Best Supporting Actor 2013

[The Original BJ]

I would have nominated James Gandolfini for his very lovely and quite funny performance in Enough Said. I still can't believe he's gone.

The nominee I'd have replaced would be Jonah Hill. It's easy to see why he got the nomination, though -- his character is rather entertainingly unhinged, and he makes an obvious impression in the role. But where I thought Hill's Moneyball work showed me that there was a more thoughtful actor behind his typical comic persona, I thought Wolf of Wall Street was basically just his usual shtick in a much better movie.

Barkhad Abdi gives a very effective breakthrough performance in Captain Phillips. Yes, "I am the captain now" became a joke as the season went on, but what made the line such a memorable moment was Abdi's casually chilling delivery, something he excels at throughout the movie. But he makes his character conflicted too -- despite the horrible situation he puts Captain Phillips in, you really get the sense that he's terrified about causing actual harm to him -- and in the end, it's hard not to feel sympathy for the plight that drove Abdi's character to commit his crimes. Still, like with many performances by non-actors, I feel like I want to see what else he can do before handing him an Oscar.

Are the days of thinking of Bradley Cooper as simply that Hangover actor completely gone? He's now given two performances in a row that are both completely delightful in uniquely funny ways AND the work of an obviously talented dramatic actor as well. I think he's definitely one of the standouts of the American Hustle cast, full of swagger he's not completely comfortable with, an off-kilter sense of manic energy, and a desperation to be one more step ahead of people than he actually is. I was more emotionally moved by some of his competition this year, so he doesn't get my vote, but I can't wait to see what he does next.

I'm going to sidestep getting into the debate about whether liking Jared Leto's performance makes one transphobic, something I heard a lot of over the course of the season. I'll prefer to just acknowledge that it would be great to see more transgendered roles going to transgendered actors, and evaluate Leto simply on the basis of his work as an actor. Which was pretty impressive, I thought. Rayon is very funny throughout much of the movie, but thanks to the delicacy of Leto's touch, much deeper than a sassy sidekick stereotype. And Leto's big dramatic moments -- Rayon's conversation with her father, giving McConaughey that big hug near the end of the movie -- just kill emotionally. Leto had been sort of floating around cool movies for a while, but this work was at a level I didn't expect from him at all, and I had no problem with him winning awards for it.

But I cast my vote for an actor who I DID expect to be great, and that's Michael Fassbender, who has quickly become The Next Great Actor in my book. I think he's tremendous in 12 Years a Slave -- brutish but also charming, viciously cruel yet completely convinced of his own moral certitude, with a commanding physical presence as well as a witty intellectual one. I admit I was a bit surprised he so quickly faded into a distant second place competitor, when I thought he'd have jousted for the prize. I guess I take the point some have -- that there will obviously be more opportunities to choose him down the road. But given that I thought he already should have won for Shame, I see no reason not to choose him here, perhaps as tribute to his terrific work in all three Steve McQueen pictures to date.

[mojoe92]

Completely Leto. No competition from the line-up

Abdi and Cooper have absolutely no business here as neither did anything special nor good in their films.

I'm not on the Fassbender train for this one, never while watching 12 Years did I feel moved or connected to his character, he was just "there"

Hill is definitely not worthy of a nomination, not for Moneyball and definitely not for Wolf.I don't know if it's the fact that his ego overshadows his performances for me ( do any of you know of the Gold Derby incident in New York with him?) or the fact that nothing he did wasn't something we've seen before in one of those teen party movies like Project X or 21 & Over etc. In fact no one in Wolf was worthy of a nomination except Jean Dujardin ( finally showing me why he won Demian Bichir's Oscar....)

Leto gives everything, comedy, tragedy, addiction, struggle, power and the scene of him crying that he doesn't want to die.... I just.... it moves me thinking of it while typing this. Bravo.

My personal choices
Jared Leto- Dallas Buyers Club- WINNER
Alan Arkin- Grudge Match
Josh Gad- JOBS
Lou Taylor Pucci- The Evil Dead
Jean Dujardin- The Wolf of Wall Street

[SalantBeau]

Great lineup this year. It really is a strange feeling when you agree with and would have also personally nominated the majority of the Oscar lineup.

