2014 St. Louis Film Critics Award Nominations - Complete List

The St. Louis Film Critics is an association of professional film critics operating in metropolitan St. Louis and adjoining areas of Missouri and Illinois.  Founded in late 2004, the group’s goals (according to the website) are to serve the interests of local film critics, and to promote an appreciation for cinema both as an art form and for its societal, cultural and historical context and impact.

Winners of the 2014 SLFC Awards will be announced on Monday, December 15, 2014.  The nominations follow.

2014 SLFC Award nominations:

Best Picture
"Birdman"
"Boyhood"
"Gone Girl"
"The Grand Budapest Hotel"
"The Imitation Game"

Best Director
Alejandro Gozalez Inarritu, "Birdman"
Richard Linklater, "Boyhood"
Wes Anderson, "The Grand Budapest Hotel"
David Fincher, "Gone Girl"
Morten Tyldum, "The Imitation Game"

Best Actor
Benedict Cumberbatch, "The Imitation Game"
Jake Gyllenhaal, "Nightcrawler"
Tom Hardy, "Locke"
Michael Keaton, "Birdman"
Eddie Redmayne, "The Theory of Everything"

Best Actress
Marion Cotillard, "Two Days, One Night"
Felicity Jones, "The Theory of Everything"
Julianne Moore, "Still Alice"
Rosamund Pike, "Gone Girl"
Reese Witherspoon, "Wild"

Best Supporting Actor
Josh Brolin, "Inherent Vice"
Ethan Hawke, "Boyhood"
Edward Norton, "Birdman"
Tony Revolori, "The Grand Budapest Hotel"
Mark Ruffalo, "Foxcatcher"
J.K. Simmons, "Whiplash"

Best Supporting Actress
Patricia Arquette, "Boyhood"
Jessica Chastain, "A Most Violent Year"
Carrie Coon, "Gone Girl"
Mackenzie Foy, "Interstellar"
Kiera Knightley, "The Imitation Game"
Emma Stone, "Birdman"

Best Adapted Screenplay
"Gone Girl"
"Guardians of the Galaxy"
"The Imitation Game"
"The Theory of Everything"
"Unbroken"

Best Original Screenplay
"Birdman"
"Boyhood"
"Locke"
"The Grand Budapest Hotel"
"Nightcrawler"
"Whiplash"

Best Art Direction
"Gone Girl"
"The Grand Budapest Hotel"
"Mr. Turner"
"Nightcrawler"
"Snowpiercer"
"Under the Skin"

Best Cinematography
"Birdman"
"Gone Girl"
"The Grand Budapest Hotel"
"Interstellar"
"Nightcrawler"
"Unbroken"

Best Music Score
"Birdman"
"Gone Girl"
"The Grand Budapest Hotel"
"Inherent Vice"
"Interstellar"
"Under the Skin"

Best Music Soundtrack
"Begin Again"
"Boyhood"
"Get On Up"
"Guardians of the Galaxy"
"Into the Woods"
"Whiplash"

Best Visual Effects
"Birdman"
"Dawn of the Planet of the Apes"
"The Grand Budapest Hotel"
"Guardians of the Galaxy"
"Interstellar"
"Noah"

Best Animated Film
"Big Hero 6"
"The Book of Life"
"The Boxtrolls"
"How to Train Your Dragon 2"
"The LEGO Movie"
"The Penguins of Madagascar"

Best Documentary
"CITIZENFOUR"
"Finding Vivian Maier"
"Jodorowsky’s Dune"
"Life Itself"
"Red Army"
"Rich Hill"

Best Foreign Film
"Force Majeure"
"Gloria"
"Human Capital"
"Ida"
"Two Days, One Night"

Best Comedy
"The Grand Budapest Hotel"
"Guardians of the Galaxy"
"Obvious Child"
"St. Vincent"
"22 Jump Street"

Best Arthouse
"Boyhood"
"Calvary"
"Frank"
"The Grand Budapest Hotel"
"Locke"
"Whiplash"

Best Scene
"Birdman" (Times Square)
"Guardians of the Galaxy" (Prison Break)
"Selma" (Church Bombing)
"Whiplash" (Finale drum solo)
"22 Jump Street" (End Credits)
"X-Men: Days of Future Past" (Quicksilver Pentagon Escape)

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Zoe Saladana Talks "Franchises," Nina Simone and Guardians of the Galaxy

Walt Disney Home Entertainment provided the following question-and-answer interview with actor Zoe Saldana as a promotion for its Blu-ray and DVD release of Marvel Studios' Guardians of the Galaxy.  "Q" is the anonymous questioner and "A" is Ms. Saldana:

AN INTERVIEW WITH ZOE SALDANA (GAMORA) FOR THE IN HOME RELEASE OF GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY

Q: So did all cast members get their make-up done together?

A: No, we didn’t; we had separate bungalows. It was only when we were all on set, all grey or green or blue and we couldn’t touch anything because we would just smear paint and stuff all over everything. We’d all sit together and Dave would be eating a super-healthy meal, I’d be having some fish and chips and Chris would be asking me: ‘So how’s the texture? Do you like the fish?’ He couldn’t eat it himself because he was on a strict diet so he was always asking me what my food tasted like.

Q: How did you while away the long hours in the make-up chair?

A: Listening to music, talking… Sometimes I’d ask about Dave and was told, ‘This dude is meditating – he sits there and doesn’t move for hours’ whereas sometimes they couldn’t even get me to sit down in the chair. My make-up artist, who I brought over from the States, would go ‘You need to sit down, get your dog and take a nap, otherwise we’ll be in trouble because I have to work on you’. My dog and I would wake up and we’d both be green!

Q: What’s worse, putting the make-up on or taking it off?

A: Putting it on, trust me. When it comes to taking it off I think it’s easier because you know you’re just 30 minutes away from being in a hot tub and then bed. You’re literally ripping it off your face. The skin is flexible and it perspires and it’s ready to have that layer removed so it’s much more cooperative. They also have all these awesome solutions. It took four and a half hours to put it on and maybe an hour and 15 minutes to take off.

Q: You’ve spoken about Dave being very shy. Is it safe to assume from your outgoing personality that you’re far from shy yourself?

A: I’m not shy at all. My mum has asked me to be a little more shy! She’s sometimes like ‘Can you just shut up?’

Q: Since you both have athletic backgrounds, did you and Dave do a lot of your own stunts?

