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American Honey

October 19, 2016 (updated July 9, 2019) Published by Shari K. Green

American Honey is sweet and wholesome; the film that bares that name is anything but. It’s a raw portrayal of a slice of Americana that we want to believe doesn’t exist; that we prefer not to think about. It’s captured with intimate camera work that masterfully puts its audience in the story with, even as, the lead character, Star (Lane). Lane is a newcomer and does a stellar job of giving us a peek at Arnold’s idea of the challenges the young people in America face today trying to know one another and know themselves. With particular interest cast on the poor youth of this nation, the story can be uncomfortable to watch. They are expected to raise themselves and their siblings, while also having to try and keep up with the fast paced and changing world of technology that they might not be able to afford. It’s true that text messaging and social media has kept us from speaking face to face, this is not so in Stars life. She sees day to day what matters and faces some daily confrontations most never have. She is also very aware of the planet and understands the need to save it… one honey bee at a time. The environment and trying to save it is a very powerful message throughout the film, which does not go by unnoticed.

Star has strong convictions but she’s not otherwise worldly. When she joins an enthusiastic and somewhat feral group of young traveling magazine salesman, she meets who might be her first love, Jake (LaBeouf), who she surprises with her confidence and her ability to love. She’s wide eyed, has never been anywhere outside of town and hasn’t seen much, but that doesn’t mean she’s easy. Fighting off advances from family members and being witness to countless problems befall her family she’s aggressive and fierce when she needs to be. Taking on the task of sales, she tries the honest route instead of allowing Jake to teach her the way their boss Krystal (Keough, granddaughter of Elvis Presley) wants her to sell. She’s unorthodox but gets it done. Being stubborn and bullheaded does land her in some hot water more than once, however, watching this naïve girl grow up and become a part of something and discover herself as she bounces from city to city is incredibly fascinating… even though you cringe a few times.

The soundtrack, one I’d like to own, by the way, feeds the mood, especially the moment when the title song, “American Honey” by Lady Antebellum, is played and the entire crew sings with it. The actors who expertly pull you into the narrative turn the movie into a musical from time to time and make it more relatable and moving. The length is never an issue, in fact, I never once thought I was watching an almost three hour long movie.

Several scenes are surprisingly pornographic but they fall in line with the organic ambiance of the film. It’s compelling, novel, and peculiar and about as uncommon as they come, which is why I celebrate this work and suggest you go to a theatre this weekend to examine it for yourself.

It’s one of the best films of the year.

Jackie Official Teaser Trailer

October 13, 2016 (updated December 22, 2016) Published by markdeli

JACKIE is a searing and intimate portrait of one of the most important and tragic moments in American history, seen through the eyes of the iconic First Lady, then Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy (Natalie Portman). JACKIE places us in her world during the days immediately following her husband’s assassination. Known for her extraordinary dignity and poise, here we see a psychological portrait of the First Lady as she struggles to maintain her husband’s legacy and the world of “Camelot” that they created and loved so well.

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In Select Theaters December 2

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Desierto Official Trailer #2

October 13, 2016 (updated October 13, 2016) Published by markdeli

From Jonás Cuarón and Alfonso Cuarón, the acclaimed filmmakers of Gravity, comes a unique, modern vision of terror. Desierto is a visceral, heart-pounding suspense-thriller packed with tension and suspense from start to finish, starring Gael García Bernal (The Motorcycle Diaries and Y Tu Mamá También) and Jeffrey Dean Morgan (Watchmen).

What begins as a hopeful journey to seek a better life becomes a harrowing and primal fight for survival when a deranged, rifle-toting vigilante chases a group of unarmed men and women through the treacherous U.S.-Mexican border. In the harsh, unforgiving desert terrain, the odds are stacked firmly against them as they continuously discover there’s nowhere to hide from the unrelenting, merciless killer.

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In Theaters October 14

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I make Simon Helberg from Florence Foster Jenkins and The Big Bang Theory laugh

October 12, 2016 (updated October 12, 2016) Published by Shari K. Green

I had just screened “Florence Foster Jenkins”, a well acted and decidedly entertaining film, when I was honored, along with a few others, to have a chance to then speak to one of its stars, Simon Helberg, most known for his work as Howard Wolowitz on the hit show “The Big Bang Theory.” I say that I was honored because not only was Helberg courteous, friendly, open and honest but he was extremely attentive and gave a lot of thought to his answers, never once giving the impression that doing press for the film was the last place he’d want to be. He was warm and pleasant and very thorough in his responses; being careful to answer the question to its fullest. Here is that interview.

