Emilia Clarke is the star of Game of Thrones who wants to appear in Ibsen. Now she's appearing alongside Jude Law in one of the best films of the year. She talks to Emma John about Dom Hemingway, Dothraki rituals, and the pitfalls of Hollywood dating
See more photos from The Observer's exclusive shoot with Emilia Clarke
June 2013: the internet announces the engagement of Emilia Clarke, 26, actor known for her role in HBO fantasy epic Game of Thrones, to James Franco, film star, director, writer, thinker. Text messages fly in from Clarke's friends, some of whom she hasn't spoken to since she was about four years old. "I had my aunt from America calling me up and being like" – Clarke slips into a brassy East Coast accent – "'Where's the ring?'"
She lets out a peal of laughter so gleeful you can almost hear the exclamation marks. She had...
See more photos from The Observer's exclusive shoot with Emilia Clarke
June 2013: the internet announces the engagement of Emilia Clarke, 26, actor known for her role in HBO fantasy epic Game of Thrones, to James Franco, film star, director, writer, thinker. Text messages fly in from Clarke's friends, some of whom she hasn't spoken to since she was about four years old. "I had my aunt from America calling me up and being like" – Clarke slips into a brassy East Coast accent – "'Where's the ring?'"
She lets out a peal of laughter so gleeful you can almost hear the exclamation marks. She had...
- 10/27/2013
- by Emma John
- The Guardian - Film News
Ethan Hawke has had the most unique of careers: a bona fide film star who has avoided Hollywood. On the eve of Before Midnight, Emma John meets the actor, director, novelist – and music lover – in New York
Ethan Hawke is out and about in New York, the city he's lived in for 30 years, a place where famous faces slide past every day. He's wearing a baseball cap, a muddy brown hoodie and a schlubby pair of cords. It's an outfit you might think he chose especially to look nondescript, but in reality it's because he likes corduroy trousers, though his stylist hates them and wishes to God he wouldn't wear them in public.
Someone spots him and timidly approaches. As they lean forward Hawke can see the tears in their eyes. The fan trembles: "Mr… Dorff?" Hawke doesn't want to ruin their moment, so he gives a smile, shakes their hand.
Ethan Hawke is out and about in New York, the city he's lived in for 30 years, a place where famous faces slide past every day. He's wearing a baseball cap, a muddy brown hoodie and a schlubby pair of cords. It's an outfit you might think he chose especially to look nondescript, but in reality it's because he likes corduroy trousers, though his stylist hates them and wishes to God he wouldn't wear them in public.
Someone spots him and timidly approaches. As they lean forward Hawke can see the tears in their eyes. The fan trembles: "Mr… Dorff?" Hawke doesn't want to ruin their moment, so he gives a smile, shakes their hand.
- 6/10/2013
- by Emma John
- The Guardian - Film News
Joss Whedon found a cult following when he created Buffy the Vampire Slayer. But now he's directing Hollywood's biggest superhero movies – and Shakespeare. Emma John meets the fanboy who has turned his obsessions into box-office glory
Joss Whedon is standing in the Forbidden Planet comics store in London, surveying a row of plastic action figures. There are Gandalfs and Frodos, Batmen and Ironmen. Whedon points out the few female characters – pert young warrior princesses – all standing in the same pose: shoulders back, cleavage thrust forward. This, he explains, is the reason he resisted a Buffy doll.
Until last year, Whedon was a writer and director best known for his TV creations. Buffy The Vampire Slayer and its spin-off, Angel, were cult classics, the just-home-from-school fantasy shows that made vampires sexy long before R-Patz and Kristen mooned at each other in Twilight. Then Marvel handed him the biggest toy set they had: Avengers Assemble,...
Joss Whedon is standing in the Forbidden Planet comics store in London, surveying a row of plastic action figures. There are Gandalfs and Frodos, Batmen and Ironmen. Whedon points out the few female characters – pert young warrior princesses – all standing in the same pose: shoulders back, cleavage thrust forward. This, he explains, is the reason he resisted a Buffy doll.
Until last year, Whedon was a writer and director best known for his TV creations. Buffy The Vampire Slayer and its spin-off, Angel, were cult classics, the just-home-from-school fantasy shows that made vampires sexy long before R-Patz and Kristen mooned at each other in Twilight. Then Marvel handed him the biggest toy set they had: Avengers Assemble,...
