Celebs share their Oscar tips with movie Mazz
Sunday, February 27, 2011
It's almost Oscars time bitches! Booyah! Now I've got to dash because I've got the live event to cover, but in the meantime . . . here are some hot and exclusive tips from a bunch of fantatsic people I've interviewed over the past few weeks. I had a ball compiling this list and I hope you have just as much fun reading it. Stay posted for live Oscars results today AND all the rad pics from 2011 Oscars party. Ciao.
Chris `Ludacris' Bridges, Actor and Rapper
The rapper turned actor found critical success in best picture Oscar-winner Crash and nominee Hustle & Flow. He said the ``smart money'' is on his No Strings Attached co-star:
``Natalie Portman man, this is her year. She's come out with Black Swan and she's in like three other movies this year. I think that she's just shining right now. I'm really proud of her and I wish her well. Plus, she did she did a damn good job in Black Swan.''
The rapper turned actor found critical success in best picture Oscar-winner Crash and nominee Hustle & Flow. He said the ``smart money'' is on his No Strings Attached co-star:``Natalie Portman man, this is her year. She's come out with Black Swan and she's in like three other movies this year. I think that she's just shining right now. I'm really proud of her and I wish her well. Plus, she did she did a damn good job in Black Swan.''
Callan McAuliffe, Actor
The 16-year-old actor from Sydney has spent his first year in Hollywood starring in blockbusters such as I Am Number Four and Flipped. He throws his support behind an animated contender:``How To Train Your Dragon was my favourite film of 2010, I love it and I hope it wins the animation category. I saw True Grit and I want it to win something, it was great, and Inception, which was amazing. I think both of those two deserve an award.''
Stephen Frears, Filmmaker
As a two-time best director Academy Award nominee and the man who directed Helen Mirren in her award-winning turn in The Queen, Frears knows all about the selection process and his bet is on a fellow Brit for best actor.``Surely Colin (Firth) will win. That's what everyone seems to think. I'm not really too good at guessing those sorts of things.''
Oliver Ackland, Actor
The star of upcoming Australian film Wasted On The Young and recipient of the Heath Ledger Scholarship tips Ledger's The Dark Knight co-star:``I think Christian Bale for best supporting actor, but I'm not so sure for best actor, I'll leave that up in air. I'm a big fan of Christian Bale, he deserves to win every time around. It's nuts that this is only his first nomination, it doesn't make any sense. I really like Inception, but I think something like The King's Speech will probably get up.''
Posdnuos, Rapper
As one third of legendary hip hop group De La Soul, Posdnuos aka Plug One is an influential force in the music industry. But he's also an avid movie lover who has been following the Oscars race closely:``I just saw Winter's Bone the other day and that was a really great film. That actress, Jennifer Lawrence, is young and just getting into it, but it's so great that movie can be a part of the Oscars.''
John Cameron Mitchell, Filmmaker and Actor
Best known for his boundary pushing films Hedwig and the Angry Inch and Shortbus, Cameron Mitchell is behind the raw drama Rabbit Hole, which scored Nicole Kidman a best actress nomination:``I have a mechanism when my film is out or up for award that I have to tune everything out, I get to crazy. But I'm cheering for Nicole. It's just the perfect role for her and one of her best performances to date.''
Damian Walshe-Howling, Actor
The former Underbelly actor and star of shark thriller The Reef has his fingers crossed for one of the few Australians in the field:``I just hope Jacki (Weaver) as the underdog takes the prize. It's such as such an amazing performance and Animal Kingdom is such an amazing film. I love that she's so down to Earth. The other day I read a quote from her in the paper where they were asking her about her chances and she said ``I feel like a Shetland at the Melbourne Cup.'' I think that's so wonderful. She's taking it in her stride and I would love an Australian film to take an Oscar, but just to get there is great. Also Christian Bale in The Fighter was sensational. That role, I just can't fault it at all.'' Read more...
You know that kid in high school who was ridiculously talented but a little too genius to be able to fit in with the cool kids? British director Christopher Nolan is the film industry equivalent of that kid.
That’s a good question. Iconic director Stanley Kubrick, with whom Nolan’s work has been closely compared to, never won an Oscar for best director or best picture despite being behind classics such as 2001: A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange and Full Metal Jacket. The reality is the Academy isn’t able to handle the conceptually and intellectually challenging genius of a film such as Inception and a mastermind such as Nolan.
Briggs met Ward just after the first of three fights with Arturo Gatti, which went on to become one the great boxing trilogies (Ward and Gatti are pictured above). Briggs said chatting with Ward "between fights and rounds'' he was struck by how ``down to Earth'' he was. Sitting next to Ward at the fight was his older brother Dicky who Briggs said was ``a bit of a lunatic''. Christian Bale's erratic portrayal of Dicky in The Fighter is tipped to win him an Oscar and Briggs said it seems authentic.
Wahlberg was a driving force behind the film, taking it from early development stages as an executive producer and hand-picking everyone from directors and trainers, to actors and producers. Bale had this to say about Wahlberg in his acceptance speech “Mark, really got to give a shout out to Mark as he really drove this whole movie. You can only give a loud performance like the one I gave when you have a quiet anchor and a stoic character. I’ve played that character many times and it never gets any notice. But the HPFA have nominated Mark for tonight so that’s fantastic, but thank you buddy. Kudos to you for that, otherwise I wouldn’t have got away with it.”
The God of Thunder or King George VI with a stammer? That was what it came down to for director Tom Hooper who was tossing up between comic-book movie Thor and period drama The King's Speech as his next project. But with The King's Speech headed for Oscars glory, Hooper definitely made the right decision.
Which makes sense, considering Geoffrey Rush plays an unconventional Australian speech therapist who's called in to help fix the debilitating stammer of King George VI, played by Colin Firth. Hooper himself is half-Australian and says it was his Australian mother who first introduced him to The King's Speech via an underground version on the London theatre scene. The film has come a long way from theatre origins to industry insiders touting it as a red-hot Oscars favourite, with nominations likely across several major categories
But the filmmaker is more enthusiastic about Firth and Rush's chances of winning at the awards, with Helena Bonham Carter even an outside chance for best supporting actress.
Despite having seen and achieved many things, Collee says he choose to focus on this chapter of Darwin's life because it `represented something about the modern condition'.
Kate 
What I really wanted this Oscar season was a good 
Alas, there was no one. Why 
Pics are from celebrity blogger Perez Hilton who (naturally) had all the Oscar 
