Always wanted to prove that women can wrestle too: Paige

Agencies
February 15, 2019

Mumbai, Feb 15: She came to WWE at a time when female wrestlers were mostly considered divas but Paige broke the stereotype, fighting perceptions and drawing home a larger point: that women can wrestle too.

Paige, real name Saraya-Jade Bevis, has emerged as one of the biggest female wrestlers in WWE but she says initially she did not realise how "male dominated" the sport was.

"But the WWE never held the women back. It was actually more of the fans not taking them very seriously. They wanted to see more male characters, many years ago. That's what they wanted. It was a male dominated sport," Paige told news agency.

The 26-year-old says things were dramatically different when she was in FCW (Florida Championship Wrestling).

"There were only five women there and 70 men. There was a lot of struggle but WWE believed in us so much."

Paige is considered a key figure in bringing 'women's revolution' in the ring, aided by her NXT Women's Championship in 2013 which gave a platform to several other female wrestlers to show their talent.

"When I got into the ring with the them, I wanted to prove myself and prove to the WWE, the fans and the male wrestlers that the girls can have really good matches and sometimes even better," she says.

"It was my kind of my mission from the get go to start doing that... A lot of the girls started to come out of their comfort zone and more female wrestlers were getting signed too. Now of course there's a revolution which is incredible," she adds.

Paige now has her life chronicled on the big screen in "Fighting With My Family", a rousing comedy about dreams and identity directed by Stephan Merchat, co-writer and co-helmer of the popular British sitcom "The Office".

The film shows how Paige, who was born into a tight-knit wrestling family, is ecstatic when she and her brother Zak get an opportunity to try out for WWE but only Paige earns a spot in the competitive training programme and she must now leave her family and face the new, cut-throat world alone.

Paige says growing up in a family of wrestlers was "normal" for her but often people around her were left amused.

"Zak and I have been surrounded by wrestlers our entire life. Everyone else thought it was a peculiar thing, it was kind of weird. But we didn't care. We loved wrestling and didn't care what people thought. That's also what the movie talks about: we didn't care about people's opinions," she says.

The film features actor Florence Pugh as Paige and has been produced by Dwayne Johnson, aka The Rock, who also features in a special appearance.

Johnson is by far the most popular WWE superstar, who branched out of professional wrestling and became a global name thanks to his blockbuster movies.

For Paige, there's a lot to learn from Johnson's journey, who, she says, "branded himself so correctly" with his motto of "staying humble and hungry."

"Wrestling doesn't last forever. Bodies of wrestlers are not capable to wrestle forever. So you do think 'what am I going to do next after this.' He was so smart, he built a brand.

"People got to know a different part of him apart from the wrestling. His journey is so inspirational. Like how he came to America with seven bucks in his pocket and now he's the biggest star in the world. I learnt from him that you've to be true to yourself and you can achieve anything."

"Fighting With My Family" releases in the US on February 14 and will open in Indian market in early March.

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News Network
May 8,2020

London, May 8: Actor Florence Pugh says the most terrifying aspect of starring in the upcoming superhero film "Black Widow" was doing the Russian accent.

In the Marvel Cinematic Universe's stand-alone film, the Oscar-nominated actor plays Yelena Belova, a sister-figure to Scarlett Johansson's Natasha Romanoff/ the titular Black Widow who was trained in the Red Room.

"I was scared because my Russian accent was going to be out there and I didn't know what it sounded like.

"I'm also playing a character who no-one's seen before but they've read about her. I didn't know whether people were going to hate me!" Pugh told ELLE UK for its June issue.

The 24-year-old actor also said the idea of joining the MCU itself was quite "daunting".

"When you think of Marvel, it's big and daunting. Especially being a relatively small actor to look at it and go, 'Oh! I'm going to be a part of this', that's a big decision," she said.

"Black Widow", which was scheduled to hit the theatres on May 1, will now release on November 6 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Directed by Cate Shortland, the film also stars David Harbour and Rachel Weisz.

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News Network
February 12,2020

London, Feb 12: Oscar-winning British director Steve McQueen is returning to his art roots with a series of short films at London's Tate Modern art gallery, offering a sensory exploration of black identity.

McQueen, who became the first black director to win the best picture Academy Award in 2014 for "12 Years a Slave", is now based between London and Amsterdam and is focused on championing diversity in the film industry.

Visitors to his new exhibition will be greeted by "Static", a film of New York's Statue of Liberty, scrutinising the iconic symbol from every possible angle at very close range against a deafening backdrop of the helicopter from where the footage was filmed.

"What interests Steve is our view of the world, how humans are trying to represent Liberty," said Fiontan Moran, assistant curator of the exhibition.

"7th Nov, 2001" features a still shot of a body while McQueen's cousin Marcus tells of how he accidentally killed his brother, a particularly traumatic experience for the artist.

"Western Deep" is another visceral work, giving a sense through sights and sounds in an interactive installation of the experiences of miners in South Africa, following them to the bottom of the mine.

"Ashes", meanwhile, is a tribute to a young fisherman from Grenada, the island where McQueen's family originated.

The images of beauty and sweetness filmed from his boat are tragically reversed on the other side of the projection screen, which shows a grave commissioned by McQueen for the eponymous young fisherman, who was killed by drug traffickers.

African-American singer, actor and civil rights activist Paul Robeson (1898-1976) is honoured in "End Credits".

The film shows censored FBI documents detailing the agency's surveillance of Robeson, read by a voice-over artist, for five hours.

"He is... testing the limits of how people can be documented in an era of mass surveillance," said Moran.

In a similarly militant vein, the exhibition features the sculpture "Weight", which was first shown in the prison cell where the writer and playwright Oscar Wilde was imprisoned.

It depicts a golden mosquito net draped over a metal prison bed frame, addressing the theme of confinement and the power of the imagination to break free.

The show runs alongside an exhibition of McQueen's giant portraits of London school classes, many of which appeared on the streets of London last year.

"I remember my first school trip to Tate when I was an impressionable eight-year-old, which was really the moment I gained an understanding that anything is possible," said McQueen, adding it was "where in some ways my journey as an artist first began".

He recently told the Financial Times newspaper the difference between his art films and his feature films was that the former were poetry, the latter like a novel.

"Poetry is condensed, precise, fragmented," he said. "The novel is the yarn".

The exhibition opens on February 13 and runs until May 11.

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News Network
February 21,2020

Los Angeles, Feb 21: Nepalese-Australian actor Dichen Lachman has joined the cast of the third film in the Jurassic World franchise.

Lachman, best known for Netflix series Altered Carbon and TNT show Animal Kingdom, is the latest addition to the Colin Trevorrow-directed picture, reported Deadline.

Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment project will see Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard reprise their roles. Mamoudou Athie and DeWanda Wise are also part of the cast.

The movie marks the return of original Jurassic Park stars Sam Neill, Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum.

Trevorrow has co-written the script of the new film with Emily Carmichael. He will also executive produce the film with Steven Spielberg.

Jurassic World 3 hits theatres on June 11, 2021.

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