Latest news with #Geritol
Los Angeles Times
06-08-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
A guide to Martin Scorsese, actor: The 6 performances you need to know
Martin Scorsese is one of our greatest directors, but he's rarely celebrated for his talent in front of the camera. At long last, though, he's received recognition for his acting, earning a guest acting Emmy nomination for his work on the satirical Apple TV+ show 'The Studio.' It's a fitting acknowledgment of his underrated chops, which he has wielded infrequently but skillfully across his long career. Below is a brief timeline of his most memorable acting moments, which also doubles as a guide to his evolving onscreen persona, whether he's playing himself or not. From the beginning, Scorsese made brief cameos in his films. But it wasn't until his haunting portrait of troubled New York cab driver Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro) that the director gave a truly arresting performance, despite appearing for just four minutes. Playing a racist, quietly unhinged passenger, Scorsese's unnamed, well-dressed character calmly explains to Bickle that he's planning to kill his cheating wife, laying out in disturbing detail what his .44 Magnum will do to her. This mesmerizing turn saw Scorsese embody the city's spiritual sickness that's poisoning Bickle's mind. When Robert Redford cast Scorsese as corrupt Geritol boss Martin Rittenhome for his quiz-show-scandal drama, he explained to The Times, 'I found it interesting to have him play a tough character gently. And given his delivery style, in which he talks real fast, I thought it would make the character extremely menacing.' Scorsese proved him right, his composed character's every smirk as lethal as a gunshot. While Rittenhome casually declaws Rob Morrow's crusading attorney, Scorsese slyly plays off the audience's familiarity with his dark, violent crime films. Rittenhome never lifts a finger, but Scorsese's coiled performance drives home the point that corporate executives can be as ruthless as mobsters. By the 1990s, Scorsese was widely regarded as the American auteur. So, naturally, he was frequently courted for roles that sent up his elevated image, which set the stage for this very funny American Express commercial. The premise is simple — Scorsese, perfectionist filmmaker, mercilessly ridicules the photos he took of his nephew's birthday party — but it's his deadpan performance that really sells the joke. Lambasting his creative choices, and silently judging the one-hour-photo employee who calls his shots 'pretty,' Scorsese good-naturedly mocked the zealous dedication he brought to his movies. 'It was very easy to do,' he later said of his self-deprecating portrayal, before admitting, 'You know, the damn thing is, you got to be serious about making a picture.' The intense young man responsible for searing dramas such as 'Raging Bull' didn't seem likely to become Cinema's Lovable Grandpa. But Scorsese has successfully made the leap thanks to his adoring daughter Francesca, who recruited him to star in her TikToks, quizzing him on contemporary slang or scripting a bit in which he informs the family dog Oscar that he wants him for his next picture. The videos quickly became a sensation, showing off Scorsese's more private side — he's never been so cuddly or endearing. 'I was tricked into that. … I didn't know those things go viral,' he told The Times in 2023, amused, about his TikTok celebrity. Scorsese's examination of the 1920s Osage murders — a grim study of greed and corruption — felt like a definitive statement on themes that have long consumed the director. That feeling was driven home by the movie's striking epilogue, set during a radio show dramatizing 'Killers'' events, which ended with Scorsese's narrator solemnly standing onstage relating the sad fate that befell Lily Gladstone's Mollie Burkhart. 'Marty realized that he needed to have somebody come in as a moderator to explain stuff,' 'Killers' production designer Jack Fisk told Vulture in 2024, 'but he said he didn't understand exactly how to direct that person. How could he impart so much of the four years or five years of research he'd done into an actor? He decided to try it once himself.' The result was one of Scorsese's simplest, most powerful performances — a moving eulogy not just for the slain Osage but also all the innocent characters victimized by his films' litany of bad men. Scorsese had played himself in comedies like 'Entourage' and 'Curb Your Enthusiasm,' but his meta turn in the Emmy-nominated Hollywood takedown crystallizes everything that's made him so good in front of the camera: It's focused, edgy and never, ever winking. He's playing a character but also subverting our impression of him as an uncompromising, ultra-serious auteur. In 'The Studio,' Scorsese is hilarious as an avatar of artistic integrity who, of course, gets screwed over by Seth Rogen's spineless studio head. But there's a whiff of bitter truth to his character's dilemma. We can easily imagine the real Scorsese has had to face similar ordeals with facile Hollywood suits. How many world-class filmmakers are also such convincing Method actors?