Q: Outside of some other great films, your father, Sandy, was in “Spaceballs”, “History of the World pt 1”, “High Anxiety”, This is Spinal Tap, not to mention the great television he has done. Once you saw this quality in him, was it his comedic talents that encouraged you to follow in his footsteps and would you encourage your children to follow in yours?

SH: Encourage is a tricky word cuz I think you want to be supportive but I’d never want to suggest to my children (and my dad never did to me) in any sort of way, push someone into something. You’d be kind of a fool if you did that because it’s so hard to make it as an actor or a comedian or anything in the arts so, I’d be very supportive and my dad was very supportive of me and I think he was more inspiring. I watched him at “The Groundlings” and, obviously, those were great movies that you named and I think it definitely shaped me in many ways and I also say that it was very hard to, sort of, get success and make it. Even though my dad worked and did well, it… that’s kind of, that’s sort of grounding. It kind of helped me as I went into it to have a pretty good handle on the difficulty of it and then to sort of be appreciative of the successes.

Q: You character and performance has tons of facial expressions they’re a huge part of your performance; they range from very subtle to overt. In the scene where you hear Florence sing for the first time, were you already aware of what Meryl was going to sound like or were those expressions real?

SH: Both, I guess, which is kind of a trick in doing this which is, it has to be new, sort of, every time. She’s doing something every time and she made my job a lot easier. We’d already rehearsed for about a week and a half with the music and we’d actually recorded at Abby Road, as well, which was amazing. So, we had a lot of time to laugh and figure out what we were doing and then, of course, they ended up wanting to shoot it all live so all of the stuff that we had recorded was thrown out and because of that we’re playing all that music live as you’re seeing it and as it was being shot which I think both helped… well, it helped us contain our laughter and, sort of, focus but it also made all of it very authentic; so those reactions… that was really happening, for the most part, in real time. I mean, obviously the editing is pretty masterfully as well, but what you’re seeing is actually what is coming out of us… for better or for worse.

Q: You speak in a higher pitched voice in this film and kind of change your speaking patterns, what was behind your decision to do that? Was there something you pulled from your research of him?

SH: Some of it… not from his voice, actually. The most that I could find in doing this research was some fact and little tidbits of information that were in the movie but there is a recording of him, actually, but he’s much older and he talks about that night at Carnegie Hall and I had a moment of thinking, ‘Hmm… do I want to use this as inspiration?’ because he was probably, I think, in his seventies at that point and it was a bit different than I had pictured it and his outlook was very different than it was in the script. I thought, ‘you usually always want to start with the script.’ So, to me I just saw it vividly and heard him vividly in this way but as far as the voice, I saw him as being very pure and chaised and very innocent and having no sense of cynicism and hadn’t been corrupted in any way whatsoever like a little bird or a gecko or something. And I thought, there’s something very childlike and I feel like he’s probably unaware of his sexuality and, I don’t know, he didn’t seem to me to be… uh, that’s just how I guess I heard him. I guess there are people in my life who I know kind of have… I don’t know, there’s something very chaised about him and very alien at the same time. And then there’s also the fact that it was the forties and he was walking into this elevated high society, cosmopolitan lifestyle and people actually did take speech classes and there was this sort of dignified way of talking back then and it’s just kind of all of those things combined, I guess, that led me to that.

Q: Why did you choose to be in this film?

SH: I couldn’t think of one reason why I wouldn’t be interested or want to claw my way into this movie. There’s the obvious people that were making it and involved with it who are probably the best, you know, ever at this. Between Meryl and Stephen and Hugh and… Alexandre Desplat did their music, Consolata Boyle (costume design), Alan MacDonald (production design) did the sets. I feel like I’m accepting an award. But all these people who are the most brilliant at doing this, I mean that was in and of itself a dream. I mean, the script was so unique and the scenes, I guess, really speak to me and not just the love of music but this idea of perception and sort of disparity between our perceptions of ourselves and what other people perceive and the question therein, I guess, being, ‘Does it matter that we hear one voice in our head and other people hear a different one when we all leads to the same place?’ I don’t know, there’s just something that was beautifully poetic about her journey and I felt that the script did an amazing job celebrating this woman and celebrating this love and this joy that she found in music.

Q: With it being a period piece and being based on real life events, what was the most challenging aspect of making this film?

