Angelina Jolie Explains The Twist Ending Of "Maleficent"



via BuzzFeed

The Oscar-winning actress told BuzzFeed that Maleficent ‘s biggest modernization is what made her sign on.



Elle Fanning and Brenton Thwaites in Maleficent.


Walt Disney


There have been countless incarnations of Sleeping Beauty since Charles Perrault first penned the tale in 1697, but throughout all the many adaptations, one element always remained: The beautiful princess is awakened from her eternal slumber by the true love of a brave prince. Until now.


Walt Disney's Maleficent, written by Linda Woolverton, marks the first time in over 300 years when the kiss of "true love" is not romantic or sexual, but rather emotional and maternal. It's a significant departure that Aurora (Elle Fanning) is awakened not by a kiss from Prince Phillip (Brenton Thwaites), but instead by a kiss from the villainous Maleficent (Angelina Jolie).


That twist comes to pass after Maleficent grows to love her former enemy over the course of 16 years, and wishes to break the curse she previously enacted. So she engineers Phillip's kiss in an attempt to awaken Aurora — but when that fails to rouse the sleeping princess, Maleficent lays an apologetic kiss on Aurora's forehead, interrupting her sleep.


That modernization is exactly what attracted Jolie to the wicked role. "Linda wrote this beautiful story and when I read it, I was so moved," Jolie told BuzzFeed, while sitting tucked into the corner of a suite at The Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills last week. "It's all about the very question of what love is. And even if you don't have children, you still have parents, so you know that this kind of love is the truest form."


She continued, "And what also works is that true love's kiss came from the person who really didn't believe she was capable of any kind of goodness or love — that she would in any way be loved or have love is something she'd long ago dismissed from her life. So the thing is not only that she does express it, but it's the shock for her, which I think is so beautiful."



Jolie as Maleficent


Walt Disney




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Hollywood's Odd History Of Using Propaganda To Sell Its Movies



via BuzzFeed

From Transformers: Age of Extinction to District 9 , Hollywood has happily co-opted the language and imagery of historical propaganda.


This week, new posters for Transformers: Age of Extinction started appearing in major cities, but instead of selling the Michael Bay movie outright, they appeared as if they were anti-Transformer propaganda.


This week, new posters for Transformers: Age of Extinction started appearing in major cities, but instead of selling the Michael Bay movie outright, they appeared as if they were anti-Transformer propaganda.


The idea is to present the film's initial premise — that after the cataclysmic "Battle of Chicago" in 2011's Transformers: Dark of the Moon, all Transformers are seen as an existential menace to the planet — as if it were part of the real world.


Paramount Pictures / Via impawards.com



Paramount Pictures / Via impawards.com



Paramount Pictures / Via impawards.com




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Chloë Grace Moretz Gets Brutally Honest About Hollywood



via BuzzFeed

The 17-year-old actress is incredibly frank about celebrity as she moves from the New York stage to a French film to what may turn out to be the next giant young-adult franchise.



Chloë Grace Moretz at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival


Michael Buckner / Getty Images


Chloë Grace Moretz is only 17, but she already sounds like she's got Hollywood's number. "I think there's something so much more innovative about French cinema than American cinema, because it's new and it's alive and there's something that is very raw about it that we can't quite capture, I think, in America yet," she told journalists at the press conference for Clouds of Sils Maria , which premiered at the end of the Cannes Film Festival.


While the film is in English, it is, in Moretz's own words, a "very French project" from director Olivier Assayas (Demonlover, Summer Hours) that stars Juliette Binoche as a famous actress struggling to deal with getting older, while a surprising Kristen Stewart plays her grounded personal assistant.


But Moretz gets to have the most fun as Jo-Ann Ellis, an American starlet and tabloid fixture who's cast alongside Binoche's character in a play. Jo-Ann is ruthless, talented, and wild, tearing up talk shows and playing angsty mutants in blockbuster franchises — but she's nothing so simple as a villain. Jo Ann is smart and wise beyond her years, and in that, at least, she has something in common with the actress playing her.



