Oscars: Jennifer Lawrence, Jonah Hill and Other Supporting Actor Nominees Spill Secrets Behind Their Roles

Sally Hawkins in ‘Blue Jasmine’

Hawkins on her character: "Ginger has a particular style. It might not be everyone's taste, but she looks right in those clothes. They are appropriate to her lifestyle, to what she earns and to what she aspires. She feels good in that. She's not particularly sophisticated in the way Jasmine is, but what was key for me was the time I spent with Suzy Benzinger, the costume designer. She's very bright. She thinks like a writer, too. She found the right shoes and clothes from thrift stores and secondhand stores that Ginger herself would be seeking out."
June Squibb in ‘Nebraska’

"The scene we worked on the most was that scene outside where I say the F-word — only because [director] Alexander [Payne] didn't quite know what he wanted out of that scene. So we tried it many different ways, with different attitudes, maybe a little under, perhaps not as forceful — just all the different ways the F-word can be said."
Jared Leto in ‘Dallas Buyers Club’

"I spent hours and hours getting makeup done," said Leto. "As my character got sicker and sicker, there was one day when I was in and out of the chair for eight hours, including having to have prosthetics put on and cancer lesions."
Julia Roberts in ‘August: Osage County’

Roberts on set: "Being in Oklahoma, all of us being displaced together, we were forced into togetherness, into being a family and into a cooperative to make it all work. [Director] John Wells wanted Juliette [Lewis] and Julianne [Nicholson] and I to emulate each other’s mannerisms.”
Barkhad Abdi in ‘Captain Phillips’

“[Director] Paul [Greengrass] was like, ‘You guys are not seeing Tom [Hanks] until the first scene you actually see him in the film,’ said Abdi. "He said he didn’t want us to be intimidated by Tom, so the first time in the movie we see each other, that’s the first time we are seeing him. Looking back at it now, it was a great idea.”
Jennifer Lawrence in ‘American Hustle’

“[Writer-director] David [O. Russell] said, ‘I have a vision of you, dancing around and singing “Live and Let Die” in the kitchen.’ I said, ‘OK.’ On the day we shot it, I was a little bit nervous, because we didn’t know exactly what the blocking was going to be. But when he called action, I just started shaking my head like crazy,” said Lawrence.
Bradley Cooper in ‘American Hustle’

Cooper on his character development: "I said to David [O. Russell], ‘Let’s make him somebody who is unrecognizable, let’s really make him a character.’ We were in the editing room together on Silver Linings Playbook, so we had a lot of time where we could spitball who this guy is — until finally there was Richie DiMaso. Step by step, there were a lot of exterior decisions that we made. I said to David, ‘Why doesn’t he have a perm?’ and David said, ‘Why doesn’t he curl his own hair? He wants to be like all those black baseball players like Dock Ellis.’ We created this guy who is really desperate to be something he isn’t. Really, what he is is a 15-year-old boy.”
Michael Fassbender in ’12 Years a Slave’

"Epps feels inadequate around [Chiwetel Ejiofor's] Solomon, funnily enough, and that's very much the root of their relationship," says Fassbender. "Solomon has to follow orders, and it's a dancing game. But Epps is essentially obsessed with [Lupita Nyong'o's] Patsey."
Lupita Nyong’o in ’12 Years a Slave’

Nyong'o on playing her character: “The toughness about Patsey was something that I had to deal with, with a sense of practicality. This was a real woman’s life, and I had the privilege of playing her in an imaginative world. The role in itself was a tough thing to accept that I could actually do it.”
Jonah Hill in ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’

“The fight scene between me and Leo [DiCaprio] when we are both on Quaaludes took an entire work week to shoot," says Hill. "We filmed it chronologically. I worked with a drug expert who walked me through what it feels like to be on these drugs. It was so physical. Honestly, after reading the book, I couldn’t believe any of these people were still alive!”

Sally Hawkins in ‘Blue Jasmine’

June Squibb in ‘Nebraska’

Jared Leto in ‘Dallas Buyers Club’

Julia Roberts in ‘August: Osage County’

Barkhad Abdi in ‘Captain Phillips’

Jennifer Lawrence in ‘American Hustle’

Bradley Cooper in ‘American Hustle’

Michael Fassbender in ’12 Years a Slave’

Lupita Nyong’o in ’12 Years a Slave’

Jonah Hill in ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’