Veronica Mars is one of the pivotal shows of the early 2000s. It was a critically acclaimed show with a dedicated fan base. Therefore, of course, many actors and actresses longed to be a part of it. The Veronica Mars actors were also talented and really helped give the show its identity. 

Even the Veronica Mars actors who guest starred added to the show’s appeal. Some of these guest stars and recurring characters were once unknown on Veronica Mars and are now household names. 

Let’s look back at some of the many now well-known actors who once appeared on the show.

Melissa Leo 

Academy Award winner Melissa Leo appears in over a hundred film and television projects. The Fighter earned her her first Oscar but she received critical acclaim and award-season recognition for many performances, including ones in Mildred Pierce, Louie, Prisoners, and Frozen River. 

Leo appeared in Veronica Mars Season 1 Episode 3, “Meet John Smith.” She plays Julia Smith, a transgender woman who reunites with her son after Veronica (Kristen Bell) helps him track her down. 

Jane Lynch 

You can’t think of Jane Lynch without thinking of Sue Sylvester from Glee. Sue is terrible but hilarious and often creates iconic moments with the main cast and the unforgettable Glee guest stars. In 2020, Lynch began hosting a revival of The Weakest Link. She has appeared in Two and a Half Men, Criminal Minds, Party Down (which is also co-created by Veronica Mars creator Rob Thomas), Mascots, and The 40-Year-Old Virgin. 

Lynch makes a brief appearance in Veronica Mars Season 1 Episode 6, “Return of the Kane.” She plays Mrs. Donaldson. a faculty member that Veronica approaches about voter rigging at a Neptune High election. 

Jessica Chastain 

As one of the most respected actresses of the last decade, Jessica Chastain has won numerous awards, including an Academy Award. Her first Academy Award happened in 2022 for her performance in The Eyes of Tammy Faye. She also received Academy Award nominations for Zero Dark Thirty and The Help. Her filmography includes A Most Violent Year, Scenes from a Marriage, George and Tammy, and It Chapter Two.

Before Chastain could deliver one of her many great performances, she appeared in Veronica Mars. It was one of her first screen roles. She appears in the 7th episode of Season 1, “The Girl Next Door” as Sarah Williams. Sarah is a neighbor friend of Veronica's who goes missing. 

Aaron Paul 

Aaron Paul became a household name for playing Jesse Pinkman on Breaking Bad. He also played the character on El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie and Better Call Saul.  Some of Paul’s screen highlights include roles in Truth Be Told, Westworld, The Path, and BoJack Horseman. He’s also had a great cameo or 20 in various projects and made plenty of guest appearances, including in Black Mirror and The Simpsons. 

Paul plays Eddie LaRoche, the main suspect in a murder and disappearance case in Veronica Mars Season 1, Episode 11, “Silence of the Lamb.” His sketchy behavior makes him a likely culprit. 

Anthony Anderson 

Anthony Anderson has created many memorable characters throughout his career. A few include Dre in black-ish, Detective Kevin Bernard in Law & Order, J.D in the Barbershop movies, and Antwon Mitchell in The Shield. He also appeared in Psych, Shameless, Beats, and Scream 4. Anderson has so many great forgotten performances as well.

He plays a gangsta rapper and former criminal named Bone Hamilton in Veronica Mars Season 1, Episode 13, “Lord of the Bling.” He hires Keith (Enrico Colantoni) to help him locate his missing daughter, who also used to be a friend of Veronica.

Adam Scott 

Adam Scott is best known for comedic roles in television shows such as Parks and Recreation, Step Brothers, The Good Place, and Party Down. He’s also the star of the AppleTV+ hit series Severance. 

Scott takes on a much more serious role in Veronica Mars. He plays Mr. Rooks, a teacher that divides Veronica and Keith in Veronica Mars Season 1, Episode 14, “Mars v. Mars. He’s accused of having an affair with a student. Veronica believes that he is innocent, but Keith can’t ignore the evidence. It’s one of the best Veronica Mars episodes. 

Leighton Meester 

Leighton Meester’s performance is the reason Blair Waldorf is such a beloved Gossip Girl character. Her film and TV credits include The Roommate, Single Parents. Life Partners, Making History, The Orville, and How I Met Your Father. 

Meester appears on multiple episodes of Veronica Mars as Carrie Bishop. Her first appearance is in “Mars v. Mars.” Her character accuses Adam Scott’s character of having a secret sexual relationship with her. The character of Carrie Bishop returns in the Veronica Mars movie, but Andrea Estella plays her. 

Tessa Thompson 

Tessa Thompson’s fame really blew up when she started playing Valkyrie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. However, she has been in many well-known movies and TV shows. Some of her most popular movies include For Colored Girls, Dear White People, Selma, the Creed franchise, Sorry to Bother You, Passing, and Men In Black: International.

Tessa Thompson may be one of the people on this list that you do remember from Veronica Mars because she was a main character all throughout Season 2. She plays Jackie Cook, the main love interest of Wallace (Percy Daggs III). The character immediately left at the end of Veronica Mars Season 2. 

Taylor Sheridan 

Taylor Sheridan is an actor, director, and screenwriter. He has written many popular movies and TV shows, including Yellowstone, Mayor of Kingstown, 1883, and 1923. He also wrote the screenplay for the films Sicario, Hell or High Water, Wind River, Without Remorse, and Those Who Wish Me Dead.

Sheridan’s few acting credits include Veronica Mars. He had a recurring role as Danny Boyd in Veronica Mars Season 2. The character first appeared in Veronica Mars Season 2 Episode 8, "Ahoy, Mateys!" His character is part of a notorious crime family in Neptune.

Michael Cera 

Michael Cera may currently best be known for playing Allan in the Barbie movie. Before being the best male in Barbieland, he appeared in Juno, Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Arrested Development, Black Mirror, and Life and Beth. 

Cera appears alongside his Arrested Development co-star Alia Shawkat in Veronica Mars. They appear in the episode “The Rapes of Graff” from Season 2. He plays Dean, a student at Hearst College who leads Veronica and Wallace’s tour of the campus

Armie Hammer 

Armie Hammer first stepped into the spotlight by playing the Winklevoss twins in The Social Network. He then appeared in such popular movies as J. Edgar, The Man from U.N.C.L.E, Call Me by Your Name, Sorry to Bother You, and Death on the Nile.

Hammer appears in Veronica Mars Season 3 Episode 3, “Wichita Linebacker.” He plays Kurt Fenstermacher, a football player who may lose his scholarship if he can’t retrieve the team’s playbook that was stolen from him.

Paul Rudd  

It’s hard to imagine anyone who hasn’t heard of Paul Rudd. He’s been in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Ant-Man. He was Josh in Clueless. Mike in Friends. He’s also been in many iconic comedies such as Wet Hot American Summer, the Anchorman movies, The 40-Year Old Virgin, I Love You Man. He has so many great movies. Rudd has appeared in TV shows such as Parks and Recreation, Party Down, iZombie, and Only Murders in the Building. 

Rudd appears in Veronica Mars Season 3 Episode 17, “Debasement Tapes.” He plays Desmond Fellows, an aging rock star who Piz (Chris Lowell) gets to interview. However, the man is a disaster. 

There are a lot of other great actors and reality stars that you may have forgotten appeared on Veronica Mars, including Paris Hilton, Lisa Rinna, and Dianna Agron. You can catch all these stars and more by rewatching Veronica Mars. It’s definitely worth another rewatch.

Stream Veronica Mars on Hulu. 

The esteemed actors of the Criminal Minds cast not only had the honor of starring on one of the longest-running and most beloved crime procedurals on TV, but also had the pleasure of sharing the screen with many guest stars who would go on to become some of the biggest stars of today. Considering how it ran for a whopping total of 15 seasons on CBS, you can only imagine how many future Hollywood heavies appeared on the series. The following are some of the most recognizable names we dug up after their roles on Criminal Minds completely slipped our minds, starting with one actor who just a few years away from becoming TV royalty.

Aaron Paul (Michael Zizzo) 

In the premiere season of Criminal Minds (when Mandy Patinkin was still on the show), a 27-year-old Aaron Paul played a young man suspected of murder due to his involvement with a local group of Satanists who were framed by the high school student who turned out to be the real killer. In 2008, the actor played crystal meth dealer and manufacturer Jesse Pinkman on AMC’s Breaking Bad, for which he earned three Emmy Awards and a newfound reputation as a leading man on both the small screen and the big screen. 

Dean Norris (Det. John Barton) 

Speaking of Breaking Bad cast members, Dean Norris is still known best to this day for his role as Hank Schrader - devoted DEA agent and unsuspecting brother-in-law of notorious drug lord Walter White (Bryan Cranston) - on the acclaimed drama. He had actually already been cast on the show when he was temporarily demoted to police detective for a 2010 episode of Criminal Minds, on which his character helps the crew locate the last victim of a serial killer with clues he strangely left after taking his own life.

Walton Goggins (John Cooley)

Speaking of strange criminals, Walton Goggins received his sole Emmy nomination (so far) for playing Boyd Crowder on FX’s Justified, which would lead to an increasingly esteemed film career that includes a villainous role in the Marvel movies (namely 2018 Ant-Man and the Wasp) and becoming a frequent player in Quentin Tarantino’s recent filmography. In between his stint on The Shield and joining the Justified cast, the actor played a longtime friend of Emily Prentiss (Paget Brewster) who almost falls prey to a murderous priest (Carmen Argenziano) in a creepy Criminal Minds episode from Season 4.