Chloë Grace Moretz in Clouds of Sils Maria


IFC Films


Moretz, whose breakout role was playing the profane, pint-sized, purple-haired vigilante Hit-Girl in the Kick-Ass movies, has already been acting for a decade, but unlike Jo-Ann, she's kept her career scandal-free. Speaking to a small group of journalists at the Cannes press day for Clouds of Sils Maria, which will be released in the U.S. on Dec. 1, she credited her steadiness to her close family and her love of her work.


"If I wanted to go crazy, I would be doing it right now," she said, pointing out that a lot of past young actors were well on their way into partying by her age. "For me, I've never had the need to want to do that. If I could create a world where I just did my job, where I could just do that and not have to worry about promotion or parties or red carpets or anything... that would be great. Sadly, it doesn't work that way."


Moretz has already seen plenty of the rapacious side of celebrity, the paparazzi, and the feeling from some fans that her life is public property. "They'll be like, You have to give me a photo. I buy a ticket to your movie. I, in a sense, own you. If I don't buy a ticket to your movie, you're done — so you have to take a photo with me. There's a lot of entitlement, especially nowadays, in Hollywood, because they think they know everything about you. They think that because you have an Instagram, they can go break into your house. You let us in! I've seen your house on your video!"




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Rejoice! Tyra Banks Is Coming Back To Daytime Television



via BuzzFeed

THANK YOU, DAYTIME TV GODS!!!! The queen is back.



giphy.com



giphy.com




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“Orange Is the New Black” Continues The Dickensian Tradition Of “The Wire”



via BuzzFeed

The second season of the Netflix prison drama is a gripping, beautiful, majestic thing. Warning: Spoilers for Season 2 ahead!



Netflix



There are the television shows that you love to watch but that drift from powerful and provocative to comforting background noise, and then there are those that arrive with the momentous force of a revolution, issuing a clarion cry that is impossible to resist.


Women's prison drama Orange Is the New Black, which returns for its second season on June 6, is most definitely the latter, a groundbreaking and deeply layered series that explores crime and punishment, poor circumstance, and bad luck. (At its heart, it is about both the choices we make and those that are made for us.) It constructs a gripping narrative that owes a great deal to the work of Charles Dickens, a social-minded and sprawling story that captures essential truths about those at both ends of the economic continuum. Just as in the Victorian era, within the world of Litchfield Penitentiary, everything is in its place and in its place is everything: Each of the characters is a cog in a larger machine.


The literary tradition of Dickens — so notably captured in HBO's 2002–2008 crime drama The Wire — is keenly felt within Orange, as the action shifts between disparate characters in each episode, exploring their inner lives and hidden pasts. There is a strong sense of righteous indignation in the face of a broken and corrupt system, the failures of Litchfield a microcosm for the breakdown within the larger society. In the sixth episode of Season 2, Officer Susan Fischer (Lauren Lapkus) — perhaps one of the more genuinely sympathetic of the corrections officers — goes so far as to make the comparison, as she eavesdrops on the inmates' telephone conversation recordings. "It's so interesting, all these lives," she says, her eyes gleaming with unrestrained excitement. "It's like Dickens."




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"Masters Of Sex" Gets Even Racier In Season 2



via BuzzFeed

“There are no accidents,” Lizzy Caplan says in BuzzFeed’s exclusive trailer for the second season of Showtime’s sexy period drama.



Showtime


Masters of Sex's sensational first season came to a close with an unemployed, dejected, and seemingly lost Dr. William Masters (Michael Sheen), standing in the rain and telling Virginia Johnson (Lizzy Caplan) that she is the only thing in the world he cannot live without.


Judging from BuzzFeed's exclusive sneak peek at Season 2 of Masters of Sex — which launches Sunday, July 13 — Bill won't have to live without Virginia for very long. In fact, it seems like the sex researchers are pushing the boundaries of their research.



Showtime




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21 Life Lessons We Learned From "Caso Cerrado"



via BuzzFeed

It’s like Judge Judy only better.


