“Somewhere” had it’s LA premiere in Hollywood a few days ago along with Variety’s special screening, held at the Four Seasons hotel. Stephen attended the events with director Sofia Coppola and co-stars Elle Fanning and Chris Pontius. I have added more than 60 images from these events to the gallery, including beautiful high quality ones! I have also added a few more stills from “Somewhere” and various photoshoot images during the filming and promotion of the film. And thanks to one of our readers for the scan from L’Optimum – Dec/Jan 2011

> “Somewhere” LA Premiere
> “Somewhere” Variety Screening
> Photoshoot 031
> Photoshoot 032
> “Somewhere” stills
> L’Optimum – Dec/Jan 2010/2011

The actor plays Hollywood actor Johnny Marco in “Somewhere“, which was written and directed by Sofia Coppola. The movie follows Johnny as he starts to re-examine the way he’s lived his life, and Stephen felt it was made for him when he read the script.

He decided to travel to Paris to talk to Sofia about the part. It was an emotional time for him as it coincided with the anniversary of his mother’s death, but Stephen was determined not to go home until he had the role in the bag.

“I didn’t hear anything from her and I was starting to worry. This was now the night time of the day that my mom passed. I was on a hotel balcony with a view of the Eiffel Tower and I was sad and then my phone rang and it was Sofia saying: ‘I don’t need to look anymore. Do you want to be in my movie?’ And I said, ‘Yeah, are you serious?’ At that point, the Eiffel Tower started going techno the way it does on the hour and I felt my mom’s presence for the first time in a year,” he explained to British newspaper The Independent. “I had a flood of emotion and started crying in the street.”

Stephen can’t wait for people to see Somewhere as it is so special to him.

The only issue he has is that he worries other film experiences won’t live up to shooting with Sofia. He says it was hands-down the best time of his life, and something he’ll always treasure.

Stephen is particularly thankful for the role as he was beginning to worry his career was over, and he’d never get good parts again.

“Certainly this is the best part I’ve ever played, especially in this time when there are less and less movies about real characters and original voices and directors that have original styles,” he explained. “It was by far one of the best experiences I’ve ever had – in my life – and I’ve made about 35 movies. Now I think the best is to come. She gave me such an opportunity that now all these retards want to come and join the train, so great! Join the train!”

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Sofia Coppola’s “Somewhere“, the tale of an actor who sees the emptiness of his existence through the eyes of his child, has won the top Golden Lion prize at the Venice Film Festival.

Director Quentin Tarantino headed the jury, which unanimously chose Coppola’s film as the best movie at the 11-day annual festival.

The buzz in the final days of the festival had pegged “Somewhere” as a sure winner, and the jury appeared to have had no doubts, either.

“This film enchanted us from its first screening,” Tarantino said. “It has the artistry we were looking for in a Golden Lion” winner, he told the closing ceremony.

Coppola has described the film, which made its world premiere at Venice, as a “portrait of today’s L.A.”

“Somewhere” is the fourth feature by Coppola, who is also one of the few female directors ever to be nominated for an Academy Award – for “Lost in Translation“.

In “Somewhere”, Stephen Dorff plays a Hollywood star whose somewhat empty life is enriched by the arrival his daughter, played by Elle Fanning. The film takes place nearly entirely in hotels, mostly the Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles.

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Thanks to a few of our readers for letting us know about Stephen in T Men’s Fashion Fall 2010 issue. In the interview Stephen talks about playing ‘Uncle’ to Sofia Coppola’s daughter, tattoos and future projects. Photos from the shoot have been added to the gallery. Read the full interview here.

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I’ve added more than 160 new photos from the 67th Venice Film Festival to the gallery. Stephen, co-star Elle Fanning and Director Sofia Coppola arrived in Venice a few days ago to promote their new film “Somewhere“. The film premiered at the Festival on Friday night.

Gallery > Appearances 2010

Coppola received a standing ovation at a press conference packed with hundreds of journalists following a morning press screening and just hours before the premiere gala on Friday night. First-day audiences already are comparing it with Coppola’s “Lost in Translation,” for which she won an Oscar for best original screenplay, and both films offer up her observations on fame and solitude.

“I think the movie is about his becoming a man,” Dorff said at the press conference.

“A lot of characters I’m interested in are at a transition in life,” Coppola said. “Elle’s character is something real in a world not based on real things.”

“I wanted to write a story from a man’s point of view,” she said. “When I was first writing the script, Stephen came to mind.”

Dorff praised Coppola and described making the film as “one of the most incredible experiences I’ve had. It made me really sad when it ended.”

And rave reviews are pouring in for the movie and for Dorff’s performance.

