Culture Junkie: On the Oscars, first-time nominees, and meeting Yalitza Aparicio of ‘Roma’

One of the most engaging sub-stories emerging from this year’s Academy Awards race - which crosses the finish line on Sunday night - concerns the number of actors who are going to the Oscars for their first time as nominees.

The list includes a surprise or two.

Sam Elliot, for one.

How can it be that Sam Elliot, a Best Supporting Acting nominee for “A Star is Born,” has never been nominated before? Personally, I’d have given it to him for his now iconic role as the good-hearted biker Gar in 1985’s “Mask,” or his stellar (but little-seen) appearance as the quietly-depressed father in 2003’s coming-of-age drama “Off the Map.”

Rami Malek, who became famous only a few years ago with his role on television’s “Mr. Robot” gets his first-ever Oscar nomination this year for playing Freddie Mercury in the Queen biopic “Bohemian Rhapsody.” Melissa McCarthy (not normally associated with Oscar-caliber material) picked up her first-ever nomination for her blistering lead performance as a literary forger in the tragicomic “Can You Ever Forgive Me?” And Adam Driver (best known for his work on the TV show “Girls” and for playing the nutty would-be sith lord Kylo Ren in the “Star Wars” movies), sees his first Oscar nomination for playing a Jewish undercover detective infiltrating the KKK in Spike Lee’s “BlacKKKlansman.”

Other first-timers include British veteran Olivia Colman, nominated in the Best Actress in a Leading Role category for “The Favourite,” and Mexico’s Marina de Tavira for Best Actress in a supporting role in the meditative Spanish-language drama “Roma.”

I had to double-check to make sure that nominee Richard E. Grant (named for his appearance alongside McCarthy in “Can You Ever Forgive Me?”) was actually not named for his stunning work in 1987’s dark comedy “Withnail and I.”

How can that be?

What’s additionally interesting about this year’s nominee list is the number of folks who’ve not only never been nominated, but never even made a movie before. They are, of course, Lady Gaga, for “A Star is Born” and “Yalitza Aparicio,” also from “Roma.”

Gaga has won rave reviews for her performance in the celebrated remake. Of course, she’s no stranger to show business, and one could argue that the hardest part of her job was portraying a green amateur in the earliest scenes of the movie. In the case of Aparicio, “Roma” – nominated for a total of 10 Oscars, including Best Picture - marks the first time the 26-year-old education major from Oaxaca has acted or performed in any way. In the film she plays Cleo, an indigenous domestic worker who serves as the live-in housekeeper for a middle class family in Mexico City. Over the course of a year, Cleo experiences her own private challenges, while helping hold the family together through a series of crises that include divorce, an earthquake and a political uprising.

I met Aparicio last October, when she made an appearance at the Mill Valley Film Festival in Marin County. The actress participated in a question-and-answer session following a screening of “Roma,” where she took the stage with fellow nominee De Tavira and the film’s producers Gabriella Rodriguez and Jonathan King. Rodriguez told the story of casting the inexperienced Aparacio, whose deeply-felt performance is widely viewed as a major reason for the film’s success.

“Before we found our amazing Cleo, we saw over 3,000 women,” Rodriguez said. “We searched every corner of Mexico to find her.”

According to Aparicio, she learned of the casting call, but was initially wary, fearing that it was a scam to lure sex trafficking victims. That the director of the film was supposedly the same man who made “Gravity” and “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban” only added to the impossibility of it being the real deal.

“I really thought that,” Aparacio said, through an interpreter. “I was so afraid to go, but people told me I should, so I took my mother with me.”

After winning the role of Cleo, she spent several months making the film, working with actors who had years of film and stage experience. Though initially intimidated, Aparacio said she was never treated as anything but a professional.

“I actually learned things from Yalitza,” said co-star De Tavira. “Her performance is so immediate and honest. I learned about becoming a character, absolutely not judging myself at all, just being real, to match what she was doing. It was an incredible experience.”

As for the finished product, Aparacio said she is in awe of what Cuaron created with “Roma.”

“It’s a very personal story,” she said. “It reminded me a lot of my mom, who was also a domestic worker. And I’m very happy that this movie is turning so many eyes to these people, domestic workers, who are so important, the service they do, in the households where they live and work.”

Though odds favor Gaga or co-nominee Glenn Close for the win, the history of the Oscars is full enough of upsets and surprises that no one should count Aparacio out. There have been numerous other actors nominated for their first attempts at onscreen acting, including Lupita Nyong’o for 2013’s “12 Years a Slave,” Barkhad Abdi for the same year’s “Captain Phillips,” Hilee Steinfeld in 2010 for “True Grit” Gabourey Sidibe in 2009’s “Precious” and “Jennifer Hudson” in the 2006 musical “Dreamgirls.”

Hudson actually won, too.

And she’s not alone.

In 1993, then 11-year-old Anna Paquin won the Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for “The Piano.” It was her first-ever appearance on screen. First-time actor Haing S. Ngor won in 1985, with no previous acting experience of any kind, for his scorching performance in “The Killing Fields.”

The list goes on and on.

Timothy Hutton for “Ordinary People” in 1981, Marlee Matlin for “Children of a Lesser God” in 1987, Tatum O’Neal for “Paper Moon” in 1974, Jo Van Fleet in 1956 for “East of Eden,” Eve Marie Saint in 1955 for “On the Waterfront,” Shirley Booth for “Come Back, Little Sheba” in 1953, all the way back to Harold Russell, a double-amputee, who won in 1947 for his performance as a WWII veteran in The Best Years of Our Lives.”

Barbra Streisand, of course, a multiple nominee, won an Oscar for her own first attempt at screen acting in the 1968 adaptation of “Funny Girl.” And let us not forget Julie Andrews, who did the same thing with her 1964 screen debut in “Mary Poppins.”

In other words, when it come to the Academy Awards, anything is possible. And this Sunday, when the phrase “a star is born” is uttered on award night, it might just mean more than simply the name of a movie.

(‘Culture Junkie’ runs every other week. You can write David at davidtempleton@arguscourier.com)