David Tennant

Almost a year and a half ago I did my post all about David Tennant. 

It's no secret that I love him as an actor and as a Doctor. 

My friend shared a video on Facebook of him winning an award the other day and I loved watching it so much that I decided that I would share that today....

Here it is!

On the Eighth day of Christmas.... The Holiday

The Holiday is one of my favorite Christmas movies. 

Iris, played by Kate Winslet, works for a newspaper in London. She has been in love with Jaspar Bloom for years and when she finds out that he is engaged she is heartbroken. 

Amanda, played by Cameron Diaz, is a movie trailer maker in Los Angeles. She breaks up with her boyfriend and is looking for a change. 

They find each other online and agree to swap houses for the holidays. 

We go back and forth between the two girls and what they do and learn in their new situations. 

 Iris is so excited when she shows up at Amanda's mansion. 

Amanda, however, is less than thrilled with the small cozy cottage in England. 

I LOVE that cottage. I was so sad when I learned that it was built for the movie. I really wanted to stay in it!

This movie is so great. 

It is funny, heartwarming, sad, and really festive. 

I dare you not to fall in love with Jude Law after watching this!

  

(you too!)

And those children. They are so adorable. 

And I can't imagine anyone watching it and not rooting like crazy for Kate Winslet's character to find her happiness. 

I fully recommend this movie. It is PG-13. It is a really great film.

Let's talk about: Keira Knightley

 Keira Christina Knightley was born on March 26, 1985 in Richmond, a suburb of London. 

Her parents were both in the entertainment business. Her father, Will Knightley, was an actor. Her mother, Sharman Macdonald, was an actress turned playwright. 

Keira asked for her own agent when she was three years old. 

When she was six she finally got that agent and her first role on television as "Little Girl" in Screen One: Royal Celebration in 1993. 

She didn't have any formal training and continued to act because she loved it. 

She went to a regular school nearby and didn't have a plan for when she left. 

At a young age, they discovered that Keira had severe difficulties when reading and writing. She wasn't formally diagnosed with dyslexia but it was felt that she was dealing with a form of it. 

She worked really hard, with the help of her family, until she was able to overcome her problem by her early teen years. 

She continued to land roles in various television shows and some films. 

The first time she really made a name for herself was when she played Natalie Portman's decoy "Padme" in Star Wars: Episode 1- The Phantom Menace in 1999. 

Her role as the decoy was kept a secret before the movie's release so that the surprise would not be spoiled. The similarity between Keira and Natalie Portman was so great that during filming, their moms couldn't even tell them apart once they were in makeup.  

"The problem for me was that by being in the film the magic was broken. I loved the first Star Wars film and my mum was really into it too, that's why I took the part. But the Force wasn't there when we were filming it, and they didn't have real light sabres, which annoyed me."

At this point she began to get offers for much bigger roles and had to start turning some things down so that she could focus on one project at a time along with her schoolwork. 

In 1999 she appeared in Oliver Twist and traveled to Romania where she did her first title role playing Robin Hood's daughter Gwyn in Walt Disney's Princess of Thieves. 

Her roles continued from there. 

In 2001 she sat her final school exams and then started her A- levels at Esher College studying Classics, English Literature, and Political History.

In 2002 she filmed Bend It Like Beckham which was a huge success. 

 She then landed the lead role of Larisa Feodorovna Guishar in Doctor Zhivago.

It was filmed in Slovakia throughout the spring of 2002 and forced her to leave her studies and pursue acting full time. 

She followed this with Love Actually and then landed an audition for Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. 

She almost missed out on Pirates. Auditions were being held in London but she was stuck in heavy traffic. She then had to be added on to the very end of the auditions list and just made it in time to audition. It was filmed after Love Actually but released before it and was the first film to make people really pay attention and wonder who this "new" face was.

Her career took off from there. 

One planned film was cancelled which led to a great opportunity. 

She spent the year instead visiting Ethiopia on behalf of the Comic Relief Charity and then spending the summer filming Pride and Prejudice. 

In October 2004, she received the Hollywood Film Award for Best female Breakthrough Actor.

In 2005 she received her first Golden Globe nomination for Pride and Prejudice, and soon after came her first Academy Award nomination. 

Her career was definitely on the rise. 

She won Best Actress for Atonement in 2007.

