It's hard out here for a contender.
Case in point: Saturday night at the Aero Theater, Michelle Williams sat on the stage for an interview as part of a tribute to her and a screening of her new film, "Blue Valentine." Early in the conversation she started to tell a story about something that had happened earlier in her career in Hollywood.
Then she paused, frowned, and looked around.
"What city are we in?" she asked. "Los Angeles?"
Told that she was indeed in L.A., Williams laughed and finished her story.
You couldn't blame her for being disoriented.
Williams had just gotten into town from New York – but she'd only recently gotten to New York from London, where she'd been filming a movie for the past few months. Her "Blue Valentine" co-star Ryan Gosling, (pictured left) meanwhile, had recently arrived in L.A. from the Congo, where he'd been trying to take a vacation between premieres, screenings, Q&As and the string of interviews that fills the schedule of every possible Oscar contender these days.
It is, you could say, the price of making an awards-worthy movie. For actors and directors and writers, it's The S#*! They Put You Through.
"Everywhere I go, I go for two days," said Julianne Moore, who has been working the circuit on behalf of "The Kids Are All Right." "You just slam in and slam out. You’re like, 'What time is it?' And then you go back to your regular life."
She laughed. "It’s insane, and it's gotten crazier. But it’s like developing a callous. You just get used to it."
Publicists and studio execs – you know, the people who put you through it – admit that awards season has gotten crazier, as entertainment journalism has moved to the web, the number of outlets has expanded and the appetite for news of any and all contenders has gone through the roof.
And at the same time, the Academy's move to 10 Best Picture nominations helped reinforce that more movies are in play, that more longshots have a chance. So why not take a little movie like "Frankie & Alice," give it a qualifying run and let Halle Berry tell her story one or two or eight dozen times? It'll cost you some money and Halle every minute of her spare time, but who's to say that's not worth it when it lands her a Golden Globe nomination?
What it means, though, is that awards contenders have to surrender their free time for the duration of awards season. (The ones who don't, like Annette Bening, are the exceptions to the rule.)
So you end up with scenarios like these recent ones:
> On a break from “X-Men: First Class,” the 20-year-old "Winter's Bone" Best Actress contender Jennifer Lawrence flew to L.A. for 48 hours. Once she got to town, she went to a reception in her honor, did countless interviews, and appeared at the Hollywood Film Awards, where she received the New Hollywood Award from Jodie Foster.
