Filed in A Gentleman in Moscow Gallery Updates Interviews

Empire Magazine Scans+New Video Interview

I have added a new interview/magazine scans of Mary and Ewan in the latest issue of Empire Magazine. In the interview, Mary and Ewan talk about what it was like working with one another and filming scenes together as well as discuss their takes on their characters. Head to the gallery to read the interview in full!

In related news, Mary and Ewan also did an interview together on Sirius XM where they talked about their son Laurie meeting baby Grogu for the first time, working together, and Mary getting Ewan into horror films! The entire interview itself is so good! I loved how Ewan said he was impressed with Mary as an actress and she gave it her all in the 2012 film, ‘Smashed’!

Share
Filed in A Gentleman in Moscow Interviews

New Interviews with Mary

With ‘A Gentleman in Moscow’ premiering in 2 weeks, Mary and Ewan are beginning their promotional duties for the upcoming limited series. As such, I have added some new interview videos of them discussing the show and how horribly wrong it went when their toddler son finally met Baby Grogu! ?

Ewan was also on Late Night with Seth Meyers where he talked about working with Mary at the 5:20 mark:

Share
Filed in A Gentleman in Moscow Gallery Updates Interviews

Mary and Ewan Appear on the Tonight Show!

Mary and Ewan made a joint appearance last night on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon in New York City! During the interview, the married couple talked about both being in the Star Wars universe and what it was like for their son Laurie to meet Grogu in real life! Ewan also talked about how it felt having that huge mustache for over a year due to last year’s SAG/writers’ strike and what it was like working together on set. Be sure to check out their hilarious interview below and watch ’til the end to see the first clip from the show!
I will be sure to make tons of screencaps from their appearance later this week!

It’s so beautiful to finally see them doing an interview together. I can’t wait to get more as the promotional press for AGIM picks up. 🙂

Share
Filed in A Gentleman in Moscow Gallery Updates Interviews TV News

New ‘A Gentleman in Moscow’ Still and Interview

A brand new still of Mary and Ewan in their upcoming series ‘A Gentleman in Moscow’ has been released via Empire.  Set in 1922, Count Alexander Rostov (played by Ewan McGregor) is deemed an unrepentant aristocrat by a Bolshevik tribunal, and is sentenced to house arrest in the Metropol, a grand hotel across the street from the Kremlin. Rostov, an indomitable man of erudition and wit, has never worked a day in his life, and must now live in an attic room while some of the most tumultuous decades in Russian history are unfolding outside the hotel’s doors. If he ventures beyond the hotel’s walls, he’ll be shot and killed—and so inside he stays, dining and grooming and sleeping and chatting away with anyone and everyone in his vicinity. Mary will play Anna Urbanova, a glamorous, independent and self-made film actress, at the height of her fame. She uses her wit and beauty to dazzle Count Alexander Rostov. She’s an enigmatic character who keeps her cards very close to her chest. Reluctant to reveal her true self.

Speaking to Empire, this is what Mary and Ewan had to say about working with one another:

“In-between takes we were just bawling our eyes out,” Winstead chuckles, looking back on a particularly tender sequence. “It was so beautiful to get to play the scene and make that moment feel so real. But it was really, really hard for us as well.” With a backdrop of world-changing politics, there are plenty of forces that threaten to keep the Count and Anna apart. “It’s about the making of the Russia that we know now,” states McGregor of the series. “It starts in 1921 after the Revolution, and everybody’s in turmoil. There’s a lot of discussion about belief in something – people who believe in the Communist movement and people who don’t, and what it does to their lives.”

A Gentleman in Moscow will begin streaming on Paramount+ March 29th.

Share
Filed in A Gentleman in Moscow Interviews TV News

Mary and Ewan to Appear on Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon

Just as the headline indicates, both Mary Elizabeth and Ewan will be appearing together on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon next Monday, March 11 to begin promoting their upcoming series, ‘A Gentleman in Moscow’. The show will air at 11:35/10:35c on NBC.

The series, an adaptation of Amor Towles’ novel of the same name, follows Count Alexander Rostov (Ewan McGregor), who, in the aftermath of the Russian Revolution, finds that his gilded past has placed him on the wrong side of history. Spared immediate execution, he is banished by a Soviet tribunal to an attic room in the opulent Hotel Metropol and threatened with death if he ever sets foot outside again.

