Drama (genre)

In the context of film and radio, drama describes a genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone, focusing on in-depth development of realistic characters who must deal with realistic emotional struggles. A drama is commonly considered the opposite of a comedy, but may also be considered separate from other works of some broad genre, such as a fantasy. To distinguish drama as a genre of fiction from the use of the same word to mean the general storytelling mode of live performance, the word drama is often included as part of a phrase to specify its meaning. For instance, in the sense of a television genre, more common specific terms are a drama show, drama series, or television drama in the United States; dramatic programming in the United Kingdom; or teledrama in Sri Lanka. In the sense of a film genre, the common term is a drama film.

Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, child abuse, coming of age, drug addiction, emotion, hope, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, sexuality, poverty, class divisions, violence against women and corruption put characters in conflict with themselves, others, society, or even natural phenomena. Drama is one of the broadest movie genres and includes subgenres such as romantic drama, war films, sport films, period drama, courtroom drama and crime.

Jake Gyllenhaal

Jacob Benjamin "Jake" Gyllenhaal (/ˈdʒɪlənhɔːl/ JIL-ən-hawl; born December 19, 1980) is an American actor. The son of director Stephen Gyllenhaal and screenwriter Naomi Foner, Gyllenhaal began acting at the age of ten. Following his first lead role in October Sky (1999), he starred in the indie cult hit Donnie Darko (2001), in which he played a psychologically troubled teenager alongside his older sister, Maggie Gyllenhaal. In 2002, he starred in another indie film, The Good Girl. In 2004, he appeared in the climate fiction-disaster film The Day After Tomorrow, portraying a student caught in a cataclysmic climate event.

Gyllenhaal played a frustrated Marine in Jarhead (2005) and, the same year, his role as Jack Twist in Brokeback Mountain earned him critical acclaim. For his Brokeback Mountain performance, he won the BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actor and was nominated for the Academy Award in the same category. He has since played lead roles in many films, including Zodiac (2007), Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2010), Love & Other Drugs (2010), Source Code (2011), End of Watch (2012), Prisoners (2013), Nightcrawler (2014), and Southpaw (2015).

Anne Hathaway

Anne Jacqueline Hathaway (born November 12, 1982) is an American actress and singer. After several stage roles, Hathaway appeared in the 1999 television series Get Real. She came to prominence after playing Mia Thermopolis in the Disney film The Princess Diaries (2001) and in its 2004 sequel. Since then, Hathaway has starred in dramatic films such as the 2005 movies Havoc and Brokeback Mountain. She has also starred in The Devil Wears Prada in 2006 and in Becoming Jane (2007) as Jane Austen and also in Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight Rises (2012) as Selina Kyle/The Cat, and Interstellar (2014).

In 2008, she won several awards for her performance in Rachel Getting Married, also earning an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. In 2010, she starred in the box office hits Valentine's Day, Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland, and Love and Other Drugs and won an Emmy Award for her voice-over performance on The Simpsons. In 2011, she had a voice role in the animated film Rio. In 2012, she portrayed Selina Kyle/Catwoman in Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight Rises and Fantine in Tom Hooper's Les Misérables. Her performance in the latter earned her rave reviews and several accolades, including the Golden Globe Award, the Screen Actors Guild Award, the BAFTA Award and the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

Ryan Gosling

Ryan Thomas Gosling (born November 12, 1980) is a Canadian actor and musician. He began his career as a child star on the Disney Channel's Mickey Mouse Club (1993–95) and went on to appear in other family entertainment programs including Are You Afraid of the Dark? (1995) and Goosebumps (1996). He starred in the television series Breaker High (1997–98) as Sean Hanlon and Young Hercules (1998–99) as the title role. His first starring role was as a Jewish neo-Nazi in The Believer (2001), and he then built a reputation for starring in independent films such as Murder by Numbers (2002), The Slaughter Rule (2002), and The United States of Leland (2003).

Gosling came to the attention of a wider audience in 2004 with a leading role in the romantic drama The Notebook, for which he won four Teen Choice Awards and an MTV Movie Award. His performance as a drug-addicted teacher in Half Nelson (2006) was nominated for an Academy Award and his performance as a socially inept loner in Lars and the Real Girl (2007) was nominated for a Golden Globe Award. Also in 2007, he starred in the courtroom thriller Fracture. After a three-year acting hiatus, Gosling starred in Blue Valentine, earning him a second Golden Globe nomination. 2011 proved to be a landmark year for Gosling as he co-starred in three mainstream films – the romantic comedy-drama Crazy, Stupid, Love, the political drama The Ides of March and the action thriller Drive – and received two Golden Globe nominations. In 2013, he starred in the crime thriller Gangster Squad, the generational drama The Place Beyond the Pines, and the violent revenge film Only God Forgives. His directorial debut Lost River was released in 2014. In 2015, he joined an ensemble cast for the financial drama The Big Short.

Liam Hemsworth

Liam Hemsworth (born 13 January 1990) is an Australian actor. He played the role of Josh Taylor in the soap opera Neighbours and as Marcus on the children's television series The Elephant Princess. In 2010, he starred in the American film The Last Song and in 2012, he starred as Gale Hawthorne in The Hunger Games film series, based on an adaptation of Suzanne Collins' best-selling novel series. Hemsworth's older brothers, Luke and Chris, are also actors.

Early life

Hemsworth was born in Melbourne, Australia, to Leonie, a teacher of English, and Craig Hemsworth, a social-services counsellor. His two older brothers are Chris and Luke Hemsworth, who also work as actors. Hemsworth has said that though there is competition for jobs among them, it is friendly: "We are brothers and we are always competitive, but it is a good thing, it pushes us and we are always happy whenever someone books something."

When Hemsworth was in year 8, he and his family relocated to Phillip Island, a small Australian island southeast of Melbourne. Hemsworth says he spent much of his time there surfing with his brothers. In March 2009, Hemsworth moved to the United States to pursue his career there. He and his brother Chris first stayed in the guest house of Chris's manager, William Ward, before renting their own Los Angeles apartment.