Caso Cerrado is a hit television courtroom show on Telemundo. Dr. Ana María Polo is a badass judge who decides the outcome of some insane cases.


Caso Cerrado is a hit television courtroom show on Telemundo. Dr. Ana María Polo is a badass judge who decides the outcome of some insane cases.


Cases often deal with family drama, property ownership, roommate conflicts, divorce proceedings, infidelity, incest, bestiality, demon possessions, vampire identity issues, etc.


Telemundo


She also sings her own theme song.


She also sings her own theme song.


youtube.com


Never interrupt people while they're on the phone.


Never interrupt people while they're on the phone.


Telemundo




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How Valerie Cherish And "The Comeback" Capture The Reality Of Being Fake



via BuzzFeed

As Lisa Kudrow’s fame-obsessed character prepares to return to HBO , the show illuminates the desperation of today’s real-life celebrity reality TV stars.



Valerie Cherish at the upfronts on The Comeback.


HBO


In 2014, the assertion that reality TV isn't real is less a theory than a statement of fact. Sure, it can't always be proven, but like evolution, the vast majority of educated Americans understand it to be true. We've come to accept bending the truth as an intrinsic part of the genre: Fights are rehearsed, participants are coached, and the villains are victims of the dreaded "bitch edit." Reality television is ultimately a performance.


No one understands that better than The Comeback's Valerie Cherish, who — were she not fictional — might be the greatest reality TV personality of all time. As it stands, she's simply one of the greatest television characters. Embodied with impressive depth by Lisa Kudrow on the short-lived 2005 HBO series, Valerie is always playing to the cameras. When The Comeback begins, it's been 10 years since Valerie made her mark as the star of the sitcom I'm It. The series tracks her return to television as Aunt Sassy, a thin caricature on the dreadful sitcom Room and Bored and as herself on a simultaneous reality series designed to propel her back to stardom. Valerie is an actor so defined by her fame that performing in front of an audience is the only reality she knows.


But as is the case with 2014's actors turned reality stars, Lindsay Lohan and Tori Spelling, the more Valerie performs, the more we see through the act. As these actors put on a show, their true vulnerabilities are unmasked. It's the closest reality TV has ever gotten to reality.


Of course, that's not to say these actors have the same perspectives when it comes to how they choose to represent themselves. Valerie would be horrified by the uncomfortable candor on display on OWN's Lindsay, Oprah's somewhat botched attempt at reintroducing the world to a sober Lohan, and Lifetime's True Tori, an awkwardly intimate look at the fraught marriage of Spelling and Dean McDermott after McDermott's affair. Valerie downplays her own frustrations and disappointments, like getting shoved into the background of a publicity photo featuring her younger, hotter cast mates, while her modern contemporaries cry directly into the camera. It's not that the tears aren't real — it's that, like Valerie, Lohan and Spelling seem to process their emotions by way of public reception.



Spelling on True Tori.


Lifetime




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The Guy Who Caused The Red Wedding On "Game Of Thrones" Took The Cutest Fan Photo Ever



via BuzzFeed

REMEMBER: Never get married in Westeros.



HBO



HBO




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10 Emotions Fans Of "Orange Is The New Black" Will Experience This Week



via BuzzFeed

This is not a drill, people.


The second season of Orange Is the New Black is only a week away. It would be an understatement to say that we are all feeling a lot of feelings.


The second season of Orange Is the New Black is only a week away. It would be an understatement to say that we are all feeling a lot of feelings .


Netflix / Via lezvice.tumblr.com


There's no sugarcoating it: The upcoming days are going to be an emotional roller coaster for you.


There's no sugarcoating it: The upcoming days are going to be an emotional roller coaster for you.


Netflix / Via youtube.com


First and foremost, you'll experience excitement in its purest form.


First and foremost, you'll experience excitement in its purest form.


BECAUSE IT'S ALL FINALLY HAPPENING AND OH. MY. GOD. HAVE WE REALLY SURVIVED ALL THIS TIME!? HOW DID WE MAKE IT SO FAR? PINCH ME.


welcometo-the-hellmouth.tumblr.com


BASK in these good feelings. Allow them to wash over your soul.


