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Men's Health Magazine: Munich's Eric Bana
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Written by: Mike Zimmerman
Typed & Provided By Mona
USA: Febuary 2006
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| Provided By: Mindy | Scan Provided By: Mona | Scan Provided By: Mona | Scan Provided By: Mona | |||||
"I make adrenaline work for me." In the driver's seat: After racing cars for a day, Eric Bana is officially stress-free. "When I get home, I'm chilled for about 2 weeks."
STRESS VS. HORSEPOWER -- Eric Bana, star of Munich, burns off stress the old-fashioned way: with fast cars.
A man's stress response is as individual as his finger prints. I don't need science to back me up on this. I know it, because I'm mashed up against the passenger-side window, staring wide-eyed into a chasm--and there ain't no guardrail. The driver actor Eric Bana, grows more relaxed by the second.
"Driving a car like this," he says smirking, "is like having the sexiest woman in the world in front of you willing to do anything."
That's how much the star of Steven Spielberg's Munich loves driving fast cars. The car in question is a cherry-red 2005 Ford GT, a 550-horsepower beauty that lists for $150,000 and holds the road as if the tires seep glue. Ford has been nice enough to let us test-drive its baby, so now we're ripping up a steep stretch of two-lane linguine in the mountains just off the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu.
When he's not playing a Mossad agent (Munich), a Trojan hero (Troy), or a psycho (Chopper), the 37-year-old is back home in Australia, racing cars and motorcycles. His ride is the same muscle car he's been driving since he was 15--a 1974 Australian-model Ford Falcon. "I fell in love with it, because it was just like the car they used in Mad Max," he says.
Bana calls his car the Fire, because it's the one thing he and his mates always gather around--an escape from day jobs, stress, and responsibility in general. Which is interesting, since racing requires total responsibility on all levels--mechanical, financial, and, especially, operational. But that's why he loves it. It's his one sure thing. "There's no way of ever working out exactly where you stand. With racing, you've got the constant ability to measure your performance. If you have a really good day in a race car, you know."
Thus, Bana finds bliss my milking two passions for one sustenance: adrenaline. "I have a lot of anxiety when I'm acting, because there's a lot of pressure," he says. "I'm all but addicted to that. But the other way I seek adrenaline--racing during my downtime--flushes that stress out."
Cosmopolitan: Man on Fire
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Written by: Unknown
Photo by Richard Bailey/Icon International
Typed & Provided By Mona
USA: January 2006
Age: 37
Hometown: Melbourne, Australia
Romatic Status: Married for eight years to TV publicist Rebecca Gleeson
"I just knew my wife was The One. It was a mix of compatibility and pure animal attraction."
Aussie actor Eric Bana has played a Delta Force sergeant in Black Hawk Down, a green man/monster in Hulk, and a Trojan warrior in Troy (a movie in which he stole the screen from none other than Brad Pitt). Next up: He's got the new drama Munich and the upcoming flick Lucky You, which costars Drew Barrymore.
In Lucky You, you play a poker player. Do you like to roll the dice, so to speak, in real life?
"I was at the track a lot as a kid because my dad trained greyhounds. When I was older, I'd go to the casinos after wok and play blackjack. I really enjoyed relearning poker for Lucky You--I got reasonably good at it."
Was it fun working with your costar, Drew Barrymore?
"It was awesome. I've been a huge fan of Drew's since The Wedding Singer. It may be my top film of all time, which I wasted no time telling her. She's super...so much fun."
Which other costars have you really bonded with?
"Troy was a great bunch of guys. I had known Orlando before from doing Black Hawk Down. We instantly bonded...He is like a younger brother. Not that he needs any looking after."
How do you manage to have a successful marriage in an industry not exactly known for relationship stability?
"We don't take each other for granted. I'm very strict about making time for us and going on dates. My wife says I'm better at this than she is. I love my work, but when I finish a job, I want to be far away from it all. That's been helpful in terms of being a husband and a father."
Empire: Q&A Eric Bana, Munich's Gold Medal Favorite
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Written by: Ian Nathan
Typed & Provided By Mona
UK: Febuary 2006
How does it feel when one day the phone rings and it's Steven Spielberg going, "I want you to be in my new movie"?
I was actually on a mini break from Troy. There had been a hurricane. I was stuck in LA for a couple of days on my way back to Melbourne and my agent called me and said, "Steven wants you to drive out to this airfield in the desert to meet about something." He was shooting The Terminal at the time. So I took a ride out into the middle of the desert and he told me about this project, and I just sat there wondering what this had to do with me? Then he revealed he was intending for me to play the lead. I wanted to ask him if he'd been drinking that day!
Scan Provided By: Catz
What did you know about the Munich terrorist attack and the events that followed?
