Join the Upri-sing: Les Misérables Singapore press call

For F*** Magazine

JOIN THE UPRI-SING
F*** Magazine peeks behind the barricade at the Les Misérables press call
By Jedd Jong

It has been 22 years since the barricades arose at the Kallang Theatre, when the blockbuster musical Les Misérables first arrived in Singapore. Arguably the best-known adaptation of Victor Hugo’s landmark 1862 historical novel, the story is predominantly set against the backdrop of 1832 June Rebellion in Paris. Composer Claude-Michel Schönberg and lyricists Alain Boublil and Jean-Marc Natel’s original French-language musical debuted in 1980, with the English adaptation featuring Herbert Kretzmer’s lyrics opening in 1985. Les Misérables has since become the longest-running musical on the West End, and has celebrated its milestones with all-star anniversary concerts. A feature film adaptation of the musical was released in 2012, winning three Oscars.

On Thursday morning, F*** was in attendance at the Esplanade Theatre as a press preview was staged, followed by interviews with the cast and crew. This production is at the tail-end of a two-year tour, which began in Australia and is fresh off their Philippines leg. This staging is different from how fans of the original might remember it; the show was reworked for its 25^th anniversary with new set designs and a re-orchestrated score. While iconic elements like the turntable and the barricade set that splits in half have been excised, Matt Kinley’s set design takes inspiration from the paintings of author Hugo, who was also an accomplished visual artist. The paintings, projected onto the backdrop, further enrich the depiction of 19^th Century France.

“We’re getting older, but it looks like the show is never aging, and is [in fact] getting kind of younger,” Boublil said. “All the people who play in the show now were not born when Claude-Michel and I were writing it!” Boublil told us about the process of adapting the 1500-page book into a musical. When it debuted in 1985, the English-language version was four hours long; this has now been whittled down to around three hours. Boublil stated that the novel is required reading in most French schools, “but you don’t understand it - you know it’s about injustice, but apart from that, you don’t get the heart and soul of it.”

Boublil is of the opinion that not everything makes a good musical, and described how he and Schönberg were convinced of Les Misérables’ potential. “Many of them are musicalized in an opportunistic way, or they don’t last,” he said of other source material. When asked whether or not he remembers the feeling of first seeing the musical on stage, Boublil replied “I remember it very well.” On the cast of the original West End production, which included such luminaries as Colm Wilkinson, Frances Ruffelle and Patti Lupone, Boublil commented “We had the crème de la crème of musical theatre, but we didn’t know it yet! We didn’t know that they would each become a star in his or her own right.” It might be hard to imagine now, but the show opened to scathing reviews on the West End. Boublil remembered a headline in an English daily which read “What can be worse than a bad musical? A French musical.” “That day was like a death sentence is ringing,” he recalled, thinking that the show would surely close inside of a month after those notices. “To my amazement and pride, it has become the world’s longest-running musical,” he said.

The lead role of Jean Valjean is played by Australian actor Simon Gleeson, who won a Helpmann award for the role. The character, an escaped convict who embarks on a journey of redemption, is one of the most prominent roles in musical theatre. When asked what aspect of Valjean he most connected with, Gleeson answered “My job is to connect with all of them. The frustration that he feels at the start, the anger that he feels towards the world at the start, the joy he gets when he meets little Cosette, I connect with all of them.”

The part Gleeson most looks forward to during each performance might surprise audiences, since it isn’t the grand solos like Valjean’s Soliloquy or Bring Him Home. “It’s meeting little Cosette. Meeting the little girl is the first time the character gets to smile. It’s the first time he goes ‘I can live for something now’.” He had quite the heart-warming story to relate about his daughter. “When I first was rehearsing for the audition years ago, I would sing Bring Him Home in the house and she actually said ‘I forbid you to sing in the house’.” Gleeson related to us. “I didn’t realise it was because she would go to her room and cry, because she locked on to the fact that something was wrong, that I wasn’t happy, that I was in pain and something was going on and she couldn’t comprehend it, she understood just from the music alone.” His son’s reaction after watching the show was a little less complicated. “He just liked the guns,” Gleeson chuckled.

Gleeson played Raoul in Love Never Dies, the sequel to Phantom of the Opera. “The role I played was a horrible man – alcoholic, abusive, he was a terrible father, he was all the things that Jean Valjean isn’t,” Gleeson remarked, admitting “I had such a good time! It was really great.” Gleeson said the music plays an enormous part in helping him get into character. “The music is so evocative that you can’t helped but be seduced into where you need to be. Good luck if you can resist, you’d be a fool to try.” Gleeson worked briefly with Hugh Jackman, who played Valjean in the 2012 film. “He actually said to me ‘I don’t know how you do it eight times a week,’” Gleeson revealed. Gleeson said that, “frustratingly” enough, Jackman lives up to his reputation as being an affable person. He’s so generous and an incredibly talented guy, I can’t speak highly enough about Hugh.”

Valjean’s arch-nemesis Inspector Javert, a dogged police officer who pursues the fugitive over the course of almost two decades, is played by Earl Carpenter. The English actor has played Javert on Broadway and the title role in The Phantom of the Opera on the West End. He also performed in the 25^th anniversary concerts of both shows. “Everyone says he is a bad guy! Not at all!” Carpenter insisted, describing Javert as “a robust individual that knows one thing, which is his belief in the law”. “At that last moment, you see something very different happen to him, which is the fact that somebody has knocked his beliefs off the track and there’s no other way for him to deal with it, he doesn’t have the capacity to deal with it,” Carpenter said of Javert, who is ultimately undone by his own unwillingness to see Valjean as anything other than a criminal. Recalling his first time seeing the show at age 21, Carpenter said “it was just incredible to see something so epic but live, rather than seeing it on the screen, it was extraordinary.”

On Russell Crowe’s much-maligned portrayal of Javert in the 2012 film version, Carpenter pragmatically stated “There’s a reason for everything. Everybody makes decisions. That film had to appeal to a massive audience and to do that, maybe just Les Mis as a musical, wasn’t going to be enough to sell the film. It’s incredibly expensive to put a film on these days.” Coming to Crowe’s defence, Carpenter said “I know he confessed to being very nervous, in front of musical theatre singers. It was an incredibly scary time for him.” Carpenter shared that he thought that “there were moments of Russell’s character that were just absolutely spot on. His persona, for that role, was great.” Quite graciously, he added “there could be people who probably don’t like my singing, it doesn’t matter.”

Central to the story is the love triangle between Valjean’s adoptive daughter Cosette, the dashing, rich young Marius and Éponine, whose parents mistreated Cosette when she was in their care. Emily Langridge plays Cosette, Paul Wilkins plays Marius and Kerrie Anne Greenland plays Éponine. Most fans gravitate to the character of Éponine, who is placed squarely in the ‘friendzone’ by Marius. “Actually, the funny thing is that especially in the rehearsal room, I get to see a lot more of A Heart Full Of Love, where Cosette and Marius finally get to really see each other for the first time, and it’s so beautiful,” Kerrie admitted. “I know I’m Éponine, but it’s really awesome what they’ve got going on!”

“I think it’s hard for Cosette because she actually has gone through a lot,” Langridge said. “We see Cosette as a child and we see Éponine as a child and their roles really swap when they’re older. I think they’re really similar. Maybe if Éponine didn’t die, then they would be friends.”

Commenting on the perceived obtuseness displayed by Marius in his interactions with Éponine, Wilkins said “I think that comes with the territory of young love and experiencing it for the first time and kind of not knowing the signs.” He related a story from his own youth: “When I was in primary school, a girl used to kick me under the table in music. She kicked me, and I thought she hated me – little did I know, months later, that she really, really fancied me!”

Greenland added that Éponine might have stood a chance “if she had a bath”.

