Cinema constantly has new talent
each and every year, making great films and opening audiences’ eyes to new
characters, stories and worlds. 2012’s summer offers new films from these four
budding new talented actresses.
What She’s Been In:
Alice Eve, 30, got her start while
at Oxford, appearing in student stage productions. In 2004, she got her first
roles on BBC television with
Hawking
and
The Rotter’s Club, as
well as a small part in
Stage
Beauty. Her first break came when she booked a principal supporting role
opposite
James McAvoy and
Rebecca Hall in 2006’s
Starter for 10. She has since
taken roles in the comedy crime thriller
Big Nothing with
Simon Pegg, the failed
Crash wannabe
Crossing Over,
Sex and the City 2, the British
rom-com
The Decoy Bride, the
poorly received horror film
ATM,
and as a reoccurring character (and love interest of Vincent Chase) in the
final season of
Entourage.
Breakthrough:
Eve’s breakthrough in her home
country of England may have been Starter for 10, but in the States it came in
the 2010 rom-com
She’s Out of My
League, playing opposite
Jay
Baruchel. The film is about a normal guy (Baruchel) with a normal job (TSA
agent) who meets the ‘perfect’ woman (a 10). But his insecurity begins to chip
away at their relationship, because he doubts that she really likes him
(because, in his mind how could she). Eve plays Molly, the girl who is
seemingly way out of the normal guy’s league. The film is funny, and Eve is
good in it. In April of this year she also starred opposite
John Cusack and
Luke Evans in
The Raven (her second big
American film). It is about Edgar Allen Poe and a young Baltimore detective who
team up to stop a madman who begins killing people in the manner described in
Poe’s stories. Eve plays the love interest/damsel in distress (while not a
weighty dramatic or comedy part, it will get her more exposure).
Summer Film(s):
In May, Eve has a principal
supporting role in
Barry
Sonnenfeld’s
Men in Black
III, which sees the return of
Will
Smith (both to the series and to films) and
Tommy Lee Jones. Along with Eve,
Josh Brolin is new to the
cast. The film is about the sudden disappearance from existence of Agent K.
Now, Agent J must time travel back to the 1960s to stop Agent K’s
assassination. Eve plays young Agent O, who is the head of the MIBs in the
present. She is also playing a younger version of
Emma Thompson. MI3 is certainly
the biggest film of Eve’s career to date, and its success will play a role in
her success, but she has already booked an even bigger project set from 2013
which will likely make her more of a household name. Trailer:
Here.
Upcoming:
In addition to The Raven and MI3,
Eve has a third film slated for 2012. She stars with
Samantha Morton,
Aaron Paul and
Helen Hunt in the drama
Decoding Annie Parker. It is
about the mostly true story of Annie Parker and the almost discovery of a cure
for cancer. In 2013, she stars in
J.J.
Abrams’s
Star Trek Sequel.
The whole principal cast is back, with
Benedict Cumberbatch and Eve new
to the cast. Her role in the narrative and character are still secret, but it
will be a film that should see her in many more films to come.
Career Highlights:
1)
Starter for 10 (2006) – supporting (
Blu-ray,
DVD)
*Editor’s picks
What She’s Been In:
Zoe Kazan, 28, got her start
growing in up in the business. Both her parents are screenwriters and her
grandfather is famed auteur director
Elia Kazan. Her first role,
while still in college at Yale, was in 2003’s
Swordswallowers and Thin Men.
From there, she took small roles in a number of films – notably
The Savages,
Fracture,
In the Valley of Elah,
Me and Orson Welles,
Revolutionary Road(which was
her first weighty dramatic film role, though still small),
The
Private Lives of Pippa Lee, and
It’s Complicated. She also
began acting in stage plays. She made her Broadway debut in William Inge’s Come
Back, Little Sheba. Next she took a role in another Broadway show – Anton
Chekhov’s The Seagull. Being a playwright as well, her first play Absalom was
performed at the 2009 Humana Festival of New American Plays. She got her first
lead parts in the 2009 indie movies
I Hate Valentine’s Day and
The Exploding Girl. In 2010,
she got a role as a reoccurring character on the HBO show
Bored to Death (season two).
