Andrew H. Walker/Getty ImagesWe hear from all the celebs' PR folks how they supposedly feel about nominations come award season. Well, we ran into Milk’s Best Supporting Actor nominee, Josh Brolin, at the fab People Speak after-party in Sundance and wanted to know how it really went down, finding out about being singled out for an Academy Award. Like, really. Read on for exactly how Diane Lane’s slightly crusty dude got the news:
"I woke up at 5:55 a.m.,” J.B., big-ass jawed and handsome as ever, told us, “and having not gotten a call, I just said, 'OK, it didn't happen, that's fine.’ I dealt with that, I mean, there's so much emphasis put on 5:30! And I forgot about the time difference between here and L.A. So I just dealt with it not happening, and I tried to get back to sleep and couldn't. So I turned on CNN and saw a box on the right side, and it said, 'nominations announced in 20 minutes,' and I was all confused. Then I watched the nominations and found out. I heard my buddy run down the hallway, my wife called me, Javier called me from Spain. I'm very, very happy. There are a lot of people I know nominated—Melissa Leo, Richard Jenkins, Michael Shannon, Sean [Penn], Mickey [Rourke]. It's a nice group to be involved with."
So, did you all call each other excitedly, all high school like? "Pretty much! We get a little embarrassed doing that , so we ended up texting each other,” Brolin added, and we’re sure the BB-addicted Barack would be pleased. “But yeah, it was fun!"
Best of luck to ya, Josh, 'cause you very much deserve this nomination. Playing a badass s--t like Dan White (who murdered the real Harvey Milk) took guts. You and Kate Winslet did that politically incorrect stuff awfully well this year.
—Additional reporting by Taryn Ryder