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The British actor, who stars alongside Christian Bale in the forthcoming Vice, talks about politics, playing baddies, and doing the kids’ homework

Eddie Marsan, 50, is a prolific British character actor who has played roles as diverse as Shimon Peres, Heinrich Himmler and Bob Dylan. Born and raised in east London, he left school at 15 and apprenticed as a printer before becoming an actor. It took a decade before he started getting regular work, helped by Mike Leigh casting him in Vera Drake (2004) and as a volatile driving instructor in Happy-Go-Lucky (2008). In the Us, where he now mostly works (though he lives in Chiswick), he is best known for his role as Terry, an ex-boxer with Parkinson’s, in the Showtime series Ray Donovan. For his latest film Vice, exploring Dick Cheney’s insidious role in the last Bush administration, Marsan plays deputy secretary of defence, Paul Wolfowitz.

When did you...

Christian Bale as Dick Cheney in Adam McKay’s Vice, an Annapurna Pictures release. Photo credit : Matt Kennedy / Annapurna Pictures. 2018 © Annapurna Pictures, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Adam McKay, who brought us The Big Short, takes on Dick Chaney in the hilariously satiric biopic Vice. The writer/director who made credit default swaps both funny and understandable brings those sharp comic skills to this boldly inventive and pointed examination of career of the former vice president. If you are a fan of former Vice President Cheney, Vice might not be for you, as the humor leans a bit snarky. But for this rest of us, Vice is flat-out hilarious.

As funny as it is, the facts in Vice are accurate, even if McKay presents them in a comic way. McKay brings the same high level of thorough research he brought to The Big Short to this smart subversive comedy. Vice...

Eddie Marsan, the British actor of Showtime’s Ray Donovan and Studio 8/Sony’s White Boy Rick, has joined the cast of the Fast & Furious’ spin-off Hobbs and Shaw starring Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham. The project reteams Marsan with his Deadpool 2 and Atomic Blonde helmer David Leitch.

On Ray Donovan Eddie Marsan stars as the title character’s brother, who is a former boxer that battles Parkinson’s disease and avoids getting help from Ray. In White Boy Rick, Marsan plays an underworld boss who ultimately becomes an ally to the teenage crack dealer/government informant. Marsan will next be seen in Netflix/Warner Bros.’ Mowgli as Vihaan and in Adam McKay’s Dick Cheney feature Vice as Paul Wolfowitz, a foreign policy adviser to President George W. Bush during his campaign and the U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense during his tenure.

Hobbs and Shaw stars Johnson as U.

When you’re speaking to Roger Waters, there is no such thing as small talk. The mind responsible for some of the most ambitious productions in pop music history is constantly crackling with activity. Even seemingly innocuous questions, sure to elicit canned responses perfected over half a century of interviews, yield eloquent run-on sentences that jolt forward like a runaway train. The destination is often impossible to predict but, like his lyrics, the words are caustic, hilarious, cynical, hopeful and warm.

The gargantuan critical and commercial success of his ’70s output with Pink Floyd has an unfortunate tendency to eclipse...

The tragic past is the troubled present in Iraq and American politics, which, on the bright side, means that Jon Stewart can dust off his most successful material for another go-round. See video: Jon Stewart Returns to His Glory Days of Ripping Apart Iraq War Hawks As the fragile pseudo-democracy starts to crumble in Iraq, “The Daily Show” host has been given the opportunity to take on old enemies like Dick Cheney and Paul Wolfowitz, Republican architects of the disastrous war of a decade again. On Monday, that meant presenting old file footage of Cheney praising the same troop withdrawal agreement that.

Should the members of the Bush administration most responsible to invading Iraq be "allowed" to criticize President Barack Obama about his handling of the current crisis in that country? That's a question that has been getting a good deal of play this week as people like Paul Bremer, Paul Wolfowitz and Dick Cheney make the cable news rounds to offer their "expert" opinions on what should be done in Iraq today.

Jon Stewart was at the height of his powers when skewering the Republican leaders who lied America into war in Iraq, and unfortunately, it looks like the “Daily Show” host is getting an encore. See video: Jon Stewart: Fox News ‘Enables Your Darkest Impulses’ As Iraq descends into sectarian chaos once again, former Bush administration officials like Paul Wolfowitz and Gop Senators Lindsay Graham and John McCain have been making the rounds on television talk shows, demanding that President Obama send troops back into the Middle Eastern disaster once again. The cable channel and Sunday show news media has a short memory,...

In a national culture that thrives on irony, detachment, the postmodern hum of advertising, and the communicative cool enforced by technology, good old sincerity — remember that golden oldie? — can seem not just out-of-date but a little embarrassing. Who wants to be caught saying what they mean and meaning what they say, or wearing their heart on their earnest, pleading sleeve? John Carney does. He’s the Irish-born writer-director of Can a Song Save Your Life?, an unapologetically sincere movie that is modeled on the beautiful, almost desperate sincerity of the music-movie that put Carney on the map: Once, that lovely...

