Guess what's the most common age to win Best Actress? 29. Guess who's 29 right now? I'll give you one guess.
If Natalie Portman wins Best Actress in February she'll join the ranks of seven previous movie star beauties who won on the cusp of 30 including the immortal Elizabeth Taylor (who won for BUtterfield 8 at 29, pictured above with Portman's Black Swan turn).
Guess which decade of life has the least amount of best actress winners.
Age ain't nuthin but a number. Except when it comes to the Best Actress category.
The actual hour-long Hollywood Reporter video of the six actresses who grace their cover: Annette Bening, Nicole Kidman, Amy Adams, Hilary Swank, Natalie Portman and Helena Bonham-Carter. Here's how it breaks down if you don't have a full hour to watch (video at bottom of post). Unfortunately you can't "scroll" so the time stamps are useless as I type away.
0:01 Helena talks about first day-i-tis. Never thinks she can do it. I can't act! 1:30 Amy talks about being unemployed and feeling sorry for herself (interesting bit... both sad and funny) and the long time period where she considered giving up. But now that she's successful, what doesn't she like about her career?
Amy: I feel very vulnerable. I don't like it at all. You're very subject to other people's opinions. You know when it doesn't go well.
Hilary: We know when it doesn't go well. We don't need to be beat over the head with it.
Oopsie!
5:00 Swank talks about trying and even if you fail, always try your hardest. Ah platitudes! I didn't get enough of 'em on election night. 6:48 Annette is asked about her input into making The Kids Are All Right more of a comedy than it originally started as...
Annette: I just didn't want it to be earnest. But she's (Lisa Cholodenko) also kind of too generous when she talks about me and my contributions.
9:00 Helena interrupts to talk about the vibrator scene (but says she hasn't seen the movie). 10:30 Hilary complains that she can't find good comedies. Uhnnh, you're not a comic actress. We're 10 minutes in and Nicole has said NOTHING. I need Nicki. But she was like this at the Margot at the Wedding press conference I attended, too. She is kind of robotic until directly addressed. I say that with the utmost love but it's like she's a robot until the movie camera is on or the press cameras are off. It's... odd. 12:00 Natalie Portman calls the Black Swan screenplay "a blueprint." and reveals that she and Darren Aronofsky have been planning to make the movie for the past 9 years (!) and credits Nicole with the following great career advice...
Natalie: Nicole said it to me a long time ago when we were doing Cold Mountain. 'Always choose by director. You never know how the movie is going to turn out but you're guaranteed an interesting experience.' I've always remembered that.
Oh bless you, Nicole. We knew this about you already. Strangely, Nicole hasn't seen Black Swan.
16:00 Nicole speaks! She lists the plentiful injuries she got on Moulin Rouge! after the other actresses keep egging her on. The actresses discuss moments when you should say no, or call it a night, but you keep going. The knee injury, which took two years to recover from, happened at 3 AM.
Nicole: When you're so in the role, it's almost like a high. It's like a drug. There's no way I was going to stop.
Oh, we knew this about her, too. 18:00 Amy follows that up with a story about Leap Year. No really.
Nicole's "what was that?" love affair.
19:00 Nicole is praised again about something from outside this conversation (clearly the woman is more animated when she's not doing press) and asked if she's ever had conflict with a director. She seems confused by the question (bless) and says instead
Nicole: It's like a love affair for a certain period of time and then I walk away and go 'what was that?!?'
...which gets a big laugh from the other five. I know people think I'm undiscerning when it comes to Kidman but the truth is I deeply dig actresses who are auteurists at heart. Truth: They're always the most interesting ones.
Annette "Balance" Bening
20:00 Unfortunately then she starts talking about not feeling the same pull to work anymore. Damnit! Thankfully, Annette amends this, explaining that even though she went through that once she had children, the desire to work returns and there is something about the acting process that fulfills you in a way that you can't get elsewhere. Having a balanced life "sounds good" but...