A: We’re every stunt coordinator’s nightmare and every director’s dream. Directors wish their actors could do more of the physical stuff, more of the stunts, just so they don’t have to cut from a wide master shot into a tight close-up. With us, James was able to use many of our medium, master and close-up shots particularly with me, Dave and Chris. The stunt people don’t really like it because we come in and we learn everything within two tries. They get kind of p****d off because they don’t get to work as much. On the other hand, the stunt people who are playing your doubles are super-excited because they get to act [when they’re doubling for an actor]. They don’t have to spend the whole time just falling and getting hurt.

Q: I can’t think of any other actor who has three franchises going at the same time…

A: Wasn’t there someone who had two, like Sylvester Stallone? For many years Sly had First Blood and Rocky, right? [Laughs] And now it’s me? Believe me, this was never planned. In between these big films, I do films like Nina, Out of the Furnace and Blood Ties and Infinitely Polar Bear is coming out next year. It’s just that the big movies happen to get seen more than the small-budget ones I do, but I’m happy with it. I like playing roles where women have more significance – they just happen to be set in space and they just so happen to be made by filmmakers like James Gunn, James Cameron and J.J. Abrams. That’s not a bad list of filmmakers to work with so I say, ‘You know what, I’ll be green here, I’ll be blue there, I don’t care!’

Q: Speaking of Nina, how was it playing Nina Simone in the biopic?

A: It was a very tumultuous affair and I loved making it. We did it with so much love and I think her story is definitely worth telling.

Q: What have you learned from doing so many green screen movies?

A: It’s helped me appreciate the technicalities of filmmaking. It’s also taught me that the best thing is to always remain open and that there’s no such thing as a stupid question. Ask every single question that you can and try to work with filmmakers who will never lose patience with their actors. It’s important for a director to provide as much information, especially when we’re working with things that we have to conceive out of thin air. You can’t just expect an actor to understand: ‘Oh, there’s a dinosaur coming at you”. OK, so I’m going to automatically know how big it is and what it sounds like? I need details. How close does he get to me? How tall is he? What will the impact be of his cry when he’s screaming at me or when he’s blowing smoke or air in my face? James Cameron will bring you speakers that are twice your height and he’ll search the internet to find any sound that resembles as closely as possible the sound he’s looking for. He’ll play it to you seconds before he starts the scene and that is so helpful. I learned to always ask a lot of questions. It’s super-important.

Q: And how was Guardians director James Gunn to work with?

A: He was very generous with all the information we needed to have. He’d show us the animatics, he’d play the music, he’d explain the moment to us and how he envisioned it if we were not capturing the emotional beat as he wanted. He was very much invested even though he was taking care of ten thousand million things at the same time. You don’t want to feel afraid to ask a director something and if you do then that’s not a director you should work with after that.

Q: Do you think James learned anything from you?

A: [Laughs] How to be cool! No, I’m joking. I hope he did learn something. I really feel the wise directors are the ones who learn from their actors in terms of: ‘How can I be a better director? How can I be a better captain? I feel James is not an egotistical person. He’s very passionate and he’s also a little stubborn but in all the right places. He’s like good cholesterol. That’s James Gunn. We had moments where people thought it was tense because I was asking questions or trying to do something one way because I believed in it and James wanted me to do it another way, but we never argued; it was never a hostile environment. Sometimes Chris would go through the same thing -- it was just a passionate moment between all these artists who really care. James never abused his power by saying, ‘Just do it like I said’. He was like, ‘Please trust me, do it this way and we’ll see’. If we did it his way and it didn’t work he’d say really quietly ‘Alright, do it your way’.

Q: Was there a defining moment when you decided you wanted to be an actor?

A: I was a ballet dancer for so long, but when I realized I had reached my limit and that I couldn’t go any further I knew I wanted to pursue acting. That’s one thing you don’t use as a dancer – your voice. [Laughs] And the one thing I use most in my life is my voice so it’s wonderful to get to express myself artistically through the biggest instrument I use. I auditioned for the Scarecrow in The Wiz and my mum went with me because she wouldn’t let me go anywhere alone. She did not think I was good, and I remember we had that conversation of ‘Baby, if you’re going to do this, we need to figure out a plan, like taking a class’. I did and I started reading a lot. There was this book that Judi Dench wrote that said there was a moment where, before an actor can be this or be that, the actor must simply be. I thought that to have absolute presence was to absorb everything that’s thrown at you. I’ve been getting paid for it ever since and [laughs] I haven’t needed an excuse to quit or to do something else.

Q: Do you collect all the action figures based on the characters you’ve played?

A: Here’s the thing. I have nieces and nephews and when they find them in the house, they take them and they end up broken. So there’s no point in me collecting them. One day I walked in to find my niece playing with all the Star Trek figures and eating chocolate at the same time. I was like, ‘It’s OK, take them, I don’t need them, I don’t have to sell them later for $100.’

Guardians of the Galaxy is available on Blu-ray, Digital HD and  Disney Movies Anywhere December 9, 2014


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72nd Golden Globe Award Nominations Announced - Complete List

The Golden Globe Award is a movie accolade bestowed by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA). The award recognizes excellence in both film and television. The annual awards ceremony is a major part of the film industry’s award season.

The 72nd Annual Golden Globe Awards nominations were announced on Thursday, December 11, 2014. The 72nd Annual Golden Globe Awards will be hosted by Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. The ceremony will air on Sunday, January 11, 2015, LIVE coast-to-coast on NBC from 8:00-11:00 p.m. (EST) and 5:00-8:00 p.m. (PST).

2015 / 72nd Annual Golden Globe Awards nominations:

FILM CATEGORIES:

Best Motion Picture – Drama

Boyhood

Foxcatcher

The Imitation Game

Selma

The Theory of Everything

Lead Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama

Steve Carell – Foxcatcher

Benedict Cumberbatch – The Imitation Game

Jake Gyllenhaal – Nightcrawler

David Oyelowo – Selma

Eddie Redmayne – The Theory of Everything

Lead Actress in a Motion Picture- Drama

Jennifer Aniston – Cake

Felicity Jones – The Theory of Everything

Julianne Moore – Still Alice

Rosamund Pike – Gone Girl

Reese Witherspoon – Wild

Best Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical

Birdman

The Grand Budapest Hotel

Into the Woods

Pride

St. Vincent

Lead Actor in a Motion Picture- Comedy or Musical

Ralph Fiennes – Grand Budapest Hotel

Michael Keaton – Birdman

Bill Murray – St. Vincent

Joaquin Phoenix – Inherent Vice

Christoph Waltz – Big Eyes

Lead Actress in a Motion Picture- Comedy or Musical

Amy Adams – Big Eyes

Emily Blunt – Into the Woods

Helen Mirren – The Hundred-Foot Journey

Julianne Moore – Maps to the Stars

Quvenzhané Wallis – Annie

Director

Wes Anderson – Grand Budapest Hotel

David Fincher – Gone Girl

Ava DuVernay – Selma

Alejandro G. Inarritu – Birdman

Richard Linklater – Boyhood

Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture

Robert Duvall – The Judge

Ethan Hawke – Boyhood

Edward Norton – Birdman

Mark Ruffalo – Foxcatcher

J.K. Simmons – Whiplash

Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture

Patricia Arquette – Boyhood

Jessica Chastain – A Most Violent Year

Keira Knightley – The Imitation Game

Emma Stone – Birdman

Meryl Streep – Into the Woods

Screenplay

Wes Anderson – The Grand Budapest Hotel

Gillian Flynn – Gone Girl

Alejandro G. Inarritu, Nicolas Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris, Armando Bo – Birdman

