DATE: Monday, March 24, 1997                TAG: 9703220054
SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E7   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, ENTERTAINMENT WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:  144 lines

OSCAR HOPEFULS TALK ABOUT THEIR CHANCES

BE HAPPY, on this day, that you're not an Oscar nominee. They may be riding in limos and sporting jewels tonight but beneath it all, they're sweating. Besides, most of the jewels you'll see have been lent by big-time merchandisers.

A number of tonight's Oscar hope-fuls talked to the Virginian-Pilot in the past year. They talked about their chances and, in some cases, what they might say if they make it to the stage.

Frances McDormand, ``best actress'' nominee for ``Fargo.'' ``I don't think actors should be in competition. The work is what counts. No one really works for an award. The role was handed to me as a gift. Usually I read a script and if I'm attracted to it, I audition. In the case of Marge, Joel and Ethan basically just said, `Here you go. Here's Marge.' ''

She's talking about the Coen brothers, Joel and Ethan - known for quirky movies that have been largely ignored by the Academy.

``You might say I slept with the director,'' McDormand said.

She is married to Joel Coen, who directed. Ethan is listed as the producer, and the brothers wrote the script together.

Marge is a pregnant police investigator in small-town America. ``Marge represents midwesterners who accept their lives at face value. She is a happy woman, a content wife, an expectant mother and a confident, competent wife.''

Joel Coen, who is nominated for directing ``Fargo,'' and, with his brother, nominated for writing the same film, said the husband and wife are likely to thank each other, if just one gets to the stage.

Coen said that he did not feel slighted by the fact that his films haven't been in the running before. ``As Frances says, we don't make movies for awards. I think, too, it isn't wise to talk too much about our movies. Everyone always wants us to explain. The films should explain themselves.''

Diane Keaton, who is nominated as ``best actress'' for ``Marvin's Room,'' won previously for Woody Allen's ``Annie Hall,'' in which she essentially played herself. ``I'll admit,'' she said, ``that I'm not beyond being intimidated by appearing with Meryl Streep. To tell you the truth, I thought I was through. In any case, I never thought I'd work with Meryl, but I wanted to play this woman. She's one of the little women who get overlooked.''

In a surprise, it was Keaton, not Streep that got the nomination, and for playing the quieter of the two sisters - a woman who has spent her life caring for an ailing father.

``I'm not this woman, but I understand her,'' Keaton said. ``I so admire her. Her inner life is a real testimony that people can have great inner lives, and yet be overlooked. She is a woman who has been overlooked.''

Keaton says that it's much harder for her to do a drama, like this, than to do comedy.

``I'm just more centered on comedy. And, at least, at the Oscars, maybe people won't ask me about my lives with either Woody Allen or Warren Beatty. For awhile, people thought I was something special because of them. I'm in neither of their worlds. I'm out. And look how old I am. I've adapted.''

Brenda Blethyn, who is a top contender for her role as a British housewife in ``Secrets and Lies,'' says that she's amazed at all the Oscar hoopla.

``The minute I got nominated, six designers called and offered gowns and jewels if only I'd wear them on Oscar night. Astounding. Amazing.''

Barbara Hershey is nominated, in the supporting category, for playing the devious Madame Merle in ``The Portrait of a Lady.'' She commented on how much it helps to be in a period drama, decked out in 19th century clothes.

``You put on those clothes and you slowly begin to get the character,'' she said. ``Jane Campion was a very strong director. She knows what she wants, but she's also collaborative.''

James Woods is the nominee with probably the most evil role. He's up for supporting actor for playing the racist Byron De La Beckwith. He shaved his head and put on weight to suggest the man who was finally convicted of murdering civil rights activist Medgar Evers in ``Ghosts of Mississippi.''

He does not subscribe to the theory that an actor must be sympathetic in order to play a character.

``I felt no sympathy for him, but I did want to suggest the essence of his mannerisms. He should not be congratulated just for existing. I don't think I could ever fully understand what he's like. I don't think any actor is ever going to get into Beckwith's mind.''

Kristin Scott Thomas, who is nominated for playing the aristocratic, cool lover in ``The English Patient,'' feels that she overcame all odds just to get this far.

``The studio didn't want me in the film. They wanted a bigger name and they went to the extent of refusing to put up money unless I was replaced. I owe it all to Anthony Minghella (the director) and Saul Zaentz (the producer) who literally shut the film down rather than replace me. That made me feel really wanted. I don't know how a greater vote of confidence could be given me. But it also intimidated me. I wondered how I could possibly live up to this trust.''

Joan Allen, who is nominated in the supporting category, for playing the cold, religiously obsessed wife in ``The Crucible'' is in the running for the second consecutive year. Last year, she was a top contender for playing Pat Nixon in ``Nixon.''

``It is quite an evening to sit through,'' she said. ``I am so thankful that the `supporting actress' category is early. Then I can relax. I majored in drama but, believe it or not, I had never read, or seen, Arthur Miller's play `The Crucible.' I found this woman very difficult to play. She holds everything inside. I kept wanting her to have a scene when she screams. With her, everything, life itself, is beneath the surface.''

Juliette Binoche who plays the loving, caring nurse in ``The English Patient'' is up for supporting actress.

``I was the first one cast in the film,'' she said. ``I was told that they wrote the part with me in mind. It is a wonderful part, and I very much wanted to do it. The book is very different from the film. You cannot play what is described in the book. You can only play the dialogue that is written and try to suggest the rest with facial expressions. Playing a role that is based on a book is not easy. The book tells more than I, as the character, should know.''

Cuba Gooding Jr., up for supporting actor for ``Jerry Maguire,'' will thank Tom Cruise if he wins. He got the part of the football player only after several other actors turned it down.

``Tom may be a superstar, but he's a regular guy,'' he said. ``He was a most generous co-star.''

Edward Norton has won just about every critics' award for his role as the devious young man accused of murder in ``Primal Fear.'' He's in the supporting actor race.

``It was a great part and the part itself is what counts,'' he said. He admits that he fibbed a bit to get the part. He told the casting crew that he had a background from Kentucky and Tennessee because they wanted someone with an authentic Southern accent.

``I knew I could do the accent,'' he said. ``I didn't want to be dismissed just because of geography. I knew this was one of the best roles of the year.'' Norton also had top roles in ``The People vs. Larry Flynt'' and ``Everyone Says I Love You.''

Billy Bob Thornton, up for ``best actor'' as well as for writing his screenplay for ``Sling Blade,'' said that he has had almost a decade to develop his character - a mentally challenged Arkansas man who has been held in an asylum for 20 years.

``I first did the character in a one-man show back in the 1980s,'' he said. ``Then, I developed a script around him. I think people like him because he is the underdog. He's been treated like an animal but, in his own way, he has his own set of morals. In his way, he's more honest than most of us.''

Thornton said, ``I never expected I'd even be going to the Oscars, much less be nominated. This Oscar thing is just about the most gosh darned thing that ever happened to me. I almost wish they just wouldn't open the envelope.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo

Cuba Gooding Jr., up for supporting actor for ``Jerry Maguire,''

will thank Tom Cruise if he wins.

Send Suggestions or Comments to webmaster@scholar.lib.vt.edu