The actors spoke of going back to the source material, since much of the material was cut down in the adaptation process. “Cosette as a character has so much description in the book and in so much detail, where in the musical, her role is scaled down quite a lot, so I really try to get as much detail as I can from the book to give the role the most amount of depth in a short time,” Langridge said. This process was also helpful for the actors in creating something that resonated with them, rather than attempting to replicate past portrayals.

Out of all the characters, Fantine, Cosette’s biological mother, probably has the most number of tragic calamities befall her. Fantine sings what is arguably the best-known song in the show, I Dreamed a Dream. Australian actress Patrice Tipoki, who has starred in productions of The Lion King, Wicked and Beauty and the Beast, plays Fantine. She has been a fan of Les Misérables since she was young. “I used to sing Master of the House when people would come to the house, I don’t know how appropriate that was for a seven-year-old girl!” she laughed.

“It took a while for me to shake other people’s versions of this song, especially in my head, because I grew up with it,” she said, on the subject of making the role her own. “It was nice to have the rehearsal process that we do to be able to find my voice and my story that I wanted to tell. And of course, that still changes every night, depending on how I’m feeling and how receptive the audience is. It’s nice to know that everyone already loves the song, so it’s starting on a good note.” Fantine’s appearance in the musical, while impactful, is relatively brief. “Every night I go ‘maybe I’ll live tonight!’ It’s never happened yet, still trying!” Tipoki joked.

Co-director James Powell explained the lasting appeal of the show, saying “The story itself is about the human condition. It’s a classic story that’s just as relevant today as it was 400 (sic) years ago. The generosity of spirit is what I think people are moved by, in the face of adversity, they come through, and I think that’s what people find very uplifting. And the music helps a bit.” Working for super-producer Cameron Mackintosh has kept Powell on his toes. “When you work for Cameron Mackintosh, you are always evolving, you don’t stay still,” Powell said.

So, why should audiences go see Les Misérables? Producer Nick Allott, who is the managing director of Cameron Mackintosh Ltd., has the answer. “This is a story that covers everything: it covers love, it covers conflict between two people, it covers the triumph of good over evil, it has battles, it has epic scale and it has fantastically strong characters, characters you can fall in love or identity with,” he enthused. “I can’t think of anyone sitting there being bored. This is a show that picks you up and carries you through in this extraordinary way.”

Les Misérables runs from 31^st May to 24^th July at the Esplanade Theatre. Please visit http://www.sistic.com.sg/events/mis0716 for ticket information.

Taking Disciplinary Action: Interview with Gurmit Singh of Young & Fabulous

For F*** Magazine

TAKING DISCIPLINARY ACTION
Gurmit Singh talks to F*** about going from funny to fierce
By Jedd Jong

As an actor, comedian and host, Gurmit Singh is an extremely face to Singaporeans everywhere. His signature contractor character Phua Chu Kang, who originated from Singh’s sketch show Gurmit’s World and went on to have his own television show, movie and even a musical, is a Singaporean cultural icon.

Most audiences are used to seeing Singh as an over-the-top goofball, so his role in Young & Fabulous is something of a departure. In the comedy-drama film, Singh plays Mr. Boo, the Discipline Master at Solaris College. The central trio of characters, Royston (Aloysius Pang), Hao Ren (Joshua Tan) and Violet (Joyce Chu) are his charges and the recipients of his disapproval. The film is set in the Singaporean cosplay scene and touches on the themes of chasing one’s dreams in the face of a society that prizes practicality over creativity.

Singh spoke to F*** at Raffles Convention Centre ahead of the film’s premiere that night. It turns out that in real life, Singh is a far cry from the manic persona he is most associated with. Sure, he definitely still has a sense of humour, but he’s clearly a very separate person from Phua Chu Kang. He spoke about the role that parents and teachers play in a child’s development, his own encouragement of his children’s creative endeavours and how the entertainment industry has evolved over time.

What is it like getting into character to play a strict Discipline Master?

I think it’s actually easier to get into the serious side of things because in real life, I’m quiet, so it wasn’t too much of a stretch or a challenge to play the role. I think it will be more challenging for viewers to watch me this way because people are used to me being larger-than-life, funny and comedic all the time, and this is not like that. It has its funny moments, but I’m not being funny.

You have said in interviews that you would support your children’s pursuit of their passion. Do you also feel it’s important that they get good grades and earn university degrees?

I think if they are good at studies, then by all means, go ahead. I’m not saying “stop studying”. I’m just saying that many times, parents try to relive their failed dreams through their children, and I think that’s very sad. I am a walking testimony of how I didn’t get a degree, I wasn’t smart enough to go to NUS (National University of Singapore) - twice I tried and my A-Levels weren’t good enough. Anybody in my position would have said “okay, I’m stuck with A-Levels now and my future doesn’t look good, I’m going to be stuck with a certain level of job and a certain level of pay.” But as it turned out, it wasn’t like that at all. I’ve always told my children that as long as it’s legal and they’re happy, it’s fine. But as parents, we have to guide them. They might think “this is good!” but we have to tell them “here are the consequences and here are the challenges going forward”, because we know better than them. Then if you still want to go with it, by all means, go with it.

I have parents who come to me and say “my child wants to be a superstar, he wants to be a celebrity.” That’s fine! If he can dance or sing or act, then that’s fine. But the child also has to know that it’s a lot of hard work. A lot of children out there who are not guided think they can just come in, sit in front of the camera, sing, dance, act, host, done! Tomorrow I’m a celebrity. It’s not like that at all! Sometimes it happens overnight, sometimes it takes more than that, sometimes you don’t get the show that really is that vehicle to take you to that fame status and the child has to be guided and told about such things. Whether it’s for the entertainment industry or whether it’s to become a doctor or a lawyer or a fireman, as a parent, you have to say “if this is what you really want, let’s research about this, let’s see what this career path entails.” Then you draw up all the challenges and put it in front of the child and say “do you still want this?” If they say yes, go for it then.

If your daughter says she wants to be an actor or a host, you’d be in favour of that?

It’s fine! I’ll be a hypocrite if I said “no, you cannot be [an actress]! It’s not very good.” When my elder daughter was about 8 years old, she said “Dad, when I grow up, I want to be a celebrity.” I said, “oh, that’s…cool?” And she said “I want to be a different kind of celebrity. The kind that nobody knows about. I have the money, I have a lot of projects, but nobody takes photos with me and I’m free to do whatever I want.” That was 8 years old, let her dream.

In Singaporean society today, what do you feel the balance is between the role a parent plays in the development of a child and the role a teacher plays?

I’ve always been a strong advocate of how parents are the main people in terms of guidance for the child. The teachers are coming in in terms of education, academics and all. But in real life, social skills and all that, I think the parents have bigger roles. I’m sad to say in the past few years, I’ve seen more of that being transferred to the teacher, instead of the parents taking what is supposedly theirs. Now, I feel that we are in a new phase now.

I’m a council member in the Families For Life council. We sit down every three months, talk about, plan and execute events and strategies where we hope more and more families get together. Not just the mother and the child, but even the father, so that they can grow stronger together in terms of the bonding time. For the longest time, I know it’s a cliché, “spending quality time” has been around. That phrase “quality time” has been used as an excuse. “I’ll spend two minutes with you, that’s so ‘quality’. And now, I’m going away to play golf for the next three hours.” That’s screwed up for me. I think it should be the other way around, you play golf for two minutes and spend three hours with your child. As a council member, we are allowing more and more platforms for the family to get together and have that time together. It’s one thing to have quality time, but you must have “quantity time” as well. The more time you spend with your child, the most opportunity you have to exercise your responsibility in their lives.

Did you have any pre-conceived notions about the hobby of cosplay before taking on this film?

Not at all. For me, it’s just another version of a Halloween party. At the bottom-line, that’s what it is. I have no ill feelings towards kids who cosplay. I didn’t find anything new because I’m already a collector of comics, I’m a Superman fan. I’m into comics, I’m into all this stuff, so it wasn’t a huge revelation of “what is this? I haven’t seen this before!” Not at all.