Breakthrough:
Kazan is known much more as an
indie actress than for her work in Hollywood. A resident of Brooklyn, she
mostly appears in plays and smaller films. Her breakthrough films in the indie
world came with bigger parts in
Happythankyoumoreplease
and
Meek’s Cutoff, both of
which saw limited distribution in 2011. Happythankyoumoreplease is
Josh Radnor’s dramedy romance
following young people in relationships in New York City. Kazan plays one of
these people, and the sister to Radnor’s lead. The film is sweet, funny and
also a little sappy. Meek’s Cutoff, on the other hand, is a bleak western from
Kelly Reichardt, starring
Michelle Williams (and frequent
Kazan collaborator
Paul Dano).
It is about settlers in 1845 on the Oregon Trail, having to deal with the
bitter hardships of the journey. Kazan plays one of the settlers, in what is
probably her most dramatically taxing performance to date.
Summer Film(s):
In July, Kazan co-stars with Paul
Dano in the fantasy rom-com
Ruby
Sparks (which she also wrote – her first produced screenplay). It is about
a struggling novelist with writer’s block. One day, to help himself begin his new
book, he creates a new character Ruby Sparks (played by Kazan). Magically, she
somehow comes into existence and he finds that he can control her by writing
her character in his book (and yes, in different hands this could be very dark
and depraved). Thus, he tries to write a girl he thinks will love him. The film
is the second by
Jonathan Dayton
and
Valerie Faris (the
directors of
Little Miss
Sunshine). It looks light and fanciful, and serves as good
counterprogramming to the blockbusters of summer, and hopefully sees Kazan getting
bigger roles in the future. Trailer:
Here.
Upcoming:
Career Highlights:
*Editor’s picks
What She’s Been In:
Anna Kendrick, 26, got her start
at a young age. Her parents would let her brother and her take the bus down
from Maine to New York City to take auditions. Her first acting role came on
Broadway in High Society in 1998 (she played Dinah), a performance that would
earn her a Tony Award nomination (she is the third youngest actor to be
nominated). She appeared in a number of other stage productions before making
her film debut in 2003’s
Camp
(for which she earned an Independent Spirit Award for Best Debut Performance).
She next took a supporting role in the indie dramedy
Rocket Science. Her work in
Rocket Science and Camp lead to her auditioning for and winning a small
supporting role in
Twilight
(playing one of Bella’s high school friends). While her role is relatively
small, set against the scale of the series, Kendrick did get her name a face
out there to a much broader audience. She reprised her role in three of the
sequels.
Breakthrough:
Kendrick’s breakthrough came with
2009’s
Up
in the Air. She was writer-director
Jason Reitman’s first choice to
play the role of Natalie Keener (a role that garnered her an Oscar nomination).
She is brilliant in the film, holding her own in many scenes against
George Clooney. But, I contend
that
Scott
Pilgrim vs. the World and
50/50
also have served as breakthrough films for her (as her work across these three
films have made her one of my favorite young actresses). In Scott Pilgrim vs.
the World, directed by
Edgar
Wright, she has a small supporting role as Pilgrim’s sister. While
infrequent, she is funny in her scenes (showing that she has a knack for
comedy). 50/50 sees her co-starring opposite
Joseph Gordon-Levitt and
Seth Rogen in director
Jonathan Levine’s cancer comedy.
Kendrick, much like with Up in the Air, turns in a wonderful performance, playing
both dramatic and comedic beats well. These three films (alright, maybe not
Scott Pilgrim) have made her one of the most in-demand talents right now.
Summer Film(s):
In May, Kendrick stars in 2012’s
celebrity spectacular (cramming as many famous people into one movie as
possible – something that generally never turns out well, unless it is called
A Bridge
Too Far)
What to Expect When
You’re Expecting. Directed by
Kirk
Jones and also starring
Elizabeth
Banks,
Brooklyn Decker,
Cameron Diaz,
Jennifer Lopez,
Dennis Quaid (who stopped caring
sometime around 2005, and blatantly just shows up for paychecks now),
Chace Crawford,
Rodrigo Santoro (and many
others), the film is about multiple interweaving stories revolving around being
pregnant. Kendrick plays one such pregnant person, after meeting Crawford,
getting down and then oops/surprise. While in all likeliness, this will neither
be good, nor will win any acclaim for Kendrick (if anyone is walking away from
this in a positive light it is
Chris
Rock or Banks), it still is the biggest project Kendrick has been a part of
and should continue to build her career momentum (as based on what comes out
and what makes money, most cinemagoers do not care if movies are good or not). Trailer:
Here.