Sterling K. Brown (Fitz) 

Sterling K. Brown also became a Marvel movie star in 2018 after appearing in Black Panther, following his Emmy-winning turns on both FX’s American Crime Story: The People vs. O.J. Simpson as Christopher Darden and NBC’s This Is Us cast as Randall Pearson. Before all of that, in 2015, the St. Louis native appeared as a security guard for the United States embassy in Barbados in a Season 10 episode of Criminal Minds that served as back door pilot for the series’ short-lived spin-off Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders.

Mike Colter (Colin Bramwell)

Mike Colter would become a Marvel TV show star in 2015 after appearing on Netflix’s Jessica Jones as the indestructible Luke Cage before getting his own self-title spin-off and, then, reprising the role on the streaming platform’s crossover series, The Defenders. Before that short-lived, but much-loved, phenomenon blew up his career, the Evil cast member played a former Special Forces sniper turned serial killer hired by his former colleague to kill his ex-wife on Season 9 of Criminal Minds.

Evan Peters (Charlie Hillridge) 

Someone who is also known for both Marvel movies (he was Quicksilver in the X-Men movies) and Marvel TV shows (he sort of reprised the Quicksilver role when he joined the WandaVision cast) is Evan Peters, who would initially acquire household name status as a series regular on American Horror Story since 2011. About a year before that creepy anthology premiered, the actor guest starred on Criminal Minds’ sixth season as a young man who was abducted as an 8-year-old by married murderers who would later make him their reluctant accomplice.

Finn Wittrock (Harvey Morell) 

On the other side of that coin, Harvey Morell was the willful accomplice to a killer named Caleb Rossmore (Jeff Newburg), with whom he shared an obsession with the Zodiac Killer, on a Season 7 episode of Criminal Minds. Playing that young killer was fellow recurring American Horror Story cast member Finn Wittrock, who will also add superhero TV shows to his resume when he plays Guy Gardner - a member of the Green Lantern Corps - on HBO Max’s upcoming original series based on the cosmic DC comic book.

David Mazouz (Ryan Hall) 

Speaking of DC TV shows, in 2014, David Mazouz had the honor of joining the Gotham cast as a young Bruce Wayne dealing with the recent murder of his parents for five seasons. Years before the Batman prequel series premiered, the actor also appeared on a Season 7 of Criminal Minds as a boy whose battle with leukemia sends his boxing champ father (Shawn Hatosy) into a murderous rage.

Cameron Monaghan (Jeffrey Charles) 

David Mazouz’s Gotham co-star Cameron Monaghan (who plays a particularly clownish criminal named Jerome Valeska) is also famous for playing Ian Gallagher on the Shameless cast for 11 seasons. You could say that he had some decent preparation for the former, more villainous (and Joker-esque) role when he landed a guest spot on Criminal Minds’ sophomore run as a young boy abandoned by his mother who takes his anger out on three people by bludgeoning them to death.

Elle Fanning (Tracy Belle) 

Cameron Monaghan’s Jeffrey Charles almost claimed a fourth victim - a little girl named Tracy Belle, whom he lures out into the woods before Mandy Patinkin’s Jason Gideon saves her at, essentially, the last minute. Tracy Belle was played on Criminal Minds by Elle Fanning, who - like her older sister, Dakota - would grow up to become one of the most sought after actresses of her generation, known for movies like Super 8 from 2011 and for leading Hulu’s The Great cast as Catherine the Great.

Jessie T. Usher (Daniel)

If we could switch gears for just a moment back to stars of superhero TV shows, Jessie T. Usher is known today as Samuel L. Jackson’s son in Tim Story’s 2019 Shaft movie and Will Smith’s son in the 2016 sequel Independence Day: Resurgence, but especially from Amazon Prime’s The Boys cast as A-Train. Before he had a starring role in anything, he had a guest spot on Criminal Minds’ two-part Season 4 finale in which the BAU investigates a series of murder that leads to make a shocking discovery at a pig farm in Canada.

Ariel Winter (Katie)

Although best known as Alex Dunphy on the Modern Family cast, Ariel Winter also has experience playing a superhero, having voiced a later incarnation of Robin named Carrie Kelley in one of the best DC animated movies, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, in 2012 and 2013. Years before the ABC sitcom made her a star, Winter was on Criminal Minds Season 3 as a young girl abducted and left for dead by her own aunt (Suzanne Cryer) who blamed her niece for ruining her marriage to her pedophile husband (Emmanuel Xuereb).

Melissa Leo (Georgia Davis)

Academy Award winner Melissa Leo (for the 2011 sports biopic The Fighter) would actually make her superhero movies debut in 2021 with the Netflix original action comedy Thunder Force. In Criminal Minds two-part Season 2 finale, the actress played a small town sheriff whose abduction leads to the BAU’s first encounter with prolific serial killer Frank Breitkopft, played by Keith Carradine.

Julia Butters (Gabby) 

Another notable abduction victim from Criminal Minds is the title character of “Gabby,” the 16th episode of the series’ ninth season, which was also the acting debut of then-5-year-old Julia Butters. The starlet would then land a recurring spot on the Transparent cast, a starring role on CBS’s American Housewife, and a memorable, scene-stealing role in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood as Rick Dalton’s precocious Lancer co-star. 

Sydney Sweeney (Dani Forester)

Fellow Once Upon a Time in Hollywood cast member Sydney Sweeney also made one of her earliest appearances on Criminal Minds as a young girl murdered along with her brother and mother by a serial killer who specializes in taking out whole families in Season 5. She would later achieve acclaim after joining the Handmaid’s Tale cast as Eden Spencer, the White Lotus cast as Olivia Mossbacher, and on HBO’s Euphoria cast as Cassie Howard, to name just a few notable roles. 

Anton Yelchin (Nathan Harris)

In lieu of the many notable roles that prove Anton Yelchin as one of the most exceptional talents of his time (Green Room, Charlie Bartlett, J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek movies, etc.), he gave one criminally underrated performance on Criminal Minds’ second season as a teen with sexually sadistic tendencies. Sadly, Yelchin passed away in 2016 at the age of 27 when his Jeep Cherokee, which appeared to be in park but was really in neutral, rolled backward and pinned him against the security fence outside his Los Angeles home.

People who work in law enforcement likely rarely forget the faces of anyone they investigate, swore to protect, or failed to save. However, if you are guilty of forgetting any of these Criminal Minds characters and the now famous actors who played them,  you are forgiven.

In 2014's The Equalizer, Denzel Washington was surrounded by a very talented ensemble cast - and it looks like some of those who didn't wind up in the ground will be coming back for round two. The upcoming sequel is now in full development, and new reports are saying that Melissa Leo and Bill Pullman will be back to reprise their roles as Susan and Brian Plummer.

With cameras getting ready to start rolling on The Equalizer in a couple of weeks, the production is putting the various pieces of its cast together, and that, according to Deadline, includes reuniting two incredibly talented actors. Antoine Fuqua is back in the director's chair for the sequel, and while the plot of the movie is currently unknown, we do know that the writer of the first movie, Richard Wenk, has been working on drafts.

In the first Equalizer, audiences were introduced to Denzel Washington's Robert McCall, a retired CIA black ops operative who has the good quality of having a hard time ignoring calls for help. Over the course of the movie, we see that Susan and Brian Plummer wind up being a part of both parts of McCall's life. Not only were they previously CIA operatives themselves, but they're also more than happy to help their old friend collect information on dangerous Russian mob bosses so that he can complete his personal mission.

Since her Oscar-winning performance in David O. Russell's The Fighter, Melissa Leo has been starring in an endless stream of interesting projects, and The Equalizer 2 will actually be her third time working with Denzel Washington (after both the first Equalizer and Robert Zemeckis' Flight). Recently she's been a part of the Jim Carrey-produced television series I'm Dying Up Here, and also has a number of small independent projects in the works.

Bill Pullman is also having a nice busy year with smaller projects, having spent the last few summers in films like the unfortunate Independence: Day Resurgence and American Ultra. Like Leo, he is also moved to the small screen to be on the new show The Sinner, which features Jessica Biel in the lead role, but he is also featured alongside Steve Carell and Emma Stone in the upcoming historical comedy Battle of the Sexes.

The Equalizer made a shocking amount of money when it came out in 2014 - pulling in nearly $200 million worldwide - but the film is currently on track to be celebrating its fourth birthday with the release of The Equalizer 2. Sony Pictures has announced that the thriller will be in theaters everywhere on September 14, 2018 - and you can be sure that we will have all of the latest news and updates about the project for you here on CinemaBlend.

Showtime's new series, I'm Dying Up Here, is attempting to pull the curtain back on the Los Angeles comedy scene of the 1970s. While viewers will certainly get an insider's look at what it was like to try to hit the big time in stand-up back then, the show might make more of an impact if we could really connect with the characters we follow.

I'm Dying Up Here, which comes from creator David Flebotte (Desperate Housewives, Masters of Sex) and executive producer Jim Carrey, and is based on the William Knoedelseder book of the same name, looks into the lives of a group of up and coming comedians trying to make it in L.A. in the early '70s while dealing with all the personal and professional issues involved with trying to establish themselves. The comedians congregate nightly at Goldie's, the eponymous club run by star-maker Goldie Herschlag (Melissa Leo), who pushes the talent to find their true voices before she lets them into the main room and gives them their own headlining show.

