I have updated the photo gallery tonight with 210 HQ and MQ images of Malin Akerman from the most recent events that she has attended!
GALLERY LINKS:
Malin Akerman Source > Public Appearances > From 2011 > Coachella Valley Music And Arts Festival – Day 3
Malin Akerman Source > Public Appearances > From 2011 > Premiere Of “The Bang Bang Club” At The 2011 Tribeca Film Festival
Malin Akerman Source > Professional Images > Photo Shoots > 2011 – “The Bang Bang Club” Portraits (Tribeca)
Given the recent deaths of photojournalists Tim Hetherington and Chris Hondros, who were killed while covering the battles between rebels and Libyan government forces, the subject matter of the new film “The Bang Bang Club” could not be more timely.
The film revolves around the real-life story of four combat photographers who risked their lives to capture the brutality and violence associated with the first free elections in post-apartheid South Africa in the early ’90s.
MTV News recently spoke to co-star Malin Akerman about the incredible circumstances now surrounding the film.
“It’s crazy. No matter what, whether it be now or two years ago, the untimely death of Tim Hetherington and Chris [Hondros] is sad and really awful and incredible that it happened as this movie is coming out,” she said, adding the fact that no matter where we are in time, there are always civil and religious wars raging in the world.
“It’s never the wrong moment to shed light on it,” Akerman said. “It is incredible how relevant … this film is to what is going on in Libya. I hope people come out of this film and go, ‘All right, let’s look overseas and see what’s happening and see what we can do.’ ”
Speaking to what motivates this specific “breed” of journalists to consistently put themselves in harm’s way, Akerman said that it’s not just about capturing unforgettable events on film, but also about the adrenaline rush.
“They’re crazy. They really are adrenaline junkies,” she said. “I just saw Greg Marinovich, who is one of the photographers [who inspired the film], and he walks around at all times with two cameras. … He never leaves home without his cameras. It’s a limb for them, it’s an extension of their bodies, it’s what they live for.”
Behind every great man, there’s a great woman, right? Well, that’s certainly the case with the Bang Bang Club. While the real life photographer foursome risked their lives snapping images in the violent townships of South Africa at the end of Apartheid in the early 90s, photo editor Robin Comley held things together at the office, ensuring their work was seen and also just keeping them as level-headed as possible while working in the midst of such a devastating environment.
In the film version of the Bang Bang Club’s story, Malin Akerman assumes the role of Robin Comley. The film kicks off as Greg Marinovich (Ryan Phillippe) is inducted into the group and hits the dirt alongside Kevin Carter, Joao Silva and Ken Oosterbroek (Taylor Kitsch, Neels Van Jaarsveld, Frank Rautenbach). Together they were seemingly unstoppable, dashing into the line of fire with no-fear attitudes and catching a slew of visually stimulating, some award winning, images. However, ultimately the danger and horror of the situation seeps in and the group is rattled emotionally and physically.
Akerman has revisited an old role in The Heartbreak Kid and brought a graphic novel character to life in Watchmen, but there’s really nothing like portraying a real person on the big screen. Akerman was fortunate enough not only to meet Robin Comley, but to shoot the film in the same exact location in which the real events took place. Just before the film’s Tribeca Film Festival debut, Akerman sat down to tell us all about her experience in South Africa, from working with Comley to diving into the local culture, shooting a particularly emotional scene in the film and much more. Hear it all for yourself in the video interview below.
A trailer for “The Bang Bang Club” has just been released! You can check it out below.
Tribeca Film has snapped up U.S. rights to “The Bang Bang Club,” the drama based on the book about the lives of photojournalists covering the last days of Apartheid.
Ryan Phillippe, Malin Akerman and Taylor Kitsch are among the cast of the pic from writer-director Steven Silver. Movie bowed at the Toronto Film Festival earlier this year.
Distribution platform Tribeca Film is an arm of Tribeca Enterprises, which also operates the Tribeca Film Fest. Company aims to release “Bang Bang” theatrically, as well as via VOD and other platforms, in the second quarter of 2011.
“Bang Bang” is produced by Daniel Iron, Lance Samuels and Adam Friedlander for Foundry Films/Out of Africa. Distribution deal was negotiated by Adam Sloan and Randy Manis of Tribeca with Iron and Entertainment One’s Charlotte Mickie.
