Chapter 108: Best Supporting Actor and Actress

  "Good luck to you, our genius little director! But whether there will be a small golden man for you next time depends on the mood of us judges! Ah? I've said too much!" Song Tang's speech didn't take up much time. After he finished expressing his own views, Billy took over the microphone and continued performing, saying...

  "Hey, director, congratulations!" Tim Robbins said with a smile as he congratulated Song Tang after coming down from the stage. However, Song Tang saw tension in Tim's eyes. Yes, Tim was tense. Although Tim was already 35 years old and had a 10-year acting history, he had been very nervous since he knew he was nominated for the Oscar for Best Actor.

  "Thanks Tim! I think you should relax a bit, don't be so tense!" Song Tang said, looking at the tense Tim and couldn't help but comfort him.

  "Yes! Director! But I'm still very nervous!" Tim said in a somewhat urgent tone.

  Seeing this situation, Song Tang also had no way out and could only helplessly shake his head. Then, looking at Samuel L. Jackson who was equally tense, Song Tang walked over and patted Samuel's shoulder, laughing: "Hehe, Samuel, you too, relax! Don't be nervous! Look at Uma, isn't she not excited at all?"

  After finishing speaking, Song Tang hinted at Samuel to look towards Umar Sherman who was standing a short distance away from the few people.

  After feeling comforted by Song Tang, Samuel's tense mood relaxed slightly, and he followed Song Tang's gaze to look at Uma for a moment. Looking at Uma's calm face, Samuel felt a twinge of guilt in his heart. However, what Samuel didn't notice was that although Uma looked completely calm on the surface, her hands were actually clenched tightly together.

  Samuel forced a smile and said: "Director, the next award should be Best Supporting Actor, right?"

  "It should be!" As for the order of the Oscars ceremony, Song Tang didn't know either, but he made an educated guess that was roughly correct.

  "And now, the moment we've all been waiting for - the award that everyone's been speculating about. Who will take home the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor? Billy continued to tantalize the audience with his words, "But first, let's take a look at our next presenter, last year's winner of the Best Supporting Actor award - Jack Palance!"

  As Billy's words fell, last year's Best Supporting Actor Jack Palance smiled and stepped onto the stage. Although Jack Palance was not well-known, his performance in "City Slickers" in 1991 earned him the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, beating out Tommy Lee Jones for "The Fugitive", Ben Kingsley for "Gandhi", Haing S. Ngor for "The Killing Fields", and Michael Lerner for "Barton Fink". This year, Billy served as a presenter at the Oscars ceremony.

  "Once again standing on this stage, I am very excited, as if I had returned to a year ago. However, the difference is that today's Best Supporting Actor will no longer be me. I really don't know who will have the good fortune of becoming today's Best Supporting Actor!" As he spoke, Jack Palance slowly opened the envelope in his hand.

  Standing beside Song Tang, Samuel watched as Jack Palance slowly opened the envelope in his hand, his heart tense with anticipation. His eyes were fixed on Jack's hands, while out of the corner of his eye, Song Tang looked at Samuel's tense posture. Song Tang was truly speechless, but in his heart, although he really wanted Samuel to win Best Supporting Actor, he didn't have too much hope, though he didn't say it out loud.

  Finally, under the gaze of everyone's expectation, Jack Palance opened the envelope in his hand, then smiled, picked up the microphone, looked around and said slowly: "And the nominees for Best Supporting Actor at the 65th Academy Awards are!"

  "Gene Hackman in Unforgiven"

  "Jaye Davidson in The Crying Game"

  "Jack Nicholson in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest"

  "Samuel L. Jackson 'Pulp'"

  "David Payne 'Saturday Man'"

  “。。。”

  "Bang bang bang~~~"

  As Jack Palance finished reading the nominations for Best Supporting Actor, a thunderous applause erupted throughout the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood. The other nominees - Gene Hackman, Jaye Davidson, Jack Nicholson, Samuel L. Jackson and David Paymer - all looked tense as they gazed at Jack Palance on stage, hoping he would read out their name next, but there could only be one Best Supporting Actor, leaving the other four destined for disappointment.

  As if Jack Palance knew what several people were thinking, he looked in the direction of a few people, then ripped open another envelope and announced: "And the winner of the 65th Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor is..."