BASK in these good feelings. Allow them to wash over your soul.


afterfringe.tumblr.com




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Bryan Cranston Hints That We Haven't Seen The End Of Walter White



via BuzzFeed

There’s a few spoilers in this post, obviously.


Bryan Cranston was interviewed on CNN, and was asked about the ending of Breaking Bad.


Bryan Cranston was interviewed on CNN, and was asked about the ending of Breaking Bad .


Ashleigh Banfield asks "I wasn't so sure that you died. I really wasn't. You guys were open and I just thought, 'what if the police just take him into custody, he gets better, breaks out and just goes nuts?'"


Bryan replies: "You never saw a bag zip up or anything."


Ashleigh than asks: "Is he dead?"


"I don't know."


Final question: "No movie, no nothing, no Walter White?"


"I don't know.... never say never."


cnn.com



AMC / capitalsteeez.tumblr.com



You can watch the interview here:


The question she asks is right in the last minute.


Via cnn.com




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Which "Friends" Character Said It?



via BuzzFeed

Could this quiz be any harder?



Hutton Archive / Getty



24 "Glee" Covers That Are Better Than The Originals



via BuzzFeed

I know it’s not cool to admit this. But Rachel turns anything into sonic gold.


"Firework" -- Katy Perry



Katy Perry is a fantastic pop song writer, but Lea Michele's voice turns this song into an experience.


youtube.com


"Jar Of Hearts" -- Christina Perri



This one comes down to whether you're a fan of Michele's power vocals over a subtler treatment. I am.


youtube.com


"Chasing Pavements" -- Adele



Adele is wonderful, but Melissa Benoist's voice is perfectly suited to this sad jam.


youtube.com


"When I Get You Alone" -- Robin Thicke



Darren Criss and the Warblers turn this Thicke groove into an epic romance.


youtube.com




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No One Really Wants a Nikki Finke Comeback



via BuzzFeed

Except Nikki Finke. Updated with Finke’s subtweet calling me an “asshole.”



NikkiFinke.com


After being in purgatory for seven months since a hideous public split from Deadline, the site she founded, and its parent company, Penske Media Corp., in early November, Nikki Finke is ready to come back. Or so she says, anyway: Last week, her dormant, self-named website was tweaked for the first time in months, with a Finke-like threat: "Hollywood: Your time is running out. NikkiFinke.com goes live 6/2/2014." There is also a sign-up box for email alerts.


If the site does go live on Monday, a number of Nikki-watchers will be surprised. Common wisdom is that Finke remains under contract until 2016, and that Jay Penske, her former boss and the founder/CEO of PMC, plans to hold her to that agreement. Repeated calls and emails to PMC's representative did not yield fruitful results. But if it turns out that Finke is indeed still bound by her contract and can't launch after all, it wouldn't be the first time she has been thwarted: In October, Finke acknowledged the 2016 contract date during a telephone interview, but felt that because Penske had, according to her, violated the contract in unspecified ways, she should be let out of it. That did not happen then, and may not happen now.


The mysterious Finke has been traveling out of the country and, on top of that, had a bad cold when we spoke on the phone Tuesday. "I'm not saying anything to anybody until June 2," she said when asked about her new site, offering no specifics about what it will be. If Finke was implying that she legally can't say anything until June 2, she wouldn't elaborate, other than to say, "It's been a very difficult six months."


Maybe for Finke it's been difficult — but it's been a joyful time for the publicists and executives who used to deal with her constantly.


"It's a hundred times better in every way, shape, or form," said one of the dozen people I spoke to for this story, all of whom insisted on anonymity because Finke is scary. "Everyone was trying to copy or trail her, so now everyone doesn't feel like they have to be so ridiculous. I mean, the New York Times was chasing her. Things are almost normal."


