Curry and Whips
December 6th 2008 05:12
Melbourne born actor Stephen Curry is hosting the AFI (Australian Film Industry) Awards tonight (Saturday, December 6th) in Melbourne. Curry is himself a past winner of an AFI Award. As well as hosting tonight, one film he starred in (The Castle) is in contention for being voted as the most Favourite Australian Film of all time.
(cartoon: www.nicholsoncartoons.com.au)
Australia Post - in collaboration with the AFI - has asked for the Australian public to vote for their favourite Australian film of all time, to be selected from the shortlist of: The Adventures Of Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert; Gallipoli; The Castle; Lantana; and Muriel’s Wedding (Australia Post has issued a series of commemorative stamps featuring the original poster artwork of these films).
(australiapost.com.au)
In The Castle Curry played a quintessential Australian character, Dale Kerrigan. His role a pivotal performance for the film - and his character also narrator for the story. It may prove to be a big night for Curry. There is every chance that The Castle will win.
But when Curry first appears on stage there may be a collective gasp as his rake-thin frame suggests to many a serious eating disorder (fears and questions he has had to allay in recent times).
Stephen Curry is playing the role of Damien Oliver in the upcoming film, The Cup, which deals with the life and drama of Oliver around the 2002 Melbourne Cup - won by the Dermot Weld trained Irish horse, Media Puzzle. Oliver would tragically lose his brother Jason one week before the cup in a racetrack fall - a fate that also befell their father in 1975. When Damien looked to the heavens when crossing the line first on Media Puzzle it seemed that the whole country was awash with emotion.
At this stage of preparation for the film Curry has lost 14kg of the 16kg required. In the close-up shots he will need to have a physique that resembles that of a jockey.
Curry is no stranger to dramatic weight loss for a role. When starring in the film The King (as Graham Kennedy - a role that would win him an AFI Award) he lost 16kg - and when starring in the war film Changi he lost a similar amount of weight (plus muscle tone to appear emaciated).
At this time Curry is (rapidly) learning to ride - although when interviewed on Melbourne radio (ABC 774) yesterday he confessed to being thrown every time he sat aboard the ex-racehorse thoroughbred.
“They decided to put me on something easier to learn on...an Afghan I think...or was it Arabian?”
Curry admits (freely) that he knows little about horses or racing. Trying to convince of sporting expertise is a most difficult task for an actor. Watching Kirsten Dunst pretend to be a champion tennis player in Wimbledon was excruciating. A range of emotions can be displayed (and acted) through skill and empathy. But convincing of sporting ability is another thing all together.
(photo: Simon Schluter)
This calls to mind other actors playing roles as jockeys. The first I recall is John Hurt in Champions. Hurt was a reasonably accomplished rider - and his wife even more so.
On the morning of Jan. 15, 1983, "cold, wet, nasty altogether," remembers Hurt, the couple went horseback riding close to their house at Ascot Under Wychwood near Oxford. Hurt was about to begin "Champions," in which he would play the part of a jockey. "I needed to get my seat back," he recalls. "We'd been out about 40 minutes. The horses weren't getting on that well. One put its foot in a hole, stumbled and set the other horse off, then both went crashing off down the lane. There were walls on either side of us and we couldn't get off of the road. Suddenly I got thrown; Lise went belting off, trying to catch my mount. All at once, she lost her stirrup, came out the back door and landed on her head in the middle of the road. She went into a coma at the hospital and never came out." She died that day. "We had been together for 16 years and that was that." - New York Times - John Hurt: Always In Character (Michael Norman: published December 2nd 1990)
And then there was Christopher Reeve (no, Superman not as a jockey in a film obviously!) and his fall and subsequent quadraplegia. I wonder how much research Stephen Curry has undertaken for this role? Not ‘too much’ I hope.
And Toby Maguire was believable (enough) in Seabiscuit.
“To prepare for the film, Maguire, who pocketed an estimated $12 million paycheck, installed an Equicizer--a racehorse simulator--in his $3.5 million Beverly Hills home, and whittled 20 lbs. off his 160-lb. frame. "I didn't realize what kind of athletes jockeys are," Maguire says. "The first time I got up in the stirrups and did a bit of a gallop on the equicizer, after a couple of minutes my legs were noodles. I could barely stand up." - from Equicizer.com
And then there was Mickey Rooney as the quintessential jockey in National Velvet. He convinced by stature and presence alone.
