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Backstage with film winners at the SAG Awards

Posted on: Monday, 30 January 2006, 03:25 CST

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - "Capote" star Philip Seymour Hoffman, who now can add another best actor statue to his mantel, thanks to his best actor win at the SAG Awards, said he has experienced plenty of highs this awards season. But nothing compares to the feeling he experienced when, as a 24-year-old novice, he landed a part in "Scent of a Woman."

"I don't think I've been more joyful since that moment," the six-time SAG nominee and first-time winner told reporters backstage at the SAG Awards Sunday.

With "Capote," Hoffman experienced the unfamiliar pressure of trying to re-create the life of an iconic figure without succumbing to crass imitation.

"The challenges of it is you have to let go actually," he said of his Truman Capote incarnation. "The challenges are heady things. You have to let go of your pride and wanting to please everyone and the memory of him. And you have to treat the character as if it were another fictional character. The difference is you have all this material at your disposal, and it's very helpful, but it's a very tricky process."

In fact, Hoffman said he nailed the part by paying attention to the story rather than the technique. "I did all the technical work you can imagine, but it was all for naught if I didn't understand what actually was driving him."

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"I never thought I'd be an actor," Reese Witherspoon said after her lead actress win for "Walk the Line." "I never knew any actors. And it wasn't a serious profession where I was from."

Even as recently as seven years ago, she said, her mom was asking, "Are you going to make another one of your little movies?" and wanting to know whether she was going to choose a profession when she finished college.

"I never finished college, so I have no skills," Witherspoon said. "I am here by the skin of my teeth."

Being in the Johnny Cash biopic allowed her to overcome a fear that had been growing since childhood: singing. When she was little, Witherspoon begged her parents to let her go to a Broadway play camp. But when she got there, "They said that no matter what, I should never sing," she said. "It was a seed that was planted in my mind."

So when "Walk the Line" director James Mangold asked her to play the part of June Carter, she said yes but told him she could not, and would not, sing. Since the movie took so long to get made, though, Mangold was able to sand down her apprehensions over the years. And while Witherspoon still had her fear when shooting began, she said, "(Making the film) was a good way to conquer it."

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Even as Rachel Weisz continues to rack up pre-Oscar accolades, including SAG's best supporting actress award, she insists that there is something missing.

"It's beyond my comprehension (why co-star Ralph Fiennes has been overlooked on the awards-season circuit)," said the "Constant Gardener" star, who earned her first SAG win with her first nomination. "I feel that any award or any acclaim I get I share with him 50-50."

In fact, the pregnant actress could have used some help carting around the evening's haul. "I might have to set it down. It's 12 pounds," she said of her new statuette, placing it on the ground. "But that's not how I feel about it."

As for the film's impact, Weisz said she was thrilled that politically minded projects are enjoying their place in the spotlight. "I think if movies reach people and they ask people about the big themes, like 'Syriana' . . . I think it's wonderful. If it raises debate, then it's a wonderful thing."

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Paul Giamatti, who won for outstanding performance in a supporting role for "Cinderella Man," had his own ideas about who should have taken the statuette in his category. "Clooney. He's good-looking . . . and a good actor." Who else? "Don Cheadle. He should have won. He's good."

When asked about how he planned his path, Giamatti scoffed at the idea that his success had something to do with scheming. "Was I on a path? I thought I was just lost in the woods. I've had a very particular career. I never thought I'd end up here."

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Lifetime achievement award recipient Shirley Temple Black isn't entirely comfortable with the attention she still draws.

"I never thought of myself as an icon," the one-time child star said. "I always thought that I should be put in a museum or something. But I'm touched that people still enjoy my films so much."

And though she doesn't make it down to Tinseltown often anymore -- she now resides in San Francisco -- she enjoys rubbing shoulders with the new generation of actors, like presenter and child star Dakota Fanning.

"We like each other," she said of Hollywood's biggest prepubescent star. "She's fantastic."

But there was one actor she wanted to corner before the evening ended. "The handsomest guy in the room is (George) Clooney," she said. "I haven't talked to him yet. I will later."

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter

Source: REUTERS

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