Maxim Interview
Breenan discusses directing his own standup special:
Honestly, it’s not that difficult. Eddie Murphy was making fun of directing stand up specials one time. He was like, It’s not that hard; just point four cameras at me. That’s kind of what it is. The thing that I didn’t do is when I talked about black people, I didn’t cut to black people, and when I talked about Asian people I didn’t cut to Asian people. That’s my only innovation as a stand up director. Otherwise, it wasn’t like my proudest moment. It’s more just a show off thing. Like, Well, I can also direct it because I direct stuff.
Maxim Interview
George talks about the obstacles in designing the video game James Cameron’s Avatar:
One of the challenges we were up against was presenting Pandora, a world that is at the same time stunningly beautiful and uncertain, in such a way that it represented the level of quality that was expected from the film. Cameron is going for the highest fidelity, photo-realistic visual style, a challenge which we’ve seen he’s able to pull off. In the game, we’ve decided to capture this style by pushing the game through one of the most powerful graphic engines in the industry: Dunia, a subsequent generation of the Far Cry 2 engine.
Maxim Interview
Chobot talks about how she gained fame on the Internet:
Yeah, funny how that one picture blew up. It’s been copied so often! Part of me feels special and is flattered. The other part is like, Oh Christ. As for Sony, they have never acknowledged that photo, except when they attempted a weird graffiti campaign with an odd-looking kid on a skateboard licking the PSP like it was a rocket pop. Money-wise? Nope. Nada.
Maxim Interview
White gives his thoughts on his new video game, Shaun White Snowboarding:
It’s funny to say, but really this game feels like your really snowboarding. In the end, we wanted people that have never been on snow, or never ridden in the backcountry to get a feel for how much fun it is. Also, since you can get online and ride with your friends, it feels like the real deal.
Maxim Interview
Sanchez talks about doing voiceovers for Midway’s new video games:
There was a actually consideration of a different voice entirely. We went through some trials with other voiceover artists because of the DC association and the potential rebranding of the series and I was open to it; I’d had my time at the mantle. Ultimately, everyone decided it was a better idea to stick with the tried and true version. It just didn’t feel like Mortal Kombat without my voice on it, I was told. We actually had a couple of female voices doing the same narration and emphasis over the fight scenes that I was going to be doing. It just didn’t quite work out. So, they yanked me back in and I did the traditional work, except now with Superman and Batman instead of just MK characters.
Maxim Interview
Clark talks about her role as Lilith on the HBO series True Blood:
Lilith was created in the image of God, who is a vampire himself. The vampires in True Blood right now are split between the Mainstreamers and the Sanguinistas, so the Sanguinistas devoutly follow the vampire bible and they worship Lilith, me, as the vampire savior, so it’s really very fun and cool.
Maxim Interview
Cranston discusses his role in the movie Godzilla:
I’m a scientist at a nuclear power plant. I’m married to Juliette Binoche, and I was very pleased when she was cast in that role. The movie is about family and how we cope with the potential life-ending problem of the monster. It’s also about how we as a people may be messing with Mother Nature when it comes to nuclear power.
Maxim Interview
Daly talks about how he ended up starring on The Comedy Central show Review:
The Australian broadcasting company that produced it sold the format of the show to this international format company, and they sent it around the world to try and get other people to make the show. I heard they tried to make a version in England and another one in Holland – the Australian creators said they saw a version of their show in Dutch and didn’t understand any of what was being said. So they sent it to Comedy Central and Comedy Central immediately thought of me to adapt it here. I was like, Yep, that makes perfect sense. That’s me.
Maxim Interview
Hamm gives his thoughts on being featured in the movie Million Dollar Arm:
For whatever reason, the story of these pitchers, Rinku and Dinesh—which is a true story, 100 percent—missed me, and I’m a huge baseball fan. Maybe it’s because it happened to the Pirates, whom no one really cared about a few years ago. They were god-awful. Anyway, I loved the script, and googled it.
