Podcast: Sexy Interlopers. Oscar Role Play
Monday, February 21, 2011 at 1:02PM 
New Podcast!
The gangs all here. Nathaniel, Nick, Katey and Joe were too full of the Awards Season spirit to squeeze into the alloted time so this one comes to you in two parts (part two tomorrow). We're bursting with chatter about the nominated actors in particular and the post BAFTAs King's Speech climate. So we decided to play The Film Experience's favorite hypothetical award season game: Which nominated roles do you think would have been interesting or totally different with the another nominated actors playing them? But that's not all...
Topics covered include
- Channing Tatum and Jamie Bell in The Eagle
- Queens of (Reaction Shot) Shade: Miranda Richardson and Anjelica Huston
- Nicole Kidman at the Grammys
- David Fincher "behind enemy lines"
- Aronofsky's homage to Natalie Portman
- Supporting Actress free for all. Who to predict?
- Role Play Switcheroos. Which actors would be most interesting in each other's roles? Helena Bonham Carter gets quite a vocal/psychological workout and Mark Ruffalo's Sexy Interloper in The Kids Are All Right finds plentiful sperm-donor competition.
Recent articles briefly cited: Nick's Annette Bening piece, Nathaniel's review of The Eagle, Joe's 1990 Oscar retrospective.
LISTEN IN. We'd love to hear your comments. Especially about the annual Film Experience Oscar game. Switch the roles around. What'cha got?
Annette Bening, BAFTA, Mark Ruffalo, Nicole Kidman, Oscars (90s), Podcast, The Eagle, True Grit, undefined in Podcast
Reader Comments (20)
Annette in the Weaver role.
HBC in the M. Williams role.
Franco in Rush's role.
O. Russell in the Leo role. I kid.
PS: I hope next time (hope there isn't) you'll kill the mouse instantly and not let it die of exhaustion or whatever :(
I'd swap the supporting Aussies; Weaver and Rush.
Weaver's domineering solicitude could make for a tricksier reading of Logue, whilst I wonder if Rush's casual geniality could turn conniving.
Just so long as Weaver retains her catchphrase in TKS, amended for emotional context: "You've felt some baaad things, sweetie".
I promise to try to buy a microphone that's better than the one I found this week, which still made me sound patchy and remote, like I'm phoning in from the Challenger, perhaps after it already exploded. Otherwise, I really need Kevin O'Donnell or Skip Lievsay or Ren Klyce to help me out.
Speaking of feisty Oscar reaction shots, Kathy Bates' reaction to Catherine Zeta-Jones winning. So much contained anger.
the male younger version of Kids, Bale as Nic, Franco as Jules and michelle williams as the sexy interloper... that would be fantastic.
Really hate to belabor the point, Nate, but could you please re-post the older podcasts? You guys are hilarious and I feel like I've missed out. Thanks for another great podcast. I'm looking forward to Part 2!
As much as I love him, can anyone see Jesse Eisenberg doing any other role? I think the closest would be Jennifer Lawrence's role.
Renner-Franco swap.
NIkhat -- you read our minds. In part two we discuss EISENBERG and why we didn't mention him.
Percy -- it'll have to wait till after Oscar night. i'm just too swamped until march.
NMD -- wasn't Rush conniving in Elizabeth? i think he could do it.
I'd like to see Renner playing Ruffalo's character. I haven't seen him in enough films and I think it's be cool to watch him have fun with a role and lay back a little. To know a less intense facet of him.
It would've been fun to see Nicole Kidman and Jeff Bridges, albeit a tad old, in "The Kids Are All Right" and Christian Bale in "127 Hours"
I'd also really like to see what Amy Adams could do with a role like "Blue Valentine." I know "The Fighter" was a departure for her, but it'd be nice to watch her really sink her teeth into something.
Had "Black Swan" been made in the 90's, no one would've rocked that more than Helena Bonham Carter. But I'm bending the rules now.
