Parks and Recreation: Lucy Lawless Talks About Romancing Ron Swanson

Here at IGN TV, we were psyched to hear that Lucy Lawless would be appearing on Parks and Recreation this season, in a recurring role as a new love interest for none other than Ron Swanson, played by Nick Offerman. And when I spoke to Lawless on the set of the series recently, where she was filming her second episode, she quickly made it clear she shared that excitement. Even before we began our interview, she was telling me just how great a set it was and how happy she was to be working on such a funny show.

Sitting on the recently built Washington, D.C. sets (for Ben and April's new jobs this season), we went on to discuss what makes her character, Diane -- who makes her debut this week -- the kind of woman Ron would be interested in, why Parks and Rec is so great and a bit about the end of Spartacus.

IGN TV: So you’d seen a lot of the show beforehand?

Lucy Lawless: Oh yeah, I’ve seen everything. I think they thought I was kidding, but I’ve really seen everything. I’m an enormous fan.

IGN: So that was an easy yes.

Lawless: I’m a P-and-R aficionado, actually.

IGN: Nice, so you can share factoids with the best of them?

Lawless: I think so. Actually, Nick said something yesterday, and I knew it wasn’t right -- I had to think about it for a minute. He was saying who knew about Duke Silver, his secret identity, but he forgot that Mark knew, because Mark was the one who told Tom.

IGN: So what is it like playing a love interest to Duke Silver himself?

Lawless: Very exciting -- well, I don’t know he’s Duke Silver yet. I’m not sure if and when that’s going to come up… But it is! This is a very rare thing in television, especially in half-hour where you’re not accustomed to seeing the characters grow and change. But Leslie’s gone off to Washington -- this is so shocking to me, I’ve never actually seen this set!

IGN: Yeah, I guess no one had, except for the people shooting here. Aziz came over here today and said he hadn’t seen it either.

Lawless: Yeah, and Ben is off doing his thing, and yet the show remains intact in terms of its storylines and everything. It’s as rewarding as ever. I’m just so lucky to have been invited to join. Oh my God, and I met Rob Lowe today! Now there’s somebody with a bloody magnificent oeuvre, you know, and charming with that. Accomplished guy, seen a lot of Hollywood, and he’s still as delightful as anybody else on this set.

IGN: How would you describe your character? Because it takes a special kind of woman to be a love interest to Ron Swanson, I’d say.

Lawless: Yeah, well she is, in Ron’s words, a sharp, capable woman. At some point, he runs afoul of her, and basically she threatens to feed him his own mustache. I’m not sure how that’s done, but I love the sound of it! So we’ll see if that scares him off.

IGN: Well, he certainly likes strong women, so I’m guessing it might not scare him off. I’m guessing he might be very intrigued.

Lawless: Yeah, but I don’t think she’s another Tammy, which was extremely exciting to me. They have something different in mind. Again, it’s that evolution. They’re allowing him to have something he’s never had before, which is a real grownup relationship. I’m dying to see whether he ever gets to wear the red shirt! I don’t know if we’ve slept together or not, and the sexual tension’s palpable.

IGN: As a fan -- especially since Ron Swanson is such an iconic character at this point -- what’s it like playing off Nick?

Lawless: I had the giggles at first because it’s Ron Swanson, you know? There was one point in the first episode where I had to laugh derisively at him, out of nowhere, and I was having real trouble getting to that point. I’m not used to faking emotions anymore. It’s a different kind of acting that’s required in comedy. You’ve got to keep it light. Anyway, so I would get Nick to do that little dance - Amy Poehler actually wrote that episode, where she gave them all little bits, and they were all wasted. I’d get him to do that dance, like a monkey for me. He just dazzles me. He’s too funny.

Continue to Page 2 to see what Lawless had to say about how Andy is involved in her storyline, the opportunity to do comedy and her thoughts on the upcoming end of Spartacus.

Source : ign[dot]com

B*LL*CKS: The 12 Most Eye-Watering Movie Castrations

BEWARE OF NUT-BUSTING SPOILERS AHEAD

Ouch. This week we not only sat (uncomfortably) through Lawless’ de-conkering but also Dredd’s bloody-mouthed wang worrying. These though are just the latest entrants in cinema’s most wince-inducing club: the cinematic castration – the ultimate in emasculation, humiliation and total pain. So in celebration of its newest dis-membered members, get ready to cross those legs for the best in lost manhood, occasional female empowerment but mostly bloody, spurting amateur sex surgery. Let’s turn that Y into an X, shall we?

