Second-Billed, but Not Secondary

When writer-director M. Night Shyamalan first watched his thriller “The Sixth Sense,” he had no inkling that it would be either a box-office juggernaut or an Oscar contender. But he claims one thing was clear: Toni Collette defined what it meant to be a supporting actress.

“I thought, ‘She’s the one that is going to get a nomination above everybody else.’ Every time she came on screen she just stole it,” he said of Collette, 27, who plays the struggling single mom of a boy who sees ghosts in the film. “She did exactly what a supporting actor is supposed to do, and it’s very difficult. You’ve got to compete with people the audience already loves.”

Collette was one of five first-time nominees for supporting actress--the first year since Olympia Dukakis won for 1987’s “Moonstruck” that all the contenders in the category are new to the Oscar race. The others include Angelina Jolie, who played a wild-eyed patient in a mental hospital in “Girl, Interrupted”; Catherine Keener, who was a manipulative vixen in “Being John Malkovich”; Samantha Morton, who played a mute in Woody Allen’s “Sweet and Lowdown”; and Chloe Sevigny, who was the girlfriend of a young woman who posed as a man in “Boys Don’t Cry.”

The nominees are also notable for both their youth (four are in their 20s) and for the edgy quality of their roles. But then, according to Jolie, it may be easier to be quirky in a supporting role--to burn hotter, but more briefly.

“A lot of times supporting actors get to play a little more because you don’t have to carry [the film]. You can go a little mad, take more risks. Sometimes I prefer it,” said Jolie, 24, reached while on location on her next film in Oacalco, Mexico, a romantic thriller with Antonio Banderas called “Dancing in the Dark.”

Of her role as Lisa, the craziest girl in the asylum, Jolie said, “A whole movie of my character would have been screaming in your face all the time. Living with her was hard. It was a strange, crazy thing to release that inside of me.”

At the other end of the spectrum was Morton, 22, who uttered not a word as Hattie in “Sweet and Lowdown.” She expressed her devotion for a jazz guitarist (Sean Penn, who also was nominated for best actor) instead by fixing him with a penetrating gaze or furiously chewing a sandwich.

“The character is so amazing. She has no lines, but everyone’s falling in love with her, and that’s due to Woody’s writing and directing as well as my acting,” a modest Morton said from London, where she was tending her 9-day-old daughter, Esme, in between interviews. “The minute you get to the truth of the character and the heart of her, she says a lot more than people who talk a lot.”

Keener, 40, who is a veteran of several independent-produced ensemble films, said she often feels more comfortable as a supporting player than in the lead.

“I think all movies are essentially ensemble pieces, even when one person has two lines. You’re just one part of it, and that’s what film is: a collaborative process,” she said, speaking from Los Angeles, where she’d been awakened when someone called with Oscar news. “I’m very happy to be a supporting actor. Also, a lot of times, that’s where the good parts are.”

Sevigny, 25, had a difficult role in playing Lana, the seemingly unwitting beau of a woman in man’s clothing, Hilary Swank as Brandon Teena. Kimberly Peirce, the director and co-writer of “Boys Don’t Cry,” said that while Swank (who was also nominated) gave a virtuoso performance, the audience wouldn’t have fully bought it without Sevigny.

“Chloe’s performance is really what makes us buy Brandon. She is the reason the love affair works, because she makes it so accessible,” Peirce said. “Chloe has this amazing ability to exteriorize her feelings through her eyes. They’re like wells you dive into, like the great silent stars.”

Since the category’s inception in 1936, best supporting actress statuettes have been given to a grab bag of actresses, from true character actresses, old-timers, newcomers, children and especially comedic performances. Some supporting nominees and winners go on to bigger and better things. Olivia De Havilland was nominated for best supporting actress for 1939’s “Gone With the Wind” and went on to win best actress for 1946’s “To Each His Own” and 1949’s “The Heiress.” Goldie Hawn, who won best supporting actress for 1969’s “Cactus Flower,” went on to major stardom.

Marisa Tomei, though, didn’t become a superstar after winning best supporting actress for 1992’s “My Cousin Vinny.” And Beatrice Straight’s stock didn’t rise after she won best supporting actress for 1976’s “Network.”

“I think it is a mixed blessing winning supporting actress, especially if the winner is a young actress,” says Damien Bona, co-author of “Inside Oscar,” the unofficial history of the Academy Awards.

“I think basically they are character actresses or perhaps they are limited for a certain type of role,” he said. “But once they have an Oscar, of course, they are elevated to the A-list and generally can’t cut it.”

And, surprisingly for the academy, the category hasn’t played on sentiment in recent years. Gloria Stuart (for 1997’s “Titanic”) and Lauren Bacall (for 1996’s “The Mirror Has Two Faces”) were considered shoo-ins for the Oscar. Both lost out to younger talent. Kim Basinger (“L.A. Confidential”) beat Stuart, and Juliette Binoche (“The English Patient”) beat out Bacall.

Times staff writers Susan King and Kathleen Craughwell contributed to this story.