Kyle Buchanan

What would you do if everyone was talking about a movie you hadn’t seen?

Let’s say that movie was “The Farewell,” an indie smash from this summer about the members of a Chinese family who try to keep their beloved grandma from learning about her terminal-cancer diagnosis.

And now, let’s say you’re the actress who played the grandma.

Yes, Zhao Shuzhen may be earning Oscar buzz for her work as the matriarch Nai Nai in “The Farewell,” but that doesn’t mean she’s actually been able to watch the movie she stars in. “I didn’t know it was such a phenomenon!” the 76-year-old Chinese actress told me one night in early November, after she had reunited with her director, Lulu Wang, and co-star Awkwafina to introduce the film at an awards-season screening in Beverly Hills.

It was Shuzhen’s first trip to the United States, and she’d been caught off guard when people at the screening recognized her. Many were on their second viewing of “The Farewell,” which is two more times than Shuzhen herself had been able to see it. “The attention, the praise, it’s inconceivable to me,” she said through a translator. But at least Shuzhen had a good excuse for being late to the party: “It hasn’t come out in China yet,” she told me, “and I’ve been so busy filming.”

Though “The Farewell” was Shuzhen’s U.S. debut, she is well-known and oft-booked in China, where she appears in several television dramas a year. “Some dramas require the grandma to have a bigger part, and other dramas don’t use the grandma as much,” she said. But in her 70s, she was happy to be so prolific. “To have started at 16 and now be at an old age and still be acting, I’m just grateful for it.”

That night in Beverly Hills was the first time Awkwafina had seen Shuzhen since they finished filming last year. As the older woman spoke, Awkwafina gazed at her reverently. “I’m getting a little emotional just sitting with her right now,” Awkwafina said. “After what’s happened with this movie, I want her to know that she’s loved here.”

It was a dynamic not unlike the one shared by their characters in “The Farewell,” where Awkwafina plays Billi, a New Yorker who returns to Changchun upon learning of her grandmother’s diagnosis. Billi’s parents ask her to keep Nai Nai in the dark about the state of her cancer — they believe that if she’s told she has mere months to live, she will lose all hope and succumb — but Billi struggles to deceive the matriarch she so adores.

Regal in an aubergine coat and pearl necklace, Shuzhen beamed as Awkwafina and Wang caught her up on the film’s success: Since its July release in the United States, “The Farewell” had become one of the year’s highest-grossing indies. “Having her here is a reminder that the film became so much bigger than we thought,” Wang said. “I’ve been all over the world talking about it and it’s been released in multiple languages,” she added, saying she was tickled by Shuzhen’s surprise. “She’s like, ‘I haven’t seen the film yet. I hope it’s good!’ ”

The women all laughed, but Wang was sincere. “It’s all really validating,” she said. “We know what it took to make this movie. It might look effortless and natural, but when I watch the film, I see every single battle that went into it.”

When Wang first tried to mount “The Farewell,” financiers balked at the all-Asian cast, tricky mix of tones and potential language barrier — 80% of the dialogue would be Mandarin — and recommended that Wang add more romance and English. Still, Wang had based the film on her own family’s true story, and she was determined to hold fast to what had really happened.

“It was something else that was driving me, something intangible,” she said. “But it can be really hard to listen to that voice and trust yourself.”

Many of those same conflicts will come up again now that “The Farewell” is being positioned for an award-season run. Should the movie be categorized as a comedy or drama? And with its mixture of Mandarin and English, should it be defined as a foreign-language film or an American indie?

For the Golden Globes, “The Farewell” has been ruled a contender for the foreign-language film award, and the arcane rules of that competition restrict such movies from vying for the top comedy and drama trophies. The Oscars have no such stipulation, but the academy doesn’t classify Wang’s film as an international-feature contender, since it was produced in the United States.

These rules can feel arbitrary and out of step with the realities of an increasingly global film landscape, and Wang noted that the academy had recently come under fire for rejecting Nigeria’s submission for the international-film Oscar because it contained too much English. Pointing these things out sometimes made Wang feel self-conscious: “You go, ‘Oh no, I don’t fit in!’ ” Still, she was happy to be part of the complicated conversation about what constitutes a foreign film, and through whose eyes.

“Until you have a real film that challenges the traditional categories and the ways of looking at things, you’re not having those conversations in a specific way,” she said.

A WEEK LATER, I caught up with Wang and Shuzhen at another award-season event, this one held at a trendy West Hollywood hotel. As people rushed Shuzhen for hugs and selfies, Wang gave me an important update: “Zhao,” she said, “has seen the movie.”

Across the room, Shuzhen confirmed the news. The distributor A24 had set an intimate screening of “The Farewell” for her and her daughter, and “I was very moved,” Shuzhen said.

Her translator, Eugene Suen, leaned over to me. “She didn’t say this, but I can tell you, because I sat very close to them: They were all wiping away tears,” he said. “When I saw that, I was like, ‘OK, I think she likes it.’ ”

Over the past several days, Shuzhen had taken to the awards circuit with gusto, doing countless interviews and turning up at several important soirees: At an event held by the group that votes for the Golden Globes, she had even met Robert Pattinson. Her first American trip was about to end, but now that she had fully come to understand what “The Farewell” meant to audiences, she wasn’t quite ready to say goodbye.

