In 2010, British filmmaker Tom Hooper and his film The King’s Speech seemingly came out of nowhere, to gross over $400 million worldwide and win four Oscars including Best Director and Best Picture. For his next project, Hooper decided to take on a film adaptation of Les Misérables, the longest running musical of alltime. In anticipation of the film’s Christmas Day release, I recently enjoyed a nearly thirty-minute conversation with Hooper from Sydney, Australia where he was promoting the film. Here’s what Hooper shared with me about meeting the technical challenges of recording the performances live, adapting such a beloved play, and crafting Les Misérables.
Jackson Truax: Before we get into Les Misérables, I hope that everyone that sees the film and who saw The King’s Speech will also seek out and watch your wonderful first feature, The Damned United. After you had been working in television for almost twenty years, how did The Damned United come together to be your first feature?
Tom Hooper: I had worked with [writer] Peter Morgan (The Queen)on a film for HBO called Longford… It won the Golden Globe for Best TV Film. So we had a really good experience. Peter wrote The Damned United. And I was the first director he sent it to… I was on the John Adams set when I read it… I was really blown away by the script. So it was just me and Peter reuniting to work again.
JT: The following year The King’s Speech was released, which won four Oscars and grossed over $400 million worldwide. How did the success of that film and winning the Oscar for The King’s Speech change your life or career?
Hooper: I remember someone once said to me, “The reward of success is more work.” I felt I needed to get back to work quite fast… You get a bit paralyzed if you keep waiting for the perfect film and worrying whether you’ve found the perfect film. So I was already considering Les Misérableswhen I was doing promotion for The King’s Speech and traveling with the film. I had the novel in my bag and was secretly reading it and considering it. I suppose when you’re lucky to have that kind of success, it certainly allows you to take a risk with your next film. I didn’t want to be conservative and try and do another, similar film… I wanted to stretch myself or do something very different. And what could be more risky, more different, than doing Les Misérables?
JT: The conventional wisdom is that once a director wins the Oscar, at least on their next film, they’re essentially given the keys to the kingdom and can make whatever movie they want. Was that what you experienced?
Hooper: Whether you win the Oscar or not, there aren’t suddenly, magically a larger number of great scripts out in the world than there were the day before. So in that sense, the difficulty of finding great material remains… But I felt very lucky to find this bit of material. This is the word’s longest-running musical… One of the great musicals that had never been made into a film. It was a really interesting opportunity. So I certainly felt lucky to be able to have that conversation. And if what happened to me at the Academy [Awards] helped, then that’s fantastic.
JT: From what I understand, your initial vision of the film included casting Hugh Jackman (X-Men) as Jean Valjean. Why was having him in that role so important to you?
Hooper: My shortlist for that part, it was: Number One – Hugh Jackman. Number Two – Please refer to Number One. I still, to this day, don’t have a second choice. I think Hugh had this extraordinary combination. He’s a bona fide musical theater star who’s had hits on Broadway and in London’s West End. He’s also a serious film actor. Plus he’s got the…physique to play this legendarily strong character. But also, he’s also got this gentleness of spirit… He’s a very nice man at his core. And Jean Valjean is a very spiritual character. Within the first ten minutes of the film, he’s brutalized by his life as a convict. But then he discovers his faith…deeply felt from within by some kind of inner grace. I always felt Hugh has a kind of grace about him that made him right for the part. And Valjean is a tenor part. So it’s quite high in the male voice. It’s very hard to find people who can sing that high and have that kind of physique that he has. Really, I don’t think I would have made the film if Hugh Jackman weren’t in existence.
JT: One of the phenomena surrounding this film is that you had some of the greatest actors in the world auditioning or being considered for these roles. When you have a variety of remarkable artists all wanting to play the same role, how did you approach making these seemingly very hard decisions?
Hooper: What I found is that the combination of the singing and the acting that I required, and the ability to act through song in a cinematic way…for the medium of the camera… It was…really hard to find people who offered that perfect combination. There were a lot of people who auditioned. And a lot of people were brilliant. But it was hard to find people at the level that I was looking for. Anne Hathaway (Brokeback Mountain), Eddie Redmayne (My Week with Marilyn), Samantha Barks (TV’s Groove High) were really standing out from that process. In particularly because I was committed to doing the film live, I knew that had to find people that had the singing ability for real. There could be no tricks later on. One of the things that’s really hard to do…is to serve the score musically. To sing it, to find the power in your voice that you need to serve these songs, while keeping the necessary stillness in your face, and the necessary intimacy and minimalism that a film camera requires. It’s technically hard to do. In “I Dreamed a Dream,” to do the belt voice that song requires, and also keep your face very still for the close-up.
