Category: Interviews

The end of the innocence

Jae-Ha Kim

As a child, director Mike Figgis was fat. One day in gym class, as a way to “encourage” him to lose weight, his teacher ordered Figgis to strip down to his boxer shorts and run through the gymnasium while his classmates swatted away at him. That cruel memory is poignantly re-created in Figgis’ latest film, “The Loss of Sexual Innocence,” which opens Friday at the Music Box Theatre. “I was so ashamed of what happened that I didn’t even tell my parents,” said Figgis.

Material witness

Jae-Ha Kim

Bassist Ted Ansani never wanted a solo career. As one-third of the Chicago-based power pop band Material Issue, Ansani was content to leave the spotlight to extroverted singer-guitarist Jim Ellison. But after Ellison committed suicide three years ago, Ansani and drummer Mike Zelenko found themselves in a predicament. Ellison had been their singer, songwriter and spokesman.

Viggo Mortensen: Renaissance Man

Jae-Ha Kim

Barefoot and clad in a pair of sweats that have seen better days, Viggo Mortensen walks over to introduce himself. His hands and arms are covered with names and phone numbers he has scribbled on himself after checking his answering machine. And his hair is tousled and flecked with tiny bits of paint. None of this can hide Mortensen’s deadly good looks.

Getting the last laugh: ‘N Sync shrugs off the parodies

Jae-Ha Kim

You’ve heard their song “Tearin’ Up My Heart” on the radio. You’ve seen the video on heavy rotation on MTV. And if you have a little sister, young niece or a daughter with a subscription to Teen People, there’s a good chance you could even pick Lance Bass, JC Chasez, Joey Fatone Jr., Chris Kirkpatrick or Justin Timberlake – the Fab Five who make up the pop band – out of a dreamy lineup.

20 Dates

Jae-Ha Kim

Myles Berkowitz was a man on a mission:  He would go on 20 dates with 20 different women, film each date and, hopefully, land  a girlfriend and a movie deal at the end of the project. The 36-year-old hyphenated guy (actor-screenwriter-director) couldn’t have scripted a better ending. He got engaged to lovely Elisabeth Wagner and he sold “20 Dates” to Fox Searchlight (“The Full Monty”). The film opens Friday at Pipers Alley.

Working girl: At 17, Britney Spears no stranger to show biz

Jae-Ha Kim

Forget about the Spice Girls. Britney Spears has real girl power. After debuting at No. 1 last month with her album ” . . . Baby One More Time,” the teenager has sold more than 800,000 copies. Surprisingly enough, the album has sold more copies each week that it has been out. Fans snapped up 230,000 copies of Spears’ debut album the week ending Feb. 14 – 50,000 more than the previous week.

Rick Springfield enjoys resurgence in popularity

Jae-Ha Kim

“Writing songs is like therapy for me,” Rick Springfield said earlier this week from the set of NBC’s “Suddenly Susan,” where he was taping a guest-star role as Brooke Shields’ boyfriend, scheduled to air March 15. “I’ve been working on this album for about the past three years, and it was really something I needed to do.”

Wes Anderson: The bus stops here

Jae-Ha Kim

Three years ago, Wes Anderson was an unknown writer-director winning praise for his charming, offbeat feature film “Bottle Rocket.” These days, he’s traveling on a bright yellow tour bus promoting his latest picture, “Rushmore,” which opens Friday. (Anderson prefers not to fly.) And check this out. The soft-spoken Anderson has groupies.

Viggo Mortensen: Sensitive side of `Psycho’

Jae-Ha Kim

Viggo Mortensen is relating a tale that involves Vince Vaughn, a butcher knife and the threat of bodily harm. But, oddly enough, the actor isn’t describing the shooting of his latest film, “Psycho.” He’s remembering a country music concert. “Vince and I went to see Buck Owens one night after we had finished that day’s shoot [for “Psycho”],” Mortensen said during a call from his Los Angeles home. “I had gotten one of the `Psycho’ knives to give to Buck as a present ’cause it was his birthday. They wanted us to give it to him on stage that night. “So we bumbled our way through our speech to Buck. He opened the box and saw the knife, and the fiddler started making the “eek eek eek” [noise from the shower scene]. Buck got all excited and started posing as a damsel in distress. Then he began chasing Dwight Yoakam all around the stage with the knife. I don’t think he realized it was real.”

Bill Kurtis — Adult education

Jae-Ha Kim

On a recent episode of the hit TV series “Martial Law,” hero Sammo Law inspected a packet of jewels and said, “There are rumors about this – a new type of high-quality synthetic diamond that can only be made at high pressure, under very cold temperatures.” Impressed, his colleague asked if he had acquired this knowledge in China. “No,” Sammo said. “On the Discovery Channel.”

Seattle Sutton: Healthy meal plan has fast food junkie eating better

Jae-Ha Kim

My mission, if I chose to accept it, was to try Seattle Sutton’s Healthy Eating program for a month. The goal wasn’t to lose weight, but to see if a fast food junkie such as myself could train herself to eat nutritious meals if they were cooked and delivered to me. It sounded good. Basically, all I had to do was chew, so I happily accepted the challenge.