Who will win the BAFTA Rising Star award?
Another year, another round of BAFTAs. With the nominations for this year’s Orange Rising Star award being announced earlier this week, we take a look at who’s in the running and what they’ve achieved so far:
Gemma Arterton:
Gemma Arterton has been increasingly prominent in film since her debut feature appearance in 2007’s St. Trinian’s. Until recently however, it seemed decisions to cast her were based more heavily on her stunning looks, but over time her great acting skills are landing her much larger roles in films from both the British industry and Hollywood.
Although she’s played a mysterious woman of ancient times or two in Disney’s Prince of Persia and Louis Leterrier’s remake of Clash of the Titans, her most acclaimed performance was in 2009’s The Disappearance of Alice Creed. This highly underrated outing saw Arterton in the lead role as a kidnapped girl trying desperately to escape her captors.
Most recently however, Arterton played Tamara Drewe in a film based on the alternative graphic novel. Although perhaps not everyone’s cup of tea, it’s difficult to deny that she managed to combine her appearance and skill to create an almost perfect adaptation.
Andrew Garfield:
He may have the name of a cartoon cat, but Andrew Garfield is a strong contender for this year’s award. After featuring in Doctor Who during the reign of David Tennant and coming to our attention most notably in Heath Ledger’s final film, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, this American-born English-bred actor has seen a boom in job opportunities of late.
His last outing was the critically acclaimed Social Network in which he played Eduardo Saverin, co-founder of the facebook website. He also stars in the yet to be released Never Let Me Go (alongside Keira Knightley and Carey Mulligan) as a pupil at a somewhat ‘special’ boarding school
Andrew has made such an impression that he was even given the honour of donning the red and blue spandex of webhead Peter Parker in the upcoming Spiderman reboot (currently in production). Considering this is a film which will inevitably be huge given the love the character has received for decades worldwide, it’s safe to say that Garfield will most likely be a household name after (if not before) its pencilled 2012 release.
Tom Hardy:
Tom Hardy is, in a word, fantastic. Making his debut in Steven Spielberg’s Band of Brothers television series, Hardy quickly moved to film in Black Hawk Down and Star Trek: Nemesis. He’s the man every man wishes he could be and every woman wishes she could have. His fabulous acting skills allow him to span a wide variety of roles whilst maintaining the ability to play the perfect British hard-nut.
His portrayal of Charles Bronson, notorious fighter and Britain’s most dangerous criminal, was brutal, committed, and as a result, the most realistic and gripping it could have possibly been. Hardy’s most significant performance of recent times, however, is as Eames ‘The Forger’ in Christopher Nolan’s mind-blowing, ultra-complicated heist movie, Inception.
Future projects include Cold War espionage movie ‘Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy’, ‘The Wettest Country in the World’ with Shia LaBeouf and most exciting of all, the last in a trilogy of groundbreaking films, ‘The Dark Knight Rises’. With this, you can be sure if Hardy’s name is on the bill, there’ll be something worth your while.
Aaron Johnson:
Aaron Johnson is only 20 years old and already has two major starring roles under his belt, a child and a wealthy fiancé more than twice his age. His first starring role was under the direction of his fiancé to be, Sam Taylor-Wood, as a young John Lennon in Nowhere Boy, a performance for which Johnson received Empire’s best newcomer award.
What really catapulted him into the spotlight though was his role of masked vigilante 'Kick-Ass' early last year, in what was a complete dark horse of a hit. Based on the independent comic book series by Scot writer Mark Millar and helmed by Layer Cake director Matthew Vaughn, Kick-Ass transformed the seemingly quiet English teen into an incredibly convincing Dave Lizewski, a high school student from America with dreams of fighting crime.
Johnson has recently starred in Chatroom (a small-time independent thriller) and will soon appear in Albert Nobbs. Kick-Ass fans can jump for joy however, as he will be reprising the role of Dave in Kick-Ass 2: Balls to the Wall. Unfortunately a release date for this is a while off though, as it is yet to begin production with the comic books still in full flow.
Emma Stone:
Emma stone quickly became the girl of everyone’s dreams the minute she appeared in Superbad and has since been in The Rocker, acclaimed indie Paper Man and most recently Easy A.
Also nominated for a Golden Globe this year, her talent is as undeniable as her beauty and although she tends to be cast in films of a more humorous tone, she is one of very few young American actresses who can adapt to any genre and be just as fantastic in each.
Interestingly, her next major project will be the Spiderman reboot with Andrew Garfield in which she will play Peter Parker’s first love, Gwen Stacy. So if either of the two wins, let’s hope it doesn’t cause any tension on set!
The next Orange British Academy Film Awards will take place on Sunday 13 February 2011.
FemaleFirst - Fareed Athman
Tagged in Gemma Arterton Andrew Garfield