I’ve read all but two issues of my Superman comics collection. I first bought them in 1994 to 1996, and then I had chicken pox, so I started reading through every one. Recently, I picked up two copies.

What preparation did you do to take on this role?

I think nobody has to research it because everyone has grown up with a Discipline Master in their school. It was easy to draw on past experiences – I’m not saying that I was a bad kid in school, but I had a Discipline Master in primary and secondary school and they were all very fierce! They had this sour face, it was like they hadn’t had enough food to eat and somebody kicked them in the face every morning when they got up. Very grouchy and moody, and even the best jokes don’t make them laugh, so it wasn’t difficult to get into that role, I just thought back to it.

What message did you want to convey through your character?

It’s a positive message, isn’t it? Through my character, I actually show everybody that not everything is as it seems. When you see a Discipline Master in school, you’d think one way “a Discipline Master is heartless, he probably has no family, even if he had a family he’s probably chased them away because he’s so grouchy.” This film addresses that. Maybe not everybody is like that, if you take the time and effort to get to know someone, you’ll find out that there are other facets to the person. For example, whenever people see me, they think that I’m a comedian, I’m always larger than life, in your face, “don’t pray pray” and all that – but when they sit down and talk to me or have dinner with me, they realise there are other facets of Gurmit Singh that we didn’t know about, and I think that’s what the movie does as well.

What is the most important factor when you pick your projects?

That it’s got some message, good values, and that it’s a role that I want to play. If this is a movie that is just glorifying some…evil, bad, vulgar concepts, I’m not interested in that. For me, it’s about the whole concept and it’s about the role that I’m playing, whether it’s going to be something that I enjoy playing. If it’s not something you enjoy, if it’s passé, it will show on screen.

Having been a pillar of the entertainment industry…

Pillar? No lah, please lah, hello! It’s too much man! I was more like a corner tile at the side there.

Having been a part of the Singapore entertainment industry for some time, how do you feel it has evolved and developed over time?

I would think that now, the entertainment scene is really flourishing because there are so many platforms out there. In the past, it was very hard to get known, to be heard, to be seen, to be even slightly noticed, because you had to know somebody in the industry to even get your foot in the door. But now, with the social media platform, anybody can be a producer, a writer, a singer, an actor, a host, whatever! Put it out there and you never know, depending on the number of hits on your site, you could be the next big thing.

I think that’s great. But it’s also a double-edged sword, because on one hand, it allows the person who could not have been found through the old traditional means can now have that instant success and accessibility – but it also means that those who really don’t have the talent are just irritating everybody. It’s good entertainment for a while, but they’re also deluded. They think that just because they’re out there, that because in they’re in the media, it means they’re very good. But it’s not isn’t it? Ist all comes down to whether or not you’re talented.

Young & Fabulous opens in Singapore on 26 May 2016.

Meet The Hunting Party: Interviews with Chris Hemsworth, Charlize Theron, Jessica Chastain and Cedric Nicolas-Troyan

As published in issue #75 of F*** Magazine

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Text:

MEET THE HUNTING PARTY
F*** sits down with the stars and directors of The Huntsman: Winter’s War
By Jedd Jong

Actors Chris Hemsworth, Jessica Chastain and Charlize Theron, as well as director Cedric Nicolas-Troyan, were in Singapore for the Asian premiere of The Huntsman: Winter’s War. The premiere was held at Universal Studios Singapore in Resorts World Sentosa to much fanfare, with fans shelling out for theme park tickets and braving the overwhelming humidity to catch a glimpse of the stars on the red carpet.

The next day, the cast and director fielded questions from F*** and other local and regional journalists at the Equarius Hotel in Resorts World Sentosa. Hemsworth and Chastain were paired up, as were Theron and Nicolas-Troyan, taking turns to meet different groups of journalists.

CHRIS HEMSWORTH AND JESSICA CHASTAIN

First off, we got to chat with the titular Huntsman himself and his warrior bride Sara. Since Kristen Stewart, who played Snow White in Snow White and the Huntsman, was booted off the sequel, the spotlight is trained squarely on the Eric the Huntsman, whose back-story we learn in this film. We are also introduced to Sara, a highly skilled warrior who served alongside Eric in the army of Freya the Snow Queen (Emily Blunt), falling in love with Eric in the process. The duo had a relaxed rapport, with Chastain sometimes turning to check with Hemsworth to ensure she didn’t misremember a detail of working on the production. Hemsworth and Chastain shared about filming action sequences, generating chemistry together, practicing accents and their reaction to the heartthrob being crowned the Sexiest Man Alive.

Jessica, you’ve worked with both Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and Loki (Tom Hiddleston). Without letting present company influence you, which Asgardian brother did you enjoy working with more?

[Chris laughs]

JESSICA CHASTAIN: Chris.

CHRIS HEMSWORTH: Woohoo! Good girl!

CHASTAIN: [But] I love Tom

What lessons did you take away from the story of Snow White?

CHASTAIN: Well, I didn’t connect to fairy-tales very well. I don’t really relate to the damsel in distress, which is the theme in a lot of fairy-tales. I relate more to this film, where the characters in this film and in the relationship are equals.

HEMSWORTH: I think in fairy-tales, there are messages for children: themes about love, good vs. evil, your actions have consequences, and also just your imagination is inspired as a kid. Whether or not some of the themes or characters may be dated, I just think the idea of make-believe and fantasy is very important for the development of a child. I remember as a kid reading The Hobbit and things like that, or my dad reading it to me, and having very vivid pictures in my mind of what that world was and the fantasy of it.

Do you think that love conquers all?

HEMSWORTH: I believe it’s a pretty good motivator to attempt to conquer anything. I don’t know what stronger emotion or feeling there is to want to destroy all odds. So yeah, I think so.

CHASTAIN: Yeah, I believe love conquers everything.

Chris, what is it like working with Jessica, who is a little less experienced than you are in the action genre?

HEMSWORTH: Aww, she did fantastic! All her fight scenes were in high heels or lifts, her shoes, so that was even more impressive. I remember watching, in the film, the first big fight sequence we had and being kind of blown away at the acrobatics she was pulling off and how easy she made it look.

Jessica, what did you do to get into the mind-set of a warrior for this film?

CHASTAIN: Production flew someone to New York and I worked with them for two weeks. I went to London and worked with the stunt team for three weeks before we started shooting. That was just to learn the fights, but I approached it just like I would approach any film. This is the first of this genre that I’ve done, but I thought about her backstory and where she came from, I thought about her being a child with Eric, and growing up in that situation, what happened with her family, and tried to flesh out the character as realistically as possible. Because yes, it’s an incredible action-adventure fantasy film, but I feel like the characters are really rooted in reality and whatever is happening, so as to feel as real and present as possible.

Were there any mishaps when you were both filming the fights?

CHASTAIN: I hit someone! [To Chris] Did I hurt you at all?

HEMSWORTH: No, we did pretty good actually. I think we were in sync.

CHASTAIN: A couple of times, I fell down, because I was wearing those shoes with the wedges in them and we’d be walking along in the woods and I’d hit a branch and I’d just fall down. I hit a stunt person once because I was doing the fight sequence and I’d rehearsed it where I’d elbow someone behind me without looking over and over again, and I knew how far to go. When they were shooting it, they said “the camera angle, the way it is now, you need to go even further back because it looks fake right now”. So I moved further back, and then I hit him in the face because he didn’t move further back. I was so traumatised I immediately went “oh my gosh!” and stopped and ruined the whole take.

HEMSWORTH: Should’ve kept going, because it would’ve looked very real [laughs].

CHASTAIN: It was very real! [Laughs]

Jessica, were the fight scenes or the love scenes more of a challenge?

CHASTAIN: Well, the fight scenes burn more calories, I’ll say that [laughs].

Chris, was the preparation on this film harder than on the first?

