I'm always impressed when actors don't act like "movie stars." Take Vera Farmiga, who is up for a best supporting actor award for Up In The Air.
CHUCK CAGARA / www.MagicalLightPhotography.com
Last night I was on the red carpet at the Lobero for the Santa Barbara Film Fest's Cinema Vanguard Awards. As she reaches my position on the line one of the publicity staff introduces me. Farmiga immediately extends her hand to shake mine and says, "Hi, I'm Vera." I'm thinking to myself, "Yeah, I know."
I asked her which of her previous roles she considered to be her "breakout role." I expected her to say, The Departed, in which she played a police psychologist who has a romantic relationship with Matt Damon's character. That's certainly the movie in which she first came onto my radar. Instead she said that without a doubt it was Down To The Bone" an independent film. She explained how that was the movie whom both Martin Scorsese, who directed "The Departed" and Jason Reitman, who directed her in "Up In The Air," saw her and wanted to cast her in their films based on her performance. "I owe everything to that film," she said.
Just prior to talking to me she spoke to a reporter for Mobile Media, who asked her whether George Clooney and she had played April Fool jokes on each other while on the set of "Up In The Air."
More photos from last night at my Film Fest Photo gallery.
My Film Fest recommendations for today.
A Single Man, plays at 10 am at the Lobero.
Chloe. Starring Montecito Award winner Julianne Moore, 4:15 pm at the Metro 4.
Edgar Allan Poe's Annabel Lee, this drama is by a local Santa Barbara filmmaker. Plays at 7:45 pm at the Metro 4.
Complete Film Fest schedule is at Edhat.
© 2010 by Craig Smith and www.craigsmithsblog.com