As the years pass and some of the most tumultuous decades in Russian history unfold outside the hotel’s doors, Rostov’s reduced circumstances provide him entry into a much larger world of emotional discovery. As he builds a new life within the walls of the hotel, he discovers the true value of friendship, family and love.

The series also stars Mary Elizabeth Winstead as glamorous, self-made film actress Anna Urbanova; Alexa Goodall as the Count’s unlikely young friend Nina; Johnny Harris as conflicted secret police officer Osip; and Fehinti Balogun as Mishka, the Count’s best friend from university.

Share
Filed in A Gentleman in Moscow Gallery Updates Interviews TV News

First Photos and Interview For ‘A Gentleman In Moscow’

Vanity Fair exclusively shared a batch of first look photos of Mary’s newly upcoming series, ‘A Gentleman in Moscow‘ which will premiere on Paramount+ March 29th. Based on the 2016 novel of the same name, AGIM’s story is set in 1922 where Count Alexander Rostov (played by Ewan McGregor) is deemed an unrepentant aristocrat by a Bolshevik tribunal, and is sentenced to house arrest in the Metropol, a grand hotel across the street from the Kremlin. Rostov, an indomitable man of erudition and wit, has never worked a day in his life, and must now live in an attic room while some of the most tumultuous decades in Russian history are unfolding outside the hotel’s doors. If he ventures beyond the hotel’s walls, he’ll be shot and killed—and so inside he stays, dining and grooming and sleeping and chatting away with anyone and everyone in his vicinity.

In the Showtime/Paramount+ series, Mary will play Anna Urbanova, a glamorous, independent and self-made film actress, at the height of her fame. She uses her wit and beauty to dazzle Count Alexander Rostov. She’s an enigmatic character who keeps her cards very close to her chest. Reluctant to reveal her true self.

Speaking to Vanity Fair, this is what Ewan said about acting alongside Mary:

“To be in love and married to somebody, and then to get to play all those cold shoulder scenes, was just hilarious,” McGregor says. Near the shoot’s end, as the relationship took a tragic turn, the pair found the emotional intensity of their scenes following them home. “You just have to see what she’s done with this role—she’s such a brilliant actor, and the way Anna ages is absolutely heartbreaking at the end,” McGregor says. “We have a scene where we have to part, and we just were an absolute mess [after filming].”

It is also revealed during the interview that Mary’s character is expanded in the series compared to the book version:

In this series, Anna’s presence expands from the book, which stays closer to the count’s perspective. “The novel is necessarily very count-focused, and you don’t get that broad an impression of Anna’s life away from the count,” Vanstone says. “It was really important to us to create that in a world for Anna, and to give that character more agency through the story.”

Be sure to head to the gallery to check out the full-sized photos!

Share
Filed in 10 Cloverfield Lane Ahsoka Interviews Scott Pilgrim Takes Off TV News

SPTO Wins Critics Choice; GLAAD Nomination and New THR Interview with Mary

Apologies to all for the lack of news on here lately! Been feeling under the weather & while I’m still not feeling totally great, I thought I’d update you all with the latest round of news. First up, during last week’s Critics Choice Awards that took place on Sunday, it was announced (during a moment in the show they were going to commercial) that the Netflix animated series Scott Pilgrim Takes Off won best animated series! Congratulations to the whole team on that and everyone involved. It was well deserved!

In related news, GLAAD just came out with their list of nominations for the 35th annual GLAAD Media Awards and  SPTO is nominated in the ‘Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series‘ against shows like Netflix’s Bodies & The Fall of the House of Usher. The awards ceremony will take place in Los Angeles on Thursday, March 14, 2024 at The Beverly Hilton and in New York on Saturday, May 11, 2024 at The New York Hilton Midtown.

Finally, Mary gave a brand new interview with The Hollywood Reporter this past week discussing her roles in both Ahsoka and returning to the role of Ramona in Scott Pilgrim Takes Off. I added some highlights from the interview below, but as always, click the link above to read the interview in full.

You had these two exciting projects that you couldn’t talk about for the longest time, and that’s something you’d never really experienced. A big part of the job is talking about the job. So did it feel pretty isolating? Did it make you anxious?

I suppose it came along at a good time for me because life was so busy anyway. So I didn’t really mind having the opportunity to do the work and letting it speak for itself. There was something liberating about it. That’s not to say that it’s stressful speaking to you, but the thought of promoting something is often another layer of stress. So, in that sense, it was a little bit freeing, but in another sense, the lack of celebration was a bit hard, particularly with Ahsoka. It was unfortunate to not really be able to get together with one another and celebrate all the effort that went into it. So it was nice once the strike was over, as we were able to get together and just have a meal and say, “Oh my God, look at what we made.” Those kinds of things are special, and I’m happy that we’re able to do that again.