Richard Linklater – Boyhood

Graham Moore – The Imitation Game

Animated Feature

Big Hero 6

The Book of Life

Boxtrolls

How to Train Your Dragon 2

The Lego Movie

Foreign Film

Force Majeure (Turist), Sweden

Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem Gett, Israel

Ida, Poland/Denmark

Leviathan, Russia

Tangerines (Mandariinid), Estonia

Original Song – Motion Picture

Big Eyes – Big Eyes (Lana Del Rey)

Glory – Selma (John Legend, Common)

Mercy Is – Noah (Patti Smith, Lenny Kaye)

Opportunity – Annie (Greg Kurstin, Sia Furler, Will Gluck)

Yellow Flicker Beat – The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 1 (Lorde)

Original Score – Motion Picture

Alexandre Desplat – The Imitation Game

Johann Johannsson – The Theory of Everything

Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross – Gone Girl

Antonio Sanchez – Birdman

Hans Zimmer – Interstellar

TELEVISION CATEGORIES:

Best TV Drama

The Affair

Downton Abbey

Game of Thrones

The Good Wife

House of Cards

Lead Actor – TV Drama

Clive Owen – The Knick

Liev Schreiber – Ray Donovan

Kevin Spacey – House of Cards

James Spader – The Blacklist

Dominic West – The Affair

Lead Actress – TV Drama

Claire Danes – Homeland

Viola Davis – How to Get Away With Murder

Julianna Margulies – The Good Wife

Ruth Wilson – The Affair

Robin Wright – House of Cards

TV Miniseries or Movie

Fargo

The Missing

True Detective

The Normal Heart

Olive Kitteridge

Actor – TV Miniseries or Movie

Martin Freeman – Fargo

Woody Harrelson – True Detective

Matthew McConaughey – True Detective

Mark Ruffalo – The Normal Heart

Billy Bob Thornton – Fargo

Actress – TV Miniseries or Movie

Maggie Gyllenhaal – The Honorable Woman

Jessica Lange – American Horror Story: Freak Show

Frances McDormand – Olive Kitteridge

Frances O’Connor – The Missing

Alison Tolman – Fargo

Best TV Comedy

Girls

Jane the Virgin

Orange Is the New Black

Silicon Valley

Transparent

Lead Actor – TV Comedy

Don Cheadle – House of Lies

Ricky Gervais – Derek

Jeffrey Tambor – Transparent

Louis C.K. – Louie

William H. Macy – Shameless

Lead Actress – TV Comedy

Lena Dunham – Girls

Edie Falco – Nurse Jackie

Gina Rodriguez – Jane the Virgin

Julia Louis-Dreyfus – Veep

Taylor Schilling – Orange Is the New Black

Supporting Actor – Series, Miniseries, or TV movie

Matt Bomer – The Normal Heart

Alan Cumming – The Good Wife

Colin Hanks – Fargo

Bill Murray – Olive Kitteridge

Jon Voight – Ray Donovan

Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries, or TV movie

Uzo Aduba – Orange Is the New Black

Kathy Bates – American Horror Story: Freak Show

Joanne Froggatt – Downton Abbey

Allison Janney – Mom

Michelle Monaghan – True Detective

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Vin Diesel Talks "Groot" and "Guardians of the Galaxy"

Walt Disney Home Entertainment provided the following question-and-answer interview with actor Vin Diesel as a promotion for its Blu-ray and DVD release of Marvel Studios' Guardians of the Galaxy.  "Q" is the anonymous questioner and "A" is Diesel:

AN INTERVIEW WITH VIN DIESEL (GROOT) FOR THE BLU-RAY AND DVD RELEASE OF GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY

Q: How was it working with a script where your only line is “I am Groot”?

A: I was lucky that I had a director [James Gunn] who was willing to indulge me. I told him: ‘We know that Groot is really saying any number of things when he says that line and most people are oblivious to the nuances of his speech because of his hardened larynx’. All you hear is the growl but he could be saying any number of things and we know that Rocket Raccoon understands him. He doesn’t always tell everybody he understands Groot and he plays on that, but he does understand him. So I asked James: ‘Can you give me a basic idea of what he’s trying to say when he’s saying “I am Groot”?’ James had a 50-page document waiting for me when I came in to do the voice. On the left-hand side of the page it said ‘I am Groot’ and on the right-hand side it had whatever the line really was if you could understand this floral colossus. That was the beginning of trying to go deep into a character like this. In many ways it was the most challenging thing to ask an actor to do. The thespian in me responded to the challenge of not being able to use facial expressions, physicality or a Golum-like vocabulary.

Q: Were there other actors in the recording booth with you?

A: No, there weren’t, but I did have the luxury of being able to watch the film. Both Bradley [Cooper, who plays Rocket] and I had the advantage of being able to play off the other actors by watching them in a rough cut of the film.

Q: Did you do any of the motion-capture for the character?

A: A lot of times in animation, what they’ll do is they’ll film you in the recording booth. So I went in there with stilts so I could actually be seven and a half feet tall. Don’t ask me why, but there was something about it that really helped with the character. In New York acting circles in the 1970s there was this legend that Robert De Niro didn’t know his character until he found that character’s shoes. Who knows how that works? But in its own way it did. For me, being seven and a half feet tall did something. I found myself dropping my shoulders, I was sometimes self-conscious about my height and sometimes I felt very powerful about my height, and it affected the character that way. Groot’s the most innocent character I’ve ever played. I don’t usually play characters who are that innocent.

Q: There’s something of Chewbacca from Star Wars in Groot. Was that deliberate?

