LOS ANGELES—We look back on the year about to end with a compilation of quotable quotes from our interviews with Angelina Jolie, Jennifer Aniston, Brad Pitt and other stars.
Angelina Jolie
Angelina, a nominee for Golden Globe Best Actress-Drama for “Changeling,” on how she stays gracious and centered: “I had a great mom who had a grace about her that I’ve tried to study and learn from. She was the kind of person who loved being a mom. I don’t wish for anything other than that. My kids are first. They bring me so much joy and peace. I can have the worst day in the world and you can say horrible things about me, but I’ll go home and my little kids think I’m great. They love me, and they come to me when they get hurt. I feel like the most important person in the world.”
Brad Pitt
When a journalist asked Brad if he agreed with what Angelina told us in an earlier interview that they’re not quite done yet having more kids, he replied with a smile, “We haven’t found any reason not to yet. It is chaos at moments but there’s such joy in the house. I look down and there’s our boy from Vietnam, our daughter from Ethiopia, our girl who was born in Namibia, our son who’s from Cambodia and they are brothers and sisters. They are like blood relations and it is such a sight that makes us feel elated. Given that, with our jobs, we have the capability to also give someone a home, provide a home … Let me tell you, it’s selfish, too, because the reward has been extraordinary … so no, we haven’t found any reason to stop yet.”
How do mom and dad get a minute alone? “Mom and dad are creative,” Brad said with a grin. Then he said with a laugh, “There are some dry spells. There are a few moments in the desert but … we’re good. We have our ways.”
Jennifer Aniston
On boyfriend-singer John Mayer: “It’s an amazing thing to watch a musician think. And it’s wonderful! Yeah, he’s rare. I don’t know many musicians, but that instrument (guitar), when it’s on him, it’s just a channel. It’s something I’ve never seen. He’s an extraordinary musician and it’s wonderful to watch the way his brain works and the way he thinks. It’s beautiful.”
Vanessa Hudgens
“Kumusta?” we greeted Vanessa when she walked into a hotel meeting room for our interview. “Mabuti,” answered the Filipino-American actress.
Zac Efron
“I would love to go to the Philippines,” said Zac, the on-and off-screen boyfriend of Vanessa. “It has always been one of my goals. My dad has been to the Philippines several times. He always comes back with stories of his adventures, so I’d like to experience that. We just haven’t been invited yet (laughter), but we’ll make it there soon enough, I’m sure.”
Of Vanessa, Zac said: “She has grown up, as all of us have. She continues to amaze me with her talents, with every installment of ‘High School Musical.’ She’s turning into a woman. It has been great to watch her grow.”
Andrew Stanton
In our latest visit to Pixar (located near San Francisco), Andrew was asked why the animation studio always succeeds—“Wall-E” being the latest proof. He offered several reasons: “One is that we’re not in Los Angeles. Everybody who lives next to me has different jobs. Nobody else makes movies. You are reminded when you come here every day that it’s a privilege to make a movie, a special thing.
“Another is that we’re very good at fixing our mistakes. Our films look and play bad for most of the time that we’re working on them. And it’s because we’re encouraged as artists to take risks. We know we’re not going to find the right answer unless we take a chance.
“Artists understand that but a lot of businessmen and executives don’t. Fortunately, Pixar is run by artists. It’s like you feel safe falling off your bicycle because we’re very good at picking you up and encouraging you to try again. I don’t think we are smarter, or have better ideas, than other people. But we don’t get scared. We don’t stop a project just because it’s not working. We [work] on a problem again and again until it fixes itself.”
Meryl Streep
Facing the pool and the shimmering Aegean Sea in a private villa of the Lagonissi Grand Resort in Greece, Meryl was asked if there was something—anything—that she couldn’t do. “No one’s asked me to fly an airplane, thank God,” quipped the great actress who sang in her first musical movie, “Mamma Mia! The Movie.”
Meryl went all the way to Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus’ native Sweden to record “The Winner Takes it All,” the musical’s grand ballad. She said, “We were in the recording studio where ABBA recorded that song in the ’70s. I was standing before the same microphone that Agnetha (Faltskog, the ABBA member who originally sang the ballad) had. I swear to God that no one had changed the shag carpeting from the ’70s—all the old relics—the same piano and all.”
Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus
“Even in our wildest dreams, we never thought we’d be sitting here today,” admitted Bjorn as he pondered the continued popularity of ABBA’s songs long after the Swedish pop quartet’s split in 1982. We also spoke to Bjorn and Benny in Greece.
Asked about the chances of an ABBA reunion, Benny answered, “None of us wants to do that. We have other things to do.” He quipped, to laughter from the reporters: “We now make movies.”
Woody Allen
In a rare interview in LA, not in his beloved New York, Woody was unusually candid about directing love scenes (he finds watching them “unromantic,” even if they involve hot Spanish on-and off-screen couple Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem, and Scarlett Johansson in “Vicky Cristina Barcelona”).
Woody’s comments on directing love scenes came up when asked to comment on actress Hayley Atwell’s amusing printed quotes about doing such scenes in “Cassandra’s Dream.” The British actress said that, while she and Ewan McGregor were at it, Woody was eating a tomato sandwich, spilling some on his shirt and worrying about the resulting stain.
Woody said, “When you see it on the screen, it’s one thing; but if you are there on the set when we do it, it’s very bland and professional. The actors come in. People hang the lights. There’s a crew around. Then we say go and the actors do their thing. You’re thinking, are they going too long? Are they going too short? Is her hair blocking her face? Is there a shadow of the microphone on something? It’s a very unromantic time that I usually use to catch up on my eating. Then when it’s finished, someone says, ‘Okay, lunch’ and everybody goes in different directions.”
Jennifer Hudson
Four years after “American Idol” Simon Cowell famously insulted her as being “out of her league,” Jennifer Hudson is still being asked by reporters about that biting remark. But with her first solo album finally out and selling well, not to mention her Oscar and Golden Globe trophies for her spectacular turn in “Dreamgirls,” Jennifer couldn’t help but answer with a certain amount of relish.
“There is a lesson in everything,” the singer-actress said with a smile. “Simon did tell me I was out of my league. Maybe he was right because now I’m in a different league. Maybe I was put back in the right league … Oh well, I’m supposed to be in another league. Now I’ve moved to that (league).”
Leonardo DiCaprio
Leonardo is now able to speak about the double-edged sword which the overwhelming success of “Titanic” brought to his life. The LA native opened up about how the sudden fame and attention got too much for him.
He stopped making films for two years, during which he was able to reflect on how he can lead a more meaningful life: “The only subjects in school that I was ever interested in were science, biology, the earth and the way it works, nature and the environment.” Those interests eventually led to his cause—environmentalism.
He narrated, “I had my own crash course, education-wise. I got to meet Al Gore in the White House while he was vice president. He talked to me about global warming and actually sat me down for an hour and said, ‘This is the biggest issue that’s going to face humanity … I started to educate myself in that … Science was still fudgy at the time because you still had some people saying, does global warming exist? Now we know that over 93 percent of the scientific community believes that it is happening. The other seven percent may argue that it’s not a reality but you have to question their intentions—who finances them?”
Toward his goal to call for action on global warming, Leonardo wrote, produced and narrated the acclaimed documentary, “The 11th Hour.”
E-mail the columnist at rvnepales_5585@yahoo.com and read his blog, “The Nepales Report,” on http://blogs.inquirer.net/nepalesreport.
