Culturetopia: The Straight-Up Movies Edition

Ah, the sweet smell of Oscar bait is in the air! Pity, oh, pity the film critics — especially NPR's Bob Mondello, who joins me for a very special movie-centric roundup of the week's best arts stories. Bob has sat through 25 movies this month, including Avatar. In an interview with Melissa Block, its director James Cameron explains exactly how to extract emotional performances from bodysuited actors prancing in front of empty grey screens.

Infinity Features

Heath Ledger was working on Terry Gilliam's The Imaginarium Of Dr. Parnassus when he died.

Another kind of emotion pours from director Terry Gilliam as he describes what happened when Heath Ledger, star of his new film The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, died three days after the first round of filming wrapped. Gilliam tells NPR host Guy Raz that in some ways, he felt that Ledger was co-directing the film with him, posthumously.

Actorly perspectives come from Emily Blunt, on the challenges of playing one of history's great dowagers: Queen Victoria. And Jeff Bridges, who's widely rumored to be a leading contender for Best Actor for his role in Crazy Heart, discusses portraying a washed-up country music star — for which he ended up looking just like his good pal Kris Kristofferson. Finally, Daniel Day-Lewis busts some myths about his extreme Method acting during a chat on All Things Considered.