US actors lose out

Oscar winners 2008So the Oscars are over for another year and the gongs have been handed out.

And among all the coverage of this year’s awards, there seems to be one thing that has been overlooked: all the main acting statues were awarded to non-Americans, and Europeans to boot.

Daniel Day-Lewis and Tilda Swinton are both British, while Marion Cotillard is French and Javier Bardem is Spanish. Nothing for the likes of Johnny Depp, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Laura Linney or Ellen Page.

Whether this says something about the sort of roles European actors get, I don’t know, but I thought it was an interesting side issue.

No-one likes a bad loser

Julie ChristieJulie Christie has gone down in my estimation somewhat after missing out on the Best Actress BAFTA last night.

The award went to Marion Cotillard for her role as Edith Piaf in La Vie En Rose, even though Christie had been tipped to win for her portrayal of an Alzheimer’s sufferer in Away From Her.

When asked about missing out on the gong, Ms Christie pointedly said that the Baftas was “a night for the media to fill gaps”, intimating that they shouldn’t be taken seriously, because she didn’t win.

Clearly it’s a bit of a pisser to miss out on winning something, but you would have thought that someone with as much wisdom and experience as the 66-year-old Christie could take the decision with good grace.

It will be interesting to see her reaction if she misses out again at the Oscars!

Why dying young is great for your reputation

Heath LedgerHeath Ledger’s untimely demise has inevitably prompted a raft of articles and features about the loss of a potential acting genius.

I agree (and let’s face it, who wouldn’t) that it’s terrible that he died at such a young age, and clearly he had a lot of potential, but the people who are claiming it’s the loss of another acting genius are surely misguided.

Yes, his performance in Brokeback Mountain was impressive and he fully deserved the plaudits he got for it.

His soon-to-be seen turn as The Joker in the new Batman film is also being talked about as a bravura performance, although that remains to be seen.

But one look at Heath’s CV will tell you that there were as many (if not more) misses than hits. For every Monster’s Ball, there is a Four Feathers or a Ned Kelly and for each Brokeback Mountain, strike a Candy or a Brothers Grimm.

I wonder if Heath will be viewed in 10 years time, in the same way that people look at the likes of River Phoenix or James Dean.

Dean, for example, only actually appeared in three movies. Yup, his entire legend is built on his performances in Giant, East Of Eden and Rebel Without A Cause. Surely he wouldn’t always have been that good, would he?

And yes, River Phoenix was good in My Private Idaho and Running On Empty, but other films, most notably his last Silent Tongue, prove that not everything he touched turned to gold.

I know it’s the thought of unfulfilled promise that fuels the legend with early death, but there are many young actors whose careers flop after early success.

Let’s just remember people for who they were and what they did when they were alive, rather than what they would have been?