As Albert Finney sees it, there’s a fundamental difference between him, a robust bull barreling into a Gotham hotel suite and the tall-tale spinner he plays in Tim Burton’s new “Big Fish.”
“I live stories rather than tell them,” says Finney, 67, the best-known British actor never to win an Oscar. He’s likely to snag yet another nomination for his salty turn as the fantasist father of a realist son in Burton’s fractured fairy tale.
Zero-for-five with “Tom Jones,” “Murder on the Orient Express,” “Under the Volcano,” “The Dresser” and “Erin Brockovich,” Finney is supremely indifferent to honors, including the 2002 Emmy he won for portraying Winston Churchill in HBO’s “The Gathering Storm.”
The subject of mortality hangs lightly over the actor. This may be because in “Big Fish” he plays a dying man estranged from his son (Billy Crudup). Or it may be because the movie has prompted him to take stock of his relations with his late father and with his son, Simon, 45.
“So if you ask me how my relationship with my son may have flavored my performance here,” Finney says, anticipating the question, “I’ll tell you that’s a question for Simon.” He shrugs broad shoulders with a grin nearly as wide. “Of course, I always think my relationship with my son is perfectly fine.”
Two generations of Finney sons have entered what might be termed the other side of the family business. Finney’s father was a bookie; his son breeds racehorses. Finney is an actor; his son is a cinematographer. “There is a link,” says the actor, admitting that it is a slightly perverse one.
The actor wouldn’t dream of riding a thoroughbred. He only breeds them.
Which brings him to the subject of horse races, a much more reliable index of talent than Oscar races, in Finney’s estimation.
More Top Picks Best Blue Light Glasses For Night Driving
“The Oscars are a race one doesn’t enter. If you win an Oscar, it’s a matter of opinion.
“But if a horse passes the post first, it means that he’s the best at that day at that time.”
———-
Edited by Cara DiPasquale ([email protected]) and Kris Karnopp ([email protected])