HEMSWORTH: I was probably involved much more with the script and involved much earlier than I was with Snow White; I came in quite late to that. So I was able to develop the character a bit more and [work on] the script with the producers and so on. What was exciting was the opportunity to have something different from the first one and lighten it up in tone; have a greater sense of humour and a sense of adventure; have a bit more spark between the characters. And, have a stronger love story – we were kind of non-specific in the first film, so it was nice to be able to go and hit those themes a little heavier this time around and advance it.

Chris, you were named People’s Sexiest Man Alive in 2014. How did you take it?

HEMSWORTH: How did I take it? It made me laugh, it was all pretty funny [chuckles]. You can’t take it too seriously, you have to laugh about it, I guess. Then they took it off me, which was heart-breaking.

CHASTAIN: He made a big joke out of it, which was really funny. We’d be on set and he’d say “you know, I am People’s Sexiest Man Alive…”

HEMSWORTH: “…So give me some damn respect!” And then in turn, it got me less respect.

CHASTAIN: Exactly! Then we just teased him!

HEMSWORTH: I don’t take it seriously.

Do you think you’re sexy?

HEMSWORTH: Do I think so? No, not really. Does anyone? I don’t know…[chuckles]. I know all my ridiculous secrets, which are unattractive.

Did you work on the chemistry between the both of you to get it to the level we see in the film?

HEMSWORTH: You just get lucky sometimes, you know? You just have an instant sort of chemistry and connection. Jessica has a great sense of humour, we like a lot of the same films, love the style of films from an audience point of view. You can work at it as much as you want, but if it’s not there, it’s not there. As I said, we got lucky, you know?

CHASTAIN: You have to be open to it, too. We got lucky, but there’s also a situation where if you’re working on something with someone, between every take, if they go to their trailer and leave set, [it won’t work out]. We hung out on set a lot with Cedric and talked a lot, we got to know each other, and I think that always benefits chemistry.

Jessica, you’ve posted photos of you tucking into durians while in Singapore. how did you come to gravitate towards durians?

CHASTAIN: I love durian. I worked in Thailand for four months [on Blackbeard] and discovered the fruit there. I love it. I was in Singapore and Hong Kong a few years ago and had it; every time I come to Asia I have it. We don’t get it much in the United States so for us, it’s very exotic. Chris has never tried it.

HEMSWORTH: I would try it; it’s just never come across my plate. But I’ve heard a lot about it, I’ve heard mixed reviews, that it smells a bit funny, but I would give it a go, I’d try it.

What was it like working on your Scottish accents? How did you find the accents, was it a character choice and did you practice with each other?

CHASTAIN: We didn’t really practice with each other.

HEMSWORTH: Yeah, we just had great dialect coaches and you just rehearse the hell out of it. Repetition, repetition, repetition. I listened to a lot of tapes of certain influences and different people for the accent. It has a great musicality to it, for me personally, it lends itself to humour well. That’s nice, and it also separates us from the evil, royal [posh] types.

CHASTAIN: I worked with a coach from Scotland, and what I loved is that I kept asking her “what are little sayings?” Like “you’re a right galoot” or “you’re a right numpty”, things like that. And Cedric would let me kind of sprinkle in a little bit, which was fun. Because I’ve never heard that word “galoot”, have you guys heard that word?

HEMSWORTH: I have.

CHASTAIN: You have? It must be an Australian thing too.

HEMSWORTH: It is.

CHASTAIN: Lots of galoots in Australia!

HEMSWORTH: Lots of ‘em, that’s right [Both laugh]

In the last film, the Huntsman kissed Snow White to wake her, and now we meet his wife, who was assumed to be dead all this time. Could it be considered an extra-marital affair?

HEMSWORTH: For me, I feel like the kiss was full of love, but a love for somebody else. All that was needed in that spell for Snow White to wake up was love; it didn’t necessarily have to be for her. But he was talking about his wife.

CHASTAIN: Talking about me! [Laughs] That was the true love’s kiss, and that’s the only reason I think this film works, Sara being here, it’s because of that scene. I re-watched the first film after I got the offer and I saw that scene and I said “of course! The true love’s kiss, there was that whole monologue about his wife.”

Jessica, you’ve worked with some very experienced directors and on this film, you worked with a first time director. What differences have you found?

CHASTAIN: It’s interesting, because everyone has their own individual point of view. When I was on the set [of The Martian] with Ridley Scott, I knew there was a whole history of filmmaking that I was going to experience and I was very excited about what that was going to be like. Working with Ridley was very different than working with J.C. Chandor, who did A Most Violent Year, [which was] very different than working with Cedric. Which is why I like this industry, to do the same thing over and over again is very boring, so I like to try and mix it up. I’ll go from Christopher Nolan [on Interstellar] to a first-time filmmaker. I hope to work in more foreign films. Those usually are my favourite, I’ve got to learn more languages [laughs], but that’s actually what I enjoy.

In the film, you have the scene with the goblins and they’re not there. What was it like working with creatures who would be inserted later, and what was it like filming the scenes with the dwarves?

CHASTAIN: Well, I was really lucky because we actually had actors. Nick Frost, Rob [Brydon], Sheridan [Smith] and Alex[andra Roach, who played the dwarves,] were all there. Even the goblins, which we knew the drawings of what it was going to look like, there was someone there in a bodysuit with little dots all over them and acting out the body movements, making the noises and doing everything. Yes, they weren’t as big as the goblins ended up being, but it was really helpful that all six of us had the same thing to look at, and it wasn’t just being in a green screen [set].

Chris, how do you stay in such excellent shape?

HEMSWORTH: I just like to stay active. I surf a lot at home, spend a lot of time outdoors, just doing different activities and obviously in the gym, training. The biggest thing is just having a good, clean diet, I think. The healthy, non-processed sort of food is a big thing, even more so than probably the training. For Thor, I had to lift a lot of weight to grow muscle, but as far as staying fit, what you put in your body is number one.

And for you, Jessica?

CHASTAIN: I’m a vegan, so I agree with Chris, so much of your fitness is about what you eat, so I don’t eat any meat.

CHARLIZE THERON AND CEDRIC NICOLAS-TROYAN

Following Chastain and Hemsworth were Queen Ravenna herself and the first-time feature film director who helmed The Huntsman. The Oscar-winning Theron was clearly a dab hand at press junkets, helping the less experienced Nicolas-Troyan along in between playfully ribbing him for his thick French accent.

“Was Chris really boring?” Theron joked as she entered the room. Theron’s scenery-chomping performance in Snow White and the Huntsman is generally regarded as one of the more entertaining aspects of the fantasy action flick, so it is fun to see Ravenna resurrected. The main antagonist for the bulk of the film is Ravenna’s younger sister Freya; Blunt was absent from this leg of the press tour but Theron spoke unreservedly about how much she adores her co-star. Nicolas-Troyan spoke about dealing with the pressures of handling a major production, while Theron, who has become a widely-admired feminist icon, touched on being a role model and how Ravenna’s pursuit of youth and beauty reflects on gender perception in society.

Cedric, you were the visual effects supervisor on Snow White and the Huntsman and are now directing this one. What was the biggest source of pressure in taking on this bigger responsibly?

CEDRIC NICOLAS-TROYAN: Obviously, it’s a harder job. Doing visual effects compared to directing a movie, it’s a walk in the park. Directing a movie is a way bigger deal. So obviously, you have that pressure, but then you work with those guys [the cast] and all that pressure goes away…

CHARLIZE THERON: You’re welcome.

NICOLAS-TROYAN: They just push you [on], and I think also because of the first movie, you’re stepping into somebody’s shoes so you have that pressure for sure, but I think when you shoot the movie, it goes away. I had a great time shooting the movie and working with them, so the pressure went away. Maybe now more than ever, the pressure is on, because the movie is coming out. It’s judgement day, you know?

THERON: It’s all on you [laughs]. 

Charlize, you’ve played some really remarkable characters in your career. Do you feel the pressure to be a role model for women?

