The Multifaceted Talent of Eli Riccardi: Acting, Music, and More

Currently gracing screens in the hit Amazon Prime series “Maxton Hall,” Eli Riccardi may play the quintessential ‘mean girl,’ but she is anything but. Our conversation flowed easily, like a chat with an old friend over a cup of coffee. Eli’s warm, engaging demeanor makes it hard to reconcile with her on-screen persona, and as we delved into our shared German heritage, it was clear just how down-to-earth she is.

Eli’s eyes lit up when asked whether music or acting came first in her life. “It’s always been there,” she said. Her love for music is evident in her melancholy cover of “Sea of Love,” featured in an episode of “Maxton Hall.” Interestingly, she hadn’t planned to showcase her vocal talents on the show. Sonja Weißer, who plays Lydia Beaufort, shared Eli’s demo with the producers of the show, Ceyland Yildirim and Valentin Dealer, and they offered the cover of “Sea of Love” to Eli. The result is a hauntingly beautiful rendition that perfectly complements the show’s atmosphere.

Eli eagerly anticipates the second season of “Maxton Hall,” a sentiment she shared with a twinkle in her eye. In a unique twist, Eli was the only actor who dubbed her lines with a British accent, being the only native English speaker among the cast. The other actors had their lines dubbed by English-speaking voice artists, adding an intriguing layer to the production.

A black and white image of actress and singer, Eli Riccardi

Photo provided by Eli Riccardi

In a delightful personal touch, Eli mentioned she had visited my website and enjoyed my work, embodying her belief in encouraging others to pursue their passions. This encouragement extends beyond her professional life as an actor and singer; Eli is also a dedicated yoga instructor, a testament to her commitment to holistic well-being.

Our conversation veered towards the importance of healthy boundaries between actors and fans and in all aspects of life. Eli’s perspective on maintaining these boundaries is insightful and grounded, reflecting her balanced approach to her career and personal life.

Bonding over our love of music, Eli shared some of her favorite artists, including Bob Marley, D’Angelo, and Led Zeppelin. Her favorite concert, however, is from Seeed, a German hip-hop and reggae band, showcasing her eclectic taste in music.

Her music is a clear reflection of her diverse musical interests. Eli’s music is a captivating fusion of soulful melodies, heartfelt lyrics, and indie pop and alternative folk elements. Showcasing her versatile vocal range and emotive songwriting, her EP “Beyond The Sea” was released in September 2023. With tracks like “Go Ahead” and “Make Me Feel (Like Nothing Else Exists),” the album shows her talent for blending introspective lyrics with infectious, melodic hooks. The production on her songs is both lush and intimate, creating a soundscape that invites listeners to get lost in her musical world.

Riccardi has established herself as a rising star in the music industry by releasing an EP and multiple singles, including “Lovehandles” and “Miss Me.” Her ability to collaborate with other artists is evident in songs like “I Love You (Outro),” highlighting her versatility and eagerness to experiment with various musical styles.

Eli’s genuine spirit shines through whether she’s captivating audiences with her acting, enchanting them with her music, or guiding them through a yoga session. As fans anxiously await the next season of “Maxton Hall,” they can take comfort in knowing that behind the ‘mean girl’ facade is a kind-hearted, passionate artist who loves to connect with and inspire those around her.

Watch Maxton Hall on Amazon Prime

Connect with Eli socially on Instagram

Stream/purchase her music on Apple, Amazon, Spotify, and YouTube

Interview: The Desperate Hour, another thriller by film legend Phillip Noyce

written by A.L. Vincent

Acclaimed film director, Phillip Noyce, has been making films since he was 18. He’s won several awards in his fifty-plus years since then including the Australian Film Institute award for Best Film, Director, Actor, and Screenplay. His movie Newsfront (1977) was the first Australian film to play at the New York Film Festival. His most recent project is The Desperate Hour, starring Naomi Watts.

“I’ve done nothing else except direct movies,” he stated. “When someone told me in the middle of the pandemic that I could go to Northern Canada and work with Naomi Watts outside predominately, in an area that was COVID-free. I thought, ‘Wow, that’s a gift’ It very much got me over the hump of being locked up at home.”

Not only did it get him through the COVID pandemic, but it also offered him an opportunity to direct a film different from his other movies. He said, “I certainly hadn’t previously directed a film that predominately featured just one performer; a performer that I’d known for decades but never worked with, someone that I had admired greatly as I watched her career catapult into super-stardom. For all those reasons, mostly about Naomi, but in part about relieving the inertia imposed on us all by the lockups that we were enduring just a year ago.”

