>> rose: welcome to the program. tonight, our annual charlie rose oscar special.

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>> rose: this is that time of the year again the 86 academy awards will air sunday night march 2nd. the oscars are considered america's highest honor in film and this year's group has not disappoint. these movies range from stories about relationships, unlikely heroes, greed and desperation, to courage and inspiration. from 70's caper to historical drama this year's line up is filled with highest level of tourism. tonight we present moments with 17 nominees. we look at eight films up for best picture, director, actor and actress, screener play and cinematography. also during thisf® hour some contenders speak about their fellow artists. we begin with 12 years a slave. it is nominated for nine academy

awe wars and has already won best actor and best film. best actor nominee chiwetel ejiofor portrays real life musician and free man solomon who wrote a book about his abduction and life of slavery. at the table is michael -- plantation owner and best director nominee steve mcqueen. >> at one point i wanted to make a movie about slavery. it wasn't reference, it wasn't there to me. i wanted to sort of investigate that. i wanted to sort of find out about that in a way which wasn't sort of prepredicting, put of putting my fence on it but actually finding out, investigating it. what happened was i had this idea of a free man who was living north but he was pulled

into slavery. and what happened was it was a story i gave to my wife and she said why don't you sort of look at true accounts of slavery. okay. we both did different research and she found this book which is called 12 years a slave. she said to me i think i got it. she was talking understatement. what was so fascinating, i was turning over the pain -- page n the book was every page was revelation. >> i just read the script and it moved me to sort of tears by the end of it and i called him up and said look i want to be a part of it. having read it, i wanted to play but i knew for one minute it wasn't a shoe in. i said to steve i want to be part of it, one day's work, two day's work. it's an important story and great story. he was like what do you think of the character. i was like well you know, this

is amazing part. >> let servant. which knew his lord's will. which knew his lord's will. prepared not himself, prepared not himself. neither did according to his will shall be beaten with many stripes. >> the first time i read this script, i saw it in a way as kind of story of this is kind of an incredible story, incredible narrative. i think we see some the first time. i kind of, i saw the story of a man. he goes through this experience. and it was really later on and reading the book as well among other thing, that i realized that it is a story about him.

about this specific person going through these moments. and i think it was trying to get as close to him as possible that was the kind of revelation for me about the story, about his own personality. and the choices that he made were a kind of unique to him and to that journey. and those are the reasons that he was able to survive. ended up with me feeling that he was just a very special man. and i think the book, his book is a reflection of that as well. it's his attitude to the world, his attitude to his circumstances. >> rose: is there an he looks in his character while he's held. does he change. >> yes. i mean he starts off as a man who believes that he's in a battle for his freedom. but he comes to realize that he's in a battle for his mind and that's the point of change for solomon. that's the point of kind of

understanding what the environment can do for him. and i think that's the sort of psychological difficulty. that's the psychological kind of warfare, psychological drama of it all. >> this is sort of a remarkable experience. one of the most amaze, i mean the most amazing experiences i've had as an actor and one of those experiences for one's self. it just takes a bit of breath and i'm just enjoying kind of opening the film and showing it to people and talking about it. and i feel like there's still so much to say about it. that it's not one, like another film that you open and you just sort of get tired of the conversation about it. it's something that i think really does still inform me. >> rose: a transformational character is every actor's dream. the next two nominees for best actor talked about the unique opportunity to take that on.

leonardo dicaprio plays in martin scoresy the wolf of wall street. bruce dern has taken when he calls the roll of a lifetime. he's woody grant on a road trip across the mid west with his son. >> i knew i waited a long time to get in a position in my age group of guys for that kind of role could come my way, that i would be considered down to maybe last three or four. and this time they actually gave me the baton. it's an alexander payne movie. he may not be synonymous with that yet but as far as i'm concerned, he's six for six. he's made six pretty good movies in a row. secondly, he's basically the lynchpin of the move. he drives the movie a certain way and it kind of follows him. it's teamwork, that's behind the

