Behind the scenes with the best actor nominees for the 2025 Oscars

Yahoo

03-03-2025

At the 97th annual Academy Awards, presented on March 2, Adrien Brody won the Oscar for best actor for "The Brutalist." Watch scenes from the winning performance and others nominated in the category of best actor, as well as interviews with the nominees below.
Adrien Brody, "The Brutalist"
In 2003 Adrien Brody became the youngest best actor Oscar-winner in history for his performance in Roman Polanski's "The Pianist," as Wladyslaw Szpilman, a musician struggling to survive in the Jewish ghetto during the Nazi occupation of Poland. It was a role for which he virtually starved himself, losing 30 pounds, all while learning the piano so that he could play Chopin.
Twenty-two years later, Brody is back with his second Oscar nomination for "The Brutalist," Brady Corbet's lacerating tale of László Tóth, a Hungarian Jewish architect who emigrates to the United States, and his efforts both to resume his career and to assimilate in a society where antisemitism and classism are rife.
Tóth is hired by a wealthy Pennsylvania industrialist to build a massive community center in his "brutalist" style – a form of architecture that's light on decoration and heavy on concrete. In this scene, Tóth – who is working a construction site in Pennsylvania – is discovered by Harrison Lee Van Buren (best supporting actor nominee Guy Pearce), who sees in Tóth a talent for which he wants to be the patron.
Tóth accepts a commission. But once his wife Erzsébet (best supporting actress nominee Felicity Jones) arrives from Europe, Tóth feels caught between his artistic impulses and the realities of working in an America that, in many cases, is closed to the foreign born:
Brody, whose mother and grandparents fled Hungary during the 1956 revolution, said their sacrifices informed his performance. "There was so much unknown, and a lot of loss," he told "Sunday Morning." "And all of those sacrifices have kind of laid the foundation for my own existence and what has been accessible to me."
He also heard the voice of his Hungarian grandfather in Tóth. "I remember my grandfather's accent was very, very heavy," he said. "I conjure it up. I also knew every bad word in Hungarian as a kid. So, I infused some of that in it that's not in the script!"
In this extended interview with "Sunday Morning," Brody believes that empathy helped shape his own choices as an actor, "trying to find films that have social relevance, or to represent people who don't have a voice and to give them that through me in some respect."
Brody won the New York Film Critics Circle Award, the Golden Globe for best motion picture actor (drama), and the BAFTA for "The Brutalist." The film received 10 Oscar nominations, including best picture and best director (Brady Corbet).
"The Brutalist," released by A24, is playing in select theaters in 70mm, and is available via VOD.
UPDATED: Brody received his second Academy Award, winning for his performance as László Tóth in "The Brutalist." [The film also won Academy Awards for its cinematography and original score.]
In an emotional speech, Brody addressed the film community: "Acting is a very fragile profession. It looks very glamorous, and in certain moments it is, but the one thing that I've gained having the privilege to come back here is to have some perspective. And no matter where you are in your career, no matter what you've accomplished, it can all go away, and I think what makes this night most special is the awareness of that, and the gratitude that I have to still do the work that I love.
"Winning an award like this is, it signifies a destination. And It's something my character references in the film, but to me it also, beyond the pinnacle of a career, it is a chance to begin again, and the opportunity to hopefully be fortunate enough so that the next 20 years of my life that I can prove that I am worthy of such meaningful and important and relevant roles."
Brody alluded to both the characters he played in "The Pianist" and "The Brutalist," saying, "I'm here once again to represent the lingering traumas and the repercussions of war, and systematic oppression, and of anti-semitism and racism, and of othering. ... I pray for a healthier and a happier and a more inclusive world, and I believe if the past can teach us anything, it's a reminder to not let hate go unchecked."
Timothée Chalamet, "A Complete Unknown"
Timothée Chalamet earned his first best actor Oscar nomination at age 22 for "Call Me By Your Name," as a teenage boy who becomes the target of an older man. In "A Complete Unknown," Chalamet plays the iconic singer-songwriter Bob Dylan during the years when he made a name for himself as a folk artist and as a rock star who, to a segment of his fans, left the roots of folk music behind.
In this scene Dylan is introduced by Pete Seeger (best supporting actor nominee Edward Norton) for his first appearance at New York's Folk City, where he performs "I Was Young When I Left Home":
Prior to shooting, Chalamet travelled to Minnesota to research Dylan's roots and his formative days. He returned to the state for a screening of the finished film in Minneapolis. In December Chalamet told CBS Minnesota station WCCO, "I think he's very proud of his Minnesota heritage, and I think, in some ways, the way I relate to him is, I think the iron ore in his songs and the iron ore in his voice — as a New Yorker, as a 28-year-old New Yorker, I don't think my path would have really brought me out here, ever.