JT: Helena Bonham Carter is someone you’ve worked with before, with great results, in The King’s Speech. When casting Madame Thenardier, was she the first and only choice for the role? Or was that another audition process?
Hooper: Well, Helena Bonham Carter’s played The Queen twice. So it’s very hard to say “No” to the Queen… What I learned from Helena on The King’s Speech is that she has a very good comic eye, but she always makes the comedy very grounded in truth and quite real. I felt that with the Thenardiers, I didn’t want them to be too slapstick… They needed to feel that were from the same world…and bring the comic relief in. And I felt that Helena had this particular ability to balance comedy and realism.
JT: You were not the first director to try and adapt the musical of Les Misérablesinto a film. Why do you think you and your film succeeded where other failed?
Hooper: I don’t know whether any of the other directors went as far as starting to adapt it. I think they all had conversations with [producer] Cameron Mackintosh. I know that Cameron was keen to wait a few years before he made the film. Because he didn’t want the film to decimate the box office of the musical… I think what’s challenging about Les Misérablesis the combination of the [musical] form with the gritty realism of the story. Because quite often, what is the film’s permission to use the musical form is a kind of lighthearted story or a frivolous story or a comedic setting. This is unusual. It’s about very real and very tough suffering… It’s very emotional. It’s very gritty. But it uses the musical form. And it’s also historical. I think that combination scared people off a bit.
JT: The entire film is really grand and massive in scope, yet always feels very intimate at the same time. How did you achieve those two things and sustain both in equal measure throughout the film?
Hooper: I wanted to make an intimate epic. And the most important thing about it was more of these moments of intimacy than the huge scale. The thing that I found with the audience reactions in the past couple of weeks is that the emotions it provokes are very, very strong. I think that’s because of the way these characters are revealed in an intimate way. It’s like you’re just having a one-on-one experience. It’s the one thing the musical on-stage can never do. You can never get the close-up on-stage. You can never see the detail of what a character is going through… When I shot some of the songs like “I Dreamed a Dream,” I didn’t necessarily assume I was going to use these close shots. But in the editing, and when I was screening the film, the emotional power that’s revealed…it was so much more powerful than when you’re wide on the actors… So we kept gravitating toward this very intimate way of revealing these songs.
JT: From the outset, how did you balance staying true to the stage play and pleasing its global audience with the need to create a new cinematic experience? How did you navigate how far you could go in either direction?
Hooper: I think what people haven’t particularly realized is that there are actually a lot of changes that we made to the musical in order to adapt it to the screen. I think people haven’t noticed how many we’ve done, partly because I had the great opportunity of making these changes with the original creative team that created the musical. So I was working with the original composer, the original lyricists, which meant that the changes were done in the same voice and they were done in the same musical style as the original. So they became more invisible. A good example of a change that we made is…when you watch the musical, when he’s in the factory scene in the beginning, Valjean is distracted from helping Fantine (Hathaway) when she’s in that fight. And there’s no reason really given why Valjean is distracted from paying attention to Fantine. So when Fantine gets fired by the foreman, you don’t really know why Valjean didn’t pay attention. We had the idea that actually, you would start the film with Javert (Oscar-winner Russell Crowe) arriving as the new police inspector in town. And at the very moment Valjean is being asked to pay attention to this fight that’s broken out on the factory floor between Fantine and the other girl, he sees Javert up in the window. And at that moment, his world falls away. And he’s completely in shock. And his head’s spinning. Of course, he doesn’t want to pay attention to Fantine. Because he’s so [shocked] that Javert’s turned up. What that means is Jean Valjean has direct responsibility for the death of Fantine. He has a guilt because he got distracted by Javert. It means his past, when it comes to play, is involved in Fantine’s descent. After that scene…Javert introduces himself… That’s a completely new scene in the film. And the process of creating these new scenes is very interesting. I start with [screenwriter] William Nicholson…writing like a dialogue version of what the scene needed to be. Then I’d go to the composer Claude-Michel [Schonberg] and say “What music do you think we can write this scene on?” He would compose some music… We’d then get the lyricist to write lyrics to this music. Then you’d [say], “Actually, that’s too long and the lyrics are repetitive.” Then [we’d] have to go back to Claude-Michel and say, “Find a new melody or a new musical construction that’s shorter so we don’t need to be so repetitive in the lyrics. So he would compose a new piece of music. And the lyricist would again revisit the dialogue…and come up with a different way of doing it. Writing the lyrics was the most extraordinary process. Basically, William would write English dialogue. Then Alain Boublil would write some lyrics in French to Claude-Michel’s music. Then Herbert Kretzmer…would then write English lyrics inspired by Alian’s French lyrics inspired by William Nicholson’s dialogue, all written to the tempo of the music that Claude-Michel created. I can’t tell you how different this experience was from doing a dialogue movie.