A: The similarities are obvious and fun, but it wasn’t what I was thinking, going into it. It’s probably down to James Gunn.

Q: Was that you doing the dance moves for Baby Groot at the end of the film?

A: [Laughs] Yeah, it was.

Q: And what would be the first track on your own Awesome Mix tape?

A: It’d be When the Saints Go Marching In; The Beatles version, by the way, not Elvis Presley’s. I’d also have Rocky Raccoon on there, also by The Beatles. People don’t know that the Rocket Raccoon came from a Beatles song. Who’d ever think that a Marvel character would be inspired by a Beatles song? They just changed him from Rocky to Rocket.

Q: You have millions and millions of Facebook followers. Why do you think that is?

A: I think it’s because I share my thoughts. Remember that movie The Social Network where they showed the beginnings of Facebook? They didn’t even know what they had started because they thought their brilliant idea was to check people’s marital status. [Laughs] But that wasn’t so brilliant. What was so brilliant was the idea of interaction. If I could have interacted with Marlon Brando as a kid, wow! If I could have spoken to him, or written to him, or read from him, or followed him – that is what has made social media what it is, that interaction. When I started on Facebook there was only Obama who had a million fans and he got elected, in part, because of his social media presence. When I started talking on Facebook I was being real. It was almost more therapeutic for me because I’d always been reserved. I’m not out there that much and I’ve always protected and maintained my privacy. I felt detached from my audience in some way, unlike my younger years on stage where you get that immediate gratification and you’re able to see how you’re affecting the fans and the audience. With Facebook, suddenly I was able to interact with people all over the world and essentially create this community. It was a very powerful moment. It was something very special and very therapeutic to me, and it’s something that’s affected the last five years of my career. So much that’s happened and so many of the accomplishments have come from that. In fact, the reason I’m here now talking about this movie is because Facebook fans started creating fan art that put me in the Marvel universe or fantasizing about me as a Marvel character. Then when I met with Marvel we were talking about doing something in the Phase Three, 2017/2018 slot. But social media demanded we do something now and that’s when [Marvel Studios president] Kevin Feige called me two weeks after I’d been to Comic-Con last year, and he said he’d come from the Captain America press junket and the big question was ‘What are you doing with Vin?’ Then he told me ‘You’re a tree’ and all my childhood phobias came back to me. I had to face that fear of walking onto the stage as a seven-year-old and having the director say, ‘Vin, you’re playing the tree’. [Laughs] Now we face our fears!

Q: How do you see the character developing in the next film?

A: I think there’s something very fun in imagining how that might be. I expect we’ll learn more about him. He’s such a complex and fascinating character. He’s a scion of a noble family and probably one of the most intelligent Marvel characters of all. He loses his intelligence every time he dies but he never truly dies and it’s a small price to pay for immortality.

Q: Besides other actors like Marlon Brando, who are your real-life heroes?

A: Well, our mothers are our first heroes. Mine is MY superhero because when I was an infant she was a single mother to me and my twin brother in New York, traveling from the Bronx to Brooklyn with two seven-month-old babies. And now look where I am! She’s a hero in that respect. She’s a special woman. My father is a hero, too.

Q: What drew you to acting in the first place?

A: I started acting at a young age. I remember being five years old and watching my father do roadshow theatre. We went up to Maine and I watched him. He’d dyed his hair white – I remember that. Later I grew up in a government subsidized building for artists in New York and if you made more than $10,000 a year you’d be kicked out of the building. It was kind of a bohemian artists’ community that made art for the sake of art, but for me there was something very therapeutic about acting. I was a kid like everybody else, maybe with a heightened quest for identity. Whenever I would play a role, the parameters of my identity were clear. There was something comforting or therapeutic about that.


Guardians of the Galaxy is available on Blu-ray, Digital HD and Disney Movies Anywhere December 9, 2014

- ENDS -

21st Screen Actors Guild Award Nominations - Film Categories

The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) is an American labor union that represents film and television performers worldwide.  Most people probably know SAG for the various actors’ strikes or for the Screen Actors Guild Award, which SAG uses to honor outstanding performances by its members.  The first SAG Awards ceremony was held in February 1995 (for films released in 1994).

Nominations for the 21st Screen Actors Guild Awards were announced on Wednesday, December 10, 2014.  Winners will be revealed during the Sunday, January 25, 2015 awards ceremony that will be simultaneously telecast on TBS and TNT.

The “Ensemble” categories are SAG's equivalent of a “Best Picture” or “Best Television Series” award.

2015/21st Screen Actors Guild Awards nominations:

THEATRICAL MOTION PICTURES

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role
STEVE CARELL / John du Pont – "FOXCATCHER" (Sony Pictures Classics)
BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH / Alan Turing – "THE IMITATION GAME" (The Weinstein Company)
JAKE GYLLENHAAL / Louis Bloom – "NIGHTCRAWLER" (Open Road Films)
MICHAEL KEATON / Riggan – "BIRDMAN" (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
EDDIE REDMAYNE / Stephen Hawking – "THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING" (Focus Features)

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role
JENNIFER ANISTON / Claire Bennett – "CAKE" (Cinelou Films)
FELICITY JONES / Jane Hawking – "THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING" (Focus Features)
JULIANNE MOORE / Alice Howland – "STILL ALICE" (Sony Pictures Classics)
ROSAMUND PIKE / Amy Dunne – "GONE GIRL" (20th Century Fox)
REESE WITHERSPOON / Cheryl Strayed – "WILD" (Fox Searchlight Pictures)

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role
ROBERT DUVALL / Joseph Palmer – "THE JUDGE" (Warner Bros. Pictures)
ETHAN HAWKE / Mason, Sr. – "BOYHOOD" (IFC Films)
EDWARD NORTON / Mike – "BIRDMAN" (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
MARK RUFFALO / Dave Schultz – "FOXCATCHER" (Sony Pictures Classics)
J.K. SIMMONS / Fletcher – "WHIPLASH" (Sony Pictures Classics)

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role
PATRICIA ARQUETTE / Olivia – "BOYHOOD" (IFC Films)
KEIRA KNIGHTLEY / Joan Clarke – "THE IMITATION GAME" (The Weinstein Company)
EMMA STONE / Sam – "BIRDMAN" (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
MERYL STREEP / The Witch – "INTO THE WOODS" (Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures)
NAOMI WATTS / Daka – "ST. VINCENT" (The Weinstein Company)

Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture:

