Early last month we saw photos of Twilight star Taylor Lautner on the SoCal set of a photoshoot for Interview magazine and today we get to see the fruits of his labor. Taylor is featured in the new issue of Interview magazine wherein he talks about, of course, his role as Jacob Black in The Twilight Saga: New Moon. Here are a few pics from his Interview photospread and a portion of his interview:

When rumors surfaced last year that 17-year-old Taylor Lautner would not appear in the Twilight sequel because he was too physically slight to portray a bookworm-turned-werewolf, a great shriek rose from Fangirl Island. “Noooooo!!” wrote one obsessive on a Twilight discussion board. “omg. Pleezze let Taylor come back,” implored another. Some were more militant: “If they don’t put him in . . . there will be a massive Twilight fan attack!” The producers opted not to mess with their core constituency. While Twilight was ringing up $380 million at the box office and becoming one of the top pop-culture phenomena of the past year, Lautner was busy packing on 30 pounds of -muscle at the gym. His character, Jacob Black, the platonic best friend of heroine Bella Swan (played by Kristen Stewart), transforms in New Moon from a likable klutz into a member of a wolf pack. Likewise, the film gives Lautner a chance to bust out of more than his shirts, challenging co-star Robert Pattinson’s dominance of both the teen mags and the movie’s monster love-story narrative … Lautner grew up in Michigan and L.A., a youthful karate star who transitioned at the age of 12 from martial arts to acting in benign cinematic family fare like The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl. He was excited to talk about shooting New Moon, dirt biking, his new set of muscles, and playing up the sexual tension.

MICHAEL MARTIN: How is the Twilight phenomenon sitting with you?

TAYLOR LAUTNER: It’s the weirdest thing. Nobody really saw it coming. I mean, we knew we were making a movie of a very popular book, but we didn’t know how well it was going to do. When it opened, it exploded, and that was not something any of us saw coming. Filming New Moon is a lot different than the first one because this time we know what we are getting into.

MARTIN: Do all the expectations psych you out?

LAUTNER: I don’t think so. It puts a little more pressure on us than it did before. But for the most part, it’s been a blast.

MARTIN: So what’s in store for Jacob?

LAUTNER: He’s a lot different than he was before. He transforms mid-story—in the first half, he’s Twilight Jacob. I’m wearing a wig. My character’s very clumsy, outgoing, and friendly. When he transforms into a werewolf, he becomes something very different. It’s like I’m playing a split personality. Which is tricky, because sometimes I’ve had to play pre- and post-transformation Jacob on the same day of filming.

MARTIN: You had to bulk up for the part.

LAUTNER: Absolutely. As soon as I finished filming Twilight, I knew I had to get to work right away; there could be no waiting involved. The day I finished Twilight, I came home and started bulking up. For New Moon, I’m 30 pounds heavier than I was in Twilight.

MARTIN: Do you feel like you’re walking around in a different body?

LAUTNER: I don’t at all. I haven’t noticed much of a change. I grew out of a lot of my clothes, though. I went from a men’s small to a men’s large.

MARTIN: Are you turning more heads?

LAUTNER: I don’t know. I should pay more attention to that. I hope so.

Good for Taylor … I’m so glad he got to keep his role. It’s clear that he was really intent on proving to producers that he was up for the challenge of playing the bulked up Jacob Black in the Twilight sequel and, as far as I can tell, it’s mission: accomplished. It really seems that he is growing into a fine strapping young man, isn’t he? This is a great magazine piece … the first of many, I’m sure. The kid seems really down to Earth … I just hope he stays that way. So … thoughts?

