DANIEL DAY-LEWIS has gone from big screen oddball to become the golden boy of the Oscars.
Tonight, if – as the bookies expect and most critics predict – he collects the Academy Award for his perfect portrayal of Abraham Lincoln, he will have created history.
It will mean that the London-born star – who previously won for My Left Foot and There Will Be Blood – is the first to complete a hat-trick of best actor Oscars.
With tonight’s triumph seeming a virtual certainty, it has caused at least one critic to ask whether Daniel Day-Lewis might just be the greatest screen actor of all time.
I would certainly place him up there with screen greats such as Spencer Tracy, Marlon Brando, James Stewart and James Cagney.
Like those iconic figures, Day-Lewis, 55, has the ability to so absorb himself in a performance that you forget that he is acting.
In the history of the Academy Awards, since 1927, no single actor has managed to win three Academy Awards for Best Actor. Nine have won twice, while Jack Nicholson has won twice for Best Actor and once for Best Supporting Actor. Character actor Walter Brennan won three times as Best Supporting Actor before 1950 and at least one actor should have won three Best Actor awards in a span of six years in the sixties, but did not. Incredibly Katherine Hepburn won four times as Best Actress, the first in the thirties, back to back awards in the sixties and the final one in 1981 putting her far ahead of both the men and women.
Thirteen women have won twice for Best Actress, with Ingrid Bergman and Meryl Streep each winning another for Best Supporting Actress, and many of the ladies, could have won more than they did. Is it not bizarre that Streep just became a two time Best Actress winner only a year ago??
Daniel Day-Lewis will likely become the first actor to be a triple Best Actor winner for his magnificent performance in Lincoln (2012), the years best film. Day-Lewis first won for his stunning work in My Left Foot (1989) and just five years ago for There Will Be Blood (2007) arguably the greatest male performance ever put on film. His win for Lincoln (2012) will place him where no other actor has ever been, but in hindsight, several could have been perhaps should have been three time winners (or more) before now.
Fredric March, Spencer Tracey, and Gary Cooper were all deserving two time Oscar winners, with not one of them having a chance at a third. However, the other six all should be three time winners.
Daniel Day-Lewis has taken his first step towards triple-Oscar glory by winning the coveted Best Actor gong at the Critics Choice Awards.
The Critics Choice Awards, held in California, are regarded as the most reliable guide to who will bag an Academy Award at next month's glitzy show.
And Day-Lewis (55) has taken one step closer to that golden statuette which, if he wins, will make him the only male actor in history to win a hat-trick of Best Actor Oscars. Katharine Hepburn, a 1930s super star wholater enjoyed a career revival, won four academy awards for best actress.
The 18th annual Critics Choice ceremony was attended by some of Hollywood's biggest names last night.
Anne Hathaway (30) showed off her pixie do in a shimmering Oscar de la Renta gown. Emily Blunt (29) showed off her petite physique in a fitted white dress with an embellished pearl neckline.
Her film Looper picked up the award for Best Sci-Fi.
But all eyes were on Day-Lewis, who lives in Co Wicklow, and is on the verge of making Oscar history.
Only nine men including Marlon Brando, Spencer Tracy, Tom Hanks and Dustin Hoffman have taken home the Oscar for Best Actor twice. But Day-Lewis, who holds both an Irish and British passport, will over take them all over if he wins his third award.
It is the actor's fifth nomination in the category. In 1989 he won the gong for his portrayal of Christy Brown in the movie My Left Foot.
And in 2007 Day-Lewis struck Oscar gold again for his role as Daniel Plainview in There Will Be Blood.
At last year’s Oscars there appeared to be a significant oversight, to say the least: namely the absence of leading man du jour Michael Fassbender from the Best Actor nominations.
Despite his brilliant performance as sex addict Brandon in British director and artist Steve McQueen’s critically-acclaimed Shame, Fassbender (who was nominated for or won practically every other major acting gong going) was overlooked by the Oscar voting committee. It was wrong, to say the least. Look up injustice in an online dictionary, and you’ll find a picture of Michael Fassbender alongside it.
