Frost’s Editor Catherine Balavage Writes How To Be A Successful Actor Book

Frost’s Editor, Catherine Balavage, has written a book on How To Be A Successful Actor. It is called How To Be a Successful Actor: Becoming an Actorpreneur. It has gotten as high as number 5 on the Kindle charts under Stage & Theatre. It will also be released on paperback and Smashwords soon. Handpicked Future did a great piece on it and Catherine was on the front page of the Entertainment section in The Huffington Post with her Actors Who Make Their Own Work article. You can also read an article by Catherine written on her own blog.

howtobeasuccessful_actor_book_cover The book is available here for UK readers and here for US readers. It is also available worldwide.

Cover art by Steve McAleavy

 

 

The Pretty One Film Review

The Pretty One has a lot going for it. A unique storyline, dazzling performances from all of the actors, a banging script and the two wonderful leads, Zoe Kazan and Jake Johnson. Jake has slowly been building up a stellar career, moving from bit parts to New Girl, he is having a career peak at the moment. Zoe Kazan is something to behold. She is just perfect in this film. Oh, and adorable.  Both her and her character.  She plays both twin sisters, Laurel and Audrey.  Laurel is shy and stayed with their father after the death of their mother, looking after him and painting with him. She even wears her mothers old clothes. A lot of people think she is strange. Audrey is confident, ballsy, the woman everyone is in love with. 

After Audrey dies in a head-on collision whilst driving with her sister, just after they switch seats, Laurel doesn’t realise who she is straight away. And when she does it seems that people don’t really care that much, her step-mother even says it was a good thing Laurel died as she would not have coped with losing her sister. Devastated, Laurel decides to become her sister and live her life. As the consequences mount, and the lie becomes bigger she has to decide whether to come clean or continue living the lie. What will she do?

 

theprettyonedvdreview the pretty one

The Pretty One is a truly wonderful, uplifting film, despite its moments of tragedy. I loved it and so did the people I watched it with. It is newly out on DVD and I highly recommend it. It is surely set to become a classic. It is funny and warm, tragic and sad all rolled into one perfect ball of a film. The DVD also has a great, delightful, visual effects featurette.

 

The Pretty One is available here.

 

Directed by Jenée LaMarque. With Jake Johnson, Zoe Kazan, Ron Livingston, Frances Shaw.

 

 

Interview with Alexander Devrient

Interviewing the talented Alexander Devrient was such fun, he’s dashing, eloquent and such a gentleman. You will recognise him for his latest role in Emmerdale Farm as the french love interest to Kerry. His rather dramatic entrance was too funny for words and if you watched it I am sure it would have had you gripped. The story line is unfolding and he is fast becoming one of my favourite actors. I am not going to spoil it for you in anyway, but you must keep your eyes on this rather beautiful chap.

He’s worked with the likes of Guy Richie on the set of Sherlock Holmes, and Jude Law was very excited to work with him, as was I the other day. I got to photograph this wonderful TV personality and create some rather cool images for the interview. We had such a great chat and he was a joy yo work with.

  Alexander Devrient

Q. What made you get into acting and was it at an early age you knew you had a calling.

A. I’ve always tremendously enjoyed acting and performing. I took drama classes as a kid, played in every school play and later, managed to see a lot of professional theatre as a teenager.

Saying that, it was only at University that I realised I wanted to make a profession out of my passion. I applied for Drama School in my 3rd year of studying Economics and International Relations. I felt I had to give it a shot and luckily I got in. A few months after finishing my degree I started acting training.

Q. Where did you grow up.

A. I grew up in Brussels, Belgium but my dad is Argentinean/German and my mum is Lebanese. My household was always a mishmash of languages. My mum spoke French to us, my dad German. When they didn’t want us to understand what they were saying they spoke Spanish.

Alexander Devrient

Q. How have your parents influenced your career

A. My parents have always been very supportive but my biggest influence has been my Lebanese granddad. He’s performed on stages in Cambridge, Paris and Beirut since 1957. He absolutely adores theatre. In February, I was playing Anglo-French production Poilu & Tommy here in London. We opened the same night as he did with his play in Beirut. He’s 80 years old now. Magic!

 

Q. What was it like to be asked to join the cast of Emmerdale

A. It was a beautiful feeling indeed. Emmerdale is a British TV institution, the first episode was aired in 1972. The longevity of this series is incredible.

 

Q. What would be the biggest achievement you could imagine

A. Leaving a lasting mark in the industry for generations to come.

 

 

Q. Working with such great actors and directors it must be hard when you are not working on a project. How do you stay focused and motivated

A. I attend workshops, go to the theatre, and watch films. It’s important to be in tune with the industry and learn from the best.

I also work as a Voice Over artist and do the occasional freelance broadcasting work.

