Trophies of Love

REUTERS/MARIO ANZUONI

Brad Pitt accepts the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood at the 92nd Academy Awards in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, US, on Sunday.

Laura Dern and Brad Pitt have experienced many ups and downs for more than two decades before finally winning an Oscar. The best supporting actress and actor of the 92nd Academy Awards dedicated their victories to their loved ones.

For Dern, this year’s Academy Awards was an emotional event. She won the Oscar the day before her 53rd birthday. The win was also the first for Dern’s family, whose parents had both earned Oscar nominations but never won.

“This is the best birthday present ever,” Dern said after she was announced the winner by Mahershala Ali, who won Best Supporting Actor at the 2019 Academy Awards. Dern won for her portrayal of Nora Fanshaw in Marriage Story.

The Awards was also very meaningful for Pitt, who was born on 18 Dec. 1963. The longtime star was finally awarded the prestigious Oscar this year in an acting category.

Pitt won for his portrayal as stunt double Cliff Booth in Once Upon A Time... in Hollywood. He was up for an acting award alongside his good friend and costar Leonardo De Caprio (Best Actor nominee), who played Rick Dalton, an actor whose star was waning. Pitt dedicated his award to his six children.

“I’m gobsmacked. This is for my kids, who color everything I do. I adore you,” he said on receiving the statuette.

REUTERS/DANNY MOLOSHOK

Laura Dern displays her Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role at the Vanity Fair Oscars party in Beverly Hills during the 92nd Academy Awards in Los Angeles, California, US, on Sunday.

In her speech during the ceremony on Sunday (9/2/2020) at the Dolby Theater of the Hollywood & Highland Center in Los Angeles, Dern subtly referred to her family: “Some say, ‘never meet your heroes’, but I say if you\'re really blessed, you get them as your parents.”

Among the guests in the audience, Dern’s mother Diane Ladd sobbed while wearing a broad smile. Before her speech, Dern hugged and kissed her mother. Ladd’s acting talent was recognized during the 1975 Academy Awards 1975, when she was nominated best supporting actress for Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (1974). Ladd was again nominated in the same category for her performance in Wild at Heart (1990).

Uniquely, mother and daughter have been both nominated for the same movie, with Dern getting a best actress nod and Ladd best supporting actress for Rambling Rose (1991). Dern’s father, Bruce Dern, is a two-time Oscar nominee, for best actor in Nebraska (2013) and best supporting actor in Coming Home (1978).

Breaking tradition

Dern broke the family tradition of remaining seated among the rows of Academy Awards invitees. Dern had built up a long track record before her induction to the prestigious stage, taking home her first Oscar after three nominations.

“Thank you to the Academy for this honor. Just to be in this room with such remarkable artists, including my fellow nominees, my sisters and colleagues,” she said, adding that she was grateful for having friends who had encouraged her to achieve more. Dern dedicated the Oscar to her parents, who she described as “my acting heroes”.

Dern’s previous nominations include best supporting actress for Wild at Heart (2014). She has also starred in box office films like Jurassic Park (1993), I Am Sam (2001) and Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi (2017). Only in Marriage Story (2019) did her shining performance earn her an Oscar.

The strong personalities of each actor contributed to the best picture nomination for Marriage Story at this year’s Academy Awards.

Dern’s strong portrayal as Nora is smoothly intertwined with Charlie’s obstinacy and Nicole’s indecisiveness. The strong personalities of each actor contributed to the best picture nomination for Marriage Story at this year’s Academy Awards.

As for Pitt, he had already won an Oscar as a producer of the 2014 best picture winner, the phenomenal film about slavery, 12 Years A Slave (2013).

Pitt has been acting for many years, with hundreds of appearances on both the silver screen and television. He started his career from the bottom, appearing as a minor extra in Hunk (1987).

Nobody expected Pitt’s name to rise and become synonymous with quality pictures.

According to IMDb.com, Pitt began to be widely known for more than just his good looks when he starred in Fight Club (1999). He grew ever more popular with Moneyball (2011) and Ocean’s Eleven (2001), a remake.

Pitt was a best actor nominee for Moneyball, as well as for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008).

Pitt was celebrated as an action star for his role s the invulnerable soldier Achilles of Greek mythology in the big-budget film Troy (2014). This was also the case when he starred alongside Angelina Jolie, now his ex-wife, as a married spy couple in Mr & Mrs Smith (2005).

He is now working as an actor in a historical film, Babylon, in which he stars with Emma Stone. The picture is set in the 1920s, during the transition from silent to sound films.

Pitt had strived to recover over the next 1.5 years by enrolling in the Alcoholics Anonymous rehabilitation program.

Despite his hard work and achievements, Pitt has been through rough times during the long divorce procedures from Jolie. Since 2016, Pitt has been beset with many problems, including child abuse charges, alcohol addiction and drug abuse. Pitt had strived to recover over the next 1.5 years by enrolling in the Alcoholics Anonymous rehabilitation program.

“I spent most of the ’90s hiding out. I was too uncomfortable with all the attention. Then I got to a place where I was aware that I was imprisoning myself,” he said in a 2019 New York Times interview.

Pitt has now risen above the constraints and is now involved in the next stage of filmmaking as a producer. (AFP/REUTERS)