Happy Birthday

Turning 60 Today: Michelle Forbes. Happy Birthday

festreviews Happy Birthday

Watch the best of films now by signing up for the FREE 7 Day trial. New Festival Daily: https://www.wildsound.ca/todays-film-festival/

Born
January 8, 1965 · Austin, Texas, USA

Birth name
Michelle Renee Forbes Guajardo

QUOTES:

On turning down Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993): There were all sorts of rumors about why I didn’t take [the DS9 role] and that I was quite arrogant about the whole thing. It wasn’t that at all. It was, again, about wanting variety in my career. If I’d gone on to do DS9, I might not have had the variety I’ve been lucky to have in my career. That’s not to say I wasn’t grateful for the opportunity; I genuinely was. However, I had to make a choice that felt right for me, which was a difficult one, especially as a young actor being offered a steady job. (TV Zone Magazine, January 2005)

I was so shy as a kid that I was almost mute and was starting to have a stutter because I couldn’t talk to people. The shyness is debilitating actually, and my mother took me to see someone because she was worried about me. And he suggested she enroll me in acting class to draw me out of myself.

About her character on Battlestar Galactica (2004): I tend to play a lot of authoritative, strong women, so initially this simply wasn’t something I wanted to do. God bless them, though, for being so pursuant of me. The Galactica producers sent me a set of DVDs, because I had never seen the show, either. Galactica is amazingly good and well-written. I shudder to think I almost lost out on working with those wonderful people and on such a powerful story. (TV Zone Magazine, January 2005).

Turning 45 Today: Rachel Nichols. Happy Birthday

festreviews Happy Birthday

Watch the best of films now by signing up for the FREE 7 Day trial. New Festival Daily: https://www.wildsound.ca/todays-film-festival/

Born
January 8, 1980 · Augusta, Maine, USA

Birth name
Rachel Emily Nichols

Spouses
Michael Kershaw (September 27, 2014 – present)
Scott Stuber (July 26, 2008 – 2009) (divorced)

QUOTES:

[on playing the role of Tamara in Conan the Barbarian (2011)] It was really important that she not be the damsel-in-distress. We wanted to update and empower her, and the best way to do that is to go toe-to-toe with Conan. So I give him attitude in the beginning, and there really is a hostile relationship.

[on her first sex scene in a movie] They were nice enough to shoot the scene at the end of filming, so by then Jason [Jason Momoa] and I had become friends. But it still is awkward, especially when you have the director saying, “Grab her neck and bite her.”.

History is fickle. We know that. The good and bad come around and go around, and go around again. There are recessions and depressions and economic boom and bust. I’m concerned about the future. I think many people acknowledge we’re on a path that can’t be sustained.

I love the physicality side of roles, I really do. And when I get to do my own stunts, it’s that much cooler. I’ll do anything the production safety people will let me.

Turning 43 Today: Gaby Hoffmann. Happy Birthday

festreviews Happy Birthday

Watch the best of films now by signing up for the FREE 7 Day trial. New Festival Daily: https://www.wildsound.ca/todays-film-festival/

Born
January 8, 1982 · New York City, New York, USA

Birth name
Gabrielle Mary Hoffmann

Spouse
Chris Dapkins(? – present) (2 children)

QUOTES:

[re her childhood growing up in and around the Chelsea Hotel] We lived in a classless society. We’d spend a summer at Gore Vidal’s house in Italy, but we were on and off welfare…

I love Beyoncé, I do. But I was walking down the street and saw this huge billboard for the documentary, she made about herself called, Beyoncé: Life Is But a Dream (2013). Underneath the billboard is this homeless guy, then there’s me with $2 in my bank account, and I’m thinking, Life is but a dream? I mean, I love you, B, but really?

[re other child stars] I was never as famous as all these kids. There was no social media. We weren’t celebrity-obsessed as a culture. I feel like these kids are under a crazy microscope; they’re basically brands. And they eventually implode and act out. They need a break, and they’re not getting one.

[re childhood days with friend Claire Danes] Growing up in downtown New York City in the ’80s, we were ensconced in art and progressive thinking,Our parents all experimented with raising us in a fairly loose, unorthodox way. A huge emphasis was placed on creativity, and our artistic efforts were never dismissed as childish. There was a sense that we – kids and grown-ups – all had the potential to make something of value. Our drawings were not simply destined for the refrigerator. We never felt patronized.

Turning 38 Today: Cynthia Erivo. Happy Birthday

festreviews Happy Birthday

Watch the best of films now by signing up for the FREE 7 Day trial. New Festival Daily: https://www.wildsound.ca/todays-film-festival/

Born
January 8, 1987 · Stockwell, London, England, UK

Birth name
Cynthia Onyedinmanasu Chinasaokwu Erivo

QUOTES:

We’re in a dangerous place right now when people who have nothing to do with us are making decisions about our lives and our bodies. We’re watching changes that were made for our freedom getting rolled back.

Sometimes showing your faith brings embarrassment because of where we are in the world now.

I vividly remember my first time on stage. I was five years old and I played a shepherd [in the school Nativity]. They made me sing ‘Silent Night’ solo. I saw my mum smiling, maybe crying, and I remember knowing that people were really happy. That was the first time that I thought, ‘ooh, this might be what I’m supposed to do’.

I grew up in Stockwell, south London. We had a humble upbringing and my mum raised my sister and I on her own.