Though there are things people in the entertainment business do miss about Finke — her ability to uncover stories the industry doesn't want broken; her in-depth box office analysis; her unique, roaring writer's voice; and the fact that her mere existence kept her competitors on their toes — the list of what they don't miss is longer. Like, her axe grinding, for instance, as well as her favoritism, and the fact that her approach to corrections is erasure. Also not missed is the strange aura she cast over the rest of entertainment media that somehow causes everyone — publicists, agents, executives, reporters, and editors — to act like worse human beings. Finke spurs craven executives to cave to her, and it makes people crazy. Ron Meyer, the vice chairman of NBC Universal, who is thought to be one of Finke's closest sources, once told BuzzFeed Editor-in-Chief Ben Smith that she is "a terrorist."


To that point, what people miss least is Finke's screaming. One publicist interviewed for this story imitated a shrieking Finkian bellow: "You didn't give me this story so I'm going to ruin you!"


Her absence has been pretty terrific for her competitors too. I spoke with several of them — yes, anonymously — and they profess not to be nervous about her possible return.


"She's powerless at this point. She doesn't have the work ethic or clout to be able to do what she did years earlier," one said. Another echoed that sentiment: "There is an ecosystem in this world that she disrupts and tries to disrupt. In her heyday, she was able to move the news cycle. Toward the end, she was lazy and only doing box office — she was gone before she was gone."


It's that ecosystem that has changed in Finke's absence. "We can play together in some way," a film publicist told me of the post-Nikki world.


The traffic statistics of Deadline, Variety, and The Wrap bear out that play. According to comScore, they're nearly even: In April, The Wrap had 4.8 million unique users, Deadline brought in 4.4 million, and Variety was read by 4.3 million. Year over year, those numbers represent an increase for Deadline (3.1 million in April 2013), but huge surges for The Wrap (1.1 million then) and for Variety (which used to be behind a paywall and had 1.3 million uniques). As for The Hollywood Reporter, its 9.7 million uniques this April reflect that site's broader appeal beyond trade news, and general dominance.


A publicist who misses Finke more than others is curious to see what happens. "Not having to have her scream at you and not having your bureaucratic, scared bosses worried about what she might be writing is great," this person said. "But I think she would get some scoops right out of the gate — there are still people who would give her stuff."


And yet, even this fan came back to thinking that the 60-year-old Finke, whose health is never great, faces a difficult task, especially given her track record: "She can't sustain herself. She always implodes."


One of the competitors sounded quite sure we won't be seeing her on Monday, anyway — that PMC will block her from launching. "From everything I understand, there is no inclination to let her out of the contract," this person said.


Huh. Then why make this public announcement of the start date?


"I don't think she can stand that no one cares about her."




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How Subsidies For Hollywood Became Sexy



via BuzzFeed

After years of failed attempts to pass legislation offering tax incentives to the film and television industry, more California lawmakers have joined efforts to help Hollywood. “This is a changed landscape because we made this an issue,” Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said.



Then-Councilman Eric Garcetti at a 2012 event for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.


Valerie Macon / Getty


LOS ANGELES — A bill expanding California's tax incentives for film and television production passed unanimously in the state Assembly on Wednesday, a sign of how Hollywood subsidies have come into vogue after years of being viewed with skepticism.


Lawmakers spoke loftily about the state and one of its most visible exports during discussion of the bill. "There has been no greater ambassador for California than its artistic output," said co-sponsor Mike Gatto, a Burbank Democrat. "This is probably the most important measure we will hear this year," said Ian Calderon, a Democrat from Whittier. "Let me just remind members that the most effective and efficient way to demonstrate support or not support for a piece of legislation is by pressing the button. At this rate, we'll be leaving at 7 p.m.," said Manuel Perez, a Coachella Democrat.


The bill, AB1839, passed 69-0 and will head next to the California Senate. It increases the kind of projects eligible to receive tax credits, but still to be seen is whether it will increase the state's annual $100 million incentive cap. Several states currently offer more, including New York, which offers $420 million a year.


"I'm confident we will really expand the $100 million tax credits to at least double or triple or quadruple," Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti told BuzzFeed last week in his downtown office. "I think we need to be competitive with New York."


