Get to Know the Oscar Nominees For Best Supporting Actor

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All 5 of these men are nominated for Best Supporting Actor at this year's Academy Awards [which is this Sunday!]. Here is a detailed bio of all 5 of them.

Get to Know the Oscar Nominees For Best Supporting Actor Max_von_sydow_interview_extremely_loud_and_incredibly_close_the_renter_movie_oscar_nominated_best_supporting_actor_oscar

Get to Know the Oscar Nominees For Best Supporting Actor Max_von_sydow_interview_extremely_loud_and_incredibly_close_the_renter_movie_oscar_nominated_best_supporting_actor_oscar

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Max von Sydow in Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

Age: 82
Role: Billed only as the Renter, von Sydow's silent character becomes the extremely quiet and incredibly distant companion to the film's precocious child protagonist (Thomas Horn).
Oscar History: Von Sydow was nominated for Best Actor in 1989 for the Danish -language drama Pelle the Conqueror.
There Are No Words...: To play the Renter, the polyglot von Sydow gave up all languages but the physical. ''People have asked me if it is difficult to do a nonspeaking character,'' he says. ''The answer is no. The only difference between the Renter and other people is that he doesn't speak. Apart from that, his reactions are just as they would be otherwise.''
Something Different: For von Sydow, the Renter was a welcome change from the usual Hollywood roles he's offered. ''Unfortunately, sometimes you have a feeling that casting directors don't have very much imagination,'' he says. ''My first American part was Jesus in The Greatest Story Ever Told. The consequence of that is I've been offered I don't know how many priests, bishops, popes, cardinals, and religious figures, although I guess it's always a step down from Christ.''
Multimedia Man: He may be mute in Extremely Loud, but the actor contributed nothing but his voice to last year's best-selling videogame The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, which also features the voice of fellow nominee Christopher Plummer.
Up Next: Nothing announced. —Keith Staskiewicz

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Christopher Plummer in Beginners

Age: 82
Role: Hal Fields, a 75-year-old widower who belatedly embraces his homosexuality, even while battling a terminal illness.
Oscar History: Nominated for Best Supporting Actor for 2009's The Last Station.
Father Figure: Beginners borrows from director Mike Mills' experience when his father announced he was gay in his 70s, and Plummer was the only actor he wanted in the role. Says Plummer, ''You just need to read the script to know his father had this wonderful sense of humor and a delight in finding that he could come out of the closet unscathed.''
Forever Young: ''Christopher can talk about working with [Elia] Kazan or [John] Huston or just about anything,'' Mills says. ''He has the most amazing war stories.'' The director recalls that at one point during production Plummer hurt his knee but never complained. ''That generation... it's more than stiff upper lip, because that sounds dour. It's stiff upper lip with a big flag! They keep the party going. Christopher's very funny and subversive. We should all be so lucky to be so hungry and alive as he is.''
Up Next: Plummer can be seen in David Fincher's The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. He's also attached to two upcoming projects that, he says, ''I won't mention until they get an official green light because I think it's bad luck.'' —Sara Vilkomerson

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Nick Nolte in Warrior

Age: 70
Role: Paddy Conlon, the Moby-Dick-obsessed recovering alcoholic whose rages forged the hardened personalities of his two sons (Tom Hardy and Joel Edgerton), both of whom are mixed martial artists.
Oscar History: It's his third nomination, following nods for The Prince of Tides (1991) and Affliction (1998).
Art Imitates Life: Nolte's well-publicized struggles with substance abuse dovetailed with his character's, which should be no surprise, since co-writer-director Gavin O'Connor specifically wrote the role with his friend in mind. ''In some ways, that's really great,'' Nolte told EW in December. ''In some ways, that's really terrifying. He knows me well enough that when I looked at the role, I was like, 'Oh my God, what do I have to go through now?' ''
Nothing to Be Sorry About: Conlon's repeated pleas for forgiveness from his sons are greeted with venom, especially in one heartbreaking confrontation with Hardy's character at a casino. ''The crew got very nervous,'' Nolte recalled. ''I could feel them around me not wanting to watch. We only needed a few takes because Tommy just really went at it. And it made people uncomfortable. It's hard to watch that scene. I couldn't watch it. And then you kind of revisit all those emotions when you see the film again, and it brought tears.''
Up Next: Nolte stars as a grizzled old thoroughbred owner on HBO's new drama Luck, and he'll play the LAPD chief in October's star-studded The Gangster Squad. —Jeff Labrecque

