Alicia to sing ‘Bayou’ blues
ALICIA Vikander. Sweden born. Hollywood groomed. In new flick “Blue Bayou” her husband’s Korean, does tattoos, they’re in the bayou in Louisiana and it’s about racism and being deported. Alicia speaks Swedish, German, Danish, French, English and in this a little Cajun. Perfect with her wardrobe since in real life she’s also Vuitton’s ambassador.
Alicia: “It was an opportunity to play a blue-collar American. A part no international European actress ever had before.
“My character’s a hard-working woman who’s broken from conventions of where she comes from and wants to shape her own life. Meets a man her mother might not approve of but she knows will fulfill her. This is a person who keeps on going.”
And singing. “I’m no singer but at one point my character had to sing Linda Ronstadt’s
‘Blue Bayou.’ I jumped a whole octave in that song. Standing in front of all the extras I thought, ‘My God, my hand is shaking.’ Though I was nervous, it might be one of my favorite scenes.”
You don’t say
NETFLIX doing “Painkiller,” a limited series about the opioid crisis. Matthew Broderick plays Richard Sackler. It films later this year in Toronto . . . Tomorrow Apple TV+ premieres “Schmigadoon!,” a series. It’s Kristin Chenoweth and Dove Cameron who once played mother and daughter in Disney’s “Descendants.” Listen, everyone starts somewhere. A few divorces ago Brad Pitt tried for a Guy Ritchie film but couldn’t master the English accent so he only played something minor . . . Speaking of speaking the mother tongue, Dennis Quaid who once worked as a clown and a Fuller Brush man also couldn’t talk Brit. For 1996’s “Dragonheart” a reviewer awarded him the Twisted Tongue Award for Worst Execution of a Movie Accent.
More. “Mad Max.” 1979. Mel Gibson’s Aussie sound was so thick they had to dub his lines . . . Also: Michael Caine’s first American sounds were in 1967’s “Hurry Sundown.” He was taught the Southern drawl by the late Vivien Leigh who told him to say “Four door Ford” all day long for weeks.
One more. 2004 Oliver Stone directed Anthony Hopkins, Colin Farrell, Val Kilmer, Angelina Jolie in an epic historic drama about the great Alexander the Great. Time magazine then described Angelina’s attempt at sounding Russian as “crypto Carpathian.” Plus, they noted that Colin’s Irish brogue “continually and unpredictably” faded in and out.
Just one more. Harrison Ford, playing Russian sub commander Alexei Vostrikov in “K-19: The Widowmaker,” got pummeled. Entertainment Weekly: “His accent’s like the equivalent of a fake mustache.” San Francisco Chronicle: It’s “as if he’s trying to speak Irish.” Washington Post: “He sounds like a Canadian hockey commentator.”
WITH the pandemic and being homebound and not going to offices, schools, parties, movies or even outside, there’s such an increase in divorces suddenly that our official downtown bureau has added a codicil to the marriage license. It now lists “a signing bonus.”
Only in New York, kids, only in New York.