Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 24, 2018)
January 24, 2018 The Skanner Page 7 Arts & Entertainment 2018 OSCAR NOMINATIONS: ‘The Shape of Water’ Leads Race with Lucky 13 Nominations Weinstein, Spacey and Franco conspicuously absent By Kam Williams T he Shape of Wa- ter, Guillermo del Toro’s surreal, cross-species love story landed the most Academy Award nomi- nations (13), including for Best Director, Picture and Original screenplay, as well as trio of acting categories. “Dunkirk” (8) was next, followed by “Three Billboards” (7), “Darkest Hour” (6) and “Phantom Thread” (6). Up for Oscars are some familiar faces, like Den- zel Washington (“Roman J. Israel, Jr.”) and perenni- al-nominee Meryl Streep (“The Post”). Meanwhile, conspicuously absent from the roster are a number of disgraced Hol- lywood icons whose ca- reers went up in flames in the wake of rape alle- gations. There’s Harvey Wein- stein who, for years, had been a fixture on the aisle on Oscar night. But this go-round, The Wein- stein Company’s entire slate was snubbed, most notably the critically-ac- claimed and strategical- ly-released “Wind River.” Just a couple weeks ago, James Franco was the toast of Tinseltown after winning a Golden Globe for “The Disaster Art- ist.” Since then, several women stepped forward to accuse him of sexual misconduct. Now, it’s his career that’s a disaster, suffering such a precipi- tous fall from grace that he didn’t even earn an Academy Award nomi- nation. The voters showed lit- tle love to “Baby Driver,” this critic’s pick for #1 film of the year, giving it only a handful of nomi- nations in technical cat- egories. In this case, you can blame #MeToo ca- sualty Kevin Spacey for torpedoing the summer sleeper’s Oscar chances right along with his own. At least that picture got released. The same can’t be said for Louis C.K.’s “I Love You, Daddy,” whose premiere was postponed indefinitely after he ad- mitted to some pretty bizarre, unwanted be- havior in front of five dif- ferent women. For those still in the running, the 90th Acad- emy Awards will air on ABC on Sunday, March 4th. The show will be staged at the Dolby The- ater in Hollywood and hosted by Jimmy Kim- mel. But don’t surprised if one or two nominees get knocked out of con- Interview cont’d from pg 6 script. Although I was obviously very aware of 9/11, I was fascinated by this story which I had never heard about. I thought that these first responders and the way in which they prevailed was not only unique but pretty important. So, I felt that it was awesome to have an opportunity to be a part of turning this little-known story into a movie. Of course, I also jumped at the chance to work with [producer] Jerry Bruck- heimer and the terrific cast attached to the project. KW: Yeah, I had no idea we had guys fighting on horseback over in Afghan- istan. And they were outnumbered and outgunned by the Taliban equipped with tanks, RPGs and heavy artillery. TR: It was amazing! Those soldiers are heroes, Kam. KW: Editor/Legist Patricia Turnier asks: How did you prepare to play Ser- geant First Class Ben Milo? TR: My preparation included speak- ing to quite a few veterans. They were very open and honest about both their downtime and battle experiences. They shared the good, the bad, and every- thing in between. We also had Army Ranger training for three or for weeks which was not only educational but very valuable in terms of our bonding as a unit. tention for sexual peca- dilloes that come to the surface between now and Oscar night. Complete List of 2018 Academy Award Nominees BEST PICTURE Call Me by Your Name Darkest Hour Dunkirk Get Out Lady Bird Phantom Thread The Post The Shape of Water Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE Timothée Chalamet, Call Me by Your Name Daniel Day-Lewis, Phan- tom Thread Daniel Kaluuya, Get Out Gary Oldman, Darkest Hour Denzel Washington, Roman J. Israel, Esq. ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE Willem Dafoe, The Flori- da Project Woody Harrelson, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri Richard Jenkins, The Shape of Water Octavia Spencer and Sally Hawkins in ‘The Shape of Water’ Christopher Plummer, All the Money in the World Sam Rockwell, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE Sally Hawkins, The Shape of Water Frances McDormand, Three Billboards Out- side Ebbing, Missouri Margot Robbie, I, Tonya Saoirse Ronan, Lady Bird Meryl Streep, The Post ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE Mary J. Blige, Mudbound Allison Janney, I, Tonya, Lesley Manville, Phan- tom Thread Laurie Metcalf, Lady Bird Octavia Spencer, The Shape of Water BEST DIRECTOR Dunkirk, Christopher Nolan Get Out, Jordan Peele Lady Bird, Greta Gerwig Phantom Thread, Paul Thomas Anderson The Shape of Water, Guillermo del Toro ANIMATED FEATURE FILM The Boss Baby Breadwinner Coco Ferdinand Loving Vincent DOCUMENTARY FEATURE Abacus: Small Enough to Jail Faces, Places Icarus Last Men In Aleppo Strong Island DOCUMENTARY SHORT Edith+Eddie Heaven is a Traffic Jam See OSCARS on page 8 Information is powerful. The power is in your hands. KW: I assume you didn’t work with live ammo. TR: Definitely not. We had a couple guys who didn’t know what they were doing, so that would’ve been scary. KW: Have you had an opportunity to meet the soldier your character’s based on? TR: Yeah, just last night at the pre- miere. He’s amazing! KW: Patricia would like to know what you want the audience to learn from the movie. TR: I’d like them to come away with an accurate perspective of what it was like in Afghanistan after 9/11. For instance, I was 11 years old at the time, and I be- lieved all the people over there were bad. But that’s obviously not the case, since the only reason why this mission succeeded was because of a lot of help from some locals. Another message is how valuable connectivity, love, hones- ty and being there for one another are. KW: She was also wondering wheth- er there’s a genre out of your comfort zone that you would like to try? TR: To be quite honest, nothing I’ve encountered thus far is outside of my comfort zone. I hope that every film I do is very different from the previous one. What I’m always looking for as an actor is to be challenged in a new way. Read more at TheSkanner.com NEWS www.TheSkanner.com TheSkannerNews @TheSkannerNews
