It’s funny when the category is full of first-time nominees of different career ages. The Academy Award for Best Actor seems to be a race between Austin Butler, Colin Farrell and Brendan Fraser, each scoring a significant prize from major film syndicates and critics. The Associated Press predicts Fraser will have the upper hand.
There’s still time to catch up on your shows.
Here are some details about this year’s nominated Sunday Academy Awards ceremony, which will be broadcast live by ABC in the United States of America, and TNT in Latin America from 8 p.m. New York (0000 GMT).
BRENDAN FRASER
Brendan Fraser doesn’t care if they call his role in Darren Aronofsky’s “The Devil,” in which he plays an obese reclusive college professor named Charlie, a “regression.” But that’s not the word I want.
“If anything, this is a reintroduction rather than a regression,” Fraser told the Associated Press. “I don’t think it is necessary to return to the industry that I have forgotten, as they say. I’ve never been that far.”
The film, an adaptation of Samuel D. Hunter’s play, shows Fraser as a different actor from the mild action-comedy roles that made him beloved and famous in the 1990s. Charlie grapples with the pain of his past in the midst of a desperate recovery.
“I gave him everything I had every day,” he said. “We were living under the existential threat of COVID. An actor’s job is to approach everything as if it were the first time. But also as if it were the last time.
Age: 54
Other Notable Awards: Critics Choice, Actors Guild.
Colin Farrell
In Martin McDonagh’s tragic story about the end of friendship, “The Banshees of Inisherin,” Colin Farrell’s character Pádraic is tortured by Brendan Gleeson’s Colm on a small Irish island in 1923.
“He’s got an innocence that prevents him from letting his friend of so many years take him out,” Farrell said of his character at last year’s Venice Film Festival, where he won best actor. “It strikes him to the core… he lives an honest life and the beauty is taken away from him.”
The film was a reunion for the trio who developed a deep bond in “In Bruges” (“Apart from Bruges”) 14 years ago.
“From the beginning there was a deep sense of kinship and mutual understanding,” Farrell told the Associated Press. “In a way, through Martin and his mind and heart and his work, I understand myself better. And I understand myself more through my interactions with Brendan.
Age: 46
Memorable awards: Venice Film Festival, New York Critics Circle, National Board of Review, Golden Globes (musical or comedy).
Austin storekeeper
Austin Butler spent so much time and mental and emotional energy preparing to play Elvis Presley in Baz Luhrmann’s eccentric drama that it’s difficult to talk about without “sounding incredibly contrived and inflated,” the Associated Press said. “There are some reasons I don’t even fully understand.”
The past few weeks have also had their own ups and downs, with their Golden Globes, Oscar nominations, and the tragic death of Lisa Marie Presley all within the span of a few days.
“The valleys are so high and so low,” Pincerna said.
“I just wish Lisa Marie was there to celebrate with us. Sometimes, in the midst of so much pain and devastation, it feels a little strange to celebrate. But I also know how much this movie meant to Lisa Marie, how much her father’s legacy meant to her. So I feel very proud and honored to be a part of that history.”
Age: 31
Other awards to watch: Golden Globes (drama), BAFTA.
LITTLE NIGHY
Bill Nighy stars as a British civil servant who receives a terminal diagnosis in London in 1953, in Oliver Herman’s remake of Kurosawa’s classic “Ikiru” (“Live”).
“That’s what we were doing, that’s what we were doing, that we were back, we were very in touch, and that was the first thing that happened after the pandemic,” Nighy told the Associated Press. “The pandemic has forced us to look at our previous priorities in life and everything that this film is about doing every day. So I think it was timely in that sense.’
The veteran actor said that he was going to do something special, but he wasn’t ready for the enthusiastic reception he got. And leaving aside the thematic resonance, he did not think of his own impression.
“I never think of a legacy,” he said. “It’s hard for me to get excited about a world that doesn’t understand me.”
Age: 73
Awards: Los Angeles Film Critics Association
LITTLE MESCAL
Paul Mescal did not expect that after “Postsun” he would be friends with an 11-year-old girl. But this made her co-star Frankie Corio in an evocative and personal film set about a young father and daughter vacationing in Turkey in the 1990s.
“We were together two weeks before filming started. There was some kind of loose plan that we could rehearse. And we were a little bit of that, but in the end we went for two weeks where we played pretend that I was his father,” Mescal told the Associated Press. “It’s the best professional experience I’ve ever had. So of course I was surprised. I love her and I adore her and she’s just a phenomenal actress.”
The Irish actor said he wants to work in smaller films with first-time directors. If anything, he hopes his prominence after the nomination could help another council get kicked out of that position.
“I’m very proud that there’s still an appetite for movies,” he says.
Age: 27
