The first Cannes Film Festival press screening for Jane Campionâs âBright Starâ was held at 8:30 a.m. in the midst of a gutter-filling downpour, and yet there were only a handful of empty spots inside the 2,300-seat Grand Théâtre Lumière early this morning. The turnout for the latest movie from the director of âThe Pianoâ was remarkable given the circumstances (and all the late-night partying), but equally noteworthy was the filmâs international provenance, an across-all-borders production history that is being repeated with many Cannes titles.
Campionâs first feature since 2003âs âIn the Cut,â âBright Starâ follows the love story between the young romantic poet John Keats (Ben Whishaw) and Fanny Brawne (Abbie Cornish). The New Zealand-born filmmakerâs movie was backed by Australiaâs Film Finance Corp., Britainâs BBC Films and UK Film Council and Franceâs Pathé Renn Productions. It will be distributed in the United States this fall by Bob Berneyâs new (and still unnamed) American distribution company.
The second Cannes competition title screening to the press today is the horror movie âThirst,â a co-production between New Yorkâs Focus Features and South Koreaâs CJ Entertainment, who are splitting all costs and revenues. Director Chan-wook Parkâs story of a medical experiment gone wrong already has opened in South Korea, where it is generating blockbuster sales. It is scheduled to open in the United States in July.
âThe future for people like us is to understand that itâs a big world out there, and you donât have to speak one language,â said Focus CEO James Schamus. In addition to âThirst,â Focusâ international co-productions include the Brazilian movie âAdrift,â and it recently released the Spanish-language titles âSin Nombreâ and âRudo y Cursi.â
The potential global rewards for movies like âBright Starâ and âThirstâ cannot be told by U.S. theatrical grosses alone. Director Ang Lee (who is premiering his latest Focus movie, âTaking Woodstock,â in competition Saturday) released 2007âs âLust Cautionâ to modest domestic revenues of just $4.6 million. But the NC-17-rated love story grossed $50 million in Asia alone.
â" John Horn
Here for the 'Party' and full of 'Glee': A talk with Jane Lynch
Jane Lynch fled her first acting opportunity.
In her freshman year at Thornridge High School in south suburban Dolton, Lynch was cast in a one-act play. But one day she stopped going to rehearsals.
âI wanted nothing more, and I was so afraid of failing that I just walked away from it and joined the tennis team,â Lynch said in a recent interview.
Lynch eventually embraced her desire to perform, and now this Chicago theater and comedy veteran is one of the hardest-working actors in TV and film.
She currently stars in the delightful comedy âParty Downâ on Starz, which has its second season finale Friday. The show has been renewed for a second season, but thereâs a catch: Lynch is so busy that, though sheâd love to return, sheâs not sure her schedule will allow it.
Thatâs because sheâs also a cast member in the highly anticipated musical dramedy âGlee,â which gets a post-âAmerican Idolâ tryout Tuesday on Fox. As if that werenât enough, she has two films coming out this summer: the romantic comedy âPost Gradâ and the Meryl Streep-Amy Adams film âJulie and Julia,â in which Lynch plays Julia Childâs sister, Dorothy McWilliams.
The chef had âa big, eccentric energy and [Streep] completely immersed herself in that,â Lynch said. The same words could be said of Lynch, whose characters retain their amused compassion even as they embrace their eccentricity.
âI guess maybe Iâm kind of an extreme person, and I guess when I make a choice, I make a big one,â Lynch said with a laugh.
Since her breakthrough nine years ago as a dog handler in Guestâs âBest in Show,â Lynch, 48, has been a mainstay of comedies produced or directed by Judd Apatow (âThe 40 Year Old Virgin,â âTalladega Nightsâ) and a key ensemble member in Guestâs improvisational films (âA Mighty Wind,â âFor Your Considerationâ). But those roles were shoehorned in among dozens of appearances in various TV shows, everything from âThe L Wordâ to âBoston Legal.â
Only in the last couple of years has she occasionally turned down roles.
âThat part of it is brand-new to me,â she said. âWhen youâre a struggling actor, the mentality is, âJust take it.ââ
But if thereâs a rule book for achieving success in Hollywood, Lynch has ignored it. Not only has she flourished in the mostly male comedy world, her major break in the business came the year she turned 40. And sheâs always been truthful about her sexuality: Sheâs out and proud.
âI donât remember hiding it,â she said.
