When the time comes when nobody cares about me anymore and nobody wants to see my face anymore, then that’s fine, too. It’s totally normal.
I’m very much at home in drama and I identify as melodramatic. But I want to do everything. For me the thing that I gravitate toward, other then character and writing, is collaboration. I love the collaborative aspect of television and film, and I like the marriage of technology and craft and art. I just want to keep working.
Spouse James Carpinello(April 25, 2003 – present) (2 children)
QUOTES:
[1/23/03] I want to be strong and a vampire slayer.
[interview in “Fresno Bee”, 2/4/04, on her Angel (1999) character Fred] Looking back at my character, I’ve gotten to do about 12 different parts because I started out crazy, in a potato sack, in a demon dimension. Now I’m in charge of this multi-million-dollar science lab. The journey between those points has really brought a lot of strength to the role. [on knowing Joss Whedon before the role of Fred on Angel (1999)] I wouldn’t say I knew much about Joss Whedon, but I did know about Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997). My boyfriend in college, his roommate and his girlfriend had ‘Buffy’ pizza night every Tuesday. At first I was like, ‘I don’t know about this show, a vampire show,’ and immediately got sucked in. I was like, ‘This is the best writing ever.
Born December 4, 1966 · Hattiesburg, Mississippi, USA
Birth name Fereydun Robert Armisen
QUOTES:
Bill Hader does a really good impression of me.
There’s something really easy and just somehow un-crowded about the Portland airport. Every time I go there I’m like, ‘Why is this so easy and sweet?’
I loooved Sleater-Kinney like a crazy person.
I love ‘Saturday Night Live,’ and I really feel like people who have left before me have always stayed with the show. They never really quite left, which is nice. Everyone kind of stays close.
I want it all… fast. I want to be married, I want to live together… and then somewhere around a year or two years, I get freaked out. I freak out emotionally and then I actually feel like ‘Oh my God, who’s this stranger in my house?’
I think I was a terrible husband, I think I’m a terrible boyfriend.
Every music journalist I’ve ever met has been stunningly beautiful.
I can’t relax. I’m not happy unless I’m working on stuff. ‘SNL’ is always a huge workload, as enjoyable as it is. I tend to think that there is a sophistication to everything at ‘Saturday Night Live,’ including the sketches. I’m so glad cities have personalities, just like people have personalities. That’s something that makes me smile.
Born December 4, 1954 · Washington, District of Columbia, USA
Died November 6, 2024 · Marina del Rey, California, USA (long illness)
Birth name Anthony Tiran Todd
QUOTES:
(2010 — on landing Candyman (1992)) I had just done a film where I had gone to Africa for the first time, so I was all into that. Then I get a call one day, I was getting a lot of work at this point, a lot of television, we were booking easily twice a month, but I didn’t know I was successful yet, because I was worried about my little baby. Anyway, I get a call from my agent saying “This director wants to see you, wants to just meet you about this movie called Candyman (1992).” I thought he was fucking joking. I mean, what is that? A Sammy Davis thing? What is that? He said, “No no no. They won’t give us the script, but they said it’s a major studio film, and they want to just meet you.” I said, “Okay.” And I met Bernard Rose, who’s a crazy maniacal Englishman who had a habit of twisting his hair between his fingers. He said, “I saw your film that you did in Africa, and you’re my guy. The only problem is, we got to convince the studio.” So I knew I had his blessings, and he slipped me a copy of the script. I read it, and word leaked out to me, it was the whole thing of the urban mythology, and the fact that this was a possibility of an African-American, I don’t know, icon, but a horror figure. ‘Cause I was heavy into the whole Dracula, Phantom of the Opera thing. I had to do what they call a “Personality Test,” where I had to go to the studio at literally 8 in the morning, in front of a bunch of suits, and display whether I had a personality. So I did my best not to spill the coffee or insult them, and at the end of it, I heard they didn’t think I had a personality. They said, “Well, we don’t know if he has personality, but if you believe that he can do the film… Okay… Are you sure? He said, “Yeah. That’s the guy.” And then the last hurdle was meeting Virginia Madsen, who’s from the Chicago area, and she just had it in her contract that she had to sign off on me. Then we met, went to lunch, and she said “Yes,” and that was it. And I remember we came here to Chicago, and it was my first time in Chicago, we went to the Kingston Mines, me and Bernard, listening to some great blues. Keith Richards stopped by that night, and he was just saying, “This role is going to change your life.” And at the time, I’m going “Okay, I’ve heard this before. I’ve done some things. I’ve had some life interruptions, but change my life? I’m going to do the best I can, but I don’t know if your ego is stating that this is going to change my life.” But in fact, he was right, because not a day goes by, to this day, 17 years later, without people, I mean multiple people, coming up and saying “Candyman!” Which amazes me, because usually film does not have that much of an attention span.
