Carey Mulligan wins for "Suffragette," hopes awards season will help film gain audience
By Nicole Evatt
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) --Will Smith isn't expecting any pushback from the NFL over his upcoming football drama, "Concussion."
"I don't think it's going to generate too much controversy (with the NFL). There will be a little difficulty in swallowing it, as it was for me. I'm a football dad, you know," said the 47-year-old father of three.
Smith was honored Sunday at the Hollywood Film Awards for his work in "Concussion." He plays Dr. Bennet Omalu, the forensic neuropathologist who uncovered the dangerous effects of head trauma on the brain in football.
"You don't want it to be true," Smith said on the red carpet. "I think that the science is really irrefutable and the story of Dr. Bennet Omalu is such a powerful story. I think that it will be difficult at first for some, but I don't think that it's going to be that big of an issue. It's something that we have to accept."
"Concussion" made headlines after The New York Times reported the film was altered to placate the National Football League, a charge director that Peter Landesman and Sony have denied.
The Grammy-winning rapper, who recently appeared on the remix of Bomba Estereo's song "Fiesta," also discussed his return to music after a decade-long hiatus.
"It's such a new exploration for me. The most fun that I have. There's nothing that compares to being on the stage with a hit record. So you know I've been performing a little bit with (DJ Jazzy) Jeff. We've been sneaking out and going to places and working out a little bit. So I think it's going to be magnificent."
Another hot-button honoree Sunday was Quentin Tarantino's "The Hateful Eight." Police associations have urged boycotts of Tarantino's movies after the filmmaker said he was "on the side of the murdered" during a recent rally against police brutality in New York.
"We all have a tremendous respect for what police do every day, putting their lives on the line, OK? And I know Quentin feels that way too," said Kurt Russell, who stars in Tarantino's Western, out December.
"Now when it comes to his comments on policemen that's his to comment on," continued Russell. "You don't have to agree every time with everybody to like working together."
The awards show, which has raised eyebrows for giving honors to unreleased films, wasn't televised this year after dismal ratings in 2014.
Still, honorees including Robert DeNiro, Benicio Del Toro, Jane Fonda and Amy Schumer turned out for the glitzy gala in Beverly Hills hosted by James Corden of "The Late Late Show."
Carey Mulligan, who received an award for her historical drama "Suffragette," hoped the attention will help at the box office.
"It's an important film for people to see and to understand what women went through for us to have a vote," she said. "All of this award stuff is very good because it means more people will go and see it."
Juliette Welfling Takes On A Musical, A Crime Thriller, Comedy and Drama In “Emelia Pérez”
Editor Juliette Welfling has a track record of close-knit, heartfelt collaboration with writer-director Jacques Audiard, a four-time BAFTA Award nominee for Best Film not in the English Language--starting with The Beat That My Heart Skipped in 2006, then A Prophet in 2010, Rust and Bone in 2013, and Dheepan in 2017. He won for The Beat That My Heart Skipped and A Prophet.
Welfling cut three of those features: A Prophet, Rust and Bone, and Dheepan. And that shared filmography has since grown to most recently include Emelia Pérez, the Oscar buzz-worthy film from Netflix. Welfling herself is not stranger to Academy Award banter. In fact, she earned a Best Achievement in Film Editing Oscar nomination in 2008 for director Julian Schnabel’s The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.
Emelia Pérez is a hybrid musical/drama/thriller which introduces us to a talented but undervalued lawyer named Rita (portrayed by Zoe Saldana) who receives a lucrative offer out of the blue from a feared drug cartel boss who’s looking to retire from his sordid business and disappear forever by becoming the woman he’s always dreamt of being (Karla Sofía Gascón in a dual role as Manitas Del Monte/Emilia Pérez). Rita helps pull this off, orchestrating the faked death of Del Monte who leaves behind a widow (Jessi, played by Selena Gomez) and kids. While living comfortably and contently in her/their new identity, Pérez misses the children. Pérez once again enlists Rita--this time to return to family life, reuniting with the kids by pretending to be their aunt, the sister of Del Monte. Now as an aunt, Pérez winds up adopting a more altruistic bent professionally,... Read More