Message Sent (Lawless, 2012)

Finding themselves up against a literally cut-throat copper, those bootleggin’ Bondurant boys aim to cut something a little lower on the anatomy. Tracking down the guys who earlier attempted to adjust Bane’s vocal chords, the Bondurants take a straight razor to the terror-etched henchmen’s undercarriages and deliver them to their nemesis. Revenge is a dish best served in a bloody tissue.

Disarmament (Sin City, 2005)

“I take away his weapon,” says Hartigan. “Both of them.” The second is definitely the more painful for lil’ Roark Jr, as the determined detective proceeds to violently disarm the Yellow Bastard’s man-pistol for the second time in 90 minutes, clenching away his clackers in a gooey marshmallowy mustard-coloured splodge. All in all, that’s two – or is that four? – for the price of one.

Hack Filmmakers (Cannibal Holocaust, 1980)

Well, that’s a hornets’ nest well-and-truly stirred up. The lost, isolated Yanomamö tribe – angered by the devious documentarians’ not-strictly-observing techniques – reap a bloody, about-to-be-banned revenge: they begin by hacking rapist cameraman Mark into more edible pieces, starting very graphically with his telescopic lens. This one’s a near-tie with a similar ‘restless natives’ moment in its equally grotty cousin, Cannibal Ferox.

Swearing Revenge (Hostel II, 2007)

Language! Beth goes from being victim to fully-fledged Elite Hunting customer at the flash of a cussword, butchering her potty-mouthed torturer’s torpid turkey with one swift hack and then feeding it to the bloodhounds. If my folks had shown me this instead of just threatening to wash my mouth out with soap, my swear-jar wouldn’t be quite so full.

Cock Block (The Street Fighter, 1974)

Sonny Chiba, ‘the greatest actor working in martial arts movies today’ as Clarence Worley would have it, has a ball – two of them – when his double-hard mercenary Tsurigi leaps through A window and gets hands on with the guy trying to rape heiress Sarai. I understand this technique is called Jeet Plums Do.

Memories Are Made Of These (In The Realm Of The Senses, 1976)

For a movie famed for its unsimulated sex – based on real events – this really is a leg crosser, and puts you off boiled eggs to boot. Having helped kill her married lover with ‘a Hutchence’, the obsessed Abe slices off his old boy and writes a farewell message in his chest with the blood. Next time you’re keen on a memento, maybe a picture would work better?

Rubbered Out (Killer Condom, 1996)

More Troma than trauma, it’s no surprise that Lloyd Kaufman helped distribute this utterly bizarre German schlocker about a gay cop, his tranny bf and a carnivorous condom that puts a real dampener on safe sex. Our favourite bit? When the killer jimmy runs away with its latest meal still in its transparant, er, digestive tract. “That’s a cock!” someone shrieks. Yes. Yes it is.

A Quick One Off The Wrist (I Spit On Your Grave, 1978)

Johnny really did have it coming. Not just because he’s a scumbag, sadistic gang-rapist – though, let’s face it, that’s more than enough in its own right – but also partly because he’s stupid enough to let himself be stripped, led to a bath and given a hand-shandy by a knife-wielding lady who holds an entirely justified murder-boner for him; later, she just holds a boner. See also: Last House On The Left. Or don’t, because it’s a bit shonky.

Abominable Actions (Night Of The Demon, 1980)

You really shouldn’t pee on the grass. In this legendary video nasty, a passing biker is stopped mid-flow when Bigfoot yanks his chain clean off. What makes this scene even more impressive is not its utter craposity but that it’s told in very specific flashback by someone who wasn’t actually there.

A Little Off The Top, Sir? (The Holy Mountain, 1973)

LSD, scissors and castration do not mix. Alejandro Jodorowsky’s surreal movie of dense symbolism is already pretty wang happy before we get to the castration dream sequence (the member is later put in a room filled with similarly severed choppers). Jodorowsky later alleged that the scissor-wielder was so loaded with hallucinogens that the scene nearly played out for real. “And cut…”

Biting Back (Teeth, 2007)

Better than pepper spay. Creepy rat-bag rapist Tobey gets caught in our Venus’ fly-trap when he tries to aggressively take advantage of a half-unconscious Dawn. However, our heroine has a case of Vagina Dentata, which is Latin for “Argh, help me Jesus, she’s bitten my penis off with her fanny-gnashers.”

Your Move, Creep (RoboCop, 1987)

A hostage-holding wannabe rapist finds out that ‘the new guy in town’ has a much better aim than his more human counterparts; RoboCop just fires a bullet through the victim’s skirt – the empty space between her legs – and catches the scumbag hair-enthusiast standing behind her right in his junk. We can’t confirm whether it’s a solid sever but it’s safe to say that this perp won’t be achieving 45° anytime soon.

