Telluride's Dream Panel

Hey everyone, Above you can see a picture I took of the panel Thomas and I attended in Telluride. I call it the dream panel as it was comprised of William H. Macy, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Question Lady, Liev Schreiber, Helena Bonham Carter, and Aaron Eckhart. I feared it would be very technical and actory, but my fears were for naught. The actors were all extremely interesting and most of them were funny as well. Especially Macy, who before this was never really a favorite of mine. As several people mentioned he looks little too like a puppet. Most of the questions were geared around how actors prepare and get into character, what makes for a good experience, and how you transition from acting to directing, as Schreiber did with Everything is Illuminated.

As I said, Macy was hilarious - he was pretty cynical about the whole process, took a real workman like approach to acting - it's just a job, don't take it so seriously, etc. In contract to this was Eckhart who looked like he wanted to attack Macy for making these slanderous statements. He was very passionate about acting - it was all about the art and method for him. I can forgive this, since he is so very very handsome. Bonham was suprisingly dressed in jeans with a touch of goth makeup (guess that explains her attraction to Tim Burton), self-deprecating, nervous and kind of kooky , Hoffman was also funny and obviously very intelligent but quite neurotic. And Schreiber was quick on his feet (when Question Lady realized she forgot to introduce him, he responded with "I need no introduction"), and he told several humorous anectodes. Schreiber won my heart when he said his favorite movie experience was with The Daytrippers, one of my favorite movies. It was directed by his best friend, Greg Mottola who also inspired hs performance as Carl. If you've seen Daytrippers, then you know this must mean Mottola is a pretty weird guy. If you haven't seen it, add it to Netflix now! It is hilarious and also stars indie queen Parker Posey and Hope Davis.

My obligation to my blog led me to capture several quotes from the panel:

"Everything you need is in the script. If it's not in the script, get out!" W.H. Macy
"If you're on a set and you feel like you have to be pathologically sweet, I go down in flames." P.S. Hoffman
Macy to Carter: "I've got a belt that's older than you."
Macy about directors: "You can make art on your own time."
Eckhart: "Creativity is like a bird in the hand. If you scare it away you screw your own movie."
Schreiber about acting in Mixed Nuts with Steve Martin and Madeline Kahn (on whom he had a "wicked crush"): "I stayed on set even after my scenes were done. I wanted to see if any of them would want to talk to me after our scene".
Scheiber on directing his first movie: "I'm an actor, at least I can act like a director."
Macy: "Making a movie is like going to war. The director is the general. God help you if you have one that wants to collaborate."
Macy: "They shoot the film out of order. It's such a a pain in the ass."

There were lots of other things said, but my shorthand skills are not what they need to be.

-sunday