THERON: It’s so odd, because I don’t think about anything like that until I come and do a press junket. It’s interesting because I don’t know what’s really in the subconscious and what’s really in the conscious. I think there’s a part of me that feels a responsibility to myself as a woman when I go and do a film, and for an actor the greatest fear is that you won’t be able to get to the truth of a character. And so I feel like my responsibility really starts there.

I want to do something that feels incredibly authentic and truthful, and I think when we do that, we’re hoping that something will resonate with other people, other women. I don’t know if that’s being a role model; I worry about that because I’m so aware that I’m an entertainer. The reason I do what I do is I really love film, I believe in the power of it, I believe in the inspiration of it. I’ve sat in many theatres in a dark room and have had stories move me in such a way that it has changed me. And I think film can really do that and I think I’m a small part of that process. If I do something that really chases after the truth, I feel like that’s the only way that you can hope people can be moved by it, and I can’t hope for anything past that.

NICOLAS-TROYAN: She’s a pretty authentic person, I think, with all the work she does with her charity. I’m not a woman, and I’m pretty inspired. It’s true though, I think that as a person, it goes through you, that’s the way I see it.

THERON: Aww shucks!

NICOLAS-TROYAN: It’s true though!

Is it fun to play a villain?

THERON: Yeah! I mean, I wasn’t miserable about it at all!

NICOLAS-TROYAN: She comes and she’s really funny, she has that great energy on set, and she comes up with ideas like that. What you see in the movie is just a very small part of what she does on set. There was stuff she was doing that was so fun, I couldn’t put them in the movie for so many different reasons…

THERON: Because they were bad [laughs].

NICOLAS-TROYAN: No, they were not!

THERON: I’ll try anything.

NICOLAS-TROYAN: She comes [to set] with so much energy, so much stuff, and it makes those scenes so much better. What I’m thinking I’m going to get from the scene is one thing, what she brings…the whole black stuff [dripping from Ravenna’s mouth], she came up with that. I’m like “that’s cool!”

THERON: It’s such a fun thing being on set, because what you’re doing is throwing a ball back and forth with your director, with your [other] actors, it’s like a sport almost. There’s a constant discovery process. There’s an element with [Ravenna] because she’s the villain in this fantastical world, the world allowed her to bleed outside very confined lines and we got to go a little bigger with her. I didn’t end up in jail [in real life], so that was a good thing. Not yet!

NICOLAS-TROYAN: Charlize is a lot softer at the beginning of the film [during the flashback scenes], so we could go really bigger at the back end. That was fun. On set, it’s always like that – “what about this, what about that?” And even among themselves, with Jessica, with Chris, we all have those scenes – this kind of creativity is built on top of the script we already have that just make it so much better.

THERON: [To Nicolas-Troyan] We are lucky because we had you, the director really sets the tone.

NICOLAS-TROYAN: That is so true, I was amazing [laughs].

THERON: You really were. I mean, I had some issues with your…

NICOLAS-TROYAN: …My accent [laughs].

THERON: I couldn’t understand a word you were saying. I just knew I went like this a lot [nods uncertainly]. Your director sets the tone, it’s the shepherd, there’s the leader and you need that in a filmmaker. Cedric was very good at setting a tone for this film that was very collaborative. When he’s talking about a lot of the s*** that we tried, a lot of it was bad, but it was great to have a director who’s open to anything. I learned a long time ago you have to do ten bad things before you find half a good thing.

How was it working with Emily Blunt?

THERON: I wish she wasn’t married, because I would marry her. I was thinking we could move to a polygamist state and just do it; I don’t know if John [Krasinski, Blunt’s husband] is up for it. I love that girl so much. From the first moment we were together, it was just instant chemistry. We couldn’t stop, just a lot of chatter, a lot of Cedric going “girls, we’re rolling.” Both Jessica and Emily are actresses I really admire, and as my peers they’ve been people who raise the bar for me as an actor. Their work is so inspiring, so they’re a huge part of why I wanted to come back and do this. To get to work with not just one but two really amazing strong powerhouses on film, that’s the opportunity of a lifetime.

Charlize, what were the differences in working on this film compared to the first one?

THERON: I feel like the process was a little different. On the first one, there was a lot of room to discover this character. There was a script, but there wasn’t that much explored with her. Joe Roth, who’s the producer of both, came to me and said “this is yours. You can do whatever you want with it.” I’d never really been given that kind of freedom, so I worked with the two writers really closely, developing and creating her with Rupert [Sanders, director of Snow White and the Huntsman] so that was a really fun process.

Initially, when the idea came to me, she was a cartoon character. I remember Googling her and getting the cartoon image of the raven hair, the arched eyebrows, the red lips. I thought to myself “it’s such an iconic character, there would be something very inspiring about taking that and turning it on its head and doing something completely new with that.” I was encouraged to do that, so that was great.

That was the process for the first film, so once we solidified that, we had that for the second film, so then we got to explore her in different circumstances. When you take that character that we created on the first one and throw her in these circumstances with her younger sister, it allows for different things to happen with her. I never in a million years thought we would ever see Ravenna love something, and when we found her foundation in the first film, I could never imagine her showing love to something and in this film, we got to explore that and that was really great for me.

What did you take away from the story of Snow White?

THERON: I think thematically, there’s a really powerful story in there for women and the currency we place our value in, which is this obsession with youth and that somehow our value really comes from that. I think it’s a huge misconception about how women think about themselves, but we’ve kind of gotten pigeonholed in a society that has given us almost no out with that. There’s no way we can deny that women age differently in our society in men. I’ve always loved the analogy that we go around thinking that women are cut flowers, that they just wilt after a while, and men are fine wine, they just age better the older they get.

I feel like women have to start taking ownership in changing that concept, and I think this fairy-tale is powerful in that because at the end of this story, Ravenna ends up alone, and none of those things give her anything she thought she was going to have. The Snow White character ends up having a full life, because there’s more to her than chasing those currencies. If you think that this story was written hundreds of years ago and it resonates with us as a society still today, that says something about us.

NICOLAS-TROYAN: What’s great about fairy-tales is that no matter how you take the fairy-tale and what kind of fairy-tale it is; it always [offers] very simple lessons in life. They are written that way for kids to understand: what is good; what is bad? What is love; what is hate? What is wrong and what is right? Those are universal [themes], it doesn’t matter what culture you’re from, as a human being, you learn those things.

When we make movies like that, all we’re doing is creating more complex characters that are more anchored in reality, of the reality we know today. But if you look at fairy-tales within themselves, you would see that even in modern movies, they’re always essentially the same lesson, they’re always there to remind us what we should be doing. We live today in a world that is focused on ugliness and negativity, and we have a tendency to look in that direction instead of celebrating what we should be doing. Those fairy-tales have been created from the get-go to teach the kids to not do that, in 20 years, we’re going to do fairy-tales in a different style and a different medium, and it will tell the exact same story.

Better the Devil You Know: Lawyering Up with Charlie Cox

As published in Issue #75 of F*** Magazine

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BETTER THE DEVIL YOU KNOW
F*** lawyers up with Charlie Cox, star of Netflix’s Daredevil
By Jedd Jong

Matt Murdock escaped the mean streets of Hell’s Kitchen for a sojourn in Singapore, which does not have nearly as many ninja assassins roving the streets. F*** was in attendance as Netflix put together a meet-and-greet for social media influencers to rub shoulders with the Man Without Fear himself, Charlie Cox. The lobby of boutique hotel The Club had been transformed into a Netflix theme park of sorts dubbed “Club Netflix”, sporting décor reflecting Orange is the New Black (duct tape slippers), Narcos (fake bills bearing Pablo Escobar’s face), Jessica Jones (an Alias Investigations sign on the washroom door), and, of course, Daredevil – a plaque reading “Nelson and Murdock: Avocados at Law” had been installed on the wall outside.

