Clint Eastwood, Back to Black and Katy O'Brian on Love Lies Bleeding
Essential film reading from A RABBIT'S FOOT this week.
Clint Eastwood is still the embodiment of true American grit
“The first time I saw Clint Eastwood was on the screen at the drive in theater in the San Fernando Valley, where my dad took my siblings and me to see a triple feature of the Spaghetti Westerns,” writes Bill Gerber. For A RABBIT’S FOOT, the Hollywood producer speaks to Clint Eastwood about his life and work. “The longer I’m in the business the more I wonder how anybody thinks they know anything. We were all kind of guessing and sometimes you make lucky guesses. You can make a judgment and like an idea, but the public decides. If they don’t think it’s interesting, then it’s tough shit.” Covering everything from working with horses and The Great Depression to John Steinbeck and Frank Sinatra, their free-wheeling conversation proves how Eastwood came to embody the essence of Americana.
Saints and sinners: Eddie Marsan on his role as Mitch Winehouse
“I sing in the movie. Does it come across alright?” asks an enthusiastic Eddie Marsan. The British actor is referring to a scene early on in Sam Taylor Johnson’s Amy Winehouse biopic Back To Black, in which Marsan, as Amy’s father Mitch Winehouse, sings a rendition of Fly Me To The Moon alongside his daughter, played by Marisa Abela. “I’m no singer, I worked really hard on that,” he says, after I tell him that his voice sounded fantastic. “I got Mitch to record a reference track for me, and then I went away with a voice coach and we worked on honing his voice.” Marsan has enjoyed a decades-long career as one of Britain’s most versatile, beloved character actors, and so, despite his modesty, it comes as no surprise at all that the 55 year-old is a natural crooner—just another notch in his belt.
Love Lies Bleeding’s Katy O’Brian on bodybuilding, breakdowns and burning love
Formerly fighting zombies in Walking Dead as well as taking on other fantastic roles in the Marvel and Star Wars universes, her role as Jackie, a queer bodybuilder in Rose Glass’s Love Lies Bleeding, announced something of a change for the actor. For A RABBIT’S FOOT, Lillian Crawford interviews Katy O’Brian about her role opposite Kristen Stewart. They discuss Showgirls (a key inspiration for the film), queer desire and why Jackie is a role O’Brian believes she was destined to play. “I had a fan from the zombie show that I did hit me up and said, “Have you seen this open casting call for a queer bodybuilder from the Midwest?” she tells Crawford. “When I saw that casting notice I was like I have to get this part. I don’t know any other actor that has the credits that I have who is also a bodybuilder. The more that I learned about the part, the more I realised that I am this character.”
