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George Takei: The army provided uniforms as well as attack helicopters and the United States Air Force supplied two C-130 Hercules transports and two A-1 Skyraider attack aircraft

John Wayne’s brutal tradition on every film reduced co-star to tears says George TakeiGeorge Takei starred with John Wayne in The Green Berets and revealed that The Duke “wasn’t an actor” and had a terrible and “embarrassing” tradition he repeated on every film set. However, he admits the Western icon also shocked him in a very good way

George Takei is in London right now, starring in the powerful and moving musical Allegiance, which is based on his own childhood World War II experiences. His extraordinary life and career includes Sulu in Star Trek, of course, but he also starred opposite John Wayne in the pro-Vietnam movie The Green Berets. In fact, that was why he was absent for a significant part of Season 2 of the TV sci-fi show. Wayne was a leading member of the right-wing pro-war faction in Hollywood, while Takei was vehemently opposed. Yet, he was shocked by his first encounter with the Silver Screen legend

The Green Berets was completely Wayne’s pet project, conceived to combat what he saw as falling support for the military in the US. The actor had bought the rights to author Robin Moore’s 1965 book. Furthermore, he sought and obtained extraordinary cooperation along with supplies, equipment, and weapons from President Lyndon B. Johnson and the United States Department of Defense.

The army provided uniforms as well as attack helicopters and the United States Air Force supplied two C-130 Hercules transports and two A-1 Skyraider attack aircraft. Some film extras were actually air force trainees.
So it was understandable that Takei was concerned his very different and vocal political and anti-war views might be problematic when he went in to screen test with Wayne.
Takei said: “There was a core of decency in him. He was a very pro-war guy and when I went in for the interview I said, ‘I have to be honest with you, I don’t agree with you about the Vietnam War. I have been campaigning against the war. I wanted you to know.’
He surprised me. He said, ‘I am hiring the best actor I can for the role that’s all that I am concerned about. (Fellow actors) Jim Hutton and David Janssen are also pro-peace and I’m casting them, so I am making my decision based on acting ability.”
Indeed, Wayne signed up Hutton again the following years to star with him in the action drama Hellfighters about oil rig fire-fighters.
The intense film shoot was thrilling for Takei, but massively overran, causing a clash with his small screen obligations.
Takei said: “I missed out on half a dozen episodes of Star Trek. We were filming on location at Point bending in Georgia we had 40 days and 40 nights of a rainstorm that stopped filming. I was supposed to be back in Los Angeles but was delayed and so I missed out on those episodes.”
The actor was able to observe The Duke over the extended shoot on and off camera and said: “He was not an actor. He was a compelling gigantic personality. He was the same guy off-screen. He walked in front of the screen and he was able to maintain that. Most people change when they go in front of the camera but he was always John Wayne off camera and on.”
However, that “core of decency” was at odds with one particular thing that Wayne apparently did on every single film set.
Takei said: “There was a quirk in him. I was shocked. I was told he did it with every production. He singled out one man, always a big bruiser of a guy, tall, husky and muscular, usually a stuntman or a stand in. And he pilloried these people there on the set with everyone looking on.
“I was embarrassed being there. He did it all consistently with this guy and then people who worked with him on other productions told me he always did that. He picked one person to excoriate relentlessly. Sometimes these guys broke down in tears.”
Takei added: “He wasn’t that with me or anyone else. And it was always with someone that was able to stand up to him. But I suppose it was his way of establishing his alpha, top dog status.
“I was with him for three months and he wasn’t like that with anyone else. It was some kind of mental thing I think.”
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JEFF BRIDGES: I was kind of surrendering to the idea that I might die,” Bridges said of his illnesses


JEFF BRIDGES REFLECTS ON CANCER DIAGNOSIS: ‘CAME PRETTY CLOSE TO DYING’

Over three years after his lymphoma diagnosis, Jeff Bridges reflected on a harrowing set of circumstances that left him on death’s door.

“It’s amazing the way the mind can forget all that stuff,” the 74-year-old actor told Page Six. “I don’t think too much about the past.”

