Curated playlist

Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture Screen Actors Guild Award winners

Matt DamonMatt Damon once turned down 10 percent of the profits from Avatar, a film that went on to become the most successful of all time. Director James Cameron made the offer while Damon was still working on the Bourne films, and Damon did not…
Josh BrolinJosh Brolin was trading stocks full time in 2006 when he booked the lead role in the Coen brothers' Academy Award-winning film No Country for Old Men. The film became both a critical and a commercial success. Brolin is an American actor…
Christian BaleChristian Bale once lived on black coffee, an apple and a can of tuna each day. The English actor began that regimen with nothing but cigarettes and whiskey. By the end he had lost 63 lb and weighed 121 lb. The script for the psychological…
Brad PittBrad Pitt left the University of Missouri two weeks short of completing the coursework for his degree. As graduation approached, he did not feel ready to settle down. He loved films, which he once called "a portal into different worlds for…
Ian McKellenIan McKellen came out as gay on BBC radio in 1988, while Parliament weighed Section 28.
Jennifer LawrenceJennifer Lawrence was 14 years old and on a family vacation in New York City when a talent scout spotted her on the street. The scout arranged for her to audition for talent agents, and that detour set the course of her life. Today she is…
Kirsten DunstKirsten Dunst was ten years old when she shared a screen kiss with Brad Pitt, an actor two decades her senior, and her verdict was blunt. "I thought it was gross, that Brad had cooties. I mean, I was 10," she recalled. Dunst, an American…
Gwyneth PaltrowGwyneth Paltrow won the lead in Emma with a perfect Texas accent. The director said it sold him.
Amy AdamsAmy Adams finished work on a Steven Spielberg film in 2002 and then went a full year without a job. Careers that stall that early rarely end up looking like hers. Adams was born on the 20th of August 1974. She has since won two Golden…
Rachel McAdamsFor the March 2006 Hollywood issue of Vanity Fair, the Canadian actress Rachel McAdams was invited to share a cover with Scarlett Johansson and Keira Knightley. She arrived at the photo set and discovered that the session was a nude one.…
Orlando BloomOrlando Bloom was named after Orlando Gibbons, an English composer of the 16th century. He was born in Canterbury, Kent, on the 13th of January 1977. Nothing about that start pointed toward a screen career. Some consider him the Errol…
Naomi WattsDavid Lynch offered Naomi Watts the lead in Mulholland Drive after seeing only her headshot.
Queen LatifahQueen Latifah picked her name from a book of Arabic names at age eight. She added the title "Queen" herself.
Michael DouglasMichael Douglas won a Best Picture Oscar before he was a star. He produced One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.
Sacha Baron CohenSacha Baron Cohen spilled flour on Ryan Seacrest at the Oscars. He claimed it was Kim Jong-il's ashes.
Tom HanksTom Hanks lost 35 pounds to play a dying lawyer in Philadelphia. He thinned his hair and learned to walk differently.
Javier BardemIn 1989, the Spanish actor Javier Bardem put on a Superman costume for a sketch on the comedy show El Día Por Delante. The job left him wondering whether he wanted to be an actor at all. That doubt makes sense for a man who never planned…
Kenneth BranaghKenneth Branagh won an Oscar for a film about the Belfast he fled at age nine. He won Best Original Screenplay in 2022.
Sam RockwellSam Rockwell won an Oscar for playing a racist, bullying police deputy. He delivered burritos by bicycle first.
Michael B. JordanMichael B. Jordan won the Academy Award for Best Actor for Sinners, a 2025 period horror film in which he played twin brothers. The win made him the seventh Black performer in history to take an Oscar in a lead acting category. It is a…
Jamie Lee CurtisJamie Lee Curtis accepted a Golden Lion for lifetime achievement at the 78th Venice International Film Festival in September 2021, and she did not sound like a person winding down. "I feel so alive, like I'm this 14-year-old person just…
Bradley CooperBradley Cooper was a kid who dreamed of moving to Japan to become a ninja. Later came twelve Academy Award nominations.
Robert Downey Jr.Robert Downey Jr. was too big an insurance risk to hire until Mel Gibson paid his insurance bond.