When the Ahsoka offer came in, did you walk down the hall and say, “Hey, you! What should I know about this? What’s the deal with the volume? Is C-3PO cool?” Did that conversation happen [with Ewan McGregor]?

(Laughs.) Definitely. We talked a lot about what the experience of being a part of that world is like. Of course, we had those conversations before that as well, but it became a different conversation once it became a reality that I might actually be stepping into it. And I also had a familiarity with the project from being around on the Obi-Wan set. I had a familiarity with some of the people involved, not in a super close sense, but in the way that someone might be a friend of a friend. So you’ve heard about them and you’ve heard how cool they are to work with.

And just being on the Obi-Wan set and getting to see what a positive environment it was, there was something incredibly moving about that. I got to see people working on Star Wars who were such big fans of Star Wars, and that’s something that you can’t really feel and know until you’re there and you feel that energy and what a special thing it is to be a part of. There’s something really infectious about being on a set where everybody really wants to be there. So having had that experience when the offer came through, it made me even more excited than I would’ve otherwise been. Obviously the prospect of being in Star Wars is exciting regardless, but knowing what it feels like to be in that community made it something that I would never want to turn down.

I hear stories all the time of actors calling other actors to vet directors and producers, so who better to ask, right?

Absolutely. It was great to have a direct line to what this experience was going to be like, and it was nothing but positive.

From 10 Cloverfield Lane and Gemini Man to Birds of Prey and Kate, you’d done five years’ worth of jobs that really put you through the wringer, physically. So was part of you glad that Hera didn’t have to get too physical for the time being?

Yeah, it was really perfect for me just in terms of where I was in my life at the time. It was my first job back after having a baby, and I was still feeling my way back into my body in terms of my physicality in the role and in my roles, in general. So it was perfect for me to feel strong and like a warrior, but in a way that didn’t require me to wreck my body, which was still in some level of postpartum recovery even at that stage.

Everyone sounded pretty on point, but it was almost eerie how well you recaptured Ramona. Do you partially credit the inflection or tone you chose for her way back when?

Yeah, I thought it was a really great opportunity to go back and recapture that tone, but also bring some new shades to her, which I really appreciated getting to do. I got to do more scenes with a bit of a smile or a bit of warmth or a bit of cheekiness or things that the film didn’t really have time to explore. The focus of the film version of Ramona was really this deadpan personality. That tone suited the film, but it was nice that the animated series gave me several episodes to explore her and bring those other shades to her. So it was a cool challenge to find that voice, but then also open her up in new ways.

Share
Filed in A Gentleman in Moscow Ahsoka Interviews Scott Pilgrim Takes Off TV News

Mary Discusses Latest Projects in New Interview

Mary recently sat down with Collider where they mostly spoke about her current project, the Netflix animated series ‘Scott Pilgrim Takes Off’ and returning to the character of Ramona Flowers over 10 years later. In the interview, she also speaks about wanting to explore the character of Hera more in the Disney+ series ‘Ahsoka’ and her upcoming project ‘A Gentleman in Moscow’, which she’ll star alongside her husband Ewan McGregor. I added a few highlights where she talks about it all, but be sure to click the link above to read the entire interview.

What was the best part about getting to play Ramona again? Were there challenges in returning to her, so many years after playing her?

WINSTEAD: It was a huge experience for all of us, making the film, and that comes with all the history of your old self. There were a lot of things that came flooding back for me, of just the person that I used to be, and having to go back to that and be in that body again. It was definitely more emotional than I expected it to be. I was like, “Oh, God, I’ve been taken back in time and I’m being myself at 24.” There’s just a lot of feelings around that. It was amazing to get to go on this journey with that version of myself and that version of Ramona and get to grow with her in this truncated time frame. It was almost like experiencing being myself at 24 and myself at 38, and in a few months’ time, I went through all that time with her, which was just amazing. It was a deep process that I totally didn’t expect. I just expected to go in and have fun, and it ended up being more powerful to me than that.

I would imagine this character was already special to you because of the following it’s had, and then it gives you all that self-reflection to come back to it. That must have been such a surreal experience.

