Ah, the Independent Spirit Awards, that annual celebration of independent filmmaking: Sure, the red carpet—held, as is the custom, beachside in sunny but unseasonably chilly Santa Monica—was filled with all kinds of sights that you’re not likely to see at the Academy Awards, where expected indie darlings like Kevin Smith, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Robin Wright-Penn and Lisa Kudrow whisk down the red carpet in casual chic (jeans, not tuxes, are the uniform) past decidedly more unexpected hobnobbing Hollywood-ites seeking indie street cred (this year’s models included the Olsen twins, Vin Diesel and the already established Ludacris, the latter cheauffered in a Netflix-logoed bicycle taxi). Where you see unusual sights like nattily clad film critic Roger Ebert hugging a pimped-out Mario Van Peebles warmly while a smattering of A-list-yet-indie-loving stars like Naomi Watts add an air of glamour to the proceedings.
But with a guest list that also included a star-studded crop of this year’s leading Oscar bait, including George Clooney, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Felicity Huffman, Amy Adams, Heath Ledger, Michelle Williams, Terrence Howard, Matt Dillon, David Strathairn and all of the nominated directors save Steven Spielberg, the ISAs were looking more Hollywood Establishment than ever…or have the Oscars gone indie?
A Spirited Red Carpet
George Clooney revealed how a big-time movie star like himself maintains his independent spirit: “I wear special underwear–special Independent underwear. It’s a thong, and you can imagine how uncomfortable I get after a while.” Yeah, it was the requisite George joke answer, but then he got semi-serious when Hollywood.com asked him, having made Good Night And Good Luck for pennies and intending it to be the genuine indie article, if a win at the beach was even more gratifying than an Oscar victory. “Listen, we’ve been sort of unburdened by winning anything, so we’re quite fine with just showing up at these things. It’s fun for us. The rest of it you don’t worry about.”
No one displayed the what-me-worry? attitude over the awards season more than Crash director Paul Haggis. “How could going to 50 parties be stressful? No, it’s delightful. A lot of people say nice things about you and invite you to parties–The only thing that’s tough is that after a while there’s a point where people saying nice things gets to be too much, and you start to believe it. And that’s a really bad thing. So you just have to try to keep your feet on the ground.”
“I am enjoying it,”Capote director Bennett Miller assured Hollywood.com when we suggested he seemed more into making films than collecting statuettes. “I’m a total voyeur, and this is a new experience. I’ve met more people in the past two months than I’ve met my entire life. I don’t think that’s an exaggeration. There’ve been many, but recently I was actually pitched by Mickey Rooney. So that was a special one…I think that I’m going to be in aorta of mass culture, and I’m just going to go with the literal flow of the thing and see what it is.” Making the experience more palatable was that he was sharing it with his childhood pals and Capote collaborators Hoffman and Dan Futterman. “I think that as meaningful as it all is, it’s much more meaningful to do this with Phil and Danny,” said Miller.
Though Transamerica director Duncan Tucker wasn’t in the Oscar race, he was in the hunt for—and ultimately won—Best First Screenplay at the ISAs, an award he took home after taking the true indie route to make the film, borrowing heavily from his brothers and mother. “I was ready to be in debt for the next 15 years.” And thankfully, the star power of Felicity Huffman helped get his film noticed. “I think that Felicityis amazing. Look, when we first got the couple of dollars together to make the movie, the producer said that anyone I had ever heard of I couldn’t afford. But right down the line I got my first choice of cast. I got a great DP. I got a great costume designer. A great editor. The movie has just been blessed. We got Dolly Parton to come onboard. It’s just been amazing. People have really responded to the humor and the humanity of it, I think.”Huffman and Parton were both Oscar nominees, and Tuckertoyed with the idea of providing them with good luck charms. “One of the people on my crew suggested that I give Felicity and Dolly little tiny gold penis earrings. They couldn’t wear them though.”
Indie director Miranda July, nominated at the ISAs for her film Me, You and Everyone We Know, did not agree with the notion of casting known names in small films, however.
“I think that it’s tacky,” she told Hollywood.com. “Sometimes it’s appropriate if, like with Capote, there really is only one role that the film mostly revolves around, but for example my movie had an ensemble cast and it would’ve just looked dumb if there was just one famous person and then a bunch of other people. So whenever possible, I think that it’s to be avoided and it’s no guarantee. I mean, there are movies here that had stars that made less than mine. So make a good movie wherever you can.”
“It’s like you are brothers in a struggle,” suggested Peter Sarsgaard of the indie community. “Adversity makes companionship. I think it makes for a better movie a lot of the time. Without some conflict, there is never decent art. They always say if someone told you that you had unlimited resources and whoever you wanted to have in your movie, you probably would end up with a pretty bad movie. It’s nice to figure out how your not top choice might work better than the top choice. If you can’t get Tom Cruise and you get this other actor it might somehow work out a little better.”