BIRDMAN (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
ZACH GALIFIANAKIS / Jake
MICHAEL KEATON / Riggan
EDWARD NORTON / Mike
ANDREA RISEBOROUGH / Laura
AMY RYAN / Sylvia
EMMA STONE / Sam
NAOMI WATTS / Lesley

BOYHOOD (IFC Films)
PATRICIA ARQUETTE / Olivia
ELLAR COLTRANE / Mason
ETHAN HAWKE / Mason, Sr.
LORELEI LINKLATER / Samantha

THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL (FOX SEARCHLIGHT PICTURES)
F. MURRAY ABRAHAM / Mr. Moustafa
MATHIEU AMALRIC / Serge X.
ADRIEN BRODY / Dmitri
WILLEM DAFOE / Jopling
RALPH FIENNES / M. Gustave
JEFF GOLDBLUM / Dep. Kovacs
HARVEY KEITEL / Ludwig
JUDE LAW / Young Writer
BILL MURRAY / M. Ivan
EDWARD NORTON / Henckels
TONY REVOLORI / Zero
SAOIRSE RONAN / Agatha
JASON SCHWARTZMAN / M. Jean
LÉA SEYDOUX / Clotilde
TILDA SWINTON / Madame D
TOM WILKINSON / Author
OWEN WILSON / M. Chuck

THE IMITATION GAME (The Weinstein Company)
MATTHEW BEARD / Peter Hilton
BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH / Alan Turing
CHARLES DANCE / Commander Denniston
MATTHEW GOODE / Hugh Alexander
RORY KINNEAR / Nock
KEIRA KNIGHTLEY / Joan Clarke
ALLEN LEECH / John Cairncross
MARK STRONG / Stewart Menzies

THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING (Focus Features)
CHARLIE COX / Jonathan Hellyer Jones
FELICITY JONES / Jane Hawking
SIMON McBURNEY / Frank Hawking
EDDIE REDMAYNE / Stephen Hawking
DAVID THEWLIS / Dennis Sciama
EMILY WATSON / Beryl Wilde

SAG AWARDS® HONORS FOR STUNT ENSEMBLES

Outstanding Action Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Motion Picture
“FURY” (Columbia Pictures)
“GET ON UP” (Universal Pictures)
“THE HOBBIT: THE BATTLE OF THE FIVE ARMIES” (Warner Bros. Pictures)
“UNBROKEN” (Universal Pictures)
“X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST” (20th Century Fox)

LIFE ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

Screen Actors Guild 51st Annual Life Achievement Award
DEBBIE REYNOLDS

21st Screen Actors Guild Award Nominations - Television Categories

Nominations for the 21st Screen Actors Guild Awards were announced on Wednesday, December 10, 2014.  Winners will be revealed during the Sunday, January 25, 2015 awards ceremony that will be simultaneously telecast on TBS and TNT.

The “Ensemble” categories are SAG's equivalent of a “Best Picture” or “Best Television Series” award.

2015/21st Screen Actors Guild Awards nominations:

TELEVISION PROGRAMS

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries
ADRIEN BRODY / Harry Houdini  – "HOUDINI" (History)
BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH / Sherlock Holmes – "SHERLOCK: HIS LAST VOW" (PBS)
RICHARD JENKINS / Henry Kitteridge – "OLIVE KITTERIDGE" (HBO)
MARK RUFFALO / Ned Weeks – "THE NORMAL HEART" (HBO)
BILLY BOB THORNTON / Lorne Malvo – "FARGO" (FX)

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries
ELLEN BURSTYN / Olivia Foxworth – "FLOWERS IN THE ATTIC" (Lifetime)
MAGGIE GYLLENHAAL / Nessa Stein – "THE HONORABLE WOMAN" (SundanceTV)
FRANCES McDORMAND / Olive Kitteridge – "OLIVE KITTERIDGE" (HBO)
JULIA ROBERTS / Dr. Emma Brookner – "THE NORMAL HEART" (HBO)
CICELY TYSON / Carrie Watts – "THE TRIP TO BOUNTIFUL" (Lifetime)

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series
STEVE BUSCEMI / Enoch “Nucky” Thompson – “BOARDWALK EMPIRE” (HBO)
PETER DINKLAGE / Tyrion Lannister – "GAME OF THRONES" (HBO)
WOODY HARRELSON / Martin Hart – "TRUE DETECTIVE" (HBO)
MATTHEW McCONAUGHEY / Rust Cohle – "TRUE DETECTIVE" (HBO)
KEVIN SPACEY / Francis Underwood – “HOUSE OF CARDS” (Netflix)

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series (6 nominees)
CLAIRE DANES / Carrie Mathison – “HOMELAND” (Showtime)
VIOLA DAVIS / Annalise Keating – "HOW TO GET AWAY WITH MURDER" (ABC)
JULIANNA MARGULIES / Alicia Florrick – "THE GOOD WIFE" (CBS)
TATIANA MASLANY / Sarah/Coxima/Alison/Rachel/ – "ORPHAN BLACK" (BBC America)
MAGGIE SMITH / Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham – “DOWNTON ABBEY” (PBS)
ROBIN WRIGHT / Claire Underwood – "HOUSE OF CARDS" (Netflix)

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series
TY BURRELL / Phil Dunphy – "MODERN FAMILY " (ABC)
LOUIS C.K. / Louie – "LOUIE" (FX)
WILLIAM H. MACY / Frank Gallagher – "SHAMELESS" (Showtime)
JIM PARSONS / Sheldon Cooper – “THE BIG BANG THEORY” (CBS)
ERIC STONESTREET / Cameron Tucker – "MODERN FAMILY" (ABC)

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series
UZO ADUBA / Suzanne "Crazy Eyes" Warren – "ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK" (Netflix)
JULIE BOWEN / Claire Dunphy – “MODERN FAMILY” (ABC)
EDIE FALCO / Jackie Peyton – “NURSE JACKIE” (Showtime)
JULIA LOUIS-DREYFUS / Vice President Selina Meyer – “VEEP” (HBO)
AMY POEHLER / Leslie Knope – "PARKS AND RECREATION" (NBC)

Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series:

BOARDWALK EMPIRE (HBO)
STEVE BUSCEMI / Enoch “Nucky” Thompson
PAUL CALDERON / Arquimedes
NICHOLAS CALHOUN / Sean
LOUIS CANCELMI / Mike D'Angelo
JOHN ELLISON CONLEE / Commodore
MICHAEL COUNTRYMAN / Frank Wilson
STEPHEN GRAHAM / Al Capone
DOMENICK LOMBARDOZZI / Ralph Capone
NOLAN LYONS / Enoch Thompson (young)
KELLY MACDONALD / Margaret Thompson
BORIS McGIVER / Sheriff Smith Johnson
VINCENT PIAZZA / Charlie "Lucky" Luciano
PAUL SPARKS / Mickey Doyle
TRAVIS TOPE / Joe Hardy
SHEA WHIGHAM / Eli Thompson
ANATOL YUSEF / Meyer Lansky
MICHAEL ZEGEN / Benny Siegel