 Alexander Devrient

Q. What role would you just love to play.

A. Gabriel Macht’s Harvey Specter in Suits.

 

Q. Who in history would you have loved to star with

A. Klaus Kinski, Rita Hayworth and Jack Nicholson would have to top that list.

 

Q. You have striking looks, do you get spotted and recognised in the street, if so how do you respond.

A. I can still roam the streets relatively freely but when I do get stopped the responses to my work are always very positive which is great.

 

Alexander Devrient

Q. What has been the most wonderful experience to come out of acting

A. I get to work with an array of talented people from all around the world and what do we do? We essentially tell stories. That’s a wonderful gift that comes with acting.

 

Q. One last cheeky question…what role do you think you could have played far better than the original and why!!

A. Give me the chance to play Lestat de Lioncourt and I’ll show you why.

We really look forward to following your career and all you lovely readers make sure you do to! Follow Alexander on Twitter @ADevrient if you want to pop me a little tweet I’m over here @sarahbacchus for any other information regarding my photography head over to sarahbacchus.com and take a look at our lifestyle blog SLBStyle.com 

This interview and shoot was held at the beautiful Mamounia Lounge in Mayfair, I want to thank them for their hospitality and for allowing me to take over an entire room for a few hours! Tweet them @MamounialLounge

Interview with Mem Freda

What made you get into acting?

As a child I was always fascinated by these ‘beings’ that lived inside our TV set! I was 
convinced I would see them leave from the back of the TV after a show was over, if I waited 
long enough!

Born with such a wild imagination, the decision was not a conscious one, but a route destined 
to happen. Often I would roll around the living room floor wrestling with pillows 
(crocodiles) having just seen an episode of Tarzan. 

Not much changed into adulthood, where I would recite dialogue from films I’d seen, with an 
attempt at replicating the characters. Eventually, I realized that the energy I had was best 
channeled into acting, hence, it chose me, as much as I chose it, as a career. 

Mem

 

What is the strangest role you have been offered?

Its very rare I find anything ‘strange’.

Once I was asked to be in a commercial, and was paid £38,000.00 for two hours work and when the 
advert was aired, all you saw was the side of my nose, that for me was strange!!

 

How do you prepare for a role?

Often when you land a role, you have background information at your disposal, from the script, 
the director, the character breakdowns etc.

Depending on whether the character is fictitious or not, will determine the nature of the 
research one does. If the character in not fictitious, I would gather as much information 
as possible to build a profile that is as close to the real life personality of that person.
I find it easier when a role is fictitious, as this allows for more freedom to experiment
with different layers to the character, until I find one that best fits to what the writer 
intended.

 

Who is your role model? It could be anyone from the past or present. 

Marlon Brando was my first ‘role model’. I have also always been influenced by the work of
De Niro, Pacino, Penn, Travolta and recently Christian Bale. 

 

You have some amazing films coming out soon, but what has been the most diverse role so far?

I’m excited for audiences to see two films coming out soon in which they will see me in a 
different light. First is BREAKDOWN, in which I play a tortured victim. It stars Craig
Fairbrass, James Cosmo and is directed by Jonnie Malachi and produced by Luke Fairbrass.

The second film is MY HERO, here I play a cockney florist, Simon Flowers, who is a drug lord 
operating out of Margate. Directed by Robert Osman and produced by Katarina Gellin, 
audiences are in for a real treat.

 

Plastic that's out now, is one brilliant film. If you had unlimited funds what would you do 
with it and why?

In terms of film, I would continue developing and producing interesting and stimulating stories 
for audiences to enjoy, appreciate and remember through time. In terms of life, I would set up 
a charity organisation to help others less fortunate. 

 

You do really get all the gritty roles to play in films, but are there any roles that you long 
to play? Like a Romantic comedy, or are you digging deep with the bad guy stuff for now?

I love playing the villain. Having made a career out of it, I still want to pay service to 
playing such roles. However, it is also high time to show my diversity as an actor, 
hence, a romantic comedy,horror, drama, are all avenues for me to explore. And I am 
currently setting these wheels in motion.

 

If you could play any role that is really out of your comfort zone what would it be?

Not sure any role is within my ‘comfort zone’, as all require a substantial amount of work. 
However, what would be fun to play, is a similar role to that of Dustin Hoffman’s role in 
Tootsie.

 

If you could direct any film past or present what would it be and why?

It would be thrilling to do a remake of Boogie Nights. It had me in fits of laughter, so it 
would be fabulous to attempt to make it just as funny.

 
Are their any roles you have played that you felt you changed as a person while filming 
or can you walk away and not get too involved with the character?

After 20 years of psychosis, with each dark and terrifying character I’ve portrayed, you have 
to learn to walk away unaffected. It’s that or strangling the cat when I get home.

