Stone (2010)

About the film . . .

• Release date: October 8, 2010

• Official synopsis: A ruthless convict (Edward Norton) engages in a series of disturbing mental games with his corrections officer (Robert De Niro) in an attempt to gain parole. When the officer begins an affair with the convict's wife (Milla), it soon becomes clear that both the convict and officer's motivations are suspect, provoking a dangerous ordeal.

• Trailer:

  
  
  

• ComingSoon.net has an exclusive first look at a bonus feature clip of Milla and her character Lucetta from the Stone DVD [ Amazon: DVD / Blu-ray ]:

  
  
  

• Milla received the Hollywood Spotlight Award for her work in Stone at the 14th Annual Hollywood Awards Gala at The Beverly Hilton, October 25, 2010, Beverly Hills, CA:

  

• Premiere of Stone at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, October 5, 2010:

  

• Premiere of Stone at the Toronto International Film Festival, September 10, 2010:

  

• The 46th Chicago International Film Festival will officially open with Stone [ article]

• Hollywood.com:
  Your role in Stone is quite a bit different than what we've grown used to seeing from you. I was curious about how it came up on your radar, and were you surprised that it did?
  I definitely was really happy to get the script. Since having my baby, I've felt very much more open to just going out, performing, writing and being an artist in general, and feeling like this newfound confidence as a mom and a newfound confidence in myself. Part of that bled over into my film career in the sense that I really wanted to go out and audition for things, really keep on my toes. I was really just into the whole process of being a performer again, just going out and reading for a lot of different stuff. When this came up, of course I just jumped on it ... I compelled by these sort of flawed personalities and these grey areas and the fact the script didn't really put everything in a neat little package for people. It's very rare that you get scripts that don't sort of shove an opinion down your throat, and this is one of them. So I was very interested in the subject matter and very interested in the characters and of course, working with Edward and Bob was unbelievably attractive. What actor wouldn't want to work with such amazing artists?

  You also recently talked about doing a fifth Resident Evil film. How long do you think you can keeping doing these movies? It has to be exhausting for you.
  Well, it's a lot of fun. I've definitely said, "Let's go RE:5," but I didn't say, "We are doing another one," just that I would love to. Of course for me, I would love to do another movie Ali (Larter) and Sienna (Guillory) ... I love the franchise. I mean, we built the franchise from its baby stages into what it's turned into today. It's wonderful to see a four-film franchise with a woman in the lead having so much success and it's definitely our little baby in a sense. So I love it, and I have a lot of fun doing it. I love doing the stunts, I love doing the training for it; it's something that's always been attractive for me. I grew up watching the Thundercats and She-Ra and stuff, so I always had this feeling as a kid that I wanted to be this sort of magical, powerful woman who could fly and do crazy stunts and sort of be a superhero.

  [ Complete article at Hollywood.com ]

• The Onion A.V. Club:
  Your Stone character is fairly complicated. What's your take on her?
  My first take on her was that she's kind of like this light in the script - very joyous and fun and tactile and wild and free - in comparison to the other personalities surrounding her, who are all sort of caged in their worlds. I was very attracted to that freedom she has. If you feel like you're helping someone else, it helps you feel more in control of your world. She's one of those people who needs to save people, whether it be Stone, who depends on her and who's her lifeline, or Jack, who is also in a sense in his own prison. It gives her validation. She is a girl who with a bit of education and TLC could be an amazing personality. But because of the situation she finds herself in - where she lives and who she ends up being - she can't break out of that rut. What's interesting about the movie and characters is that they're one thing to the world and another thing in their heads.

  Your part in this film is a girlfriend role without really being a girlfriend role.
  [Laughs.] What attracted me to A Perfect Getaway was that I sorta played a girlfriend role for, you know, 85 percent of the film. That was really interesting to me, because I'd never really played a girlfriend before. But I've always been attracted to characters that were interesting to me, and different.

  And you've finally done a comedy, Dirty Girl. When folks think of you doing comedy, they generally go back to Dazed And Confused..
  Unfortunately, the small comedies I've done have hardly seen the light of day, which is kinda sad. Dirty Girl was a lot of fun, and I'm so glad it got picked up in Toronto. People really liked it!

