OHMYGOSSIP — Sir Sam Mendes thinks it is “inevitable” that awards shows will move to gender-neutral categories.
The ‘Empire of Light’ director thinks it is “perfectly reasonable” to scrap separate male and female categories when it comes to giving out honours in order to make the film industry more inclusive.
He told the BBC: “I have total sympathy with it, yeah, and I think it might well be inevitable in the end.
“I think that’s the way it’s moving and I think that it’s perfectly reasonable.”
The 57-year-old filmmaker- who won an Oscar in 2000 for ‘American Beauty’ and a BAFTA for ‘1917’ in 2020 – insisted awards shows are mainly about “selling” movies and entertaining viewers with a TV show.
He added: “For me, people forget with awards, I think this happens all the time, they use it as a bellwether for the industry but the truth is awards are a TV show.
“You know, awards are there to promote films. If that film wins an award, I’m more likely to go and see it and that’s what you’re doing there. It’s not about yourself, it’s not about the art or craft of the industry, especially, it’s about selling films.”
But Sam insisted he wasn’t dismissing the accolades he has received in the past.
He continued:
“I’m not dismissing the importance of them but I’m saying they were there to promote films and the craft and art of films. They’re the shop window but they’re not the thing itself.”
Sam’s comments come after Emma Corrin – who identifies as non-binary and used gender-neutral pronouns – previously called for gender to be abolished at awards ceremonies.
The ‘Crown’ star said: “I hope for a future in which that happens. I don’t think the categories are inclusive enough at the moment.
“It’s difficult for me at the moment trying to justify in my head being non-binary and being nominated in female categories.
“When it comes to categories, do we need to make it specific as to whether you’re being nominated for a female role or a male role?”

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OHMYGOSSIP — Baz Luhrmann thinks Nicole Kidman is “great” at dealing with criticism.
The Oscar-winning actress remains one of the biggest names in the movie industry, and Baz claims that she’s also “great in a crisis”.
The acclaimed filmmaker – who directed Nicole in the 2008 movie ‘Australia’ – explained: “She’s at her absolute best on a set when things are really not very good.
“She’s great in a crisis, and at taking criticism. She takes it on the chin and she’s really wise. Every time when make a movie together, something really big happens.
“The first day of ‘Moulin Rouge!’, I lost my dad. On the last day, her husband left her. Everything we’ve ever made has been a high-wire act.”
Baz also feels that Nicole, 55, has a distinctive “star power”.
He told Empire magazine: “She’s a fantastic technical actor, but there’s a heightened screen presence. Some would say it’s star power. I would agree.
“Acting is an unusually strange thing. Because if you’re good at it, you get paid a lot of money to pretend that you’re in love, to pretend you’ve lost somebody in your life, to pretend you’re capable of murder. If you’re a heart surgeon, you know exactly what your contribution to the universe is.
“But if you do it really well like Nicole does, an actor’s contribution to the universe is that they reflect us back to us.”
Meanwhile, Nicole previously insisted she hasn’t got the voice to star in a Broadway musical.
The acclaimed actress is one of the most sought-after talents in Hollywood, but Nicole would feel “insecure” on Broadway.
Asked about the possibility, she replied: “I don’t think my voice is strong enough. It’s not strong enough. I mean, Broadway is like … and also I just would feel so insecure.”

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OHMYGOSSIP — Jane Fonda and her ’80 for Brady’ co-stars couldn’t stop talking.
The 85-year-old actress admitted she, Sally Field, Rita Moreno and Lily Tomlin became a “problem for the director”, Kyle Marvin, because they had so much fun on set, they found it hard to get back into character and start working.
She joked to People magazine of the “problem”: “Getting us to stop talking to each other and start playing our characters.
“You know, we just — whether it was Rita and I singing — she starts a song and I finish it and vice versa. And I don’t know, we just, we really enjoyed it.”
Jane had known her co-stars for decades so was thrilled to get to work with them.
She said: “You know, I’ve known Lily for 50 years.
“I’ve made three other movies with her and another one is being shown on Sunday, by the way. ‘Moving On’, which I love, dark comedy.
“I’ve known Sally 40 years, and I just so admire her and watching her process of creating the character during the course of filming was really special.”
And Rita, 91, was delighted to be cast alongside such “spectacularly special actresses.”
She gushed: “So, you know, when the names were first mentioned to me, I said, ‘Who?! Who did you say is in this?! Oh, my God, that’s incredible.’ And you know, it was incredible. It was fabulous.
“This woman who is next to us here, Jane Fonda, is sensational and funny.
“And the movie, I’m happy to say, it’s so wonderful to sit here and not be even a little bit nervous. It’s funny, it does everything it’s supposed to do, this movie.
“And this woman is — I keep saying ‘This woman’ because she’s right next to me and you can’t see her — but Jane is just spectacular, and she’s funny.”
Jane praised Rita’s work ethic and admitted she was “in awe” of her.
She said: “I mean, when I started to feel tired, I’m 85, but she’s 91, and she never got tired.
“She was so full of energy and imagination and joy. I mean, look at her. I just, you know, I’m in awe of her, and she’s my new role model.”

