In Character: 2014 Oscar Nominees Edition

With this morning’s release of the Oscar nominations, I thought it’d be fun to dive into the careers of every acting nominee. Below is an expansion of my usual In Character column, highlighting the best roles of the 20 actors vying for film’s top prize.

BEST ACTRESS

Marion Cotillard – Two Days, One Night

Notable Roles: La Vie en Rose, Public Enemies, Nine, Inception, The Immigrant

Best Role: Holy hell I’m so happy she’s nominated this year. Marion Cotillard is my favorite living actress, so this is no easy choice. Ultimately, I have to go with her Stéphanie from Rust and Bone, my favorite female film character since I don’t know when.

Felicity Jones – The Theory of Everything

Notable Roles: The Diary of Anne Frank, The Tempest, Breathe In, The Invisible Woman, Girls

Best Role: I’ve loved few film characters more in recent years than Jones’ Anna from Like Crazy.

Julianne Moore – Still Alice

Notable Roles: Short Cuts, The End of the Affair, Boogie Nights, Far From Heaven, The Hours, A Single Man

Best Role: Impossible to decide, so I’m going with two. As the horribly depressed Linda Partridge in Magnolia, and the vile Hollywood goddess, Havana Segrand, in Maps to the Stars.

Rosamund Pike – Gone Girl

Notable Roles: Die Another Day, Pride & Prejudice, Fracture, An Education, The World’s End

Best Role: Amazing Amy. No question.

Reese Witherspoon – Wild

Notable Roles: Fear, Pleasantville, Cruel Intentions, Legally Blonde, Walk the Line, Mud

Best Role: “They think they can just, all of a sudden, one day out of the blue, waltz right in with no qualifications whatsoever and try to take away what other people have worked for very, VERY hard for their entire lives! No, didn’t bother me at all!”

BEST ACTOR

Steve Carell – Foxcatcher

Notable Roles: Bruce Almighty, Anchorman, The Office, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Little Miss Sunshine

Best Role: I had no idea Steve Carell had Foxcatcher’s John du Pont in him. Easily my pick for his best role.

Bradley Cooper – American Sniper

Notable Roles: Alias, Wedding Crashers, The Hangover, Silver Linings Playbook, American Hustle, The Place Beyond the Pines

Best Role: I love Cooper’s work in The Place Beyond the Pines, but his American Sniper performance was completely revelatory.

Benedict Cumberbatch – The Imitation Game

Notable Roles: Hawking, Atonement, The Fifth Estate, 12 Years a Slave, Star Trek Into Darkness

Best Role: It must be Sherlock. Though what he did in 12 Years a Slave (including perfecting a deep Southern accent) should not be overlooked.

Michael Keaton – Birdman

Notable Roles: Night Shift, Mr. Mom, Beetlejuice, Clean and Sober, Batman, Jackie Brown

Best Role: Michael Keaton is one of my all-time favorite actors, so I don’t say this lightly, but his Riggan Thomson from Birdman is hands down the best performance of his career. I’m ecstatic that he could likely win the Oscar this year.

Eddie Redmayne – The Theory of Everything

Notable Roles: The Good Shepherd, Elizabeth: The Golden Age, My Week with Marilyn, Les Misérables

Best Role: Stephen Hawking. No brainer.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Patricia Arquette – Boyhood

Notable Roles: True Romance, Ed Wood, Fliting with Disaster, Bringing out the Dead, Medium, Boardwalk Empire

Best Role: I love Arquette’s Alabama from True Romance, but it has to be Boyhood for me.

Laura Dern – Wild

Notable Roles: Blue Velvet, Wild at Heart, Jurassic Park, Citizen Ruth, We Don’t Live Here Anymore, Enlightened

Best Role: Watching Dern’s work in David Lynch’s Inland Empire, you become acutely aware that she is the only actress who could do that performance that way.

Keira Knightley – The Imitation Game

Notable Roles: Bend It Like Beckham, Love Actually, Pride & Prejudice, Never Let Me Go, Last Night, Begin Again

Best Role: I actually adore her emotive turn in Last Night, but Cecilia from Atonement wins out for me.

Emma Stone – Birdman

Notable Roles: Superbad, Zombieland, Easy A, Crazy Stupid Love, The Help

Best Role: That would be Birdman.

Meryl Streep – Into the Woods

Notable Roles: Manhattan, Kramer vs. Kramer, Sophie’s Choice, Silkwood, Adaptation, The Hours, Angels in America, The Devil Wears Prada

Best Role: Then, now, and forever, Linda from The Deer Hunter.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Robert Duvall – The Judge

Notable Roles: The Godfather Parts I-II, Apocalypse Now, Tender Mercies, Sling Blade, A Civil Action, Get Low

Best Role: All told, I’d honestly go with his towering work in The Apostle. Duvall also wrote and directed the film, and you can tell that passion is injected into every frame of it.

Ethan Hawke – Boyhood

Notable Roles: Dead Poets Society, Alive, Before Sunrise, Tape, Training Day, Before Sunset, Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead

Best Role: Close call, but I’m going with Before Midnight. I could just feel Jesse’s faults, regrets, fears, and, most importantly, his aching desire to hold on to what he values most.

Edward Norton – Birdman

Notable Roles: Primal Fear, Rounders, American History X, Fight Club, The Illusionist, The Grand Budapest Hotel

Best Role: Montgomery Brogan from 25^th Hour is one of my favorite film characters. So conflicted and scared.

Mark Ruffalo – Foxcatcher

Notable Roles: You Can Count On Me, We Don’t Live Here Anymore, Zodiac, Shutter Island, The Kids Are All Right, The Avengers

Best Role: Dave Schultz, Foxcatcher. The way he moved, the way he spoke, the way he constantly had his hands on people. I really knew this guy.

J.K. Simmons – Whiplash

Notable Roles: Oz, Spider-Man 1-3, The Ladykillers, Juno, Burn After Reading, The Music Never Stopped

Best Role: Few characters are more despicable than Vern Schillinger from Oz, but it’s gotta be Terence Fletcher from Whiplash. That work is definitely my tempo.