PDF File - The Peggy Siegal Company

Summit Entertainment & Participant Media
along with
The Film Society of Lincoln Center
invite you and a guest to join
Jodie Foster
at a special screening of
Directed by JODIE FOSTER
Written by KYLE KILLEN
Produced by STEVE GOLIN, KEITH REDMON, ANN RUARK
Starring MEL GIBSON, JODIE FOSTER, ANTON YELCHIN, JENNIFER LAWRENCE
Wednesday, May 4th, 2011
7:00PM – Screening and Q&A with Jodie Foster
Walter Reade Theatre
165 West 65th Street
(Between Amsterdam & Broadway)
9:00PM – Dinner with Jodie hosted by Jonathan Demme
Atlantic Grill
48-50 West 65 Street
(Between Broadway and Central Park West)
[email protected] or 212-935-6700
Two-time Academy Award® winner Jodie Foster directs and co-stars with two-time Academy Award®
winner Mel Gibson in THE BEAVER – an emotional story about a man on a journey to re-discover his
family and re-start his life.
Plagued by his own demons, Walter Black was once a successful toy executive and family man who now
suffers from depression. No matter what he tries, Walter can‘t seem to get himself back on track…until a
beaver hand puppet enters his life.
National coverage aired on
Jodie Foster
Stone & Streeter Phillips
Jonathan Demme
Michelle Caruso-Cabrera
Jodie Foster, Regis Philbin, Gayle King
Gayle & Kirby King
Robert Benton, Jodie Foster, Jonathan Demme
John Stossel, Ron Claiborne, Jeff Greenfield
Mel’s great escape
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By: Cindy Adams/Tuesday, May 10 2011
Jodie Foster, multiple Oscar winner, Yale grad, loyal pal, good interview, nifty in her
snug gray sheath and matching spike-heel satin san dals without stockings. Only thing
wrong with Jodie Foster is "The Beaver," which she directed. I saw it. Four people were
in the theater. So does she think co-star Mel Gibson's madness will hurt attendance?
"I can't control hostility," she said. "Mel's an incredible performer. How do you
compartmentalize talent? Playing a man with a puppet, he's extraordinary in this. He
worked with the puppeteer. He went places, like to the market, talking to this puppet. He
worked it so much his arm would cramp up.
"Look, aside from his personal problems, he's an amazing friend. We're on the phone
talking three hours at a time. He'll call middle of the night. And was still on the set on
time, prepared, ready to shoot. I told him, 'I know this is the last thing you want to be
doing.' He said, 'No. Escaping to another character is helping me.'
"This big thing happened during our last period of reshoots. It was a very hard day when
the headlines hit. I spent lots of time with him. But he kept right on working. Never
faltered. A strict professional. I watched him as he walked out of his trailer, and I put my
arms around him.
"He didn't want anything to distract from the work. He's been in the business 45 years . .
. actually, me, too! And now I'm off to do p.r. for it in 30 cities.
"Another thing. He was unselfish in helping our young actors. Like one fellow, Anton,
wanted 30 takes. Mel helped him so he'd be able to do it in two takes."
Scenes took place in a suburban Westchester house surrounded by mature trees.
Photographers who stood off to a side eager to film Gibson had other comments. They
said: "He was not friendly."
And then added superslim Jodie Foster: "I'm now going for a slice of pizza."
Jodie Foster sticke up for Mel
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By: Carson Griffith/Saturday, May 7 2011
Jodie Foster should do all of Mel Gibson's PR. A source who caught a screening of
Foster's "The Beaver" at Lincoln Center on Wednesday night tells us the actor-turneddirector spoke in "extremely" glowing terms of the controversial Gibson, who stars in the
picture, at a Q&A that followed. She even compared Gibson favorably to "an actordirector who was a major pain." The insider adds that Foster later told a guest over
dinner at the Atlantic Grill that she was referring to the late Dennis Hopper, who directed
the actress in 1990's "Catchfire." Maybe their lack of chemistry had something to do
with film bombing at the box office.
Jodie Foster's Fable
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Alexandra Steigrad/Monday, May 16 2011
When Jodie Foster entered New York‘s Walter Reade Theater to publicize her latest
film, ―The Beaver‖ co-starring her controversial friend Mel Gibson, something about her
seemed different.
It wasn‘t her ability to sidestep prickly questions with a disarming grin and a concise
reply, nor was it her thoughtful yet rehearsed answers as to why she would cast Gibson
in the lead role. It wasn‘t even the outfit she chose to wear that night: a sleeveless gray
Armani dress that she already had in her closet.