Supporters of incentives have reason to be optimistic. Not only did the bill receive bipartisan support from at least one chamber of California's legislature, but the mayors of the state's 10 biggest cities are on board. In a letter to the bill's sponsors, Garcetti and mayors from San Jose to San Diego cited the "widespread and geographic support" as evidence of a "realization that California is losing tens of thousands of middle class jobs and significant tax revenue."


"You know, people were wondering whether we could hang on to $100 million a year ago," Garcetti said. "This is a changed landscape because we made this an issue."



The mayors of the 10 largest cities in California sent a letter in support of AB1839 to the bill's co-sponsors.


It's a long way from the opposition tax credits have faced in years past. Once polarizing, they were seen as something that only benefitted Southern California and wealthy Hollywood executives and movie stars.


Since the 2001-2002 legislative session, at least eight failed attempts were made to institute them, according to the California Assembly Committees on Revenue and Taxation. Former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger told the Associated Press in 2008 he'd been trying for four years to convince lawmakers to pass incentives. Schwarzenegger signed the state's first program in 2009.


Actor and director Jon Favreau, who's been an advocate for incentives since Schwarzenegger's administration, said California wouldn't need to match other states or countries dollar-for-dollar to remain competitive.


"You just have to make it financially responsible for a company that's financing a film to keep it here," he said. "We would love to work here and often sacrifice a great deal to do so."


Favreau said he's filming the upcoming The Jungle Book in California and made efforts to keep filming of The Avengers and the Iron Man films in the state as well, although those films were shot in multiple locations, including California.


"When you direct a film, you rely on your crew," he said. "You get a better end product" when the crew doesn't have to travel and spend extended periods of time away from their family. "I see the toll it takes to have people traveling."




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Lee Pace Is Ready For The Spotlight, But Not The Scrutiny



via BuzzFeed

As the Pushing Daisies alum embarks on his two most high-profile projects to date — AMC’s Halt and Catch Fire and Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy — he refuses to compromise his privacy for viewers’ curiosity.



AMC


Lee Pace is, by his own design, an enigma. Despite appearing in two of the decade's biggest film franchises — The Hobbit and The Twilight Saga — the 35-year-old actor continues to exist amid an aura of mystery, with little known about his life before starring in two critically adored television shows, Wonderfalls and Pushing Daisies (both from creator Bryan Fuller), and his stunning turn in Showtime's 2003 biopic Soldier's Girl, in which he played trans woman Calpernia Addams.


Sitting on the secluded patio of The Four Seasons Hotel's Windows Lounge in Los Angeles, Pace's movie idol good looks are partially hidden behind an unkempt beard and a messy nest of hair, a mask of sort that makes the actor seem even more inscrutable. And he relishes a life far outside of the spotlight, even recently buying 10 acres of land in Upstate New York (tractor included). "I'm trying to be a farmer right now," he says, that beard suddenly seeming perfectly in character. "I've been wanting a tractor for such a long time, and I finally bought this one," he says, grinning and showing off photos with the fervor of a new parent.


Pace's career has zigzagged from indie dramas (A Single Man) to romantic comedies (Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day), and from Oscar contenders (Lincoln) to television period dramas (AMC's Halt and Catch Fire, which launches June 1). But there's still very little information about the actor online — and that's exactly how Pace wants it.


"When you play the king of elves and alien warlords, little me is very uninteresting," says Pace, with a dismissive shrug. "But, at the same time, actors feel this obligation to be transparent, and I truly don't understand the point."


Pace continues, arms flitting back and forth, illustrating every question. "Then it gets into a whole cycle of, Do you like me? Do you like me if I wear this to this premiere? Do you like me if I'm in this magazine? Do you like me if I date this person? Then will you like me? Then will you give me approval? Then will you buy a ticket? I want people to buy a ticket because they're interested in the character and interested in the work and interested in the story."


That predisposition for privacy has fueled endless rumors about Pace's personal life, speculation he dismisses as inherently disruptive to the very reason audiences are attracted to him in the first place. "Who cares about people's personal lives?" says Pace. "I mean, honestly. How are you then able to disappear into a role? Trust me, if I had something interesting to say about myself, I would."



