Latest news with #Supanova
Sky News AU
18 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Sky News AU
'Bad weather': Outlander star Sam Heughan stunned by Aussie winter during Bondi Beach stroll
Scottish actor Sam Heughan has been left gobsmacked by Australia's version of winter, filming himself enjoying the sunshine on Sydney's Bondi Beach and joking about the "freezing" conditions. The 45-year-old actor, best known for playing Jamie Fraser in the historical drama Outlander, is currently in Australia for the Supanova Comic Con & Gaming expo, which kicks off in Sydney this weekend. Taking to Instagram on Thursday, Heughan shared a video strolling along Bondi's boardwalk beneath clear skies, the waves rolling behind him. Despite temperatures dipping to a brisk six degrees and peaking at 18, the Scotsman appeared unfazed, especially compared to the icy winters back home. "Winter. Winter in Australia," Heughan said in disbelief, dressed in a button-up shirt and sunglasses. "In Scotland, we have snow in winter. It's dark. Ice. The only ice here is apparently an iceberg, but it's a swimming pool." Back in Balmaclellan, Scotland, Heughan's hometown, temperatures were ironically milder, reaching a top of 22 degrees despite it being summer. As he struggled playfully to button his shirt, the actor quipped, "I'm trying to do up my shirt because it's that cold," before teasing his next stop: Perth. "I've heard it's a very long way away, and I hope it's just as cold and miserable, because I hate winter," he joked. In the caption, Heughan wrote: "Can't wait for more of this 'bad' weather…" Fans and friends quickly flooded the comments with banter, including his Outlander co-star Caitríona Balfe, who joked, "Looks like you're having a s**t time. So sorry buddy." One fan added: "The only ice is in our drinks!! Enjoy Sydney," while another wrote: "Looks terrible, all that beautiful beachfront and the freezing temps requiring an actual shirt!" Heughan is among a star-studded Supanova line-up that includes Evangeline Lilly, Billy Zane, Robert Taylor, and local favourite Lincoln Lewis. The event will hit the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre next weekend.
Sydney Morning Herald
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
‘He was like my little brother': Billy Zane on Heath Ledger, Leonardo DiCaprio, and 40 years in Hollywood
As Hansel (Owen Wilson) says in Zoolander: 'Listen to your friend Billy Zane. He's a cool dude.' Billy Zane, 59, is a cool dude. I know this firsthand now. There he is on my laptop screen, sitting in his lounge room in Los Angeles, a guitar and a set of bongo drums along the wall behind him. Los Angeles' anti-ICE protests might be escalating outside his doors, but he's unflappably suave in black-rimmed glasses and a black shirt unbuttoned to his chest hair, as we discuss his 40-year acting career, ahead of his appearance at Sydney's Supanova pop culture festival this weekend. I hear you're flying out to Europe today. That's tomorrow. What for? The film festival in Taormina in Sicily. They're playing a film I directed called an existentialist comedy set behind the scenes of a dysfunctional B-movie set. It's funny, quite European in its flair, a little bit Truffaut and Fellini but with a Curb Your Enthusiasm tone. We're screening it at this lovely festival, where apparently Martin Scorsese will be screening a 4K version of Taxi Driver in a 6000-seat amphitheatre or something. Is this the first film you've directed? Technically. It's the first I've directed to be released. I have one that was caught up in the French courts for a bit. It's a quagmire, this trade, I have to tell you. But we've resuscitated it and that will see the light of day. That project was something I made many years ago, so it's going to be like corking a bottle of wine when it comes out. What was the issue with it? We don't have the time. Fair enough. You have a long relationship with Australia, going back to Dead Calm (1989), your breakout film with a young Nicole Kidman. Is it true your sister dated Heath Ledger for a while, too? Yeah, they met on the set of Roar which they shot there for some years. Then he came back with her to LA and they were living together. There was a groovy kind of happening called The Masses that we all contributed to. The Masses. Nice. It was an art collective, young filmmakers and video directors and musicians feeding each other's interests. I'd give [Heath] my Super 8 camera to play with or introduce him to the wheels of steel, my ones and twos. He enjoyed DJing quite a bit. It was fun. He was like my little brother. Wait, you used to DJ? Not publicly, just for my own parties. I'd always come back from London with boxes of records. I liked mashing up the bpm of drum and bass against, like, anything – even spoken word and weird little stories. I remember finding a nice pocket with an