Actually, when Chopper went to Telluride back in 1999 or 2000, the documentary about it, One Day In September, was one of the films that was playing there, and I went to a midnight screening and was just completely floored. And then, funnily enough, I met the director, Kevin Macdonald, at a party afterwards. That documentary really stuck with me. But I didn't, at that time, know anything about these subsequent events involving this guy Avner Kauffman, who I play, who allegedly led the assassination squad who struck out at those they thought responsible.
Did it help meeting the man who claims to be the real Avner?
We got to meet on a number of occasions - it was very interesting, he was very forthcoming. It's always double-edged, that kink of situation. You want to take as much as you can away with you, yet at the same time you want to develop your own character.
It was all shrouded in secrecy, but was it a good experience?
It sounds crazy, but it was. It is amazing that something so heavy was pretty cool to work on. I think Steven and I both took the attitude that the subject matter was so serious that had we maintained our existence in that zone we would've burned each other out. I certainly am not one who enjoys imposing my intensity upon people, I like to jump in and out of it. We'd have gone batty otherwise.
You started in stand-up comedy. Was it odd to find yourself doing a Spielberg drama?
It's hard to come to terms with. It's strange - the notion of doing the comedy circuit in Sydney is about as far removed from a Spielberg picture as you can get. But I never set out to be a comedian. I was into drama, but was encouraged to have a go at the comedy through friends and so forth.
Did you do those open-mic comedy nights at clubs?
I started out doing that and then quickly was on the circuit working for bugger all and then became a professional act. It was 12 years straight, 12 years to become an 'overnight' thing. Stand-up is a really lonely world. It sucks your soul a little bit, and whilst drama also takes a lot out of you, it's very different.
How did making Munich compare to Hulk? That was an intense role too...
Hulk was a tougher working environment. It's just, I guess, the way Ang Lee works. His energy is very intense, there's not as much room for lightness. Whether it's good for you or not seems to be irrelevant.
What was your take on the finished film?
It got poor reviews but did well financially. I know, isn't that weird? Think what people would give to have that box office now. That film came out at the beginning of Hollywood's reality check and drew a lot of interesting comment. I'm really proud of it. I think Ang Lee did something really different with the genre.
Given your background and after so many very dark roles, you must fancy doing a comedy at some point.
I have no doubt there will be one, but right now there isn't. It just doesn't feel like the right time. The thing that's really hard to explain to a lot of people is that most, if not all, people outside Australia have no ability to see me in that light. (Affects American accent): "People have no idea that you could be funny. No-one's seen your material so we have, like, no idea that you could be funny."
And you're determined to stay based in Australia?
I have a hard time being away from home. I'm a shocking homebody. I don't have anything against any other cities - it's just that Melbourne's my home and I'm pathetically in love with it.
Scan Provided By: Catz
So how did you react to Australia losing the Ashes last summer?
I was very shocked. I really didn't think it was going to happen. We did have a few Britts on the Munich set so I did cop it. It was copping it both ends, because my Australian rules team, St. Kilda, were getting knocked out of the finals. Nothing but heartbreak, nothing but heartbreak...
Your Q - Would you make a Hulk sequel? Mark Finney
I don't know that there'd be much option! (He's signed a contract.) But who knows? It just depends on who was going to direct it and what road they were going to take. You wouldn't really know until you read the script.
Future Films - Lucky You - Eric Bana Gambles on Drew Barrymore in Poker Drama
They say: "I understand it stands a chance of being something pretty unique. Curtis (Hanson, director) is a great filmmaker and it was written by one of my favourite writers, Eric Roth. I play a professional poker player who's the son of one of the world's greatest poker players, played by Robert Duvall. I fall for a girl for the first time, but basically until I'm at a place where I can accept the realities of my background I can't really move forward as a poker player or as a guy who's capable of holding down a relationship. I guess it's a bit of a 'drama-romance', if there is such a genre!" Eric Bana, 'Huck Cheever'
We say: There is, Eric. But while setting a rom-dram in the neon-drizzled world of Las Vegas tournament poker might initially seem like a gamble, Lucky You might come up trumps. After all, Hanson, Bana, (gotta love his character name) and Barrymore are one heck of a winning hand.
Can't wait? For more on Lucky you, go to EmpireOnline.co.uk/futurefilms.