“Honestly, I don’t want to leave,” Shuzhen said. “People here are so nice, I’m going to miss everyone.” Nearby, a man cradling a champagne glass and a Chihuahua discreetly took her picture.

What if the Oscars give Shuzhen a reason to return to this crazy city in the form of a supporting-actress nomination? I asked her if she’d be willing to make some more room in her schedule, and she blushed.

“I guess I would say I’m hoping for it, I’m longing for it,” Shuzhen said. “And if it doesn’t happen, I can just dream about it.”

This article originally appeared in

Best Supporting Grandma? For 'The Farewell,' an Oscar Campaign Begins

(The Carpetbagger)

Q: The first “Terminator” was comprised almost entirely of intense, emotionally wrenching night shoots. How did that affect you?

A: It becomes much more your reality than your daytime life. It was hard on the psyche — it really was. You’re on the run, losing your mother, your lover, your roommate for three months. When I finished, I fought some depression and kept dreaming about the Terminator being at my parents’ house.

Q: How did you get along with James Cameron on the first film?

A: We didn’t particularly like or dislike each other on the first one. I had one huge explosive moment the only time I asked to see playback — Jim was one of the first directors to pioneer it. Usually, I don’t need that, but there was this tough day I think I lost some of my confidence, and when I asked to see playback, he said, “We don’t have time. Move on!” And I absolutely flipped out.

Q: What happened?

A: I took him off set and said, “If you want to see a human being on screen, then you need to treat me like one.” Really, when I finished that movie, I thought, “Well, that man is on the side of the machines.” This is someone who spends his spare time trying to figure out vertically landing helicopters — that’s where he goes as a vacation for his mind!

Q: When Sarah Connor became a buff warrior woman in “Terminator 2: Judgment Day,” did it change the way you related to your character?

A: Truthfully, it felt a lot better than the first one because I was playing an empowered woman. That was so much better than playing the victim who’s terrified all the time. Also, I’m kind and compassionate, but I’m not really gentle. I would hug my kids when they were babies and they’d go, “Ow!” There’s something in me that’s incredibly fierce that I have to work against, but that fierceness works for Sarah Connor.

Q: Where do you think your fierceness came from?

A: I remember in the early days of my career, one director said, “Wow, you come quick to this anger stuff.” My father died when I was young, and my mom was left widowed with four very young children. Basically, I think she was overwhelmed. She definitely fought depression, and we just really weren’t allowed to express ourselves. I asked her once, “Why weren’t we allowed to speak and express our anger?” And she said, “Well, there were four of you and only one of me.” I think I got very lucky that I was paid to go out and play rage in a safe environment.

Q: What do you remember about the reaction to “Terminator 2”?

A: “LindaHamiltonArms.” That’s all one word, and that was not the effect I was going for. There was this guy at the gas station near me who said, “I saw the movie! Did they pump air into your muscles?”

Q: Did you rebel against that?

A: I spent a lot of time being the other thing and wearing dresses for years. I cut my hair off and dyed it red or white — anything to not look like the image of Sarah Connor. I know there are a lot of people who embrace their one thing and do that, but I want to open different doors. Not just the same damn door!

Q: You had a tumultuous relationship with James Cameron for several years after “Terminator 2.” How did you feel when it ended?

A: When I broke up with Jim, I was completely devastated for years. I remember immediately assuming that I was going to enter into another relationship, that it was critical to my essence. But I don’t jump from person to person very easily at all. At the end of every relationship, I’d be like, “Another two or three years without sex? What a waste of a woman!” Because it would always take that long. I do not give myself over that easily.

Q: What is your day-to-day life like now in New Orleans?

A: The benchmark of good health for me is how much time I get to spend alone. This might sound sad, but 20% of my day is spent with other people and 80% is spent alone. I like my mind to wander free of the demands of other people, to go to my coffee shop and have laughter with my friends, then come home and see what the day brings, or what books I’d like to read on the couch with my dogs, or figure out how I can be of service to the neighborhood.

Q: How did you feel after committing to “Terminator: Dark Fate”?

A: To have this character you played 35 years before, a midpiece (“Terminator 2”), and then to play her again 35 years later — you can’t do it without making it worthy of the first two films. And then the word “iconic” starts to creep in. I was slightly terrified.

Q: What do you think when you hear that word?

A: “Icon” is never a word that one uses for oneself. After I did “T2,” directors would say, “You’ve never played a woman like this before — normal.”

Q: How do you react when fans treat you like an icon?

A: If people cry when they meet me, I immediately give them my phone number. I’m like, “Aww, honey, come here. We need to talk. Here’s my number.” I want to be real with them instead of, “Thank you, those were my moments of glory.” I’m not very good at being the mysterious movie star. I’m all out there, and anything is open for dialogue.

Q: How involved were you in conceiving what Sarah Connor would be like all these years later?

A: I was like, “What if she’s fat? Wouldn’t that be great?” You want to stun the audience as they were stunned between the first and the second. We also considered making her a serious alcoholic like Rooster Cogburn in “True Grit,” but it’s been done, and then you’ve got an alcoholic handling weapons.