Bridges revealed that during one of his bouts of chemo, he ended up contracting COVID, leaving him hospitalized for five months with extreme pain and very little hope.
“I was pretty close to dying. The doctors kept telling me, ‘Jeff, you’ve got to fight. You’re not fighting,’” he told People in May 2022. “I was in surrender mode. I was ready to go. I was dancing with my mortality.”
“I had no defenses,” he added. “That’s what chemo does—it strips you of all your immune system. I had nothing to fight it. COVID made my cancer look like nothing.”
Thankfully, the chemo session before contracting COVID was his last one, and he was able to go into remission while beginning this new fight. This allowed his body to fully focus on recovering, and with help from a procedure that used blood from other patients who had already beaten the disease, Bridges was finally able to make progress.
Over three years later, the actor is now “feeling” great and fully back into the swing of things, returning to film his upcoming show THE OLD MAN. It was while he was filming this show originally that he discovered he had lymphoma.
“I was doing those fight scenes for the first episode of THE OLD MAN and didn’t know that I had a 9-by-12-inch tumor in my body,” he told AARP Magazine. “You’d think that would have hurt or something, when they were punching me and stuff. It didn’t.”
Jeff Bridges recently walked the red carpet for the premier of his FX show THE OLD MAN, and fans were overjoyed to see the actor back after a series of health struggles.
While filming the show, doctors diagnosed Bridges with Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. The actor underwent chemotherapy, and during treatment, contracted COVID-19.
“I was kind of surrendering to the idea that I might die,” Bridges said of his illnesses. “That this might be the end of the race kind of thing, because that’s what’s going to happen to all of us at some point and maybe this was my time to go through that and I didn’t know.”
However, Bridges began to recover. The TRUE GRIT actor said that he realized that he still wanted to fight to stay alive.

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Alba will star in the lead role of Parker, who is the Special Forces commando


Netflix, Jessica Alba Team Up For Her First Movie In Five Years

Jessica Alba is coming to Netflix five years after her last feature film.

The streamer announced in a post on X this week that Alba will star in the Netflix original film Trigger Warning, which will debut on June 21.

The official description of Trigger Warning is as follows: “When a skilled Special Forces commando returns home to take over her family’s bar, she soon finds herself at odds with a violent gang running rampant in her hometown.”
Alba will star in the lead role of Parker, who is the Special Forces commando. Netflix also announced that Mark Webber, Tone Bell, Jake Weary, Gabriel Basso and Anthony Michael Hall are also starring in the film.
Trigger Warning is directed by Mouly Surya.
Alba’s last film appearance came in the 2019 crime mystery Killers Anonymous, which also starred Tommy Flanagan, Gary Oldman and Suki Waterhouse.
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Yellowstone’s Kelly Reilly may have won herself a global fanbase as Beth Dutton but not everyone may realise this isn’t actually her real name


Yellowstone’s Kelly Reilly may have won herself a global fanbase as Beth Dutton but not everyone may realise this isn’t actually her real name.

Yellowstone star Kelly Reilly, unlike her counterpart Beth Dutton, shies away from the spotlight, keeping details about her personal life under wraps, including her name.

Beth Dutton is the violent, foul-mouthed, feisty only sister of the Dutton family in the Western Paramount Network drama who certainly is one to fear.

Nevertheless, she has shown her soft side with her desire to protect her dad John Dutton (played by Kevin Costner) at all costs, as well as express her love for Rip Wheeler (Cole Hauser).
Fans have loved watching Beth’s development since the show launched in 2018, although Reilly did have a number of other starring roles before its existence.
Some of which included True Detective, Flight, Sherlock Holmes and various appearances in theatrical productions, one of which she received a Laurence Olivier Award nomination for.
Despite all of this fame and success, some fans may be surprised to learn that Kelly Reilly isn’t actually the actress’ real name.
Yellowstone actress Kelly Reilly is actually called Jessica Kelly Siobhan Reilly but chooses to go by one of her middle names, rather than her first.
It isn’t known why she was named Jessica but with Irish grandparents, her other middle name Siobhan is thought to have been passed down to her.
The star’s mum was a hospital receptionist, her dad Jack Reilly a police officer and her older brother Neil works as a professional golfer.
It’s quite common practice for celebrities to use their middle names for their stage name.
Other famous faces who have done this are Reese Witherspoon, Brad Pitt, Rihanna, Dakota Fanning and Ashton Kutcher.
But she is believed to be the only member of the Yellowstone cast to do this.
Unfortunately for fans of the award-winning drama, the number of Beth scenes to come is few and far between.
Yellowstone was cancelled last year with the network announcing that season five would be its last.PROC. BY MOVIES

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