To keep sane you have to have full control over reality and fantasy. I did have problems at
the start of my career, but had to deal with them pronto.

 
Who would you love to star with next and why?

I’d love to be able to work with Juliet Lewis. She captured my interest ever since I saw her in 
Kalifornia and Natural Born Killers. She’s a sensational actress and her music ain’t bad either!

 

 Tell us something about yourself that we don't know.

I love horror films and was excited to win an Award at the prestigious
Myrtle Beach International Film Festival for Truth or Dare, which I produced along with
Jessica Cameron and Jonathan S Higgins.I also like to dip crisps into diet coke. 

 
Are you into this whole selfie things and even if you are not who would be the one person in 
history you would love to have a picture with?

Absolutely detest the whole selfie thing! If I were to have a selfie picture with anyone, it 
would be with Elvis.


Taking on the RoboReflex Challenge

On a cold day in May, at a hidden location in East London, I, Junior Smart, stepped up to the Roboflex challenge. A formidable task which involved entering into an arena armed with both machine gun and pistol and taking down ten targets as fast as possible and beating the time set by the latest iteration of the Robocop franchise.

In case you failed to see it whilst it was in the cinema, Robocop is a re-telling of Paul Verhoeven’s 1987 classic in which father and skilled cop Alex Murphy (played here by Joel Kinnaman of Easy Money, TV’s The Killing) is critically injured in the line of duty and transformed by mega-company OmniCorp – headed by CEO Raymond Sellars (a role carried well by Michael Keaton – star of Batman and Need For Speed) into a part-man, part-robot police officer designed to rid Detroit of crime.

Fortunately for me I didn’t need to be critically injured in the line of duty to experience the delights of the warehouse challenge; a challenge where the newly ‘renovated’ Murphy has to ‘prove his worth’ to OmniCorp in a heart-racing shoot out against the clock. Nonetheless, even though I knew this event was for fun I have to admit my heart was pounding; it wasn’t just me who was taking part in the challenge, around me stood other reporters from different magazines and although we were all professionals and smiled nicely at each other, deep down we all knew that no one wanted to come last and go home to our editors with our tails between our legs. The stage was therefore set.

Robo_Reflexes_Experience_Day_008My first job was to be suited in the correct gear; an ominous police onesie followed by body armour and that was before the gun holster and machine gun were handed to me. Then followed a briefing on the safe and correct use of firearms delivered by Stirling Airsoft these guys knew how to put someone like me through their paces, I quickly learnt how to draw, how to move whilst firing a weapon and most challengingly, how to change weapons in the heat of a battle. I soon realised it is nothing like the movies; there is so much to think about and there is no way you can use the Americanised posturing you see in video games and movies as the recoil from the weapon at best destroys your aim and at worst can cause injury. Worse still, the body armour slows down your flexibility, the helmet destroys your field of vision. I have to be honest I had real sympathy for anyone who carries a weapon either to serve our country or protect our liberty.

Robo_Reflexes_Experience_Day_019Nonetheless the briefing had me sufficiently amped and ready. The target was set – three times through the course, first time machine gun, second time pistol and third time changing to weapon on instruction. I was off; the subdued lighting and smoke making it hard to see (well, that’s what I’m sticking to anyway). I managed to take down all targets in a respectable 33 seconds. The second time with the pistol I fared better; the smaller hand held weapon feeling more immediate and certain along with my familiarity with the landscape. I punched the air with my fist when he told me it was 15 seconds. The third time however was embarrassing. I had seen Robocop in the movie and witnessed the way he had changed weapons and he makes it look easy, however there is a good argument for why robots are needed in the film and one of them is because they make far less errors. I entered the arena, click, click my machine gun is on ‘safety’. O.k I think, I can make the time up, then after I take down a couple of targets the instructor from Stirling Airsoft shouts “change” meaning to change my weapon, then I not only struggle with getting the pistol out but to my horror realise it is on safety too. My time – 32 seconds only a second slower than when I had one gun. I would have buried my face in my hands – that is, if I wasn’t wearing a helmet.

When I got home I consoled myself by making sure I had pre-ordered a copy of ROBOCOP, which arrives on Blu-ray and DVD on 9th June 2014. I strongly recommend that you do the same or make sure you pick up a copy on the day of release; it is a fine retelling of a classic film and one which tries to builds upon the original’s legacy instead of merely repeating it and features some star turns by Gary Oldman and Samuel L. Jackson. What’s more, the DVD has deleted scenes and a making of featurette. Check it out.

Robocop is available on digital platforms from 2 June 2014, and on DVD and Blu-ray from 9 June 2014, courtesy of Studio Canal.

