Actors receive overdue recognition
Sandra Bullock’s year of living fabulously continued Sunday, as the actress capped two 2009 box office bonanzas by winning her first major acting award ever, picking up a best actress Golden Globe for her portrayal of Southern supermom Leigh Anne Tuohy in “The Blind Side.”
Bullock, who’s long been comfortable in her role as queen of the popcorn pics, seemed humbled by the unfamiliar homage. “I might not be the most talented, but I’ve been given opportunity,” she said in her acceptance speech, quoting Michael Oher, the Baltimore Ravens football player whom Tuohy and her family adopted and nurtured when he was a 350-pound homeless teenager.
Later in the press room, Bullock, resplendent in vibrant purple, admitted that she first turned down the part of Tuohy because “I didn’t think I could bring anything worthy to the table.”
Bullock, who won for best actress in a movie drama, wasn’t the only one getting overdue acknowledgment, as almost all the acting awards were swept by veterans. Jeff Bridges, Robert Downey Jr. and Meryl Streep won out over prominent newcomers such as Carey Mulligan and Gabourey Sidibe.
Indeed, on the podium, Bridges acknowledged a standing ovation from the audience by noting, “You’re really screwing up my underappreciated status.” Bridges, 60, won for best actor in a drama for his role as a country singer in “Crazy Heart.” Like Bullock, Bridges had never won a major acting award, although he has been nominated for four Oscars and four Golden Globes for such films as “The Contender” and “Starman,” and he’s been lionized among fans for his portrayal of the Dude in the 1998 Coen brothers film “The Big Lebowski.” Sunday’s Globe cements his status as front-runner for a best actor Oscar.
Downey won for best actor in a comedy for his turn as a re-imagined Sherlock Holmes in the blockbuster of the same name. Though Downey has long been recognized as one of Hollywood’s premiere talents, a drug problem derailed his career for years, and he too has never won an Oscar. A self-mocking and ebullient Downey thanked producer Joel Silver on the podium for “restarting my career at least 12 times.”
Streep, of course, is nominated on an almost yearly basis and this year won best actress in a comedy for her vivid inhabitation of the legendary chef Julia Child in “Julie & Julia,” beating her own performance in “It’s Complicated.” In her speech, Streep saluted her mother, who reminded her to go to award shows with a smile on her face, despite atrocities in the “real world” -- a reference to the devastation in Haiti. “ ‘Be damn grateful,’ ” Streep recounted her mom saying. “You have the money to help the next day, and the next day, and the next day.”
rachel.abramowitz@latimes .com