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."
First-Time Feature Directors Make Major Splash At AFI Fest, Generate Oscar Buzz
Two first-time feature directors who are generating Oscar buzz this awards season were front and center this past weekend at AFI Fest in Hollywood. Rachel Morrison, who made history as the first woman nominated for a Best Cinematography Oscar---on the strength of Mudbound in 2018--brought her feature directorial debut, The Fire Inside (Amazon MGM Studios), to the festival on Sunday (10/27), and shared insights into the film during a conversation session immediately following the screening. This came a day after William Goldenberg, an Oscar-winning editor for Argo in 2013, had his initial foray into feature directing, Unstoppable (Amazon MGM Studios), showcased at the AFI proceedings. He too spoke after the screening during a panel discussion. The Fire Inside--which made its world premiere at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival--tells the story of Claressa “T-Rex” Shields (portrayed by Ryan Destiny), a Black boxer from Flint, Mich., who trained to become the first woman in U.S. history to win an Olympic Gold Medal in the sport. She achieved this feat--with the help of coach Jason Crutchfield (Brian Tyree Henry)--only to find that her victory at the Summer Games came with relatively little fanfare and no endorsement deals. So much for the hope that the historic accomplishment would be a ticket out of socioeconomic purgatory for Shields and her family. It seemed like yet another setback in a cycle of adversity throughout Shields’ life but she persevered, going on to win her second Gold Medal at the next Olympics and becoming a champion for gender equality and equitable pay for women in sports. Shields has served as a source of inspiration for woman athletes worldwide--as well as to the community of... Read More