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The always fabulous Rufus Wainwright is featured in the new issue of Interview magazine wherein he talks about the opera that he has been composing for the past few years. The piece is titled Prima Donna (of course) and will be making its worldwide debut in Manchester, England this July. Here is Rufus‘s Interview magazine photo and his interview with Caryn Ganz for the mag:

After releasing six albums, appearing in a handful of films, and single-handedly resurrecting the songbook of Judy Garland, Rufus Wainwright took the next logical step: He spent three years writing a two-hour opera. But Prima Donna, which will premiere this July at the Manchester International Festival in England, isn’t the only bizarre career move Wainwright has taken lately. He just wrapped up work in Berlin on a musical adaptation of Shakespearean sonnets with director Robert Wilson. On that project, his feelings are mixed: “It was a bit like World War II over there,” he laughs, “which is to be expected, I guess, because that’s where World War II took place.” But Wainwright considers it “a good booster shot” for what he’ll experience once he unveils Prima Donna. The opera’s main character is Régine Saint Laurent, a diva who disappears for six years following a tragedy on the night of a premiere. The story begins on the morning of her return to the stage. Saint Laurent is seizing her moment, much like the 35-year-old Wainwright, a lifelong opera buff who accelerated his artistic plans once his mother became sick with cancer. “Once illness strikes, you realize there’s not a lot of time for you to do what you really need to do,” he says. “And there’s no time like the present.”

CARYN GANZ: The star of your opera is literally a diva. Were you drawing on anyone specific?

RUFUS WAINWRIGHT:Well, the closest one would be [Sunset Boulevard’s] Norma Desmond, or actual old silent-movie stars who had it all taken away from them. I suppose one could argue that there were Madonna moments. Some people think my opera is about her early career in Detroit or something—like, Pre-Madonna.

GANZ: Divas loom large in high culture, but also in low culture like reality shows. Did both sides of that persona inspire you?

WAINWRIGHT: There is actually a great book called Prima Donna by Rupert -Christiansen that deconstructs the myth. In fact, many of the women who were prima donnas were feminists and incredible forces for their time. You had to be an over-the-top, demanding, dramatic figure in order to progress as a woman in Europe over the last few hundred years. Now people say, “You’re being such a prima donna,” meaning you’re being hard to deal with or crazy. It’s a bit sexist.

GANZ: Did you set out to write a feminist opera?

WAINWRIGHT: It’s funny, now that you mention it—I didn’t set out to do that. But I was keenly aware that I didn’t want to draw on too many typically doomed aspects of the fated singer. Whether it’s Judy Garland or Norma Desmond, there is this tragic quality to older women that one can revel in, and you want it to be more three-dimensional than that. So it was important for the character to be strong and resilient, because there are so many victims in opera.

GANZ: The opera also lasers in on the idea of the comeback, which, from Mickey Rourke to Britney Spears, is one of the most compelling tropes in our culture right now.

WAINWRIGHT: Well, in a way I’m kind of making my own comeback. I’ve been in the business now for 20 years. I’ve had my ups and downs, and I definitely have a sense—in America, especially—that once you’ve made your mark and gotten your Rolling Stone piece and your Grammy nomination, that they’re on to the next piece of meat, and they don’t necessarily like to follow the twists and turns of an artistic career. Throwing an opera at them is something they have to notice. There’s nothing subtle about it. I don’t know if it will be my big comeback, but I think it is a statement—that I am a self-sustaining, vibrant, long-term artist, and I’m not going away! And if you don’t give me credit, then the musical gods will!

GANZ: As everything about the music industry gets more digital, you’re moving in the opposite direction—opera and Shakespeare . . .

WAINWRIGHT: I definitely have a Luddite’s approach to what’s going on. I find that as I get older, I get stupider. For me, the iPhone is harder than reading Faust. I’ve been hanging out a bit with Lou Reed, and he’s the complete opposite. He’s into technology and is kind of like a toddler, compared to me, who’s like an old 19th-century widow or something.

GANZ: Your opera is in French, which is one reason you didn’t end up at the Met. What can you do in French that you can’t do in English?

WAINWRIGHT: The operas I listen to aren’t in English, and I want to listen to my opera after I’m done with it. I want to have the desire to play it on the stereo. To me, the language is part of the mystery. Growing up, for years and years I had no idea what the plots of operas were, and that’s part of what fascinated me—I could make them up and learn bits and pieces of what was going on over time. There’s something about it being always a step away that makes it more fun to chase.

GANZ: I read in a New York Times profile that you saw a production of Strauss’s Elektra at the Met high on drugs. Do you recommend people come to your opera in a similar state?