"So, the first time I got here I thought, 'Wow, what a gift, Bob Dylan, being in this guy's worldview.'"
The actor was first attached to the project in 2019, but shooting was repeatedly delayed due to COVID and then the actors' strike. In the intervening years, Chalamet learned how to play the guitar. "I don't know if I'll ever get this much time to work on something in advance," he told The Hollywood Reporter. He also gained 20 pounds prior to shooting, to better match the folk singer's physique.
He said the role marked the furthest that he'd stretched himself. "And it became so biblical to me in terms of this man's life and his work that I felt if I let my focus err for a second, that I'd be self-loathing about it for years to come. I had three months to play Bob Dylan, and the rest of my life I don't get to be about that, so why not give it my all?"
To connect with what the reclusive Dylan represented, the actor told "60 Minutes" he disconnected from his own life for the two-and-a-half months of filming. He did not use his cellphone, or have visitors on set. "I've never approached a character so intensely as Bob, 'cause I have such respect for the material," Chalamet said. "And I knew I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I remembered that I was lazy on a day when something went wrong."
In addition to learning how to play the guitar and the harmonica, the actor told "60 Minutes" he learned to perform about 40 Bob Dylan songs — far more than were originally called for in the script. But while Chalamet pre-recorded all the Dylan songs he'd sing in the movie (to be played back on set during filming), he said they sounded "too clean," and so he tried performing live on set, doing so the first time in a scene in which Dylan visits his terminally ill hero, folk artist Woody Guthrie, in a New Jersey hospital.
Director James Mangold said he knew Chalamet nailed "Song to Woody" on his first take: "There's a moment in that scene right at the last stanza where he holds a note – that would never have happened if we'd used the playback track," Mangold said.
Chalamet also examined video of the singer, including footage taken of a Dylan performing a duet of "It Ain't Me Babe" with Joan Baez, which he played at a reduced speed. "That was when I really slowed down, 'cause it's fascinating the way Bob observes her," he said. "And how he refuses eye contact in that video."
In "A Complete Unknown," Chalamet and Barbaro perform "It Ain't Me Babe":
Speaking of the finished film, Chalamet said, "I was honored and counting my lucky stars that we got to bring this to life. Because nothing's a given. No opportunity is a given. No career is a given. I talked a lot about this with Edward Norton: the gift to work on something where every day — whether listening to the musicians we were playing, or the musicians that inspired them, or reading the authors that inspired them — you learn more about yourself."
Chalamet told "60 Minutes" he's not sure what he'd say to Dylan if he ever did meet him – but maybe not even mention the movie, and only talk about the weather: "What his favorite sandwich is, or something like that ... I would play it super cool, you know? 'Cause I feel like he's probably used to so much hyperbole and praise."
Chalamet won the Screen Actors Guild Award for his performance.
Nominated for 8 Academy Awards, "A Complete Unknown," released by Searchlight Pictures, is playing in theaters. and is available via VOD.
See also:
Bob Dylan's enduring love affair with the movies ("Sunday Morning")Colman Domingo, "Sing Sing"
At New York's Sing Sing prison, the organization Rehabilitation Through the Arts, or RTA, was formed to produce plays featuring incarcerated men performing classics by Shakespeare, as well as original plays that spoke to the lived experiences of men. The value of theater as a tool of reform was made palpable by RTA's success; compared to the prison's typical recidivism rate of 60%, only 3% of former inmates who had taken part in RTA were back in prison three years or less after their release.
Directed by Greg Kwedar, the film "Sing Sing" was built on the experiences of real-life former inmates (two of whom, Clarence Maclin and John Divine G Whitfield, share an Oscar nomination for best adapted screenplay). Colman Domingo was nominated for playing Divine G, a founding member of Sing Sing's theater program and an award-winning author.
In this scene, Divine G attends a clemency hearing and describes to the commissioners how the prison program grew into something he calls "wonderful":
Domingo was a journeyman actor whose work in recent years has exploded, from "Fear the Walking Dead" and "Euphoria," to "The Color Purple" and "The Madness." He received two Tony Award nominations (for acting in the musical "The Scottsboro Boys" and producing the play "Fat Ham"). He earned his first Oscar nomination last year for playing civil rights activist Bayard Rustin in "Rustin."