Annette: Creativity is really about excess and when you want to make something there's a kind of obsession that has to come with it -- in a healthy way, in a way that is intoxicating. You're engulfed by something.
(Are you listening Michelle Pfeiffer? Come Back to the Five and Dime Michelle Pfeiffer, Michelle Pfeiffer.) She then goes on to reveal that she wanted the Debra Winger role in The Sheltering Sky.
25:00 Hilary refuses to rest on her laurels (would that be two Oscars?) and reveals a knowledge of writers and seeks out screenplays that aren't even sent to her. Good for her (I'm not saying that facetiously.) Talks about a part she didn't get and Annette teases her about it. 26:00 Nicole Kidman has seen Star Trek. She bought a ticket and everything (?). Hilary doesn't like science fiction. (Is that distaste a post-The Core problem? She doesn't say.)
Amy exfoliates
28:00 Amy vows to spend time with her daughter instead of doing movies -- damn you, infant! KIDDING! please no one bite my head off though infants have taken many of the great actresses away from us. And this conversation is further proof. (Sigh) 29:00 Nicole considered not making Rabbit Hole after having Sunday and struggling for financing. This part is a snooze fest.
31:00 Hilary and Amy talk about not doing certain roles and how it's disrespectful to the actor who did it to talk about roles you wanted or turned down. Natalie says that if directors vacillate about who to cast it's not a good sign "never a good sign" actually. It shows they don't know what they want. Hilary vaguely claims to have been"coerced" into certain roles. By whom? Are we talking about The Core again? Let it go! 32:00 Amy reveals panic about super tight close-ups and wondering if she exfoliated properly. I hate those too, Amy! But for different reasons. I like to see like hair, shoulders, hands. I want to see how the actor uses their body, not just their eyes nose and maybe top lip.
Helena continually cracks Natalie up.
33:00 INTERESTING. Now we're getting into it. Helena Bonham-Carter talks about her discomfort with Lars Von Trier (!)..."but I didn't realize this man was a visionary". Admits she turned down Breaking the Waves. Natalie Portman is very excited about this reveal. Nicole says it's one of her favorite films (of course it is!) which eggs Helena on in the story. HBC thinks it was really weird that Emily Watson told everyone (she did? I don't remember this) that Helena had turned it down 'because that film made her!'
35:00 Helena talks about her 'late bloomer' personality and that she's finally comfortable with her sexuality. 'There were lots of parts I was just not ready for.' This all makes me wonder how the hell she got through The Wings of the Dove (1997) in which she is freakishly perfect and totally erotic, too. And for which she won the Oscar (SHHHHHhhhhh. Let me live in my fantasy world where deserving things happen.) 36:00 Nicole says she still e-mails Lars Von Trier (!) but agrees that he can be mean. The moderator brings up The Five Obstructions as an interesting portrait of Lars. Nicole "I don't need to see that. I worked with him."
38:00 Helena discusses Tim Burton at length but tells a great story about befriending a focus puller on Sweeney Todd who totally helped her get more takes since Tim wouldn't give them too her. 43:00 I am totally losing focus now as The Bening discusses stage vs screen. 45:00 Interesting... she's giving a lot of credit to Milos Forman for helping her to understand film acting. Funny that she brings this up because I was just watching Valmont again the other day and she is really quite fantastic in it and its' about a 180 from Glenn Close's interpretation of the same role.
The Bening as the evil Merquise de Merteuil
Watching them back to back would surely remind us that no two actors will give you the same thing. Ever. (Now, admittedly the cast, director and screenplay are different, too. But still. They are SO different within the exact same story / character.)
