The 11th annual Woodstock Film Festival is scheduled for Sept. 29 through Oct. 3 at venues in Woodstock, Kingston, Rhinebeck and Rosendale.

Keanu Reeves will receive an acting award and make an appearance with Vera Farmiga at the annual Woodstock Film Festival. The 11th annual film festival held in and around the famous artists’ colony runs from Sept. 29 through Oct. 3.

Organizers say the festival will feature almost 150 films, panels, performances and events.

A film starring Reeves and Farmiga, “Henry’s Crime,” will have its U.S. premiere and the pair will answer questions after the screening. Keanu Reeves will be the recipient of a WFF Honorary Excellence in Acting Award at the Saturday Night, Oct. 2 Gala Maverick Awards Ceremony

”Henry’s Crime” (U.S. Premiere) – Directed by Malcolm Venville. Sleepwalking his way through life, Henry (Keanu Reeves) gets an unexpected wake-up call when he becomes an unwitting participant in a bank heist. Rather than give up the names of the real culprits, he takes the fall and, having done the time, Henry reasons he may as well do the crime. Discovering a forgotten tunnel connecting the bank to a nearby theater, he recruits his old cellmate Max (James Caan) to aid in a robbery, all the while playing the lead in the theater production where he falls for his leading lady, Julie (Vera Farmiga). Keanu Reeves co-produced and will be in attendance for the Q & A following the film, along with Vera Farmiga.

Gallery Links:
Scans in 2010 > August 2010 » Cinemanía México
Scans in 2010 > August 2010 » Total DVD Russia
Scans in 2010 > January 22, 2010 » Pantalla Weekly
Scans in 2010 > January 2010 » Oprah Magazine
Scans in 2010 > February 2010 » Fotogramas
Feature Films > 15 Minutes > July 16, 1999 » On The Set

Synopsis: After serving three years in prison for a bank robbery he did not commit, an amiable but aimless man (Reeves)decides to rob the bank for real. His plan involves infiltrating a local theatre company, but his scheme gets complicated when he falls for the company’s lead actress (Farmiga).

- Gallery Link:
Feature Films > Henry’s Crime > Production Stills

“Happy 37th Birthday Vera! You are one of the most beautiful and talented people on earth. You are an inspiration to many, including me. I wish you nothing less to stay as you are now – succesful, beautiful, loved, adored, talented and more. Be always happy and enjoy everything you have and accomplished because you really deseve only great things. Hope you have a wonderful birthday surrounded by the people who mean the most to you.”

- Gallery Link:
Studio Photoshoots > Photoshoots in 2010 > Session #4

The 35th annual Toronto International Film Festival will once again bring a glittering array of movie stars to Canada’s largest city in September.

Movies featuring Robert De Niro, Javier Bardem, Clive Owen, Helen Mirren, Ryan Reynolds, Hilary Swank, Ben Affleck, Marion Cotillard, Colin Firth, James McAvoy, Sam Rockwell, Amy Ryan and dozens of other luminaries will guarantee a non-stop parade of celebrities in downtown Toronto from Sept. 9-19, it was announced Tuesday at a news conference.

Robert Redford, Woody Allen, Stephen Frears, Julian Schnabel and Michael Winterbottom are among prominent directors with new works showing at TIFF. Actor Philip Seymour Hoffman makes his directorial debut with the international premiere of his film,Jack Goes Boating.

This year’s lineup of 300 movies includes many films that will be screened here before anywhere else on the planet.

Those include such American movies as: The psychological thrillerBlack Swan,a film about ballet rivals that stars Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis;The Conspirator,Redford’s film about the man accused of assassinating Abraham Lincoln (Robin Wright and James McAvoy star);Janie Jones,which concerns a rock star getting saddled with the child (Abigail Breslin) he didn’t know he had;The Town,a cops-and-robbers/ romance-drama starring Ben Affleck, Rebecca Hall and Blake Lively; Hilary Swank and Sam Rockwell inConviction,a story of a sister’s devotion to her imprisoned brother; andHenry’s Crime,a film about banks, actors and love with Keanu Reeves and Vera Farmiga.

- Gallery Links:
Magazine Scans > Scans in 2010 > February 2010 » TOP CINEMA
Magazine Scans > Scans in 2010 > March 2010 » Fotogramas
Magazine Scans > Scans in 2010 > May 2010 » Fotogramas
Magazine Scans > Scans in 2010 > July 2010 » Fotogramas
Magazine Scans > Scans in 2010 > July 2010 » CINE & MÁS

As you all probably know, Vera’s birthday is on August 6th and this year she’s turning 37. I would like as many fans as possible to join in with this birthday project, so I have created a birthday card where all of you can leave your birthday wishes and whatever you want to give her something in return for all of the entertainment that she has provided us throughout the years!!

You can sign the card by following this link: http://www.groupgreeting.com/sign/6UFS1s8cewut81N/

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Television Films & Series > Roar > Episode: 1×07 – The Spear of Destiny
Television Films & Series > Roar > Episode: 1×08 – The Eternal
Television Films & Series > Roar > Episode: 1×09 – Tash

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is extending invitations to join the organization to 135 artists and executives who have distinguished themselves by their contributions to theatrical motion pictures. Those who accept the invitation will be the only additions in 2010 to the Academy’s roster of voting members.

New members will be welcomed into the Academy at an invitation-only reception at the Academy’s Fairbanks Center for Motion Picture Study in Beverly Hills in September. The 2010 invitees on the actors’ category are:

* Tobin Bell – “Saw,” “The Firm”
* Vera Farmiga – “Up in the Air,” “The Departed”
* Miguel Ferrer – “Traffic,” “RoboCop”
* James Gandolfini – “In the Loop,” “Get Shorty”
* Anna Kendrick – “Up in the Air,” “Twilight”
* Mo’Nique – “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire,” “Phat Girlz”
* Carey Mulligan – “An Education,” “Public Enemies”
* Jeremy Renner – “The Hurt Locker,” “28 Weeks Later”
* Ryan Reynolds – “The Proposal,” “X-Men Origins: Wolverine”
* LaTanya Richardson Jackson – “Mother and Child,” “Losing Isaiah”
* Peter Riegert – “Traffic,” “Crossing Delancey”
* Sam Robards – “A.I. Artificial Intelligence,” “American Beauty”
* Saoirse Ronan – “The Lovely Bones,” “Atonement”
* Zoe Saldana – “Avatar,” “Star Trek”
* Adam Sandler – “Funny People,” “Punch-Drunk Love”
* Peter Sarsgaard – “An Education,” “Boys Don’t Cry”
* Gabourey Sidibe – “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire”
* Shaun Toub – “Iron Man,” “The Kite Runner”
* Christoph Waltz – “Inglourious Basterds”
* George Wyner – “A Serious Man,” “American Pie 2″

View the full list here!

Actress Vera Farmiga is one lucky woman.  She’s an amazing actress with a successful career, having starred in a range of films opposite some of Hollywood’s top leading men.  And in her latest film, Up in the Air Vera stars alongside the ultimate leading man – George Clooney.  The Gloss team caught up with Vera on what it was like making the film, and found (surprise, surprise) that one of the best parts about making the film was working with gorgeous George!

Q: What was it about the script that made you want to work on Up in the Air?
I love characters that are icky and gooey and utterly human. Jason (Reitman) is a pro at writing them. These are the types of characters Jason is known for writing. That’s what drives me and the type of stories I’m drawn to. I like characters with quirks.

Q: Jason has said he does not judge the characters in his films. Your character, Alex, is quite promiscuous. Did you judge her morals?
No. You can’t. You have to defend the character. You have to look at her and find something to defend about her. You have to be like an appointed lawyer defending someone in front of a jury. That’s what we do.

Q: Did you like Alex?

I liked her finesse and ease which she glides through life. Someone will make a comment about her age, but she doesn’t take it seriously. She’s sexy, smart and elegant.Q: She’s in control.
Yes, she’s in control in part. She’s in control of the facet of the life that we see in the movie. In other parts of her life? I don’t know. That’s interesting to me to consider when I was building the character. She may be totally out of control in her home environment.

Q: How much do you rely on a director to help you with the characters you play?
Quite a lot. I rely on my director… I rely on them to get my hand out of the bag tricks actors have.

Q: Bag of tricks?
The things we have been praised for by critics and the audience for past roles, we tend to fall back on them. Sometimes it is great for a director to pat that away and maneuver you into a different way. I’m very collaborative. I don’t have a rigid idea.

Q: What new tricks did you learn from working on Up in the Air?
Hopefully I didn’t.  Tricks are a negative thing for me.

Q: What things did Jason add to your performance?
Well, my background is the Ukraine. I’m Slavic. I can be very Chekhovian. I can be indulgent in emotion. If you came to a dinner with my family we are crying and laughing in the same sentence. For example, the very impersonal scene in the parking garage on the cell phone where I have to deliver news to Ryan. Jason was really adamant about me being unapologetic. My instinct was to let Ryan know what we had was the real thing. Jason was like, ‘It doesn’t matter. They set up rules. He broke the rules. It doesn’t matter’. That’s the point of the scene. Jason said ‘I want you to be like a man’. Jason gave me that direction. All of Jason’s characters are treading this precarious line. Anna’s character is seeking perfection, but her philosophy is preaching to fire people over the internet. His characters do that. They are wishy washy and contradictory.

Q: What was it like playing a character with masculine emotional characteristics?
I didn’t really see her as masculine or feminine. I saw her as human. I don’t know why Alex does what she does. I was always pestering Jason with questions like ‘Is she unsatisfied? Is she insatiable?’ Jason would say ‘It doesn’t matter’. I was like ‘It doesn’t matter? Why doesn’t it matter?’ (laughs)

Q: Did you fill the holes? Did you come up with a back-story for Alex?
I’d be lying if I said I came up with a specific back-story. It is reason enough to know she needs more than what she has. For whatever reason, who knows? She’s unapologetic. The thing is to respect her on that and for the world to accommodate her wishes.

Q: What has been the reaction to Alex from female audience members?
I’m surprised. We took it to the Toronto Film Festival and had many question and answer sessions with audiences elsewhere. European men are not afraid to come up to me. American men, half of them look at me and stay clear across the room and the other half come over and say I should have blonde hair. Always women come to me and say they are pleased with the character. I thought it would be different. They treat her as a heroine of sorts.