On May 4, 2013 Keira married her boyfriend of 2 years, James Righton, in a private ceremony near Marseilles. In May 2015, she gave birth to their first child, a daughter named Edie Righton. 

Keira continues to take on new and different roles and prove that she is a great actress. 

My favorite Keira movies are: 

#1: The Pirates of the Caribbean films

I really enjoy these films, especially the first one. 

I thought she did a really good job in this role.

#2: Love Actually 

This should come as no surprise to anyone who has read this blog. 

It's a movie that I love. Her story, while not one of my favorites in the film, is sweet and I like her in it. 

#3: Pride and Prejudice

I love Keira as Elizabeth Bennett. I think she really felt genuine in the character and brought a lot of fun and life to her. I go back and forth between this and the 1995 adaptation because there are things in each adaptation that I like better than the other. While I love the Elizabeth in the 1995 version, I think I like Keira's even better.

*Do you have a favorite Keira Knightley role? 

Let's talk about: Richard Armitage

Richard Crispin Armitage was born August 22, 1971 in Leicester, Leicestershire, England. 

"I've always been creative- as a kid growing up in Leicester, I liked painting and playing a few musical instruments. I started playing guitar in primary school, took up the cello when I was 11, then ditched that for the flute which I never really enjoyed. I've still got the cello in my wardrobe." 

He attended Pattison College in Coventry and then studied at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. 

His first role was a small one in This Year's Love in 1999. He went on to appear in television shows and a few movies. In 2004 he landed the lead role of John Thornton in North & South. 

 

From there he landed many movie and television spots. He has also appeared on stage many times and was a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company for 18 months. 

I haven't seen a lot of his work. I have just started watching the BBC's Robin Hood so I am anxious to see how he does as the villain there. Other than that my exposure to Richard has been North & South, The Hobbit, and Captain America: The First Avenger.

However, I also read that he appeared as an unnamed Naboo fighter pilot in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. 

"I'd never been in front of the camera before. It was like being punched in the face, trial by fire... I was shocked, appalled, scared- and then excited."

My favorite role so far has been his portrayel of Thorin in The Hobbit. 

I loved the book and wondered at first how he would do. I felt like he really became Thorin. He gave the character so much emotion. I think he turned out to be the perfect choice.

Richard has aquaphobia ( fear of water, specifically of drowning). When he was very young his stroller fell into a neighbor's pond and his fear is believed to have come from that incident. 

However he has not let the fear stop him from being in the water. 

For Cold Feet he took a water aerobics class, swam at least 50 laps per day preparing for his role in Captain America playing Heinz Kruger, and was submerged in a well for a long time while shooting Robin Hood.

Richard can dance and sing. He has said that he would love to do a musical. 

"I think I've got an odd face. I always wanted to look like somebody else." 

Say What?

*What is your favorite Richard Armitage role?

Let's talk about: Kate Winslet

Kate Elizabeth Winslet was born on October 5, 1975 in Reading, Berkshire, England. 

She was born into an entertaining family. Her parents, Roger and Sally, were both stage actors. Her mother's parents Oliver and Linda Bridges ran the Reading Repertory Theatre, and her Uncle Robert Bridges worked in London's West End theater district. She has three siblings; her sisters Anna and Beth (also actresses) and her brother Joss.

"Mum and dad were very much friends, and up to life. There was no anxiety for anything when I was growing up, they just taught me to be me."

Kate's first professional role was in a commercial for cereal where she was dancing with the Honey Monster. She was eleven years old. When later promoting her film The Holiday, she was interviewed on 'Good Morning America' and they showed a clip of what they thought was her commercial. The clip was actually not of her. She did not point that out to them because she did not want to get the researcher in trouble or embarrass them. 

Around this time she also started acting lessons and that led to her formal training at a performing arts high school. She began to land a few small parts on television sitcoms and appearing on stage in various productions. 

Her first big film was Heavenly Creatures in 1994. She was seventeen. 

The film was the true story about two teenage girls that commit a murder. It was praised by critics but, to be honest, I did not like it. 

She was still relatively unknown although the film got her name out there. She attended an audition the next year for Sense and Sensibility. She made a great impression on Emma Thompson which led her to get the role over all of the other actresses that tried out for it. She won a British Academy award for her portrayal of Marianne Dashwood as well as an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress. 

She followed Sense and Sensibility with two more period films, Jude in 1996 and Hamlet, also in 1996. 