JT: Having the actors sing live has never been done before, at least not on this scope. When you’re filming these scenes in addition to the actors’ voices, other sounds are in the scenes including rain and crashing water and battle scenes. How did you record all the sounds on set, and isolate the actor’s live singing on a vocal track that could be mixed in post-production?
Hooper: I’m pleased you brought up the rain. Because the thing I’m really proud of – I can’t tell you the amount of time we spent trying to create silent rain on-set. It’s never been done before… Rain is not silent. You drop rain down, every drop that hits it makes a noise… We had to do lots of innovations to get the rain quieter so that we could record the vocals well… We eventually came up with this rig, where the nozzle that produces the rain makes water drops that are so small and so fine that it’s almost like a mist. So when the water drops hit the ground, there’s almost no noise because they’re so tiny… In the street scene…a lot of the cobbles have been replaced by cobbles that are made of painted foam. So that as the water hits the foam there’s no noise… Off-camera…almost every surface was covered in dark-colored felt to absorb the sound… The rain in silent, and the irony is that we had to add the sound of rain back in.
JT: What about the crashing waves of the opening scene? Were those also added in in post-production?
Hooper: That was the only scene where some of the shots we couldn’t get live sound. Which is very frustrating to me because it’s the opening scene of the film… In order to create the effect of waves, we had the water-pounders… Then we had dunk tanks dunking about a half-a-tank of water on Hugh Jackman. Then wind machines to create the spray. In some of those shots, to get what we needed there was too much [noise]. The sound wasn’t useable… The only scene where it was almost impossible to do all the way through was the opening scene. I did my best. Luckily, I don’t think it’s noticeable. There’s so much going on. There’s so much water crashing around.
JT:On Christmas Day, audiences will finally have a chance to seeLes Misérables. When the film ends and the credits roll, is there anything in particular you hope audiences might be thinking or feeling?
Hooper: One of the extraordinary things about the journey of this movie is how audiences are responding. And the consistency wherever I’ve shown the film of the emotion it generates, of the applause it generates. At the London premiere, people clapped about twelve times… I’m hoping that on Christmas Day, people will get to go to big cinemas to see the film with a lot of people and have that common experience… I’ve been very struck by how emotional it is for people. People get really caught up in it. Some people cry multiple times during it. I think that’s secret of the movie. I think it connects to a lot of things in people’s lives… There’s something about the film, that it can remind you of suffering in your own life, or suffering of people close to you. But it somehow manages to process that suffering and make you feel a little bit better about it. Or make you feel some hope about it. I think it does that because it talks about navigating these moments of crisis in the most loving way you can. Love is the only way through some of these crises. I think at Christmastime, it’s a hopeful message.
oh BTW I enjoyed Les Miserables, stop critiquing just go out and see for yourselves! Even Sacha couldn’t say she hated the film…
I don’t so much mind that TKS won or the director for that matter, Not as much as when The Artist won! Terrible miscarriage of justice! The Help was TEN times better! and that movie was pure magic! in that all the stars and circumstance aligned to come together and made a GREAT film! (I’m saying this referring to the behind as well as front of camera) what a great story. Anyway, getting back to TKS..as far as I can remember the top three films that year was Inception FIRST! Social Network SECOND then TKS THIRD so I really don’t mind if it won….
There are just too many negative comments about Crowe’s singing in this picture. The detractors are looking for any reason not to like this film. For many of the critics the fact that this film isn’t ZDT is enough, cause that is their favorite film, end of story.Crowe is one of the few actors who actually stretches himself as an actor and he has done that very well. But according to film critics he needed to have a Broadway stage singing voice to carry off the job.Oh and by the way because he doesn’t , well his acting talent doesn’t count, his presence is undeniable but it isn’t enough for these critics.You know the critics who wrote the most dismisive general shallow reviews.It is too bad that film critics get away with this nonsense, praising the dubious performances and pretending that true actors like Crowe haven’t achieved their goals.