Q: Why do you think that is the case?
I think the women who come to me are mothers, wives and career women who cater to everybody’s wishes and desires but their own. When they see a woman on the screen who says ‘This is my time and this is what I need’ and don’t apologise for it, they relate to it.

Q: What drives you career-wise?
It has changed since I became a mother. It is storytelling. My grandfather was the best storyteller ever. He had big whiskers and moustache and I would love watching his whiskers move as he told me stories. He was really animated and would hold me and tell stories. I loved it. It ignited my imagination. I also grew up in a structured and conservative household and I wondered how other people lived and thought and their ideas and philosophies. That’s what drives me, telling stories…

Q: What was the best thing about working on Up in the Air?
The absolute pleasure of working with George Clooney. They broke the mold when they made him. He’s a keeper.

Q: Do you like air travel?
I get asked that a lot and I used to say I hate it and how tough it is travelling with my young son who is teething. But, now I think about how I can use the frequent flyer points from travelling so much to buy my Dad tickets. My Dad hadn’t been on flights for 30 years. I love travelling. I like getting there and then exploring, but flying definitely beats the horse and buggy.

Source

- Video Links:
Roundtable: The Actresses (Part 1)
Roundtable: The Actresses (Part 2)

- Gallery Links:
Up in the Air  > September 14, 2009 » TIFF Photocall
Up in the Air  > September 14, 2009 » TIFF Press Conference

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Scans in 2010  > January-February 2010 » Biography Russia
Scans in 2010  > February 2010 » 25 Kadr Russia
Scans in 2010  > March 2010 » 25 Kadr Russia
Scans in 2010  > March 2010 » BIBA N.361 France
Scans in 2010  > May 2010 » Total DVD Russia
Scans in 2010 > June 2010 » US ELLE

Don’t forget to join our facebook page. Go on and join if you have a facebook account, so you can stay up to date with all the latest news & updates on Vera Farmiga!!

Vera makes her directorial debut with a production called “Higher Ground”. The film is based on born-again Christian Carolyn Briggs’ memoir, “This Dark World: A Memoir of Salvation Found and Lost”. Filming will take place in the Mid-Hudson Valley Ulster County area of New York through July 1, 2010.  Higher Ground comes to theaters in 2011.

Director: Vera Farmiga
Producers: Carly Hugo, Matt Parker, Jonathan Burkhart, Brice Dal Farra, Claude Dal Farra
Starring: Vera Farmiga, Taissa Farmiga

Carolyn Briggs grew up with modest means in the Iowa heartland. Pregnant at seventeen, married a few months later, by the age of eighteen she found herself living in a trailer with no plans beyond having more babies-until she found Jesus. It began innocently enough-a few minutes lingering on the televangelist stations, a cursory look at the Bible-and soon she had wholly given herself over to a radical, apocalyptic New Testament church. Her daily life was permeated with a sense of the divine-she spent hours a day in prayer and Bible study, wore modest clothing, even braced herself for the Rapture every time she heard trumpet music over the supermarket loudspeaker. It was only when her marriage began to unravel that Carolyn dared to question the religious dogma she had embraced for all of her adult life to date.

The film is hiring extras of all types and ages. If you are interested in working as a background actor in this movie please email the following – Name, sex, age, recent photo of yourself, and contact information to: highergroundmovie@gmail.comThe production also needs cars from 1960s and 1970s:
● Cars/trucks from 1961 or earlier.
● A powder blue convertible 1963.
● Vans from 1972 or earlier.
● Small school bus from 1970 or earlier for purchase.
● Cars from 1979 or earlier.
● Cop car from 1979 or earlier.

Principal Actor Casting: See the post titled Headshot and Resume Information regarding how to submit for acting roles. Please submit photos and resumes by mail only. No phone calls or personal drop-offs.

Kerry Barden
Paul Schnee
Barden/Schnee Casting
150 West 28th Street
Suite 402
New York, NY 10001

Production Companies: Do NOT send photos and resumes to the production companies (they will most likely end up in the trash can), they do not cast the films. They hire casting directors who sort through the thousands of submissions.
The Group Entertainment
115 W. 29th Street
Suite 1102
New York, NY 10001

Great Point Films
44 South Parsonage Street
Rhinebeck, NY 12572

Madonna’s next directorial effort W.E. is under threat following the departure of stars Ewan McGregor and Vera Farmiga and key production personnel, reports the Daily Mail.

W.E.‘s cross-generational story centres on a modern-day Manhattanite, Wally Winthrop, who becomes obsessed with Edward VIII’s romance with twice-divorced American Wallis Simpson. The affair eventually led to Edward’s abdication from the throne in 1936.

McGregor has allegedly walked away from talks to play the king, while Up In The Air Oscar nominee Farmiga has turned down the Simpson role.

Source

Vera Farmiga was happy to share her good news at Monday’s Costume Institute Gala, she has another baby on the way!

The Oscar-nominated “Up In the Air” star, 36, is expecting a second child with her husband, Deadsy rocker Renn Hawkey, this fall.

“I’m past the first trimester, so I’m not feeling sick anymore,” Farmiga wearing Sophie Theallet for Gap told USA Today at the event, held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Source

- Gallery Link:
Public Events  > Events in 2010 > Metropolitan Museum Of Art’s 2010 Costume GaLa

- Gallery Link:
Magazine Scans  > Scans in 2010

- Gallery Link:
Feature Films  > Up in the Air > 2009 Photoshoot

According to In Touch Weekly Magazine,Vera and her husband Renn Hawkey are expecting their second baby. Vera is three months pregnant and due in October.

These baby news has forced Vera to give up a role as Gerard Butler’s wife in upcoming movie MAChine Gun Preacher. An insider tells the publication, “The role would have meant travelling to Africa this summer, but because her baby is due in the fall, she would have been too far along to make the trip.”

Anyway, Vera is still planning to continue with plans to make her directorial debut this year 2010 by turning born-again Christian Carolyn Briggs’ memoir, This Dark World: A Memoir of Salvation Found and Lost, into a movie. The adaptation will be called Higher Ground.

A huge congratulations to Vera, Renn and Fynn on their pending baby arrival!!

Vera is set to star in indie Western “A Thousand Guns” for newly minted banner Prominent Pictures headed by industry vets Paull Cho and Heather Rae.

“A Thousand Guns,” which centers on a preacher’s wife and her journey of revenge, is being directed by Spain’s Daniel Calparsoro and written by Russell Friedenberg.

Source

Great news guys!! Vera will have her directorial debut with the film project, Higher Ground and she will also star the movie!!

An adaptation of the memoir This Dark World: A Memoir of Salvation Found and Lost, the story follows a born-again Christian’s experience and escape from the religious cult’s church. Farmiga plans to star as the author Carolyn J. Briggs.

Vera Farmiga dreams about becoming a goat herder. The actress — who starred opposite George Clooney in the critically-acclaimed movie Up In The Air — raises goats at her farm in upstate New York and admits she often dreams of getting away with her animals when the business of Hollywood becomes too much for her.

“When things get feisty, and I feel my career is less art and more business, then I sincerely think about just buying a staff and herding,” she said.

Vera, 36, recently revealed that becoming an actress was her back-up plan.

“I was living in New York, waiting to go to college and I was playing soccer but I had been benched, because my health papers hadn’t cleared,” she said earlier this month.

“I just didn’t have the patience to wait and it coincided with my heart being broken for the first time. I needed an outlet. I just didn’t want to sit there and watch my colleagues play ball so a friend of mine encouraged me to try out for this silly melodrama. I got the lead role and from there I was encouraged to continue. And here I am!”

Source

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Magazine Scans’ Category

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Candid Photos from 2010 > March 10th » Prepares to depart at LAX airport

Vera Farmiga is looking forward to possibly working with Madonna, even though she’s never seen any of her film work.

The Up in the Air actress said she was delighted Madonna asked her to star in W.E., a project the singer is producing, co-writing and directing. The film tells the story of the relationship between Britain’s King Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson, the Duchess of Windsor.

“She approached me. We sat for a cup of tea and again for a cup of tea. Hopefully, it will all come together. I’m actually not familiar with her work, and I told her this flat-out. She sent a couple of films and I still haven’t seen them,” Farmiga said. “But no matter. I don’t really go by that. I go by other things. I go by scripts. I go with what I think I can do with a character and if I feel a kinetic energy with someone and I feel we can uplift and challenge each other.”

Vera, 36, isn’t bothered that Madonna‘s only other directorial project, 2008’s Filth and Wisdom, was panned by critics because she understands that everyone has early work which won’t necessarily be a success.

“I certainly have things I wouldn’t want people to see,” she admitted to E! Online.

Source

- Gallery Link:
Studio Photoshoots > Photoshoots in 2010 > Session #2

Finally Vera Farmiga Online has a new pink glamorous layout featuring images from LIFE and Los Angeles Confidential magazines that Vera made recently. It is definitely one of my favorite shoots of Vera and I really adore this new layout, thanks to my talented friend Shawn Corson for making it. Hope you like the new look on the site and please leave a comment to let us know what you think! ツ

There’s also a new section in the site, it’s the fanbook so if you want to post your message, follow these rules:

- Messages that’ll be deleted and not posted: Hate messages, messages with your msn/aim/etc.
– The messages will be posted on sending order.

Sign the FanBook & View the FanBook

During the main show, Vera along with other great actors; Julianne Moore, Michelle Pfeiffer, Tim Robbins and Colin Colin Farrell take the stage to present the Best Actor in a Leading Role category. Vera, of course introduced Up in the Air’s co-star George Clooney.

I have added over 800 HQ/MQ photos from the arrivals, backstage, show, Vanity Fair Oscar Party and Governor’s Ball. Also screencaptures from the show and red carpet have been added to gallery. To check out all the new photos simply click on the links below and enjoy all the newly added media!

