By Alicia Rancilio
NEW YORK (AP) --For Keira Knightley and Adam Levine, their movie "Begin Again" was an experience of firsts.
Knightley, an accomplished actress, sings in the movie, whereas Levine, frontman of the band Maroon 5, acts.
The two admitted that leaving their comfort zones made them uneasy but that they related to each other's nerves.
"I kept telling her she was great and she wouldn't believe me, and she told me that I wasn't bad at acting either but I didn't believe her, so it was perfect," Levine said Saturday as the film closed the Tribeca Film Festival.
"I was completely terrified," Knightley, 29, emphasized of her singing.
"I didn't anticipate being as frightened as I was. I said yes to doing it and I was, 'Oh, it's gonna be fine, it's gonna be fine,' and then suddenly I found myself in a studio with real people who did it for a living and I was like, 'I don't know what I'm doing. I'm pretending.'"
To walk a red carpet for his first acting role, Levine, 35, said he was "blown away."
Levine says he enjoyed the experience so much he might have caught the acting bug.
"My experience was so much fun," he said. "It made me kind of start to like it a little bit, but I don't know. I don't think you can really make those bold declarations, but we'll see."
So how did the two grade each other?
Knightley called Levine a "natural entertainer" who was "sensational in this film."
Levine, who serves as a judge and mentor on NBC's singing competition show "The Voice," said that if Knightley were to audition he would want her on his team.
"Begin Again," is directed by John Carney, who also was behind the successful musical drama "Once." It also stars Mark Ruffalo, Hailee Steinfeld and Catherine Keener. CeeLo Green also has a small role.
The movie opens in the U.S. in July.
After 20 Years of Acting, Megan Park Finds Her Groove In The Director’s Chair On “My Old Ass”
Megan Park feels a little bad that her movie is making so many people cry. It's not just a single tear either — more like full body sobs.
She didn't set out to make a tearjerker with "My Old Ass," now streaming on Prime Video. She just wanted to tell a story about a young woman in conversation with her older self. The film is quite funny (the dialogue between 18-year-old and almost 40-year-old Elliott happens because of a mushroom trip that includes a Justin Bieber cover), but it packs an emotional punch, too.
Writing, Park said, is often her way of working through things. When she put pen to paper on "My Old Ass," she was a new mom and staying in her childhood bedroom during the pandemic. One night, she and her whole nuclear family slept under the same roof. She didn't know it then, but it would be the last time, and she started wondering what it would be like to have known that.
In the film, older Elliott ( Aubrey Plaza ) advises younger Elliott ( Maisy Stella ) to not be so eager to leave her provincial town, her younger brothers and her parents and to slow down and appreciate things as they are. She also tells her to stay away from a guy named Chad who she meets the next day and discovers that, unfortunately, he's quite cute.
At 38, Park is just getting started as a filmmaker. Her first, "The Fallout," in which Jenna Ortega plays a teen in the aftermath of a school shooting, had one of those pandemic releases that didn't even feel real. But it did get the attention of Margot Robbie 's production company LuckyChap Entertainment, who reached out to Park to see what other ideas she had brewing.
"They were very instrumental in encouraging me to go with it," Park said. "They're just really even-keeled, good people, which makes... Read More