My Rachel McAdams Interview

Rachel McAdams on loving with heart and brain By Raymond de Asis Lo, L.A. Correspondent (The Philippine Star) Updated February 10, 2012 12:00 AM Comments (0)

Rachel with co-star Channing Tatum (left) in a scene from the new romantic drama.
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MANILA, Philippines - “Are you in love with the idea of someone? Or are you in love with the fight more than the outcome?” Rachel McAdams posed this rhetorical question during our recent interview with her at the junket for the new romantic drama The Vow, which opens in theaters today.

The Vow tells the moving love story of a couple whose relationship had to endure a very difficult test when the wife lost all her memory of the husband after a tragic accident. Rachel portrays Paige, the wife, while hunky Channing Tatum, who is transitioning into an A-List actor, plays her devoted husband Leo.

The heart of the story is the struggle that Channing’s character had to go through in trying to win back the affection and love of his wife who sees him as nothing but a stranger. “I think the hardest thing about this is that ultimately no matter what you do the other person who’s lost their memory — it has to be their idea,” Rachel explained. She also noted that after researching for her role and after talking with experts on memory loss, she believes that “even if all your memories are erased, you will find your way back.”

Rachel, who was stunning in the royal blue dress she wore to the junket, added, “There’s this kernel of truth inside of you, no matter what happens to you, that you can connect with and that extends to the people that you connect to in life.”

In real life, her love life has a more ordinariness to it. Thankfully. No memory loss to worry about, just the occasional paparazzi and the curious questions posed by journalists.

The beautiful actress, who has previously dated Ryan Gosling and is now in a relationship with British actor Michael Sheen, is known to be very reserved and private in real life so our interview with her was markedly different from our session with Channing.

While Channing was a little more candid and forthcoming — and no particular topic was off-limits to him, his The Vow co-star was more scant with the information she wanted to share with us during our roundtable interview.

This limitation opened up the roundtable to the more interesting and serious subject of the psychology of love and of falling in love that the movie brings up — and Rachel’s thoughts and ideas turned out to be just as fascinating.

Consider these questions:

Don’t people fall in love with their hearts and not with their brain?

If one meets a stranger then falls in love in the process, why can’t someone who lost her memory fall in love again with the same person even if that person is nothing but a stranger yet again? Can’t she teach herself to fall in love again?

These are some of the philosophical questions that Rachel happily shared her ideas about.

“Because there’s so much pressure to remember,” she replied to the latter question. “That clouds your ability to just be with the person. That clouds your ability to just go on and have nice easy, breezy dates and get to know each other again. There’s so much pressure. There’s so much disappointment.”

She cited one line in the movie when Paige, her character, said to Leo in surrender: “I am so tired of disappointing you and I can’t look into your eyes and see how much I’m hurting you anymore.”

When asked if she thinks it is easier for someone to fall in love with a complete stranger than with someone whom the person had a history with but can’t remember, she finished the question, supplied the last word and immediately responded, “Absolutely!”

“(The Vow) brings up a lot of interesting ideas about fate and destiny and who you are if you don’t have your memory,” she added.

But, all memories intact, can she fall in love again with the same person with whom she has fallen out of love before?

“Well, yeah. I think, in that case, you have these ties that bind, you have the past that tells you, that informs whether you can maybe make it work or not,” she replied before breaking into a short smile and said, “It’s funny how we have selective memories about those things. You break it off and then you come back and it becomes totally different than the first time. It’s selective amnesia!”

And back to the first question, does she love with her heart or with her brain?

“I think it’s both, isn’t it?” she replied but was already holding herself from cracking up because the interview has turned a bit cheesy. “I love cheesy!” she declared before she started laughing the sweet laugh that has endeared her to so many movie fans all over the world.

Our roundtable interview was punctuated by occasional bursts of laughter over some of the more philosophical and cheesier questions except for one awkward moment when one journalist from Israel dared to ask her about Michael. And how Rachel responded to the question was very cute: She just smiled.

Rachel met Michael on the set of Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris. They have been together ever since.

Before we let Rachel go, we had to ask her one last cheesy question that some of the more romantic people would rather believe — and her reply was a real surprise.