WINSTEAD: It was absolutely surreal and unexpected. I think the reason why we’re so game to always come back to it and it has stayed with us for all these years is because it was really an influential thing that happened in our very formative years. There’s a lot to say around playing these characters and being a part of this project, and it means a lot to all of us.

Have you thought about what you would want to explore with Hera, if you get to do more of Ahsoka? What an awesome character that is.

WINSTEAD: She’s such an amazing character. There’s such a wealth of experiences that we could bring to [Hera], in terms of either going back and showing a bit of her backstory, of what led up to the moment where we see her in Ahsoka, or at least just feeling it through getting to know where she’s at now in her journey. It’s so hard to talk about without giving away things that might have been discussed in the past. All the fans of her and of Rebels know that there’s so much that can be done with that role, so I would be really excited to get to go down that path.

You also have A Gentleman in Moscow, which sounds like a very interesting character exploration. What appealed to you about telling that story and playing that character? What are you excited for fans to see with that?

WINSTEAD: It’s an incredibly beautiful, sweeping epic story. It just encompasses so many universal themes of love and loss and war, in a way that really pulls on the heartstrings, but it’s also funny and odd. I think it’s a brilliant book, and I think people who love the book will hopefully really be excited to go on the journey with these characters. To get to be in that time period, from the twenties through the fifties, and to get to play it out with my husband and do these really fun, passionate scenes together, was just so exciting. It was really a dream come true.

Share
Filed in Ahsoka Interviews Scott Pilgrim Takes Off

New ‘Ahsoka’ and ‘Scott Pilgrim Takes Off’ Interviews

2 brand new interviews are out, one with Mary discussing SPTO and the other with Dave Filoni on what we could see with Mary’s character Hera in Ahsoka should the series get picked up for a season 2:

“We set up Captain Pellaeon in The Mandalorian, and that’s a character that goes with Thrawn, so I’d love to see the two of them together,” Filoni teases. Plus, he points out, a fellow figure from Ahsoka has a long-standing conflict with the Grand Admiral. “His foil throughout Rebels was Hera,” Filoni states. “Pitting the two generals against one another is something that I find interesting.”

So looks like we’ll definitely be seeing some very cool battles between the two characters & of course this means more screen time for Mary, which I’m sure we’re all excited to see when that time comes.

In other news, Mary did another interview promoting Scott Pilgrim Takes Off, which is currently streaming on Netflix. You can watch that below.

Mary on returning to the character of Ramona Flowers years later:

“I always had this huge love and connection to Ramona, but I always kind of wanted to do a bit more with her. So to get to come to this point, to be able to explore her further and to get to have different sides of her and different shades to her and kind of flesh her out into this very full person was like, it meant a lot to me. You could feel that Bryan and BenDavid (series co-creator BenDavid Grabinski) really wanted to give her that as a character. And that was really, really special.”

Share
Filed in Ahsoka Interviews Scott Pilgrim Takes Off TV News

New ‘Scott Pilgrim Takes Off’ and ‘Ahsoka’ Interviews

Now that the SAG-AFTRA strikes are finally over, celebrities can go back to doing interviews to talk about their shows and films. First up, Mary spoke with Collider in a brand new interview about Ahsoka and how she hopes she’ll get a chance to return to the character of Hera:

“She’s such an amazing character. “There’s such a wealth of experiences that we could bring to her, in terms of either going back and showing a bit of her backstory, of what led up to the moment where we see her in Ahsoka, or at least just feeling it through getting to know where she’s at now in her journey. It’s so hard to talk about without giving away things that might have been discussed in the past. All the fans of her and of Rebels know that there’s so much that can be done with that role, so I would be really excited to get to go down that path.”

Mary on working with Dave Filoni (the new creative chief of LucasFilm):

He’s pretty open when it comes to things he would like to do. He lives and breathes Star Wars and there’s an infinite amount of things that he would like to do, that he could do, and his brain is firing on so many levels. I just try not to get too caught up in it because you never know what’s really going to be able to be accomplished and what’s going to make sense within all the storylines. I just wait until they call for me, and then I’ll be like, “Oh, cool, they’re actually going with that idea,” or “Oh, I guess they decided not to.” I just try to go with the flow. But it’s great to get little hints at his process and his frame of mind. It’s really cool.

Mary also did brand new video interviews with her ‘Scott Pilgrim’ co-star Ellen Wong who played Knives Chau. In the two interviews, they talked about getting to revisit their characters and how the Netflix anime series differs from the 2010 film. The transcript for the ComingSoon interview can be found on their site.



Share