Supporting Actress has proven to be one of the best categories recently for the Academy Awards. For every year there was a clear front runner (Spencer, Monique, Hudson), there was another year when we had no idea who was winning (Leo, Swinton, Weisz, Cruz). Although after a few award shows, it’s clear that this year’s race is shaping up to be one of those “Frontrunner wins everything” years, there’s still an interesting slate of nominees and narratives to discuss.
And the nominees are…
Amy Adams, The Master
Sally Field, Lincoln
Anne Hathaway, Les Miserables
Helen Hunt, The Sessions
Jacki Weaver, Silver Linings Playbook
Amy Adams, The Master
Adams received her fourth Oscar nomination for her role as Lancaster Dodd’s wife in The Master. While the film isn’t really heavy on her big moments, there’s lots of intrigue about the character and her role in moving the cause forward. Adams gives a somewhat slithery/icy performance, never overplaying the character’s motivations and challenging the gender roles in the film.
Oscar Scene: The scene with her and Lancaster in the bathroom
Pro: Modern day Lady MacBethian character, arguably a long suffering wife (their favorite character type), FOURTH Oscar nom and no previous wins, well liked actress, argument could be made for her being one of “The Master”s
Con: Outside of the acting, no noms for The Master, people don’t like the character, hard to be “overdue” when all your noms are in supporting, the fact that her best scene involved giving a handjob
Sally Field, Lincoln
Playing real people is certainly catnip to Oscar voters, but it’s quite a pleasant surprise that Field managed to get nominated given how the Academy has treated her since that last win. As Mary Todd Lincoln, she has to walk the line of being slightly unhinged by the death of her son and serving as comic relief being the only woman who can stand up to the men.
Oscar Scene: Showdown with Tommy Lee Jones at Inaugural Ball
Pro: REAL PERSON ALERT, gets to play both comedy and histrionics, she’s Sally Field, previous Oscar winner making good on film again, her film is the nominee leader
Con: Already has two Oscars, people think the character doesn’t jive with the film, Anne Hathaway’s continual humble acceptance speeches, Meryl Streep stans who don’t want her to tie their deity favorite actress
Anne Hathaway, Les Miserables
As the doomed Fantine, Anne Hathaway gets a showcase role many actresses would kill for. Even after the reviews of the film poured in and were largely negative, everyone highlighted Hathaway’s performance. She’s easily emerged as the front runner after winning the Critics Choice, Golden Globe, and SAG Award for her performance.
Oscar Scene: I Dreamed a Dream
Pro: Sings, Cries and Dies!, the Academy loves prostitutes (2nd favorite character in this category), LIVE singing, cuts hair off on screen (serious about the craft), is generally well liked in Hollywood, front runner status, this video
Cons: Being a front runner makes you a target, the dismal reviews for the film, backlash, small amount of screen time in a long movie
Helen Hunt, The Sessions
Hellen Hunt has come back to the land of good performances with her role in The Sessions. Her performance is one that could have easily been overplayed and overshadowed (the character gets talked about for 20 mins before we see her), but Hunt’s subtle performance is as refreshing as it is good.
Oscar Scene: Cheryl admits her feelings for Mark
Pros: REAL PERSON ALERT, subtly steals the film away from John Hawkes, sex surrogate (close enough to prostitute), makes a character people would have negative opinions about into a complete positive, previous Oscar winner rejoining the ranks of nominees
Cons: While the Academy may love a hooker with a heart of gold, the movie goes out of its way to say she’s not a prostitute, incredibly sex positive role (they don’t really like those), long absence from making good movies let alone giving a good performance, film’s sole nomination
Jacki Weaver, Silver Linings Playbook
As the mother to Bradley Cooper’s bipolar son, Weaver is perhaps the most surprising of the nominees given the role’s narrative impact and screen time. Despite that, she manages to create a fully realized character that people remember and like.
Oscar Scene: The car ride home after picking up her son from the mental institution
Pro: Suffering mother and wife, previous nominee, her film is incredibly well liked and um…her character can cook?
Cons: The least showy and least memorable character with the least amount of screen time of any actress in this category.
If I Had a Vote: Helen Hunt, The Sessions
Will Win: Anne Hathaway, Les Miserables
Snubs: Ann Dowd, Compliance, Maggie Smith, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, Nicole Kidman, The Paperboy, Doona Bae, Cloud Atlas
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Tags: Amy Adams, Anne Hathaway, Film, Helen Hunt, Jacki Weaver, Les Miserables, Lincoln, Oscar Circuit, Sally Field, Silver Linings Playbook, Supporting Actress, Terence Johnson, The Master, The Sessions
17 Comments
Easily the weakest acting category of the year. The best of the bunch is probably Hunt (although Adams does what she can with a somewhat underwritten role), but I found Hathaway’s performance to be hammy and overpraised (she was MUCH better in TDKR), Field was okay at best, and Weaver….I don’t see how she got nominated. She does literally nothing in the film, and doesn’t even transcend the thankless role she got. A wasted nomination, although the pickings this year were pretty slim.