WAINWRIGHT: Well, my great lesson with that was I went to the same production twice—once completely high and once completely sober—and both times were equally wonderful. Opera is above drugs and alcohol and you don’t have to be fucked up to either write it or see it. It’s about transcendentalism. It’s not of this world. So I’d suggest not being fucked up, because you’re just wasting your money.

At last … Rufus Wainwright is ready to unleash his opera upon the world. I’ve been hearing about this opera of his for years, I’m glad to see that he has finally followed thru and that it is ready for release. I must admit, I am no fan of opera. Sure, the music sounds lovely and beautiful but if I am not familiar with the language, I will not have the fortitude to sit thru an entire performance and be content with not knowing what is going on. But, I am a huge Wainwright fan and I have some knowledge of French … this is a show that I would deffo make time to see if I had the chance. I have been following Rufus Wainwright‘s career since he released his debut album … I absolutely love his music. I am really curious to hear what this new opera of his sounds like. I wonder if I’ll be able to see the show when David and I go to London later this year. In any event, I wish him much success on this new endeavor … I don’t really know that writing an opera is the way to capture the imagination of the US audience but I know it’s a project that Rufus has held near and dear to his heart for a very long time. Any Rufus Wainwright fans in the hiz?

[Photo credit: Daniel Jackson; Source]

Last week we got our first look at Björk on the cover of the new issue of Interview magazine … today we get to see the pics from her Interview photoshoot and read a portion of her coverstory article … behold:

To say that an artist has vision can mean any number of things. It can mean that they have foresight or that they have perceived something that the bulk of us might have missed. It can also mean that they quite literally have visions—psychedelically induced or otherwise. But in Björk’s case, it means that the artist—the one with the vision—has simply dared to imagine something that does not already exist. Which is why vision is as important for a musician as it is for a sculptor or a painter—and why it’s essentialto the art of being Björk. As an artist, one of Björk’s greatest assets has always been her innate understanding of what it means to have vision. What she does as a singer and a songwriter falls somewhere between making records and writing, directing, and starring in her own quasi-folkloric, semi-futuristic, pseudo-theatrical, musical performance-art epics. But embracing her individuality is an impulse from which Björk has rarely ever veered: from the singing that she did with her Icelandic ’80s band the Sugarcubes to her constantly evolving solo career (which began with the release of 1993’s Debut) to her starring role in Lars von Trier’s Dancer in the Dark (2000) and her collaboration with her longtime partner, Matthew Barney, on the 2005 film Drawing Restraint 9, amongst a remarkably diverse array of other smart, inventive, and inspiringly far-flung undertakings. In fact, some of Björk’s work has been so extremely—defiantly—original, that attempting to explain it or analyze it would seem almost misguided. That’s because with Björk, there is no such thing as an extracurricular activity. Singing, acting, dressing, art-making, even cavorting on a boat in Central America, are all part of an intricately woven fabric that runs through a multitude of creative worlds, emotional worlds, brave new worlds, and sometimes otherworldly worlds. Of course, there is also such a thing as revision, and that process of reviewing and re-evaluating is one that Björk has undertaken in compiling her new two-CD, two-DVD box set Voltaïc (Nonesuch). The collection includes multiple live recordings of songs from her last two records—2004’s Medúlla and 2007’s Volta—along with assorted remixes and videos, but which are performed in different contexts: The first setconsists of a studio session Björk recorded before she began her tour to support Volta in late 2007; the second features renditions of the songs re-created in a church in her native Reykjavik; and the third captures a live performance in Paris near the end of the tour, exactly one year later.

The article/interview is a nice, long read and continues HERE but I’m sure it will only be interesting to those of you who are fans of Björk and her prolific body of work (trust me, if you are not familiar with Björk‘s work, you should seek her out IMMEDIATELY … her talents are just mindblowing). While I am thrilled that she is releasing the box set Voltaïc, I am really anxious to hear new music as well. I suspect that Björk will be releasing a new album very soon … in the meantime, I think her box set will do much to satisfy her fan’s burning desire for more Björkness.

