STANDING UP, FALLING DOWN, from left: Ben Schwartz, Billy Crystal, 2019. © Shout! Studios
Nobody doesn’t like Billy Crystal. And he has a new movie coming out called “Standing Up, Falling Down” which the actor hopes will get him his first Oscar nomination. Yes, that’s right! The nine-time host of the Oscar awards has never been nominated for one himself.
No, he didn’t get a nomination for “When Harry Met Sally” or for “City Slickers.” Heck, Billy Crystal didn’t even get one for playing Miracle Max in “The Princess Bride.”
The new movie is about a friendship between a struggling stand-up comedian from L.A., forced to move back home with his tail between his legs, and a tragically flawed, but charming and charismatic, alcoholic dermatologist. Crystal plays the dermatologist, of course.
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i enjoyed the conversation hope you will too https://t.co/ONLw5rOYpU
— Billy Crystal (@BillyCrystal) February 6, 2021
The movie co-stars Ben Schwartz as the comic and is directed by Matt Ratner. Its official release date is February 21. Right now the movie has an 88% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
“I’ve haven’t died in anything — at the box office sometimes, but not in a film,” Crystal joked in an interview with Yahoo Entertainment. “Ironically, the funeral scene was shot in my hometown — that’s the synagogue I was bar mitzvahed in! That was a nice little perk.”
“It was a great part to play,” Crystal says of his onscreen alter ego. “I just sort of got him. I felt very at ease with his pain, and what he was covering up. He’s a pot-smoking, hard-drinking dermatologist, which was really difficult for me because I’m not a dermatologist! So the research was quite fun.”
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Billy Crystal also had a few words to say about holding awards shows during the Cornoavirus crisis. “These are such difficult times, and the movie business loves to celebrate and people love to celebrate with them,” Crystal said.
Due to the Coronavirus this year’s Oscars ceremony has been pushed back from the end of February to Sunday, April 25. The nominations will be announced one month before that on March 25th.