DOWNTON ABBEY (PBS)
HUGH BONNEVILLE / Robert, Earl of Grantham
LAURA CARMICHAEL / Lady Edith Crawley
JIM CARTER / Mr. Carson
BRENDAN COYLE / Mr. Bates
MICHELLE DOCKERY / Lady Mary Crawley
KEVIN DOYLE /  Mr. Molesley
JOANNE FROGGATT / Anna Bates
LILY JAMES / Lady Rose
ROBERT JAMES-COLLIER / Thomas Barrow
ALLEN LEECH / Tom Branson
PHYLLIS LOGAN / Mrs. Hughes
ELIZABETH McGOVERN / Cora, Countess of Grantham
SOPHIE McSHERA / Daisy
MATT MILNE / Alfred
LESLEY NICOL / Mrs. Patmore
DAVID ROBB / Dr. Clarkson
MAGGIE SMITH / Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham
ED SPELEERS / Jimmy Kent
CARA THEOBOLD / Ivy
PENELOPE WILTON / Isobel Crawley

GAME OF THRONES (HBO)
JOSEF ALTIN / Pyp
JACOB ANDERSON / Grey Worm
JOHN BRADLEY / Samwell Tarly
DOMINIC CARTER / Janos Slynt
GWENDOLINE CHRISTIE / Brienne of Tarth
EMILIA CLARKE / Daenerys Targaryen
NIKOLAJ COSTER-WALDAU / Jaime Lannister
BEN CROMPTON / Dolorous Edd
CHARLES DANCE / Tywin Lannister
PETER DINKLAGE / Tyrion Lannister
NATALIE DORMER / Margaery Tyrell
NATHALIE EMMANUEL / Missandei
IAIN GLEN / Ser Jorah Mormont
JULIAN GLOVER / Pycelle
KIT HARINGTON / Jon Snow
LENA HEADEY / Cersei Lannister
CONLETH HILL / Varys
RORY McCANN / Sandor “The Hound” Clegane
IAN McELHINNEY / Ser Barristan Selmy
PEDRO PASCAL / Oberyn Martell
DANIEL PORTMAN / Podrick Payne
MARK STANLEY / Grenn
SOPHIE TURNER / Sansa Stark
MAISIE WILLIAMS / Arya Stark

HOMELAND (Showtime)
NUMAN ACAR / Hassan Haqqani
NAZANIN BONIADI / Fara Sherazi
CLAIRE DANES / Carrie Mathison
RUPERT FRIEND / Peter Quinn
RAZA JAFFREY / Aasar Khan
NIMRAT KAUR / Tasneem Qureishi
TRACY LETTS / Sen. Andrew Lockhart
MARK MOSES / Dennis Boyd
MICHAEL O'KEEFE / John Redmond
MANDY PATINKIN / Saul Berenson
LAILA ROBINS / Martha Boyd
MAURY STERLING / Max

HOUSE OF CARDS (Netflix)
MAHERSHALA ALI / Remy Danton
JAYNE ATKINSON / Catherine Durant
RACHEL BROSNAHAN / Rachel Posner
DEREK CECIL / Seth Grayson
NATHAN DARROW / Edward Meechum
MICHEL GILL / President Walker
JOANNA GOING / Tricia Walker
SAKINA JAFFREY / Linda Vasquez
MICHAEL KELLY / Doug Stamper
MOZHAN MARNÒ / Ayla Sayyad
GERALD McRANEY / Raymond Tusk
MOLLY PARKER / Jackie Sharp
JIMMI SIMPSON / Gavin Orsay
KEVIN SPACEY / Francis Underwood
ROBIN WRIGHT / Claire Underwood

Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series:

THE BIG BANG THEORY (CBS)
MAYIM BIALIK / Amy Farrah Fowler
KALEY CUOCO-SWEETING / Penny
JOHNNY GALECKI / Leonard Hofstadter
SIMON HELBERG / Howard Wolowitz
KUNAL NAYYAR / Rajesh Koothrappali
JIM PARSONS / Sheldon Cooper
MELISSA RAUCH / Bernadette Rostenkowski-Wolowitz

BROOKLYN NINE-NINE (FOX)
STEPHANIE BEATRIZ /  Det. Rosa Diaz
DIRK BLOCKER / Hitchcock
ANDRE BRAUGHER / Capt. Ray Holt
TERRY CREWS / Sgt. Terry Jeffords
MELISSA FUMERO / Det. Amy Santiago
JOE LO TRUGLIO / Det. Charles Boyle
JOEL McKINNON MILLER / Scully
CHELSEA PERETTI / Gina Linetti
ANDY SAMBERG / Det. Jake Peralta

MODERN FAMILY (ABC)
AUBREY ANDERSON EMMONS / Lily Tucker-Pritchett
JULIE BOWEN / Claire Dunphy
TY BURRELL / Phil Dunphy
JESSE TYLER FERGUSON / Mitchell Pritchett
NOLAN GOULD / Luke Dunphy
SARAH HYLAND / Haley Dunphy
ED O’NEILL / Jay Pritchett
RICO RODRIGUEZ / Manny Delgado
ERIC STONESTREET / Cameron Tucker
SOFIA VERGARA / Gloria Delgado-Pritchett
ARIEL WINTER / Alex Dunphy

ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK (NETFLIX)
UZO ADUBA / Suzanne "Crazy Eyes" Warren
JASON BIGGS / Larry Bloom
DANIELLE BROOKS / Tasha "Taystee" Jefferson
LAVERNE COX / Sophia Burset
JACKIE CRUZ / Flaca
CATHERINE CURTIN / Wanda Bell
LEA DELARIA / Carrie "Big Boo" Black
BETH FOWLER / Sister Ingalls
YVETTE FREEMAN / Irma
GERMAR TERRELL GARDNER / Charles Ford
KIMIKO GLENN / Brook Soso
ANNIE GOLDEN / Norma Romano
DIANE GUERRERO / Maritza Ramos
MICHAEL J. HARNEY / Ofc. Sam Healy
VICKY JEUDY / Janae Watson
JULIE LAKE / Angie Rice
LAUREN LAPKUS / Susan Fischer
SELENIS LEYVA / Gloria Mendoza
NATASHA LYONNE / Nicky Nichols
TARYN MANNING / Tiffany "Pennsatucky" Doggett
JOEL MARSH GARLAND / Scott O'Neill
MATT McGORRY / Ofc. John Bennett
ADRIENNE C. MOORE / Black Cindy
KATE MULGREW /  Galina "Red" Reznikov
EMMA MYLES / Leanne Taylor
JESSICA PIMENTEL / Maria Ruiz
DASCHA POLANCO / Dayanara Diaz
ALYSIA REINER / Natalie "Fig" Figueroa
JUDITH ROBERTS / Taslitz
ELIZABETH RODRIGUEZ / Aleida Diaz
BARBARA ROSENBLAT / Miss Rosa
NICK SANDOW / Joe Caputo
ABIGAIL SAVAGE / Gina
TAYLOR SCHILLING / Piper Chapman
CONSTANCE SHULMAN / Yoga Jones
DALE SOULES / Frieda
YAEL STONE / Lorna Morello
LORRAINE TOUSSAINT / Yvonne "Vee" Parker
LIN TUCCI / Anita DeMarco
SAMIRA WILEY / Poussey Washington

VEEP (HBO)
SUFE BRADSHAW / Sue Wilson
ANNA CHLUMSKY / Amy Brookheimer
GARY COLE / Kent Davidson
KEVIN DUNN / Ben Cafferty
TONY HALE / Gary Walsh
JULIA LOUIS-DREYFUS / Vice President Selina Meyer
REID SCOTT / Dan Egan
TIMOTHY SIMONS / Jonah Ryan
MATT WALSH / Mike McLintock

SAG AWARDS® HONORS FOR STUNT ENSEMBLES

Outstanding Action Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Comedy or Drama Series (6 nominees)
“24: LIVE ANOTHER DAY” (FOX)
“BOARDWALK EMPIRE” (HBO)
“GAME OF THRONES” (HBO)
“HOMELAND” (Showtime)
“SONS OF ANARCHY” (FX)
“THE WALKING DEAD” (AMC)

Writer-Director James Gunn Talks About His "Guardians of the Galaxy"

Walt Disney Home Entertainment provided the following question-and-answer interview with writer-director James Gunn as a promotion for its Blu-ray and DVD release of Marvel Studios' Guardians of the Galaxy.  "Q" is the anonymous questioner and "A" is Gunn:

AN INTERVIEW WITH WRITER-DIRECTOR JAMES GUNN FOR THE IN-HOME RELEASE OF GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY

Q: What were the biggest challenges in bringing Guardians Of The Galaxy to the screen?

A: The biggest challenge was definitely having to set up so many characters and so many foreign planets that nobody had ever heard of within the first 20 minutes and then get to the story. To have people feel comfortable with the plot and who the characters were while telling a fun, engaging story – that was the big challenge. I really look forward to doing the sequel because I won’t have to do all that heavy lifting. I can just focus on the characters and the adventures they go on.

Q: How would you sum up the movie yourself?

A: I see it as a space adventure but with a lot of comedy and a lot of heart. We didn’t restrain ourselves in any way, other than just keeping the characters as real as we possibly could.

Q: Was it tricky getting the tone of the film right in terms of not making the comedy too adult?

A: I was thinking that if I had kids, which I don’t - I have a dog but I don’t care what my dog sees – then what would I really care about them seeing? Would I care about them seeing a raccoon say ‘S**t’? Not really. There’s one risqué joke in there that no kid will understand and if they do they’ve been watching something else risqué, but mainly I was thinking about what would be OK for my nieces and nephews to see. But I don’t think I’ll ever write anything that’s not funny because it’s what comes naturally to me. I’m writing characters, I fall in love with those characters, and those characters make me laugh as they go about their lives. I’m just writing down what they’re doing as I see it happen in my brain.

Q: Were you heavily influenced by the Marvel comics when you made the movie?

A: Yeah, especially the 2008 team because Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning wrote the series. They’re the ones that chose the characters who are in the movie and the characters they chose were all sort of Z-grade comic book heroes, some of whom had been around for 30 years. Groot first appeared in 1963. So there was a lot of humor and a lot of interesting stuff in those comics, a lot of space fantasy, and so if there was anything that influenced us when we were making the movie it was Dan and Andy’s work. I’m very indebted to those guys. I’m also indebted to some of the Cosmic guys from the 1970s like Jim Starlin, who created whole universes that really began the Cosmic side of Marvel, and he created Thanos. There are a lot of those elements in the film.

Q: The humor in the film is very bold and brave, but did anybody try and rein you in?

A: It was the opposite, actually. There was a lot of humor in my first draft and I thought ‘This might be a little too out-there for Marvel and they might want to pull it back and make it a little straighter’. I actually brought that up in the first meeting because they really liked the script, which of course I was incredibly relieved to hear, and they actually said, ‘You can make it funnier if you want’. And that’s what I did.

Q: The film is sure to be a DVD and Blu-ray favorite. How do you think it will replay repeatedly?

A: There’s lots of little things in there that people might miss the first time round. There are all kinds of things from the Marvel universe. I was very specifically thinking of the R2-D2 model that Spielberg had on the spaceship in Close Encounters Of The Third Kind when I did the Collector’s Museum scene. If you freeze-frame it you’ll see all manner of references. We also have Cosmo popping up, who’s a character in the Guardians Of The Galaxy comics. He’s a Russian dog who speaks with a Russian accent and that was our nod to him. I really like Cosmo in the comics but he’s very hard to have in the movie because it’s difficult to have a live-action dog next to a CGI racoon due to the way fur looks on screen. In the comics they don’t get along at all, which is why they’re growling at each other in the film. Also, there are some deleted scenes and outtakes because we’d goof around on set a lot, and they’ll be on there.

Q: Did you already know Chris Pratt, who plays Peter Quill/Star-Lord, before making the movie?

A: No but through the process of making the film he’s the one I became closest to. We became very good friends and he moved next door to me when we were based in London so we could hang out all the time. I didn’t know him before but strangely we have a couple of close friends in common, which I think made us instantly trust each other because the friends in question are very good people. They’re guys that I like. They’re just good, basic dudes.

Q: When you’re working with a huge budget is it easy to get carried away and go ‘I want this and I want that’?

A: I don’t do that. I’m selective. For me having a big budget is definitely better than having a small budget simply because visually I can do what I want, but there are always strengths that come through limitations. On this movie, though, having the budget was great.

Q: How did you choose the songs for the soundtrack?

