Brendan Fraser says he has a superpower: “I drop jokes to divert attention.” But not even that talent can be worth it these days in which so many movie spotlights have once again focused on him. Colleagues by profession, the media and followers do not stop celebrating his return. And that he insists that he had never left. “I wasn’t that far, I’m still here. It is not so easy to get rid of me ”, he smiled in September before a group of international journalists, at the last Venice Festival, where his latest work premiered, The whaleby Darren Aronofsky, which is now in Spanish theaters.
Maybe the actor The Mummy Y George of the jungle be right: although in recent years his star has not shone as it did at the beginning of the century, he has continued to appear in independent series and films. But, at the same time, it is also true that one of her roles had never received so much applause, attention and recognition. The likable and attractive type of so many action films and comedies can be emotional in a drama; He is willing to gain weight and stick on a few prostheses every day from four in the morning to get into the skin of an obese professor locked in his body and his house, in search of one last chance to do something good in life; and he has not only achieved an Oscar nomination for best leading actor, but he faces the gala as a favorite.
In the absence of the statuette, the candidacy recognizes the persistence of a long career; the courage of an actor who in 2018 dared to publicly denounce what he suffered in 2003 at the hands of the then president of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, Philip Berk, when he approached to greet him: “He touched my perineum with a finger and began to move it”; the ability to overcome the depression that followed, many physical injuries, a divorce, and the knowledge, on his part, that this episode had put a stop to his career; and, by the way, also the kindness that the interpreter showed in the conversation in Venice: with a fragile voice, almost whispered, he thanked over and over again the “so talented” people with whom he worked in The whale; He was the first “incredulous” to have worked with Danny Boyle, Aronofsky, Martin Scorsese or Steven Soderbergh; he warned that in real life someone like his character would end up being ignored by the majority; and he celebrated the tolerance and empathy that permeates the film, as well as the importance of getting a second chance.
He, of course, has taken advantage of the one that Aronofsky granted him. Although the history of cinema and television is full of twists and turns. Meteoric rise, stardom, fall (into oblivion, to hell…) and return from the ashes. Here is one of the recipes that Hollywood likes the most. So much so that there are plenty of examples in the real world as well. The most recent will attend the same gala as Fraser on March 12: Ke Huy Quan is also nominated as a supporting performer. Because, after becoming popular in the eighties among the goonies and the character of Tapón in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom the actor barely left traces again, at least for the general public. Until, now, his participation in Everything at once everywherewho leads the race to the Oscars with 11 nominations, has catapulted him back into the spotlight.
Meanwhile, Quan has already won a Golden Globe for his role. And at the gala on January 11, in which Fraser explained her absence with the phrase “my mother has not raised a hypocrite”, there was another famous return with a prize included. Jennifer Coolidge was chosen as best supporting actress in a miniseries, for The White Lotus. And she herself, in a speech as emotional as it was celebrated on the networks, reviewed the ups and downs of her career: the success of Legally blondeher cult role of mother in the saga of American Pie and, at the same time, all the “small roles” that kept his career afloat for years. Until the new big night of hers. She “she Had big dreams and big hopes when she was a young girl, but they were diluted by life. She thought she would be queen of Monaco but someone did it instead of me. She had these giant ideas and then you get older and think none of this shit is going to happen. And I just want to say that, Mike White [el creador de la serie]you gave me hope, you gave me a new beginning, ”he assured from the stage.
The words that Matthew McConaughey uttered with an Oscar in hand, in 2014 for Dallas Buyers ClubThey also went viral. For some, because they did not directly understand a speech that turned out to be chaotic at times. Others were shocked that he ruled that, throughout his life, his hero had been himself “within 10 years.” But, more generally, that moment marked the definitive turning point between the sex symbol of Time to kill and so many romantic comedies and one of the most respected performers in Hollywood: there they are Mud, The Wolf of Wall Street, Interstellar or the first season of True Detective, as demo. A term was even coined, McConaissance, to define the renaissance of the actor. Hence, today we also talk about Brenaissance for Fraser.