Being articulate, witty and professional has never been a problem for Foster, 48, who
has been in the spotlight since the age of three. What has posed more of a challenge
over the years is preserving her private life while vaulting her career to the heights of
Hollywood‘s gilded A-list.
Now the two-time Academy Award wining actress and director has found herself in an
unfamiliar role: building up Gibson after the actor destroyed his own reputation. And it‘s
a role that, in defending her friend, has given the somewhat guarded Foster a means of
slowly baring some of her own emotional scars, a rarity that is, in some respects, as
surprising as watching Gibson cobble back together his once-sterling image.
―The choices that I‘ve made were personal choices about questions that I had about
myself, my life, my psychoanalytic life, my mother and father, who they were to me,‖
Foster says, speaking of her film career. ―The reason I act is to evolve, and learn things
and to change and be better. My survival tool is my work.‖
Despite Foster‘s unwillingness to truly spell out what‘s behind her neuroses, unlike so
many celebrities today, the irony is that she has been speaking through her films all
along, peeling away the fragility of human emotions, dissecting and accepting imperfect
relationships and exploring what she calls her ―issues with aloneness.‖
Checking off those themes and more, ―The Beaver‖ tells the story of a deeply
depressed man, played by Gibson, whose bouts of aphasia and hopelessness alienate
his wife (Foster) and their children, until he discovers his voice. That voice — spoken in
a Cockney accent and delivered by an expressive-looking beaver puppet that sits
keenly atop Gibson‘s left hand — is how his character rebuilds his relationship with his
family.
―A beaver was always the choice of animal to be used. It‘s the perfect metaphor for
someone who builds something and destroys it at the same time,‖ says Foster, who
wryly noted at the film‘s premiere: ―I hope you don‘t mind the title, I love it. When can
you say to your friends, ‗Have you seen ―The Beaver‖?‘ ‖
Describing Gibson‘s performance as ―very raw,‖ Foster, as the film‘s director, offers up
something more sinister than a black comedy, and something with a higher quotient of
optimism than most European films exploring similar topics.
The cast, led by Gibson‘s muted, yet visceral performance, creates a quirky balance of
lightness and gravity that for duration of the 91-minute film temporarily blots out the
stigma that has shrouded the actor‘s personal life.
Although the film is not without faults, many already wonder if it can revive Gibson‘s
career. That‘s something that concerns Foster less than seeing her friend, who has
eschewed the limelight in advance of the film‘s release, rehabilitate his own life.
―As a director, I‘m not invested in if this film makes money,‖ she says, explaining that
what‘s important is what ―The Beaver‖ communicates. ―You have to look at the film as a
fable.‖
―The Beaver‖ is out in limited release, with wide release beginning May 20.
Jodie Foster: Mel Gibson is one of 'Most Loved' in Showbiz,
Professionally
May 05, 2011
Jodie Foster spoke out in support of Mel Gibson Wednesday night at a screening of
their new film, 'The Beaver.'
On the same day that Gibson's ex and the mother of his baby dropped a domestic
violence claim against the actor related to their custody battle, Foster said that working
with Mel was "amazing."
She asserted, "I think it's no secret that he's really one of the most loved people in the
business, professionally."
"He has seen the film, he loves the movie," Foster said, adding, "He's doing well, you
know, he's at an interesting moment in his life and he's really being as supportive as he
can and, you know, clapping from the sidelines."
Foster directed Gibson in "The Beaver" and disclosed that after 45 years of acting,
audiences should expect to find her behind the camera more and more in the coming
years.
The film, which is due in theaters Friday, finds Mel playing a formerly successful toy
exec and family man who falls into a depressed slump and can't get his life back on
track… until, that is, he dons a beaver hand puppet.
Jodie Foster Talks ‘The Beaver’ at Film Society of
Lincoln Center
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By: Nigel Smith/Thursday, May 5 2011
Jodie Foster dropped down last night at The Film Society of Lincoln Center to talk ―The
Beaver,‖ her long-delayed directorial outing, starring her good friend and headline
grabber (for all the wrong reasons) Mel Gibson. The event, dubbed ‗An Evening with
Jodie Foster Featuring The Beaver,‘ kicked off with Foster introducing her passion
project, warning the sold out audience in attendance that contrary to belief, ―The
Beaver‖ isn‘t a comedy. She wasn‘t kidding. Sure there are laughs to be had in watching
Gibson adopt a cockney accent while donning a puppet beaver on his left hand. But
Foster doesn‘t play his dilemma for laughs, treating his depression and the effect it has
on his family with complete sincerity. As soon as the screening wrapped, Foster took to
the stage with moderator Richard Peña to discuss her reasons for making the film and
the uphill battle she faced in releasing it. When asked by an audience member whether
she‘s concerned the film will make any money following Gibson‘s public tirades, Foster
said she‘s just happy she got to shoot it.
