
Eiza Gonzalez in disbelief about being cast in Fountain of Youth
The 35-year-old actress thought the esteemed 56-year-old film director was "joking" after he got her involved in three back-to-back projects, including 2024's action war movie 'The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare' and 2025's action flick 'In the Grey'.
Eiza told SFX magazine: "I was like, 'There's no way that Guy would want me [again].' And in December, right after the holidays - because the holidays can be, kind of, grim sometimes - I was just by myself in Los Angeles, and I got a call, 'You've got the offer.'
"I was like, 'You're joking?'"
The star plays Esme in the 'Fountain of Youth' - which sees Luke Purdue (John Krasinski), the estranged brother of Charlotte Purdue (Natalie Portman), team up with his sibling for a worldwide hunt to find the mythological titular fountain in the film.
And the first thing Eiza thought of to get in character was to chop her hair off.
The 'Ash' star explained: "The first thing I said is, 'I think we need to cut my hair off.' Completely change my look.
"Look very different to what we did before. I want to make her completely her own."
Esme is a "protector" and described the character to the New York Times as 'machiavellian fun, a huge enigma and kind of a poker face, but a sassy and witty girl".
And Eiza loved playing her.
She continued: "She's just a great character to be able to play. She's just so multifaceted and fun in a very Guy Ritchie way.
"She's, kind of, following this crew of talented people and trying to find out what they're trying to do, because she has ulterior motives."
The 'Baby Driver' actress loves taking risks and pushing herself to perform at her very best, and Eiza thinks this encouraged Guy to cast her in 'Fountain of Youth'.
She told the New York Times: "I think he really enjoys someone that is willing to take risks and play and push themselves, and he saw a lot of desire in me."
John Krasinski gushed his praise for Guy's work on 'Fountain of Youth', and it has made John feel proud that he can add the flick to his list of acting credits.
The 'Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness' star said: "This is one of those movies where you'll look back and go, 'I'm so glad I did this.'"
And the dad-of-two - Hazel, 10, and Violet, seven, who he has with his wife Emily Blunt - is thrilled that he can finally show his bundles of joy a movie he is in and that he can shut down Hazel and Violet's beliefs that he was an "accountant".
John said: "My kids are 10 and about to be eight, and Guy just showed them the opening of the movie, and they were like, 'When's this coming out?'
"I think they thought I was an accountant before. They can't watch 'A Quiet Place' or 'Jack Ryan'. So they're like, 'Where do you go every day?'
"And now they know!"
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The Advertiser
9 hours ago
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By the early 1960s, working on his doctorate - which he never finished - and teaching became greater concerns, although he did contribute songs to the TV news satire show That Was the Week That Was in 1963 and 1964. Tom Lehrer, the math prodigy who became an influential musical satirist with his barbed views of American social and political life in the 1950s and 1960s, has died at the age of 97, according to news reports. Lehrer died at his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on Saturday, his longtime friend David Herder told the New York Times. No cause of death was specified. Lehrer's career as a musician and revered social commentator was little more than a happy accident that began with composing ditties to amuse classmates at Harvard University. His heyday lasted about seven years and, by his own count, produced only 37 songs before the reluctant performer returned to teaching at Harvard and other universities. "There's never been anyone like him," Cameron Mackintosh, the Broadway producer who created Tom Foolery, a revue of Lehrer songs, told BuzzFeed in 2014. "Of all famous songwriters, he's probably the only one that ... is an amateur in that he never wanted to be professional. And yet the work he did is of the highest quality of any great songwriter." As the US nestled into the post-war complacency of the 1950s, the liberal-leaning Lehrer was poking holes in the culture with his songs while maintaining an urbane, witty air. Some of his works reflected his mathematical interests - New Math about subtracting 173 from 342 and Lobachevsky about a 19th-century Russian mathematician - but his meatier songs were deemed by some to be too irreverent and shocking. In 1959 Time magazine lumped him in with groundbreaking comics Lenny Bruce and Mort Sahl as "sicknicks" who had "a personal and highly disturbing hostility toward all the world." The song I Wanna Go Back to Dixie looked at racism in the South ("The land of the boll weevil where the laws are medieval") while National Brotherhood Week took on hypocrites ("It's only for a week so have no fear/ Be nice to people who are inferior to you"). Be Prepared exposed the dark side of a Boy Scout's life, I Got It from Agnes was about venereal disease, and We Will All Go Together When We Go addressed nuclear Armageddon. "If, after hearing my songs, just one human being is inspired to say something nasty to a friend, or perhaps to strike a loved one, it will all have been worth the while," Lehrer wrote on the notes that accompanied one of his albums. Thomas Andrew Lehrer was born on April 9, 1928, in New York. He grew up in the Big Apple listening to musical theatre and one of his first works was The Elements, a recitation of the periodic table set to a Gilbert and Sullivan tune. He enrolled at Harvard at age 15 and his Fight Fiercely, Harvard with the line "Won't it be peachy if we win the game?" became a popular spoof of the school's sports fight song. After serving in the US Army from 