- Gallery Links:
Events in 2010 > The 82nd Academy Awards Arrivals
Events in 2010 > The 82nd Academy Awards “People Magazine” Arrivals
Events in 2010 > The 82nd Academy Awards Show
Events in 2010 > 2010 Vanity Fair Oscar Party Hosted By Graydon Carter
Events in 2010 > The 82nd Academy Awards – Governors Ball
Screen Captures  > Award Ceremonies > The 82nd Academy Awards (E! Coverage)
Screen Captures  > Award Ceremonies > The 82nd Academy Awards (TV Guide Coverage)
Screen Captures  > Award Ceremonies > The 82nd Annual Academy Awards (Red Carpet)
Screen Captures  > Award Ceremonies > The 82nd Annual Academy Awards (Show)

- Gallery Links:
Events in 2010 > The 25th Film Independent Spirit Awards Arrivals
Events in 2010 > The 25th Independent Spirit Awards Backstage & Audience
Events in 2010 > ELLE Green Room at The 25th Film Independent Spirit Awards
Screen Captures  > Award Ceremonies > The 25th Film Independent Spirit Awards

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Magazine Scans > Scans in 2010 > March 2010 » Los Angeles Confidential

The awards honoring the year’s best work in independent film have typically been presented during an afternoon ceremony the day before the Oscars in a tent at Santa Monica Beach. But Film Independent, which puts on the annual event, decided to shake things up to mark the show’s quarter-century milestone.

A spate of stars nominated for acting Oscars this year will serve as Spirit Awards presenters. Jeremy Renner, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Carey Mulligan and Vera Farmiga are set to present, and Jeff Bridges is slated to sing on the show with Oscar-nominated songwriters T Bone Burnett and Ryan Bingham.

The Spirit Awards, hosted by Eddie Izzard, will be held March 5 in a stylized tent atop the L.A. Live parking structure and broadcast live on the Independent Film Channel, which has aired the ceremony for the past 15 years.

Two months after giving birth to her son, Vera Farmiga was on set filming Up in The Air for director Jason Reitman, starring opposite George Clooney. And now she’s nominated for an Academy Award for her work in the film. A baby, a hit film, and an Oscar nom… Life doesn’t get more exciting than that.

How are you these days?
I’m good.  I’m knackered, I’m delirious and I’m a bit crazy at the moment. I haven’t slept in three days since I arrived here in London. Jetlag just affects me in a real visceral way, I can’t find my footing. And I have a nine month old who’s teething at the moment, so we can’t coordinate sleep schedules. But really, it’s all good.

I read that you had just given birth when you started on Up In The Air. That must have been hard for you…
I was hired when I was six months pregnant. I had my first meeting with Jason when I was six months pregnant and I was nine months when he gave me the job, at which point I weighed as much as George. I got the job on the understanding that I would be able to shoot in two months and I was. They scheduled it so that I had a good month and a half, two months to be a mama. And they were so accommodating and the schedule was relaxed, for me it meant shooting two, three days a week. So I found time to exercise and get my very hormonal head straight! But I have to say that it was tough. First of all the lack of sleep a new mother experiences is maddening. And your body is not your own – it’s the baby’s.

It’s always a tough time for a new mother going back to work. And making a film with a new baby must be quite a challenge.
Yes, I think I could have had an easier time stepping into Alex’s very confident, self-possessed shoes and it was tricky at times.  But at the same time, I felt more empowered and work will do that for you as a woman. The experience of giving birth itself made me feel more womanly and that added to the role in a way – in unexpected, wonderful ways. But it did.

What was it like working with George Clooney?
You know I’m really nonplussed with actors. I don’t care who they are. It’s been the same since I was a child and I’ve never understood that fanaticism or that worship of fame. I looked at George as a collaborator. I respected his work and everything I’d heard about him as a man and as an actor was good. And he was absolutely great. He has such a warm presence and it’s easy to bask in it when you are working with him.

So on set he’s just one of the guys?
Yes, he is. You know I think because he has directed himself he is very concerned with the performances of the people around him. His concern was to draw the most delicious performance from me and my mission was to get the best out of him. And it worked really well. So I cherished collaborating with him and it wasn’t scary at all – he’s the least scary person you could meet because he’s charm on two feet. And it’s genuine. He has a sense of humour that is so attractive and the most appealing thing about him is his almost childlike zeal for work and his respect for the work and his respect for fellow actors.  We’re all on the same level as far as George is concerned and he doesn’t pull any bullshit – none whatsoever. So it was very, very easy working with him.

Your character in Up In The Air is a very self possessed, confident woman who knows what she wants. You might even say that she behaves more in the way that we’ve traditionally expected male characters to behave. Was she easy to play?
Playing Alex was like walking a tightrope. I found it challenged because what I admired about her on the one hand is that she knows what she wants and isn’t afraid to go after it.  It was delicious and rare to see female desire portrayed in such a libertine and shameless way. And in a way, it’s a very masculine portrayal of love and sex and so that was really cool. But the challenge for me was to portray that with femininity and make her appealing and not frightening. That’s a balancing act, let me tell you.

But what did you see as the central theme of the story? Is it about isolation?
You know we live in an age where we all communicate by the most impersonal ways – via the Internet and texting and so forth. I think that our story is asking the audience to re-examine their lives, in the way that Ryan Bingham does, and choose what’s important.

What would it be for you?
My family every time. My family anchors me – and by that I mean my husband and my child and my larger family. And the nucleus of my family is everything.  It’s what motivates me, it’s my reason for being, it’s my inspiration.

You come from quite a large family yourself don’t you?
Yeah, so does my husband – there are seven children in his family, massive family, my son has twelve aunts and uncles.  And that’s not even counting my first cousins, who are like brothers and sisters to me, who are also additional uncles and aunts to fit in – so it’s wonderful madness.

Do you all get together?
All the time. With my family if there’s any excuse for a get together we do it and the guitars are whipped out and there’s lots of singing and dancing. It’s like the wedding scene from The Deer Hunter.

Is your husband from a similar background?
No, he’s not Ukrainian, he’s American, but from such a tactile family, what’s wonderful about his family is that the way that they love each other and how they show their love, and they’re just so affectionate with each other. It’s so beautiful to see and to be part of them.

How did you guys meet?
We laid eyes on each other and we were zonked, it was love at first sight. It was immediate. It happened five years ago and we met on a set – he was visiting a director friend who was executive producing a television show I was doing in Vancouver, and I knew my life would change.

Where do you live now, you East Coast or West Coast?
I’m East Coast, I’m in New York, but I’m in the countryside, I’m two hours north of the city.  That’s home base.

Work wise, things are going very well for you. Have you finished The Vintner’s Luck?
Yes, and I have seen it and I love it. Niki Caro is a great director and it’s an incredibly ambitious story about a Vintner who meets his guardian angel once a year. And I’m going to be directing a little independent film, which I will shoot on a very low budget and use lots of non actors. It’s based on a novel by Carolyn Briggs called This Dark World and it’s a portrait of a woman grappling with her faith, her Christianity.

Will you act in that as well as direct?
I will, for now I will.  It’s still in development, and we are casting now.  I have a great cinematographer by my side and we’ll see if his eye through that camera is enough.

Is it just this film that you want to direct or will you direct more in the future?
Just this one, I think. I feel the need to have creative control with this. It’s not my great ambition to be a director but I really would like to tell this story and I would like to be behind it.

So why this story, why does it touch you so much?
It’s very personal to me and my experience with Christianity and faith. And that’s why I want to make it accurate.

Where did the desire to act come from with you?
Folk dancing. I became a professional Ukrainian folk dancer in my late teens, but, storytelling, folklore, was always a central part of my relationship with my family, especially my grandparents…

They would tell stories about where they came from?
Stories, and I belonged to a dance company called Syzokryli, and it was based out of New York, and it was storytelling with dance, it was music, singing, dancing, and expression. That stuff was always there and a part of life for me. So it’s not farfetched that I would end up doing this.

But was there a specific thing that led you in?
There was. I wanted to be an eye doctor, a surgeon, I was all set to go to college to study optometry and I was playing soccer and I had been benched, because my health papers hadn’t cleared and I just didn’t have the patience and it coincided with my heart being broken for the first time, and I needed an outlet.  I just didn’t want to sit there and watch my colleagues play ball.  So a friend of mine encouraged me to try out for this silly melodrama and I got the lead role and from there I was encouraged to continue. And here I am.

Was that first role on stage?
On stage, in like a high school theatrical production…

Funny how these things change lives.
Yeah. I had no notions of the stage or the screen whatsoever; I didn’t even grow up watching films. But with acting, I loved how people were affected by it.  And I loved that I could move someone and I could have empathy for a character.

Back to Up In The Air. We’ve talked about George being a great collaborator. What about Jason?
I’d met Jason on Thank You For Smoking and it didn’t pan out. So I knew him and I knew his films, of course, and loved them. I just think that he’s a really important filming who is really telling stories about social consciousness and awareness. He can take subject matters like teen pregnancy and unemployment – which is at least part of the story in Up In The Air – and throw them on the screen and break fertile ground for comedy. It’s very rare to see intelligent comedy of the kind that Jason is so very good at. So as you can imagine, I was delighted when he called me.

With such a great part too.
Absolutely. What attracted me most about her was that it’s a portrait of female desire in a libertine and unapologetic and shameless way. I thought that was really cool to see it portrayed that way. And like I said, the challenge was walking that fine line, honouring that power, and yet not frightening off the audience. It was a wonderful tightrope to walk. But you know, Jason was inspiring to work with and the script was hilarious and the dialogue was incredible. And your dance partner makes all the difference – and George was a great partner.

*Up in the Air comes to DVD and Blu-Ray on March 9.

Source: Glam.com

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Magazine Scans > Scans in 2010 > March 2010 » InStyle

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Award Ceremonies > Feb. 21st » The Orange British Academy Film Awards (Show)
Award Ceremonies > Feb. 21st » The Orange British Academy Film Awards (Red Carpet)

- Gallery Links:
Events in 2010 > February 21st » 2010 BAFTA Awards – Arrivals
Events in 2010 > February 21st » 2010 BAFTA Awards – Grey Goose & Soho House After Party

For american viewers, catch The British Academy Film Awards on BBC AMERICA the same day they air in the UK on Sunday, February 21, 8:00 p.m. ET/5:00 p.m. PT, followed by two back-to-back encores.

More Information at the BAFTA website.

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February 20th » The Orange British Academy Film Awards – Nominees Party

You can also find 100 screencaptures I made from this interview at the gallery!

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Press Junkets & Promo Interviews > February 2010 » NY Times: “A Decade of Favorites”

Source Code will star Jake Gyllenhaal, Vera Farmiga and Michelle Monaghan, but director Duncan Jones snuck in another cast member via Twitter. Earlier today Jones tweeted, “Just met with the lovely Vera Farmiga and Jeffrey Wright. Feeling quite thrilled to have two such scorchingly good actors in Source Code!” Welcome to the cast Mr. Wright!

