Jeffrey Dean Morgan
News

A pair of actors celebrate birthdays today, neither of whom is too well-known at the moment. But that's likely to change in the near future for both Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Amber Heard.

The former is finally prepared to shed is label as "Denny" from Grey's Anatomy, as fans of that show have known Morgan solely for his portrayal of Izzie's late fiance for months now. But with roles in The Accidental Husband and Watchmen coming up, the actor should become a big screen star by the end of 2009.

Morgan turns 42 today.

Heard, meanwhile, is really hot. Her only well-known feature film experience has been the fightign flick Never Back Down, but a role in Judd Apatow's Pineapple Express will certainly put this beauty on the map for more than just her looks.

Heard turns 22 today.

Jeffrey Dean Morgan - who will appear in Zack Snyder's adaptation of the graphic novel Watchmen and is slated to star opposite Uma Thurman in The Accidental Husband this year - has been cast to star opposite Kirsten Dunst and Ryan Gosling in All Good Things.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Andrew Jarecki will direct.

The film is a love story and murder mystery set against a real estate dynasty in 1980s New York. The plot centers on the scion of the dynasty (Gosling) who falls for a beautiful girl (Dunst) from the wrong side of the tracks. She then disappears. Morgan will play a down-and-out detective who tries to uncover the truth.

Production begins this month in Connecticut.

Grey's Anatomy fans know Jeffrey Dean Morgan as lovable, late patient Denny.

But comic book followers will soon embrace the actor in the role of The Comedian in Zack Snyder's movie adaptation of the famous Alan Moore graphic novel, Watchmen.

During a press conference for another movie he's starring in, P.S. I Love You, Morgan answered a few questions about Watchmen (due in theaters in March, 2009).

Q: Give us an update as to how the filming has been going and what your experiences have been thus far
Morgan: It's super huge, man. It's just like this kind of mind boggling; every day I go to work on that thing and it's sort of overwhelming and I don't know if I've ever done anything that's quite like that before. We're shooting on the New York set now.

All I can say is it's the most amazing set I've ever seen in my life and we were doing this night exterior - the Keene Riots and seeing the graphic novel come to life like I saw that night… it gives me chills just thinking about it. It's one of those things that I still - I was just telling somebody in another room that it's so much right now to be doing it, just showing up at work everyday and getting into character and going into costume and showing up on the set and then seeing what I'm seeing and how it's all coming together.

I don't know that I have the right words how to describe this experience and tell I'm well done with it because every day it's something else.

Q: Can you talk about your character, The Comedian?
Morgan: Edward Blake is his real name and then the Comedian is the kind of superhero character he is. The character I play is 180 degrees from anything I've ever done before. A far cry from certainly William. A really far cry from Denny Duquette, which is why I wanted to do it. It's a whole other thing. He's an animal.

But I think one of the reasons I got hiredâ€"the things he does, his physical actions are horrendous. Certainly the most horrendous things I've ever seen much less portrayed. But I think my job is toâ€"you don't hate himâ€"so my job is to kind of be able to do these fucking horrible things and yet have the audience not hate his guts.

Because you don't, you read the book and you don't hate the Comedian. There's a reason he does what he does and you know he just takes it maybe to a level that most people wouldn't but for him it's normal.