(On shooting The Prophecy: Forsaken (2005) in Romania) It wasn’t a great experience for me. I didn’t like Romania. It was right after the wall came down, and you got wild dogs roaming the street, and everybody’s a Gypsy. Everybody’s related to Dracula. It was seven weeks there. I just got tired. And I think the whole time, I only saw one other African-American there. Yeah… I was homesick.
Born December 4, 1942 · Marylebone, London, England, UK
Birth name Jennifer R. Jones
She has the dubious distinction of playing the first character to die in the popular detective series Inspector Morse (1987).
Was an avid mountain climber for many years, a passion she credited to the fact that her family originally came from the Welsh mountains. (her maternal grandparents were from Breconshire).
Current hobbies include gardening and hill walking near the Jones family home, an old lead miner’s cottage in the Welsh mountains.
Graduated from RADA.
Daughter of actor Griffith Jones and older sister of actor Nicholas Jones.
Born December 4, 1964 · Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA
QUOTES:
[on Gena Rowlands] As a young actress I saw her in Opening Night (1977). She was so larger-than-life, yet her performances are so detailed- no color is left out. She’s ferocious, beautiful, elegant, compassionate, funny, sexy. A broad in the best sense of the word – that’s what I aspire to be.
[on pole dancing] It’s really physically hard! That pole work is crazy hard; to be really good on that pole and you have to be really strong.
[on being nude in films] I definitely feel like I didn’t want to do that kind of thing when I was younger because I didn’t think that it was something a serious actress would do, in a way there is validity to that. It’s harder to be taken seriously when you’re younger, doing that but I’ve also come to a point of being able to handle the reaction to it – that probably would have been more difficult when I was younger.
You can’t really be old in L.A., it’s kind of like a crime.
(1996) I think the fantasy of being a movie star is more powerful than the reality. So, for me, even if it’s not a great film or a great play I’m doing, to know that you went for it. You had an experience that made you grow artistically and personally. What’s really satisfying is knowing that you did a good job.
(1996) When I was first starting, I went to an agent who told me, ‘Listen, you’ll be lucky if you do summer stock. Pack it up.’ Once in a while I think about him, but I’m happy with myself. So, what does he matter?
[if she had social media when she was younger] I would’ve made a fool of myself many times over.
Born December 3, 1968 · Indianapolis, Indiana, USA
Birth name Brendan James Fraser
Spouse Afton Smith (September 27, 1998 – April 17, 2008) (divorced, 3 children)
QUOTES:
You do a movie, Hollywood loves you for a while. They love you, they love you, they love you until…oh, they love someone else now. It’s not cyclical, it’s … it’s … ficklical!
I still don’t understand the music industry that much. Everything I learned was from hanging out with rock musicians in studios. I certainly have respect for those who make music their livelihood.
I guess darkness serves a purpose: to show us that there is redemption through chaos. I believe in that. I think that’s the basis of Greek mythology.
I have so much satisfaction in my life. I have a beautiful wife and the great stimulation of an interesting career. I’m the most happy fellow that I know.
I think you have to show homage to creators.
George of the Jungle is a cartoon. He’s a guy who swings around on a vine all day. Are you not buying that?
I’m starting to judge success by the time I have for myself, the time I spend with family and friends. My priorities aren’t amending; they’re shifting.
Festival Reviews 