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Best Supporting Male Independent Spirit Award winners

  • Matthew McConaugheyMatthew McConaughey, the American actor, won the part that launched his career by walking up to a stranger in a hotel bar. At the time he was a film student at the University of Texas in Austin. He had gone out with his girlfriend to the…
  • Willem DafoeWillem Dafoe's screen career began with a part that almost nobody saw. In 1980 he spent the first three months of an eight-month shoot on Michael Cimino's epic Western Heaven's Gate, playing a cockfighter who worked for the character…
  • Sam RockwellSam Rockwell won an Oscar for playing a racist, bullying police deputy. He delivered burritos by bicycle first.
  • J. K. SimmonsFor decades, audiences knew J. K. Simmons's face and voice but could not name him. Whiplash in 2014 changed that.
  • Morgan FreemanIn January 2010, Morgan Freeman became the voice that opened the CBS Evening News, replacing Walter Cronkite in that spot. The network said it wanted consistency across the introductions to its regular news broadcasts and special reports.…
  • James FrancoFor five weeks, James Franco spent twelve hours a day in a gully built as a film set, and he left it only to use the lavatory. Between takes he read books, including academic textbooks, just to keep busy. The American actor and filmmaker…
  • Bill MurrayBill Murray turned twenty on the 21st of September 1970, and he spent part of that birthday in police custody at Chicago's O'Hare Airport. Officers found 10 pounds of cannabis in his luggage, which he had allegedly intended to sell. A joke…
  • Benicio del ToroBenicio del Toro gained more than 40 pounds for one film role and lost 35 pounds for another.
  • Jared LetoOn the 9th of November 2023, Jared Leto became the first person to legally scale the Empire State Building. He climbed it to promote a worldwide concert run called the Seasons Tour. Few actors would hang from a skyscraper to sell tickets,…
  • Woody HarrelsonWoody Harrelson arrived in Lee County, Kentucky, on the 1st of June 1996 with a camera crew from CNN and an agent. His attorney was Louie B. Nunn, a former governor of the state. The mission was to plant four hemp seeds and challenge a…
  • Idris ElbaIdris Elba spent a night locked alone in a cell on Robben Island. He did it to prepare to play Nelson Mandela.

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