The movie focuses on Naomi Watt’s character, Amy Carr, a widowed mother who finds out her son is in danger during an active shooting at his high school. How did he approach this film and its characters? “How I approach each film is to try and put myself in the position of the audience. I always make films for audiences. The first thing is, is the audience connected to the story? And am I, the storyteller, connected to the story, as the father of a 14-year-old boy who’s just entering the wildness craziness of puberty. I was very much connected to the relationship between Naomi’s character and her son. Her constant questioning of what he might be doing, What he might be feeling, and so on.”

He recounted stories of his own children as they grew up that helped him direct this film, “I’ve now got two sets of children. The oldest is over 40, the youngest is just 11, and I’ve lost them all at various times. At the department store or at the airport, they’ve gone missing. When you lose your kid, if it’s one minute or one hour, you just go into this reptilian panic. I think the worst thing I can contemplate is that one of these still-growing children, these still-forming humans, can somehow be hurt or damaged by violence. I’m driving along here in New Orleans, and they’re in Los Angeles, and suddenly I get the shivers through my body as I see in my own mind something I can’t prevent happening. That happens to all parents, I think.”

Noyce has directed many movies of different genres in his over fifty years in the business. So is there a genre he hasn’t done yet? He gave us a sneak peek at his upcoming film Fast Charlie, “It combines action and character with very dark comedy, and that’s something I haven’t done before.”

What movies influenced Noyce? “Apocalypse Now. I can remember watching it for the first time and then going to the 5:00 session. Psycho is one of the top films that had an enormous influence on me. Just Hitchcock’s manipulation of the audience, his use of tension and music, his camera placements, and cutting patterns. I loved Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Conformist for the complexity of the characterization and the beauty of the compositions. I also loved The Last Tango in Paris for Brando’s extraordinary performance. And I must admit that I’m a fan of George Miller’s Mad Max films.”

He continues with more praise for the movie filmed in his native country, “Particularly the very first ones starring a young, early 20’s Mel Gibson, and that movie as it was made by a doctor, Dr. George Miller, is rough and raw, but just brilliant in its execution and the way it was filmed.”

What are the favorite movies he’s directed? “My favorite one is easily Rabbit-Proof Fence. The story of the three mixed-race children who are running away from a reeducation center in Australia and travel 1,500 miles across the Australian Outback to get home to their mums.” This movie with Kenneth Branagh won the AFI Award for Best Australian Film in 2002.

Another favorite is Dead Calm. “It was so much fun making it, and we made it in the Great Barrier Reef off the Southeastern Coast of Australia and during whale mating season. So, that was an experience to remember.”

He also credits Harrison Ford, who starred in the movie Clear and Present Danger, as an influence, “He was a great, great teacher to me as well because he taught me a lot of things about how he maintained that popularity and his connection to the audience, and it was also a quite sophisticated story as well.”

The very first project he ever filmed made the list as well, “It’s a story of newsreel cameramen in the 1940’s and ’50s in Australia, and it was the first Australian movie to open the London Film Festival.”

While wrapping up the interview, he was asked if he had any guilty pleasures regarding watching movies. He replied, “I don’t feel guilty about watching movies. There’s nothing that I would feel guilty about.”

Noyce’s most recent film, The Desperate Hour starring Naomi Watts, releases in theaters, on digital and on-demand February 25^th,2022.

Photo by Jay Gilbert

The Chronicles of Ben Barnes – Barnes chats about his love for music and songwriting

Written by A.L. Vincent

Known for portraying fantasy heroes and comic book villians, along with characters from history and classic novels, to romantic and wannabe rock-star roles, British actor Ben Barnes has several acting roles to his credit. These include The Chronicles of Narnia (2010), Doctors (2006), and most recently the Netflix series Shadow and Bone. His love of storytelling has him playing a new real-life role as a songwriter and musician. His first EP, Songs for You, was released on October 21. “I love acting. I love storytelling. I sort of see it as the same, an extension of the same thing though,” he revealed in this interview. “I’ve played musicians and they’re telling stories and telling stories through song. I know how watching TV and films and stuff makes me think and makes me feel and makes me question things. So I just find music has the quickest, most evocative link to doing that for me. So if I can make some more music, I certainly will go to great lengths to do it.”

