Movie Interviews

Tom Hanks stars in Captain Phillips, a film that's recently been subject to a "whisper campaign" of pre-Oscars criticism.

Arts

Word On The Street Is Oscars 'Whisper Campaigns' Have Begun

5:59pm October 27, 2013

by NPR Staff

Leading Oscar contenders are under fire as award season approaches. Journalist Scott Feinberg recently wrote in The Hollywood Reporter about the trash-talking that spreads before the Oscars to take down perceived front-runners. He talks to NPR's Arun Rath about a campaign against Captain Phillips and why such efforts often backfire.

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12 Years a Slave, starring Chiwetel Ejiofor, is based on an 1853 memoir by Solomon Northup, a free black man in upstate New York who was kidnapped into slavery in 1841.

Arts

'12 Years A Slave' Was A Film That 'No One Was Making'

3:59pm October 24, 2013

Director Steve McQueen tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross that he wanted to help fill a "huge hole in the canon of cinema." And actor Chiwetel Ejiofor, whose parents are from Nigeria, says he grew up feeling "a sense of unity amongst African people and people of African heritage."

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Chiwetel Ejiofor plays Solomon Northup, a free black man in upstate New York who was kidnapped into slavery in 1841 and won his freedom 12 years later. The film 12 Years a Slave is an adaptation of Northup's 1853 memoir.

Arts

Historian Says '12 Years' Is A Story The Nation Must Remember

3:59pm October 24, 2013

Yale historian David Blight says Americans like to think of themselves as "the country that freed the slaves," but prefer not to dwell on the sobering history that came first. He says the new film 12 Years a Slave is a rare, effective depiction of slavery in the United States.

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Lupita Nyong'o and Chiwetel Ejiofor play Patsey and Solomon, two slaves on a Louisiana plantation, in 12 Years a Slave.

Arts

'12 Years A Slave': 160 Years Later, A Memoir Becomes A Movie

12:09pm October 18, 2013

by NPR Staff

Solomon Northup was born a free man and lived the life of a respected musician until 1841, when he was kidnapped and sold into slavery. British director Steve McQueen's new film, starring British actor Chiwetel Ejiofor, brings Northup's memoir to life in excruciating detail.

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Helena Bonham Carter plays Elizabeth Taylor in Burton and Taylor, a BBC America movie that focuses on the famous couple's stint acting together on Broadway in 1983.

Arts

Bonham Carter Takes On Taylor, And She Did Her Homework

6:39pm October 16, 2013

by NPR Staff

The actress spoke with NPR's Robert Siegel about playing the icon in BBC America's Burton and Taylor. The movie follows the preposterously famous '60s and '70s couple as they reunited for a 1983 Broadway production of Private Lives.

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Alan Rickman tells NPR's Arun Rath he wasn't familiar with CBGB or the punk scene until he began working on the film.

Music & Culture

Alan Rickman On 'CBGB' And The Importance Of Listening

6:12pm October 13, 2013

by NPR Staff

In the new film CBGB, Rickman plays Hilly Kristal, the New Yorker who opened the dive bar he hoped would be a space for country, bluegrass and blues. CBGB instead turned into a hub for punk rock in the '70s. Rickman talks about preparing for the role and the challenges of playing a real person.

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Christopher Senyonjo says he was excommunicated from the Anglican church in the early 2000s, but continues his ministry and activism.

World News

'God Loves Uganda': How Religion Fueled An Anti-Gay Movement

9:40pm October 12, 2013

by NPR Staff

In the documentary, director Roger Ross Williams explores the role of American evangelicals in the anti-gay movement there. Williams and Christopher Senyonjo, an excommunicated Anglican bishop, discuss the collision of religion and politics.

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Ahmed Hassan is the leader of the group of young Egyptian revolutionaries at the center of The Square.

'The Square' Tightens Lens On Egypt's Revolution

10:56pm October 11, 2013

by NPR Staff

Jehane Noujaim's documentary follows a group of young revolutionaries in Egypt through the political upheaval of the past two-and-a-half years. NPR's Robert Siegel spoke with the director about the film, the activists it follows and their country's future.

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Daniel Radcliffe tells Fresh Air that his parents were initially hesitant about letting him play Harry Potter.

Arts

From Child Actor To Artist: Radcliffe Reflects On Post-Potter Life

12:11pm October 11, 2013

Since wrapping up the last Harry Potter film, Daniel Radcliffe has taken on roles you may not have expected from the former boy wizard. He tells Fresh Air that starting his acting career so young gave him a sense of purpose he wasn't finding in the British school system, and he hasn't looked back since.

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Prior to filming, director Paul Greengrass kept the pirate crew and the boat crew separate to make the hijacking scenes feel more authentic. "The hair did stand up on the back of our heads," says Tom Hanks, above.

Arts

Tom Hanks Is 'Captain Phillips' In High-Seas Hostage Drama

3:24pm October 07, 2013

The film tells the true story of Richard Phillips, whose container ship was hijacked by Somali pirates in 2009. Navy SEAL sharpshooters eventually freed the captain from the small lifeboat where he was held hostage for five days. Tom Hanks stars in the film, which is directed by Paul Greengrass.

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