Beyond undergoing a body metamorphosis, Fassbender’s commitment to the role of Brandon was on a par with anything the likes of Brando, De Niro, or latter day talented actors such as Guy Pearce (Memento) or Christian Bale (The Fighter) has ever exhibited on the big screen. Like with all his roles, Fassbender lived and breathed the character in a mesmerising portrayal of a troubled, restless individual that clearly warranted attention, and got it – just not the Oscar it truly deserved.
Showing that you can’t keep a good man down, the chameleon-like Fassbender has since been seen in Haywire, A Dangerous Method and now Prometheus, stealing the show in every film. And before that he delivered strong performances in Eden Lake, Fish Tank, Hunger (another role he should have got an Oscar nod for) and Inglourious Bastards. But, it’s his performance as David in that should see the German-born Irish actor finally pick up the golden gong his stellar acting work truly deserves. It is nothing short of flawless. And given that it’s a performance that will be seen by a mass audience, it seems impossible to conceive that next year’s Best Actor Oscar nominations won’t feature Fassbender’s name among the chosen few.
For those who’ve been waiting for Tom Hardy to become a movie star, this may be his year.
The British actor stars as a moonshine bootlegger in the Prohibition-era drama “Lawless,” which screened at the Cannes Film Festival on Saturday, and plays the villain Bane in the much-anticipated Batman epic, “Dark Knight Rises,” this summer.
At the news conference following the screening on Saturday, Hardy – seated beside costar Jessica Chastain and director John Hillcoat – was asked about being compared to Marlon Brando.
“I haven’t even seen ‘The Godfather,’ I haven’t seen ‘On the Waterfront,’ I haven’t seen ‘Streetcar Named Desire,’” said the often monosyllabic Hardy, who has grown a beard.
The film tells the true story of the three Bondurant brothers, scraping out an existence in the backwoods of Appalachia during Prohibition. Shia LaBeouf plays the younger brother Jack, and Australian actor Jason Clarke plays middle brother Howard.
Chastain plays a woman who appears from Chicago and takes care of their saloon in a violent and unpredictable milieu.
Hardy said he was flattered, but only knew Brando from photos, and any similarity in acting style “is not conscious, but it’s very high praise.”
Ridley Scott has called his new star: "One of the best three or four actors out there. He holds the screen." And according to the director Steve McQueen, who has worked with Fassbender several times: "There is no one like Michael out there right now. And there hasn't been, for me, since Marlon Brando. There's a fragility and a femininity to him, but also a masculinity that can translate. You're not in awe of him. You're part of him. He pulls you in. And that's what you want from an actor. You want people to look at him and see themselves."
On screen, Fassbender is able to convey both intensity and vulnerability in equal measure: his haunting portrayal of a sex addict in Shame won him critical plaudits and a clutch of awards, including the Volpi Cup for best actor at the 2011 Venice film festival. To the astonishment of many, he was overlooked for an Oscars nomination.
Off screen, he is renowned for his dedication. He will read a script up to 300 times before filming and has attributed this perfectionism to his Teutonic ancestry – his father, Josef, is from Germany. "If I came home with 85% in a test," Fassbender has said, "he'd always ask what happened to the other 15%."
When he played IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands in McQueen's 2008 film, Hunger, Fassbender survived on 900 calories a day – a diet consisting mainly of nuts, berries and sardines – and lost 40lbs, taking him down to nine stone. Hunger went on to win the Caméra d'Or at Cannes. For Jane Eyre, Fassbender learned to ride, although filming was repeatedly delayed because every time the actor mounted his horse, the animal got an erection – much to the amusement of onlookers.
Michael Fassbender is a "once-in-a generation" actor.
The 'Shame' star has a "femininity" which helps put him into the same league as Hollywood greats like Marlon Brando and James Dean, according to director Steve McQueen.