A formidable lineup of writers, editors, actors, scientists, and assorted intellectuals gathered at Cooper Union's Great Hall, at 7 East 7th Street, to revive for one last occasion the voice of Christopher Hitchens, which was silenced by esophageal cancer on December 15, 2011.

The novelist Martin Amis delivered a heartfelt but unsentimental eulogy, praising his late friend's good looks ("More handsome than a man has a right to be, he liked to say") and voice ("He had none of the poncey affectations that I can't seem to eradicate") but gently mocking his self-mythologizing tendencies. Noting that Hitchens' habit of referring to himself in the third person was in no way a sign of mental illness -- "Hitch was penetratingly sane; he knew who he was" -- Amis nevertheless observed that Hitchens, who hated to go unrecognized, once endured 15 painful minutes of not being stopped by admirers, causing him to conclude that everyone in the vicinity was hopelessly uncultured.

For many weeks, my fellow writer and friend Brad McHargue prodded me to watch a slightly obscure 2009 Canadian pseudo-zombie horror movie called Pontypool. This previous Friday night, I finally found some free time to watch this lovely and blindingly original film. Now, I'm not normally one to sprinkle my articles with spoilers to enrage the unsuspecting reader, but I shall give away a plot point of said film here, in order to make a point, so consider yourself warned. It is not entirely false to label Pontypool a zombie movie, but it is not entirely truthful either. In fact, the film's requisite virus that duly spreads amongst the unsuspecting populace is not transmitted by blood or saliva or the air, but language. Halfway through it, and compelled to take a brief break to answer various calls of duty, I sadly received the news that towering intellectual and polemicist Christopher Hitchens had died.

Why is a general so lionized hanging up his uniform for a back-bench position? Jamie McIntyre on why Petraeus is headed for the CIA-and not the Pentagon-and how he can help the agency that helped kill Osama bin Laden. Plus, full coverage of bin Laden.

The whispers that began floating around Washington last month that Afghanistan commander David Petraeus was in line to run the CIA were initially dismissed as bizarre rumors.

Related story on The Daily Beast: History, Not Progeny, Will Define Billy Graham's Legacy

Why would the most celebrated American general of the post-9/11 era, credited with saving Iraq and charged with salvaging Afghanistan, accept a post where he would be a second-tier adviser to the president on intelligence matters, after the director of national intelligence?

But given the CIA's prominent role in the killing of Osama bin Laden, the once-beleaguered agency is suddenly seen as hot.

Nearly a decade after the 9/11 attacks, President Obama confirmed that U.S. agents killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in a firefight deep inside Pakistan on Sunday. He has since been buried at sea. Peter Beinart, Bruce Riedel, and more Daily Beast contributors weigh in on the momentous achievement.

Should We Hit Gaddafi Next?By Paul Wolfowitz

Related story on The Daily Beast: Should We Hit Gaddafi Next?

The president acted bravely in choosing to strike at Osama bin Laden. Will he act on behalf of the people of Libya next? Former Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz makes the case for further decisive action in the Middle East, in the current issue of Newsweek.

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If My Dad Were Still HereBy Max Giaccone

Max Giaccone was 10 years old on 9/11, when the towers fell and he lost his father. In this week's Newsweek, Giaccone on what Osama bin Laden's death means to him.

Obama's decisive response to the protests across the Middle East-and the conservative backlash-have exposed the hypocrisy of the right's shallow rhetoric on liberty and human freedom. Peter Beinart on why the supposedly idealistic American right turns out to be pretty pessimistic.

The past few weeks have been clarifying. Ever since he took office, the press has been calling Barack Obama a ruthless realist who lacks the passion for democracy and liberty of his predecessor, George W. Bush. The fact that Bush's war on terror provided a pretext for all manner of tyrants to crack down on their political opponents or that the Bush administration itself tortured terror suspects rarely intruded on the narrative. Bush was an idealist because he invaded Iraq, despite the fact that democracy became the war's primary public rationale only after America failed to find weapons of mass destruction. And Bush was an idealist because he spoke...

Forced to choose between national interests and national ideals, the Obama administration, and many of its fiercest domestic critics, chose ideals. That's a remarkable achievement, writes Peter Beinart. Plus, Mike Giglio on Egypt's Facebook freedom fighter.

Ever since the financial crisis hit, Americans have been feeling bad about ourselves. Our infrastructure is moldering; we owe everyone money; barely anyone thinks we're the future anymore. All that may be true. But now and then an episode comes along that reveals what an unusual, and impressive, great power the United States still is. That's what the Egyptian revolution has done.

Related story on The Daily Beast: Al Qaeda's Deadly New Nest

Yes, of course, the Egyptians made their own revolution; America played a bit role. And yes, we guiltlessly buttressed Mubarak's tyranny for decades. But in the last three weeks, America has nonetheless vindicated George W. Bush's 2004 pledge to the oppressed...

Bush's Defense secretary chides Colin Powell, says he would have gone into Iraq even if he'd known Saddam had no WMDs-and discusses his son's drug problem. Howard Kurtz speed-reads Rummy's new memoir. Plus, lighter anecdotes from Rumsfeld's memoir, including his unromantic proposal and his take on Hurricane Katrina.

