celluloidsecrets

[celluloidsecrets]

Meeting the cast of NOSFERATU 🧛‍♂️

The casting of Emma Corrin in the new P&P adaptation reminded me of this draft... I thought I'd be better in posting here, but alas. 🤦‍♀️

So in December last year, the cast of Robert Eggers’ new film "Nosferatu" came to Berlin.

I'm a sucker for vampire (movies) 😏 and I was excited for that film since I had seen the trailer.

Before the interviews on that day, I had to watch the film, so there was a press screening at 9 o'clock in the morning. I don't think I've ever watched a Vampire film this early, lol. The press screening was in the same movie theatre where the premiere took place that evening, the Zoo Palast.

What's special about this, is that in 1922 the world premiere of Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau's Nosferatu was there, too, a few hundred meters away at Zoologischer Garten. So this was a nice homage to the original.

The funny thing is that it was a few days before the start of Wicked, so at the theatre there was a huge 3D poster of it - while they were already preparing the premiere of Nosferatu with posters and props and stuff.

Witches and Vampires - it's not even a weird crossover, right :D

After watching the film, which I really enjoyed, I went to the hotel where the interviews took place (one of those super expensive ones). I had a lot ot time still, but there were already other journalists chilling and preparing their interviews.

Unfortunately, Lily Rose Depp was sick on that day. She is great in the film, and I was looking forward to asking her many questions.

I got a glimpse of a few of the actors even before the junket, because they walked towards the elevator. So here was Aaron Taylor Johnson (in a black leather jacket) and Bill Skarsgård (who's huuuge!)

The nicest of them was Willem Dafoe. He walked past the sofa where we journalists were sitting, and he smiled at us and said hello. 🥰

I had round table interviews, which means that you're in a room with a group of journalists (about 5) and you sit at a table (sometimes round, sometimes not) with the talents, and everyone is asking questions. Like a press conference, but tiny, it's more like a conversation.

In the room where we were waiting for the talents there was a huge window from which you could see the movie theatre and I joked that they finally had covered the Wicked poster.

And then Nicholas Hoult and Willem Dafoe walked in.

Nicholas has the most beautiful blue eyes, lol.

It was silent for a second after they sat down, because you never know, "ok are they ready? Who is asking the first question?"

So Nicholas was the ice breaker, he said „Ok, I'll start!" and everyone was laughing. 😅

Willem was super kind and relaxed, he has an incredibly soothing appearance and is very respectful. Sometimes the biggest stars are the nicest ones.

After that, Emma Corin and Aaron Taylor Johnson came in. Aaron said, "they finally covered Wicked" :D They were pretty cool, too.

Real talk: Being a professional journalist also means keeping a neutral, interested face when ATJ is looking into ypur eyes and talking about sex and moaning and desire - while inside you're more like this.

😂

After that, Robert Eggers and Bill Skarsgard were next. Bill was very shy but he told super interesting stuff about how he created the voice for Count Orlok. Robert Eggers talked passionately about this film, which has been a dream project of his for more than 10 years.

I don't have pics of the interviews because they're not allowed during those round tables. But here's what the black carpet looked like.

And here's a press pic of the cast.

It was an awesome experience and a great conclusion of 2024 job wise 🩷 🧛‍♂️

[celluloidsecrets]

Thank you 🥰

Meeting the cast of THE RINGS OF POWER 🧝🏻‍♀️ Part 2

Part 1

The next day I went to the hotel where the interviews took place. One of the cool things about those press junkets is that you walk into hotels you normally wouldn't set foot in because one night costs 400€ lol.

I had struggle with my laptop, which gave me anxiety, I couldn't connect to wifi so there was no way to get the questions for the interviews out, and in the end, I had to take photos of them and read them from my phone. This made me nervous and stressed, but anyway.

I had 1:1 interviews, so just me and the talents, which I don't take for granted. And my first interview slot was with the Lord of the Rings themselves, Charlie Vickers and Charles Edwards. 🩷

I was in the room first, TRoP posters and two empty chairs in front of me, and ngl, I was sooooo nervous! Then they came in, we shook hands, they were very polite and when we sat down and the cameraman was still fumbling with the mic, Charles took a sip of his coffee and complained about it XD „Oh god, so milky again“. It was very British 😂 Charlie was giggling. I loved them from the spot.

