he gets close, he too will be killed so she has to protect him from himself. It gets tricky to lead a double life when you live with one of your friends (Francie) and the other is fixed on solving your dead fiancé’s mystery.

DANIEL HECHT

* She has to live with the fact that her fiancée Danny was killed by her boss, and because she told him who she is.




MICHAEL VAUGHN



If her cover is blown, and he is discovered to be of CIA, they are both screwed (as in risking to be murdered by SD-6)…It really doesn’t help matters that they keep getting closer and become increasingly attracted to each other…

Their relationship never lacks adrenaline, friendship, honesty, sexual chemistry, bottled up feelings and not to mention the fact that they both face death almost everyday. It is nerve-wrecking to go on missions and fight together on the field- without being detected by SD-6 and it is worse for Michael to sit and watch as Sydney overtakes one deadly mission after another. So she can tell Michael anything. But she can’t even go out with him. Another thing about her life that drives her mad.

This is as close to a date it gets for Syndey Bristow and her handler Michael Vaughn. She’s being briefed about her missions while pretending to be too strangers streching on the benches.

So this eventually happens: Sydney and Vaughn get together. But how many episodes does it take? You are just going to have to see it for yourselves.

The Guest Stars

Yes, of course each episode has many guest stars but some of them are remarkably famous and it was certainly fun to see them in those kick-ass episodes: Ethan Hawke, Christian Slater and Quentin Tarantino.

Ethan Hawke appears in Alias episode Double Agent (Season 2, Episode 14)

Christian Slater appears in two episodes of Alias: Endgame (season 2, episodes 15 & 19)

Quentin Tarantino appears as McKenas Cole in 4 episodes of Alias.

TO SUM UP:

Season 1 is brilliant with an incredible season finale.

Season 2 does not dissapoint. Moreover it features guest stars that I love; such as Ethan Hawke and Christian Slater.

The whole season is amazing and the finale is arguably even more shocking than the first season’s. In season, 3 the show is still good- you hardly get upset with the script but with some actions of some characters (major actions of major characters, to be exact) but after season 3…The show is no longer addictive. It lose its vibe. The characters and their actions aren’t interesting anymore. The story twists are sort of desperate and you say “Come on,what the…?” a lot. Don’t even get me started on the 5th season. Of course they are worth watching in the sense that you want to know what eventually will happen to characters you have come to care about but still, if you quit with the 3rd, I am not gonna blame you.

My guess is J.J Abrams found a new show idea that he liked (Lost) and fell out of love with Alias. Writers wrote with the philosophy of “anything goes” and since this is not a soap opera, they failed.

However I watch the first 3 (and especially 1st &2nd) seasons over and over. After all, real life is never going to get that interesting and exciting. It is fun to be in a world of lies, deceit, passion, fights and chases and espionage for about 40 minutes each episode.

Reality Bites starring Ethan Hawke, Winona Ryder and Ben Stiller

Posted on October 26, 2009 Written by ripitup

RealityBites-GerceklerAcitir — Reality Bites starring Ben Stiller, Winona Ryder and Ethan Hawke

Favorite Line (not just from this movie, but one of my favorite movie lines ever):

Lelaina (Winona Ryder): I was really going to be somebody by the time I was 23.
Troy (Ethan Hawke): Honey, all you have to be by the time you’re 23 is yourself.

Reality Bites is a sincere and funny movie about what really awaits us after college. No matter how well we do at the university or how enthusiastic we are about starting out our lives, things almost never quite turn out the way we expect them to be. The movie is from 1994, written by Helen Childress and Ben Stiller.

Lelaina (Winona Ryder) is the class valedictorian. She hangs out with her best friends from college:Vickie (Janeane Garofalo), Sammy (Steve Zahn) and Troy (Ethan Hawke). Each has their own unique set of problems. Sammy has to deal with his sexuality, Vickie has AIDS concerns, Troy is the one with the tortured artist soul- which does make him popular with the ladies but his lack of a job and his negative attitude towards finding one pisses his friends off. After all, good looks and guitar don’t help pay the bills. As for Lelaina, the only job she could find has got nothing to do whatsoever with her ideals and dreams. Things are also complicated in the love department. She and Troy are very close and obviously attracted to each other. But they haven’t done anything about it. However Troy is not pleased when she starts dating Michael (Ben Stiller) – who is the exact opposite of Troy: He has a regular job as a TV executive, he wears suits to work and has a regular paycheck. He is also ready to have straightforward, uncomplicated relationship with her.

Reality Bites has been labeled with more adjectives than I can possibly count. Some of the negatives include outdated and pretentious. I don’t think so. I am amongst the group that finds the movie true to heart. If you are considered some sort of rebel and can’t help thinking outside the box, and have lived a part of your teens/pre-teens in the 90s, this movie hits home. It’s just the icing on top that the movie comes with a good soundtrack.

Not that things have changed so much since the 90s. We are still on the lookout for AIDS and other STDs. We still have hard time after college. Most of us still have a hard trying to convince our parents that we won’t be happy unless we follow our own desired lifestyle.

It’s not hard to identify with the artsy,brooding and broke Troy. Why should we have to work at jobs where we know we will be fired immediately because our hearts weren’t in it in the first place? Or how many times have been in Lelaina’s shoes, where we had to work at some shitty job, for an arrogant, intolerable boss- just because it was remotely related to our dreams or we simply needed the paycheck to pay for our bills and support our dreams? We go through heartbreaks and disappointments, crushes on friends and a million other complicated situations. At the end of the day, all we want is to have our financial independence and live by ourselves and hang out with our friends.

