Film: Waiting for Oscar

Oscarologists are already denoting 1998 the year of the Brit, but don't they say that every year? Four out of the five nominees for Best Actress are from these shores, but the pessimistic money is on Helen Hunt for her role in As Good As It Gets. Lest we forget, in 1984 the Union Jack all but monopolised the Best Actor nominations: Tom Courtenay and Albert Finney were up for The Dresser, Michael Caine for The Honorary Consul and Tom Conti for Reuben Reuben. But the winner was Robert Duvall for his all-American C&W drunkard in Tender Mercies. And let's not forget last year's haul of nominations for Brenda Blethyn, Emily Watson and Kristin Scott Thomas, who collectively lost out to Frances McDormand. Scratch the surface of every British actor who says on the day that they're simply happy to participate in this uniquely American celebration, and underneath there's a cynic who sees the event for what it really is. What Colin Welland really meant is that the British are coming second.

NIGEL HAWTHORNE, nominated as best actor for The Madness of King George in 1994:

"I really hated it. When you get there you are very aware that it is an American celebration and you are very aware that the film you made is a low-budget costume flick that they've chosen to pat on the back and say, 'Oh well done, we're going to give you an Oscar nomination for this.' But you know that you're not going to win it. I felt I was wasting my time being there. I knew I wasn't going to win. I knew. My water told me. I kept wanting to go to the loo, because I think I was very nervous. You couldn't get out and get rid of it because you couldn't get back in again. They had all these minders and these people called seat-fillers. So if you go out then somebody else jumps into your seat and you go to the loo and you pee next to Steve Martin. It's most odd. And then you come back again and they won't let you in because you can't be seen to be moving up and down the aisles except during a commercial break, so you have to wait for that. I was on the aisle seat and John Travolta was over there, and we kept grinning across at each other because what was so funny was that Tom Hanks, who won, was right in the middle. I don't know if it was in the front row, but he was certainly just about the most central position you could be. He was almost on the stage. You got the feeling that it was not going to be your night. But there again, you can't really tell, because they don't give you any indication, and when the envelope is opened there is almost always a moment when you think, 'Christ, what am I going to say if I win?' Your mind is usually a total blank at that stage. And then it went to him. What was so nice was the number of people who came up, like Jodie Foster, and said, 'You were robbed.' You really felt that there was a huge huge wave of support."

MARIANNE JEAN-BAPTISTE, nominated for Best Actress in 1997 for Secrets and Lies.

"I was in bed asleep in New York at the time. I tried to get back to bed and then the phone continued to ring and ring. I decided to go to the gym and work out. When I had done 45 minutes on the running machine I realised that this was adrenaline, and it came home what had happened. I was very naive: I left everything to the last minute. You're inundated with calls the whole time, from publicists who represent Versace or Armani. You get things in the post - flowers and gifts. If you don't have a personal secretary to return calls and organise sittings you have to do it yourself.

"I found it very strange having to talk about a dress as opposed to the actual film. Every interview you had, that's what they wanted to talk about: the gown. I kept wanting to say, 'I'm not a model, I'm an actress.' That line of photographers and reporters takes about two hours. By that time your Versace shoes are killing you and you just want to sit down. And you haven't eaten because you haven't been able to. I thought Lauren Bacall was going to walk off with the award. I thought, if it happens it'll be really nice but that's not what I'm going for. The party after was a bit grim because you just thought, 'You gave all these bloody awards to The English Patient. Why?' You sat there getting a bit bitter. Why get us all here, dressed up, if you weren't going to give us anything?"

HELEN MIRREN, nominated for best supporting actress for The Madness of King George in 1984:

"I went looking absolutely stupid. I never got my clothes together at all. I was rehearsing a play on Broadway at the time and in my lunch hours I'd go running out into shops thinking, what shall I wear? So I never got my gear organised. It was a horrible yellow. I blew it totally. Then I got drunk before I even got out of the limousine. My guy very wisely said, 'It takes a long time to get there.' It's only a 15-minute ride in the car. I said, 'It can't take that long.' He said, 'Believe me.' What happens is, you get into this traffic jam of limousines, all of them at least 25ft long. Apparently every car in the whole of California they drive down for that night. The whole of the rest of California is emptied of limousines and they're all in this one road trying to get to the Oscars. That took an hour and a half trying to get there. I thought I'd have one glass of champagne on the way and when I got there I'd finished the bottle. I went down the wrong lane. You get out and there's a celebrity lane if you're nominated, and you're supposed to go down that lane and that's where all the journalists are - and I didn't realise that. I went down the lane with all the punters, which actually turned out to be quite a blessing because no one saw me in my horrible outfit."

PETE POSTLETHWAITE, nominated for best supporting actor for In the Name of the Father in 1993:

"When you're nominated, for some reason you're suddenly explicable to financiers. You're sort of bankable. We had a good week, a good wheeze. I was remarkably sanguine about not getting it. Tommy Lee Jones got it - I suppose he's paid his dues. It's a financial market, isn't it? That's what they're looking at. It is a comment on what's making money. Steven Spielberg had paid his dues. It was like his bar mitzvah that night. He would have won the 100 yards dash if he'd gone in for it that night."

'Oscar Day/ Oscar Night', part one of 'The Entertainment Biz', is on BBC2 on Sunday at 9.30pm.