Family Guy's Seth MacFarlane turns to alcohol to deal with stage fright: 'I definitely get nervous'
Seth MacFarlane "definitely gets nervous" before a performance. The 51-year-old star is best known as the creator of the long-running animation series 'Family Guy' but has also released eight studio albums during his career and admitted that he has previously had to turn to alcohol to cope with stage fright. Speaking on 'CBS Sunday Mornings', when asked if he sees himself an introvert, he said: "Oh hell, yeah! I don't even wanna be here! No, I'm just kidding! "I think I had, like, four Scotches before I walked out on stage at the Oscars. I do get...I definitely get nervous." After graduating with a degree in animation from Rhode Island School of Design, Seth was all set to study a graudate programme in musical theatre but was then suddenly recruited to work on the carton series 'Johnny Bravo' 'Cow and Chicken' and 'Dexter's Laboratory' for Hana-Barbera so jumped at the chance, but admitted there was a his signature creation may never have come to fruition at all. He said: "My sister at the time was going to the Boston Conservatory of Music for musical theatre. She has a beautiful singing voice. I had gotten it into my head that I was going to go to grad school for musical theatre as well, so I applied and got in and was all set to go for their grad programme, but then I got this offer from Hanna-Barbera to come do an animated short for a series they were doing so I just had to take it and I moved out to California. "There was an incident there where I could have diverged into a completely different career and never even thought about something called 'Family Guy'." Seth also voices the roles of Peter, Brian and Stewie Griffin on 'Family Guy' and admitted that after more than 25 years on air, he has now begun to "analyse" the near-the-knuckle comedy in the programme in a way he hasn't done so before. He said: "When I started the show, my attitude was 'It doesn't matter, none of it matters. Let's do it...' and now that I'm older, I look back at the shows that we've done and think it's a little more complicated than that. "Comedy and jokes do have an impact. I have to figure out a way to maintain what the show is, and maintain this thing that people love but at the same time recognise that I am analysing it now in a different way than I did when I was younger."
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CNN
20 minutes ago
- CNN
‘If you fall silent, the country is doomed': CBS News' Scott Pelley stresses courage as network faces pressure campaign
A climate of fear is perceptible in the United States today, and it must be resisted no matter what, CBS News correspondent Scott Pelley says. 'People are silencing themselves for fear that the government will retaliate against them, and that's not the America that we all love,' Pelley told Anderson Cooper in an exclusive interview after CNN's Saturday telecast of 'Good Night, and Good Luck.' The Broadway play, which recounts CBS newsman Edward R. Murrow's unflinching 1954 broadcasts about Sen. Joseph McCarthy's Cold War witch hunts, has stirred comparisons between McCarthyism and Trumpism, and between the CBS network then and now. Fear and courage 'are the two themes that run through both of these moments in American history,' Pelley told CNN's Cooper. 'The most important thing is to have the courage to speak, to not let fear permeate the country so that everyone suddenly becomes silent,' the former 'CBS Evening News' anchor added. 'If you have the courage to speak, we are saved. If you fall silent, the country is doomed.' Cooper asked Pelley, a nearly 40-year veteran of CBS: 'Do you still believe in journalism? Do you still believe in the role of journalists?' 'It is the only thing that's gonna save the country,' Pelley responded. 'You cannot have democracy without journalism. It can't be done.' Cooper, who also works alongside Pelley as a correspondent on '60 Minutes,' anchored a discussion about the state of journalism after the Broadway telecast Saturday night. One inescapable topic was President Donald Trump's pressure campaign against CBS News. Trump filed a legally dubious lawsuit against CBS over a '60 Minutes' interview with Kamala Harris last fall. CBS News journalists and executives have sought to fight the suit and its allegations of 'election interference.' 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That doesn't look like their finest hour.' When asked about the April resignation of '60 Minutes' executive producer Bill Owens, Pelley repeated what he told viewers — that Owens felt that he no longer had 'the independence that honest journalism requires.' At the time, the correspondents talked about leaving with him, but Lesley Stahl recently told The New Yorker that Owens 'explicitly asked us not to resign.' Pelley told Cooper that, on the one hand, 'you really wish the company was behind you 100%, right?' On the other hand, 'my work is getting on the air.' Paramount bosses have not killed any '60 Minutes' segments, even though the newsmagazine has aggressively covered the Trump administration. 'While I would like to have that public backing,' Pelley said, 'maybe the more important thing is the work is still getting on the air.' Pelley caused a stir with a commencement address at Wake Forest University last month. Many conservative media outlets said Pelley ripped Trump, though he never mentioned the president by name. 'Why attack universities? Why attack journalism? Because ignorance works for power,' Pelley said in the speech. 'First, make the truth seekers live in fear. Sue the journalists. For nothing.' Pelley also talked in the speech about the Trump administration's actions against major law firms and warned that people in power 'can rewrite history.' 'With grotesque, false narratives, they can make heroes criminals and criminals heroes,' Pelley said. 'And they can change the definition of the words we use to describe reality. 'Diversity' is now described as 'illegal.' 'Equity' is to be shunned. 'Inclusion' is a dirty word. This is an old playbook, my friends.' In the sit-down with Cooper, Pelley said he thought he was echoing the sentiments of Murrow in the 1950s, 'that freedom of speech is what matters in this country.' 'You can agree with the government. 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USA Today
