Oscar 2023, from Brendan Fraser to the outsider Paul Mescal who are the candidates for best actor - Lifestyle

The nominees for the statuette for Best Actor have one thing in common: it's all their first time at the Oscars.

A race between physical and emotional transformations, tributes to cinematic masterpieces and rock icons.

The big favourite, already with over 20 awards for his performance, is

, who in Darren Aronofsky's The Whale plays Charlie, a sensitive and lonely obese English teacher determined to reconnect with his teenage daughter Ellie (Sadie Sink) .

The strongest opponent looks like

, who accepted the challenge of stepping into the shoes of Elvis Presley in Baz Luhrmann's dreamlike portrayal of the king of rock in Elvis.

It is the new partnership with his director friend Martin McDonagh, 15 years from Bruges and 11 from Seven Psychopaths, that brings the Irishman

his first nomination for the tragicomedy The Spirits of the Island.

With a career spanning more than 150 roles across stage, big and small screen, radio and game dubbing,

born in 1949, made an impression as a blue-collar man who questions his life in Oliver Hermanus' Living, a remake of Living (Ikiru), Akira Kurosawa's masterpiece.

Finally, the surprise in five is another Irish talent,

, an actor on the rise thanks to the Normal people series.

Putting him in the running for an Oscar is the struggling father of newcomer Charlotte Wells' Aftersun.

A story of success, relative oblivion, and return to the top, of those that Hollywood loves so much, is embodied by

, who became a star in the late 90s and early 2000s with refined films such as Gods and Gods and blockbuster hits (especially with the Mummy franchise).

In the last decade, he had fallen off the radar of major productions.

A period spent by Fraser mainly as a father and on stage, which enriched him "as a man and as an actor" he explained.

Qualities fully displayed in

where, in addition to giving his most intense performance as an interpreter, he also won the physical challenge of playing a seriously obese man, thanks to a suit / costume that weighed over 150 kilos and the advice of the Obesity Action Coalition to be the most truthful possible, in movements and behaviors.

“Exploring the humanity of a man who represented a mirror of society, who became almost a superhero in popular culture”.

It's what attracted

, which also brings the Italian Aldo Signoretti to the competition for make-up at the Oscars.

Born in 1991, Butler, known for series such as The Carrie Diaries and The Shannara Chronicles or for his role as Tex Watson, Charles Manson's acolyte, in Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, worked on the character of Elvis for more than a year before filming.

“I wanted to seem as real as possible – he said-.

I watched and listened to all the available material for months.

I felt an incredible responsibility towards the family of Elvis, Priscilla and her daughter Lisa Marie ”(passed away in January, ed) who constantly helped and supported him.

An explosive personality made of rebellion, threat, intensity, irony and fragility;

that's what he allowed

, to become the face for directors such as Joel Schumacher, Steven Spielberg, Oliver Stone (for the much reviled Alexander) Terry Gilliam, Neil Jordan, Yorgos Lanthimos, David Yates, up to Matt Reeves for The Batman, where he became The Penguin, who will return to interpret in an ad hoc series.

And yet a new film with Martin McDonagh, who already 15 years ago, when Farrell had recently detoxified from alcohol, had offered him the splendid In Bruges, to bring the actor to the shortlist with The spirits of the

, for which he has already won the Coppa Volpi in Venice.

A tragicomedy (nominated for nine Oscars) set on an island off the Irish coast, in the early 1920s, in which the actor plays Padraic, a man loved by all, who does not resign himself to losing Colm's fraternal friendship without explanation (Brendan Gleeson).

A collective celebration in the family via Facetime, was one of the reactions of Irishman

to his first Academy nomination.

She arrived for

, already awarded at Cannes and Deauville, in which the actor plays Calum, a young father in crisis who tries to give his 11-year-old daughter Sophie (Frankie Coro) the best holiday possible in a resort in Turkey.

“I was immediately struck by Calum's character – explained Mescal – and by the conflict he feels between being an excellent father and his dark moments, in which he struggles with a form of depression that not even he understands”.

A role that opened the door to ever more important projects: from a modern version of Carmen directed by Benjamin Millepied to the gay romance with Josh O'Connor during the First World War in The History of Sound;

from Richard Linklater's adaptation of the cult musical Merrily We Roll Along, to the sequel to Ridley Scott's Gladiator.