THE GREATEST SHOWMAN : Awards Talk

[jo]

http://instagram.com/p/BebXqLfhG7v

[jo]

[jo]

I like the affinity between Keala and Hugh -- from one of the very first tweets of hers ( the first rehearsals) where she talked of what Hugh likes in chocolate cakes

http://instagram.com/p/BLhRK0bAPlh

Jo

[jo]

Would you like to second that tweet? It's a brilliant idea and Hugh is very deserving to represent what is decent in Hollywood and who is artistically-qualified to do the presenting honors!


Jo

[jo]

GoldDerby forecasters favor REMEMBER ME heavily over THIS IS ME. Huh??

www.goldderby.com/article/2018/best-song-oscar-predictions-coco-the-greatest-showman-mary-j-blige-mudbound-news/

Two of the most recent Oscar-winning duos for Best Song are back to face off at the 2018 Academy Awards: “Coco’s” Kristen Anderson-Lopez & Robert Lopez who won for “Frozen” (2013), and “The Greatest Showman’s” Benj Pasek & Justin Paul who prevailed for “La La Land” (2016). “Coco” is nominated for the emotional tune “Remember Me,” while “The Greatest Showman” is up for its empowerment song “This Is Me.” Both duos top our Oscar predictions for Best Song, however our experts from major media outlets warn to watch out for “Mudbound” double nominee Mary J. Blige.

Blige, who also contends as Best Supporting Actress for the Netflix drama, made history by being the first person to earn Oscar nominations for acting and songwriting in the same year. Her song “Mighty River,” co-written by Raphael Saadiq & Taura Stinson, also earned a Golden Globe nomination, but lost out to Pasek and Paul. The other two Oscar nominees are “Mystery of Love” by Sufjan Stevens from “Call Me by Your Name” and “Stand Up for Something” by Diane Warren and Lonnie Lynn from “Marshall.”


So far 18 Oscar experts from major media outlets have chimed in with their Best Visual Effects predictions, and 13 think that “Remember Me” from “Coco” will prevail. They are: Thelma Adams (Gold Derby), Edward Douglas, Grae Drake (Rotten Tomatoes), Joyce Eng (Gold Derby), Pete Hammond (Deadline Hollywood), Matthew Jacobs (HuffPo), Michael Musto (NewNowNext), Tom O’Neil (Gold Derby), Kevin Polowy (Yahoo), Christopher Rosen (Ent. Weekly), Anne Thompson (Indiewire), Adnan Virk (ESPN) and Susan Wloszczyna (RogerEbert.com).


“This Is Me” from “The Greatest Showman” earns the support of these four experts: Erik Davis (Fandango), Tim Gray (Variety), Jack Mathews (Gold Derby) and Peter Travers (Rolling Stone). Finally, Tariq Khan (Fox News) is going out on a limb for “Mighty River” from “Mudbound.” See more Oscar predictions from our experts.


Gold Derby’s Best Song Oscar predictions
“Remember Me (“Coco”) — 4/9 odds
“This Is Me” (“The Greatest Showman”) — 5/1 odds
“Mighty River (“Mudbound”) — 16/1 odds
“The Mystery of Love Call Me By Your Name”) — 16/1 odds
“Stand Up for Something” (“Marshall”) — 66/1 odds

[jo]

Jan 25, 2018 16:53:14 GMT -5 jo said:

It seems that what people say could be the closest competition to THIS IS ME is the song from the animated film COCO, called REMEMBER ME. I noted it, too, because today I saw the composers ( the EGOT Lopez team) being interviewed for local TV. Why? Because Robert Lopez is of Philippine descent and they were being interviewed also because of previous successes (Avenue Q, Book of Mormon, Frozen, etc). However, nationalistic fervor aside, I doubt that their song can hold a candle to THIS IS ME!

My biased opinion

No matter how often I listen to REMEMBER ME, it's hard to imagine how it can beat THIS IS ME -- in terms of dramatic appeal and emotional impact, in terms of resonance with present and past issues about acceptance, and in terms of degree of relevance to a story that resonates with the public ( emotionally and intellectually).

