“Mmm, it still smells of Mr. Clooney,” sighed Academy Award nominee Amy Ryan as she took in the ambiance of the press room podium after it had recently been manned by one of the world’s biggest movie stars and one of her fellow hopefuls in this year’s Oscar race.
And such is the tradition of the annual Oscar Nominees Luncheon, where a coterie of contenders for Hollywood’s most coveted prize assemble at the Beverly Hilton Hotel to mix, mingle and otherwise marinate in that blissful pre-ceremony period in which no one has lost – yet.
The afternoon also took on the distinct feel of a family affair, with director Jason Reitman bringing along his snapshot-taking dad Ivan, Hal Holbrook paying a heartwarming tribute to his wife Dixie Carter without realizing she was hiding in the back of the room, Casey Affleck admitting his proud sibling Ben hoped kid bro’s nomination would come for the movie he directed Casey in, and a kiss-kiss greeting between director Julian Schnabel and Viggo Mortensen (whose significant other happens to be Julian’s daughter).
And as Hollywood.com took in the scene, I couldn’t help but wonder: just what DO these nominees talk about over their Atlantic salmon? George Clooney – he of the scent that beguiled Ms. Ryan – had an answer for me: “Well, first of all, mostly we talk about you, as you well know,” he insisted. Somehow, I doubted that my ears should be burning – here’s the real chatter I picked up.[PAGEBREAK]
George Clooney, Best Actor Nominee – Michael Clayton
On exactly what the nominees discuss at these celebratory functions:
“It’s a funny thing: I think that a lot of stars are star-struck in a way. A lot of famous people – you don’t really hang with them. It’s not like you go out and have drinks with all these famous people very often. So there’s something kind of exciting about standing around and meeting them or saying hello. I was just back there talking to Hal Holbrook. I’ve been a fan of his since I can remember, so I think you’re just mostly excited to be around people like that. You don’t really run out of things to talk about – because it’s a bunch of actors.”
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Casey Affleck, Best Supporting Actor Nominee – The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
On his brother Ben Affleck’s reaction to his nomination:
“I think that he said, ‘It should’ve been for Gone Baby Gone.’ But don’t quote me on that [laughs]. He was very happy…I grew up watching movies as a kid and watching The Oscars and it was always very exciting and you’d see people who were kind of idols of yours. So it feels sort of surreal to be included now in that tradition along with all of those people. I still don’t think that it necessarily means that I’m sort of a part of them or that I’ve achieved anything like any of those people have, but it’s still nice in that way.”[PAGEBREAK]
Ellen Page, Best Actress Nominee – Juno
On her first invitation to Hollywood’s biggest night:
“It’s very surreal. It’s very bizarre. It doesn’t always feel right when you’re being associated with four women and just a group of people who you have so much respect for and so much admiration for. It feels like, ‘Are you sure? Do you want to double check that?’…Obviously, this isn’t why I do what I do and it’s not how I choose films or anything like that, but this is what I love to do. When something like this happens it’s absolutely exciting and ridiculously humbling and makes me think ‘Well, this is kind of working out okay. Maybe I’ll get to be in a couple more movies.’” [PAGEBREAK]
Laura Linney, Best Actress Nominee – The Savages
On her third time in the Oscar derby:
“It’s a wonderful and unique opportunity to have – or to feel like you’re having – a lifetime in the arts in some way. To be nominated now for the third time, it’s a very different time in my life than it was for the first or the second one, and you associate the nominations with that period of time. So the first time that I was nominated was just electrically exciting. I’m looking at Ellen Page now and sort of having some sense of what she must be going through right now, and the sort of disbelief at being included…This nomination was a big surprise. It’s a movie that I’m very proud of and I think the joy of the nominations deepen a little bit as you’re fortunate enough to have them come your way.” [PAGEBREAK]
Julian Schnabel, Best Director – The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
On what he learned making the film:
“There was an art historian named Leo Steinberg. He’s dead now, but he was very smart and said, ‘Art comes from the horses mouth. The artist is just the horse.’ I learned how to be in the present more. I think that if we can all be in the present it’s easier to accept our death. If you can really enjoy the present and feel like you’re really here you don’t say, ‘I wish I was here when my life was happening.’ I think I learned that from John Doe.” [PAGEBREAK]
Michael Moore, Best Documentary Feature Nominee – Sicko
On returning to the Oscars after being booed during his controversial 2003 victory speech:
“They’re never going to like officially let me on that stage. I’m only ever going to be able to come back on the stage at the Kodak Theater if it’s the will of the people. It won’t happen by design, with all due respect to those that are putting on the show. Look, as Steve Martin said after I gave my last Oscar speech, teamsters were loading me into the trunk of my car. Times have changed. Things have changed. I’m very honored that the Academy has nominated three anti-war films for the documentary award. The thing that I was booed off the stage for is now being honored this year. So that personally makes me feel very, very good. So I hope that all goes well and that I end up being myself, essentially.” [PAGEBREAK]
