Oscars 2015: Real People Behind Oscar Nominees Weigh In

— -- The Oscars love to nominate actors playing real people, and this year is no exception.

In the best actor category, four out of the five nominees -- Steve Carell, Bradley Cooper, Benedict Cumberbatch and Eddie Redmayne -- are playing real people.

Among best actresses, there are two, Reese Witherspoon and Felicity Jones.

And in the supporting categories, Mark Ruffalo, Laura Dern and Keira Knightley, all portray real-life people.

Chances are, at least one of these actors will take home Oscar gold on Feb. 22.

But how do they rate with the real people who are being portrayed on screen? A few have weighed in about what the films got right and what they didn't. Keep reading to see what they've said.

Cheryl Strayed on Reese Witherspoon in "Wild"

Cheryl Strayed had not yet published her best-selling memoir about her solo hike across the Pacific Crest Trail following the death of her mother and divorce from her husband when Reese Witherspoon snapped it up.

"It's funny, it never occurred to me that a movie star would play me. But now that she is playing me, it's like, of course, it couldn't be anyone else!" Strayed told Mother Jones about Witherspoon, who previously won an Oscar for portraying Johnny Cash's wife June Carter Cash. "Watching the movie for me is uncanny, because they have her wearing the clothes I wore. They put her hair in a barrette the same way I put my hair in a barrette. She just became me in a way that's like, shocking."

Strayed told Mother Jones that Witherspoon also took great pains to honor her and the book. The writer said she was always welcome on the set and offered "tons of advice about the character and backpacking" to Witherspoon.

"I probably saw seven or eight versions, and I offered feedback, and [director] Jean-Marc [Valle] listened very seriously," Strayed told the magazine. "[Unlike] every bad story you've ever heard about Hollywood from writers, with this everything was fun and golden."

Though the film noticeably leaves out Strayed's older sister and stepfather as well as many of the people she met along the trail, the film was careful to portray Strayed's relationship with her mother, played by Laura Dern, who also earned an Oscar nomination.

"I wanted to make sure that the love and respect was there that Cheryl felt for her mother," Strayed told Mother Jones. "I weighed in pretty strongly that, even amid some tensions between mother and daughter, there's a lot of love and tenderness. It mattered to me that they portrayed that accurately."

Taya Kyle on Bradley Cooper in "American Sniper"

Taya Kyle, the widow of the real "American Sniper" Chris Kyle, worked with the filmmakers of the Clint Eastwood biopic, to bring her husband's story to the screen after he was killed on a Texas gun range in 2013, before filming began.

"We spent hundreds of hours on the phone going over it all," she told the Military Times about working with screenwriter Jason Hall.

After meeting with Eastwood, star Bradley Cooper, who played her husband, and Sienna Miller, who played her, she told the Times, "If there was ever going to be a movie that was even going to come close to getting it right, this was it."

And watching the film for the first time, she said, "Initially I was so focused on Chris and making sure that it honored him, but I just lost myself. It was so Chris. It wasn't Bradley on the screen. It was Chris."

One noticeable lapse though was the scene where Chris runs into his brother, Jeff, a Marine, en route to Iraq. His brother appears shell-shocked.

"Maybe the actor over-acted it a little bit," Kyle told the Military Times. "I think the thing they were trying to convey is that Chris felt this protectiveness toward his brother even though his brother is a very capable, strong man. The scene is a little bit hard to swallow in that Jeff would not have come across that way like a trembling, fearful person."

As for Miller's portrayal, Kyle told People, "The first time I talked to her, I didn’t know what to expect -- but after two or three sentences I was like, 'This is good.' She just understood. We just connected. It's been a tremendous blessing."

Stephen Hawking on Eddie Redmayne in "The Theory of Everything"

Eddie Redmayne has been winning all sorts of awards for his portrayal of world-famous theoretical physicist, cosmologist and author Stephen Hawking, but perhaps the highest praise has come from Hawking himself.

In a video about the star's transformation into the ALS-stricken scientist, Hawking, who is paralyzed and uses a computer to speak, said, "I thought Eddie Redmayne portrayed me very well. At times, I thought it was me."

The film is based on "Traveling to Infinity: My Life with Stephen" by Hawking's ex-wife Jane, and both Hawking and his ex-wife spent time on the movie's Cambridge set.

"Jane would just ride up on her bicycle," Felicity Jones, who received a nomination for her portrayal of the former Mrs. Hawking, told People. "They both were incredibly generous to us."

Still, Redmayne, who is favored to win the best actor Oscar, confessed to being intimidated by the famed scientist.

"I was so nervous," he told reporters at the Toronto Film Festival. "Then five days before we started filming I was lucky enough to meet him. I basically was so nervous, I just vomited forth information about Stephen Hawking to Stephen Hawking. He just sat there and took it and was like, 'Yeah, I know. I am me.'"

Mark Schultz on "Foxcatcher"

Olympic wrestler Mark Schultz has had plenty to say about his portrayal in Bennett Miller's film, "Foxcatcher," and it hasn't all been positive.

After first praising the film about philanthropist and wrestling fanatic John du Pont's relationship with Shultz and his brother Dave, also an Olympic wrestler, Shultz came out swinging this past December.

"I HATE BENNETT MILLER," he tweeted, followed by, "Everything I've ever said positive about the movie I take back. I hate it. i hate it. i hate it. I hate it. i hate it. i hate it. I hate it" He went on to threaten the director. "YOU CROSSED THE LINE MILLER. WE'RE DONE. YOU'RE CAREER IS OVER. YOU THINK I CAN'T DO IT. WATCH ME," he wrote.

Shultz then listed his gripes with the film on Facebook, namely that he never had a close relationship with du Pont and that any insinuation of a sexual connection between them was "jeopardizing my legacy."

"The personalities and relationships between the characters in the film are primarily fiction and somewhat insulting. Leaving the audience with a feeling that somehow there could have been a sexual relationship between duPont and I is a sickening and insulting lie," Schultz wrote on Facebook, according to Entertainment Weekly.

But after Miller and stars Mark Ruffalo, who plays Dave, and Steve Carell, who plays du Pont, who was convicted of murdering Shultz's brother, received Oscar nominations, Shultz deleted his Facebook post and changed his tune, singing the film's praises.

"Channing Tatum GOT ROBBED. HE WAS SO GOOD IT WAS UNREAL. I'm amazed he wasn't nominated," he tweeted on Jan. 17, about the actor portraying him.

He also apologized to Miller, saying he was "temporarily insane." "Bennett Miller is the greatest director ever. 3rd time's the charm. He's due an Oscar," he tweeted.

"#Foxcatcher is a miracle. I'm sorry I said I hated it. I love it. I love my interpretation and will ignore the haters. I'm never getting mad," he wrote.