(LOS ANGELES) — The Beverly Hilton was the place to be on Monday, if you’re a loyal viewer of the Oscars.
It was the site of the annual Oscar nominee luncheon. More than 150 nominees, including Michael Keaton, Bradley Cooper, Steve Carell, Patricia Arquette and Robert Duvall, were in attendance.
Keaton, a contender for best actor for his performance in Birdman, has delivered some entertaining acceptance speeches this award season. According to him, he just goes with the flow on stage.
Keaton said Monday, “It’s just basically how I feel and what I think, you know, and it’s nice to be older because you don’t care about a lot of things anymore.”
“After a while that’s just the great thing, you just really don’t care what people think,” he added.
Cooper is nominated for best actor for his portrayal of late sniper Chris Kyle in the hit film American Sniper. The movie has generated discussion over whether Kyle was a hero. Cooper didn’t anticipate this much talk about his film, but he welcomes it.
He said, “Any discussion that sort of sheds light to the plight of the soldiers and the men and women in the armed services, for that discussion to occur is fantastic.”
Carell, another best actor nominee, recalled at the luncheon the moment he and his wife, actress Nancy Carell, learned he had earned his first career nod, for Foxcatcher. He shared, “I ran upstairs to tell her and she was running downstairs. So we met at the top of the stairs and we were just jumping up and down for about ten minutes. I’ll just never forget that.”
Patricia Arquette, who’s considered the front-runner to win best supporting actress for her role in Boyhood, is similarly excited to be a nominee. She told reporters she was hoping she doesn’t faint at the luncheon, joking that she “felt like the grownup version of a kid going to Disneyland. Like, ‘Look at that big statue. Can you believe we’re here? Look at these lights. I can’t believe it’s happening.'”
Robert Duvall has low expectations for himself heading into the Academy Awards. Though he’s nominated for best supporting actor for The Judge, he insisted at the luncheon, “I’m not gonna win it. That’s okay though.”
Whiplash star J.K. Simmons is considered the leader in that race.
At the luncheon, the nominees were reminded that if they win, they must keep their speeches to 45 seconds. At an Oscar party put on by The Wrap Monday night, Boyhood director and nominee Richard Linklater told ABC News Radio the instruction got him thinking about his speech for the first time.
“Yeah that’s the first time I got that little chill of, oh…I gotta…keep it to 45 seconds. Oh…ok. Better start thinking about that,” Linklater admitted.
When asked if he had any speech planned yet, Linklater told ABC News Radio, “Not really, it’s early.” He indicated that the day of the Oscars or the weekend of the event was the time to think about a speech, but then acknowledged he “hadn’t thought about it that much,” but “should start.”
The Oscars, hosted by Neil Patrick Harris, will air on ABC on Feb. 22.
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