Who was the main lead in the movie Spotlight?
Considering that Mark Ruffalo was nominated as the best actor in a supporting role for his portrayal of Mike Rezendes, who wrote the whole story for The Boston Globe, who was the main lead in the movie Spotlight?
Best Answer
There is none.
Spotlight is what is known as an "ensemble cast".
An ensemble cast is made up of cast members in which the principal actors and performers are assigned roughly equal amounts of importance and screen time in a dramatic production.
In fact they won or were nominated for around 12 awards for Best Ensemble including the Screen Actor's Guild award and the Independent Spirit Robert Altman Award.
Individual actors in the film were nominated for several different awards, the only one that I can find for "Best Actor/Actress" was the New York Critics Award, which went to Michael Keaton. All of the other nominations were for "Supporting Actor/Actress" and all of these went to either Ruffalo, Keaton or McAdams.
While Andrew is correct that Mark Ruffalo gets top billing, that doesn't make him the star. Billing order is decided in negotiations between the production company and the actor's agents. It often results in some odd people getting top billing. See TV Tropes' articles on "Billing Displacement" and "Billed Above the Title". I am not saying that this is what happened with Spotlight, though.
Other explanations for billing order include the ever popular "he'll take a pay cut if you give him top billing" and "he'll only do the film if you give him top billing". The amusing thing is that this generally reflects more on the agents than on the actors... an actor may be very happy to do a role, regardless of the billing but, in order to get their talent up the notoriety rungs, agents will be... obstinate because they "just want what's best for their clients".
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Who is the protagonist in Spotlight?
Robby Robinson (Michael Keaton), the head of the newspaper's Spotlight team\u2014which produces long-form investigative articles that take months to research and develop\u2014meets with Baron.What is the main conflict in Spotlight?
Spotlight leads to the September 2001 attack by religious fundamentalists to mark the film's tension-packed climax, as the basic conflict between those who silently and, in some cases, explicitly sanction the notion that ignorance is bliss\u2014\u201dPeople need the church\u201d as a crutch, one admonishes\u2014and those who seek to ...Is the movie Spotlight a true story?
The new movie "Spotlight" has been nominated for the Golden Globes and is expected to gain an Oscar nomination in the new year. The critically-acclaimed film is based on the true story of the Boston Globe's Pulitzer Prize-winning reporting on the pedophile-priest scandal in the Catholic Church.What happens at the end of Spotlight?
The final scene shows the Spotlight team in their office taking a high volume of phone calls\u2014survivors had seen the newspaper article and wanted to share their stories. Advertisement: Those who've followed the real-life investigation know that the Spotlight team's reporting didn't end there.The True Story Behind the Film \
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Answer 2
Mark Ruffalo was given top billing. Whether he is the "main lead" depends on your definition of "main lead".
The reason for the discrepancy you're seeing in his Best Actor in a Supporting Role Oscar nomination is due to the way the Oscars work. From their official rules (Section 6):
Reminder lists including up to ten eligible actresses and up to ten eligible actors for each eligible motion picture shall be made available along with nominations ballots to all active members of the Actors Branch, who shall vote in the order of their preference for not more than five acting achievements in each category: Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role, Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role, Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role, Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role.
A performance by an actor or actress in any role shall be eligible for nomination either for the leading role or supporting role categories.
So the Academy members deemed his best suited for the Supporting Role Oscar, probably due to the fact he fairly equally shared screen time with Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams and Brian d'Arcy James.
However, in all promotional material for the film, like the posters for the film below, Ruffalo got top billing:
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