Oscar 2013 Great Performances - TIME Magazine Feature

TIME Magazine features some of the actors recognized for their standout performances in 2013 Oscar-nominated films. Among them Jessica Chastain, Sally Field, Anne Hathaway, Quvenzhané Wallis, Naomi Watts, Amy Adams, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Hugh Jackman, Christoph Waltz, John Hawkes and John Goodman.

Photographs by Paola Kudacki 

  Jessica Chastain (Zero Dark Thirty), Sally Field (Lincoln)

Sally Field on her character in Lincoln: "Had there not been a Mary Todd, there wouldn’t have been an Abraham Lincoln. She was complicated and brilliant, and she had a keen sense of where she would be placed in history — she would not be looked at fondly.”  

 

On her co-star Daniel Day-Lewis: "Daniel's generosity is really unheard of. And I needed to find a relationship with this man, instantly. So, I came to his house and he said shall we have coffee. And I said, no. Like Mary, I want to get you out of the house…and we walked for hours… I was able to say to him, I need to touch you, I hope you don’t mind… It was the most magnificent work experience I’ve ever had in my life, I’ll never have it again like that, and I will cherish it until the day I die.”

Jessica Chastain on real-life characters in Zero Dark Thirty: “Because we’re playing characters that really exist, it was important to show the utmost respect when portraying them.”

 Quvenzhané Wallis (Beasts of the Southern Wild), Naomi Watts (The Impossible)

Quvenzhané Wallis on being nominated for an Academy Award: “I wasn’t surprised on the outside but I was on the inside.” 

Naomi Watts on her character in The Impossible: “She was so expressive and so detailed in everything she went through,” says Watts of Maria Belon, a survivor of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. “And everything she did go through is, blow by blow, what’s up there on the screen.”

 Amy Adams and Philip Seymour Hoffman (The Master)

Amy Adams on The Master's postwar setting: “We were a society in transition. Women were given responsibility in wartime, and then it was back to the kitchen and take care of your man. The perception of what was available to women in that era was so different.”

Philip Seymour Hoffman on his character: “L. Ron Hubbard is the reference, but it isn’t L. Ron Hubbard,” says Hoffman, who portrays a 1950s cult leader. “There are things he does that are referenced in L. Ron Hubbard’s life, but ultimately there is no adherence to any fact. We took liberties because he is a fictional character.” 

Hugh Jackman and Anne Hathaway (Les Miserables)

Hugh Jackman: “One of Victor Hugo’s main themes is how harsh and wasteful the jail system was,” says Jackman, whose Jean Valjean served 19 years for stealing a loaf of bread. “The goal wasn’t to turn you out rehabilitated. The goal was to turn you out as an animal.”

Anne Hathaway on her Les Miserables character: ““As a woman born in 1982, I take for granted so many freedoms that Fantine wouldn’t even dream of.”

 Christoph Waltz (Django Unchained) 

Waltz on Quentin Tarantino: "He knows genres 10 times better than any film professor. Quentin can take genres and play on them like an organ.” 

John Goodman (Argo), John Hawkes (The Sessions)

John Goodman on his Argo character: "He’s a man who serves his country. He has a double life, a secret life, and at the same time, he disguises people for a living.” 

John Hawkes on his character in The Sessions: “Mark O’Brien used to say that disabled people are invisible to able-bodied people. In between takes, I’d stay on a gurney, and crew members would set sandwiches and wardrobe people would lay coats on me. I got some idea of what it’s like to be thought of as furniture.”

Courtesy of TIME