It was a stereotypically gorgeous golden day in beachside Santa Monica for the 11th Annual Critics Choice Awards, the first of the star-studded galas to kick off the annual Hollywood Awards season, and it proved particularly sunny for Brokeback Mountain, the gay themed Western drama which galloped away with three awards from the Broadcast Film Critics Association.
Despite Brokeback’s increasingly powerful popularity with the critics, there was a single protester with a big sign and a bullhorn standing on the public sidewalk about 20 yards from the red carpet at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, decrying the film’s homosexual element. The self-proclaimed “Christian paparazzi” shouted out a litany of tirades again the film, and against Hollywood’s pro-gay agenda. “Did you see all the protesters out there?” George Clooney mused as he read the man’s sign. “‘No Homo on the Range?’ There’s some angry people out there!” Clooney did take the somewhat pathetic show seriously, having not shied away from issue oriented films himself–he was there to collect the Freedom Award for his work on Syriana and Good Night, and Good Luck.
“I think there’s always going to be a fringe element on either side of an issue that are going to be angry, no matter what the deal is,” said Clooney. “You can ask questions and you can raise debate–and you can disagree with it, and that’s fine. That’s why they stand out there with sandwich boards, and that’s okay, that’s fine. It’s part of the debate.”
Brokeback director Ang Lee was unperturbed by the display. “I wanted to go over there and take a picture with him,” he said. “No movie can please everyone. It’s a free country. But this already going so much better and the reception is much warmer than we expected.”
All the buzz of the day surrounded Julia Roberts, who was making her first public appearance since giving birth to her twins to introduce Clooney when he received his award from the critics. She disappointed most of the breathless press by skipping both the red carpet and the press room, but I just happened to be in the backstage hallway as Julia was exiting the building after Clooney’s award (she and George almost appeared to be wearing matching black-on-black tuxedos). The Insider’s Pat O’Brien tried to intercept her and get her to do an on-camera interview to which Julia classily replied, “This is George’s night and the focus should be on him, so I’m not doing any interviews tonight.” She was smiling that big million dollar smile when she said it, but it was clear that was going to be her last word on the issue.
Too bad Clooney didn’t appreciate Julia’s graciousness. “I don’t like her,” George told me. “I’ll tell you that right now: I never liked her. I don’t know why she showed up.” He was kidding, of course. “No, it’s great–I was really surprised. Only a couple of days ago they called and told me Julia wanted to do this, and I was really flattered and actually happy.”
I asked Clooney if, after having devoted a much larger percentage of his career to working in front of a camera, an acting award might mean more to him than a directing honor. “As you get older and they want to see you less in front of the camera, you can quickly come in back of the camera. I like directing because you get to be the boss, and boss all the actors around,” he explained. “It’s certainly a more creative place. But I enjoy both a lot. I like writing and I like directing and I’ve always had fun acting. So I’d like to do both, if I can.”
I couldn’t help but wonder if all the congratulatory awards hoopla surrounding Clooney was, in the end, a nice trade for the agonizing back injury he suffered on Syriana. “I wasn’t really planning on trading the back in, but I ended up doing it. That’s all gotten a lot better, so it’s a fine trade,” he grinned, then began massaging his lower lumbar with his crystalline Freedom Award. “You can rub that on it.”
Best Actor winner Philip Seymour Hoffman told me he had to overcome the idea of mimicking the famously flamboyant literary lion when he took on the role of Truman Capote. “I had to actually lay down and let go of who he was to play the role. If I kept holding on to who he was and what it meant to everybody, it would’ve been impossible. I had to let go of that fear. There’s a story to be told, and the story is more important than the impersonation. They go together, but ultimately if it’s successful as a story, if people are moved and affected in some way, I will have done my job. What’s happened is that the people who did know him that I have met were pleased—and thank God, after the fact—but I couldn’t think of that too much when I was doing it.”