First off is Bradley Cooper, the co-lead of American Hustle. I thought his performance as the FBI agent so ambitious that he gets in over his head was wonderfully committed and very well-acted, especially in his scenes opposite Louis CK. However, I can't support this nomination as Cooper is egregiously in the wrong category. This is most certainly a co-lead performance by every definition: impact, screentime, importance, etc. It's not as bad as Julia Roberts in supporting for August: Osage County. I personally preferred his performance to Bale's and would have rather seen him get the nomination in lead if Hustle had to be nominated there (with CK taking Cooper's place in supporting if it really needed all four acting categories, which it didn't). I'm not displeased with the recognition as I like Cooper a lot and am glad that he's taking on more challenging roles, I'm just displeased with the insane category fraud.

I was thrilled when Abdi got this nomination for incredibly chilling and raw work in Captain Phillips. For a while I thought he would be snubbed in favor of yet another egregious category fraud performance (Daniel Bruhl in Rush) but he thankfully won out. Abdi is also terrific in as (similar to Cooper) the ambitious pirate whose ambition is his ultimate downfall. He out-acted Hanks in every scene and gives in my opinion one of the best film debut performances ever. In many other years I probably would have ranked him first (which says a lot about this year as I'm ranking him fourth). I'm glad this recognition has helped him get additional roles (he just got cast in an upcoming Apatow film) and I can't wait to see more of him.

Michael Fassbender gives an incredibly complex performance as the slave owner whose racism is at war with his sex drive in 12 Years a Slave. I admire the performance quite a bit and am glad that Fassbender has finally been recognized after his brutal snubs for previous films (especially Shame) though I do take slight issue with the portrayal in that he failed give the character any soul, instead portraying him as pure evil. While his embodiment of this pure evil is breathtaking, I would have been far more taken by the performance if he did create a fully dimensional human out of it. Hopefully his inevitable future work with McQueen (who probably would have cast Fassbender as Solomon if he could get away with it) will allow him to give more dimensional performances.

While DiCaprio was the energy in The Wolf of Wall Street, Jonah Hill was the life. He radiated and burned on screen every single second we saw him. Such a brilliantly committed, fully realized performance from (in my opinion of course) a phenomenal, underrated actor. In the role that Joe Pesci would have played 25 years ago, Hill explores his comedic, dramatic and chaotic talents all at once and the result is marvelous. He received almost zero precursor attention, making this nomination even sweeter. The Academy clearly likes him a lot, and I can't wait to see if he ends up winning an Oscar one day. After their collaboration on Boardwalk Empire I'm surprised Scorsese didn't cast Bobby Cannavale, though apparently Hill really wanted the role and fought hard for it.

But the best for me is by far Jared Leto who gave the best male performance of the year imo in Dallas Buyers Club. His stunning embodiment of a man who has prettymuch lost everything (his future, his family, his looks, most of his friends) but finds temporary meaning, happiness and solace in Ron Woodroof's business before his *spoiler* tragic death *spoiler* was a heartbreaking performance that touched me (and much of the audience in the theater I was in) on many levels. He held the film together for me, and I'm glad he got this role as many other actors would have taken it over the top and damaged the film.

Of the unnominated, I would have loved to see Josh Gad's phenomenal voice work in Frozen nominated (sue me) or the aforementioned Bobby Cannavale in Blue Jasmine. Keith Stanfield was also marvelous in Short Term 12, as was Dane DeHaan in The Place Beyond the Pines. Matthew McConaughey also deserves mention for his borderline lead/supporting performance in Mud and his extended cameo in The Wolf of Wall Street. Last but not least, Woody Harrelson did some of his best work to date in the little-seen Out of the Furnace.

Of the nominees:
1. Jared Leto, Dallas Buyers Club
2. Jonah Hill, The Wolf of Wall Street
3. Michael Fassbender, 12 Years a Slave
4. Barkhad Abdi, Captain Phillips
5. Bradley Cooper, American Hustle

Personal lineup:
1. Jared Leto, Dallas Buyers Club
2. Jonah Hill, The Wolf of Wall Street
3. Michael Fassbender, 12 Years a Slave
4. Barkhad Abdi, Captain Phillips
5. Josh Gad, Frozen
---------------------------------------------------------
6. Bobby Cannavale, Blue Jasmine
7. Woody Harrelson, Out of the Furnace
8. Dane DeHaan, The Place Beyond the Pines
9. Keith Stanfield, Short Term 12
10. Matthew McConaughey, Mud

[HarryGoldfarb]

Well, let me be vocal about my Fassbender support:

