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More Sexy Beast10 Ways to Win an Oscar
Jacob Bernstein is a senior reporter at The Daily Beast. He has also written for New York magazine, Paper, and The Huffington Post.
Get fat, go ugly, play a Nazi—Jeff Bridges, Mo’Nique, and Christoph Waltz are Oscar locks because they channel a type. VIEW OUR GALLERY of sure-fire ways to win an Oscar.
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In Tropic Thunder, Ben Stiller plays shallow movie star Tugg Speedman, who makes a gritty Vietnam film in the hopes of finally winning an Academy Award. It's a shameless ploy Speedman has tried once before, when he took on another classic Oscar-baiting role: a man who's mentally challenged.
Alas, the Academy ignored his heartfelt performance in Simple Jack for a simple reason, according to Speedman's Russell Crowe-like costar (played by Robert Downey Jr.): "You never go full retard," he explains. "Check it out. Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man looks retarded, acts retarded, [but he's] not retarded. He counts cards. Autistic, sure. Not retarded. Tom Hanks, Forrest Gump. Slow, yes. Braces on his legs, but he charmed the pants off Nixon, he won the ping-pong competition. That ain't retarded. You went full retard, man. Never go full retard."
It doesn't take a genius to figure out that Downey's character is on to something when it comes to panning for Oscar gold. An examination of the last 30 years of Academy Award nominees and winners reveals some clear and effective trends.
According to Jeanine Basinger, Corwin-Fuller Professor of Film Studies and Founder and Curator of The Cinema Archives at Wesleyan University, the biggest key to winning an Oscar is "finding a role that plays against type" and in general, avoiding comedies and musicals.
"Go gay, be crippled, don't sing and dance on screen," Basinger advises. "Jimmy Cagney [who won for Yankee Doodle Dandy] is an exception to that, but he was playing a world-famous figure, so the rule really is don't sing and dance unless you're also playing a world-famous figure."
Other rules to live by, Basinger says, are "keeping out of comedy," "becoming a Vietnam veteran, preferably legless," and if you're an actress, removing all makeup while playing either "a prostitute or a nun."
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Angryy0ungman
I disagree that Christoph Waltz is a lock: no one, including Olivier, has ever won for playing a Nazi.
easton
"don't sing and dance on screen," What? Good thing Jamie Foxx (playing Ray Charles) or Reese Witherspoon (June Carter Cash) didn't take that advice. (I could go on) Or Jeff Bridges in his role.
ggreene
I believe those first two fall under "the rule really is don't sing and dance unless you're also playing a world-famous figure", but a Jeff Bridges win would still break the rule I guess.
Psaltseller
Cynical, but, from a trend analysis view, very interesting.
Hollywoodaholic
Kate Winslet played a makeup-less nun trying for Oscar bait in an episode of Ricky Gervais' great series "Extras." His character tells her character she needs to do a Holocaust movie if she wants to win one. Kate Winslet's next movie is "The Reader," which deals with her role in ... the Holocaust. She wins the Oscar. (Oh, and she was technically a Nazi in that, so Waltz easily winning this year will not be the first).
InfoHound
Henry Fonda didn't die in On Golden Pond.
jds8181
"Everyone knows you never go full retard."
ClareA
Too true.
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