Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
HOLLYWOOD Q&A
Q: What kind of car does Dean Winchester drive on “Supernatural”?
A: Normally, a “what kind of car” question can be a little tricky. It’s often hard, for example, to tell the difference on-sight between a ‘72 and a ‘73 model, and sometimes a production designer will mask one type of car as another for plotting or budget purposes. “Supernatural,” however, makes it easy.
The long-running, cult-favorite fantasy hit made the 1967 Chevrolet Impala driven by Dean Winchester (Jensen Ackles, “The Boys”) one of the show’s main characters — literally, at one point, as one episode is even written from the car’s perspective.
To know the extent to which this show loved that Impala — which was named “Baby,” by the way — look no further than a little speech delivered by God himself in Season 5.
“On April 21st, 1967, the hundred-millionth GM vehicle rolled off the line at the plant in Janesville,” the creator, played by Rob Benedict (“Waiting...,” 2005), notes. “Three days later, another car rolled off that same line. No one gave two craps about her, but they should have, because this 1967 Chevrolet Impala would turn out to be the most important car — no, the most important object — in pretty much the whole universe.”
(For those unfamiliar with “Supernatural’s” sprawling mythology, yes, God is a character on the show.)
Fun fact: Though that quote suggests that this one Impala is completely unique, production actually required nine different Impalas to shoot with. All were in various states of disrepair to allow cameras into the interior, and to show the wear and tear that Baby went through in the course of the show’s 15 seasons on CW.
And given its place in the show’s lore, we can expect to see it go through even more in the prequel series “The Winchesters,” which just debuted on the network.
Q: Is Renée Zellweger really smoking in “Bridget Jones’s Diary”?
A: Texas-born actress Renée Zellweger transformed herself a lot to become literary heroine Bridget Jones, but she didn’t become a smoker.
For the many scenes in the 2001 rom-com classic “Bridget Jones’s Diary” in which the titular character is seen smoking, Zellweger is smoking herbal cigarettes. It’s about the only aspect of the character she didn’t dive into headfirst.
The actress put on 25 pounds to play Bridget, a character who obsesses about her weight in the novel — that’s a big ask for a lead actress in Hollywood. She also, of course, had to put on an English accent; an accent she worked on with great voice coach Barbara Berkery, who has also helped Americans sound British in such hits as “Shakespeare in Love” (1998) and the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise.
Indeed, Zellweger’s casting proved to be an incredibly controversial move that got a lot of attention because the movie was adapting a smashhit novel to which many people already had strong attachments. Furthermore, the novel made it clear that Bridget was plain-looking, overweight and English — and Zellweger, of course, was none of these things.
“Of all the clunking, Hollywood idiocy ...” is how one British columnist responded.
But as we now know, Zellweger got the last laugh. The movie was a hit, earning her Oscar, Screen Actors Guild and Golden Globe nominations for her trouble.
She also had the pleasure of making the critics eat their words. She earned praise for her comedic timing, with Britain’s The Guardian calling her accent “excellent” and her physical transformation “a thing of joy.”
Q: How much of the fighting did Matt Damon actually do in “The Bourne Identity”? Because wasn’t he a drama guy before that?
A: You’re absolutely right — prior to 2002’s “The Bourne Identity,” star Matt Damon’s biggest films were all talky dramas such as “The Talented Mr. Ripley” (1999) and his breakout film, “Good Will Hunting” (1997). He was no action star, and he admitted as much himself at the time.
In a behind-the-scenes featurette for the DVD release, Damon said that he was given three months of intensive martial arts and weapons classes in advance of shooting: “It was like a summer school in assassin training.”
The result was that “I ended up doing just about all of it,” he concluded. Doing much of it himself was key to the film’s realism.
“Movie audiences are so smart,” Damon said, “they’ll know if it’s the actor doing it or if they’re cutting away to a wide shot of some other guy who, you know, is much better at it.”
Of course, that’s not to say all the action is Damon himself. He had a personal stunt double (Laurent Boismaré, “Dialogue avec mon jardinier,” 2007), and the film employed loads of other stunt performers for some of the more elaborate action scenes.
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