SH: Well, the most challenging part of it was combining the music and the acting. It’s sort of being hired as an actor and having then kind of having the music take over in many ways because it was so hard and challenging and also it was such an enormous part of the film that I knew that ultimately whether I played the piano or not really wouldn’t matter. People are going to see it in my performance as an actor but then it all got tied together because Meryl was going to sing and they want to do it live and for it to be live, they want the piano to be live and it was going to be different every time so, there was just… part of the pressure of getting this music done live while they were shooting us, working with Meryl and Stephen in this incredible movie and it was just built in pressure and it was just challenging and then on top of that to find this character and do it simultaneously. It felt very, you know, it’s very hard not to play piano with two hands so it felt like I had like eight arms and I was trying to do multiple things. And then, of course, you want to be faithful to these characters because they’re real but at the same time there wasn’t a ton of information on them so that was sort of liberating because the script was really the bible. It was just ultimately great fun even when it was sometimes brutally challenging.

“Florence Foster Jenkins” is enchanting! The cast is delightful. This is an absolute must see!

Shari K. Green

Sr. Film Writer and Community Manager, tmc.io

Q: “Florence Foster Jenkins” is about someone who is an opera singer but not very talented. Luckily there are a lot of talented people on this movie, yourself, Meryl Streep being one of the best actresses of all time and so on, how do you all bring out the best in each other?

SH: (laughs) I was probably the odd man out in a sea of talent. Well, it was both like every actors dream when you can jump into a part with, honestly, the greatest people working today and maybe ever because ultimately you are only as good as the people around you and these people make you even better. I think that’s a sign of greatness… so with that also came quite a bit of paralyzing fear as well because you don’t wanna be the one that brings Meryl Streep down… not that that’s possible but it’s scary to kinda get to work with people who are your heroes but then what you kind of realize when you, and I hope this is true for everything and everyone, when you get around people that are that great, usually they’re there to make the best thing they can make and they bring their whole self to. And in order to make something wonderful I think you have to be sensitive and you have to be generous and you definitely have to be passionate; in this experience I was very warmly welcomed and it was very collaborative and I feel like and hope and think that’s true of truly great people.

Q: There’s this great moment when Cosme McMoon (Helberg) asks St Clair Bayfield (Grant) about his arrangement with Florence at St Clair’s apartment and later McMoon speaks to Florence at his own apartment and I thought McMoon really wanted to insert his opinion on Florence and St Claire’s relationship but felt better of it and that he was protecting her like everyone else in the movie. But near the end of the film, at Carnegie Hall, he says to her, ‘We can do it!’ in a very confident voice and I think at that moment it turns from protection to support. Is that how you see it or what do you think?

SH: You have really tapped into so many things that I didn’t know anyone else would necessarily pick up on and (inaudible). That is all that you said; and something at some point that I was cognizant of. That being the moment in the apartment when Bayfield is there and he says, ‘I love her. Do you love this woman?’ There was a real moment there when I thought, ‘How dare you, sir, ask me? Of course I love her!’ Because he is protecting her. Florence comes to McMoon’s apartment and he sees how broken she is by Bayfield and so this innocent little McMoon is now… he’s been sort of somewhat corrupted by this harsh and strange reality of this love… this relationship these characters have with each other and all of the sudden he does have to step up and he does feel this protective desire and I think that in Carnegie Hall that becomes the moment, you know, she’s scared and it’s just so beautiful the way the script and the movie, kind of… you can just see all the color in these people, I guess, and that’s his moment. He has that bond. McMoon is the only one who understands the music, really, with her. Bayfield doesn’t. They don’t play music together so here’s this transition from, ‘Okay, I’ll help this woman’ to ‘You know what, let’s do this.’ Like, ‘this is important not just for her but for me. We have something greater than this kind of courier minded, reputation focused… you know, frame of mind. We have the love of music and it doesn’t matter. Nothing else matters.

Q: It’s amazing how everyone around Florence continued to keep up her status. She was well protected and people truly loved her but why do you think people loved her so much?

SH: I think there’s a very human quality and I think there’s almost nothing more human than failure. I think it’s funny and it’s tragic and I think it’s comforting but only when it’s done passionately. Only when someone is putting themselves out there genuinely and un-ironically and (inaudible) kind of falling flat (no pun intended). So, I think that is one element of it and the fact that she was so filled with joy and so moved by music and wanted to share that joy and that love of music with people… I think it’s just magnetic. It’s like watching a little child with total abandon singing out and dancing. The part of your brain that had any kind of judgment or criticism is overridden by the joyous part. Other people were laughing or their jaws were on the floor or; they were enjoying themselves.

Q: The world is about to find out that you’re a very talented pianist from this. I was wondering what else do you with the world knew about you and the things you bring to the table?

