BEING A SUPPORTING ACTOR: LONGTIME COMPANION, DICK TRACY
At various times during Oscar's history, people have criticized the Academy for honoring mostly stars slumming in supporting parts, rather than true character actors giving supporting performances (as recently as the August 2001 issue of GQ, Terrence Rafferty claimed Benicio Del Toro's part in TRAFFIC was a leading role, not a supporting role). So what is a supporting role? Well, to me, the answer is in a question; the role supports the story, rather than lead it. Of course, in ensemble films, where you have several different stories going on, it's hard to tell, but then, in a sense, all the characters there are supporting characters.
One example of this that the Academy chose to recognize in 1990 was Bruce Davison's performance in LONGTIME COMPANION. This film from director Norman Rene and writer Craig Lucas (best known for their stage play PRELUDE TO A KISS, later made into a film with Alec Baldwin and Meg Ryan) was one of the first to deal with AIDS. It follows several New York gay men (among them Dermot Mulroney, Campbell Scott, Michael Schoeffling, Patrick Cassidy, and Davison) who are friends and lovers (Mary-Louise Parker plays a woman friend who hangs out with them), and how, over the years, they deal with what was originally called the "gay cancer." Many criticized Rene and Lucas for only focusing on white, middle-class gays, but they were following just a small group of people, and how AIDS affected them. Instead of trying to make a big statement about AIDS and gays (the title, which refers to how the lover of an AIDS victim was referred in obituaries, is statement enough), Rene and Lucas prefer to make a character study, and that makes this movie all the more powerful.
Now to Davison. He plays one of the older members of this group, and one profoundly affected when his lover (Mark Lamos) dies of AIDS. In one of the most talked-about scenes of the movie, we watch Davison nurse Lamos on his deathbed, and urging him to just "let it go." Considering many portrayals of gay men were of the over-the-top, stereotypical kind, and considering how Hollywood normally tries to jerk tears out of death scenes, this scene is a masterful example of underplaying, which makes it all the more affecting. And Davison's performance throughout the movie is typical of that scene; no grand gestures, just small, quiet ones. It's a true supporting performance, and it was heartening to see the Academy honor it.
Latest Articles