If you’ve seen any of the Best Picture nominees this year, you might have noticed something strange.
If you’ve watched any of the 2018 Oscar nominees for Best Picture, you probably noticed something strange. A lot of the actors cross over into one of the other films. We decided to take a deeper dive into the connections and see if we could connect all 9 films together six-degrees-of-Kevin-Bacon-style. Here’s what we found. Following is a transcript of the video.
Chris Snyder: If you’ve seen any of the Best Picture nominees for 2018, you might have noticed something unusual.
A lot of the actors cross over into some of the other films.
Some of them are obvious, and some of them are a little more obscure. So this got us thinking… how deep does this go?
There are 9 nominees for Best Picture in 2018. We connected each Best Picture nominee with the actors they have in common. Here’s how we did it.
Warning: Some spoilers if you haven’t seen these movies yet.
Let’s start with the obvious ones.
Timothée Chalamet appears in «Lady Bird» as Saoirse Ronan’s love interest Kyle. He also stars in «Call Me By Your Name» as Elio.
In «Call Me By Your Name» Michael Stuhlbarg plays Elio’s father. Stuhlbarg is also in two other Best Picture nominees. He plays Dr. Robert Hoffstetler in «The Shape of Water.» And he is New York Times editor Abe Rosenthal in «The Post.»
Through those two alone we have four of the films covered. Now let’s take another look at «Lady Bird.» Lady Bird’s father Larry is played by Tracy Letts, who also plays Fritz Beebe in «The Post.»
Lady Bird’s other love interest Danny is played by Lucas Hedges. Hedges also stars in «Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri» as Mildred’s son Robbie.
Kathryn Newton plays Mildred’s dead daughter Angela.
She also happens to be in «Lady Bird,» playing the minor role of Darlene.
Also in «Three Billboards» is Caleb Landry Jones, who plays Red Welby. He’s the guy who Mildred pays to put up the billboards. He might look familiar, because he’s also in «Get Out.» Where he plays Rose’s violent brother Jeremy.
Also in «Get Out» is Bradley Whitford. He appears in «The Post» as the fictional character Arthur Parsons.
Alright, so now we have 6 of the films on the board. That just leaves»Dunkirk,»»Darkest Hour,» and «Phantom Thread.»
Here’s where things got a bit tricky.
An actor named Davey Jones plays a soldier in both «Dunkirk» and «Darkest Hour.» and » Yeah, it’s a smaller role, but it’s still a connection.
Two other actors also have minor roles in both «Dunkirk» and «Darkest Hour.» Also in «Darkest Hour» is an actor named Cris Harris, who plays a Downing Street KB. Cris Harris happens to also play a musician in «Phantom Thread.»
So now we’ve connected these 3 movies together, but we’re still missing a connection to the first 6. This is where things got even trickier.
We combed through IMDB searching for any actor that might be the missing link. Just when we thought it wasn’t possible, we found her: Tracey Ruggiero.
Tracey Ruggiero: Whenever you’re on sets like that, you definitely have a feeling that it’s going to be something big.
Snyder: Tracey is a stunt performer who had roles in both «Dunkirk» and «The Post.» Yes, there were stunts in «The Post.»
Ruggiero: So in «The Post» there was a protest scene. I was like running behind the car. I know that Meryl was in the car, and she was looking out the back as Tim Hanks was walking down the street, and so I knew like I was running through that scene a bunch.
In «Dunkirk,» I played a nurse in the big boat scene, and actually like stunt nurse is what she was called because I was a stunt performer. Literally, you felt like you were drowning. It really felt like the boat was getting bombed.
It’s quite an honor to just have been, just to even work a day on any of those movies. A movie that Steven Spielberg directs or Christopher Nolan directs.
Snyder: So there you go — all 9 films connected, Six-Degrees-of-Kevin-Bacon style, minus Kevin Bacon.