(A girl from the PR said to me "Charles looks like a real Elf, doesn't he?" and yes, he absolutely does!)

You know, the interviews with both of them got very famous during the whole press tour, but this was the beginning of the tour, soooo I didn't know exactly what to expect :D

The interview went well, they were super nice and funny and I was so happy afterwards. I'm extremely self-critical and sometimes when I'm nervous and have to do interviews in English I flounder or stutter, but nothing of that happened. Because both Charlies made me feel very secure, if that makes any sense.

The next interview was with Ben Walker and Trystan Gravelle.

Real talk: I had a huge crush on Ben Walker years ago since I had seen him in In the Heart of the Sea. 🙈 I even wanted to watch his Broadway show, but it was canceled before I got to NY XD

I love his portrayal of Gil Galad, I'm a sucker for Elves in general, so yeah, I was very nervous, too.

This time I was the one coming into the room, while they were already there. Ben just poured himself some water and greeted me in German. Btw he drops German words sometimes in various interviews, which is very funny.

I had 15 minutes with them (5 more than with the two Charlies) and the atmosphere was very relaxed. Trystan Gravelle is completely different from his role. He is funny and dorky and speaks very fast with his Welsh accent. Ben takes his role very seriously, he talks full of respect about the work on this show.

I asked them what they think of all the hate season 1 got. And Ben said that he loves it, because „indifference is the worst“. They also understood that people are critical when they love something so much like LotR.

The last interview was with JD Payne and Charlotte Brandström. Sophia and Orwein were there, too, but the interview was very late and I couldn't attend it. But I saw Sophia sitting on a couch in the hotel lobby where she got her makeup refreshed and I smiled at her and this was my moment with Disa XD

I was like high from this experience weeks afterwards. I'm still filled with a warm feeling when I think about it. And I hope that the cast is coming to Germany again for season 3 and that I will be able to talk to them again. I'd love to meet Morfydd!

[celluloidsecrets]

Meeting the cast of THE RINGS OF POWER 🧝🏻‍♀️ Part 2

Part 1

The next day I went to the hotel where the interviews took place. One of the cool things about those press junkets is that you walk into hotels you normally wouldn't set foot in because one night costs 400€ lol.

I had struggle with my laptop, which gave me anxiety, I couldn't connect to wifi so there was no way to get the questions for the interviews out, and in the end, I had to take photos of them and read them from my phone. This made me nervous and stressed, but anyway.

I had 1:1 interviews, so just me and the talents, which I don't take for granted. And my first interview slot was with the Lord of the Rings themselves, Charlie Vickers and Charles Edwards. 🩷

I was in the room first, TRoP posters and two empty chairs in front of me, and ngl, I was sooooo nervous! Then they came in, we shook hands, they were very polite and when we sat down and the cameraman was still fumbling with the mic, Charles took a sip of his coffee and complained about it XD „Oh god, so milky again“. It was very British 😂 Charlie was giggling. I loved them from the spot.

(A girl from the PR said to me "Charles looks like a real Elf, doesn't he?" and yes, he absolutely does!)

You know, the interviews with both of them got very famous during the whole press tour, but this was the beginning of the tour, soooo I didn't know exactly what to expect :D

The interview went well, they were super nice and funny and I was so happy afterwards. I'm extremely self-critical and sometimes when I'm nervous and have to do interviews in English I flounder or stutter, but nothing of that happened. Because both Charlies made me feel very secure, if that makes any sense.

The next interview was with Ben Walker and Trystan Gravelle.

Real talk: I had a huge crush on Ben Walker years ago since I had seen him in In the Heart of the Sea. 🙈 I even wanted to watch his Broadway show, but it was canceled before I got to NY XD

I love his portrayal of Gil Galad, I'm a sucker for Elves in general, so yeah, I was very nervous, too.

This time I was the one coming into the room, while they were already there. Ben just poured himself some water and greeted me in German. Btw he drops German words sometimes in various interviews, which is very funny.