The Bening kicks the story up a notch by imitating Forman's directions in his voice. 47:00 Okay now I love Milos Forman more than I ever have in my life. Natalie loves Annette's story and shares her own (also in Forman's voice from her time with him on Goya's Ghost)
Natalie: You're acting like you're in -- like this is a bad movie. This is not a bad movie. This is a good movie. Annette: That is brilliant
48:00 Nicole tells a Jane Campion story! No way. Okay this is getting better and better. It's a story about a Jane Campion short she pulled out of because she didn't want to wear a shower cap OR kiss a girl. 'I was 14. I wanted to kiss boys!' Hahaha. 50:00 Amy Adams calls the moderator on his "baiting" when he is talking about movies being only made for young boys now. None of them take the bait except Hilary.... 51:00 ...who weirdly goes on a bizarre tangent blaming critics (!) for the failure of dramas. Yeah, that's right. Ticket buyers totally listen to unemployed critics. 'Critics don't like linear storytelling anymore!' They don't? This is news to me.
52:00 Nicole and Helena both praise HBO and TV in general (?) Kidman says she's doing something for HBO. She is? I so cannot keep up with upcoming movie news. 54:00 Amy hates that being an actress means you're supposed to also be a model. Helena tells her she doesn't have to pretend to be a model. 'Wear whatever you like. You'll get criticized for it but..." Helena would know. 56:00 Natalie explains that she was lucky to finish high school before the internet explosion of actors having no privacy. She can't imagine what the famous teens go through now. Nicole says she wishes she had been a director instead of an actress (!) 58:00 Annette talks about the "crazy intimacy" of acting and goes on and on and on and on some more about how acting really has very little to do with the acoutrements of fame and red carpets and whatnot. Interesting stuff if I weren't already exhausted and since i can't rewind, I can't quote anymore.
Here's the whole interview if you have the hour.
Some armchair possibly inaccurate observations:
Helena Bonham-Carter is very funny.
Hilary and Annette both talk with their hands a lot .
Nicole & Natalie are both shy but not inattentive
Amy Adams doesn't want to be in this room at all. ( But hey, she's got an infant daughter. She's justifiably distracted. We'll cut her some slack.)
The Hollywood Reporter is proclaiming that "Awards Season Begins Now" but the cover is freaking me out. Did Nancy Meyers direct it? It's so beige.
Do Amy Adams, Nicole Kidman, Hilary Swank and Natalie Portman all suddenly have the same hairstylist & colorist these days? They're interchangeable. And with women that special, that's a big no-no. Kidman's styling bugs me the most. It's so Blair on Facts of Life.
Am I right?
"I've got another one of my brilliant ideas."
Even craycray HBC looks like she's been stripped of her actual wardrobe in some coordinated Bossy Stylist intervention -- guarantee you she's never worn that before -- "You must be on trend, Helena. Muted colors this Oscar season! Think: Vanilla!"
But I'm intrigued by her fessing up about her working relationship with Tim Burton
I did do a film with him before I slept with him, and it's very different. We went through a really bad time on Sweeney Todd. ... I didn't get one compliment (from Burton). He really had this whole thing, like he didn't want to seem as if he was favoring me. So he'd go in the opposite direction. And Tim and Johnny, they have their lovely relationship, you know, they get on so well. So that was a difficult one. ... I really didn't think he'd ever want to work with me again. On Alice, I said there were going to be rules. ... I listed the Ten Commandments of how to work together.
I'd like to know what those Ten Commandments are. But I'm guessing she doesn't get into it in front of 5 other actresses.
Meanwhile, back to that cover -- this post is a runaway train (of thought) bear with me! -- notice that The Bening is propping herself up by her chin, biding her time, knowing they'll photoshop her in later.
I suppose it's possible that they were all in the room together, but I'm guessing it was more like Skype. The photo sure doesn't look like it's all one photo, does it?
Come to think of, I'm waiting for the day when some famous magazine or celebrity photographer refuses to do any more shoots where you have to photoshop busy people together later on. This didn't used to happen of course. Part of the jam-packed celebrity schedule used to include making time to be photographed with other celebrities. There's just something so dehumanizing about the photoshop mash-ups. I do them for humor but I hate it when they're presented to me like a photo I should believe in. (At least those Vanity Fair covers do a good job of tricking you about it... and you know that at least sections of it involve actual stars, draped about each other in real time.)