camera too. he's got 85 people on the crew and 47 have worked every day on every movie he's ever made. so you have a family. >> rose: alexander payne you said, you didn't know your father well. but he helped you know your father. >> he gave to me the things i expected to get from a father. support. i never got that at home. alexander gave me that. he's a movie fan so he sees a lot of the movies i've been in. and there was something in there that he felt he could use to surprise the folks. i don't think people would anticipate the performance that i do in this movie. i don't think there's another movie that i've done where you can say oh yeah he's obviously woody, you know. because i'm always the quick guy, the guy that drives it, the guy that does this or that and the guy that motivates a movie turning on one way or another. >> going to lincoln if it's the last thing i do. i don't care what you people

think. >> listen to me, you didn't win anything. it's a complete scam. you got to stop this, okay. >> i'm running out on time. >> you don't even have a suitcase. >> i'm not staying there. >> dad, i can't let you go. >> none of your business. >> he told me the first day go out there on the edge, stay there every day like you like to do and we got your back. and then he's sitting right here, not way over there at a monitor, right here and he gets the life out of watching the movie for the first time. >> rose: so what do you think all of this attention would do. i mean, do you even think about that or are you just simply enjoying the experience and all the recognition that's come from you having the role of a lifetime. >> when i got the job, at 77, 76 then, i realized it was an at-bat. >> i tell the story because i

haven't seen him in the theatre bill girth grapes. it was on television but i thought it was a documentary at first because the acting was so, i hadn't recognized anyone. i didn't know you in it and i sat and watched the entire picture and was amazed. >> i read this book and i couldn't believe this man in this life-style survived. >> rose: didn't you actually talk to him during the making of the film in some way. >> quite incestently. i was candid and honest with me what he went through. a lot of times we would talk about sections in the book. not only was it that bad i was ten times worse and i'm going to tell you why. i really appreciated that because i think from marty's perspective, he wanted to have a little bit of distance from that subject but i needed to speak to him just to get the nuances and the detail of what these scenes

were like. >> i'm not mistaken. you just tried bribe a federal office. >> there needs to be an exact dollar figure. that would not hold up in a court of law. >> i heard it. >> no, that's the truth. but i want to tell you this. the same gentleman that told me that you tried to get your broker's license also told me that you were a straight arrow. >> you ran a security check. when you sail in a boat sometimes you need to play the part. >> there was an incredible freedom in this process. once you set pop characters whose one and only concern is their own indulgence the script was set up that way. it's almost like this drug infused ride that we go on that where people are incredibly motivated by greed. we didn't cut away to the

ramifications of the action. we didn't cut away to the other people at the end of the line to see how they were affecting the guy that just lost his mortgage. it was this hypnotic voyage forward constantly consuming everything within your path. when you set up that kind of attitude onset, it's every actor's sort of dream. >> rose: when you are going through all this and making this movie, what was the hardest thing for you. >> the pre production process in a lot of ways. i think that constantly reaffirming to ourselves the type of movie we want to do. the fact we wanted to take a lot of chances and really questioning, you know, what, how an audience would react to all this stuff. we had to kind of reaffirm that within one another. there was a lot of different sequences where the character could have gone another direction but we kind of said to ourselves look, you know, there was one in particular where it starts to get very dark towards the end of the movie.

and jordan does some pretty horrific things to his wife. i remember somebody bringing up the subject of whether the audience would still be with our lead at that point and whether we into betray an audience. >> $y didn't mean any of it. >> daddy shouldn't waste his time and from now on it's going to be nothing but short, short skirts around the house. do you know something else daddy, mommy is just so sick and tired of wearing panties. >> yeah? >> yeah. >> no touching. >> it's pretty amazing to think of the type of actor or the type of career that i wanted to have

at 15 and to still be sitting here getting to do the type of work that i want to do is, i don't think i could have imagined it to tell you the truth. and i feel very fortunate and lucky to be in this position. and i never forget that, i think. i never forget that, you know, not everyone can, you know, do what they love. i'm getting to do that. >> i share great appreciation for what's been done before me and it's almost like this, it's reaching for the clouds. you're trying to constantly achieve something that great within your lifetime and you have to keep questioning yourself. >> rose: two of hollywood's most talented actresses came to the table, sandra bullock and cate blanchett. in gravity directed by alfonso cuaron, sandra bullock is dr. rhinestone, an astronaut awe

