Tag: interviews

Throwback!

On By EstherIn Richard Armitage11 Comments

There’s a new article on Richard Armitage in the Wall Street Journal, where he talks about growing up and finding what he wanted to do in life…

It was nice getting a few glimpses into the young Richard even though I knew a lot of it already. What’s even more exciting are the pictures that were shared. Richard and his mum visiting the Royal Shakespeare Company, in a picture taken by his father in 2001.

I was 31 and either pregnant or had just had my son when this picture was taken. Wow.

Cutest of all was this following picture of Richard with his older brother Chris, taken in 1976 when Richard would have been 5 years old (and I’m guessing his brother maybe 7?). They look so smart in their ties! They also look like boys I could have played with in primary school. In fact, big brother Chris on the right reminds me of John, an English boy I used to have a crush on in fourth grade. I only have one class picture with John in it (boy on the left, the blond girl diagonally behind him is me). His smile in this picture isn’t as wide as Chris’s is and his hair is darker but still that Chris picture instantly made me think of John! His smile is exactly how I remember John’s to be.

The boys look so familiar, it has me wondering whether they didn’t also spend a year or so in Jerusalem at my school… Ah, man, I love such adorable throwback images!

Richard up close

On By EstherIn Richard Armitage9 Comments

Apparently there was a little item on the Spanish news about the filming of The Man From Rome and someone on Twitter kindly provided a nice clip of that section…

Of course I went screencap happy as it has a few Richard gems that I just can’t resist sharing here. The loveliest of them all are these close ups…

Man, I love that look in his eyes at the beginning, that profile, those crow’s feet, that little smile… Yes, for that alone this little video is worth it. I even made a little gif…

There are more delights…

Such a nice little Richard gift, right before Christmas.

An abundance of Richards

On By EstherIn Richard Armitage7 Comments

The Uncle Vanya film is being promoted and suddenly there are little interviews with Richard Armitage popping up everywhere. I just saw this one (thank you Astrovian on Tumblr for the shot and transcript!). I love that the questions are famous movie quotes, even if I don’t recognize them all…

https://astrovian.tumblr.com/post/654949446960988160/richard-armitage-interview-in-total-film-magazine

Earlier this week there was a Metro “Sixty Seconds” interview and Guylty very helpully provided a picture of the Radio Times interview that also appeared. Linking to the picture of that interview on her blog here (which embeds nicely as an image, click to enlarge).

There’s a lot in these interviews that I already know about Richard but there are a few things I did learn…

  • A while back he also said something about being influenced by the moon? Yeah, that apparently wasn’t a fluke.
  • I think I read somewhere before about him having his chart made as well? Not my thing but hope it’s helpful to him.
  • He’s still self-deprecating about his talent and his body.
  • He gave up drinking during lockdown. Even Pinot Noir? Now that’s a shame. 🍷
  • I like that he mentions getting a new haircut after he finishes playing a character so that he can leave that character behind.
  • An actual mention of something he wants to produce: The Taking of Annie Thorne by CJ Tudor. Another thriller, I take it from reading the synopsis, by a ‘female Stephen King’? Could be alright, but not normally my genre.
  • He says in the Radio Times interview, “In another universe there is a version of me that is a light-hearted, comedic actor in romcoms”. Maybe he can transfer a bit of that universe to this universe with his production company? I could totally see him as Professor Don Tillman (who looks a bit like Gregory Peck, Richard could totally pull that off!) from The Rosie Project. Don even bikes everywhere and Richard sure has experience with that…
  • He might want to go back to musical theatre? That’s a bold claim, considering he’s been on record saying that wasn’t for him anymore.
  • He looks raggle-taggle while going out. Like this? I wouldn’t mind running into that.
  • He likes cheese sandwiches? He should come to my country, then, so many great varieties of cheese to choose from! I’d be happy to guide him, we have gorgeous little cheese shops in my home town. And they go well with Pinot Noir too. Just sayin’…

Ah, it’s no nice to see some new interviews with the man, it totally makes my week.

Gugu’s interviews for Loki

On By EstherIn Actors, Actresses6 Comments

I posted about my love for her before a few years ago and still Gugu Mbatha-Raw is pretty much my fave current actress. Right now she is in the news a bit more as she is starring in the new Loki TV series with Tom Hiddleston. Although I love her work I don’t know that much about her, she is very private, so it was nice to see this recent video of her telling us viewers a little more about herself…

She does it with smiles and such charm and yet, again, she does not reveal much about her private life at all. When asked about love she vaguely says it is ‘everything’, when asked about what the most romantic gesture is that she has ever received she keeps it close to the chest but does give a sweet little story of an 11 year old girl giving her roses and when asked about who she feels most privileged to have worked with she mentions her recent role of working as a UN Goodwill Ambassador. Her dream role is to play Cleopatra one day which I think would be awesome too. In her interviews she seems to accept that due to being in the spotlight there is a certain expectation of revealing yourself, and she does reveal some things, looking very open, but she also knows her boundaries of what to share or not to share. She does it well and with ease again in this recent interview with Jimmy Kimmel…

And here’s another fun one she did with Wunmi Mosaku and Tom Hiddleston…

Since that post I wrote of a few years ago, I’ve seen her in some more roles (yes, she’s always good!) and now she’s in Loki, I’ll make sure to watch her in that as well. She plays a judge called Ravenna Renslayer who apparently gets in on the action as well…

I think Tom is absolutely brilliant as Loki and I was always going to watch this because of him but I confess that I am even more excited to see Gugu do her thing and hold her own in this blockbuster TV production.

Tom Power

On By EstherIn Actors, Actresses, TV & media4 Comments

I’m over the worst of the recent Yannick Bisson preoccupation spell but I did come across an interview for Canadian radio with him the other night from a few years ago that I quite enjoyed. You don’t have to watch the whole thing, it’s 15 minutes, but I’m posting it here to just give an idea.

The questions were not always original questions but what I liked about this interview was that the interviewer, Tom Power, really seemed to listen and then consequently would pose follow up questions because of what he heard. He seems genuinely interested in the person he’s interviewing and seems to try and dig deeper in what makes the person opposite him tick. His questions seem to resonate with those he interviews too as they all become thoughtful when giving their answers. I’d like to see him interview Richard Armitage sometime.

Tom Power is a Canadian musician and he interviews a lot of musicians but also actors. I’ve recently been listening to a few other interviews he’s done and so far they are worth a listen, even if you don’t know much about that person or actor – or maybe especially if you don’t know that much about them. I watched another one with Natalie Portman (whom I also don’t know well) that I liked and that led me to a video that was mentioned of an intense and funny rap she did on Saturday Night Live that goes against her image. I really like some well-done sarcasm.

Anyway, I’ve only seen 3 or 4 interviews, but there are many more up on YouTube (mostly musicians but also actors, directors and even with author Margaret Atwood, which I haven’t seen yet). Link to a playlist of interviews here in case this has also whetted your appetite (there are a lot). I do plan on watching some more of them, it’s a nice change to the normal soundbite interviews on late night talkshows.

Meanwhile, let me leave you with two gifs from that SNL video…

I can relate.