The fact that the Moon director was getting behind the lens again was a thrill in itself. It got better when we heard Gyllenhaal was going to be his new Sam Rockwell. He’ll lead as a soldier who wakes up in a commuter’s body and relives the day of a train bombing over and over until he nabs the culprit. Farmiga will play a communications officer that controls Gyllenhaal’s character and Monaghan a woman aboard the train and his love interest.

Based on Josh’s script reaction, there are four character of significance. He describes the lead and his female counterpart, but only mentions the names of the other two to keep from stepping into spoiler territory. I’m assuming one of those two is Farmiga and perhaps Wright is the other. Keep in mind this information comes from an early version of the script, which could be drastically different from the final version Jones will be using.

For more on Source Code, check out our reaction to the script right here.

Source: Cinema Blend

Six-time Oscar nominated film Up in the Air will release on Blu-ray Disc and DVD March 9, 2010. The Parmount film was directed and co-written by Jason Reitman who has been nominated for Best Director, and stars George Clooney, Vera Farmiga and Anna Kendrick, who are also Oscar nominees.

Up in the Air has been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Motion Picture in 2010. George Clooney is nominated for Best Lead Actor and Vera Farmiga for Best Supporting Actress. Writers Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner are nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay.

Blu-ray Disc specs include 1080p video at 1.78:1 aspect ratio, DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1. Extras include deleted scenes, storyboard, and directory commentary.

See full specs below.

• Commentary by writer/director Jason Reitman, director of photography
• Eric Steelberg and first assistant director Jason Blumenfeld
• Shadowplay: Before The Story
• Deleted Scenes with Optional Commentary by Jason Reitman
• To Know Me Is To Fly With Me
•Real People Firing and Irate Employee
• Thumper and Extended Boat Scene
• Omaha Montage
• Spacesuit
•Trailers

The Blu-ray includes all of the above in high definition, plus:

• Deleted Scenes with Optional Commentary by Jason Reitman (HD)
• Do You Live At The Hilton?
• Nosey Neighbor
• Natalie In Restroom
• Natalie Vid-Chats
• Angry Ryan Checks In
• Goalquest Invite
• Maynard Finch Commercial/Kara Calls Ryan
• Barely Squeaking By/Natalie Calls
• “Help Yourself” music video by Sad Brad (HD)
• Storyboards (HD)
• American Airlines Prank (HD)

Up in the Air is available for pre-order from Amazon.com!

Word that Madonna will direct “W.E.,” a biopic about Edward VIII and Wallace Simpson, can cause ensure that any optimism gets, well, swept away.

But then an actress like Vera Farmiga signs on as Wallace Simpson and that optimism slowly returns. Standing at the podium of the Oscars nominees luncheon yesterday, Farmiga excitedly discussed signing onto the project.

“To me it’s an epic love story,” she said. “A woman who fell in love with a man who happened to be the King of England.”

And one who happened to give up the throne because of the fallout from the relationship.

“To give that up for love and to see how that love was affected by the pressures put on them,” said Farmiga “I’m fascinated with her.”

Looking at Farmiga’s face it’s clear that she has the bone structure to be an effective Simpson look-alike. And you could argue that the role will be an extension of her “Up in the Air” character, to which she brought class and warmth when there could have been caricature.

Farmiga said it was a matter of finding financing for the film.”There are very few films between $5 million and $500 million that are being green-lit,” she said. “It’s just fingers-crossed.”

Somehow with Madonna, you have to believe this funding will come.

Source: NBC LosAngeles

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Screen Captures  > Award Ceremonies > The 82nd Annual Academy Awards Nominee Luncheon

Vote for Vera at Green Globe Film Awards by voting in the Viewers’ Choice Awards. She’s been nominated for “Best Supporting Actress of 2009″ for “Up in the Air”. In addition “Up in the Air” has been nominated for “Best Picture of 2009″. Cast your vote here: http://movie-voters.questionpro.com/

Winners will be announced on March 23, 2010 at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel in Los Angeles for the 2010 Green Globe Film Awards and Emperor’s Dreams Dinner GaLa.

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Events in 2010 > February 15th » The 82nd Annual Academy Awards Nominee Luncheon

Variety is reporting that Madonna is set to direct W.E., a biopic about the affair between King Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson that led to the British royal abdicating from the throne to marry his divorcee lover.

Vera Farmiga (Up in the Air) is in talks for the role of Simpson, who precipitated the most severe constitutional crisis in the English monarchy in the 20th century after Edward proposed to her, only months into his reign.

There is no word yet on who will play King Edward.

The King’s desire to marry a twice-divorced American with two living ex-husbands caused a constitutional crisis in the United Kingdom and the Dominions, which ultimately led to the King’s abdication in December 1936 to marry “the woman I love.”[3] After the abdication, the former king was created Duke of Windsor by his brother George VI. Edward married Wallis six months later, after which she was formally known as the Duchess of Windsor, without the style “Her Royal Highness.”

Madonna is writing the script with Alex Keshishian (Truth or Dare). Colin Vaines and David Parfitt are producing.

Vera will be at the Oscars Nominees Luncheon on Monday, February 15th. Post a question for Vera on the Academy fan page and it could be asked live so do not miss your chance to ask her a question!

You can leave a question for Vera or any of the nominees scheduled to attend the luncheon just right here. You can watch it LIVE on facebook.com/TheAcademy at 11:30 AM PST.

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Screen Captures  > Red Carpet Interviews > February 12, 2010 » The 25th Annual Santa Barbara International Film Festival

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Events in 2010 > February 12th » The 25th Annual Santa Barbara International Film Festival

According to News Blaze, Vera used to fake a french accent to sell underwear.

The ‘Up In The’ air star used to hone her acting techniques while working in a lingerie store as she discovered creating a new persona for herself could help boost sales.

She said: “I had lots of jobs. For instance I sold lingerie. Doing that I realised how faking an eastern European or French accent can boost sales. Men who buy presents for women really responded to that.”

Despite her success selling underwear, Vera found her bubbly personality was unsuitable for other jobs she tried as she spent too long striking up conversations with customers.

She explained: “All my jobs were some kind of performance. What else did I do? Once I worked as a technician for air-conditioners. It was a telephone job; I had to repair air-conditioners via remote diagnosis. But my employers thought I was too chatty for the job, so they made me do paperwork instead.”

I am so pleased to announce one of the best news I’ve ever posted on the site. Vera finally got her very first Academy Awards nomination in the category “Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture” for her dazzling performance as Alex Goran in Up In The Air. HUGE Congratulations Vera, you totally deserve it!!

“I am deeply honored and humbled … and truly grateful to the Academy for their support of ‘Up in the Air.’ I feel my nomination is due, in large part, to the phenomenal work of George, Anna and (director) Jason (Reitman) on this film and it is especially moving to receive my first nomination in their company.”

Up In The Air also got 5 more nominations including: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actress & Best Adapted Screenplay. Congratulations to all the Cast and Crew, Go Up In The Air Team!!

The Oscar telecast will take place Sunday, March 7 at 5 p.m. PT/8 p.m. ET. View the full list of nominees here!

Up in the Air’s supporting actress nominee Vera Farmiga heard her Oscar nomination news in the best way possible, surrounded by her husband and son at their New York home. “We got the news in bed, the three of us cuddling,” says the actress.

Her day is going to be gloriously mundane: Playing Legos with her son, Fynn. “My husband says he’s going to build a mantel.  He’s a bit delusional, but very supportive,” says Farmiga. “This feels great. It’s a nice affirmation saying job well done. It’s nice to have the respect of your peers and industry and critics and everyone rooting for you. I’ve been going at this a long time. I feel like I’ve always had the critics encouraging me.”

She’s particularly thrilled for one of her fellow nominees: Crazy Heart‘s surprise contender Maggie Gyllenhaal. “What a wonderful surprise and well deserved. She’s a good friend of mine,” says Farmiga, who’s also thrilled for her Up in the Air co-star Anna Kendrick.

And then, there’s the director, Jason Reitman. “I had all my faith in Jason, that he was going to tell a poignant and unique story. His work is saturated with social relevance. Everyone is aching for it and those sort of films need to be recognized,” says Farmiga.

Source: USA Today

Here’s a new, very interesting interview with Vera, courtesy of Alive Sydney. She talks about her character in Up In The Air, the most difficult scene she played on the movie, her lovely family and more. You can read it below. Enjoy!

Vera Farmiga, the daughter of Ukrainian parents, has won a Golden Globe nomination for her portrayal of a woman in a midlife crisis, and is also expected to earn an Oscar nod. (You may remember her from The Departed, or Orphan). She is effortlessly elegant, acts her age…

So tell me, in this movie you get to pull the rug from under George Clooney. How does that feel?
It’s funny. He’s been breaking women’s hearts for years. It’s fun to reverse the tables on him. I’m always on the hunt for a good, old-fashioned romance, and this particular one came disguised as a thoroughly modern relationship. It’s nice to be in this type of romantic comedy and relationship portrayed where it’s equal footing between the female character and the male character. And, it’s fun to play the female version of George.

How do you see this woman besides being the female version of George?

I think she represents the plight of womanhood, post feminist era. She’s a career woman, she has a family life, and romance. She compartmentalises, she’s somebody who wants it all, and is just trying to make that happen. What I respect about her is her integrity of self. She’s someone who is very true to her own needs and desires. Whether I respect what she does or condone what she does, it’s not important to me. It’s a crisis that we all go through and she is going through her midlife thing. I get her predicament. I’ve been there.What was the most difficult scene?
The vagina line scene. Saying the word vagina is a fun word and an odd word to say. George was great about it, he said to me, ‘Are you OK?’ And I said, ‘Yeah, why?’ And he said, ‘Because you’re not breathing.’ I didn’t tell him it was because I was wearing Spanx. Not one pair but two pairs because I had just given birth a month-and-a-half beforehand and I was trying to keep everything in – and I couldn’t breathe.

What about the legendary charm of George?
Yes, it’s disgusting how much charm he has. He oozes it. He’s gooey and sticky with charm and it’s genuine and awesome. It’s a gift that he has to make people feel really wonderful about themselves.

You said you had a baby before shooting Up in the Air. I imagine you have some pretty strict workout routines?
I’m wishy washy with routines. I’m not a routine person … I work out in fits and spurts, but I’m very active. I don’t just sit around, I have a 10-month-old who has learnt to crawl so I’m always on all fours with him. I also am someone who cuts my own grass, who mows the lawn, who weed-whacks, who chops wood, who does her own gardening and that’s exercise.

