The Oscars

[CoasterMatt]

So, just how many people associated with Fast Times at Ridgemont High have gone on to win Oscars?

[JWBear]

The argument can also be made that successfully and convincingly portraying a well known person (either living or dead) can be a more difficult and challenging job than creating a fictional one.

[JWBear]

Originally Posted by Not Afraid

I think it would be more of a challenge as an actor to recreate an IRL character then to create a character from scratch.

Stop reading my mind (and posting first)!!

[Not Afraid]

LOL! I read your first posts and thought IS HE IGNORING ME!!! (Of two minds, sweetie.)

[Alex]

I can see that argument being made, but I don't agree with it. Since it is fundamentally a subjective view that's ok.

I'm more impressed by what O'Toole did than by what Whitaker did (even if the end results were of approximately equal entertainment value). I won't say anybody who feels the opposite is wrong.

[Alex]

Originally Posted by CoasterMatt

So, just how many people associated with Fast Times at Ridgemont High have gone on to win Oscars?

You can't put a (likely rhetorical) research question in front of me and not get an answer. The Oscar's associated with cast and crew:

Cameron Crowe - Screenplay won Best Original Screenplay for Almost Famous

Sean Penn - Actor - won Best Actor for Mystic River, three other nominations

Forrest Whitaker - Actor - won Best Actor for The Last King of Scotland

Nicolas Cage - Actor - won Best Actor for Leaving Las Vegas, one other nomination

Daneil A. Lomino - Art Direction - nominated Best Art Direction for Close Encounters of the Third Kind

Marilyn Vance - Costume Design - nominated Best Costume Design for The Untouchables

Roger Heman Jr. - Sound Re-recordist - won Best Sound for Jaws, one other nomination

Tom Overton - sound - nominated Best Sound for A Star is Born

[Strangler Lewis]

Originally Posted by Alex Stroup

I can see that argument being made, but I don't agree with it. Since it is fundamentally a subjective view that's ok.

I'm more impressed by what O'Toole did than by what Whitaker did (even if the end results were of approximately equal entertainment value). I won't say anybody who feels the opposite is wrong.

I haven't seen the movie, but from what I've seen of the clips, Peter O'Toole did play a real person: Peter O'Toole. And Forest Whitaker looks like he did his typical Forest Whitaker, weird-eyed, intensity thing. Meryl Streep did her Meryl Streep tics in Prada. Cary Grant always played Cary Grant. Katharine Hepburn always played Katharine Hepburn. Etc.

It's a rare pleasure to find a famous actor who disappears into a variety of roles and whose tics and tricks you don't recognize. Kate Winslet comes to mind among women. Sean Penn and Jim Broadbent among men.

[Alex]

I'd disagree with you on Sean Penn, he almost always plays "godawful annoying." It's his trademark.

[Snowflake]

Originally Posted by Strangler Lewis

It's a rare pleasure to find a famous actor who disappears into a variety of roles and whose tics and tricks you don't recognize. Kate Winslet comes to mind among women. Sean Penn and Jim Broadbent among men.

I agree on Winslet and, especially, Jim Broadbent. May I derail this to refer to Emmy Awards for 2007 and I feel that if he does not win for Longford, it will be a crime. Grim story, but he was marvelous. In this case playing an IRL person, but someone I don't know jack about. A remarkable actor, who raises up the quality of the worst crap (okay, not the horrible Bridget Jones sequel, at least he was only required to do a drive by on that piece of crap).

Sean Penn, Mystic River was agonizing for me.

[wendybeth]

Sean Penn's best role was Jeff Spicoli. I can't watch him without seeing Jeff, no matter what the character he's supposedly playing.