Q: Ultimately, you had to get back into fighting shape for the film, a regimen that included taking hormones and intense training. What was that like?

A: I had a true village of experts trying to get the most out of this body, but I must be really sensitive to hormones because within two months, I was texting my doctor at 2 in the morning saying, “Hell no!” I would get mad about something, and it would start to own me, and my blood pressure would spike. I would walk around, and my interior monologue was, “Who wants to fight?” And they kept delaying the film!

Q: The fans want to see Sarah kick tush, but she’s older now, so the very nature of that is going to change. How did you reflect that?

A: I don’t want to sell her as someone who can do everything she did in that day, because it’s 27 years later. I made a point to get up more slowly when she took a hit — you don’t just pop up like you’re 32 years old — and embraced those truths of this woman fighting at my age. It was so much richer to bring everything that I’ve got to heel on this woman. Doing that felt incredible.

Linda Hamilton on James Cameron and the First 'Terminator' Films

The new film “Terminator: Dark Fate” brings Linda Hamilton back to her signature role of Sarah Connor for the first time since 1991, when “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” made her a pop-culture icon. In a previous interview, Hamilton discussed what it was like to step back into the spotlight after starting her life anew in New Orleans, but she had lots more to say about making that decision, her history with the “Terminator” franchise, and her marriage to the director of the first two films, Jame...

LOS ANGELES — “Do we have an entourage for tonight?” Taika Waititi asked his publicist. It was just a few hours until the Governors Awards on Sunday, a major Oscar-season pit stop where potential contenders go to schmooze and be seen, and Waititi was in his hotel room, wondering if he could still add a few friends to the guest list.

“How many are we talking?” his publicist replied.

Waititi wasn’t sure. He’d never been to the Governors Awards before, but he knew he would be mingling with A-list actors and wondered if he might seem out of his depth. After all, what could a quirky director like Waititi do to compete with the crowds commanded by stars like Leo and J. Lo?

The answer, he decided, was to not take things that seriously. “I want our group to feel more like a gang,” he ultimately declared. “Joaquin and them, they’ll be the cool people. We want to be the rebels!”

In an Oscar season dominated by American masters like Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino, Waititi, a 44-year-old New Zealander, is poised to crash their party with “Jojo Rabbit,” a World War II comedy about a German boy named Jojo (Roman Griffin Davis) whose imaginary best friend is Adolf Hitler. Waititi cast himself as an awfully goofy führer, and dialed the satire up to 11: The opening-credits sequence equates German nationalism with Beatlemania by playing “I Want to Hold Your Hand” over footage of Nazi rallies.

Needless to say, these are not the elements that traditional Oscar contenders are made of. “Remember that joke Kate Winslet has in ‘Extras,’ where she says you’d better make a Holocaust film if you want an Oscar?” Waititi said. “People might think that’s kind of true, but there was never in my mind any reality where this film was going to be part of that conversation.”

And yet, that reality has come to pass: At the Toronto International Film Festival, “Jojo Rabbit” took the People’s Choice Award that has previously gone to best-picture winners like “Green Book” and “The King’s Speech,” and Oscar voters keep telling me it’s their favorite film of the fall. This all means that Waititi, whose last movie was the offbeat Marvel blockbuster “Thor: Ragnarok,” may soon find his brand of irreverence rewarded on Hollywood’s most reverent night.

When I met up with Waititi before the Governors Awards, where honorary Oscars would be given out to the likes of David Lynch and Geena Davis, his graying curls were tucked under a hat that blared “HELP” in big block letters, and he was wearing a brilliant technicolor dreamcoat. Waititi has become known for a personal style as playful as his filmmaking, and it begged the question: If he goes all the way this Oscar season, will he be forced to trade his pineapple-print rompers for something more conventional?

By way of an answer, he led me to the hotel closet, where his stylist had sent over a black tuxedo from Ermenegildo Zegna, his look for the Governors Awards. “It’s quite nice!” he insisted. I told him I’d expected a bit of subversive sparkle, and he shrugged: The suit might be conservative, but the man wearing it wouldn’t be. “I invented partying,” he told me, grinning.

Waititi has only been to the Oscars once before, but it was a significant invitation: In 2005, his “Two Cars, One Night” was nominated for best live-action short. The night before the ceremony, he went out drinking with his fellow nominees, and Waititi suggested that when their names were read out loud, they should all play dead.

“Everyone laughed: ‘We should totally do that, Taika, ha ha ha,’” he said. “And in the state I was in, I was like, ‘I guess they agreed!’” During the broadcast, no one played along except Waititi, who feigned being asleep, then lost. “In New Zealand, they were very disappointed with me,” he said, but he had felt no obligation to make it a sacred moment: “With a lot of filmmakers, it’s been their dream to make movies since they were kids. It wasn’t my dream until I was 30.”

Raised mostly in the Aro Valley neighborhood of Wellington, New Zealand, by a single mother, a substitute teacher, Waititi joined a comedy troupe in college with Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie, the Flight of the Conchords duo. While working with them, he began to take comedy a bit more seriously and eventually parlayed his Oscar nomination into a career directing features in New Zealand including “What We Do in the Shadows” and “Hunt for the Wilderpeople.”

