At Least Miramax Supports Acting Nods

On Feb. 14, when the Oscar nominations were announced, Samuel L. Jackson of “Pulp Fiction” received a supporting actor nod while his co-star John Travolta was nominated as best actor. The category designations raised questions (and, for at least a few critics, outrage) for those who viewed Jackson’s role as a co-lead and others who attest that both actors gave supporting performances in an ensemble piece.

Refer all such complaints to the actors branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Its members are the ones who decide the appropriate category in which an actor should be honored--no matter what anyone else says.

In this case, the actors branch agreed with Miramax Films, which had pushed Travolta as lead actor and Jackson as a supporting player. Most critics organizations came to similar conclusions, though there were occasional mentions for Jackson as best actor. (In fact, Jackson was nominated by the Independent Feature Project for an Independent Spirit Award for best male lead.)

Miramax’s marketing president, Mark Gill, said that after Travolta copped the best actor citation from the Los Angeles Film Critics, the company discussed his selection with “all the actors in ‘Pulp Fiction,’ who agreed that John was the lead actor because he is in every section of the film.” Miramax also feared that votes for the two actors would cancel out. By mutual decision, Travolta was promoted as best actor and Jackson in support.

“In a perfect world, all of us would have been nominated in the supporting category,” Jackson said last week. But he had no problem with Travolta being nominated as best actor. “It’s totally fine with me.”

Travolta does have more screen time than Jackson in “Pulp.” And he takes part in all three of the film’s interconnected stories. Jackson is largely showcased at the beginning and end. But, one Miramax insider suggests, the nature of Jackson’s role, particularly his riveting fire-and-brimstone speech in the film’s last scene, stays with audiences as they leave the theater.

In the strict sense, Travolta is not the film’s protagonist, because “Pulp” is an ensemble piece. So is Woody Allen’s “Bullets Over Broadway,” for which Dianne Wiest picked up a supporting actress nomination, though an argument could have been made for her as best actress, the Miramax source says.

“It’s all subjective,” says Castle Rock Entertainment principal Martin Shafer, whose company’s “The Shawshank Redemption” brought a best actor nomination for Morgan Freeman but not for the film’s protagonist, Tim Robbins.

“Morgan doesn’t have as much screen time as Tim, but he is the film’s narrator and is in a significant part of the film, so we saw him as a co-lead,” Shafer says. The academy agreed.

B ut performances and catego ries don’t always mesh so neatly. Vanessa Redgrave was the title character in “Julia,” yet she was nominated (and won) as supporting actress. Similarly, Martin Landau had a leading role in “Crimes and Misdemeanors” but received a supporting actor nomination.

On the other hand, Robin Williams’ role as the inspirational teacher was largely in support of young actors such as Ethan Hawke and Robert Sean Leonard in “Dead Poets Society.” Still, Williams was nominated for best actor.

Peter O’Toole was not the leading man in either “The Stunt Man” or “My Favorite Year,” (Steve Railsback and Mark Linn-Baker were the respective protagonists), yet he pulled in best actor nominations for both films.

Anthony Hopkins was the antagonist in “The Silence of the Lambs” and received a best actor nomination. Tommy Lee Jones, the antagonist in “The Fugitive,” probably had as much screen time as Hopkins did in “Silence” but was designated supporting actor by the academy. The case could be made that Hopkins’ character supported the one played by Jodie Foster, as Jones’ supported Harrison Ford’s.

The academy’s executive director, Bruce Davis, points out that the actors branch is the only one given any latitude in placing a nominee in one category over another. And that’s the way it has been since the early ‘60s, when the academy changed its rules to allow the membership, and not the studios, to select the category in which performances belong.

Even though Miramax chose to campaign for Jackson as supporting actor and Travolta as best actor, academy voters could have switched them or placed them in head-to-head competition.

“It was borderline,” says the Miramax insider. “It could have gone either way.”*