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Thursday, December 30, 2010

Candace Cameron Bure Opens Up on Past Bulimia Battle

We remember her as lovable big sis D.J. Tanner on "Full House," but in Candace Cameron Bure's new book, the actress chronicles her journey through life's awkward phases and what it was like to have the world watching. “It’s a very dangerous cycle that can just start to consume your life and really take over,” Bure told People of the disease, which she recounts in Reshaping It All.”It wasn’t about me trying to lose weight. It was all about emotions.”
It started after Full House concluded in 1995. The child star had endure awkward stages of growing up, including baby fat and all, on national television.
In her new book Reshaping It All, the actress reveals that she began binging and purging after Full House ended its run in 1995 and she was adjusting to life in Canada with her new husband, Russian-born NHL player Valeri Bure.
“It wasn’t about me trying to lose weight,” says Cameron Bure, whose older brother is Growing Pains star Kirk Cameron. “It was all about emotions.”
But now at the age of 34, she has never been in better shape. What’s her secret? Having a pro-athlete husband, three active kids and the important lessons she has learned from her eating disorder.
Now at a healthy weight, the star of the ABC Family series Make It or Break It says she stays healthy thanks to plenty of family exercise time with Bure, 36, and kids Natasha, 12, Lev, 10, and Maks, 8, and a diet philosophy that allows everything in moderation.
At 34, the mother of three is married to former Russian NHL player, Valeri Bure, and says she's in the best shape of her life. But it wasn't always so. In her new book, "Reshaping It All," the actress reveals that she began her battle with bulimia in 1995 after "Full House" had ended. "It's a very dangerous cycle that can just start to consume your life and really take over," she tells People. "It wasn't about me trying to lose weight, it was all about emotions."


Thursday, December 23, 2010

A Minute With: Nicole Kidman working on "Rabbit Hole"

Everyone experiences loss and grief but few films show it in such a naked and matter-of-fact manner as does Rabbit Hole. The Aussie actress Nicole Kidman was so passionate about David Lindsay-Abaire's original Pulitzer Prize-winning play that she signed on as one of its producers as well as its star in order to see to that his script would get made into this film.Oscar winning actress Nicole Kidman has scored positive reviews, and a Golden Globe nomination, for her role as a mother dealing with the death of her child in the independent film "Rabbit Hole."The film was released last week in major U.S. theaters and expands around the country starting on Christmas day."Rabbit Hole" is based on the Pulitzer prize-winning play by David Lindsay-Abaire. Kidman stars alongside Aaron Eckhart as grieving couple Becca and Howie. Kidman also produced the film, marking it the inaugural project from her company, Blossom Films.
Q: This film is about understanding the process of coping with grief. What did you learn about that process in making this film -- did you draw from experiences in your life to connect to the characters?

NK: It's something that I've always wanted to explore. I've explored it in other films in different ways. I explored it in a film called Birth which was in a very different way. So I feel like it is territory that I would even explore again because it's so much a part of our journey, what we love, what we lose, and the fear of that.
Those emotions are so palpable and so powerful that I'm just drawn to exploring them and expressing them. But I think that with this film it's very much about a family as well and it's about how a family works through it together, about how you can help people and how in some ways you're just so isolated. I think that's what Howie and Becca are, completely isolated, and yet they are reaching out and they don't know how to connect.

I find that so touching and it was something that was beautifully, beautifully rendered in the screenplay. It's a very difficult place to exist in, but also the words came easily and the emotions. Actually, a lot of it was how to keep them in because they were available I think to all of us and all the actors in the film. A lot of it is restraint because as actors those areas are mined quite a lot. We're asked to mine those things often and a lot of it is up to the editing and to the director about how you modulate it.
Those emotions are so palpable and so powerful that I'm just drawn to exploring them and expressing them. But I think that with this film it's very much about a family as well and it's about how a family works through it together, about how you can help people and how in some ways you're just so isolated. I think that's what Howie and Becca are, completely isolated, and yet they are reaching out and they don't know how to connect.