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Source: Slashfilm.com The director Peter Medak has had an interesting career. While he’s done mostly TV for the past few years, he made a mark early on with the unusual Peter O’Toole film The Ruling Class. Since then he’s made a bit of crap here and there, as well as a few other good, or at least interesting movies, like The Changeling, The Krays and Romeo is Bleeding. Now he’ll direct Stephen Dorff and Maria Bello in a thriller called Carjacked.

The Wrap says that the Michael and Sherry Compton script is about “a single mother (Bello) and her child who are carjacked by a thief (Dorff) who has no intention of letting them go.” That’s all we’ve got on this one so far, beyond the fact that Ron Perlman and Giovanni Ribisi had previously been linked to Dorff’s role, and that Saffron Burrows would have played the single mom opposite Perlman, had that version been made.

Stephen is featured in the February/March issue of Wonderland magazine. Interviewed from the Beverly Hills Hotel “over one of the restaurant’s famous McCarthy salads, an iced tea, a skim latte, and a cigarette or two”, Dorff chatted about working with Sofia Coppola, and how he’s bracing for his life to change in the next few months.

You can read part of the interview here. The full interview is featured in the magazine. I will be adding scans from the issue soon.

Photos by Derek Kettela from the shoot have been added to the gallery.
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Thanks to minami for telling us about the feature

This month, T celebrates the Nifty 50: America’s up-and-coming talent.

What kind of actor is Stephen Dorff? The man is 36, and he’s been on screen since he was 12, so we should have some clues. He’s played the fifth Beatle (Backbeat), an arch vampire (Blade), a guerrilla filmmaker (Cecil B. Demented), an unhinged gangster (Public Enemies), a sadistic crime boss (Shadowboxer) and a transsexual Superstar (I Shot Andy Warhol). “I’ve always kind of liked my career: There’s been a bit of mystery,” he said. “It’s never had that ridiculous amount of attention for one thing.”

And yet after all these years and all those roles, Stephen Dorff might be on the brink of that one thing. Sofia Coppola picked him to star in her fourth feature film, Somewhere about a fame-crazed 30-something actor living at the Chateau Marmont hotel in Hollywood. “I understood a lot of the character because I lived at the Chateau Marmont before,” said Dorff, who celebrated his 21st birthday party at the hotel and moved back in during the film shoot.

“I’ve got some crazy memories there,” he said of his first stay. “A lot of creative people have had their stint at the Chateau. Whether it’s Hunter Thompson, who lived in the room where we shot the movie, or Helmut Newton or Jim Morrison. It just has a vibe that attracted a lot of young people. And I was one of them.” Dorff is good friends with Coppola, whom he calls “Sof,” and they share a best friend, Zoe Cassavetes. Still, he received the part from Coppola as manna, and has since said that it’s the best role he’s been offered, ever. “I almost feel like she made me cool again,” he said.

Of course, some would believe that getting a nod from Adam Sandler is cooler than one from Sofia Coppola. In Sandler’s porn comedy, Born to Be a Star, scheduled to be released later this year, Dorff plays Dick Shadow, a hugely popular porn star with blond hair extensions. With these two roles, Dorff is primed for a very public 2010. “I get where I’m going and where the world’s going. But I feel like maybe it’s a benefit that I’ve been through the whole craze when I was younger,” he said. “I’ve been on magazine covers before.”

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Pictures from the shoot by Photographer Fabrice Trombert have been added to the gallery:

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Actor Stephen Dorff credits his late mother with his career resurgence, insisting her energy is helping him win movie roles.

Nancy Dorff lost her battle with brain cancer last February (08), leaving the 36 year old devastated.

After nursing her in her final months, Dorff admits he found it tough returning to Hollywood – but now he’s back and insists he can feel his mother’s spirit urging him on.

And he’s convinced she helped him land his big new movie role, in Sofia Coppola film Somewhere.

In a chat with pal Owen Wilson for the new issue of Interview magazine, Dorff says, “It’s been an intense year for my family. I lost my mom last year, but I feel like she’s really been with me and with us, guiding us. I’d never really lost anybody before in my immediate family. Your mom is the person you don’t ever want to lose, but in losing her, I had all these great things that started happening. I think she was part of me getting the whole Sofia (Coppola) movie.

“She was the ultimate mom. It kills me that she’s gone, but at the same time, I think she’s given me strength. I think my mom will be up there, hopefully smiling.”

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I’m pleased to announce that in the August issue of Interview magazine, actor Owen Wilson interviews Stephen Dorff about his latest film projects, being a child actor, working with Jack Nicholson and Johnny Depp and much more. Be sure to get yourself a copy.

You can read the full interview HERE.

Scans will be posted soon. For now though check out the photoshoot in the gallery.

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