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Thursday, January 19, 2012

W Magazine Feature: 'Best Performances of 2011' George Clooney, Rooney Mara, Leo DiCaprio, Charlize Theron, Brad Pitt and more

W Magazine honors the actors who gave some of the best performances of 2011 with an editorial in their February 2012 issue. If you missed the dual cover shoot featuring Charlize Theron and Brad Pitt, click here and here.

 George Clooney in The Descendants and The Ides Of March

"The last time I really cried at one of my movies was at the premiere of Batman & Robin. I thought that might be the end of my career and I might have brought down a franchise, and I wept."

 

Giorgio Armani tuxedo, shirt, bow tie, and cuff links.

 

Viola Davis In The Help 

 

“No matter what, people don’t think of me for glamorous parts. I’ll go to an audition or a meeting in a pretty dress, and they still think of me as depressed or embattled. Hopefully, that will change.” 

 

Dolce & Gabbana dress. Camilla Dietz Bergeron Ltd. necklace

Michelle Williams in My Week With Marilyn

 

“The movie that made me cry most recently was Silent Light, which is about the Mennonite community. The film is very naturalistic, and then all of a sudden, magic realism is introduced: A woman in her coffin slowly starts to wake up. I thought I was seeing things. I started to cry so hysterically that the person I was with suggested we leave—he said I was disrupting the audience. And he was bored. I think he was embarrassed by my crying. I made us stick it out, but that was kind of the end of that relationship.”

Moschino jacket; Eres bra; Moschino shorts. 
Ippolita bracelet; Falke hosiery; Manolo Blahnik shoes.

 

Leonardo DiCaprio in J. Edgar

 

DiCaprio came to this shoot sucking on an electronic cigarette. “I have an oral fixation,” he explained, as smoke engulfed his head. He had recently arrived from Australia, where he was shooting The Great Gatsby in 3-D, and became upset when someone asked him for an autograph. He seemed much more interested in leaving than being in the studio. As he rushed out the door, he noticed a toy Smurf that belonged to a child on the set. “I played with these when I was your age,” DiCaprio said, as he stopped suddenly to talk to the little girl. For a moment, he was genuine—kind, even—but he was late for a party or a dinner or a plane. It was time to be somewhere else. And then he was gone.

DiCaprio’s own suit and shirt.

 

Kirsten Dunst in Melancholia

Olatz slip. Dunst’s own earrings.


Rooney Mara In The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

“For a year, I was Lisbeth Salander—I only wore black; I lived her life. Before this movie, I didn’t even have pierced ears. They put four holes in each ear, and my eyebrow and nipple were pierced. The only thing that concerned me was riding the motorcycle. I wasn’t nervous about the anal rape scene, but the motorcycle had me worried.”

Nina Ricci top.


Christopher Plummer in Beginners and The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

 “I call The Sound of Music ‘S&M.’ I did the movie for practical reasons: It was big bucks. And then I thought it would be bye-bye. I don’t sing­—not even in the shower—and I thought, This will be a great lesson. But I didn’t think it was a very interesting part. I was determined to drink a lot and be sarcastic and cynical. S&M needed a bad boy to remind everyone how sluggishly gooey it might become. I may have kept the movie from becoming a sentimental bore.” 

 

 
Plummer’s own suit, shirt, and bow tie.


Melissa Mccarthy in Bridesmaids

 

“When I watch Up, it makes me weep like a lunatic. I was pregnant the first time I saw it, and the first six or seven minutes destroyed me. I’m not allowed to watch it anymore because I turn into a complete wreck.”

Helen Yarmak coat; Va Bien bustier. Cartier earrings and necklace.


Tilda Swinton in We Need To Talk About Kevin

“As a child, I felt like a changeling at odds with the planet I arrived on. I didn’t understand the world I was born into, and that feeling of dissonance colored my youth. I saw that rigidness existed, and as a result, for me, rigidness got a bad name. Looseness was far better. And I gravitated toward a different life.”

Swinton’s own blouse; Dolce & Gabbana bra and briefs. Falke hosiery; Christian Louboutin shoes.
 

Albert Brooks in Drive

 

“I got Drive because I told my manager that I thought I could make an interesting villain. I read the script, and they asked me to go to the director’s house to meet him. We chatted, and on my way out I pinned him up against the wall by his front door. He’s Danish, and he’s already very pale. ‘What are you doing?!’ he asked. I was very quiet: ‘I just want you to know that I have great physical strength.’ So he gave me the part.”

Giorgio Armani tuxedo jacket, shirt, and bow tie. Brooks’s own glasses.


Antonio Banderas in The Skin I Live In

 

“When you work in a different language, your emotional state changes. In Spanish, my mother language, words not only have the meaning they have—they also have a personal meaning. For me, it is more difficult to say ‘Te quiero’ than ‘I love you.’”

Emporio Armani tank top. Banderas’s own necklace and ring.

Shailene Woodley in The Descendants

“I did a ton of commercials growing up. My friends would go to soccer practice, and I would go to an audition. It was just a fun hobby. It’s still a fun hobby—nothing more.”

Eres bra and briefs.

Charlize Theron in Young Adult

 

Click here to see her entire cover shoot. 

 

  

Brad Pitt in The Tree Of Life and Moneyball

 

Click here to see his entire cover shoot. 



Gary Oldman in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

 


Will Ferrell in Everything Must Go

 

“When I read bedtime stories to my three sons, I try to do funny voices, and I immediately get a lot of crap for it. They say, ‘Papa, what are you doing? Just use a regular voice!’ They’re not impressed. They don’t find me funny.” 
Derek Rose pajamas. Ferrell’s own ring

Octavia Spencer in The Help

 

“I don’t know how to cook or bake or prepare anything in the kitchen, and my character, ­Minny, is a fantastic cook. That was the hardest part of playing her. I don’t know how to do anything other than get a plate from the cabinet and stick something in the microwave.” 
Elie Tahari sweater.

Jean Dujardin in The Artist

 

“When I won best actor at the Cannes film festival, Robert De Niro, the president of the jury, gave me the award. I was scared. It’s not my job to win a prize, especially a prize from De Niro. He leaned in and whispered to me, ‘You’re good. You’re good.’ I had grown up loving Goodfellas, and I almost fainted.” 
Boss Black shirt and tie. Rolex watch.

Courtesy of W Magazine

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