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(The rest … get it while you can)

The New York Times has an article about Transcendental Meditation which features Russell as an example one of the many celebrities now practicing TM.

Excerpt:

“Transcendental Meditation has been incredibly valuable to me both in my recovery as a drug addict and in my personal life, my marriage, my professional life,” Mr. Brand said of the technique that prescribes two 15- to 20-minute sessions a day of silently repeating a one-to-three syllable mantra, so that practitioners can access a state of what is known as transcendental consciousness. “I literally had an idea drop into my brain the other day while I was meditating which I think is worth millions of dollars.”

Read the rest here.

Still no full video available, but here’s the podcast of the entire Times Talks interview that Russell did in October 2010.

Video clip from the Times Talks interview: Russell talks about working with Julie Taymor, director of The Tempest.

Click here for video clip.

By David Carr, The New York Times

IN a bit of magic sure to be included on the DVD of the new film version of “The Tempest,” Russell Brand, the British comedian and actor, offers his take on the jester Trinculo.

Sitting at a rehearsal across a plastic table from Alfred Molina, who plays his comic partner, Stefano, Mr. Brand is asked by an off-camera Julie Taymor, the film’s director, simply to introduce himself as Trinculo. It’s as if she had lighted a bottle rocket. Mr. Brand takes off, fully in character, long legs folding and unfolding under him as he unpacks a Shakespearean origins myth, riffing through a magpie’s love of shiny things, the glow of a king’s approbations, the jester’s high-low perch and, of course, God and nature’s destructive habits.

“That’s one thing I learned from me dad: The world is a malevolent force, and it will destroy you,” Mr. Brand says in the five-minute monologue. “The only people who survive in life are the people who refuse to fail. They refuse. They just clamber over any obstacle. They see obstacles, and they see opportunity. There is a staircase, and they will tread, they trudge, over any toil and mud and filth and sludge and escape somehow with a gleaming jewel clutched in a clammy paw.”

As he says this, he snatches an unseen morsel out of the air. This remarkably apt bit of self-description is either a parlor trick or one of the most bravura rehearsals in the history of the form. But then, it’s always hard to tell with Mr. Brand.

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This is an excellent summary of the topics covered in the Times Talks interview that some of us have been raving about constantly. From Vulture magazine:

Russell Brand had quite the trip to New York this week. On Monday, he got detained by immigration. Then he visited Howard Stern and The View, where he charmed the ladies with thoughts on his upcoming marriage to Katy Perry. He did a book signing of his new memoir, My Booky Wook 2, at Barnes & Noble Union Square. And Tuesday, we saw him do a TimesTalk with Dave Itzkoff in which he discussed Stanislavski, Hitler, Stalin, the world water crisis, pedophilia, Sachsgate, and his recent vacation to the Taj Majal.

There’s no way to properly organize the sheer tonnage of words that spilled forth from Brand that night, both onstage and in the three minutes we spent talking to him backstage. (One of his onstage sentences was so long he actually had to give a verbal footnote: “Sybill, who lives in the tree stump, if you’ll remember him from earlier in the sentence” … ) So all we can do is highlight some key moments…

Read the rest here.

Clip from Russell’s interview on Times Talks from yesterday.

As previously mentioned, the full interview was an hour and a half, and this is only a 10 minute clip, so hopefully we will be able to get the full video sometime soon.

The New York Times has done a thoughtful, interesting feature on the filming of Arthur, which you can read here.

An excerpt:

On this day the cast and crew had assembled to shoot Arthur’s first encounter with his dream woman (Ms. Gerwig). In 1981 the character was a brassy shoplifter; today, she scams out-of-towners by conducting nonsense-filled walking tours. Better-known actresses tested with Mr. Brand, but according to one of the producers, Kevin McCormick, Ms. Gerwig “was the one who brought out a sweetness in him and also the one who could keep up with him.”

As Mr. Brand, bedecked in a Lincoln stovepipe hat, staggers up to her, kicking off each take with a different opening line, she quickly decides he’s a street crazy and incorporates him into her patter, comparing him in successive takes to Dylan Thomas, Willy Wonka and a cast member of the musical “Grand Hotel.”

Mr. Baynham, listening for what works and what doesn’t, took notes, refining their riffs into new jokes for later takes, and Mr. Winer frequently sprung from his chair to talk to the actors, then returned to study the monitors. After several takes, he realized what wasn’t working: There was no moment when Ms. Gerwig’s character stopped to take Arthur in with a look. After some discussion about whether a line was required, Mr. Winer decided to address it with a change in Ms. Gerwig’s blocking and body language.

All of this is more controlled than it sounds. “It’s unlike most other film experiences, where you don’t change lines that much,” Ms. Mirren said. “But Russell isn’t a wild cannon. He’s actually very careful about all the technical requirements, continuity and marks and all that stuff. He has an incredible comedian’s brain, but he pays attention to detail.”

“He’s one of the last remaining rock stars!” says Aaron Green, referring to Aldous Snow, the “him” in the new film “Get Him to the Greek.” The Greek is a famous concert hall in Los Angeles, and the guy to whom the film’s imperative title is addressed is Aaron himself.

As Aaron (Jonah Hill) suggests, Aldous, an unforgettable character in “Forgetting Sarah Marshall,” belongs to a vanishing, if not entirely anachronistic, breed. Snake-hipped British rockers with long locks and spectacularly bad habits are not as common as they used to be, and the debauchery, drug abuse and just plain idiocy that are fixtures of Aldous’s daily life have a nostalgic quality about them. These days, pop stars are more apt to be gurus, philanthropists or brand managers than sex-crazed, substance-addled train wrecks.

But Aldous, played by the brilliantly unpredictable Russell Brand, is more than a pop-culture museum piece or a MacGruber-like bit of sketch comedy nonsense. He has feelings, ideas and a dollop of talent to go with the uncontrolled appetites; even though he’s narcissistic and self-destructive, he is also kind of fun to hang around with.

Read the rest here.