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Bjork.com has been updated with the news that Björk is featured on the cover and in the pages of the new issue of Interview magazine. Featured with other “assorted visionaries”, Björk is highlighted by photos from Inez & Vinoodh and M/M and an interview conducted by Mathias Augustyniak & Michael Amzalag. Here is her colorful cover:

At this point, there is no other information available from this issue of Interview other than it will be “out in the next few days”. It’s been far too long since we’ve seen Björk on the scene. I really loved her Icelandic documentary Náttúra (which is now available on iTunes) as well as her last album Volta. Hopefully this new interview with Interview will hint at a new album? I can’t wait to see more!!

[Source via Source]

Channing Tatum, who you may be aware has a new film called Fighting opening in theaters tomorrow, is featured in the new issue of Interview magazine lookin’ all kinds of hot. Here are a couple photos from Channing‘s photospread for Interview along with a portion of his interview for the mag with Marlon Wayans:

The story of Channing Tatum seems to reinforce the validity of the spectacular arc of life in movies. Take, for example, this brief rundown of essential plot points so far: He is born in a small town (Cullman, Alabama); he overcomes his early outsider status to become a popular kid (and even winds up playing football); he gets into hip-hop dancing (after seeing a guy do head spins at a local club); he is discovered on the street (by a modeling agent); he gets cast in a critically acclaimed independent film (A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints, 2006); he lands a part in a big studio film (Step Up, 2006); and he is tapped for unmitigated superstardom (at least a lot of people are betting on it). It doesn’t hurt that Tatum is—and, by all accounts, has always been—very good-looking. But watching him onscreen, it’s clear that his face and his good luck aren’t his most important assets. In his brief career, Tatum has shown a special aptitude for playing highly physical characters whose actions often articulate more than their words … The next few months are busy ones for the 29-year-old Tatum. He recently reunited with Montiel for Fighting, a film about underground grapplers, and he also plays Pretty Boy Floyd in Michael Mann’s highly anticipated John Dillinger film, Public Enemies, which is headlined by Johnny Depp and Christian Bale. But the Hollywood industrial complex seems to have bet the farm on G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. Tatum plays the indomitable soldier Duke, who—as any fan of the ’80s cartoon series can tell you—is the embodiment of all that is right and good, and the unquestionable star of the show. The film co-stars Dennis Quaid, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Sienna Miller, Ray Park, Christopher Eccleston, and Tatum’s interviewer here, Marlon Wayans:

MARLON WAYANS: So when did you start hip-hop dancing?
CHANNING TATUM: I think when I was around 15. My sister was friends with the manager of a nightclub, and I remember going there to deliver these flyers—her boyfriend did graphic design. So I remember that they got me into this club, and there were these guys in this circle who were flipping and doing all this crazy stuff, and I was just like, “Oh, my god. I want to do that!” I was seeing this guy spin on his head . . .

WAYANS: Can you do head spins?
TATUM: I can get around, like, two or three times, but I’m not graceful at it. I can’t do it like real breakers can.

WAYANS: So how, then, did you get discovered?
TATUM: At one point I just decided, “All right, I’ve got to try to do something with my life.” So I went down to Miami, and somebody saw me on the streets, and that’s how I got into modeling.

WAYANS: So you were just hanging out on the streets of Miami with your shirt off, and someone was like, “Oh, he’s fly. I’m going to make him a model”?
TATUM: Yeah, pretty much.

WAYANS: That would never have happened to me—although I was found in the streets, too. [Tatum laughs] Who did you model for?
TATUM: [pauses] Abercrombie & Fitch . . .

WAYANS: [laughs] I love it! How could you keep that from me?
TATUM: Why do you think I kept it from you?

WAYANS: [laughs] There are certain things you tell people up-front, like, “I’ve got herpes,” or, “I was an Abercrombie model.” So when you were modeling for Abercrombie & Fitch, were you, like, the dude who stands outside the store all greased up, with abs that go all the way down to his perineum?
TATUM: Nah, man. I was actually one of the guys in the catalog. I had to put on a chicken suit at one point. I was like a mascot. We were in a locker room, and there were a bunch of dudes with abs all the way down to their . . . whatever the hell—their perineums? And then I was in the chicken suit standing next to them . . . [Wayans continues to laugh] Stop.