My apologies, I was just listing off actors off the top of my head. Some of them still stand though. Instead of being called a “typical American” someone can politely correct my mistakes. I’m not that bull headed, everyone is misinformed about something or the other now and again.
SORRY ABOUT THAT- as I was just typing…Eddie also deserves a nomination. Not thrilled with Jackman’s singing- but gave a heart-felt performance. BRING HIM HOME- major let-down-could help but think of Colm.
On paper, Crowe seems perfect as the inspector- but darn, he cannot sing. Flat and stiff best describes his performance.
Overall- I really liked it. I saw the movie with three other friends- we were all swept away by the film’s raw emotions.
Saw LES MIZ yesterday- sold out- crowd was quiet throughtout the movie except during soome comic moments provided by Sasha and Helena. When the movie ended crowd bursted into a large applause- maybe the largest applause I’ve ever heard for a movie?!?!?
Hathaway was absolutely amazing- I couldn’t hold back the tears. Then Eddie sang , and again, I couldn’t hold back the tears…by the way, Eddie deserves
Asif, we are thinking alike!!! The big box office numbers, the critical spike and holiday season excitement has this film in overdrive!
Dave L.’s comment/reaction is music to the ears!!! Couldn’t agree more.
hahahaha Rufus!!! Godd show there! Agreed.
Just for the record the term Hispanic was invented by the US Government to describe people whose country of origin was from Latin America or the Caribbean.
Not Spain.
Saw Les Mis last night in Chicago.
Lots of audience applause at the end and actually, I still think the film will win best picture. It’s superb and, most importantly, affecting.
Incidentally, I loved the film. I think Hooper has brought terrific intimacy to an epic musical. It’s tremendously moving.
@Sam lol i was just about to share this info.
Wow!!!!!
Today’s META CRITIC numbers seem to indicate there may well be a happy ending to the mild controversy over LES MISERABLES’s performance in critical circles.
Here is this morning’s rather solid recap:
There are now 37 reviews included with the number climbing to 64.
The breakdown is as follows:
22 favorable
13 mixed
2 negative
Well, that’s pretty solid in my book!
Meanwhile at RT (which I understand andrespect is rarely referred to here) the number is 73% with 99 favorable and 39 negative in their far less revealing black and white conensus.
Again someone is mixing up being Hispanic with being from Spain….oh typical American……..
The unrelenting ugliness of Tom Hooper’s films is matched only by their ineffective pacing. A man who realized sadly he works primarily in tame, prestigious costume dramas and decided that he’d rather throw in some bullshit “style” than concentrate on creating emotionally meaningful shots, or blocking that isn’t stilted and unmotivated.
Paul Haggis’ directorial competence, by comparison, is staggering.
Jesus, there are plenty of acting nominees and winners who are of Hispanic descent. Javier Bardem, Penelope Cruz, Salma Hayek, Joaquin Phoenix, Benecio del Toro, Damien Bichir, Adrianna Barazza and Catalina Sandino Moreno (and that’s just since 2000). And then you can go back to , yes, Jose Ferrer, Anthony Quinn and Rita Moreno.
Tom Hooper is a talented filmmaker. His minimalist style and cinematic view is exceptional especially compared with the American filmmakers. That makes him special. Just watch the opening scene in the TKS – you will understand what I mean.
Stephen Holt – that was completely expected.
Good interview. I’m not the biggest fan of Hooper and I’m surprised he won Best Director 2 yrs ago. Bt I did really, really love The Kins Speech. The Social Network was better, as was the direction. TSN is a truly great film. But I’m not a fan of the hate that this man gets.
Now, onto Les Miserables, which I just saw:
I went into this with trepidation because I liked (not loved the musical) and read criticism about the close-ups and some direction …. But I thought this was one of the better movies of the year.
Unless I’ve lost my mind, I only remember “jarring” close-ups a few times. I remember lots of expansive shots. And Crowe did not make me cringe. In fact, the only time I cringed was Jackman singing “bring him home”.
Hathaway was, indeed, excellent. Although …. Blasphemy … I liked her deathbed scene/song execution … more than IDAD. I also thought that Samantha Barks and Eddie Redmayne killed it.