early PJ Harvey track and some Metalheadz, which kind of bent your brain in the best way possible. So Heath was basically part of your family for a while. Did he go over for, like, Greek family dinners? (laughs) Well, we would always bust out the Greek if there was a meal to be had, but it was more my sister threw these great Steak + Cake parties, which was maybe Spartan in its minimalism, but they were very binary and quite efficient. Great wine, filet mignon, fabulous cake, and good music. Your film career's been going 40 years now, ever since your first role in Back to the Future. What's the thing people mostly want to talk to you about? The Phantom (1996) always comes up and Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight (1995), which were two of my favourite films. I always liked the sweetness of The Phantom and the idea that he doesn't kill, which I think is an important message today in the spate of first-person body counts and movies that are just a series of bludgeonings. He's a white hat hero, which is hard to find today. There's so much trauma drama and origin stories supporting vengeance play. I want to talk about my favourite show: Twin Peaks. In Season Two, you had a role as John Justice Wheeler, playboy love interest to Audrey Horne (Sherilyn Fenn). It was a very short-lived storyline. Your character was suddenly rushed off to South America. It felt incomplete, then I read into it and it sounds like there was a whole other plan for it. Tell me, I have no idea. Sherilyn Fenn said you were supposed to whisk Audrey away from Twin Peaks and then she was gonna get her own spin-off set in LA. What? Is this fan fiction? No, this is Sherilyn Fenn speaking in an interview, like, a decade ago. [She also said Zane was only brought into the show because Lara Flynn Boyle, who was dating Kyle MacLachlan at the time, was getting jealous of the love story the show was spinning between Agent Cooper and Audrey.] Oh God, if only. I would have loved that. That was a pinch-me moment when they called me up. Leave it to [David] Lynch to cast against type. At that time, I was known as 'bad boy on a boat'. Got a boat? I'm your guy, just add water. Then he goes, I know, I'll hire the most tweaked out psycho to be the Gary Cooper, straight-laced guy here. Those are the kind of roles I wanted to play. What was David Lynch like at the time? Generous. Cool. Sweet. Just like he always sounded, rest his lovely soul. Collaborative. Open. Brilliant. Kind. Inclusive. He was a bit of a DJ, too. His sound cart always had music playing; that was him creating a unifying field for his crew. I'd witnessed that while visiting the set of Lost Highway. He was filming in my neighbourhood and I knew some of the cast – Natasha Wagner, Balthazar Getty – and I was watching him just play this drone that wasn't so much music but more a soundscape. It brought people into a zone right before it was time to shoot. I thought that was really smart, and I kept it in my kit bag. It keeps everyone in the same mindset and tone of what you're trying to achieve, not looking for the next job or thinking about lunch. Another movie I always loved is Only You (1994). You played the fake Damon Bradley. Everyone knows your cameo in Zoolander, but even back then you were taking the piss out of your pretty boy, suave persona. Absolutely. Self-deprecation and a well-timed prat fall, that's the thing. I love Chaplin and Peter Sellers, the economy of a physical gag. I can't help but infuse that in my work, or at least a glimmer of it. You'll see it in Titanic even. If you watch Cal in terms of his reactions to information as it comes in, he doesn't really care. He knows he's getting off the boat. It's that confidence of like, sinking-schminking. The arrogance is hysterical. It feeds the narrative and the hubris of the age he carries, but there's such an absurdity that it would make [James] Cameron and I giggle. He'd yell 'Cut!' and we'd laugh our asses off because the character was such a tool. Speaking of Titanic (1997), there's a famous New York Magazine article titled Leo, Prince of the City, written by Nancy Jo Sales and published back in 1998, right after Titanic blew up and Leonardo DiCaprio became the biggest star on the planet. Do you remember experiencing that phenomenon of Leo? You were like 10 years older than him. Were you concerned for him or excited? Oh, excited. He was a lovely guy, still is. We were pals, but there was also a mutual appreciation for each other's work. We'd see each other socially before Titanic, so when we both got the gig, it was like, 'Oh, this is gonna be a hoot.' But watching that unfold… I remember when we were filming Titanic, we drove breakneck to the Chinese Theatre one night for the premiere of Romeo + Juliet (1996) and then drove back in the early hours to be on set again. And it was nice seeing him blowing up in real time, even before Titanic. Romeo + Juliet was really the start of it. We were like, 'Oh, so it begins. Just wait till they see you running around with your little suspenders!' Were you partying with him at that time? I mean, yeah, I was living in New York in the late '90s and we were like neighbours. I lived next door to The Mercer and I knew his crew, they were all young actors. But I was not part of... the pack. The 'Pussy Posse'. 