  To what extent do you leverage your success in action films to take on indie roles?
  As much as I enjoy doing Resident Evil - and I'm so grateful that this movie, fourth in the franchise, has done better than any of the ones before - the fact that I can get movies made that I wanna make...it gives me the opportunity to do things like Dirty Girl. And I did a film [about a con-artist mom and son] called Bringing Up Bobby that Famke Janssen wrote and directed. No one's gonna hire me for their [big-budget] romantic comedy, so it's up to me to look out for great indie comedies and show people a different side of myself - even if it's for three people outside of my family. [Laughs.] Whatever. It builds a body of work. At the end of it all, it's my little movie library, and you see aspects of me through that.

  [ Complete article at The Onion A.V. Club ]

• PopEater.com:
  Milla: "Now that my daughter is almost three, thoughts of a second baby are definitely in my head. I would love to have a big family. Ever is just getting to that stage where she's growing into a little person. She's out of the baby stage, and sometimes I just want to spend time with her and give her my undivided attention instead of going back into that baby world again with a second child. Three, four and five are such great ages."

  Discussing her character Lucetta in Stone: "It was like, 'How do I bring something other than that [sexuality] to the character?'. There's always something about everybody -- something to love. It dawned on me she was a burst of light in those people's lives. She has this joyous energy because she's such an animal. She's like a wolf, a shark -- she's always flowing, always going with this rhythm about her, which is very exciting for these people who are kind of repressed. She's not the kind of girl I would bring into my own home. It was difficult, it was hard, to have to play something you don't really agree with, and I had my daughter on the set. As an actress, there was this weird paradox of having to respect this character and love her and then sort of hate myself at the end of the day. It got very confusing."

  [ Complete article at PopEater.com ]

• SheKnows.com:
  SheKnows: Stone doesn't really have any black and white, don't you think it's entirely gray?
  There is no light at the end of any tunnel in the script and that was one thing I loved about it, was the fact that it leaves so many questions for the audience. It's not wrapping it up in a nice little box and giving you all the answers and spoon-feeding you information. But she did bring something uplifting to the script with the personality and that kind of childlike joy and freedom that she possessed. Everyone is living in these cages -- she's the proverbial bird flying around which I really loved. In a sense she gets put into a cage in the end. It's interesting because this movie is so much about living in this hypocrisy of daily habits and pretending to be something on the outside that they're not feeling on the inside. People can spend a lifetime living a lie. At the end of the day it also really touched on the fact that no matter what, this house will burn down whether it's literally or figuratively. People have to change and people have to be honest and at some point it's going to blow up in your face and that's something that really compelled me about the movie.

  SheKnows: You have such great chemistry obviously in very different ways with De Niro and Norton. What was it like working with each of them?
  Milla Jovovich: Edward is such a generous person in general as a human being and as an artist he's very intelligent and works a lot on the script. Actually, he and Bob and John really spent almost two years re-writing the script and taking it to another level, because I think the script that they read was a film noire thriller type-thing and both Edward and John aren't really interested in making those kinds of black and white movies. They tried to take the material and bring something else to it that was much more real and much more interesting for actors. I was just very inspired to work with Edward because he brings so much to every project that he's a part of and he's such an amazing actor and such a well of experience and knowledge. He's consistently just such a nice person, very supportive. It was good because with Bob you saw him on another level in a sense. His career precedes him when he walks into a room, a lot of times you don't see Bob, you see every movie he's done.

  SheKnows: And working with Robert De Niro had to be inspiring for you, but was it also nerve-wracking?
  Milla Jovovich: Of course, it can throw you and any actor. What I loved is that Edward was so good because they worked together before and he said, "No matter what, you've got to keep your process intact because you're amazing and we hired you for a reason. So don't let Bob throw you off because he has his process and we respect that. And you have your process and I have my process and don't let anyone throw you from that." Because you're never really going to get what you expect from Bob because he is such a truth seeker in that sense he really doesn't lie.

  [ Complete article at SheKnows.com ]

• MovieWeb.com:
  Finally, Milla Jovovich plays a different type of role in the movie than people usually associate with her, can you talk about your choice to cast her in the film?