drifted in or bit after their shuttle was destroyed. cate blanchett stars in woody allen's blue jasmyne. she is a new york socialite whose life is turned up side town. tell me about jasmine. >> jasmine, well there's a broken flower. she's a very combustible cocktail of rage, one of the most epic fantasists creation on the part of woody. >> rose: an actor's delight. >> yes. confused and complicated. she is broken and delusional which is always fun to play. and someone with an incredible sense of romanticizing into self. >> rose: she's an east sider, married, cousin turns out to be not only having affairs but a fraud so the empire collapses and she flees to san francisco. >> yes. >> rose: she has a sister but not of the same parent.

>> yes. >> rose: what does she find there. >> i think she finds reality which is incredibly difficult to deal with. i mean there's a long tradition i think in american drama to think about tennessee williams creating women in particular who walk that terrifying border between fantasy and reality. and who choose to trace into the fantasy because the reality's too brutal. >> i want to go back to school, get my degree and become, you know, something substantial. >> you can't just do some minor job. forced to take a job selling shoes on madison avenue. oh, so humiliating. >> you have to have the ability in film to switch on absolutely and switch off absolutely. >> rose: you always have to keep in context where you're supposed to be in that moment in that narrative.

>> yes. for example working for blue jasmine the script is struggured even though there's no on site dialogue with woody about it. obviously she's on a cocktail 06 xanax, when she was on it and when she was off it. and strangely a lot of that, a lot of that chatting from me comes in the costume and wardrobe fitting because you got to work out it sounds very shallow, where you were and what where and that sort of anchors me. >> rose: the ease more you know the easier it gets or the more difficult it gets. >> i think the more you know the more difficult it gets. i think once you've arrived at a certain place or perceivedglhave it's harder and harder to keep taking those risks. >> rose: because you're playing against yourself. >> no, because i think there's a sense, when you walk through the door, if you walk through the door playing queen elizabeth, then that's the way people

expect you to keep walking. and so it's harder for you to say actually i'm not interested in doing that. i want to do that. i mean and to keep sort of pushing yourself into places that may not necessarily be well received or necessarily work. >> silence. >> she's fearless. that's the thing. she's fearless and she told me from the get-go she wanted to step out of her comfort zone. she really wanted to explore and go for it. and it was really remarkable. i mean like the amount of preparation she did and the discipline and the precision. i never worked with an actor who is as precise as sandra. >> rose: is this the hardest movie over ever had to make. >> in the best way, yes. >> rose: in the best way. >> yes. because everything -- >> rose: more challenging but

most exciting. >> exciting and rewarding. and also the most, once i figured out that i was fighting it and i should actually be using everything that was frustration and that limited me. all the thing that frustrated me were actually things once i figured out were of benefit because it's ostensibly the same thing that's happening to the character in space. it's the loss of control, the frustration, the loneliness, the isolation. instead of fighting it you sort of embraced it and it became a friend rather than something that was a problem. >> what's the transformation in ryan. >> she's allowing or brain and her skills and what she's good at to sort of propel her through life. everything's rhythmic, everything's perfunctory. there's nothing in life that has any meaning if she can at all avoid it. so what kind of person is she at that point when she has to decide to fight for her life. is she going to be someone who just says i'm going to take this opportunity and let go and let myself die or is she going to take this opportunity and left

go and let whatever comes come but accept that she might, it might be worth fighting for something. so it's interesting to see when a person comes to that crossroads when they get what they wish which is you can make that choice and let go of life and not fight for it anymore. >> i know, i'm going to die. everybody knows that. but i'm going to die today. to know. the thing is that i'm still scared, i'm really scared. >> rose: suppose you were disciplined enough, would you have liked to have become a dancers. >> absolutely. i never would have made it as a dancers. i'm not disciplined enough. but i did look back and i go the love of dance, my parents musical background, piano for years just timing and rhythm and everything being musically motivated.

