To no one’s surprise, filming Couples Retreat in Bora Bora doesn’t compare to the harsh winters of Toronto.

“It’s not really comparable, no,” admits Malin Akerman from her downtown Toronto hotel room. “Bora Bora was a lot warmer and instead of snow on the ground, we had blue water and it was paradise. It was incredible.”

But the idyllic setting of Couples Retreat wasn’t the only draw for the Torontonian actress, who jumped at the chance to work with hilarious stars like Vince Vaughn, Jason Bateman and Kristen Bell. The film, which comes out on DVD Friday, follows four couples who travel to the tropics for couples counseling, only to be caught off guard by the resort’s unorthodox methods – a set up that provides plenty of opportunity for improvisation.

“You look at the cast and you go, ‘Please. I would do that anywhere in the world,’” Malin adds. “The thing that I love about that, working with people who are a few steps ahead, it just ups your game. I always love having a challenge, and you are playing with the big guys.”

And the film wasn’t without other challenges, either: the 31-year-old actress admits she lost it a little bit when she had to swim with lemon sharks.

“When we went out to do that, our hearts were beating triple time,” Akerman remembers. “But once you get in there, it’s calm and beautiful, and sharks are beautiful, beautiful animals. And they’re more scared of you than you are of them – which, of course, you only learn once you’re in the water. But beforehand, I was freaking out, for sure.”

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amNewYork caught up with Malin Akerman and Kate Mara, two of the stars of the ensemble cast of “happythankyoumoreplease.”

Is this your first time at Sundance? How does it feel?
MA: I’ve been dying to come to Sundance since I started acting in LA. I’ve heard so much about it. It feels a little more relaxed. You can’t show up to the red carpet in a nice gown. I mean, it’s snowing outside.

KM: It’s not my first trip. I was here two years ago with a film I did called “Transsiberian.” All I ever do when I’m not working is see movies. I’m the biggest movie nerd.

What else do you like to do when you’re not working?
KM: I also love to shop, and I love to watch football (Kate’s grandfather was Giants founder Timothy Mara).

MA: I don’t do sports. I’m a foodie. That’s what I do. My husband is Italian, so that’s a big hobby of mine … cooking and finding new restaurants. I used to draw a lot. I do a lot of sketches of people, which I have to get back into.

Do you watch any Food Network shows?
MA: No, I really don’t. My husband has taught me a lot. He’s a fantastic cook. He’s Italian and a drummer, so there’s also a lot of music in our life. And that’s probably a big hobby, too. We go and see a lot of independent bands in LA.

Back to the film. Malin, you play Annie, who has alopecia. What did it feel like to be shown on camera without hair?
MA: Shaving off the eyebrows and wearing a bald cap was kind of freeing. It was the first time I looked in the mirror and saw somebody else. I felt like Annie became more of an interesting person because of her alopecia. It was more about finding that character than even the lack of hair.

Kate, you blew us away with your singing voice in the movie. Are you a trained singer? KM: When I was 9, I decided I wanted to be in musicals. My mom loves old films and musicals like “Oklahoma!” and every Judy Garland film you could watch, so that’s what I grew up watching. That was my dream. And, eventually, when I started doing films, there was never really an opportunity for me to sing. So I haven’t sung in such a long time that it felt like I was 14 again. It’s such a different thing to sing in a film than it is to act. For me, I had to be much more vulnerable.

From am New York

Fans of “Arrested Development” have been waiting patiently for a movie version of the television series since the show’s finale in 2006. If word on the street is to be believed, series creator Mitch Hurwitz is hard at work on the screenplay — it’s just a matter of finishing the thing and getting the cast members on the same schedule.

There’s at least one “Arrested Development” alumnus itching to get back into his manchild clothing and false limb — none other than Buster himself, actor Tony Hale. When MTV News spoke with the comedian at the Sundance Film Festival, Hale said that he and every other cast member from the series are eagerly awaiting the script.

“I actually talked to Mitch last week and he’s writing it, and [the cast members] are all on board,” said Hale. “We’re all stoked to do it.”

While Hale is eager to resume his dysfunctional relationship with the rest of the Bluth family, he also feels that waiting could be a good thing.

