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Known For

Alexander Payne is known for:

  • Nebraska
    An aging, booze-addled father takes a trip from Montana to Nebraska with his estranged son in order to claim what he believes to be a million-dollar sweepstakes prize.
  • Downsizing
    A kindly occupational therapist undergoes a new procedure to be shrunken to four inches tall so that he and his wife can help save the planet and afford a nice lifestyle at the same time.
  • The Descendants
    With his wife Elizabeth on life support after a boating accident, Hawaiian land baron, Matt King takes his daughters on a trip from Oahu to Kauai to confront a young real estate broker, who was having an affair with Elizabeth before her misfortune.

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Biography

Constantine Alexander Payne (born February 10, 1961) is an American film director and screenwriter. His films are noted for their dark humor and satirical depictions of contemporary American society. Payne has received numerous accolades, including two Academy Awards, a BAFTA Award and three Golden Globe Awards as well as a nomination for a Grammy Award. After directing several short films, Payne made his feature film debut with the black comedy Citizen Ruth (1996). His career progressed with the political satire Election (1999), for which he received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, and the comedy-drama About Schmidt (2002). Payne twice won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for co-writing his directorials Sideways (2004) and The Descendants (2011). He was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director for these two films and for the road film Nebraska (2013). He has since directed Downsizing (2017) and the period film The Holdovers (2023). In a 2018 interview with Ronan Farrow, actress Rose McGowan accused a "prominent” man in Hollywood of statutory rape but she did not name the person in question. In August 2020, McGowan said it was Payne and that he committed the act sometime in 1988 or 1989, when McGowan was 15 years old and Payne was about 28 years old. Payne responded to McGowan's allegation by writing a guest column in Deadline Hollywood in which he admitted to a consensual relationship with her, but denied any impropriety, alleging that they had met in 1991 when she was over the age of consent, which is 18 in California. Payne ended his statement writing, "While I cannot allow false statements about events 29 years ago to go uncorrected, I will continue to wish only the best for Rose".