2011 Calvin Awards: Best Supporting Actor
February 17, 2011
BoxOfficeProphets.com

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This was a landmark year for supporting acting performances. This led to a rare accord amongst our voters about the best of the best as seven different roles garnered enough attention to receive what would have been a winning total for the category just a few years ago. Oddly, the top six selections in this category were mentioned on over 80% of the ballots, an unprecedented sign of agreement from a group of people who can’t even reach a consensus on who the best Blues Brother is. In the end, our top three separated themselves from the pack, but the winner of the category was not determined until the final ballot. We were this enthusiastic about all three of the finest supporting actors of the year.

BOP loves junkies and we as a group have determined that the only thing that would make such a drug addict more engaging would be violent tendencies. Our thirst for blood requires us to select Christian Bale’s portrayal of flawed boxer Dicky Eklund as the Best Supporting Actor role of the year. Bale has made a career out of going to extremes as an actor, bulking up or losing unhealthy amounts of weight as is required. Oddly, he is asked to do both in The Fighter, showing enough musculature to prove believable as a boxer capable of knocking down Sugar Ray Leonard while staying gaunt enough to pass as a crack addict.

The fact that this is required speaks volumes about how much is asked of Bale as an actor. Eklund’s story is just that novel. As chronicled in an HBO special entitled High on Crack Street: Lost Lives in Lowell, Eklund’s career careened from his being the “Pride of Lowell”, a moniker used to announce him in the ring, to being a desperate user who wound up sentenced to prison for 10 years for Armed Robbery. His life is the way heists ordinarily work out in the area as opposed to what is on display in The Town. Despite his life falling apart, Eklund still managed to provide tutelage to his half-brother, Micky Ward, who evolved into a much more established boxer, winning two world championships. Bale makes the character his own by relaying the circumstances through which a hero-worshipped mama’s boy lacking in wits could overcome his crippling personality flaws long enough to aid his brother. Bale went through one of the worst public relations disasters in two years ago due to his commitment to his craft (and acting like a jackass), but his acting range remains the gold standard in our industry. He is a worthy choice to be Best Supporting Actor of the year.

Narrowly missing victory for his work in Winter’s Bone is long time BOP favorite John Hawkes. This was a banner year for former Deadwood cast members as Timothy Olyphant found acclaim on his new television series, Justified, Ian McShane earned the prize role of Blackbeard the villain in the next Pirates of the Caribbean film and Hawkes proved himself yet again as the thinking man’s actor. While his role as Teardrop is not significant in terms of screen time, his presence is the anchor of the movie. He portrays a low rent meth dealer who knows that his business partner brother has probably met a bad fate.

When Teardrop's niece starts asking a lot of the wrong people what may have happened to him, Teardrop is torn between his loyalty to his kin and his fear that the wrong word to the wrong person would lead to civil war among the hill folk. Torn between doing what is right and saving his own skin, Hawkes imbues Teardrop with the perfect tone of moral ambiguity. His finest moment occurs in a showdown with the local sheriff (played brilliantly by Garret Dillahunt, who also earned votes in the category) wherein Teardrop reveals to his niece that he is a man of action, someone law enforcement officials fear. Hawkes has rarely been given a lead role in a major motion picture (Me and You and Everyone We Know being a key exception), but if he keeps delivering performances such as this one, Hollywood studios eventually have to throw him a bone here or there.

The other near miss for victory in Best Supporting Actor is Geoffrey Rush in The King’s Speech. One of the most accredited actors of our time, Rush continues to deliver exceptional performances that cross genres as well as generations. Fresh off his wildly popular run as Barbossa in The Pirates of the Caribbean, Rush chose to do a pair of upscale arthouse projects. While Elizabeth: The Golden Age was a minor disappointment, Rush’s turn as an uncertified (that’s important) speech therapist, Lionel Logue, reminds us yet again what a chameleon he is. Initially unaware of the identity of his next patient, Logue is assertive and encouraging yet too curt with a Duchess who happens to be the wife of the next king of his homeland. Demonstrating a deft touch in navigating the realm of diplomacy, Logue proves himself to be egoless, a loyal citizen whose rare skill set saves the day in an odd way. In a career comprised of half a dozen star-making performances, The King’s Speech may prove to be Rush’s tour de force.

A pair of rising celebrities comprises the rest of our top five. Jeremy Renner narrowly missed winning Best Actor last year, losing by only a couple of votes. His role in The Town this year proves almost as popular with our staff as he finishes in the top four for the second consecutive year. This time out, he portrays a loose cannon who is completely unreliable but gets results. Watch the typecasting, Renner. Andrew Garfield is right where Renner was last year, exploding out of nowhere to garner massive praise for his work in The Social Network. In the film, he portrays arguably the only sympathetic male character, Eduardo Saverin. Garfield’s nebbish qualities and overall awkwardness infuse Saverin with a particular vulnerability that makes his situation all the worse as he gets betrayed by a friend and dumped by a psycho.

The characters portrayed by Matt Damon and Vincent Cassel, our sixth and seventh place selections, have a couple of similarities. Both demonstrate a creepy attraction to an unwilling younger female. Each sees a quality in said woman that the woman herself does not know she possesses. And both of them endeavor to bring to life the dream of the woman they aid. In Damon’s case, that means semi-lawful murder and in Cassel’s case, that means…exactly whatever it is that happens at the end of Black Swan.

There was a lot more diversity among our staff in determining the outliers in the Best Supporting Actor category. Justin Timberlake’s appearance in The Social Network represents the moment when the crew of The Facebook hits the big time. This is also when they begin to collapse under the weight of the struggles that come with popularity. Timberlake is a revelation, demonstrating that he’s much more than a pop star waiting for his Cool As Ice. Tom Hardy’s performance in Inception has garnered the most positive attention of anyone other than Leonardo DiCaprio, and we agree with the consensus here. His character’s behavior has to change on each level yet he pulls off this unprecedented acting challenge with aplomb. And Mark Ruffalo’s work in The Kids Are All Right is equal parts comic relief and moral center of the film, an amazing feat for a character who is irresponsible and suffering from a severe case of arrested development.

Narrowly missing selection this year are Armie Hammer, who would have been the third member of The Social Network to earn a nod, Joseph Gordon-Levitt for his gravity-defying efforts in Inception, Kieran Culkin for being the witty roommate in Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, and Stanley Tucci’s as the world’s best dad in Easy A. (David Mumpower/BOP)

The Calvins Introduction
Best Actor
Best Actress
Best Album
Best Cast
Best Character
Best Director
Best Overlooked Film
Best Picture
Best Scene
Best Screenplay
Best Supporting Actor
Best Supporting Actress
Best TV Show
Best Use of Music
Best Videogame
Breakthrough Performance
Worst Performance
Worst Picture