I watched Gone Baby Gone last night and was completely blown away. It had everything working for it, (great direction, acting etc) so kudos to all. More than anything, I love Amy Ryan’s performance.
Ryan is a Best Supporting Actress nominee for her brilliant portrayal and complete embodiment as Helene, the crack addict mother of a missing child.
Hollywood.com recently featured an interview with Amy Ryan about her role in Gone Baby Gone, her Oscar nomination, and her plans for Oscar night. Below are some of my favorite excerpts from the interview.
On handling the nominations and all the attention: “It goes in waves. I’m having a really good laugh and living on Airborne [laughs]. It’s so hard. Even if there are days that are harder than others I remind myself constantly that these are good problems to have.”
On the role of Helene and it being the “role of a lifetime”: Yes, when I got the script for the audition. At first though I read the first two scenes and I was like, “Great.” Then I saw that she kept coming back and I thought, “There’s no chance in hell that I’m going to get this part. It’s too good. It’s too good.” I thought that there would be a long list of ladies that it would go to. I know that movies get sold because of people with more note and recognition. So I didn’t really even think that there was a chance of getting it, but I knew from reading it thagreat inspiration from over the years. It’s really been like a tapestry of performances from women and Gene Hackman even…it’s just endless.
On her inspirations: Oh, gosh, it was really like Shirley MacLaine and as I got older it was the performances of and watching Meryl Streep and even Cate Blanchett. These are women that I’ve drawnWire. He plays Sobotka and he said, “Get out of your own way.”
You can read the interview in its entirety here.
@Cinefille 