Rose welcome to the program. Im charlie rose. Tonight our charlryios special edition, the oscars. Funding for charlie rose was provided by the following captioning sponsored by Rose Communications from our studios in new york city, this is charlie rose. 85th Academy Awards will be announced sunday night february 24th. From mythic story telling to epic survival, the films take us on a voyage exploring where we were an where we are headed. This years movies are about our political and cultural landscape. They show us a world in which we look terror in the face, a world of equality, a world of aspiration for a new and better society. Tonight we bring 13 nominees who have talked about their craft over the last year. We begin with three of the contenders for best actor. Yeah, come on, dad, be nice. Shes making crabby snacks and homemades. Come on, dad Bradley Cooper plays pat, an impassioned but fragile teacher getting his life back on track. About a week before the incident i called the cops and told them that my wife and the history guy were ploying against me by embezzling money from the local hospital which wasnt true, it was a delusion. And we later fund out from the hospital its because im im diagnosed bipolar. Yeah. Why is this a character you dream of . So many reasons. Well, i maybe how much hes different from me or how much i have to look into myself to find the connections to him. I mean first of all if h was sitting here, right, god knows what would come out of his mouth because he has no filter. And his emotions are right just under the surface. And hes also fascinating because near logically its a very unique pathway, the way he processes information and thats what, you know, causes him to have manic episodes. What we could define as bipolar being manicdepressive. But this guy, the beautiful thing about him, he couldnt be happier. You know hes in this manic delusion thats going to fall at some point but he really thinks that hes got it together. Certain actors i talked to talked about how they learned things from the character they played. Like in a profound way. And in this movie more than any other i really did feel like i kind of got out of the way in the morning and let him, and it sounds very sort of act ory but it is how i experienced it, charlie, that i kind of just walked away and let this guy take over this guy pat. And every time, we every time i see it i feel so much empathy. Thats his bottom. Were watching this guy at a bottom. So people with bipolar understand they have it. They just dont know when its coming and what theyre going to do. Certainly pat didnt. He had no idea. The next moment of that is he talked about how hes been white knuckling it this whole time and not knowingment and now hes got the whole thing is hes got a strategy now. I think that we live in an age where you know because of social media and because of awareness, you know, theres a dialogue now. But theres a lot of work to be done. To destigmatize mental illness. Do you simply want to deeply immerse yourself in much as you can find . Yes, thats accurate, yeah, absolutely. And it means Different Things for different projects. But its whatever you can do to get to where james cagney says say what you mean and mean what you say. Say what you mean and mean what you say. Yeah. Which basically means dont act. Right. The other asset i have is that it is simple for me. I have one objective pretty much and that is to grow as an actor. I have said this before to you. So how do you do that . You work with the best people. And i just want to work with the best filmmakers and best actors, now the sort of caveat to that is i really want to direct film. So im going to soak that up as much as i can, charlie, and learn as much as i can interested the david o rustles of the world until they stop hiring me and then i will hope to then start making movies. The citizen was goes in judgement of my place, who am i . Hugh jackman brings to life jean valjean, the hero of victor hugos less miserables, a man unfairly imprisoned who remakes his life and learns about Second Chances and forgiveness. My sisters child was close to death, we were starving. You will starve again unless you learn the meaning of the law. Or the meaning of those 19 years a slave of the law. Five years for what you did the rest because you tried to run yes 24601 my name is jean valjean. We had nine weeks of rehearsal which is also what tom protected for us. Which i think made the difference on this project. That we had a lot of intellectual discussions. We looked at history, looked at the book but actually on set tom has a way of giving a sentence a Little Something to help frame a song without getting too intrusive which i think is part his genius. No matter what the film. I never feel i put less than 100 percent into it. But its very rare when you get something where physically vocally as this is known, as a Musical Theatre role, tough and emotionally and what tom and i talked about and the way to make it interesting to do the justice of the journey, people like this dont exist very often and they rarely get the opportunity to make movie musicals. So you just and because we were live it was the Opening Night and closing night every day. So it was that thing of, okay, on my day, lets just pray todays the day, you know. Rose did the originators of the original stage version write a song, a new song for you . It was toms idea as victor hugo says of my character jean valjean that there were two thunderbolts or lightning bolts of realization in his life. One was the virtue when the bishop reprieves him with the candlesticks. The second is of love when he meets kosette. And it goes into long description how this 50yearold man experiences love for the first time in his life. And its an avalanche of emotion. And i remember tom saying this is unbelievable. We dont even have a song for this. He said write a song for this. And they came up with this song suddenly which as they were writingt, these guys were writing it for my voice it was a very out of body experience. Normally for me ray song takes awhile to get in my bones so i came in, i sang with them, first time i sang it i was like felt like i wrote it, you know, that is how good these guys are. Rose oh wow. But it was a wonderful opportunity. Were in an uncontrolled dive, we have a jam stabilizer or something. And