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Buzz Time Machine: Christopher Plummer Serenades the Von Trapp Kids

Lizzie Fuhr — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 05:30:00 PST

Long before Christopher Plummer took home the Oscar for best supporting actor in Beginners, he stole our hearts as the Naval officer Captain Von Trapp in The Sound of Music in 1959. Watch a handsome and sweet Christopher Plummer serenade all seven of his kids before they head to bed with the lullaby "Edelweiss." I can't help but love the way Julie Andrews looks at him in this video.

Video: Best Supporting Actor Christopher Plummer to Oscar - "Where Have You Been All My Life?"

PopSugar — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 21:23:35 PST

Christopher Plummer has been in show business for decades, but he picked up his first Academy Award tonight for his supporting role in Beginners. Hear part of his acceptance speech now!

Oscar Date 411: Christopher Plummer

Annie Scudder — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 20:15:57 PST

In his acceptance speech for the best supporting actor Oscar, Christopher Plummer thanked his wife, Elaine Taylor, for "coming to my rescue every day of my life." The couple has been married since 1970.

Elaine, an actress in her own right, was a Bond Girl in 1967's Casino Royale, around the same time Christopher Plummer became famous for his role as Captain Von Trapp in 1965's The Sound of Music. She met her future husband a few years later in 1969 when they were working on Lock Up Your Daughters in Ireland. Although he was 14 years older and drank too much for her taste, she met back up with him in London after filming. By October of 1970, he was drinking less, and they were married by the same reverend who wed Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor. In his memoir In Spite of Myself, Christopher called Elaine, his third wife, "my one true strength." Here are photos of the Oscar winner and his wife at the Oscars tonight!

Christopher Plummer Says He "Loves Oscar" in the Press Room

Becky Kirsch — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 20:07:25 PST

Christopher Plummer has officially swept award season! He took home the Oscar for best supporting actor for Beginners, making him the oldest winner of all time. In the press room, Plummer talked about what the honor means to him, and how he doesn't plan on retiring any time soon.

On being the oldest Oscar winner ever: I don't believe that for a second. I think that was Charlie Chaplin, even though it was an honorary Oscar. Wasn't he 83? I'm not sure, but it feels pretty good anyway.

On how his wife rescues him: I'm a naughty boy and she keeps me in line. She rescues me every day of my life.

On how it feels to sweep award season: There are so many of them, I can't keep up. They're inventing a new one every day.

On the support for actors portraying gay characters: I think as actors we're universally the same, gay or straight. A gay actor can play a straight guy beautifully and vice versa.

On how the win will affect his career in the future: It's recharged me and I hope I can do it for another 10 years at least, as I'm gonna drop dead wherever I am, be it on stage or on the set.

On whether or not he loves the Oscar: Well if the Oscar is gay, then yes. I love the Oscar!

Do You Agree With the Oscar Winner For Best Supporting Actor?

Shannon Vestal — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 19:01:37 PST

No surprises here: Christopher Plummer has won the Oscar for best supporting actor for Beginners. He beat out Kenneth Branagh, Jonah Hill, Nick Nolte, and Max von Sydow. Do you agree with Plummer's win?

Spirit Award Winner Christopher Plummer Is Not Impressed With Uggie the Dog

Becky Kirsch — Sat, 25 Feb 2012 14:26:39 PST

Christopher Plummer has been on fire this award season, and he earned another trophy for his collection at the Spirit Awards. Back in the press room, Plummer talked about how his character in Beginners resonated with him, why the Von Trapp name is still following him around, and how he really feels about that ubiquitous Jack Russell terrier from The Artist.

On if winning the Spirit Award gives him Oscar confidence: I don't want to talk about tomorrow. This is lovely, it's such a valuable award.

On still being recognized from The Sound of Music: The old persona seems to chase me around every year when every generation of child has to go through The Sound of Music.

On whether or not he's surprised about his winning streak: It does surprise me a little bit, because the film has not been seen by a tremendous amount of people, it opened so long ago. So I think it's absolutely amazing, and winning it, I hope it helps the film.

On what's next for him: I'm gonna croak any minute, so you have to keep going!

On how he related to his character: The humor, I think. The humor against all odds. I think it's a lesson to everyone. A carefree kind of sense of humor, no self pity at all.

On his advice for aspiring actors: If they are going into this horrific profession, they better love every minute of it. Otherwise, quit while you can.

On Jack Russell competition between Beginners's Cosmo and Uggie from The Artist: Between Cosmo and Uggie, I think our Cosmo was much more human than Uggie. Uggie was just a trickster, a circus dog. Our dog had soul!

Christopher Plummer Brings Humor and Talks "the Human Condition" in Globes Press Room

Molly Goodson — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 17:36:50 PST

Christopher Plummer was the first winner at this year's Golden Globe Awards, receiving the best supporting actor trophy for his work in Beginners. On stage Christopher apologized to his fellow nominees, which he also joked about when he went backstage to the press room. Here's what he had to say:

On all the nice things being said about him: "Usually no nice things are said about me at all, so it’s a great relief."
On the antigay protests outside the awards: "Gay characters are human beings. we’re all exactly the same. That's the reason I played it the way I did, not as a caricature. They're a part of our society since the Egyptians, the Greeks - it's part of the human condition. I know there is a lot of antigay sentiment in our society at the moment and I abhor it."
On apologizing to his fellow nominees: "That was humor. I always like to salute my competitors since no one is better than the other, it just happens that someone has to win. If it's me, that's wonderful, but I must congratulate all of them because they are wonderful."
On what about this role in particular affected him: "This role particularly affected me because it was such an understated human kind of creature that I hadn’t played for a long time. It's someone's actual father, the director's real father, so I was really apprehensive about it at the beginning. Michael told me to be myself which I did, which is also my father."