  John Curran: I wouldn't have expected it. I love Milla's past work but I wouldn't have put her past performances with this character. She read for it and just hands down nailed it like no one else did because it's really a wide spectrum of stuff that you need from one actress for that role. She just got the whole nuance of humor, sexiness, danger, naivete and insecurity. All those things she just sort of embodied. Both Edward and Bob like me knew that she was the one. She was fantastic and its really kind of a watershed performance for Milla. It shows a side of her that a lot of people haven't seen before.

  [ Complete article at MovieWeb.com ]

• Good Morning LA, October 26, 2010:

  
  
  

• Chelsea Lately, October 26, 2010:

  
  
  

• MTV.com:

  
  
  

• Stone interview from Reel Rave:

  
  
  

• Milla chatted live with fans about Stone at the Los Angeles Times website, October 5, 2010:
  How was to work with Edward Norton?
  Milla_Jovovich: working w edward was so incredible. he is one of the most generous, friendly, intelligent and well spoken people! he gave me a few great tips on working w bob de niro as well! lol!

  whats it like working with robert de niro?
  Milla_Jovovich: working with de niro was such an amazing experience because he is always searching for the truth in his character. no matter what the script says he should do, he needs to find the honesty of his actions. so being on the other side of that process made it kind of like a dance. i had to be aware of him and what he needed from me in the moment, or else the scene wouldn't move forward.

  Milla, how do you select the roles you eventually take?
  Milla_Jovovich: i select the roles i end up playing in lot's of different ways. sometimes its based on what character interests me, what haven't i done yet... i like that my films have a lot of diversity in the characters. especially now that RE has become such a franchise, its important to do show parts of my personality that i haven't shown yet.

  what was your first thought when you got the call that you would be working with DeNiro and Norton?
  Milla_Jovovich: to say i was happy to work w norton and de niro is a bit of an understatement! i actually started to cry! lol!

  [ Full chat transcript ]

• Interview about Stone from ARTIST direct:
  Do you feel like you updated the femme fatale for the 21st century with Lucetta?
  Milla: [Laughs] That's a new one! Thank you. I've never heard anybody say that yet! For me, I wasn't looking at Lucetta as a femme fatale in any way, shape or form. For me, she's a bit of an ignorant girl who's got a lot of chutzpah, freedom and light around her. She's brought a feeling of joy to the movie that I think it really needed. These people are living lives that are steeped in hypocrisy and habit, so they're projecting one personality to a community and a world where there's something totally different beneath it. In a way, she's innocent through all of that. She's very much like an animal. She doesn't see the forest for the trees. She's like a bird or a lion, just walking through and she might destroy everything in her path [Laughs]. There's still this joyousness to her that involves living in the moment and having no regrets. I love that about Lucetta. At the same time, it's a script full of flawed personalities. I don't agree with the decisions she makes. However, I had to respect them and give her love. I had to believe in her no matter what her mistakes were. Through that, it ended up being what it is. More than anything, I think there's a truthfulness to her that's compelling. All of the actors did a beautiful job of bringing really layered performances that don't give you all the answers. She's got a mystery about her. When you say "Femme Fatale," that's what you're referring to. She's very sexual and mysterious in that sense, but on the other hand, she's like an open book. That paradox is what I love about her. You never really know what to expect from any of these people.

  There's an interesting rhythm to Lucetta's movements. Was that deliberate? She slinks around in a controlling fashion.
  Milla: It's funny that you mention that! I just wanted Lucetta to flow. Costume and movement are so important. She has to be like a fish in water - more appropriately a shark! I keep going back to these animal metaphors. I wanted to make sure the clothes were a big contrast to that slinky flow. When you look at Lucetta and the way she dresses, she's very much a normal Midwestern girl. She's sexy but nothing special. It's not like she's got some amazing sense of style or she's very unique in some way. She's very much a product of where she comes from, and that normal look could attract someone like Jack because, from the outside, she's just a nice girl. However, there's this underlying sexuality about her that's very dangerous. That's very attractive too. It's not like she dresses like a slut [Laughs]. There's a reason why Jack goes for her, and it's that "normal" factor. Even though she's kooky and there's a freedom about her, I don't think Jack is the kind of guy who would go for a stripper. There are certain components that had to come together when we were thinking about the character. It would've taken it over the edge if I wore little short-shorts and a crop top. I wanted there to be another kind of hypocrisy that contrasts her nature, which is these nice glowing colors, pastels and little cargo skirts. She's like the girl who works in the 7-11 down the street from you.