Denzel Washington at his most raw, portrays whip whitaker a flawed air pilot on the brink of selfdestruction. An initial report shows that you had alcohol in your system. Yeah, so that doesnt mean anything, a couple of beers the night before the flight. This toxicology report states that you were drunkment and if it is proven that your intoxication was the cause of the death of the four passengers now were go to look at four counts of manslaughter. When you read something that just grabs you. And its very rare that that happens for me, anyway, where you just, its a page turn heer and its complex and interesting and something hadnt been done before. Now was this an interesting character . I would say so. Yeah, i would say so. You know, i mean i hadnt i mean there had been films about you know people with addiction issues. But i had never done one. And for him to be a pilot on top of that. And to be able to fly. And to be considered a hero over here when hes really. Rose he knows. Yeah t just had a lot of elements. And a lot of truth. Rose and whether its a painter or whether its an actor, creativity is about making choices. Uhhuh. Rose you play this this way or that way. You can do this or that, you know. But not necessarily conscious choices. Rose ah. Van go just addses more paint. He doesnt go oh no i think i need 2. 2 ounces. Not to say im comparing myself to van gogh. But i dont know half the time. Thats why i have to trust the director. Because im not sure either. Im just putting it out there. You know, i will get a feeling or an instinct or a rhythm and i will keep pushing it. You know, like there is one scene where i end up falling on the table. I think i did an extra 15 minutes. I was like where is the part where i fell on the floor but they didnt use that partment but the more i saw the film, the story was already sold. Tolted. I saw the film about six times before i saw the film. Yeah. I just, the first time i saw it i was ju, i dont know what i was. I was stunned. Its like i had it was almost too personal. It was like it was something about it that just, i just couldnt deal with it, actually. He had trouble even getting me to do the looping. Im like im not going back in there. Im not going back in there. What do you mean. Well, it just you know, i let it hang out, no pun intended. And it just affected mement i didnt expect i mean i knew what i had done. I done know if it was me personally exposed but it was just a raw feeling i got from it. It was emotional. It was very emotional to watch. And to see all the way through and you know because it touches on so many areas, you know, relationships with your wife or exwife. With your children. Right. You know, and it may not be the same thing in my own life but i can relate, you know. And i remember having an argument with my son. It wasnt about alcohol or anything. But it was just, you know, i dont know. It was just honest. Next three actresses at critical moments in their careers. There are two narratives about the location of Osama Bin Laden. Jessica chas tain up chastain up for best actress is the cia analyst that gambles everything to pursue o bin laden in zero dark thirty. I didnt want to use your guys, i wanted to drop a bombment but people didnt believe in this to drop a bomb. So they are using you gys as canaries. And if bin laden isnt there, if you can sfleek away, no one will be the wiser. But bin laden is there. And youre going to kill him for me. What was it about mya that made you know you had to do it. When i read the script i was so blown away on page two, you know, even the way we meet maya, were introduced to this character. And i thought wait a minute theres a woman at the centre of this. Then i was up set at myself that i was so shocked that there would be a woman at the centre. Why wouldnt there bement and her strength and even when she comes up against brig walk brick walls whether it be interrogations that go where she wants or colleagues that dont believe in her lead, she doesnt take no for an answer. I was so inspired by her. And of course working with Kathryn Bigelow so immediately i sent kathryn an email that said if you want me, im there, if we can make the schedule work, im there. Are you happiest getting inside the character or the actual filming of the material. Im always happiest in filming because there is a freedom in that. You do all the work before which sometimes is really difficult because you have to go to very dark places, learn things about humanity that you didnt know or you know, these horrible things, create secrets for your character. Once i do that, i have this kind of book. This is who i am. I dont have to think about it any more. I just show up there and now its in me. And its like theres the intimacy between the actors that i find so incredible. Just being able to look at someone and have it mean so much. Its very rare even in, you know, walking down the street that we really look at someone. And theres something about filming that, like i said it makes me feel part of something bigger. You also say its a combination of twin lines. One is failure. Yes, i have a fear of failure. I always like when i sign on to something, im like am i going to be okay at this. But youre taking a chance and you know you can nail it. Or you have to think somewhere like i got thi evenf you dont have it, and they always wrestle with each other. Because if you ares too confident, you end up just not being good because your ego is driving efing. But also if you are too fearful you never take chances. Because if its scary, it means i dont know if i can do it which means ive never done it before. But it also means that if i throw myself into the lions den, you know, i may get eaten but also im going to have to rise to the challenge. And in doing so, sometimes i found actually ive always found that you learn more from failure than dow from success. So if im going to risk failure im going to throw myself out there, im not going to be good at this, thats fine because ill learn more. You do have deep ties to al qaeda before you get sent to your next vocation which might be israel. Depending on how candid you are today, i may be able to keep you in pakistan. What do you want to know. If you were teaching a master class about acting what would you want the students to know that you have learned . The most important thing i