once that clicked for me while we were shooting honey said of someone barking out counts and sometime, like stop it. i could subconsciously figure out how to carry out the scene rhythmically like a dancers team. >> rose: had you been somewhere like that in your life. >> knock on wood i don't have to experience what she experienced. we all get knocked about. it comes back to the metaphor letting go. it's easier said than done. but going back in and saying i'm going to say yes to an experience that scares the heck out of me. >> i can't see you anymore. do it now. >> if it scares me for the right reasons which is creatively, that's good. if i say i'm going to be around energy that's not, that's going to make life seem fall into the life too short category, then you don't say yes. i didn't see this as a life too short category. i saw this as hopefully a way to get over a lot of fears that i

had. and i did. and it was, you know, the sweetest time i've had in a very long time. i'll never have this experience again. i'll never have all these elements come together again. i know that and nor am i looking for it. but i want to fight for something that is different and challenging and ask the most of me. i thought i did that before but i realize never to this degree but doing it to this degree taught me a lot about myself that i had no idea existed. the person i went into this was not the person that came out the other end at all. >> rose: films are defined by the vision of a director. the next four nominees offer unique perspective on life. david o. russell's american hustle is a sweeping tale of two small town conartists. they're forced to help the f.b.i. and get entangled in a world of new jersey's mafia and political corruption. it has lived ten nominations.

alexander payne's nebraska is a poem about a father and a son through trial and error they learn about each other while being reminded of the finality of life and the importance of relationships. martin scoresy returns with his comedy the wolf of wall street. this film is a rock through the greed and excesses of the financial world. this is his ninth career nomination. and alfonso cuaron, his film gravity also secured ten nominations. gravity is a 3-d space thriller about loneliness, courage and the will to live. >> the funny thing is before we start writing the thing we talk about space. so we defined that it was going to be adversity. we were talking about the scenario, the possible scenarios and that it was going to this

image of an astronaut to the point. >> rose: how long did it take you to make it. >> total four and-a-half years >> rose: how much of that was getting the actors and money together. >> no, it was four and-a-half years because we have to develop the whole technology and stuff for two and-a-half years. then we shot and then it was pretty much two years of putting everything together again. when i read the screen may i send it to shivo. this is a small simple intimate film. we can do it in one year. you know, like some visual effects. but when trying the combination, it was clear it was not going to work. so we needed to find a way of making that work. and one of the principles that we discovered is try to move the actor as little as possible and try to move the universe around

as much as possible. he have this idea of experimenting with life. this image that life with travel and expaneled. that's the point of departure. we combined that with robots, the ones that used to build cars. >> put a hole in it dr. stone. >> i can't. the board's still initializing. >> i'm not going to ask you again. >> one second. >> not onecond,e s now. shut it down. that's an order. >> okay, i'm sorry. i'm sorry, i'm done. >> as a writer we always say we have composed a screen play in harmony and sandra came to giver the melody. and it's true literally in the sense that there was in a script like that sandra read, it was every single scene that you see in the film. but the way of taking the character that was still open to

interpretation. and sandra was so adamant to work, to make sure that every single detail was going to work for the theme of the film. >> rose: what's the theme of the film. >> the theme of adversity. the theme of loneliness. the journey's a journey of adverse ities and the goal is rebirth. we fall very easily in our comfort zone. even if we're going through hard times everything we follow our, we're a victim of our own inertia. and life has its way to beat the crap out of you to put you in your place by beating the crap out of you. sometimes if you're too much in your comfort zone. >> rose: you're repeating yourself. >> yes, but sometimes life is generous and sends you adversities, you know. because it's what you need to shake you a little bit. >> i was becoming a legend. >> rose: okay you made a film

with martin scoresy. >> most my favorite artist of all time. he's my rerow creatively. the most impressive things about him. you'll encounter problems onset whether whatever reason either visually, the acting or writing. whatever it is. but what martin scorsese can do is fix a problem for me to go like that. as simple as oh the glass is turned the wrong way. that's how he fixes a massive problem with many moving parts. >> rose: boom, it's done. >> yeah. >> i was fascinated by the possibility of a person who has

