Bill Nighy is one of those actors who seem to be memorable in just about any role, and any time they turn up on screen. His current role of Mr. Williams in the Sony Pictures Classics release, Living, has brought him to the forefront of the awards season, including nominations for Golden Globe and Critics Choice awards, and, for the first time in a stellar career, a solid and heavily buzzed opportunity to land in the Best Actor Oscar race. It is about time!
Nighy joins me for this week’s edition of my Deadline video series, The Actor’s Side where we talk about the role in Living that has gained the industry’s serious notice ever since this English language remake of Akira Kurosawa’s 1952 classic Ikiru debuted a year ago at Sundance. In the movie he plays a man who has led an ordinary life of sameness who finds out he has a terminal illness and decides to go out blazing and start living for the first time. What makes his performance so remarkable is the way this journeyman actor simply does live it, wholly and completely. Yet it is just one of a gallery of rich roles over a long career in blockbusters like Underworld as Viktor, Harry Potter And The Deathly Gallows, the ‘unseen’ Davy Jones in the Pirates Of The Carribean series, and scene stealing as the aging rocker Billy Mack in Love Actually, Still Crazy, Shaun Of The Dead, Hot Fuzz, to acclaimed dramatic work in movies like Hope Gap, Emma, Girl In The Cafe, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, Valkyrie, the recent tv production of The Man Who Fell To Earth, and countless others.
He won a Tony nomination on Broadway starring opposite Carey Mulligan in Skylight, which was just a drop in the bucket of his stage work. In other words, he has done it all and is here to talk about it. To watch our conversation, just click on the link above.
Join me every Wednesday during Oscar season for another edition of The Actor’s Side.