Howard Fine runs his own acting studio in Beverly Hills and his clients have included Brad Pitt, Val Kilmer and Rosanna Arquette.

Ivana Chubbuck is the author of The Power of the Actor and has taught Garry Shandling, nominee Elisabeth Shue and Oscar winner Halle Berry.

Janet Alhanti has been teaching for 35 years and her pupils have included previous nominees Diane Lane and Robert Downey Jr.

BEST ACTOR NOMINEES

Clint Eastwood, Million Dollar Baby

Howard Fine: Unlike Anthony Hopkins in Remains of the Day, for example, Eastwood defines the part by its limitations, not its possibilities. It looks like the actor’s stuck.

Janet Alhanti: As an actor, his choices are very clear. They’re primary colours, never pastel. But he’s not thrown if a scene needs something more delicate. He’s like a tired old king here.

Ivana Chubbuck: It’s touching to see how much he drew on his own struggle to work things out. It could have been very dewy, but he brought a lot of irreverence to it.

Leonardo DiCaprio, The Aviator

Fine: He does a great job with the breakdown and the neuroses, and the dreamer. But you never get the adult male sexuality that this part needs. You just don’t see how Katharine Hepburn could have fallen for him.

Alhanti: He goes right for the extremes. The ability to take charge and the complete inability to conquer his compulsions.

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