hat, has the talent of persuasion. superb salesman can sell anything. when money occurs he or she is able to move ahead that way. and then there's no restraint. the thing is in terms of the confidence man. the confidence takes your confidence. you confide in him. you different him your trust and he betrays you. the confidence man is always charming. it can be in business, in art or in love. >> rose: somebody will say most movies are an hour and-a-half and hear you have a three hour movie. do you simply say this is what i need to tell the story that i was born to tell with this story? >> mm-mm. >> rose: not a minute less not a minute more. >> no. i tried to cut it as much as possible. this is where we, when the dust

settles, this is where we were. she's my editor from raging bull since 1980. both of us, we moved into my house and just worked day and night. worked day and night for a year on the picture. i really tried to get it as tight as possible. but then to take the risks of creating this whirlwind of a picture and then slowing it seemed to take very long scenes that you'd think it would stop the flow. >> rose: in fact you said that's where you're the happiest,. >> that's where you have the best time. >> rose: you know you have great performances and you can decide how you use them how the music plays. >> yes, exactly. i work off the music but the thing is of course even if we're in trouble we know the trouble's there. we have it. there are ways to go. we work out thing we work it out together without a thousand people around us. >> rose: you take a good

performance and make it into a great performance. >> i think you can. i think you can. >> i can't think i've ever been? been in house this big before. >> you don't try to make any apologies in a sense, to even create a kind of, i don't know. >> rose: sort of capture the -- >> yes, to see, to see maybe i'm more out of frustration of the situation and the way things are now from anything else. just go ahead. >> rose: you never had a moment where you said i've got to find a way to make him likeable. >> $26,000 for what. >> no, no, this could be explained. we had clients. we had clients. >> right, the port house. >> the expensive champagned. >> toed the line and this is the movie we made with it. it's hard because you have to deliver, the way the marketplace

is now, there are certain kinds of blockbuster pictures they have to sell. i don't believe i'm made for that, you know. they need a certain kind of product. which is theirs, which is fine. i can't do it. it was just was what it was and it's gone, that's it so we just move on and we take advantage of what is new. new technology, the new marketplace. the new marketplace makes films like bigger blockbusters, fine. but it's important for the young people to know there's other kinds of cinema. and we have to fight for this space to make the picture, whether it's like you know the anderson films, the cohen brothers. there's got to be places where they should be supported, you know. >> rose: the this the best time of your life. >> it's a great time. it's an amazing time.

71 years. >> rose: you love it with the same intensity that you had. >> i do. ♪ >> tell you when he first saw it on the paper, he somehow knew it should be black and white. when you go out there, he knows he's going to shoot landscape and texture of faces. and black and white, the texture of those faces in there. you go back and look at the history, look at the women from the 30's and 40's, and those magnificent faces. are just incredible. that's black and white. >> rose: talk a bit about the origins of this film and what you felt you were making. >> when i was making it and when i watched the film, and i'm not saying anyone else has to get this out of it. for me it's more about a man preparing to die. and to go over the hill and lie under a tree. and the son offering to help him, to take him there. i found it very much informed by

death and fixing to say and the son wishing to have one more chance to know his unknowable father and ask him questions he wished to ask him. it's quite dream-like. you're on your way out of this planet you wave good-bye to public acclaim to forces that oppose you and to the love you never had. >> rose: in your dreams are you looking for new ideas. >> i think you have to be open all the time. if something strikes you and makes you go huh, you have to pay attention to that and maybe other people will pay attention to that too. i try to have that same approach during the entire process of making a film. the approach for example that hitchcock has said to have had that he had the entire film alreadyéin his brain and the acf making a film is merely executing that plan. i don't, i don't, i can't work that way at all.