“I want [Hurwitz] to take his time, because the writing is such a surprise,” he said. “One week you go, okay, a seal is going to bite off your hand. By the way, Liza Minnelli is going to be your girlfriend. There are all these surprises and we want those surprises, so I want to give him as much time [as he needs].”

Speaking of Minnelli — who played Buster’s longtime lover Lucille Two on the show — Hale hopes that she’ll return for the film.

“I would love for Liza to come back,” he said. “She is such a dear. She would sit and tell us stories about her life — it was awesome!”

But Buster might have other plans. During the interview, Hale’s “HappyThankYouMorePlease” co-star Malin Akerman declared her desire to have a role in the “Arrested Development” movie, which Hale was more than happy to accommodate.

“Malin’s going to be Buster’s girlfriend,” he joked. “He’s going from Liza Minnelli to Malin Akerman.”

As far as where he wants Buster to go in the film, Hale said he only had one suggestion for Hurwitz.

“I did mention that I want Buster to be on ‘American Idol,’” he said. “But he didn’t like that idea.”

Malin Akerman is that rare kind of woman who can look smoking hot while making you laugh at the same time. Her performance opposite Ben Stiller in The Heartbreak Kid as a psycho woman who marries Stiller’s character on a whim was enough to convince us that there was a prettier, funnier Jennifer Aniston in Tinseltown. Maybe it stems from her Canadian roots — our neighbors to the North are known for their self-deprecating humor — but Akerman has no qualms about playing the girl who doesn’t get the guy in the end, but makes you laugh the whole time she’s doing it (see 27 Dresses, The Proposal and The Heartbreak Kid). In real life, unfortunately, she did get the guy; the 31-year-old actress has been married to Italian musician Roberto Zincone since 2007.

