GlobalGrind caught up to TV personality and film critic Ben Lyons yesterday afternoon in Herald Square, NYC where he, Kourtney Kardashian and creative director Mr. Jay taught fans of the Playstation 3 Uncharted series how to dress like the game’s character Drake.
In addition to clothing giveaways and fun photo booth ops, guests who stopped by the Playstation truck had the chance to experience the Uncharted game series themselves, as well as receive game packs and goodies from PlayStation®. Lyons, Kardashian and Jay also styled the fans.
We spoke to Ben about his role in the festivities minutes before the sun scorched him to smithereens!
GlobalGrind: Tell us how you got involved with Playstation and Uncharted 3.
Ben Lyons: I met a bunch of the Playstation folks when I was out at Sundance and they said they were doing this big event for Fashion Week. I knew that they were turning it into a big movie franchise, so they had me come out today with my E! family Kourtney Kardashian and Jay Manuel, whom I’ve worked with for years at live events. I love these kind of pop up things in New York and there are so many of them during Fashion Week. This is really a fun one and this game is insanely popular, so they just reached out to me and asked me to hang out. It seems like everybody is excited to see Kourtney Kardashian!
Are you sure weren’t invited because of your “half tuck”?
I don’t know! They do say I look like the guy a little bit! I don’t know if all white people look the same or not and I don’t know if I can pull off the summer scarf like he can. This “half-tuck” look is actually like a “look.” You see paparazzi shots of Jake Gyllenhaal [wearing it] and at fashion shows all the time, so I think it is a nice mix! Though they have Jay doing the fashion stuff, I am here because of the video game and the movie. Kourtney is here because the Kardashians are everywhere.
What is your favorite video game-to-movie franchise?
(Resident Evil)That’s my favorite. Those are straightforward like, this is what it is: killing! It’s violent, it is stylized. (Milla Jovovich) is so kick ass in the roles.
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Have you played the Uncharted games too?
Yeah, it kind of reminds me of Nick Cage in the National Treasure movie, but a little bit more hardcore. These first person action games are getting so complex they make me feel old sometimes. They are really dense! It’s no longer like Super Mario getting a raccoon tail and flying through a tube and collecting coins: they are pretty life-like and pretty cool! This one is cool, it’s got an international feel to it and the third one is in 3D! They are just getting bigger and better, I think.
You just got back from Canada. What did you see at the Toronto Film Festival? Did you see Madonna’s movie?
I did see Madonna’s movie W.E. I think a lot of people are hating on it just because it is Madonna and you know, she doesn’t need to do this, she doesn’t need to direct. But she tells a story that I can obviously see what caught her interest in it with Wallace Simpson and the idea of celebrity and how it has changed over the years and stuff. I love Abbie Cornish. I have such an Aussie crush on Abbie Cornish. It’s not great, but it’s not as bad as people are saying. I feel like if it had another director people would be a lot easier on it. It stars probably one of my favorite young actors.
Now this guy Oscar Isaac who is in Drive, he is in W.E. He is in another movie I saw in Toronto called Ten Year which was originally a short film that Channing Tatum and his wife Jenna made and now they got money for it and made it a feature and they are trying to sell it. It’s with Channing Tatum, Kate Mara, Justin Long,Oscar Issac and Anthony Mackie. Awesome cast! It is a really funny movie about a high school ten-year reunion.
My favorite movie up there besides Drive was this movie called 50/50. Seth Rogan and his buddy Will Riser, who was a writer on Da Ali G Show, wrote this movie because a couple of years ago Will got diagnosed with cancer when he was 22 or 23 years old. Obviously it was a tough situation for him but being that he is buddies with Seth Rogan, they used his cancer to try to pick up girls, to get medicinal marijuana and they did a cancer comedy.
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I had a lot of health issues when I was a kid: I had a staph infection in the bone of my knee was I was 14 and again when I was 15, so I spent some time in the hospital, antibiotics, the whole thing. By no means was it cancer, but a scary time in my life. People were talking of amputating my leg and just crazy shit like, you’ll never walk again, you’ll never play basketball, so the film took me back that time in my life. We have all had people in our lives who have been affected by some sort of illness and they find humor in it oddly, the uncomfortable moments that people share and I love the film. I think it comes out September 30th.
The Ides of March that George Clooney is directing, Ryan Gosling political thriller. You know, Toronto is that one festival where you don’t really see that much crap. At Sundance you get some weird shit where you’re like alright, were they on drugs when they accepted this? I get it’s for them and it is not for me, but in Toronto you get really good stuff.
Were you surprised that The Help became this big hit of the summer?
Not really. Look at the fan base: it is built in and every summer we get so much crap! There is that one movie that is highbrow and it is just of a certain quality that just hits the people during the dog days of August. They are tired of watching super heroes, they are tired of animated movies. They want something smart to balance out all the other bullshit. The Help is a movie that is kind of a generational film and grandmas can see it with their granddaughter and stuff and it had great performances. I think sometimes we get caught up in this world of celebrity and entertainment and saying that you have to have a big star in the movie to open your film but good movies find their way to their audience. With The Help you don’t have box office stars, but you have a great product and people come to find it.
