By Donna Freydkin, USA TODAY
NEW YORK � You want to score a best-picture Oscar?
By Todd Plitt, USA TODAY
"It's a weird job": Guy Pearce got to know his crush Kate Winslet up close and personal while shooting sex scenes for the HBO miniseries. His wife "admires Kate as much as I do, so it was OK," he says.
By Todd Plitt, USA TODAY
"It's a weird job": Guy Pearce got to know his crush Kate Winslet up close and personal while shooting sex scenes for the HBO miniseries. His wife "admires Kate as much as I do, so it was OK," he says.
Cast Guy Pearce in a supporting role.
The chameleon-like Aussie actor had small turns in the past two winners, The Hurt Locker (as Staff Sgt. Matt Thompson) and The King's Speech (as King Edward VIII).
"Yeah, it's been great. I've been really fortunate," says the actor, 43. "It's been funny to be in two Academy Award-winning films in a row ? on-screen for a total of about six minutes altogether."
He gets plenty more screen time in HBO's Mildred Pierce, a miniseries that premieres Sunday (9 p.m. ET/PT) and stars Pearce as Mildred's debonair, dandy lover. He's a wealthy polo player who meets hardscrabble single mother Mildred (Kate Winslet) in a diner and proceeds to woo her, with devastating results.
Pearce calls his character a charmer who coasts through his existence and is "trying to enjoy every moment of life and is brought up to believe that money is never a problem. And it isn't. It just appears.
"I went to private school, and there were a lot of very wealthy people at that school. They don't have to look at how the pieces are put together because they're never going to have to put the pieces together."
The actor himself is much more grounded, living a private life in Australia with his wife, Kate, a psychologist, and their three dogs. He records music in his spare time but is loath to discuss his hobby. And he immerses himself in every character he plays, working painstakingly with a dialect coach to nail down each of the accents he uses in his films, such as the drawl in Mildred Pierce.
Director Todd Haynes calls Pearce "a consummate artist. He strips to the core for each thing he does. He's just a true character actor. ... He approaches Mildred Pierce like a serious piece of character work. He's a perfectionist, absolutely, but lovely to work with."
He's also deceptively lighthearted, despite the heavy films he seems drawn to. Pearce admits to having a major crush on Winslet, which he'd harbored for years.
"So suddenly there we are, naked together. It's a weird job. I'd go home to my wife, funny enough, and say, 'I had sex with Kate Winslet again today!' She admires Kate as much as I do, so it was OK. But again, as I say, a very odd job," he says with a smile.
According to Haynes, the job was more harmonious than weird, thanks to Pearce's breakthrough TV role. "He and Kate struck a beautiful chord. She'd had a major crush on Guy when he was on his first show, (Aussie soap) Neighbours. She was in love with the character. She'd break into the Neighbours theme song constantly, and they'd laugh," he says.
Next up, Pearce starts shooting the drama The Wettest County in the World in Atlanta. He's got the horror flick Don't Be Afraid of the Dark in the can, along with the Nicolas Cage thriller The Hungry Rabbit Jumps. And he says that after developing a love-hate relationship with his job, he's back to enjoying it. Pearce became disenchanted with acting in 2001, after working non-stop since he was an up-and-comer.
"I just got myself into a knot, and I needed to stand back in order to be objective about it. I'd been working since I was a kid. And I was still taking opportunity after opportunity after opportunity. I was 30 years old. Everything was based on the decision of a kid," Pearce says.
"I needed to step away and see the validity of it and the value and the worth of it. ... It wasn't a long, drawn-out process. And I also went, 'There's not much else I can do in life, either.' So yeah, I'll make this work."
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