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR NOMINEE
Jonah Hill in Moneyball

Age: 28
Role: Baseball-stats whiz Peter Brand, who works with Billy Beane (Brad Pitt) to shake up the Oakland A's.
Oscar History: First nomination.
Jonah Does Drama?: Taking a dramatic role was hardly an obvious career move for the raunchy-humor star. ''I just like having an underdog complex,'' Hill explains. ''In comedy right now I'm not really the underdog anymore, so that means it's time to be the underdog in something else. When you're not the underdog, you're not fighting for anything anymore, so for me it was great to fight for this part.''
Improving Through Improv: Oscar-winning screenwriters Aaron Sorkin and Steven Zaillian both worked on the film's meticulous script, but sometimes memorable lines happen spontaneously. Case in point: the scene where Beane fires A's outfielder Jeremy Giambi, essentially cutting the team's manager (Philip Seymour Hoffman) off at the knees. ''Brad walks out and Phil says to me, 'You agree with this?' and I say, 'A hundred percent,' and that's where the scene ended. But then walking out I said, 'Do you want this door closed?' '' says Hill. ''It was just a little improvised moment. You have this intense dramatic moment, and then to cap it with something mundane felt interesting to me.''
Up Next: Hill co-wrote and stars in 21 Jump Street, a riff on the '80s TV series, due March 16, then appears opposite Ben Stiller and Vince Vaughn in Neighborhood Watch (July 27). He'll start shooting The Apocalypse in April with James Franco and Seth Rogen. —Rob Brunner

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR NOMINEE
Kenneth Branagh in My Week With Marilyn

Age: 51
Role: Laurence Olivier during his time directing 1957's The Prince and the Showgirl.
Oscar History: Four previous nominations: for Best Actor and Best Director in 1990 for Henry V; for directing 1992's live-action short Swan Song; and for Best Adapted Screenplay for 1996's Hamlet.
Big Shoes: Branagh says he was both intimidated and excited to play the much-revered Olivier. ''There's a big voice in your head going, 'That's a long way to fall,' '' Branagh laughs. But on the first day of filming at the U.K.'s famed Pinewood Studios (where The Prince and the Showgirl was also shot), he found his confidence thanks to costar Michelle Williams. ''My first appearance as Olivier was watching Marilyn walk away. So my first sight of Michelle's performance was her undulating behind shimmying in this beaded white dress. It was intoxicating. I thought, 'Well, if she's Marilyn Monroe—and by God, with that walk it seems that she is—I think I ought to start being Laurence Olivier.' ''
Up in Smoke: As he researched Olivier, Branagh was surprised by one discovery. ''He was unbelievably thrilled about the fact that he had a pack of cigarettes named after him,'' says Branagh. ''They were called Oliviers and you couldn't cough anywhere in Pinewood before he would offer you a pack of his own cigarettes.''
Up Next: Branagh will direct Kate Winslet in The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, which starts shooting in March. —Sara Vilkomerson

lot of interesting info.

WOW! I had no idea that Max Von Sydow and Christopher Plummer lent their voices to characters in Skyrim! I play that game all the time! Now I want to know who their voice goes to. :p It seems like it would be hard to play a mute character!

I need to see Warrior I think it looked okay and I think some wrestlers were in it.

I kinda agree with Jonah Hill that sometimes you need to try and be the underdog in certain things. It worked out for him this time because he's Oscar nominated something his comedy roles likely would never allow him to be. Still I don't think he should totally shift to non comedy roles. I read that he was saying something like 'it's time to grow up' and I felt that was not the best attitude because he is still funny and could do well in comedy roles. Imo it would be best for him to do a mixture of drama and comedies from now on.

I didn't know Kenneth Branagh was a director. His upcoming film with Kate Winslet should be good film to to keep an eye out for.

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