Earlier this week, Malin Akerman was at the 2011 Wiesenthal Center National Tribute Dinner which honored her upcoming “Rock of Ages” co-star, Tom Cruise. I have just added 47 HQ and MQ photos from the event into our photo gallery!
GALLERY LINKS:
Malin Akerman Source > Public Appearances > From 2011 > 2011 Wiesenthal Center National Tribute Dinner Honoring Tom Cruise
Malin Akerman, who will be seen in the upcoming motion pictures “Medallion,” “Wanderlust” and “Bang Bang Club,” has been cast in the Warner Bros./New Line feature film Rock of Ages, according to Deadline.com.
Akerman will play the role of journalist Constance, who plans to write an expose on rocker Stacee Jaxx (Tom Cruise). She and Cruise will duet on the Foreigner song “I Want To Know What Love Is.”
Adam Shankman will direct and choreograph the film, which, according to a previous Variety report, will begin shooting May 19 in Florida.
The film will also feature Russell Brand as Lonny, Diego González Boneta as Drew, Alec Baldwin as Dennis, Tom Cruise as Stacee Jaxx, Julianne Hough as Sherrie Christian, Mary J. Blige as Justice, Paul Giamatti as the manager of the rock band, Bryan Cranston as The Mayor and Catherine Zeta-Jones as the wife of the mayor. The motion picture, based on the Broadway musical of the same name, will arrive in movie theatres around the country June 1, 2012.
Malin Akerman is featured in a new video called “Celebrity Photo PSA”. Its a must see – very funny!
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.”
Malin Akerman has famously replaced Lindsay Lohan in Inferno: a Linda Lovelace Story, Matthew Wilder’s biopic on the late porn star. It’s a role that will call for Akerman to show it all and do it all, a brave and challenging step for the 33-year-old Canadian actress with a sweet voice and angelic face. Akerman first caught our attention as Laurie Jupiter/Silk Spectre II in the 2009 film version of the graphic novel Watchmen — and what a discovery! Sinfully gorgeous, Akerman is also a gifted actress who suddenly has the world at her feet. Since Watchmen, Akerman signed on to a whopping 12 films.
Her latest, The Bang Bang Club, which hit theaters on April 22, is a drama set against the backdrop of racial violence in South Africa as Nelson Mandela took power and shattered apartheid. With her role in the film, Akerman dispels the misconception that she’s all looks, and her performance as a high-powered newspaper photo editor has the gravity and depth of a veteran actress.
Akerman and costar Ryan Phillippe shot scenes in the actual townships ravaged by violence, and Akerman says she was surprised by the depth of her emotional response to it. We spoke with Akerman in Toronto.
The diversity of your roles is exciting.
Malin Akerman : It’s incredible. It’s been really fun trying to create or mold my career and figure out how to make it a long one and not get stuck in a pocket and find really interesting and challenging characters. I find it easier when you do independent films. There are just so many diverse parts. A lot of big studio films, which are fun and great, tend to have a formula, and you’ve seen it before, and it’s a new version of it. But with independent films, you get the opportunity to be more creative. For Bang Bang I got to meet people and portray them and go to South Africa and go to the places where everything happened. You’re part of historical events. It was incredible and incredibly challenging and an extremely emotional journey, and it was a lot of pressure because you want to portray these characters properly. It was a huge opportunity to be able to do this film.
What’s the best advice you received for playing your character in The Bang Bang Club?
MA : Robin Comley, my character, is actually a mix of two characters, but mainly I got the chance to sit down with her and she was a big part of it. Our first meeting was three hours, and she showed me pictures and shared her stories of her emotional connection to each of the boys [combat photographers Greg Marinovich, Joao Silva, Kevin Carter and Ken Oosterbroek] and what it was losing them in the moments like when Greg gets shot and is going to the hospital. It’s those things I asked about, saying, “So you were a mess and crying?” And she said, “No, I was cool as a cucumber. I had to keep it together for everybody.” It was like, OK, I would have gone a different way with it, so it was really nice to have that information because then you get to depict her properly and the real emotion of those moments. I’ve never gone through that — my friend getting shot and the others dying and seeing it. She’s right. You do have to keep it together. It was helpful to have her around to get the details of how she felt and what happened.
Were you surprised how the paper censored the pictures her photographers captured?
MA : It was a difficult time, and controversial. She had a lot of visits from the police threatening to arrest the boys because there were pictures of crime scenes. It was a touchy subject. She fought hard to get what she could print. There is a scene where she convinces her boss to print them. “We have to do it,” she says, and there were a lot of moments like that for her, but some had to be censored. But I think she did a great job and gave us an idea of what was going on over there.