SH: I’m not that much of a showoff. Well, I don’t know, I guess I can answer sort of as opposed to what I want people to celebrate about me, because God forbid I am somebody looking for a parade, there are different things I want to do. I love acting and the great thing about that, especially in a case like this is, sometimes that requires other talents and sometimes you don’t have ‘em and you learn to have ‘em. Look at Meryl and the things that she’s done. She has all the talent in the world but look at the things she’s learned to do for a film; violin and languages and she played a Rabbi and a man. I think that’s what’s great about acting. You get to know other people and find other interests and so, yeah, I’m interesting in discovering what else I might be able to do and when I find things I think I can’t do it’s torturous sometimes but it’s very gratifying to push through that. This was no exception. I didn’t expect that I’d be able to play all of these pieces. There were times when I felt like, ‘If Meryl can do it…’ I was working with that company and I felt, ‘Geez, she’s going to sing all of this live?! I better do my best to get there.’

“Florence Foster Jenkins” is enchanting! The cast is delightful. This is an absolute must see!

Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children

October 10, 2016 (updated November 7, 2016) Published by JMcNaughton

Jake Portman (Asa Butterfield) is a young teenager living in Florida, with a deep admiration and affection for his grandfather Abe Portman (Terence Stamp). Abe would tell Jake many wild stories about a far-off school that Abe used to attend. The horrible death of Abe gives Jake and his father Frank Portman (Chris O’Dowd) the idea to visit the Isle of Wales to see where Abe grew up.

On the Isle, Jake wanders into a large mansion and it changes from broken down to tip-top shape. Jake has gone from 2016 back to 1943. It is the work of Miss Peregrine (Eva Green), who is the loving but strict leader of the Home for Peculiar Children.

Jake meets all of the children, but he develops a crush on Emma (Ella Purnell) who is one of the students. Jake finds out the Nazis would bomb that building that night, but Miss Peregrine has the ability to turn back time for 24 hours to create a safe ‘time loop’ for the children.

There is an evil man named Mr. Baron (Samuel L. Jackson) who is a shape-shifter and can appear to be anyone. He leads a group of crazy people who will attack the Peculiar Children and eat their … eyeballs. Baron is also the cause behind the Hollows, invisible monsters that has earlier killed Jake’s grandfather.

Many of the Peculiar Children have unusual abilities. Emma can float and can control air, there is one who is pyrokinetic, another who is an invisible boy. There is one who can control and maintain plants, and another who has bees that live in his stomach, and a boy who dreams many future events. There is a young girl who is an amazingly strong child, and one who can control and direct the newly dead.

The story twist and turns back and forth between 1943 and 2016, and from the Isle of Wight to Florida and back again and also to London. There is a sunken ocean liner that is lifted with the forced air from Emma. There is another hidden Home in London that gets attacked by Baron and the evil crew. Miss Avocet (Judi Dench) has to run away and the Peculiar Children help her before Baron can kill her.

Jake has never found any special Peculiar ability that he might have. Except for the fact that he can see the Hollows, who remain invisible to everyone else. Miss Peregrine knows that Jake will be very helpful in the fight against the Hollows and against Mr. Baron. She will be able to use his special talents to keep the other Children safe.

So that is the direction of this new movie that NOT aimed for small children. There are some scary situations, along with many that are just down right odd. Yet, for a Tim Burton movie, it seems subdued and not as wild as many of his earlier ones. There is a bit of the darkness along with a crazy-quilt of characters. Just not as many as you might have expected in a Burton production.

Eva Green did a beautiful job in the role, and Samuel L. Jackson was very over-the-top as the big villain. Asa Butterfield was fair, but mostly bland, and there was not chemistry at all between him and co-star Ella Purnell. Judi Dench has a short role but is fun to watch, Terence Stamp has just the right look as the Peculiar grandfather.

This movie is available with 3-D, but except for a handful of scenes it does not lend itself to any great viewing. The production qualities were very clear and impressive. However the overly large cast and the odd shifting between time periods and places made the story very hard to follow.

By all means, leave your kids at home to go see this latest Tim Burton movie, especially if you have a taste for the Peculiar.

Arrival

October 10, 2016 (updated October 10, 2016) Published by markdeli

When mysterious spacecrafts touch down across the globe, an elite team – lead by expert linguist Louise Banks (Amy Adams) – is brought together to investigate. As mankind teeters on the verge of global war, Banks and the team race against time for answers – and to find them, she will take a chance that could threaten her life, and quite possibly humanity.

Starring: Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, Forest Whitaker

Director: Denis Villeneuve

Deepwater Horizon

October 7, 2016 (updated October 10, 2016) Published by JMcNaughton

The ‘Disaster Movie’ from the ’80s is back, but in a more professionally produced package. There are no airplanes falling from the sky, but there is an Inferno, and it does tower. There is no sinking cruise ship, but a floating oil rig in the Gulf is in deep(water) trouble. The actual events of 2010 are recalled and given the up-close-and-personal treatment. “Deepwater Horizon” makes a statement about the strength of ordinary men and woman in a very extraordinary situation.