- 6/2/2013
- by Emma John
- The Guardian - Film News
As the Sherlock star prepares to play a dapper 70s spook in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, Benedict Cumberbatch tells Emma John about the joys of kitesurfing, being single and punching Tom Hardy – while presenting the sharpest looks from the coming season
Benedict Cumberbatch is talking Edwardian manners, the brutishness of croquet and a million other things that segue rapidly into each other while my brain struggles feebly to keep up. He is making me a cup of Earl Grey, and a single question – shall we share a teabag? – has triggered this rush of inspiration, from tea ceremonies to post-colonial theory. It's fair to say that Cumberbatch is both a thinker and a talker.
His features – the huge almond eyes, the sweeping Cupid's bow, the acute tapering from cheekbones to chin – can, in repose, hint at something extra-terrestrial; lit with animation, however, they're charmingly boyish. He's soon to begin shooting a...
Benedict Cumberbatch is talking Edwardian manners, the brutishness of croquet and a million other things that segue rapidly into each other while my brain struggles feebly to keep up. He is making me a cup of Earl Grey, and a single question – shall we share a teabag? – has triggered this rush of inspiration, from tea ceremonies to post-colonial theory. It's fair to say that Cumberbatch is both a thinker and a talker.
His features – the huge almond eyes, the sweeping Cupid's bow, the acute tapering from cheekbones to chin – can, in repose, hint at something extra-terrestrial; lit with animation, however, they're charmingly boyish. He's soon to begin shooting a...
- 9/3/2011
- by Emma John
- The Guardian - Film News
The actor and musician, 51, on hatred, ice hockey, and winning an Oscar
Have I achieved my dreams? I don't know. I have one still to realise. Every parent wants their children to grow up finding a way of life that brings them happiness.
Winning an Oscar doesn't alter your life. When I won [for best supporting actor in Mystic River, in 2003] I was rehearsing a play in New York and I was only in La for 24 hours. I flew out, put the tux on, went to the ceremony and flew right back. I didn't get the self-indulgent ride on the Hollywood roller coaster.
George Bigot showed me what an actor can be. He was a wonderful teacher who ran a workshop in Los Angeles that I attended in 1984. I learned from him the responsibility an artist has to respect an audience and give of himself.
My parents were both musicians, so I inherited from them the notion that music can be important,...
Have I achieved my dreams? I don't know. I have one still to realise. Every parent wants their children to grow up finding a way of life that brings them happiness.
Winning an Oscar doesn't alter your life. When I won [for best supporting actor in Mystic River, in 2003] I was rehearsing a play in New York and I was only in La for 24 hours. I flew out, put the tux on, went to the ceremony and flew right back. I didn't get the self-indulgent ride on the Hollywood roller coaster.
George Bigot showed me what an actor can be. He was a wonderful teacher who ran a workshop in Los Angeles that I attended in 1984. I learned from him the responsibility an artist has to respect an audience and give of himself.
My parents were both musicians, so I inherited from them the notion that music can be important,...
- 9/25/2010
- by Emma John
- The Guardian - Film News
With Scott Pilgrim Vs the World, Edgar Wright is taking another step up from the success of homegrown flick Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. Now feted by everyone from Tarantino to Spielberg, the British director talks about his unlikely La life – and how a film-obsessed nerd from Somerset came to be living it
Edgar Wright is a fanboy. Hidden under his standard film director's get-up – black trousers, black cardigan, black jacket – beats the throbbing heart of geekdom. Unfocus your eyes, listen to his excited tone as he talks about Gremlins and The Evil Dead, Hitchcock and Landis, title fonts and running gags, and it's not too hard to reimagine him in a sci-fi T-shirt, clutching a raft of graphic novels.
As a teenager obsessed with films, his current life – living in Hollywood, hanging out with Quentin Tarantino, collaborating with Steven Spielberg and dating an Oscar nominee (Anna Kendrick...
Edgar Wright is a fanboy. Hidden under his standard film director's get-up – black trousers, black cardigan, black jacket – beats the throbbing heart of geekdom. Unfocus your eyes, listen to his excited tone as he talks about Gremlins and The Evil Dead, Hitchcock and Landis, title fonts and running gags, and it's not too hard to reimagine him in a sci-fi T-shirt, clutching a raft of graphic novels.
As a teenager obsessed with films, his current life – living in Hollywood, hanging out with Quentin Tarantino, collaborating with Steven Spielberg and dating an Oscar nominee (Anna Kendrick...
- 8/14/2010
- by Emma John
- The Guardian - Film News
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