Babylon, the latest epic from Whiplash director Damien Chazelle, tackles many issues about the golden era of Hollywood. Chief among them are issues dealing with blackface and the horrible way people of color, even celebrities, were treated within the industry.
Continue reading “Surviving ‘Babylon’ Unscathed with Star Jovan Adepo”
This Friday, the world is going to remember the name Diego Calva when they witness Babylon; the latest from Whiplash director, Damien Chazelle. The potential awards contender is slated to hit theaters around the globe and features some really terrific performances from Margot Robbie, Jean Smart, Jovan Adepo, Li Jun Li, and many others.
Continue reading “Discussing Old Hollywood with ‘Babylon’ Breakout Star Diego Calva”
I’ll tell you this. You’re not going to find a more insane movie this holiday season than Babylon. From its opening minutes, the glitz and glamour of 1920s Hollywood is utterly shattered as the film showers its viewers and characters in filth. I kid you not, there’s at least three to four scenes in those opening minutes alone where… bodily fluids… are expelled at or on various characters (which by the way continues sporadically throughout the movie).
Continue reading “NOC Review: ‘Babylon’ is a Vulgar, Messy, and Compelling Cinematic Cacophony”
Damien Chazelle is arguably one of the most talented young filmmakers working in Hollywood today. From his Oscar-winning breakthrough in the remarkable Whiplash to his follow-ups La La Land and First Man, the mention of Chazelle’s name in the critic community sparks interest and anticipation. And now, he’s back with a new project — a three-hour epic called Babylon. We previously brought you the exciting first trailer for the film a while ago, but today, we’ve now received a brand new trailer and poster for the eagerly anticipated potential awards contender.
Continue reading “New Trailer and Poster for ‘Babylon’ Embraces the Lavishness of 1920s Hollywood”
This morning, Paramount Pictures unveiled the trailer for one of the year’s most anticipated films. Academy Award-winning filmmaker Damien Chazelle (La La Land) directs a fever dream of a movie set in Hollywood during the 1920s.
Continue reading “The Uncensored ‘Babylon’ Trailer Makes a Scene”
Kenan Thompson is having a great year that just keeps getting better. After wrapping up his 19th season on SNL and receiving a Hollywood Star, he will now be hosting the 74th Primetime Emmy Awards on Monday, September 12, 2022 on NBC and streaming live on Peacock.
Continue reading “Kenan Thompson Reflects on His Legacy and Hosting the Emmys”
This month’s guest on Southern Fried Asian, Edward Hong, has been tapped to deliver the commencement address for the APIA students of the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. A fitting tribute to the college’s first ever Asian American Studies graduate in the 300-year-old institution’s history.
Hollywood, a new miniseries created and executive produced by Ryan Murphy, will be coming to Netflix this Friday. Audiences will both travel back in time to the 1940s and explore an alternative universe where a group of aspiring actors and filmmakers — who’re female, people of color, and/or LGBTQ — break into the business and dismantle the boundaries against them in the process.
Continue reading “The Lessons Learned and To Be Learned from Darren Criss in ‘Hollywood’”
It’s Southern Fried Asian in the time of Corona as Keith welcomes entertainment reporter and Deadline.com editor Dino-Ray Ramos to the podcast.
Attention Los Angeles NOC’s! Do you love Stephen King? Do you love The Shining, or its sequel Doctor Sleep? Want to attend the red carpet premiere of Stephen King’s Doctor Sleep? If you said “Yes” to all three questions, read on to see how!
Continue reading “Win Tickets to the Redrum-Carpet World Premiere of ‘Stephen King’s Doctor Sleep’”
Attention Los Angeles NOC’s! Do you love Stephen King? Do you love IT? Want to attend the red carpet premiere of IT: Chapter Two? If you said “Yes” to all three questions, read on to see how!
Ladies and Gentlemen — The King has Returned!
Not talking about Simba. I’m talking about the KING OF THE MONSTERS!
Continue reading “Win Tickets to the Red-Carpet World Premiere of ‘Godzilla: King of the Monsters’”
We are so close to the Aquaman premiere, we can almost taste it! Fortunately, our own Mike Manalo caught an early peek and had this to say!
Continue reading “Win a Ticket to the Hollywood Premiere of ‘Aquaman’”
Henry Golding is ready to take on Hollywood.