Mike Williams (Mark Wahlberg) is an oil rig engineer ready to take on another three week shift on the Deepwater Horizon rig. His wife Felicia (Kate Hudson) wishes for his safe return, as usual. He meets “Mr. Jimmy” Harrell (Kurt Russell) who is the supervisor on the rig. Mr. Jimmy is a no-nonsense leader who believes in safety first. Andrea (Gina Rodriguez) is a worker in the control room who helps keep the rig on target.

TransOcean is the company who owns the rig, and it is being leased by BP (British Petroleum). A few BP executives are on board, including Donald Vidrine (John Malkovich). They are worried that rig’s drilling has not been completed and tested in time, and now they are weeks overdue and millions are being lost. So there are reductions made in testing and not every normal regulation has been followed completely. The oil needs to be drilled already, dammit!

While running some functional testing, the results are unclear. The BP bosses, like Donald, want a quick retest done. But “Mr. Jimmy” and Mike and many other oil rig workers want every option completely tested. This includes Caleb Holloway (Dylan O’Brien) a guy on the main drill line floor. He notices that after the aborted test, there is some violent shuddering in the drill line. He starts to see the mud and oil oozing up from the drill. This is not a normal result.

Within minutes, the rig explodes with highly pressured oil and gas that had been trapped in the faulty drill line. Methane seeps into the air ducts, ready to ignite – and there is no place to hide. There are 11 people who do not make it out alive. But the remaining one hundred plus workers, engineers, pilots, cooks and everyone assigned to work on the Horizon are in trouble. There are many injured and people are in shock. The story of how the rest of them got out and helped each other makes for the second half of the movie.

Movies that are based on true life situations are interesting. There is a build up to an oncoming oil rig disaster or a double bird strike on a jet out of JFK. You basically know the story. But there so many details of the actual situation that the movie portrays, that you are still amazed to see the whole thing unfold.

Mark Wahlberg plays the smart yet humble oil rig expert, and he shows how average guy can become a hero in the right circumstances. Kurt Russell it a force to be reckoned with, and his character is devoted to by-the-book safety measures. “Mr. Jimmy” will not let the sneaky executives pull any fast ones, but when they get him out of the room…

Kate Hudson does her best to act like the loving wife, and she is nervous when she hears the news. Dylan O’Brien plays a typical oil rig grunt, the guys who are there pulling the pipe and manning the drill at all hours. The money-grubbing monster had to be played by someone, so John Malkovich was the only logical choice.

The acting plays second fiddle to the visual chaos of the Horizon under assault by flaming jets of gas and oil. The action scenes are so realistic that you also feel under assault. Everyone is covered in oil and blood, and the horror takes a human toll. The means to escape are few, and pathways to survive are slim. Special effects, computer enhanced imagery, sound design and mixing are all on display.

Peter Berg has taken a eerie chapter from America’s recent past with this event leading to the worst oil spill in history. But rather than focus on the long-term affects to the ecology of the Gulf, he instead narrows it down to the workers on the rig. We feel the confusion and despair of the men and women who made up that team. And at the very end, there is a fitting tribute to the 11 souls who perished on the disaster. With additional review (from this movie), perhaps there is some hope for changes and continued vigilance on the deepwater oil rigs.

The Accountant movie trailer #2

September 30, 2016 (updated September 30, 2016) Published by markdeli

Christian Wolff is a math savante with more affinity for numbers than people. Behind the cover of a small-town CPA office, he works as a freelance accountant for some of the world’s most dangerous criminal organizations. With the Treasury Department’s Crime Enforcement Division, run by Ray King, starting to close in, Christian takes on a legitimate client: a state-of-the-art robotics company where an accounting clerk has discovered a discrepancy involving millions of dollars. But as Christian uncooks the books and gets closer to the truth, it is the body count that starts to rise.

