LATE LAST NIGHT the 54th San Francisco International Film Festival presented their annual Midnight Awards, honoring Zoe Saldana and Clifton Collins Jr. at the W San Francisco before a crowd of about 200. The S.F. Film Society's awards bash was their fourth and perhaps liveliest as New York Times best-selling author Beth Lisick interviewed both actors separately.
Select clips of each actors' films were shown.
The Midnight Awards are formal but also informal and light-hearted, a speakeasy entertainment event honoring typically younger actors who have made key contributions to both independent and Hollywood film in their careers.
Ms. Saldana talked about her upcoming film with Luc Besson, "Colombiana", a hard-hitting action movie which the actress described as in the mold of Mr. Besson's "La Femme Nikita".
"I think that coming from New York -- I'm from Queens, New York -- in my mind I have this notion that I'm this badass. So I sort of gravitate naturally toward these roles that resemble women that I've known in my mind or throughout history who I've admired. I remember growing up as a kid I was never the damsel-in-distress for Halloween. I was never a princess. I was never Juliet. I was Ellen Ripley or Sarah Connor. I was either a black Ninja or a white Ninja."
Ms. Saldana, who talked at length -- often she said that "I'm a Latina, I love to talk" -- was a slender, engaging presence, her wedding ring sparkling in the light. Ms. Saldana has appeared in such films as "Avatar", "Star Trek", "The Losers" and "Pirates Of The Caribbean".
Later, Ms. Saldana, repeatedly describing herself as "deep down, an alpha male", would say that "I'm neither man nor woman, I'm an artist."
Presented by Nathan Brown, one of two Midnight Awards chairmen, Ms. Saldana received her award -- a margarita shaker -- the top of which dropped off and hit the floor twice, ala Real Madrid football Copa del Rey style.
Fortunately, unlike Real's trophy, it didn't get crushed by the ground or by a moving bus.
Clifton Collins Jr. held court hilariously with a lengthy story about his experience on Mike Judge's comedy "Extract" in a scene where he had to have one of his most intimate body parts exploded off.
"I read the script and I was like, Mike . . . how the f*** are you gonna do this s***? I mean, we're talking about my balls here!"
The actor went into graphic detail about himself, a stuntman and a tale involving explosives and size 31 and 32 pants, which had the mainly black-tie audience here convulsing with laughter.
Describing Mr. Judge as a sensitive, unpretentious Midwesterner, Mr. Collins, who believed a stuntman would do the specific part as a stand-in, said, "okay, Mike, I've got two balls. I'll do it for you."
The process turned out to be easy.
"I did it in one take."
Mr. Collins, presented with his Midnight Award by Midnight Award chairman Michelle Moretta, has also played a role in which his character had one arm ("Sunshine Cleaning"), as well as roles in "Capote" and "The Perfect Game" among numerous other films.
Mr. Collins, a Los Angeles native whose grandfather was also an actor-entertainer in Hollywood, said that he "didn't turn down a whole lot of stuff" early in his career.
"Warner Brothers and Icon, they would praise something like a "187" (the 1997 drama he starred in as a gang-banging hoodlum opposite Samuel L. Jackson.) And it's just very weird, you know, it's a double-edged sword," Mr. Collins said, citing the disapproval he got from the Latino community for playing such roles.
"But I'm very proud, and they're my peers. I hung out with a lot of gangbangers so I was like, I was wanting to emulate their -- speak out for them, have a voice. And do it accurately and not be Hollywood."
The 54th San Francisco International Film Festival continues through May 5
For more of Omar's film stories, movie reviews and interviews visit his Popcorn Reel website and watch his unscripted film reviews on YouTube. Follow him on Twitter.
For a list of Omar's Examiner.com stories and film reviews, click here. He is a contributing film critic for "Ebert Presents At The Movies" on PBS television and also a far flung correspondent for the preeminent film critic Roger Ebert and a member of the San Francisco Film Critics Circle.
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