FredArmisen Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Several films are heading into next week's Sundance Film Festival with a giant helping of buzz, and one of those is Paper Heart (pictured above) -- starring Charlyne Yi (Knocked Up) and Michael Cera -- which comes served with this description: "Combining elements of storytelling, reality and fantasy, Paper Heart brings a fresh perspective to the modern romance and redefines the classic love story." Since I kinda dig the randomness that defines the humor of both Cera and Yi, I've been waiting for a teaser of some kind to hit prior to the festival -- and while one has not found its way online, Karina over at Spout discovered Yi's YouTube page which is just packed with little nuggets of hilarity.

Karina highlighted a few videos in her post, but the ones that stood out for me were a series of conversations between Yi and SNL's Fred Armisen. It all started with an audition tape Yi made for Saturday Night Live, which she posted to YouTube in the hopes that it would become popular enough that Lorne Michaels would see it and put her on the show. Well, Michaels didn't see it, but Fred Armisen did and so was born a pretty funny series of videos featuring both Yi and Armisen communicating with one another -- with the last being my personal favorite. Are these real? Are these fake? What's the deal? Nevertheless, it gives us a better look at Yi, and the type of humor we should expect from Paper Heart (see images below).



Watch the audition tape below, then head after the jump for the rest (but make sure you watch them in order).

First, he gets a mainstream comic actor to act in a contemplative art house narrative with Punch-Drunk Love. Now, he's putting two of them on a stage. According to cigarettes and red vines, Paul Thomas Anderson has written and directed a play in Los Angeles with Saturday Night Live stars Maya Rudolph (Anderson's partner) and Fred Armisen. It premieres at the Largo on August 5, but specific details about plot remain unrevealed. Still, the prospects of seeing Anderson's eerily detached style in a live performance are intriguing, to say the least. As Slashfilm points out, the production has a few logical attachments to the filmmaker's past: Anderson directed a short film for SNL back in 2000, and Rudolph starred in Robert Altman's A Prairie Home Companion, which Anderson may or may not have ghost-directed in parts.

Now that Anderson has proven he can craft epic period pieces of the raunchy (Boogie Nights) and morose (There Will Be Blood) kind, he's reached a point where audiences will basically allow him to take them wherever he wants to go. The dynamics of the stage, however, differ greatly from those of the cinema. Since the name and subject matter are a mystery, there's a lot left to the imagination. Will Anderson allow Rudolph and Armisen to unleash their comic potential? Or is that a milkshake I hear brewing?

Amy Poehler certainly didn't look pregnant when she showed up for a chat at the Apple store in Soho last weekend (as part of a series of talks taking place during the Tribeca Film Festival), but in retrospect, the Baby Mama star had the sprightliness of a gal with a special secret. Along with moderator and Saturday Night Live co-star Fred Armisen, Poehler really worked the room, gently mocking the crowd ("I think all these guys are waiting to get into the Genius bar") while slipping in occasional hints that she actually has an authentic strategy behind her career.

"I would like to do more serious acting," she said, not mentioning her recent voiceover work for Hoodwinked 2: Hood vs. Evil. "I've been doing sketch comedy for a long time, and it'd be nice to turn the volume down a little bit and try other stuff. I have a secret desire to be on Law & Order, but I wish I could be on an old Law & Order, with Jerry Orbach." Armisen, somewhat facetiously, said he would never tire of comedy. "It's like eating to me," he claimed.