'Welcome elder statesman…' Like the old man who'd roll in with sage advice for the young bucks having their day. No. But it was fun to watch. He did just fine. That kid didn't need much help. Your audition tape for Dirty Dancing (1987) that came to light a few years ago: is it true you were cast in that film, but then they saw you dance and changed their minds? No, no. I auditioned for it, and I had made the short list. But there were two couples shortlisted in the end: Sarah Jessica Parker and I, and Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey. I danced, but he was a trained dancer. I could move, but I wasn't a Broadway star. He was born into a dancing family. His mum was a choreographer! He was a perfect Johnny Castle. I was coming at it a little more like an Elvis movie. Loading Do you ever go down the pathway of, like, what would have happened if you got that? I tend to subscribe to the notion that everything is perfect, so I don't know. A whole different kind of vibe. I don't think I would have done Dead Calm. I probably would've ended up posing on movie posters with a gun and the word 'cop' in the title. Carwash Cop! Kickboxer Cop!
The Age
a day ago
- Entertainment
- The Age
‘He was like my little brother': Billy Zane on Heath Ledger, Leonardo DiCaprio, and 40 years in Hollywood
As Hansel (Owen Wilson) says in Zoolander: 'Listen to your friend Billy Zane. He's a cool dude.' Billy Zane, 59, is a cool dude. I know this firsthand now. There he is on my laptop screen, sitting in his lounge room in Los Angeles, a guitar and a set of bongo drums along the wall behind him. Los Angeles' anti-ICE protests might be escalating outside his doors, but he's unflappably suave in black-rimmed glasses and a black shirt unbuttoned to his chest hair, as we discuss his 40-year acting career, ahead of his appearance at Sydney's Supanova pop culture festival this weekend. I hear you're flying out to Europe today. That's tomorrow. What for? The film festival in Taormina in Sicily. They're playing a film I directed called an existentialist comedy set behind the scenes of a dysfunctional B-movie set. It's funny, quite European in its flair, a little bit Truffaut and Fellini but with a Curb Your Enthusiasm tone. We're screening it at this lovely festival, where apparently Martin Scorsese will be screening a 4K version of Taxi Driver in a 6000-seat amphitheatre or something. Is this the first film you've directed? Technically. It's the first I've directed to be released. I have one that was caught up in the French courts for a bit. It's a quagmire, this trade, I have to tell you. But we've resuscitated it and that will see the light of day. That project was something I made many years ago, so it's going to be like corking a bottle of wine when it comes out. What was the issue with it? We don't have the time. Fair enough. You have a long relationship with Australia, going back to Dead Calm (1989), your breakout film with a young Nicole Kidman. Is it true your sister dated Heath Ledger for a while, too? Yeah, they met on the set of Roar which they shot there for some years. Then he came back with her to LA and they were living together. There was a groovy kind of happening called The Masses that we all contributed to. The Masses. Nice. It was an art collective, young filmmakers and video directors and musicians feeding each other's interests. I'd give [Heath] my Super 8 camera to play with or introduce him to the wheels of steel, my ones and twos. He enjoyed DJing quite a bit. It was fun. He was like my little brother. Wait, you used to DJ? Not publicly, just for my own parties. I'd always come back from London with boxes of records. I liked mashing up the bpm of drum and bass against, like, anything – even spoken word and weird little stories. I remember finding a nice pocket with an early PJ Harvey track and some Metalheadz, which kind of bent your brain in the best way possible. So Heath was basically part of your family for a while. Did he go over for, like, Greek family dinners? (laughs) Well, we would always bust out the Greek if there was a meal to be had, but it was more my sister threw these great Steak + Cake parties, which was maybe Spartan in its minimalism, but they were very binary and quite efficient. Great wine, filet mignon, fabulous cake, and good music. Your film career's been going 40 years now, ever since your first role in Back to the Future. What's the thing people mostly want to talk