GMA Brandtalk
Tracking
Archives
Up close on Oscar nominees Anthony Hopkins, Gary Oldman, Glenn Close, and Olivia Colman
Los Angeles — With the Oscars just around the corner, we would like to focus on four talented veterans this time: Anthony Hopkins, Gary Oldman, Glenn Close and Olivia Colman.
Hopkins, 83, got his sixth Oscar nomination and fourth in the category Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role, with his portrayal of Anthony, a father suffering from dementia, in the Florian Zeller-helmed drama, “The Father.”
Oldman, 63, received his third nomination in the same category as Hopkins for his performance as American screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz, who is in Victorville, California, recovering from a broken leg he sustained in a car accident, in the David Fincher-directed biographical drama, “Mank.”
Close, 74, got her eighth nomination and fourth in the Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role category for her portrayal of Bonnie “Mamaw” Vance, J.D. Vance’s grandmother, in the Ron Howard-directed drama, “Hillbilly Elegy” based on the 2016 memoir of the same name by Vance.
Coleman, 47, received her second nomination and the first in the same category as Close for her performance as Anne in the drama, “The Father,” where she shared the limelight with Hopkins.
We talked to all of them and below are excerpts of our conversations with these talented actors and actresses:
Glenn Close
Where are you calling us from right now?
From Bozeman, Montana.
Are you there in Montana because you like to live in harmony with nature?
I came here because I was able to get some land. There’s not a house on it but that to me is the greatest blessing of all because that land goes right up into a national forest.
There are bears, and mountain lions, and deer, and elk, and all kinds of life that this part of the country sustains. And I care very much that we keep wild places in our country. And at the same time, people are streaming into states like Montana because there’s a big movement out of cities, so then the pressure is on the town governments, and the counties, and the states, whether they’ll maintain these areas. You just need good leadership.
I’m optimistic that hopefully things will be happening, but we’re still a very divided country, so hopefully our leaders will help us change that.
Every movie is a different experience, not only with the character but the combination of elements. What did this new experience mean to you?
I wanted to do it for that very reason, because it’s territory that I have not emotionally or psychologically explored before. I knew it was going to be a big challenge for me as an artist, so I really wanted to go into that new territory.
I’d read the book when it came out never thinking that I’d be in the movie. So it was very much a new experience. I loved the process. I always love the process because that’s when you get together a great team and you start collaborating and Ron (Howard) was phenomenal in his preparation and in getting Netflix thankfully, to give us enough time to spend together to go and visit the family, to have one-on-one sessions with the family, which was really crucial for me because I asked very specific questions.
I had pictures and some video and I didn’t want to pretend that I was her but I wanted to feel the essence of who this woman was and hear what people had to say about her. So it was a character that I ended up really loving, Mamaw.
Who was this woman? After your experience and after portraying her…
She was a fierce mother and fiercely loyal and a fighter for her family. And she had gotten pregnant when she was 13 and left the hill country for southern Ohio because that’s where there was a steel mill and Papaw got work there.
And they had sometimes an abusive relationship, they got divorced, but she never dated or remarried. He was a little bit of a wild man but they lived just a couple of blocks away from each other until he died.
And he would spend most of the day with her in the latter part of his life so I think he was the great love of her life. She realizes that she made terrible mistakes. She perpetuated that cycle of abuse and violence. And she didn’t want her grandson to go through the same thing; she wanted him to break out of that.
As a mother, were you ever so desperate, like your character that you had to tell somebody else to help you give good values to your own daughter?
I have been very vocal about it. We have mental illness. We had suicide in our family, a lot of substance abuse and now I know about those kinds of cycles but nobody ever talked about it, so we never had a chance to know what our history was in that way.
But my sister broke that pattern by having the courage to come up and say I need help because I can’t stop thinking about killing myself. So that was the beginning of a whole different journey for us as a family, as far as that kind of thing that goes from generation to generation.
So yes, I felt very close to that aspect of the story. I also have felt very strongly that across the world there are women like Mamaw who keep their families together, who if they have to, will raise their grandchildren. And these are the women who have the ferocity of spirit that really in many ways saves their family when it’s needed.
Olivia Colman
We last saw you in London right before the lockdown, and you confessed that you won’t mind to stay in your home for a couple of months as you enjoy the privacy. After nine months of lockdown, are you ready to go out and work and enjoy your life?