Fassbender is my easy choice, he got my very enthusiastic vote. His character is far from one dimensional. I got to see 12 Years a Slave the very same day of Oscar night, and considering the common knowledge that had been established by that time I wasn’t expecting that performance. Ejiofor and Nyong’o were getting the very best reviews in acting terms from the film, even though the Fassbender nod was a known fact from months before. But in theory, he was one dimensional, just the bad (very bad) guy from the film, the villainous antagonist who had some juicy moments in terms of loud acting. But when I saw the film, Edwin Epps turned out to be a much more complex character than I expected. For a start, Fassbender treats its creation with a lot of gravitas and a deep sense of existence. His work was far, very far from being a cartoonish bad guy. I believed that character did existed because I got to know a lot of things about him just from the performance: the little tics, the body movement, the way he stood and the way he seated. This man believed he had the right to be who he was, to act like he did. He believed he had the Bible on his side and he felt no shame or remorse to be so hard on his slaves or to his wife or to anybody just by that fact. He believed he was superior (and in that specific point, he reminds me a little bit of Fiennes’s Amon Göeth even though I find Epps a somehow tragic figure) but that is a contextual thing. His relationship with Patsy is a thing to discuss: spoilers had he born in current times, he, as a person, would probably left his wife and chase an opportunity with this other woman, without minding about race and such issues. He is very conflicted about this obvious attraction. He praises Patsy for her work, he lusts and desires her, but obviously, to have such feelings was, in his mind, a bad thing, a very bad thing, probably the work of evil. When he gets to have sex with her, he is in such a hostile place, psychologically, that he probably is enjoying it while at the same time hating it (and himself). I am not trying to justify the portrayed evilness but Fassbender gives us a reason to it. He is tortured… He gets to be kind to the little slave, and that gives us a glimpse of something that rang true about that Cumberbatch character: the “under the circumstance” line. He wasn’t able to initially whip Patsy himself and by the moment he takes the whip in his own hand, he was trying to prove something, probably to himself, to his wife and to everyone around: that he was a man, the alpha man, the owner, the biggest thing in that plantation. Using a phrase by ksrymy, Fassbender does volumes in his film, not by being “that” subtle, but by giving his character a humanity beyond his bad guy obvious status. A great performance in my book.

Leto comes in second. He, as many here have pointed out, doesn’t go for the easy or common way to represent a transsexual (or was he, as far as we know, a transvestite with intentions to be a transsexual?). I liked the confrontation in the car (his disappointment and disgust) and overall Rayon was a very supporting character, a non thunder-stealing entity but an effective piece in the mess Dallas Buyers Club is. The moment I believed him the most was a bar scene when he was checking the waitress breast. Pure perfection in his face (the down the earth longing, presented as a regular thing) and great timing by both actors. But the film goes to unnecessary limits (the confrontation with his father comes to mind) and at some (scarce) moments I felt I was looking a skinny actor in drag doing very little more than being in drag (the street walking scenes). I can not begrudge his win, but he is solid second for me.

Jonah Hill is so effective in TWOWS that is easy to hate him and disregard his performance simply as disgusting. It takes a lot of courage to accept a character so unlikeable like that, a guy with no principles, with no moral code, simply disgusting. And to embrace it so effectively to the point of making us forget the difference between the actor and the character was brilliant. His turn here is very different from what he did in Moneyball and even though I wouldn’t have voted for him this time either (considering the two better options I already mentioned) I am glad his work got this recognition.

Cooper was one of the few things I really liked about American Hustle. A little bit over the top at times, he was a welcomed presence in a film I couldn’t care less about in terms of story. His last shot is absolutely ridiculous.

As for Abdi, he was nice but that’s it. He benefitted from a great casting work and the fact that Hanks, in one of his best late turns, didn’t send him to the ground. But that was it.

Haven’t seen Nebraska nor Saving Mr. Banks in order to chime in the discussion of the snubs.

[dws1982]

Fassbender.

Abdi and Cooper are both very good. Leto has his moments, but I feel like the movie supports him a lot more than he supports it. Didn't care for Jonah HIll at all.

My ballot would have some combination of:
Barkhad Abdi, Captain Phillips
F. Murray Abraham, Inside Llewyn Davis
Valerio Andriuta, Beyond the Hills
Kyle Chandler, The Spectacular Now
Emory Cohen, The Place Beyond the Pines
Bradley Cooper, American Hustle
Dane DeHaan, The Place Beyond the Pines
Colin Farrell, Saving Mr. Banks
Michael Fassbender, 12 Years a Slave
Ben Foster, Ain't Them Bodies Saints
John Gallagher Jr., Short Term 12
James Gandolfini, Enough Said
Yiftach Klein, Fill the Void
Jacob Lofland, Mud
Ben Mendelsohn, The Place Beyond the Pines
Keith Stanfield, Short Term 12

Several others left to see.

