- Artist: Beyoncé
- Label: Columbia/Music World Music
- Director: Jake Nava
- Album: I Am...Sasha Fierce
Sunday, July 3, 2011
Beyonc� - If I Were A Boy
Saturday, July 2, 2011
Beyonce Shrugs Off 'Fear' In 'Year Of 4'
'I've never been afraid to fall,' she says in the special, which debuted Thursday on MTV.
By Jocelyn Vena
Beyoncé in her "Year of <i>4</i>" special
Photo: MTV
It's a good time to be Beyoncé. The singer just released her latest album, 4, and fans were taken behind the scenes of its completion in the special "Beyoncé: Year of 4," which debuted Thursday (June 30) on MTV.
The intimate special opens with black-and-white footage of the singer swimming. "I'm always happy when I'm surrounded by water," she says. "I think I'm a mermaid or I was a mermaid. The ocean makes me feel really small, and it puts my whole life into perspective. ... It humbles you and it grounds you and it makes me feel almost like I've been baptized. Am I the same Beyoncé? Absolutely not."
The special is footage of B's life, complete with montages of the frenzy surrounding her: Video shoots, rehearsals, studio time and photo shoots all pepper her life as she prepares to release her fourth solo studio effort. However, she is quick to point out that, before she got back to work, she needed to decompress in a major way.
"After I finished the last tour, I was a bit overwhelmed and overworked, and my mother was the person that preached to me ... 'You really need to live your life and open your eyes and you don't want to wake up with no memories,' " she explained.
Beyoncé shows what she did on her off-time, which included playing aunt and wife. "I was able to spend time with my family and pick my nephew up from school, and it gave me time to reflect," she said.
In that reflection time, Beyoncé made a major business decision: Her father, Mathew Knowles, would no longer serve as her manager. While explaining the decision, fans are taken back in time thanks to vintage video of the Knowles family. "A real change meant separating from him," she said. "It was scary, but it empowered me, and I wasn't going to let fear stop me."
Fans are once again on Beyoncé's whirlwind world tour as she continues work on her album. "I am a workaholic, and I don't believe in 'no,' " she said. "If I'm not sleeping, nobody's sleeping."
"My focus is not bigger; it's quality, and I want to make sure it's something I'm proud of years from now," she says later on. "It's very difficult managing myself. Every night when I go to sleep, I ask hundreds of questions. I'm making mistakes, and I'm learning from them. I've never been afraid to fall — and I say all these things, but now I'm being tested."
As the special closes, Beyoncé shoots her "Run the World (Girls)" video and continues work on her album, including meetings with record executives. It all ends with B swimming once again, as she says, "I'm learning to drown out the noise. I only have to follow my heart. I run my world."
What did you think of Beyoncé behind-the-scenes world? Let us know in the comments!
Related Videos Related ArtistsSelena Gomez, Cory Monteith Cop To 'Monte Carlo' Sing-Offs
'I feel like we were very annoying to people on set,' co-star Leighton Meester tells MTV News.
By Christina Garibaldi
Katie Cassidy, Leighton Meester, and Selena Gomez in "Monte Carlo"
Photo: Twentieth Century Fox
Selena Gomez's When the Sun Goes Down was released on Tuesday, but the star isn't just celebrating a new album this week. She heads back to the big screen with a leading-lady role in "Monte Carlo."
In the movie opening this weekend, Gomez plays not one, but two characters: an American teenager, Grace, and British heiress Cordelia, which required the Disney actress to take on an English accent.
"I did about two weeks [of training] before the film," Gomez told MTV News of learning the accent. "It was really fun [but] I was really nervous."
And the fun didn't stop there. Gomez also bonded on the set with her "Monte Carlo" co-stars, including "Gossip Girl" star Leighton Meester, who plays Gomez's stepsister; Katie Cassidy; and "Glee" heartthrob Cory Monteith, who had the tough job of working alongside some of Hollywood's most beautiful ladies.
