Kat appeared at the Defendor Premiere in LA at the Landmark Theatre last night, February 22. We have a LOT of pictures from it, and she’s been photographed with Anton Yelchin, Chloe Sullivan, Diva Zappa, Peter Stebbings, Sandra Oh and of course, Woody Harrelson. Looking adorable and awesome as always, Kat. :)

124 pictures from it here.

Rachel went to that premiere and I suspect she’ll have a lot more to say when she comes back from it. :)

As you all hopefully know by now, Defendor is being released in cinemas across Canada tonight! And then in LA on Monday, where our own Rachel won a pass for two to the premiere. It will be awesome to hear what she has to say about the film over the weekend. :)

Have a pre-film interview with Kat from the Province:

She grew up toddling on the rolling green lawns of Bryn Mawr, Penn. — home to the world’s best women’s’ college and Katharine Hepburn’s alma mater — but Kat Dennings says while she fell in love with the classics, it wasn’t exactly a literary thing.

“I love the old musicals like Top Hat and An American in Paris,” says Dennings, who registered as a bona fide blip on the ingenue radar in the wake of playing Norah opposite Michael Cera’s Nick of Infinite Playlist fame.

“I didn’t want to be an actress from the very start. I went through a ballet stage first. Then I wanted to be a mermaid.”

Now starring in actor-turned director Peter Stebbings’s debut feature Defendor, Dennings says she has no problem taking on a variety of different roles, or even playing the crack-addicted sex trade worker (as she does in Defendor), as long as she maintains her personal and professional integrity along the way.

“I don’t really care if the choices I make are good or bad, but it’s important to me that they’re honest,” she says.

When it came to Defendor, Dennings says she was interested in taking on a low-budget project that seemed, in many ways, to be a labour of love for director Stebbings — as well as an ode to the steely-hearted city of Hamilton.

The story of a mentally challenged man who decides to clean up “the Hammer” by donning black clothing and taping a big “D” to his chest with duct tape, Defendor tells a familiar vigilante story with a human twist.

Stebbings says he was well aware of the archetypal source material he was working with, but wanted to strip it down to the basic mechanics of good and bad, and stick as close to the baseline as possible.

“I think people need to see how a lot of people in our society live. We turn a blind eye to all the invisible people out there, whether they are dealing with drug addiction or a disability,” says Stebbings.

“I spent a lot of time in Vancouver and I used to go to the First United Church at Hastings and Gore. I definitely saw how the other half lived,” he says.

Dennings wasn’t all that familiar with that other half, but in order to play the role of a teenage prostitute in this Canadian take on Taxi Driver, she did spend some time with a spokesperson for sex trade workers.

“I worked with a woman who was very familiar with this world and it was really helpful because this character [ironically named Kat] isn’t anything like me at all. She has nothing to hang on to,” says Dennings.

“I have a great family and supportive friends and I’ve been blessed in so many areas of my life. Kat, the character, has none of what I have. She’s got nothing to latch on to,” she says.

“I have to say, being in Hamilton for four or five weeks was also a huge help. That city certainly gets you in the right mood to smoke crack,” she says, her tone a perfect deadpan.

Starring opposite Oscar nominee Woody Harrelson, who plays Arthur Poppington (a. k.a. Defendor), Dennings says she found all the support she needed on set because Harrelson is the kind of actor who commits completely.

“If Woody hadn’t been there, the movie would have fallen apart. You have to believe in Arthur, and I swear, every time we were in a scene together and I looked into his eyes, I believed. He really transformed into Arthur — without tricks or anything — and that kind of made the experience for me.”

Dennings says she has no overall design on her career. She’s going to take it one part at a time, and right now, that would mean playing Darcy in the forthcoming Thor movie directed by Kenneth Branagh.

“Ah. I don’t know. I want to keep growing. Hopefully, I can do more comedy. I really like it and I think growing up, my favourite two actresses were Bernadette Peters and Madeline Kahn. They were great actors who made funny look easy. And that’s probably the hardest thing there is to do,” says Dennings.

“If they ever remake The Jerk, I’m going to fight to be in it.”

Source.

Defendor’s website is officially up and running, and it lists Defendor’s release date as February 26 in select theatres in LA, and February 19 in Canada, namely Vancouver, Toronto and Calgary. \o/ Rachel will go see it if she can locate the LA theatre, so maybe she’ll write a review for you guys if she’s successful. <3

Official Website.
Facebook.
Twitter.

TIFF Defendor Premiere and After Party
TIFF 2009 Portraits

Pictures from the TIFF premiere of Defendor and an accompanying portraits session now up in the gallery!

Kat looked positively stunning (despite being sick!) at the Shorts premiere yesterday in Hollywood. We have 74 images of her arriving at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in a slinky black dress here!

Also, visit our new affiliate Anna Kendrick.Net!

The Toronto International Film Festival will feature 70 Canadian films at this year’s 10-day event, including world premieres of Atom Egoyan’s thriller Chloe , Dilip Mehta’s New Delhi-based comedy Cooking With Stella and the much-anticipated romantic drama Cairo Time from Montreal’s Ruba Nadda.

At a packed press conference yesterday at Toronto’s Fairmont Royal York hotel, TIFF organizers also announced that American director Terry Gilliam’s The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (with co-stars Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell, filling in the lead role vacated by the untimely death of Australian actor Heath Ledger) will be a North American premiere gala.

In special presentations, the festival will also showcase the feature-film directorial debuts of Vancouver-bred Peter Stebbings ( Defendor with Woody Harrelson, Kat Dennings and Sandra Oh) and 20-year-old Quebecker Xavier Dolan’s English-Canadian premiere for J’ai Tue Ma Mere (I Killed My Mother) .

Read the rest of the article here.

TIFF is this year held from September 10th to September 19th, and this is its 34th year.

In other news, the LA premiere of Shorts is going to be on August 15th at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, and Kat will be in attendance! If you feel like seeing her down the red carpet in the flesh, the celeb arrivals are set to about noon, with the films screening at 1 P.M.

I’ve got a bunch of new images for you today. First off is the caps from Kat’s newest videoblog that were promised yesterday.

Next some outtakes from the Entertainment Weekly issue of November, 2008, where Kat was featured in the Breakout Stars of 2008! These are all with Rob Pattinson, and photographed by Chris Craymer.

And last but not least, 13 new HQ images from Kat’s attending the Adventureland Premiere on March 16.

Enjoy!

35 new high quality images from the LA Nick and Norah premiere uploaded here and here. I’ve been staring at her dress so much for the past few days that I want it for myself.

POPTUB talked to Kat Dennings and the rest of the cast at the premiere on Thursday night, and here’s a tidbit from it.

EW also interviewed Kat and Michael Cera at the Toronto International Film Festival last month, and the interview is in full under the cut. :) Caps from both of these things forthcoming when I get home from my parents’. Thanks to dennings on LJ for the heads up.

Kat looked absolutely fabulous at the Nick and Norah premiere and after party at Archlight Hollywood last night. I’m sure you ‘ll agree with me, after you check the images I uploaded;

96 images from the premiere
10 images from the after party