When the nominations for the 78th Annual Academy Awards were announced Tuesday morning, movie fans around the world sat up at attention. Somewhere, quirky "It" couple Heath Ledger and Michelle Williams were likely high-fiving. Somewhere else, friends may have taken turns congratulating George Clooney the writer, the director and the actor. The corners of Tim Burton's lips may even have curled up in something resembling a smile. One Oscar morning celebration, however, was certain: a group cheer rising up from three underdog best friends.
"I met Bennett when I was 13 years old in junior high school," remembered the laidback screenwriter of "Capote," one of 2005's most critically beloved films. "He had a group of people around him watching him jump off the library table in the yoga position. ... I thought, 'I need to be friends with that guy.' "
"Then we met Phil at a summer theater program," he continued. "I don't know how many kids auditioned for it, but we were all 16, and Phil was by far the standout actor, even at that time, and he had just started doing it. He was like an ex-jock. He had been wrestling, playing football. He hurt his neck, and he was told he shouldn't play anymore, so he thought, 'Maybe I'll try acting.' "
Decades later, the three teens are now known as Bennett Miller (Oscar-nominated director), Philip Seymour Hoffman (Oscar-nominated actor) and Dan Futterman (Oscar-nominated screenwriter). And with a total of five nominations for their low-budget passion project (see " 'Brokeback Mountain' Leads Oscar Race With Eight Nominations"), the three have gone from well-regarded second stringers to heights that many of Hollywood's greatest talents never reach — and they're doing it together.
"I met two of the most talented people I know when I was a teenager, and I don't know how many people can say that," marveled Futterman, a 38-year-old former actor who appeared in flicks including "The Birdcage" before getting Oscar's attention with his very first screenplay. "Not to say that I didn't know how talented they were, but it is just above and beyond saying 'That guy is really talented.' It is beautiful, courageous, extraordinary work from the both of them. I feel like the luckiest guy around."
Some would argue that luck has nothing to do with it — including Truman Capote himself, a groundbreaking journalist remembered for his preparation and attention to detail. Sure enough, Futterman says that his struggles to recreate the controversial man — and Capote's attempts to simultaneously befriend and condemn two death-row inmates — took years to write.
"I'd been working on it for a long time, for probably four or five years, before I finished the script and showed it to Bennett," Futterman said. Miller was also on the outskirts of Hollywood after directing a little-seen film called "The Cruise" in 1998. "I had given Bennett, at some point, an outline that I'd written of the script, and I'm certain that he still hasn't read it. He was sort of humoring me, like 'Oh yeah, good. Write the script. That'll be great. Good for you.'
"When I finally did write the script, I was still convinced that Bennett would be a terrific director for it," Futterman continued enthusiastically. "And then we're like: 'So do you want to give it to Phil or should I give it to Phil? Why don't you give it to Phil?' ... Phil responded really quickly, and then we all went over to his apartment and had sort of a powwow, and basically I begged him to do it."
Hoffman, an absurdly versatile supporting actor who had become known for films such as "Magnolia" and "Along Came Polly" without breaking through to leading-man status, agreed to do it — and then transformed himself in a manner that has already become the stuff of legend. Taking on a real-life character whose bizarre eccentricities had become easy pop culture punchlines (see Greg Kinnear in "Stuck on You"), Hoffman spent months watching tapes of the real Capote before resurrecting the "In Cold Blood" author.
"Phil would come over to Bennett's every once in a while to say 'This is where I'm at,' and do the voice, read a couple scenes," Futterman remembered the first few times he saw his friend transformed. "I thought it was pretty terrific, although Phil was not satisfied with the place he was at. The most shocking moment for me was seeing the movie completed, when I saw it at a film festival in Colorado. ... that moment when he finally comes up onscreen, and you find him at the party. Bennett does such a great job of weaving through the crowd, and you hear this voice and you know you're about to see Capote, and you find him. It's just absolutely thrilling. For that scene, there was no extra under 6 feet tall, just to get the sense that here's this little man [and how] little Capote compared to these very tall people."
Futterman admits that such moments left a bittersweet taste in his mouth as he watched his screenwriting career take off thanks to a friend who acted circles around anything on his own résumé. "It makes you want to take off your actor hat when you see Phil do that; I'm just a fraud," he laughed. "I don't know what I've been trying to do all these years, but it's not that."
Now the three friends are picking out tuxedos for the March 5 ceremony (and looking forward to the film's DVD release later that month) while continuing to share in the amazement that "Capote" became a reality, never mind one of the most acclaimed releases of 2005. "We felt that, every step of the way, it was a shock that we had gotten to that step," Futterman insisted. "I wrote it to see if I could do it; I never thought that anybody was going to make this movie. ... When we got financing, we thought, 'Holy sh--; we're actually gonna do this thing.'
"It's an incredible honor, and it's so unlikely," Futterman said of his nomination. "I took a stab at doing this, and it's been extremely well received. ... Phil has gotten an enormous amount of attention, all of it well deserved. I think we've gotten our fair share, and whatever shakes out in terms of Oscar stuff is fine."
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