I find that so touching and it was something that was beautifully, beautifully rendered in the screenplay. It's a very difficult place to exist in, but also the words came easily and the emotions. Actually, a lot of it was how to keep them in because they were available I think to all of us and all the actors in the film. A lot of it is restraint because as actors those areas are mined quite a lot. We're asked to mine those things often and a lot of it is up to the editing and to the director about how you modulate it.
Q: Did you go under the radar and attend grief counseling sessions like Aaron Eckhart -- who plays your character's husband Howie -- did?
NK: We both had different experiences. I tried to and was told, "Unless you've actually lost a child or a loved one you're not to come into the room." I completely respected that because they said, "It's just too raw and it's too dangerous and it's a very sacred place and we can't let you in to observe."
I'm glad that they didn't now, when I look back because the way that the emotions came to me in the character were through just my own, the way that I vibrate and the rawness of loving my children. I was able to leap there very quickly. I was amazed at how deep that well is and how available it is.It's probably as David [Lindsay-Abaire, the play's creator and film's screenwriter] said, that he wrote about this thing that terrifies him the most, and as an actor I played the thing that terrifies me the most. Aaron has a different story.
Q: It seemed that at some point that your character would want her husband to show more of an emotional reaction, have an outburst or something -- to be talking about the tragedy with her?
NK: That I needed to have an emotional outburst? He did? No. I mean it's eight months down the road. This [also] answers the other question about how we prepared to play the role -- we rehearsed. We talked.
Part of the preparation that I do as an actor is that I create from birth through now -- which is sort of like my homework -- of where we met, how we got married, all of those things. What happened to my father because you never see my father, just all the details of the [character for the] performance.
Then you come to the rehearsal period and you do scenes and then sort of slowly layer the performance. So, no, I don't think it [needed] an emotional outburst. I'm not saying that didn't happen in the period of eight months prior that you don't see.
That's what I find very beautiful about this film, that this is not about five days after. This isn't the day of the loss. This is [happening] eight months later. This is life. This is how do you stay alive -- how do you choose life when you feel like everything to live for has been taken away. How do you thenlive? That's the subtlety to the film.
How do you live with someone that you used to have moments of great joy with and a normal life with when suddenly you've been completely destroyed. That's why I wanted to make the film because there are so many people in the world existing in [such] places. I've certainly been in a place of extreme depression and pain where choosing life everyday is a choice -- if that makes sense.
Q: When you're shooting such dark material what's the atmosphere like off-camera? Is there joking around or do you try to maintain that serious level of emotion?
NK: Well, with someone like Miles [Teller, the actor who plays Jason, the teenager who accidently runs down their young son] I purposely didn't have any conversations. I didn't want to rehearse the scenes. John and I talked about it and we wanted to keep the tension and the way in which we were relating [to each other] which was with some nervousness and [anxiety]. That was good for the performance, and I think that I probably stayed a little bit in character for the whole film. I was kind of half aware and half not aware.
For this sort of film it's not like you have to be called by the name of the character, but certainly something [remains], there's the presence of the character [there] at all times. Aaron and I would talk, but a lot of our conversations were about our lives. That was good because there was an intimacy to the conversations that I probably wouldn't have had with him if we weren't in a deeply intimate film together. Those will always remain secret.
We had a lot of interns and [such] on the film which is nice because you have people that just absolutely want to be around that are new to filmmaking so they have an enormous amount of enthusiasm, energy and curiosity. And that is a good energy.
Q: Aaron had said that when you walked around the neighborhood you staying in character just wearing your pajamas...
NK: Not my pajamas, my Ugg boots [laughs]. And the other thing is that when you have the writer on the set you can be very nervous because the idea of not pleasing him holds. It's like, "David is here!" But he was so supportive and encouraging and he came to some initial rehearsals as well.
I'm always asking questions of the writer. I just love it because they have the key. They usually have the key.
Q: How did being a parent help you in playing this role?
NK: It's one of those that for me I could go right back into the place that we existed in so quickly. So that it means that the strengths of that love, I mean it's profound. I think from the minute that you have a child or the minute that I've experienced taking care of a child, being the caretaker of a little one, the power of that and the responsibility of that and so therefore the fear of the loss of that child is extraordinary.
I still can't even watch some of the scenes because they affect me so deeply and I've never had that [happen] with a film before. Because I'm a producer, I've seen this film a number of times. I probably won't see the film again, if that makes any sense. I watch two scenes and I'm like, "Ugghhh," because it still affects me so deeply. So I think that's the power of parenting and playing this role.
Q: This project probably wouldn't have happened without your involvement. What struck you about this story or the play that led you to option it and get it going as a film?
NK: Obviously, I just immediately connected with the subject matter. It was interesting to me from [reading] the reviews and then, when I actually read the play, the characters, the whole story I thought, was so available [to me]. I could immediately just jump in and feel [it]. John [Cameron Mitchell] and I did an interview yesterday, and we were saying that with this whole film.... We didn't approach it from an analytical point of view. We did it from a sort of visceral place and that's what it's been.
Q: John is such a unique filmmaker; did you see his movies beforehand?
NK: Yeah, and I just think that I work by my gut and with [producer] Per Saari --he and I optioned the material and we worked on the script with David, when we heard that John had worked on the script we were like, "Wow," that he was really interested in it I thought, "How unusual because of what he'd done and that he was interested in it."
Then I spoke to him on the phone and I just really liked him. I mean, it's that quick. We shared things, but we didn't have any extremely deep conversation. I just liked him and I've made most of my career decisions based on very quick, spontaneous things. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.
I like bold directors. I like directors that go against the norm in a way, and I thought mixed with this material and his heart, which he has a big heart, was a good combo.
Q: You did an extraordinary thing here considering that you had the toughest job as both an actor and producer...
NK: I don't know if it was the toughest job, but she's in so much pain and so unable to let it out, trying desperately to move on and cannot move on. So that's why she lashes out at herself and hurts other people and then there's regret. It's so complicated -- each little [aspect] -- and that's why I wanted to make it a really detailed sort of performance. So, I hope that [I succeeded].
Q: Not only is making this film important, it's important that people see it.
NK: Yeah. Thank you. I think it's important and hope that it makes people feel not so alone. That's the [whole] point of it.

