by Nathaniel R
Nicole Kidman and Lucas Hedges in "Boy Erased"
Resarch is coming along for the April Foolish Oscar predictions and since y'all were so helpful in extending the early Best Actress possibilities list, let's do the same for Best Actor, shall we? An early alphabetical list of leading men is after the jump...
Six early questions to discuss
- Lucas Hedges is playing a gay man in conversion therapy in Boy Erased which seems like a totally juicy part for such a gifted young actor. But with the shadow of Chalamet's revelatory work in Call Me By Your Name on it would Oscar really break age records two-years running for young actors playing heartbroken young gay men?
- Rami Malek seemed, on paper, like a sure bet for Mimicry love playing Freddie Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody but will the films troubles (mostly centered around director Bryan Singer) doom any potential enthusiasm for Malek's work?
- Could Sam Rockwell snag an afterglow nomination post Oscar win for playing ANOTHER racist? What an uncomfortable niche. He co-leads the true story of a friendship (of sorts apparently) between a Klu Klux Klan member and a Civil Rights Activist in Best of Enemies with Taraji P Henson as his screen partner.
- Will this finally be the Year of [insert 'overdue' name here: Gyllenhaal / Gosling / Phoenix / Cooper]?
- Will all this be just a cakewalk for Christian Bale to nab a second Oscar for playing Dick Cheney in Backseat?
- Who have I totally forgotten about in this preliminary research?
DISCLAIMER: As with all April Foolish lists some of these won't really be contenders but the idea is an overview of key leading roles from which miracle performances, interesting takes, much discussed already star turns, or undervalued and overvalued future lead performances might spring. Performances marked by asterisks are real life based biographical characters... the most likely to get you nominated (on paper) because Oscar never seems to grow out of that particular obsession.
- Christian Bale -Backseat*
- Javier Bardem - Everybody Knows
- Chadwick Boseman - Black Panther
- Steve Carell - Beautiful Boy*
- Steve Carell - Women of Marwencol
- Bradley Cooper - A Star is Born (directed by himself)
- Taron Egerton - Robin Hood
- Andrew Garfield - Under the Silver Lake
- Ryan Gosling - First Man*
- Jake Gyllenhaal - The Sisters Brothers
- Kit Haring - The Death and Life of John F Donovan
- Lucas Hedges - Boy Erased*
- Lucas Hedges - Ben is Back (directed by his father!)
- Charlie Hunnam - Papillon
- Oscar Isaac - Life Itself
- Michael B Jordan - Creed 2
- Rory Kinnear - Peterloo (though possibly supporting because you rarely know who's leading with large cast Mike Leigh films)
- John Krasinksi - A Quiet Place (directed by himself)
- Rami Malek - Bohemian Rhapsody*
- Matthew McConaughey - The Beach Bum
- Matthew McConaughey - Redemption
- Ewan McGregor - Christopher Robin
- Richie Merritt - White Boy Rick (McConaughey is the biggest star here but the story is centered on his character's teenage son)
- Joaquin Phoenix - You Were Never Really Here
- Joaquin Phoenix - Don't Worry He Won't Get Far On Foot
- Joaquin Phoenix - The Sisters Brothers
- Ryan Reynolds - Deadpool 2
- Sam Rockwell - The Best of Enemies*
- Michael Shannon - What They Had
- LaKeith Stanfield - Sorry to Bother You
- Jacob Tremblay - the Death and Life of John F Donovan
probably 2019 unless they rush
- Robert DeNiro - The Irishman
- Leonardo DiCaprio - The Black Hand
- Jake Gyllenhaal - Untitled Dan Gilroy Project
- Ashton Sanders - Native Son