WebProNews

Tag: Brenton Thwaites

  • Meryl Streep: Jeff Bridges ‘Managed to Elude Me’ Throughout Her Career, Until Now

    Meryl Streep: Jeff Bridges ‘Managed to Elude Me’ Throughout Her Career, Until Now

    Actress Meryl Streep has several reasons why she chose to play the order-keeping chief elder in the big-screen adaptation of Lois Lowry’s 1993 Newbury Award-winning, young-adult novel The Giver — one of those was the opportunity to work alongside Jeff Bridges.

    “I’d always wanted to work with this gentleman here,” said the Oscar-winning actress at a press conference in New York Tuesday.

    “My entire career, I never got the chance. Somehow, he managed to elude me. So, that was a big, big part of the draw. I am also a big admirer of Phillip’s films,” she continued, referring the the film’s director, Phillip Noyce. “I think he is a pure, pure filmmaker with great taste and I knew, to bring this to life, especially the colorless parts of it, it would take a great artist.”

    Another reason for wanting to do the movie is her connection to the book through her children. Streep said the two youngest of her four children read Lowry’s book when they were in elementary school.

    “They had a list of required reading over the summer and it was always…,” Streep stopped mid-sentence to make the sound of a whip cracking, “… to get them to do it. That’s one of my parenting methods. But that [book] was put in front of them and they devoured it.”

    Streep, 65, said the role provided a unique challenge in her acting repertoire.

    “It’s an interesting thing to play — someone who has suppressed emotion, but I felt that the chief elder didn’t take her medication, as well, on certain days,” she said, referring to the hero’s refusal to ingest daily drugs that block emotions and memories.

    “Do you know what I mean? Like, we all skip, probably. Because, clearly, she had some deep history with the Giver,” she said of Bridges’ character. “And I think that was something that intrigued me about the script. But I think that is sort of the point of the book. You can’t keep things in. You can’t suppress the things that make us human and it is pointless to try.”

    Streep had one other important reason for deciding on the role.

    “Well, I like to be boss, so that was a good thing,” the three-time Oscar-winner said.

    Katie Holmes, Taylor Swift, Brenton Thwaites and Odeya Rush also star in The Giver, which opened nationwide Friday.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Katie Holmes Reflects on Life After Cruise, ‘The Giver’ and Raising Suri

    Katie Holmes is loving life right now.

    It’s been nearly two years since the 35-year-old actress divorced ex-husband Tom Cruise, and she is busier and happier than ever.

    Speaking with Today show host Matt Lauer last week, Holmes shared about life after Cruise, her role as mother to eight-year-old daughter Suri Cruise and portraying an empty-nesting mother in her new film, The Giver.

    “I’m a risk-taker,” Holmes told Matt Lauer of her decision to play the unnamed mother of the hero Jonas — played by Brenton Thwaites — in the movie based on Lois Lowry’s beloved young adult novel. “I love adventures and new things.”

    Holmes said it was easy to approach her role in The Giver.

    “I approached it like all mothers when their child is leaving the nest,” said the Dawson’s Creek alum. “There’s a pain. There’s a loss. That’s how I approached the character.”

    In the interview, Lauer referenced her escalation to superstar status following her marriage to Cruise and asked if she wishes she could go back to the days when she wasn’t the focus of so much attention.

    “Do you ever think you would make a deal and trade some of that fame to go back to that person you were beforehand?” Lauer asked.

    “You know what?” Holmes replied thoughtfully. “I never really look back. I just approach life [taking] it one day at a time. I’m really excited about where I am right now. I’ve had some really wonderful creative experiences. I’m just really grateful.”

    Holmes enjoyed an idyllic life growing up in Toledo, Ohio with a strong, supportive family and says she aspires to give her daughter a similar experience full of the same love and support she experienced, albeit in a very different environment from the one in which she was raised.

    “Of course you try your best. I try very hard because I’m very grateful for my upbringing, my parents, my siblings. I try to do what they did for me for my little one,” said Holmes. “The most important thing for me is letting her know how proud I am and her accomplishments mean everything. Whatever I do is whatever. It’s really just about her. That’s what I think is most important.”

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • ‘The Giver’ Trailer Released: Does it Live Up to the Book?

    The Weinstein Company released their first trailer for the upcoming movie The Giver. The film is a screen adaptation of the beloved children’s book of the same name. The Giver follows Jonas (played by Brenton Thwaites in the film) as he discovers that this utopian society is more dystopian than he once believed: it tries to deprive people of emotions and create Sameness. Jonas inherits the position of ‘Receiver of Memory.’ He will be the person who stores all the memories of the time before this society existed. Jonas begins to question things when he meets “The Giver (Jeff Bridges),” who shows him the beauty and pain that exists beyond this world.

    The Giver was published in 1993, and received a Newbery Medal the following year. The novel begins a loosely formed series of four books: Gathering Blue, Messenger, and Son (the only direct sequel to The Giver). The other three books in the series were created seven years after the original book.

    One noticeable difference from the book and the movie is Jonas’ age; he’s only 12 in the book, but looks around 16 in the movie (in real life Thwaites is 24). Another really big difference from the book version of The Giver and the movie is the film’s usage of color. In the book most of the characters are colorblind. Jonas, however, sees in color. Doing the entire film in color really makes fans of the book wonder if the film’s creators can be true to the essence of the book if they fail to keep one important element of it.

    The movie adaptation of Lois Lowry’s beloved book also stars Alexander Skarsgard, Meryl Streep, Katie Holmes, and Taylor Swift. The Giver’s trailer will appear in theaters on March 20, and opens in theaters on August 15.

    Everyone loves The Giver, but will anyone love this movie?

    Image via The Giver, Facebook