OVP: Best Supporting Actor (2006)
The Nominees Were...
Alan Arkin, Little Miss Sunshine
Jackie Earle Haley, Little Children
Djimon Hounsou, Blood Diamond
Eddie Murphy, Dreamgirls
Mark Wahlberg, The Departed
My Thoughts: We have three weeks left of 2006, after which we'll head into a new year (I'll hold off for now which year we're going to walk into, but know that I've got our next contest all queued up & ready to go in terms of viewings!). First, though, we'll do our acting races, and here we have one of the weirdest Supporting Actor contests in eons. As you'll see when we discuss the precursor awards, there was very little collective thought on this race. 2006 is the last year where Oscar picked only Globe & SAG nominees for its acting lineups, and most of that can be attributed to this race, since simply so many names were listed in the contenders. Before we get into all of the also-rans, though, let's talk about the nominees themselves.
Eddie Murphy is, to date, one of only six Saturday Night Live cast members who have been nominated for an Oscar (the others, for the curious are Kristin Wiig, Dan Ackroyd, Joan Cusack, Bill Murray, & Robert Downey, Jr.), and was surely the closest to actually winning the trophy. At the time, Murphy was the frontrunner until the late-breaking Norbit reminded Academy members of all of the dreck he'd made in his career, stopping his momentum & giving them room to pick the more conventional Alan Arkin (a similar scenario happened a decade later with Sylvester Stallone/Mark Rylance where the Academy wasn't willing to overlook a career filled with a lot of garbage).
Murphy, though, is pretty good in Dreamgirls. I like the ease he brings to Jimmy, a man with his own personal demons which are also exacerbated by a racist music industry who wants to put an unconventional man into his own trappings. Murphy totally sells this with his late number "Jimmy's Got Soul" as he breaks into a number that will totally throw apart his career (but is true to who he is). I don't know if he totally sells the first-half of the movie well enough, particularly his romance with Anika Noni Rose, and he doesn't have the vocals of a Jennifer Hudson, but this is a good performance-Murphy brings a unique perspective as a then-fading global superstar that fits this character.
The same can be said for Alan Arkin, his Oscar rival, that he's giving a good performance. Arkin's curmudgeonly ways run throughout his career, even before he was really old enough to be a "curmudgeon," and like Murphy, feels a bit typecast in this role, and like Murphy, there are times when it feels somewhat phoned in, waiting for the big moments. But that doesn't mean that the big moments aren't there, particularly giving a wonderful chemistry to then-newcomer Abigail Breslin (they both owe a lot to each other when it comes to collecting these nominations). He is a solid glue on this film.
Jackie Earle Haley was, like Murphy, in desperate need of a comeback with Little Children, though he'd never really been the star that Murphy was in his prime. Haley has the trickiest role in this lineup, playing a pedophile who has been released from jail, and is trying to acclimate to society. Haley does an excellent job of bringing layers to a character that would easy to play either as a straight-up monster or to sentimentalize too severely. His late scenes, particularly when his most aggressive taunter causes Haley's mother (the only character he really cares about) to have a heart attack, are excellent work. The ending doesn't quite work for me, perhaps because Haley's character hasn't been woven well enough into the actual story itself, but Haley earns this Oscar nod.
I've learned from Film Twitter that Mark Wahlberg's performance in The Departed and his sole nomination are divisive, and not just because the actor has a history of problematic (particularly when it comes to race) public comments. While Wahlberg is not the most visible actor in the film, I think he's great here. There's not a lot of depth to this character, but there honestly doesn't need to be-he needs to be on the sides, presenting a humorous counterpoint to Martin Sheen's tenured cop, and Wahlberg plays him like a live wire. Plus, this role is littered with great one-liners that feel authentic to a Boston cop's daily dialogue. I honestly think he's great in this role-it's an unusual role for Oscar, and certainly if Scorsese made it today the character might not be celebrated in the same way (romanticizing police officers in general is a problem in 2021), but I think this is Wahlberg's best performance, give or take Boogie Nights.
Djimon Hounsou, on the other hand, is not living up to his potential here. This is, for my money, one of the worst performances we've profiled for an acting race so far. There is nothing given to him by the writers to flesh out this character, whose sole purpose seems to be to yell at/around/with his costars, and Hounsou doesn't give us more than what the script is hinting at, some sort of inner life that this character possesses. I have a lot of problems with Blood Diamond, but it's weird that from a movie with three relatively decent stars the biggest issue I have is with the acting-Hounsou doesn't register within the film, and this feels like a "famous name in a big movie" nomination more than anything else as it's certainly not based on performance.
Other Precursor Contenders: The Globes picked Eddie Murphy as their victor, beating out Wahlberg, Jack Nicholson (The Departed), Ben Affleck (Hollywoodland), & Brad Pitt (Babel). SAG also went with Murphy, here over Arkin, Haley, Hounsou, and Leonardo DiCaprio (The Departed), one of the bigger cases of category fraud I've seen in a long while. And the BAFTA's went with Arkin, beating out Nicholson, James McAvoy (The Last King of Scotland), Leslie Phillips (Venus), & Michael Sheen (The Queen). As you can see, between the three precursors a total of twelve names here, so sixth place is a challenge. I would assume it's Jack Nicholson, whose lack of a nomination is genuinely shocking given he's an Academy favorite and is giving the best performance in The Departed, but Sheen or Pitt aren't totally out of reason given that they managed to hit the Best Picture race & their costars were cited.
Performances I Would Have Nominated: Well, for starters, I'd throw Jack into this race. It also feels a pity that Stanley Tucci (The Devil Wears Prada) didn't get this nomination, as then the Academy wouldn't have felt guilty over skipping him & years later give him a career nod for one of his worst performances in The Lovely Bones.
Oscar’s Choice: Norbit cost Murphy the Oscar-in what had to have been a very close race, Alan Arkin & the sentiment behind his Best Picture nominee beat Murphy (and his lack of a Best Picture nominee) in one of the bigger upsets of the 2000's.
My Choice: I think the best performance of this bunch was Mark Wahlberg, followed by Haley, Murphy, Arkin, & Hounsou, in that order. If I'd had an actual ballot, I likely would have voted for Haley given Wahlberg's past comments about race (I wouldn't have been comfortable voting for him in a real world setting), and because I genuinely think Arkin/Murphy, for how different their performances are, are neck-and-neck in terms of who should've won (and voting for Haley would've meant I wouldn't have had to decide...also I do genuinely like his work better than the two men who were clearly actually in the running for the trophy). But in terms of the OVP, which is solely supposed to be based on performance within the given field and not overall career or an artist's personal life, Wahlberg gets the title.
Those are my thoughts-what are yours? Are you with the Academy in sticking with Arkin or you waffling over with me between Wahlberg & Haley? If Norbit had waited just a few more months would Eddie Murphy have won (and then would Alan Arkin have taken the trophy for Argo six years later...cause that's what I think would've happened)? And how did Jack miss in this race, which will almost certainly be the final race that he ever had a shot at? Share your thoughts below in the comments!
Past Best Supporting Actor Contests: 2004, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2019
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