Supporting Actress: The Chart, The Poll, The Stats

It's funny how little news coverage there is now each time Meryl Streep breaks her own Oscar records. With her 19th nomination she's just 5 more away from DOUBLING the previous record holders (Jack Nicholson & Katharine Hepburn) whose record of 12 nominations she broke a dozen years back with Adaptation (2002), her 13th. Five would seem like a ridiculous number remaining to even mention (only roughly two dozen actresses have managed five nods in entire careers in the history of the world) but it's Meryl and she's nominated each time she makes a movie and makes them (almost) every year. Maybe she'll reach that big number before her 75th birthday in the summer of 2024?

Supporting Actress nonsense, The Arquettes, and more trivia after the jump...

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Beauty vs Beast: Tilda vs Tilda

Jason's on vacation but while he's away I thought we'd have a funhouse mirror episode of his Beauty vs. Beast series to celebrate another great year for Tilda Swinton and.... uh... Tilda Swinton. What an inimitable career she's had. So this week we're pitting two of the most memorable women of 2014 against each other, an ancient beauty who literally owns The Grand Budapest Hotel and a beastly politician who acts like she owns the Snowpiercer and all of its passenger citizens.

You have one week to vote. Make your case in the comments and may the best Tilda win!

poll by twiigs.com

Missi Meets Nancy - A "Gone Girl" Mirror

Editor's Note: As previously noted, The Film Experience is proud to hand over the blogging reigns to the actress MISSI PYLE from Sunday afternoon to Monday afternoon. But here's an early bit from the woman herself before she seizes full control!

I just interviewed Nancy Grace for The Hollywood Reporter.  It came out yesterday. I was so nervous. What if she thought I was a dick. You know? For lampooning her. But she was totally flattered and really charming. 

This is that interview.

How I got into character for Gone Girl? I googled Nancy Grace. (I don't know how any of us did any research without the internet. Its crazy.) I only really knew her as a caricature. This is the first video I watched to do research. It's Nancy interviewing Elizabeth Smart. Elizabeth gently lays into her for bringing up painful things from her past and Nancy dodges it pretty well...

And I thought. Yeah. That is her. She is a master and getting you right to that point where you might explode. Thats what I tried to do in the film. That and wear a LOT of leather.

More on Gone Girl. Missi returns tomorrow through Monday to talk Oscars, her favorite movie of all time, and life as a working actor. Don't miss it.

Meet the Contenders: Katherine Waterston "Inherent Vice"

Each weekend abstew profiles a just-opened Oscar contender whether they're sure things or longshots to keep us in the know. 

Katherine Waterston as Shasta Fay Hepworth in Inherent Vice
Best Supporting Actress

Born: Katherine Boyer Waterston was born March 3, 1980 in London, England. Her American parents were working in the country at the time.

The Role: Adapted from Thomas Pynchon's 2009 novel (and the first film version of the celebrated author's work), Oscar nominated writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson wrangles this twisty, drug-fueled haze of a story involving a weed-smoking, hippie, private detective named Doc Sportello (Joaquin Phoenix). The film's plot begins to unfold when Doc's ex-old lady, Shasta, shows up one night concerned about the safety of her wealthy, married boyfriend. Both Shasta and her paramour go missing and it's up to Doc to make sense of it all. [more...]

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Interview: Introducing Carrie Coon, 2014's Most Exciting New Actress

Carrie Coon at the premiere of Gone Girl in NYCActors who can register potently in all three acting mediums are less common than you'd think. Some movie stars are duds on stage (and vice versa) and, though it's becoming less of an issue as mediums shift and even merge, you can sometimes spot noticeable scale shifts in charisma in the actors who jump back and forth between TV and film as if one is the place they were born to live in and the other a nice place to visit. The lines may be blurring as more and more actors make a habit of doing all three but some actors seem right everywhere. It's not the medium but the acting itself that's their true home.

Carrie Coon is not a superstar (yet) -- "I'm not famous," she insists as we settle into our conversation about her breakthrough year -- but whichever medium you first caught her in, chances are you've already fallen. In a shockingly swift and continuous series of firsts over the past year and a half she's logged her first Broadway show (Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Tony Nomination 2013) her first series regular TV (The Leftovers, expect nominations any second now) and her first film (Gone Girl, a huge hit, and inarguably one of the most talked about features of the year even if its awards season prospects are still hard to read).

Perhaps it's a case of mutual Midwestern ease but our hastily scheduled phone call feels not unlike meeting a very cool stranger a party who is completely chill and ready to TALK.

Our conversation on Gone Girl & The Leftovers is after the jump...

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