8B • THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
ENTERTAINMENT
THURSDAY,AUG.23,2001
Elizondo's supporting roles add spice to career
Seasoned film actor says he's considering more Latino roles now
NEW YORK — The restaurant table in front of Hector Elizondo is immaculately set.
The Associated Press
"Where's the food?" asks the actor, rubbing his hands together.
"I love eating. I love choosing a food. I love the touching and smelling of food," says Elizondo, whose credits include Pretty Woman and TV's Chicago Hope.
How appropriate, then, that Elizondo's latest film is about the joys of eating.
In the romantic comedy Tortilla Soup, he plays a widower and master chef whose skills in the kitchen are deteriorating even as he's losing control over his three independent daughters.
Asked if whether working on a foodie film helped Elizondo in his own kitchen, the actor hesitates.
"I'm a better chopper," he says. "I don't pretend to cook fancy at all. I'm a helper."
The film — a Hispanic take on Ang Lee's Eat Drink Man Woman — also stars Paul Rodriguez and Raquel Welch.
That could be Elizondo's career motto. He has been the helper, the guy with a small part who adds something delicious to the mix.
"Everybody seems to think that my first movie was Pretty Womanand that I just recently fell off the turnip truck," he says. "I've been working since 1961 nonstop."
He owes much of his resume to Garry Marshall, who's put Elizondo in a dozen of his films, calling the actor his "good luck charm."
The relationship began with an errant basketball pass 20 years ago.
Invited to a game of hoops, the two men, who had not been introduced, faced off. "He was guarding me. I threw a pass, hit him in the mouth. He falls down. They're making a big fuss," Elizondo recalls.
"I'm thinking, 'What's the big deal? Guy got hurt! Happens all the time. It could have been me,'" he says. "Then they tell me, that's Garry Marshall. Boom! He owns the place, the producer."
Marshall called him over.
"Everybody seems to think that my first movie was 'Pretty Woman,' and that I just recently fell off the turnip truck. I've been working since 1961 nonstop."
"He says, 'You're a great actor, but a
Hector Elizondo Co-star, Tortilla Soup
lousy passer. I got a movie for you."
That movie would be 1982's Young Doctors in Love. There would be more, including The Flamingo Kid, Runaway Bride and this summer's The Princess Diaries.
Born to a Bassque father and a Puertorican mother, Elizondo was a thin lad growing up in New York. "I was the guy who used to be chased around the block," he says.
At first, he played a lot of baddies, including a nasty criminal in The Taking of Pelham One Two Three.
"But ever since Pretty Woman, I can't go near those roles. I'm the quintessential mentor and good guy," he savs.
A trim 179 pounds at age 64, Elizondo is body conscious and works out regularly.
Like the late Anthony Quinn, Elizondo likes to shift among ethnicities, playing a Russian postal supervisor in *Dear God* or a Greek diner owner in *Frankie and Johny*.
Audiences — particularly fellow Hispanics — have responded to Elizondo's dignity on screen, his pathos and his resonating voice.
Elizondo won an Obie in 1971 for playing God on stage in Steambath, and snagged an Emmy as Dr. Phillips Watters, a surgeon and hospital administrator on Chicago Hope.
He has tried, even as a struggling actor, to avoid stereotypes. He turned down roles in Scarface and Chico and the Man because "I don't want to bring that to my grave."
But an all-Hispanic film like Tortilla Soup was a chance to see a middle-class family in a universal story.
"Now, I'm starting to consider more and more Lain-American roles because the climate is changing," he says. "Now it's catching up to me."
Tortilla Soup is basically a remake of Ang Lee's 1994 movie Eat Drink Man Woman, but it's set in Los Angeles instead of Taiwan, and the cuisine — as lovingly portrayed here as in the original — is Mexican instead of Chinese.
'Tortilla' Soup warms the heart
By Malcolm Ritter The Associated Press
dousing them in salsa?
Fans of the earlier film will recognize its basic plot, specific scenes and even snatches of dialogue in the new film.
So if you've seen the earlier movie, does it make sense to see *Tortilla Soup*? Or would that be about as satisfying as taking last night's Chinese leftovers and
The answer: Tortilla Soup is a tremendous movie on its own, with four knockout performances. And for U.S. audiences, there's a bonus: it's in English.
Here we meet Martin Naranjo, a widower and culinary wizard, who lavishes his talent on his beloved live-in daughters. And as before, it's at these Sunday dinners that the phrase "I have an announcement" comes to signal yet another threat to the way things have been.
