The Oscar Week in Four Quotes and a Video
Friday, December 9, 2016 at 12:26PM by Murtada
In this new weekly feature we will follow the Oscar contenders and examine how their many interviews and appearances impact their chances.
Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone
As Silence continues to screen and Hacksaw Ridge continues to do well with award bodies, Garfield is making the rounds including the Hollywood Reporter Roundtable. When asked which actor he’d have with him if he was stranded on a desert island, he said:
Emma Stone. I love Emma. She's all right. She can come.
This comes after Emma casually mentioned in her Vogue 73 questions video that the best gift she received was a hand-made rocking chair. Guess what Andrew told THR in that roundtable? Yes you guessed it. He learned how to make a rocking chair as part of his preparation for Silence. Oh these two and their amicable breakup.
Meanwhile Emma is everywhere. La La Land finally hits theaters today and Emma continues her non stop press tour which started in Venice, back in August. She and Ryan Gosling were Hollywood immortalized together with the famous hand and footprint celebration. Emma being ever the effervescent charmer mixed gratitude with just the right amount of humility in her remarks:
This is embarrassing. I thought this was maybe the kind of a thing where you come and put your hand prints in cement and then they take them away and put them up somewhere. I was told they're going to stay here, so I cried a little bit inside."
Amy Adams
Another actor who’s tirelessly campaigning this season is Adams, pictured with Spike Jonze at an Arrival screening he hosted for her in NY. In an interview with the NYTimes, Adams shed a light on why she continues to campaign even after 5 previous nominations:
"It’s easy to get caught up, not in the nominations — not in the reward-award aspect of it, but just in everything that it becomes. []. For me, it definitely at times is overwhelming, that whole process. But I’m always grateful because the nomination for “Junebug” and campaigning launched what is my current career. So I can’t poo-poo the process."
Ruth Negga
Stone is not the only best actress hopeful to get a Vogue cover this year. Negga is Vogue's January star. This is a huge get for a rising star. Alicia Vikander, Cate Blanchett, Meryl Streep and Natalie Portman were all on the cover of Vogue’s January issue the year they won their Oscars. Sienna Miller was also on that cover the year of American Sniper and Foxcatcher, so it doesn’t always correlate.
What caught our attention in the accompaying interview is how Ruth, as someone of mixed race heritage, relates to the message of the movie:
It does annoy Joel and me when people say it’s a quiet film. Because it doesn’t feel very quiet to us. It feels really loud.
It seems that perception is hurting the movie’s chances at a nomination. It missed the AFI Top 10 list of the year, which is especially strange for such a quintessentially American story. The 10 movies that AFI chose were Arrival, Fences, Hacksaw Ridge, Hell or High Water, La La Land, Manchester by the Sea, Moonlight, Silence, Sully and Zootopia.
Casey Affleck
Last week Casey Affleck’s won his first and definitely not last best actor award at the Gothams, for his performance in Manchester by the Sea. His speech started well with shoutouts to his writer / director Kenneth “Kenny” Lonergan and his co-stars. But then he rambled on. And on. With unnecessary digs at Nick Kroll and Joel Edgerton. Affleck has other troubles that might impede a win but a coach or some preparation can certainly help with the speeches. He’ll have at least 2 more chances to practice in January, having won both NBR and NYFCC, before the televised awards start and a bad speech becomes something that might actually have an impact.
Reader Comments (22)
In order to get credit for a "de-glammed " performance, an actress has to set an image of her glamourous self side by side.
Ruth Negga is just killing it in her photo opportunities as gorgeous, fashionable, and elegant. If they can start thinking of her as this year's "It Girl", then they can appreciate the strength of her acting performance.
Casey sounded like a jack*ss during that speech.
ANDREW AND EMMA FOREVER <3
I saw Adams and Villeneuve after a SAG screening of Arrival last night and Any really charmed the crowd with just the right mixture of small town girl, working actress and movie star. The film was warmly received--as a matter of fact, I'd say she's a shoo-in for a SAG Award nom.
On my own list, she entered the top five or six, pushing Stone down to seven.
