Odette Annable (formerly Yustman) has escaped from an otherworldly beast, in “Cloverfield,” but finds herself dealing with another larger-than-life personality, opposite Hugh Laurie in the eighth season of “House.” ShockYa recently had a chance to speak to Annable one-on-one, about the hit Fox series; her new film “The Double,” with Topher Grace; memories from “Kindergarten Cop” and “Cloverfield;” and more. The conversation is excerpted below: ShockYa: So you’re shooting “House,” but also commited to “Breaking In,” is that right? Odette Annable: Yes, it’s a very busy time for me. I’m not used to being quite this busy, but it’s a great time for me as well. It was one of those weird  [ Read More ]

The “Twilight” films may set teenage hearts aflutter, but the HBO series “True Blood” is the franchise by which a lot more diehard vampire fans swear. For Stephen Moyer, it’s a dream gig — heck, it even landed him on the cover of “Rolling Stone.” In the new espionage thriller “The Double,” Moyer swaps out his accent to play an imprisoned Russian spy/assassin, Brutus, who comes face to face with the man (Richard Gere) who put him in prison. ShockYa recently had a chance to participate in a press day for the film, and chat with Moyer about his small screen hit and new film, his busy schedule, the challenges of shooting out  [ Read More ]

Topher Grace came of age on the small screen, in the hit sitcom “That ’70s Show.” Acting was never necessarily part of the grand plan when he was younger, however, so he’s leveraged the success of that experience into a more diverse portfolio on the big screen, dabbling in everything from action movies (“Predators”) and big-budget comic book adventures (“Spider-Man 3″) to political dramas (“Too Big To Fail”) and more offbeat dramedies (“In Good Company”). His new film is “The Double,” an espionage thriller in which he stars with Richard Gere, as an old-and-new pair of government operatives trying to track down a long-dormant but newly resurfaced Russian assassin. ShockYa  [ Read More ]

A big talent in a little package, singer and actress Mya has made her name in a variety of fields, from platinum albums to placing second on the ninth season of the hit show “Dancing With the Stars.” ShockYa recently had a chance to talk one-on-one to the 32-year-old multi-hyphenate, about the new-to-DVD romantic comedy “The Heart Specialist,” her thoughts on sex tapes (celebrity and otherwise), her view of changes to the music industry over the past decade, and what she’s doing with her free time. The conversation is excerpted below: ShockYa: It’s hard for me to believe that your first album was released more than a decade ago. [In that  [ Read More ]

In his new documentary “Sarah Palin: You Betcha!,” director Nick Broomfield indulges in some of his characteristically bumbling, nice-guy provocation, learning more about Palin’s background and hometown while engaging in what seemingly becomes an increasingly futile attempt to secure an interview with her. Fortunately for ShockYa, the British-born filmmaker isn’t as difficult to pin down as his most recent subject. We had a chance to speak to Broomfield one-on-one recently, and although the conversation occurred just days before Palin officially announced that she is not seeking the 2012 Republican presidential nomination, the light that he sheds on her upbringing and early political career via the nearly three months he spent in Wasilla, Alaska, during his  [ Read More ]

Rachel Nichols is an actress, a former model, a sports fan, a foodie, a frequent traveler and an avid Twitterer. She is not, however, a reporter for ESPN given to undue amounts of hand gesticulations while talking. Well… that’s Rachel Nichols, too, actually. But a different one. The real Rachel Nichols — genuinely easygoing, and possessing of a developed personality of someone much uglier — is more apt to have names for her hands. Her latest project is the independent-minded “A Bird of the Air,” in which she plays a free-spirited librarian, Fiona, who upends the life of a solitary loner, Lyman (Jackson Hurst), when she takes it upon herself to help him track  [ Read More ]

“A Good Old Fashioned Orgy” and “Tucker & Dale Vs. Evil” costar Tyler Labine has the physicality, wit and jester’s eyes that mark him as the latest garrulous inheritor to the comedy scepter wielded previously by the likes of Chris Farley, Dan Fogelman and Zach Galifianakis — which is to say a big guy with a bigger personality. In person, however, the thoughtful, soft-spoken Labine hardly seems a performer, let alone the likes of one who’s already carved out an impressive comedic presence in a relatively short period of time. ShockYa recently had the opportunity to chat one-on-one with the actor and burgeoning producer, about “Orgy,” sexual swinging spanning the last several decades, the correct quotable line  [ Read More ]

Of all the major cast members for the new ensemble comedy “A Good Old Fashioned Orgy,” about a mixed-gender group of longtime friends who settle upon going out with a bang (literally) when the beach home that’s served as the setting for their legendary summer parties for more than a decade is forcibly put up for sale, Michelle Borth might have been the most comfortable with the subject matter. Or at least the filming of the movie’s titular third act, which spanned at least a week and required all sorts of pasties. After all, Borth is probably best known for the short-lived HBO series “Tell Me You Love Me,” which revolved around three  [ Read More ]