  [ Full interview from ARTIST direct ]

• LA Times, September 12, 2010:
  Describing her character Lucetta:"Resident Evil movies are easy because they're so fun, with the excitement and the action; with a movie like Stone it was such a hard character to play. It was one of those people I would never want to know in my real life. To have to give her love and compassion and not judge her took its toll by the end of the day. By the time I'd get home, I just felt so — you just want to get in the shower and scrub off the day because she's just so different from who I am. She's this wild kind of animal."

  

• HitFix.com review:
  Without the work by Milla Jovovich here, the film wouldn't work. Early on, Stone is talking about his wife and mentions that she's a "space alien," and it's obvious what he means once we get to know Lucetta. She is such a wild spirt, so unfettered, that she's not really connected to the way people behave, and seems to have no interest in changing. Jovovich has given so much of her career over to the action movies that I think people underrate her, and it's a shame. This is a real reminder of just how good she can be, and it's a feral, upsetting performance, impressive work, and she is every bit as good as Norton and De Niro in the film, which is no small compliment.

• IGN.com review:
  The real surprise is Milla Jovovich however, the Resident Evil star little short of a revelation as Lucetta. As sexually charged a performance as you are likely to see this year, Jovovich effortlessly manoeuvres and manipulates both men, doing whatever it takes to free her husband.

• Great "not a review" of Stone from Opposing Views

• From Milla's Twitter (@MillaJovovich):
  • Jst found out that both of my new films, "STONE" and "DIRTY GIRL" will premiere at the toronto film festival! SO COOL! I'm so happy abt it!
  • we worked in the jackson city maximum security prison 4 my upcoming film stone. SO SCARY. They let us go 2 the isolation cells that weren't operational. It was sum bad energy in there. Cldnt wait 2 get out of there.

• The Toronto Star interview: "Everybody needs to feel they have some control over their world, it's all a question of how you do it. I think Lucetta is a very joyful human being. She has no regrets. She's into the only thing she knows, which is the power of her womanliness, her sexuality. She's very tactile. That's her world. She's a teacher's assistant. She can make coloured eggs and weave little baskets. She's not a well-read girl. She's simple. She's a very flawed individual. That's what makes her interesting."

• About getting her role in Stone (Maxim (US) September 2009): "Yes, I just finished filming that. It was such an incredible project, and I was so happy to get it. I worked really hard for the part. I had to do some really intense auditioning with Edward and Bob. Then when I got the part, I literally started crying. People ask, 'What are some of the high points of your life?' Number one would have to be the birth of my daughter, but number two would be this movie."

• From Milla's interview with ShockTillYouDrop.com (August 6, 2009): "It's a psychological drama. I think they're trying to sell it as a thriller 'cause it's easier to sell, but it's not much of like a mystery or whodunit or a chase sequence or anything like that. It's pretty much a story about people that in a sense are living their lives and how truthfully can you live your life? In a sense, that if you live a life, you could live a life for many years, but at some point your world is going to explode around you so it's pretty intense."

• From Screen (May 17, 2009): Milla Jovovich has joined Robert De Niro and Edward Norton on the cast of Mimran Schur Pictures' thriller Stone. Nu Image has started pre-selling the film, which is due to start shooting tomorrow (May 18), in Cannes. It is being shot in Michigan.

  Jovovich will play the wife of a convicted arsonist (Norton) who is deployed in a psychological game of cat-and-mouse with his parole officer (De Niro).

  John Curran, who previously directed Norton in The Painted Veil, is directing from Angus Maclachlan's script. Jovovich will next be seen in A Perfect Getaway (August 7, 2009) and The 4th Kind (2009).

Credits

[ For complete credits, check out the Internet Movie Database listing for Stone ]

Directed by John Curran
Written by Angus MacLachlan

Cast (partial)
Robert De Niro ....
Edward Norton ....
Milla Jovovich .... Lucetta

Plot summary: A ruthless convict (Norton) engages in a series of disturbing mental games with his corrections officer (De Niro) in an attempt to gain parole. When the officer begins an affair with the convict's wife (Milla), it soon becomes clear that both the convict and officer's motivations are suspect, provoking a dangerous ordeal.

Release date: September 8, 2010

Stills

Posters

DVD

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