It is not an easy task to act (as) and convince an audience that you are a jockey. It is something very difficult to fake.
Stephen Curry in The Castle:
The movie 'The Cup' will centre around events of the Melbourne Cup of 2002
(cartoon: www.nicholsoncartoons.com.au)
Australia Post - in collaboration with the AFI - has asked for the Australian public to vote for their favourite Australian film of all time, to be selected from the shortlist of: The Adventures Of Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert; Gallipoli; The Castle; Lantana; and Muriel’s Wedding (Australia Post has issued a series of commemorative stamps featuring the original poster artwork of these films).
stamps of the favourite Australian movies
(australiapost.com.au)
In The Castle Curry played a quintessential Australian character, Dale Kerrigan. His role a pivotal performance for the film - and his character also narrator for the story. It may prove to be a big night for Curry. There is every chance that The Castle will win.
But when Curry first appears on stage there may be a collective gasp as his rake-thin frame suggests to many a serious eating disorder (fears and questions he has had to allay in recent times).
Stephen Curry is playing the role of Damien Oliver in the upcoming film, The Cup, which deals with the life and drama of Oliver around the 2002 Melbourne Cup - won by the Dermot Weld trained Irish horse, Media Puzzle. Oliver would tragically lose his brother Jason one week before the cup in a racetrack fall - a fate that also befell their father in 1975. When Damien looked to the heavens when crossing the line first on Media Puzzle it seemed that the whole country was awash with emotion.
At this stage of preparation for the film Curry has lost 14kg of the 16kg required. In the close-up shots he will need to have a physique that resembles that of a jockey.
Curry is no stranger to dramatic weight loss for a role. When starring in the film The King (as Graham Kennedy - a role that would win him an AFI Award) he lost 16kg - and when starring in the war film Changi he lost a similar amount of weight (plus muscle tone to appear emaciated).
At this time Curry is (rapidly) learning to ride - although when interviewed on Melbourne radio (ABC 774) yesterday he confessed to being thrown every time he sat aboard the ex-racehorse thoroughbred.
“They decided to put me on something easier to learn on...an Afghan I think...or was it Arabian?”
Curry admits (freely) that he knows little about horses or racing. Trying to convince of sporting expertise is a most difficult task for an actor. Watching Kirsten Dunst pretend to be a champion tennis player in Wimbledon was excruciating. A range of emotions can be displayed (and acted) through skill and empathy. But convincing of sporting ability is another thing all together.
Stephen Curry photographed recently
(photo: Simon Schluter)
This calls to mind other actors playing roles as jockeys. The first I recall is John Hurt in Champions. Hurt was a reasonably accomplished rider - and his wife even more so.
On the morning of Jan. 15, 1983, "cold, wet, nasty altogether," remembers Hurt, the couple went horseback riding close to their house at Ascot Under Wychwood near Oxford. Hurt was about to begin "Champions," in which he would play the part of a jockey. "I needed to get my seat back," he recalls. "We'd been out about 40 minutes. The horses weren't getting on that well. One put its foot in a hole, stumbled and set the other horse off, then both went crashing off down the lane. There were walls on either side of us and we couldn't get off of the road. Suddenly I got thrown; Lise went belting off, trying to catch my mount. All at once, she lost her stirrup, came out the back door and landed on her head in the middle of the road. She went into a coma at the hospital and never came out." She died that day. "We had been together for 16 years and that was that." - New York Times - John Hurt: Always In Character (Michael Norman: published December 2nd 1990)
And then there was Christopher Reeve (no, Superman not as a jockey in a film obviously!) and his fall and subsequent quadraplegia. I wonder how much research Stephen Curry has undertaken for this role? Not ‘too much’ I hope.
And Toby Maguire was believable (enough) in Seabiscuit.
“To prepare for the film, Maguire, who pocketed an estimated $12 million paycheck, installed an Equicizer--a racehorse simulator--in his $3.5 million Beverly Hills home, and whittled 20 lbs. off his 160-lb. frame. "I didn't realize what kind of athletes jockeys are," Maguire says. "The first time I got up in the stirrups and did a bit of a gallop on the equicizer, after a couple of minutes my legs were noodles. I could barely stand up." - from Equicizer.com
And then there was Mickey Rooney as the quintessential jockey in National Velvet. He convinced by stature and presence alone.
It is not an easy task to act (as) and convince an audience that you are a jockey. It is something very difficult to fake.
Stephen Curry in The Castle:
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