STACK NZ Jul #64

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gere’s passage to india Richard Gere checks in at The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel for the hit sequel.

Arnold Schwarzenegger explains why Maggie is not your usual zombie movie. “This is something very new for me and for the zombie genre. At its core, it is a film about a father protecting his daughter.We’ve seen the zombie hordes and machine guns in other movies – it all seems like an unbelievable future. Maggie makes the disease real by shrinking the world of the movie to focus on one family, in the middle of nowhere, on their wasted farm.When I read it, I knew I had to do it. It is more vulnerable than any role I have played, more real, more emotional.This is the most human zombie film you have ever seen and it’s the most human role you’ve ever seen me take on. I’m proud of it.”

T hanks in part to a stellar line-up of British acting royalty, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel turned out to be one of 2011’s unlikeliest blockbuster hits, and helped usher in a wave of films aimed fairly and squarely at the older audiences. The original stars – Maggie Smith, Judi Dench, Bill Nighy etc – have all returned for the much anticipated sequel The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel , but this time there is an American in their midst, one of Hollywood’s favourite silver foxes, Richard Gere. And he found the invitation to be in the film irresistible. “I thought the first film was terrific,” he says. “You

“At times it’s almost like a Shakespearean comedy of manners, with all these human foibles on display,” he muses. However, the chance to work with Oscar winners like Dench and Smith was also an opportunity he wasn’t going to pass up. “It’s widely accepted that Judi and Maggie are royalty in the film industry,” he adds. “They’re such appealing individuals to see up on the screen, but in terms of who they are as people...they have wicked senses of humour!”

see fewer and fewer films about the real dilemmas of our lives. And then to see such a really good script the second time around; that doesn’t happen all that often.” Gere plays Guy Chambers, a mysterious American who turns up at the hotel for retirees, supposedly to work on a novel. However, hotel owner Sonny (Dev Patel) is convinced that Guy is actually an undercover inspector for the big US chain he is trying to interest in investing in his business. To Gere, the sophisticated wit of the script was one of the chief appeals of the project.

Maggie is out on July 15

The Second Best Exotic Marigold is out on July 22

Do you enjoy playing Campbell? In spite of the fact that he’s on the right side, ostensibly he’s a man who radiates malevolence. He’s like an awful radioactive pile, so he’s a lot of fun to play, as there is a side of him that’s extremely vulnerable too. There’s nothing pleasant about Campbell, but I feel I have feelings for him. To play a character, you don’t have to love your character but you must have some empathy with him and I certainly do for Chester Campbell. What can we expect in the second season? When we started off with Tommy Shelby, [leader of Peaky Blinders gang, played by Cillian Murphy] and his nemesis Campbell it was 1919. The show now moves to 1922 and their empire has expanded. All the Shelby’s interests have moved into London. The same things happen with Campbell; his

so I was immediately attracted to that. I was also immediately attracted to playing a character that’s so vivid and three dimensional – and so wrong. Do you enjoy working on these sorts of television dramas? I’ve personally got a great deal out of long form television. I like watching it and I like binge-watching TV shows that come in boxes. More than that, it’s great to tell a story over a longer time. To spend a decent period with a bunch of actors you really like, is fun. We’ve had some fantastic people on this show, people that you like and whose work you admire and you get to know them very well when you’re working on something for a long time like this.

concerns are much wider. He’s now no longer simply a policemen, he’s on the Irish desk at the secret intelligence service, which is MI6. He has bigger concerns than simply cleaning up crime in Birmingham; Ireland has become increasingly troublesome to the government. Campbell has a kind of mega plan for all of this, which eventually will involve the Shelby family. He still has unfinished business with Tommy so it’s a bigger game. What first attracted you to Peaky Blinders ? Probably the main reason was the language; there’s something about Steve Knight’s use of English that’s very appealing. They’re great words to wrap your mouth around, really beautiful, particularly Campbell’s stuff. There are scenes where it’s like he’s tapped straight into some vein that runs through the Old Testament and it’s very graphic,

The Kiwi screen icon returns as the villainous Chief Inspecter Chester Campbell in the second season of the period British gangster saga Peaky Blinders . Sam Neill

Peaky Blinders: Season Two is out on DVD and Blu-ray on July 1

JULY 2015 JB Hi-Fi www.jbhifi.co.nz

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