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In Theaters October 13

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Interview with Mark Geist and John Tiegen of “13 Hours: The Inside Account of What Really Happened in Benghazi”

August 12, 2016 (updated July 8, 2019) Published by Shari K. Green

Former Marines, Mark “Oz” Geist and John “Tig” Tiegen, were unable to quiet their minds and bodies on September 11, 2012. They were in Benghazi, Libya, when what they were trained and ready to do, not what they were actually there for, kicked in; and luckily for anyone who survived because many wouldn’t have, had these men not been willing, ready and able to be, not in their words, heroes. Read more

Talking “The Choice” with Nicholas Sparks

February 3, 2016 (updated April 23, 2018) Published by Shari K. Green

Interview with Nicholas Sparks for the release of his film “The Choice”

By: Shari K. Green

PHOENIX, AZ – Nicholas Sparks, as you know, is the author of books such as, Message in a Bottle, The Notebook and The Best of Me, which have all been turned into big Hollywood money makers, not to mention the fact that these films widened his already immense and devoted audience with each movie; suddenly books had to be seen by his fans and the movies had to be read… pretty good deal for a Carolina Panthers fan. When he came to town for a chat, I had to go there with him. I asked and, yes, he’s for Carolina in the Super Bowl this weekend, of course, and I’m for the Broncos. We’ll see. Anyway, he sat with me and a few others to discuss his most recent offering, The Choice, opening in theaters starting February 5^th.

Very bubbly and fun, he walked in the room and gave us a ‘How are ya’ll doin’?’ Then he grabbed himself a Coke, offered everyone else one, as well, before finding a seat and introducing himself. He tells us that he generally has water the rest of the day, but touring means he usually has caffeine ‘til noon and this throws him off his normal healthier schedule, and how can you blame him? This is how he gets through these long days of interviews. His energy was very nice to be around and I find him to be quite warm and genuine; a very kind soul… sincere. He looks you in the eyes when he speaks to you, making sure that not only he is heard and understood, but to be sure to give you the feeling that you are heard and understood. He’s a very easy person to talk to and one I’m glad I had the chance to spend some time with. Here are some of the questions from our time together. Enjoy!!

*FYI There will be SPOILERS

Shari: You are one of the only writers to give us these deep romance stories from the man’s perspective. Do you get stopped on the street and get asked advice on romance all the time?

NS: No. In fact, I don’t know that its ever happened before so how about that. I’m not recognized by men. I’m recognized by women sometimes, but never men. Unless I’m supposed to be in… they know kinda where I’m supposed to be, I’m very seldom recognized at all. Like, for instance if people know I’m in Phoenix doing stuff, they might see me in a hotel lobby and recognize me but had they not seen me on the news that morning, they might not. So, in the history of my career as far as I know outside of my hometown of New Bern, North Carolina, I think I’ve been recognized… less than a dozen. I had a lady sit next to me on a plane, reading my book, staring at my author photo… and she didn’t recognize me. So no; but to answer that question I do, often by journalists, get asked, ‘can you give romantic advice?’ And I say, ‘I don’t think so.’ He laughs.

Shari: So you’re not going to start a column or anything?

NS: Absolutely not. I just try to write the best novels that I can.

Shari: Being that you’re going through some change right now, what advice would you give to students on making a life changing choice?

NS.: In general? I’d say, ‘choose your struggles wisely because it is your struggles that will define the life you live.’ What do I mean by that? If you ask people what they want, if you ask almost anyone what they want, everyone pretty much wants the same thing; they want a job they enjoy and great personal relationships, they want to be close with family and get along with friends, they want to be healthy, right? Everyone… the answer is so common it’s ubiquitous, however, if you ask someone, ‘How do you choose to suffer?’ That’ll tell you a little bit about the person. I choose to write novels. I isolate myself from friends and family for hours on end. The time vanishes when one writes it feels as though you sacrifice a bit of your life. I’m willing to put up with the torture of creation, you know, the struggles of writers’ block, to get to the end, right? That’s one of the struggles that I choose. So, choose your struggles wisely because how you choose to suffer will largely define the life you live.

Shari: Is the suffering worth it?

NS: That’s the question. Most people don’t, I find, get what they want. They really just didn’t want it bad enough ‘cause if you really want something, you really will do what it takes to get there.

Shari: For someone who does spend a lot of time in their room, maybe on the computer or what have you, what would you maybe say to someone who needs to maybe break away from that mold and to kind of get into that “romancesphere”?

NS: I would say that unless that’s what they truly want, they probably never will… and to accept that. And it’s okay… to each his own. (He thinks a moment and speaks again). To… to step out of a box in which you’re very comfortable and put yourself in an uncomfortable position, you have to really want to do that and there are certainly joys and wonders that can come about but there’s also heartbreak and sadness which are also part of the game. You know, everyone wants a wonderful relationship; they pretty much want the view from the top of the mountain but ya gotta be willing to walk up the mountain. Ya gotta be able to do the climb so, if they’re not willing to then have them accept themselves and to make the most of the lives they can with the friends they have and life’s about enjoyment. Life’s not only about work, it’s about enjoyment so as long as they’re good, I’m good.

Shari: Has anyone made a decision that you didn’t like? One that you had no say in; that’s the way it’s going to be?

