20 Fun Facts About This Year's Oscar Nominees
You’ve seen all this year’s Best Picture nominees. You’re certain you’re going to ace all four of the acting categories in your Oscar Pool. You’ve even screened all the nominated films in the live-action and animated short fields. But if you want to be the life of your Oscars party on Sunday night, you’ll have to be ready with some solid pieces of trivia about this year’s nominees to casually drop into the conversation.
To help, here are 20 fun facts connecting this year’s Oscar nominees to, among other things, The Simpsons, the 2005 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade, and the band Toto.
1. Best supporting actor nominee Christian Bale once appeared in a commercial for Pac-Man cereal.
We all know Bale began acting at an early age. But perhaps not everyone has been treated to his song-and-dance skills in this commercial for a breakfast product that features pink Ms. Pac-Man marshmallows because that’s how we did feminism in the ’80s. Presumably, this commercial helped him get cast in Newsies?
2. John Williams’s son is the lead singer of Toto.
Before your mind completely explodes with the knowledge that the guy who sings “Rosanna” and “Africa” is the offspring of the man who composed the Star Wars theme, know this: Joseph Williams didn’t join the band until 1986, when their album Fahrenheit was released. He later left the band but rejoined in 2010 and currently tours with them. So he probably does sing “Rosanna” and “Africa” all the time, come to think of it. Feel free to let that blow your mind.
3. Tom McCarthy is the secret link between Oscar-nominated Spotlight and Razzie-nominated Pixels.
Tom McCarthy has numerous acting credits to go along with his fine work behind the camera. He directed two movies last year: the Oscar-nominated Spotlight about the Boston Globe investigative team, and The Cobbler, which drew a Razzie nomination for its star, Adam Sandler. McCarthy’s relationship with Sandler got him a small role as a robot assistant in the also Razzie-nominated ’80s video game action-comedy Pixels. Luckily, Spotlight outshines McCarthy’s other 2015 choices.
Related: ‘Fifty Shades of Grey,’ ‘Fantastic Four’ in Razzie Awards 2016 Worst Picture Race
4. Brie Larson appeared in the 2005 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
Perhaps you knew that the Room actress was, not so long ago, a minor pop star. But maybe you didn’t realize that, during her hit-making period, she appeared on the “Barbie and the Magic of Pegasus” float in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
5. Sissy Spacek’s husband is in the running for an Oscar this year.
In addition to being married to a great actress, Jack Fisk is a talent in his own right, as a veteran production designer who has worked with directors like Terrence Malick and Paul Thomas Anderson. He received his second Academy Award nomination this year, for his work on The Revenant.
6. Lenny Abrahamson, director of Room, made some cool commercials for Carlsberg beer.
Before he became an Oscar nominee, he directed some clever ads, including this one.
7. The director of one of the nominated animated shorts created an amazing Simpsons couch gag.
Don Hertzfeldt, celebrating his second Oscar nomination this year for the moving World of Tomorrow, also created the surreal, extended couch gag for the season premiere of The Simpsons’ 26th season. If you haven’t seen it, it’s insane and definitely an aesthetic cousin of the film for which he is nominated.
8. The brilliant editor of Mad Max: Fury Road is also the director’s wife.
Margaret Sixel has collaborated with husband George Miller on previous projects Babe: Pig in the City and Happy Feet. But Mad Max: Fury Road is her first pure-action edit, one that may result in her first Academy Award.
Related: ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ Director on the Stunt He Thought They Couldn’t Pull Off (But Did)
9. Supporting actress nominee Jennifer Jason Leigh is the daughter of the actor who died tragically on the set of Twilight Zone: The Movie.
Vic Morrow was killed in 1982 in a helicopter accident that occurred while making the film. He died just as Leigh was getting noticed for her role in Fast Times at Ridgemont High. According to this People story, Morrow, who was estranged from Leigh at the time, had two wills. In the first, he left Leigh one dollar and in the second, he left her $100.
