- Title: 'BlackBerry' film cast share phone memories, reflect on toxic masculinity
- Date: 17th February 2023
- Summary: BERLIN, GERMANY (FEBRUARY 17, 2023) (REUTERS) ***WARNING: CONTAINS PROFANITY*** ACTOR CARY ELWES ARRIVING FOR NEWS CONFERENCE OF BERLINALE COMPETITION FILM "BLACKBERRY" CAST ARRIVING FOR NEWS CONFERENCE ACTORS JAY BARUCHEL, GLENN HOWERTON AND DIRECTOR / ACTOR MATT JOHNSON ARRIVING FOR NEWS CONFERENCE JOURNALISTS APPLAUDING HOWERTON TRYING TO PUT HEADPHONES ON, BARUCHEL AND JOHNSON PUTTING HEADPHONES ON PHOTOGRAPHER BARUCHEL WINKING AND LAUGHING NEWS CONFERENCE IN PROGRESS (SOUNDBITE) (English) DIRECTOR AND ACTOR, MATT JOHNSON, SAYING: "I've never touched one before we started shooting this movie. The first time I ever held a BlackBerry in my hand was on set. I had no cultural relationship with them whatsoever, apart from knowing them, knowing that my dad used one." NEWS CONFERENCE IN PROGRESS VARIOUS OF BARUCHEL TALKING (SOUNDBITE) (English) ACTOR, JAY BARUCHEL, SAYING: "I only got rid of mine about three years ago when my sort of mother teamed up with my wife and my sister and said, You're not on group text so you can't see your baby niece. So I said, What do you do with that? And I'm like, Yeah, I like the buttons or whatever." PICTURE OF BARUCHEL ON A SMARTPHONE (SOUNDBITE) (English) ACTOR, JAY BARUCHEL, SAYING: "I was proud that it was a Canadian thing, you know, And I try to, wherever possible, kind of support, you know, my stuff made in my country. So, yeah, I loved it. And it was a huge bummer when everyone stopped using them." (SOUNDBITE) (English) ACTOR, GLENN HOWERTON, SAYING: "I do not support Canada, so I never had one. (CAST MEMBERS LAUGHING) No, I. I love Canada. I really do, actually. My wife and I talk about how much we love Canada all the time. That's actually true. But no, I never had a BlackBerry for the exact reasons that everyone loved and wanted a BlackBerry. Those were all those all the major selling points of what was great about having a BlackBerry were all the reasons that I didn't want one, which is to be available at any time to communicate with. I just want to be left alone." JOURNALIST TAKING PICTURES WITH SMARTPHONE (SOUNDBITE) (English) ACTOR, GLENN HOWERTON, SAYING: "But then the iPhone. Oh, so cool. (UNDISCLOSED CAST MEMBER SAYING OFF CAMERA. "Do you hear this shit?" HOWERTON: "So, no, I didn't have one." (SOUNDBITE) (English) ACTOR, CARY ELWES, SAYING: "I actually was a fan of PALM and (CAST MEMBERS AND JOURNALISTS LAUGHING) ELWES: "I know, I know." NEWS CONFERENCE ON SMARTPHONE DISPLAY JOHNSON SPEAKING MEDIA (SOUNDBITE) (English) DIRECTOR AND ACTOR, MATT JOHNSON, SAYING: "There is a culture of like men's locker rooms, of men's sports, of men's competition that I grew up in in the nineties. That was that I had a feeling that that I just knew. I knew what it felt like when I was with all my friends, say, playing Warhammer and somebody of a higher status from a sports team or something would come in the room. I knew that feeling so well. Like I just knew it. I could taste it." (SOUNDBITE) (English) ACTOR, GLENN HOWERTON, SAYING: "That's interestingly enough, my experience in life is almost completely different. I've never enjoyed male-dominated spaces. I don't I prefer feminine energy personally to male energy." MATT JOHNSON SAYING OFF CAMERA: "Oh, what a nice guy!" JOURNALISTS TAKING PICTURES WITH SMARTPHONES (SOUNDBITE) (English) ACTOR, GLENN HOWERTON, SAYING: "I don't like alpha male energy. If I sense an alpha male trying to do alpha male things in a room with me, I'm just like, it just comes off as very insecure to me. It doesn't come off the way I think the person hopes it's coming off, which is confidence. It just comes off as insecure. So it was a lot of fun to do as an actor. It's great to be able to explore a side of myself that I don't explore in my real life." NEWS CONFERENCE IN PROGRESS ELWES LISTENING (SOUNDBITE) (English) DIRECTOR AND ACTOR MATT JOHNSON, ABOUT CHALLENGES IN THE ENGLISH-CANADIAN FILM INDUSTRY, SAYING: "In English cinema. We are really wrestling with what it is we're supposed to do, mostly because of this kind of imitation game that's happening with the United States. I think that a lot of film students, as I said before, are being put under tremendous pressure to ape all of these other styles. And our funding system is not at all set up to develop young voices at all." MEDIA JOHNSON POSING FOR SELFIE WITH A JOURNALIST LOGO OF 73RD BERLINALE
- Embargoed: 3rd March 2023 17:51
- Keywords: 73rd Berlinale Berlinale Blackberry Cary Elwes Competition Film Festival Glenn Howerton Jay Baruchel Matt Johnson
- Location: BERLIN, GERMANY
- City: BERLIN, GERMANY
- Country: Germany
- Topics: Arts/Culture/Entertainment,Europe,Film
- Reuters ID: LVA001111717022023RP1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: About one year after the plug was pulled on the BlackBerry, the once iconic smartphone is celebrating a comeback - on the big screen. "BlackBerry", a tale of the rise and fall of the device, premiered at the 73rd Berlin film festival on Friday (February 17).
Famous for its mini keyboard, BlackBerry’s smartphone was once ubiquitous among executives, journalists, and politicians, who learned to bang out instant messages and emails with their thumbs. But the device’s popularity faded with the advent of Apple’s touchscreen iPhones and rival Android devices.
Once known as Research in Motion, all services finally ended on the devices in January 2022.
At a pre-premiere press conference, Canadian director Matt Johnson told reporters he had never touched a BlackBerry before shooting his film while Jay Baruchel, who plays the inventor Mike Lazaridis said he had gotten rid of his only three years ago.
"My sort of mother teamed up with my wife and my sister and said, You're not on a group text so you can't see your baby niece. What do you do with that? And I was proud that it was a Canadian thing, you know."
U.S. comedian Glenn Howerton who plays the ruthless businessman Jim Balsillie in the film said he never wanted to have a BlackBerry
"All the major selling points of what was great about having a BlackBerry were all the reasons that I didn't want one, which is to be available at any time to communicate with. I just want to be left alone."
Howerton enjoyed playing a character that was very different from his own.
"I don't like alpha male energy. If I sense an alpha male trying to do alpha male things in a room with me, I'm just like, it just comes off as very insecure to me. It doesn't come off the way I think the person hopes it's coming off, which is confidence. It just comes off as insecure. So it was a lot of fun to do as an actor. It's great to be able to explore a side of myself that I don't explore in my real life."
The film, based on the book "Losing The Signal: The Untold Story Behind The Extraordinary Rise and Spectacular Fall of BlackBerry" by Jacqui McNish and Sean Silcoff is one of 19 films vying for the Golden Bear prize at this year's Berlinale.
(Martin Schlicht, Maximilian Schwarz, Swantje Stein) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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