He talked about his recent success on "CBS Mornings" last November: "I feel that it's been a long time in my journey, where suddenly the roles are sort of meeting my skill set and what I'm curious about and what I can do. So, it just feels like I'm a journeyman actor. I've been working for 34 years, and it just feels like, I never knew what this time would be like."
Last March, on the day of the Oscars, Domingo posted a picture of himself on Instagram as a child, writing, "His dream came true. Not easily. With dedication, hard work, hardships, triumphs, pitfalls, detours, reroutes and love and faith. Today is a good day for this kid. He already won. And as you can tell he always loved a pop of color. Got it from his parents."
That "pop of color" led to Domingo being asked by Anna Wintour to co-chair the 2025 Met Gala. "She actually said, 'I'm not sure if you'd be interested in something like this or if you have time,'" Domingo laughed. "I said, 'I think I have time!'"
"Sing Sing," released by A24, is available on VOD.
See also:
Rehabilitation Through the Arts: Breaking the cycle of incarceration ("Sunday Morning")Ralph Fiennes, "Conclave"
In the thriller "Conclave," based on Robert Harris' novel, Ralph Fiennes plays a Vatican insider tasked with running the gathering of the College of Cardinals in Rome to select a new pope. As Cardinal Thomas Lawrence, Fiennes navigates the intrigue of papal politics, a reluctant player consumed with doubt.
In this scene, Lawrence gives a sermon about the power of uncertainty in faith.
"I like characters that have contradictions inside them," Fiennes told "Sunday Morning." His reaction to reading the part of Lawrence was, "Oh, I love this. This is a human. He's not a saint. He's a good man trying to find his way.
"I was brought up a Catholic and then rebelled when I was 13," Fiennes said. "My mother was a committed Catholic. So, 'God questions' have been in my family since I was a child."
And did he come away with any answers to his own questions? "No, I came away with more questions," he said.
Fiennes was nominated for an Oscar twice before, for "Schindler's List" and "The English Patient." His performance in "Conclave" also earned him Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild and BAFTA nominations.
"Conclave" is playing in theaters and is available via VOD.
Sebastian Stan, "The Apprentice"
In "The Apprentice," set in 1970s and '80s New York City, a young Donald Trump, trying to take charge of his father's real estate business, comes under the tutelage of Roy Cohn, a notorious attorney-fixer, who instructs Trump on how to promote himself in the media. Cohn's dictum: Attack, attack, attack. Deny, deny, deny. Never admit defeat … lessons that Trump would carry through in his business career, social media projections and, later, political branding.
In this scene, Trump (best actor nominee Sebastian Stan) tries to sell himself to a newspaper reporter, using the motivation of Cohn (best supporting actor nominee Jeremy Strong) to not-quite-successful effect. It's clear he has a ways to go…
The film, written by journalist Gabriel Sherman and directed by Ali Abbasi, premiered at last year's Cannes Film Festival. While it received critical praise, potential film distributors shied away after the Trump campaign threatened to sue. The movie was ultimately picked up by Briarcliff Entertainment and released shortly before the 2024 presidential election.
In an appearance last October on "CBS Mornings," Stan (whose credits include "Gossip Girl," "I, Tonya," "Pam & Tommy," and playing Bucky Barnes in Marvel's Captain America franchise), admitted that he'd been warned by some to stay away from the project, specifically because it could be seen as a political third rail.
"Yeah, it's usually when I hear 'Don't do it,' I end up doing it!" he laughed. "But generally speaking, I think fear should motivate us to go into the storm, not run away from it.
"People are going to come into the film with a lot of baggage, a lot of projections [about Trump]," he said. "But I think trying to strip away all the noise and getting down to the basics — what is the emotional need? What is the drive? What was the potential of the man, and where did it end up? How did it all get to this today? And I think there's still value in understanding that.
"I think the film's about trust," said Stan. "I think we have an opportunity to look at these people and genuinely ask ourselves, do we trust them? Can we use our human instinct rather than what we're being told to think, feel, and understand? Can we use our instinct to trust these people as we're going forward into the future?"
This is Stan's first Academy Award nomination. He received Golden Globe and BAFTA nominations for his "Apprentice" performance as well. This year he also received a Golden Globe nomination for his performance in "A Different Man."
"The Apprentice," nominated for two Oscars, is available via VOD.
See also:
Has Hollywood abandoned the political movie? ("Sunday Morning")
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Behind the scenes with the best actress Oscar nomineesSee the full list of Oscar nominationsThe biggest Oscar nomination snubs of 2025
War in Ukraine takes perilous turn after Zelenskyy, Trump Oval Office argument
Trump approval rating at 51%, new CBS News poll shows
The hidden side of Johnny Carson