Jodie Foster Didn’t Like Being Directed by Dennis
Hopper
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By: Roger Friedman/Thursday, May 5 2011
We learned a lot about Jodie Foster last night at the Film Society of Lincoln Center‘s
screening of ―The Beaver.‖ She didn‘t like being directed by the late Dennis Hopper, for
one. Indeed, ―Catchfire,‖ (1990) which Hopper directed Foster in the year before ―The
Silence of the Lambs‖ earned her an Oscar, was so bad that Hopper took his name off
the final cut. He used ―Alan Smithee‖ instead, the pseudonym directors use when they
want to hide their bad or changed work. ―Catchfire‖ runs 3 hours long in its origignal
version, is also known on video as ―Backtrack.‖ and was, naturally, a huge flop now
forgotten.
During the Q&A with Richard Pena following the screening of ―The Beaver,‖ Foster let it
slip about this experience. ―I worked with an actor-director who was a major pain,‖
Foster said. ―It was very difficult for me. Very difficult.‖ At a dinner following the
screening at The Atlantic restaurant on West 65th St., Foster confirmed the director was
Hopper after our table mate, Scott Foundas of Film Comment, did a quick check on the
IMDB. Other guests at the dinner included Foster‘s ―Lambs‖ director Jonathan Demme
and famed writer-director Robert Benton, as well as Regis and Joy Philbin, Stone
Phillips, and Gayle King.
Jodie Foster ‘The Beaver’
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By: Roxanna Hernandez/Thursday, May 5 2011
While Jodie Foster showed off The Beaver at the Walter Reade Theater, Stella
McCartney was showing off her new Saks Appeal at Saks Fifth Avenue.
Special Screening of "The Beaver"
Jodie Foster, Jonathan Demme
Jodie Foster's movie The Beaver touches on some very tough stuff, as she directed and
co-stared along side of Mel Gibson. The movie focuses on a very unorthodox subject:
Depression aided by a stuffed beaver puppet. But who can be depressed on the thought
of Mel Gibson playing in Jodie Foster's Beaver...hmm?
Michelle Caruso-Cabrera
Ron Claiborne, Gayle King, Kirby King
Day in Celebrities
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Thursday, May 5 2011
Director and cast member Jodie Foster attends a special screening of her new movie,
The Beaver, on Wednesday in New York. No sign of Foster's leading man, Mel Gibson,
at least not on the photo line. The movie open in theatres on Friday.
Radio and OWN television talk show host Gayle King attends the Beaver screening with
her daughter Kirby King Bumpus.
Last Night’s Parties
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By: Mara Siegler/Thursday, May 5 2011
The 40th annual Kitchen gala honored musician Phillip Glass; Sheryl Crow sang for
Memorial Sloane Kettering; Jodie Foster screened her new Mel Gibson vehicle The
Beaver; Tommy Hilfiger brought the Hamptons to the Meatpacking District; Liv Tyler
came out to support Stella McCartney and more! Take a look at what happened last
night!
Special Screening of THE BEAVER
Where: Walter Reade Theater
Who Was There: Joan Juliet Buck, Michelle Caruso-Cabrera,Ron Claiborne, Gayle
King, Regis Philbin, Stone Phillips, John Stossel and his stache
Other Details: Mel Gibson, who you know from beating the shit out of his girlfriend and
hating Jewish people, as well as the 1980's, is in a new movie where he sets on a
journey to re-discover his family and re-start his life with the help of a Beaver puppet.
Jodie Foster is involved in the project and was on hand last night, minus Mel to promote
the flick.
Jodie Foster
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Thursday, May 5 2011
Director and actor Jodie Foster attends a special screening of 'The Beaver' at Walter
Reade Theater on Wednesday, May 4, 2011 in New York.
Jodie Foster: ‘Beaver’ Beauty
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Thursday, May 5 2011
Jodie Foster looked as glamorous as ever as she attended a screening of The Beaver
at the Walter Reade Theater in New York City on Wednesday night (May 4).
While her controversial co-star Mel Gibson was nowhere to be seen, the Oscar-winning
actress was joined by director Robert Benton and Jonathan Demme as she debuted
her new comedy about a troubled husband and executive who adopts a beaver handpuppet as his sole means of communicating.
Meanwhile, during the Q&A period following the screening, Jodie — who directed the
The Beaver — revealed that she didn‘t like being directed by the late Dennis Hopper in
1990′s Catchfire.
