Supporting players

I love being on a set. I have spent hours and hours and hours on movie and television sets and I still love it. I love watching everything, listening to everything, I love talking to the crew and asking questions about their jobs, I love the extras and the stand ins, I love how real a set can become once you've spent a few hours on it, and I love hanging out at crafts service drinking coffee and sucking down Krispy Kreme do-nuts by the dozen!

I once tried to go down the stairs of an attic set that three hours earlier, I had entered from the ground level of a sound stage at Warner Brothers. I used to browse books in a bookstore, and sit and drink my coffee in the attached cafe of Booklovers...not an actual store, but a set. Then there is the beauty of the New Mexico sky when you are in the middle of the desert at 3 am having an amazing conversation about UFO's with a Navajo spiritual leader. I guess it is easier to love if you have a job that allows you to roam about on set.

I'm not a film actor. I made it as far as getting my SAG card, I had my own honey wagon room a few times, and thought myself lucky.My time on sets has, for the most part, been spent in other capacities.
I was a stage actor. Actor obsessed, I screwed up many a relationship, because I just wanted to be at the theatre or with theatre people discussing theatre or gossiping with theatre people about theatre people or reading plays aloud with other actors or playing poker at the theatre, or anything involving the theatre.

Eventually, my actor/director ex-husband even saw my passion as competition. That somehow, I had developed this because I was trying to beat him at something? Or better him at something? Or consume everyone around me to keep them from him or some other irrational idea. I never really quite understood what it was exactly. At some point, though, he scared me off, and I began to slowly withdraw. I tried to find other interests, eventually quiting acting all together. Regrets? Uh...yeah!

So, what has all this to do with the Supporting actors? Well, I was ruminating on my past life as an actor. I was also thinking about the years I spent teaching film actors in Burbank...and I came to the conclusion that I was a damn good supporting actor most of the time. I was technically a ingenue and then a leading lady. But, I really think my strength, and the one thing I was most proud of, is that I could lift another actors performance. Does that sound vain? I just always knew that I could bring that actor along if'n it was needed. There were many times when a director "used" me to push another actor along, to incite another actor, to squeeze another actor, by the heart or by the balls if necessary. Sometimes it's not necessary at all. Sometimes you have an effortless give and get. I had the great good fortune of working with some other amazing supporting actors...some of them in Lead roles...all of them generous.

Generosity. When I look at a supporting actor, that's what I'm looking for. Right or wrong, that is what I think of as a Best Supporting performance. Someone who supports, lifts and creates a back and forth relationship that allows both to soar. But, who is not in a leading position. They are there to literally support the other actors.

I really hate the category fraud of nominating, say, Jamie Fox for Collateral when he is obviously the lead. Oh, but Tom Cruise is a bigger star so, it's allowed?

 I never agreed with Angelina Jolie's win for Girl Interrupted. She looked like she was trying too hard. Showboating. If she was on a basketball team, she'd be called a selfish player, she'd have no assists, or rebounds. 

 Was I the only person who thought Jack Nicholson got in the way of the story in The Departed?  He was a third lead.  It was a star turn that threw everything a little out of whack. Loved the film, just not Nicholson. 

 

On the opposite end of things, Nicholson was a brilliant supporting "rock" for Shirley Maclaine in Terms Of Endearment.  That is how it's done. Jeff Daniels was another example of subtle greatness in the same film.

Once upon a time Maclaine and Debra Winger were both recognized as leads in Terms of Endearment. They had to compete against each other, yes, but it was proper placement. A couple of years ago, Matt Damon and Leonardo Di Caprio were not allowed to be considered as leads in The Departed. They were called Supporting just because there were two of them? The SAG nominating ballot would not allow a vote in lead for either actor. Di Caprio ended up with the nomination for Blood Diamond, I think, because The Departed issue was too confusing.

So, while a lead can support another actor and still be the lead.  A true supporting actor is not the main focus, but provides ballast for the leads without stealing from them.  A great supporting actor can make everyone around them better.  At any rate, that's how I feel after years of acting and teaching actors and watching actors work.  That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

With all this in mind...my predictions for Best Supporting Actor and Actress...next up.