Photo by Jay Gilbert

In creating music, Barnes finds that the lyrics come naturally to him. He keeps little notebooks of phrases and couplets and writes poems as gifts for people. He finds the actual production of music fascinating. However, he does find the process of finding the melody in chords painstaking. But finds it rewarding when the melody becomes married to the lyrics. His EP has five songs that Barnes feels are “cohesive and something that felt like one singular emotive project that was intimate and personal and authentically me.” Barnes’ musical influences include Queen, The Beatles, Ray Charles, Donny Hathaway, and Stevie Wonder. One can feel the vibes of these classic artists in his song “11:11”, an upbeat and catchy tune that makes one want to sing along.

Some of his favorite songwriters are Bob Dylan, Billie Eilish, and John Mayer. His favorite though is Foy Vance. When talking about Vance, he said, “Oh my God. Just unbelievable. I never met him, but he’s just amazing. I wish I sounded like him. I wish I wrote like him.” His love for music started at an early age. His first concert was Paul McCartney’s Flowers in the Dirt tour around the age of eight. He took the straws from his soda and started playing the drums on the man’s head who was seated in front of him.

As if Barnes wasn’t irresistible enough already, he’s also an animal lover. During the interview, when I mentioned that I could talk about music “until the cows come home”, he replied with, “Till the cows that love music come home”. He then talked about videos he’d watched featuring cows responding to music, and how he’d stopped eating red meat as a result. He stated, “I cannot eat creatures that love music.” Barnes is also an avid reader. After a recommendation on a book during an interview about books, he started reading Life After Life by Kay Atkinson.

Photo by Jay Gilbert

As for future plans, Barnes will continue to act in film and television, but find a way to balance the two professions. Loving the response to his first EP, he promises there will be more, and he’s planning on performing these songs live at some point. He would also like to record an album of covers of his favorite songs.

Ben Barnes has starred in films, TV shows, and theater productions spanning the last 20 years:
Movies have included Seventh Son (Universal), Dorian Gray, Easy Virtue, and musical films Killing Bono, and Jackie and Ryan. TV shows he has appeared in include Westworld (HBO),
Golddigger (BBC) and The Punisher (Netflix). Stage productions include The History Boys (National Theatre) and Birdsong (West End).

You can find Ben’s EP, Songs for You, here. Purchase Ben’s band wear here. Check out his music Spotify Influences below:

Connect with Ben on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube

Luke Bracey, Tiffany Paulsen, Emma Roberts

Holidate actor Luke Bracey (Jackson), writer and executive producer Tiffany Paulsen, and actress Emma Roberts (Sloane) Photo provided by Tiffany Paulsen

The Woman Behind Holidate: In Conversation with Tiffany Paulsen

Written by Cece Gair

“I miss you. I miss you so much that I totally quit smoking, and candy is only mildly comforting. You’ve ruined all my vices for me.”

*All photos courtesy of Tiffany Paulsen

In a year where it seems like everything that can go wrong has gone wrong, Tiffany Paulsen’s Holidate is perhaps one of the few things that is spectacularly right. Written and produced by Paulsen and a smash-hit on Netflix, Holidate follows holiday-skeptics Sloane (Emma Roberts) and Jackson (Luke Bracey), who are tired of feeling the pressure to have a significant other during the holidays. For Sloane, it’s about getting over her pretentious ex, while dodging her mother’s relentless attempts to marry her off to her next door neighbour. For Jackson, it’s about not having to spend Christmas at a girl’s parents’ place on the third date. After a disgruntled post-Christmas meeting at the mall, Sloane and Jackson agree to be each other’s New Year’s holidate, a person to bring to festive events with whom you have no long-term connection. As New Year’s rolls into Saint Patrick’s Day, into the Fourth of July, into almost a dozen other holidays, Sloane and Jackson come to realize that maybe they don’t want to only be each other’s holidate. The result is a riotous, laugh-out-loud-heartwarming holiday movie with all the right elements: slow-burn romance, true-to-life awkwardness, and just the right amount of cheerful holiday skepticism.

