And there was another important time Sidibe didn’t listen to herself—when she was determined not to cry during a TV visit with the film’s producer Oprah Winfrey. “I needed something to focus on so I wouldn’t just crumble,” says Sidibe. “I did cry, which means I lost and Oprah won.”
Christian McKay
You’d think Me and Orson Welles star Christian McKay was deeply flattered when for years people suggested he’d be perfect to play the larger-than-life cinematic wunderkind. “I was rather annoyed,” says McKay. “My generation remembers him on chat shows as a man-mountain. I really thought they were having a go at my weight!”
But it was a role the Brit actor (and accomplished classical pianist) was destined to embrace, both in an acclaimed one-man stage show and Richard Linklater’s film set amid the Mercury Theatre. “If you think of him as the genius that he undoubtedly was, you’d go mad,” he says. “I was most interested in finding out what made him tick as a man. He was a labyrinth of a personality.”
As Hollywood takes notice and McKay begins to sketch what he wants his own character to be, the shadow of Welles looms large, as a recent visit to Musso & Frank Grill reminded him. “The maitre d’ said, ‘Your usual table, Mr. Welles?’ He sat me down where they filmed the little cameo that [Vincent] D’Onofrio does [as Welles] in Ed Wood. He said, ‘This has always been your table, Mr. Welles.’”
“That’s the wonderful thing about being an actor,” laughs McKay. “You get the opportunity to portray genius when you’re pretty stupid yourself.”
