Skip to footer

Academy Awards: Oscar nominee Robert Duvall shares his thoughts on Hollywood today

'The young actors today, for me, are better than ever," Duvall, who is nominated for an Oscar for his role in the film 'The Judge,' said. 'We learn from them, we learn from each other.'

|
Mario Anzuoni/Reuters
Robert Duvall, best supporting actor nominee for his role in 'The Judge,' arrives at the 87th Academy Awards nominees luncheon.
  • By Mary Milliken Reuters

As the nominees for this year's Oscars gathered at a luncheon in Beverly Hills on Monday, industry veterans took the opportunity to reminisce on their journey, some for the first time, to the Academy Awards platform.

"This nomination would not have come when I was in my twenties, because I was figuring out how to do this," said J.K. Simmons, best supporting actor favorite for "Whiplash."

His sentiments were echoed by fellow nominees including Michael Keaton, Steve Carell, Laura Dern, and Reese Witherspoon, all of whom have been acting for more than two decades.

"At 46, it's really beautiful, I can appreciate how meaningful it is," said "Boyhood" best supporting actress contender Arquette, a first-time Oscar nominee.

Simmons and Arquette joined more than 200 nominees across all branches of the film industry at the annual power lunch hosted by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, organizers of the glitzy Oscars ceremony on Feb. 22, hosted by Neil Patrick Harris.

Most of this year's 20 acting contenders are veterans of the film industry, who shared their appreciation at being recognized for Hollywood's top honor at later stages in their career.

"The word grateful, I'm just going to keep saying it," said best actor frontrunner Keaton, who at 63 earned his first Oscar nod for dark showbiz comedy "Birdman."

British actress Rosamund Pike, 36, first-time Oscar nominee for best actress in "Gone Girl," said the recognition "certainly isn't an end point" in her career.

"I feel I'm just about now getting good at what I do," she said.

At 84 years, Robert Duvall is one of the oldest nominees – best supporting actor for "The Judge" – at this year's Oscars, but he made sure to pay tribute to the young generation.

"The young actors today for me are better than ever," he said. "We learn from them, we learn from each other."

As nominees mingled, Academy Award show producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron said winners must make their acceptance speeches within 45 seconds on Oscars night, which elicited some discontent.

Keaton, who has won Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild accolades for the role, said his son advised he be "more focused" in his acceptance speeches.

"There are just so many people to thank, and I've been doing this for a while, so the list gets longer," he said. 

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Academy Awards: Oscar nominee Robert Duvall shares his thoughts on Hollywood today
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Movies/2015/0203/Academy-Awards-Oscar-nominee-Robert-Duvall-shares-his-thoughts-on-Hollywood-today
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe