dennis hopper

Dennis Hopper’s Obama Monologue His Best Work Since ‘Hoosiers’

4:11AM Kyle Buchanan | We were a little surprised to find out a while ago that actor Dennis Hopper is a longtime Republican — sure, he appeared in the right-wing satire An American Carol, but so, too, did he make Meet the Deedles. Today, though, during a hushed, absorbing two-and-a-half minute monologue on The View, Hopper detailed the Jefferson-led conversion that led him to become a Reagan Republican, as well as a deeply personal story that eventually led to his unlikely presidential vote for Barack Obama. If this clip somehow ends up getting taped over the “Crash series” part of Hopper’s reel, we can’t say we’ll be surprised. The View [ABC] More »

8:30AM Defamer Hollywood | Wait, what? In the middle of an otherwise routine NY Daily News article that details the trouble Republicans have convincing celebrities to attend their upcoming convention (but wait, don’t they hate celebrities?), this little bombshell is dropped: “When asked about Republican stars like Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Dennis Hopper, Kelsey Grammer and Chuck Norris, G.O.P. convention spokeswoman Melissa Subbotin said the party was not ready to announce its roster at this time.” Dennis Hopper? Did we miss the memo that said the countercultural director of freaking Easy Rider was a Republican? We’d assumed his appearance in the right-wing Zucker film An American Carol was a strict paycheck gig, but no — Wikipedia confirms it, listing two donations the actor has made to the RNC. We’ll leave the blacklisting to Jeffrey Wells, but we hope this doesn’t portend an eventual run for office from the actor. After all, if Gopher could do it… [NY Daily News] More »

Where Do We Even Begin With This Trailer For ‘An American Carol’?

6:00AM Defamer Hollywood | We have learned a great many things during this election year, but chief among them is that Republicans hate Hollywood (though not really). In fact, their vendetta against Tinseltown is so strong that they have now seized the means of production, which would at least explain the trailer for the upcoming right-wing comedy An American Carol — that is, if anything could explain An American Carol. A spoof of The Christmas Carol from Republican director David Zucker, it’s the story of a Michael Moore-resembling filmmaker who is shown the error of his ways by a cast made up of Hollywood’s biggest Republicans. If that description sounds a little dry, try these details on for size: the Moore stand-in comes to his senses when he is taught to kill members of the ACLU, and George Washington is played by Jon Voight. A closer look at the insanity, after the jump: More »

EXCLUSIVE: Dennis Hopper Pleased With New Film, Not So Much With Career

2:30AM STV | For all the talk about Sir Ben Kingsley’s sex scenes with Penelope Cruz and Patricia Clarkson, the new film Elegy arguably features an even more up-front intimacy between the Oscar-winner and Dennis Hopper — Kingsley’s sidekick in academia who counsels him through an intense romantic relationship with an ex-student (played by Cruz). We won’t spoil it for you; let it suffice to say the role is Hopper’s latest in a marathon of work that has seen three films released this year and finds the 72-year-old halfway through shooting Starz’ adaptation of the Paul Haggis film Crash. We tracked Hopper down this week to run through Elegy, Crash and the 50-plus turbulent years that preceded them — all in five convenient questions (and a few surprisingly candid replies) after the jump. More »