Maxim Interview
Hale talks about his role as Gary Walsh in season three of the HBO series Veep:
All he wants to do is please Selina. That is his life goal. In this season he thinks, I need to exercise some different muscles. I’m in my 40s. I can do more. I can carry more than just a bag. So he tries some other things out, thinking he can gain some more responsibility. And obviously it fails miserably because he really is gifted at giving her wipes. And that’s about it. He tries and it does not end well.
Maxim Interview
Hutchison talks about winning the Maximum Warrior 4 competition:
It’s very realistic. It’s not like sports where you know the rules. In combat there are no rules: Anything goes. It could be a land mine; it could be an enemy combatant in a suicide vest dressed as a woman. With Maximum Warrior, you may hit a trip wire. That kind of stuff happens.
Maxim Interview
Mancuso talks about competing in the Sochi Olympics and her best event:
My best event is Super-G. I’m competitive in all my events, but Super-G has been most consistent for me. Ironically, that’s one event I don’t have an Olympic medal in, but I’m really excited. I think I have a good shot.
Maxim Interview
Barkley discusses what it’s like to be a part of the crew on TNT’s Inside the NBA:
We’re having more fun than that! I always tell people I wish we could put the behind-the-scenes stuff on the air, but we’d probably get arrested. Last year Shaq was always tackling everybody. I tried to tackle him back, but I couldn’t knock his big ass down.
Maxim Interview
McKellen talks about his role as Gandalf the Grey in the movie The Desolation of Smaug:
The trouble in answering that is that we filmed the three Hobbits at the same time. What is actually in the second film, I’m not quite sure. I know that Gandalf has quite a big stake in this one. It’s pretty striking stuff, quite violent, hopefully exciting, and a bit mysterious.
Maxim Interview
Knoxville gives his thoughts on his role as Irving Zisman in the movie Bad Grandpa:
The name comes from two guys who used to come to a restaurant I worked at. But the character is like a mixture of Mel Brooks, Walter Matthau, a more perverted version of myself, and my father. There were a lot of lines in the movie that come straight from him. He’s probably my biggest influence.
Maxim Interview
Velasquez talks about his upcoming remtach against Junior dos Santos at UFC 66 for the UFC Heavyweight Title:
There’s a little added to it, especially with dos Santos being the type of fighter he is and how good he is. We’re two of the best guys in this division. We’re both out there hungry and we both want to win. He’s fast. He’s still strong. He has good technique. He was tough. Overall, he’s a tough dude. I’m expecting a tougher fight for this time.
Maxim Interview
Voight speaks about what drew him to the role of Van Helsing in the movie Dracula: The Dark Prince:
I thought it had a nice story to it, that there was something in it that was on the positive side of things. And I thought this character that they wanted me to do was sketched in. I thought maybe I could bring something to it. So that’s why I did it.
Maxim Interview
Howard talks about why he wanted to direct the movie Rush, a film about Formula 1 racing in the 1970s:
The first movie I did that was inspired by true events was Apollo 13. We had a preview screening, and the audience comment cards were great. I was very excited. But suddenly I came to one that marked it ‘poor.’ In big giant letters the guy wrote, ‘More Hollywood bullshit. They would never survive!’ I realized then that’s the beauty of a true story.
Maxim Interview
Drake gives his thoughts on his new album Nothing Was The Same:
I think I’ve found a way to successfully blend my melodic side and my rap side. I think that’s why it comes off a bit tougher, because there are no ballads on there like the last album. There’s not really any down moments, even when I’m singing – I chose to take a more aggressive stance while in production and during recording. It’s not tougher in a way where you are going to hear a bunch of gun and drug raps; it’s just a bit tougher in the sense that it’s got an energy coursing through it, and I’m really excited about that.
Maxim Interview
Lee gives his thoughts on his role in the movie Mallrats:
Oh, that wasn’t a cameo! I was one of the stars, shame on you. But I enjoyed it tremendously and I enjoyed Kevin Smith, we got along beautifully. Tell you a funny thing about it, though – in the movie, I’m supposed to be telling somebody that they shouldn’t feel bad about losing a girl because I had lost a girl once and I still remember her and blah blah blah. I went home and my wife said, What’s this about that girl you were talking about? And I said, Honey, it’s just movie! But it took me a while to pacify her.