It’s another sweltering late summer day in Los Angeles, and Angela Sarafyan, our interview having just wrapped, has had enough. Her professional obligations for the afternoon apparently complete, she strolls over to the rooftop pool at the swanky hotel at which we have gathered, and climbs in for a quick dip. In her dress. It’s a bit nervy, sure, but actually not that thematically or behaviorally detached when one considers the occasion for our gathering: to discuss “A Good Old Fashioned Orgy,” a new ensemble comedy about a tight-knit group of friends who, when faced with the prospect of losing the summer getaway house that’s served as the crash-pad for years’ worth of  [ Read More ]

Vera Farmiga is a wonderfully talented actress, but with her self-effacing laugh, easy disposition and comfortable slouch, she has a lot of work to do before she perfects the character of a swaggering director. She swears life behind the camera wasn’t a burning professional goal of hers, but Farmiga spent several years work-shopping a screenplay based on Carolyn Briggs’ “The Dark World” with Briggs and fellow writer Tim Metcalfe. The result is her wonderfully subtle directorial debut, “Higher Ground,” and it’s as full-bodied, honest and moving a portrait of a young, fundamentally religious family, and all the struggles they experience, as has ever been put to screen — perhaps no small  [ Read More ]

Few actors get to star in a monster commercial smash that is also a zeitgeist hit, but that was Joshua Leonard’s experience with “The Blair Witch Project,” which turned a meager $60,000 production budget into almost $250 million in worldwide theatrical receipts, and owned the summer of 1999 (and beyond, in the form of countless spoofs, homages and far less inspired rip-offs) like no other indie movie of its time. Leonard continued to act over the years, and achieved a second peak of artistic acclaim two years back in Lynn Shelton’s “Humpday,” in which he and a fellow heterosexual friend (Mark Duplass) find themselves locked in a pact/dare to make  [ Read More ]

At 84 years old, Jerry Stiller is still going strong. Married for more than 56 years to fellow performer Anne Meara, he’s entered the twilight of a long and varied show business career with a uniquely entertaining sort of feisty grace. In his latest movie, the London-set comedy “Swinging With the Finkels,” he plays grandfather to Mandy Moore, whose marriage with architect Martin Freeman is suffering from a sort of sexual drift. ShockYa had the pleasure of talking with the elder Stiller recently, about swinging, longevity in relationships in general, the entertainment industry, and the possibility of dispensing any sexual advice to his son, Ben. The conversation is excerpted below: ShockYa:  [ Read More ]

As part of a busy press day schedule (but nowhere close to her personal record, which would be the 96 five-minute one-on-one interviews she did for “Grindhouse” in a single day, after roundtable interviews), ShockYa recently had a chance to chat one-on-one with a dazzlingly made-up Rose McGowan, about portraying strong women, the appeal of a “proper man,” upcoming projects, a personality that hasn’t changed much since childhood, and why her crazily wardrobed “Conan” character is, in her words, ”much cooler” than Freddy Krueger. The conversation is excerpted below: ShockYa: So maybe you can illuminate something that came to my attention earlier in roundtable interviews – that apparently there’s a junket game some actors play  [ Read More ]

Jason Momoa has the biceps, vocal timbre and alpha-male attitude to seemingly carve out a successful career as an action movie hero. But before his commercial audition with the public in “Conan the Barbarian,” his leading man debut, there comes something even more potentially nervousness-inducing – the requisite pre-release juggernaut of press commitments. Momoa recently made his debut on “The Tonight Show,” chatting cars with host Jay Leno (he favors an old Cadillac) and suffering the characteristic new-guest embarrassment of having an old clip from early in his career (in this case, from “Baywatch”) pulled out and showcased. Amidst a packed itinerary that necessitated some rescheduling, he recently graced ShockYa with some  [ Read More ]

You can often chart the rise of a young actor or actress by the company they keep, in which case British-born Imogen Poots is doing more than fine. Having come off a film with Catherine Keener, Christopher Walken and Philip Seymour Hoffman, she now stars alongside Colin Farrell and Anton Yelchin in Touchstone’s “Fright Night,” playing the latter’s sweet girlfriend, and an unwitting object of temptation for the former. In films like the striking and austere schoolhouse drama “Cracks” (the directorial debut of Jordan Scott, daughter of Ridley Scott), meanwhile, and last year’s “Solitary Man,” in which she hooked up with Michael Douglas, Poots is showing a range that obviously endears  [ Read More ]