TheWrap’s Oscar Nominee Roundup

Links to the nominees who’ve spoken to us over the past several months

Over the past few months, many of the Oscar nominees have spoken to theWrap, dropped in on our Filmmaker Screening Series, or written Hollyblogs. A roundup, with links:

Best Actor: Jeff Bridges, “Crazy Heart”
“There was a certain amount of anxiety about whether I could pull it off – especially something I cared so much about.”

Best Actress: Gabourey Sidibe, “Precious” (brief video interview)
“I hope people walk away with a newfound sense of hope.”

Best Supporting Actor: Woody Harrelson, "The Messenger"
“My character’s meant to be quite stoic, but as soon as Oren would say ‘cut’ I’d start crying.”

Best Director: James Cameron, “Avatar” (video interview)
“Josh flipped me on my back and I got a big cut on my head, the camera went ‘BAM!’ And this was just rehearsal.”

Best Director: Lee Daniels, “Precious” (brief video interview)
“I think that if we had told the story the way the book did, it would have been non-rated, and we wouldn’t have had an audience.”

Best Director: Jason Reitman, “Up in the Air”
"I thought, Why enter a job where the presumption was that as a kid of a filmmaker I’m just some spoiled brat with a drug or alcohol problem?"

Animated Feature: Henry Selick, “Coraline”
“When you’re competing against Pixar and DreamWorks and Disney, you want to try to tell great stories, and dance a little closer to the edges.”

Animated Feature, Original Screenplay, Best Picture: Pete Docter, “Up”
“The truth is that every one of our movies is lousy at some point. It’s just that we allow ourselves time to fix it.”

 

Adapted Screenplay: Armando Ianucci, “In the Loop”
“And not only do I expect you to know it word perfect, but then I want you to muck about with it. For which I can only now apologize.”

Original screenplay: Mark Boal, “The Hurt Locker”
“At one point I probably could probably have written out the ‘Taxi Driver’ script from memory.”

Original Screenplay: Oren Moverman and Alessandro Camon, “The Messenger”
“We zeroed in on the idea of casualty notifications as the most unseen part of the war. We thought, this is as real as it gets, and maybe there’s a good movie in there.”

Original Score: Hans Zimmer, “Sherlock Holmes”
“Banjos haven’t had a big outing, I think, since ‘Deliverance.’ I think they needed exonerating.”

Original Song: T Bone Burnett, “Crazy Heart”
“When Jeff and I read the script and said, ‘I’ll do it if you do it,’ I don’t think either one of us thought anything would happen.”

Original Song: Ryan Bingham, “Crazy Heart”
“I guess I would write about some old broke-down guy because I had seen people like that, and it seemed more interesting than writing about the high school dance.”

Visual Effects: Joe Letteri, “Avatar”
“It took, probably, another year beyond the point when we started making the movie to where we actually could make the movie.”

Documentary feature: Louie Psihoyos, “The Cove”
“There are arrest warrants out for me: conspiracy to disrupt commerce, trespassing, and photographing undercover police without their permission.”

Documentary feature: Robert Kenner, “Food, Inc.” (Hollyblog)
"I was stunned by the lack of transparency, the intimidation of critics, the influence over government. It felt like we were onto something bigger than food."

Best Picture participants in the Odds Video column on the right side of this page: Neil Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell ("District 9"), Lone Scherfig ("An Education"), Mark Boal ("The Hurt Locker"), Lee Daniels and Gabourey Sidibe ("Precious"), James Cameron and Zoe Saldana ("Avatar").
 

 

Comments