1990 - Jeremy Irons for Reversal of Fortune - he plays a evilish wealthy socialite who hires a law professor to overturn his convictions for attempted murder
1991 - Anthony Hopkins for Silence of the Lambs - well, not much to say about that
1992 - Al Pacino for Scent of a Woman - not so evil but definetly a tough guy
1995 - Nicholas Cage for Leaving Las Vegas - playing an alcoholic who drank away his family, friends and job
1997 - Jack Nicholson As good as it gets - couldn't get more malicious than that
1999 - Kevin Spacey for his portrayal of a depressed suburban father in a mid-life crisis in American Beauty
2001 - Denzel Washington doing hard-life and mischievous training with a rookie in Training Day
2002 - Adrien Brody as the no-dignity-in-the-face-of-war Pianist
2003 - Sean Penn for ruthless king of the neighborhood in Mystic River
2005 - Phillip Seymour Hoffman as the controversial Capote
2006 - Forest Whitaker portraying the sadistic King of Scotland
2007 - Daniel Day Lewis performing hauntingly in There Will be Blood
This year the contenders are all playing characters that one way or another are not modern-citizens that kids should take as ideals in life (besides Morgan Freeman playing Nelson Mandela in Invictus). George Clooney plays the man with the downsizing axe in Up in the Air, Jeremy Renner the twisted almost suicidal Irak-war genist in Hurt Locker, Colin Firth is the deeply depressed lonely gay teacher in A Single Man and Jeff Bridges the broke country-singer with no care for life in Crazy Heart.
And guess what? Jeff Bridges is favourite.
So what's up with Hollywood's love for the bad guys? Or maybe a bad guy's physical and moral traits are easiear to portray than say... Dalai Lama. Or maybe we "feel" for them. Be it compasion from the Academy or simply genious acting, the balance favours the dark side so far. Morgan Freeman winning this year will slightly change the situation.
But my money is still on Jeff Bridges. That's probably because "I hate most people"