I don't know - maybe it's because I have not seen COCO itself and I am judging the song simply in terms of how resonant it is to someone who is not familiar with the storyline.

Sorry, there is no clip of THIS IS ME directly available from the movie, where the background on why the song arose is key...and how the oddities proudly proclaimed their sense of self-belief!



Jo

[jo]

Nominated by the Costume Designers Guild but not by the AMPAS

variety.com/2018/artisans/news/greatest-showman-costumes-1202683101/

February 1, 2018 10:15AM PT
Vibrant Colors Take Center Ring With ‘The Greatest Showman’ Costumes

By Daron James


Michael Gracey’s “The Greatest Showman,” a screen musical that tells the story of larger-than-life showman and businessman P.T. Barnum, played by Hugh Jackman, displays some of this year most flamboyant movie costumes.
Ellen Mirojnick, who was tasked with creating more than 500 outfits for the movie as well as dressing better than 1,000 extras, has been nominated for a Costume Designers Guild Award for excellence in a period film. The detail and extravagance of her work speak for themselves.


Barnum’s iconic ringmaster guise was threaded from silk and wool and tailored by wardrobe cutter Barak Stribling, a Mirojnick collaborator for 25 years. The fabric of the deep red jacket worn by Jackman was picked for its luminescence, and the entire design emphasizes the actor’s long shape while offering flexibility for choreography.

“The red needed to be the most electric pure red we could find,” Mirojnick says. “The coat gives the impression that it wraps around his body, so all the lines are curved to make him look strong and to make a statement.” It was finished with custom-made buttons and gold trim and embroidered with a “B” monogram. His black pants hug his body, and riding boots trimmed in gold marry the ensemble. “The moment Hugh put the jacket on, we couldn’t take our eyes off it,” Mirojnick recalls. “You just knew it was perfect.”


Barnum’s wife, Charity, played by Michelle Williams, is dressed in delicate lavenders and pinks, embodying a classic romantic look. “She’s always the salt of the earth with two feet on the ground,” Mirojnick says. “This is a beautiful love story, and you feel steadiness from her — and later, her disappointment when he breaks her heart. We felt the best way to present her was to not try to impress.”

In creating the signature colors for aerialist Anne Wheeler, played by Zendaya, the designer mixed turquoise, purple, silver and gold with Swarovski crystals. A pink wig helped set herperformance apart. Mirojnick admits the actress’s beauty and gorgeous skin allows her to wear anything. “Like Michelle Williams, Zendaya has a presence that can shift into anything you want her to be. We had to pull back the work to make it feel real. We wanted the audience to identify with her in an aspirational way rather than a particular place in time.”

Mirojnick also gave a particular style to songstress Jenny Lind, played by Rebecca Ferguson. “She always performed in white, and there’s no softness in her coloration,” she says. Her gowns were custom-built and reworked contemporary pieces. When we first meet her inside Buckingham Palace, she’s draped in white duchess satin with encrusted Swarovski crystals. Offstage, the vixen-like Lind wears colors that are not sweet or gentle, including a deep blue dress by Marchesa that she wears for a train ride with Barnum on her U.S. tour.

“I’ve been doing this for a long time,” says the 68-year-old Mirojnick, who has more than 50 movies to her credit, “but this film changed my life. Michael [Gracey] craved richness of color. I became freer and bolder, and the boundaries were limited only by the imagination.”

[jo]

Barnum’s iconic ringmaster guise was threaded from silk and wool and tailored by wardrobe cutter Barak Stribling, a Mirojnick collaborator for 25 years. The fabric of the deep red jacket worn by Jackman was picked for its luminescence, and the entire design emphasizes the actor’s long shape while offering flexibility for choreography.

“The red needed to be the most electric pure red we could find,” Mirojnick says. “The coat gives the impression that it wraps around his body, so all the lines are curved to make him look strong and to make a statement.” It was finished with custom-made buttons and gold trim and embroidered with a “B” monogram. His black pants hug his body, and riding boots trimmed in gold marry the ensemble. “The moment Hugh put the jacket on, we couldn’t take our eyes off it,” Mirojnick recalls. “You just knew it was perfect.”