How was it doing the naked scene when you had just given birth?
Oh, those were not my buttocks. I’m not a stranger to nudity and I’ve done it so many times, but I was breast feeding every 20 minutes. It just wasn’t appropriate to be naked.

You worked with Heath Ledger?
Yeah, we spent a lot of time together in Australia in 1997 and we got to know each other but we did not maintain a relationship after it ended. But when you get to know him you have a lot of respect for him and he was a great guy.

You look very different from movie to movie. Do you enjoy changing yourself physically?
I do. It really is like a little girl who’s dipping into her costume box and pulling out different garb and wigs and I think the physical appearance of a character is as important as to what’s happening on the inside.
You seem to live a fairly quiet life? Yes, in upstate New York with my husband and son. I have a very sensible existence, perhaps I protect it, but I choose the type of lifestyle where it’s not easy to be glimpsed because you have to cross 500 acres (200ha) of dairy farm. My family is so important to me, more than my career. It’s a job and at the end of the day it’s a job that I love to do.

What about the bullshit part? The red carpet events? The paparazzi?
Well, there’s really no such thing as paparazzi in my life, they never recognise me.

Have you ever been mistaken with somebody else, another celebrity?
All the time, yes people always think that I’m always someone else. Often they think that I’m a friend of theirs from high school. I never say anything but my husband pipes up, ‘She was in The Departed!’ and they say, ‘Oh, who are you in that?’ It’s amusing. I take it as a compliment.

You’re one of seven kids – do you want more?
Yes, we’ll have to see. There are so many kids who need adopting but I also like the physical evidence of the love between myself and my husband. So, who knows?

What’s the worst part of being this successful?
Well, my husband will tell you I was crying this morning about having to do one more day of press when I’m actually grateful for this, and proud of this film, but I was crying because more than anything, it’s a Sunday and I just wanted to cuddle with my 10-month-old.

Vera Farmiga, ‘Up in the Air’
It’s quite a trick to throw a polished charmer like George Clooney off his stride with an equal if not stronger blast of insouciant, sloe-eyed sex appeal, but that’s what Farmiga pulls off as a frequent-flying playgirl in Up in the Air. She’s been simmering for a while now in notable supporting turns, like the police psychiatrist who sizes up Leo DiCaprio’s turncoat in The Departed. Time to hand her some bigger assignments, Hollywood. (For Your Consideration: Best Supporting Actress)

Also, don’t forget to pick Vera as your favorite contender on Supporting Actress Category!! http://oscars2.tinypug.com/nominations/pick/55

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Magazine Scans > Scans in 2010 > January 14th » LIFE

More updates are coming tomorrow!!

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January 23rd » The 16th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards – Arrivals
January 23rd » The 16th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards – Backstage And Audience

The BAFTA shortlist has been released and Vera has been nominated for Supporting Actress! Huge congratulations to her! She definitely deserves it, as her performance in “Up In The Air” as Alex Goran. You can view the full list of nominations here!

Also, congratulations to “Up In The Air” for the other BAFTA nominations including Best Film, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actress and Best Adapted Screenplay!

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January 18th » Arrives at LAX airport
January 18th » Arrives at JFK airport in New York

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Award Ceremonies > January 17th » The 67th Annual Golden Globes Awards (Show)
Award Ceremonies > January 17th » The 67th Annual Golden Globes Awards (Red Carpet)

Congratulations to @JasonReitman and Sheldon Turner for winning Best Screenplay at the Golden Globes for Up in the Air!!

More updates are coming tomorrow including a ton of screen captures!! Keep checking Vera Farmiga Online, your #1 source for all things Vera!

- Gallery Links:
January 17th » The 67th Annual Golden Globes Awards – Arrivals
January 17th » Charity Car at 67th Annual Golden Globe Awards
January 17th » The 11th Annual Warner Bros. And InStyle Golden Globe After Party

I have just added photos with her hubby Renn from her last night appearance at the 15th Critics Choice Movie Awards and do not forget to watch the Golden Globes tomorrow on NBC at 5 PM/PST and 8 PM/EST.

- Gallery Link:
Events in 2010 > January 15th » 15th Annual Critics’ Choice Movie Awards

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Henry’s Crime > January 12th 2010 » On Location in Tarrytown, NY
Henry’s Crime > January 13th 2010 » On Location in Tarrytown, NY

Reuters is reporting “Up in the Air” co-star Vera Farmiga and Michelle Monaghan are in line to join Jake Gyllenhaal in the time-travel thriller “Source Code.”

Duncan Jones (“Moon”) is directing the picture, which centers on a soldier (Gyllenhaal) who, as part of an experimental government program to investigate a terrorist incident, finds himself in the body of an unknown commuter living and reliving a harrowing train bombing until he can find out who is responsible for it.

Farmiga will play a hands-on communications officer controlling Gyllenhaal as he travels through time and space. Monaghan is a woman on the train with whom the man is involved romantically.

The film is slated to begin filming in March. Summit Entertainment is distributing in North America.

Farmiga is flying high off her Golden Globe-nominated performance as George Clooney’s love interest in “Up in the Air,” one of the season’s major awards players.

Vera Farmiga has admitted that playing a confident businesswoman in Up In The Air was “challenging”.

In Jason Reitman’s comedy-drama, the New Jersey-born actress plays Alex, who not only seduces commitment-phobe commuter Ryan Bingham (George Clooney) but plays him at his own game.

“It was challenging to play a woman who is very much like a man; it was difficult for me, and it was a fine line to tread, to have this softness and in the end, she takes control of her sexuality,” she said.

“Often at times when a woman behaves in this way, it can be misinterpreted – I appreciated that equal balance of power. I also loved walking this tightrope of wanton unapologetic sexuality and femininity. I thought that was a challenge and a treat to tackle,” she added.

Vera – star of films like Orphan and The Departed – wanted to do a romantic role.

“I’m a sucker for good old-fashioned romance, and the female roles in the Reitman films are always the smartest, wittiest and most intelligent female roles you get to read,” she said.

“I was hungry for a good old-fashioned romance where the woman can really go tete-a-tete with her male counterpart.”

Vera will be a presenter  at the Critics’ Choice Movie Awards, which will be broadcast Friday (January 15) at 9 p.m. on VH1.

Other presenters at the big show include Will Arnett, Jason Bateman, Kristen Bell, Emily Blunt, Bradley Cooper, Rob Corddry, Abbie Cornish, Josh Duhamel, Heather Graham, Ed Helms, Samuel L. Jackson, Ken Jeong, Tobey Maguire, Tracy Morgan, Craig Robinson, Susan Sarandon and Sarah Silverman.

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Events in 2010 > january 12th » 2010 National Board Of Review Of Motion Pictures Awards GaLa

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Up in the Air > 2009 » Entertainment Weekly Photoshoot

SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Anna Kendrick (Natalie Keener) – “Up in the Air”
Anne-Marie Duff (Julia) – “Nowhere Boy”
Claire Danes (Sonja Jones) – “Me and Orson Welles”
Diane Kruger (Bridget von Hammersmark) – “Inglourious Basterds”
Emma Thompson (Headmistress) – “An Education”
Julianne Moore (Charley) – “A Single Man”
Kristin Scott Thomas (Mimi) – “Nowhere Boy”
Mariah Carey (Mrs Weiss) – “Precious”
Mo’Nique (Mary) – “Precious”
Olivia Williams (Miss Stubbs) – “An Education”
Penelope Cruz (Carla) – “Nine”
Rachel Weisz (Abigail Salmon) – “The Lovely Bones”
Rosamund Pike (Helen) – “An Education”
Susan Sarandon (Grandma Lynn) – “The Lovely Bones”
Vera Farmiga (Alex Goran) – “Up in the Air”

Check out the full list of nominations here!

The winners for the 1st annual Screening Log Movie Awards have been announced days ago and I’m so pleased to say Vera won “Best Supporting Actress” award plus Up in the Air received two more awards including best film and best screenplay. Congrats Vera, We love you!!

BEST FILM
Up In the Air

BEST SCREENPLAY (Adapted or Original)
Jason Reitman & Sheldon Turner – Up In the Air

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Vera Farmiga – Up In the Air

Here’s an interesting pitch for a role: You get to be the female George Clooney.

“That’s how he pitched it to me,” said Vera Farmiga of director Jason Reitman, who was casting his movie “Up in the Air.”

nd so it came to pass, with Farmiga playing a fellow road warrior who hooks up when schedules allow with Clooney’s hatchet-man-for hire.

Farmiga spoke about the film and what it’s like for women to get older in Hollywood (she’s all of 36).

Q. So how did you come to land the role of the female Clooney?

A. I had read (the script) but I didn’t know it was George. I’d met Jason on “Thank You for Smoking” but it didn’t pan out. But he had followed my career since “Down to the Bone” piqued his curiosity. He was so sharp, and he could discuss with me in full detail every single film I’ve done, every obscure film I’ve done.

Q. That must be flattering.

A. It was really cool. It was genuine, and I was excited that he knew what I was capable of. Romantic comedies don’t often come my way.Q. That’s surprising. You seem like a natural for comedy.

A. I always try to introduce humor into my characters. I mean, “Breaking and Entering” was a comedic role. It’s just that people often don’t get to see those films. It’s not that I don’t get offered them. It’s just that those scripts are really rare, to find a smart comedy that’s compelling.

Most of the comedies these days are really misogynistic. I’m not interested in that. I love slapstick. I’m pretty good at it. But it’s really stiff competition for me at the moment, and those scripts, those intelligent, witty, smart scripts, compelling scripts, are hard to come by.

Q. Your character’s relationship with Clooney’s was different for him.

A. In “Out of Sight,” he certainly had an intense chemistry with Jennifer Lopez. But even in that, I haven’t seen him take on a character where he’s smitten with another human being. That was delicious for me to participate in.

I love the banter between them. I love the rhythm, very much like the iambic pentameter of a Shakespeare play. Jason’s writing is so specific that most of the work is done for you. You just have to say the words. It’s true banter in the spirit of the old-fashioned Hollywood romances.

Q. A running joke in the film is your character being older. Does that kind of thing make you cringe?

A. I have no qualms about it. I never have, and it’s always irritating to me when I hear women say it. I’m not sure why. I think it’s terribly unattractive when a woman scoffs at her age. We all have that insecurity.

