The award is now the Linda Partridge 'don't call me lady' award after Julianne Moore in Magnolia, having passed from Ruffalo to Saul Rubineck (as transcribed); the first answer is that nobody is overacting and Bardem is acting just right.
The award was named after Mark Ruffalo despite Zodiac and You Can Count on Me, so it is not a positive award, and the Bardem performance is called the performance of the decade; the boat captain who sticks his head in to say they should push off is offered instead.
The counter-case is that overacting is a skill, that Bardem seems outsized because everyone else is muted, and that he is doing a lot without ruining the movie; the Bardem voter admits being outvoted as always, and the award goes to the boat captain so everyone stays friends.
Daniel Craig is a yes: he opened the Olympics and starred in a billion-dollar Bond movie considered the best ever; Knives Out is great but not the same level of power, and he now does Southern accents and married Rachel Weisz.
Sam Mendes is a no; his peak was earlier, right after American Beauty made around four hundred million and won the Oscars, into Road to Perdition and Jarhead.
Javier Bardem is a no: 2012 did not feel like his moment any more than 2007, and objectively his peak is the No Country for Old Men Oscar; his run through Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Beautiful, Eat Pray Love, To the Wonder, The Counselor and Mother is admired, and he is married to Penelope Cruz.
One voter chooses Jones as the film’s soul whose final scenes turn a cat-and-mouse thriller into a meditation on age and fear. — Bill Hader
Two voters choose Bardem because Chigurh embodies the destructive future, completes his task, survives damage, and became an iconic villain. — Bill Hader
Jones’s one-take dream monologue and career are celebrated even by the Bardem voters. — Bill Hader
The Coen brothers’ picture/director win and Javier Bardem’s iconic Chigurh make this a plausible apex for both; Brolin’s later franchise fame complicates his case.
Scheduling nearly forced Bardem to withdraw, with Mark Strong on standby. — Bill Simmons
Heath Ledger was offered Llewelyn and declined to spend time with his daughter; James Franco also read, while Brolin’s audition was shot by Robert Rodriguez.
Ledger could have carried the Texas role, but the panel prefers Brolin’s less star-coded fit. — Bill Hader
Brad Pitt is imagined regretting the overlap with his Jesse James role, though his visibility would weaken the character illusion. — Bill Simmons
Garrett Dillahunt auditioned five times for Llewelyn and instead became Bell’s deputy. — Bill Simmons