The series follows Cassie (Ari Graynor), who's still trying to find her sweet spot on stage, L.A. newcomers Ron (Clark Duke) and Eddie (Michael Angarano), newbie Adam (RJ Cyler), who feels forced to take what must be one of the ickiest day jobs ever created, and veteran stand-ups who still haven't hit the big time Ralph (Erik Griffin), Bill (Andrew Santino), Edgar (Al Madrigal) and Sully (Stephen Guarino).

When one of their own comes closer to hitting the big time when he gains a spot on The Tonight Show and actually gets to sit down and talk to Johnny Carson after his set...well, I'd like to say that madness ensues, or tensions rise, or...anything, really. But, the truth is that this big event, the comedians watching someone they've toiled with in the club getting a national spotlight, doesn't really set the story off the way it should. Sure, some of the other comics are jealous, but they admit it and move on. Which a) seems like behavior that's way more mature than this group should be able to manage and b) shuts down what could be a major font of drama.

Instead, the story supposedly really gets moving once tragedy befalls one of the comics. Again, though, while we get to see them bond over what happened and try to find a way to laugh through the pain, and watch Cassie and Goldie deal with the aftermath in more direct ways, the narrative of I'm Dying Up Here still doesn't offer up any real dramatic payoff. The only thing that really comes from this tragedy is that Cassie, in the final moments of the episode, finally seems to really find her way on stage. But, even that victory feels hollow, and it's mostly because of another issue I had with I'm Dying Up Here.

Obviously, even in a career where you're determined to make people laugh, not every aspect of that job is going to bring the comedy. But, when we see the comedians of I'm Dying Up Here on stage, it makes total sense that when the audience is laughing, we should be laughing at home, as well. Unfortunately, that didn't happen once for me with anything any of the comics said while they were performing in the show. So, when Cassie has her big moment on stage at the end of the premiere, I understood what it meant for the character, but because the material wasn't actually funny, I didn't really care that she was having a breakthrough.

I found it hard, in general, to care about what the characters were going through in this show, and I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that they don't stand out much. By the end of the episode, even though Cassie was basically the lead, I couldn't have told you what her name was, or the names of any of the other characters, with the exception of Goldie (and that's mostly because her name is on the club they work at). The basic personality of all the comics is trying-really-hard-to-become-a-famous-comedian, which just isn't enough to make the ensemble worth watching on a regular basis. I would rather the show focus on one or two characters with really well defined personalities and personal struggles, than a large group that I can only distinguish by race/gender/bad '70s hairstyles.

A good way to describe what I've seen of I'm Dying Up Here would be dour. And while I know that the opening deals with some pretty heavy issues, at least some of the performances should have helped to lighten the load, but they don't. Speaking of performances, the actors all do well with what they're given, with the real standout being Leo's work as Goldie; though it's almost unfair to pick her out of the cast since she's the only one who gets a real tour-de-force scene in the pilot.

I'm Dying Up Here debuts on Showtime, Sunday June 4 at 10 p.m. ET/PT.

Spoilers for Season 1 of Wayward Pines are below.

Broadcast networks aren’t often places where you’ll find shows that are bafflingly weird and wacky, as they’re less likely to take chances on crazier-than-normal series. But Fox stumbled upon a somewhat surprising hit last summer when it unleashed Wayward Pines on audiences, and even though the show ended in a way that made it seem like it would move in a completely new direction with an almost completely new cast, it looks like plenty of cast members will be returning for Season 2, including Empire’s Terrence Howard.

Along with Howard returning as Sheriff Arnold Pope, Wayward Pines is also bringing back major players Carla Gugino as Kate Hewson/Ballinger, Hope Davis as Megan Fisher, Melissa Leo as Nurse Pam, Toby Jones as David Pilcher, Shannyn Sossamon as Theresa Burke and Charlie Tahan as son Ben Burke. As well, we’ll get to see more from Tim Griffin’s Secret Service agent Adam Hassler and Tom Stevens’ Class One leader Jason Higgins, according to Deadline. That’s basically everyone beyond Matt Dillon’s Ethan Burke and Juliette Lewis’ Beverly Brown.

Not a lot of information about Season 2 has come out beyond the new casting additions of Jason Patric and Djimon Hounsou, but we know that things will kick off not long after the bonkers Season 1 ending. Patric comes in as new Wayward Pines resident Dr. Theo Yedlin, who wakes up and finds himself in the middle of a rebellion between the town’s residents and the First Generation of students, and he has to figure out what is going on and how to keep the human race from going extinct.

That’s all fine and dandy, but we want to know how the hell all of these characters are coming back to the show when some of them are deader than dead. Sheriff Pope got shot through the head by Ethan in an early episode and was soon taken outside the town’s fence by some of the monstrous abbies, although he did return in a flashback a few episodes later, and that’s likely how he’ll show up here. The same thing will presumably happen for Dr. Pilcher, who was killed by his sister Pam during the rebellion in the finale. Considering he was the brain behind this entire affair, he’s definitely got more story to tell.

As for everyone else, we last saw Ben being woken from cryostasis by his former school chum Amy into a Wayward Pines that had largely returned to its former ways, despite everything Ethan & Co. attempted to do in Season 1. Theresa, Kate, Hope and Pam were presumably frozen, while Agent Hassler was assumed dead or serverely injured after everyone watched his video transmission from the San Francisco recon trek, which revealed that there was no one left in the coastal city.

Given how many twists and turns were peppered throughout Season 1, I can’t imagine that creator Chad Hodge and executive producer M. Night Shyamalan won’t have an even bigger number of them hitting Season 2. Find out when it premieres on Fox on Wednesday, May 25.

Melissa Leo and Denzel Washington were only on screen together for a very brief time when they both starred in Robert Zemeckis' 2012 drama Flight, but hopefully when they reunite in the upcoming adaptation of the television series The Equalizer they'll actually get more than a handful of scenes. Deadline is reporting that the Oscar winning actress has signed on for the project and will play a former handler of Washington's character back when he worked as a counter-terrorism operative. The film is being directed by Antoine Fuqua, with whom Leo just worked on Olympus Has Fallen.

Washington will star in the movie as a man named McCalll, a retired covert operative who gets into the business of helping people in helpless situations. The site says that Leo's character will provide him with "intelligence about who he is facing when he runs up against a new adversary." As reported earlier this month, said adversary will be played by New Zealand actor Marton Csokas. There has also bee talk about Chloe Moretz playing a teen prostitute in the film, similar to Jodie Foster's role in Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver.

The project was in headlines a lot over the last couple months as it searched for a director. At the start it looked as though the film would be directed by Drive's Nicolas Winding Refn, but he ended up walking away. Then it was Rise of the Planet of the Ape's Rupert Wyatt who entered talks and then dropped out. Fuqua, who directed Washington to an Oscar in 2001's Training Day, came aboard in late March.

Earlier this week Leo also signed on for the one-season series Wayward Pines, which will co-star Matt Dillon. She will likely next be seen along with Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhall in the September drama Prisoners.

An actress as talented as Melissa Leo can't be confined to just one medium or genre. Her recent credits include thrillers Oblivion and Olympus Has Fallen, not to mention, The Fighter, which won her an Oscar. While on the small screen, she was tackling drama with HBO's Treme and Mildred Pierce and comedy with a small but memorable role in FX's Louie. She has a number of feature roles coming up, but it looks like the Oscar winner also set to return to television as she's been cast in one of Fox's "event series," Wayward Pines.

Are we calling these "event series" miniseries? From the way they're described, they run a bit longer than your typical miniseries, but the story is pre-set to a specific amount of episodes and a one-season run. Fox is going with "event series" to describe these ventures, of which they have numerous, including a 10-episode small screen adaptation of Blake Crouch's novel Wayward Pines, which is being adapted by Chad Hodge and M. Night Shyamalan. THR says Melissa Leo has signed on to join Matt Dillon in Wayward Pines. Dillon is set to play Ethan Burke in the thriller, which is said to be in the vein of Twin Peaks. Burke is a Secret Service agent who shows up in Wayward Pins, Idaho, in search of two missing federal agents. The investigation proves to be trickier than he expected. "Each step closer to the truth takes Ethan further from the life he knew, from the husband and father he was, until he must face the terrifying reality that he may never get out of Wayward Pines alive."

Leo has been cast to play Nurse Pam, who's described as intense and unpredictable. While she may be a nurse, she has a dark side and she may pose a threat to Burke, whom she's caring for when he wakes up in the town hospital. The two characters eventually go on to be "deadly rivals."

I sort of love the idea of Leo in a villainous role, but really, it doesn't matter who she's playing. She's a great bit of casting for any project. Between Leo and Dillon, this event series' cast is shaping up to be a great one. The series is expected to debut on Fox next year.

In 2011, writer-director David M. Rosenthal won notice at the Tribeca Film Festival with his music-fueled feature Janie Jones, which starred Abigail Breslin and Alessandro Nivola in an unconventional family drama. This year he's returning to the fast-approaching fest with A Single Shot. Matthew F. Jones adapts his own crime novel into a seemingly chilling thriller that stars Sam Rockwell as a desperate man.