The role that made her a household name was playing Rose DeWitt Bukater in James Cameron's Titanic in 1997. She received a Best Actress nomination for this movie as well which made her the youngest actress to ever receive two Academy Award nominations. 

She and Leonardo DiCaprio became very close friends while filming. They alter filmed Revolutionary Road together as well. Her children call him "Uncle Leo."

 

 "It's very important for me to make the statement that I am English and just because I've done one really big film, it doesn't mean that I don't want to keep a finger in the fantastic British film industry."

 

 

"After Titanic, it would have been completely foolish for me to go and try and top that. I'm an English girl, I've always loved England, I've never felt the desire to leave it for any particular reason. And whilst I'm ambitious and care very much about what I do, I'm not competitive. I also don't want to act every day of my life. ... So it was important to me after Titanic to just remind myself of why it was that I was acting in the first place, which is of course because I love it."

 

After the attention she received for Titanic, Kate wanted to make smaller independent films. She made quite a few small films over the years. After a few years she started making some big films again as well. Over the years she has made some really great films, some very well known and some that haven't been as successful. By 2015 she has been nominated for an Oscar six times. She has won once, a Best Actress Oscar for playing a former concentration camp guard in The Reader in 2008.

"People say to me, "You seem to have made this conscious decision to do independent films." In reality, I haven't. After each movie, I always think, how different can I possibly be?... Is this going to challenge me, is this going to inspire me, and is this going to make me love my job more than I already do?"

In 1998 she married Jim Threapleton, an assistant director. They had a daughter, Mia. 

They divorced in 2001. 

She married director Sam Mendes in 2003. They had a son, Joe. They were also divorced in 2010. 

In 2012, she married Ned Rocknroll. He is Richard Branson's nephew and works for his uncle's space travel company Virgin Galactic as the head of Marketing Promotion and Astronaut Experience. They have a son, Bear. 

While vacationing at Richard Branson's house in the Caribbean, the house caught fire. Branson credits Kate with saving his 90 year old mother by carrying her out of the burning house. Kate has stated that she just carried her down a few steps. She and her husband named their son Bear Blaze because they met in a house fire, or so it has been said. 

She was pregnant with Bear whilst filming A Little Chaos and Divergent. During filming of Divergent they had to creative with the film angles, shooting above her waist, and having her carry things in front of her belly when she started showing sooner than expected.

"There is no way we are going to move out of England. Some might think that we want to live in Hollywood but that is not what we want at all. We will go and live in New York when it is necessary because of work but we prefer to be in England. I'm proud to be English - we both are. It's very important to me to retain that. I am an English girl and I love England. I have never felt the desire to leave. I am still ambitious and I will have to travel and live elsewhere because of that but England is always home."

Kate was awarded the Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2012 Queen's Birthday Honours List for her services to drama. 

She also shared a Grammy award with Graham Greene in 2000 for the Best Spoken Word Album for Children. 

Her performance as Clementine in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind in 2004 is ranked #81 on Premiere Magazine's 100 Greatest Performances of All Time. 

She received a Star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame on March 17, 2014.

"I was on the tube just before Christmas and this girl turned round to me and said, "Are you Kate Winslet?". And I said, "Well, yes. I am actually." And she said, "And you're getting the tube?". And I said, "Yes." And she said, "Don't you have a big car that drives you around?". And I said, "No". And she was absolutely stunned that I wasn't being driven round in some flash car all the time. It was ludicrous."

Kate prefers to wear boots rather than an other kind of shoe because she has said that it makes her fell like her feet are "firmly on the ground."

My Top 5 favorite Kate Winslet roles: 

#1: Sense and Sensibility

I was a teenager when Sense and Sensibility came out and it was one of my favorite movies instantly. 

 Marianne was my favorite girl character. 

I related to Marianne so much. I was passionate and loved literature and I just felt like I could have been Marianne if I had been born into a different time period. 

Kate became one of my favorite actresses because she did such a good job playing Marianne and making her feel so real to me. 

#2: Titanic

I was just under twenty years old when Titanic came out and Kate had once again given me a character that I could really relate to. Of course I couldn't relate to her time and place and station in life but I definitely felt that angst of wanting to make sure you were living your life for yourself and not just doing what was expected of you by the 'grown ups'. 

She did so well in this movie. 