Cox was, as many of his fans would expect, supremely charming as he fielded questions from the star-struck social media personalities present. He looked thrilled to see a cosplayer show up to the shindig in full Daredevil regalia and reacted positively when this writer showed Cox a Matt Murdock custom action figure he had made.

Daredevil is currently in its second season, with all episodes streaming on Netflix. The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) has spread far beyond the silver screen, now encompassing shows on TV and online streaming platforms. Cox’s portrayal of Murdock, a lawyer who was blinded as a child in an accident but gained superhuman senses as a by-product, has attracted praise from fans and critics alike.

“It’s a job,” Cox said with a laugh when asked what drew him to the role – but it was soon clear that this is a job the actor takes very seriously. “I just thought it was so different, interesting and sophisticated, unlike any superhero show that I’d seen, and I thought it was a very cool opportunity,” he said. Cox hadn’t read the comics before accepting the role, which he said was “helpful” as his first exposure to the character was the script for the first two episodes, written by Drew Goddard. Cox would later delve into the source material, and he identified Brian Michael Bendis’, Frank Miller’s and Jeph Loeb’s respective runs as writers on Daredevil as the biggest influences that the show drew upon.

Cox addressed the 2003 Daredevil film starring Ben Affleck, saying he was determined to be secure in his own portrayal of Murdock before watching the movie, which he eventually got around to. “I had heard a lot of jokey negativity about this film. Funnily enough, when I watched the film, I think Ben Affleck did a really good job. I really liked his Daredevil,” Cox remarked. He added that he feels “the film suffers tonally,” which is a widely-held opinion. “What’s interesting about it is that I don’t think you can compare the two,” he continued. “The film is closer tonally to Stan Lee’s Daredevil. It’s more light-hearted, it’s more comic book-y, and it’s geared towards a slightly younger audience. It’s a very different interpretation.”

As with any live-action portrayal of a comic book character, the costume has drawn much scrutiny. For the first 12 episodes of the 13-episode first season, we only see Murdock clad in a thrown-together black get-up, with the full reveal of the Daredevil costume coming in the final episode. “If you get it wrong, people are upset,” Cox said, acknowledging the importance of the design. The old-fashioned technique of constructing a special effects costume involves taking full-body moulds of the actor, but Cox underwent a more high-tech process: a full body laser scan.

When Cox wore the suit on the set for the first time, security was extremely tight so images would not be leaked, and the 150 person-strong crew were all eager to catch a glimpse of the Daredevil costume. “I felt a little embarrassed because everyone was looking at me,” Cox said. Donning the armour tapped into Cox’s childhood dreams of being Spider-Man. “Now I’m cooler, I’m Daredevil!” he exclaimed, throwing a little shade in the web-crawler’s direction.

While Cox confirmed that the initial black outfit was obviously more comfortable, he said the most recent suit, the third in the series’ continuity, is his favourite for reasons of form and function. “It’s the iconic red suit: it’s a very cool texture, it feels cool when you’re wearing the suit, but it’s also protective.” He clarified that it wasn’t like “really getting beaten up”, but the stunts and fighting still take their toll. Cox revealed that co-star Jon Bernthal (Frank Castle/The Punisher) got a little too into character. “He was kicking me in the stomach, really hard. He didn’t realise he was doing it! But luckily I had this chest plate on so it was protecting me. After about ten takes, I was like ‘dude, you gotta stop kicking me!’”

Speaking of The Punisher, his introduction into the MCU via Daredevil’s second season has gotten Marvel fans all giddy. The character serves as a foil for Daredevil, who does not endorse Punisher’s brutal, merciless brand of vigilante justice. Over the course of the season, Murdock comes to understand Castle and his tragic motives, but Punisher’s entry onto the scene is a wake-up call of sorts. Murdock comes to realise that he is “is responsible for people like Frank Castle showing up in Hell’s Kitchen and the carnage that they bring,” Cox pointed out. “Potentially more frightening is that if he is responsible, then he has to stop being Daredevil. And that is something I don’t think he’s able to do. I think at this point he’s heavily addicted to it and he will do everything in his power to protect his right to be Daredevil.”

Murdock’s romantic relationships have always been complicated. Season 1 sees him dating nurse Claire Temple (Rosario Dawson) and in Season 2, he falls in love with Karen Page (Deborah Ann Woll), the associate at the Nelson and Murdock law firm. A spanner in the works manifests itself in the form of Elektra Natchios (Elodie Yung), a debutante/assassin with whom Murdock was involved in college.

“Matt is completely himself with both of those women,” Cox said of Karen and Elektra, shedding light on the paradox of how they reinforce different aspects of Murdock’s personality but he cannot wholly be himself with either. “With Karen, he’s able to be the man he’s dreamed of being, the man his father wanted him to be. Someone who majors in kindness and generosity and authenticity and who fights for law and order and goodness,” Cox reasoned. “That’s who he is, that’s who he wants to be. But she doesn’t know about this other aspect of his life, which is a huge part of it, which is Daredevil.”

“With Elektra, the opposite is true,” Cox said of the femme fatale. “He’s able to be Daredevil. He’s unashamed of himself as Daredevil with her, she encourages him. But she also sees a darkness in him and she encourages him to have a disrespect for property and law and all those things, which isn’t truly him. He’s torn. Like a lot of people, men, women, across all generations, they often feel torn.” 

Cox got into some of the technicalities of portraying a sight-impaired person. He trained with consultant Joe Strechay, who is blind, and also incorporated some mannerisms from a blind dog he once had. You could hear the hearts in the room being warmed when Cox talked about his pet. “If you grow up with your sight, you use your eyes for so much stuff that you don’t even realise,” Cox shared. “Especially when you act, but even in real life, I can say one thing, but my eyes can tell you that I mean something very different.” Acting without the use of one’s eyes is a challenge, since “emotion comes from the eyes.” Cox noticed Strechay would look towards someone’s mouth when they were talking, because that’s where the sound comes from, and incorporated that into his portrayal of Murdock.

Cox was honoured by the American Foundation for the Blind with the Hellen Keller Achievement Award, and the actor feels privileged to be able to represent the sight-impaired community and collaborate closely with them. He admitted to feeling a little embarrassed at the award, saying “I’m just an actor who got a great opportunity to do a job and I took my job seriously. It’s lovely to be recognised.” Cox has been involved in outreach programs organised by the Foundation and recently spoke to the students of the Overbrook School for the Blind in Philadelphia.

Cox recounted how his mother often gets him to talk to her friend’s children when they ask for advice about being an actor, in order to dissuade them. “The thing that I say to them, which isn’t really advice, which probably isn’t fun to hear, but is the truth I think, is ‘get lucky. Get really lucky’,” Cox said. He elaborated that he knows a “huge amount of very talented actors” who have missed out on many opportunities. “Don’t get me wrong, I work very hard, but somehow, some way, I’ve been at the right place at the right time on a number of occasions.” Cox said he once heard Anthony Hopkins saying that he reads each script 200 times, and Cox endeavours to read the script more times than one would think is necessary, to absorb the character “by osmosis.” In addition to Hopkins, Cox listed Marlon Brando and Gene Hackman as actors he looks up to.

Funnily enough, out of everyone in the room that day, Cox was probably the only one without a social media presence. “It’s not really who I am,” he shrugged. Perhaps this adds to the appeal of Cox as a “serious actor” unoccupied with the frivolities of Twitter and Instagram.

He recounted the story of how an (unnamed) good friend of his, a “very well-known actor”, had been reading the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) message boards and found a thread calling him the “worst actor on earth”. “So I said to him “buddy, don’t read that! That’s stupid, why would you pay any attention to it?” However, Cox’s curiosity was piqued, and he was unable to resist the temptation to look up his own message boards on IMDb. “I started to scroll down, and the next part of my life happened in slow motion. As the message boards came up, the first title was a picture of me and it said ‘She-man?’ and there was a picture of me with really long hair when I was younger and big lips, I don’t know? My mum finds that hilarious. Whether that’s constructive criticism or not, I don’t know.”