Malin Akerman will go down in history, along with Emmanuelle Chriqui and Kevin Connolly, for giving HBO one of the network’s finest moments: the Entourage threesome scene. Akerman talked exclusively to AskMen.com about her continued friendship with threesome pal Chriqui, her upcoming movies The Romantics and HappyThankYouMorePlease, tattoos, and our list of the Top 99 Most Desirable Women of 2010.
Q1: AskMen.com : You are one of AskMen.com’s Women of the Year for 2010. The winners are selected by our readers, so is there anything that you would like to say to them? Malin Akerman : Now, is it true that Emmanuelle Chriqui is No. 1?
Q2: AM : It is! MA : Yes! First of all then, I would like to say to the readers, thank you. I am obviously extremely flattered that they thought of me. And I also want to comment and say that I think they did right by choosing Emmanuelle who I got to have a threesome with — just to make the boys jealous, if they remember from Entourage. So boys, good choice on your No. 1. She is an awesome person and a hot momma.
Q3: AM : She told me this week when I spoke to her – after I told her that you were also on the list: “That girl is the sh*t!” MA : Em is awesome! We just literally had dinner two nights ago. She is the sweetest thing in the world. She’s a great choice. She’s beautiful inside and out.
Q4: AM : She was telling me this amazing story of you two becoming friends and knowing that you were going to stay friends, and that you invited her to your wedding in Italy soon after you met on the set of Entourage. MA : Yes, I did! From day one, we just loved each other. It was just crazy because we both grew up in Canada in Toronto. We have six degrees of separation: I was in love with her boyfriend. I went to the same school as her boyfriend, and she went to a different school. He was a guy who was two years older than me, and I had the biggest crush on him. I always wondered why he wouldn’t give me the time of day, and then I find out years and years later that he was dating Emmanuelle. I thought, “No wonder he wouldn’t look the other way!” It was so random and funny. We definitely did become instant friends. And — you know — once you have a fake threesome with someone you become friends for life.
Q5: AM : He says hi too. I wondered with you being in so many comedies if that was something you pursued or if that was something that just happened? MA : It was something that just happened. Once you do a film that people see, of course they kind of put you in that genre and know that you can do it. Until you prove otherwise, I think those are the kind of scripts that come my way. That’s why I was seeking to do something other than comedy, which is why I hit two birds with one stone when I got Watchmen because it was a really amazing genre film and it was also a serious film. And this year I have been in three independent films that are not comedy to just exercise that muscle and show people that I can do a little bit of everything. I’d love to do all types of film, not just comedy, although I love comedy.
Q6: AM : I saw that you have two films at Sundance. MA : I do! I have one that’s called HappyThankYouMorePlease and the other one is called The Romantics. They’re both really amazing films — I hope they will be after the editing. I just love them and the casts and the characters. I am heading down there this week. I am actually on the way to the airport. I have been in Toronto doing some press for the Couples Retreat DVD release, so I’m headed back to L.A. and then going to Sundance right away.
Q7: AM : I heard that you were actually a frontwoman for a band. Is that something you still do on the side? MA : It’s not current, no. It was many years ago. All the boys who were in the band are all doing there own projects now. It was amazing and fun, but I don’t think I’m ever going to be a singer. I tried, and it’s not really — thank God for Auto-Tune.
Q8: AM : How did that happen then, that you became part of a band? MA : Really randomly. I had done a tiny little indie film in L.A. the first year that I was out there. The guitarist of the band was doing some editing for the movie. We met, and he told me that he was a guitarist. I opened my big mouth and said: “Well, who doesn’t fantasize about being a rock star? That’s so cool.” And he said: “Actually, I am kind of in between projects, so why don’t you help me write some songs?” He’s Italian, and I helped [the band] write some lyrics. He said: “Why don’t you try singing it?” We started writing some songs and a producer got interested. He already had the band with his drummer and his bassist. Instead of walking away with a record deal, I walked away with a husband… which is the drummer, not the guitarist.
Q9: AM : You seem like the type of person who does things on a whim. MA : Yeah, it just kind of happened that way. It’s a nice way to live life for a while and then after a minute you go: “I hope something catches on so I can start making some money.” Thank God the acting picked up and I got some amazing opportunities.
Q10: AM : You started off obviously as a model. What made you make the crossover from modeling to acting? MA : Modeling was never anything that was a career choice. I did catalog work in Toronto to make money so that I could go to school. I was going to university studying child psychology because I wanted to become a child psychologist. I didn’t think I was going to be a model or actress or anything, but when you do modeling you also get sent out for TV commercials. They then asked if I wanted to go out for some guest star roles. I saw the dollar signs and I thought, “Great, I can pay for my university.” It just kind of caught me off guard that I loved it. I thought, “I’m a little burned out on school so why not give this a shot?” It worked out. It didn’t happen overnight.
Q11: AM : What was your first real role? MA : The funny thing is that I actually did a pilot in Canada for an MTV show with Rachel McAdams a long, long time ago. It never aired or got picked up, so you’ll never see it. Nobody ever will, which is probably a good thing! But I am so happy for her that she is doing so well. She is such an awesome girl.
Q12: AM : Who is actually the funniest real-life costars who made being onset awesome? MA : Funnily enough, I will have to say Billy Crudup who is not a comedian. He is super witty and his humor is dry and sarcastic. He made a lot of us laugh on set.
Q13: AM : I read somewhere that you’d have a sleeve of tattoos if you could. MA : Yes!
Q14: AM : How many do you have at the moment? MA : I have two, and I think I am going to have to stop there because it’s really hard when doing films to cover them up. It’s the extra amount of hours in the make-up chair just to cover them. It’s not worth it. I prefer my sleep over sitting in a make-up chair. But if I were in any other business that allowed me to have more tattoos, I would. I’m a little obsessed. I think they’re pretty amazing, especially when they are beautiful and well done.
Q15: AM : You have one that’s a lotus leaf. You were raised Buddhist? MA : Yeah. The lotus is a really cool flower. It grows in the mud without roots, so it is a symbol of you creating your own life and your own karma without having to tie it back to your roots and past and not letting that hold you back. It’s a nice meaning.
Q16: AM : And can you tell us a little bit about what The Romantics is about? MA : Yeah! I like to compare it to The Big Chill many years ago. It’s a group of college friends who get together for somebody’s wedding. It takes place the night before the wedding at the rehearsal dinner. It’s a night of fun and drinks and a lot of secrets that come out and a lot of hook-ups. It’s a debaucherous evening based on Galt Niederhoffer’s book The Romantics.

From Askmen.com

Malin was interviewed by Artisan News Service recently – you can view the interview at Youtube.

Hot actress of 2009, Malin Akerman, talks about the holidays, her favorite place to be, what it’s like on Sweden, and her dearest memory.