It’s clear from Waititi’s comedies that he is still in touch with his mischievous inner child, which served him well when Marvel Studios was looking for a director to reinvigorate the “Thor” franchise for its third entry, “Thor: Ragnarok.” After it became a huge hit, Waititi was offered plenty more: Next year, he’ll direct another “Thor” sequel, and he hopes to soon resume a tabled adaptation of the classic anime “Akira.” But when Fox Searchlight said it would finance “Jojo Rabbit,” Waititi leapt at the chance.

He’d been developing the film since 2010, when his mother told him about “Caging Skies,” a novel by Christine Leunens about a Viennese boy during World War II. The story is straightforward drama, but as his mother described it, Waititi began to imagine a more comedic take. The result is a film so front-loaded with jokes that when Jojo turns into someone who can finally see the humanity in the Jews perishing around him, you’re not prepared to find yourself moved.

“I think he’s curious about the complexity of people,” said Scarlett Johansson, who plays Jojo’s mother. “I can’t imagine him writing a one-note character — it wouldn’t be fun for him. It’s kind of like the way he picks out his clothes: He looks at the whole picture.”

Still, a key character presented problems: The half-Maori, half-Jewish Waititi had not originally planned to play Hitler, but Fox Searchlight prevailed upon him to take the role. Casting a celebrity would have unbalanced the movie, Waititi said, and if audiences saw an enthusiastic Polynesian playing Hitler, it would be a big hint that this material wasn’t meant to be played entirely straight.

“Other people would have spent a lot of time studying, taking it serious and trying to ‘become’ Hitler, and I was just like, ‘I’ll put the mustache on and be myself,’” he said.

The film shocked Oscar pundits by claiming the People’s Choice Award in Toronto, and Waititi admits he was pleasantly surprised, too: “I’m an ego-based creature,” he said, “so the gears started turning: ‘Oh, I’m pretty special now!’” But before Waititi had any idea that he’d be encouraged to go to award-season parties all winter, he had already set up another movie, a soccer comedy called “Next Goal Wins,” that will shoot in Hawaii for most of November and December.

“I can’t deal with your fabulousness!” Charlize Theron exclaimed. Waititi had finally made his way to the Governors Awards, which were set to begin in mere minutes, but the path to the ballroom led directly through Theron, and Waititi was all too happy to be stopped. “We have to hang out,” she insisted.

Awards season can exhaust even the hardiest campaigner. Still, Waititi was more than game. “I won’t deny that this is a really awesome experience,” he told me. During the ceremony, he spent most of his time chatting with the Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige, but not long into the after-party, he was a magnet for guests like the “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” director Rian Johnson and Theron, who’d come back for a second round to introduce Waititi to her entourage.

“I think all filmmakers are just people who want to be liked, and definitely, that’s the case with me,” Waititi said. “When there’s someone you don’t know who knows your name, it’s a good boost, especially after you’ve been working in solitude for two years on something.”

Eventually, the crowd numbered a few dozen. Still, Waititi remained, hopping from clique to clique. I watched him happily take selfies with anyone who asked.

“I’ve put a lot of effort in my life into being good at parties,” he had told me back at the hotel. “It’s not like I’m trying to get something out of it. I just want everyone to have a good time: ‘Let’s tell some stories and gather around the campfire!’”

And clearly, Waititi had more stories to tell. As the after-party came to an end, a friend of his murmured something about an after-after-party. The pleasantly buzzed Waititi snapped to attention, like a dog promised a treat, and before I knew it, he had escaped through a side door. The last thing I saw was that black tuxedo, escaping into the night.

Taika Waititi Puts on a Tuxedo

“I was like, ‘I want to play a princess, too,’” Pattinson said.

The hairdresser capitulated by giving him long, honeyed locks, but Pattinson had one more surprise in store: On set, he unfurled a French accent so deliciously over the top that his scenes became charged with a camp jolt. At first, “I couldn’t quite tell, is this ridiculous?” Pattinson recalled. But after the first take, he found another co-star, Joel Edgerton, doubled over in laughter. “And then I thought, ‘I love this! This is the best.’”

There is little that Pattinson, 33, likes more than confounding expectations, and plenty were placed on him after the megahit “Twilight” franchise ended in 2012. Since then, he has reinvented himself as an auteur’s muse, eager to add his mischievous spirit and pop cultural frisson to art-house films by directors like Claire Denis, David Cronenberg, and the Safdie brothers.

His irreverent instincts get their most sustained showcase yet in “The Lighthouse,” a wild, darkly funny new film from Robert Eggers (“The Witch”) that pits Pattinson against Willem Dafoe as 19th-century lighthouse keepers who drink, spar, shout and even cuddle. The Nova Scotia shoot was arduous, and Pattinson’s unusual approach — to psyche himself up before takes, he would sometimes gag and hit himself in the face — often surprised Eggers and Dafoe.

Still, Pattinson found that tension to be helpful. “Even if it’s rage you’re feeling, it’s more interesting than boredom, because you can use rage,” Pattinson told me recently in a West Hollywood hotel, where “The Lighthouse” had just screened for awards voters.