“[We’re] possibly moving to Los Angeles,” said the 31-year old British-Malaysian actor during a luncheon in Century City in June. “The focus is definitely on movies.”
Continue reading “‘Crazy Rich Asians’ Star Henry Golding Turns Up the Heat”
For those living in the Los Angeles area, the Hollywood Fringe Festival is upon you. Perhaps you might have seen their flags flown throughout the city or perhaps you might have heard whispers of it from your actor friends yapping away about which fringe play to watch. And you go, “What the heck IS the Hollywood Fringe Festival?”
Continue reading “Getting Geeky With The Hollywood Fringe Festival”
It’s been nearly a year since we were hit with the double whammy of Tilda Swinton and Scarlett Johannson. Now with Iron Fist and Ghost in the Shell just around the corner, we’re joined by BuzzFeed News’ entertainment reporter Susan Cheng to let us know where Asian Americans currently stand in the greater pop cultural landscape.
Continue reading “BuzzFeed’s Susan Cheng on the State of AAPI Pop Culture”
When Yulree Chun stepped off Starline’s tour bus on Sunday, she didn’t expect herself to be in the center of attention at Hollywood’s biggest night — The Oscars. She and her husband, Patrick Tio, who recently returned from their honeymoon, were just planning on enjoying a nice day walking around Hollywood before they were asked by Starline “employees” to try out their new tour for free.
Chun and the other unexpecting tourists were told they would be viewing a special Oscars fashion exhibit but found themselves in front of the Dolby Theater among Hollywood’s elite.
While Chun and Tio were mingling with the celebrities such as Meryl Streep and Ryan Gosling, host Jimmy Kimmel called on Chun and asked for her name. Chun told him, “My name’s Yulree. Rhymes with jewelry.” This followed an exchange that would cause a bit of controversy on Twitter. Chun remained cool as she was too starstruck to think anything of it.
We got to chat with Yulree Chun about the event and how she’s now happy that everyone is able to pronounce her name correctly.
Continue reading “One-on-One with “Oscars Tourist” Yulree Chun”
Like many others in this nation, I am still processing the results of election night and coming to acceptance [denial] that we will have Donald Trump as our Commander in Chief starting January 2017.
But what does this mean for the Hollywood entertainment industry, which is known to be overwhelmingly liberal? It is too early to exactly tell what the ramifications are but according to this Hollywood Reporter article, we may have rather troubling times ahead.
Hello All,
I am in no way presenting that being adapted for the screen is a measure of success. I am exploring why someone as beloved, talented, and influential as Octavia Estelle Butler hasn’t been presented on television, or projected 50 feet tall in a movie theater. Here is an excerpt of my explorations:
by Lexi Alexander | Originally posted at Lexi-Alexander.com
2015 was an interesting year for me. After finally getting back behind the camera at the end of the summer to shoot The CW’s Arrow, I found myself a couple of months later in a Federal building in downtown Los Angeles, trying to convince half a dozen security guards to let me make my EEOC appointment despite my expired driver’s license.
Luckily ACLU lawyer Melissa Goodman, the patron saint of women directors, was with me and was able to convince the no-nonsense guards that I wasn’t a threat.
Over the past weekend, The Hollywood Reporter released an article about the heightened alert placed on ethnic casting. The article starts off with the controversial choice to cast Rooney Mara as Tiger Lily in the upcoming Warner Brothers picture Pan, which will be a re-imagined take on Peter Pan lore. Throughout the article, unnamed producers and studio execs justify their casting decisions with the “tried and true” reasoning that it’s always the best actor being cast for the job, regardless of race, even if that means casting white people to play non-white folks. Ideally, I would be in full support of this idea as I think it really should be about choosing the best actor for the job, regardless of race and nationality. Ideally, casting should be “colorblind” because as actors, we are trained to bring a character to life as far removed from us as possible.
And that’s as far as I can go. No really, that’s it. This is where that dreamy ideal world I’d like to be in is instantly crushed by the not-so-sugary reality that “choosing the best actor for the job” and all that hippy dippy freedom-of-the-arts talk is usually reserved only for the status quo. Or in blunt politically incorrect terms: white people.
Continue reading “Finding the Right (White) Actor to Cast in that Non-White Role”