Who doesn’t? Who doesn’t look in a mirror and say, “Ooh, I’ve grown older, I’ve grown a day older, look at that new wrinkle.” But it doesn’t scare me.

Q. You actually look quite different from one movie to the next.

A. I have a strange face that looks very different, depending on how it’s lit and what angle you’re coming from. I can look younger, I can look older. I think I have that flexibility.

Q. You mentioned competition. You’ve had a nice run of high-profile movies lately. Do you feel that pressure?

A. The more success, the more competition is fierce, because these excellent roles for women are few and far between. It’s still an enormous lottery.

Q. How do you cope with that?

A. It’s frustrating for everyone. Cate Blanchett competes against Kate Winslet competes against Naomi Watts. It’s frustrating, because the roles are just not there.

Q. What’s your theory on that?

A. I think because the economy, especially now, is so precarious. The sure bets that are getting financed early are screwball comedies or gory horror films.

Q. Do you ever watch movies you’re in if you catch them on TV or something?

A. Not so much. Occasionally I’ll catch a glimpse of something. “Dummy” is always playing. It’s this silly little comedy I did with Adrien Brody, in which he plays an aspiring ventriloquist. That was a romantic comedy, actually.

“The Departed” is always on, and my husband always wants to stop on it. I’ll leave the room. I’ve seen it so many times. It’s a good film. I’ll watch Jack (Nicholson) in the film, and Mark Wahlberg and Leo (DiCaprio). All the boys are so good.

Source: Sun Times

Vera chose Pilgrim at Tinker Creek By Annie Dillard as one of the books she most appreciates. She comments about it:

When life goes bonkers, and I start to feel skittery-jittery, I find nature medicinal. I’m happiest when I stumble upon dense, cool patches of moist green moss. So this book—about Dillard’s year observing the seasons—is almost scriptural.

I feel drunk when I read it, spiritually tipsy.

In one sublime passage, she talks about how in order to see things in all their dazzle and beauty you’ve got to be still.

I’ve always found that paragraph very poignant, because in the age of high-speed Internet, fast food, and express checkouts, we attack everything at breakneck speed—so many people cannot, will not, and do not know how to be still.[Farmiga's choice of a memorable passage by Dillard:]

“Instead of going rigid, I go calm. I center down wherever I am; I find a balance and repose. I retreat—not inside myself, but outside myself, so that I am a tissue of senses. Whatever I see is plenty, abundance. I am the skin of water the wind plays over; I am petal, feather, stone.”

From Books That Made a Difference to Vera Farmiga [oprah.com]

Source: Oprah

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Vera Farmiga, Up in the Air
Anna Kendrick, Up in the Air
Mo’Nique, Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire

BEST FILM
A Serious Man
The Hurt Locker
Up in the Air

BEST DIRECTOR
Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker
Jason Reitman, Up in the Air
Quentin Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds

BEST ACTOR
George Clooney, Up in the Air
Colin Firth, A Single Man
Jeremy Renner, The Hurt Locker

View the full list of nominees here!

Be sure to vote for Vera!

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Magazine Scans > Scans in 2010 > Entertaiment Weekly – (January 08, 2010)

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Scans in 2010 > Entertaiment Weekly – (January 08, 2010)

Happy Holidays from Vera Farmiga Online! I just wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! I really hope that wherever you are, you’re spending the holidays with the ones you love of course have everything you wish for. All my love!

LaLa xoxo

Screen Actors Guild Awards nominations were announced today and Vera Farmiga has been nominated for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role as Alex Goran in Up In The Air.

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role

PENÉLOPE CRUZ / Carla – “NINE” (The Weinstein Company)
VERA FARMIGA / Alex Goran – “UP IN THE AIR” (Paramount Pictures)
ANNA KENDRICK / Natalie Keener – “UP IN THE AIR” (Paramount Pictures)
DIANE KRUGER / Bridget Von Hammersmark – “INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS” (The Weinstein Company/Universal Pictures)
MO’NIQUE / Mary – “PRECIOUS: BASED ON THE NOVEL ‘PUSH’ BY SAPPHIRE” (Lionsgate)

Congratulations Vera, We love you and We are so proud of you!!!

The awards will air on Saturday, January 23, 2010. View the full list of nominees here!

The 67th Annual Golden Globe nominations were announced today and Vera has been nominated for Best Performance by an Actress In A Supporting Role in a Motion Picture for “Up In The Air”.

Yay!! Congratulations to the lovely and talented Vera for her 1st nomination for the Golden Globes! Winners will be announced on Sunday 17th of January. I’m crossing my fingers and sending cool vibes for her to win because She really deserves it!

Best Performance by an Actress In A Supporting Role in a Motion Picture

Penélope Cruz – Nine
Vera Farmiga – Up In The Air
Anna Kendrick – Up In The Air
Mo’nique – Precious: Based On The Novel Push By Sapphire
Julianne Moore – A Single Man

Also the movie “up In The Air” received 5 nominations more for:

Best Motion Picture – Drama
Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama
Best Director – Motion Picture
Best Screenplay – Motion Picture
Best Performance by an Actress In A Supporting Role in a Motion Picture (double nom.)

Full nominees list here!

When I see the way Fynn throws himself into each simple little task – eating, yelping, squeezing a fart – I think, Wow, this little guy isn’t trapped in his head; he’s operating to the hilt. And it occurs to me that this needs to be my attitude whatever I do.”

- Gallery Link:
Candid Photos from 2009 > Arriving with her family at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) – (December 08)

In the new “Up in the Air,” George Clooney plays a frequent-flier hatchet man who jets across the country orchestrating layoffs. It’s all done with cool precision — the same way he books his hotels, orders his meals and decides whom he’s going to sleep with.

Until one day he gets a shock — a woman who’s just as corporate, calculating and commitment-phobic as he is. In fact, she says so.

“‘Think of me as you, with a vagina” actress Vera Farmiga blurts out, gleefully quoting her own dialogue. “That’s the one line I practiced over and over again in front of the mirror. It’s a fine line to read, you know. Really, one of my favorites.”

The character, Alex, is one of Farmiga’s favorites, too.

“It’s a very masculine kind of feminine desire, which I found appealing,” she says, sitting in a swank Manhattan hotel room. “She doesn’t temper her desires at all. She makes clear her needs and expects to have the world accommodate them. It’s not a character we often see on-screen, and when we do, more often that not she’s bereft of dignity. So that was cool.”Farmiga, 36, is a pretty cool customer herself — bluntly honest, casually feminist and sure of who she is.

She grew up in New Jersey, spoke only Ukrainian until she went to school, had Catholic school days full of “knee socks and rosaries” — and then decided to become an actress, landing in Australia on a wanna-be “Xena” show called “Roar.”

She has pursued a busy career in movies while remaining based on a goat farm in the Catskills, where unwanted scripts are turned into festive bonfires — and where she auditions by making her own short films, shooting herself in full costume acting out the big scenes.

And, having reached a sort of career tipping point two years ago — with the female lead in “The Departed” and one big profile calling her the next Meryl Streep — she instead pulled back, taking time off to get married, have a baby and turn out a string of indie dramas.

“I’m not in this for the achievement,” she says. “I’m in it for the illumination. That’s how I choose my roles, that’s how I attract roles — it’s a very spiritual process for me. And that’s the only way I could continue, and stay interested. The acting, It’s really a vocation.”

It’s also, of course, a job. Farmiga has a house, a family and a bunch of animals to feed; horror pictures like “Orphan” aren’t done solely for love of craft.

But she’s always intensely watchable. And she always brings something — a flash of anger, a gritty sexuality — that makes those sometimes improbable pictures feel real.

A Jersey girl breaks out

The honesty was bred in her. Farmiga grew up in Irvington, and went to St. John’s in Newark. Later, her large family — she has six siblings — moved out to several acres in Flemington. Although her father worked as a computer-systems analyst, the Farmigas lived a rural, Old World life, full of church, tradition and nature.

“Each child got to choose a pet, and mine was a sheep,” she remembers. “We got one from a local farm, and I bottle-fed it, and it ran around our backyard. I think maybe I was a shepherdess in a past life.”

Like a lot of immigrants’ children, Farmiga’s initial career plans were purely practical, yet somehow in high school, the budding optometrist saw a different future. She ended up majoring in drama at Syracuse University. Soon, she was living in the East Village and going on auditions.

Her icy eyes and fierce cheekbones began winning her parts, but mostly in roles defined by their ethnicity, their otherness. Directors didn’t seem to know what to do with her.

Debra Granik’s “Down to the Bone,” though, broke through that in 2005. It gave Farmiga a rare lead as a working-class mother battling drug addiction in upstate New York. It also won her a couple of critics’ awards and serious attention beyond local indie circles.

It remains, along with “Never Forever” and the upcoming “The Vintner’s Luck,” “hands down, a favorite experience,” Farmiga says — and part of that, she admits, may be that all three films were directed by women.

A woman’s touch

“With all due respect to the men, in these movies the directors and I were all coming at the work from a feminine perspective,” Farmiga says. “There’s a shorthand, there’s a language, there’s a psychology we understand. . . . Those films were true collaborations, and those directors wanted me along on those journeys every step of the way.”

The neglectful mother in “Down to the Bone,” the ferocious prostitute in “Breaking and Entering,” the prickly therapist in “The Departed,” the Nazi wife in “The Boy in the Striped Pajamas” — none of them is a naturally sympathetic role, and most of them are parts more cautious actresses might have avoided. But not Farmiga.

“As an actor, you’re sort of the court-appointed lawyer for the character,” she says. “And that’s what used to draw me to scripts — something in a woman that I wanted to defend, something that I recognized or wanted to understand, something that turned my head. Now that I’m a mother, I think it’s more the message of the film, or the questions that they pose about life — that’s the magnifying glass through which I look at them now. But at first it was all about the character.”

The character in “Down to the Bone” was occasionally casually nude, like many of the other women Farmiga has played — “if you’ve seen ‘Never Forever’ or ‘The Departed’ or ‘Breaking and Entering,’ you’ve seen my full moon, again and again,” she jokes.

Early on, it gave pause to her new husband, keyboardist Renn Hawkey, who wondered if she might stop doing nude scenes now that they were a couple. Farmiga — who agrees to them or not depending on the script, the director and the mood on the set — then asked Hawkey how he’d feel if she asked him to stop playing certain notes. He dropped his objection.

