LOS ANGELES – Longtime Canadian set decorator Jim Erickson says he’s stunned to have won his first Academy Award for his work on Lincoln.
He and colleague Rick Carter received the trophy for best production design on the Steven Spielberg drama that had a leading 12 nominations going into the Oscars.
They beat out teams from Anna Karenina, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Les Miserables and Life of Pi.
“I feel like I’ve done a hat trick in the final game of the Stanley Cup playoffs,” Erickson said in a call from his home of 10 years, Salt Spring Island, B.C.
The Minnesota-born Erickson, who is a dual Canadian-U.S. citizen, said he didn’t expect to triumph in the tough category, noting that he and Carter lost at the British Film Awards to the team from Les Miserables.
“I really didn’t think that we were going to win. I was pretty sure that Anna Karenina or one of the other ones were going to win. Because at the BAFTAs and things like that they were winning. So I was very surprised, actually. In a nice way.”
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Erickson said he watched the bash at his home with his brother, sister-in-law and two neighbour friends. They “yelled and screamed and we broke open a couple bottles of champagne” when they heard his name.
“I’ve had the fu the last week, so I’m a bit under the weather which is why I’m not down there,” said Erickson, who has been in Canada since 1974.
This is Erickson’s second Oscar nomination after his 2008 nod for best art direction for his work on There Will Be Blood.
His other credits include Watchmen, Water for Elephants and Ali.
Backstage at the Oscars, Carter acknowledged that his partner was conspicuously absent.
“Obviously Jim Erickson should be here and sharing this honor. He’s the set decorator,” Carter said in a transcript of backstage interviews provided by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
“And so much of what is in Lincoln, visually, that is seen, that creates the intimacy of the sets and the setting is Jim’s work. And we’re the same age and we’re like brothers who have shared a common history to get to this time now.”
The 62-year-old Erickson has been working in Hollywood for more than 30 years and recently told The Canadian Press that Lincoln marks his retirement from the film business. He was not able to attend the ceremony due to illness.
“I had such a great career and after ‘Lincoln’ I just said, ‘There’s just not much else that I can think of that I want to do,'” Erickson said in an interview ahead of the Oscars.
“I consciously made decisions on scripts and projects that I wanted to do to get experience and learn about things and the past and the present and a little bit of the future.
“There’s a nice broad spectrum of films (on my resume) and I’ve had a really wonderful career. So why not go out on a high point instead of dribbling out toward the end?”
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