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Nervous as a Nominee during Oscar Week?

February 22, 2007

Oscar tips from those who have held one
By Gayl Murphy for Hollywood Today Newsmagazine

(www.hollywoodtoday.net)  HOLLYWOOD, CA (rushprnews) 02/22/07 – Oscar week finds Hollywood denizens biting their nails and pulling their hair even if they’re not nominees. We found a few folks who find a little calm in eye of the hurricane, if not after.  Chris Cooper, who won the best supporting actor Academy Award for “Adaptation” in 2002 said nominees should chill with loved ones rather than waste Oscar week on industry schmoozefests.     “I had heard from so many other actors, “Oh, the night went by and I didn’t remember a thing,’ and I wanted to make a point of remembering it. The greatest advice I can give to anybody is don’t listen to anybody’s suggestion of where and when and who you should be with the days before the Oscars. As it happened for me I had a terrific time the day before. We were staying at the Chateau Marmont, my wife and I and we used one of the goodie bag certificates and hired this mobile massage group that came to the chateau and set up music and lights, two massage tables and these two pretty girls gave my wife and me a massage. The next morning we had a leisurely breakfast outside with some good friends of ours and talked until three or four in the afternoon and then got ready for the event. I remember it completely.”Two-time nominee and presenter John Travolta thinks the oft circus-like award process itself is a winner and doesn’t want it to go, no matter how much hype threatens it. “I remember being nominated for “Pulp Fiction,” nominated for “Saturday Night Fever” and I won the Golden Globe for “Get Shorty” and a few other Golden Globes. But I think the award process is a wonderful acknowledgement of your work and I don’t want it taken away. I’d like it to stay, you know.”Lou Gossett Jr. took the Best Supporting Actor Oscar in 1982 for “An Office and a Gentlemen” is downright bitter about the disappointing roles after getting the Golden Boy, which he blames on racial considerations by filmmakers in the ‘80s and ‘90s. Recent wins by Jamie Foxx, Hallie Berry, Morgan Freeman and this year’s ethnically mixed bag, appears to make Oscar look a bit more diverse in the new millennium. He still had this to say to Forest Whitaker, Jennifer Hudson and others this year: 

“When I got my Oscar there was a kind of disappointment for a minute because I figured the sky would fall in, but nobody was really prepared,” Gossett said. “The people who do movies started to scramble to find out what to do. I found that all they could do was to have me support a white star. They got the money, they got the fame. They got the big dressing rooms and I had to still be second banana. I resented that a great deal. I resented the television series where it had to be me and white star before they could finance it. I did “Iron Eagle” that made millions of dollars for other people and I didn¹t get that. But, those are those rules and those bumps in the road that I now have learned.
That said, what do you recall about the night you won the Oscar?

“Oh boy, the recollections of that night were pretty spectacular. My best friend and agent, the late Ed Bondy, my son and I sat in the second row and to the right of me was James Mason, it was obviously his last movie. And, further down was Robert Preston and it was obviously his last movie too. So, I kind of went off into a little repose, I mean, I wanted the Oscar, obviously, like everybody else did, but I kind of did a counter thing, like ‘I’m cool.’ And I crossed my legs and I kinda thought about other things and my friend hit me on the neck and said, ‘They called your name!’ And, I got up very slowly, got my New York cool back together, walked slowly up the steps and I started thanking the other four guys and my great grandmother, who is my spirit guide today and my agent and walked off. And it¹s a dream. A complete dream.

Any advice to this year’s nominees contemplating making that same walk?

“Yeah, but I don’t have to say anything to Forest Whittaker, he’s already there. He’s one of the most consummate artists and humble men that I’ve seen in the light in the last decade. His preparation has been incredible. He feels like he’s the luckiest man before the Oscar, with his new wife and his
career and the fact that he’s acting with his constituents. He’s overwhelmed. He’s a brilliant genius of an actor and a person. So, the other people I can give advice to. They can’t base their happiness on it. It’s a great, great notch on the cane of success, but it’s an inside job. Happiness has to happen before, during
and after your awards”.

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