Pace as Calpernia Addams in 2003's Soldier's Girl.


Bachrach/Gottlieb Productions


Those clamoring for details about his life should look no further than his body of work: "To be honest, the characters I play are revealing enough." Case in point: the aforementioned Soldier's Girl, in which Pace played trans soldier Calpernia Addams, who inspired a formal review of Don't Ask, Don't Tell after her lover, Barry Winchell, was murdered in 1999. "I was shocked at how much I saw myself in that character," Pace says. "I worked on transforming myself so much for that role so I assumed I wouldn't recognize myself, but I saw so much more of myself in Calpernia than I ever anticipated. So, I'm already revealing more of myself than I'm comfortable with."


In an era where stars' private lives are fodder for tabloid consumption or soapy reality exploits, Pace's decision to focus on the work allows the audience to be completely immersed in his characters' rich inner lives. Maybe part of that has to do with the fact that the Julliard-trained Pace had the ability to reinvent himself constantly as a child — born in Oklahoma, Pace's life was uprooted to Saudi Arabia when he was around 5 years old (a result of his father's job in the oil industry), before he returned to the U.S. and eventually settled in Texas as a teenager.


That gift of reinvention (or compartmentalization?) carries over into Pace's new 1980s-set AMC drama, Halt and Catch Fire, where he plays Joe McMillan, a brilliant but damaged tech visionary who recruits burnt-out family man Gordon Clark (Argo's Scoot McNairy) and caustic prodigy Cameron Howe (That Awkward Moment's Mackenzie Davis) to reverse-engineer an IBM computer.


Despite Joe's potentially polarizing nature, the show's creators, Chris Rogers and Chris Cantwell, insist that finding someone as charismatic as Pace wasn't a requirement. "While I wouldn't say that we were explicitly searching for someone with 'likability,' it was important to us that we find an actor with a lot of charisma and emotional nuance to play Joe," says Rogers.


Cantwell agrees: "Lee brings a tremendous humanity to the role. In the hands of someone less capable, Joe could easily come across as a sociopathic monster early on in the series. Lee can deftly wield a shark-like persona when needed, but with him we get almost immediately that there is something brewing below the surface."




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Angelina Jolie Is Playing The Role She Was Born To Play In "Maleficent"



via BuzzFeed

The actress has never looked as fabulously otherworldly as she does in Disney’s new villain-centric reimagining of Sleeping Beauty , but the film doesn’t do the character any favors.



Film Frame/Disney


Angelina Jolie looks amazing in Maleficent, the live action retelling of Sleeping Beauty from the perspective of its misunderstood villain. As far as appearance goes, the role of the baddest bitch in Disney's stable of villains is the one Jolie's been waiting to play her whole career.


There's always been an intimidating, otherworldly air to the actress' beauty, and these qualities have only sharpened over the years, in parallel with Jolie attaining such a rarefied level of celebrity that she, Brad Pitt, and their six children seem to move on a separate plane from the rest of humanity. Jolie hasn't even acted in a non-animated movie since 2010, when she starred in Salt and The Tourist, but her star hasn't been dimmed by her recent moves toward directing Bosnian War dramas.



Frank Connor/Disney Enterprises, Inc.


With bright contact lenses and makeup contouring the angles of her face into even sharper curves (her look was designed by the great Rick Baker of An American Werewolf in London), Jolie makes for a very compelling evil fairy, who's actually just a big softie in the inside. Freed from the need to look human or do anything other than wipe the floor with less charismatic co-stars, Jolie's able to play into serving as the supreme screen adornment she's always been, whether zipping through the air on a bird's wings or donning her finest black horn turban to menace a newborn princess.


The key shot in the film, which is the directorial debut of visual effects artist Robert Stromberg, is one in which a carefully lit Jolie tilts her chin up at the camera, all the better to highlight the near alien arcs of Maleficent's cheekbones. It's one the movie repeats several times, as is the one in which she turns her eyes to the lens in artful silhouette.




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