10. Bridge of Spies producer Marc E. Platt is the father of Benji from Pitch Perfect.
As a producer of Steven Spielberg’s Cold War drama, Platt could climb onstage to receive an Oscar if Bridge of Spies wins Best Picture. If he does, just remember that you’re looking at a man who is responsible for bringing many things into the world, including the musical Wicked, which he also produced, and actor Ben Platt, star of, among other things, two Pitch Perfect movies.
11. Saoirse Ronan’s first movie role paired her with the director of Clueless.
Ronan played Michelle Pfeiffer’s daughter in Amy Heckerling’s smart but little-seen I Could Never Be Your Woman. Look how cute and talented she is when she’s playing with Barbies, inappropriately using the word “ghetto,” and imitating Britney Spears.
12. Nominees Tom Hardy and Michael Fassbender studied acting at the same time at the Drama Centre in London.
Based on this GQ profile, Hardy referred to his classmate as “Mikey Fassbender.”
13. Speaking of Fassbender, he’s also reportedly dating another of this year’s Oscar nominees.
That would be Alicia Vikander. Those who keep up with their celebrity gossip will probably say, “Duh, everyone knows that.” But the two have been quiet enough about it that it still might be a juicy tidbit to drop at your Oscars party, especially if you follow up by sharing this story about how the two of them refused to pucker up during the BAFTA kiss-cam segment, a moment so awkward it got cut from the BBC broadcast.
14. And speaking of famous people who went to school with other famous people, did you know about nominee Eddie Redmayne?
And how he attended the prestigious Eton at the same time as both Prince William (they played rugby together) and Tom Hiddleston? Well, now you do. Feel free to tell your friends.
15. One of the nominated composers created music for Shark Week (no, not John “Theme from Jaws” Williams).
It was J. Ralph, a longtime songwriter and creator of movie scores who received his third Academy Award nomination this year for the song “Manta Ray” from the documentary Racing Extinction. According to his bio, the Discovery Channel asked him to write and produce a piece of music for Shark Week to “raise money and awareness for species extinction and oceanic preservation.” The result was an orchestral work called “Theodora.”
16. One of the nominees for Anomalisa is responsible for the stop-motion Christmas episode of Community.
Duke Johnson, co-director of the Best Animated Feature nominee with Charlie Kaufman, also directed the Community Season 2 episode “Abed’s Uncontrollable Christmas.”
17. A sound editing nominee links The Revenant with Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.
Lon Bender, a veteran sound editor who is recognized this year for The Revenant, has a deep résumé. I just like thinking that the man partly responsible for The Revenant bear growls is also partly responsible for this.
18. The screenwriter nominated for The Martian is also responsible for some of your favorite episodes of Buffy and Lost.
Before he adapted Andy Weir’s novel for the screen, Drew Goddard was a writer for some great TV shows, including Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Alias, and Lost. His connections to Joss Whedon and J.J. Abrams also figure into his film work; he wrote the Abrams-produced Cloverfield and directed The Cabin in the Woods, which he co-wrote with Whedon.
19. Revered cinematographer Roger Deakins is tied for the most nominations in the cinematography category without a single win.
Deakins, who has been nominated 13 times, shares the distinction with George J. Falsey, who worked on such films as Of Mice and Men and Meet Me in St. Louis and never got a statuette to show for it.
Related: Who Has the Most Oscar Nominations Without a Win?
20. Soon-to-be Oscar winner Leonardo DiCaprio once sought dating advice from Alan Thicke.
In this excellent Washington Post retrospective on DiCaprio’s career, Thicke, DiCaprio’s former co-star on Growing Pains, says that before the actor started dating supermodels, he wasn’t sure how to talk to girls. “He said, ‘How do I get her number?’” Thicke tells the Post, recalling a crush the then-teenage DiCaprio had on one of the show’s extras. Thicke suggested that he look in the wardrobe department, where the contact information for all the actors was posted. It’s not clear whether DiCaprio ever called the young lady, but it is clear that, a few short years later, he definitely no longer needed dating tips from Alan Thicke.