I miss going to work but actually I have to say I am probably the only person who I could happily do this for two solid years. I love it.
So what are you doing during lockdown?
Cooking, trying to get better at cooking. My husband's a very good cook. I'm a little bit rubbish but quite good at baking. I am just being at home with the kids. It felt like an opportunity, to have that much time with school-aged kids will never happen again and so I was just trying to enjoy it and trying to enjoy being with them and try to endear myself to them I suppose (laughs) by making food that they liked.
Could you take us to your TV room and describe it? What are your favorite TV shows?
I am in our TV room right now and I've tried to make it look as nice as possible. In fact, all the crap is hidden that side of the camera so, you know, dog beds and the cars and there's a lot of mess but it's cozy and lived in.
Recently, we've been watching as a family. We've been watching “Community” because we always try and watch something that we can all watch together. We went through “New Girl” at the beginning of lockdown. We watch comedies together and I loved “Normal People.” I was totally obsessed with that but we had 'til the kids had gone to bed to watch that one and there's “Queen's Gambit” which I really want to see.
What is your TV guilty pleasures?
I do love “Bake Off” and I adore something called “Selling Sunset” recently. I saw one episode of “Selling Sunset” and thought that's something I could probably get lost in.
What is your first memory of TV?
So there's a little girl with a chalk board. I remember being home from school because I was unwell and we had a black and white telly. She was on it an awful lot and then “Farming Diary” came on. I think there was only “Pebble Men” at 1:00 and “Farming Diary” and that was it until I came home from school and then really there was almost no telly on and it was only two or three channels. My dad would fall asleep in front of the telly and yes then the National Anthem. And then he realized he should go to bed. Amazing.
Anthony Hopkins
Where are you now?
In my home in Los Angeles.
What’s it like for you during lockdown? How have you been handling this whole crisis?
I just decided to get on with it and just accept it. I don't want to take risks because I'm getting on in years so I've been in lockdown for about eight months and I've got used to it. I read, paint, play the piano and all that stuff, so I've got things to do and I'm quite content.
None of us know how it's all going to end up but I feel pretty good actually. I've been working non-stop for about five or six years, some heavy. So it's good to do nothing. That's the only thing I'm trying to come to terms with is to really accept that there's nothing really to do at the moment. Just sit here and weather it out, and that's it.
The last job I did, in fact, was “The Father” and that was well over a year ago. We finished July last year or something like that so it's been a long time and I'm very fortunate. I have been working a lot as an actor and am very grateful but now is the time for me to sit around and not think too much. That's it.
How are you planning to celebrate your birthday especially during the lockdown?
I am not a good party boy. I used to when I was younger celebrate it but, I can't remember the last time I celebrated. I had my 60th birthday and 70th birthday and my 80th birthday but I make no big deal about it. It's just another day.
I am going to be 83 and that's it so I just maybe I don't know if we're allowed to have anyone in the house. Blow out a candle maybe. No, it's no big deal. I've had 83 of them now so I've gotten used to it.
What do you do to improve your physical and mental well-being?
I work out. I go to the gym. I've got a gym; I've got a treadmill and I do some weights and I'm pretty strong.
I was born strong, you know, muscular. My Welsh background I guess and pretty muscular so I work out and I keep as flexible as I can. I work out five days a week. Not strenuous and I read a lot and I do a form of meditation. I stay cheerful.
Whenever dark moods come up on me which they do on every human being sometimes like this lockdown you think is there any way out? I think well, the world has been through crises before and to not accept that's the way the world is and I don't want to sound mushy about it but I say thank you to whatever it is in my life that's given me the life I have because especially in this business I'm in. It's a tough business and I came to America many years ago and I'm very grateful and I've been given a great life here so I think appreciation and gratitude for what I have.
I'm not a saint or anything like that (laughs). Very human but to remember that I'm so lucky and seeing the business that I'm in, the acting profession, younger people and now especially it must be tough, a whole generation of people, young kids starting out thinking well, what's going to happen. It would be trite for me to say well, this too will pass.
It's easy to say that but meantime there's a lot of pain and suffering in the world and I remember gradually you come this way and in a strange way I'm grateful to have lived so long because I remember so much. I remember the post-war years in Britain and Wales. I was born just before World War 2 and I remember the last years of the war although we didn't suffer much. The cities around were bombed and then there was the dark depression after the war but we pulled through. We pulled through so I look at it.
