We caught up with Sofia Coppola, Rob Morgan, Michael K. Williams and Timothée Chalamet at the 2017 IFP Gotham Awards.
Sofia Coppola received the Director Tribute.
How excited are you to be here?
Sofia: It’s nice to be included in the New York film crowd.
Nicole Kidman is going to be honored as well.
Sofia: Yeah, I know. I love Nicole so I look forward to seeing her and getting to celebrate.
Can you speak a little bit assembling your cast in The Beguiled?
Sofia: Yeah, I felt like what I loved about the story is there were women of all different ages and I got to pull together some of my favorite actresses with Elle and Kirsten, and Nicole who I had never worked with. I really got my dream cast and then Colin as the man between them all. So, I feel really lucky that I got to have my dream cast.
You also directed an opera La Traviata. Is that also something you are going to explore more?
Sofia: I don’t think so. It’s always exciting to push yourself. That was scary to do an opera. I never worked in the theater before but it always gives you a lot to do something that you’re scared of and push yourself. So I’m glad I did it.
The cast of Mudbound won a special award for ensemble performance. Rob Morgan gives a powerful performance in the film.
The movie has gotten so much love. What has that been like?
Rob Morgan: Oh it’s been amazing to be on this Mudbound journey. To be a part of a film that’s so unique in its own way but yet, touching so many people is just a beautiful experience. I think that’s Netflix’s brilliance and positioning of product and understanding a market and knowing to release it around Thanksgiving I guess when people are kind of stopping their tracks, sitting down, taking a load off. I don’t know if that was their idea but I could see that being part of the success of reaching a wider market is when they released it and how they’re rolling it out. Plus, they have a 104 million subscribers already so that’s a wide market.
What’s it like being here at the Gothams? Have you ever been here before?
Rob Morgan: I’ve never been here before. This is amazing. I’ve rode my bike by here all the time being that I’m in Brooklyn. I ride by here all the time but to be in here in a tuxedo, receiving an award is amazing.
Michael K. Williams received the Made in NY honor.
What does this mean to be getting this special award tonight?
MKW: Tonight means more to me just because it has the name New York on it. Born and raised in Brooklyn, come from very humble beginnings and I’ve worked hard. If anybody knows my story I’ve been through a lot of ups and downs in my personal life so to be here, to be acknowledged by the city of New York, by the mayor in front of my mother tonight whose seen me struggle, it’s very humbling. I’m very grateful to be acknowledged tonight. It kind of embodies all of that.
What do you have coming up?
MKW: I just wrapped up the third season of Hap and Leonard with my co-star and good buddy James Purefoy and I believe my next job, I’m off to Philadelphia with James McAvoy. Huge fan of his.
Tell us about Red Sea Diving Resort.
MKW: I just wrapped with Chris Evans, it’s a film that Gideon Raff wrote and directed, it’s his debut. I’m extremely proud of that. It’s the true story of an Ethiopian who got his people out of purgatory, they were being slaughtered and it was 11 year mission to walk from Ethiopia to Israel and the movie is about that. Very, very, very proud of that one.
What have you learned about yourself as an actor?
MKW: You know, I’ve been really, really going deeper with my instrument. I’ve been finding out, like this last season of Hap and Leonard and The Night Of, and Black Market with Michael K. Williams, they impacted me on a personal level and it gave me a voice to want to do something in my community, particularly with young people. How can I use what God has given me to inspire the next generation. I mean it, I’m not just blah, blah, blah. I got my non-profit organization MKW which stands for Making Kids Win. I’m sitting down with the people at Urban Arts partners, they’ve been giving me a world of information. David Belle over at Artists, Peace, and Justice he’s also been [helping] me and my staff and my brother who is helping with the launching of the organization. So, I’m very excited about that.
Timothée Chalamet won the Breakthrough Actor award for his stellar performance in Call Me by Your Name. We caught up with him backstage after his big win.
So, what does this honor mean to you? This is a big deal.
Timothée Chalamet: It’s crazy. I’m a New York kid, I’m from New York so to have an award with Gotham written on it is incredible and this very much feels like an experience to cherish. A totem of my youth I can look on when I’m older and jaded and watch my peak. No, I’m kidding.
Music seems to be a big influence on you. You shouted out Mary J. Blige, you shouted out Cardi B. Tell me a little bit about that.
Timothée Chalamet: Well, music is everything to me. Music is in my head when I act, music was literally in my ear through an ear piece as we shot the final scene in Call Me By Your Name. There’s a relief that I don’t want to pursue it myself so I don’t have the misery of comparing myself to every musician that I listen to the way every movie and actor I see that’s the experience.
Do you sing?
Timothée Chalamet: I try.
Are you excited about continuing the story of your character in Call Me By Your Name, which I hear is gonna happen.
Timothée Chalamet: If Luca wanted to explore that journey further then I would literally operate a boom on Luca’s movies. So in any capacity that he would employ me, I would jump at the opportunity.
What did you learn about yourself doing this movie?
Timothée Chalamet: How to pace myself as an actor and the idea that all the greats I worked with like Matthew McConaughey, I guess Christian Bale I worked with after but this rang very true too but the experience I had watching McConaughey work on Interstellar was the physical embodiment through his work of the idea that it’s a marathon and it’s not a sprint. That’s very hard as a young actor to be aware of. Like Alan Arkin I did a movie with him too and he made fun of me. Cause he said every young actor before a take his legs going like that and you kind of rev the engine up before which doesn’t make any sense because in real life you rev the engine up before you go into a room?
Grace Van Patten stars in The Meyerowitz Stories. Her co-star Adam Sandler was nominated for Best Actor and Dustin Hoffman received a tribute.
How excited are you to be here at the Gotham Awards?
Grace: I’m so excited, I’m so happy for Adam and Dustin. They did such an amazing job and I was so thankful to get to watch them in action so to see them get honored for their hard work is really cool.
How was working in New York?
Grace: It was amazing. It’s my hometown, I was born and raised here so to be sleeping in my bed every night and running around in the city during the day was so cool.
You have some really awesome father/ daughter moments with Adam. Can you speak about playing those out?
Grace: He made it so easy. He’s such a great, heart warming guy, he’s such a good dad with his daughters. That relationship reminded me a lot of me and my dad’s relationship. We’re super close. I think it was all there and Noah’s amazing writing just took it to the next level.
What was your favorite moment to play in the film?
Grace: I really loved doing the song with Adam. The first time I met Adam we rehearsed that song.
Who wrote the song?
Grace: Adam and Noah.
The 2017 IFP Gotham Awards was presented by Fiji Water, The New York Times, Landmark Vineyards and Lindt Chocolate at Cipriani Wall Street on Monday evening.
