So you've read all about the Scorsese win, the Sobieski display, the Leo appearance. But that wasn't all! I talked to some terrifically interesting men on their way into the dinner who do stellar work year after year but never have as many flashbulbs in their face as lesser talents often do.
Busy actor-director Charles Dutton, who won an Emmy for directing "The Corner" in 2000 and two Emmys fior acting, was DGA nominated for directing Showtime's "Sleeper Cell" but lost to Walter Hill, director of AMC's "Broken Trail." ' I'm in an impressive category, all the other four nominees have quite interesting films so I'm quite pleased." "Every time I've directed, I've always been sort of forced into it because I wasn't interested. My agent basically had to twist my arm. i guess I have a love-hate relationship with directing. Directing is like washing a battleship with a Q-tip. I'd rather avoid it. Acting is you stay in your trailer and can be a pampered spoiled brat and get paid a lot of money."
Dutton has starred in the series "Roc" and such acclaimed television movies as "The Piano Lesson," "Blind Faith" and "Threshold."
Another acclaimed actor-director in the TV movie category was Edward James Olmos, up for directing the HBO film "Walkout" which he also appears in as an actor. Olmos, an Oscar nominee for "Stand and Deliver" and an Emmy winner for "Miami Vice," is currently riding high playing commander William Adama on "Battestar Galactica." But it is clear that to him, "Walkout" ranks among the most important work he has ever done.
Based on a true story, the movie tells the story students who stage a walkout at five East Los Angeles high schools in 1968, to protest educational conditions and complain of anti-Mexican educational bias along with some 10,000 students.
"I'm very grateful to be here nominated for a film that is unbelievably important and I'm glad that the directors took a look at it and gave it the time of day because the events that happened in which they beat children, here is Los Angeles here in 1968 and no one knew about it until 1995 when we found the raw stock footage in the vault of a major broadcast network, then we started to try and make the film. And it took HBO and a lot of disclipline for over 10 years to try and make that film and I'm very grateful that they did it."
"Walkout will be used by a lot of different people," Olmos said, adding that the film comes out on DVD in March.