Meet the Stunning Ladies of 'Johnny English Reborn'
When it came to casting Johnny English Reborn, “authenticity” was a key word. Explains Parker: “I was keen to assemble the kind of team that if Daniel Craig had slipped into its ranks, they could all make a Bond movie together. The world I wanted Johnny to join was one in which the agents genuinely had a lot at stake, which puts all the more pressure on him to get things right and gives us all the more fun when he gets them wrong.”
Best known for her groundbreaking role as the intense Special Agent Scully in the global hit The X-Files, Gillian Anderson accepted the role of Pamela Thornton, the no-nonsense head of MI7, who has guided the organization to new heights. The American actress had received rave reviews for her work in Bleak House and mastered the accent requisite of one of the most powerful women in British government service.
Anderson, best acknowledged for her work in Fox’s The X-Files, earned two SAG Awards, an Emmy and a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Drama Series, and received numerous additional nominations. In 1998, she carried her role of Dana Scully over into the motion-picture adaptation based on the show, The X-Files: Fight the Future. In 1999, she made The X-Files history by becoming the first woman to write and direct on the series, on an episode titled “All Things.” In 2008, Anderson reprised her role once again in The X-Files: I Want to Believe.
Anderson was a fan of Atkinson’s comedy, and to play the head of MI7 was an enticing prospect. Recalls the actress: “When I saw the first film, I started laughing from the title sequence. There is just something about Rowan’s timing. I find him endlessly funny. The opportunity to do comedy on a big scale and the chance to work with and observe Rowan’s process were just too good to miss out on.”
Her fellow performer returns that he enjoyed what the actress brought to the role of the tough-as-nails Pegasus. “Gillian brings hardness, credibility and a bite to Pamela,” enthuses Atkinson. “You believe that this woman is in charge and is not going to take any prisoners, and she is not going to tolerate any silliness from Johnny English.”
In the role of the MI7 behavioural psychologist Kate Sumner, the filmmakers cast Rosamund Pike, known for her memorable turns in Pride & Prejudice, An Education and Made in Dagenham and, most recently, in Barney’s Version. It was important for the filmmakers that the audience believe the romantic connection between the fetching Kate and the awkward English, and Pike was just the performer to pull it off.
Explains Parker: “Johnny is flawed in countless areas, but he also has a great sense of loyalty. Somewhere in him you know there’s a capacity to be a hero. And it is Kate who sees this side of him. The great thing about Rosamund as an actress is that she is very interested in what makes people tick. You can see she is fascinated by the quirks of Johnny’s character, and this curiosity and empathy give us the chance to believe in their romance.”
Atkinson found that Pike brought genuine empathy to the role. He adds: “She has to fall in love with this total klutz. That’s quite a difficult thing to play when you’re dealing with someone who clearly has failings, which Johnny does in spades. What Rosamund made work was the credibility to believe that here was a decent guy who does mean well and tries hard to do his best.”
Pike researched the role by reading a good deal of material on behavioural psychology, including books by the FBI and anthropologist Desmond Morris. “It’s a fascinating subject,” she notes. “Kate’s job is to read people’s expressions and interpret their behaviour for MI7. When she meets Johnny she finds him a captivating study…with his curious facial expressions and body ticks. She sees the honesty that is at the core of his character, and she finds it refreshing and adorable.”
A new chapter
By Shamala Velu
The petite 25-year-old is brimming with confidence with the release of her new sophomore album, Ghostbird, named after her fascination for owls. Welcoming the Malaysian press via web conferencing from the Universal Office in New York, one can tell she has made a household name for herself not only in Malaysia but overseas too.
Zee plans to return home at the end of the year and hopes to plan for a concert for her Malaysian fans. "It will be bigger and better." So, is there any story progression on the album? “Yes, definitely. The reason why it starts with the song Swell Window is because it's kind of like a mission call. Like I always say, this is more than art, this is a mission. The whole concept of the album is, I see it as from sunset to sunrise. The progression of the track listing was curated properly and very much with love from me and Mario Caldato so it's very much finesse in a way; it's very in sync with the sunset to sunrise. The songs are progressed that way,” she explains.
Swell window is a surfer's term for the perfect wave. Once the perfect swell comes, that whole window, you have to charge through every drop of wave. “The song is about seizing the moment, living in the now. I read somewhere about universal consciousness. One of the lines there reads, "We're all riding the same waves". We're going through the same things. This song is very important because it's the start of another chapter in my life,” she says.
The album Ghostbird translates to 'burung hantu', or owl in Bahasa Malaysia. Avi explains she has always been attracted to the mythological and symbolism of the 'burung hantu”. “Wisdom, mystique, observation was basically the three formulas I had in mind while writing the record. And I'm a nocturnal creature too,” she says.
Almost half of the songs on the album were written in the sunny state of Florida where she stayed for three months. “I was on a boat and and that's where I wrote it. Later, I was at the studio everyday for two week to do the recording. Some songs were written in my Brooklyn kitchen. When you listen to the whole record, you can tell from the different vibes,” she smiles.
What she talks passionately about is also about Floridian folk artiste Morris Johnson, whom she met while she was writing for the album. “There was such an appeal to his work, such a sort of innocent quality to it. I think there's a lot more philosophical view of how you view things. I've always been trying to not see the world through negative lens. That's how the song The Book Of Morris Johnson came about,” she says.
There's also 31 Days In June, which was inspired by a friend. “We were talking about our experiences moving to New York. He's a young guy and he told me, "I was homeless last year for 31 days in June" and I was like, "There's only 30 days in June, what are you talking about?" and he said, "Well, it felt like 31 days."
This song is about trying to find your place in new surroundings. “It's about trying to find a place to call home and I mixed it up with my experience when I moved to London in 2004,” she says.
Avi moved on to talk about writing Siboh Kitak Nangis (Don't You Cry). It's a song she has been waiting to write for a very long time now. “I've always wanted to write a song in Bahasa Sarawak and I did it! It just took the right moment, the right time, and the right place. I'm very proud of it,” she says.
We ask if she would return home for a tour and she immediately replies: “Definitely. I hassle my manager every day. It might happen end of this year actually. I'll be coming back then and I promise fans a bigger, better performance this time,” she concludes.
No comments:
Post a Comment