Last spring when Rockwell signed on to play John Moon, a role Michael Fassbender was formerly slated to play. Moon is an impoverished poacher whose hunting skills keep him in trouble but free from starvation. However, hunting off-season can be dangerous for reasons beyond crossing paths with forest rangers. With the titular single shot, Moon kicks off a chain of events that bring more heat on his tail than he'd ever imagined.

A Single Shot boasts an incredible supporting cast that includes Jeffrey Wright, Jason Isaacs, Academy Award nominee William H. Macy, and Academy Award winner Melissa Leo. In short, this is an indie to watch out for.

I'll confess. Right now, Katey and I are strategizing which of the many enticing titles we'll be seeing at this year's Tribeca Film Festival. With a cast like this one, A Single Shot was on my shortlist of should-sees. But this trailer has rocketing near the top of my must-sees. How does the sorrow-filled voiceover of an unseen woman factor into this narrative? What has John Moon done and what will he have to face? What's the deal with the money he's shouting about? Inquiring minds need to know!

A Single Shot will make its North American premiere on April 26th.

Hugh Jackman is no longer alone in the cast up the upcoming thriller Prisoners. Reports have surfaced online saying that Melissa Leo, who won an Academy Award for her performance in the David O. Russell 2010 film <="">, has signed on for the film, which is being directed by Denis Villeneuve.

Variety says that production on the film is looking to start early next year, once Jackman is done shooting The Wolverine down in Australia, and Alcon Entertainment is looking to release the film in association with Warner Bros. sometime in the fall of 2013. The story follows a carpenter (Jackman) who learns that his young daughter and best friend have been kidnapped. When the police are no use, he decides to take the law into his own hands and get justice vigilante style. The only thing standing in his way is the “big-city detective” who is working the case. The trade doesn’t say what role Leo will play in the movie.

The script was written by Aaron Guzikowki, who wrote the Mark Wahlberg action film Contraband, and has been in the works for a couple years now. Before Villeneuve signed on, the project was going to be headed up by Antoine Fuqua. Villeneuve, a Canadian filmmaker, made his mark in 2010 with the mystery film Incendies.

Since winning her Oscar Leo has been plenty busy. She is currently in the process of filming both Lee Daniel’s The Butler (in which she plays Mamie Eisenhower) and Olympus Has Fallen (in which she’ll play the United States Secretary of Defense). She will next be seen in Robert Zemeckis’ Flight, which is due out on November 2nd.

After what's seemed like months of run-arounds and rumors and shortlists and wishful thinking, we finally have what looks like a frontrunner to play Finnick in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire…. and it's probably not who you're hoping. Not to say anything against Sam Claflin, who Variety reports is the choice to play Finnick in the sequel, but you probably don't know who he is, even if you caught his performances as very similarly handsome young men in Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End and this year's Snow White and the Huntsman. Claflin has the good-looking side of Finnick nailed, but as for the unbridled charisma and sexual appeal… well, if it's there, he hasn't managed to show it onscreen just yet.

Luckily there are two more actors you're guaranteed to recognize who also may get on board-- Melissa Leo is reportedly the frontrunner to play Finnick's former mentor Mags, while Tony Shalhoub could play Beetee, the electrically-ingenious former tribute who is paired up with Wiress, the character Amanda Plummer signed on to play just hours ago. As with Wiress, it's hard to explain how all these characters fit into the story of Catching Fire without spoiling too much, but all of them interact with our heroine Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence), and eventually become her allies in both surviving the Quarter Quell and the tentative steps she takes toward a rebellion that will transform the entire nation of Panem.

Mags is a slightly bigger part than Wiress or Beetee, which makes it a meaty one for Oscar-winner Leo, but the character is also written as incredibly old, practically decrepit, with no teeth and no ability to survive any sort of physical challenge. Leo is 51, and far younger than I ever imagined the character to be; will they be aging her up with makeup, or simply making this version of Mags younger for the sake of casting someone as prominent as Leo?

Because these actors are just on a reported shortlist, and Lionsgate has been incredibly tight with casting announcements, we likely won't hear anything official for a while. In the meantime I'll be grateful that they at least don't seem to be looking at Alex Pettyfer for Finnick anymore, but also wondering what it is everyone keeps seeing in Sam Claflin. Is he the next star they're just going to force up on us whether we like him or not-- a la Orlando Bloom-- or is there some real appeal hidden in there that he hasn't shown off yet?

After her outstanding performance in The Fighter, I feel like I should have been more prepared for Melissa Leo's excellent guest spot in last week's episode of Louis C.K.'s FX comedy series Louie, and yet, there I was, once again blown away by the actress, particularly in the scene between her character and Louie, which involved her insistence that he reciprocate a certain oral act she'd very recently bestowed upon him. Beyond her ability to recite a series of well written lines with a natural ease was just how well her performance fit into the tone of the show. Some TV guest stars stand out to the point of being distracting, but Leo performed as though she were built right into the show. And she was funny, though I don't know that her sense of humor will come in handy for the role she's in talks to play for Antoine Fuqua's Olympus Has Fallen.

Antoine Fuqua's White House thriller seems to be neck and neck with Roland Emmerich's similarly set movie White House Down. Both films are set to begin production this summer and both involve attacks on the White House. Just yesterday, we shared the news that James Woods was joining Channing Tatum and Jamie Foxx in White House Down. And today comes word from the Hollywood Reporter that Melissa Leo has entered into negotiations to join Fuqua's Olympus has Fallen. Rick Yune has also joined the cast, which already includes Gerard Butler, Aaron Eckhart, Angela Bassett, Cole Hauser and Radha Mitchell.

Yune is set to play "a North Korean posing as a South Korean ministerial aide who is described as a sociopathic monster." Yune is no stranger to villainous roles. Among his feature credits, he played Johnny Tran in The Fast and the Furious and Zao in Die Another Day.

Meanwhile, the role Leo is in talks for sounds like a spoiler. Should her deal go through, she'll play "a tough secretary of Defense who cracks when tortured." Sounds like an interesting role for Leo to tackle. Hopefully the deal goes through, not only because she'll be a great addition to the cast, but also because the film is set to go into production this week.

Anybody who saw Duncan Jones's moody sci-fi film Moon knows that Sam Rockwell is more than capable of being the leading man in a film. But most people who know Rockwell's work know him from supporting roles, whether in Cowboys & Aliens or Iron Man 2 recently or in The Green Mile and Galaxy Quest much earlier in his career. Rockwell is one of those character actors you're always grateful to see, but it's hard not to root for him to get into the spotlight once in a while-- just to remind us exactly how talented he is.

Happily for his fans, Rockwell isn't opposed to starring roles from time to time, and he's taking on one next with A Single Shot, a thriller that includes a killer supporting cast to back him up. According to Deadline, William H. Macy, Jeffrey Wright, Jason Isaacs and Melissa Leo are among the actors who have joined the production, in which Rockwell stars as a poacher who winds up on the run from some killers with a suitcase full of cash in hand (you know, like happens to all of us). David M. Rosenthal, who previously made the indie Janie Jones is directing the adaptation of Matthew F. Jones's novel.

With indie productions you never quite know when you'll see the finished film, but with a cast like this it's hard to imagine they'll keep it hidden from us too long. Who knows how that many people will fit into the story, but the plot seems complicated enough that there will be plenty of room. let us know in the comments if you're a Sam Rockwell fan, and if you're looking forward to him finally getting his proper consideration as a leading man.

When it was announced earlier this month that Robert Zemeckis had committed himself to making Flight, his first live-action film in 11 years, I noted that the director would have to move quickly with pre-production. After all, the movie is scheduled to begin filming next month and at the time of the announcement the only confirmed cast member was Denzel Washington. In the three weeks since then, however, the movie has added Kelly Reilly, Bruce Greenwood, Don Cheadle, John Goodman and Brian Geraghty. Not too shabby, right? Well they're not done yet.

THR reports that Oscar winner Melissa Leo and James Badge Dale are now both in talks to join the Zemeckis drama. In the movie Washington stars as Whip a pilot who manages to save 98 people when he's able to land his damaged plane safely. But while he's treated as a hero at first, Whip finds himself under scrutiny when its revealed that he is an alcoholic and a drug addict. Leo will be playing an investigator who is trying to expose Whip's personal problems while Dale will play a "gaunt dying cancer patient" (it's not explained how his character fits into the plot). The film is based on an original script by Real Steel scribe John Gatins and is being produced by Walter Parkes and Laurie MacDonald.

Anyone else feel like James Badge Dale is popping up everywhere these days? The actor has been linked to both World War Z and The Lone Ranger and also plays a part in Joe Carnahan's The Grey and David M. Rosenthal's A Single Shot. I'd complain, but Dale is a talented actor and it's good to see him get more work.

It’s been a good month for 1960’s singers found dead under mysterious circumstances. First, civil rights pioneer and “A Change Is Gonna Come” singer Sam Cooke finally saw real progress made on his biopic, and now Bobby Fuller is getting a film which bisects his strange undoing with the Manson family. Yes, the latter project is just as strange, if not stranger, than it sounds, but with most of the world already having forgotten Fuller existed, something tells me the musician wouldn’t be too disappointed with getting his name back up in lights.