He said: "He's a once in a generation actor. Michael's a man's man, but he has a femininity too. A lot of actors today are very masculine. You have to go back to actors like Brando and James Dean to find that combination. His openness is key to him being a great actor."
Although he has played some weighty roles in recent years, such as Northern Irish hunger strike prisoner Bobby Sands in 'Hunger' and sex addict Brendan in 'Shame', Michael could branch out into action, as he is in the frame for a remake of 1987 movie 'Robocop', about a former policeman who is murdered and re-created as a crime-fighting cyborg
He said: "You know, I'm always open. I'll take a look at the script and sit down with the director and have a conversation. It's not definitely like, 'Oh, I've got to play RoboCop before I retire.' I don't have that about anything. I don't go, 'I have to play the Dane one day, or Hamlet.'
Thursday, October 27, 2011; Posted: 01:10 PM - by Pat Cerasaro
Today we continue our special SPOTLIGHT ON series consisting of five entries total, each of which highlight a different facet of the rich and wonderful world of William Shakespeare and all with a particular emphasis on the controversial new feature film that explores the time, place, politics and goings-on of the Elizabethan era and focuses on the possibility that the true author of the esteemed plays we now know may very well have been someone else entirely - Edward de Vere - and how the question of the canon’s true creation then comes into play - ANONYMOUS.
“All the world’s a stage,” after all, so it should come as no surprise that acts of lust, bloodshed and betrayal would exist in the actual life - or even the supposed one - of the man who created the most bloody and thought-provoking tragedies in the history of literature - whoever he may have actually been. Perhaps some brief analysis of the finest leading players, most memorable lines and moments, as well as an exploration of other notable acts of grand betrayal in Shakespeare’s plays will aid us on the journey to understanding the thesis of ANONYMOUS and bring us into a closer relationship with the individual who penned the greatest plays in the English language.
Since we have now analyzed the top ten male and female Shakespearean performers of the last few decades, today we are going to take a look at some of the most famous lines from Shakespeare’s plays and some of the best audiovisual examples of them given full weight in their dramatic context - ROMEO & JULIET, AS YOU LIKE IT, RICHARD III included - with leading players as iconic as Marlon Brando, Kevin Kline, Sir Ian McKellen, Kenneth Branagh and Leonardo DiCaprio!
Be sure to check out the introductory essay in this SPOTLIGHT ON ANONYMOUS series here, as well as the two previous columns in this 5 Top 5 special series singling out the top present day leading men and leading ladies of Shakespeare both onstage and onscreen.
A little bit AMADEUS, with a touch of TIMON OF ATHENS; a dash of DANGEROUS LIASONS and a heaping of HENRY IV: Parts 1 and 2; a generous helping of SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE with a wink to MERCHANT OF VENICE; a bit of BARRY LYNDON and a hint at HAMLET; romance and jealousy ala ROMEO & JULIET; Iago-ian sexual intrigue evocative of OTHELLO; maybe even a malicious, macabre moment of murderous violence or two reminiscent of MACBETH; then, all of it collectively taken, shaken, stirred and whipped up into a visual feast only the man behind THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW could possibly conjure up - like THE TEMPEST's Trinculo himself. That is only some of what ANONYMOUS can and could very well turn out to be. Find out for yourself on October 28!
All The Men And Women Merely Players
As the forlorn and disillusioned artist and balladeer Jaques intones in AS YOU LIKE IT, “All the world’s a stage and all the men and women merely players,” and so goes today’s spotlight on some of the greatest and most-quoted Shakespeare lines to date. While every highschooler knows the balcony scene from ROMEO & JULIET and Marc Antony‘s funereal oration for the fallen JULIUS CAESER, perhaps the RICHARD III material - oh so applicable to modern times, particularly the fearless and prescient McKellen version sampled herein - may also ring a bell or three for you, too. Iago is one of Shakespeare’s finest creations and his monologues in OTHELLO are littered with famous phrases and quotable quips, yet his chilling “I am not what I am” cuts closest to the quick insofar as compelling drama revelations are concerned. From Kenneth Branagh to Marlon Brando to Kevin Kline, as well as modern-day Shakespeare stars like Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes, these lines are just a handful of the many momentous occasions of poetic brilliance throughout the comedies, tragedies, histories and latter plays and give an idea of the extent of rich imagery and unforgettable rhetoric inherent in the works of the world’s greatest dramatist, William Shakespeare.