Could it be true that, even if we try, we can only love one person in our lifetime?

“I think that you can fall in love with maybe not hundreds of people but a handful and there is one that you want to really do that for a very long time with,” she offered and ended the interview with a smile, leaving us taken by her gentleness and charm, much like how her characters in movies usually win the heart of the men they love.

My Channing Tatum Interview

The daring, baring Channing By Raymond de Asis Lo, L.A. Correspondent (The Philippine Star) Updated February 06, 2012 12:00 AM Comments (1)

Channing Tatum (with Rachel McAdams in The Vow) is so secure with his masculinity that he can talk about his life and even his private part.
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“I did not prank anyone! No, no!” Channing Tatum declared when asked to provide more details about one particularly naughty prank he pulled on the set of his new movie The Vow during last week’s junket in Beverly Hills.

“The swinging pinky d--k?” he asked. “That’s amazing, who told you that?” He was laughing and shaking his head at the same time after we pressed him for details.

The hunky actor, who is enjoying a hot streak in Hollywood at the moment, strapped on a fake penis during a scene that called for him to stand naked in front of co-star Rachel McAdams and started jiggling the extra appendage to annoy her.

The prank did not annoy Rachel but instead amused everyone on the set including the director who patiently waited for things to settle down before filming the scene. In the movie, however, only the actor’s naked backside is shown — but female fans of the sexy actor will definitely take delight in the movie because there are quite a few scenes where he takes off his clothes and bares his chiseled body.

Channing is so secure with his masculinity that he can talk about his past, his career and personal life — and his private part (fake or not) with nary a hesitation or much fanfare. Details magazine once featured an entire article about how he burned his private part while filming an action movie two years ago. He even had pictures of the burnt body part on his mobile phone that he showed to the writer who interviewed him for the story.

Today, the actor is talking less about any body part but more about his hot career, his new movie with Rachel and his upcoming movie with director Steven Soderbergh that’s rumored to be based on the period in his life when he stripped for a living — “I am not really happy to talk about it but I am open about it. I think it’s hilarious. It truly was a ridiculous part of my life.”

Screen Gems’ The Vow is an endearing new movie about love, devotion and sacrifice inspired by a real-life story of a couple who had to endure the most difficult test of their lives when the wife partially lost her memory after a terrible car accident and failed to recognize the very same man she vowed to love all her life.

The movie traces the story after this accident and how Channing’s character Leo tries to win back Rachel’s Paige. The narrative addresses those “impact” moments in everyone’s life when a sudden event plunges us to a new direction and purpose in life and forces us to examine the relationships we have built and the amount of sacrifice we are willing to offer for someone we love.

Channing, 30, is happily married to actress Jenna Dewan in real life and their love story, though it may not directly mirror the love story in The Vow, is just as inspiring and romantic.

But Channing’s part of the story does not start here. It starts miles away from Hollywood, in a small Mississippi town where he grew up not dreaming of becoming an actor.

“I was so defined by sports all my life,” he said. He described himself as a jock before he made the realization that he didn’t want to have anything to do with sports anymore. “I didn’t even want to go to school.” He spent some time trying odd jobs including becoming a stripper before a “creepy guy” (his words) approached him in Florida if he had representation. “I didn’t even know what representation meant,” he revealed.

With no previous experience in acting but armed with his good looks and determination, Channing found himself being cast in several ad campaigns for Armani and Abercrombie & Fitch, among others, and before long he was already doing bit parts in music videos and small movies. And it was when he moved to Hollywood that he finally discovered what it was that he really wanted in life. “I truly just fell in love. I will be doing this ‘til I am dead, until I can’t do it anymore.”

The biggest break, or “impact” moment, in his life came when he did 2006’s Step Up. The movie accelerated his ascent to the top in Hollywood and it also introduced him to his future wife, Jenna.

Unlike other stars, who are so guarded about their personal lives, Channing did let us in on a few bits and pieces about his life with Jenna and how he is working hard every day to make their marriage last.