After spending the last few years in independent films, Pattinson is planning another zig: He’s shooting “Tenet,” a big-budget summer movie for Christopher Nolan, and he was just cast as the lead in “The Batman,” a new take on the comic book character due in 2021. “It’s an entirely different experience from the movies I’ve been doing,” the actor said. “Normally I shoot six weeks, and now it’s six months!”

Here are edited excerpts from our conversation.

Q: Is it fair to say you’re drawn to eccentric characters?

A: I’ve always thought that the only reason you’d want to play a good guy all the time is because you’re desperately ashamed of what you’re doing in real life, whereas if you’re a pretty normal person, the most fun part of doing movies is that you can explore the more grotesque or naughty sides of your psyche in a somewhat safe environment. And it’s always more fun if you’re shocking the people in the room. If you end up being boring, that’s the lowest of the low.

Q: Do you think you’ve been boring before?

A: All the time. You can bore yourself! On “The Lighthouse,” I’d do two out of 17 takes that work, and on the other ones, I’d roll the dice in a different direction that leads me nowhere. But it’s more fun doing that than making a plan and sticking to it.

Q: What was the first day of shooting “The Lighthouse” like?

A: Well, my first shot was this ferocious masturbation scene. It’s always nice to do something massive for your opening shot, and I went really massive on the first take. It was a 180 from everything we’d done in rehearsal, and I could see Robert [Eggers] a little in shock afterward. But I was like, “OK, cool, I didn’t get told to stop, so I’ll keep going in that direction.” As soon as I’d done that, it was like the road started getting paved.

Q: Why did you feel like you couldn’t uncork that character in rehearsals?

A: I want to do it different every time, and if you rehearse it 30 times, you have to think of 30 different ways to do it — even if the first way is probably the best way. I just hate it when I do a second take exactly the same as the first take. They might as well fire me.

Q: Doing it the same feels false to you?

A: It’s just boring! I mean, I’ve definitely seen actors who love rehearsing and are very good, so there’s got to be some benefit to it. But there’s something about that full commitment when you’re shooting, when it’s do or die, that allows you to be more free. Or maybe I’m just lazy and I can’t be bothered to do it until the day we shoot!

Q: Did “The Lighthouse” strike you as a comedy at first?

A: I thought the script was hilarious when I read it, but I had a similar experience on “High Life” [a space drama about convicts sent to a black hole]. When Claire Denis and I watched that by ourselves, we were pissing our pants laughing — it’s insane, that movie. But at the premiere of “High Life,” there was this deadly silence as everyone watched it. I was like, “Oh God, no one’s seeing the absurdity of this.”

Q: People just assume that if it’s an art-house film, it can’t be funny.

A: It made me worry that if people aren’t told that “The Lighthouse” is a comedy, they might not feel like they’re allowed to laugh at it. You know, I used to think that doing movies was almost like taking a test, and there was so much pressure to do it right, but I’ve now swung more over to the other side of things: It’s supposed to be really fun, and if you just play it that way, it’s more enjoyable and ends up in a good place. Having a laugh really changes everything.

Q: You’re currently working on Christopher Nolan’s next film and you’ll begin shooting “Batman” soon. How does it feel to have traded art-house movies for big studio blockbusters?

A: I mean, “Dunkirk” is almost an art-house movie! Chris Nolan is literally the one director who can make an art-house movie for hundreds of millions of dollars, so it doesn’t really feel like a studio thing. With “Batman,” if I’d done it a few years ago, I would have been incredibly nervous, but I’ve still got a few months before we start shooting. Plenty of time to have a panic attack!

Q: You were saying earlier that we should be skeptical of any actor who wants to play the hero, and yet here you are playing Batman.

A: Batman’s not a hero, though. He’s a complicated character. I don’t think I could ever play a real hero — there’s always got to be something a little bit wrong. I think it’s because one of my eyes is smaller than the other one.

Q: What is it about Batman that excites you?

A: I love the director, Matt Reeves, and it’s a dope character. His morality is a little bit off. He’s not the golden boy, unlike almost every other comic book character. There is a simplicity to his worldview, but where it sits is strange, which allows you to have more scope with the character.

Q: You just paused.

A: I just fear that when I say anything about “Batman,” people online are like, “What does this mean?” And I don’t know! I used to be very good at censoring myself, but I’ve said so many ridiculous things over the years, so I’m always curious when I’m promoting these movies how many times I can mess up. It feels like with every movie that comes out, there’s always one quote from me where it’s like, “How? What kind of out-of-body experience produced that screaming nonsense?”

Q: You’ve said that after you were cast as Batman, you anticipated a vitriolic reaction online.

A: Maybe I’m just used to abuse by now. At least I didn’t get death threats this time — that’s a plus! It’s funny that people are so very angry about “Twilight.” I never particularly understood it.

Q: When an actor stars in a franchise that’s made for women, there are men who resent that: “My girlfriend likes him, so I don’t.”

