Best Actor & Best Actress. Vote on the Trivia-Filled Charts

by Nathaniel R

Lead acting nominees ranked by how many Best Picture nominees they've starred in.

We continue to expand the Oscar charts so we're hope you're enjoying them. All four acting charts are now complete, with Best Actress and Best Actor both newly updated with lots of trivia, theories on how the actors were nominated and more. Just like how we did with Supporting Actress and Supporting Actor. Don't forget you can vote each day on who should win. But for the here and now, here's some trivia in relation to all four acting categories combined:

BY THE NUMBERS
64 = average gross (in millions) of their nominated movies (box office numbers via a couple of days ago)
52 = number of Oscar nominations between them
47 = the average age of this year's nominees 
33 = average number of films they've appeared in
18 = number of children they have among them
9 = number of Emmys won by this group (Close x 3, King x 3, McCarthy x 2, and Malek)
5 = number of Oscars won by this group (Ali, Bale, Rockwell, Stone, and Weisz)
3 = number of Tonys won by this group (Glenn Close only)
2.6 = average number of Best Picture nominees that they've each starred in*
2.4 = the average number of Oscar nominations (in acting) for this year's nominees
2 = number of the nominees married to other famous actors (Elliott & Weisz)
2 = number of nominees who have played Meryl Streep's immediate family on film (Olivia Colman was her daughter in Iron Lady, and Glenn Close her mother in Evening... albeit in flashbacks with Mamie Gummer as the young Meryl)

PERCENTAGES
35% of the nominated characters are LGBTQ people
35% of the nominees were born outside the US (Adams, Aparicio, Bale, Colman, de Tavira, Grant, Weisz)
35% have also been Emmy nominees (Ali, Close, Driver, Elliott, King, Malek, McCarthy)
35% have also been Emmy nominees (Ali, Close, Driver, Elliott, King, Malek, McCarthy)
30% of the nominees are Water signs (3 Scorpios, 2 Pisces, and 1 Cancer) 
25% are former Oscar winners
25% of the characters nominated are politicians of some sort, professionally or in practice
25% of the characters nominated are musicians or employed in the music industry
20% of the nominated actors have performed on Broadway (Close, Cooper, Stone, Weisz)
20% of the nominated characters are dying or dead by the credit scrawl of these pictures.
20% are former Emmy winners
10% are former Tony nominees (Close & Cooper)
0% of the actors nominated are LGBTQ ...
(but Lady Gaga is mother monster so maybe she counts a little?)

RANDOMNESS
There are no Geminis nominated! It's the only sign not nominated and as a Gemini, we object!

* Those figures are much higher than they used to be pre 2009 when the Best Picture field expanded. It used to be uncommon to have lots of Best Picture nominees on your resume which makes Willem Dafoe's record particularly impressive. He's appeared in the most Best Picture nominees of this group of 20 actors, SIX in total, and yet only one of them (The Grand Budapest Hotel) happened in the current expanded Best Picture era. 

January. It's a Wrap

Only one month of the film year left to go - haha. We all know the film year doesn't end until Oscar night, right? But we have technically begun another calendar year and we're already 1/12th done with it. We were reminded not by the calendar but by Murtada and Abe's Sundance coverage which is nearing completion. And the end of Sundance always means the end of January.

Herewith highlights we don't want you to have missed...

• 10 Reasons to Stream Support the Girls -Ilich's funny ode to this great indie
• Say a Prayer for Serenity - Jason's must-read review of a future camp classic
• Toni Collette: The Interview - Nathaniel talks to the great actor about her iconic performances and her feelings about grief and horror
• Soundtracking: Best of 2018 - Chris surveys the best recent musical movie moments
• Podcast Special - Murtada and Nathaniel answer reader questions
• Mary Poppins vs Mary Poppins Returns - Lynn compares their ensemble of kooks
• A Simple Favor's Design - Mark's ode to the very best of 2018's contemporary costuming
• Ben Foster: The Interview - The Leave No Trace star is in a good life & career place
• Months of Meryl: The Epilogue - Matt & John wrap up their year-long Streep series with a 10 best list
• Film Bitch Visual Awards - the 12 most beautifully shot movies of the year, plus other eye candy

Most Discussed Articles

• 7th Annual Team Experience Awards - The Favourite wins big
• Post Nomination Eulogies - odes to the Oscar-snubbed 
• Glenn Close Is Not Going To Be Ignored - Murtada on the actress's emotional Globe speech
• Kevin Hart and a Crisis Of Oscar's Own Making - Nathaniel has words for The Academy (and Ellen)
• Was 1993 the best "Best Supporting Actor" linup ever?- Ben looks back
• 12 Things we learned from the Oscar nomination - RT scores didn't matter, Alfonso Cuarón's precursor acceptances definitely did...

Hiccup is all grown up! COMING IN FEBRUARY
Oscar night obviously. But until then, a handful of new interviews with filmmakers and actors, the completion of the Film Bitch Awards as we wrap up the year in film coverage, favourite screen kisses, favourite acceptance speeches, the 25th anniversary of Reality Bites, the Berlinale, the return of the Supporting Actress Smackdown, and new releases like Birds of Passage, Alita Battle Angel, and How to Train Your Dragon 3. 

Any requests as we near Hollywood's High Holy Night?

Sundance: Joanna Hogg's 'The Souvenir'

Murtada Elfadl reporting from Sundance

“Show don’t tell” is how Joanna Hogg directs The Souvenir. Hogg is the former photographer and experimental filmmaker behind Archipelago (2010), and Exhibition (2013). Those films made a splash on the European indie scene but not many waves on this side of the Atlantic. Here she withholds the narrative to only slowly reveals what her film is about. We first meet a young film student Julie (Honor Swinton Byrne) in 1980s London, trying to make it in film school. Perhaps this is a character study somewhat based on Hogg’s own life? Only later do we discover that it’s about an intense all consuming co-dependent relationship between our lead and a sweet but drug-addicted snobbish man who works for the foreign office (Tom Burke)...

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"The Other Two" is Essential 2019 Television

By Spencer Coile 

The cancellation of Difficult People left a gaping hole in our hearts. The Hulu original series about two failed comedians, actors, etc. (Billy Eichner & Julie Klausner) brought out our most cynical selves, our razor sharp wit, and scratched that itch many contemporary comedies were not reaching for. Indeed, it’s been tough coping with this loss.  

However, Chris Kelly and Sarah Schneider (both writers from Saturday Night Live) have sensed our grief. The premiere of their Comedy Central series The Other Two, might somehow fill that Difficult pop culture void. After their teenage brother becomes an overnight celebrity when his YouTube video goes viral, siblings Cary (Drew Tarver) and Brooke (Heléne Yorke) – a struggling actor and dancer respectively – must define what success means to them. 

If that sounds trite, fear not. Because here are five reasons why The Other Two is essential 2019 television...   

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23 days til Oscar!

The only (current) 23 year-old in the world who is also an Oscar-nominated actor if not this year

Can you believe we're less than a month from Hollywood's High Holy Night? Since today's magic number is 23, we're sharing a gallery of beauties related to that number starting with Timothée Chalamet. Now, he didn't make this year's Oscar list despite precursor attention for Beautiful Boy but he is still the only current 23 year-old who can claim the title "Oscar-Nominated Actor". Please enjoy this photo gallery of other number 23 related beauties after the jump...

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