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OHMYGOSSIP — Claire Foy’s life was transformed by her time at drama school.
The 38-year-old actress has become one of the biggest names in the TV and film industries over recent years – but Claire was unaware of what it took to become successful before she attended the Oxford School of Drama.
The actress – whose film credits include ‘First Man’, ‘Unsane’ and ‘My Son’ – told Collider: “I think I went to drama school with very little understanding of what it would take to be an actor, or what was involved, or the skills you had to have … any of those things.”
Claire feels like her time at drama school prepared her for life in the movie industry.
She said: “At drama school, we did a lot of preparation for it … and we did a lot of, you know, prep around … the skills you might have to do it.”
Meanwhile, Claire stars alongside Rooney Mara and Frances McDormand in the new drama film ‘Women Talking’, which is based on the 2018 novel of the same name by Miriam Toews.
And Claire admits that the Sarah Polley-directed project represents a landmark in her career.
The acclaimed actress said: “This is the first film I’ve made where women are strong while not in a domestic setting.
“You usually see mothers, sisters, aunts, grandmas at the kitchen sink, in positions of importance. But this is basically the Senate, the Houses Of Parliament. These women are talking about the foundation of civilisation, about how they navigate the world as people and what is right and wrong.”

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OHMYGOSSIP — ‘Glass Onion’ director Rian Johnson has revealed the film’s Mona Lisa stunt was inspired by Mr Bean and produced a mountain of paperwork.
The ‘Knives Out’ sequel ends with the famous Leonardo Da Vinci painting being burnt to ashes in a fiery showdown and Rian has revealed the picture they set on fire was a replica painted by an artist in Belgrade and the law required them to document its destruction on set.
Speaking on Empire magazine’s ‘Spoiler Special’ podcast, the moviemaker explained: “We got a very talented, local Belgrade artist to do a recreation of the Mona Lisa and it was kind of extraordinary having it on set.
“I didn’t realise this, but if you get a recreation like this, you have to destroy them when you’re done filming, if it’s a famous work of art. You actually have to document yourself burning the canvas because of the counterfeit market.”
He went on to reveal the film’s star Daniel Craig was a bit worried about the fire sequence as he feared viewers might be upset about the destruction of a famous artwork.
However, Rian was adamant there would be a comedy element just like a famous scene in 1997 Mr Bean film ‘Bean’ in which Rowan Atkinson’s character accidentally destroys a priceless painting by Whistler.
He added: “Daniel [Craig] was a bit worried that we were ‘killing the puppy’ by upsetting people as we destroyed the Mona Lisa, but the scene in ‘Bean’ where he destroys ‘Whistler’s Mother’ is one of the funniest scenes in cinematic history, so I figured we’d get away with this. That scene is so good.”