Loved little Isabelle Allen and the boy who played Gavroche.
Crowd report: sold out. People of all ages and races, which surprised me for some reason. No claps after songs, but sniffles a lot. And loud, steady applause at the end. I heard people praising Jackman and the movie as I walked out. The only negative I heard was from a teenage girl who seemed annoyed by all the, ahem, singing.
Really admired this; flaws and all. Highly recommended.
Thank you, Jackson Truax, for the interview.
(Hooper) “One of the things that’s really hard to do…is to serve the score musically. To sing it, to find the power in your voice that you need to serve these songs, while keeping the necessary stillness in your face, and the necessary intimacy and minimalism that a film camera requires.”
Hooper’s really made a good point here in my opinion. I love singing. And I do really sing and perform. I could imagine his actors making their best efforts while trying to keep their facial expressions still in artistic response to his direction. These are not vocal performances alone; it’s a film. To me, it’s absolutely valid a point.
(Truax) “Having the actors sing live has never been done before, at least not on this scope. When you’re filming these scenes in addition to the actors’ voices, other sounds are in the scenes including rain and crashing water and battle scenes. How did you record all the sounds on set, and isolate the actor’s live singing on a vocal track that could be mixed in post-production?”
Thank you for this well-thought question. And one big kudos to Tom Hooper for making clear the detail of this matter.
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I personally couldn’t imagine the viewers who honestly say they really hate a huge-scale musical film like this. I mean if you’re bored or don’t like it much, it’s understandable. But HATE? Come on. . . .
According to Nicki Finke, “Les Miz” is now #1 at the Box-Office for today, its’ Christmas Opening! I tried to get a ticket the three mid-town theaters where it is playing near me and ALLLLL performances were SOLD-OUT!According to Deadline Hollywood, it’s beating Djanjo AND the Hobbit. At least today it is!
It really is interesting to see the different reactions to Les Mis (like M. Night’s for instance). Leonard Maltin wasn’t a fan of the movie, and he was one I definitely thought would eat it up with a spoon.
Fantastic comment by ZAZOU above! Really on the mark for me!
Another terrific interview by Jackson. I loved the film and thought Hooper made a number of excellent decisions.
Just to get it off my chest, Tom Hooper is as beautiful as some film stars:)
Nonetheless, since I just saw Les Mis, I wasn’t impressed by his repetitive framing and the continuous usage of Dutch angles. He has been using that for a few films/TV series already!
Thankfully, he always get great performances out of actors, in this case, Ann Hathaway, Hugh Jackman, Redmayne, and Barks. I’m just going to make a prediction, if Jackman plays it right, he’s going to win the Oscar. But I do think Hathaway’s chances are high as well. But casting Russell Crowe was a huge error. He does not have the voice which gives him a sense of conviction and authority to his character. Also, his character is very one-dimensional (I’m sure his character is more complex in the novel). But I’ve ALWAYS found the inspector character irritating. Also, I wasn’t laughing at the “comic relief”. It doesn’t really have the raunchiness that it needs.
I don’t know why people hate him so much, but I do think his style is getting stale because they do not add as much dramatic interest to the scenes. I would say do something out of his comfort zone. Of course if he does that, and fails, people are gonna criticize him as well haha…
Hey, Jesus, I’m Brazilian, so there’s nothing I’d like more than to see more Latinos winning Oscars… Ok there’s ONE THING: I’d like to BE one of them (no Brazilian has ever won an Oscar thus far) =P
No question about his fondness for Dutch angles?
Well, Fabinho, to my judgement, TKS is even better than TSN on almost all levels, and I am still amazed that despite the huge lobbying to have Fincher crowned, the AMPAS, for once, focused in what, overall, they thought was the better film, regardless of the “dueness” of its crew.
TSN isn’t to me, on the level of what I actually think are Fincher’s best: Se7en and Fight Club. It’s Benjamin Button level, which is outstanding, anyways. It’s Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.
Thanks André for pointing out Ferrer… still, that makes AGES since the AMPAS went for hispanics, yet you don’t see a single campaign favoring them with the “it’s high time”… neither me, for the matter, I’m OK with the AMPAS going for what they like best, it’s their popularity contest, nothing else. And you know that highschools always go for the captain of the football team and the captain of the cheerleaders, don’t they? 😉
I would have loved TSN to win, even if it was at the expense of TKS, it is such a great film, but I’m really tired of all the bullshit about TKS quality, from people, plenty of times, that obviously didn’t stop and think twice to actually think about the film. When I criticize Slumdog Millionaire’s, Crash’s or A Beautiful Mind’s, it’s because the film’s own faults and developing my argument, and not singling out only one other more deserving film. ’cause reading at some of the rants over TKS you’d get the impression, sometimes, it’s “Epic Movie” or some Uwe Boll’s. I mean, come on.