NS: Has anyone made a decision I didn’t like. Sure! We can start with my children. (Laughs) Of course, you know? And… I suppose it goes to the nature of the question that was up to require the decision, right? Most of the time I try to live my life by simple words that my mom taught me, ‘If someone says something you don’t like, or you disagree with, say, (And this is true though) it’s your life you can do with it what you want… you can.’ Now how I deal with that, that’s up to me, but you can do whatever you want. My children hate when I tell them that. They hate it with a passion, like, ‘Put all the burden on me!’ But it’s very true. I don’t know how successful you’ve been at running someone else’s life, but I already found that it’s not very successful so I try not to give advice.

Shari: What are their age ranges?

NS: Fourteen to Twenty-Four. But it’s not just them, it’s siblings and people you work with. People are going to do what they’re going to do and the only thing you can control is how you respond to it.

Shari: Religion became a part of the narrative of the story, subtly and not so subtly; where Travis pulled away from his faith. Do you think that after the story ended, that Travis would go back to his faith?

NS: My opinion is that it would be difficult for Travis not to go back to his faith. That would be my thought on that subject but, of course, that’s just my opinion on the matter. And that was not an element that was within the novel. That was an element that came about in the film… and so, I suppose an even better person to ask would be Ben Walker for his version of the character and the director (Ross Katz).

Shari: How did you bring Gabby (Teresa Palmer) and Travis (Benjamin Walker) together?! They had such great onscreen chemistry.

NS: First we cast people who we thought were immensely talented and then throughout the casting process, we look for chemistry. How do they seem to get along, do they seem to be friends… and Teresa has one of these personalities that draws everyone in, and so does Ben, in fact. And so, what they had was just magnetic, even in the read, so, when we put them on screen, when you get them in the big picture, it comes across as being incredible. But it’s something that we definitely look for.

Shari: The brother/sister relationship that you had occur… is there something in your personal life that you drew from because the sister is very likeable. Her character brought a lot to the film.

NS: The sister in the novel was an even broader character. I’ve been asked numerous times to write a story about the sister cuz she had it all together and she really did. She was as comfortable as he was, with herself and I find that a wonderful element to someone’s personality… just the comfort with who they are. So, yeah, I was very close to my siblings growing up and I’m still incredibly close to my brother; we actually took a trip around the world and I wrote a non-fiction book about that called “Three Weeks with My Brother”. And, I’d say I’m close to my sister, too, but she passed away. She passed away from a brain tumor about sixteen years ago… so… yeah, the relationship between Ben and his sister was very much inspired by the relationship that I have with my siblings. I had parents that really stressed the fact that your siblings will always be around. Your friends will come and go but your family’s there forever. In many ways, they are the people that you can tell anything to and they still keep coming back… right?

Travis Shaw (Ben Walker) and Gabby Holland (Teresa Palmer) in THE CHOICE. Photo Credit: Dana Hawley

Shari: Up to the accident, you have your love story… and then the accident happened and I’m in tears; multiple times throughout. What about trauma do you think makes the story that much better?

NS: Well, I write in a very distinct genre… it’s really called a love story as distinguished from a romance novel; a romance novel is really about romantic fantasy and it’s really supposed to be able to allow the reader to escape into a world and you go through conflicts but you pretty much know that the couple is going to get together in the end. That’s what it’s about and that’s why you read them and it’s certainly a very valid, you know, it’s a wonderful genre; Cinderella. I mean, it works every time. This is a love story and a love story is not necessarily romantic fantasy, although there are romantic elements. The purpose of that is to move the reader or the viewer through all of the emotions of life; to make it feelreal so you might call it romantic realism versus romantic fantasy. And that realism requires the reader or the viewer feel all of the emotions of life, cuz otherwise something’s missing… you know that; and the simple fact of life is that everyone goes through tragedy. There’s not one of us that will escape scot-free. So, we have characters that feel real then they go through emotions that feel real… and they allow you, the viewer or reader to live someone else’s but to feel like it was a full life; like you got it all even though it was just a snippet… a point in time.

Shari: You have romance down, for sure, have you ever, even if you did it under a pseudonym or something, considered writing maybe a horror novel ala Stephen King; try a different genre?

