Best Supporting Actor

Chris Cooper
Adaptation

It was pretty much a two-man race in Supporting Actor, with Chris Cooper and Andy Serkis taking the lion's share of first place votes (five and six, respectively). Cooper's passionate orchid thief ultimately took the day over Serkis's astounding creation of Gollum in The Two Towers. Cooper is an actor who has spent a lot of time playing repressive father figures, so it's a joy to see him let loose with a character that has an oversized love for life.

The debate over whether or not digital acting counts as "acting" continues in the Hollywood world, but it's clearly decided among our staff; it counts and it's got a doozy of a standard bearer. Forget the fact that Serkis doesn't actually appear on screen in the film. His voice and actions are there and it's the only reason that Gollum doesn't look like a cartoon, or worse, Jar Jar Binks. In the degree of difficulty category, this performance gets full marks.

After these two, there was a huge drop off in points, with the others left to pick up the scraps. Third place went to one of Hollywood's screen legends, Paul Newman, in Road to Perdition. A highly poignant role, Newman's acting puts an amoral center to the action in this fathers-and-sons gangster tale.

The father/son theme continues with the fourth place finisher, Christopher Walken in Catch Me If You Can. For an actor with a lot of baggage as a creepy performer, this role let him turn on the charm and remind people what a subtle actor he can be when he's not playing an obvious villain.

Joaquin Phoenix placed fifth for his role in Signs, continuing his run of solid supporting parts. This one had him go from skeptic to believer and had him carry a lot of thematic weight of the film on his shoulders, as well as injecting the bulk of the movie's humor.

Robin Williams ranked higher here for his role in Insomnia than in the Best Actor category for One Hour Photo; something that surprises me a bit since it's not quite as flashy a role. Still it's been a very good year for him. Every year a child actor seems to place quite high with this bunch and this one is no exception, with Nicholas Hoult from About a Boy finishing in the top ten. Anyone who's seen or been a kid that didn't quite fit in knows how well he made this role work.

George Clooney's self-directed work in Confessions of a Dangerous Mind also found a spot on this list, making him the only actor to hit the top ten in both the Actor and Supporting Actor categories. A tie for ninth spot saw Eddie Izzard's portrayal of Charlie Chaplin in The Cat's Meow and last year's winner in this category, Ian McKellen, round out this category. McKellen's work wasn't any worse than last year, of course, but his role was much less significant than it was in Fellowship. (Reagen Sulewski/BOP)

Top Ten
Position	Actor	Film	Total Points
1	Chris Cooper	Adaptation	123
2	Andy Serkis	The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers	103
3	Paul Newman	Road to Perdition	54
4	Christopher Walken	Catch Me If You Can	50
5	Joaquin Phoenix	Signs	47
6	Robin Williams	Insomnia	41
7	Nicholas Hoult	About a Boy	36
8	George Clooney	Confessions of a Dangerous Mind	35
9	Eddie Izzard	The Cat's Meow	32
10	Ian McKellen	The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers	32