Skip to content
Curated playlist

César Honorary Award recipients

  • Jude LawJude Law dropped out of school at 17 to become an actor. It led to an Oscar nomination for The Talented Mr. Ripley.
  • Martin ScorseseMartin Scorsese's love of movies began because asthma kept him out of games.
  • Steven SpielbergSteven Spielberg walked into Universal Studios without a pass, and the guard waved him in.
  • Quentin TarantinoQuentin Tarantino turned down Speed and Men in Black to write Pulp Fiction in Amsterdam.
  • Penélope CruzPenélope Cruz was fifteen years old in 1989 when she won an audition against more than 300 other girls. Only a short time earlier, an agent had sent her away three times because she was too young. Cruz kept coming back anyway, and she says…
  • Christopher NolanChristopher Nolan has no smartphone and no email address. He hand-delivers his scripts to the actors he wants.
  • Meryl StreepDino De Laurentiis insulted Meryl Streep in Italian, not knowing she spoke it. She answered him in Italian too.
  • Kate WinsletKate Winslet pleaded for the part of Rose in James Cameron's Titanic while he still preferred Claire Danes and Gwyneth Paltrow. She told the director that she was Rose, and she could not see why he was seeing anyone else. The plea worked.…
  • Kirk DouglasKirk Douglas insisted on giving blacklisted writer Dalton Trumbo an on-screen credit for Spartacus.
  • Harrison FordHarrison Ford got Han Solo after reading lines for other actors' auditions. George Lucas slowly decided he wanted Ford.
  • Sylvester StalloneSylvester Stallone has said that he once slept for three weeks in the Port Authority Bus Terminal in New York City. Decades later, he is one of only two actors in history, alongside Harrison Ford, to have starred in a box-office number one…
  • Bette DavisBette Davis's tombstone reads, "She did it the hard way." A director suggested the epitaph after All About Eve.
  • Clint EastwoodPresident Reagan quoted Clint Eastwood's line "Go ahead, make my day" to Congress.
  • Johnny DeppJohnny Depp, the American actor, musician and filmmaker, saw his film Jeanne du Barry open the 2023 Cannes Film Festival to a standing ovation that lasted seven minutes. Playing King Louis XV, he was acting in French for the first time.…
  • Dustin HoffmanWhen Dustin Hoffman told his family he wanted to be an actor, his Aunt Pearl had a ready answer. "You can't be an actor. You are not good-looking enough." Hoffman was born in Los Angeles in 1937, and her prediction aged badly. He went on…
  • Michael DouglasMichael Douglas won a Best Picture Oscar before he was a star. He produced One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.
  • Will SmithWill Smith turned down the lead role in The Matrix to make Wild Wild West. He later called that choice a mistake.
  • Scarlett JohanssonAs a child, Scarlett Johansson practiced Judy Garland's emotions in a mirror until she cried.
  • Sean PennIn Kyiv in November 2022, Sean Penn handed an Oscar statuette to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy. "This is for you. It's just a symbolic silly thing...When you win, bring it back to Malibu." That was the whole speech. Penn is an…
  • Walt DisneyIn 1928, Walt Disney lost his hit cartoon rabbit Oswald to Universal. Only Ub Iwerks stayed, and Mickey Mouse followed.
  • Robert RedfordRobert Redford died in his sleep at his home in Sundance, Utah, on the 16th of September 2025. He was 89 years old. After a private funeral, he was buried on his own property there. The man who ended his days in a place that carried his…
  • George ClooneyIn 1977, a teenage George Clooney tried out for the Cincinnati Reds and did not make it past the first round of player cuts. No contract was offered. Clooney, an American actor and filmmaker, would go on to collect two Academy Awards, a…
  • Kevin CostnerKevin Costner was on a plane home from his honeymoon in Puerto Vallarta in 1978 when he noticed actor Richard Burton and decided to approach him. Costner had just finished college and was unsure whether he should try acting at all. So he…
  • Jean-Luc GodardJean-Luc Godard dropped his script and wrote dialogue day by day for the film Breathless.
  • Hugh GrantAs of 2025, Hugh Grant's films have grossed more than US$4 billion worldwide. The English actor has nonetheless called being a successful actor a mistake. He once hoped that film stardom would be only "a phase" in his life, lasting no more…
  • Diana RossDiana Ross got her name from a birth certificate mistake. Her mother had planned to name her Diane.

Queue