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OHMYGOSSIP — Hugh Jackman requires six months to get in shape to play Wolverine again.
The 54-year-old actor is reprising the iconic ‘X-Men’ role for the third ‘Deadpool’ movie, and he will make working out for the part his full-time job for half a year.
Speaking on HBO Max’s ‘Who’s Talking To Chris Wallace’, he spilled: “I’ve learned you can’t rush it. I’ve learned that it takes time.
“So, we have six months from when I finish [Broadway’s ‘The Music Man’] to when I started filming. And I’m not doing any other work. I’m going to be with my family and train. That’s going to be my job for six months.”
The ‘Greatest Showman’ star says his stint as Professor Harold Hill in ‘The Music Man’ has kept him fit.
He added: “And I’m really fit right now. There’s one thing that about eight shows a week being on Broadway singing and dancing, is I’m fit. So, I’m healthy. I have a good place to start. And apologies, chickens. Run a mile. Start running now because I’m coming for you.”
Jackman recently admitted he “fully intended” ‘Logan’ to be his final outing as Wolverine.
The Australian star insisted he always meant it when he told fans he was finished playing the character – though he confessed the idea of returning for Ryan Reynolds’ franchise has always been “lurking and brewing” in his subconscious.
He said: “Well, I was 20 minutes into watching ‘Deadpool’ and I had just announced, literally, a few weeks before that Logan was going to be my last, which I fully intended. And then I was like, ‘Uh-oh’…
“I’m a terrible poker player. All this time I was saying I was done, I really meant it. But anyway, somewhere deep down, this idea was obviously lurking and brewing.”
But over the summer, Jackman realised he “really wanted” to be a part of the ‘Deadpool’ saga and his role came together quickly once he’d called Ryan to reveal he was finally giving in to his begging, much to his friend’s surprise.
He told Deadline in November: “I was just driving out to the beach. It was mid-August, I had a week off from the show [‘The Music Man’ on Broadway], my first week off in eight, nine months, 10 months. And it came to me like, ‘I really want to do that.’ And that was it.
“As soon as I arrived at the beach, I rang Ryan just to see what the hell was going on. And then here we are. It was so quick.
“And trust me, there’s not a morning I don’t wake up where Ryan Reynolds is outside my house with posters saying, ‘Please.’ He’s constantly asking me about it.
“And I was like, ‘Dude, I’m done. I’m done, I’m done, I’m done, I’m done, I’m done.’ So then when he rang me [back], he was like, ‘Are you serious?’ So yeah.”
Jackman also recently revealed Deadpool and Wolverine hate each other.
Speaking on ‘The Empire Film Podcast’, he said of his and Ryan’s characters: “10 being really close, zero being the reality, we’re zero, we’re opposites, hate each other. I’m just talking from my perspective, [Logan is] frustrated by him, wants to be a million miles away from him or wants to punch him in the head. Unfortunately, he can’t be a million miles away from him in this movie, so I’m probably going to punch him in the head a lot.”
Although Wolverine died in the 2017 ‘Logan’ movie, Jackman insisted that his return in ‘Deadpool 3’ won’t affect the events of ‘Logan’.

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OHMYGOSSIP — Allison Williams spoke to roboticists to prepare for her role in ‘M3GAN’.
The 34-year-old actress stars in the new sci-fi horror flick as the roboticist Gemma and had discussions with experts in the field to make sure she was well prepared for the part.
Allison joked to The Hollywood Reporter: “I understood almost nothing that they told me.
“I asked about what it’s like to be a woman in this field where there are so many men. I wanted to know what to wear and how to dress. Do you go full femme? Do you wear makeup? From the very superficial to the much deeper questions of why did you get into this field? What motivated you? Did you have role models? It was great.”
The movie’s titular character is a robotic doll that becomes overprotective of its child companion but Allison described it as her “most complicated co-star”.
She said: “Sometimes it was also just a piece of tape in an ‘X’ shape. It was just a very singular experience. I doubt I’ll ever have another one like it.”
Williams serves as an executive producer on ‘M3GAN’ and is grateful to have an influence both in front of and behind the camera.
The ‘Get Out’ star said: “I inherently have always been super invested in the things that I work on. I love being involved from the script stage to the very end with marketing and promotion, so it was a relief to have a title that meant that I was allowed to be as obsessed and as involved as I have always wanted to be.
“It also meant that I was able to have a 360-degree perspective on what it takes to get something like this made.”

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OHMYGOSSIP — Maria Bakalova has been cast in ‘O Horizon’.
The 26-year-old actress is to star in the sci-fi comedy-drama alongside David Strathairn.
The film wrapped production last autumn and has been written and directed by Emmy winner Madeleine Sackler.
The plot centres on Abby (Bakalova), a brilliant young neuroscientist who has recently lost her father Warren (Strathairn) and drowns her grief by spending her days working with a monkey called Dorey.
She meets a programmer called Sam who has created a technology that reconnects Abby with her beloved father. Her relationship with her digitalised dad forces her to re-examine everything from her romantic relationships to her life’s work.
Joseph Cross, Audrey Tommassini and Paul Nelson are all producers on the project.
Maria was widely praised for her performance in ‘Borat Subsequent Moviefilm’ as Tutar Sadgiyev – the daughter of Sacha Baron Cohen’s titular alter ego – but explained how fame from the film means she has to be more measured in her behaviour.
She said: “Usually, everything that goes on in my head comes straight out of my mouth – which isn’t always a good thing.
“But you have to take responsibility for your words.”
The Bulgarian actress is due to star in ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3’ and had high praise for director James Gunn.
Maria said: “I love James Gunn, I want to work with him for the rest of my life! He’s just everything.
“I don’t even know how to say it, he’s so talented. He’s so funny. He’s so fun. He’s such a great human being. What an example of a person that I’d want to be like. His dedication to his craft is admirable as well. It’s just phenomenal.
“I’ve been very lucky to meet him and to have a chance to work with him. I want to do it again and again.”

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