[jo]

[jo]

Will THIS IS ME get its Oscar Gold on March 4?

[jo]

Feb 5, 2018 17:58:32 GMT -5 jo said:

www.goldderby.com/article/2018/oscars-best-original-song-this-is-me-winter-olympics-ad/

Best Original Song nominee ‘This Is Me’ could get an Olympic boost en route to Oscar gold

Joyce Eng
Film
February 5, 2018 1:00PM


Among the dozens of ads that premiered during Sunday’s Super Bowl LII, one featured a very familiar tune to Oscar devotees. NBC aired an extended promo for the Winter Olympics using Best Original Song nominee “This Is Me” from “The Greatest Showman,” which could low-key serve as the song’s best and most effective Oscar campaign.

The nearly two-minute clip features a montage of Olympians training and competing, backed by the Golden Globe-winning Pasek and Paul tune. It’s a savvy visual and aural marriage: There is nothing more goosebump-inducing than the inspirational moments the Olympics create, and the song’s uplifting message and sweeping chorus, amplified by Keala Settle’s killer vocals, are as catchy as a Taylor Swift hook.


NBC will definitely be running various cuts of this promo during the Olympics — the network also premiered a commercial-friendly 45-second version during the Super Bowl that will likely be the one that gets continuous airtime. The Olympics, which start Thursday and overlap with Oscar voting from Feb. 20-25, are a once-in-a-quadrennium event that everyone, even non-sports fans, watches, which gives “This Is Me” maximum visibility. If you’re filling out your ballot while watching the Olympics and this ad comes on, you may be inclined to vote for the addictive earworm that functions as both a circus musical centerpiece and an Olympic hype song. (Let’s be real, people cast their votes for far less.)

“This Is Me,” which is already a Billboard 100 hit, is currently in second place in our combined odds behind “Remember Me” from “Coco.” But you should probably keep tabs on it the next three weeks to see if it rises from silver to gold.


Be sure to make your Oscar predictions so that Hollywood insiders can see how their films and performers are faring in our odds. You can keep changing your predictions until just before winners are announced on March 4. And join in the fierce debate over the 2018 Oscars taking place right now with Hollywood insiders in our movie forums. Read more Gold Derby entertainment news.

It's when a song written for a movie ( and becomes part of the storytelling) and then derives meaning in real life that makes the song part of our lives.

I wonder who approached whom to feature the song in the Olympics ad

It is also going to boost the movie ( presumably the movie will still be in theaters in February) and/or the forthcoming release of the video ( BluRay/DVD) in March!


Jo

[jo]

During Oscar nominess night, as reported by the LA Times --

...while on another side of the room, Keala Settle of "The Greatest Showman" hobnobbed with Justin Paul, the Oscar-nominated composer, along with Benj Pasek, for "This Is Me," the film's anthem.

Settle, who plays the circus' bearded woman in "The Greatest Showman," described her makeup, which took 2½ hours to apply, as "hell on earth," but that during the shooting, the film's star, Hugh Jackman sympathized, telling her of the long hours he spent with makeup artists while making 2017's "Logan."

[jo]

www.atlanticrecords.com/greatestshowmancontest

[jo]

www.irishtimes.com/culture/film/iftas-2018-full-list-of-award-winners-1.3394126

Congratulations to Seamus McGarvey for his CINEMATOGRAPHY award for THE GREATEST SHOWMAN, given by the Irish Film and Television Academy!


Seamus also did the cinematography work for PAN and both are dazzling cinematic work!

[jo]

[jo]

The Greatest Showman won an award for BEST SOUND EDITING IN A MUSICAL from the MPSE!

deadline.com/2018/02/motion-picture-sound-editors-golden-reel-awards-mpse-dunkirk-blade-runner-2049-game-of-thrones-1202294296/

MPSE

The Motion Picture Sound Editors made some noise tonight as they presented the 65th MPSE Golden Reel Awards

Outstanding Achievement in Sound Editing – Musical
The Greatest Showman
20th Century Fox
Supervising Music Editor: Jen Monnar
Music Editors: Jim Harrison, Jeff Carson, Peter Myles, Sheri Ozeki, Ted Caplan

Guild awards are technically more a reflection of an achievement rather than the Oscar equivalent.

