February 2005 - Tribute.ca

in a supporting role
Jamie Foxx
Collateral
This is definitely Jamie Foxx’s year. The actor
has already won a Golden Globe for his portrayal
of Ray Charles in Ray and is a top contender
in two Oscar categories (see Best Actor). In
Collateral, Foxx takes a break from his typical
comedic roles to play taxi driver Max, whose mundane
job turns into a nightmare when contract killer
Vincent (Tom Cruise) climbs into his cab. Vincent
forces Max to drive him to each assignment—making
him an unwilling accomplice. Of the Oscar buzz,
Foxx says, “A lot of people say ‘Don’t say Oscar.’ But
I say, ‘say it!’ If you’re playing basketball, you want to go to the championship. In our
business, the Oscars are considered the championship. When you get LA buzzing
and other people are acknowledging your work, that is when it feels good.”
user picks:
Jamie Foxx *
33%
Morgan Freeman
25%
Clive Owen*
24%
Thomas Haden Church
11%
Alan Alda
7%
*Golden Globe winner
Alan Alda
The Aviator
Everyone always thinks of
Alan Alda as a nice guy.
Eleven years on a TV sitcom
will do that. But he certainly
seems to relish the opportunity
to play darker characters,
and his Oscar-nominated turn
as the nefarious Sen. Owen Brewster, in The Aviator, is
no exception. His first-ever Oscar nod, Alda plays one of
the powerful men who tried to bring down Howard
Hughes with a very public investigation. Alda says,
“We'd all like to be ruthless once in a while. It was fun to
be able to go in and spend the whole day just being ruthless.”
And it’s probably smart to keep in mind that
sometimes it pays to be bad.
Morgan Freeman
Million Dollar Baby
This is the fourth Oscar
nomination of Freeman’s
career. The veteran actor,
who was previously nominated
for The Shawshank
Redemption, Driving Miss
Daisy and Street Smart, hits
the Oscar forefront in Million Dollar Baby. In the latest
Clint Eastwood-directed film, Freeman delivers a stunning
performance as Eddie “Scrap-Iron” Depris, a
fighter forced to quit boxing after he went blind in one
eye. He and fight trainer Dunn (Eastwood) take female
boxer Maggie Fitzgerald (Hilary Swank) under their
wing, and Freeman brings an easy charm and moral
steadiness to his performance.
Thomas Haden
Church
Sideways
ou may remember him
Yfrom Y TV’s Wings or the
short-lived Ned and Stacey,
co-starring Debra Messing.
But who would ever have expected
the small-screen funnyman
to draw so much attention for a role in the top
indie film of the year? In Sideways, Church plays Jack, an
out-of-work actor who decides to have a prenuptial romp
during a wine-tasting trip with his pal, Miles “I’ve been
offered several movies since [Sideways], but I didn’t
want to do any of them. If this is the last thing [that
I do], that would be all right. I have no problem with
Sideways as the movie I become known for.”
Clive Owen
Closer
This is Clive Owen’s first
Oscar nomination. But it’s
no surprise that the talented
Brit is getting a nod for his role
in Closer, given that he took
home the Golden Globe for the
same role. The drama, which
also stars Julia Roberts, Jude Law and Natalie Portman,
is based on the Patrick Marber stage play about passion,
seduction, betrayal and the outright pain that couples
put each other through. Says the 40-year-old Owen,
who also starred in 2004's King Arthur, “It's just lovely
to be involved in a movie that goes back to
basics. It's very unusual to hear fantastic dialogue, to
hear intelligent people interacting.”
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Tribute February 2005