A: They need to think about why they feel that way. Maybe it’s time for a deep soul-search: “Why do you fear what you don’t understand?” But yeah, it’s very strange. All the stuff with “Twilight” was strange. I used to walk down the street with no one recognizing me, and then that changed for four years.

Q: Are you worried that by making big movies again, you may invite that scrutiny back into your life?

A: People don’t really mess with me in the same way now that I’m older. When I was younger, the paparazzi would be crazy to me — I’d be leaving a place, and people would be screaming abuse — but I can’t imagine it going back to that. Do people really care anymore? The gossip magazines have all kind of gone away, and everyone just puts their stuff on Instagram anyway.

Q: Everyone but you.

A: Well, I’m old and boring. And I only have abs, like, two weeks a year.

What Can Robert Pattinson Do to Keep You Guessing?

When Robert Pattinson signed on to play the antagonistic Dauphin of France in Netflix’s medieval epic “The King,” he knew it was a juicy role that would give him the pleasure of taunting Timothée Chalamet. Still, Pattinson hadn’t quite figured out his character until he saw hair-and-makeup photos of his co-star Lily-Rose Depp, who was cast as a royal ingénue.

After all, Murai has directed many of the key episodes of Glover’s Emmy-winning series, “Atlanta,” as well as the music video for “This Is America,” the Grammy-winning song Glover recorded as his musical alter ego, Childish Gambino.

But with their first feature-length effort, “Guava Island,” you had the sense that Glover and Murai were trying to play down those expectations. The film, which comes in at a brisk 54 minutes, was shot in Cuba last year and kept under wraps until this week. That isn’t easy to do when your star is so famous and his love interest is played by Rihanna.

And although any film festival in the world would have coveted Murai’s first feature, “Guava Island” instead debuted Thursday night at the Coachella campgrounds in California, where Glover was to headline the site’s music festival as Childish Gambino on Friday night. The film was to begin streaming on Amazon, starting Saturday at 12:01 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time, shortly after his set concluded.

So what is this mystery project about? “Guava Island” is a music-driven fable that follows Deni (Glover), a happy-go-lucky singer who believes that music has the power to unite the squabbling citizens of his tiny island. He promises his girlfriend, Kofi (Rihanna), that he can write a song as beautiful as she is, although Kofi is skeptical. “No song is that beautiful,” she boasts. (Letitia Wright, aka Shuri in “Black Panther,” also appears, but she doesn’t have many lines.)

The plot is slight: A shady island tycoon named Red (Nonso Anozie) tries to prevent Deni from putting on a music festival, reasoning that if people go see the young man perform that night, they’re liable to skip work at Red’s sweatshops the next day. And although Rihanna doesn’t have much to do as Glover’s girlfriend, the two at least share a spiky chemistry: Glover is eager to please, while Rihanna remains ever hard to impress.

But the main attraction here is something that had been kept secret until Thursday night’s screening: Glover uses “Guava Island” to restage and remix some of his biggest recent songs.

“America is a concept,” Deni tells his fellow workers before leading them in a rendition of “This Is America” that finds new context for many of the video’s familiar, unsettling dance moves. Other musical sequences are set to Childish Gambino songs like “Saturday” and “Summertime Magic,” which is repurposed as a beachside serenade for Rihanna. (Alas, she is a mere spectator instead of Glover’s duet partner.)

Glover has said that “Guava Island” was inspired by films as disparate as “Purple Rain” and “City of God,” although it also shares a restless creative ambition with recent visual albums from Janelle Monáe and Beyoncé. Monáe was to perform just before Glover on the Coachella stage Friday night, while Beyoncé dominated the festival last year with a career-spanning performance captured for her coming Netflix documentary, “Homecoming.”

For top-tier artists looking to make a grand statement, there remains no place like Coachella. But as “Guava Island” shows, sometimes you can say just as much about your intentions by springing a sly surprise on the way.

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/12/movies/guava-island-movie.html" id="bfdf5a94-6304-31fb-aa41-133ba24e98ff">The New York Times</a>.

When Donald Glover and director Hiro Murai collaborate on a new project, expectations are naturally sky high.

'Guava Island' First Look: Childish Gambino's Mystery Project With Rihanna Is Unveiled

The cameras were off. The show was untelevised. And Melissa McCarthy finally had the chance to tee off on her fellow nominee for the best actress Oscar, Glenn Close.

“I think we all truly find her sketchy,” McCarthy told the audience at the Oscar Wilde Awards in Santa Monica, California, on Thursday night. “And when I say sketchy, I don’t want you to take it the wrong way. I mean truly shady.”

The crowd, including Close, roared with laughter. “Why the two N’s?” McCarthy continued. “Why the double scoop? I think I’m not alone in wondering.”

Close then took the stage and indulged in a bit of playful ribbing herself by intentionally mangling her presenter’s name. “That Melissa McCartney, she’s a whore for the spotlight,” Close said, grinning.

In January, when she won the Golden Globe for her performance in “The Wife,” Close gave a stirring speech about female empowerment that brought the crowd to its feet; at the far more relaxed Oscar Wilde Awards, sponsored by the U.S.-Ireland Alliance, she simply signed off by saying, “I’m in the middle of my Guinness, and I’m really happy to be here.”