“When I jump, I jump. I am all in,” he declared. “I think loving somebody and caring for somebody is the same thing. I think it’s just a different way of expressing yourself. It’s one of those things where I don’t think it’s hard to show somebody that you care for them.”

“Write ‘I Love You’ and hide it in a place where it’s hard to find. Don’t worry if she finds it or not. Just hide a bunch of stuff everywhere. That takes 10 minutes to hide a bunch of papers around the house — it’s not that hard.”
Channing’s marriage survives because he and his wife give themselves only two to four weeks away from each other before they really have to drop everything and see each other.

“There’s only so much you can do with Skype. I am not a good phone person. Every two weeks, no matter where we are, we try to see each other and she’s been so good about it. She has traveled more than I have. She’ll come in and hang out for 12 hours and get back on the plane, you know, because she’s busy and vice versa.”


Channing believes “that making time and being really aware of your connection” is the key to a strong relationship.

He also shared a little game that he regularly play with his wife to measure how much they love each other at a given time. He described it as: “It’s like ‘How much do you love me right now on a scale of 1 to 10? You have to be honest.’ And you really have to be honest because otherwise you say 10 but you don’t feel like a 10 and then you don’t get what you need to be a 10. And if you say five, then you are really annoying the s--t out of me. And you say ‘I am sorry’ because you don’t feel like you’ve done your job…”

His candidness slowed down only when we inquired what part of his character’s vow in the movie was lifted from his actual vow. “I would love to tell you guys because it actually meant a lot to me but I don’t really know if I want them out.” (Note: Channing did acknowledge that the vow that he recites in the movie contains portions of his actual wedding vow to his wife.)


To say that Channing is a charmer in person would be an understatement. The guy has an easy smile and he makes you feel like you are his friend. He will most likely gain more fans with The Vow and when his highly anticipated “stripper” flick called Magic Mike hits theaters later this year.

And, contrary to reports, Magic Mike, which he is producing, is not based on his stripping past. “Not a biopic. No. I am not gonna do a story of my life as a stripper. It has nothing to do with it,” he said, trying to shoot down the false rumor. “There is no event that actually happened in the movie that ever happened in my own life. The stuff that happened in my own life was crazier. That life was so weird, such a strange world.”

He may have had a strange past but Channing is in no way living a weird life now — crazy and exciting, yes, but certainly not weird.

(The Vow opens Feb. 10 in Metro theaters.)

My 2nd Leonardo Di Caprio Interview (J. Edgar)

DiCaprio at his best in J. Edgar By Raymond de Asis Lo, L.A. Correspondent (The Philippine Star) Updated January 23, 2012 12:00 AM Comments (0)

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MANILA, Philippines - Funny how this writer regularly find interesting tidbits of regular, random conversation between stars and their handlers when I review my recording before I start transcribing my interviews. The exchanges are mostly about the temperature of the room where the interviews are being held or whether the stars needed something before we start counting down the 30 minutes allotted to us. To my welcome surprise, my recorder offered me just that when I was reviewing the interview I had with Hollywood superstar Leonardo DiCaprio recently.

This writer met with the handsome actor sometime in November last year during the junket of his current movie, Warner Bros.’ J. Edgar, the acclaimed biopic directed by the legendary Clint Eastwood.

Ordinarily, we start running the recorder just as soon as we get notice that the star is on his way to join us in our interview suite. So, just as we were about to begin our interview, I started my recorder and it captured a brief but charming exchange between Leo and his handler just as he was settling in to his seat. The subject of the conversation was rather trivial but it offered something new to add to the list of things that make the actor really, really nice and likable in person.

The handler asked if he wanted a cappuccino instead of the regular coffee he brought with him. Leo initially said yes but later declined the offer. “I wish I had a cappuccino,” he said. “But actually I don’t want one. This is my fifth cup.” You know what made it really interesting? First, he was drinking the same coffee that everyone was drinking and, second, it was only 10 in the morning yet he already had five cups of coffee!

Leo is already in his mid-30s with few telltale signs of fine wrinkles up close yet, if one would listen closely to his voice when he speaks, one wouldn’t notice anything different to the Leo today and to the young actor who played Jack in Titanic 15 years ago. He still has that distinct voice and speaking style that’s a cross between an excitable young adult and an impatient adolescent.

