Projo 7 to 7 News Blog

By Michael Janusonis
Journal Arts Writer

Richard Jenkins, who lives in northern Rhode Island and once was a mainstay on the stage of Trinity Rep, and Viola Davis, who grew up in Central Falls and graduated from Rhode Island College, have both been nominated for Academy Awards.

Jenkins, also a former Trinity artistic director --- he was credited with saving the teetering theater during his reign in the early 1990s --- received a best actor nomination for his performance as a lonely widower whose life is touched by a pair of immigrants in The Visitor. Davis got a best supporting actress Oscar nomination for her role as a mother who gets some troubling news about her son in Doubt. Both have also been nominated in their respective categories for the Screen Actors Guild Awards to be handed out Sunday; Davis also was up for a Golden Globe Award earlier this month, but lost to Kate Winslet forThe Reader .

Reached by phone at home, Jenkins said he was so certain he wouldn't get an Academy Award nomination for his work in The Visitor that he didn't even watch the nomination announcements televised from Beverly Hills yesterday morning.

"I was having a cup of coffee,'' Jenkins said from his home in northern Rhode Island, "when my son-in-law's father called me with the news.''

"I was really surprised,'' he added. "I just didn't think I would get a nomination.''

Although there had been a good buzz about Jenkins from critics when The Visitor was released last spring (it's currently available on video), he felt that it would be overwhelmed by a string of strong performances in films the studios held until the end of the year in hopes of Oscar consideration.

So when the call came that Jenkins had received a best actor nomination, he said, "I was really shocked. I was thrilled. But I also was humbled by it. My phone hasn't stopped ringing. In the few minutes since I've been on the line with you, I've had three calls come in on the other line.''

Davis was equally thrilled. In a statement from Los Angeles she said, "It's everything that you could possibly imagine it is. And not that I needed the nomination to know I was on the right path. But it certainly helps. It really does.''

Jenkins had just done a an interview with KTLA in Los Angeles and was waiting to go on for a live TV feed, although things were moving so swiftly that he couldn't recall which station it was for.

In The Visitor, Jenkins plays a lonely widower whose life gets caught up with those of a Syrian drummer, who is facing deportation in a post-9/11 New York, the man's attractive mother and his Senegalese girlfriend.

Davis has a small but pivotal role in Doubt as Mrs. Miller, the mother of of the boy at the center of a nun's suspicions about the conduct of a parish priest. In the film's pivotal moment, she plays opposite Meryl Streep, who portrays the immoveable Sister Aloysius. The nun is seeking to remove the parish priest for what she suspects are improper advances to Mrs. Miller's son.

Davis' co-stars -- Streep (Best Actress); Philip Seymour Hoffman (Best Supporting Actor) and Amy Adams (Best Supporting Actress) -- were also nominated.

For the full story on the nominations

Interactive AP site on the Oscars

Top photo, Richard Jenkins/ Overture Films / Jo Jo Whildon
Bottom photo, Viola Davis/ Associated Press

(With reports from Journal TV/Lifebeat Editor Lynne Chaput)

 Tags  Richard Jenkins Viola Davis

Comments

Elizabeth said:

Both Jenkins and Davis were superb in their respective movie roles. It would be wonderful if both or either one came away with an Oscar!

Link | January 22, 2009 11:15 AM
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Dave said:

Richard Jenkins is a neighbor and a nice guy. He deserves this honor.

Link | January 22, 2009 4:22 PM
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regulator19 said:

I caught The Visitor when it was in theaters, and it was one of my favorite films of the whole year! Richard Jenkins from Six Feet Under was outstanding, and I really hope he wins the Oscar for best actor! The Visitor is now on DVD, and I definitely plan on getting a copy. If you haven't seen the movie yet, you can find more info here:
http://www.thevisitorfilm.com/

Link | February 13, 2009 6:53 PM
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