You might expect that by this point in award season, the speeches and sentiment from Hollywood’s most honored performers would become rote. Far from it. At a series of pre-Oscar parties this week, women in the film industry seized their chance to speak at length without fear of being played off by an orchestra, and the results were often funny, heartfelt and impassioned.

At the 12th annual Women in Film Oscar party in Beverly Hills, producer Cathy Schulman recalled the first Women in Film soiree, which she staged 12 years ago in a living room. Fifty people showed up then, but on Friday night at Spring Place, the space was crowded with hundreds of women, including many of this year’s 61 female nominees.

“Don’t stop doing it,” Schulman told the nominees before they gathered for a group photo, “because if there’s anything for us to risk, it’s that this whole achievement gets brushed under the rug again.”

Costume designer Sandy Powell, who is nominated twice this year, for her work on “The Favourite” and “Mary Poppins Returns,” spoke to the crowd about the gender imbalance on film sets. “I really hope that one day, it’s going to be 50/50,” Powell said. “I would love to be working with female grips and electricians.”

She is currently working on a Gloria Steinem biopic directed by Julie Taymor, which prompted her to recall her own feminist streak as a British teenager growing up in the 1970s.

“It was cool to challenge traditional gender roles, not only because we wanted to overthrow the patriarchy, but because we truly believed in the possibility of an egalitarian society,” Powell said. “Looking around at all the amazing women in this room tonight and knowing that Gloria Steinem herself is still going strong, I can be hopeful that things will change.”

The most powerful speeches I saw this week were at Essence Black Women in Hollywood Awards luncheon Thursday, where a collection of black female luminaries like Ava DuVernay, Angela Bassett and Janet Mock gathered to honor one another’s contributions in an increasingly diversifying industry that still poses significant challenges for creators of color.

Among the honorees were two actresses overlooked by Oscar, and in their acceptance speeches, they showed just how much the Academy Awards will miss by not including them.

“People ask me all the time ‘How has all of this been? Your life is changing!'” said a tremulous KiKi Layne, who made her film debut last year in “If Beale Street Could Talk.” She continued, “It’s really exciting and I’m so very thankful, but it’s also extremely terrifying.”

“It is the very beginning for me,” she said, near tears. “And being here in this room and receiving this award, it’s showing me that I’m not by myself in all of this.”

Regina Hall, who earned awards buzz this year for her work in “Support the Girls,” spoke honestly about a career in which every high has to be fought for. “I never had a quantum leap that was overnight,” she said. “But there’s so much you learn in the journey, and I’m grateful for that.”

In a funny speech delivered off the cuff, Hall, 48, talked about a palm reader who once told her that she’d be successful later in life. “As women, you feel like you have a clock,” she said. She paid tribute to her agents and lawyers — “They fight for me like I’m a 30-year-old white man,” Hall said — and recalled years of auditioning and struggling to book roles. Once, told she was about to receive a big offer, Hall learned it was actually meant for actress Regina King.

That sort of career has given her a perspective on awards luncheons. “These moments are amazing and they’re exciting, but they’re fleeting,” Hall said. “Tomorrow will go on. My agent will call me and say, ‘They still haven’t responded.’ It’s never ending.”

She continued, “But it’s not really about that. It’s about what we show each other.” Closing her speech, she scanned the room. “I see you,” she told the crowd of mostly black women. “Sometimes we wait for the world to see us. Let us see each other before the world does.”

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/23/movies/oscar-parties-essence.html" id="7d6d1e4c-8007-3fc1-a1ca-8d4e10430496">The New York Times</a>.

The Best Oscar Week Speeches You Didn't See

This crazy, mixed-up Oscar season comes to a close with Sunday night’s ceremony, which will forgo a host and, after plenty of controversy, still present all 24 categories on the air. But which movie is poised to win the biggest race of them all and take the Oscar for best picture?

Alfonso Cuarón’s black-and-white art film “Roma” is a critical favorite that took the top trophy from the Directors Guild of America, but a foreign-language film has never won best picture, let alone one distributed by the insurgent streaming service Netflix. Many Oscar voters love the racial-issues dramedy “Green Book,” which was given top honors by the oft-predictive Producers Guild of America, but the film couldn’t even nab a best-director nomination.

So though we’ve got two ostensible front-runners, this is still anybody’s game: After all, “A Star Is Born” once looked unbeatable, too, and now it’s limping to the finish line with a scant few trophies under its belt.

✓ “Roma”

Of the other contenders, a win for Spike Lee’s “BlacKkKlansman” or the Marvel phenomenon “Black Panther” would be historic. Royal comedy “The Favourite” rode across-the-board support to 10 nominations. The two music-driven dramas, “Bohemian Rhapsody” and “A Star Is Born,” claim passionate fans and equally engaged detractors. And a vote for the Dick Cheney indictment “Vice” would at least send a political message.

With all that in mind, I still think the industry prizes given to “Roma” add up to a best-picture win that will prove to be a game-changing moment for Netflix. If a streamer can taken the top Oscar, then all bets are off.