I had 15 minutes with them (5 more than with the two Charlies) and the atmosphere was very relaxed. Trystan Gravelle is completely different from his role. He is funny and dorky and speaks very fast with his Welsh accent. Ben takes his role very seriously, he talks full of respect about the work on this show.

I asked them what they think of all the hate season 1 got. And Ben said that he loves it, because „indifference is the worst“. They also understood that people are critical when they love something so much like LotR.

The last interview was with JD Payne and Charlotte Brandström. Sophia and Orwein were there, too, but the interview was very late and I couldn't attend it. But I saw Sophia sitting on a couch in the hotel lobby where she got her makeup refreshed and I smiled at her and this was my moment with Disa XD

I was like high from this experience weeks afterwards. I'm still filled with a warm feeling when I think about it. And I hope that the cast is coming to Germany again for season 3 and that I will be able to talk to them again. I'd love to meet Morfydd!

[celluloidsecrets]

Meeting the cast of THE RINGS OF POWER 🧝🏻‍♀️ Part 1

Season 3 is officially coming and I want to celebrate that news with sharing my experience of meeting the cast of The Rings of Power.❤️ Although I've met more famous people this was probably my favorite press junket and one of my absolute highlights in 2024.

I've been a huge fan of the LotR trilogy (I’ve read it, too, alongside The Hobbit) and Season 1 of TroP was my favorite show of 2022. So I was VERY excited about meeting the cast!

I was invited to a special screening of the first two episodes of season 2 in August. It took place at an event location in Berlin. Because there was a construction site outside the place, it looked super unimpressive, lol, I just recognised the entrance because of the Prime Video security guys.

I went into a courtyard where a few people in fancy clothes were standing around. I walked past them to get to the press counter and thought „hang on, is this the cast?“

Well, the peole in the fancy clothes turned out to be the cast, lol! So there were Sophia, Charlie, Charles and Ben, chilling and chatting.

So I checked in, and stood there, made a few photos and couldn’t belive this was really happening.

There was a photo wall and a tiny red carpet to make photos of the cast and to do first short interviews for social media. And Charlie, Charles and Ben were joking around. 😂

Inside of the location was a small movie theatre (maybe 100 seats?). On the screen was our girl Galadriel.

Before the screening started the cast came onto the stage: JD Payne, Charlotte Brändström, Charlie Vickers, Charles Edwards, Benjamin Walker, Trystan Gravelle, Sophia Nomvete and Owain Arthur. JD Payne welcomed us and was incredibly sweet. He had written and translated a text into German and read it from his phone. He said that we are the first to see those two episodes (because Berlin was actually the start of the press tour) and that it's very special for him that this happens in Germany because German mythology had a big impact on Tolkien.

His German was great btw. 😊

Then the screening started, I was blown way, but that's another story :D

After the screening the cast came back to the stage, and there was a Q&A with a host.

Ben Walker was super dorky, the two Charlies adorable, Sophia and Owain just cute.

Afterwards I went back to the hotel, was full of adrenalin, and prepared my questions for the interviews the next day. I will share that experience in another post.

[celluloidsecrets]

Hi, I'm a German film journalist and nerd. I watch movies and shows for a living and do interviews with the talents.

I realised that it's a bit wasted to not document all the experiences during Premiers or interviews and decided to start this blog. And since a few of you may also be interested in it, why not share it?

An important note: I'm a journalist, but I’m also a fangirl. There are filmexperts that think every popcorn movie is crap and that are not nervous before interviews. I‘m not one of them. 😅 I'm professional and (most of the time) confident, but I AM fucking nervos when I'm meeting famous people. Becaue they're…you know…famous or because I adore them for some reason.

So in this blog you‘ll get more of the fangirl, with anecdotes, feelings and thoughts I had during certain events.

I won't talk negative about actors, unless they were rude. This blog will be about the fun experiences. And that's what I expect of you, too. If you don’t like my content or the way I do interviews, then there’s no need to follow my blog.

If you're interested in movies/series/stars in general you may find this blog interesting. Maybe you'll be just interested in stories about certain shows, that's fine, too. I'll tag the posts properly 😊

If you have questions, feel free to use the ask box :)