Upcoming:
Kendrick has a whole slew of
project upcoming. She has five slated for release in 2012. First the new
animated film from the same studio (and style) as
Coraline and
Corpse Bride.
ParaNorman, directed by
Chris Butler and
Sam Fell and starring
Kodi Smit-McPhee, is the story
of a misunderstood boy who can speak to the dead. When the dead begin to rise,
he just might be the only one who can save his town (I just wonder why this is
coming out in August and not October when it is clearly a Halloween movie).
Kendrick has a supporting voice role. Next, she co-stars in the
David Ayer cop drama (he seems
to only make cop dramas)
End of
Watch with
Jake Gyllenhaal
and
Michael Pena. Then, she
stars in the
Jason Moore
musical
Pitch Perfect
(finally getting to show off her Broadway singing voice in a film that more
than ten people will see – yes that was a joke directed at Camp). And then, she
stars in the religious apocalypse comedy
Rapturepalooza, directed by
Paul Middleditch. Finally in
2012, she has a supporting role in
Robert
Redford’s new thriller
The
Company You Keep starring
Shia
LaBeouf and Redford, about a former activist who goes on the run after a
journalist discovers his identity. In 2013, she co-stars in the
Dylan Kidd comedy
Get a Job with
Alison Brie and
Bryan Cranston. While none of
these projects immediately scream ‘I’m gonna be great!’, they all have promise,
and Kendrick should find herself among the elite actresses of her generation
(assuming things work out).
Career Highlights:
1)
Rocket Science (2007) – supporting (
DVD)
3)
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010)* – supporting
(
Blu-ray,
DVD)
*Editor’s picks
What She’s Been In:
Aubrey Plaza, 27, got her start
taking on multiple internships, including being an NBC page (like Kenneth – she
actually plays a page in a season one episode of
30 Rock). She is also a member
of the improv and sketch comedy group the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater
(other notable members include:
Aziz
Ansari,
Patton Oswalt,
Jake Johnson, and
Paul Scheer). Her first role
came as a series regular on
Mayne
Street, a web comedy series based around ESPN personality Kenny Mayne. She
has also appeared on the web series
Troopers and TV series
Portlandia. Film wise, she has
been in three small indie films:
Someday
This Pain Will Be Useful to You,
The End of Love and
Damsels in Distress (which by
far the best of the three). But, outside of her breakthrough roles, she is
probably best known as the snarky Julie Powers in the cult (classic) film
Scott
Pilgrim vs. the World.
Breakthrough:
Plaza’s breakthrough came in
2009’s
Funny People, the
Judd Apatow film starring
Adam Sandler and
Seth Rogen about a famous
comedian who is diagnosed with a life threatening disease, which leads him to
reevaluate his life. She plays an up and coming stand-up comedian and the love
interest to Rogen’s character. However, an even bigger breakthrough came when
she was cast as a series regular on
Parks and Recreation. She plays
April Ludgate, a city employ void of all ambition and drive. After struggling
through its first season, it has become one of the better TV comedies
(especially season two, which is phenomenal).
Summer Film(s):
In June, Plaza takes on her first
starring role in the indie summer comedy/adventure
Safety Not Guaranteed.
Co-starring Jake Johnson and
Mark
Duplass, and directed by
Colin
Trevorrow, the film is about a guy, Kenneth, who places an ad in the
classified section seeking a companion for time travel. Intrigued, three
magazine employees head out to try and interview Kenneth. Plaza plays one of
the magazine employees who then gets pulled in by Kenneth and begins to
question whether or not he is for real. It looks to be a potentially wonderful
comedy, and good counter programming to the blockbusters. Trailer:
Here.
Upcoming:
Career Highlights:
2)
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010)* – supporting
(
Blu-ray,
DVD)
3)
Parks and Recreation (2009-present)* – lead (
DVD,
Streaming)
*Editor’s picks