3 hours ago
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The Verge
11 hours ago
- The Verge
The soul of The Last of Us is in Gustavo Santaolalla's music
When fans nervously tuned in to watch HBO's adaptation of one of their favorite video games, there was one familiar presence that immediately calmed their nerves: the mournful guitar of Gustavo Santaolalla. As certain story beats changed and beloved polygonal faces were replaced with new actors, the beating heart of The Last of Us — its mesmerizing, tension-ridden score — survived the transition to TV intact. '[Series creator] Neil Druckmann has said that my music is part of the DNA of The Last of Us,' Santaolalla says. 'I think the fact that we kept the sonic fabric — that we didn't do an orchestral score for the series — has been instrumental in keeping those fans of the games fans of the series, too.' Born and raised in Buenos Aires, Santaolalla first started releasing music when he was 17. Loving both English rock bands and the traditional Argentine folk music that he was raised on, Santaolalla melded both into his own unique sound, part of a genre called rock nacional. Before he could fully make his mark, Santaolalla's family fled the Argentine junta dictatorship in 1978, moving to Los Angeles, where his unique sound soon caught the attention of filmmakers. Snapped up to score the 2000 film Amores Perros and 2003's 21 Grams, their success led to Santaolalla composing the soundtracks for Brokeback Mountain and Babe l, both of which won him Oscars. Santaolla's sonic secret? Embracing the eloquence of silence. 'I work so much with silence and space, because silences sometimes can be louder than a note that you're playing,' says Santaolalla. 'I remember on Brokeback Mountain when I first sent them the music, the producer said 'I thought you were pulling my leg at first, because you wait so long to play the next note!'' 'Silences sometimes can be louder than a note that you're playing.' After winning two Oscars back to back, Santaolalla carefully considered his next career move. Despite being a self-professed 'terrible gamer' Santaolalla tells me he always loved watching his son play, mesmerized by the on-screen kineticism. 'I always thought that if somebody connects this at an emotional level with a player, it's going to be a revolution.' It turns out, the universe had picked up on Santaolalla's newest interest. Post-Oscars, he was approached by several game companies to do music, but turned them down because 'I'm very picky about the work that I do.' That includes a lucrative gaming project that he is careful not to name. 'Everyone thought I was crazy!' he chuckles. Still, Santaolalla quietly hoped that a more emotionally-resonant project would materialize. 'So, I waited… and then Neil appeared,' Santaolalla says. 'When Neil told his colleagues that he wanted me to do this, [his colleagues ] said, No, Gustavo is not going to be interested — he won two Oscars! But when Neil [told me] the story, and that he wanted to do a game that connects with people on an emotional level… I was sold. What even Neil Druckmann wasn't prepared for, however, was that Gustavo's music would become just as crucial a presence as Ellie and Joel. In a post apocalyptic world where life is scarce and danger lurks around every corner, silence hangs in the air like a threat. Santaolalla's scuffed notes, discordant melodies and screeching fret slides reverberate across the dilapidated city streets, feeling as unpredictable as the world Ellie and Joel inhabit. 'I love the use of imperfections, even errors or mistakes.' 'I love the use of imperfections, even errors or mistakes,' Santaolalla explains. 'Any professional guitar player when they're recording tend to avoid all kinds of noises; when you run your hand on the fretboard or little glitches in your playing. But sometimes, I'll push those in my mix, and I think that humanizes it. That's why many people have said that my music becomes like a character — a presence. It's why I play things myself.' In the second game, Gustavo's music becomes a physical part of the fiction, with Ellie carrying a guitar throughout her quest for vengeance. She takes out the instrument during welcome moments of downtime, offering cathartic respite. And just like Gustavo's score, these beautiful vignettes break up the harrowing silence, which carries through in the second season of the show. 'I love the TV series too,' says Santaolalla. ' For the show, Neil associated himself with another incredible talent, Craig Mazin — the guy that did Chernobyl — who knows that media and that language. I think it was a big, big challenge, because when you go from one media to another one, people say no, I like the original better! So, I think, once again, that the way we have used the music has been instrumental to keep that fan base attached.' He adds that 'I think that when a story is really great, like a theatrical piece — like Shakespeare — it doesn't matter who plays the character. Obviously Pedro Pascal's Joel is different than the Joel from the game, but the substance of the character is so powerful that those things are just superficial. They could have done this as a series, as a feature film, as a puppet theatre piece, or an animation and it will still land regardless — because it's just great writing.' Now as Santaolalla finds himself releasing his very own instrument — the Guitarocko — it feels like the culmination of the musical journey he started as a teen. Melding the traditional Bolivian 10 stringed ronroco with the form factor of a Fender Stratocaster, Gustavo feels a father-like pride for his musical creation: the 73-year-old is invigorated by what The Last Of Us has given him at this stage in his career. 'I've been blessed with the fact that I have connected with an audience since I was very young,' he says. 'But the way I connect with the fans of The Last of Us and the way they connect with the music… here's a special devotion that is really beautiful. I have this new audience which is fantastic, and I love that they didn't know me as an artist or as a film composer! Now they look for my music, and they discover these things. It's been a gift for me, at this point — after everything that I've been through — to be involved with a project like this.'
