Eek, I’ve always been thrilled with Tomei’s win. I think her performance certainly merited nomination. That role would most likely have been completely forgettable in the hands of another actress. In theory as well, I always like to see comedy get the nod at the Oscars. Excellence in a comedic role is just as difficult to achieve as excellence in a dramatic role, and I think it’s unfortunate that the nomination slate generally doesn’t seem to reflect this.
One thing that I always think is interesting is the fact that in an annual award show, by definition you’re looking at films and performances in a very immediate way. I always think it’s neat to look back at the awards and nominations ten years later and see how everything has aged, and make up my own “retro awards” and see how they compare to the actual awards from that year. Ten years out of the gate, sometimes things look different.
In this case, the 1992 Supporting Actress, I think Tomei’s award holds up very well. Looking at the other nominees, the closest runner up in my mind is Miranda Richardson. Joan Plowright’s performance doesn’t to me stand out as extraordinary, although I thought it was a nice performance in a nice film. There was probably some vote-splitting between Joan and Vanessa Redgrave among the Merchant-Ivory-esque film crowd. I haven’t seen Husbands and Wives since 1992, so I have nothing to share on Judy Davis.
I also wonder if sometimes there is a subtle negative backlash for actors who give more than one Oscar-worthy performance within a year, as Askia pointed out, Miranda Richardson’s nomination could very well have been for The Crying Game (and plenty of people think it SHOULD HAVE been). There’s always a lot of talk when people suspect that someone’s Oscar for one performance was really intended to recognize work in another coughChercough. I wonder if some voters try to be extra-conscientious about this, sitting down with their ballot and saying “Now, just because I think Miranda should have been nominated for The Crying Game, I’m not going to automatically vote for her for Damage, let’s see who else we’ve got.”
I used to live with a roommate who was a voting member in a technical category, and he worked with people who were voting members in the performance areas. It was fascinating to hear all the talk going on during the award season each year (plus a nice perk to have videos of the nominated films brought to the house!)
The simple truth of the matter is that Brian Griffin rigged the award as a favor to Jack Nicholson. Nicholson, however, refused to return the favor and snubbed Brian when he tried to make it in Hollywood as a screenwriter.
continuity eror has a point though. If you look back at the lists of Oscar winners over the years, you see a lot of cases where you go, “Huh? What the hell were they thinking?” Movies that make a big splash when they’re released don’t necessarily have a lot of staying power, while movies with staying power don’t always get noticed when they’re first released.
Interesting theory, but it’s not an overwhelming trend. Recent Best Supporting Actors include Cuba Goodling Jr., who was 28 when he won the award, and Benicio del Toro, who was 33 when he was more or less acclaimed. Toro beat out Albert Finney, who was a sentimental favourite. However, Goodling is one of only two under-30 actors who’ve won it I can think of. Most actors aren’t “elderly” when they win the award though; the great, great majority are around 40-55.
On the female side there’s a definite favouritism for hot young actresses. This applies to Best Actress, too:
2003 - Charlize Theron
2002 - Nicole Kidman
2001 - Halle Berry
2000 - Julia Roberts
1999 - Hilary Swank (okay, she’s kind of equine)
1998 - Gwyneth Paltrow
1997 - Helen Hunt
1996 was Frances McDormand for “Fargo,” who is a nice lady but isn’t “hot” and was 37 or 38 at the same, which is getting a bit far from young. So we’re now on a streak of seven actresses in a row who were both young and ranged from attractive to gorgeous (at least according to popular opinion; I don’t see what people see in Gwyneth Paltrow), six of whom had never even been nominated before. Julia Roberts had been up for a few Oscars prior to winning.
That’s just a recent trend though; previously, Best Actress awards were better distributed.