Ten days after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Donald Rumsfeld wrote himself a note.

Related story on The Daily Beast: An American in Full

"At the right moment," it said, "we may want to give Saddam Hussein a way out for his family to live in comfort."

In his forthcoming book, Known and Unknown, the former Defense secretary says he believed that "an aggressive diplomatic effort, coupled by a threat of military force, just might convince Saddam and those around him to seek exile." Instead, history will record that Rumsfeld became a principal player in the Bush administration's drive to invade Iraq, which...

Help me out here. There's something I've been spending a couple of months trying to get my head around. Why does Bp enjoy such a peculiar immunity after having apparently been culpable in the Gulf oil spill? What is the nature of its invisible protective shield?

All I know is what you know. Like most other ordinary citizens, I try to keep up the best that I can with the news. I am not, as they say, walking in the corridors of power.

But you know, the more I read, the more I imagine those corridors smelling like those disinfectant cakes you see at the bottoms of urinals.

Here's what I think I know. Correct me if I'm wrong. The oil rig explosion set in motion the greatest man-made environmental disaster in our history. It may have been only a matter of time until that happened. Safety procedures were ignored.

Shot through the history of comedic cornerstones like The Simpsons, Saturday Night Live and Spinal Tap is comedian Harry Shearer. His newest project, Songs of the Bushmen, takes musical aim at the Bush Administration, lampooning Colin Powell (“Smooth Moves”), Paul Wolfowitz (“Wolf on the Run”) and Karl Rove (“Turd Blossom Special”) amongst others. The album’s cover even features a portrait of George W. Bush with a bone through his nose—offending Clear Channel enough to get banned from billboard advertisements.

Vanity Fair has unveiled a photo featuring the entire White House Cabinet that will be in Oliver Stones W.

From left to right: Jeffrey Wright as Colin Powell, Toby Jones as Karl Rove, Dennis Boutsikaris as Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Dreyfuss as Dick Cheney, Josh Brolin as George W. Bush, Thandie Newton as Condoleezza Rice, Rob Corddry as Ari…...

Vanity Fair released this photo from Oliver Stone's W., showing the Bush Administration. From left to right: Jeffrey Wright as Secretary of State Colin Powell, Toby Jones as Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove, Dennis Boutsikaris as Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Dreyfuss as Vice President Dick Cheney, Josh Brolin as President George W. Bush, Thandie Newton as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Rob Corddry as White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer, Bruce McGill as CIA Director George Tenet, and Scott Glenn as Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.

(left to right) Condoleezza Rice (Thandie Newton), Ari Fleischer (Rob Corddry), George Tenet (Bruce McGill), Donald Rumsfeld (Scott Glenn), General Colin Powell (Jeffrey Wright), Karl Rove (Toby Jones), Paul Wolfowitz (Dennis Boutsikaris), Dick Cheney (Richard Dreyfuss) and George W. Bush (Josh Brolin)

Photo: Vanity Fair via ThePlaylist.com I didn't hear about the so-called weekend reports blaming the Rome Film Festival for passing on premiering Oliver Stone's George W. Bush biopic W. and it appears it was for the best as new word says they offered a spot for the film to play the fest, but filmmakers opted to premiere the flick at this year's London Film Festival, which runs from Oct. 15-30. On top of that news, The Playlist has acquired a couple of scans from Vanity Fair featuring Dubya's cabinet which you can see above along with a listing of who's-the-what's-it. W. is set to hit theaters...

Two brand new photos from the upcoming Presidential biopic drama from Oliver Stone, "W", has been outed by The Playlist. The scanned Vanity Fair's pictures uncover the first look into the complete cabinet of the 43rd and current President of the United States George W. Bush around 2003 from former Secretary of State General Colin Powell to White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer.

The first image posted at the news' photos displays Jeffrey Wright as former Secretary of State General Colin Powell, Toby Jones as then-Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove, Dennis Boutsikaris as ex-Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Dreyfuss as Vice President Dick Cheney and Josh Brolin as Bush.

The next photo below lets out Thandie Newton as then-Deputy Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Rob Corddry as the White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer, Bruce McGill as former Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet and Scott Glenn as the 21st U.

By Michael Atkinson

Malian filmmaker Abderrahmane Sissako may have made the one African film everybody needs to see . at least for its disarming fugue of frank political awareness and state-of-the-quotidian African life. In most other ways, though, "Bamako" (2006) is a challenge to orthodoxy, because it's not driven by its narrative, and hardly even provides an establishing context for itself. Before we know it, we're in a sun-dappled Mali courtyard (Sissako's family home, as it turns out), in which a kind of tribunal is going on, complete with black-robed jurists, waiting witnesses, anxious journalists and stacks of documentation. This is, we slowly realize, a fantasy trial in which the African people have taken civil proceedings against the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and American-led global capitalism in general, for the crime of exploiting and loan-sharking the continent and its peoples. The testimony is not from actors, but from real African citizens,...