[jo]

Excellent interview with Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, Oscar nominees!


www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/pasek-paul-tease-greatest-showman-oscar-performance-meet-your-nominees-1086794


They're so grounded and natural and so enthusiastic about their work, it is hard to believe how successful they have become!


Jo

[jo]

Even more insightful is this article on Pasek and Paul from AWARDS DAILY --

Justin Paul and Benj Pasek on Writing This Is Me for The Greatest Showman
February 20, 2018
0 comments
Jazz Tangcay



The film has been out just over six weeks and its soundtrack has climbed to the top of music charts around the world. The Greatest Showman is a triumph at the box office and the writers behind the music, Justin Paul and Benj Pasek just won a Tony Award for Dear Evan Hansen. They’re an Emmy Award away from being the youngest to EGOT.

The duo are hosting the packed crowd in Hollywood on a Saturday night to perform a medley of their hits and it wraps with Keala Settle taking to the mic to perform the Oscar-nominated song, This Is Me. The song has become an anthem for empowerment and was used for the NBC Olympics. The crowd included Sarah Hyland, Shawn Levy, Charli XCX, Nick Kroll, Ricky Martin, Edgar Ramirez, Chrissy Metz, Matthew Morrison, Colton Hayes, Darren Criss who performed City Of Stars, Emma Stone and Damian Chazelle.


It was Settle’s performance of This Is Us that brought down the house as everyone joined in for a singalong, and yes, everyone knew the words.

I caught up with Pasek and Paul not long after the performance to talk about their process



How did you get involved in this? You’ve been doing so much lately?

Justin Paul: It’s funny that you said we’d been doing so much but when we first found out about Greatest Showman we had done absolutely nothing. We had A Christmas Story running for on Broadway, but The Greatest Showman was our first job in film that we’d ever had.

It was a series of lucky circumstances that we look back on and think thank goodness it worked out. We were in a general meeting at Fox, and the person we were meeting with at Fox said, “I think my colleague is working on a musical, let me see if he’s in.” He happened to be in and he said, “I don’t know who you are, but I’m working on a musical and the director might be in town and he was there. He’ll meet you at Soho House and will give you the pitch, but we’re not looking for Broadway songwriters, we’re looking for pop writers.”

We sat with Michael Gracey that week, it was February 2013 or March and he pitched us this film and I was in love. It was roughly the story of P.T Barnum and the rise of the circus starring Hugh Jackman. They were looking for a sound that can be influenced by popular music, it can be influenced by the music of today but still tells the story and furthers narrative.

We thought it sounded cool and we wondered how we’d get involved. He said we needed to audition and so we did. We wrote a few songs and we started collaborating with Michael back and forth.


Did you do any research into Barnum’s life?

Benj: We definitely did do some, but what was evident was that the vision for the film was that it was not a biopic.
It was supposed to be influenced and inspired by the creation of the circus and this incredibly entrepreneurial man. The vision that Michael has said is what is the vision of P.T Barnum and what is the story he would want to be told about himself now. He wanted to inspire, engage and to make people lean in. So, knowing it was going to be a musical meant that it was going to transcend any sort of reality and gave us permission to make our own version of his world.


Where do you begin in the process?

Paul: For us, we’re always writing song moments and each song moment really is its own assignment and I feel like our process is we are hunters and gatherers in terms of information before we write a song. We always want to be armed with as much information as possible. So much of that is relying on collaborators and working as a team, we always tell them to give us everything you’ve got. From the script to the concept artwork that Michael had. Michael would often say, “I wish it sounded like this Queen song but had the beat of this Kanye song.” We’d mine his vision. In theater, it’s what we envision. We bring our creative vision, but it has to work on screen and to do that we have to do it in concert with our director.

It’s really gathering all the information we can and then us putting that into our filter and feeding it into the computer that is us writing. We ask ourselves what might that sound like? What might that language be as spoken by that character in that moment? We add in the fact that we also knew who the actor was so we take that into the account.