Carmen, a corporate executive, announces she's found a condo, and
later that she's taking a great job in Spain. Maribel, the cute "baby" of the family, decides to put off college to find herself and says she will move in with her new boyfriend. And Leticia, the uptight chemistry teacher whose mealtime prayers show an unsettling degree of devotion, reveals she's been drawn into a most unlikely romance.
Tortilla Soup, released by Samuel Goldwyn Films, was directed by Maria Ripoll from a script by Tom Musca, Ramon Menendez and Vera Blasi. It was produced by John Bard Manulis, and is rated PG-13 for sexual content.
Tolkien popular in age of Harry Potter
By Mara D. Bellaby The Associated Press
LONDON — Before Harry Potter and wizards, there was Bilbo Baggins and hobbits.
The hairy-footed, diminutive creatures charmed children and adults worldwide when British writer J.R.R. Tolkien introduced them in his 1937 fantasy book, The Hobbit.
Since then, The Hobbit has continually graced children's recommended reading lists. Tolkien's fantasy epic, The Lord of the Rings was named the top novel of the 20th century in numerous surveys of British adults.
Now the first installment of the $273 million The Lord of the Rings film trilogy is due to hit theaters in December, not long after the first Harry Potter movie, putting Bilbo and Frodo in direct competition with the students of the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
If Tolkien's enduring popularity in his home country is anything to go on, the elves, orcs and wizards that inhabit Tolkien's Middle-earth should hold their own against Harry Potter.
Tolkien "is not ironic and modern and all-knowing, but he appeals to people," said Ian Collier, a member of the British-based Tolkien Society, which welcomes fans from around the globe.
"It is a great story and like all great stories, it connects with people in some way." said Collier, 35, who has read "The Lord of the Rings" 25 times.
The trilogy describes the perilous journey by hobbit Frodo Baggins across Middle-earth to territory deep inside the control of Sauron, the Dark Lord. Baggins must reach the Cracks of Doom, a fiery chamber, and destroy a magical ring before Sauron can recapture it. If the ring falls into Sauron's hands, he will be able to dominate the world.
But it is the background scenery of the novel, rather than its plot, that seems to captivate most readers. Tolkien creates a new universe with its own fantasy creatures, language, genealogy, history and geography. For many readers, Middle-earth becomes as vivid as the real world, though slightly more exciting.
From the start, "The Hobbit" was geared toward children. Tolkien's son,
the rev. John Tolkien, told the British Broadcasting Corp. that he grew up hearing the tales that would later make up the best-selling book.
"The Hobbit" was followed by the epilength "The Lord of the Rings," published in 1954. The book, which recounts a battle between good and evil, attracted audiences of all ages. By the 1960s, it was a must-read on most American college campuses. Ironically, Tolkien — an elderly man and conservative Roman Catholic — had become a hero of a generation of pot-smoking, anti-authoritarian students.
Tolkien's fans said they aren't sure what the author would make of the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, being filmed by New Zealand's Peter Jackson. His family reportedly dreads it. Lawyers acting on behalf of the Tolkien Estate did not return repeated telephone calls from The Associated Press.
The Tolkien Society has taken a wait and see approach, but individual members, such as Reynolds, said they are excited. Reynolds said he expects the movie will introduce a new generation to the tales of Middle-earth.
Teen idol still basking in adulation of fans
The Associated Press
LOS ANGELES — Freddie Prinze Jr. is in no hurry to outgrow the adulation of teen-age girls, even if he is in his mid-20s and getting ready for marriage.
Although Prinze may not make Oscar-caliber pictures, he has collected multiple acting honors from Teen Magazine, not to mention Male Hottie of the Year honors at the 1999 Nickelodeon Teen Choice Awards.
"I enjoy knowing that this specific group supports me and believes in me
and wants good things for me," the 25- year-old actor says. "Not everybody has that."
In his latest film, Summer Catch,
Prinze plays a poor wannabe baseball
player who falls for a local rich girl (Jessica Biel). Because the movie is yet
another youthful romantic comedy,
Prinze says critics may slam it, but his
young fans will love it.
Matthew Lillard, who has co-starred with Prinze in She's All That and Wing Commander as well as Scooby-Doo
and Summer Catch says Prinze had clearly matured over the years — whether he wants to admit it.
"I think that Freddie certainly takes the job of acting and the business of it much more seriously," Lillard says.
And in his next movie, a live-action adaptation of Scooby-Doo, he plays golden-maned detective Fred Jones, who "is always taking the credit for all the crime-solving but never puts forward any effort."