Malin Akerman split her childhood between Toronto and Sweden before becoming a model at 17, which eventually led to a career in acting.

Akerman’s profile has been steadily rising with high profile roles in films like The Heartbreak Kid and Watchmen. She has split her time between comedies and drama, which the young actress relishes.

“I don’t have a preference to be honest with you. Comedy and drama are so different and I enjoy doing everything as an actor,” Akerman told Metro. “As long as it’s a challenge, I’ll try it all. Bring it on.”

Akerman’s latest venture is a project from Vince Vaughn and Jon Favreau (who burst onto the screen with Swingers in 1996). The pair co-wrote and star in Couples Retreat — opening next week — a comedy about a group of married couples who embark on a tropical vacation only to unwittingly end up in a weeklong series of skill-building exercises and therapy sessions.

For Akerman the film was an opportunity to work with two comic minds that she has long admired. “I heard that there was a film being made with Vince Vaughn and I knew that they were looking for their girls,” said Akerman. “I got my hands on the script and thought it was a really great concept.”

Malin landed the job and soon found herself on a plane to Bora Bora. Beyond the tropical location there was still a film to be made and one starring some pretty sharp comic minds. This led to a great deal of improvisation on set, which Akerman enjoys.

“I’ve always liked improv. I think as long as you know your character and your goal in the scene, improv is easy.”

Especially when you’re working with masters like Vince Vaughn or Jon Favreau. Once they start going at it, you just want to sit back and enjoy the show.

“I am the worst giggler. You don’t want to ruin somebody else’s take, but when you’re working with this group of people it is not easy to keep a straight face,” says Akerman. “I’ll felt so bad because I just couldn’t do it.”

From Metro News

They met as struggling actors in 1993 while working on Rudy and three years later, Vince Vaughn and Jon Favreau were ubiquitously known by their clever catch phrases and quotable lines from their low-budget hit Swingers.

The two have been inseparable ever since and have corroborated on a string of projects including Universal Pictures new comedy, Couples Retreat.

When Vaughn came up with the idea, he took the concept to his longtime friend and co-star “Favs” who loved the script about a group of friends all having martial problems. While some issues are more drastic than others with the couples, Vaughn said “the fun is in seeing all of their relationships put under a microscope.”

ComingSoon.net talked to Vaughn and his on-screen wife Malin Akerman about the film:

Q: When you guys are shooting in Bora Bora, can you catch any sports or is it that cut off from the rest of the world?
Vince Vaughn: It’s pretty cut off.
Malin Akerman: The internet was like, what, snail speed. If you got one email a day you could open it maybe, maybe. It’s kind of nice though.
Vaughn: All you could do was actually get outside and enjoy the beautiful weather. I’d be in the room, going, “I can’t believe I can’t get this game on.”

Q: It’s just like your character in the movie; he’s upset that he can’t see the playoffs?
Vaughn: Really, for me, if you follow a team and you’re in any of that fantasy stuff it makes it fun to watch a lot of the games. I enjoy doing that on Sundays for sure, and especially football and college football I like. But I was really thankful to be there. The place really is breathtaking, unbelievably so. It’s just amazing.
Akerman: It’s paradise.
Vaughn: I did a lot of stuff that I never would’ve done. I always think of this nowadays for all of us, it’s like you track our DNA from wherever we’re from and to think that you’d be in a place like that at some point there’s like no way ever that that would happen. Thanks to those boys out of Ohio with that flying machine.

Q: Were there things that guys went off and did together and then things that the girls went off and did together?
Akerman: In real life? Yes.
Vaughn: Fishing and sewing. That’s just an old expression. You go to a barbecue or something and the guys are always huddling and talking about sports or whatever, and you say, “Oh, you’re breaking off into fishing and sewing.”
Akerman: A lot of the girls sat by the people and had maybe a piña colada or two at the end of the day, sat at the restaurant. Kristen Bell is quite crafty. She’s like a little Martha Stewart and so she’d literally call me in my room and say, “Do want to come up for pudding?” I’d be like, “You have pudding?” She had everything. She had Scrabble. So it was a lot of board games and a lot of that kind of stuff. I don’t know what you guys did, what the boys did.
Vaughn: I spent a lot of time with my fiancée. We had a lot of fun which was good and then my sister was there and my nephew was there.
Akerman: We had that poker day.
Vaughn: We had a poker day which was really fun.
Akerman: It rained and so we could do nothing that day but poker.
Vaughn: The jet skis were really [fun] going and doing that. We went and swam with the sharks which was crazy. That was great to do. I never thought I’d do that. I was always afraid of that, anything in the ocean because I grew up around lakes. So we did that and that was good.