Washington-born Tiffany Paulsen is no newcomer to the movie scene. She created 2007’s Nancy Drew (also starring Emma Roberts), wrote the Disney Channel original sequel to Adventures in Babysitting (2016, starring Sabrina Carpenter), and worked on 2019’s Turkey Drop. Speaking on Holidate, Paulsen talked about how she approaches screenwriting. “I’m not a big outliner. A lot of writers – especially screenwriters – know what they’re doing before they actually do it – outline, outline, outline, treatment, treatment, treatment. You have to do a little more of that when you start working for studios and somebody’s paying you as opposed to how Holidate was an original script that I wrote. This was just me hunkered down in my office with this idea that I knew had something to it.”

This is not how screenwriting often goes, as Paulsen says, “It’s a little bit different experience than with some of the studio movies that I’ve written, since with Holidate I just got to do everything on my own time, my own imagination, not having to answer to anybody, not having to show any outlines or work. I really enjoyed doing that – I think I’m more of a spontaneous writer. I really like to just sit down and see where my characters take me once they start talking to me. Not that I don’t know what the story is. I generally have a really strong vision of my opening scene or my opening conversation and I’m really big on a book-end. I love a book-end in almost everything that I do.”

In fact, the original ending to Holidate would have been a book-end in a slightly different way than the final cut, but for sometimes-inevitable shooting complications getting in the way. “Actually, we set a couple of endings for Holidate, but the original ending in the screenplay was Luke and Emma back at her porch on Christmas, about to go in. Once again, they’re there and she’s just a mirror of him going to Carly’s house in the beginning where he’s like, “I don’t know. The family Christmas on day 11.” Then she’s just like “fucking holidays”. Then mom opens the door and they’re swept up. It was a complete, very sweet bookend. We tried a few other endings, as well. We tried the house being on fire and everybody coming out – that Sloane’s mom had burned the turkey again or something. Then they all came out on the porch. That’s why we settled on the ending that we did, which was seeing where all of those relationships ended up, by doing the still photos.”

Tiffany says all-in-all, Holidate was a very special movie to film. It turns out very similarly to how it was originally written, thanks to director John Whitesell and the cast being in love with the original script. “I was really, really lucky on this script that our director, John Whitesell really kept me in as a partner with him. He didn’t want to change anything about the script and I think that’s what brought everyone together. I haven’t had an experience this positive and successful where everyone from day one was, “We love the script. We’re not changing it.” Save for a few things being tweaked here and there, all the dialogue, every line that I wrote ended up in the movie as they were written, all of those stories. If anything, we had to lose a lot because we had so many characters and they all had complete stories. I was sad that a lot of things that were in the script for everybody didn’t make it into the movie, but for the most part, everything that I wrote ended up on screen, which is really exciting. I got to go out to Atlanta three separate times to be on set during filming. it doesn’t always work like that.”

As far as her input on casting choice, Tiffany got to watch the auditions for the movie, and the on-screen chemistry between Emma Roberts and Luke Bracey was obvious from the very first read. “It’s not like Emma auditioned. Emma was an offer. She ended up loving it and wanted to do it. Then it was watching Emma read with a couple of the guys to see who had that best chemistry. Getting to be involved on that level … once she and Luke – who’s a real cutie, a tall drink of water – read together, it was very obvious they had such amazing chemistry. Then thanks to John Whitesell’s amazing relationships in the industry, we also got some amazing supporting actors in people like Kristin Chenoweth and Frances Fisher.”

When asked about her experience as a woman in the film industry, Tiffany commented that it’s difficult to avoid being “typecast” as a writer. “I have definitely experienced that, with people going “we don’t think you can do that. You’re not the thriller girl, or you’re not the action girl.” This industry can be really judgmental in that way. I had an overall development deal at Disney Channel and I did a lot of projects for them, so people would say “oh, she’s the Disney Channel girl.” Nancy Drew was my first feature, so, “oh, she’s sweet, younger, soft.” Then you watch Holidate, which is always what I set out to do. Right? My whole aspiration was to write edgy, romantic comedy. Nora Ephron is my writing guru – my goddess of writing. I go, “wait a minute. No, I never set out to be the soft, sweet, kids and family writer”, which, although it’s great and I’m still doing projects in that space, I’m a writer for lots of things, not just children and family movies.”

As far as any future projects that are outside the type of thing that she’s already worked on, Paulsen is looking forward to getting into series writing and doing more directing, as she’s set to direct a movie for Netflix next year.