It’s “Gooding,” not Goodling. Another thing that must be factored into his win is his race. When he won there were IIRC four black Academy Award winners for acting (Hattie McDaniel, Sidney Poitier, Whoopi Goldberg and Louis Gosset Jr.). Same goes for Halle Berry’s win. I haven’t seen the movie so I have no idea about her performance, but once she and Denzel were nominated in the same year and it became a story, she was a shoo-in.
Peter O’Toole probably won’t win an acting award because he was given the Lifetime Achievement award last year. This excuses the Academy from ever having to give him an award for an actual movie. It was long my theory that Spielberg got IIRC the Thalberg award for the same reason, so the Academy would never have to nominate him for a directing Oscar. But then came Schindler’s List…
IMHO a lot of the sniping about Marissa Tomei’s Oscar had to do with her perceived lightweight status. I don’t hear so much of it now that she has a dramatic nomination as well.
My thoughts exactly. My Cousin Vinny wasn’t much of a movie, but Tomei did a great job. She was hysterically funny as a Brooklyn babe taken out of her usual environs and thrust into, well, wherever the movie was set.
Pesci and Macchia (is that his name) were forgettable. Pesci isn’t much of an actor. He does one thing very well, and that ability was used to great effect in Goodfellas. Macchia just can’t act.
I’m going to agree, too. Tomei made that movie. I think Pesci did a good job and played to her well, but without Tomei that movie would have bombed. She deserved props for that.
> Tomei was the only American actress nominated that year. The
> rest were accomplished English actresses. Politics, pure and
> simple.
Three British actresses and one Australian actress, actually. Interestingly, the presenter of the award made the same mistake. He said as he read the nominations that the nominees consisted of one American and four British actresses.
It also tends to go to an actress who has delivered a scene, just one scene, that sticks in voters’ minds when they’re in front of their ballots. Kim Basinger, for instance, is widely believed to have won her BSA Oscar for the scene in “LA Confidential” when Russell Crowe whacks her in the face. It’s 15 seconds of film, but the emotional impact was undeniable and it won her acclaim for the overall performance.
I agree that Tomei’s win holds up, it’s not egregious like Titanic as Best Picture. Had Miranda Richardson’s nom been for The Crying Game we could argue, but none of the other nominated performances had either the “just one scene” thing going for them (in Tomei’s case it was either the “my biological clock is tickin’ like dis!” or the courtroom performance, take your pick) or the fact that without it, there wouldn’t have been crucial support for the film and its plot.
I just don’t see the appeal of her role in this movie like everyone else does. It wasn’t a bad performance by any means and she definitely had a better performance than Pesci or Machio but that isn’t saying much. And for everyone saying that comedy is as valid an artform as drama, I agree. I never implied otherwise… I just don’t think comedy that elicits brief chuckles at best is all that deserving.
Having heard of someone isn’t the same thing as being familiar with them. I knew all the women’s names but that alone doesn’t tell me very much about them. What point does this have to Tomei’s Oscar win anyway? Not knowing their citizenship status doesn’t invalidate my opinion.
I liked the film myself and thought Marisa pulled off the character very well. It was tricky to first appear rather shallow, but then reveal a depth of specialist knowledge.
She also has charisma!
Odd you should mention As Good as it Gets because Helen Hunt’s Oscar nod arguably benefitted from the same “vote American” factor that Tomei did since all of Hunt’s competitors that year (Judi Dench, Helena Bonham Carter, Kate Winslet, and Julie Christie) were British.
Since you mentioned that, I’m surprised no one’s brought up the urban legend about how a significant contingent of Academy voters selects who wins for Best Supporting Actress.
Actually, what he said was that it was the first time ever that none of the five nominees were American, because “four are English, and one is from Brooklyn.” A little jest.
Beatrice Straight certainly won an Oscar for just one scene…her whole performance in Network almost was one scene. IIRC she was only in two scenes in the whole movie, the big one for which she must have won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar, and an earlier one in which she was just making breakfast or something. I think she still has the record for winning an acting Oscar with the smallest amount of screen time.