Maybe you are past the whole post-graduation depression where reality truly bites. Well, reality bites most of the time, but some people have given up on their dreams and therefore have no empathy. If you have, you may not enjoy the movie as the rest of us. But if you do remember what it was like and/or if you are still struggling to make sense of things, this is your movie. Trust me.

You can watch some scenes here.

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reality_bites3 — From left:Ethan Hawke, Winona Ryder, Steve Zahn and Janeane Garofalo

Other Ethan Hawke Movies and Posts

– Lord of War starring Nicolas Cage, Ethan Hawke and Jared Leto

Ethan Hawke trivia

– Brooklyn’s Finest starring Richard Gere, Ethan Hawke and Don Cheadle

– Cheating Celebrity Trivia: 8 Male Celebrities That Cheated (feat. Ethan Hawke, Jude Law, Kevin Costner and more)

– Before Sunrise

– Before Sunset

– 10 Celebrity Break-ups You May Not Have Seen Coming

– 10 Most Entertaining Sci-fi Movies: Favorite Sci-fi Movies of a Non-fan

– Reality Bites starring Ethan Hawke, Winona Ryder and Ben Stiller

– Alias

– Actors and Literature: Ethan Hawke, Hugh Laurie and Viggo Mortensen

Before Sunset starring Ethan Hawke & Julie Delpy

Posted on October 11, 2009 Written by ripitup

beforeSunset_Wall7_800 — Before Sunset starring Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy

trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvFosXeqmDg

If you haven’t seen Before Sunrise, please do. I am not saying this sequel won’t make sense if you haven’t, but trust me it will be so much more meaning ful. You see, Before Sunset is the follow-up to Before Sunrise- a great emotional movie that took place in 1995. I previously wrote about the first movie. I have seen it a lot of times and after watching Before Sunset again,I felt I had to write about it.

I will feel free to give spoilers, because what might seem like a spoiler for the first movie, is actually the obligatory introduction to the second.

In Before Sunrise, we met Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Celine (Julie Delpy). These 20 somethings met on a train while French Celine was going back to her hometown and American Jesse was on his way to Vienna where he was supposed to catch a flight the next day to the States.
Soon after they started talking, they actually bonded. Yeah, they were having fun being around each other and obviously there was attraction but the bond was also obvious. Two stranger, making a perfect connection through a chance encounter. Jesse didn’t want to let go of this and asked Celine to get off the train with him. She did. And they had an amazing day, and its night in Vienna. The bond got deeper, attraction grew and they just didn’t want to let go. To see how genuine the movie,the characters and the story go, to feel the passion and the magic of their relationship, you have to see the movie. And feel free to check imdb. It has been rated by more than 34.000 people, and it has been rated as an 8/1o. My point is if so many people agreed on this, it means both men and women liked it. It means a lot of people with different movie tastes loved it. It can’t be labeled as a mainstream movie nor it exactly fits the independent spirit where a minority seems to get the message of. It means the viwevers felt the connection as well and this does not happen very often.

So when I heard director Richard Linklater had made a sequel, I rushed to see it. You see Before Sunrise leaves you wondering whether Celine and Jesse will meet again. Whether they will have the same connection or not. The second movie answers these questions for the two characters we loved so much.

Celine and Jesse had agreed to meet 6 months later as Before Sunrise came to an end. We sadly find out that they weren’t able to. Somehow life had gotten in the way. In those 9 years, Jesse has written a book that is about their encounter. He is now at the last stop of his book tour, in Paris. As he hopes that she would, she comes to his book signing.
When she does show-up, they decided to spend Jesse’s last hours in the city together. They are both happy to see each other. So much has happened and they are more than eager to catch up. But since they are older, they seem weary of life, the heart-breaks and disapponitments they have gone through. They realize the connection is still there 9 years later. But now, things seem harder than ever. Jesse is i unhappily married with a 4-year-old kid. Celine’s hear doesn’t seem to be in the relationship she is having. Both have to face their feelings and they realize that the best time, and the best romance they had was 9 years ago,with each other,in Vienna…

It is fun,romantic,sad,heart-breaking,emotional,hopeful…It just leaves you feeling with a combination of a variety of feelings. You feel alive. Once again, it is just so easy to find yourself in Jesse and Celine. And you just cross fingers that this time they will stay together.

Is it as magical as the second movie? It depends. They were younger ,more romantic and more hopeful. They mention this in the second movie. They have grown up.We, the audience,have grown up. We have had more disappointments,heart-breaks,more journeys…We might have become more realistic and/or cynical. But the true spirit of the movie-that genuine honesty-is still the core here. Of course the romantic fool in me wished that they had met after six months. I wish that they had gotten together,stayed together,remained in love…But they didn’t. Life happened and they let life take its toll on them; on their beliefs,way of thinking. But at the same time, they didn’t change all that much. As Celine mentions in the movie, we don’t really change that much. No matter what self-defense mechanisms we develop, our hopes and dreams stay the same. So being together again just feels so right for them. It seems together that 9 years have passed.

The movie has been written by Richard Linklater, Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy. Hence the actors have co-written the screenplay, it is even easier for them to become to be Jesse and Celine. As I said, if you have seen the first one, you owe it yourself to see this. If you haven’t seen it, than go and just find Before Sunrise. I am still looking for a movie that will make me feel the same way these two did.

Before Sunset

before-sunset-23

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Also on Ethan Hawke:

ALIAS

Reality Bites

ACTORS AND LITERATURE: Ethan Hawke, Hugh Laurie and Viggo Mortensen