  "Gene Hackman in Unforgiven! Congratulations, Gene!" Jack said after finishing reading and directly applauded for Gene.

  Gene Hackman, winner of the award, was overjoyed and then gave a big hug to Clint Eastwood, director and star of "Unforgiven", before heading to the podium.

  For this result, Song Tang had already guessed it roughly in his heart. Although Samuel's performance in "Vulgarity" was excellent, he was still too young compared to Gene Hackman, a 1930-born Hollywood veteran actor who could interpret various roles with ease and was the 44th Academy Award for Best Actor and 61st Academy Award nominee for Best Actor. Gene was also nominated for Best Supporting Actor at the 40th and 43rd Academy Awards. Against such an experienced actor, not only did Samuel have no advantage, but neither did Jaye Davidson, Jack Nicholson, or David Paymer. Fortunately, Samuel knew this himself, and when he saw the old actor win the award for Best Supporting Actor, although he was very disappointed, he still gave a round of applause.

  "It's okay, Samuel, you'll have another chance!" Song Tang knew it was going to be this way, but didn't know how to comfort him, so he just patted Samuel on the shoulder.

  "I knew the director, and although I wanted to get this award, when Jack read out the nominees, I knew that this award was basically not mine!" Samuel smiled, then looked at the supporting stand.

  On stage, Gene took the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor from Jack's hands, his heart slightly racing with excitement. Although this wasn't Gene Hackman's first time standing here - in fact, it was his third. The first time he stood here was when he received the little gold man representing the Oscar for Best Actor from a presenter; the second time was when he presented the little gold man representing the Oscar for Best Actor to someone else. Now, this is the third time, and Gene Hackman's heart still felt excited, nervous, and thrilled - yes, Gene was very excited! He had been nominated for this award twice before but ultimately lost both times; this was his third time!

  "Look, folks, our Best Supporting Actor, the one and only Gene Hackman is excited, yes, he's excited, if I'm not mistaken this should be his third time on this stage, wonder what our movie emperor will say to us today?" After Jack Palance handed over the award to Gene, host Billy came up on stage, while sending congratulations to Gene, said to everyone.

  "Standing on this stage again, I'm thrilled. Yes, I'm extremely thrilled. At this moment, I think there's no language that can express the emotions in my heart. Even when I won the Best Actor award here before, I don't think I was as thrilled as I am now."

  Gene took over Billy's words, took a deep breath, calmed down his tense mood, and said emotionally to the audience below: "I'm 63 years old this year, I don't know if I'll have another chance to stand here in the future, but today I really want to thank my director Mr. Clint Eastwood, without him there would be no 'Unforgiven', and without this film, I think I wouldn't be standing here!"

  Gene bowed deeply in the direction of Clint Eastwood, then said a few more moving words before exiting the stage to thunderous applause.

  "Hey, Uma, how are you? Are you excited? The award for Best Supporting Actress is next!" As soon as Jean walked off the stage, Song Tang knew what the next award would be. As a relatively prestigious award compared to Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress also attracted many people's attention. And as it happened, Song Tang's first film "Vulgarity" had indeed been nominated for three awards: Best Original Screenplay, Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress. Song Tang was getting a bit nervous at this point, the award for Best Supporting Actor had already gone to someone else, but what about Best Supporting Actress?

  "Of course I'm excited, Song, are you?" Uma heard Song Tang's voice and slightly turned her head, then loosened her tightly clenched fist, and asked back.

  "Yes, I'm very excited too!"

  “。。。”

  "Gentlemen, cheer up! Next will be the moment of our Hollywood beauty star. Who will become today's best supporting actress? Please welcome today's award presenter, a very famous Hollywood beauty - Mercedes Ruehl! Let's give her a warm applause!"

  As Billy shouted, the seductive and charming Mercedes Ruehl soon appeared before everyone's eyes. This year, over 40-year-old Mercedes Ruehl has a mature and sexy charm that young women do not possess, quickly attracting many people's attention. Although Mercedes Ruehl is not very famous in Hollywood, her acting skills cannot be denied. Last year, she won the Best Supporting Actress award at the 64th Academy Awards for her outstanding performance in the film "The Fisher King". This year, Mercedes Ruehl also attended today's ceremony as a presenter.

  Mercedes Ruehl stepped up to the microphone and, without any ado, tore open the envelope in her hand and announced: "And the Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress goes to..."

  。。。