Terence, Rachel Winter are married nominees, but not Oscar dates

Bright and early on Jan. 16, Terence and Rachel Winter woke up to discover they had made Oscars history. As the Academy Award nominations were announced, Terence, a multiple Emmy-winning writer-producer who created HBO’s “Boardwalk Empire,” scored an Oscar nod for adapted screenplay for “The Wolf of Wall Street.” And Rachel, whose filmography skews toward smaller, indie productions, landed a nomination as a producer of “Dallas Buyers Club,” in the running for best picture this year.

Unlike James Cameron and Kathryn Bigelow — who were long divorced by the time they competed for a director Academy Award in 2009 — the Winters now stand as the only married tandem ever to secure his-and-hers Oscar nominations for different movies in the same year.

FOR THE RECORD:
Rachel and Terence Winter: The Sunday Conversation in the March 2 Calendar section said that film producers Rachel and Terence Winter were the only married couple ever to secure Oscar nominations for different films in the same year. In fact, Rex Harrison and Rachel Roberts were nominated in 1964 (for 1963 movies) for lead actor (“Cleopatra”) and actress (“This Sporting Life”).

FULL COVERAGE: Oscars 2014

Give me a play by play of how Oscar nomination morning went down.

Terence: It was 8:30 in New York where I was watching it live. Rachel said, “Call me and wake me up.” She was at our house in Los Angeles. For some weird reason, she had a three-second delay. The nominations start coming out. First screenplays, then best picture, which is Rachel’s category. When they said “Dallas Buyers Club,” I found out three seconds before her and was trying to tell her. By the time I got the words out, she had started screaming.

Rachel: It got to be very Abbott and Costello versus this wonderful, beautiful, romantic thing. It was very comedic. “Wait, whose movie? What are you talking about?!”

T: We were both absolutely stunned.

FULL COVERAGE: ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’

You have two small children. How are they taking in all your awards season appearances?

T: We’ve had to try to explain to them why we’re going out of town for all these things. “Well, Daddy’s nominated for a big award.” Or, “Mommy is maybe going to get a prize.”

R: My son probably said it best. We were in a car going to the airport. He said to the driver, “Excuse me, my mommy is animated for a Producers Guilt Award.” [Laughs] I was like, “Yes, I am a cartoon character of guilt. And I’m gonna win that one for sure!”

What about the Oscars nominee luncheon? Were you seated at the same table?

T: No, we were across the room from each other. Normally, we’d be sitting together — at the actual awards too. But this time we’ll be with our respective movies.

R: We weren’t together at the luncheon. We weren’t together at the [Screen Actors Guild] Awards. They’re tearing us apart!

T: We can both say we’ve never been so happy to not sit with each other.

FULL COVERAGE: ‘Dallas Buyers Club’

How is Oscar Sunday going to unfold? What do you have planned?

T: We’ll be going with Rachel’s parents. Rachel’s mom will be my date, and Rachel’s dad will be her date. Other than that, for me, I’m going to try to stay in the moment. It’s very easy to get blinded by the whole thing.

R: This is the best opportunity for a prom do-over that I’m ever going to get. So there’s probably going to be a lot of getting ready for me. Terry takes five minutes to get gorgeous.

T: I’m so lucky it comes naturally. [Laughs] The great thing about having Rachel as my date is, she looks so beautiful, everyone just looks at her. Now that we’re [arriving] separately, it’s a bit more pressure on me.

PHOTOS: Movie scenes from ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’

How have the dual nominations affected your relationship?

T: There’s been a mutual admiration society since we met.

R: Because that’s how we met: Terry wrote a script that I produced. I certainly fell in love with his brain and creativity well before I knew the rest of him.

T: And for me, it was Rachel’s tenacity and good taste in scripts. [Laughs] We’ve been each other’s biggest fans. I couldn’t be more thrilled for her. When the announcements came out, I started crying for her — I was so happy that she got nominated. Not to make myself sound like “What a great guy.” But that’s the God’s honest truth. When they announced her movie, I started crying for all the years of hard work. No one works harder than Rachel. She raises our kids, she takes care of our family and she does this too.

So now that you’re both Academy Award nominees, any plans to work on a movie together again?

R: Oh, yeah.

T: If she can meet my quote, yeah. The Academy Award nomination — I’m not as cheap as I used to be.

calendar@latimes.com