Lynchâs honesty is admirable, but itâs of a piece with her approach to acting. Colleagues past and present cite Lynchâs generosity and her willingness to take chances.
Zach Gilford (âFriday Night Lightsâ), who worked with Lynch in this summerâs âPost Grad,â recalled how, even when she was off-camera, Lynch was trying out comedic bits.
âI was at a table with her, Alexis Bledel, Michael Keaton and Carol Burnett, and I was just watching Jane Lynch,â Gilford said. âShe would be picking her teeth with a chicken bone or something like that. She was always so totally there and complete, in a comedic way, but not over the top.â
On âParty Down,â a show about actors who moonlight as catering waiters, Lynch plays the sweetly clueless Constance Carmell, who thinks all of her bit parts have actually been meaningful career breakthroughs.
âSheâs taken a character who would could have been merely an oddball outsider and turned her into someone you root for despite her rather large disconnect from reality,â executive producer John Enbom said. âI think she brings a wonderful sense of warmth and lightness to the show. Her Constance is so grounded and satisfied in her delusions.â
Though sheâs pleased with her role in âGlee,â in which she plays a taskmaster of a cheerleading coach, she calls âParty Downâ âthe most fun Iâve had in my life.â
âItâs what I really love to do. I love being part of a team where everybodyâs kind of got equal weight,â Lynch said. âItâs about teamwork. Thereâs really no room for the big ego-trip thing that you hear about.â
âJane gets it,â says Faith Soloway, the creator of âThe Real Live Brady Bunch,â an early â90s off-Loop production in which Lynch played Carol Brady (Steve Carell and Andy Richter also had roles in the show). âShe knows how to play every note of comedy and drama. She almost reminds me of a brilliant musician when she acts. ... She is more in the moment then most comedic actors I have ever worked with. And thatâs why her performances are so subtly uproarious.â
Lynch may be fearless as a performer, but, she said with a throaty chuckle, many of her life choices in the past were âdriven by fear.â
She loved performing, but she started out at Illinois State University as a mass communications major, and only later transferred to the theater program. A brief stint in New York after graduate school at Cornell sent her scurrying back to Chicagoâ"the Big Apple kind of âate me up,â she said.
Once ensconced in Chicagoâs theater scene, where she did Shakespeare, appeared in plays at Steppenwolf Theatre and elsewhere, and performed with Second Cityâs touring ensemble, she was nervous about heading to Los Angeles. But a breakup, plus the fact that most of her âReal Live Brady Bunchâ pals had moved to L.A., helped change her mind. She moved there in 1994 and spent years scrambling for guest roles and short-term gigs.
A few months after working with her on a Kelloggâs Frosted Flakes commercial, Guest ran into Lynch at an L.A. restaurant, and later that day, cast her as a dog trainer in âBest in Show.â
âI can absolutely pinpoint that as a moment when new doors opened,â Lynch said.
Though she loved her time in the Second City touring company, Lynch said that the skills required to succeed in Apatowâs and Guestâs comedies are different than those seen on the improv companyâs stages.
âThe Second City improv is different. Itâs sharperâ"itâs a more masculine improv, letâs put it that way,â Lynch said. âItâs kind of about getting to the joke. Itâs fast and kind of harder hitting. The stuff I do with [Guest and Apatow] films, we meander a lot more. We donât rush headlong into a joke. Weâre more interested in characters and situations and seeing what comes out of that.â
Yet the thing that Lynch sounds happiest discussingâ"working largely without scripts when making âVirginâ and the Guest filmsâ"is a concept that would terrify many actors. But Lynch is willing to trust the process and her choices, especially when she knows the other participants well (Carellâs wife, fellow Second City veteran Nancy Walls, recommended Lynch for the âVirginâ role of electronics store manager that was originally written for a man). Lynch describes her approach as âclose my eyes and fall into it.â
Coming out was never really a choice for Lynch, because she canât actually remember being in the closet, certainly not since sheâs lived in L.A. She has played both gay and straight characters, and Lynch said sheâs never felt typecast. ] âI think the reason for that is that we, as a society, have come a long way in accepting that itâs just another way of loving,â Lynch said. âI also think itâs because Iâm a character actor. I donât think itâs so easy a road for an ingenue, male or female.â
Therapy allowed her get in touch with the truths that have affected her life most deeply, which led to a âprofound shiftâ in her work, she said. And it helped with the comedy too.
âThe more truthful something is, the funnier it is,â she said.
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