the screen play is merely a suggestion of a possible film. and then beginning with casting and location scouting, i just have to be open to what it could be. >> rose: you are a student of films, though. >> i like movies. >> rose: you like movies. >> i do. >> rose: you've specifically made this black and white. >> great film heritage is in black and white. i don't think, i mean it's only for commercial reason that it's left our cinema. it never left fine arts photography, it's just accepted as a beautiful form. and i think nowadays that recording visual information digitally and presenting it in so much, in hd and so many k and things look so vivid and so real, i don't think we necessarily want that from the cinema. you want art in general and cinema what i think about to transform the image, to give us the recognizable in a new way. in a beautiful way. and the beautiful color images we see to me aren't half as

beautiful as technicolor and i think black and white is a great way to do that. we don't want servitude in everything, certainly not in art. >> rose: why is film making exciting for you? >> i think those of us who love film and there are so many around the world we love life, we love stories we love gossip. obviously the thrill that narrative art gives us to live vicariously through the lives of others, the experiences, the stories of others. and there is something too beautiful and unique about making a film which is 150-200 artists, individual artists working together toward a common goal. and there's nothing like that in the world currently. rather than being the creator of a film, i feel like i'm directing the creative, the creativity of others. fomenting and conducting their

creativity. so for example, the guys who put the lights never meet the violinists who play the score who in turn never meet the colorists who is doing the final imagery but i get to meet them all. i'm enriched by it and i'm in awe of their skills. >> definition of director. he's directing you into this place and allows you to feel like you're the one walking through the door first but always being there. and making sure that you're going to push yourself beyond places you never thought you could go. and you watch every single actor. there is no simple scene. you're walking down the street. you tend to lay back. we'll get through this in a couple takes. everything is high stakes life or death let's find the comedy, let's find the cinematic magic. there are five things he goes by he just never settles. >> i'm looking for amazing characters, charlie.

characters that do have the predictments that show the humanity and i'm going to make the story background and the people and their emotions foreground. >> rose: you put the people out there and it's not the nuts and bolts of abscam but their relationships. and the connections he has to the truth then there he is. but the reality of their lives. >> that's owe mostly true. you can find the truth. as irving says you find it from the feet up not the ears up. you come from deep down and you steel stories about people i suddenly saw before my eyes lies and loves making cinema. which these stories begin with someone who has been shattered or lay load or is in a terrible predicament. i love watching people pick themselves back up. not what they live for but their predicament. >> rose: which you got in this film. >> which they live for. >> rose: so you're looking for actors. >> i like to reach out. >> rose: are you writing after you select your actors or before you select your actors. >> this movie i was in christian

bale's back year with jennifer lawrence and amy adams and deniro's house and it inspires me to create something. then you have to leave a tapestry that shies all five. that's hard to do to make a story that propels and shows these chiropractors. >> rose: how have movies helped you in your life. >> you live in a story of mythology, like people in the camp fires. you go into a theatre which is a temple of storytelling or you're watching at home and you have to leave what's in your head at the door and you're lost in this world. i want you to feel intensely and moving so propulsively and emotionally that it's over before you know it. and you're moved and you got to go back and think about it but you feel exhilarated, you feel alive. when you look at the world you're looking through the movie's eyes and it frames life for you a little bit. anything can do that. art can do that. >> rose: every great actor

can be enhanced by a wingman. the next two best supporting actor nominees is remarkable examples. jonah hill has a performance as a carnal ambitious character in the wolf of wall street. and bradley cooper goes full throttle with the fbi agent in david o. russell's american hustle. >> i fell in love with him, i think we fell in love with richey demasso. he gets up and basically glor fies white collar crime. you watch this man go from innocence to wisdom by the end of the movie which is a direct reflection of or inverse reflection of christian's character who does the opposite. he's a pension lent child basically. he's 15 years old and he wants desperately to be a man and he comes across these people that seem mythic and larger than life. irving rose felled and edith greensly. >> hour do you think this will

work stupid. >> if you don't call him stupid. you work for him now and he's in control. >> okay. >> rose: tell me what happened to richey and what he was going through. first of all he was falling in love. >> he didn't see that coming. you're like 15 years old and you want to hang out with the older kids and you think you can live that life and once you get there it's overwhelming and he doesn't know quite where to stand and the bottom falls out from under him and what he thinks he can handle he can't. one of the moments he's telling edith greensly, amy adam's character, we have to do it, this is the time i love you, i love you. she kisses him back and gives him what he wants and actually tells him something for real for the first time in the movie her name is cindy and she's from new mexico. he doesn't have the tools to handle that. >> stop it. you're british, i checked your records. >> i falsified my records.

