Interview: Ben Foster on "Leave No Trace" and Acting as Therapy

by Nathaniel R

Ben Foster discussing "Leave No Trace" last summer when it openedWhen I first met Ben Foster he was promoting Rampart (2011), a hard and angry movie about corrupt cops in which the acting was (unsurprisingly) terrific, he would barely speak about himself. Time has mellowed him, or at least made him more lighthearted about his own intensity. He ended our last interview begging for a screen comedy but sadly that project has never materialized. In person he's friendly and thoughtful and funny, never as impenetrable or scary or tragically sad as he has been is in his famous roles. In fact he's a happy new father, having had a daughter with his wife, the actress Laura Prepon, just over a year ago.

We met last month to discuss Debra Granik's award-winning drama Leave No Trace. He plays Will, a former soldier who has shut himself off from society with only his daughter Tom (Thomasin McKenzie) for companionship.When Will and Tom are found living in the woods at the beginning of the film, social workers attempt to reintegrate them into society. The daughter immediately adapts but the father is tougher to reach. Leave No Trace is moving and insightful and beautifully acted so that's where we begin as we discuss his career, his early days in acting, and what's next.

Our interview, has been edited for clarity and length...

with Director Debra Granik on set

NATHANIEL: Projects like Leave No Trace live or die based on the chemistry between the leads, so how can you prepare for a two-hander like this. Were you involved in casting? 

BEN FOSTER: I was involved in casting so far as Debra said 'I found someone I really like, and she's in New Zealand, here's the tape'. It was recorded on her phone and I watched like 30 seconds before I was like 'Oh yeah, that's it.'  

Instant approval. That's so cool.

She has a quality --you see it in person and you see it onscreen, she's lit from within. [In awe] She's one of them.

And I assume you trusted Debra a little bit on unknown actors, too, because she's famous for that Jennifer Lawrence discovery...

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Costume Design Guild Nominations

by Nathaniel R

Paddington 2's great costumes were snubbed by BAFTA last year and the CDG this year. But Lindy Hemming won the Oscar for Topsy Turvy (1999) without either of those nominations so there's still hope.The Costume Design Guild was founded in 1953 with an initial group of 30 members. Today they have an international membership of 700+. They've been giving out awards since 1999 but the categories weren't fully as they are know (period/costume/fantasy) until 2005.

Though their tastes do align with Oscar it's difficult to wholly prognosticate from their awards since the Oscar nominees are generally a mix of their Period and Fantasy nominees with an extra title thrown in (plus every once in a while the costume branch within the Academy will surprise with a contemporary nominee). Much more frequently Oscar will just add one film that wasn't honored at all by the CDG! They do it nearly all the time actually (10 out of the last 12 years). The point is a film is not out of the running if it wasn't honored at CDG, especially if it has a previously Oscar nominated costume designer behind it. That's potentially good news for five well regarded costumers who missed the CDG today: Linda Hemming (Paddington 2), Mary Zophres (First Man), Milena Canonero (The Sisters Brothers), Joanna Johnston (Welcome to Marwen), and Colleen Atwood (Fantastic Beasts: Grindelwald). That's not so good news for Caroline Eselin (If Beale Street Could Talk) who missed a CDG nomination today, since Oscar has yet to notice her.

We'll share the stats after the nominations at the bottom of this post so you'll have a clearer picture.  Ready? Let's talk costumes...

 Excellence in Contemporary Film

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Beauty Break: One Last Golden Globes Ogle

 

Good Morning! We hope you enjoyed our Globe coverage if you missed any of the pieces here they all are:

• Globe Night: the Review
• How did Sandra Oh & Andy Samberg do?
• Globe-to-Oscar Stats
• Fashions Pt 1
• Fashions Pt 2
• Team Reactions: Fantasy Tables and Other Silliness
• The Presenters, Ranked
• Jeff Bridges Tribute
• Glenn Close's Acceptance Speech
• Dr Don Shirley vs Freddie Mercury
• Fun Globe Tweets

To close it all out, here's a collection of great photos from Globes night and presumably the wee hours of Monday as well that you might not have seen. Celebrities are pretty. Click if you agree...

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Jeff Bridges really tied the room together at the Globes.

Oops. We concluded our Globe coverage without talking about Jeff Bridges! That won't do, man. Here's Eric Blume...

Jeff Bridges was presented with the Cecil B. DeMille award at Sunday’s Golden Globe ceremony.  Now that we no longer have career tribute awards broadcasted on the Oscar telecast (BOO!), this is one of the few times we get to see a full-fledged tribute to a Hollywood legend, and those are always fun.

Chris Pine, his co-star in Hell or High Water, did a fine job with the brief introductory speech and basically repeated what everyone has said for five decades of movies now... 

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Mark Your Calendars!

Here's every important date (that we could find) for the remainder of awards season. It's totally here! Are you ready for it?

JANUARY 

"How awards season treats actual supporting actors" - this joke borrowed from twitter.

10 - Makeup and Costume Design Guild Nominees + Final Oscar Predictions begin right here one chart at a time
12 - Nathaniel's Film Bitch Award nominations announcement begins
13 - Critics Choice Awards Ceremony 
14 - Oscar nomination balloting ends...

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