According to Deadline, Adam Davenport has joined author John Kaye in adapting his own novel entitled The Dead Circus. The former will also direct the project, which outlines the Bobby Fuller Four lead singer’s death at the age of twenty-three, just days after his hit “I Fought The Law” raced up the charts. The crime was something of a scandal when it first occurred and questions still abound. He was found in his car covered with gasoline. Some thought it was an accident, others suicide and one of his bandmates even pointed the finger at the Manson family. Dead Circus supposes the Manson family was at least loosely involved in the crime. Melissa Leo will play an associate of the famous psychopath who attempted to start a race war in the late 1960s. James Marsden will play the killer himself and Michael C Hall is also on board as Fuller’s shady manager.

If all goes well, Dead Circus will begin principal photography this summer. Expect to see it sometime during the middle of next year.

Though only one of them walked away with a golden statue last night, Melissa Leo and Jesse Eisenberg have to be two of the hottest names going around Hollywood right now. Leo, of course, just won the Oscar for her portrayal as an overbearing mother in David O. Russell's The Fighter and Eisenberg stunned audiences with his performance as Mark Zuckerberg in David Fincher's The Social Network. But now we have a story that is full of wonderful Academy synergy.

Vulture is reporting from an unnamed source that both actors and Tracy Morgan have signed on to star in Predisposed. Based on a short film by Philip Dorling and Ron Nyswaner made in 2009 with Leo, the comedy is about a drug-addicted mother and her and is set on the day that she will be going to rehab and that he will be interviewing for Julliard. In another storyline, Morgan will play a drug-dealer named Sprinkles (yes, Sprinkles) who sparks a rivalry with another drug-dealer who has yet to be cast. Dorling directed the original short, but Nyswaner will be helming this project. The film is scheduled to start production this summer.

While Tracy Morgan's movie record does leave me a bit uneasy, I'm compelled to build a time machine just so that I can see Leo and Eisenberg square off sooner than later. Both are immensely talented and I can only imagine how great it will be to see them play off of each other. Could be pure movie magic.

As part of his ongoing battle against traditional media and the customary ways to market movies, Kevin Smith auctioned off the right to premiere the next poster for his new film Red State to the site that made the largest donation to the charity THARCE-Gulu, which benefits former child soldiers recuperating in Northern Uganda. The winning bidder was the film site Ma's Meatloaf, and they premiered the poster that you can see in smaller form below. It features Melissa Leo, who plays one of the religious fundamentalist crazies in Red State and is also tearing up the awards circuit for her performance in The Fighter, clutching a Bible in a way that's scary without even knowing anything else about the movie.

And as much as I'm annoyed with a lot of Smith's grandstanding over the way he's promoting Red State, he's asking people to include the information on the charity benefited here, and I can't really argue with that. THARCE-Gulu is a charity founded by Eliza Dushku, and as mentioned above, provides housing and therapy for former children soldiers in northern Uganda, You can donate money to the cause and learn more about THARCE-Gulu here.

OK, on to the poster, and the teaser trailer below that in case you missed it the first time around. Learn much more about Red State once we--hopefully!-- catch it at the Sundance premiere next month.

Over the pat few years, Mark Wahlberg has done everything in his power to get the story of boxer Micky Ward on screen. Despite being a terrific underdog story with some incredible characters and truly deep relationships, he had to truly fight (not literally) to get it made. Now, not only is The Fighter set to be released in theaters nationwide, but it’s garnering some major Oscar buzz.

Late last month I attended the press conference for the film where stars Wahlberg, Christian Bale, Melissa Leo, and Amy Adams, as well as director David O. Russell, talked about crafting the film Over the course of the conference the group talked about spending time with the Ward family in Lowell, Massachusetts, Bale’s impressive transformation and mastering the Boston dialect. Read on below.

Mr. Dickie Eklund seems like someone who would take a very active interest in the filming of this movie. Was it at any point necessary to do Eklund Management?

Christian Bale: Can I answer that a little bit? There were a couple of times I had to physically restrain Dickie from going and landing one right on David [O. Russell]. We had some initial interesting times when we were rehearsing in Mark’s house, where Mark very nicely put up Micky and Dickie, and actually they lived at his house for some time. And there were some script changes going on, and Dickie wasn’t initially totally understanding that sometimes in putting a whole life into two hours, a little bit of license has to be taken and mixing things up. He wanted everything initially to be absolutely how it was portrayed. And if it wasn’t, there was a couple of times he would say, “I’m going to go and I’m going to get him,” and you know, and that’s a serious thing coming from a pro boxer. So there’s a couple of times I’d be going, “No, no, no.” And then we’d talk and David would talk with him and I’m not sure if you ever had to stop him from coming and laying one on me, you know? That could well have happened as well. But it was interesting. It was an interesting time. But he actually came around, and you know, seemed to really understand it. And after we showed him the movie he didn’t punch any of us. And I talk to him almost daily. You know, so I think that’s a great achievement, to make the story of someone’s life and do that with. Anyway, sorry, David, that was more your question.

David O. Russell: What he said.

This question is for Christian.

CB: David will answer that one [laughs]

How you lose weight. It seems like you’ve done this many times, this rapid extreme weight loss. What is your regimen for it, and when you do it, does it help put you in that sort of edgy, jittery place that you needed to be to play Dickie?

CB: No, I felt so good and calm, and with playing Dickie, and I was just running like crazy. I could just run for hours on end and I felt really healthy, you know. I don’t know. Usually I always say, “Oh, I do a lot of coke whenever I lose weight.” I’m not sure if it’s so funny for this movie, to say that [laughs]. But there’s not a whole lot of secrets to it. But one really good thing is to have this particular water, Aqua Hydrate [laughs] – Mark?

Mark Wahlberg: Finally, some honesty.

CB: I found that helps to lose weight, immensely. And run a lot. I’ll be getting cash from you later, Mark, right?

Christian, what is your take on Dickie and do you think he is ultimately a good influence for his brother?

CB: I think that he was an absolute source of inspiration initially. And then I think he probably became an absolute confusion for his younger brother, because they’re – it’s an immensely loyal family and they’re immensely loyal brothers. But you know, as you see in the movie, it took Charlene to convince Micky that it wasn’t him abandoning his family to be able to remove himself for a little while, in order to change the dynamics. And then once that had been recognized and once Dickie, who also I think had had immense pressure from the family in the expectations they had of him at such a young age, and that through his success, the whole family would have success. And really, I think very much that’s a part as well of what was drawing him to self-destruction. Once Dickie was able to initiate and say, it’s no longer his time, it’s Micky’s time now, and then convince the rest of the family of that, which took some doing, then after that, Dickie was no end of help for Micky. I don’t think that it could have happened without the one or the other. You know, this movie wouldn’t exist without that beautiful relationship between the two brothers.

I want to talk about the Boston accent, which ruins so many films. Everybody up there nailed it. Specifically for Christian and Mark - Christian, it seems you went the furthest to get it, with your regular accent. How difficult was that? What kind of coaching? Did Mark help? And for Mark, I imagine you’ve had that accent drummed out of you over the years. What’s it like trying to get it back?

MW: It’s a lot harder to get rid of it than it was to get it back. Every time I would leave Boston, it would appear that it’d be like nails on a chalkboard for people hearing that accent. And I’ve been in other movies that took place in and around that area, and the accents were god-awful. And it’s almost to the point where it made it seemed like we were doing bad accents, the people who were actually from that area. But no – everybody did a fantastic job and didn’t push it too far, even though you – you think these characters are so extreme and so broad. But they’re actually a toned down version of these larger than life characters, so –

CB: Mark was a great deal of help, in just – he would never say anything but he’d just get a certain look on his face when you said something, that you just knew that wasn’t it. You know. But also, I approached Dickie’s accent as – I mean, Dickie’s got his own thing goin’ on, you know. He’s got – he calls it Dickinese, himself. And I think everyone will agree that I really had to tone down his natural rhythm and voice because I understand him completely now because my ears are in with it. But if I’d done it exactly like Dickie, we would have needed subtitles, probably.

Mark, the boxing scenes in this film – it’s very realistic, very convincing. And as boxers, as I guess they need confidence to compete and win. At what point did you gain that confidence to pull off these fight scenes in the film. And Amy, you did a great job in one of the fight scene in the film, veryconvincing fighting with the sisters, so tell us about that.

MW: Well, I mean, you know, the movie was a go and then it fell apart and we just – I just continued to train. So after four and a half, well, three and a half years, I felt confident enough to go in there and be believable as a boxer who could possibly win the welterweight title. And you know, had somebody said, “Hey, you’ve got to train four and a half years to make this movie,” I would have said, “Absolutely not.” But the fact that I was just continuing to do it and never wanted to stop because I figured if I stopped and I would be giving up on the movie, and I never wanted to do that. So for me it was well worth putting in the work. It just – you know, there were times obviously when it was harder and more difficult to get out of bed, and especially while making another film and training for a film that may or may not happen. But you know, it was certainly worth it in the end. Amy?

Amy Adams: Well, when I got the role, David informed me that I looked like a girl who couldn’t punch, which made me want to punch him. So I actually took just a couple boxing lessons, and that was fun, with Mark’s trainer, who was fantastic. And then we just did some fight choreography. I think it was about not being afraid of hurting anybody. That was my biggest concern. I didn’t want to hurt the girl that I was fighting with. I wasn’t afraid of getting hurt myself. When I was younger, my sister thought it was funny to pretend to fight, my mom was concerned about my teeth falling out because they were loose for a long time. And she knocked out my teeth. So I’ve always been a little afraid of fake punches. But it was fun. I had a good time.

