Edward Norton Shines in Academy-Award Nominated “BIRDMAN”
Oscar nominated actor Edward Norton relished the
opportunity to work with director Alejandro González Iñárritu in the black
comedy “Birdman,” which opened the 71st Venice Film Festival where it won rave
reviews that will open exclusive at Ayala Malls Cinemas nationwide on January
28.
Norton
joins an all star cast including Michael Keaton as a fading Hollywood star,
Riggan Thomson, desperate to regain his credibility by staging a Broadway play.
Thomson once played a comic book hero, Birdman, in several box office hits and
now he is haunted by his Birdman alter ego who warns him that staging a play –
an adaptation of Raymond Carver’s “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love”
– is a big mistake.
Norton
plays Mike Shiner, a gifted but troublesome stage actor Thomson reluctantly
hires when his leading man is injured in a freak accident. Emma Stone plays Sam, Thomson’s troubled
young daughter, who has recently been in rehab and Naomi Watts plays Lesley, an
actress in a difficult relationship with Shiner. Zach Galafianakis is Thomson’s
long-suffering manager who warns him that the play has to be a success to
rescue his flagging career.
With
moments of surreal fantasy – Thomson as Birdman, imagines he really does have
super powers and can fly over Manhattan – combined with dark, observational
humour about a man on the brink of a mental breakdown is poignant and
hilariously funny.
Nominated
as Best Supporting Actor in this year’s Academy Awards, Norton has earlier
earned a reputation as one of the very best actors of his generation. His
breakout role in the courtroom drama “Primal Fear,” in 1966, won him an Academy
Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.
Norton,
known for his work on stage as well as in movies, was impressed at how
accurately “Birdman” captured the New York theater world. “When I read the script, I found myself
wondering how Alejandro and his writing partners got so inside some of the
hilarious and poignant nuances of not just the lives of actors but specifically
the particular experiences and vicissitudes of New York theater actors. Having
come up in the New York theater world early in my career and still being
involved in it, I was impressed at how spot on the script was,” Norton says.
Norton
adds that while BIRDMAN is specific to actors, it was the project’s universal
themes that intrigued him. “Alejandro said to me in the beginning that he
didn’t want this to be just about actors or even artists per se. He wanted it
to be about something that anybody would relate to. I think what he was really
in interested in was the idea of those moments in life when you feel you’ve
gotten far away from the noble idea that you had of yourself at some earlier
place in your life. Alejandro has such a soulful view. It can be a deeply
existentially terrifying kind of moment as you approach a certain age and you
start thinking about your own mortality and have to confront the idea of being
less than you had somehow envisioned you would be. I think that the story hinges on Riggan
taking an audacious shot at recovering a sense of himself that he can be proud
of – he just happens to be an actor. How
he does it, to me, is poignant and often hilarious because of the lengths he is
willing to go to achieve it,” Norton explains.
Some
of the dynamics between Riggan and his troupe of actors, Norton adds, are also
archetypal. “My character is the younger guy who threatens Riggan, makes him
feel insecure, the generational tension between the Young Turk and the guy
fighting to maintain his relevance and sense of his own strength. There are
love affairs, issues with children and an ex-wife, stuff that anyone can relate
to,” Norton says.
Born
and raised near Baltimore, he graduated from Yale University before embarking
on a stellar career as an actor, producer and director. As an actor his CV
includes “Everyone Says I Love You,” “Fight Club,” “The Score,” “25th Hour,”
“Kingdom of Heaven,” “The Illusionist,” “The Painted Veil,” “The Incredible
Hulk,” “Stone” and “The Bourne Legacy.”
He
has worked with director Wes Anderson on “Moonrise Kingdom” and “The Grand
Budapest Hotel.” Norton received second Academy Award nomination, for Best
Actor, for his searing performance in “American History X.”
Watch the oficial International trailer of "Birdman" here:
Watch the oficial International trailer of "Birdman" here:
Catch
Edward Norton’s award-winning performance in “Birdman” when it opens on January
28 exclusive at Ayala Malls Cinemas.
Check www.sureseats.com for
screening schedule.
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