NEW YORK?Two of the contenders for acting nods in this awards season are performing to rave reviews in Broadway.

Kristin Scott Thomas, brilliant as a woman who spent 15 years in prison and holds a deep, dark secret in the French film ?I?ve Loved You So Long,? is just as luminous as a fading actress, Arkadina, in Anton Chekhov?s ?The Seagull.? Appearing with Kristin is another actor who also divides his time between films and stage roles: Peter Sarsgaard, who plays Trigorin, a successful writer and Arkadina?s lover. But the one who matches Kristin?s sterling performance and intensity is Mackenzie Crook as Konstantin, Arkadina?s self-destructive, struggling-writer son.

We?ve seen Frank Langella?s towering achievement as Richard Nixon in ?Frost/Nixon,? director Ron Howard?s film adaptation of the play by Peter Morgan (?The Queen?), which is considered a likely shoo-in for a Best Picture nod. Frank joins the list of Best Actor contenders?Mickey Rourke (?The Wrestler?) and Sean Penn (?Milk?)?in his portrayal of the disgraced President who opens up about Watergate in a 1977 television interview with David Frost (Michael Sheen).

Last Thursday evening, we witnessed Frank?s compelling turn as Sir Thomas Moore in ?A Man For All Seasons? at the American Airlines Theatre. The play is a perfect companion piece to ?Frost/Nixon? since both are explorations of politics and power.

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Speaking of acting nominee prospects, Josh Brolin has two good chances of ensnaring one, if not both nominations: a Best Actor nod as US President George W. Bush in ?W.? and a Best supporting Actor shot as Dan White, a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors who assassinated his colleague, Harvey Milk (Sean Penn) and Mayor George Moscone in 1978 in the biopic ?Milk.?

In an earlier interview, Josh denied reports that his stepmother, Barbra Streisand, who?s a staunch Democrat, was very much against him playing Bush who?s a Republican. Josh?whose father, actor James Brolin is married to Barbra?captured the essence of ?Dubya? in Oliver Stone?s surprisingly compassionate portrait of the outgoing President.

Here?s Josh on the alleged spat he had with the great singer-actress: ?Yeah, there was something that came out in the press about she and I getting into some kind of fight or imbroglio because she didn?t want me to do this movie. I thought that was fun. Everything written about me is false. Everything (laughter). All the good and the bad. No, she saw it last night for the first time. We hadn?t spoken about it except at one of my kids? school plays. We had about 15 seconds where we spoke about it. She was very curious about my experience, the whole thing and Oliver.

Biting indictment

?But after seeing the movie last night, she was blown away and I don?t say this arrogantly. She was almost confused. She has very strong feelings about the incumbent President and she liked how ?humanized? it was ? so I thought that was interesting.?

Asked about how some people expected ?W.? to be a biting indictment, which turned out to be a light, even humor-tinged depiction of the US leader, Josh reacted: ?Indict him? But he?s already indicted. The guy goes from 90 percent approval rating to 23. That?s truly an indictment.?

On whether he hesitated taking the role (some actors didn?t want to be in the cast, fearing ?W.? might be too controversial), the husband of actress Diane Lane admitted, ?I did hesitate a lot... My reaction was, why would you want to do a movie of a guy who is, first of all, still in office? But, more importantly, he?s a guy whom we see on CNN every day. He?s right there and it wasn?t until I sat down and read the script that I changed my mind.

?We were on a skiing vacation. I woke up very early one morning... I thought, this is a perfect opportunity to focus on the script, read and give Oliver more reasons of why I won?t do it. But I was completely blown away. I was amazed ... how could anybody do this? How can I pull it? Ultimately, it was the most fulfilling role that I?ve ever done...?

Did he hold back his own feelings about Bush?s presidency when he was portraying him? ?You can?t,? he answered. ?But the most important thing to me was to humanize the character. That?s what was most important to me. Do I feel like you have to not judge a character in order to play him? No, I think you have to be in the moment. You make your choices. There were a lot of different choices of how I wanted to play this character in different parts of his life. Bush at 21 was very different than he was at 31. It?s different than he was at 37, 45, 50. We cover a very wide span.

?That usually doesn?t happen even for a biopic. Usually, like in ?Milk,? you cover like 10 years of Harvey Milk?s life. Here you cover Bush from 21 to 58 years old. Because he?s an extreme personality, there?s fun within that. But it?s sad?that?s what I get from the movie and that?s what I?ve heard from some people who say it?s funny. We laugh at the character but you leave feeling sad. It?s almost a tragedy and yet you?ve laughed throughout the whole movie. I like that dichotomy.?
New attitude

A casual question about Josh?s ranch revealed his new attitude toward his acting career. ?I sold my place,? he disclosed. ?To be perfectly honest, there was one point where I didn?t care for the work that I was forced to do. I did some work in order to pay for my lifestyle. So I sold the ranch and we?re all very sad about that often. But I sold the ranch in order to have the money to be able to say no to certain projects and to wait for the great ones or even not to have to wait for the great ones. Just wait for the ones that resonated with me.?

Josh may have made one of the best decisions in his life. Trading his beloved ranch to allow him to pick only roles that resonates with him has resulted in a greater respect for Josh as an actor. It took a while for Josh, who started as a child actor in ?Goonies.? Starting with last year?s acclaimed ?No Country for Old Men? to ?American Gangster,? ?Milk? and now, ?W.,? the man, at 40, is finally getting the much-deserved acclaim that he deserves.

E-mail the columnist at rvnepales_5585@yahoo.com and read his blog, ?The Nepales Report,? on http://blogs.inquirer.net/nepalesreport.