Hugh Jackman is of course a Broadway fixture and he wanted to have this made for seven years. What was his input?

Pasek: He was in the trenches with us. He was there for the whole process and he and Michael had developed this before we had ever become involved. I think that the idea of creating a mix between a period film and a contemporary film was something that they had always envisioned.

What was unique was that we developed it through workshops and readings in the same way we’d develop a musical. The actors would sit around a table and we’d get to hear how they’d sound in tandem with the script. Hugh was at every single one of those readings. He was there helping figure out which songs needed to get cut and which needed to get added.


What was the first song you wrote?

Paul: The first song we wrote was Million Dreams. Michael had a running list of songs that he had envisioned in the film. He had this moment called Big Dreams and that’s when PT as a young boy is talking about the song he wanted to create. That was the first thing we wrote, the song that became Million Dreams.


OK, This Is Me is such an anthem. It’s right up there with Defying Gravity as a song about being marginalized. What was the writing process of that song?

Pasek: That was inspired by Michael and Keala. Michael would always talk about wanting an anthemic moment in the film for these oddities who he would describe as these people kept in the attic and lived in the shadows. He wanted to create a moment when they would literally step out of the shadows for the first time and what it feels like.

That moment became Come Alive. We talked about Barnum and a moment of a certain betrayal of when he would turn his back on these oddities and they’d had that feeling of love and acceptance and what happens when that gets taken away. We were really perplexed as to how to create the moment.

Knowing where to begin was tough. There was previously a song written on the Ukulele.


Paul: It was more a charming song for Tom Thumb.

Pasek: We were wondering how to write this song for him and while we were exploring these options. Keala was a real team player, she had a few solo lines, but she didn’t have a song moment. We started thinking was that we knew about Keala and what was behind the voice because we know the person. She imbues so much heart, humanity, and soul and we thought what if we wrote the song for the Bearded Lady. We asked Michael if it was OK. Time was running out and when we started reframing it to a song that Keala could sing and one that could connect to our personal narrative and her personal narrative.


So many people have embraced it as you said as their own anthem.
I love that you’ve written these songs about people on the margin and you raise awareness.

Paul: It’s really wonderful but I think it’s more a testament to things that we want to write. In terms of the songs, I think we want to serve the moment. It can’t be conscious of we’re trying to write a big message song. It has to first and foremost serve the script and that right moment. I think we’re definitely attracted to stories of redemption, triumph, self-discovery and people coming to terms with themselves. Those are stories that move up and so we’re attracted to writing music about that.

Hopefully, people can feel they can access that character’s moment as well.


Have you been to any of the singalongs and seen the audience?

Pasek: Hugh just posted something from the one in London. I really just want to sneak in to see one of them before the movie has run its course in theaters. I’m so bowled over by the fact that people know the songs. The movie opened in December. To go to a singalong yo would assume people know the music and they do, but it’s such a wonderful surprise and they’re so excited about the music.

They sing their favorite songs and there’s no bigger reward for a writer and you become invisible and the writer embraces the song as their own.


It’s only been six weeks. People already know the songs and the words.

Paul: The other night you were there. I had the lyrics in front of me.

Pasek: I totally couldn’t remember the lyrics to the Other Side.


What was your first musical experience?

Pasek: For me, it was going to see The Little Mermaid. That was the first movie I ever saw in a theater. We believe Alan Menken and Howard Ashman paved the way for the musical renaissance you’re seeing today. Every kid grew up with characters that expressed their emotion through song, and that song was an integral part of storytelling when we were young. All those characters were raised by us and paved the way for musical theater to be where it is today.

