Actor Jason Segel and eleven time Emmy winner, Tonya Mantooth, SDFF’s Director of Programming
In case you missed the memo, the San Diego Film Festival is here to stay and rocking the Casbah (or Arclight La Jolla in this case). The V.I.P. monthly screenings include a hosted bar, gourmet appetizers and an independent film screening. Which is usually followed by a Q & A with a cast member, director or writer from the film.
The final July screening was called, The End of the Tour, a Sundance Film Institute project.
This film is about a heretofore unpublished five day interview by Rolling Stone’s reporter, David Lipsky with novelist David Foster Wallace. This was an actor’s dream because the entire script was dialogue, dialogue, dialogue. With plenty of unspoken nuances between Jesse Eisenberg (playing Lipsky) and Segel (playing DFW). It was a very cerebral, intense two hours and thirty minutes. Do not expect Jurassic World nor Guardians of the Galaxy.
Speaking of…Segel willingly confessed when he was much younger, he used to playact so much, he once went to school with a Superman costume under his clothes. Apparently, he really, really wanted to be a superhero.
After sharing this story at a first time meeting with James Ponsoldt (director) and Eisenberg (and subsequently at the Q & A with us, the audience)—Well, Captain America, Segel self-admittedly is not—there was a small quiet pause and Eisenberg softly said, “You could be a superhero of a smaller country.”
Needless to say, Segel and Eisenberg got along famously.
Literally. And figuratively.
You can well imagine the hilarious uproar that ensued…it was a full house and superhero fun.
Come join the laughter at the Festival! —j