We also got to ask Tiffany a question that Holidate fans are dying to know the answer to. Will there be a sequel? Tiffany herself doesn’t know yet. “We’re all certainly hopeful. I think we knew we had a cute movie and it was really fun, but the response has just been overwhelming on an international level. I think we would all love to do another one and we loosely talked about what that story would be and where the characters would go. I think the story of her going to meet his family in Australia would make the most sense for those characters. Because she spent this year with her family, so I think that would be really fun and fish out of water, since you’ve got two characters that have really only spent a few hours together over the course of this year, on these 11 days. Wouldn’t it be fun to be completely close quarters, traveling together, and now you really get to know somebody on a different level. I think there’s a whole lot more to explore with that relationship. That would be fun. But you never know with Netflix. It’s not like dealing with a regular studio, so who knows? I imagine we will find out in the next couple of weeks if they would pull the trigger on that. We’re hopeful, but we have not gotten the green light yet, so we’re still waiting.”

As is often our way of ending interviews, we got to ask Tiffany about some of her film preferences. The first movie she recalls seeing is The Wizard of Oz, but the movie that inspired her to become a screenwriter was When Harry Met Sally (1989), which was written by Nora Ephron. When I asked her to pick five movies she couldn’t live without, When Harry Met Sally was at the top of the list, along with Notting Hill (1999), Sixteen Candles (1984), True Romance (1993), and As Good as It Gets (1997). Her current guilty-pleasure series is The Bachelor and Bachelorette, and she just finished The Queen’s Gambit (2020), which she highly recommends.

Writer and Executive Producer of Holidate, Tiffany Paulsen

Whether you’re having a bad week or a great week, Holidate is the perfect movie for holiday-lovers and skeptics alike, available for streaming on Netflix.

Billie Eilish Photo provided by Flickr

The Grammys and Billie Eilish

17-year-old singer Billie Eilish only gained popularity in the last three years or so – but what a rise to fame it’s been. Eilish’s emergence has been littered with number-one hits, gold and platinum singles, and this year, expected contention at the Grammy Awards.

Here’s a little more about this incredible breakthrough artist’s background, and why she looks like the industry’s next big thing (and the Grammys’ next big winner).

Rise to Fame

To some, 2019 might have felt like it brought an overnight rise to stardom. But Eilish has been singing since a young age. She made her first real recording four years ago, and released her debut single in 2016. Since then, she’s recorded two albums, toured four times (often to sold-out crowds), and made a name for herself as the first person born in the 2000s to record a #1 single in the U.S. Her music videos have hundreds of millions of views, and the fans don’t seem to be losing interest.

Through it all, Eilish has said that she felt the claws of depression. It wasn’t until she sought help and turned her focus to making healthy decisions for herself (like deleting her Twitter account) that she made real progress. “I’m in the happiest place of my life,” she’s said, also stating that she expected to die before seeing age seventeen.

Grammy Potential

Even if Eilish has had a somewhat gradual rise to fame, even at her young age, 2019 has represented a major popular breakthrough. And as a result, she’s expected to have – perhaps – a rare performance when the 2020 Grammy Awards come around.

While nominations for each Grammy category won’t officially be announced until November 20, fans and industry experts are already expecting a boatload of honors for the young artist. U.S.-based betting outlets are going to release odds likely as soon was the nominations come out (if not before), and early indications are that she’s going to be one of the bookies’ favorites in a number of prominent categories. Her song “Bad Guy” will likely be nominated for Song of the Year and Record of the Year; her album When We Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? should likewise be nominated for Album of the Year; and it will be a shock if she doesn’t win Best New Artist.

The Grand Slam

“Grand Slam” is typically a sports term. In tennis, it refers to the four biggest tournaments on the annual calendar; in baseball, it refers to a four-run home run. But some also use the term to refer to the unofficial most prestigious Grammy awards: Best New Artist, Song of the Year, Album of the Year, and Record of the Year. To date, a handful of artists have earned all four nominations, but Christopher Cross, of all people, is the only one to have taken home all four awards in a single night (back in 1980).

It’s always a long shot, particularly when you consider some of the big names that have fallen just short. But with Eilish likely to get the necessary nominations, some are starting to discuss the possibility that she could actually become the first person to pull off the Grand Slam.

Buckets of success haven’t changed Eilish’s outlook on life. She loves fame and she loves being who she is through her music. In fact, given how she overcame the aforementioned struggles, it may even be fair to say her rise to superstardom has helped in some ways. And with this kind of buzz already building for a Grammys ceremony that’s still months away, it doesn’t sound like that success is going anywhere anytime soon.