[OscarGuy]

I've talked ad nauseum about these races. I don't feel I have to post every vote I make.

[ksrymy]

Where's all the Fassbender support coming from? Not a single person who has responded so far has opted for him.

[Sabin]

Hard for me to choose because this is a pretty incredible lineup. Also because it represents an inordinate number of flawed and selfish characters. Jared Leto may play the noblest character but I wouldn't call Rayon tragic by any stretch. It's in her quieter moments that I was so totally won over by her flirtyness, her capacity to be touched. Dallas Buyers Club has a lot of problems but Leto isn't one of them. I could very easily go with Bradley Cooper, who is giving the performance the movie could use more wackadoo romantic energy from, but there's no reason for me to disagree with the Academy's choice. For my personal list, I would likely opt out Barkhad Abdi for Emory Cohen for The Place Behind the Pines or Denis O'Hare for C.O.G. or Keith Stanfield or John Gallagher Jr from Short Term 12 or Daniel Bruhl even though he's a co-lead in Rush, but just as there's no real reason for me to disagree with the Academy's winner there's no real winner to disagree with these nominees.

[ksrymy]

Jared Leto does volumes with very minimalistic work; this pleases me because I always find roles like Rayon to be acted super flamboyantly and stereotypically. This is also why Felicity Huffman should've won eight years ago.

The only other person here that I would nominate would be Fassbender. He's one of our best working actors, and I'm really excited to follow his entire career. Is Edwin Epps multi-dimensional? Hardly - that's one of the film's biggest faults. They try to make him a deep character in his relationship with Patsey, but it doesn't work. Still, Fassbender rises above the script and delivers a terrifying performance. He's scarier in his scenes with Patsey than he is driving and whipping his property.

Of the three left, Bradley Cooper gets my sixth spot for doing something completely different from what I've seen before. While he uses his ever-present charm to his advantage here, his loud, scene-chewing scenes are still a lot of fun to watch. Had he more tender moments, he'd surely break my list.

Barkhad Abdi didn't do anything in Captain Phillips. I guess people mistook his accent for acting because he simply speaks and everyone in the audience is thrilled. If anything, his nomination showcases Greengrass' direction.

Jonah Hill is great fun in the Scorsese flick. Unlike Moneyball, I can't begrudge him a nomination here. He's riotous and his timing is spot-on.

Of those missing, Matthew McConaughey's Mud work is even better than his DBC work, James Gandolfini was much more than a swan song nod for Enough Said, and Colin Farrell puts in one of the best fatherly performances in years in Saving Mr. Banks - the only acting nomination the film should have received.

Best Supporting Actor
01. Jared Leto, Dallas Buyers Club
02. Colin Farrell, Saving Mr. Banks
03. Michael Fassbender, 12 Years a Slave
04. Matthew McConaughey, Mud
05. James Gandolfini, Enough Said

06. Bradley Cooper, American Hustle

[mlrg]

voted for Leto

[Big Magilla]

This one is a no-brainer for me.

Jared Leto easily gives the year's best performance in this category as Matthew McConaughey's business partner and friend in Dallas Buyers Club, although I seemed to have missed something. Almost every review refers to his character as a transgendered female, yet he seems to be playing a transvestite or at most, a pre-op candidate for male to female surgery. In either case, he does what a supporting actor is supposed to do - support the film's lead while giving a terrific performance of his own. That is true of two of his fellow nominees and partially true of a third. Both the always fascinating Michael Fassbender in 12 Years a Slave and newcomer Barkhad Abdi in Captain Phillips also give amazing performances in support of their films' leads. Jonah Hill in The Wolf of Wall Street certainly supports Leonardo DiCaprio but I wouldn't classify his performance as terrific. In fact I found it quite annoying and amateurish unlike DiCaprio's which was far and away the best thing about Scorsese's three hour exercise in over-indulgence.

On the other hand, Bradley Cooper does not support anyone in American Hustle - he is a co-lead in the film along with Christian Bale and yells more than acts - a wasted nomination in my opinion. My picks for the last two slots, Daniel Bruhl in Rush and Geoffrey Rush in The Book Thief may be co-leads as well, but they give subtle, nuanced performances that deserve more recognition than they got. Still, I can't complain since the Academy did recognize the three best candidates in this category and gave the Oscar to the best of them. That's not something that happens every year.