OnlyOnAOL: Jennifer, Brie, Matt, Leo score in Super Bowl of acting

BY DONNA FREYDKIN

You read a script. You sign on the dotted line. You learn your lines. You report to set. You shoot the film. You promote it. A lot.

And if you're lucky, very, very, very lucky, maybe a year or so later, you wind up like Leonardo DiCaprio, or Tom Hardy, Saoirse Ronan, or Brie Larson, or Mark Rylance or, once again, Jennifer Lawrence, with an Oscar nomination to your name.

Jennifer Jason Leigh, up for Quentin Tarantino's "Hateful Eight," was asleep in Los Angeles. "What incredible news to wake up to. I didn't think the experience of making this movie could be more rewarding. To get recognition for this role in particular is incredible. We had the time of our lives. I've never seen so many grown men cry at wrap. We all knew it doesn't get any better than this," she says.

She's the only performer from the film nominated. "I'm the one in the dress and I get to represent the entire cast. I don't know how I will celebrate. I can take a hike and go eat some huge fattening breakfast somewhere," she says. "I wanted Quentin to get everything and the movie and other people in the cast."

Tarantino aside, there are a few glaring omissions: no Michael Keaton for "Spotlight," no Ridley Scott for "The Martian," and no people of color in the acting categories.

The consensus seems to be that Larson will win for "Room," and DiCaprio will finally take home the big guy for "The Revenant."

More Oscar coverage:
OnlyOnAOL: The first thing Leo DiCaprio did after wrapping 'The Revenant'
OnlyOnAOL: Get a 'Room' already, Brie Larson
OnlyOnAOL: Why Saoirse Ronan will never be Ellen Page
OnlyOnAOL: 'Danish Girl' star Alicia Vikander spins through awards season
OnlyOnAOL: Matt Damon's fearless Oscar prediction

And even though he's nominated for "The Martian," Matt Damon is the first to concede that the Academy doesn't score every time. "The Oscars don't always get it right. Hitchcock never won. Kubrick never won," he said a week before the nominations were announced.

Irish director Lenny Abrahamson, who helmed "Room," nearly fell off his chair when he heard his name called. "I'm in a state of shock and awe. It's a pretty amazing day. I didn't see it coming. Brie's nomination was wonderful. I had no expectations whatsoever," he says. "My mother called me weeping from the side of the road. She was driving."

He, too, was floored by some of the names that were left off the list, including the "Steve Jobs" scribe.

"I was surprised Aaron Sorkin wasn't there. I was very surprised that Ridley (Scott) isn't there, because he's been so much a front-runner. There were a bunch of other people. These things are not predictable. It's about real human beings watching real movies and deciding what they like the most," says Abrahamson.

Here's a list of the major categories.

Best picture
The Big Short
Bridge of Spies
Brooklyn
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Martian
The Revenant
Room
Spotlight

Best actor
Bryan Cranston, Trumbo
Matt Damon, The Martian
Leonardo DiCaprio, The Revenant
Michael Fassbender, Steve Jobs
Eddie Redmayne, The Danish Girl

Best actress
Cate Blanchett, Carol
Brie Larson, Room
Jennifer Lawrence, Joy
Charlotte Rampling, 45 Years
Saoirse Ronan, Brooklyn

Best supporting actor
Christian Bale, The Big Short
Tom Hardy, The Revenant
Mark Ruffalo, Spotlight
Mark Rylance, Bridge of Spies
Sylvester Stallone, Creed

Best supporting actress
Jennifer Jason Leigh, The Hateful Eight
Rooney Mara, Carol
Rachel McAdams, Spotlight
Alicia Vikander, The Danish Girl
Kate Winslet, Steve Jobs

Best directing
The Big Short
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Revenant
Room
Spotlight

And here's Larson talking about making "Room," one of the year's most talked-about films.