From Butler to Farrell, passing through Fraser: the best actor will debut at the Oscars

For the first time in decades, since 1935, the five best actor nominees are all debutants in the oscarswith the reappeared Brendan Fraser (The Whale) and Austin Butler (Elvis) as favorites, without underestimating the Irishman Colin Farrell (The Banshees of Inisherin).

The quintet of nominees, made up of white men, is completed by veteran British actor Bill Nighy (Living), who aspires for the Oscar for the first time at 73, and Irish Paul Mescal (Aftersun), the youngest, at 27. .

A few days before the biggest film gala is held at the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles (USA), Butler leads the bets for his interpretation of Elvis Presley in the Baz Luhrmann film that narrates the rise and fall (and death ) of the king of “Rock And Roll”.

Butler, 31, does not fall short or go too far when it comes to playing the artist who has possibly the most imitators in the world, with the permission of Michael Jackson.

“It’s the biggest responsibility I’ve ever felt, you feel such a responsibility to him, to his family, to all the people around the world who love him so much and it’s terrifying.”Butler explained in an interview with comedian Jimmy Fallon on the Tonight Show.

He got so involved in the role that to this day Butler still sometimes talks like the king of rock, which has given rise to all kinds of jokes, although he takes it with humor, and even joked about it in a monologue in December on the US comedy show Saturday Night Live.

This Californian artist arrives at the Hollywood Academy gala after having won the Best Actor Award at the British BAFTAs and the Golden Globes, among others.

Still, it doesn’t look like Brendan Fraser is going to make it easy for him with his portrayal of a morbidly obese English teacher in “The Whale”by Darren Aronofsky, in one of those roles that Hollywood loves so much as a tormented character who lives a redemption and requires a great physical transformation from the actor.

To lend credibility to the role, Fraser, who won this year’s Critics’ Choice Awards and Screen Actors Guild award, was aided by a 300-pound prosthesis that allowed him to become Charlie, an overweight man trying to earn his living. favor of his daughter in the most agonizing days of her life.

Thanks to Charlie, the American-Canadian actor has returned to the limelight after being one of the handsome officers on the big screen in the 90s with hits like “George of the Jungle” and “The Mummy”and then disappear for years.

In this time, Fraser has gone through a costly divorce, health problems from injuries sustained while filming action scenes and has reported being sexually assaulted by former Golden Globes manager Philip Berk.

In a recent interview with the specialized media Deadline, Fraser said that he would not have been able to participate in “The Whale” previously: “I didn’t have the life experience or the grief. Ten years ago I would not have had enough experience as a parent to appreciate what it means to have someone young in your life.”

Butler and Fraser will have to deal with Colin Farrell, who plays a resident of a remote town, the imaginary Inisherin, on an island in Ireland in “The Banshees of Inisherin”by Martin McDonagh, in an interpretation different from the roles he has had in his 25-year career.

Farrell, 46, brings sweetness and vulnerability to Pádraic, a parishioner who has never left his town and who tries to save his relationship with his best friend, Colm (Brendan Gleeson). A performance that has earned her awards such as the Golden Globe for best actor in a comedy or the Volpi Cup at the Venice Film Festival.

This is Farrell’s first nomination and he feels it won’t “I could have come up with a better movie.”

In this film, he has been reunited with old acquaintances such as Gleeson, with whom he appeared in “Bravehart” (nineteen ninety five). In fact, as Farrell pointed out in an interview with the Gold Derby media, winning the best thing for him would be to be able to celebrate it with all his “gang”referring to his co-stars in “the Banshees”.

Opposite them is the Irishman Paul Mescal in the intimate film “Aftersun”where you get into the shoes of Callum, a young father who takes his 11-year-old daughter on an unforgettable holiday in Turkey.

Mescal, soon to roll Gladiator 2 of Ridley Scott, has expressed his “great pride” for being nominated with a film that is not “typical of the Oscars”: “It is the kind of film that I would like to see as an actor”has assured Mescal, whose performance in “Aftersun” It is more about nuances and subtleties, than about big fanfare.

Complete Bill Nighy’s list with “Living room” by Oliver Hermanus, where he plays a civil servant, Mr. Williams, who decides to take a break after receiving a harsh medical diagnosis, in a screenplay adapted by the Nobel Prize for Literature Kazuo Ishiguro from the 1952 work “Ikiru” by Akira Kurosawa.

When it came to evoking the perfect English gentleman from the 50s, Nighy had to do a great job of restraint, although in an interview he has clarified that he was born in that environment: “That level of restraint is not alien to me, that extremely modest behavior that some people, especially from the middle class, demanded of themselves at that time.”

Source: EFE