Anna Kendrick used her own experience to play a character with an abusive boyfriend in Alice, Darling; James Cameron tests out the fan theory that Leonardo DiCaprio’s Jack might have lived if he’d gotten on the raft in Titanic; the BBC receives several hundred complaints after mistakenly referring to Paul Mescal as a “British actor.” All in today’s Movie News Rundown.
Anna Kendrick Speaks
The Alice, Darling actress speaks directly to others who have been in abusive relationships when she told me, “It shouldn’t take you getting thrown against a wall to know that you’re in an abusive relationship and you deserve to leave.” In a video interview with MovieMaker, which you can watch below, Kendrick told me how cathartic it was to do a movie about a woman whose mental health deteriorates as a result of an abusive relationship she’s in — because she’s been in one herself.
When Kendrick was in the throes of the relationship, she knew deep down that something was wrong, but she struggled to tell her friends, just like her character Alice does in Alice, Darling, directed by Mary Nighy and out in theaters now. “I really knew that if I told one person everything, they would be like, ‘Babe, sweetie, no more. You have to get out.’ And I knew that I couldn’t handle that,” she says.
“So I didn’t do that. And I think that I have people that I’m close to that knew how much they could push and what I was ready to hear and what I wasn’t ready to hear. And so I think that’s really challenging.”
Kate Moss Casts Herself
Or, rather, the famed supermodel has chosen the actress who will play her in the upcoming biopic Moss & Freud, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Her name is Ellie Bamber (Nocturnal Animals, The Serpent) and she will star opposite Derek Jacobi (Murder on the Orient Express, The Kings Speech) as the artist Lucian Freud who did a famous painting of a naked and pregnant moss in 2002.
Paul Mescal Is Irish, Damnit
The BBC received over 600 complaints after mistakenly referring to Paul Mescal as a “British actor” during a news segment about his Oscar nomination for his performance in Aftersun. The news chyron grouped Paul Mescal in with Bill Nighy, an actual British actor, who was nominated for Living. “The text should have said that Paul Mescal is Irish. We apologise for the mistake,” the BBC said in a statement.
“Jack Might’ve Lived”
With the help of National Geographic, James Cameron tested the conditions on that famous raft at the end of Titanic to put an end to the debate about whether Leonardo DiCaprio’s Jack could have survived if he’d gotten on the raft with Rose. It’s all captured in Nat Geo’s upcoming Titanic: 25 Years Later with James Cameron special, which was teased on Good Morning America. “Jack might’ve lived, but there’s a lot of variables,” Cameron says in the clip. Watch below.
Documentary Deep-Dive
Vulture‘s Reeves Weidemen has a very interesting story about the evolution of the documentary film genre, and how it’s recently transitioned into a new era. “People talk about the golden age of documentary, and it was exciting to be a part of that,” said Dan Cogan, producer of Oscar-winning Netflix doc Icarus. “It is also true that we left that age three or four years ago and we now live in the corporate age of documentary.”
Zach Braff Speaks
The 47-year-old actor broke down the making of his new movie A Good Person in an interview with The Guardian. He says his latest film, which stars Florence Pugh as a young woman spiraling through grief and loss, is as honest about where he’s at in life now as his 2004 directorial debut Garden State was then.
Braff recently lost his father, sister, dog, and best friend all in the span of a few years. “I think both A Good Person and Garden State are authentically me in different times of my life. There are so many people making content, the second you start trying to be somebody else, I don’t think the odds are that it’s going to work out,” he said.
Main Image: Paul Mescal and Frankie Corio in Aftersun courtesy of A24