9 fun facts about Oscar’s best-picture nominees
Think you know everything about 2017’s Oscar best picture nominees? We’ll take that challenge. From La La Land to Lion, USA TODAY’s Andrea Mandell, Brian Truitt and Bryan Alexander offer trivia and tidbits about the making of all nine films — straight fr
NAOMIE HARRIS SHOT HER OSCAR-NOMINATED ‘MOONLIGHT’ PERFORMANCE IN JUST THREE DAYS.
Talk about time management: Harris had a three-day break from promoting her James Bond film
Spectre (she plays Moneypenny) to shoot Moonlight. That meant setting aside red carpets and designer gowns to get into the mind-set of a crack addict. “They took me straight from the airport to set,” she recalls. “I didn’t realize I was going to be wearing these tiny little shorts — my first scene was deep crack addiction, so obviously she doesn’t (care) what she’s wearing. That’s when I got a little scared. I was like, ‘Oh, my gosh, I’m really going to have to go for this.’ ”
LUCAS HEDGES GOT HIS INTENSE ‘MANCHESTER BY THE SEA’ PERFORMANCE BY KEEPING HIS MOUTH SHUT.
To film a scene in which Hedges’ teenage character has an emotional breakdown after the death of his father (Kyle Chandler), the Oscar-nominated star spent the day in silence. By the time cameras rolled, his need to communicate would be greater than any fear of getting it wrong — advice given to him by his mentor, Mary-Louise Parker. “The result was a buildup inside of me,” Hedges says. “I took a risk and the dam came crashing down.”
UNDIES WERE SECRET WEAPONS FOR ‘HIDDEN FIGURES’ STAR TARAJI P. HENSON.
Playing unsung NASA math hero Katherine Johnson meant Henson was always decked out in retro 1960s attire. But that also included wearing the throwback underwear of the era, including corsets and girdles. “That snatches you into a perfect stature. You have no choice,” Henson laughs. “Women back then carried themselves not as loosely as the women do today because they were strapped down and pinned down.”
DEV PATEL SHOT THE MOVING ENDING OF ‘LION’ FIRST.
Patel dove into the emotional deep end, shooting the tear-jerking finale of Saroo Brierley’s true story first. Actual villagers appear in the scene where Saroo returns to India, erupting with the same joy with which they had greeted Brierley. “The villagers were just reacting off the energy we created,” says Patel, who plays an adoptee who finds his birth family using Google Earth. “It was one of those rare moments where you are completely lost in something.”
JEFF BRIDGES LEARNED FROM A LEGENDARY TEXAS RANGER FOR ‘HELL OR HIGH WATER.’
Bridges got real-life guidance in prepping for his Oscar-nominated role. The actor worked closely with Texas Ranger Joaquin Jackson, who wrote his memoir One
Ranger in 2005 and died in 2016, just before the film’s release. Bridges calls Jackson “one of the greatest Texas Rangers ever” and modeled his Marcus after him, from his walk to his demeanor. “He’d make little adjustments, too, right down to where the badge is placed over the left pocket.”
MEL GIBSON RELIED ON GREAT RAT PERFORMANCES IN ‘HACKSAW RIDGE.’
Even fake war is hell: The director didn’t skimp on the terrible realities of World War II battlefields, including the rats. There was a stuntman whose job it was to lay in dirty water and have rats crawl on his face as he pretended to be dead. “He’s the real hero of (filming) the Desmond Doss story,” says star Andrew Garfield. Unexpected problem: The rats ended up eating the maggots. “They were slurping them up. You put the rats and maggots on what seems to be a decaying corpse and off they go,” says Gibson.
AUGUST WILSON MADE A SPIRITUAL CAMEO APPEARANCE IN ‘FENCES.’
Director and star Denzel Washington firmly believes that the late Fences playwright (who died in 2005) quietly appeared in the movie adaptation. While shooting the emotional ending, the yard’s gate unexpectedly swung shut. “I just felt, ‘Wow!’ People were like, ‘Did you put a string on it?’ ” Washington says. “No, it was just August wanting to be here.”