WebProNews

Tag: mandy patinkin

  • Zach Braff Kills the Subjunctive Mood, Doesn’t Care

    Zach Braff isn’t known for his good grammar, and he’s getting lots of heat from academic types who have accused him of killing the subjunctive mood in the title of his new film Wish I Was Here. They think Braff has committed a huge grammatical faux pas and can’t see the film for lack of getting past its title.

    Zach defended his choice in an interview with Vulture.

    “The whole film is about a dad who’s not an academic trying to teach his kids, and his kids know more than he does,” Zach Braff said. “His daughter is constantly correcting him when he says who instead of whom; and so the title, although it has another meaning, we grammatically did it incorrect on purpose, because it’s about a father who is actually learning from his children who are brighter than he is.”

    Wish I Was Here stars Kate Hudson, Mandy Patinkin, Ashley Greene, and Josh Gad in addition to Zach Braff. Zach and brother Adam Braff co-wrote the screenplay.

    Yahoo points out that as he defends his title to Vulture, he even uses the word ‘incorrect’ incorrectly. It should actually have been ‘incorrectly’ in the context he used.

    This isn’t the first time Zach Braff has had to defend the title of his film. He said the following during an interview with Empire.com.

    “Wish I Was Here sounds cooler than Wish I Were Here. Then the movie’s about a father who’s trying to teach his kids at home despite not being much of an academic himself. So it works in two ways, really, but yeah, I take your point,” he said when called out by his interviewer.

    All of these grammatically incorrect statements made the Washington Post’s Alexandra Petri’s skin crawl.

    “Listen, buddy,” she wrote–addressing Zach Braff. “You like yourself some wistful counterfactuals, do you? Well, let’s get one thing straight. There are two ways to express a counterfactual wish. One way is with the subjunctive. The other way is wrong.”

    People have even taken to Twitter to bash Zach Braff.

    Okay, so Zach Braff likely gets it. Still he doesn’t seem to care. What he does care about is whether or not people are going to see Wish I Was Here.

    So far it sounds like it’s battling–based on box office sales–to get a full nationwide run in theaters.

    Is Zach Braff’s film Wish I Was Here on your go-see list?

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Mandy Patinkin Like You Haven’t Seen Him In Years

    Mandy Patinkin showed up for an appearance on “Live! With Kelly And Michael” on Thursday looking a lot different than he usually does, and he says he looks 20 years younger.

    The veteran actor, who just finished the third season of “Homeland”, shaved off the heavy beard he’s been growing for two years and said it was like taking off a mask.

    “I shaved it the minute I finished the last shot!” Patinkin said. “I felt like I was taking off a Mickey Mouse mask.”

    Although he says he’s loving walking around incognito, the beard will be back, because “Homeland” was just renewed for a fourth season. But for now, he’s enjoying a little change.

    “The thing I loved most about it is once the show got more and more successful, wherever I go people would go, ‘Saul, Saul!’ I’d be in an airport in a foreign country and people would say, ‘Sa-ul, Sa-ul! And I took it off and, like, nobody know me,” he said. “This is what real life is like!”

    Patinkin spoke recently about his reputation for being difficult on set, saying he had a hard time letting go of the control.

    “I struggled with letting in other people’s opinions,” Patinkin said. “During ‘Chicago Hope,’ I never let directors talk to me, because I was so spoiled. I started off with people like Milos Forman, Sidney Lumet, James Lapine, unbelievably gifted people. So there I was saying, ‘Don’t talk to me. I don’t want your opinion.’ I behaved abominably. I don’t care if my work was good or if I got an award for it. I’m not proud of how I was then, and it pained me.”

    Now, the 61-year old says he’s changed, and talked about his appreciation for the creative minds at “Homeland” for what they’ve achieved.

    “(The writers) blow me away. When I read what happened in the fourth episode which was aired this past Sunday, I’m a very emotional person…I couldn’t get over the creativity of the writing team. I mean, I read that…I couldn’t believe what they’d done,” he said.

    Image: Wikimedia Commons

  • Mandy Patinkin And His Reaction To “Homeland” Episode

    Mandy Patinkin has said in the past that he’s been a bit difficult on set at times during his career; the veteran actor says he has struggled with letting go of the control to directors and writers.

    “I struggled with letting in other people’s opinions,” Patinkin said. “During ‘Chicago Hope,’ I never let directors talk to me, because I was so spoiled. I started off with people like Milos Forman, Sidney Lumet, James Lapine, unbelievably gifted people. So there I was saying, ‘Don’t talk to me. I don’t want your opinion.’ I behaved abominably. I don’t care if my work was good or if I got an award for it. I’m not proud of how I was then, and it pained me.”

    But these days, he’s learning to let people in a little, to great effect. His turn on “Homeland” as Saul Berenson has earned him praise from critics and his co-stars, including Claire Danes.

    “Mandy is obviously verging on legend,” Danes said. “He has that ineffable, magical something that’s impossible to identify, so it’s a great thrill to work with him.”

    The show has even managed to break him down. Patinkin says he usually steers clear of knowing beforehand what’s going to happen in each episode, but he ended up reading the script for a well-known episode during the fourth season that included a big plot twist, and says he couldn’t believe it when he broke down in tears.

    “(The writers) blow me away. When I read what happened in the fourth episode which was aired this past Sunday, I’m a very emotional person…I couldn’t get over the creativity of the writing team. I mean, I read that…I couldn’t believe what they’d done,” he said.

    As for his character’s relationship with Danes’ Carrie, Patinkin says he was drawn to it from the start because of the impeccable writing.

    “I felt a great deal for someone struggling with bipolar issues in the midst of trying to maneuver the world toward peace, if possible… and the writers, their ’24,’ sit-on-the-edge-of-your-seat business. But it really grew as it went along.”

  • Mandy Patinkin Opens Up About Being Difficult On Set

    Mandy Patinkin has had a long and successful career on both stage and screen, but he says he’s been battling demons over the years that affected his work.

    “I struggled with letting in other people’s opinions,” Patinkin said. “During ‘Chicago Hope,’ I never let directors talk to me, because I was so spoiled. I started off with people like Milos Forman, Sidney Lumet, James Lapine, unbelievably gifted people. So there I was saying, ‘Don’t talk to me. I don’t want your opinion.’ I behaved abominably. I don’t care if my work was good or if I got an award for it. I’m not proud of how I was then, and it pained me.”

    The actor/singer only appeared briefly on “Chicago Hope” because he didn’t want to be away from his family, who were on the opposite coast; then, after he was cast on “Criminal Minds” in 2005, he suddenly disappeared because the content of the show was too much for him to handle. The show’s executive producer called him “the father who goes out for a carton of milk and then just never comes home.” And although Patinkin apologized to the cast and crew, he recognizes now that things could have gone very differently.

    James Lapine, who directed Patinkin in “Sunday In The Park With George”–for which Patinkin earned a Tony nomination–says that the actor’s intensity may be what throws people off.

    “Mandy was a handful on that show, but he’s not neurotic, oddly enough. He’s myopic. He would lose himself so much in the work, and he was playing an obsessive, which goes hand in hand. He doesn’t do things by halves — to prepare, he took a drawing class at the Art Students League of New York. He’s just unbelievably intense, maniacally focused. He was never mean, but that intensity may not always be to other actors’ tastes.”

    Regardless of his past behavior, Patinkin has no shortage of friends and admirers who are thrilled to work with him, including Claire Danes, his co-star on “Homeland”.

    “Mandy is obviously verging on legend,” Danes said. “He has that ineffable, magical something that’s impossible to identify, so it’s a great thrill to work with him.