Oscar-winning doc took away actor’s fear
NEW YORK — Few performances are as daunting as the one-person play. That’s why Jake Gyllenhaal had to find a way to conquer that fear when he took on the role of Abe in the second half of “Sea Wall/A Life” on Broadway.
“Before I did it, I was terrified,” Gyllenhaal said of “A Life,” which also stars Tom Sturridge in the other half of the pair of one-act monologues.
Gyllenhaal admits that nervousness extended to the rehearsal room. But then he found confidence in an unlikely place. The story of Alex Honnold’s 3,000-foot climb of the El Capitan rock formation at Yosemite National Park.
“I was sort of quaking in my boots thinking about it. Then I saw ‘Free Solo,’ that documentary about the free climber Alex Honnold that won the Academy Award. Amazing, amazing documentary, and I thought to myself, if he can do that without any rope, I can do a monologue. And then that was it,” he said.
Aug. 16 birthdays: Actress Julie Newmar is 86. Country singer Billy Joe Shaver is 80. Actor Bob Balaban is 74. Actress Lesley Ann Warren is 73. TV personality Kathie Lee Gifford is 66. Director James Cameron is 65. Actor Jeff Perry is 64. Guitarist Tim Farriss is 62. Actress Angela Bassett is 61. Singer Madonna is 61. Actor Timothy Hutton is 59. Actor Steve Carell is 57. Actor Andy Milder is 51. Singer Vanessa Carlton is 39. Actor Cam Gigandet is 37. Singer Dan Smyers is 32. Rapper Young Thug is 28. Actor Cameron Monaghan is 26. Singer Greyson Chance is 22.
9021-No: Brian Austin Green says if Tori Spelling, Jennie Garth and the other creators of “BH90210” had approached him with a standard reboot of the ’90s drama, he would’ve said no. “I played David Silver for 10 years and that was enough for me, and they told me this idea, and I liked the fact that I could go back and play David, sort of. But I could also play this new character that I created and got to have fun with,” he said. In “BH90210,” the cast members play exaggerated versions of themselves as they come together to reboot “Beverly Hills, 90210.”
Woodstock fans are expected to get back to the garden to mark the 50th anniversary of the generation-defining festival. Bethel Woods Center for the Arts is hosting a series of events through Sunday at the bucolic 1969 concert site, 80 miles northwest of New York City. Visitors need event tickets and travel passes to drive to the site through the weekend.
‘He could shut up’: Bruce Lee’s daughter, Shannon Lee, has an opinion on director Quentin Tarantino’s latest comments about her father’s portrayal in his film “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.”: “He could shut up about it,” she said. “That would be really nice. Or he could apologize, or he could say, ‘I don’t really know what Bruce Lee was like. I just wrote it for my movie.’ ” Tarantino recently defended his depiction of the martial arts legend, who died in 1973 at age 32. “Bruce Lee was kind of an arrogant guy,” he said. “The way he was talking, I didn’t just make that up. I heard him say things like that.”