The actor’s career has gone unaffected by such trifles and with more seasons of Daredevil in the works, plus a Defenders team-up show on Netflix and possible appearances in the movies themselves, Cox is ploughing ahead without fear.

STGCC 2015: Adam Hughes interview

As published in Issue #69 of F*** Magazine

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THE AH! FACTOR
F*** talks to pinup artist extraordinaire Adam Hughes at STGCC

By Jedd Jong

Comic book fans everywhere know those familiar initials all too well – “AH!” Adam Hughes is in town for the annual Singapore Toy, Games and Comics Convention (STGCC), appearing as a special guest in Singapore for the very first time. Hughes is accompanied by his wife and manager Allison Sohn, also an illustrator.

Hailing from New Jersey, Hughes is a prolific comic book artist who has built a reputation for drawing some of the most drop-dead gorgeous women in all of comics. His work harks back to the golden age of pin-up art with its playful sexiness, while also coming across as lifelike, cinematic and vibrant.

Over the course of his storied career, Hughes has drawn for the likes of DC, Marvel, Dark Horse and Wildstorm, in addition to adult publications such as Playboy and Penthouse. His career highlights include prominent cover artist runs on Catwoman, Wonder Woman and Tomb Raider. Sideshow Collectibles has produced a series of statues based on Hughes’ designs and his original art is highly sought after in the comic art collecting community, running for a pretty penny.

While he initially seemed a little intense and wasn’t prone to smiling a lot, Hughes is engaging, enthusiastic and humorous during the interview, giving witty, well thought-out answers to our questions. Sitting down with F*** at STGCC, Hughes shares his thoughts on the evolution of the pinup, reveals his favourite female and male comic book characters, speaks about the successful partnership he has with his wife and provides insight into the unexpected challenges of being a career artist. He also recounts his fascinating brush with Hollywood in the form of working on the teaser poster for Joss Whedon’s ill-fated Wonder Woman movie.

How has the art of the pinup evolved from the days of Gil Elvgren and Alberto Vargas to today?

As far as a first question goes, pretty tough [laughs]. It’s changed because of the perception of women in society. With very few exceptions, all the great pinup artists were men, there were only a few women doing it, and they were depicting idealised versions of women. As time has gone on, women aren’t meant to just be attractive or just be the mother to your children, they’re their own people; they have their own place in society and can do anything they want. The pinup has changed to reflect women’s power, as far it’s not just them in cute situations. It’s not just them going “oh, a puppy is pulling down my bikini bottoms, ooh!”

That’s one of the things that interests me and challenges me as a pinup artist: I’m hired to draw strong, powerful women and I want to make them look attractive. Nobody ever talks about the fact that when I draw Superman or Captain America, I want to make them look attractive too. My main job is to portray a character and I don’t do as much pure “cheesecake pinup” as I used to, but I still try to inject an element of humour and good-natured sexuality of the pinup into the stuff that I do. I do think the way that it has changed is that it’s trying to be a little more…I don’t know if ‘respectful’ is the right word, but aware.

You’re not just drawing a thing that’s to be looked at, you’re drawing a person, definitely more nuanced, but also more aware that you’re drawing a character, you’re not just drawing something that’s meant to be looked at and appreciated for its beauty. When I draw Catwoman or Wonder Woman or any character, I go “what’s this character thinking? What’s this character feeling at the moment?” not just “how small is this character’s costume today?” It sounds like a strange dichotomy, but it’s the way I work.

You were once named “the greatest cheesecake artist” and in response, you said that instead of “embracing” the title, you were giving it a “warm handshake”. You do more cover art than interior work; would you call yourself a frustrated storyteller?

I’m not an especially frustrated storyteller, I’m only frustrated with the fact that I don’t get to tell stories as much as I want. That’s not because people don’t offer me comics to draw, it’s because I’m so slow. I would love to be one of those people that’s just so prolific and works on everything, I would love to tell a million stories, maybe I’ve only got 20 stories, I’ve only got enough time to tell 20. That’s the part that frustrates me. As far as telling stories in single images, I don’t have a problem with that because I’m allowed to, I’m allowed to use a cover to tell a story instead of just portraying a character in a pretty way.

What’s your opinion on diversity in comics today?

There’s not enough of it. However, I don’t feel that the correct solution is a hammer. When there’s a problem in the world, whether it’s in something as silly as comics or in the real world, the workplace, in education or something like that, a lot of times people tend to go way overboard in their response to it, as opposed to a measured response and an incisive response [that] will actually get the most results. There are two responses to any great social issue: ‘I’m going to sleep through it’ or ‘let’s have a revolution!’ Maybe there’s a response somewhere in between apathy and anarchy, where you can go ‘let’s try to make this better’.

I would love more diversity across the board in all media, but I’m not a fan of ‘artificial diversity’, where you go “let’s just make this more diverse for diversity’s sake.” I believe in everything, whether it’s diversity or characters, locations, storytelling, any aspect of a creative endeavour, I think that it should always be organic, it should always come from “what am I trying to say with this story?” If you’re trying to tell a story and for some strange reason, a character has to be a white guy, then he needs to be a white guy. You should only change it to some other thing if making the character, say, a female Asian, actually makes the story better. You shouldn’t be doing it because “we don’t have enough female Asians in comics,” but because you’re saying “this story would be good if it were a white guy, but it would be amazing if it were a female Asian” or something like that. That’s what I think about diversity.

Unfortunately, today is such a reactionary era that I just realised, while I’m talking to you, that I could get into a lot of trouble and I’m just going to have to take that if it comes my way. I just want it to be for the betterment of story, not to fulfil an agenda. Hopefully we get to a point where people stop looking at, say, the cast photo of a new Star Wars film and counting the white people and black people, counting the men and counting the women, [and instead] see how it plays out.

What issues have you encountered in finding a balance in depictions of comic book women such that they are alluring and sensual while also empowering and dignified?

I haven’t encountered any issues until lately. It’s just a subjective thing – what offends one person is somebody else’s idea of pure art. That spectrum used to be much broader. Nowadays it’s a little rigid – there are people out there, especially in the west, who are getting upset at the way I’ve done business for 20-30 years. It’s like “I haven’t changed, was what I’m doing wrong 20 years ago or is your perception of what’s right and wrong, has it changed?” Sometimes the sheer aspect of depicting someone in a glamorous manner is offensive and everyone should look like regular folk to them. Gosh, I wouldn’t have a job if that were true! For the time being, I’m still safe, but I still lock my doors at night.

Your most popular pieces feature the characters in a more light-hearted context, since many pinups tend to be more playful. What are your views on the “battle” of lighter and happier vs. darker and grittier portrayals of characters?

I think it’s a silly battle. I think it’s not an important battle. I think everything that’s meant to be fun should be fun; I don’t like it when light-hearted characters are made dark just for the sake of shock value. I think there’s an important aspect to the darker side of things as well. I think it’s a non-issue, not a real battle.

How do you overcome artist’s block?

I spend most of my time scratching my chin and looking at the blank sheet of paper than I do actually drawing. It’s either video games, I will sit there and go “I’m gonna go kill somebody digitally and I’m gonna pretend they’re artist’s block”. Either that or I vacuum. I know a lot of artists who go “I’m not getting anything productive done at the drawing table, I’m going to get something productive done elsewhere” – that way, at the end of the day when you didn’t get a darn thing drawn, you still feel like you were a useful part of society because my floors are spotless.

What is the nature of your creative and business partnership with your wife?

Extremely productive. We’re lucky, we both have a lot of the same interests [and] we both like a lot of different things and bring new stuff to each other. My work enables to her to have the freedom to pursue her art; her work enables me to have the freedom to just focus on my artwork. We just celebrated our fifth wedding anniversary and we’ve been together for just over 13 years – longest relationship for either one of us. We would walk if it wasn’t working, we’re tired of abuse [laughs]. It’s a great relationship, we get a lot more done, it’s much more enriched. If we were on our own, we’d be surviving, we’d be doing okay, but because we’re together, we thrive.