✓ Glenn Close“The Wife”

Melissa McCarthy “Can You Ever Forgive Me”

A seven-time Oscar nominee, Glenn Close is poised to pick up her first statuette for her finely crafted work as a secretive spouse in “The Wife.” It’s been ages since Close had a showcase role like this, and the 71-year-old actress galvanized voters further after a moving, personal Golden Globe acceptance speech in January. Her primary competition is first-time nominee Olivia Colman, who just won Bafta’s top prize for playing the queen in “The Favourite” and is fronting one of the night’s most nominated films.

✓ Rami Malek“Bohemian Rhapsody”

Christian Bale “Vice”

Bradley Cooper “A Star Is Born”

Willem Dafoe “At Eternity’s Gate”

Viggo Mortensen “Green Book”

Oscar voters are suckers for a transformation, and this category offers two ostentatious examples in Rami Malek, who played the Queen frontman Freddie Mercury with real swagger in “Bohemian Rhapsody,” and Christian Bale, who was unrecognizable as Dick Cheney in “Vice.” Malek has been one of this season’s most willing and able campaigners, and his film is a box-office sensation, so the 37-year-old actor is poised to become one of the youngest recipients of this award in recent memory.

✓ Regina King“If Beale Street Could Talk”

Amy Adams “Vice”

Emma Stone “The Favourite”

Marina de Tavira “Roma”

Rachel Weisz “The Favourite”

This category promises to be one of the night’s most suspenseful races. The “If Beale Street Could Talk” star Regina King won the Golden Globe and Critics Choice Award, but she wasn’t even nominated by the Screen Actors Guild or Bafta. The latter group gave its prize to Rachel Weisz, who hails from a best-picture nominee but may split votes with “The Favourite” co-star Emma Stone. And then there’s “Vice” nominee Amy Adams, whose Oscar win is long overdue. My guess is King will prevail: At the recent Oscar nominees’ luncheon, she and Mahershala Ali were the two most applauded contenders.

✓Mahershala Ali “Green Book”

Adam Driver “BlacKkKlansman”

Sam Elliott “A Star Is Born”

Richard E. Grant “Can You Ever Forgive Me?”

Can Mahershala Ali become the second black actor after Denzel Washington to win more than one Oscar for acting? All signs point to yes, as Ali has swept the precursors this season for his work as the gifted pianist Don Shirley in “Green Book.” Only two things are working against him: Ali won this same category two years ago for “Moonlight,” and voters may not be in such a hurry to reward him again so soon, while “Can You Ever Forgive Me?” star Richard E. Grant has charmed his fair share of admirers on the awards circuit and could prove to be a dark-horse winner.

✓ Alfonso Cuarón“Roma”

Yorgos Lanthimos “The Favourite”

Spike Lee “BlacKkKlansman”

Adam McKay “Vice”

Pawel Pawlikowski “Cold War”

Though Barry Jenkins (“Moonlight”) and Steve McQueen (“12 Years a Slave”) have seen their films win best picture, neither man won the best director Oscar. This presents a clear path for Spike Lee to become the first black filmmaker to triumph in this category, except that he is up against Alfonso Cuarón, who has taken every major directing prize this season. While the academy has more of an imperative to reward Lee, who has famously never won a competitive Oscar, Cuarón will be tough to topple.

✓ “RBG”

“Hale County This Morning, This Evening”

Last year’s biggest documentary, “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?,” was also one of Oscar’s biggest snubs. In its wake, two other breakout hits are best positioned to win this Oscar: the Ruth Bader Ginsburg documentary “RBG,” which also scored a nomination for original song, and the breathtaking rock-climber story “Free Solo.” The latter is more of a cinematic feat, but checking the box for “RBG” lets voters throw their weight behind the indefatigable Supreme Court justice herself.

✓ “The Favourite”

“Green Book” won the Golden Globe, “The Favourite” scored with Bafta, and the Writers Guild gave their top prize in this category to Bo Burnham’s “Eighth Grade,” a film the Oscars didn’t even nominate. The race will likely come down to “Green Book” and “The Favourite,” and the latter’s malicious wit gives it the edge. Still, if “Green Book” pulls off a win here early in the night, that could presage an eventual best-picture victory.

✓ “BlacKkKlansman”

“The Ballad of Buster Scruggs”

The screenplay Oscar often goes to an auteur the academy is not quite hip enough to reward in the directing category, like Jordan Peele, Spike Jonze or Sofia Coppola. I wonder, then, if the adapted-screenplay race might be the safest place for voters to reward Spike Lee, one of four credited writers of “BlacKkKlansman.” Still, don’t count out Writers Guild winner “Can You Ever Forgive Me?,” which has its passionate fans and is, in its own larcenous way, about the very act of adaptation itself.

✓ “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse”

Pixar’s superhero sequel “Incredibles 2” is the highest-grossing animated film of all time, and its director, Brad Bird, has won this category twice, including for the first “Incredibles.” That’s formidable competition, and yet the contender with all the momentum is “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse,” which came late in the year but has picked up all the big animation prizes. Even if “Black Panther” doesn’t take home best picture, expect at least one Marvel superhero to triumph on Oscar night.

✓ “Roma”Mexico

“Capernaum” Lebanon

“Cold War” Poland

Kyle Buchanan

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