i falsified them. i'm from albuquerque, new mexico. >> you're freaking me out. >> this is the moment in the film where she has to make a turn. and the whole thing is, is she conning him or is she not conning him. is she real, is he having feelings for him or is it part of the hustle. he's going in the rolodex and saying wait a minute everything that happened in the studio, that's not real. because now i'm scared. >> rose: is this the best time of your life. >> yes. >> rose: because you get an opportunity to do the kind of things you were trained to do. things you love and work with people you like. >> i know that i feel very happy that i'm comfortable in this place.

that's a really calming feeling. to be able to enter into these situations with a steady heart is a wonderful feeling as opposed to feeling something else. but i truly don't know, you know. i just try not to fear it's going to go away like that. i just want to enjoy it. >> rose: jonah hill. the great jonah hill. >> it's amazing. when you can have a certain thought process for what you think a scene is going to be and someone comes in and tears everything apart in front of you and you have to ride with it. >> leonardo dicaprio character and my character starts with this company that sells penny stocks and basically under serving people working class people by selling them a dream. >> rose: and who is donny your character. >> he's my character and he is probably the closest thing to an

animal ever portrayed on screen as far as no impulse control, no moral decision-making. just someone completely heartless. >> rose: how did you prepare for it. >> i met with leonardo dicaprio before i met with martin scorsese. i seen them exist and really was saddened by the fact they don't care about anything besides things. all they care about is more and more and feeling some hole that's never going to be filled and not caring to get those thing. i said i have to play this character. it was an interesting process

because i'm usually not asking the director saying, especially my favorite filmmaker of all time going i have to play this character. because any actor who says i have to play this character for you martin scorsese, you know. >> yeah, yeah. i do all right for myself. >> i'm trying to put together, i need to understand, how much money do you make. >> i don't know, 70,000 last month. i'm serious. >> no, i'm serious too. seriously, how much money. >> i told you, 70,000. technically 72,000. >> i tell you what. you show me a pay stub for $72,000 i quit my job right now and i work for you.

>> that is the scene to donny. that's donny's intro into the film. that clip is the first time you see him in the film imposing over jordan, you know, asking really inappropriate questions like how much do you make. >> rose: is that your car. >> is that your car. why do you have so much money. like i don't understand, tell me why you have more money than i do. it's really like a kid kind of putting together why is your lollipop bigger than my lollipop, do you know what i mean. it's very imposing. and you know, i just, it was such a great way to meet this character because that's what he is. he walks right up to you, gets in your face and asks you inappropriate questions and you do not realize he's being completely inappropriate. >> rose: how do you get better other than just doing it. >> you work with people better than you. i probably got way better than i ever have working on this film.

just better as an actor that i'll bring to other movies as i go on. >> rose: do you have fear or you don't have fear. you are willing to risk it all. >> i would do anything if i truly knew i understood the character and the filmmaker was going to make it honest to the character and it was going to be a great film or play. >> rose: you'd do anything. >> if martin scorsese asked me to do anything for this character i would have done it. and it pretty much do. >> rose: screen writing and cinematography are two pillars of film making. you need talent and mannation. here are four notable nominees. steve coogan who found a story in fill me know. he stars with judy dench. co-right as best adapted screen plane. also up are richard ling later,

ethan hawks and julie delpy. they are the winning team behind the film the evolution of an american parisian couple over two decades. then there is woody allen who is nominated for best original screen play for penning blue jasmyne. cate blanchett had a few words about his artful writing. and the great roger deacon. prisoners has earned him his 11th career nomination. jake gyllenhaal spoke about his mastery. >> it was like going back to school. it was the first time i had a chance to work jazz -- as a kind of genius. >> as an actor and someone to loves film being in his frame is pan extra lesson. he is obviously telling a story as most great cinema togopher

like he is to reflect in. what he does is minds blowing. he makes you a better actor. >> he's absolutely brilliant dramatist. he's incredible unique, species and rare. he will tell you when it's not working and he won't necessarily point you in the right direction. seeing this is the guy that need bananas. which way is it going to fall because when i read the script it was hilarious. when i met woody he said this is serious. he walks that line between serious and painful. >> can i ask you that question. >> sure. >> would you find me attractive. >> of course. >> the main character that movie in a lot of ways is time. when you make a movie that spans