#5 AS YOU LIKE IT - “All the world’s a stage…”
Taken from Kenneth Branagh’s recent film adaptation of the gender-bending comedy/drama AS YOU LIKE IT, first seen on HBO in the US but released in cineplexes internationally, here we have noted Shakespeare interpreter Kevin Kline as an award-winning Jaques, delivering a lovely and lilting song before reciting one of the most recognizable and adored speeches from any Shakespeare comedy - or any play at all, for that matter - the Seven Ages Of Man monologue, which is of course otherwise known as “All the world’s a stage….”
#4 ROMEO & JULIET - “But soft, what light through yonder window breaks?”
Baz Luhrmann’s simply stunning and unprecedented modern-day adaptation of Shakespeare’s most classic romantic tragedy shocked and awed audiences when it was released fifteen years ago, yet the power of the Bard’s most potent and youthful speeches come through in full force now as much as then, if not more - particularly in the balcony scene as effectively and innovatively directed by Luhurmann and acted by an assured Claire Danes and a deeply romantic Leonardo DiCaprio, ideally cast in the tragic title roles.
#3 RICHARD III - “Now is the winter of my discontent…”
In perhaps the most ironic staging of any famous and notable Shakespearean line in today’s countdown, see master thespian Sir Ian McKellen deliver Richard III’s immortal “Now is the winter of my discontent” speech as you have most certainly never seen it before: while in the men’s room and making a pretty clear - as it were - comment with an in-your-face visual metaphor to beat the band. What a bustling musical accompaniment we get to go along with the irony, to boot!
#2 OTHELLO - “I am not what I am”
Kenneth Branagh’s worldwide presence as one of the foremost Shakespeare interpreters of the twenty-first century has been firmly established prior here with his appearance as one of our Top Ten Leading Men - if for his Hamlet alone - yet his palpably, desperately sinister portrayal of the diabolical anti-hero Iago in the 1995 film version of OTHELLO is proof that he can conjure considerable dramatic magic even when performing under another director besides himself, as he does so brilliantly and subtly and memorably here in Iago’s most pivotal of his many genius scenes in the complex, sex-drenched tragedy.
#1 JULIUS CAESAR - “Friends, Romans, countrymen…”
Saving the most remembered and riveting for last, here is perhaps the best known Shakespeare line of all - or at least one of the many, many quotable lines that have become a part of our language and culture in the last near-five hundred years - delivered with earth shattering gravitas by one of the greatest and most beloved American actors of all time, Marlon Brando. Here is Mark Antony’s funereal remembrance of his fallen leader, Julius Caesar, and his impassioned words of potential perseverance and, at last, naked honesty, given to the people of Rome.
So, which Shakespeare line do you think will go down in the history books as the most memorable and oft-quoted of all? Surely, more people are familiar with the balcony scene from ROMEO & JULIET than perhaps any other play or musical in history, so, at the end of the day, that may take the prize. Yet, who can help but me moved by Mark Anthony’s heroic words - particularly as performed by the legendary Marlon Brando? As with all of our entries in this special column, limiting the possible entrants to five precludes some of the riches in this collection of the greatest dramatic writing the world has ever known. Be sure to stay tuned to BroadwayWorld for all things ANONYMOUS as we anticipate its release in movie theaters on October 28. Also, check back for our next Top 5 features, highlighting the Bard's most memorable scenes and moments of deception.
Michael Fassbender is a "once-in-a generation" actor.