I think what keeps me going is a perspective. I look at documentary films. I'm obsessed about it. The documentary films of post-war Europe and the devastation, the horrors, millions of dead, you know, and I look at our world today and think well, yeah, things are tough sometimes and we go through strange times but we can survive. We will survive and here in America, a powerful nation that it is, we will survive. I think to have moments of gratitude or appreciation keeps me healthy.
We all know you are a very talented painter and you mentioned you painted during the pandemic. What have you been painting lately?
I seem to paint endless array of faces and eyes and I don't try to change anything much. I am not a trained painter, I don't have an academic background and so I improvise.
I go into the studio, a very small studio and put a canvas up and I start painting and I don’t plan it. I just put the paint on and form it and carve out of it.
I don't have a clue what I'm doing and a friend of mine, the late Stan Winston, who designed “Jurassic Park” now he was a bona fide artist, a trained artist and many years ago when I started painting, he came over to the house — I was living out in Malibu then — and he went into the studio to use the bathroom. He looked up at the wall and he said who did these paintings and I pulled a face and said I did. He said why are you pulling a face like that? I said, I've never had any training. He said don't, don't train, just paint.
He said just paint so I take the advice from Henry Miller, the author, who said paint and die happy. I paint not for any goal but they sell. I have shows up in Vegas and in Hawaii and they sell and people buy them.
I love colors and I'm experimenting at the moment. I'm just experimenting with a wide range of colors to make these Hispanic paintings to make colors of Colombia. My wife, Stella, comes from Colombia and I am going to send one to her brother to see if he approves it. I experiment,I don't have any form. I don't have any style and I give a few paintings away and people seem to enjoy them and so that's it really. I don't plan. I don't over think. I don't think about it very much.
Gary Oldman
Like Mank, you had to deal with addictions in the past. What did you do to improve your wellness and what did you learn about yourself during the pandemic?
I don’t know what I learned over COVID. My COVID living is very much like my normal living. (laughs) So when I am not working, I don’t go outside very much. I am a bit of a hermit.
So it was, actually four months before I went to the gate and actually looked up the street. And because I did have work coming up, as obviously I am here in London now, but it was a delight.
And my wife said, well you know, you are the one who is going to be earning and working, so I will go to the supermarket. And I said well I will come with you to the supermarket and she was saying no. So it was like a period of four or five months.
But I didn’t mind, cause that’s how I normally live. I just lock myself away. In terms of living a more chaste existence, I had to save my life. And everything, I think everything that I enjoy today and have enjoyed over the past now 20 something years, is directly linked to that decision. It’s the most courageous and the greatest thing I ever did, to put the booze away. Yeah. But I used it for “Mank.”
How long does it take you to get into the skin of your characters and how long before you leave your character?
After the moviem hopefully you don’t move onto other stuff. The getting into, or finding a character, I think first and foremost you need good writing. Because the writing is your map, it’s your emotional sort of GPS. There's an old saying, “if it ain’t on the page, it ain’t on the stage.” A good writer will help you find the character. It’ll be there, it’s in there, and you just have to follow the signs.
But it depends on what you’re doing. Sometimes it can take months and sometimes the cloak of inspiration will drop quickly. So there’s no particular regiment or a way of doing it. Each one that comes along poses its own questions and sets up its own hurdles that you have to climb over.
It was clear going in what David (Fincher) wanted from us and he was very articulate in explaining the world that he wanted us to inhabit. But the thing of the after-effect of coming into work every day for 60 days and before that, was rehearsal and then before that, that thing you do in your kitchen or your study of working the work you do alone as an actor.
I’ve known David for 20 years, but we’ve never worked together so having the opportunity of working with David was a box that has been ticked. In England they might say you are in the “premier league,” you are not just in the league, but you are playing in the premier league.
So that when you work on a script like “Mank,” as good as “Mank,” with David, with a cast that is just brilliant, when you have an experience like that, I don’t know what you would go to next that would equal it. Maybe Elon Musk could take me up in a spaceship, (laughter) that might top it. But I had such a great time, so I haven’t worked for a while. Sometimes after a job, you are still quoting the lines. I feel very blessed. It was just truly a remarkable experience.
Tom Cruise is supposed to make a movie in space next year. So maybe you can join him in the cast, right?
(Laughs) I won’t be going to space any time soon. I think Palm Springs is as far as I want to go. (laughs) — LA, GMA News