―I worked with an actor-director who was a major pain,‖ she said. ―It was very difficult for
me. Very difficult.‖
Reports Showbiz 411: ―At a dinner following the screening at The Atlantic restaurant on
West 65th St., Foster confirmed the director was Hopper after our table mate, Scott
Foundas of Film Comment, did a quick check on the IMDB.‖
Stone Phillips
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Thursday, May 5 2011
Journalist Stone Phillips and son Streeter attends a special screening of 'The Beaver' at
Walter Reade Theater on Wednesday, May 4, 2011 in New York.
Jodie Foster talks ‘The Beaver’
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By: Shaina Moskowitz/Friday, May 6 2011
Jodie Foster attends a screening of "The Beaver" at the Walter Reade Theater on May 4, 2011 in New
York City
On Wednesday evening, The Film Society of Lincoln Center hosted An Evening
with Jodie Foster Featuring The Beaver. The sold-out special screening featured a
Q&A with Foster and FSLC director Richard Pena. Mel Gibson plays Walter Black, a
once successful toy executive who suffers from depression. No matter what he tries,
Walter can‘t seem to get himself back on track…until a most unusual therapy arrives in
the form of a beaver hand puppet he rescues from a dumpster. Foster directed the film
and she also plays Gibson's wife. The film also stars Anton Yelchin and rising star
Jennifer Lawrence. We spoke with Jodie Foster on the red carpet:
Q: Do you see yourself in Jennifer Lawrence at all? What was it like working with her?
Jodie Foster: I dont know if I see myself in her, she's a lot taller and prettier. She's
amazing and I saw lots of actresses to play this role and none of them were quite right
and then I saw her audition and then obviously little bits and pieces of 'Winter's Bone,'
before it was finished and I just said, 'this is who I want and now I'm going to rewrite the
role for her,' so we went back and rewrote the whole role for her.
What was it like juggling acting and directing in this project?
Jodie Foster: Well it's actually easier than you'd think because you know as a director
you do the great research and you're able to as an actor really give the director what
they're looking for, the one problem is that you don't give them a a lot of choices and
you don't give yourself a lot of choices and sometimes you wish that you had more
surprises, you know?
What do you hope audiences will take from The Beaver?
Jodie Foster: You know I hope that it's a film that makes people want to be more
connective and recognize that they don't have to be alone--that they don't have to be
alone with their feelings, whether they have depression in their family, or whether
they're just are taken by modern emotions.
A few of the celebrity guests that we spotted at the screening included Gayle King,
'The Silence of the Lambs' Director Jonathan Demme, Robert Benton, Regis and
Joy Philbin, and Stone Phillips. They all joined Foster at a special celebratory
post-screening dinner at The Atlantic Restaurant.
'The Beaver' is now playing at selected theaters in New York:
Jodie Plugs ‘Beaver’ But Mel’s a No-Show
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By: Michelle Ruiz/Friday, May 6 2011
The Beaver’ NY Screening
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Friday, May 6 2011
Jodie Foster attends a screening of "The Beaver" at the Walter Reade Theater on May 4, 2011 in New
York City.
Jodie Foster and Jonathan Demme
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Friday, May 6 2011
Jodie Foster and Jonathan Demme attend a screening of 'The Beaver' at the Walter
Reade Theater on May 4, 2011 in New York City.
Jodie Foster Gushes Over Jennifer Lawrence: I ReWrote ‘The Beaver’ To Get Her In It!
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By: David Ryan/Friday, May 6 2011
Jodie tells HollywoodLife.com that Jennifer impressed her so much that she
changed the whole script for her young star!
Jennifer Lawrence, who stars in Jodie Foster‗s new movie The Beaver, was so
important to the project that Jodie revamped her script to make sure it worked for the
Oscar-nominated actress! Jodie, who directed and co-starred in the movie with good
friend Mel Gibson, tells us exclusively about why Jennifer is perfect in her big role as
Norah.
―I don‘t know if I see myself in her, she‘s a lot taller and prettier,‖ Jodie revealed to us at
the NYC screening of The Beaver at The Film Society of Lincoln Center. ―She‘s
amazing and I saw lots of actresses play this role and none of them were quite right –
and then I saw her audition, and obviously little bits and pieces of Winter’s Bone before
it was finished, and I just said this is who I want…now I‘m going to re-write the role for
her! So we went back and re-wrote the whole role for her!‖
Wow — what a compliment for this rising star!
Be sure to watch out for Jennifer in her new flick, The Hunger Games, due out in 2012!