1955 to 1957, Lehrer began performing and recorded more albums but was losing his zest for music. By the early 1960s, working on his doctorate - which he never finished - and teaching became greater concerns, although he did contribute songs to the TV news satire show That Was the Week That Was in 1963 and 1964. Tom Lehrer, the math prodigy who became an influential musical satirist with his barbed views of American social and political life in the 1950s and 1960s, has died at the age of 97, according to news reports. Lehrer died at his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on Saturday, his longtime friend David Herder told the New York Times. No cause of death was specified. Lehrer's career as a musician and revered social commentator was little more than a happy accident that began with composing ditties to amuse classmates at Harvard University. His heyday lasted about seven years and, by his own count, produced only 37 songs before the reluctant performer returned to teaching at Harvard and other universities. "There's never been anyone like him," Cameron Mackintosh, the Broadway producer who created Tom Foolery, a revue of Lehrer songs, told BuzzFeed in 2014. "Of all famous songwriters, he's probably the only one that ... is an amateur in that he never wanted to be professional. And yet the work he did is of the highest quality of any great songwriter." As the US nestled into the post-war complacency of the 1950s, the liberal-leaning Lehrer was poking holes in the culture with his songs while maintaining an urbane, witty air. 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"If, after hearing my songs, just one human being is inspired to say something nasty to a friend, or perhaps to strike a loved one, it will all have been worth the while," Lehrer wrote on the notes that accompanied one of his albums. Thomas Andrew Lehrer was born on April 9, 1928, in New York. He grew up in the Big Apple listening to musical theatre and one of his first works was The Elements, a recitation of the periodic table set to a Gilbert and Sullivan tune. He enrolled at Harvard at age 15 and his Fight Fiercely, Harvard with the line "Won't it be peachy if we win the game?" became a popular spoof of the school's sports fight song. After serving in the US Army from 1955 to 1957, Lehrer began performing and recorded more albums but was losing his zest for music. By the early 1960s, working on his doctorate - which he never finished - and teaching became greater concerns, although he did contribute songs to the TV news satire show That Was the Week That Was in 1963 and 1964.


West Australian
11 hours ago
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US musical satirist Tom Lehrer dies at 97
Tom Lehrer, the math prodigy who became an influential musical satirist with his barbed views of American social and political life in the 1950s and 1960s, has died at the age of 97, according to news reports. Lehrer died at his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on Saturday, his longtime friend David Herder told the New York Times. No cause of death was specified. Lehrer's career as a musician and revered social commentator was little more than a happy accident that began with composing ditties to amuse classmates at Harvard University. His heyday lasted about seven years and, by his own count, produced only 37 songs before the reluctant performer returned to teaching at Harvard and other universities. "There's never been anyone like him," Cameron Mackintosh, the Broadway producer who created Tom Foolery, a revue of Lehrer songs, told BuzzFeed in 2014. "Of all famous songwriters, he's probably the only one that ... is an amateur in that he never wanted to be professional. And yet the work he did is of the highest quality of any great songwriter." As the US nestled into the post-war complacency of the 1950s, the liberal-leaning Lehrer was poking holes in the culture with his songs while maintaining an urbane, witty air. Some of his works reflected his mathematical interests - New Math about subtracting 173 from 342 and Lobachevsky about a 19th-century Russian mathematician - but his meatier songs were deemed by some to be too irreverent and shocking. In 1959 Time magazine lumped him in with groundbreaking comics Lenny Bruce and Mort Sahl as "sicknicks" who had "a personal and highly disturbing hostility toward all the world." The song I Wanna Go Back to Dixie looked at racism in the South ("The land of the boll weevil where the laws are medieval") while National Brotherhood Week took on hypocrites ("It's only for a week so have no fear/ Be nice to people who are inferior to you"). Be Prepared exposed the dark side of a Boy Scout's life, I Got It from Agnes was about venereal disease, and We Will All Go Together When We Go addressed nuclear Armageddon. "If, after hearing my songs, just one human being is inspired to say something nasty to a friend, or perhaps to strike a loved one, it will all have been worth the while," Lehrer wrote on the notes that accompanied one of his albums. Thomas Andrew Lehrer was born on April 9, 1928, in New York. He grew up in the Big Apple listening to musical theatre and one of his first works was The Elements, a recitation of the periodic table set to a Gilbert and Sullivan tune. He enrolled at Harvard at age 15 and his Fight Fiercely, Harvard with the line "Won't it be peachy if we win the game?" became a popular spoof of the school's sports fight song. After serving in the US Army from 1955 to 1957, Lehrer began performing and recorded more albums but was losing his zest for music. By the early 1960s, working on his doctorate - which he never finished - and teaching became greater concerns, although he did contribute songs to the TV news satire show That Was the Week That Was in 1963 and 1964.


Perth Now
11 hours ago
- Perth Now
US musical satirist Tom Lehrer dies at 97
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