Continuing with that. Amy, you aren’t the kind of girl who looks like she can punch. David, can you talk about why you chose to cast her? And also, Melissa, both of you went through such incredible transformations…

CB: Do you want to punch right now? [laughs]

AA: Come on. Let’s do it. Let’s go.

But you both did amazing jobs, and it was a transformative performance on both of your parts. So David, can you talk about casting both of your female leads, and also if you can comment on your preparation for the roles?

DOR: I had been speaking to Amy. We would have lunch every couple of years and talked about wanting to work together. And I knew that she was eager to break type for herself, you know, and it – in the sense that she had played mostly very sunny women. And she was very eager to play someone against type, and I knew she was gonna kill it. You know, and just from talking to her, I knew that she was really ready to step up. And there’s nothing better a director can have than somebody who’s very eager, like all these people were. Mark recommended Melissa to me off of Frozen River and I hadn’t seen it and I watched it and I thought she was phenomenal. And I was very excited to transform her into Alice.

Melissa and Amy, could you comment on your preparation to do the film?

Melissa Leo: I have to say that I love acting, I really do. I think that’s maybe the one thing that is known about me. And although it sounded like an extremely exciting and interesting project, and the notion that it was about real people who are still living, and they’d be involved in it – I still had a lot of doubts going and meeting with David. But it sounded interesting enough. I took the meeting, met him at the Maritime Hotel, and sat down and we kind of dived right into starting to work about it. It wasn’t really an interview, but there we were, working on Alice together over breakfast. And that then went on with another couple of meetings by my recollect, and that was the first stepping off place, was David’s belief that I could be his Alice. I thought, “Well, golly, I’m only a couple years older than these chaps, and… “I’m not such a pushy gal, by my reckoning. I guess - you really think so, David?” I don’t know how to describe it, except having a palpable belief that I could be his Alice.

He then gave me the opportunity to meet Alice Ward, and I travelled – I’ll never forget, because it’s the only time I really met Christian before we worked – we flew to Lowell, from L.A. together – and I watched him meet Dick and begin to take that on. It was an extraordinary thing to watch. And I got to meet Alice Ward. And upon meeting her, saw immediately my mother’s mother, my maternal grandmother in Alice, and knew then that, “Oh, I have her in here somewhere.” So then with Mark Bridges’ help, and Johnny [Villanueva], who did the hair with David saying, “Shorter, shorter, shorter,” with every haircut – and Tricia Heine, who did my makeup, finally found Alice and walked in her shoes. It was a thrill to walk out of the trailer and have half of Lowell go, “Oh, Alice! Oh, you look my mother!” So that was great.

AA: I’ll just echo what Melissa said, David’s belief that I could be Charlene, that was like half of the preparation. But just knowing that he knew I could do it, made me feel like I could do it. And then the other half of it was research and also David telling me to lower my voice. He kept going, “She’s down here. She’s low. She’s low.”

DOR: Well, both these women talked like that, you know. And my mother did, too. They come from a very deep power place. And the beautiful thing, I’ll just say, that they each brought to the parts that really make them succeed so beautifully is that Melissa consistently fought for the compassion for Alice, as Christian and I initially agreed that Dickie should be someone you love. You know. Mark and I knew that Micky was someone you loved, because he’s taking all the heat for the whole movie; but – it’s swirling around him. And it was a question of how you could plug into Mark’s emotions, feeling that and understanding why he would put up with it and why he needed it. That’s the heart of the story. Why Micky wanted these powers that forced him into the championship.

That’s the crucible that put him there – Charlene and the family and his brother. He got the discipline from the cop in his corner; and he got the inspiration from an older brother who could give him the mantle. You can’t get better inspiration than that – an older brother who didn’t want to give it to him, for a long time. But Melissa always said, “We gotta love Alice.” You know. And I love it because Alice – Alice made mistakes but Alice loves all of her children. And I thought that was beautiful. Likewise for Amy. You know, Charlene is a tough bitch, you know, and Amy’s very fierce. And Amy has that fierceness in her, but Amy also brings a great deal of emotion in her eyes, so you have that great cocktail that I find so interesting, of the two.

My question is for David and Mark. You guys have obviously worked together a couple of times now. And you obviously personally get along quite well. What you each value most about the other.

MW: That’s my brother, man. I love this guy.

DOR: Oh, thanks, man.

MW: You know, we – we’ve been through a lot together and you know, we’re so comfortable with one another, we’re like family. And to be able to work with somebody that you admire so much and that you trust and that you care for, it – I’m speaking for myself, of course. I don’t really know how David feels.[laughs] But no, I just loved it. I mean, you know, when it dawned on me that there is a way to get this movie made, with David as the director, we had already started a relationship with Christian and got him to commit, I thought, “We have a chance to make something really special, and David will bring something to the table,” that I don’t think anybody else was really trying to tap into. They thought, “Well, the story between the brothers is really fascinating. And it’s more of a boxing movie.” And he brought a level of humor and emotion that I don’t think anybody else was capable of bringing to it.

CB: I think also a lot of the other people, they would overemphasize the druggie nature, the addiction, as though that was something fascinating to see. And we felt like we’ve seen that in so many movies, and you don’t meet Dickie and Micky - and it’s not what you think about. Of course it’s part of his past, but you didn’t want to obsess on that, you know. And David’s got this great sort of tandem earnestness and complete silliness going on at the same time. Which is great. And which was perfect for it.

MW: And if you went down that dark path, it would be a very limited audience that would go and see this movie. And we thought it has so much more to offer. And we thought, you know, young, old, men, women, would all enjoy the story and everybody would find something very compelling, as well as entertaining and inspiring about it. So – so that was what David brought to the table.

DOR: It’s a real blessing. I’m very happy to be here, you know. I just feel really lucky to be here with this much talent and this much amazing raw material, and these characters. I mean, as soon as I saw the raw material that Mark was talking to me about, I just said, “Oh, my god, this is amazing. These characters are amazing in their world – they’re dynamic.” You know. It was amazing. And it’s – there’s nothing better than having a collaborator that you have a great shorthand with and a great comfort with, who’s shepherding the project along. I mean, that – that’s the best thing you have in cinema, where there’s many cooks in the kitchen, you know. So it makes life much easier.

And didn’t know what to expect when I first saw the family. I thought they might be some very harsh people that I wouldn’t want to spend ten minutes with. You know? I thought, “God, this could…” because I remember hearing about Micky Ward. And then when I saw him and I heard him talk, I was like, “Oh, my god. He sounds much rougher than I expected.” You know. I expected some sweet talking Oscar De La Hoya type. And the fact is, the people are so unbelievably lovable. You know, and as Christian said, I still hang out with them; and that’s what goes into the movie. That’s the only thing that goes in the movie.

MW: And I did promise David that after making this movie, our next collaboration would be right back to me just saying, “Yes, sir; no, sir,” and strictly being there to service his vision, because it was definitely a different dynamic you know, me saying, “Hey, wait, no, no – what about this – David, I don’t know, this is not…” Because I was so close to them, into that world, and I think that was the only thing that took a little getting used to, and I promised my leader here, that I will not do that again, the next time, if we get to work together again –

DOR: He can’t help it if when I first met him, he was a 26-year-old kid mumbling off of Boogie Nights, mumbling everything in a hotel meeting. And then the time we made this movie, it was like, you know, “Boardwalk Empire builder” – you know. [laughs] “Godfather, Godfather.”

MW: Shit happens, Dude. I’m a hustler [laughs]. I’m from the fucking street, baby; I gotta make it happen. Nothing comes easy for me.

DOR: And these guys met at Mark’s preschool – the preschool of your daughters, is that right? If you’d looked across the parking lot and saw Christian Bale and he was like, ‘Bing’ – Right? [laughs]

MW: Well, what I said was I was like, “There is the guy who’s not scared to play this part. Everybody loves the idea of it, but nobody really wants to commit and go there.” And I had seen The Machinist; I had seen, Rescue Dawn and I was like, “If he responds to the material, this is again, you know, a chance for us to make the best possible version of the movie.” I could see why people were so attracted to the part, but at the same time, it can be intimidating. But you know, he’s a fearless actor and he just responded to it immediately. And that was, you know, really kind of what got the momentum going, and everything else started to fall into place after that.

CB: And also, like David’s got – he’s got a very big heart. It would be very funny. There’d be times when he was often crying with laughter, and also just flat out crying. Remember, they’d often be that, at Mark’s place. And you’d be listening to stories or telling a story, or listening to Dickie or whatever, listening to Micky. And it was, it was either they had his sides splitting with laughter and he was balling his eyes out with that; and then it would segue into tragedy, and he’d be balling his eyes out. Like you could really see how much he felt it and really enjoyed the company of these guys and was going through a whole rollercoaster of emotions, which is usually what actors are going to be doing. But David was right in there feeling every little bit of it, as much as any of us.

DOR: There are scenes in the movie I can’t talk about without still getting choked up, which is, you know, after you’ve been with the movie a long time, that’s unusual, I think.

This is for Mark and David. The film has a rousing, real crowd pleasing conclusion, but I was wondering if maybe you were tempted to go a little further and include the legendary Arturo Gatti bouts that followed.