[jo]

The Variety interview and article gives us an even more complete of the story of THIS IS ME!

variety.com/2018/film/awards/greatest-showman-this-is-me-pasek-and-paul-1202706690/

Behind the Scene: How Pasek and Paul’s ‘Greatest Showman’ Anthem ‘This Is Me’ Became a Smash Hit
By Jenelle Riley @jenelleriley

Jenelle Riley
Deputy Awards, Features Editor
@jenelleriley


CREDIT: 20th Century Fox

It’s been a good year for Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, the songwriting and composing duo better known as Pasek and Paul. After landing an Academy Award for their song, “City of Dreams” from “La La Land,” co-written by composer Justin Hurwitz, the duo saw their Broadway smash “Dear Evan Hansen” take home six Tony Awards, including one for their score. Earlier this year, they landed Grammy noms for both projects, winning the musical theater album award for “Evan Hansen.”
Now they find themselves repeat nominees in the original song category at this year’s Oscars for “This Is Me,” from the unapologetically old-fashioned musical “The Greatest Showman.” A rousing ode to anyone who has ever felt marginalized or overlooked, the song is performed in the film by P.T. Barnum’s “Oddities,” led by the Bearded Lady, played by Keala Settle (in her film debut). The song has not only become a hit on the charts, it’s inspired countless covers on social media and even been used on countless promotional spots for the PyeongChang Olympic Winter Games.


Variety spoke to Pasek, Paul and Settle about the epic journey of bringing this rally cry of the disenfranchised to the screen.


In development with Jackman at Fox since 2009, “The Greatest Showman,” director Michael Gracey joined the project in 2011. Pasek and Paul began work on the project in 2013, long before their success with “La La Land” and “Dear Evan Hansen.”

Benj Pasek: The movie had not been officially greenlit and the impetus for writing “This Is Me” was to get it greenlit. One of the moments Michael Gracey had always identified was we needed this anthem for the Oddities. There was a song in its place (written by someone else) for Tom Thumb, on the ukulele — sort of a charm song. It was a nice moment but not what Michael described that he wanted: an anthemic song for people who had lived in the shadows their entire lives and had stepped into the light, declaring they would be seen and love themselves as they are. We really couldn’t crack it and didn’t know how to write a song for Tom Thumb that would do that.

Justin Paul: The thing is, we never technically got hired to be the songwriters. We just pitched for each song. We were always aware that if our song wasn’t liked or approved, they would just go out to someone else. So every song was sort of a pitch, an audition, in a way. “This is Me” was not an exception.

Pasek: The moment it shifted for us was when we began to think, “What if we wrote a song not for the character of Tom Thumb but for this very small role that had a couple of lines, The Bearded Lady. And the reason we thought that was because of Keala Settle. Keala is such a force and such an incredible human being and performer who brings such visceral vulnerability to everything she touches. She was in this series of workshops we’d done and there was no big moment for the Bearded Lady. We had to ask Michael, “We don’t know if we can write this for Tom Thumb but if we can write it for someone like Keala and get a performer like her to deliver this song, we think we can figure it out.”



In August 2015, Pasek and Paul learned they had to start recording a demo in Los Angeles in two days. They boarded a flight from New York and went to work.

Paul: We all went to the airport. There wasn’t any time to waste, so I brought along this mini-keyboard and Benj brought his laptop. We were on the plane and I would write a little section and email it on Gogo Wi-Fi to Benj, who was in the seat next to me writing lyrics. It was a valuable five hours. We wrote most of it on that flight.

Pasek: I feel like the bulk of the song was probably written over Iowa or something.

Paul: Airplanes are very motivating.

Pasek: We also worked out “City of Stars” on a plane. We want to thank Delta for providing us with the best workspace in the world.


The demo was recorded with singer and Broadway star Shoshana Bean. When it came time to do the final workshop in New York in February 2016, the songwriters presented it to Settle. A Broadway actress perhaps best known for her Tony-nominated turn as Norma Valverde in “Hands on a Hardbody.” There was just one problem.

Keala Settle: I said, “Hell, no!” (Laughs.) I knew Shoshana had done the demo and I said, “You call her, tell her to come and sing it, and I’ll sing back up for her.” Because I’m a huge fan, I love her voice. I love who she is as an artist. And when I heard her sing it I went, “Well, nobody else is going to sing this.” And to be honest, I still don’t think anybody else can sing it except Sho. So I tried with everything to dodge that bullet.

