Showing posts with label jessica chastain. Show all posts
Showing posts with label jessica chastain. Show all posts

Sunday, February 24, 2013

Ella's Oscar Picks and Predicks.

Hah. I had way too much fun with such a silly title.

So, for as far back as I can remember, my little family and I have watched the Academy awards every year in its entirety, routing for certain artists, predicting wins, and saying "I knew it" after every single award is announced, even when we got it wrong. And because of that, I cannot ignore them. I don't care if they're a little bit rigged: it's the only race I ever watch (in fact, it's the only television I ever watch), so I take it quite seriously. In a fun way.

So, without further ado...

MY PREDICTIONS (who will win):

BEST PICTURE: 'ARGO' (Ben Affleck, George Clooney, Grant Heslov)


BEST ACTOR: DANIEL DAY-LEWIS (Lincoln)

BEST ACTRESS: JESSICA CHASTAIN (Zero Dark Thirty)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: CHRISTOPH WALTZ (Django Unchained)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: ANNE HATHAWAY (Les Mis)

BEST DIRECTOR: STEVEN SPIELBERG (Lincoln)

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHER: CLAUDIO MIRANDA (Life of Pie)

BEST COSTUME DESIGNER: JACQUELINE DURRAN (Anna Karenina)

 BEST EDITING: WILLIAM GOLDENBURG (Argo)

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM: AMOUR (Austria)

BEST HAIR AND MAKE UP: LES MISERABLES

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE: ALEXANDRE DESPLAT (Argo)

BEST ORIGINAL SONG: SKYFALL (Adele)

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS: LIFE OF PI

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: ARGO (Chris Terrio)

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: ZERO DARK THIRTY (Mark Boal)

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN: LES MISERABLES



I can't give my picks and predictions to categories in which I haven't seen all of the nominated films (e.g. short films, documentaries, foreign language film).



...and, MY PICKS (who I want to win):

BEST PICTURE: BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD
Consider that one of the criteria for 'best picture' is the level of magic in the film.

BEST ACTOR: JOAQUIN PHOENIX (The Master)
This character didn't exist before. Now it does, curtesy of Joaquin. You could say the same for Bradley Cooper's 'Pat' in Silver Linings but, unfortunately, Joaquin Phoenix blows everyone else out the water.

BEST ACTRESS: MARION COTILLARD (Rust and Bone)
Hands down brilliance and not even nominated!

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: PHILIP SEYMOUR HOFFMAN (The Master)
Because he made it happen for himself.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: ANNE HATHAWAY (Les Mis)
I genuinely didn't want to like Les Mis or its performances, but Anne Hathaway gave me no choice.
Try to dispute me after watching her rendition of I Dreamed A Dream. I'm not even going to bother.

BEST DIRECTOR: DAVID O RUSSEL (Silver Linings Playbook)
Because he saw the good actor in Bradley Cooper and showed it to the world.
And because he seems to extract great performances from actors I'd otherwise have overlooked.

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHER: ROGER DEAKINS (Skyfall)
Mainly because of his work in Bardem's opening scene.

BEST COSTUME DESIGN: SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMEN
I could be completely wrong but I think a lot of Charlize's costumes were made out of brilliantly recreated animal parts?

BEST EDITING: ZERO DARK THIRTY
(Co-edited by William Goldenberg from Argo!)
Particularly in the last 30 minutes of the film. Gripping.

BEST HAIR AND MAKE UP: LES MISERABLES
I so want Hitchcock to win something but the aging and the character in Les Mis was just too good.

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE: THOMAS NEWMAN (Skyfall)
Maybe I'm just a sucker for the 007 theme.
Also, his IMDB profile is so much more impressive than his google images.

BEST ORIGINAL SONG: SKYFALL (Adele)
It isn't over 'til Adele sings. Then it's over.

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN: THE HOBBIT
I think creating that world must've been a lot of fun and hard work.

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS: LIFE OF PI
The CGI in this film made me think it deserved best cinematography. Tricky and brilliant.

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK
(Matthew Quick - David O Russell)
Because I don't often want to read the book once I've seen the film and I'm sure that counts for something.

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: DJANGO UNCHAINED (Quentin Tarantino)
Because although it may just be an American remake of Inglorious Basterds, I love the satisfaction that Tarantino writes into his hilarious, clever revenge stories. And his rhythm is just perfect. Even without Sally Menke (bless).


And that's it. Until next year. And then one day I'll be at the ceremony.

Promise.





Saturday, February 9, 2013

Acting Advice from Jessica Chastain to the drama school graduate.

Today, I had a life-changing experience.

To update you first: I have done 3 out of 6 auditions. All of them have taught me much more than I could've asked for. Especially Juilliard - which I didn't get into. I've since realized (and it's taken me the full week to realize it completely) that it's probably a blessing in disguise. I was bruised and battered and buried under the reality of it my 'failure' and guess what? I'm still here. I'm still alive. And I will win if you bet I haven't learnt one of the most important lessons for an actor to learn:

"Right after The Tree of Life (2011) came out, I started hearing about strategies for my career. And I made a decision that I wasn't going to do anything based on a strategy. If I don't continue to challenge myself and risk failure, I have no business being an actor. I'm not an actor to be a personality. I want to see every part I take like a master class. And you know what? I'm going to fail sometimes. And that's OK. Because when you fail, you learn more."
-Jessica Chastain.

Since my Juilliard audition, I've had a lot of ups and downs trying to figure out what I can do to be better. And so many ideas run through my mind but I can't do it all and I have to be clever when it comes to designing my 'practice' because another thing I've learnt up here at the 'centre of the universe' is that there are millions more just like me trying to do what I want to do.

By the way, beautiful brainiac, Jonathan Sierck recommended this book to me and it's brilliant and if you nodded your head even subconsciously while reading that last sentence, you should read it:


So, here I am, left with trying to work out how to do this because I am hell-bent on doing it and doing it properly. I joined Juilliard's mailing list (before the audition... awkward) and a few days ago I got a mail from them advertising an exclusive 'Conversation with Jessica Chastain' at Lincoln Centre, Friday 3pm.

Wow. I went on my own today to experience (because 'listening', 'observing', or 'attending' would not do this justice) Jessica Chastain speaking about everything from going to Juilliard, through her many incredible films, her methods and challenges, to fellow actors and directors, projects, theatre and work ethic. At the end there was a short Q&A and without preparing or deciding to actually ask a question, my hand shot up and they selected me to ask her - best actress nominee - anything I wanted.

And the first question that came to mind (probably because of how much thought I'd given it for the past week) was at 52:30 in this live recording of the conversation. And the answer, so simple and brilliant, has catapulted me psychologically to where I need to be to make it happen for myself.



"Do the work when no one's watching."

And I will thank her to her face on the other side of the work.

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