Ask him anything and he will give you a lengthy but substantial response. He is famous for his utmost dedication to his craft and one can glean this trait when he starts talking about the current project he is doing or promoting.

J. Edgar, is based on the life of former FBI director J. Edgar Hoover who is considered by many as perhaps the most powerful and feared person in America during his time. The movie brings to light the true story of the enigmatic J. Edgar — from the creation of the FBI to his much-whispered homosexuality. Leo’s powerful and impassioned performance has garnered some of the best reviews of his career and he is expected to receive his fourth Oscar Best Actor nomination when the nominations are announced on Feb. 24 — but just don’t mention it to him.

“The truth is I have learned through my experiences in this industry that there is absolutely no way to control or do anything as far as people’s opinions on your performance or movie — and that is the truth,” he declared emphatically when asked about his Oscar chances. “You go out there and you promote your film and you hope people like the work that you did and they are gonna respond the way they are gonna respond when they are in the room with that ballot. Who knows? I am thankful that people are talking about it but ultimately, I truly have no control over it. I really don’t.”

Make no mistake about it, Leo’s performance in J. Edgar is not just one of the strongest this year, it is also one of his best ever. And he could just win the Oscar any year with this performance. Again, just don’t mention it to him.

“I don’t think anyone would say that they wouldn’t want one. They’d be lying, I think. But that is not my motivation when I do these roles. I really am motivated by being able to work with great people.”

He added that he was more interested in having a “creative body of work for myself that I can look back and be proud of.”

“I was 15 years old when I had my first opportunity in movies. I went and watched movies for a year and a half. I watched every possible great film and every great performance I could and since then I’ve said to myself how could I ever emulate such great artistic master that’s been done in cinemas past. That’s really my motivation and that’s a fact. I feel like I want to do something as good as what all my heroes have done.”

Leo picks his projects meticulously. He revealed that two of the primary reasons why he did J. Edgar were the opportunity to finally get to work with Mr. Eastwood and to be able to play a character as complex and ambiguous as J. Edgar Hoover. Some critics have noted that he seems to be attracted to suffering and tormented characters. Case in point is his two masterful turns in Martin Scorsese’s taut thriller Shutter Island and Christopher Nolan’s mind-blowing masterpiece Inception last year.

In J. Edgar, he adds another great character to his body of work that already includes, among many others, Howard Hughes in The Aviator, controversial poet Arthur Rimbaud in Total Eclipse and, of course, Romeo Montague in Baz Lurhman’s now classic Romeo+Juliet.

What attracted him to J. Edgar Hoover’s story was his unquestioned place in American history. “His life was a reflection of the changing of our country,” he said. “I think that he had great intentions for our country. I think that most of what he did was under the auspices of being a great patriot and great American and I think that he also really wanted personal glory. He was very ambitious... (FBI) was his baby and he wanted to be the symbol of it — the symbol of power in his office — and to hold on to that power at any cost necessary. It’s hard to like somebody who has that kind of attitude about their job, but I do believe he was a patriot and his intentions for protecting our country were there.”

J. Edgar Hoover is credited for creating the most powerful and most sophisticated law enforcement agency in the world but at the expense of personal liberty and freedom as some critics would contend. “He had despicable tactics towards the end of his life but it was all under the auspices of the fact that he thought he was a great patriot and he was doing a service to the country.”

Another aspect of J. Edgar Hoover’s mysterious life that’s tackled in the movie is his presumed homosexuality, including his apparent life-long love affair with his assistant Clyde Tolson, who is portrayed in the movie by handsome newcomer Armie Hammer. Note: The Screen Actors Guild recognized Armie’s impressive performance with aBest Supporting Actor nomination.

Oscar-winning actress Judi Dench and Oscar-nominated actress Naomi Watts are also part of the incredible cast.
Leo may be too modest to talk about how impressive he was in this movie but there is no denying that his powerful performance carries the movie as it navigates through the more than 50 years in J. Edgar Hoover’s colorful life. Watch it and be amazed.

(J. Edgar opens in theaters on Jan. 25)