WAYANS: Okay . . . [laughs some more] So what did you do after that? What was the progression?
TATUM: I did some campaigns, and then . . . I don’t know. Modeling was successful for me. I didn’t have to wait tables or anything like that, so that was nice. And I got to see the entire world. Then I auditioned for a Pepsi commercial, and I got it, and that was incredibly fun. So I thought, Well, maybe I should try this acting thing . . .

WAYANS: When we were doing the shooting scenes on G.I. Joe, you were a little bit better versed at using the guns than a lot of the guys. You want to explain that?
TATUM: I’m from Alabama—I like guns.

WAYANS: Did y’all get them for birthday gifts when you were, like, 3 years old? How long have you been shooting?
TATUM: Well, the first and only time I went hunting, I shot a deer, and it mortified me. I just couldn’t do it again. But I know a lot about guns, so I go to the gun range and stuff like that with friends sometimes.

WAYANS: [Y]ou are physically gifted. I mean, I’ve seen you do flips and
things . . . You’re like Spider-Man without the costume on. You climbed out my window once, and I was like, “This boy is half monkey.” [Tatum laughs] Have you ever gotten hurt on a film?
TATUM: When we were doing Fighting, I broke my nose and had a concussion. In the middle of the scene, this guy literally pushed my nose back into place with two spoons. He was just like, “Don’t worry about it.” And I was like, “What?” He had a bucket of ice and two metal spoons . . .

WAYANS: You had a good ol’ ghetto doctor. That’s the way my dad used to fix my broken stuff. You also got to do a movie with Michael Mann, PublicEnemies, which I’m extremely jealous about . . .
TATUM: That was absolutely nuts. Essentially, for me, it was kind of like having an extra’s part. I flew in for one day, and it was like the length of a commercial shoot. All I did was run from Christian Bale in an orchard all day—I played Pretty Boy Floyd and Christian’s character kills me. The scene kind of introduces Christian Bale’s character, Purvis, who is, like, the head honcho in the FBI. Johnny Depp is in the film, too.

WAYANS: That’s good company. Did Christian Bale yell at you at all?
TATUM: Nothing that wasn’t either merited or scripted. [laughs]

WAYANS: Well, I hope you do more action movies, but I would love to see you do a comedy.
TATUM: Only if it’s with you. I’m not a comedian.I can play off of people, but I’m not that guy.I don’t want people being like, “Yeah, he should have stuck with drama . . .” It would not be my choice to have critics mumbling that.

WAYANS: Is there any actor whose career really inspires you?
TATUM: Man, there are so many dramatic actors where I would give all of my anything to have their careers, but I don’t think I can try to follow anyone. I mean, if you look at any of the greats, from people like Paul Newman and Robert Redford to, you know, Brad Pitt—to get any of the kinds of roles like the ones that they’ve gotten, or just to be a part of any of the kinds of movies they’ve made, would be the end-all for me.

Oh man, I love me some Channing. You gotta agree that his movies are more about how the action speaks rather than how the man speaks himself but, as I’ve said all along, I don’t mind one bit. There is much more of the interview to be read HERE and after the jump, check out a couple more photos from his Interview photospread — trust me, you don’t want to miss these pics …

Emma Watson, who plays Hermoine Granger in the Harry Potter films, is featured on the cover and in the pages of the new issue of Interview magazine. In her coverstory interview, she talks about (among other things) her burgeoning new friendship with fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld. Whatever in the world could a 75 year old man have in common with a 19 year old girl? Let’s find out … here is Emma‘s Interview mag coverphoto and some of her thoughts on her latest BFF:

Harry Potter’s leading lady Emma Watson has been a fixture on the big screen since her acting debut as Hermione Granger at the tender age of 9. And now a decade later, the 19-year-old is telling Interview magazine all about her transformation from child star to glamour girl. While the young Brit has managed to stay out of the tabloids, she has been the talk of the fashion world, rubbing shoulders with some of the world’s most high-profile tastemakers, including Chanel designer Karl Lagerfeld. “We spent the whole day together,” she says, “and he can talk about anything — literature, art, science, modern culture. I was totally seduced. I felt spoiled to be spending so much time with him.” Yet even with her fabulous fashion connections and big-girl paychecks, Emma remains down-to-earth when it comes to shopping. “I don’t really buy designer stuff. I have a few nice things, but I don’t really have the occasion to wear couture too often,” she says. But when those occasions do pop up, Emma calls on her friends. “I’m typically lent something — which means I have to give it back at midnight, like Cinderella.” Although Emma is considering heading to the U.S. for the Ivy League this year, she’s rumored to be starring in an upcoming Burberry ad campaign — so maybe this won’t be the last the fashion world has seen of her.

Just like I totally believe that Daniel Radcliffe is the sort of young actor that will have a long and very successful career in film, so too do I believe that Emma Watson will as well. I’m amazed at how remarkably grounded the Harry Potter kids are (well, except for the odd one or other who gets arrested for pot possession). I absolutely believe Watson when she says that she has no interest in filling her closet with designer items that she’s never wear. The girl is smart and I like that. After the jump, check out a few photos from Emma‘s Interview photospread and see just how stylish this down to Earth girl can be …

Last Friday we got to see Zac Efron on the cover of the new issue of Interview magazine but, at the time, no other photos nor the interview was available online. Today, we get to check out a few photos from Zac‘s Interview photospread along with a portion of his interview with famed director Gus Vant Sant:

Unless you’ve got children of a certain age, you probably haven’t seen much of Zac Efron’s work. This is it, so far, in a nutshell: Efron is the star of Disney’s High School Musical franchise, which ostensibly revolves around the blooming relationship between Troy (Efron) and Gabriella (Vanessa Hudgens), a jock and a brain respectively, who couldn’t be more different from each other but who discover a common ground in their mutual love for music. Their (chaste) courtship involves various plot twists and adolescent entanglements enacted through a series of song-and-dance numbers. That, essentially, is a High School Musical movie. In the past three years, Disney has produced a trio of them, and it’s now estimated that the films, plus all of the attendant HSM (as the kids like to call it) merchandising, has generated more than $1 billion in revenues. It hasn’t hurt the cause that Efron got together with Hudgens in real life, and that he also appeared in Adam Shankman’s 2007 remake of Hairspray, which raked in more than $200 million worldwide. If you’re over the age of 12 and still have all your faculties intact, or if you’re simply a hardened preteen, then the HSM films may present themselves as the worst kind of teenage wish-fulfillment fantasy. They’re simple, sort of saccharine, and seem to exist in a kind of vacuum-packed, irony-free, alterna-reality that makes Saved by the Bell look almost dystopic. But throughout all the songs and dances and platonic romances, two things have become abundantly clear: 1) that the kids don’t care and love the movies anyhow; and 2) that Zac Efron is a star. Efron radiates a sort of well-scrubbed young mannishness. He’s an entertainer in the most traditional sense of the word: He knows how to carry a tune and turn a step, he winks at the girls and nods at the guys, and he generally appears to be working hard not to disappoint—all of which would seem too good to be true if he didn’t seem to mean it so much. It’s no wonder that his bronzed image—those Hollywood-soulful eyes peering out from under a thick drape of artfully tousled hair—is tacked up in so many lockers, wallpapered on so many iPhones, and emblazoned on so many notebooks and backpacks.

And then Gus and Zac get to talkin’:

GUS VAN SANT: Sorry we couldn’t do this in person.

ZAC EFRON: It’s all good. Where are you right now?

VAN SANT: I’m in Gearhart, Oregon. It’s on the coast outside of Portland. I’m in a beach house.

EFRON: I’ve been to the coast outside of Portland—a couple of times, actually. I might have been where you’re at. I have relatives up there. I think I took a road trip from Portland one time with my aunt, because she lives there. It’s a beautiful place.