“The Social Network was the critics favorite, a Sorkin/Fincher production, a winner sight unseen.”
This statement is completely inaccurate. I remember that no one expected the great film that TSN is, myself included. Curious, yes, but no one thought it was going to be an awards darling. Unlike, Les Mis – which has been crammed down our throats as BP frontrunner for months.
Jesus, Jose Ferrer won Best Actor for Cyrano de Bergerac. He was Puerto Rican =)
Jesus Alonso, I simply LOVED your first post. Couldn’t agree more.
TKS is only a good movie. Nothing but this. If I need to say how The Social Network is so much better, maybe I need to say also the reason the rain falls from sky, and I really don’t have patience to something so obvious…
And if someone can make a list of “Oscar Mistakes”, should include great mistakes of Best Director – winners and snubs. So, among other undeserved winners, Tom Hooper could be, finally, the great king!
(Great interview, too!)
Good for Tom Hooper. When I saw “John Adams,” I could tell this director was a real talent. Some years later, I remember talking to my grandfather on the phone–lifelong movie-fanatic–and he said he had just seen one of the best films he’s seen in years, “The King’s Speech.” That’s not how I, for one, characterize “The King’s Speech,” but it’s a hell of a good movie, and despite this website’s consistent declarations that it’s unworthy mediocrity, there’s a large group that feels very differently. I fully applaud Tom Hooper for his discipline, intelligence, eye for good material, and ability to bring out tremendous performances (especially with Paul Giamatti and Colin Firth).
Shame on the film critics who have given Les Miserables a lower grade than it deserves, but what else is new. The film business is tough and gets too personal and nasty and silly. The critics give high marks to The Master primarily because the director is an auteur dujour, well at least to them. The camera angles work but the story is meh.You have the familiar indie actors appearing in the film and they see that as a plus. If you are a big name in the film business then you are too too commercial and out goes your performance.These critics like you better if you are old or relatively unknown. Jackman and Crowe, well the public knows them too well,unforgiveable.Hooper had the audacity to win an Oscar for TKS,naughty boy. As the previous poster pointed out AMPAS made that decision and it was a good one.The Social Network was the critics favorite, a Sorkin/Fincher production, a winner sight unseen. The group think on that one was over the top.TKS is a better film, strong performances and ,holy film editor,an actual plot that works.Unforgiveable and the characters are likeable, not modern enough.Movie characters should be unlikeable,horses asses who do reprehensible things to others, but with pretty cinematography and good camera angles. The Wall Street Journal ran an article on how the studios have made big films for this Oscar season and included was Les Miserables and Lincoln and guess what people are trying to marginalize these films to promote more of the same indie films or films that are indie compatible in subject and presentation.Another boring Oscar season coming up.
And hoping to end this for all, there’s a little list of WORSE Oscar mistakes that doesn’t get that hyped about…
– Marilyn Monroe, Jerry Lewis, Steve Martin (neither acting nor screenplay!), NEVER nominated.
– Best Picture winners: Slumdog Millionaire, Crash, A Beautiful Mind.
– Actors who never won: Peter O’Toole, Thelma Ritter, Cary Grant, Marlene Dietrich, just to name a few.
– No horror film ever winning (Silence of the Lambs, ain’t “horror”, my dear ones).
– Has ever an hispanic actor or actress at LEAD? Even Anthony Quinn’s two Oscars, are in Supporting. Not to mention that Rita Moreno, Benicio del Toro, Bardem or Cruz also were in supporting AND the lack of reward even if you undercover your hispanic origin as Martin Sheen or Rita Hayworth.
… and the lynching of Hooper continues. Sigh. You have to love when a bunch of losers attack a film director for being rewarded with an award they think he doesn’t deserve, instead of attacking the group that actually committed the “mistake”. And best part of it, these losers stick to that group on a yearly basis, still hoping for its approval to their next subject of their adoration.
That’s Oscarwatching, folks!
For David Fincher and The Social Network´s honor, you´ll never get an other nomination… You´re a bureaucratic and medirocre director!