USA TODAY - L awrence J ournal -W orld WEDNESDAY, JULY 29, 2015
LIFELINE HOW WAS YOUR DAY? GOOD DAY MATTHEW BRODERICK The stage and screen vet will appear on Broadway for the second consecutive season. Broderick, who teamed with his old pal Nathan Lane last fall in Terrence McNally’s ‘It’s Only A Play,’ has signed on to star in the A.R. Gurney play ‘Sylvia,’ now set to begin previews Oct. 2 and open Oct. 27 at the Cort Theatre. Broderick will join the previously announced Robert Sella and Tony Award winners Julie White and Annaleigh Ashord in the comedy about a New York couple and a dog.
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CAUGHT IN THE ACT Heaven sent: A flock of Victoria’s Secret Angels proved an eye-catching bunch at the launch of Body by Victoria Tuesday in New York.
DIMITRIOS KAMBOURIS, GETTY IMAGES
TWEET TALK STARS SOUND OFF ON TWITTER @justinbieber No better feeling than giving back
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@UzoAduba Stevie Wonder gets it done every. single. time. @SarahKSilverman I carry most of my stardust in my thighs & hips
SPORTS LIFE AUTOS HOLLYWOOD DIGS INTO TRAVEL
7B
SNEAK PEEK THE 33
MIRACLE MINE RESCUE
Bryan Alexander @BryAlexand USA TODAY
Antonio Banderas recalls being swept up in the euphoria when 33 Chilean miners were saved after being trapped underground for 69 days in a massive mine collapse. A worldwide audience monitored every development in the 2010 rescue, with full coverage on CNN as Pope Benedict XVI joined the prayers. President Obama called the miners’ improbable emergence a “thrilling moment,” and it was witnessed live by an estimated 1 billion people. So when Banderas was asked to star in a film about the miners, known simply as “The 33,” he wondered what direction the story would take. “We all know the beginning and we know the end of this story,” Banderas says. “We tried to put a magnifying glass on human behavior that comes out in situations like this, when death is right in front of you.” The 33 (opens Nov. 13, with the U.S. trailer out Wednesday), stars Banderas as the mine leader “Super” Mario Sepúlveda and shines a light on what happened 2,300 feet underground with the men seemingly hopelessly trapped. For 17 days, there was no word from the miners, who strictly rationed their three days of emergency food and kept their spirits up in the face of growing hopelessness. Banderas dropped weight during the film shoot to mirror Sepúlveda’s own weight loss below ground. The 54-yearold actor also welcomed signs of fatigue from the shoot to better look the part. “When I saw in the mirror that my tummy was very reduced and the bags really growing under my eyes, I thought that I could pull this off,” Banderas says. When rescuers were able to drill to the miners to allow communication and supplies, the mining crew found they had turned into celebrities during the prolonged international effort to free them. “Many things started happening: book deals, rights for telling this story for money,” Banderas says. “They had to make peace to get out of there united.” Director Patricia Riggen says the miners “completely understood” why the tales of 33 were condensed into 10 major characters onscreen. “We had to com-
Antonio Banderas stars as Mario Sepúlveda, leader of the trapped Chilean miners. DOUGLAS KIRKLAND, WARNER BROS. PICTURES
press all that happened to them in an hour and a half,” she says. “They think it was very fair to what they lived.” Ultimately, the story told deals with 33 men having their humanity tested below ground while the world came together to save them aboveground. “It shows what human beings can accomplish when we work together,” she says. “That’s why this touched everyone.”
The stories of all of the miners were compressed into those of 10 major characters for the film.
BEATRICE AGUIRRE, WARNER BROS. PICTURES
“We tried to put a magnifying glass on human behavior that comes out in situations like this, when death is right in front of you.” Antonio Banderas
IT’S YOUR BIRTHDAY WHO’S CELEBRATING TODAY? MOVIES
‘Listen’ to Marlon tell his own story Andrea Mandell @AndreaMandell USA TODAY PHOTOS BY GETTY IMAGES
Tim Gunn is 62. Martina McBride is 49. Josh Radnor is 41. Compiled by Cindy Clark
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You should hear how Marlon Brando tells it. In the new documentary Listen to Me Marlon, audiences will have a chance to hear from the legendary actor’s own lips, thanks to director Stevan Riley. “My pitch (to make the film) was Brando on Brando,” says Riley, who was given access to more than 300 hours of Brando’s private audio tapes, including his self-hypnosis. Until his death in 2004 at age 80, Brando had focused on recording thoughts on his life, in hopes of shaping his official biography. In Listen to Me Marlon, which directs the audience to hear Brando’s side of the story, “I thought it would be amazing to tell it entirely in his own voice, especially because he was so private,” Riley says. The documentary — which opens in select theaters Wednesday in New York and Friday in
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Marlon Brando, photographed with daughter Cheyenne, recorded more than 300 hours of private audio tapes. Los Angeles, followed by its debut on Showtime later this year — begins in Brando’s tough childhood before diving into the ebb and flow of his remarkable career. “It was a Freudian study,” Riley says. “He was in psychotherapy most of his life.” Of course, many of Brando’s iconic roles are highlighted, in-
cluding his starmaking turns in A Streetcar Named Desire and On the Waterfront. “When you hear method (acting), it’s Montgomery Clift, James Dean and Marlon Brando,” says IMDb.com senior film editor Keith Simanton. But by the time Francis Ford Coppola was casting The Godfather in 1972, Brando’s name had
become so tarnished that studio executives made him audition. “He really was desperate in a way for a part,” says Riley, noting that Brando was paid only $50,000. “It was humiliating for him, but he knew he wasn’t calling the shots at that point.” His family life was marked by tragedy, particularly when his son Christian shot his sister’s boyfriend to death in 1990; he went to prison and later died of pneumonia. Brando’s daughter Cheyenne lost custody of her baby and killed herself in 1995. By the time the documentary reaches 1972’s Last Tango in Paris, the reclusive actor is resenting giving a far-too-autobiographical performance in the film, which sees him battling issues with women and self-loathing. “I realized, you know, you’re naked, Marlon,” Brando says in a tape. Ultimately, Listen to Me Marlon is “a human story,” says Riley, calling Brando the prototype of the modern-day celebrity. “The fascination with Brando and the hysteria preceded any icon of the 20th century.”