VAN SANT: It’s really beautiful here today.

EFRON: It’s pouring in L.A. [laughs]

VAN SANT: So when was the last time that you were in Oregon?

EFRON: Oh, man. It seems like it’s been years. We used to go up there all the time, but I’m stuck in L.A. a lot now.

VAN SANT: Is your schedule today really tight?

EFRON: Not today. I’m not really doing anything. I’m looking at some furniture, because I just got a new place, so I’m figuring out if I want this desk. I’m sitting at it right now. It’s a vintage Herman Miller desk from, like, 1940-something. I don’t know . . . I’m just deciding if I’m going to want it in my house, or if I’m just going to completely wreck it. [laughs] Herman Miller’s stuff is really, really modern, but they have some pretty brilliant designs. [Ed note: Herman Miller is credited with inventing the office cubicle.] I’m sitting at this desk, and it’s the most well-built thing I’ve ever sat at . . . It’s a beautiful piece. It’s got this amazing wood grain that I’ve never seen in any piece of furniture. It’s also a little pricey . . .

VAN SANT: Yeah, those kinds of things are superexpensive, right?

EFRON: Superexpensive. I’m lucky they’re letting me test it out at my place for a couple of days before I have to buy it.

VAN SANT: Oh, the desk is at your house?

EFRON: Yeah. It’s at my house. I’m sitting at it right now. I just bought this place. It’s not big or anything, but it’s a pretty unique space. It’s very modern, very clean, very simple. It’s got concrete floors so I can’t screw it up. I can skateboard inside the house . . . You know, all the essentials are there. I just don’t want to buy nice furniture and then fuck it all up.

VAN SANT: Well, you could put a protective writing pad on the desk. [both laugh] So do you actually skateboard in your house?

EFRON: I have, but now there’s too much stuff around, so it’s getting harder.

VAN SANT: Did you take any pictures for this article already?

EFRON: Yeah, we did.

VAN SANT: How did that go?

EFRON: I think it went pretty cool. There was, like, a giant sandbox in the middle of a studio, and then I just got to roll around in the dirt for a couple of hours. I got pretty dirty by the end of it, so that was fun. It was definitely different from anything I had ever done before. The photographer was really fun to work with . . . He recommended some furniture.

VAN SANT: I wanted to ask you about this Richard Linklater film. Is it Orson and Me?

EFRON: Me and Orson Welles.

VAN SANT: Where did you shoot that?

EFRON: Rick was brilliant, because he found this great theater on the Isle of Man, which, after a little bit of work, looked a whole lot like the Mercury Theatre did in 1937. We took a beautiful theater and made it look rusty and old and dusty, and, once we filled it with extras dressed in 1930s attire, the place was very believable. It even smelled like an old theater. It was pretty neat because we were basically stuck there—you know, we couldn’t leave. There was nowhere to go on the Isle of Man. So we lived in that theater for several weeks. It was fun and exciting, but it was also kind of maddening. I went a little bit insane.

VAN SANT: How old is Orson Welles in your movie?

EFRON: He’s in his mid-twenties, but he’s got the wisdom and the presence of a 50-year-old . . . Well, you know, a 30-year-old guy. [laughs]

VAN SANT: A friend of mine was Welles’s chauffer.

EFRON: Oh, really?

VAN SANT: Yeah. Welles was in his sixties, and he was in L.A. This was in the ’70s. My friend would drive him in some giant 1950s car that was painted turquoise. It was a convertible. The top was always down, and Welles would wear a huge 10-gallon hat and ride in the passenger seat, because I think he liked that people would see him and recognize him. There’s still a movie of his that we haven’t seen. I think it’s called The Other Side of the Wind. I hear it has a bunch of people playing Welles. John Huston plays him at an older age. Peter Bogdanovich plays him at a younger age. It’s his last unfinished film. I don’t know where it is, but I haven’t met anyone who has seen it.

EFRON: That’ll be interesting. People always have such a different way of playing him. They tend to go for the Citizen Kane interpretation.

VAN SANT: When is Me and Orson Welles going to come out?

EFRON: I think some time later this year.

