--BEST ACTRESS Judi Dench, Iris. Marvelous was the word he used to sum up Dame Judi's Iris-Murdoch-in-her-declining-years. "You always have to ask, 'Are they playing a role that is going to be meaningful 50 years from now?'" he says. "I liked Iris and would like to have seen the picture nominated." He also admired Halle Berry's Monster's Ball performance, but felt "Judi's was a deeper portrayal," and he dubbed Renee Zellweger "cute" as Bridget Jones but not Oscar-worthy. The rest: "Sissy Spacek did a wonderful job in In the Bedroom, but there were a couple of mannerisms that bothered me, and Nicole Kidman is wonderful but she was trapped in a cheesy role."
THE ACTRESS An Academy member for three decades, our actress sees every film with a major nomination at least twice, once on the big screen and again on video, before making up her mind. She judges actors on the merits of their work, and will compare a past performance with a current one to judge an actor's range. "Everything can be brought to bear except their personal lives," she says. As for this year's push to award an African-American actor a trophy, she responds: "I don't vote for someone because they have been around for a long time or deserve an award for any other reason. I don't believe that's what the Academy is there to do. We're supposed to look for the true performances, not vote for someone because this is the time to give a black performer an Oscar."
--BEST PICTURE A Beautiful Mind. The Mind-field of John Nash's life versus the fictional account was a nonissue. "I looked at it as a movie," she says. "They made it very clear on the cover of the script that it was inspired by the life of Nash and the biography by Sylvia Nasar. There were flaws, but I felt there was such an energy...that I just went with it." She found In the Bedroom to be a less-convincing version of the 1980 Oscar winner Ordinary People. "Gosford Park is a mediocre movie," she declares. "I couldn't understand it the first half hour. At that point, they could have turned off the projector and I wouldn't have cared." She applauded the special effects wizardry of The Lord of the Rings, but she thought the kids were "too Hollywood" to warrant the town's highest honor.
--BEST ACTRESS Judi Dench, Iris. Our actress wants to see performances where the character grows as a person, makes the transitions smoothly, and sparks some emotion in her. Though she was impressed with the leap that Berry took in Monster's Ball, she's voting for Judi. "[She] showed me perfection as an actress," she says. "I don't think there was anything I would have wished for from her that I didn't get. She manages to tune in to the essence of humanity and emotions." What about Spacek for In the Bedroom? She thinks the part could have been played by any of a half-dozen actresses. "The reason Sissy is on this list is that we're all happy to see her back because of her age and because she hasn't been doing any work."