Chicago Tribune
07-02-2025
- Sport
- Chicago Tribune
Why Andy Reid is the perfect coach to lead Kansas City Chiefs' historic three-peat quest
When Kansas City Chiefs coach Andy Reid joined the NFL's exclusive 300-win club with his team's 23-14 victory over the Houston Texans in the AFC divisional round, he promptly heard from the only living member of that Mt. Rushmore of coaching — Bill Belichick, both his longtime friend and rival. Reid either didn't immediately remember or quite want to share what Belichick had to say. But when I asked him Thursday if it was along the lines of 'welcome to 300,' Reid laughed and invoked his own weight in the image of the 'forktarian' he likes to call himself. Belichick is 'never going to really reach the real 300,' he said, meaning pounds. 'There's a lot of cheeseburgers that went into that.' And so it goes with Reid, who loves self-deprecating humor any time but especially when he can use it to deflect or downplay the spotlight. When he was asked earlier in the same interview session about having such success in his 60s, for instance, he said, 'I think they put something in the Geritol.' And asked what it would mean to him to win The Associated Press coach of the year award — as he deservedly should — Reid suggested he wasn't aware he was in contention and added, 'You could've just made that up.' But there's something more to all this than just the laughs and the humility of a man who always credits everyone around him for his achievements. While Reid is competitive down to his marrow and every … single … cell, in ways that his nuanced public persona may not always show, a key reason for his incredible success isn't that he is directly concentrating on winning an unprecedented three straight Super Bowls. Or centered on becoming the winningest coach in NFL history (his 301 victories are 47 away from breaking Don Shula's record). Or even preoccupied with the idea of beating the Eagles in Super Bowl LIX for an encore Super Bowl victory over the franchise that let him go after the 2012 season. 'He is one of the best I ever faced,' Belichick, now the coach at North Carolina, said in an email to The Kansas City Star. 'This run is one of the best and longest in NFL history. Andy's accomplishments are extraordinary.' Even if such feats may occasionally flicker through Reid's mind, they certainly don't occupy it. As far he's concerned, that would be like blinding himself by looking directly into the sun. Or paralyzing himself by looking back or forward too far. Plus, Reid somehow is both intrinsically driven to give his all and consumed with the so-called precious present. As sure as his offensive genius and ability to connect with players of every background, this is another of Reid's superpowers … even if it's not exactly a glamorous point. Accordingly, I'm not sure he's ever even uttered the term 'three-peat.' If so, Patrick Mahomes said Thursday, it would only be because he was asked about it by the media. 'He's very locked in on just, 'How can we be great with our cadence today at practice?' ' Mahomes said. Evidently referring not to the pace of the session but signal-calling sync, Mahomes added, 'So that's just the stuff that Coach Reid focuses on.' Speaking of 'focus,' it might seem like a dry cliche to say that Reid is virtually always engaged more in process than results. And not on the destination as much as the journey. And treating every day with the same urgency — as anyone around him much will say he does. Or that it's all about 'The Formula,' the last words the Chiefs see on their way from the GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium locker room to the field. But the point is more amplified and colorful when you think of it through the lens of this time-honored Vince Lombardi quote: 'I firmly believe that any man's finest hour, the greatest fulfillment of all that he holds dear, is that moment when he has worked his heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted on the field of battle — victorious.' 'Victorious' is the key term, because that's the very reason to strive. But I believe Reid also sees the work itself as a matter of virtue being its own reward. That notion is reflected in another of my favorite quotes, written by University of Nebraska philosophy professor Hartley Burr Alexander and etched into Memorial Stadium in Lincoln, Neb.: 'Not the victory but the action; not the goal but the game; in the deed the glory.' Even if that sounds lofty, I really think it's true when it comes to Reid. For a snapshot of his thinking, let's go back to training camp at Missouri Western in St. Joseph, where Reid believes the spartan conditions are essential to forming the foundation. When he referred to the 'cinder blocks' of the dorm rooms, he might as well have been speaking about the pillars of, well, the formula. 'Listen, there is a certain toughness this game requires …' Reid said there in July, later adding, 'We've got that part of it going, and it's important that you develop that. 'If you are fatigued, then you are going to be fatigued mentally. If you are fatigued physically, that's going to affect you mentally. And if you are fatigued, period, then you can't think and you can't play. At least not to the best of your ability. 'So the objective here is let's get ourselves in shape, make sure we are in football shape … both mentally and physically, so that we can perform at our best.' That's forever reinforced by his own example. Even within a profession of workaholics, Reid's work ethic is legendary. Because he burns to win, to be sure. But also because he embraces every step it takes. When I asked him if he finds the journey to be the most fulfilling part, Reid seemed to agree with the suggestion and said he thinks of himself first as a teacher. 'There is a lot that goes into that,' he said. 'It's not just knowing your stuff, but how it's presented and the trust that you have in the guys and then the work that goes into each play.' He added, 'When we see success, we enjoy that; I enjoy that. I enjoy seeing the guys go out and do something good. I'm happy for them, because I know the time and the effort that went into it. 'There's an aptitude part of that, you know?' He meant in the learning. But the aptitude, not to mention attitude, starts with the teaching and tone set by a one-of-a-kind force. In those deeds, the glory — no matter how much he might try to laugh you off that. ©2025 The Kansas City Star. Visit Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
