Foreign Acts

A lot of xenophobes in America are upset over the fact that the four best actor/actress Oscars went to foreigners this year. To recap: British actor Daniel Day-Lewis won the award for Best Actor for his role in There Will Be Blood, about a self-made oil tycoon who attempts to wrest an oil-rich California property from its small-town owners at the turn of the twentieth century. French actress Marion Cotillard won the award for Best Actress for playing signer Edith Piaf in La Vie en Rose. Spain's Javier Bardem won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for playing a ruthless murderer in No Country for Old Men, and the Best Supporting Actress Oscar went to Britain's actress Tilda Swinton, who played an ethically dubious executive in Michael Clayton.

Anyway, many Americans are upset that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences can't find any Americans to give theses American awards to. Don't blame the Academy, mon ami. Blame the dearth of American actors who apply more than a superficial devotion to their craft. Show business in America is all about illusion and fraud, and Hollywood is full of both. Many American actors don't have the intensive training and education that their British or French counterparts do - there's no tradition of "classical" training here - and many of the younger American actors you see these days play roles that aren't necessarily that deep. The idea of an actor who can convincingly play two entire different roles in two different movies overlooks equally pertinent questions about the quality of the writing and the directing. There's not exactly a lot of complexity going on behind the scenes in Hollywood. And yes, maybe George Clooney is a good actor, but the Academy simply decided that Daniel Day-Lewis was better this year.

Want to see an award foundation where Americans dominate? Go to the Razzie Awards. :-p