DOR: The story was always one that I thought led him to the doorway of his future. This film delivers him to the ability to dig himself into a real income. And that to me is the – it’s a hard choice. I think the story is legendary in itself, how he got there. Because you know, without this story, he doesn’t get those Gatti fights. In fact, the guy, the last guy he fight, [Shane] Neary, was saying, “I’m ready to fight Arturo Gatti.” He thought he was going to move right through Micky. And he – this guy was supposed to be the next champion and Shane Neary, he was like, “Me and Gatti would make a great match-up.” Well, guess what? You know. It turned out to be the underdog who made the great match-up with Gatti.

MW: And we’re doing those fights in the sequel [laughs]. We’ll do four more Fighters. We’ll do the first Gatti fight in the sequel; then we’ll do the second one in the third installment; and then the fourth and final one will be Micky fighting –

DOR: In Russia. Russia.

MW: Yes [laughs].

DOR: So one of the things that made this film so beautiful, when he was saying he’d do anything for the picture – every single person brought that to the film. And that’s just a rocket ship. Amy came and said, you know, she’s ready to fight. We were choreographing fight scenes in Whole Foods at like, you know, eleven o’clock at night. Because I’d run into her, I’d go, “Oh, how are we going to do that scene tomorrow?” And then, and you know, and Amy said, “As long as it happens between ‘action’ and ‘cut’ I’ll do – I can do anything.” And that’s pretty great, with the father of her child standing on the set, you know. But she – and it meant for great chemistry between these guys. He’s willing to fight and do anything it takes in the ring and do anything it takes emotionally with him and Amy or him and his mother and him and his brother. Melissa transformed herself completely, and would go there with the fierceness of throwing those pots and pans. And then break your heart on the porch when she’s looking at her son when he’s closing the door. There was an unstoppable, “I’ll go there.” Christian already had the weight off and was shaving the bald spot before we set foot into pre-production. So that’s like crazy willingness, you know, and there’s no – there’s no debating it.

Amy, in this movie your character gets labeled as an MTV girl. What’s your opinion on that label, and do you think it’s fair? And also, did it guide your research in any way?

AA: Well, that was their opinion of her. She was no MTV girl. They…

ML: Oh, yes she was [laughs].

AA: Here we go. No, I think that MTV then was very different.

MW: She’s more of a VH1 girl [laughs]. With a little sprinkle of BET [laughs]. She like hip-hop.

AA: A dash of Lifetime, just a dash.

MW: Some Fuse.

AA: I think, you know, MTV was very different then – they actually showed music videos, which I liked. But I think it meant that she was wild, that she was like –

MW: Spring break - titties out [laughs]. Threesomes.

AA: She’s a party girl.

MW: That’s what Micky liked [laughs].

AA: That’s what those sisters said, right? They were like, “She – yeah, she’s trash.” “She was trash.” I think she still gets accused of it. I don’t know – every here and there. Do I think it’s fair? From Charlene’s perspective, no. She was just a girl trying to make good, you know. Trying to deal with what she had. She is a sweetheart. What struck me about Charlene, is that you had all these huge personalities, and she never once was like, “Let me tell you my side of the story.” She never did. She always – she was content to sit in the background. As a matter of fact, I think you guys had to really convince her to put herself on tape so I could watch her. Like, they really had to talk – she was not about drawing attention to herself. She was really happy that Micky’s story was being told, and she was really supportive of that. So I don’t think it was fair.

For Mark and Amy – the chemistry with your characters is so there. But how much work goes into that, before you guys start shooting?

MW: It was instant for me. It was like, “Whoa.” She’s a sweetheart. You know what? David always says that she doesn’t seem like the girl who could throw a punch, but she reminds me of so many girls in my neighborhood. She looks like an Irish Catholic, tough, no nonsense, kind of girl. And you know, I saw that immediately. You know, they’re not quite as pretty as Amy, the girls in my neighborhood. But – but you know, I just – I was such a huge fan of hers. We’d actually had the luxury of having lunch before to talk about another movie, and it was a bad movie that I did. She dodged the bullet. And then I was still able to, you know – I don’t want to tell you what movie – all right, The Happening with M. Nighy Shyamalan [laughs]. Fuck it, it is what it is. The fucking trees, man, the plants. Fuck it. You know, you can’t blame me for not wanting to try to play a science teacher and do something like that, you know. It was like – I wasn’t playing a cop or a crook. But she didn’t do the movie, and we got the chance to work together again. And I was very happy about that because I thought she would bring something very special to the table, and again, showing a side of her that I certainly knew she was capable of doing but she hadn’t gotten to show yet.

AA: And with Mark, I do – it was pretty instant. It was so easy to work with you and you guys saw him, I mean, for the women in here, you saw him. I mean, like how hard is it to pretend that you’re attracted to that. Like, “Whoa, gosh I’m such a good actress”[laughs]. So with that being said, with all respect to your wife and my significant other, Mark has a great quality as an actor and that was able to show, he was able to show that with Micky, this vulnerability. And a man who’s powerful and strong yet is able to show tenderness and vulnerability – that’s really sexy.

CB: And he’s got a full set of teeth in his head, as well.

MW: Which his always – it’s always a plus.

AA: I love teeth. Girls don’t notice that [laughs]. David didn’t really give us much option. Because I remember it was the first day, and like there wasn’t a kiss planned. And he’s like, “Okay. And now you kiss.” And we’re like, “We do?” “Yeah, you kiss.” And it was, “Well, hi, sorry.” You know…

MW: Romance.

AA: David’s like, “Deeper, deeper.” Oh. So –

MW: Romance, romance, romance, romance.

DOR: And you’d be surprised how many women Dickie has at his beck and call, without the teeth. You know, the funny thing is, in life that I think in a funny way, I think Christian is more like Micky and Mark is more like Dickie – not in a bad way – but in the operator way and in the talky-talk way, Christian is more of a quiet guy. And it was very interesting to watch him hang out with Dickie, inhale Dickie, have them hang out together. And people would come up on the set and it would be like, “Oh, I thought that was Dickie.” And – because he talked – he would – and then it – it kind of let him talk to everybody all the time. Because Dickie never shuts up. And you know, so they saw Christian walking around talking to everybody, which you know, good luck, try making that happen when he’s not Dickie. And and then Micky, you know, Micky, as a said, you know, Micky never says two words. Micky will just take it. He’ll take five punches to give one, and he’ll let everybody say everything and he won’t say nothing. You know. And he’ll let Dickie do all the talking. So that was – that was a very interesting role for each of these guys, I thought.

MW: I’m quiet, yeah [laughs].

DOR: Sometimes, huh? Yes, you are also – you have a lot in common with Micky. It’s a little bit of a paradox, but it doesn’t fit my comparison, that doesn’t work.

MW: I can hardly ever shut up. My wife tells me to shut up all the time.

It’s quite obvious that a key element of a family drama is the family aspect. Some actors are talented enough to make that dynamic seem real even though it might be far from it, but why put yourself through all the work when you can just develop a real life family-like relationship with your co-cast? It certainly worked for the cast of Jake Scott’s Welcome to the Rileys.

The film stars James Gandolfini as Doug, a man who hasn’t been the same since the passing of his daughter. The same goes for his wife Lois (Melissa Leo) and in her case, the pain is rather debilitating. She’s agoraphobic and refuses to step foot out of their house. While on a business trip to New Orleans, Doug winds up meeting a young stripper named Mallory (Kristen Stewart). Rather than leaving their business at the strip club, even though Doug had no intentions of getting on to any real business to begin with, he winds up driving her home and leaving with her for a bit. He takes it upon himself to try and help her disheveled house and her act, too.

In honor of the film’s October 29th release, Gandolfini, Leo, Stewart and Scott attended a press conference to remember their time working on the production in New Orleans. Not only do they look back on the gig fondly, particularly when it came to working with one another, but they still maintain the relationships they built on the set today. Check out all the details on the prep process, their characters and experience working with one another in the interview below.

James, how did you figure out the back-story? Your Southern accent from Indianapolis was a little surprising.

James Gandolfini: Yeah, to me too.

Is this guy going through a classic midlife crisis?

Gandolfini: Actually, I’ve reached an age where you look back and you question how did I get here and with me it’s mostly good, with him it’s not what I expected, it’s not what the man expected. He has to go back in his mind and go somewhere and try to figure out what to do now. I think a lot of people do that; they just can’t really go anywhere or just disappear and I think he just takes the opportunity to try to figure things out.

And the accent?

Gandolfini: Please. Sometimes you make choices, [laughs] and you look back and you wonder, just like we were talking about, and I really don’t know what else to say about that.

Do you think there is a part of Doug that blames Lois for what happened to their daughter?

Gandolfini: Yeah, sure.

Leo: Oh! [Laughs]

Gandolfini: How’s that? [Laughs]

What surprised you the most about making this film?

Leo: How much fun a Brit could be. [Laughs]

Gandolfini: A what could be?

Jake Scott: The one who made you do the accent.

Gandolfini: [Laughs] Actually, yeah. How kind and smart and special to the actors he was. How different his set was from his uncle and his father. [Laughs] I never worked for his father. How smart [Kristen] was. I don’t mean that in a bad way, I mean for a young girl. Really, for a young woman how together and how smart and how she’s doing this all for the right reasons and how well we got along and how wonderful it was. I had a great time with her and I don’t necessarily think acting is fun, but I had a really good experience on this.