Still, as comfortable as she is with her body, Farmiga’s quite aware that sexism and double standards apply in the industry. The marketing for “Running Scared” snipped the sex scene out of the movie and turned it into an online computer game; even though she goes naked in the love scene in “Up in the Air,” her co-star remains discreetly draped.

“I think that was the one directorial misstep on Jason Reitman’s part,” she says frankly. “I think it would have been so much fun to see George’s hairy butt. But I think things are changing. Certainly some of the actors I’ve worked with, bold actors like Peter Sarsgaard and Sam Rockwell, they’ve shown their parts. It’s becoming less taboo. We’re finally sort of acknowledging, hey, men have genitals too!”

The simple life

Farmiga’s no-nonsense approach serves her well. When Martin Scorsese talked to her about a role in “The Departed,” she bluntly told him the part still needed some punching up. (Scorsese, who agreed, calls her a “fearless” actress.) Many industry watchers thought “The Departed,” released the same year as “Running Scared” and “Breaking and Entering,” positioned her for a giant career surge.

But who says that’s what Farmiga wanted?

Instead she poured herself into extremely risky projects, like the interracial love drama “Never Forever” or the kinky art-house picture “Quid Pro Quo.” And she got pregnant, and she got married to Hawkey — once “Dr. Nner” in the band Deadsy and currently a writer and carpenter.

“We have enormous families, so it was all very ‘Deer Hunter,’” Farmiga says of her wedding, “but without the Russian roulette. There was folk dancing, singing, all this ritual — but what I had not thought of was the fact that I was five months pregnant. We had chosen this flamboyant, decadent tango as our first dance and then when it came time, we literally couldn’t get close enough!”

Their son, Fynn, is 10 months old now, and today is the first day that Farmiga’s been apart from him. When she went to the Toronto Film Festival two months ago, the whole family simply piled into their car and drove up together. “It’s agony being away from him,” she says. “But it’s getting cold and Renn has to get this barn up and get our tractors in before the snow comes, so they’ve stayed up there.”

Farmiga likes staying up there herself, with her family and her animals. What had been a childhood hobby has turned into a business, a hedge against the uncertainty of the arts and an artistic outlet; the couple now raises angora goats (or tries to — their first attempts at artificial insemination didn’t go too well). After the shearing, Farmiga spins her own wool, then turns the yarn into clothing.

“There’s always a lot of wasted time on set, just sitting around,” says the actress, who was always a serious knitter. “So here’s an activity to keep me out of trouble. It’s very therapeutic, really, just sitting there and listening to the click-click-clicking of the needles. It’s hard for me to just sit still and meditate, so this is one way.

She hugs herself and shifts on the couch, tucking her bare feet under her. The fancy dress seems to be suddenly growing tight; the high heels were kicked off long ago. Although “Up in the Air” is a big film for her, and the studio, and Farmiga has been uncomplainingly promoting it for months, it’s clear she yearns to get back upstate, with her husband and her baby and her knitting and her goats.

“I’ve never been sucked into the glamour of it all,” she says. “That’s not where my career has been founded. I’ve never graced the cover of a fashion magazine. I was on the cover of Cookie with Fynn, but only because I was rather coerced by the two grandmothers, and I thought the story might be helpful to other mothers who were going back to work. The glamour of it, I can live without. I like being upstate. It gives you some perspective. It’s far enough away that I can really see what matters, and what doesn’t. And it’s a lot easier to breathe.”

Walter Kirn’s 2001 novel “Up in the Air” rather brilliantly depicted the inner life of one Ryan Bingham. A corporate downsizing facilitator desperate for both a new job and more frequent flyer miles, Bingham thought in a perceptive stream-of-consciousness informed by state-of-the-art marketing concepts.

It was a pretty great book, but a tough one to turn into a movie. Especially after the Sept. 11 attacks, as Bingham’s cushy life in the privileged business class of what he called Airworld became increasingly unrealistic in a time of airline cost-cutting and inconvenienced travelers.

But Jason Reitman, the director of “Juno,” has nonetheless made “Up in the Air” into a compelling, relevant movie, with George Clooney all-too-perfectly cast as the charmingly untethered Bingham.

He did it by pretty much rewriting the story from scratch.

“Have times changed? Yes,” Reitman notes. “One, security protocol in flying completely changed. Two, when the book came out we were in an economic boom, and now we’re in a recession like no other. But one thing did not change. This has always been a story about a man who thinks life is somehow better alone.

“Whatever the differences – whether it’s the sexual flings that he goes on in the book versus the romantic relationship that he develops in my movie, or it’s the fact that we never actually read about him firing someone but he repeatedly does it in the movie – the one thing that remains is that you have a guy who believes in the idea of living clean; nobody, no thing. That’s what I wanted to make a movie about from the beginning.”

Among Reitman’s most engaging additions are the new women of Airworld: Vera Farmiga’s Alex, Ryan’s no-strings female counterpart whose very disdain for attachment makes him think about settling down; Anna Kendrick’s Natalie, a young, scarily self-possessed new hire whose plans to digitize Ryan’s business could destroy his cherished lifestyle; and Melanie Lynskey’s Julie, Ryan’s sister, whose wedding crises differ significantly from the character’s in the book.

They all bring distinct viewpoints to what had been an exclusively male story, and in the process turn Airworld into a place where real people could live.

The Interview with Vera:

Vera Farmiga is living proof that critics do matter.

The New Jersey-born daughter of Ukrainian immigrants (she didn’t speak English until the age of six) was working in relative obscurity when the Los Angeles Film Critics Association gave her its best actress award for the barely seen 2004 indie film “Down to the Bone.”

That propelled her into a series of juicy movie roles (“Running Scared,” “Breaking and Entering,” “Joshua,” “Nothing But the Truth,” this summer’s “Orphan”) and the only female lead in Martin Scorsese’s guy-heavy Oscar-winner “The Departed.” Now Farmiga is going toe-to-toe with George Clooney as “Up in the Air’s” Alex, a woman who loves planes, platinum-card perks and zipless sex as much as his traveling layoff specialist does.

Maybe more.

“I viewed her as a modern heroine of sorts,” Farmiga says. “Someone who rides that pendulum between making these tough choices between family and career, virgin and whore and respectability and romance. I saw her representing all of these lady problems that have been and will be.

“I don’t mean that negatively,” she adds. “The movie is fortified with all kinds of socially relevant vitamins and minerals, but it’s not demanding that its audience believe any certain thing about what makes you happy or what the purpose of life is.”

Farmiga has certainly figured out what works for her. Beside the career takeoff, She’s settled in with her second husband, Deadsy drummer Renn Hawkey, on a spread in upstate New York, where they raise angora goats and their young son, Flynn.

Farmiga made “Up in the Air” a month and a half after Flynn’s birth.

Although she says to have done the movie’s nude scene herself would have been inappropriate at the time, she does admit that “I felt more womanly and voluptuous than I ever have. I do love the way that I look in that film; maternity all of a sudden gives your body purpose.”

We’re betting critics will agree.

This is not related with Vera but I wanted to share with all of you my new fansite Andrea Noli Fan for the mexican film, television and theater actress Andrea Noli, best known for her roles in soap operas “Se Busca Un Hombre” and “Pasión Morena”. This site will provide you daily updates with news, photos and multimedia. Please feel free to apply for affiliation as I am currently accepting new elite, top and regular affiliates!

- Gallery Link:
Events in 2009 > Los Angeles Variety Screening Series: “Up In The Air” – (November 19)
Events in 2009 > New York Variety Screening Series: “Up In The Air” – (November 05)

- Gallery Link:
Events in 2009 > “Up In The Air” Los Angeles Premiere – (November 30)

Drawn to the story, to working with writer/director Jason Reitman (of Juno fame) and to portraying a heated romance with co-star George Clooney, Vera Farmiga spoke at the film’s press day about how much she loved playing a character with such duality.

Q: What was Jason Reitman like, as a director?

Vera: What I admire about his films is that he can make a comedy about a teenage pregnancy, and here his hero is somebody who fires people for a living and he still expects the audience to root for him. He sketches these characters and shines a real stark spotlight on them that illuminates all their foibles, deficiencies, quirks and eccentricities, and yet you still manage to root for them because they’re so human and complex. And, I saw that in Alex.

I’m always on the hunt for a great romance, and I love how Jason portrays romance. He did it similarly in Juno. What’s so special, sexy, touching, authentic and heartbreaking about it is the tete a tete. It’s what they say to each other. It’s the banter. With this, the banter was so old-fashioned and almost prudish. You don’t see them together. You see a scene that’s an illusion to them having a good old romp, but what’s so sexy is their relationship. I loved that.

Q: How did you prepare for this role?

Vera: With Alex, it’s such a masculine portrayal of feminine desire. I love that duality to it. He’s totally a master at treading the fine line of tones. For my character, it was honoring her sexual prowess. It was very a demanding, masculine, unapologetic and compartmental sexuality, while making her as soft, feminine and appealing as possible. The key to that, as I found out because she’s got some zingers, was that dignity and self-integrity tap into that, for this character. That made it all elegant and somewhat okay.Q: Was the role-reversal thing attractive to you, when you first read the script?

Vera: Yeah, it was. But, even before that, I appreciated the quality of these two characters. It wasn’t so much that the female was now going to be in it for the enjoyment of it. I really just found them to be on solid, equal footing. I like that because that’s seldom the case.

Q: Do you see yourself in Alex, or know someone like her, who leads a double-life?

Vera: We all know an Alex, whether it’s someone who is male or female. We all do it, as women. There’s so much we have to balance in our lives, wanting to be a career woman, and balancing between career and family. It’s about recklessness and restraint, and virgin versus whore. It’s that whole pendulum we swing between and we’ll never have an answer to. That’s what she represents to me. She has to compartmentalize and say, “This is my job and this is who I am.” I’m old-fashioned. I’m devoted to my husband. But, I like to think I understand Alex’s confidence and grace.

Q: This movie is partly about our modern technological gadgetry distancing us from having personal relationships. Are you like that, in your own life?

Vera: No. If you scroll through my text messages, it’s my husband and my mama, and occasionally there’s a business interaction. With my husband and I, our romance was founded on love letters and text messages, going back and forth. We were bi-coastal and that’s what allowed us to persevere in our love. I printed them up and I have a novel of them.

Q: You just had a baby before you made this film. How did you prepare physically?