Q: What kind of sharks?
Akerman: Black Tip Sharks and Lemon Sharks. Lemon Sharks get up to nine feet which is bigger than me for sure. It’s a little bit nerve racking.
Vaughn: It’s just like anything, if you’re not used to something it seems intimidating and then once you do it you got really comfortable and we just swam around them.
Akerman: Yeah, after a while.
Vaughn: So it was really cool to go into the ocean like that, being able to dive. I’d never done stuff like that before. It was amazing.

Q: Was it your idea or Jon’s to do a comedy on an island?
Vaughn: It was my idea. Location, a nice location. I’m a slave to my craft. Have to go to Bora Bora. I think that it’s just in your life, whatever priorities you’re thinking about and I just thought that would be kind of fun, doing a movie, not just a romantic comedy that’s only about one relationship but about couples. It’s about your group of friends, right? We all have our friends. If you have a really close guy friend, you love it if the girls really get along and vice versa but I think if you have a good girlfriend you really want the guys to get along because you want to spend time with your friends. So, inevitably you end up with a group of couples that’ll come over for barbecues or you go do stuff together. The fun of that is that the guys do stuff and the girls do stuff. The guys can do something that they want to do during the day and the girls can go do what they want to do and then you come back together at night. It’s sort of about that group experience. There hadn’t been a movie that I’d seen any time recently that really dealt with couples. The challenge of writing it and editing was that you really wanted to give every couple its due. There’s really no B story. Every couple has a beginning, a middle and an end and a real arc. The final conclusion, if you will, when they’re all sort of coming together, that editing style came out of necessity because you didn’t want to just sit through linear conclusions of each scene although they were all well acted and well done. You actually sit through one and then you’re waiting to sit through the second and then third and so we had to find a way to sort of inter-cut that for that to happen. So I like the dynamic of how the guys are and you seek advice from your friends and how the girls are and then how the couples interact. I think that most people have all the qualities in them to smaller degrees. The funny thing is that everyone sort of sees themselves more as our couple but then you have friends who go, “No. You’re much more like that couple.” No one sees themselves as those other more extreme versions, but we all, sadly, or not sadly but just humanely more of those than we’d want to recognize.

Q: You and Jon were kind of in reversed roles from “Made” and “Swingers.” He was more of the party guy and you were more of the straight laced guy.
Vaughn: Yeah. I think I had done things recently, like I guess with “Crashers” that’s true. Although in “The Breakup” he’s more of the comic relief. He’s a bit more extreme. He wants to put a hit on that guy and he’s more of a kind of a street guy, a neighborhood guy. He’s more grounded than that, but it’s fun for me where Favreau was concerned. I met him as a comedic actor doing “Rudy” and Jon is so funny that it’s fun for me to let him come in and be an actor and give him a part where he can be funny and just sort of extreme because doing comedic roles, sit second and have the ability to get to do just the comedy versions. A lot of times the protagonist or the lead will the burden of staying grounded so that the audience can see the movie through their eyes but a character like Trent is allowed more freedom to be out there because he’s the comic relief. So for me it’s just fun to watch Favreau in that role as it was in “Breakup.” I thought that he was really great and hilarious and in this one, too, he’s so driven and ultimately so likable because Favs is very funny and also has a real warmth to him.

Q: Was there a lot of improv stuff left on the cutting room floor?
Akerman: Yes. I think there was so much improv that we could probably do a whole other film on the side, but it was great. That was sort of some of the fun parts where you have your character, your intention, your goal for the scene and then it was really cool working with these guys because of the improv. I always love it. I think it’s so much fun and so great. Although, once him and Jon start you’re like, “Holy sh*t.” You can tell that there’s some history there because you guys together are like husband and wife. You guys should’ve been a couple.

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