You’ve drawn some of comic’s most beautiful ladies and did a pinup for Fairest from Fables. Who do you think is the fairest of them all?

I would say Catwoman. If I were drawing all the characters at the same time, I would make sure Selina is the prettiest.

What makes Catwoman one of the characters you’re fondest of?

I love damaged goods. I think the reason why people like the Batman universe so much is everybody in the Batman universe is damaged goods. I’ve always said that everybody in Gotham City is awful and the only reason why Batman is the hero is because he’s the least awful person in Gotham. Selina Kyle should have it easy. She’s beautiful, she’s smart and she’s talented, and yet, there’s something inside her that drives her towards a life of crime and she wouldn’t turn away from it. It’s not just thrills, there’s something bent and broken in her, just as it is with Batman and the Joker and probably even Alfred. If you’ve ever watched Downton Abbey, 100 people have to take care of that house and Alfred is the one guy who has to dust, clean, make the food, clean the sheets and patch up the owner every night he comes home shot. I’d be miserable too. I think that’s why.

Which is your favourite live-action portrayal of Catwoman be it in movies or TV shows?

Oh, in Dark Knight Rises. About 20 minutes into Dark Knight Rises I went “Okay, I don’t care if Batman doesn’t show up, can we just have two hours of Anne Hathaway doing cool stuff?” because it was way better than any of the Batman stuff.

Who is your favourite male superhero?

My favourite male superhero is Captain America. I love Captain America. Last year I drew my first Captain America cover ever and I was nine years old while I was drawing it.

He’s very different from “damaged goods”.

Yeah. Nobody likes a perfect character, it’s finding the character flaws and finding how the character overcomes those flaws. Those character flaws are the same as the obstacles in their careers. It’s like for Captain America, one of his obstacles is the Red Skull and the Legion of Hydra. One of his other obstacles is he doesn’t really fit in – I love him and I would kill to do a World War II Captain America story but I love the idea of a guy who isn’t where he belongs anymore and there’s no going home.

As you get older, all of us are separated from where we were born, not just by distance, but also by time. If you go back to the school you went to, the town or village you’re from, it’s changed and you go “wow, that’s not the way I remember it.” When Cap first came back in 1964, World War II had only been over for 19 years – the only thing different was “well, the Beatles have long hair”. Everybody he knew was probably still alive and I love the fact that as more time goes by, he’s 70 years out of time and soon he’ll be 100 years out of time. He’s becoming Buck Rogers. I find the tragedy of that very appealing.

What is the hardest part of being in the comic book industry?

The hardest part - this is going to sound vague and slightly Zen – it’s all the stuff nobody prepared you for. When you turn your hobby into your job, there’s that initial “oh crap, I have to draw even when I don’t want to draw?” When we’re kids and we’re all doing our favourite creative things, whenever we want, we all wish there was no school so we could do our favourite creative thing every day. The minute someone tells you to do it and says “you have to have all this done by Friday”, it can really become a chore. “Wow, my hobby’s no longer as fun as it used to be.” When you’re a kid and you want to grow up and draw comics, it’s just like “I’m going to sit around all day in my underwear and watch cartoons and draw comics and it’s gonna be great” – [but] there’s a whole brochure of stuff that nobody tells you.

I always think back to nine or ten-year-old me, if I time-travelled and went back, what I would tell him – one, it would be lay off the pizza. Two, I would say “in the future, the same guy who plays Judge Dredd plays Dr. McCoy, and it’s awesome, everybody’s happy” and three, I would sit him down and go “here’s all the stuff you’re not going to be ready for when you break into the business.” The expectations put on you, weird things – this is going to sound like I’m complaining that my diamond shoes are too tight, but career management – nobody teaches you how to manage a career.

I look at genuinely famous people, like politicians or athletes or actors and actresses and I go “your life is no longer your own” and you hope that there’s somebody somewhere that says “here’s what happens the first time somebody takes your autograph and sells it on eBay, here’s what to do the first time somebody stalks you.”

Comics fame is really dubious, but there are issues. We will get stuff mailed to our house, with a letter from somebody saying “oh my god, I love your work, could you please sign this comic that I sent you” to send it back using some self-addressed stamped envelope. The first thing my wife and I do is go “how did they get our address?! Close the blinds and lock all the windows!” It’s weird stuff like that. We worry sometimes, what if some crazy fan who didn’t get a sketch gets upset and decides to do something about it? Gosh, it could happen anywhere!

Nobody tells you when you’re a kid “by the way, you’re going to have to pay your own taxes.” In America, you’re responsible for paying your own taxes, it’s what self-employed artists do. It took me the better part of 18 years to get my tax problems sorted out because I made so many mistakes early on. So much stuff; that’s the hardest part.  

What are your thoughts on old school (pen and paper or watercolours) and new school (programs like Illustrator and Photoshop)

I’ve got my feet in both worlds, because I draw on paper and then I scan it and colour it in the computer. I don't care, to me, all that matters is the final product. If your best tool is digital, then do it. These purists say “it’s not really painting unless you’re using oil paints” and it’s like “well, for you, but for this other person over here, they sing with a stylus and Cintiq tablet.”

If you make art and you only use ketchup and mustard and you only make these glorious Iron Man paintings by just squirting condiments onto a board because that’s how you’re most comfortable, then do it. I used to try and paint for real all the time, and it never works. Very frustrating. The minute I started colouring digitally, everything gelled into place, because I think that art medium, they should be like your shoes and your car and the chair you sit in. They should be so comfortable, you’re not thinking about it. Imagine walking somewhere and thinking about your shoes every step of the way – you wouldn’t get where you’re going because you’d be going “oh, the left one’s a little tight, the right one’s squeaking” – you wouldn’t think about where you’re going.

As an artist, if you’re thinking about your tools while you’re working, you’re not spending time being creative. You’re thinking about the mechanics of drawing, which you should have worked out already. That’s why every artist should just draw all the time; to get to the point where your pencil or your stylus or your paintbrush is an extension of your hand and you’re not thinking “oh, this paper’s fighting me today” or “I don’t like this pencil” – you’re just sitting there and going “Batman is sad! He needs rain, rain will make him seem sadder.”

That’s why I don’t care about the medium at all. When I see a beautiful piece of artwork, I never seem to ask what the medium is anymore. I used to be concerned about that; now I just go “that is a beautiful, wonderful piece of art that tells a story.” Don’t care where it came from. Unless it’s like “oh my god, I need to steal that, let me find out how that person drew those clouds.”

What was it like working on the Wonder Woman poster for the Joss Whedon film that didn’t pan out back in 2005?

When Joss Whedon was making the Wonder Woman movie, I got a call from DC saying “you’re going to get a call from Joel Silver”, who was the producer of the Matrix films, the Lethal Weapon films. He was in Who Framed Roger Rabbit, he was the crazy director at the beginning and I was like “him, he’s calling my house?” So he called, and the character he played at the beginning of Roger Rabbit was way more normal than how he is in real life. I said to my wife, we were just dating at the time, “this guy’s a cartoon!” He then said “hold on, hold on, I’ve got Joss Whedon on the other line.” So, all of a sudden, I’m in a conference call with the producer of The Matrix and Joss Whedon, and I’m going “this is the weirdest day ever.”

I only had a weekend to work on it, I only had two days. They had no costume design, and I knew this film was not going to get made because they were both telling me what to draw and it was all different. Joel Silver’s going “make sure she’s buff, make sure she’s really strong!” and Joss Whedon’s saying “but not too buff!” I felt like a divorce attorney. When they announced that it didn’t go through [it made sense]. It was fun, I wish I could’ve drawn more of Wonder Woman, but there was no costume, there was no actress, and if I had an extra day or so, I could have made it something real special, but now it’s just “hey, I worked in Hollywood for eight seconds! Yay me!”