Sunday, February 22, 2009
Mickey Rourke's Indie Spirit Award Speech
So, the Oscars are tonight. And while, as I've spoken about on RandomChatter, this year's list of nominees is probably the worst I've ever seen, there are a few bright spots that I hope don't get ignored.
One of the big ones is Mickey Rourke's performance in The Wrestler. Not only is The Wrestler a great film that should have garnered a Best Picture nomination and a nod to Darren Aronofsky as Best Director, but Rourke gives what might be the most naturalistic performance I've ever seen. By that, I mean that it's a performance that doesn't call attention to itself - there are no accents (like Philip Seymour Hoffman in Capote), no dramatic changes in appearance (like Nicole Kidman in The Hours), and no explosive scenes of drama (like the "milkshake" scene in There Will Be Blood). I never got the feeling that Rourke was acting. He was just existing, doing his thing, with a camera capturing every moment.
Anyways, he's the frontrunner to win Best Actor tonight, and I hope he gets it. His biggest competition is Sean Penn for Milk, and while that was also a tremendous performance, it's really a completely different style of acting - the kind of showmanship that usually (and deservedly, most of the time) gets awarded. It would be nice for a lower-budget, independent film like The Wrestler (which got unjustly snubbed in most other categories) to get the attention, Rourke's performance aside.
If he does win, his speech will hopefully be one of the more memorable ones of the evening. He's a very candid, honest individual, and doesn't really seem to know how to give a "sophisticated" and "formal" speech. Here's a clip of his 6-minute acceptance speech from the 2009 Independent Spirit Awards a few days ago. I hope if he wins tonight, the Academy doesn't "play him off," and let's him talk, because this is way more entertaining than most of the speeches we're likely to hear!
WARNING: contains strong language.
One of the big ones is Mickey Rourke's performance in The Wrestler. Not only is The Wrestler a great film that should have garnered a Best Picture nomination and a nod to Darren Aronofsky as Best Director, but Rourke gives what might be the most naturalistic performance I've ever seen. By that, I mean that it's a performance that doesn't call attention to itself - there are no accents (like Philip Seymour Hoffman in Capote), no dramatic changes in appearance (like Nicole Kidman in The Hours), and no explosive scenes of drama (like the "milkshake" scene in There Will Be Blood). I never got the feeling that Rourke was acting. He was just existing, doing his thing, with a camera capturing every moment.
Anyways, he's the frontrunner to win Best Actor tonight, and I hope he gets it. His biggest competition is Sean Penn for Milk, and while that was also a tremendous performance, it's really a completely different style of acting - the kind of showmanship that usually (and deservedly, most of the time) gets awarded. It would be nice for a lower-budget, independent film like The Wrestler (which got unjustly snubbed in most other categories) to get the attention, Rourke's performance aside.
If he does win, his speech will hopefully be one of the more memorable ones of the evening. He's a very candid, honest individual, and doesn't really seem to know how to give a "sophisticated" and "formal" speech. Here's a clip of his 6-minute acceptance speech from the 2009 Independent Spirit Awards a few days ago. I hope if he wins tonight, the Academy doesn't "play him off," and let's him talk, because this is way more entertaining than most of the speeches we're likely to hear!
WARNING: contains strong language.
# posted by Andrew Johnson : 2/22/2009 06:09:00 PM 
