Out of the Archives

When HFPA journalists interviewed Sigourney Weaver in 1988 about Gorillas in the Mist: The Adventure of Dian Fossey, directed by Michael Apted, this is what she said about Dian Fossey. “Working on Dian Fossey allowed me to see that, to a certain extent, we all think of animals as third-class citizens of a planet that actually belongs to us and they'll have to find room to do whatever they do in a way that's convenient for mankind.

Viggo Mortensen spoke with HFPA journalists in 2002 on the set of Hidalgo. He was working on the adventure film about the legend of Frank Hopkins, who rode his mustang Hidalgo in the “Ocean of Fire” 3,000-mile endurance race of 1891 against Bedouins riding pure-bred Arabian horses in the Najid desert of Saudi Arabia.

Ellen Burstyn plays the mother of Vanessa Kirby in Pieces of a Woman. The first time she met with HFPA journalists in January 1975, she talked about Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, directed by Martin Scorsese.

When HFPA journalists interviewed Diane Keaton in 2001 about the movie Sister Mary Explains It All, where she played a nun, she talked about religion, heaven and hell. “I have not had much contact with nuns, except to see them in Fellini films, but Sister Mary didn’t think that the Catholic Church really held up on its promise, which was that it would never change.

The British director Michael Apted, who passed away on January 7, 2021, was interviewed by HFPA journalists several times. This is what he said in 1988 about Gorillas in the Mist where Sigourney Weaver portrayed naturalist Dian Fossey.

Bill Murray plays a father in the comedy On the Rocks directed by Sofia Coppola.   In 1998 he told the journalists of the Hollywood Foreign Press how he gave up on his premed studies to join his older brother Brian at Second City’s improvisation comedy troupe in Chicago.

Paul Bettany plays Marvel Superhero Vision in the TV series WandaVision and a gay man in the 1970s in Uncle Frank, written and directed by Alan Ball. He spoke to HFPA journalists in 2002 and 2003 about his wife Jennifer Connelly.

Jennifer Connelly, who stars in the TV series Snowpiercer, talked to HFPA journalists in 2001 about becoming a mother for the first time to her son Kai, when she was single, then in 2003 after she married Paul Bettany and had a baby son, Stellan. “It would be much easier to answer how becoming a mother hasn't changed me, but I probably wouldn't have anything to say.

Joel Schumacher, who passed away in 2020, often spoke to HFPA journalists about movies he directed, such as A Time to Kill (1996) and The Phantom of the Opera.

Meryl Streep stars with Nicole Kidman in "The Prom," directed by  Ryan Murphy and debuting in December 2020. When interviewed about "Silkwood" in 1983 and "A Cry in the Dark“ in 1988, Streep talked about the actors and directors she most admired.