Finally when it was time to do it, T-minus one day, Hugh and Michael came up to me and said, “What is it going to take for you to sing this song?” I said, “If you buy me a bottle of Jameson, I’ll do it.” They kept it in a bag and said, “This is yours if you sing the song.” I’m very cheap that way.


The workshop was being held in front of many top Fox executives such as then-chairman Jim Gianopulos and Stacey Snider. The day before, they had learned Jackman would be unable to sing due to having had a basal cell carcinoma removed from his nose.


Paul: We were in a real panic. All these people were flying in to see this thing we’d been working on for three years and it was going to tank because Hugh couldn’t sing. We were nervous for a thousand reasons. Keala was being a little reserved, behind the music stand, and we were freaking out. As writers and director you want to be sensitive in how you talk to an actor. You can’t just say, “You have to deliver. These people are all here. You have to be amazing.” That’s not a good note to give an actor.

Pasek: She was afraid to be that vulnerable in public in that way. We even discussed if someone should sing parts of it with her. I got nominated to be the one to ask her how she felt if someone else joined in with her. She said, “That’s not happening, I promise you. I’m going to be able to do this.”

Settle: It was the very first time I sang it in front of people. I didn’t want to. The words and the music were so powerful that I didn’t want to carry that on my shoulders. I’m still scared of it to this day. But I had to. I had promised Hugh I would do it to the best of my ability. I was petrified but I also know you have to trust and believe.

Paul: She just delivered the number in a way we never expected. She put the music stand down and came out and began singing out and it was electric. And then there was this moment … Hugh had been the person guiding her though all of this and he had helped to make her understand she has so much power within in. She turned to him and began to sing to him; it was her way to connect it back to him in the midst of this incredible moment.

All point to that workshop performance as a turning point for both the film and Settle.


Pasek: I really do believe having Keala song is one of the reasons the film was greenlit. The way she delivered it in that room was so undeniable.

Paul: The way the story goes, after the workshop Stacey Snider went over to her and said, “Congratulations. You just booked your first major motion picture.”

Settle: I don’t really remember that happening, but Hugh does. I remember I kind of went, “Great, where’s my Jameson?” I wanted to share it with the choir.

Settle didn’t totally believe it. Later, a representative tried to contact her about having officially booked the part. She ignored his messages for five days.

Settle: They were trying to track me down and I thought I’d done something wrong. I was doing “Waitress” and I turned to one of my castmates, a great actor named Dakin Matthews, and I said, “It’s day five and this guy won’t leave me alone.” And Dakin said, “Keala, take the fucking email! Just reply to the guy! It could be the greatest thing in the world!” So I called him and the first thing I said was, “Do I owe you money?” He told me the news and I kept saying, “This isn’t real. This isn’t real. There’s no way this is happening.”

“The Greatest Showman” went on to become a massive hit, still in the box office top five in its ninth week of release. At $155 million and counting, it’s become the highest-grossing original, live-action musical in North America. “This Is Me,” meanwhile, has gone on to have an incredible impact all over the world as part of a chart-topping album that has already outsold the Oscar- and Grammy-winning “La La Land” soundtrack.



Paul: We got a call saying the Olympics were interested in using the song. We were like, “Uh, yes, please.” It wasn’t even a question.

Pasek: It’s so exciting, one of the highest honors to have it be affiliated with the Olympics and these athletes.

Paul: You want to put as much of yourself into a song and then become invisible after you do so. It becomes an anthem for other people and their own struggle and their own triumph. Once we get out of the way, people can own it for themselves. That’s incredible to witness.

Pasek: For myself, I was a closeted gay man who as a teenager felt like the world was inundating me with messages that you’re not good enough or you’re unlovable, and what has been amazing about this song in particular is you realize the thing that feels like your own private struggle is something that other people relate to when you begin to put it into words. When you’re huddled in the dark and think you’re alone, you begin to shine a little bit of light into this place and you realize other people are huddled there, too.

Settle: It’s not my song. It’s Benj and Justin’s and I’m grateful I got to be a vehicle for it. It’s one of those things where you think you’re alone in the world and you learn you’re not. If you have a beating heart, this is how you feel.