to you about? The Phantom (1996) always comes up and Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight (1995), which were two of my favourite films. I always liked the sweetness of The Phantom and the idea that he doesn't kill, which I think is an important message today in the spate of first-person body counts and movies that are just a series of bludgeonings. He's a white hat hero, which is hard to find today. There's so much trauma drama and origin stories supporting vengeance play. I want to talk about my favourite show: Twin Peaks. In Season Two, you had a role as John Justice Wheeler, playboy love interest to Audrey Horne (Sherilyn Fenn). It was a very short-lived storyline. Your character was suddenly rushed off to South America. It felt incomplete, then I read into it and it sounds like there was a whole other plan for it. Tell me, I have no idea. Sherilyn Fenn said you were supposed to whisk Audrey away from Twin Peaks and then she was gonna get her own spin-off set in LA. What? Is this fan fiction? No, this is Sherilyn Fenn speaking in an interview, like, a decade ago. [She also said Zane was only brought into the show because Lara Flynn Boyle, who was dating Kyle MacLachlan at the time, was getting jealous of the love story the show was spinning between Agent Cooper and Audrey.] Oh God, if only. I would have loved that. That was a pinch-me moment when they called me up. Leave it to [David] Lynch to cast against type. At that time, I was known as 'bad boy on a boat'. Got a boat? I'm your guy, just add water. Then he goes, I know, I'll hire the most tweaked out psycho to be the Gary Cooper, straight-laced guy here. Those are the kind of roles I wanted to play. What was David Lynch like at the time? Generous. Cool. Sweet. Just like he always sounded, rest his lovely soul. Collaborative. Open. Brilliant. Kind. Inclusive. He was a bit of a DJ, too. His sound cart always had music playing; that was him creating a unifying field for his crew. I'd witnessed that while visiting the set of Lost Highway. He was filming in my neighbourhood and I knew some of the cast – Natasha Wagner, Balthazar Getty – and I was watching him just play this drone that wasn't so much music but more a soundscape. It brought people into a zone right before it was time to shoot. I thought that was really smart, and I kept it in my kit bag. It keeps everyone in the same mindset and tone of what you're trying to achieve, not looking for the next job or thinking about lunch. Another movie I always loved is Only You (1994). You played the fake Damon Bradley. Everyone knows your cameo in Zoolander, but even back then you were taking the piss out of your pretty boy, suave persona. Absolutely. Self-deprecation and a well-timed prat fall, that's the thing. I love Chaplin and Peter Sellers, the economy of a physical gag. I can't help but infuse that in my work, or at least a glimmer of it. You'll see it in Titanic even. If you watch Cal in terms of his reactions to information as it comes in, he doesn't really care. He knows he's getting off the boat. It's that confidence of like, sinking-schminking. The arrogance is hysterical. It feeds the narrative and the hubris of the age he carries, but there's such an absurdity that it would make [James] Cameron and I giggle. He'd yell 'Cut!' and we'd laugh our asses off because the character was such a tool. Speaking of Titanic (1997), there's a famous New York Magazine article titled Leo, Prince of the City, written by Nancy Jo Sales and published back in 1998, right after Titanic blew up and Leonardo DiCaprio became the biggest star on the planet. Do you remember experiencing that phenomenon of Leo? You were like 10 years older than him. Were you concerned for him or excited? Oh, excited. He was a lovely guy, still is. We were pals, but there was also a mutual appreciation for each other's work. We'd see each other socially before Titanic, so when we both got the gig, it was like, 'Oh, this is gonna be a hoot.' But watching that unfold… I remember when we were filming Titanic, we drove breakneck to the Chinese Theatre one night for the premiere of Romeo + Juliet (1996) and then drove back in the early hours to be on set again. And it was nice seeing him blowing up in real time, even before Titanic. Romeo + Juliet was really the start of it. We were like, 'Oh, so it begins. Just wait till they see you running around with your little suspenders!' Were you partying with him at that time? I mean, yeah, I was living in New York in the late '90s and we were like neighbours. I lived next door to The Mercer and I knew his crew, they were all young actors. But I was not part of... the pack. The 'Pussy Posse'. 