It’s that time of week again.
Yep, I’m predicting something relating to the Oscars once more. This time I’m going to use my wide array of knowledge to guess about Best Supporting Actor and Actress.
Will I be right? I don’t know, let’s see. First up, the men. Who I want to win, who should win, and who probably will win.
For Best Supporting Actor (or if you want to be technical, Best Actor in a Supporting Role) I would love, love, love to see Morgan Freeman walk away with gold.
Freeman is one of those actors that you can see in almost any role, and for good reason. He’s been a soldier, a chauffeur, a prisoner and a friend of Batman (well soon anyway) just to name a few.
In Million Dollar Baby, he’s an old boxer/friend of Clint Eastwood. I mean, he’s 67 years old, the man’s been at this a while and yet he’s never bad, even in movies like Nurse Betty.
So, who do I think should get the prize? Well, that’s one’s a bit harder to say. Honestly I think all the performances were good – I mean, you don’t get Oscar nominations for sucking. However, I have to guess someone so I’m going to say either Alan Alda for his mental-breakdown inducing role in The Aviator or Clive Owen’s betrayed husband in Closer.
Now, it’s hard to choose between the two because they both should win for various reasons.
I think Alda has a shot because after so many years of being a Hollywood nice guy, he’s being honored for playing a very not nice guy. Many of those involved in The Aviator (including DiCaprio) didn’t originally think Alda could pull it off because he is such a lovable guy.
Well, he proved them wrong.
Owen I think deserves it because in the film version of the play, he plays Larry, the husband to Julia Robert’s character. However, in the actual stage version, he portrayed Dan, the man Larry’s wife cheats with. To be able to pull off one character after playing his “rival” says something about Owen’s talent.
It says he deserves some Oscar lovin’.
OK, OK, now for the one you’ve all been waiting for – who will win.
Personally, I think this can go one of two ways – yeah, I know, I think that a lot – with either Jamie Foxx or Thomas Haden Church.
I find it pretty funny that the two men I think have the best shot at the Supporting Actor award were both TV stars not so terribly long ago (though it feels like it) with In Living Color (Foxx) and Wings (Church).
Talk about coming a long way.
But I digress.
I think Foxx stands a pretty good chance of winning simply because he was good in the part.
For a guy known for his comic ability, he blows you away when he does drama. I mean, he’s nominated twice this year – for dramatic roles.
And that might be his downfall.
Voters will be split. They’ll want him to win something, but they probably aren’t going to let him go two-for-two.
I can’t imagine Foxx will be walking out of the Kodak Theater on Feb. 27 empty-handed, but I don’t think he’ll have two statuettes either. I think the one he’ll have will say Best Actor in a Lead Role (for Ray) which I’m sure he will be more than thrilled to accept.
I think Church is probably going to get Supporting Actor this year for playing a proverbial man-child in the wine-doused film Sideways.
Considering he became famous for playing a somewhat out-there mechanic on Wings and then flopped miserably on Ned and Stacey, this is his chance to get back in the game.
With the movie a sleeper hit and his character’s traits a familiar sight in Hollywood, Church stands to get votes both from people who want him back in the limelight as well as those who recognize the role he’s playing as one they’ve been playing their whole lives.
So those are my guesses for Supporting male. Now onto the ladies.
We’ve got a Hollywood legend, a sex-researcher’s wife, a waitress, a stripper and the wife of a lifesaver. Talk about an interesting lineup of characters.
So how does one decide which is the best? One guesses.
I’ll be honest, I think for all the pomp and circumstance revolving around all these ladies, there’s only one I really think stands above the others.
Not because she’s better, but because she’s doing something very, very new to her. Playing an adult.
Natalie Portman, the wide-eyed little girl lost of The Professional and Princess Leia’s mommy in Star Wars I-III, is nominated for playing, of all things, a stripper.
Well, she’s more than a stripper, but that’s a convenient summation of parts. With a Golden Globe in tow, she’s honestly the gal I’d like to see on stage, and I think most people agree. I think as an actress she’s grown in this role and she deserves gold for it.
But there are four other women vying for Oscar and there’s nothing saying academy voters won’t pick one of them.
Cate Blanchett – whom I adore – is playing the epitome of Hollywood – Katherine Hepburn in The Aviator. And playing her well if everyone talking about her is to be believed.
It’s hard enough to play a real person as it is, but throw in a distinctive voice and mannerisms and you’ve got yourself a date with Oscar.
Blanchett is who I would like to see on stage, and if not for Portman, the one I think would be up there as well.
The three other nominees are good – great in their performances judging by their nominations – but I just don’t think any of them are up to Portman and Blanchett this year.
Virginia Madsen, as a waitress in Sideways, pulls the audience in, but she’s just not there yet.
The same goes for Laura Linney, who as an actress is top notch, but as the wife of sex-researcher Alfred Kinsey in Kinsey, she’s just not up to competing properly this year.
The only other woman I could conceivably say should win, besides Portman and Blanchett, is a relative unknown.
Sophie Okonedo, as Tatiana, the wife of hotel manager Paul Rusesabagina in Hotel Rwanda, is worthy as a real-life inspiration.
With a country in turmoil, Rusesabagina takes in hundreds of people who would otherwise be slaughtered simply because he loves his family and can’t imagine the atrocities going on being done to them.
I think convincingly playing a woman who helped save the lives of over a thousand refugees in a real-life situation is a good reason to have a speech prepared.
But I think Portman or Blanchett will be the only one given the chance to read hers.

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