Tom Hawker edited cult movie mag Hotdog and has seen Cannibal Holocaust at least one more time than is strictly necessary. He's seen it twice.

Source : ign[dot]com

Lawless Review

A violent tale of Prohibition-era hillbilly gangsters, Lawless comes marinated in blood and moonshine. It’s based on the book The Wettest County in the World (that’s Franklin County, VA, not Lancashire, UK) by Matt Bondurant, which traced the true story of his own grandfather and two brothers who ran illegal home-brewed hooch across the backwaters and got embroiled in all-out gang warfare with rival clans and the law. The filmmakers clearly want you to imagine L.A. Confidential with bootleggers, or The Untouchables gone country.

Unfortunately Lawless fails to live up to those two crime sagas. Nor does it resonate like director John Hillcoat’s two previous films, eerie Outback Western The Proposition and doom-laden apocalyptic drama The Road. What we’ve got here is a solid, smartly cast, occasionally downright nasty B-movie that too closely resembles the product its outlaw heroes brew: a slug of rotgut rather than refined malt; a quick, cheap kick that does the basics and definitely won’t improve with age.

It’s 1931 and the Bondurant brothers have a slick but strictly small-time bootleg racket going. Big brother Howard (Jason Clarke) is the muscle, while young pup Jack (Shia LaBeouf) is driver and all-round annoyance. Holding it all together in the middle is Forrest (Tom Hardy), the brains and, when required, the enforcer. The Bondurant myth is built on their being “invincible”, both Howard and Forrest having respectively survived WWI and the life-threatening disease that killed their parents. So when big city special deputy Charlie Rakes (Guy Pearce) is brought in to clamp down on local outlaw operations (and pretty much everyone in Franklin seems to be at it), he’s all-too willing to put the Bondurant myth to the test.

Weaving in and around these Brothers Grim are Jessica Chastain’s showgirl fugitive and all-round Bondurant sidekick; and Mia Wasikowska as the local preacher’s daughter who Jack takes a shine to. There’s also Gary Oldman as legendary gangster Floyd Banner, who’s playing his own angles on the moonshine front and isn’t afraid to do his own dirty work.

With all this fascinating set up, what’s most disappointing about Lawless is how straight it is. In terms of genre conventions, it’s practically law-abiding, never really attempting to fill this stark terrain in anything but the broadest brush strokes. LaBeouf is once again the eager young up-and-comer out to prove himself; Hardy’s a moody bruiser; the women suffer or simper in silence; and worst of all, Pearce’s fey sadist - with shaved eyebrows, effete mannerisms and a centre parting you could drive a train through - seems like he’s stepped out of the local am-dram society. He doesn’t have a moustache but if he did, it’d be constantly a-twirling.

The violence - often sudden and shocking - is effectively repulsive, often strangely centred on necks and throats, though there’s also a novel if gruesome use of someone’s cojones. But in terms of the overall lack of accountability, the films plays the old Godfather card: win sympathy for your family of killers by having their rivals be that much more vicious and sneaky. It’s a tired conceit and, when wrapped up in a Disney-like coda as it is here, feels contrived.

That said, Benoit Delhomme’s imagery and the set design looks authentically gritty and a cast of rising stars hold it all together. Hardy, once again, is the single most charismatic thing onscreen, the actor’s own magnetism finding shading and even welcome glimpses of humour in his taciturn brooder. And it’s a shame he doesn’t share screen time with his Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy/Dark Knight Rises co-star Oldman, who’s wasted in basically a cameo.

If musician Nick Cave’s by-the-numbers screenplay – which streamlines and tightens Bondurant’s memoir – isn’t his finest moment, at least he fares far better in his day job, pulling together the film’s soundtrack. Rather than just compile a collection of old Appalachian standards, in the (excellent) vein of, say, O Brother Where Art Thou, Cave and Bad Seed cohort Warren Ellis favour a more intriguing, modern approach. A bluegrass version of The Velvet Underground’s ‘White Light/White Heat’ shows more subtlety and innovation than anything we see or hear from the film’s characters.

At heart, this is Lawless’s main problem. It’s pacy, punchy - often literally, a knuckleduster being Forrest’s weapon of choice - but relatively frothy. The Proposition dealt with similar ideas - simmering male violence in a primitive landscape - but distilled it into a genuinely dangerous, potent brew. Lawless may be graphic at times, but ultimately plays it safe. It’s an alcopop that thinks it’s absinthe.

Source : ign[dot]com