Ruth Negga is gorgeous and she gives a performance in Loving with layer upon layers. I'm so glad she got that Vogue cover. People can criticize Anna Wintour all they want, there are times when her judgment is queen.
I thought Andrew and Emma were no longer together. This will make things less awkward in that case!
Vanya - they are not together, it's just a very amicable breakup. I clarified.
Aw, love the Andrew/Emma story
I feel like you're judging Casey's speech rather harshly. He appears taken aback and is clearly new to such situations, but he seems genuinely grateful and his speechlessness is somewhat charming.
As for those "unnecessary digs"... c'mon. He made a few harmless jokes directed at people he clearly knows. There was nothing mean-spirited about it.
It wasn't a perfect speech, by any means, but we're also talking about the Gotham Awards. Cut the guy some slack.
I really want to love Andrew and Emma. I do. And I love Emma Stone. But... "I made you this rocking chair after mediating on the set of Martin Scorsese's new movie about monks" would be a dealbreaker.
Would appreciate a "rocking chair anointed by Annette Bening, Greta Gerwig and Billy Crudup after a saucy dinner after a day of filming 20th Century Woman" gift much more.
Miss Stone was born to be a movie star
Am I the only one who thinks Adams has a legitimate shot to win Best Actress this year? Especially if Arrival does as well in the nominations as I think it will...
@ Michael R
It could happen, definitely.
The great thing for me about this year—at this point, anyway—is that I can easily imagine any of seven actresses winning: Adams, Huppert, Stone, Negga, Davis (if nominated in this category), Bening or Portman. It's amazing. Too bad this will pass in a matter of weeks...
She may have a shot but it's not big enough to call legitimate IMHO.
(1) She is not getting win-worthy-best-performance-of-career type of reviews. Stone and to a lesser extent Portman and Annette are.
(2) Also, people think Adams will be around forever giving great performances. Being a multiple loser helps if your older. Unfortunately people think oh we can just reward her in a couple years, which sadly may never happen - she may never be in the conversation again - we've seen this before. BUT ppl tend to think "oh this is our last chance" if your older like Bening or if you haven't been working that much or are in a slump.
I'm a little puzzled. Everyone says it's a great year for lead actresses, and it seems that way to me too. It's also been said that it's not so great for lead actors.
Yet the forerunners considered seriously for Best Picture seem to be skewing to male ensembles, movies without women, women with tiny supporting parts. There's only a few of those movies with great female leads or co-stars that are considered to have a shot. (The Film Experience is always a welcome anomaly).
The actresses are great, but their movies weren't serious enough or important enough?
@ adri
It's always that way. The number of times a Best Actress winner is the only win (or often sole nomination) from her film is high. The last actress to be in a multi-Oscar winning picture in the major categories was Swank in Million Dollar Baby (and it only won four, including Best Picture) and before that Paltrow in Shakespeare in Love (seven, including BP). Typically, you have situations like Still Alice, The Blind Side, The Iron Lady, Monster, Monster's Ball, Boys Don't Cry etc.
I don't know if that's true. I haven't read all the reviews, but what I'm hearing is that this is Adams' most mature and deeply compelling performance. People are saying this is the best role (and possibly best film) of Stone's career, and that's true, give or take a Birdman. With Portman, it's hard to rank Jackie higher than Black Swan (apples and oranges) or even Cold Mountain or Léon. As for Bening, I'd agree that it's a career high, but I'm sure other fans of some of her early and mid-career work (e.g., The Grifters, Valmont, Being Julia) would disagree.
Those Vogue question videos are so fake. This girl is golden.
@adri
I hear you and that always frustrates the hell out of me too. Like, in what universe is Hacksaw Ridge and Sully more legitimate Best Picture candidates than, say, Jackie and 20th Century Women? So utterly bizarre but Oscar is so drawn to male-centered stories (although I am still not convinced that Hacksaw Ridge is going to be a major player in the top categories. There will be many people in the Academy who are not yet ready to forgive Mel Gibson).
i must say, you can't really argue with amy's logic. she is often earnest and self-deprecating, but in the hollywood context, it's quite refreshing.
Very good article was what I was looking for congratulations to the author.