Turning 61 Today: Nicolas Cage. Happy Birthday

festreviews Happy Birthday

Watch the best of films now by signing up for the FREE 7 Day trial. New Festival Daily: https://www.wildsound.ca/todays-film-festival/

Born
January 7, 1964 · Long Beach, California, USA

Birth name
Nicholas Kim Coppola

Spouses
Riko Shibata (February 16, 2021 – present) (1 child)
Erika Koike (March 23, 2019 – May 31, 2019) (divorced)
Alice Kim Cage (July 30, 2004 – January 2016) (divorced, 1 child)
Lisa Marie Presley (August 10, 2002 – May 24, 2004) (divorced)
Patricia Arquette (April 8, 1995 – May 18, 2001) (divorced)

QUOTES:

To be a good actor you have to be something like a criminal, to be willing to break the rules to strive for something new.

There’s a fine line between the Method actor and the schizophrenic.

I am not a demon. I am a lizard, a shark, a heat-seeking panther. I want to be Bob Denver on acid playing the accordion.

[about his marriage to Lisa Marie Presley] I’m sad about this, but we shouldn’t have been married in the first place.
Hollywood didn’t know if I was an actor or a nut or if I was this crazy character I was playing. I had developed an image of being a little bit unusual, different and wild.

Turning 54 Today: Jeremy Renner. Happy Birthday

festreviews Happy Birthday

Watch the best of films now by signing up for the FREE 7 Day trial. New Festival Daily: https://www.wildsound.ca/todays-film-festival/

Born
January 7, 1971 · Modesto, California, USA

Birth name
Jeremy Lee Renner

Spouse
Sonni Pacheco (January 13, 2014 – December 28, 2015) (divorced, 1 child)

QUOTES:

[on shooting The Hurt Locker (2008) in the unbearable heat of Jordan] We were already pushed to the limits. People wanted to quit. All the departments were struggling to get their jobs done, none of them were communicating. There was a lot of fighting going on. The heat does something to your brain, and on top of that I was in this bomb suit and I had explosive diarrhoea, so I was like: ‘Get this thing off me!’ I wanted to punch people. You could not pay me enough money to do it again.

[2009, on his childhood] My sister was the complete opposite, she had a hard time growing up, and I was just always the happy kid. I played the drums, had my mullet, drove around on my motorcycle making out with chicks, just having a good ol’ time. But it just happened while growing up – all these divorces, separations, moving to a different school every year – that things started to take a toll. The stage became a great playground for me to express feelings, and in my household there wasn’t a place for me to do that. It was a great venue for me to hide in a character and express rage and sadness, and I created these really disturbed, complicated characters.

[2009] Most people my age – and I’m going to my twenty-year reunion next weekend – they’re all three divorces deep, and if they’re happy, right on. But that just wasn’t the path I wanted to go on. I was just getting into trouble, drinking, and doing stupid things until I stumbled onto acting class my junior year in college. The sense of self, the purpose. It opened this Pandora’s box of emotions and it went from there.

Turning 37 Today: Haley Bennett. Happy Birthday

festreviews Happy Birthday

Watch the best of films now by signing up for the FREE 7 Day trial. New Festival Daily: https://www.wildsound.ca/todays-film-festival/

Born
January 7, 1988 · Fort Myers, Florida, USA

Birth name
Haley Loraine Keeling

QUOTES:

I never imagined what it would be like to spend a 12-hour day crying and covered in blood.

I’m pretty mad at horror films for ruining my childhood.

I was obsessed with clowns. My dad had to get rid of them. I thought there were clowns under my bed for years.

Turning 38 Today: Lyndsy Fonseca. Happy Birthday

festreviews Happy Birthday

Watch the best of films now by signing up for the FREE 7 Day trial. New Festival Daily: https://www.wildsound.ca/todays-film-festival/

Born
January 7, 1987 · Oakland, California, USA

Birth name
Lyndsy Marie Fonseca

Spouses
Noah Bean (October 2, 2016 – present) (2 children)
Matt Smiley (April 16, 2009 – January 13, 2013) (divorced)

QUOTES:

Pilates is my favorite meditative way to get in shape. I don’t like the gym and I don’t like running, so I just lay on my Pilates reformer. It’s great.

I wanted to be a dancer my whole life. And when I gave it up to act, I always had a really sad part of myself that missed it and missed performing and missed being physical in that way.

Women tend to take care of men a lot, but I like a guy who balances that out and takes care of me, too.

When a man leaves you notes saying he loves you, or asks how your day was – and then listens – you feel special.

Turning 70 Today: Rowan Atkinson. Happy Birthday

festreviews Happy Birthday

Watch the best of films now by signing up for the FREE 7 Day trial. New Festival Daily: https://www.wildsound.ca/todays-film-festival/

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Born
January 6, 1955 · Consett, County Durham, England, UK

Birth name
Rowan Sebastian Atkinson

Spouse
Sunetra Sastry (February 5, 1990 – November 10, 2015) (divorced, 2 children)

QUOTES:

[commenting in 2004 on Britain’s proposed Racial and Religious Hatred Bill] To criticize a person for their race is manifestly irrational and ridiculous, but to criticize their religion, that is a right. That is a freedom. The freedom to criticize ideas, any ideas – even if they are sincerely held beliefs – is one of the fundamental freedoms of society. A law which attempts to say you can criticize and ridicule ideas as long as they are not religious ideas is a very peculiar law indeed.

Mr. Bean is essentially a child trapped in the body of a man. All cultures identify with children in a similar way, so he has this bizarre global outreach. And 10-year-old boys from different cultures have more in common than 30-year-olds. As we grow up, we acquire this sensibility that divides us.

I remember looking up Johnny English (2003) in a film guide and it said ‘intermittently hilarious’ – quite a good description of five good jokes and a lot of longueurs. I find it frustrating that, apart from Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994), I have yet to be involved in a film of which I am totally proud.

The casual ease which some people move from finding something offensive to wishing to declare it criminal – and are then able to find factions within government to aid their ambitions – is truly depressing.