In Character: 2015 Oscar Nominees Edition

For the third year in a row, I’m taking a brief look at the careers of every actor nominated for an Oscar this year. Below I pick my favorite roles for each nominee, and highlight the one that I consider the actors’ best. Do feel free to share your favorite performances by this year’s nominees as well!

BEST ACTOR

Bryan Cranston – Trumbo

Notable Roles: Seinfeld, Malcolm in the Middle, Drive, Contagion, Argo, Godzilla

Best Role: That would be Walter White, Breaking Bad. No brainer.

Matt Damon – The Martian

Notable Roles: Saving Private Ryan, The Talented Mr. Ripley, Ocean’s Eleven, the Bourne films, The Departed, The Informant!, True Grit, Contagion

Best Role: Still have to go with Good Will Hunting. What a fearless announcement of a new star.

Leonardo DiCaprio – The Revenant

Notable Roles: What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, Titanic, Gangs of New York, Catch Me If You Can, The Aviator, The Departed, Inception, The Wolf of Wall Street

Best Role: Tough, tough call. I’m still on a sugar high from The Revenant, and his Wolf of Wall Street performance gets better and better, but ultimately, I’m going to stick with the tortured Frank Wheeler from Revolutionary Road. For now.

Michael Fassbender – Steve Jobs

Notable Roles: Hunger, Fish Tank, Inglourious Basterds, X-Men: First Class, Jane Eyre, Prometheus, Haywire, 12 Years a Slave, Macbeth

Best Role: Shame, every time.

Eddie Redmayne – The Danish Girl

Notable Roles: The Other Boleyn Girl, My Week with Marilyn, Les Misérables

Best Role: I’m still not over Redmayne beating Michael Keaton for the Oscar last year, but, alas, Redmayne’s performance in The Theory of Everything remains his best.

BEST ACTRESS

Cate Blanchett – Carol

Notable Roles: Elizabeth, The Aviator, Babel, Notes on a Scandal, I’m Not There, Blue Jasmine

Best Role: It always changes, because Blanchett keeps upping her game. I could literally pick any of the notable roles I mentioned as her very best.

Brie Larson – Room

Notable Roles: United States of Tara, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, 21 Jump Street, Don Jon, Short Term 12, Trainwreck

Best Role: Larson is flawless in Short Term 12, but her best work is Room. I’ll be thrilled if Room earns her an Oscar this year.

Jennifer Lawrence – Joy

Notable Roles: Like Crazy, X-Men: First Class, the Hunger Games films, Silver Linings Playbook, American Hustle

Best Role: Winter’s Bone, by miles.

Charlotte Rampling – 45 Years

Notable Roles: The Night Porter, Stardust Memories, Angel Heart, I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead, Melancholia, Young & Beautiful

Best Role: What a legendary career. I’d probably go with her mysterious turn in Swimming Pool, but she was astounding in 45 Years as well.

Saoirse Ronan – Brooklyn

Notable Roles: The Lovely Bones, Hanna, Byzantium, How I Live Now, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Lost River

Best Role: Briony Tallis from Atonement. What a vile little creature she was.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Christian Bale – The Big Short

Notable Roles: Empire of the Sun, The Machinist, The Prestige, The Dark Knight trilogy, The New World, Rescue Dawn, Public Enemies, The Fighter

Best Role: Another one that changes depending on the day. I’ve always championed his under seen work in Rescue Dawn, but today I’m going with American Psycho, because there is never a bad reason to choose Patrick Bateman.

Tom Hardy – The Revenant

Notable Roles: Bronson, Inception, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Dark Knight Rises, Locke, Mad Max: Fury Road, Legend

Best Role: Right now, it’s an even split for me: Warrior and The Revenant.

Mark Ruffalo – Spotlight

Notable Roles: We Don’t Live Here Anymore, Collateral, Zodiac, The Kids Are All Right, The Avengers, Begin Again, Foxcatcher, Infinitely Polar Bear

Best Role: Ruffalo is one of our most reliable actors, which makes this choice a very difficult one. I’m going with his quietly explosive work in You Can Count On Me as his best. He’s absolutely unforgettable there.

Mark Rylance – Bridge of Spies

Notable Roles: Intimacy, The Other Boleyn Girl, Anonymous

Best Role: I’m not terribly familiar with Rylance’s film/TV work, so I’ll go with his arresting turn from Bridge of Spies as his best.

Sylvester Stallone – Creed

Notable Roles: the Rocky series, the First Blood films, Over the Top, Cliffhanger, Get Carter, The Expendables films

Best Role: Sly is excellent in Creed, but if you haven’t seen his Freddy Heflin from Cop Land, then you haven’t seen the best that Stallone has to offer.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Jennifer Jason Leigh – The Hateful Eight

Notable Roles: Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Last Exit to Brooklyn, Rush, Short Cuts, Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle, eXistenZ, The Anniversary Party, Margot at the Wedding

Best Role: I’m so happy that Daisy Domergue earned Leigh her first (!) Oscar nomination, but her heartbreaking work in Georgia still wins out for me.

Rooney Mara – Carol

Notable Roles: The Social Network, Ain’t Them Bodies Saints, Side Effects, Her

Best Role: The fireball that is Lisbeth Salander in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

Rachel McAdams – Spotlight

Notable Roles: Mean Girls, The Notebook, Wedding Crashers, Red Eye, Midnight in Paris, To the Wonder, Passion, A Most Wanted Man, Southpaw

Best Role: I can foresee the vitriol already, but the choice is easy for me: Ani Bezzerides from the second season of True Detective.

Alicia Vikander – The Danish Girl

Notable Roles: A Royal Affair, Anna Karenina, The Fifth Estate, Ex Machina, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Burnt

Best Role: I loved her work in Ex Machina, but nothing prepared me for the power of her performance in The Danish Girl.

Kate Winslet – Steve Jobs

Notable Roles: Heavenly Creatures, Sense and Sensibility, Titanic, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Little Children, The Reader, Mildred Pierce, Contagion

Best Role: Sarah Pierce from Little Children will always hold a certain place in my heart, but, like Leo, I’m going with Winslet’s fearless work in Revolutionary Road as her best.

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