#3: Finding Neverland

This should be no surprise as I have mentioned this movie before. It is one of my favorite films and I loved Kate in it. 

She plays the role of mother so well. She is still young and beautiful but comes across as very calm and serene in the role of mother. Of course, her character is hearbreaking as well. She is just perfection in this. 

#4: The Holiday

This is one of my very favorite Christmas movies!

Once again, Kate has given us a character that is completely relatable. 

I love watching her journey through this film. 

#5: Divergent

I enjoy this film. It isn't necessarily one of my favorites but I do like it. 

At first when I heard that Kate was playing Jeanine I couldn't really see it. She wasn't anything like I pictured her in my head. But once I saw it I knew that she was perfect for the role. 

It isn't as fun to see her play someone that I don't like, but she does it really well. 

I think Kate Winslet will always be one of my favorite actresses and I am excited to see what she will do next! 

*What is your favorite Kate Winslet film?

Let's talk about: David Tennant

David Tennant was born on April 18, 1971 in Bathgate, West Lothian, Scotland.

 At that time his name was David McDonald. He would later choose his acting surname from Neil Tennant, singer of the Pet Shop Boys. He learned that he would have to change his professional name in order to join the actors' union, Equity, because there was already a David McDonald registered with them. He was reading an interview with Neil Tennant and decided to go with that. 

When he was about 3-4 years old he decided he wanted to become an actor because of his love of the show Doctor Who. 

 

"I was hugely formed by stories I was told as a child whether that was in a book, the cinema, theatre or television and probably television more than any medium is what influenced me as a child and formed my response to literature, story-telling and, therefore, the world around me.

I remember a conversation with my parents about who the people on the TV were, and learning they were actors and they acted out this story and just thinking that was the most fantastic notion, and that's what I want to do."

He attended Paisley Grammar school and during his years there he wrote about how he wanted to become a professional actor and play the role of the Doctor on Doctor Who. 

I think that is amazing. In my opinion it really adds something magical to his future career. 

His first acting job came when he was 16.  He attended the youth group theater run by the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama on the weekends (now RSAMD). He was the youngest student to ever win a place at the school and started as a full time drama student when he was 17. 

" Drama school is a pretty intense experience and I think it changes who you are. I think I grew up at drama school (which was fairly useful personally as much as professionally) and I certainly got exposed to a huge range of ideas, techniques, and practices that I had no previous experience of. I wouldn't have known what I was doing as an actor if I hadn't gone."

He worked regularly in theater and television after leaving drama school. His first big break was in 1994 when he played the lead role in the Scottish drama, Takin' Over the Asylum. He then moved to London. He spent several years as a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company and was very successful there. He began to make a name for himself with his roles in the TV dramas Blackpool and Casanova. 

In 2003 he was nominated for a Laurence Olivier Theatre Award for Best Actor of 2002 for his role in Lobby Hero performed at the Donmar Warehouse and the New Ambassador's Theatre's. 

In 2005, his childhood dream finally came to fruition. 

David was chosen to play the role of the Doctor on Doctor Who. 

 " I have such fond memories of watching 'Doctor Who' when I was a kid and growing up, that if I've left anybody anywhere with memories as fond, then I feel like I've done my job. "

He was the Doctor from 2005-2010 which makes him one of the longest running doctors. 

He brought something really special to this role. His quirkiness and excitement made him so much fun to watch. He really became the Doctor. It doesn't feel like he is playing a character. I think he swept us all away in the Tardis with him. We didn't want him to go.

He met his wife, Georgia Moffett, on the set of Doctor Who in November of 2007 when she played the role of his daughter.  In real life she is the daughter of former Doctor actor Peter Davison. They were married in 2011. He adopted her son, Tyler, and they have had two children together.

	"If you can sell that you're the King of Scotland, or Henry V on a tiny stage in a studio theatre somewhere, then you can probably sell that you're a starship captain or a time traveler. I've been quite lucky in that I've managed to tick off a few of my dream roles, really. Beyond that, you wait for the next script to come in that will have the dream role that you don't know exists yet, I suppose."

David has continued to do movies, television, and theater. 

In 2009 so many people wanted to seem him in the Royal Shakespearean Company Production of Hamlet that the London run at the Novello Theater sold out in three hours. 

He won the 2009 Critics Choice Award for Best Shakespearean Performance for this role.