In all the interviews, the workshop clips, and the many times Keala has sung THIS IS ME, one gets the feeling of the spirit of creativity, collaboration and commitment among all the people involved. The Oscars cannot deny this song the ultimate recognition — if the Olympics has already been inspired by its message and music, shouldn’t this also be the contribution of the movies to the upliftment of the human spirit?

Jo

[jo]

That clip... plus the one showcasing FROM NOW ON





were the secret weapons that were unleashed right before the movie was released. They drew a different kind of reaction, one that drew people towards the movie because those two clips proved how the people involved in the project -- from the very beginning to its eventual release -- were so deeply committed to brings its message of joy and upliftment of the human spirit to everyone! It opened our hearts to the story and the way it was told!

[jo]

[jo]

"The Musical is Back" from the 2009 Oscars hosted by Hugh Jackman, envisioned and directed by Baz Luhrmann, drew some related publicity for this year's big event of the movies.

Hugh acknowledges what Baz says in the interview --

[jo]

[jo]

Hmm... has the CNN interview been published before and simply updated this time?

Because -- why would CNN, at this time, feature Hugh in a story that focuses on his creative inspiration to become an actor...and how his two latest movies, LOGAN and THE GREATEST SHOWMAN, have become the symbols of his extreme versatility and talent?

edition.cnn.com/2018/02/21/entertainment/hugh-jackman-creators/index.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2Fcnn_latest+%28RSS%3A+CNN+-+Most+Recent%29

Check out the interview clip, as part of the CREATORS series at CNN. Was CNN perhaps anticipating that Hugh would have been an Oscar nominee when the interview was held? The timing is unusual, as he has no new movie to promote at this point (22 February, ten days before the Oscars).


Here's the print interview to accompany the clip --

Hugh Jackman's weepy movie memories are highly relatable
By Sandra Gonzalez, CNN
Updated 0252 GMT (1052 HKT) February 22, 2018


"The best movies are able to transport you to worlds that you couldn't imagine yourself, that make you feel things that you may not feel in an everyday level, and that challenge your life, that change your life."

The first time Hugh Jackman saw his father cry, it was because of a gentle little alien named E.T.
They were watching the Steven Spielberg classic together when he looked up and saw tears rolling down his dad's face.
"I will never forget that," he said.


When Jackman was 12 years old, he was at his friend Ian Drew's birthday party when they decided to watch "Gallipoli," a 1981 Australian war drama directed by Peter Weir.
It left the room of pre-teens weeping.

"Wizard of Oz" was the first movie he ever saw and, coincidentally, the one that made him want to become a storyteller.
"Raiders of the Lost Ark" left him so excited and transported that he felt like his head was buzzing.
Jackman said he has "a hundred" similar movie memories.


Something you quickly learn about this great showman when sitting down with him is that he's also a big fan of great film, from his feel-good movie, "Midnight Run," to "The Deer Hunter," which changed his life when he saw it at 16 years old because it's when he realized that acting was a craft that would "take a lifetime to perfect."
Jackman has made the most of his chance to master performing. Few actors can claim a filmography as admirably schizophrenic, best exemplified by his two 2017 releases, "Logan," his final turn as Wolverine, and "The Greatest Showman," where he plays circus founder P.T. Barnum.

Jackman leans into the curves and bends he's encountered during his career -- "beautiful, amazing" surprises, he calls them. He's motivated by the belief that movies "can change people's lives."


"When you are in a shared experience with an audience, all willingly going on this adventure together, it's so powerful," he said. "And it can last a lifetime."

Or was CNN just coincidentally paying tribute to an actor who has given much towards the film art in almost 2 decades ?


Jo

[jo]

Acceptance speech for the Best Sound Editing award from MPSE --

The Greatest Showman garnered Best Sound Editing – Music, Musical Feature. Supervising Music Editor Jen Monnar shared how the music team was involved in the film for 14 months from pre-production, thru production and post. In addition to thanking her fellow music editors, she thanked the songwriters Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, and actor Hugh Jackman, saying, “If you have an opportunity to work with him, he is a constant professional, an extraordinary human being, and a great person. This film could not have been made without him.”