I miss stars being photographed together in the flesh where they can totally feed off each other's energy. Like...
Michelle Pfeiffer & Jessica Lange in 1997 (one of my favorite celebrity photos of all time even if their movie wasn't good.) Or how about Keanu Reeves & River Phoenix in 1991?
Of course this still happens now but almost exclusively with only two people. Larger groups? Forget it.
Currently paparazzi photography is so much more exciting than actual portraiture. I mean, would any magazine ever be able to schedule The Town cast to be photographed in a room together at the same time and capture this much interpersonal energy...
Isn't that a sweet pic? I think it's my favorite movie premiere shot from 2010. I've looked at it so many times since September.
But back to The Hollywood Reporter to wrap up. I haven't seen the mag yet but I'm loving some of the quotes I'm reading like this exchange between Swankster & Adams
On losing roles Swank: There was a script I fell in love with back in August that was sent to me...I went in and I didn't get it. Bening: Who did? Swank: Do you really want to know? Bening: Amy, you got it, didn't you? (Laughter) Swank (to Adams): Did you read it? Did you like it? Adams: I'm not getting into this! (Thunderous laughter) Swank: Amy got the role! Amy will be playing the role that I wanted! (Laughs) Adams: Let me just say, I'm not doing it. We don't normally talk about this!
Hee. I've never liked Swank more than reading that exchange. And I've never felt better about The Bening's winning chances in February than I did while "hearing" her tease Swank and Adams on this topic.
Since I know each and every last one of you will want to stand and wave to our procession as we receive the "American Riviera Prize" for our invaluable contributions to the cinema, we wanted to give you ample warning. [We're told you don't have private jets (?) and will need to plan ahead?] The blessed event will happen on January 28th. It's a fitting prize since the American Riviera has long been known as the work and playground of Movie Royalty like ourselves.
The year before the delightful Ms. Bullock's win, the Santa Barbara Festival gave this prize to ... well, we'd rather not discuss that. It did not end well for that man at the final ball.
If the Best Actress race really narrows down to The Bening (The Kids Are All Right) vs. Natalie Portman (Black Swan) than we have a seriously sapphic situation going on this year.
"♪ I Kissed a Girl just to try it, I know Oscar won't mind it. ♫ "
Hey, it worked last year for the ladies in this category.
P.S. Does this mean that The Oscars are basically like frat parties with a stricter dress code? Maybe they will love The Social Network as much as critics do. Annette Bening Meryl Streep Sandra Bullock
Heads up: I interviewed Juliette Lewis (!) a few days ago and that piece will hit on Thursday. In November... TILDA. Stay tuned. The fall film season always brings fresh golden excitement to The Film Experience.
Speaking of pick-me-ups...
This T to your left, is my favorite piece of swag for precursor season thus far. They passed some law that bloggers are supposed to tell you what gifts they get, right? It's really not complicated in my case. I get what other members of certain critics groups get (I'm a member of the BFCA): some screeners, the occassional film book, random infrequent goodies such as this. It's a little hard to see but basically it's a Jacki Weaver (Animal Kingdom) bust with her sure-to-become classic line "You've done some bad things, sweetie." scrawled under her face.
The Supporting Actress Race is, as you've presumably surmised (being the smarty that you are) unpredictable at the moment. Almost everyone who people think might be in the running is an uncertainty.
The obstacles to certainty
Helena Bonham Carter (The King's Speech) AMPAS has resisted all but one of her worthy perfs. And even that one time (The Wings of the Dove) when she absolutely deserved the actual win, she lost.
Dianne Wiest (Rabbit Hole) has a small film emerging in the annual December glut.
Miranda Richardson (Made in Dagenham) is fun but the role is kind of easy, if you will. If they're in the mood to hand her a career acknowledgement, it's a go but otherwise...