"Going to hang out with a bunch of hot chicks in Europe? Sign me up!" Moneith laughed when we asked what attracted him to the role. "It was a no-brainer. They approached me to do a movie, and I heard Selena Gomez wanted to do it and shoot in Europe."
The cast spent two months filming overseas, primarily in Monte Carlo and Paris, and they had as much fun onscreen as they did off.
"We sang a lot," Gomez said of her castmates.
"I feel like we were very annoying to people on set," Meester added.
Of course, considering Monteith, Meester and Gomez are all singers, it's hard to believe anyone found them "annoying." So what was their song of choice?
"[We sang] to actual songs that were out," Gomez said. "But we would create our own lyrics; it was really fun."
"There was a little jumping and jiving," Monteith admitted. "We were so taken away by the moment, shooting in Paris, shooting the Eiffel Tower," he speculated about what may have inspired all that singing. "It was incredible."
Check out all of the stars in action when "Monte Carlo" hits theaters on Friday.
Check out everything we've got on "Monte Carlo."
For young Hollywood news, fashion and "Twilight" updates around the clock, visit HollywoodCrush.MTV.com.
Michael Jackson - They Don't Care About Us
- Artist: Michael Jackson
- Label: MJJ
- Director: Spike Lee
- Album: HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I
Friday, July 1, 2011
'Transformers' Stars Reveal Tricks Behind Filming Building-Escape Scene
'We all felt 12 again, sliding down the side of this building, shooting, screaming,' Tyrese Gibson tells MTV News.
By Kara Warner
Shia LaBeouf in "Transformers: Dark of the Moon"
Photo: Jaimie Trueblood
For those who've seen "Transformers: Dark of the Moon," there is so much going on in the film that one could spend the next 12 months breaking down all the dirty details. We've already tackled the nods to "Star Trek" and the "Transformers"-specific Easter eggs, so today we turn our attention to one of the film's most impressive action sequences: the part when evil Decepticon Shockwave sends his massive, spinning, snakelike destroyer after our protagonists, who become trapped in the upper stories of a tall building. The Transformer proceeds to cut the building in half, leaving our heroes no option but to jump out of the windows and slide down the outside of the building to safety.
MTV News had the scene's stars, Shia LaBeouf, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley and Tyrese Gibson, explain how they managed to pull off that sequence.
"The building comes up on what I can only describe as a crane," Whiteley explained of the rig used to support and move the specific set piece. "It tilts to about a 40-degree angle. It's built to look like the outside of a skyscraper," she said. "Shia, myself, Tyrese, the Marines, we all set at the top, Mike [director Michael Bay] would scream 'Action!' and then we would slide down this thing," she recalled. "And then flower pots, chairs, paper and fake glass, tennis balls, every office supply you could possibly think of would get thrown down after us."
Despite the gravity of that particular scene, it turns out that the boys thought of the tilting skyscraper set piece more like a ride at a county fair.
"This thing had to be 150 to 200 feet in the air. It was like a huge slide," Gibson said. "We all felt 12 again, sliding down the side of this building, shooting, screaming, doing everything we had to do in those scenes.
"It was scary stuff," he added with a smile. "It was scary with the idea that we are about to be eaten, eaten alive."
"We shot that for three weeks or so," LaBeouf said. "You're basically pulling yourself on rope to get to the top of the thing. It's like a big slide, you know those slides they have at fairs where you get the little brown bag? Brown bag slides, sort of like that."
Huntington-Whiteley added that in the midst of all the fun had while sliding, she learned very quickly to pay attention to her landing and get out of the way when she reached the bottom of the set piece. "I'd always hit the bottom first. It took one time to realize if I didn't get out of the way really quick, I was going to get flattened by a 300-pound man coming quite quickly after me!"
Check out everything we've got on "Transformers: Dark of the Moon."
For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com.
Related Videos Related PhotosWatch: Author Neil Gaiman Does ?The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson?
Earlier this month we learned that Tom Hanks has teamed up with HBO to produce a 6-season TV series based on the amazing Neil Gaiman novel American Gods and last night, to promote the 10th anniversary of the American Gods novel, Gaiman was a guest on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. Click below [...]
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