Philip also said that despite many pleas from people for him to demonstrate his uncanny Capote intonations, he’s resisted since wrapping the film. “We finished the last take, and I thought to myself, ‘I am never going to speak like that guy ever again.’ I really did, and it sunk in me like a rock. Out of respect for him and just out of the fact that I had done it enough.”
I assured Best Director winner Ang Lee that this was probably only one of many trophies he’d be collecting for Brokeback Mountain and wondered if he had a plan to keep his acceptance speeches non-repetitive from gala to gala. “Oh, that’s a high-class problem,” Lee laughed. “I try to keep it fresh. I said something different than what I said last night to the New York Film Critics. I guess it takes a little thinking, and sometimes I don’t want to think it too much.”
Paul Giamatti seemed so genuinely flummoxed when he went on stage to receive his Best Supporting Actor Award for Cinderella Man, I wondered if even at this point he was still shocked to be in the awards mix. “Yeah, absolutely. I was surprised I was nominated and surprised that I won. I felt a little—it was shock. It’s a wonderful thing…I’m generally pretty down about a lot of my work [but] I thought I was good in the movie. I had a really good time making this movie. I had probably the best relationship with another actor that I think I’ve maybe ever had. So in terms of being better, I thought that was one of the best things I’ve ever done.”
Tiny Dakota Fanning told me about the other, non-industry awards she’s got at home: “I have gotten some Girl Scout badges!” She was all smiles after winning the Best Supporting Actress trophy, and it was her first public outing without her braces…for now: “My doctor told me I could take them off, but in a couple of months I’d have to put them on again. It was great to get them off but then when you realize they have to go back on you kind of come down a little bit.”
When Crash won for Best Acting Ensemble, Matt Dillon told me that as pleased as he was with the critic’s verdict, he was just as thrilled with the response from audiences to the frank way the film addresses issues of race. “When I did the Tavis Smiley show, he told me I’d better stay out of South Central,” Matt said, referring to the expected response to his portrayal of a racist cop. “But what I’ve found is that audiences just find it so refreshing–even my character, who’s a guy with real issues, that people are just delighted to see someone put this out on the table. It’s been really nice. I was surprised that people get that.”
The 40 Year-Old Virgin director Judd Apatow, whose film won Best Comedy, had a pretty amusing explanation for the absence of the film’s funny frontman Steve Carell–and he wasn’t joking. “He has a forklift lesson. That’s actually the reason why he’s not here,” said Apatow. “He’s shooting The Office right now and he has to shoot a scene tomorrow where he drives a forklift, and he had nighttime forklift lessons.”
In the requisite talent gift lounge, Terrence Howard, who’d collected a trophy for his musical work on Hustle & Flow, visited the Solstice sunglasses table and held a pair of aviator glasses, turned to me and asked, “How do they look?” I answered: “Let’s see them on!” As soon as he put them on he was swarmed by photographers snapping his picture, so he played along and posed. He then told the shutterbugs, pointing back to the Chantelle lingerie table, “You missed me with the panties. That was the real shot!” As Terrence was called out of the lounge for the award he was up for, he started to leave and then called back, “Where’s my shades?” The ladies manning the Solstice booth practically tripped over each other over trying to hand off sunglasses he liked.
Catherine Keener was in a effusive mood after the 40 Year-Old Virgin’s victory as Best Comedy. As the last of the stars were tricking out of the backstage door, she had a glass of champagne in hand and was congratulating her Capote co-star Hoffman–Ang Lee walked by and she intercepted him, telling him, “Congratulations! I loved your speech!” As Lee and Hoffman continued to chat with her, she razzed her Virgin helmer Judd Apatow as we walked by with his wife Leslie Mann and simply smiled at Ang Lee with a slight “hi” for being too shy to stay and talk. She then invited Lee and Hoffman to join the Virgin gang at Santa Monica’s seaside hotel Casa del Mar for a cocktails. As she strolled to her idling limo with her champagne glass still in hand, Catherine summed it all up: “It was a fun night. A fun, silly night.”
