Movie Interviews

David Oyelowo plays an American Army veteran living with his mother in HBO's Nightingale.

Arts

David Oyelowo On Acting, His Royal Roots And The One Role He Won't Take

10:06am May 29, 2015

The British-born Nigerian actor talks about playing an American veteran in Nightingale, the reasons he stays in character for weeks at a time and his aversion to playing "the black best friend."

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Jean and Carl Boenish in jump down a ledge towards camera.

Arts

'Sunshine Superman': A Love Story Against The Backdrop of BASE Jumping

5:40pm May 26, 2015

by NPR Staff

BASE jumping pioneer Carl Boenish became famous for jumping with his wife Jean in the 1970s and '80s. Marah Strauch, director of the documentary, says "this felt like a love story to me."

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Elizabeth Banks On Success: 'You Don't Get What You Don't Ask For'

2:04pm May 19, 2015

The Hunger Games actress and Pitch Perfect 2 director also runs her own production company. Her secret to success? "I raise my hand a lot," Banks tells Fresh Air's Ann Marie Baldonado.

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Queen Latifah plays blues singer Bessie Smith in the HBO movie Bessie.

In HBO's 'Bessie,' Queen Latifah Stars As Empress Of The Blues

7:16pm May 16, 2015

by NPR Staff

It took Queen Latifah more than 20 years to bring the life of pioneering blues singer Bessie Smith to the screen. "Inhabiting her has inhabited me," she says.

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Anna Kendrick and her compatriots in the Barden Bellas are back for a second installment of a cappella excitement in Pitch Perfect 2. It's also Elizabeth Banks' first major movie as a director.

Arts

Yo Aca-Adrian! Elizabeth Banks Says 'Rocky IV' Inspired The New 'Pitch Perfect'

6:58pm May 15, 2015

by NPR Staff

Banks makes her directorial debut with Pitch Perfect 2; she talks to NPR's Audie Cornish about breaking into directing, the true meaning of a cappella, and how the Barden Bellas are really Rocky.

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Charlize Theron as Furiosa, alongside Tom Hardy's Max Rockatansky in the new Mad Max: Fury Road.

Arts

The Women Pull No Punches In Fiery, Feminist 'Mad Max'

1:06pm May 15, 2015

by Mandalit del Barco

Mad Max: Fury Road reboots a testosterone-fueled franchise with some tough new female characters. Director George Miller says women were an organic element as he rethought the original movies.

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Arts

Blythe Danner Lands First Leading Film Role In 'I'll See You In My Dreams'

9:35pm May 14, 2015

NPR's Melissa Block speaks with Blythe Danner about her new film, I'll See You In My Dreams. It is the 72-year-old's first leading role in a film.

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Filmmakers Launch Campaign To Complete Unfinished Orson Welles Film

7:22pm May 12, 2015

NPR's Audie Cornish talks to producer Filip Jan Rymsza and director-actor Peter Bogdanovich about the 40-day crowdfunding campaign to complete The Other Side of the Wind.

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Kurt Cobain Speaks — Through Art And Audio Diaries — In 'Montage Of Heck'

2:09pm May 04, 2015

by NPR Staff

"The idea was not to tear him down, nor was it to put him on a pedestal," says director Brett Morgen. Instead, executive producer Frances Bean Cobain told Morgen to "make it honest."

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The documentary I Am Big Bird tells the story of Caroll Spinney (left), who has been the man inside the yellow suit for more than 40 years.

Arts

At 81, The Man Behind Big Bird Sees 'No Reason To Quit'

10:26am May 02, 2015

by NPR Staff

"It's an awfully good job," Caroll Spinney says, of the more than 40 years he has spent on Sesame Street. A new documentary tells the story of the octogenarian man playing a 6-year-old bird.

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