Sarsgaard did not dismiss the value of the Oscars and told Hollywood.com he was enjoying watching hisJarhead co-star Jake Gyllenhaal (the brother of Sarsgaard’s longtime girlfriend Maggie) get his turn in the spotlight for his role in Brokeback Mountain. “I think it’s long overdue. I think he’s a fantastic actor and a great guy.” But is he prepared for the awards season onslaught? “You really can’t be. I think that if you are prepared, then there is something wrong with you…The lack of preparedness is nice.You think it doesn’t matter, because we have this idea that acting shouldn’t be judged in that way, and I think it’s true. But then when they call out your name and four other names and they are about to read the envelope, you can’t help but feel like you are hoping your name will be called. It’s perfectly normal to feel that, and it’s perfectly normal before it to feel that it’s all a lot of bullshit, and it’s perfectly normal afterwards to be upset if you didn’t win. There is no wrong feeling–I think that is the thing to remember.”
“Awards and all of that are wonderful, but they don’t mean much,” suggested Julie Delpy, who went through her own Oscar run last year as the co-writer of Before Sunset. “I believe that it’s all about the work, and doing good work and keeping on with the good work and when you have an award the most dangerous thing to do is to think that you have gotten somewhere because you don’t get anywhere in this business. You always have to fight and work harder. The last really great part that I got was from my own writing, and the next really good one, I think, is going to be my own script.”
A Spirited Winners Cicle
After taking the Best Actress honors (“I am going to Velcro it to my chest,” she said when asked if she’d put her ISA award alongside her Emmy and Golden Globe) Felicity Huffman said her victory didn’t quite take the edge off her Oscar nerves. “They are kind of separate–I’m nervous about tomorrow, but maybe it’s getting dressed and fitting in my dress and walking in high heels.” After seemingly opening the door to the inevitable questions about her Oscar dress: “I could but then I’d have to kill you, and it would be so sad.”
Instead Huffman told Hollywood.com she was thrilled thatTransamerica had broken through its indie origins and found a wide audience. “I knew that my husband would see it, I was pretty sure my Mom and a couple of friends would see it and I thought that would be it. I didn’t know it was going to be any good. It was sort of lightning in a bottle,” she said, adding that many of her Desperate Housewives viewers had indeed been lured into the theater thanks to her name.
“I guess the ones that don’t like it haven’t come and said anything to me yet–like ‘You suck!’–but the ones that are Desperate Housewives fans and also sawTransamerica and liked it came up and were very happy and pleased,” she said. “Desperate Housewives builds the bridge a little bit to Transamerica. I think people that might be scared to see it will go, because they are so familiar with Desperate Housewives.” Speaking of her co-stars, did she have any plans to meet up with her fellow Housewives on Oscar night’s party circuit? “I don’t, but I usually don’t last past 10,” she laughed. “ I have made plans and then I just bag, and they call me in the car and they’re like ‘Where are you?’ and I’m like ‘Oh right, I’m sorry. I’m going to bed.’”
Even with a new trophy fresh in his hand, ISA’s Best Actor Philip Seymour Hoffman was ready for the long march toward the Oscars to be over. “It’s all nerve wracking,” he admitted. “It’s not an act…It’s all pressure. Any public speaking is a nervous thing. I think if we traded places, you would be like, that’s just how it is. But you’ve got to be grateful. You got to stay grateful and focused on why you are here, and enjoy.” He’d been trying to find a balance with the near full-time job of being a nominee. “You go home and you hang out with friends who you are not hanging out with here and you have affection for and an eclectic mix of people with different jobs and I work with a theatre company and concentrate on other projects I want to do and I spend a lot of time with my son. That’s what you do and it brings a little peace to your heart–you relax a little bit so you feel better.”
Best Supporting Actress winner Amy Adams (Junebug) was also feeling a little shellshocked from the past several weeks, and couldn’t put her experience into words. “I don’t have much of a perspective right now. It’s a little overwhelming and surreal. If you call in six months I’ll probably have a very eloquent answer for you…I just think that it’s a category with amazing actresses, and it’s just an honor to be nominated with them and so I haven’t even really thought about it. I didn’t even think about my chances today and have been so surprised.”
When asked how her life had radically changed thanks to the role, Adams had a quicker answer: “I’m a lot bitchier. And I wear a lot more dresses now than I used to. No–I have all the same great friends and the same great team working with me, and so I feel like things are great and this has been overwhelming. Like I said, in six months I’m going to have a whole journal filled with what this experience has been.”
“To be in the company of the other nominated people I think is the best part,” proclaimed Matt Dillon after being named Best Supporting Actor for Crash. “I know what it’s like to put together a film and how long it takes, so I know what Paul Haggis went through to get this film made. I know how difficult it is. It really is like a miracle anytime one gets made.”
As Brokeback Mountain collected its latest trophy as ISA’s Best Picture and director Ang Lee’s earlier victory as Best Director seemed to cement where the corresponding Oscars might be heading in 24 hours, Dillon was reluctant to play oddsmaker regarding his own chances on the big day–but then, he didn’t need to. “I feel like I already won, because you know when you get nominated it’s an honor. That’s the way I see it, I don’t want to speculate too much, because it will give me gray hairs.”