Want to clean up at the poker table? Then pick up Small Stakes Hold Em: Winning Big with Expert Play by Mason Malmuth, David Sklansky and Ed Miller
Lucky You UK ETA 28/04/'06
Vanity Fair: Tom Ford's New Hollywood
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Written by: Unknown
Typed & Provided By Mona
USA: March 2006
GRAYDON CARTER AND TOM FORD TALK ABOUT FORD'S ROLE PRODUCING VANITY FAIR'S HOLLYWOOD PORTFOLIO
Fashion icon Tom Ford, former Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent creative director and the guest artistic director of Vanity Fair's 2006 Hollywood portfolio, says of the sexy Annie Leibovitz cover shot of Keira Knightley, Scarlett Johansson, and Ford himself, "People won't believe me, but I did not want to be on the cover." Ford had envisioned a gorgeous female threesome, but when one of the young actresses demurred as the clothes started coming off, they were left with only two. "Three girls in a bed is a bedful of girls, but two girls in a bed are lesbians. At the end of the shoot, Annie asked me to slip into the picture as my contributor's photo," says Ford. Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter adds, "When I saw the shot of Keira and Scarlett, and Tom, I thought the cover worked better with the three of them."
The Hollywood Issue of Vanity Fair hits newsstands in New York and Los Angeles on February 8, and nationally on February 14.
"We didn't force anyone to take off their clothes," insists Ford. "In a couple of instances we had to ask them to put them back on! I've always said, and I mean it, that I find people better-looking without clothes than with clothes. I also did not want the portfolio to be about fashion, but
rather to try to bring out some side of each subject's character," says the man who turned Gucci into a luxury powerhouse.
"There are two Hollywoods," says Ford, "the real-life Hollywood, where people go to work and do their jobs, and the mythical Hollywood, which is defined by the films and images you've seen." The portfolio addresses the latter, says Ford.
Of working with Ford, Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter says that "Tom was, from beginning to end, a gentleman and a wonderful collaborator. A perfectionist certainly. But funny, and entertaining, and always in good spirits. I can see why Tom has been so successful. He can focus his attention on something and hold it for a good spell. He was at all but six shoots for the portfolio, overseeing everything from location, clothes, and lighting to the position of a subject's hand."
"My main criteria in considering what individuals to include in the portfolio were 'Am I tired of seeing them, or do I want to see more of them?' and 'Are they part of the New Hollywood?'" says Ford. He considers this "one of those New Hollywood years," explaining that "the buzz isn't around the usual suspects." Ford names featured portfolio players such as Philip Seymour Hoffman, Heath Ledger, and Jake Gyllenhaal as being part of the New Hollywood.
The actors in the portfolio didn't always do what Ford wanted. He envisioned Eric Bana "in a
Speedo, stretched out across the water with his body just floating, shot from above." Bana wasn't comfortable with that, but the resulting photo still smacks of L.A. fantasy. "I had a great time telling Graydon that I was photographing Harvey and Bob Weinstein wrestling nude in front of a fireplace like Alan Bates and Oliver Reed in Women in Love, which actually I think would have made a great picture," says Ford. "In the end we shot a powerful portrait of them both fully clothed."
Most of the subjects were eager to go along with Ford's visions (or fantasies), which include Peter Sarsgaard in Japanese bondage posing for Art Streiber; Jason Schwartzman alongside a nude model "in a contemporary take on a film still from The Graduate," says Ford; Taye Diggs as a centerfold; and Pamela Anderson and Mamie Van Doren in a ”what else?” a cleavage-baring shot. The portfolio's youngest member was dying to wear Chanel, Ford explains, so, in the ultimate game of dress-up, 12-year-old Dakota Fanning got styled just like an adult. Other stars in the portfolio include Reese Witherspoon, George Clooney, Sienna Miller, Viggo Mortensen, and Natalie Portman.
Eric Bana in Vanity Fair
Written by: Unknown
Source:
JustJared.blogspot.com
Internet: February 8, 2006
THE MAN'S MAN :: Eric Bana, Actor. Nine films.
Eric Bana has the face and musculature of the ideal action-oriented leading man. As a former stand-up comic and sketch-comedy TV star in his native Australia, he also has the chops to play the kind of wisecracking, gun-toting hero that made huge stars out of Bruce Willis and Harrison Ford. But Bana has a tougher route. When he played a comic-book icon, it was in Ang Lee's complex and somewhat head-scratching Hulk (2003).
In Steven Spielberg's Munich (2005), he sticks with his difficult pgoram, as the ambivalent avenger Avner Kauffman, a mysterious character who battles himself as he leads a ragtag hit squad out of terminate the men who assassinated 11 Israeli athletes in the 1972 Olympic Games.
Utterly convincing in his portrayals of family men who go to war in Black Hawk Down (2001) and Troy (2004), he moves from the battlefield to the gaming tables for Lucky You, the upcoming film from can't-miss directory Curtis Hanson. In this one, Bana plays a cardsharp who faces his own father (Robert Duvall) in the World Series of Poker. We're there.
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