Oscar nominees for Best Supporting Actor

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The only downside to Ke Huy Quan being an almost sure winner in the best supporting actor category is that you won’t be able to tell much about the other nominees. And this category is full of interesting performances and actors at all kinds of stages in their careers.

They will all be celebrated at the Academy Awards on Sunday, live on ABC from 8 p.m. New York (0000 GMT). And there’s still time to catch up on their performances ahead of the ceremony.

Here are some facts about this year’s nominees.

BRIAN TYREE HENRY

While filming “Causeway,” Jennifer Lawrence would sometimes end a scene with Brian Tyree Henry and say, “You’re going to be nominated for an Oscar,” then walk away.

Henry was a little surprised at the time, but Lawrence (four-time Oscar nominee and winner) was right.

“She went out of her way to remind me that it was possible. I really owe her a debt of gratitude,” Henry told The Associated Press. “She really believed in it.

Henry plays a grieving mechanic in the film, opposite Lawrence’s soldier recovering from a traumatic brain injury. Henry’s character deals with the trauma of a car accident that killed his nephew. The nomination, he said, seems to be beyond him.

“Everyone who went into making this movie deserves recognition, it wasn’t just me,” he said. “I hope it opens people’s imaginations of what they want to see me do and then I can show up and give them that.”

Age: 40 years old

JUDD HIRSCH

With a 42-year gap between his Oscar nominations, Judd Hirsch has a bit of déjà vu.

“The first (for ‘Ordinary People’ or ‘Gente como uno’) is because I did a scene with a 19 or 20 year old boy, the second (for ‘The Fabelmans’ or ‘Los Fabelmans’) it’s because I did a scene with a 19 or 20 year old guy,” Hirsch said. The biggest difference is that with that first nomination, she didn’t want to win: she was facing her costar. Timothy Hutton in the category (who won).

“This time it’s different,” he said. “I don’t have to apologize.”

With his brief role as eccentric Uncle Boris in Steven Spielberg’s film, he realized at some point that he wasn’t playing a character so much as a memory.

“It’s his memory of when he was young, not like Steven now,” he said. “I had memories from my youth and they all turned out to be slight exaggerations…I thought that was interesting.”

Age: 87

BRENDAN GLEESON

Brendan Gleeson, Colin Farrell and Martin McDonagh dreamed of working together again since they made “In Bruges” and finally had their chance with “The Banshees of Inisherin”.

“It looks like we went back into the room and said, ‘It’s going to be good, isn’t it? ‘” Gleeson told the AP.

In “Banshees”, Gleeson’s character Colm’s abrupt plea for solitude comes because he’s had enough of “nonsense chatter”. Feeling that time is running out, he wants to devote himself to musical writing. Their discord has a symbolism; the Irish Civil War rages on the Continent. But it reflects more the struggle of an artist, perhaps a serious artist, to balance his work with the demands of social convention.

Farrell, who is also nominated in the Best Actor category, said he understood himself more through Gleeson.

“I think we’re all fundamentally romantic,” Gleeson said. “We are not blind either. We know the other side of the coin. »

Age: 67

BARRY KEOGHAN

Even if you haven’t seen ‘The Banshees of Inisherin’, chances are you’ve watched Barry Keoghan’s heartbreaking viral clip as Dominic asks Kerry Condon’s character, Siobhán, if she’s ever wanted” fall in love”. like me.” When she politely declines, he sighs, “Well, here’s that dream. I better go over there and do what I was going to do there.”

The role, Keoghan told Vanity Fair in an interview, “was a chance to show that I can look sinister with a bit of naivety, with a bit of pure soul and honesty. I really wanted to talk about that. I really wanted to get things done and bring people into this world where I can make you feel good, rather than making you hate me and be grim and behave absolutely bad.”

Age: 30 years old

KE HUY QUAN

Ke Huy Quan tends to get carried away with emotion whenever he contemplates his sudden change of destiny. Since “Everything Everywhere All at Once” hit theaters, Quan, 51, who a lifetime ago was the child star of “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” (“Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” ), in the role of Short Round, and also as Data in “Goonies”, was “overwhelmed with emotions every day”, he says.

After being one of the most recognizable faces of the 1980s, Quan, discouraged by the lack of roles and opportunities, decided to quit acting at the age of 20. At 49, she gave acting one last shot, landing the role in “Everything Everywhere All At Once” two weeks later.

“Most of the time all I wanted was just a job,” Quan said. “Just a chance to play, to show people what I can do. This film, ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’, gave me so much more than I could have asked for.”

“There are so many people who doubt themselves, who have dreams that they gave up on or never thought would come true,” Quan added. “I hope my story will inspire these people.”

Age: 51