NS: No. I don’t. I’m very happy writing the kind of novels I write. One of the wonderful things about the genre in which I work, is that I’m able to pull elements from all sorts of genres and build them into my novels. For instance, “See Me”, is my latest novel; it’s a love story; these two opposite characters meet, it’s my first Hispanic character and she’s a lawyer and this guy is a reformed bad-boy and, okay, they’re going to make it work… overcome these obstacles. And somewhere around the halfway point the novel starts devolving into a very twisty mystery thriller. Something like my attempt at what Harlen Coben would do. And I’m not saying I did it but it was my attempt to do what he does so expertly well… and part of the fun of that novel is, the tension is increasing and you’re not even sure what’s going on. The reader is as confused as the characters in the novel. You can just feel the tension growing and growing. So, I can put elements of mystery into my novels. I put elements of the supernatural in “Safe Haven”… take that for what it’s worth… it’s very light. Uhh… Epic. I’ve done epic sweeping stories like “The Longest Ride”. So, all of these elements that are particular to various genres, I’ve been able to put into mine.

Shari: Have you ever or are you now, writing with a specific actor in mind?

NS: No. The only time I did that was for “The Last Song”. If the movie got made it would be for Miley Cyrus and that’s because I worked with Disney on the project.

Shari: Never??

NS: No. No. (Laughs) I never… never… no. (Laughs again)

Shari:. I love the cast, especially the side characters, Tom Wilkinson and Tom Welling are terrific… umm… were there any jokes on the set or how was Ben feeling about stealing Superman’s girlfriend?

NS: There weren’t any particular jokes about that. It was a very familial set because we asked all of those characters to have arcs; even the father had an arc, you know, the sister had an arc. So, because they all had arcs, we all asked them to do various things emotionally and… we wanted them to be very comfortable, really experimenting… pressing themselves, going out on a limb, really (allowing) them to evoke these emotions in the viewer in a real way and we did that by having it become a family setting. When they’re filming the backyard for the bbq, things like that, it was like we were at a backyard bbq. The dogs were running around, the kids were over there… the sun, it’s beautiful, it’s warm, you’re in your shorts, you’re cooking on the grill; it was like, ‘I can’t believe we’re working.’ It was more like that.

Shari: What’s it like seeing your novels come to life from a producer’s point of view?

NS: It’s a lot of thought. I love the fact that viewers are going to see a new way to hear the story that I conceived. I have my chance to tell the story the way I did in the novel… but let’s see how someone else does with my story, you know? What kind of colors, who are we going to cast, how are we going to frame this… what elements do we keep, what elements do we change to capture the whole spirit of the story and the characters. For me it’s a wonderful way to experience the story in a different medium.

Shari: Have you ever thought of just skipping the whole novel thing and just writing the screenplay and producing films yourself?

NS: Sure I have and I’ve chosen to do that in television not as far as film. Television is a bit more like a novel so you have a longer opportunity to tell a specific story. I’m currently, for instance, writing a pilot for HBO but that’ll give me ten episodes to tell a full story.

Gabby Holland (Teresa Palmer) and Travis Shaw (Ben Walker) in THE CHOICE. Photo Credit: Dana Hawley

Shari: The big ending, whether she lives or dies… what was the deciding factor for you? Was there a deciding factor?

NS: Well, it was during the course of the novel and, of course, that’s what happens in the novel is what I’m trying to say there; and I knew all along that she would come out. I knew. I didn’t… I didn’t want to… uhhh, I just knew but it was to bring the reader through all the emotions on the way to get there because… because sometimes these things happen; sometimes they don’t. When they do, there’s a really magical and wondrous feeling with it.

Shari: The husband in a film called 45 Years that just came out, says “All of the big decisions that we make, we do when we’re young; big decisions /choices”. And he had a real defeatist attitude which I don’t agree with. What is your take on that? I think we can make life changing choices every day.

NS: Of course. And at the same time, there’s some validity (in it), when you’re young is usually when you choose your career, you might choose a partner or a spouse to be with; you might choose whether or not to have children and there are certain points in time when some of those are no longer valid. If you’re a woman and all of the sudden you’re fifty and you never had children… you can’t bear them. You might be able to adopt, but you can’t bear them. So, some choices, just by the nature of time itself… yeah, they come and go and they’re focus is more when you’re young. However, there’s always major choices that one can make because there’s always the kind of life that you want to live and the new strugglesor the new sufferingsthat you’re willing to experience to get there; right? You want to go climb Mount Everest? Sure. Someone’s done that in their seventies. Alright… you’re willing to do that suffering; all the training… are you willing? Do you really want to climb Everest? That would be one example, but sure it’s possible.

I know what else is possible… you running to the theater this weekend and checking out Lionsgate presenting a Nicholas Sparks / Safran Company / POW! Production of The Choice starring Benjamin Walker, Teresa Palmer, Maggie Grace, Alexandra Daddario, Tom Welling, Brett Rice, and Tom Wilkinson. Don’t forget to come back and let me know what you think of it!!! Have fun and Go Broncos! *Although, I have a feeling Sparks will win this one… just like his film will. Bring a tissue!

Tag: Drama