The Star Malaysia - Star2

Dysfunctio­nal love

- By LAURI NEFF

In the television show Bates Motel, Vera Farmiga’s (pic) character has a dysfunctio­nal relationsh­ip with her future serial killer son norman, played by Freddie highmore. In reality, Farmiga says, she and highmore share a much healthier bond: he’s even her child’s godfather.

Farmiga says highmore immediatel­y bonded with five-year-old Fynn in Vancouver, where Bates Motel is filmed and Farmiga and her family moved for the duration of the series. the Oscar-nominated actress says highmore, whose family is in London, has become something of a surrogate son himself, playing swords and Legos with Fynn on the weekends.

Farmiga, who also has a threeyear-old daughter with her husband, musician Renn hawkey, says highmore has become such a fixture in Fynn’s life that she and her husband decided it’s “a relationsh­ip that deserves the title.”

On screen, though, the relationsh­ip will not go as smoothly between Farmiga’s character, norma Bates, and her son in Season two of the modern-day Psycho prequel. Farmiga says norma seems optimistic at the start of the season despite the violent and deadly encounters of Season One, her reveal that she was sexually abused as a child and the question of whether norman murdered his high school teacher.

“At the beginning of Season two, she thinks she’s got her neuroses under control,” Farmiga said in a recent interview.

norma is also open to romance again with Michael Vartan ( Alias) joining the show as her love interest.

norma, the actress says, doesn’t think she has any choice but to persevere.

“You’re a single mother of this child that you feel is potentiall­y unraveling,” she said of norman, who maintains his newfound interest in taxidermy in the hotel basement.

Anyone familiar with Psycho knows this is a story that doesn’t end well, and Farmiga says despite norma’s attempt to put a positive spin on their lives, the situation quickly worsens. Farmiga says the teacher’s death “is a big source of this orientatio­n and terror for norman, which in turn norma will try to sort of solve.”

And despite an upturn in business at the Bates Motel, work begins on that pesky bypass road that threatens to divert traffic away and Farmiga notes that “there’s still a stigma attached to the property.”

ever the optimist, norma sets out to change people’s minds and that means going into the community, and, Farmiga says, “that’s going to be challengin­g for norma.” – AP

Hot role:

do Min-joon, the ideal extraterre­stial boyfriend in My Love From The Star (with gianna Jun). he is not just sweet and smart, but also has superhuman strength and a posh duplex complete with a huge library. Although he is more than 400 years old, he looks young enough to be a toy boy.

Kim showed promise in his 2011 drama Dream High, as a country bumpkin who wins the affections of a girl (Miss A singer Suzy) from an aspiring K-pop heart-throb (2PM heartthrob taec-yeon). despite his plainness, Kim had enough presence to persuade you that a girl would prefer him to taec-yeon.

Other hits:

In his 2012 hit show The Moon Embracing The Sun, he was charismati­c as a romantic young king. In addition, he has starred in films including the 2013 north-versusSout­h Korea tragicomed­y Secretly, Greatly and the 2012 crime caper The Thieves.

In real life:

Kim himself might not make a good boyfriend. A list of what he wants in a girlfriend, which he posted on his website four years ago and which has resurfaced recently, reads: “You have to feel sad because of me. You have to feel like dying... Whoever you see, you only have to think about me. And more than anything, you should never suspect me.”

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