Leo: What comes to my mind was when I read the script and you turn each page going, ‘Oh, he’s going to fuck that girl.’ [Laughs] ‘Oh yeah, he’s going to fuck her,’ and he never does!

Gandolfini: I was hoping that, too. [Laughs]

Kristen, those bruises were makeup, right?

Kristen Stewart: Yeah, they were. I got the bruises initially in rehearsal. I learned how to pole dance, you never really see it in the movie – you do for a second, it’s like in silhouette in the background - but it really hurts and you don’t realize that, of course, it’s going to show. There were so many that I wasn’t sure do you keep all of them or is that too much? I think what surprised me most was the fact that I was so unaware of the fact that I was walking down the street with my robe open and wearing fishnets and not caring at all. I had no inhibitions. I wasn’t scared and I’d known about this for a while before it got up and running and I’m really glad that it took a while to do so because I think that I was old enough to play the part as opposed to not ready. I think I would have shied away from too much. So it was shocking to find myself in situations like that and being completely fine with them.

How old were you?

Stewart: 18.

Kristin, how’d you prepare for the role?

Stewart: I went to my first strip club with this [Jake] and upon entering the guy was like, “You’ll have to come back later if you want a job.” [Laughs] They must have thought that [Jake] was my pimp. [Jake] was also really on me about that as well, you’ve got to do some work before you’re going to be able to do this. He gave me a couple books that really helped. Raised by Wolves was the one that really got me like where you have really candid stories. This guy endeared himself to this group of runaway kids in Hollywood and they really just let it all out. Then just pole dancing and stuff like that, but basically we didn’t have that much time and it was really comforting to know that it validated me, it made me feel like I’ve done enough to do the part, but at the same time everything was in the script so once we started shooting luckily feel like I didn’t have to add a thing. It was just doing it justice. It wasn’t like I had to add real elements; it was already there.

What was it like shooting in New Orleans?

Leo: I’ll start of because a month and a half after I worked with Jake, Kristen and Jimmy I found myself back in New Orleans where I do the HBO Treme show, when I really go to know New Orleans. When I was there with Jake, Lois has never been there before. She doesn’t particularly like being there when she’s there, so they housed me at the Windsor Court and if you’re at all familiar with New Orleans, it’s actually got a gated drive, so it’s walled and you go in behind the gate and get out of the car and never have to actually be really in public. They had a lovely young man they hired to drive me and pull up in front of the Windsor Court, pick me up and take me to set and a handful of times he took me to the grocery store and otherwise I just isolated myself in my glorious room so I didn’t get a chance to know New Orleans at all and that aided my performance, but I’m very grateful I got to know the town a bit.

You all have very different ways of preparing for roles and didn’t do a lot of rehearsal, so how did you establish that you were a married couple?

Gandolfini: I like her. We just did it very professional and also she’s pretty good looking, which helps. It’s in the work. Where are you from? You’re from New York State, right?

Leo: New York City.

Gandolfini: Honestly that stuff helps; it just gives you a shorthand. I enjoyed it. I just want to say something about the places [Jake] picked in New Orleans. It’s an incredible city for its lack of rules, it’s lack of regulation and lack of everything being on top of you and I think that’s why [Kristen] can walk down the street dressed as [she was] and it seemed easy. I remember the strip club that you picked and you’re walking up the steps of the strip club and there’s a circular step and there was hairs hanging off the bottom of the stairs.

Stewart: Like a lot.

Gandolfini: Like people’s hairs have fallen off and they stepped on it and you could see it these steps hadn’t been cleaned for hundreds of years and just the whole feel of it really really helped. He didn’t pick places and dirty them up; we just went to the places so that helped a lot.

Leo: I just want to say also in response about working with Jimmy, I still have the engagement ring that Lois wore. I wear it quite a bit. That likability and just sort of hitting it off, it’s an amazing thing when you work with a really terrific actor and you can just together pretend and I think the willingness on both of our parts and the warmth that I felt from Jim right from the beginning in meeting him, it was so easily done and it’s hard to find words for it.

When you’re working on a film this small with just three of you, there’s a sense of being a surrogate family on the set. So what kind of family did develop during the making of this film?

Gandolfini: I think that’s any small film you do and we’re all trying to do the same thing. I think you’re not out hanging out every night, you’re working 14 hours, 15 hours. I guess there’s a sense of family, you’re doing all this stuff together and we had a few evenings together, which were fun.

Leo: It really is a relationship that’s developed in the work. Socializing is of very little importance to us when we’re shooting. It is a working environmental and I know that I’ll always have a mother’s love for Kristen and a wife’s love for Jimmy. I’ll carry that with me for the rest of my days.

Kristen, do you have a process for coming out of a role, especially going from playing Bella in Twilight to Mallory and back to shooting New Moon?

Stewart: No, the few things I’ve done in between the Twilight movies have just coincidently been very different, but I haven’t been like I’m going to shock everybody right now and just do this because it’s totally different. It’s always been totally informed. Something speaks to you and you need to do it and that’s what it is. Also, I’m really lucky to have my cast on the series. You always think that it’s going to be hard to get back there, but it’s not because we’ve all wanted to tell the story for so long an it’s finally going to come to fruition and it always just sort of falls out luckily.

Kristen, how hard was it to really let go of Mallory? Do you still have her in you in a way?

Stewart: You probably have that with everything. It’s not just parts you play, it’s sort of every experience you have in life shapes you and makes you who you are and when some of the biggest most monumental experiences have been working on films and playing parts, and this one more so than, I don’t want to compare them, but really more than normal, I think it’s had an effect on me.

Kristen, your character is in many ways a mystery. What did you imagine was her back-story and why she’s such an angry person?

Stewart: Obviously this was something that was really important to us and Jake had a few ideas about what those details were and they weren’t so defined to be honest, but it was just enough. It’s weird to talk about. One of the first things that he told me when we met on the movie was that some of the stories, and I don’t know if this will sound bad, but a lot of these girls’ stories are really typical. A few things add up to being able to do something like that as a job and we sort of inserted those little bits, a few little details. I know where she’s from, I know that she’s not lying when she says to Doug where she’s from and I know that would never come across in the movie, but little things like that. But to go into it would be really weird.

How much does your character’s wardrobe effect how you portray her?

Stewart: It helps. I guess it seems like the most obvious thing; if I was wearing …

Gandolfini: If you were naked.

Stewart: [Laughs] Anyway, I think what was cool about the costume was that you think stripper – I don’t really think a whole lot when I think stripper, to be honest. A lot of people have certain ideas about how they must be and I really didn’t have any, but I always sort of imagined that they’d be kind of sexy at least or something because that’s sort of their job. On the contrary, you’re exposed so often that you’re entrenched the entire time. Literally, imagine never wanting to take off a trench coat, but living in New Orleans and it’s hot and so that was interesting. And also the stuff was really dirty and everything helps like makeup, sets obviously, anything to make you feel more like you’re there.

Can you talk a little about filming in New Orleans and what you missed the most about your respective hometowns?

Stewart: I’m not being deadly serious about this, but I tend to really offend people that are in my life when I go and especially on this one because it was the first time I’d ever been alone on a movie and I loved stomping around the city like it was mine and that’s totally what Mallory was supposed to do, so I didn’t really miss too much. I was having a great time.

Gandolfini: I missed my son and my wife as we say and New York food because I had heartburn for six weeks. It’s great food, but, man, you know?

Leo: I loved working on this movie. It was very happy times. My son is now 23 and there’s no husband to worry about at home so I very happily go and relocate myself wherever the work brings me and hunker down for the duration of being there and tend to not miss home although I love getting back up to the Catskills when I get there.

There are many accents that come out of different regions of this great country. There's the southern drawl, the Minnesota nice, and the Valley Girl, but few are as mind-numbingly hard to listen to than that of South Boston. It's hard to imagine that anyone with that inflection can listen to themselves without thinking, "I should really consult a speech therapist." That said, between The Departed, Gone Baby Gone and Mystic River, there are plenty of movies that have used the accent wonderfully. Tony Goldwyn's Conviction will try and reach those ranks.

Apple has premiered the first trailer for the film starring Hillary Swank, Sam Rockwell, Melissa Leo and Minnie Driver, and while the film looks like typical Oscar-bait, it also appears to have gotten some tremendous performances. Based on a true story, Swank plays Betty Anne Waters, a woman who sees her brother get a life sentence for a crime he didn't commit. Instead of just visiting him and trying to find a lawyer who could help him, she decides to go it herself, getting her GED and going to law school so that she can fight for him herself.

Check out the trailer below or in HD over at Apple.

There were plenty of murders and mysteries among the selections at this year's Tribeca Film Festival, but none of them came with quite the same amount of humor as Don McKay. Featuring stellar performances from Thomas Haden Church, Melissa Leo and Elisabeth Shue, Don McKay is Jake Goldberger's directorial debut, a black comedy about a guy who returns to his hometown and his high school sweetheart, only to find out that pretty much nothing in her world is as it seems.

I interviewed Goldberger and his cast during the festival, and we talked about the challenges of working in pretty confined conditions, every day, all together, as well as Shue and Leo's excitement at getting to play the great female characters in the film. Watch it all unfold in the interview below.