Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday Gene Kelly (1912-1996)

festreviews Happy Birthday

The contract system at Hollywood studios like MGM was a very efficient system in that because we were at the studio all the time we could rehearse a lot. But it also really repressed people. There were no union regulations yet, and we were all indentured servants–you can call us slaves if you want–like ballplayers before free agency. We had seven-year contracts, but every six months the studio could decide to fire you if your picture wasn’t a hit. And if you turned down a role, they cut off your salary and simply added the time to your contract.

Kids talk to me and say they want to do musicals again because they’ve studied the tapes of the old films. We didn’t have that. We thought once we had made it, even on film, it was gone except for the archives.

I arrived in Hollywood 20 pounds overweight and as strong as an ox. But if I put on a white tails and tux like [Fred Astaire], I still looked like a truck driver.

[on his working experience with Debbie Reynolds while filming Singin’ in the Rain (1952) (1952)] I wasn’t nice to Debbie. It’s a wonder she still speaks to me.

There was no model for what I tried to do with dance . . . and the thing Fred Astaire and I used to bitch about was that critics didn’t know how to categorize us. They called us tap dancers because that was considered the American style. But neither of us were basically tap dancers.

Turning 52 Today: Kristen Wiig

festreviews Happy Birthday

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I can relate to having those people in your life that you feel are moving on to this great, big, normal life and you’re like, ‘What’s wrong with me?’

At parties, I’ll start talking and notice everyone is looking at me and feel dumb and say, ‘Forget it,’ and then start eating things.

If you’re creating anything at all, it’s really dangerous to care about what people think.

I enjoy being characters rather than myself.

I don’t rehearse a lot. I try to keep it organic. Even in movies, the less I rehearse, the better I am.

I don’t know if you can articulate an instinct.

I don’t always just want to do the same thing.

Turning 54 Today: Richard Armitage

festreviews Happy Birthday

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Live acting is a kind of adventure sport. I don’t go abseiling or snowboarding, but I sometimes think that stepping out on stage can have the same kind of adrenaline rush.

I don’t think actors need to go on pedestals. I don’t buy it. I think it’s a weird thing. It’s like you become someone else, like stepping into another universe.


You can spend a bit of yourself when you give yourself to a character. At the end of a job, you have to remind yourself who and what you are.

Turning 69 Today: Kim Catrall 

festreviews Happy Birthday

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[on Sex and the City (1998)] The show is celebrating what it’s like to be a woman. We do things people think about but don’t vocalize. It gives men and women permission to talk in a way that is healthy.
I’ve been playing sexually aware women most of my life. At this point, I expected to be playing moms and wives. It’s exciting to play a femme fatale.


[on her role in Crossroads (2002), where she plays Britney Spears’ mother, who abandons her daughter as a baby and later rejects her as a teen] It was one of the hardest jobs in my life. I had to be mean to Britney Spears. She is such a little Southern sweetie who is only 20. She was so nervous and so well-prepared, and I had to reject her on screen because I’m her horrible mother who has left her.


I’m finding now in my 40s that the less makeup I wear, the better. I think softer is better as you get older. With everything. Except men. I prefer younger men. In some ways, they are much more open to a woman
being stronger and independent then some of the men my age.

Turning 36 Today: Hayden Panettiere

festreviews Happy Birthday

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I think at the age I’m at, it’s really hard for a film career, and I’m at a point in my life where I thought it would be a good idea to be a part of a good show and to be able to finish school.


Some people ask me whether I’m a “mama’s girl” or a “papa’s girl”. I’m *nobody’s* girl. My brother clings to our parents; I’m the one shoving them out the door.


I don’t need to feel stick-skinny. To me, the confident curvy girl is so much sexier than the insecure skinny girl.

So my tattoo means ‘Live without regrets.’ It’s not that you don’t regret things in life, but you at least try to learn from them. It’s misspelled too [accidentally, as rimipianti], so I literally have to live by that advice!


[25 February 2022; on Vladimir Putin, the president who started Russian invasion of and war against Ukraine] I have personally witnessed the strength of the Ukrainian people who fought so hard for
their independence and have continued to passionately defend their country over the years. What Putin is doing is an absolute disgrace!

This horrific moment in history sends a terrifying message: the message that in this day and age, in year 2022, it’s okay to violate the rights of free people and allow autocrats like Putin to take whatever they please.

Turning 58 Today: Carrie-Anne Moss

festreviews Happy Birthday

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After The Matrix (1999), I cannot wear sunglasses. As soon as I put them on, people recognize me.


I think dreams are important to inspire us to get out of bed every morning. A sex scene is much harder than a fight scene. It’s one thing to say, ‘Kick higher,’ but ‘Kiss harder’ – that’s just crazy.


I wouldn’t play another character like Trinity out of respect to her and respect to the film. I don’t want to be the leather-clad, kicking-butt girl with another name. It would be like cheating on Trinity.


I don’t have issues with playing moms. When a role is well-written, whatever it is, it’s just about playing the truth of the character. I always wanted to be a mother. I love it.

Turning 51 Today: Amy Adams

festreviews Happy Birthday

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[2011] I was a hostess at Hooters, and that was sort of fun. I was 17, and then when I was 18, I waited [tables] for about a month. I wasn’t cut out to be a waitress, and I certainly wasn’t cut out to be a
Hooters waitress. That was a short-lived ambition. Everyone would agree, if they could see me, Hooters isn’t necessarily the best way to describe me.


[on the era in which The Master (2012) is set] We were a society in transition. Women were given responsibility in wartime, and then it was back to the kitchen and take care of your man. The perception of what what was available to women was so different.


[on letting her career be influenced by childhood favorites] I’m like the luckiest girl in the world. I’ve gotten to be a princess, I’ve gotten to work with the Muppets. A lot of my childhood dreams about
who I wanted to be when I was a grown-up, I at least get to play them in movies. And Lois Lane is one of them. So I’m just excited. I hope I bring something that people enjoy.


[on having the Muppets as co-stars] To see them when they’re not animated was really upsetting.

I grew up as a Mormon and that had more of an impact on my values than my beliefs. I’m afraid I will always feel the weight of a lie. I’m very hard on myself anyway. Religious guilt carries over too. You
can’t really misbehave without feeling badly about it. At least, I can’t.

Turning 42 Today: Andrew Garfield

festreviews Happy Birthday

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  • I’m very neurotic and self-conscious. So I think that I’ll know when I’m becoming a dick and believing my own press.
  • Obviously there’s something very seductive about movies, which can be attractive in a bad way if you’re doing them for the wrong reasons – for money, or for fame. I hope I won’t ever do that. I don’t feel at home in LA, I feel like I’m on holiday. It’s nice to dip your feet in occasionally, but I think it’s probably quite unhealthy to spend too much time there at once.

Turning 44 Today: Ben Barnes 

festreviews Happy Birthday

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  • (on being recognized) Not on a regular basis. You’d be surprised how people don’t put two and two together. I was on a plane from New York to L.A. and the only movie that was playing was ‘Stardust’. And the first 10 minutes of that movie is pretty much just me. I was thinking, “Oh no, this is embarrassing, everyone’s going to be looking at me.” And … nothing! Nothing … so maybe no one will recognize me in ‘Caspian’ either.
  • (About the wardrobe in The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (2008)) I felt awkward when they first gave me the shirt and it had like flowers on it. And I was like, “Really? Flowers? Flowers on the shirt?” But then when they gave me – when they showed me, “Yeah, but later on you get the big armor with the lion on it”. I was like, “Okay. Cool. Trade.”