Mark RuffaloMark Ruffalo has been nominated four times for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, which ties a record. Each nomination came for a different kind of man. Ruffalo is an American actor and producer, and the road to that record was…
Sandra BullockSandra Bullock holds a distinction that no other actor can claim. On the night before she collected the Academy Award for Best Actress for The Blind Side, she picked up the Razzie Award for Worst Actress for a different film, All About…
Judi DenchJudi Dench won an Oscar for a role that lasted about eight minutes. She played Queen Elizabeth I in Shakespeare in Love.
Stanley TucciStanley Tucci Jr. gave a college classmate a nickname that the man has carried ever since. The classmate was Irving Rhames, and the nickname was Ving. Tucci handed it over while the two of them studied acting together at a state university…
Ralph FiennesRalph Fiennes has played a Nazi camp commandant, a dark wizard, a British spymaster and a flirtatious hotel concierge, and audiences have believed every one of them. Born in 1962, the English actor and director carries the full name Ralph…
Catherine Zeta-JonesCatherine Zeta-Jones once said that with one hour of television, her life completely changed and she could not go anywhere. She is a Welsh actress, born in Swansea on the 25th of September 1969. The Zeta in her name is pronounced ZEE-tuh.…
Emma StoneEmma Stone, born Emily Jean Stone, once built a PowerPoint presentation for an audience of her parents. Its title was "Project Hollywood," and its purpose was to persuade them to let a teenager from Arizona pursue acting in California. The…
Cillian MurphyCillian Murphy, the Irish actor and film producer born on the 25th of May 1976, once looked back on a single month as the hinge of his life. That month was August 1996. In 2023 he described the sort of domino effect that a handful of…
Bryan CranstonIn 1968, a 12-year-old Bryan Cranston was riding horses with his cousin at Spahn Ranch when he met Charles Manson. About a year later, Manson ordered the Tate-LaBianca murders. Cranston grew up to become an American actor and filmmaker…
Benicio del ToroBenicio del Toro gained more than 40 pounds for one film role and lost 35 pounds for another.
Florence PughFlorence Pugh insisted on jumping from the top of Merdeka 118 herself, with no stunt double, while making Thunderbolts in 2025. Marvel Studios was reluctant at first because of insurance concerns. Pugh kept pressing, and after…
Ben AffleckBen Affleck directed Argo, and for it he collected the Golden Globe, the Directors Guild Award and the BAFTA for Best Director without ever being nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director. No director had done that before him. The…
Helen MirrenDame Helen Mirren was born Ilyena Lydia Mironoff on the 26th of July 1945, at Queen Charlotte's and Chelsea Hospital in the Hammersmith district of London. Neither the first name nor the surname on that record would last. The woman who…
Lupita Nyong'oAfter her Oscar, Lupita Nyong'o says she was offered another slave role, this time on a slave ship.
Robin WilliamsRobin Williams was voted "Most Likely Not to Succeed" by his high school classmates in 1969.
Andy SerkisDoes an actor in a suit covered in tracking dots deserve an Oscar? Andy Serkis became that debate's living proof.
Rami MalekRami Malek watched a single concert video, the Live Aid performance of 1985, at least 1,500 times before he played Freddie Mercury. He did it on YouTube, while preparing for a role he would later call precious beyond anything else in his…
Kevin SpaceyLate in the 1995 thriller Se7en, Kevin Spacey walks into the story as the serial killer John Doe, and most of the audience had no idea he was coming. His name was missing from the opening credits. It was missing from the film's…
Brendan FraserIn September 2022, the film The Whale premiered at the Venice International Film Festival, and the audience gave its star, Brendan Fraser, a standing ovation that lasted six minutes. Fraser is an American and Canadian actor, and that night…
Emily BluntEmily Blunt is a British actress who earned an extraordinary compliment from Meryl Streep after the two worked together. Streep called her "the best young actress I've worked with in some time, perhaps ever". Praise like that can weigh…
Simon CallowSimon Callow's acting career began with a fan letter to Laurence Olivier. Olivier wrote back with a box-office job.
Hailee SteinfeldHailee Steinfeld once ran a swear jar on a film set. During the making of True Grit, the harshest word cost its speaker five dollars, and other vulgarities cost a dollar each. Steinfeld fined herself fifty cents whenever she said the word…