Can only tops be leading men?

[Guest]

There was one part of the oscars which escaped me. Why was Heath Ledger nominated for Best Actor and Jake Gylenhaal nominated for Best Supporting Actor? I saw the movie and felt they both had roughly the same number of lines. Did Mr. Ledger get nominated for the more prestigious award because he played the top, or what?

[jaden]

It has nothing to do with that.

 

Heath was the main character, that's why. Third person limited P.O.V. seemed to follow him more than Jake.

 

If you watch the movie again and pay attention to that fact, you'd realize you know a lot more about Heath than you do about Jake. You find he divorces his wife... he finds a new girlfriend... he has beautiful children... etc...

 

But why he keeps sleeping with women and flipping them over is beyond me. That freak. LOL

 

... On a lighter note... I realized I am turning 21 this year, I'm going through my 3rd mid life crisis already. (1st at 18, 2nd at 20... LOL)

[Guest Dan]

>There was one part of the oscars which escaped me. Why was

>Heath Ledger nominated for Best Actor and Jake Gylenhaal

>nominated for Best Supporting Actor? I saw the movie and felt

>they both had roughly the same number of lines. Did Mr.

>Ledger get nominated for the more prestigious award because he

>played the top, or what?

 

You have no idea how true that is. I told Jake that if we won, we'd flip, but as you can guess, he's still the bottom!

 

Dan Dare

http://www.geocities.com/dandare_laca/DanDare4Hire.html

[jaden]

That first sex scene with the guys really freaked me out. Damn those boys play rough.

 

I can't imagine how it was for the straight people in the crowd; or even worse... a parent who unknowingly brought their child--dear god!

 

I'd love to have seen a similar reaction from that woman on the news, who was bitching about that Gay penguin children's book "It Takes Two to Tango".

[edjames]

This is a "Hollywood" thing. Producers will often nominate an actor in a supporting role category when, after sizing up the competition, they feel the actor may have a better chance in a supporting category. It's been done before and will be done again.

 

Jake and Heath's roles in BM were equivalent. They were both leads in the movie. By nominating Jake in a Supporting Actor category, his performance was given the opportunity to win on its own and not compete with Heath's.

 

With the sizable competition in the Best Actor category, it was almost impossible for Jake to get a nom there.

 

In the event they both won, there were great marketing possibilities for the film. It's all about the money.

 

Years ago, actress, Rita Moreno, made a big fuss over her Best Supporting Actress Tony nomination for her role as Googie Gomez in the comedy "The Ritz." When she won, she announced "Googie Gomez don't support nothin!" I don't think Rita has been back on the boards since.

[+ ArVaGuy]

Another point to consider is that just by being nominated both Heath and Jake will be able to increase their fees by a couple of million dollars. If they had won (a long shot IMO) another few million would have been tacked on as well. Any movie they appear in the future will have "Academy Award Nominee" appended to their names.

 

On the other hand these guys could wind up with an Oscar curse that leads to the decline of their careers.

[Guest]

Well, I saw the movie only once, but I disagree. I felt I knew about the same amount from both characters. I don't know if there's a way to find out other than getting the script and counting, but I would be surprised to learn that one character had more than 15% more lines than the other.

[jaden]

That's probably because heath ledger hardly ever talked in the movie. The most you could get out of him was a grunt <G>.

[Jay Ganymede]

That's actually a humorous theory.

 

Jake Gylenhaal team campaigned for Support Actor for Brokeback from the beginning as they thought he would have a chance to also get nominated for either Proof or Jarhead in the Leading category.

 

George Clooney on the other hand was totally against a campaigning for Support Actor for Syriana. Clooney's character in Syriana could be considered much more of a Supporting Actor; a Supporting character in Syriana would be Jeffery Wright's character. For leading superstars the win in the supporting category may seem like a step down as it is one of the rules of Oscar if a leading actor cant grab the golden boy in the leading category but them in a supporting role; i.e. Robin Williams' I believe 4 nominations before winning with a supporting role in Good Will Hunting and Renee Zellweger took second billing to Nicole Kidman in her winning performance in Cold Mountain after 2 consecutive nominations in the leading role.

 

Yeap and I can also tell you why which tort makes it illegal to block someone's car in...even though they may be parked, without consent, in your drive way.