Were you familiar with this story of the Bang Bang Club?
MA : Not this particular story when I got the script. The apartheid and certain pieces of history in Africa and the massacres that have gone on, I think everyone is familiar with it in general. But I hadn’t heard of the Bang Bang Club. I was on this story from the beginning. I was one of the first people [producer and writer Steven Silver] met with and decided to sign on. We had this for about a year and a half, trying to put it together. And I had a lot of conversations with activists. I became familiar with that journey over a year and a half, reading the book and then eventually meeting the people.
Ryan Phillippe and Steven Silver say their favorite scene is of you having the meltdown in the camp holding the light for the camera (on the actual site of massacres in the townships).
MA : That was really lovely of them to say. I actually couldn’t stay — my body started shaking, I literally said “I can’t do it,” and I stormed out because it was a moment of realizing that this really happened, and when you think of that in that moment, it’s disgusting and revolting and horrific, and, literally, emotions take over your physical body, and I couldn’t stay. I said, “I’m sorry, Steven. I have to get out of that room. I can’t stay.” And he said “It’s OK.” It was just this was a real moment. Holy sh*t, this is what really happened to these guys, and this is what they did every day — they took pictures of dead children and people burning alive, and seeing the videos, we had to watch men screaming to their death. It was insane. Insane.
They had to forget the real people and just take the photos.
Malin Akerman : In hindsight, being an outsider looking in and meeting these guys — that’s all a person can do. That’s what they were able to do for the world was take these pictures and make sure the rest of the world saw them in order to provoke people to get involved and send peace troops over. What’s that saying? Instead of giving people fish, you teach them to fish. It’s controversial. Instead of helping one person, they helped thousands and risked their lives to get these pictures so the rest of the world could see and get involved, and, eventually, they did, and it came to an end. In my eyes, they are heroes. There were people who worked at hospitals, and we needed everyone to make the war end.
Robin, your character, was usually very cool about it, until she saw it up close.
MA : People are all vulnerable in so many different ways. We go into survival mode a lot of times. I’m queasy. My friend’s little brother broke his arm, and the bone was sticking out, and I almost fainted. And it was just us three, and she took charge. There was no one else to do it. Anyone in that situation would do the same. I have a small brother who fell down and was in terrible pain, and instead of going crazy and losing it, you take charge and take him to the hospital. That’s where humans in general relate to one another, and that’s what I felt with Robin. How was it to see the pics when they first came in? I asked Robin how she could handle it. She said, “We can. We all can. You know that this is all you can do. It’s an important job, and eventually you become numb to it.” She’s a really humble person. I told her she was my hero. She’s incredible — soft and vulnerable, but she is strong when she needs to be and very opinionated.
What’s Robin doing now?
MA : She’s still a photo editor at a newspaper.
What’s next for you?
MA : I just finished a film with Bruce Willis and Forest Whitaker [Catch .44]. It’s sort of the same tone as No Country for Old Men. I’m a drug mule for Bruce. It’s a crazy story, really cool and dark. And I worked on Wanderlust last year, with Jennifer Aniston, and that was a whole different direction. We live on a commune, and I’m a yoga chick, one of the kooky characters on this commune. That and a film I’m doing in the spring with Ethan Hawke called The Numbers Station. I’m really excited. It’s a crazy thriller.
What genre do you like best?
MA : I love them all. One that is a little more close to home is comedy. It’s not the biggest challenge, though every character in every film has challenges. I’m still testing myself outside the comedy reel. I convince the director I can do it, and I go home and say, “Can I do this?” I want to challenge myself and see how far I can go. I just finished Happythankyoumoreplease, and my character has alopecia, so I had the shaved eyebrows, bald cap. Those ones I don’t know I can do, but if I can convince the director, I’ll get in there and make it happen.
You didn’t start out to act, did you?
MA : I went to university to be a psychologist. I always did TV commercials and made great money to put myself through school. That became guest starring roles on TV shows. I did that in Toronto for two years before I went to LA — kind of like psychology but more selfish! I can go help others later. It was the right fit. It was a three-year struggle, but now, well, I made five movies in 2010.
Who do you want to work with?
MA : I want to work with great directors Alfonso Cuaron, the Coen brothers and Scorsese.
Malin Akerman chats about starring in Bang Bang Club, which is premiering at the Tribeca Film Festival.