"She might need more of them," he laughed. "It's a very demanding job to keep her in line, because she is quite naughty."

Told of this, Seyfried said she understands and accepts her "punishment."

"I know he really enjoys that, so I'll let him," she said. "If that's what he needs. Whatever he needs."

'Life of Pi'

Run time: 2 hours, 6 minutes. Best time to go to the bathroom? Before the shipwreck.

Deep Blue Sea: Director Ang Lee and screenwriter Dave Magee consulted with a real-life shipwreck survivor named Steve Callahan (who is actually mentioned in Yann Martel's source novel) to help make the ocean a real character in the story. Callahan, a professional sailor, details in his book "Adrift" (required reading for all the film's various department heads) how he was lost at sea for 76 days in an inflated 5-foot life raft, and he became the film's survival expert, sharing mechanics, psychology, and imagery that the filmmakers adopted (such as the wondrous moment when the whale and calf come up from the deep and stream bioluminescence from their bodies).

Callahan helped created Pi's rainwater canopy, honed designs for the life raft and taught young actor Suraj Sharma how to spear fish. He explained how he wrote in a journal to determine his location, so Lee and Magee borrowed that idea to have Pi write in the margins of his survival guide (which Callahan helped create).

Callahan also took the filmmakers out on the ocean, first off the coast of Maine in an antique Friendship sloop during foul weather. The director actually asked to be left out there alone, so he could feel shipwrecked. But as accommodating as the survival expert was, this was one request Callahan refused.

'Zero Dark Thirty'

Run time: 2 hours, 37 minutes. Best time to go to the bathroom? "That's a tough one, man," laughed actor Jason Clarke. "I don't think you can. There should be a disclaimer beforehand. 'Please shut off your mobile phones; please go to the bathroom.'"

CIA Trackers: James Gandolfini portrays former CIA head Leon Panetta for a few memorable scenes, and just to be on the safe side, he sent a note to Panetta before the film came out: "I'm very sorry about everything. I apologize. You're like my father, so you'll find something to be angry about, but please let me know."

For months, silence. Then, as "Zero Dark Thirty" was in the throes of awards season in early January, screenwriter Mark Boal told Gandolfini, "Leon Panetta would like your phone number because he doesn't know how to get in touch with you."

The actor was surprised. "He's the head of the CIA! He can't find me? Come on, really?!"