Just for shits and giggles, let's try and imagine Darren Aronofsky having directed "The King's Speech"
ALEX -- whoa. i think my brain just short circuited trying to see Aronofsky's obsessiveness wrapped around The King's Speech. it would be so so so so so so wrong. What could he latch on to ;) who would lose their mind?
I agree that it'd be fun to see Kidman in Bening's role. Maybe Bening has the "best role" because so many of the other actresses could have brought their own style to this. Kidman, HBC, Adams, an older Williams, Leo, even Weaver.
Also, I think Bale could have done Firth's role, and I'd like to see him in this restrained, internal kind of part (although I think Firth was great).
Ruffalo, if younger, has enough likeability and versatility to hold attention in Franco's part. And Franco, if older, would be fine in Ruffalo's part.
Geoffrey Rush, if younger, would have been just fascinating in Eisenberg's role. A younger Jeff Bridges and Franco could also have brought something ambivalent and unable to pin down, suggesting some depth.
And although Jennifer Lawrence did a good job in Winter's Bone, any of the other older actress nominees would have sizzled in this part when they were 18. Can't you just see the curly haired redhead teen Kidman? The delicate but tough, too smart for her environment Bening? The dangerous, could kill you back, HBC? The tough Weaver or Leo, the inner will of iron Portman or Williams? or The struggling to be better than her surroundings Adams? Every single one would have been more interesting. Many of them were working at Lawrence's age and had an excitement to their work that foreshadowed how good they'd be later.
However, this game says more about the role and how many interpretations it could contain than it does about a particular actor. They've all worked hard and done good jobs and I don't want to be disparaging.
I... kind of want to see Helena Bonham-Carter in all of these roles. I think she would nail Becca in Rabbit Hole, Nic in The Kids Are All Right, Alice in The Fighter and if she were older, Smurf in Animal Kingdom. She has a lot more range than I think people give her credit for. Everybody should see Conversations with Other Women. She and Eckhart are brilliant in it.
I would have thoroughly loved to see Nicole take on Nic in TKAAR.
I actually would have liked to see if Franco could handle the Sorkin-like dialogue in Social Network.
I'd love to see Amy Adams get something quiet and thoughtful like Blue Valentine or even Rabbit Hole.
Joe, Bardem in the Kids are All RIght is an inspired choice!
Nicole Kidman in The Kids Are All Right as either of the ladies.
Fast Forward at least 10 years, but James Franco as the interloper in TKAA
HBC in Rabbit Hole
Amy Adams and Christian Bale in Blue Valentine
Nicole Kidman and Jeff Bridges in Blue Valentine
I'm sorry but Anjelica Huston's reaction shot seems totally normal to me
I have to wonder how Wasikowska and Lawrence would have done in the opposite acting-nominated projects. Could Lawrence have drawn enough attention to the caring daughter of Nik and Jules to garner awards attention? And could Wasikowska have gotten nominated for a film-carrying but not necessary flashy leading role? It's an interesting possibility.
Or to really go wild, could Lawrence have sold an older Mattie Ross and Steinfeld a younger Ree? Or could either of them had turned that poorly written Alice into something worth writing home about?
Count me on Team HBC for all of these roles. Can we remake that awful Wonderland film with her playing all of the roles? That might be a good film then. Imagine: HBC as the Mad Hatter, and the White Queen, and Alice, and the voice of all the talking animals. It would be stunning.
Other Robert -- wow i love this ALL HELENA idea. It's a project that begs for surreal touches after all. Why not an Alice that sees herself , however distorted in every oddball she meets.
Can't beat the prospect of Javier Bardem in Mark Ruffalo’s KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT role... granted I think Ruffalo was pitch-perfect in it.
and just kinda i'm still pushing for Amy Adams to fully embrace the darkness, seeing her in Williams's BLUE VALENTINE role could be interesting.
such a fun and insightful podcast. can't wait for part 2.
as much as i love melissa and jacki i kinda want helena to win the oscar now just to hear her give another insanely delicious and witty speech--and to pretend its for "wings of the dove" ;)