" I love characters who are clever and smart, and you have to run to catch up with. I think there's something very appealing and rather heroic in that." I haven't seen a lot of David's work yet. I have a lot of watching to do! But I do have two other favorites that he was in besides Doctor Who. These should come as no surprise to anyone.  They are: 1. Barty Crouch Jr. in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire: Obviously not because I like the character but because he was so good at playing him.  2. James Arber in The Decoy Bride:

I have already expressed my love for this film on the blog. He is fantastic in it. 

I can't wait to see more from David! He is truly a tremendous talent!

*What are your favorite films and television shows starring David Tennant?

*Have you watched him as the Doctor?

Let's talk about: Colin Firth

Colin Firth was born September 10, 1960 in Grayshott, Hampshire, England. 

He was born into an academic family; his mother, Shirley, was a comparative religion lecturer at the Open University and his father, David, lectured on history at Winchester University College and worked on education for the Nigerian government.

His two siblings, Katie and Jonathan, are also actors. 

His first acting gig was in infant's school when he played Jack Frost in a Christmas play. 

Three of his four grandparents were Methodist missionaries and he lived in Nigeria from the age of two until they returned to England when he was almost five. 

He then entered a school in Winchester where he says he was considered an outsider and was often the target of bullies. 

As a child he says that he would stand on a soapbox at recess and tell stories to his classmates. 

He spent two years at the Drama Centre in Chalk Farm and there he was discovered while playing Hamlet during his final term. 

He then went on to work in theater and television. 

His role of Robert Lawrence in Tumbledown in 1989 won him a Royal Television Society Best Actor Award and a BAFTA nomination. 

He was also nominated for a BAFTA for his roles as Mr. Darcy in the 1995 version of Pride and Prejudice. 

In 2011, he won the Best Actor Oscar for his role as King George the 6th in The King's Speech. 

He lived for a time with his then girlfriend, Meg Tilly, in a log cabin in British Columbia. They had starred in Valmont together (which I have not seen) and had one son, William, together. He was born in 1990. He also considers her other two children from her first marriage to be his own. After they broke up and he moved back to England he would call at bedtime to wish the children goodnight and tell them bedtime stories. 

(Colin and Meg in Valmont)

He also dated his co-star from Pride and Prejudice, Jennifer Ehle, for a time.

Soon after they broke up he met his wife, Livia Giuggioli, an Italian film producer and director. 

They have been married since 1997 and have had two sons, Luca born in 2001 and Matteo born in 2003.

Colin was awarded the Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2011 Queen's Birthday Honours List for his services to drama. 

What are my favorite Colin performances?

 

#1: The King's Speech

Colin is so good at this role. I would imagine it would be really hard to play someone that has a very obvious stutter and get it right. He has said that while filming he would end up speaking the same way between takes, not on purpose. He felt it was muscle memory. 

In it he plays King George the 6th and it tells of his quick ascension to the throne and how he used a speech therapist to help with his stutter. 

It is inspiring and so well acted. 

Interesting fact: His younger brother, Jonathan Firth, played this King's great-grandfather Prince Albert in the 2001 production of Victoria and Albert. 

#2: Nanny McPhee

It's a fun movie and a nice change to see him in the role of a dad. He plays Mr. Brown who has been widowed and is trying to raise his seven unruly children. 

#3: Love Actually

If you knew he was in this movie, then you knew it was going to be on my list!

His storyline is my very favorite in the film. 

#4: The Importance of Being Earnest

This is another one of those movies that I just love. 

I will have to do a write up of it very soon. 

Colin is perfection in it of course, as he always is when playing an English gentleman. 

Which brings me to my final pick and my favorite...

#5: Pride and Prejudice

I have a really hard time deciding which version of Pride and Prejudice I like the most for many reasons, but Mr. Darcy will always be Colin Firth to me. 

He was Mr. Darcy. 

Colin has said that when he was first offered the role of Mr. Darcy, his brother said, "Darcy? But isn't he supposed to be sexy?"

"Every single film since Pride and Prejudice there's been a scene where someone goes, 'Well I think you've just killed Mr. Darcy.' But he is a figure that won't die. He is wandering somewhere. I can't control him. I've never resented it; if it wasn't for him I might be languishing....I dare say it will be my saving grace when the only employment available to me is opening supermarkets dressed in breeches and a wig."

*What is your favorite Colin Firth movie?

*Is he your Mr. Darcy?