VAN SANT: But before that you have 17 Again.

EFRON: Yeah, I’m getting ready for that.

VAN SANT: Your character in the film is 37 years old, and you’re playing him as a 17-year-old. What was it like playing somebody so much older?

EFRON: At the time, it was the most unique opportunity that presented itself. There were several roles that I could have done where I would have played essentially another high school student, or they were romances or stories in a high school setting, and there were lots of things that people wanted to turn into musicals. But the whole idea of playing a 37-year-old guy as a 17-year-old was just the most exciting prospect for me. I was really intrigued by the idea. I’ve always been kind of an old man, so to speak.

VAN SANT: Was there something that you needed to do, some technique, in order to actually pull that off?

EFRON: Well, I couldn’t really relate to the character in a lot of ways, so I didn’t have that to work from. I worked a lot with Burr [Steers], the director, and Matthew [Perry], and just tried to think in terms of an older guy. He’s experienced life. He’s been through a lot that I haven’t been through yet. So it was a big change from High School Musical. You know, I’ve fallen in love, and I’ve not known what I want to do with my own future—I still don’t know. But I’ve never had a daughter who I’m looking out for. I’ve never been proud of my son. I’ve never gotten a divorce. It was interesting trying to figure that out. It was definitely a change of pace. And it was great working with Burr, because he’s got this huge imagination, and this sense of people—not what they seem to be, or what they’re defined to be, or what they want to appear to be, but as they actually are.

The rest of the online version of this interview can be read HERE but the full text of the interview can only be read in the mag. To be honest, I still have a hard time taking Zac Efron serious … at all. He’s deffo no Daniel Radcliffe who, even at his young age, has proven time and time again that he has the acting chops to really be a force to be reckoned with in Hollywood’s future. Zac still strikes me as the overly coiffed prettyboy that will get cast in throwaway movies until he no longer manages to attract his young teenage girl audience. There’s never been a project that Efron has been attached to that I felt compelled to see. Even when he tries to act grown up, I’m not buying it. After the jump, check out one more NSFW photo of Zac from this issue of Interview — he’s posing with a fully nekkid woman lying on top of him …

Zac Efron, who we most recently saw in the guise of Prince Phillip from Disney‘s Sleeping Beauty in a new Annie Leibovitz photo for the company, is featured on the cover of the new issue of Interview magazine … behold:

Zac‘s issue of Interview features a different logo (handwritten and based on the magazine logo that was used in the 1070′s) and layout from the new design team M/M Paris. At this point, I’m not aware who Zac is interviewed by for the mag (each issue features interviews of celebrities by celebrities) but will most likely be based on his upcoming new film 17 Again. While I wouldn’t necessarily agree with the mag’s headline “Zac Efron is the Future”, I do think that the kid is enjoying a pretty remarkable career right now and is, thus far, handling himself very well with all of his fame and fortune. I’m curious to see what the photos from inside the mag will look like … but, I’m sure, those will come in due time. For now, I think the magazine cover will tide us over just fine.

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Lindsay Lohan is featured in the upcoming February issue of Interview magazine wherein she is interviewed by the iconic actress Lauren Hutton. Both the interview and a few of the photos snapped for the piece have been posted online for your viewing pleasure … check ‘em out:

What do you really know about her? Does that lilting name conjure up a stunning face? Or a lot of vaguely nasty notions fed by rumor and sold by tabloid sleazemongers? What if she were, in fact, a sort of saint sold as sinner, an inner beauty with a face to match, a true talent tortured by naïve misadventure malignly cast? Want the truth about Miss Lohan? Lauren Hutton gets it.

Love it … click HERE to read a portion the full Interview interview betwixt Lauren Hutton and Lindsay Lohan wherein the ladies talk about fame, Heath Ledger, how LL just can’t go anywhere in the world without being recognized and more! As for the photos, well, I think it’s safe to say that LL looks stunning! I love the striking contrast of the black and white. This shoot, photographed by Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott, is deffo one of her better ones … she looks amazing. After the jump, check out a short video that was shot during this amazing Interview photoshoot …