Freida Pinto
Film: Slumdog Millionaire
Release date: November 12
Age: 24
Role: Latika, an orphan from Mumbai's slums who gets a chance to reunite with
her childhood soul mate (Dev Patel) when he lands on India's Who Wants
to Be a Millionaire.
Why her: Despite Pinto's inexperience — the Mumbai native had only some modeling
and TV-anchoring credits on her résumé — director Danny Boyle says he
hadn't felt this intensely about an actor since casting then-unknown
Kelly Macdonald in 1996's Trainspotting. On set, he was impressed with
how she handled the film's romantic scenes. ''Kissing is a big deal in
India,'' he says. ''It's a bit like nudity in the West.''
Michelle Williams
Film: Wendy and Lucy
Release date: December 10
Age: 28
Role: Wendy, a weary young woman traveling across the country for a job with
only her dog, Lucy, and $523 to her name.
Why her: The Oscar nominee for Brokeback Mountain agreed to work for scale on the
$175,000-budgeted production, with no makeup and with her hair unwashed
for the 20-day shoot. The austere conditions seem only to have helped
her connect with a woman whose already precarious life spirals further
downward after her car breaks down in Portland, Ore. ''It's such a
buttoned-up character,'' says director Kelly Reichardt (Old Joy), ''and
yet there's always so much emotion charging behind her face.''
Gabriel Macht
Film: The Spirit
Release date: December 25
Age: 36
Role: A cop, presumed dead, who stalks the streets as a masked vigilante.
How he prepped: Director Frank Miller (Sin City) gave the actor copies of the classic
1940s Will Eisner comics that inspired the film. ''I plastered them all
over my trailer,'' says Macht (The Recruit). ''You couldn't see one bit of
fake wood.''
Why him: Macht's good looks and rakish charm make the Spirit a credible ladies'
man. ''Some people say he's a bit of a slut,'' says Macht. ''But I say his
pheromones are kicking — women just smell him from a mile away.''
Viola Davis
Film: Doubt
Release date: December 12
Age: 43
Role: Mrs. Muller, an early-1960s working mother devastated to learn that her
shy 12-year-old son may have been molested by a Catholic-school priest.
Why her: She's done TV (Law & Order: SVU) and movies (Nights in Rodanthe), but it
was award-winning stage work that helped Davis land her Doubt role. And
in a movie full of repression, she simmers and then explodes in a
confrontation with Meryl Streep as the school principal. What did the
actors discuss off camera? Doubt, of course — about performing. ''That
gnawing feeling is always in the back of your mind: 'You really suck!'''
says Davis. ''That's just an actor's mentality.''
