Image Credit: Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images
Last night a bunch of Texas filmmakers and lovers raised a glass in honor of home state greats like Annette O’Toole, Stephen Tobolowsky, Henry Thomas and Robin Wright. But the highlight of the evening was when Richard Linklater and some reunited cast members from the 1993 classic celebration of dumb, enviable teenage fun, Dazed and Confused, won their own Hall of Fame Award. READ FULL STORY »
More than 30 years after its release, 1979′s Breaking Away is still one of the most beloved coming-of-age films ever made, and its zero-to-hero rise from a tiny, under-the-radar movie with no major stars to a sleeper hit and Best Picture nominee is one of Hollywood’s great underdog stories. Over the years, no one has felt the love for Breaking Away more than Dennis Christopher, who starred as Dave Stoller, the wannabe-Italian midwestern teen misfit who, much to his close-minded father’s consternation, dreams of becoming a cycling champion.
When the 56-year-old actor came to the photo shoot for EW’s Reunions issue (on stands now)—where he was brought back together again with co-stars Dennis Quaid, Jackie Earle Haley, Daniel Stern, Barbara Barrie, and Paul Dooley—Christopher brought one of the original Masi racing bikes his character rode in the movie. And he brought his memories.
EW: What did you connect with about the role of Dave Stoller?
DENNIS CHRISTOPHER: Quite frankly, I didn’t understand the character at first. He seemed off the wall to me. Shaving his legs, singing opera—I thought, ‘Oh my God, how do I make this real?’ And they initially had a completely different idea of what Dave would be. I went in to hair and makeup the first day, and when I got out of the chair, my skin had been darkened, my hair was dyed dark brown and slicked back with grease, I had a tight Ban-Lon shirt that was unbuttoned almost down to the navel, gold chains around my neck, tight pants, and pointy black shoes. They had in mind, I think, trying to make me look like a reject from Saturday Night Fever. We shot a whole day like that, and it was very disturbing to me. I never got to sleep that night. I just didn’t know who I was. The next morning, I saw [director] Peter [Yates] and I burst into tears and said, “I can’t do this. I don’t know how to play this part.” Peter said, “I know, don’t worry.” He and [screenwriter] Steve Tesich came to my hotel later that day and we talked about the script. It ultimately became a perfect fit. The difficulty between the father and son, the lack of communication—I knew what those feelings were. When we got to those scenes, stuff came out that normally wouldn’t have come out.
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Image Credit: Lucasfilm, Ltd.
Darth Vader may wear all black, the Emperor may be able to shoot lightening out of his fingers, and Darth Maul may have a bitchin’ double lightsaber, but the biggest badass in the Star Wars universe will always be the notorious bounty hunter Boba Fett. It’s hard to explain just what it is that makes Boba Fett so freakin’ cool, so we asked the three men who played the majority of scenes as the man of few words but many kills to do it for us. That’s right, as part of EW’s new Reunions issue, we brought Jeremy Bulloch (who played Fett in The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi), Dickey Beer (who did the big Fett stunts in the Return of the Jedi Sarlacc battle scene) and Daniel Logan (who played young Boba in Attack of the Clones and currently voices the character on The Clone Wars) together. In this bonus outtake not found in the issue, we asked each of the actors their thoughts on what makes Boba Fett such a fan favorite. READ FULL STORY »
Image Credit: Peggy Sirota for EW
Working with an alien on a movie is probably a little bit easier than working with a child actor.
At least with the alien you can literally pull its puppet strings. Kids require a slightly more magical touch.
That’s what Steven Spielberg learned while working on E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, and a special documentary on the new Blu-ray release (out Oct. 9) shows just how deep his connection was with 6-year-old Drew Barrymore and 10-year-old Henry Thomas.
The E.T. Journals consist of behind-the-scenes footage from the 1982 movie, presented as-is, without narration or modern interviews. It’s like an extended set-visit to the film, and Entertainment Weekly has an exclusive clip of Spielberg talking young Thomas through the final goodbye. Good luck not tearing up a little yourself at the tender exchange.
When she first walked onto the screen in July of 1995, it was love at first sight. America was immediately smitten by a ditzy, glitzy Beverly Hills fashion plate named Cher Horowitz. Well, almost everyone. When Alicia Silverstone first read writer-director Amy Heckerling’s script for Clueless in the back of a limo coming home from shooting one of her iconic ’90s Aerosmith videos, she didn’t get Cher. “I thought, ‘Who is this girl?’” says Silverstone. “I had nothing in common with her at all. I thought she was a materialistic, annoying little bitch.” As if!
Over the past 17 years, Silverstone and the rest of the cast (which also includes Paul Rudd, Stacey Dash, Donald Faison, Jeremy Sisto, Breckin Meyer, and the late Brittany Murphy) have not only come to embrace Cher in all of her well-intentioned matchmaking adorableness, they’ve also come to appreciate how a little $15 million high-school comedy changed their lives. In Rudd’s case, that mean teenage guys coming up to him for years, saying, “Dude, you got to make out with Alicia Silverstone!”
Check out video of the cult teen comedy’s class reunion.
We found out, long ago, it’s a long way down the holiday road.
It’s just difficult to believe how long ago that was.
Nearly 30 years have passed since National Lampoon’s Vacation sent Chevy Chase, Beverly D’Angelo, Dana Barron and Anthony Michael Hall on the Griswold family’s ill-fated trek to Wally World. The kids were replaced for each of the sequels, but now the original clan is back together for EW’s annual Reunions issue.
Cousin Eddie, unfortunately, remains at large.
Check out video of the dysfunctional movie-family’s reunion.