think is to prep before awe rife. Absolutely. If its someone who doesnt want to play themselve as the character. Like in zero dark thirty im not playing Jessica Chastain as a cia agent because then i would be crying throughout the whole movie. Yeah, no, its always for me the prep is about understanding the world that youre in, and really understanding the character. Understanding your similarities and your differences. Its a lot of homework. Thats absolutely what i would stress to people. Is it true theres a child and the child is my daughter but the father abandoned us leaving us flat ann hathaway supported for best actress in a supporting role. Her character is a wistful bird like creature who reminded us all of our own fragility. There were so many ways that all of this could have gone wrongment and really only one that it could have gone write. And i just put all my faith into the idea that everything was going to go well. And i didnt know how. And i had no guarantee but i just knew in my heart tha everything was going to be fine. Intellectually there was absolutely no guarantee whatsoever. But tom was so passionate and he had such a vision. And i remember hugh came back from his first day of filmingment we did a preshoot, did you a little preshoot. And where you went up into the mountains in france and did 24 takes of singing at the top of his register in freezing conditions and wooden clogs. And the crew came back and they just said oh my god its one of the most powerful things ive ever seen. So at that point i kind of relaxed and said i know there is something to this. Were going be to be fine. Rose your character is not a negative or positive, not a Glass Half Full or empty, your characters point of view is simply survival. Survival for her child. Rose right. Because i think my character as you mentioned becomes a prostitute. When she loses her job and i dont think thats something she would have done if she didnt have someone else to care for. Now she does not have her child. She had to live away from her child which i think is already just about the most painful condition that i person can be in. She leaves her dhild with a couple and in order to keep from having the stigma of being an unwed mother. Of course when it is discovered that she is, she loses her job and then pretty much realizes shes never going to be able to have her child again. And its survival aspect of it, its amazing what people are driven to do, not from the selfpreservation standpoint but what we will do to help each other. We will, we will become, we will live in a state of living death in order to do that which is what fon teen does. And it costs herr soul. I mean hugo has this amazing part of the book which im paraphrasing but he talks about how fontine had to harden her heart into a place of hate and turn her heart to stone but kept one small light alive in the bottom just for her daughter. And as he is describing all of these terrible things that happen to her and how she is becoming more and more animallistic, he has one sentence in the middle of these very long descriptive heartbreaking paragraphs and says she bore chipped her worshipped her child. And that was so powerful to me because i just thought this woman, shes not built for this world. She is too, and as you said its not a positive or a negative. She just simply, i think, i persony believe that fontune is part angel and i dont think she has a mind to navigate these waters. Thank you. Thank you. And best ago res nominee naomi watts portrays tsunami victim maria bennett. Her performance in the impossible bs ringus facetoface with the 2004 indian ocean tragedy. Youre a brave kid. Oh. Why did you do this . That story that is inside of the bigger story, well, i mean yeah that was a big story in itself. Just the beautiful relationships between these five people, and their need to survive and i just was struck by the courage that this woman had, and i mean i think when you go to see a film like this you always put yourself in that scenario and go how would i deal with this. Who would i be. And im certain i would be nothing like maria. But maria talks about it and say its you dont know. And i dont think we do know. And i think we need to understand it and the movie help its us. Rose you get beaten up by the elements. Yeah, yeah. Very much so. Rose was it exhausting to film. Yes, very exhausting am but every time you get to that point of feeling like youve reached your limit and wanting to complain and say no, im done k we to the do this any more, you would remember that this is nothing. We know were safe. We foe you know what they went through was a totally different experience. So you better shut up and get on with t youre just an actor and keep your complaints to yourself. I mean that was the water stuff was the physically draining stuff and and like nothing ive ever done before. And then we got to thailand and thats where all the emotional stuff. Where are you, because it seems as if you are getting much better roles. Oh, thank you, yeah. Its actually, yeah, despite what everyone says its all over at 40,. Rose its not all over at 40. Well, i dont think so, no. I think you just have to be up for reinventing it. And changing it. And yeah, you cant play the roles that you used to be able to play. But theres better ones around the corner. And i think the longer the life the deeper it gets and the roles should reflect that. And women above 40 or possibly going through bigger stories. And not just being the cute treat on someones arm. Not that i really ever was that. Directors are the captains of cinema. Our next nominees talk about their drive and inspiration. Ang lee exores the surreal with life of pi, rich imagery and 3d technology awaken our imagination asking to us take a leap of faith. My name is pi patel. I have been in a ship wreck. Mi on a life boat alone with a tiger. Please send help. So everybody else thought this was undoable unfilmable, impossible. And along comes afg lee and says no, i can do it. For a long time i thought the same thing. Rose yeah. Then i when i was asked to do it, i got seduced, it was so challenging. And two things made me take the leap of faithment one is having older pi tell the story, so you have the third person with a wise voice and the younger pi playing the story which is first person. So they are the same. So you have this w