Later this week, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association will announce the nominations for the 2019 Golden Globes, sending this year’s awards race into high gear. Against that backdrop, the latest installment of EW’s The Awardist podcast is here to chat with John C. Reilly about his leading roles in three very different awards hopefuls: the revisionist Western The Sisters Brothers, the Laurel and Hardy biopic Stan & Ollie, and the animated sequel Ralph Breaks the Internet.
Also in this episode, we consider what happens when actors are in several strong movies in the same year. When it comes to nominations and awards, can there be too much of a good thing?
For Reilly, who speaks with EW senior film writer Piya Sinha-Roy, each of his recent movies has something unique to offer. Stan & Ollie, for example, illuminates the personal and professional relationship of two prolific and influential creators. “Having been a performer my whole life, I really understand what it’s like to depend on someone like that backstage and the conversations that you have behind the scenes while you’re creating illusion together,” Reilly says. “It felt like, even though it was this huge responsibility and very overwhelming to take on such a well-known and beloved character as Oliver Hardy, I know what it’s like to do what they did for a living.”
As for The Sisters Brothers, Reilly says, “The beautiful thing about that story is that we present this idea that even the most damaged, messed up, negative people can transform, if they decide to, into something else — into a more civilized version of themselves, or a more peaceful version of themselves, or at least a more fully realized version of themselves.”
On the topic of who Reilly would like to see get some awards recognition this year, the actor singles out one of his costars.
“I wish there was a way to acknowledge actors in animated films,” Reilly says. “Because Sarah Silverman, what she does in Ralph Breaks the Internet is really, really something. And talking about women’s empowerment, here we have a Disney movie — Disney, a company that arguably was the source of many very rigid stereotypes for girls — giving Sarah Silverman, a Jewish-American comedian, a platform on which to address some of this stuff. And we go into it in the film and we literally talk about how hard it is to live up to this princess stereotype. That is a huge thing for little girls.… So I wish there was some way to acknowledge that.”
The Awardist podcast is part of our comprehensive awards coverage, hosted by EW digital director Shana Naomi Krochmal. This week, EW movies editor Katie Hasty joins Shana to discuss how name recognition and potentially splitting votes can factor in to the awards equation.
Plus: If we’re going to talk about awards in early December, we feel like we should be willing to make some bold predictions for what will happen in January and February.
Listen to the longer discussion below, or on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts. And read Piya’s latest Awardist column, about the art of sound design.
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- The Awardist podcast tackles realism, fantasy, and the Best Picture race
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- Oscars 2019: From A Star Is Born and Roma to Black Panther, here are the top contenders so far
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