Rooney Mara Rocks Her Latest Dramatic Dress For a NYC Dragon Tattoo Premiere

Allie Merriam — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 06:38:21 PST

Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara made their latest The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo press stop in NYC last night. The stars of the film reconvened at the Big Apple's Ziegfeld Theatre for their stateside premiere after also showing off the film in Stockholm and London this week. Rooney's promotional tour style has included lots of cutout dresses, and yesterday's was similar. She rocked a black frock from Prabal Gurung that featured a sheer back. Her big sister, actress Kate Mara, showed her support in coral Christian Dior.

We caught up with a number of Daniel's and Rooney's costars on the red carpet. Joely Richardson said you see a lot of Daniel, the person, in this performance, while Stellan Skarsgård thinks playing Lisbeth Salander will change Rooney's life. Christopher Plummer stepped out a few hours after earning a Screen Actors Guild Award nod for Beginners. He said, though, that he doesn't celebration nominations, just wins. Additionally, Embeth Davidtz told us that Daniel's character in the movie, Mikael Blomkvist, has one important thing in common with his James Bond - they're both handsome! Stay tuned for our red carpet report later today on PopSugar Rush.

Beginners: A Bittersweet Feast

Shannon Vestal — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 03:05:02 PDT

It's impressive when a film can find magic and beauty in the everyday, and it's even more remarkable when a film can find such things in life's tragedies. The drama Beginners does just that, forging a lovely, touching gem from its main character's personal sorrow. Ewan McGregor stars as Oliver, a thirty-something man dealing with the death of his parents. When the film begins, Oliver has just lost his mother, but her passing prompts his father Hal (Christopher Plummer) to come out to his son. His other admission is that he has terminal cancer, so Hal only has a few more years to live, and he declares his intention to live the rest of his life as an openly gay man and experience all he had missed out on.

From there, the film follows two courses; one in which we witness Hal's final years as he lives it up and becomes closer to Oliver, and another that takes place after Hal has died. Grieving the loss of his father, Oliver tries to move on, and attempts to connect with a new love interest, Anna (Melanie Laurent). When Oliver meets Anna, a French actress who's frequently traveling for work, he's a melancholy shell of himself. His grief is heightened because his father's rediscovery of himself and subsequent happiness makes Oliver miss a man he was just getting acquainted with. As Oliver struggles to recover from loss, he finds solace in his memories, but it's uncertain whether he'll be able to let go enough to find the total happiness he obviously wants. While it's a setup that could be depressing or frustrating, the gentle hand of writer/director Mike Mills makes Beginners a gem of a movie that meditates on love, death, loss, and hope. To see why I loved the film, just

The film views the romance of Oliver and Anna through the lens of Oliver's grief. Moreover, Oliver also has to reconcile the lessons of love that his parents' marriage taught him. We see flashbacks of their union: while they weren't completely unhappy, they were unable to achieve a complete connection because of Hal's homosexuality. In hindsight, Oliver empathizes with his mother, as a woman in love with a man who couldn't fully return her affection. He also laments his father's compulsion to settle for the arrangement until his wife's death, and both conditions seem to contribute to Oliver's fear of falling in love. And yet, as he remembers Hal's bliss while falling for his boyfriend Andy (a wonderful Goran Visnjic), Oliver seems to finally recognize that there's hope for him too.

Oliver and Anna's relationship is sweet and swoon-worthy, especially at the beginning. However, it's also very realistic, because falling in love isn't all it takes to "fix" Oliver. Instead of uniting the couple and letting us assume they live happily ever after, we are invited to witness the relationship's development, including all the difficulties and obstacles that real couples go through in making a relationship work.

The strongest asset to the film is McGregor. You empathize with Oliver's pain so intimately, due to the actor's brilliant, nuanced performance. His eyes alone communicate Oliver's many emotions, particularly in the scene in which Oliver first meets Anna at a party, and she knows at once that he's just barely keeping it together.

Like many indie romances, there are some quirks, and there are some elements that verge on the precious. For instance, after his father's death, Oliver inherits his dad's dog, Arthur, and Oliver talks to him like he's a human. However, things don't go too far (don't worry, Arthur doesn't talk back), and it ends up being delicately funny, and even a little sweet, because it's another way Oliver deals with his father's death.

Ultimately, Beginners is an emotional story that feels both personal and specific to the filmmaker (Mills based it on his own experience with his father), but still relatable, even if you haven't lost a parent. Though Oliver's quest for happiness is a bumpy journey filled with heartache and hope, it's one that you feel honored to be a part of.

Beginners Trailer: Ewan McGregor Falls in Love With Life

Shannon Vestal — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 12:15:54 PST

Between the trailer for Perfect Sense and now this preview, the universe is really feeding my love for Ewan McGregor this month. The perennially charismatic actor stars in Beginners, a movie that appears to be as charming as its lead. Things start off shaky, with McGregor's character Oliver talking to a dog like he's a human, and the dog sort of responds with subtitles. Keep watching: we're let in to other aspects of Oliver's life, like the father who's recently come out to him (Christopher Plummer), and Anna, the new woman in his life that he's falling for (the radiant Melanie Laurent, the badass heroine of Inglourious Basterds).

Though Oliver's life at first seems lonely, it appears that he's given the chance to grow through the revelations of his father's sexuality, and later, his dad's diagnosis of terminal cancer. Even his new relationship with Anna has its flaws, which Oliver seems to embrace. The tone feels very sweet and touching, and as long as that dog doesn't actually start talking, I'll be excited to see it when it comes to theaters June 3. Watch the trailer when you