Sunday, December 19, 2010

Nicole Kidman Prioritizes Family Over Acting

Hollywood Actor Nicole Kidman is prioritizing her life. The Aussie says that she is no longer interested in “Hollywood stuff” because family is now her “priority.”After her struggle to have a child with husband Keith Urban, Nicole Kidman graciously awaited the arrival of daughter Sunday Rose. Kidman had previously adopted two children, Bella and Connor, with ex-husband Tom Cruise.
Nicole Kidman says, “I’m not one of those people who needs to be reminded of what I have.” She also says “I’m in a place where I just don’t want to take on too much.”Nicole responded in an interview, “and I suppose deep down, I know they’re right, because part of me could easily just keep nesting and staying at home. It’s really nice.”
What sparked such a gracious and a pregnancy full of gratitude, was an acting roll in which Kidman portrayed the character of Becky in “Rabbit Hole.” The character went through the motions of grief after she loses her eight year old son. She has been nominated for a Golden Globe for her role.
For almost a year, Nicold Kidman was faced with her own grief in trying to become pregnant. Exploring the life of her character and dealing with her own struggle made her grateful for her children.Kidman would rather be at her home with her family rather than exploring Hollywood, as she knows her family is her priority.
Nicole Kidman - Hollywood Actor Nicole Kidman is tired of what she calls “Hollywood stuff.” “I don’t care about all that Hollywood stuff anymore. I’m only interested in the important things in my life — my family is my priority,” Nicole Kidman said in a recent interview.
She went on to say, “I have a different life now – with kids and privacy. But I have been standing in front of the cameras since I was a little girl." Nicole Kidman made it clear however, that is not giving up acting completely. She is just taking some time to focus on her family.