Tribeca Film was launched earlier this spring, in advance of the 2010 Tribeca fest. Pickups since have included “Road, Move” and “The Immaculate Conception of Little Dizzle.”
After roles in Couples Retreat, The Proposal and 27 Dresses, Malin Akerman knows the safe career move would be to stick to the rom-coms.
“I’m a little more at home in comedy,” a red carpet-ready Akerman told QMI Agency in a Toronto hotel room Wednesday. “But that’s not the biggest challenge.”
It is this thinking that made her lunge at the chance to play photo editor Robin Comley in director Steven Silver’s apartheid drama, The Bang Bang Club.
Based on the true story of four fearless photographers who set out to capture the final bloody days of apartheid in South Africa, Akerman morphs seamlessly into a character doing everything she can to publish the horrific pictures and bring attention to a civil war that nearly tore a nation apart.
Led by Greg Marinovich (played in the film by Ryan Phillippe), the photographers earned the moniker ‘bang bang club’ because they preferred to shoot photos of the violence up close. But a seeming indifference to the politics behind the war shrouded their work in controversy.
“They took these pictures to make sure the rest of the world saw them,” says Akerman, defending the photojournalists. “It is controversial. People are going to say, ‘They’re a–holes; they didn’t help people out.’ But instead of helping one person, they helped thousands by taking these pictures so that the rest of the world could see and get involved.
“In my eyes, they’re heroes.”
The Bang Bang Club shows a different side of Akerman and seems out of step with the big studio pictures she has aligned herself with over the past few years. And while she loves making mainstream blockbusters, the 32-year-old beauty has specifically sought out independent films in the past 12 months to test her artistic boundaries.
In addition to The Bang Bang Club, she has a low-budget comedy, Happythankyoumoreplease, due out next year.
“Finding really challenging characters is a lot easier when you do independent films because they are so much more diverse,” she says.
“In the instance of Bang Bang Club, to be able to portray real people and meet them and go to South Africa and the places where everything happened was incredible. It was an extremely emotional journey and a lot of pressure. But to me, it was such a huge opportunity to be part of this film.”
It never crossed her mind that her glamorous image might be incongruous with the gutsy, no-nonsense editor she had to play.
“I feel like I’m still testing myself when I do things that are outside of the comedy realm. I convince directors that I can play a role and when I get home I’m like, ‘What did I just do?’ But I want to. I want to challenge myself and see how far I can go.
“That’s why I’m doing films like The Bang Bang Club. I don’t know if I can do it, but if I can convince the director and get in there and try it, I can at least see what happens.”
If it wasn’t going to be nerve-wracking enough for Malin Akerman to watch her performance in “The Bang Bang Club” during the premiere at TIFF tonight, she also has to worry about what her friends and family are going to think.
“I haven’t seen the film so it’s one of those, I hope I don’t have to walk the walk of shame on the way out,” admits the actress during a round table interview Wednesday afternoon.
“I have some of my closest girlfriends from high school who are coming, my brother, my mother, my step dad, it’s just going to be great to see everyone. It’s really special you know.
“The Bang Bang Club, ” which also stars Ryan Phillippe and Taylor Kitsch, chronicles the true story of four young photographers in South Africa who risked their lives to document the final bloody days of apartheid. Akerman plays a photo editor at the local paper who pushes to get their photos published, despite pressure from the government to censor them.
Born in Sweden, Akerman was raised in Niagara on the Lake and attended high school in St. Catherine’s, Ont., and Toronto. She also studied psychology at York University.
“I lived here for 22 years and always watched the Toronto film fest from the outside and I always wanted to be a part of it and now I finally get to go.”
Now living in L.A., Akerman says she never attended TIFF while she lived in Toronto because she was always busy with school and the film industry wasn’t on her radar. That all changed when she started doing some commercials and landed some guest roles on TV shows .
“I did that here for about a year to two years before I ended up going to L.A. and that’s when I decided, ‘Oh this is fun. It’s kind of like psychology but more selfish. I’ll give it a shot and then go help others later,’” she recounts with a laugh.