I have to agree with this article. Why isn't Bill Hader famous yet?
Who is the only actor to have appeared in ALL of the following hit comedies: Tropic Thunder, Pineapple Express, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Superbad and Knocked Up?Hader has the comedic talent. I know great comedians when I see one.
Okay, since his name is in the title of this article, you've probably figured out by now that the answer is SNL funnyman Bill Hader. But here's the tough question: With all of those hits on his resume, (not even Seth Rogen can beat that track record), why isn't Bill Hader a household name yet?
The easy answer is that it's because Hader is a mere utility player. So far, he's been relegated to mostly sidekick roles. He played the stepbrother of Jason Segel in Forgetting Sarah Marshall, the butt-kissing assistant of Tom Cruise in Tropic Thunder, and a co-worker of Katherine Heigl's in Knocked Up. He was perfectly funny in each of these films, but didn’t score enough screen time to really break out.
But over a year after its release, I'm still wondering why Superbad didn't propel him into stardom right alongside his young costars Jonah Hill and Michael Cera. Hader and his on-screen partner Seth Rogen were given almost as much screen time as the kids, and were just as funny. In fact, the two divergent plots of Superbad could have easily been split into two movies -- one dealing with Seth and Evan's quest to hook up with their crushes at the big party, and another centered around McLovin's adventures with Officers Michaels and Slater. Although the friendship between the two fun-loving cops provided a nice mirror to what Seth and Evan would probably be like as adults, there was definitely enough humor and depth of character for each of these plots to stand alone. I doubt any Superbad fans would've objected to spending more time in the police cruiser, watching Hader and Rogen break the laws their characters were sworn to uphold.
The early reviews are starting to come in for Role Models, the upcoming film with Paul Rudd and Seann William Scott.
Two (unconfirmed) screening reports have surfaced online for Role Models over at the IMDB Boards. According to the viewers this film is hilarious or, in their words, Judd Apatow caliber.November 14th cannot come sooner.
Ray Liotta is Seth Rogen's nemesis in Observe and Report.
Judd Apatow did stand-up comedy at UCB.
The Jerusalem Post talked with Paul McCartney ahead of his first concert in Medinat Israel. Listen, this concert is a huge deal to me. It's McCartney and it's in Israel. I'd do whatever I could to be there for this thing! Here are some excerpts from the interview.
You're the soundtrack to my children's lives as well. My daughter, who's 11, has just started learning bass and she's learning "Let It Be." That's the first thing they've got her working on.
Wow. It is fabulous, eh. We never, ever, thought that it would last this long. But, you know, it's a great tribute that it has lasted and that kids play it these days. I'm very proud of that fact.
It's third time lucky for Israel, right, after our brilliant government banned you and then the Wings dates fell through [in the 1970s]? Is this somewhere you've particularly wanted to play?
Yeah, you know, I'm always interested in visiting places I've never been to before, just as a tourist. It's always interesting to go to a new region. The offer of a gig came up. And it was somewhere that I'd been interested in. I'd like to go there and see what's what. I hear from a lot of people that Tel Aviv is a great place.
Israel is glorious and frenetic! Are you going to get to tour, get to Jerusalem…?
I'm not sure. Everyone says to me, "Oh you must go to Jerusalem, it's so beautiful. It's such ancient history." I don't think I'm going to have time, realistically… I have to be back in England for other things. But what happens is you go to these places and you think "I really must come back, I've got to explore more." So often these are good jumping off points.[...]
Apropos life in the goldfish bowl, on the bigger scale, how worried have you been about the Islamists' threats - saying you shouldn't come and play here?
You have to realize that any high profile event brings with it some worries. But I have a very good team of people. And I think that most people understand that I'm quite apolitical and that my message is a global one and that it is a peaceful one. So I just have faith in that aspect of what I do.
Obviously you have to consider these things but I don't worry. I mean when I went to Quebec there were certain comments from people who said they thought it was entirely inappropriate for an English guy to be playing in a French Canadian city. I tend to just ignore those things and think there's always a voice in a crowd that will say that.
When we first went to Japan there were people who were very upset that we were playing in the Budokan because it had sacred connotations for them. [The Beatles were the first rock band to play in the arena, in 1966.] But I think the vast majority of people don't think like that. My mission, if I have one, is humanitarian, and concerns all people, not just a few.
When you think back 40 years ago, and you were writing songs about love and giving peace a chance and exploring freedoms and pushing boundaries, is it a darker world today than it looked back then?
I think it is. There certainly are problems that didn't exist then. But at the same time you have to remember that we had grown up in the shadow of World War II, which was a pretty dark time. So everything's relative.
It's certainly not as carefree a time as the '60s was, but it's a better time in many ways than World War II was, particularly for someone where I lived, like Liverpool, which sustained a lot of bombing. And my parents grew up in that. I think it gives you a sense of perspective.
There are a lot of things that aren't great about modern life, but I still feel there's a lot of stuff that is. And I try to focus on that and try to encourage people to look for the good in each other and address the best.[...]
I have to ask you what "Let It Be" is about, if only because my daughter's teacher has asked them…
Well that's a very special song to me as well. The story behind that was again something to do with a dream. I was going through some difficult times as a young guy in the '60s. There was plenty of partying going on and I'm sure I was overdoing it. So it led to occasionally feeling a bit sort of fried or whatever. I felt like I'd sort of overdone it.
But in one of my dreams, this particular dream, my mother, who had been dead for the 10 years previously, came to me - it's always a great thing when you see somebody that you've lost in a dream. And because she could see I was feeling a bit down, she said to me, in the dream: "Let it be." So I took this as very inspirational and woke up and wrote the song "Let It Be."
It's a big favorite with gospel choirs. I mean it mentions "mother Mary," which obviously a lot of people take to mean the Virgin Mary. But my mom's name was Mary. When I say mother Mary, I mean my mum
I feel very blessed to have had those things happen and slightly puzzled as to how they did happen.
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