Viggo Mortensen, Best Actor Nominee – Eastern Promises
On his much-buzzed-about nude fight scene:
“A lot has been made of that scene. I think that it’s as much because of the emotional content and the emotional nakedness as much as the physical nakedness. It’s like a small movie in itself, a survival story. It’s the survival of the fittest. It’s really basic and really down to it, which is the way that [David] Cronenberg makes his movies. I think that scene [was] so cleverly and artistically constructed that as much as people like them when they come out, it’s on the second and third viewing that they realize what masterpieces they are and how well-crafted they are. You can’t say that about most movies.” [PAGEBREAK]
Marion Cotillard, Best Actress Nominee – La Vie en Rose
On being a Frenchwoman in Hollywood at Oscar time:
“We really don’t have this in France, the whole award season. There’s nothing like that and it’s not comparable because it’s totally different. In France there are only two or three awards. The whole show is here. I mean, you don’t do any campaign. You don’t do any publicity. It would be odd doing this. It’s an experience for me and I really love it…It’s kind of a dream which is very real, and still it’s a dream. [Pinches herself] It’s like, ‘Yeah, yeah, French girl. It’s real.’” [PAGEBREAK]
Jason Reitman, Best Director Nominee – Juno
On his feelings for his film’s lead actress Ellen Page:
“I’m in love with her. My wife knows that and is cool with that. I had seen Hard Candy and like anyone that sees that movie you just, ‘This girl is incredible.’ You watch Hard Candy and it’s like watching Jodie Foster in Taxi Driver. You just see her whole career open up in front of her…Working with her was a complete joy. She’s an actress incapable of having a dishonest moment. She catches herself and makes sure whatever she’s doing is real. I cannot wait to work with her again.” [PAGEBREAK]
Ivan Reitman, director and proud dad of nominee Jason Reitman
On his son’s prophetic invitation:
“At the age of 12 Jason asked me, ‘Dad, how come you never go to the Academy Awards? You’ve made a lot of movies and stuff like that.’ I said, ‘Frankly, I’ve never been nominated for any Academy Awards and I felt uncomfortable coming to the ceremony without a nomination.’ He turned to me and said, ‘Well, what if I get nominated? Would you come to that?’ I looked at him with that chutzpah of his and I said, ‘Yeah, I’ll be there.’ So I’m here.” [PAGEBREAK]
Amy Ryan, Best Supporting Actress Nominee – Gone Baby Gone
On her delayed reaction to her nomination:
“I’m still surprised to be standing here in front of you right now. It’s a slow fade in. It’s been hitting me in increments along the way. When I first heard the news, I watched it on TV. It’s been a slow shit-eating grin that keeps finding its way as the day wore on. I think I finally let out a good whoop. By the end of the day I was reduced to a bucket of tears.” [PAGEBREAK]
Hal Holbrook, Best Supporting Actor Nominee – Into the Wild
On the reaction of his wife, actress Dixie Carter, to his nomination:
“We’ve had a wonderful time together over this. She’s just so pleased. It’s wonderful and is a great thrill if you’re lucky enough to be alive and be married or to be in league with somebody who really, really is a champion for you and really cares deeply for what happens to you and roots for you and encourages you all the time. We’ve been married for 24 years now. My dear father-in-law passed away a year ago this month. Mr. Carter, Dixie‘s father, used to have this saying, ‘Hal, I’m FOR you.’ He’s from Tennessee and he meant it. People down there in Tennessee, they do mean it. Anyone tries to fool around with you or say bad things about you get out of the way because you’ll get knocked down. My father-in-law would say, ‘He needs knocking down.’” [PAGEBREAK]
Tony Gilroy, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay Nominee – Michael Clayton
On his film’s star, George Clooney:
“He’s better at the job of being a movie star than I think anyone who’s ever done it. When you think about what being a movie star used to mean, it meant that you used to have to go and act and do your job and you were protected. If you add to that working these rope lines, maintaining your dignity, having a political worldview that at the same time doesn’t get too preachy – the things that he does and the way that he does them and the effortlessness that seems to go into it makes him really like the Michael Jordan of movie stars.” [PAGEBREAK]
Brad Bird, Best Animated Feature, Best Original Screenplay Nominee – Ratatouille
On Oscar noms helping pave the way from directing animation to live-action films:
“It doesn’t hurt. My next project is a live action film. I’ve never looked at animation as a thing to get out of and into respectable filmmaking or something. Believe me some people do say, ‘When are you going to make a real movie?’ So there’s definitely that sort of feeling in the air sometimes, but my ideal career would be a career where I could move back and forth between the mediums and even do different genres. I want to do a western. I want to do a musical. I want to do a scary movie. I want to do a political comedy. I want to do a little bit of everything. So I just view it kind of as all part of the salad bar of film.” [PAGEBREAK]
George Clooney
On the competition from his fellow nominee Daniel Day-Lewis:
“I’ll tell you, I don’t like Daniel Day-Lewis. I don’t know if you guys have met him, but I caught him stealing [laughs]. Listen, it’s a funny thing about comparing art, and then there’s Daniel Day-Lewis who kind of screws the whole thing up –because he’s so good – for, I think, everybody in the room every time that he works. So I’m always just happy to be sitting at the table with someone like that.”