'Welcome elder statesman…' Like the old man who'd roll in with sage advice for the young bucks having their day. No. But it was fun to watch. He did just fine. That kid didn't need much help. Your audition tape for Dirty Dancing (1987) that came to light a few years ago: is it true you were cast in that film, but then they saw you dance and changed their minds? No, no. I auditioned for it, and I had made the short list. But there were two couples shortlisted in the end: Sarah Jessica Parker and I, and Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey. I danced, but he was a trained dancer. I could move, but I wasn't a Broadway star. He was born into a dancing family. His mum was a choreographer! He was a perfect Johnny Castle. I was coming at it a little more like an Elvis movie. Loading Do you ever go down the pathway of, like, what would have happened if you got that? I tend to subscribe to the notion that everything is perfect, so I don't know. A whole different kind of vibe. I don't think I would have done Dead Calm. I probably would've ended up posing on movie posters with a gun and the word 'cop' in the title. Carwash Cop! Kickboxer Cop!
Daily Mail
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Why Outlander star Sam Heughan was left deeply confused by Australia's winter weather amid visit Down Under
Sam Heughan has shared his astonishment at being met with sunny weather in Australia. The Scottish actor, who is Down Under for the the Supanova Comic Con & Gaming expo, filmed an Instagram Reel on Thursday as he strolled along Sydney 's famous Bondi Beach. The 45-year-old noted the clear skies and lack of snow or ice, with Sydney's winter weather reaching a mild peak of 16 degrees Celsius the day the video was filmed. 'Winter. Winter in Australia,' Sam marvelled as he strolled along the boardwalk beside the ocean. 'In Scotland, we have snow in winter. It's dark. Ice. The only ice here is apparently an iceberg, but it's a swimming pool' he added, referring to the Bondi Icebergs pool. 'Trying to do up my shirt because it's that cold,' he joked, gesturing at the sun. Sam may have gotten more of what he expected later in the night, when temperatures dropped to seven degrees Celsius once the sun went down. Last year, Sam signed up to the celebrity dating app Raya in a bid to find love, MailOnline revealed. Despite being known for his role as the dashing Highland warrior Jamie Fraser in Outlander, the actor is yet to find his dream partner. Sam, who was last seen enjoying a romance with Australian model Monika Clarke in 2022, decorated his Raya profile with a slew of hunky snaps, and lists his main location as the UK. MailOnline contacted a representative for Sam Heughan for comment. Raya is a private membership community that started out as a dating app, but has since become a platform for networking and social discovery. It was launched in 2015, and can be used on iPhones and iPads for $9.99 a month. A select few are chosen to be part of the 'elite community', with the waiting list to join the app said to be in the 'thousands' and 'not even 10 per cent of those who apply get in'. Other names thought to have signed up include F1 star Lewis Hamilton, actor James Norton and footballer Jude Bellingham. Sam was previously spotted kissing model Monika two years ago, and he was also romantically linked to Twin Peaks actress Amy Shiels in 2018. Before that he was romantically linked to Into The Woods actress MacKenzie Mauzy in 2017 before they split quietly the next year, and also previously dated Cody Kennedy and Abbie Salt as well. In May 2023, Sam shared rare insight into his love life by admitting he's still looking for 'The One.' He told People: 'I've done all of the gift-giving and turning up when least expected, but, so far, I'm still looking.' He has starred on Starz series Outlander throughout its run, with the second half of its seventh season set to premiere in November 2024. Outlander is a historical drama television series based on the ongoing novel series of the same name by Diana Gabaldon. It is centered around an English combat nurse named Claire Randall (Catriona Balfe) from 1945 who is mysteriously swept back in time to 1743. Sam also starred opposite Poldark's Eleanor Tomlinson in the steamy Channel 4 drama The Couple Next Door. The series saw Evie and her husband Pete (Alfred Enoch) moving into an upscale neighbourhood, where they met next door neighbours cop Danny (Sam) and his wife, glamorous yoga instructor Becka (Jessica De Gouw). As time goes on, these two couples get increasingly close to each other and one fateful night, become sexually entangled in a way that will change their lives forever. During filming, Eleanor and Sam worked with intimacy coordinator Vanessa Coffey. Prior to filming, the pair also knew each other through their mutual friend Caitríona Balfe, who plays Jamie's wife, Claire, in Outlander. Eleanor previously told The Radio Times: 'Sam is now one of my best friends. Every day was a joy and creating Danny and Evie's complicated and dangerous relationship was a lot of fun.