A: For me that was the most fun part probably of the entire film. When I first wrote my treatment for the movie I put a picture of a Sony Walkman on the top of it. That was probably the first sign that this was not the typical thing, but Kevin Feige [the producer and Marvel Studios president] loved that Sony Walkman and he was going, ‘I wonder if we can work that into the advertising somehow’. We didn’t do that in the end although it would have been cool. To me, the songs are the emotional center of the movie. They’re Peter Quill’s attachment to earth and his attachment to the mother he lost. The songs were very important and they were all baked into the script. The way I chose them is that I went and I made a playlist of 500 pop hits from the 1970s on my iTunes, then I whittled it down to about 100 songs that seemed tonally in line with what I saw in my head. With those 100 songs I would play them around the house and be inspired by them, then when I wrote the script I’d try to find the right song for the right moment, like when Peter is dancing through the temple. At first I wrote it with Hooked On A Feeling in mind then changed it to Come And Get Your Love halfway through. I’d try and find the right song for the right moment.

Q: Were there any instances where you were refused permission to use a song or it proved too expensive?

A: No, never. Part of it was probably the songs I was choosing. With the exception of David Bowie – and Moonage Daydream isn’t one of the more well-known David Bowie songs – they were mostly songs that people had probably heard but they probably didn’t know the title of the song and they probably didn’t know the artist. I wanted to get things that were familiar but not too familiar. It’s not like I was putting The Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin on the soundtrack. Because of that fortunate aesthetic choice it meant that the songs were not unaffordable.

Q: Why do you think Guardians has been such a big hit with audiences?

A: The thing that makes it so much fun is taking these outlandish situations and these outlandish characters and then having these aliens act like they’re real people. The things they’re arguing about are things you’d argue about with your friends in your apartment. That’s a big part of the fun of it. I also think it’s a reaction to a lot of the other blockbuster movies. We’re not taking ourselves too seriously and we’re not adding a sheen of darkness and broodiness over the movie to cover up the fact there aren’t real characterisations in there, and we’re not adding a string of explosions with no character moments in between – we’re creating something that is, first and foremost, about those characters. I love those characters with all my heart and I’ve put them on screen to the best of my ability.

Q: What were the big movie influences for you?

A: I thought of the movies I loved as a kid, like Raiders Of The Lost Ark, The Empire Strikes Back and Back To The Future. I wanted to create a movie that wasn’t necessarily like those movies but a movie that made me feel like those movies made me feel. That was the starting point.

Q: If you had the whole Marvel universe to choose from, who would you like to see in the sequel, even if it was just for a cameo?

A; [Laughs] I do have the whole Marvel universe to choose from. It depends on where we go with the sequel. At some point the Guardians will meet up with characters from other Marvel movies and that’s totally cool, but it’s not really my interest. My interest is to keep building Marvel Cosmic and to make Marvel Cosmic as cool as it possibly can be, and also to bring in other characters that I didn’t get to put in the movie. There are a lot of Marvel Cosmic characters I’m really into that I think would make great cinematic heroes or villains. The opportunity to create them for the screen is exciting to me.

Q: The cast has said you have a very definite idea of what you want. Is that something that stems from directing independent movies?

A: It’s just sort of how I create something. I need to have a very specific idea of where I’m going and [laughs] when I don’t, I fake it. It’s how I go about doing things and I really believe that Hitchcock idea that the movie is really made before you step on set. The majority of the filmmaking process is in pre-production. The more you’ve planned out the more freedom there is on set to find new stuff, to play around, find new jokes and let the actors kind of breathe – but it needs to come from a place where it’s completely structured.

Q: Hitchcock also said he preferred the preparation to the actual filming process, but it sounds like you had a great time making Guardians…

A: We had a great time and we really like each other. I always think back to something I heard Madeline Kahn say when I was really little. I don’t know why it stuck with me but it’s that Twinkies are delicious to eat but it doesn’t mean people who work in the Twinkie factory are having an especially great time. Obviously it meant something to me because I heard it when I was around seven years old and I still remember it. Maybe I even made part of it up. I don’t know. I think she said that. So making a movie is not easy but this one was fun.

Q: Chris Pratt says you had to tire him out to get what you wanted. Do you deliberately use tricks to get responses from your actors?

A: I don’t know if they’re tricks, it’s just a method and it isn’t necessarily true for everybody but Chris is such a cerebral guy. He doesn’t seem that cerebral, I know; he seems like a dummy. But he’s a really cerebral guy and he thinks a lot. One of the tricks with Chris is to keep pushing him and pushing him until he gets to the place where he’s just acting on instinct, then you capture this magic. Unfortunately I didn’t know that on the first day of shooting; it took me a little while to learn it. With Dave Bautista [who plays Drax The Destroyer], on the other hand, we understood each other from the moment we met each other so that was a little bit easier. With different actors at different times you get what makes them click.

Q: How important is it to cast name actors like Vin Diesel [Groot] and Bradley Cooper [Rocket] when they’re not actually appearing on screen?

A: I didn’t know Vin was going to be as important as he was. That’s the grace of God. We had other people doing the voice for a temporary track and it was fine and the character of Groot was really cool. Then Vin came in and what he did was kind of miraculous. The editor Fred Raskin and I were sitting in the room and we kept turning to each other because we couldn’t believe how much of a difference he made to that character. Suddenly Groot was complete and he was full and he was real, and that’s because of Vin’s voice. We had this secret script that had ‘I am Groot’ on one side and on the other side it had the lines he was actually saying. Sometimes he was cursing and sometimes he was saying a whole paragraph and at other times it was just one word. It’s amazing to me how when Vin says ‘I am Groot’ he gets across what he’s meant to be saying. We have Rocket in the movie interpreting what Groot’s saying and it’s funny, but we kind of get what he’s saying anyway. Having Bradley do Rocket was a little different because I knew Rocket was as important as anything in the movie. We auditioned a lot of people but it was difficult to find somebody who was able to do all the comedy that Rocket does and also be as emotionally grounded as Rocket needs to be. He really is a haunted little beast. He’s the least happy of all of the Guardians and I needed that on screen, and I also needed someone who was going to do a character, not just come in and do their celebrity voice over this animated raccoon. I needed someone who could create a character out of him and Bradley had the track record of being able to do all that. My first day of recording Bradley was maybe my happiest day making this movie, [laughs] and by happiness I mean relief because it’s pretty much how I experience pleasure.

Guardians Of The Galaxy is available on Blu-ray, Digital HD and Disney Movies Anywhere December 9, 2014

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