Robert Downey Jr. has never been given an Oscar. He was close, yes, when he received a nomination for Chaplin, in 1993. In those years, the interpreter was noted as one of the most intriguing young stars, among The Fugitive, Born Killers either US Marshals. At the same time, however, many of those promises were diluted by their addiction to alcohol and even ended up in jail. Until, little by little, she began a new climb towards Olympus: Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang; zodiac, his second Oscar nomination for Tropic Thunder and above allHombre de Hierro, in 2008. He liked the Iron Man armor so much that he didn’t take it off again for a decade, except to wear a Sherlock Holmes trench coat a couple of times. And all the while, he’s racked up box office hits, headlines, fan adoration and the title, year after year, of Hollywood’s highest-paid actor. He will soon be seen again as the famous detective. and also in oppenheimerby Christopher Nolan.
Michael Keaton’s run, somehow, proceeded just the other way around. Playing Batman, in 1989 and 1992, meant the consecration of an actor who glimpsed an extraordinary future ahead. Just as he seemed to take off his wings, however, the man who had been the bat was forgotten. Perhaps his presence in Jackie Brown suppose the highlights in the two decades since. Until another much stranger hero, the peculiar protagonist of birdmanallowed him to resume flight, with his first Oscar nomination included, in 2015. From there they have come Spotlight, The Founder, The trial of the Chicago 7 or the series Dopesick, which also gave him an Emmy Award.
Television also contributed to the rescue of Winona Ryder. It is difficult to imagine, in the mid-nineties, that the actress who stood twice in a row among the finalists for the Oscars (The Age of Innocence Y little women) was not destined to continue on the crest of the wave. There were also critical or commercial successes such as Interrupted Innocence, Bitelchús, Edward Scissorhands either school for young assassins to reinforce the thesis. And yet, when the series stranger things gave him one of the most relevant roles, there was no talk of continuity, but of a surprising return. Or the new resurrection of another actress who had also been arrested. The warm welcome that she received, yes, showed that the affection of her followers was still intact.
The years and the blows, on the other hand, left Mickey Rourke’s career and body very damaged. When the mysterious and fascinating young man from Rumble law, Nine and a half weeks, Self-defense either fire in the body he devoted himself to boxing over the cinema, he showed that he was truly the tough guy that he embodied in some films. But, at the same time, he ended up crushing his physique and his face by force of injuries. The arrests (one, in 1994, for attacking his then partner Carré Otis, as he recalls The New York Times) did not improve their image either. Hence, few really bet on him until he was rescued by the same director who offered Brendan Fraser another chance: many consider The fighter, by Darren Aronofsky, the best performance of Rourke’s career. And the only one, of course, that allowed him a nomination for the Oscars. Since then, she has been seen in no city either Man of GodAmong other films.
The comings and goings, in reality, are not only a thing of the present. And many US media include two shocking names on their lists: Marlon Brando and Katharine Hepburn. Here are perhaps the two best actors that cinema has ever known. It turns out, however, that even the gods suffer falls and have to get up. To understand the path of the former, you can follow his Oscar nominations: one a year, between 1952 and 1955, with the victory for The law of silence. Another, in 1958, by Sayonara. And then, three decades of absence and commercial failures. No one would question Brando’s talent today. And yet, it is said that Francis Ford Coppola had to fight hard to convince his producers that no one would better embody Don Vito Corleone in The Godfather. The answer this time is not only in the statuette that he obtained, and that he did not go to collect, but in something much bigger: the history of cinema.
And there also lives the myth of Katharine Hepburn. With Brando, in addition, she shares the victory of an Oscar without being present at the gala. She succeeded in 1934, by glory of a day. A year earlier, he had also filmed another of his most famous works, The four little sisters. Then, however, films like Olivia, Gypsy Blood either Broken hearts They didn’t fall in love at the box office. Although, even if one wants to accept that Hepburn had a few more years in the shadows, the truth is that it barely lasted: Philadelphia Stories either woman of the year they were released shortly after. From there, the rest is legend.
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