Vera: Breast feeding. It was two months before I actually started and we were in St. Louis, which has one of the best parks in the United States. I’m a New Yorker and it rivals Central Park. And, I was running six miles a day while I was breast feeding. I was about 12 pounds heavier, but it just dispersed in the right way. It was actually quite voluptuous, sensual and womanly, and I know it added to the performance. I’d never felt so empowered and so womanly, as I did bringing forth a human.

Q: Did you bring the baby to the set?

Vera: All the time. Poor George. I would always interrupt his close-up to go and pump. They really were accommodating, I have to say.

Q: You and George had an incredible on screen chemistry. Was that just there, or did you have to work on it?

Vera: No, I think what you can work on is the rhythm between two people, and that’s something that is in the sharpness and rhythm of the dialogue, almost like Shakespeare. You’ve got to click in to the rhythm. Jason writes rhythmically. And so, there’s a certain measure that can be honed. Jason’s biggest direction to me was, “Vera, you’ve got to say it faster.” I’m Ukrainian. I’m Slavic, and I can be Chekhovian about things and indulge in them, but Jason was on me to speak rhythmically. But, aside from that, you do click into the hilarity of the dialogue, and that’s most of it. You do ride the wave of chemistry, and it’s either there or it’s not. Jason cancelled all rehearsals after the first table read, so I guess it must have been there.

Q: What was George like, as a person and as an actor? What was the best part about working with him?

Vera: He’s such a goofball. What is so attractive about him is his sense of humor. Too bad he’s so ugly. He establishes a tone of frivolity on set, and so does Jason. We frolicked through our jobs, and it was playful. He’s just himself. He’s warm and inviting, and you tend to just cozy up to that energy. You can flower in his presence because he’s so easy and genuine.

Q: What’s next for you?

Vera: I did The Vintner’s Luck with Niki Caro, who did Whale Rider and North Country. That will be coming out, at some point. I’m in rehearsals for a zany romantic comedy, called Henry’s Crime, with Keanu Reeves and James Caan. It’s an indie film, along the lines of Buffalo ‘66 meets Bullets Over Broadway. It’s fun. And, I’m going to be directing an indie film. I’m going to try that, for the first time. It’s a very personal story, based on the memoirs of a woman called Carolyn Briggs, and it’s just her grappling with her faith in the 1960s and the 1970s born again Christian movement. It’s just a portrait of a woman trying to define that for herself.

UP IN THE AIR opens on December 4th

Source: IESB.net

Read more “UP IN THE AIR” Interviews here:
http://www.moviesonline.ca/movienews_17516.html
http://www.torontosun.com/entertainment/movies/2009/12/02/12007996.html
http://awfj.org/2009/11/30/vera-farmiga-chats-about-up-in-the-air-jenny-halper-interviews/

Previous recipients include Kristin Scott Thomas last year and Ryan Gosling. Farmiga stars opposition George Clooney in Up In The Air, Sarsgaard is in An Education with Carey Mulligan, Tucci is in Julie & Julia and the upcoming The Lovely Bones, and Waltz stars in Inglourious Basterds.

The festival is scheduled to run from February 4-14. For further details visit the official website.

Up in the Air will be released to theaters on December 4, 2009 (limited) and December 25, 2009 (nationwide). Starring George Clooney, Vera Farmiga, Anna Kendrick, Jason Bateman, Melanie Lynskey, Danny McBride, Tamala Jones, Chris Lowell, and directed by Jason Reitman.

Synopsis: Ryan Bingham (Clooney) is a corporate downsizing expert whose cherished life on the road is threatened just as he is on the cusp of reaching ten million frequent flyer miles and just after he’s met the frequent-traveler woman of his dreams.

- Gallery Links:
Production Stills
Screen Captures: Trailer
Screen Captures: Teaser
Screen Captures: Film Clip #1
Screen Captures: Official Site
Posters & Key-Art
Promotional Stills
TIFF Portraits – (September 12, 2009)
TIFF Portraits – (September 13, 2009)

- Gallery Link:
Events in 2009 > GQ “Men of the Year” Party – (November 18)

- Gallery Links:
Photoshoots in 2008 > Session #1
Photoshoots in 2008 > Session #2
Photoshoots in 2008 > Session #3
Photoshoots in 2009 > Session #4

The first thing Vera Farmiga wants to do is to get out of those unrealistic heels. Relaxing on a couch in front of a lukewarm coffee in a suite at the Luxe Hotel, the actress known for unflinching portrayals of complex women appears before us now on behalf of “Up in the Air,” a buzz-generating comedic drama directed by Jason Reitman (“Juno”) and starring George Clooney. Clooney’s Ryan is a smooth corporate mercenary flying from town to town to fire people; the happy traveler meets his match in Farmiga’s Alex, a similarly rootless-seeming professional . . . and the banter begins.

Was working with Reitman and Clooney the main draw?

Yeah . . . at the same time, I thought it was a refreshing spin on feminine desire. It’s something you don’t too often get to see, a woman being so demanding and libertine and unapologetic about her sexual prowess. She’s an adventuress; she’s a full-blown romantic operative. That was pretty exciting. And tricky. Because usually, female characters who are so masculine in their needs can come across as lacking dignity. Alex represents to me what’s so hard about being a woman, post-feminist. Wanting it all: a family, a career. That sort of pendulum between romance and respectability, virgin-whore, all these lady problems we have to contend with and there will never be an answer to. A modern heroine of sorts.

Is that what separates her from most Hollywood roles for women? You’ve described them generally as “stupid, materialistic, horny, nympho” types.

And I’m playing one! Except she’s not stupid. She’s unapologetically horny. She has genitals.

One of my favorite scenes in the film is when Alex, Ryan and his young protégée, Natalie . . .

That was my audition scene. Jason was very honey-tongued and boot licking when we sat down. He told me he’d written the role for me and used me as a model when he was writing it — which was awfully appealing to hear. But ultimately, I did end up reading for it and I was four months’ pregnant at the time. I was hired at eight months.

So you felt very sleek and sexy.

I was feeling very womanly. All of a sudden, I had breasts and they had purpose! I felt the empowerment that birth brings. On one hand, yes, in normal, non-hormonal circumstances, I would have an easier time clicking in to the character’s suave coolness, sensuality and confidence. Focus was difficult. When your milk comes in and you know your child is hungry, and you’re wearing a silk shirt and you’re staring at George Clooney doing his close-up, having to interrupt and say, ‘Hold that thought!’ And go do that.

Did that really happen?

Yeah, many times. If you look at it again, you can probably see angles when I contort my bosom and my torso just to disguise what was really happening at the time. Truly, I’ve never felt more womanly than at that time in my life. And that probably added to the performance in delicious ways.

I can’t imagine George Clooney made it easy on you when you were doing the ‘How big is it?’ scene.

That was an improvisatory moment. Jason steered me in that direction. But there are a couple of zingers in that film. ‘Think of me as yourself, only with a vagina.’ These are the lines you know will inevitably make the trailer. These are the lines you spend hours rehearsing in front of a mirror. With Ryan and Alex, you barely see them together; it’s the banter and perhaps a soft kiss to establish that chemistry and such a potent sexuality.

Is there a scene in the film that particularly resonates for you?

The real-life testimonies [of people who had recently lost their jobs] hit me on a gut level, to the core. That gets me every time I see it. My father has been laid off several times in the last handful of years and still has three children he has to put toward college, and they have no health insurance. So that hit me.

Source: L.A. Times

- Gallery Link:
Events in 2009 > 2009 Governors Awards Gala – Arrivals – (November 14)

- Gallery Link:
Events in 2009 > Prada Book Launch Cocktail at Prada Beverly Hills – (November 13)

]]> http://vera-farmiga.com/265/feed 0 http://vera-farmiga.com/256 http://vera-farmiga.com/256#comments Sun, 15 Nov 2009 07:01:04 +0000 LaLa http://vera-farmiga.com/?p=256 I have added over 30 pictures from Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s Cecil B. DeMille Award to the gallery. Vera announced Director Martin Scorsese as the recipient of the HFPA Cecil B. DeMille Award, which will be presented at the 67th Annual Golden Globe Awards which will be telecast January 17, 2010 in Beverly Hills.

On the event, Vera enthused: “He considers it holy work, and cinema is his shrine. And he instills in the actors, in the crew, and everybody around him just what a powerful tool it is.” “He has the power to rouse a crowd and bring them along on his holy mission.”

Check out the photos by clicking on the previews below!

- Gallery Link:
Events in 2009 > Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s Cecil B. DeMille Award – (November 12)

]]> http://vera-farmiga.com/256/feed 0 http://vera-farmiga.com/253 http://vera-farmiga.com/253#comments Sun, 15 Nov 2009 06:50:52 +0000 LaLa http://vera-farmiga.com/?p=253 According to the ever-reliable Variety, Vera and James Caan are joining Keanu Reeves in Henry’s Crime. The film is a romantic comedy that will be directed by Malcolm Venville (44 Inch Chest). The script was written by Sacha Gervasi Anvil! the Story of Anvil).

The movie is the brain child of Reeves and his Company Films partner Stephen Hamel.

In the film, Reeves plays a big-hearted man who is falsely accused of pulling a robbery on a bank in Buffalo. The movie will begin production in upstate New York in late 2009. Vera will play the love interest of Reeves’ character.

- Gallery Link:
Events in 2009 > ‘Up In The Air Screening hosted by Travel + Leisure – (November 05)

Extras include:

* Mama’s Little Devils: Bad Seeds & Evil Children
* Interviews with Director Jaume Collet-Serra
* Interview with Producers Joel Silver & Susan Downey
* Interview with Isabelle Fuhrman
* Deleted Scenes
* Alternate Ending
* Theatrical trailer

Hi everyone:

this is LaLa, the new owner of Vera Farmiga Online. I recently took over Vera-Farmiga.com/org/net (you probably know me for other fansites like Wanting Moore, Elizabeth Perkins Fan or Adoring Natasha) I have been working so hard the last days on bringing the site back-up to date with this new beautiful layout, updated content and much more. Many changes has been made as I have successfully installed new scripts on the site to make it better!

The site is best viewed in Mozilla Firefox, with a screen resolution of 1024×768 or higher. I hope you enjoy your stay, please visit us again and check back daily for the latest on Vera and her work. Please feel free to apply for affiliation as I am currently accepting new affiliates as well as following VFO on twitter and don’t forget to always leave your comments and inquiries about the site. Thank You! ツ