18 years and you watch what people's relationship to romantic love is, what it means to you in your early 20's, it feels like to connect with a woman for the first time. and then as you get 30 and it starts to get a little bit more complicated and a little bit more interesting. and then by the time you're in the middle of the road, it's actually a lot of things at one time. and our goal, a little one is to try to make a deeply romantic movie that didn't have one lie in it. >> i've worked with other people, i've written with other people. but there's like some people you really connect and i think we have a kind of you know, it's very interesting how we kind of i know that sounds crazy because writers, directors, have big egos but we put egos aside when we work together. it's not all about the work. >> we don't only act in the

movie we co-created the movie. you get to perform, it's a unique opportunity. it's like from the dna out, the movie grows and we're a part of it. >> the truth is, for us to even get to write an excellent. we don't get into even writing a word until we figured out what happened. we would hate to be doing another film. i mean even this film i don't think we would have gone into it if we didn't feel we had some kind of something to say about where they're at, about what it's like. >> you don't want to be writing the same things, that's the key. >> you're very -- >> i'm on to you. >> they spend 80 plus minutes just getting to know each other again. it's about a reconnection and a recondominium -- kindling of what was special. even though lives are much more complex you kind of feel like they really are soul mates.

>> can i ask you. is it possible not to use my real name when you write the story. would you call me nancy. i always like that story. >> it was about the catholic church who sold my child. it moved me, it moved me to tears. i decided i thought i could maybe tell a story. >> rose: what was the biggest challenge to make it, the advantage i had unlike a studio film, it's like a comedy it's a drama, it's all delineated. and actually life involves a little bit of tragedy and a little bit of comedy. they were very comfort many bed fellows and they would coexist well together. that was the part i thought this is a good idea this is a good thing. and it will be different because there are equal parts are laughter.

>> he's a junk addict martin. he's obese. >> obese. >> i watched this documentary that says a lot of the americans are huge. what if that happened to him. because of the size of the portions. >> rose: because comedy requires so many different kinds of skills. it might be harder to make the transition to film if you're not a comic. >> comics can overthink things. that's why they're good sometimes. they pause there and you're going to get the whraf. if you just delivered the line quietly you'll get people laughing. sometimes you have to forget about laughter and do what not comes natural to a comic performance. that's something you have to acquire just the advantage of listening. >> i just finished my. >> yes. this is the revelation of horse

trading. >> it's not about horses. >> i wanted to make this story something which was although it was a tragedy that happened in her life with her son, i wanted people to be somehow leave the cinema in an optimistic or hopeful frame of mind. so the way to find that in the story was to be led by philomena because her fortitude and stoicism was quite inspiring. >> rose: we wish all the nominees the best of luck on sunday. it's a great honor to be nominated, even better to win. we loved the movies and we will be watching. it is a night in which film honors its craft. for all of us here this evening, we thank you for joining us. we'll see you next time.

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this is "nightly business report" with tyler mathisen and susie gharib. brought to you in part by -- >> the street.com. founded by jim cramer, the street.com is an independent source for stock market analysis. cramer's action alerts plus service is home to his multimillion dollar portfolio. you can learn more at the street.com/nbr. record close. fed chair janet yellen puts investors in a buying mood, pushing s & p to new highs at the close. should her comments be interpreted as a green light for stock investors? return to profit. a surprisingly strong quarter for electronics retailer best buy. but is it proof that the company's turn around is on solid footing? and what did general motors know and when did they know it? regulators are asking whether