 

Charlize Theron Admits To Lying On Her CV

Actors are known for being a little bit economical when it comes to the truth on their CV. We can all ride horses and snowboard, oh, and speak French. It turns out that not even famous actors are immune. Even Charlize Theron has admitted she has told the odd lie on her CV.

charlize theron oscars 2013

Charlize says she didn’t lie about being able to ride a horse (and I am proud to say I can too). Which is just as well as she had to ride in new comedy western A Million Ways To Die In The West.

You can hear Theron’s interview with the BBC’s Genevieve Hassan here.

Mark Ruffalo ‘I Auditioned 800 Times Without Booking A Role’

For tmarkruffalohose outside the acting industry it probably looks easy, but what isn’t easy is finding work. This is proven by Mark Ruffalo’s interview in Interview magazine. Here is a highlight:

 

“In 2000, playwright-cum filmmaker-Kenneth Lonergan’s quirky little sibling drama You Can Count on Me broke out of the festival circuit and went on to be nominated for two Academy Awards (for screenplay and for actress Laura Linney’s star turn). Its success was powered, in part, by the electric performance of a virtually unknown 32-year-old leading man. By the time he booked the part, Mark Ruffalo had already given up on acting at least once, in the mid-’90s, heading home to Kenosha, Wisconsin, to work for his commercial-painter father. But he came back, again and again—auditioning, he once said, 800 times without booking a single role.”

 

Wow. That is impressive perseverance. Ruffalo also had to deal with his brother being murdered and having a benign brain tumor removed.

 

Mark Ruffalo is an amazing actor and I am just happy he kept at it. Read the amazing interview, he is interviewed by Julia Roberts and on a shameless self-promotion note: If you are an actor then check out my book How To Be a Successful Actor: Becoming an Actorpreneur. It is available in print and in all eBook formats on both Smashwords and Amazon.

 

 

‘TOP DOG’ … One Man, Two Lives

Top_Dog_UK_IE_ENG_DVD_RET_ORing_3DPackshot_8297293-11 TopDogStill2[1] Leo_punch-copy[1]

How many superlatives can be used to describe ‘Top Dog’? I can think of many that have been used in other reviews, but let’s just keep it simple… this new offering from Richwater Films and Universal Pictures UK and directed by Martin Kemp, is just plain ‘good’… damn good.

Produced by Jonathan Sothcott (‘Vendetta) and exquisitely constructed, this is Martin Kemp’s (‘The Krays’, ‘EastEnders’) second outing as a film director, a testing piece of work that lays its cards on the table and dead body on the mortuary slab right from the outset. Blood, a tense opening narrative, you get the gist that this is going to be messy.

In the adaptation of the novel by Dougie Brimson (‘Green Street’), Leo Gregory (‘Green Street’ and ‘Cass’) plays a formidable and believable part as Billy Evans, a thirty-something East End car salesman who’s got it made, trophy wife, child, home, car, job, wants it all and wants the top dog position that will allow him to reclaim a family member’s pub as the home of his football firm, ‘Acton Casuals’. With the goading of the ‘AC brethren’, cocky Billy takes his lust for leadership one step further, violently cutting swathes through a trajectory that brings him face to face with gangland boss Mickey, played to perfection by Ricci Harnett (‘Rise of the Footsoldier’, ’28 Days Later’) who isn’t about to hand the title over without a fight. Vincent Regan (‘Clash of the Titans’, ‘St George’s Day’), with his mellow Irish tones, acidly accentuates the backbone of fear that runs through this film. It sounds a simple plot, but the exchanges of violence are as charged as I’ve ever seen in a film of this budget, and the spiralling depths to which the emotions sink are hard-hitting and raw.

Martin Kemp intended this film to be a ‘kitchen sink’ drama, void of Hollywood gloss, powerfully showing the perils of being top dog, being number one and of saying ‘I’m the leader’. The wives and partners play strong and potent roles, showing the realism of households living with the underlying deceitfulness and tensions associated with hooliganism and gangland violence. Danielle Brent (‘Cockneys Vs Zombies’) as Billy’s wife Sam, Lorraine Stanley (‘The Hooligan Wars’) and rising British acting talent, George Russo punctuate the storyline, stepping up to the mark with the confidence this gritty film demanded.
It’s not a pretty film, it’s not a clever film, it works within the boundaries of the budget, but it’s the sort of film that is truly British, an insight into the deep and ugly world of football hooliganism and gangland rivalries that existed in the depths of London in the 80s and 90s.

TOP DOG – in cinemas from Friday 23 May and is out today to own on Blu-ray £15.99) and DVD (£12.99) through Universal Pictures UK

A re-written version of ‘Top Dog’ by Dougie Brimson is soon to be published through Caffeine Nights Publishing.