Sir Samuel Alexander Mendes CBE (born 1 August 1965) is an English film and stage director, producer and screenwriter. In theatre, he is known for his dark re-inventions of the stage musicals Cabaret (1994), Oliver! (1994), Company (1995), and Gypsy (2003). He directed an original West End stage musical for the first time with Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2013).
For directing the play The Ferryman, Mendes was awarded the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play in 2019.
‘Femme’ Star George MacKay Spent Eight Weeks Bulking Up to Become a Violent Street Thug in the Queer Revenge Thriller: ‘It’s an Animal Thing’
variety.comMarc Malkin Senior Editor, Culture and Events George MacKay became one Hollywood’s most sought after young actors after his starring role as a sweet-faced solider in Sam Mendes’ Oscar-winning “1917.” But he’s looking much different in his latest film, “Femme.” He stars in the queer revenge thriller from directors Sam H.
Freeman and Ng Choon Ping as a closeted street thug who begins a sexual relationship with Jules (Nathan Stewart-Jarrett), a man he doesn’t realize is the drag queen he once brutally gay-bashed.
For the film, MacKay’s body is ripped and covered in tattoos. His hair is shaved and slicked back. He wears tracksuits and garish gold chains and rings, and his working class accent can be hard to decipher.
It took him about eight weeks of “bulking” to get in shape. Even so, MacKay admits he did a lot of push-ups for scenes where he had to be particularly “big and scary.” “There is a lot of jumping up and down and tensing up beforehand,” he tells me on the latest episode of the “Just for Variety” podcast.
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