Daily Mail
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE Rena Owen breaks silence on THAT surprise Bad Batch death, dream Star Wars comeback - and why George Lucas loved her 'ordinary' approach
She became a cult favourite in Star Wars: Attack of the Clones as the elegant alien Taun We. But now Rena Owen is opening up about her wildest fan encounter, emotional character death, and dream return to the galaxy far, far away. Speaking to Daily Mail Australia ahead of her appearance at Supanova Comic Con, the Once Were Warriors star, 62, revealed fans still can't get enough of her character – and some of them take it to the next level. 'I had someone come up to me and say, 'I hope you don't think I'm weird, but I think Taun We is the sexiest alien I've ever seen in a movie,' Rena laughed. 'And honestly? I took that as a total compliment!' Owen, who physically portrayed the Kaminoan aide in Attack of the Clones, says many fans don't realise it was her entire performance - not just her voice. 'It was my walking, my talking, my energy, my sensuality. The original character was quite androgynous, but after my take, they gave Taun We a headband and an earring. They feminised her because of me!' But it wasn't all fun and flirtation. When Lucasfilm recently killed off Taun We in The Bad Batch, fans were furious - and Rena was devastated too. 'Originally, they weren't going to kill her off – but they told me they had to eliminate a character fans cared about to elevate the season finale. And wow, it worked. I've never had more media headlines or fan outrage!' Still, she's hoping that death could pave the way for a brand new role. 'I said to the director, 'Well, I guess this means I can come back as someone else!' I would love to be in a new Star Wars series or movie. That's my dream now – to act in scenes with Yoda. I've got plush Yodas all over my house!' She even joked that she might need a fan petition to make it happen. 'Let's get Rena Owen back in Star Wars – new role, new galaxy, new character. I'm ready!' While her Star Wars fame continues to grow with each new generation, Rena admitted she only became aware of the franchise's global cult following after attending conventions. And if being part of one major franchise wasn't enough, Rena will soon be seen in another – Disney's live-action Moana, set for release in July 2026 'I didn't grow up with Star Wars. I grew up a country bumpkin milking cows. It wasn't until I started doing conventions that I realised it was like a religion.' That included her very first time working with George Lucas, which she remembers fondly. 'I had no idea what universe I was stepping into – so I just treated him like a regular guy. I'd be like, 'Hey George, what are you having for brekkie?' And he loved that. I think extraordinary people like being treated ordinary.' Rena says the Star Wars creator kept her close after their first collaboration, even casting her again in Revenge of the Sith. 'If filmmakers like you, they bring you back. That's how it works. But by then I was much more self-conscious. The magic of Episode II was just being a big kid, full of joy.' And if being part of one major franchise wasn't enough, Rena will soon be seen in another – Disney's live-action Moana, set for release in July 2026. 'Every single person you'll see on screen is of Polynesian descent,' she said proudly. 'It's historic. When I grew up, there were no brown faces on our TVs. Now I get young actors saying, 'You and Temuera Morrison opened the door for us.' That means everything.' As for the rest of us? If you happen to be Rena's dentist, optician, or Uber driver – you might just walk away with a signed Taun We action figure. 'Sometimes people don't believe it's me – I had to prove it to my eye specialist recently! So now I keep a few action figures to give away as gifts. We're all just big kids, after all.' And if there's one thing she hopes fans take away from meeting her? 'Never lose your magic. The source of our creativity is our inner child – and if you lose your common touch, you lose your magic.'