Jacki Weaver (Animal Kingdom). Hollywood doesn't know her and might not see her film.
Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit). The actors branch is, for whatever reason, semi-resistant to Coen Bros pictures.
Melissa Leo & Amy Adams (The Fighter) are in the same film that few have yet seen.
Sissy Spacek (Get Low) is in a film where the men get almost all the attention.
Barbra Hershey & Mila Kunis (Black Swan) are in a film that might be too outre for the acting branch and one in which the lead actress is hogging all the attention anyway. Weirder still: though Hershey and Portman are the ones with the nominatable roles, Kunis is the only one to win anything thus far (Venice by way of Quentin Tarantino).
Kristin Scott Thomas (Nowhere Boy) has the Bonham Carter problem, doesn't she?
Saoirse Ronan (The Way Back) has a small film with a huge cast in the annual December glut.
Rosamund Pike (Barney's Version & Made in Dagenham) is quite a good actress but she never seems to generate buzz. Incidentally, she gets two of the very best moments in Made in Dagenham but still people aren't talking about her and you only hear "Miranda & Sally".
Dale Dickey (Winter's Bone) is in a small film where the lead actress hogs the attention.
Marion Cotillard (Inception) is in a movie that's not exactly an "actor's movie"
Loretta, Whoopi, Janet, Kerry, Thandie, Phylicia, Anika, Macy, etc... (For Colored Girls) They have the internal competition problem times infinity. For any traction whatsoever one or two of them will have to steal the entire show.
And so on and so on. DISCUSS.
Incidentally, at least one film writer wants Annette Bening to move to supporting for The Kids Are All Right. While it's true that she could probably win the category with ease were she to be nominated there, I doubt the Academy would buy the classification. For one thing, she's top billed, which has not been the case in other instances where they've demoted a co-lead to supporting. And they don't always buy the ridiculous re-classifications, anyway. I mean, trying to sell The Bening as supporting Julianne Moore would as foolish as trying to sell the idea that Jamie Foxx was supporting Tom Cruise in Collat--- oh f***, never mind.
Happy 18th birthday to one of the most in demand young actors in Hollywood, Josh Hutcherson. As time goes by, I've stopped handing The Bening, Juli and Ruff' all the credit for the beauty of The Kids Are All Right and the glory of the ensemble work becomes clearer. (They'd better get a SAG ensemble nod in January.) When the DVD arrives in November, I know it'll be the type of movie that gets a lot of spins.
In our introduction to "Laser", we seem him watching his friend's dad wrestle and Josh lends Laser a heartbreakingly specific look, equal parts longing, physical adrenaline (there is wrestling involved), and inchoate wonder. It's really a beautiful moment, telegraphing exactly what we need to know about the character, the one whose emotional needs kick off the film's plot. Well done, Josh.
In truth this was my first exposure to the young actor but I understand he was a minor child star? Anything worth seeing from his filmography?
Here is The Bening (!!!) -- who hasn't been leaving the Beatty estate much this year -- presenting him with a "Breakthrough Film Actor of the Year Award" a couple of months ago at something called, hey look at that, the "Breakthrough of the Year Awards"...
You'll next see Josh in either the already completed remake of cheesy 80s flickRed Dawn (the release has been shelved for the time being due to MGM problems), the art forgery drama Carmel (whenever that comes out) or the slasher comedy Detention .... no scratch all that. You'll next see Josh on the red carpet since The Kids Are All Right will get some sort of awards run... Size TBD by various precursor voting bodies.
My loyal subjects, 
Speaking of pick-me-ups...
Happy 18th birthday to one of the most in demand young actors in Hollywood, Josh Hutcherson. As time goes by, I've stopped handing The Bening, Juli and Ruff' all the credit for the beauty of The Kids Are All Right and the glory of the ensemble work becomes clearer. (They'd better get a SAG ensemble nod in January.) When the DVD arrives in November, I know it'll be the type of movie that gets a lot of spins.