JamDenTel(Quote) (Reply)
I knew you’d throw Doona Bae, Cloud Atlas into the snub field, but I’m surprised to hear you would pick Hunt out of this group.
Mark Johnson(Quote) (Reply)
Doona Bae FTW!
With Hunt, the more I think about the film the more I like her performance just because of how free of vanity it is. Her acting was so natural and free, while still being emotional
Terence Johnson(Quote) (Reply)
I think Samantha Barks gave the better supporting performance from Les Mis. She’s my favourite supporting performance of the year.
Joe Gouveia(Quote) (Reply)
She used all her ‘Les Mis’ stage experience in the movie. And it showed completely. When you’ve portrayed a particular character on stage for two years, and you portray the same character on screen, half your job is already done. It was impossible to believe that it was her first ever film.
Divya(Quote) (Reply)
Oh Terrence… Let us always remember Doona Bae as the finest supporting actress performance of 2012, shall we? No matter what anyone says, we know it to be true. We just have to wait a couple of decades and we won’t be alone anymore…
moviewatcher(Quote) (Reply)
LOL must it be a couple of decades?
haha
Terence Johnson(Quote) (Reply)
Can one of the AWARDS CIRCUIT PEOPLE ANSWER this for me. You guys seem to agree with me on the fact that Doona Bae gave the best performance this year. How come she didn’t even make an impact this awards season. I mean her performances blows all the other supporting actresses out of the water.
Jillie(Quote) (Reply)
I’m going to try to put nice and simple but it will be the harsh truth.
1. She’s Asian. Minorities, ESPECIALLY Asians do not do well at the Academy. If that was the case you’d have people like Gong Li, Ziyi Zhang, Chow Yun Fat, Michelle Yeoh, Tang Wei, etc. with nominations by now.
2. Cloud Atlas was TOO divisive. Not enough people on the train to even get into a Score category, let alone Supporting Actress.
3. Not famous enough.
I think that just about covers it.
Clayton Davis(Quote) (Reply)
In other words, the Oscars are racist. And only Hollywood A-listers can get nominated.
Divya(Quote) (Reply)
They just didn’t like the film enough. When you consider that Cloud Atlas missed the makeup and visual effects short list, it’s not hard to see other aspects of the film making it in.
And tho minorities have a terrible time getting notice by the academy, this isn’t a case of racism. Just the film wasn’t a big player
Terence Johnson(Quote) (Reply)
As a personal matter, you may not care for Hathaway or Les Mis, but you can’t really call the reviews “largely negative” . RT is 70% critic and 82% public. That isn’t as great a “critical” number but the last time I checked 70% favorable isn’t horrid. When you take in to account $340 million box office and still growing, this film is hardly chopped liver. How about just a little balance in the reporting.
Jamie(Quote) (Reply)
It’s scored 70% on RT, and “largely negative” reviews? Really? In case you didn’t know, the original London stage production in 1985 received much, much worse reviews than this movie, and yet it is still running extremely successfully even to this day. By the way, even Victor Hugo was also criticized a lot for writing the book – way back in 1862. So, if the book and the stage musical can survive all that horrid torrent of criticism and abuse even to this day, Terrence, are you seriously telling me that this film is destined to be a doomed failure so quickly?
Doesn’t it occur to you that all these negative reviews may be because it was released during Christmas (just in time for the awards season)? If it had been released in February or March, much of this “negativity” would’ve never been seen. I mean, who cares for films released in February or March (when the awards season is coming to an end)? And I can guarantee you that once this year’s awards season is over, all this negativity about the movie will die down.
P.S.: I suggest you tweet all your faults about the ‘Les Mis’ movie to people like Samantha Barks and all her ‘Les Mis’ West End cast-mates who were in the movie (they all have an extremely active presence on Twitter).
Divya(Quote) (Reply)
I certainly don’t think it’s a failure and the critical pile on has been kind of mean. However, I do think there legitimate criticisms of the film lurking in that kind of hate. Even my colleagues Joey and Robert, whom I vehemently disagreed with on the podcast we did on Les Miz, aren’t misguided about their thoughts on the film.
And I totally agree it being in the vortex of awards season hurt the reviews. It’s much easier to be negative or at least bland about your feelings when others are the same way.
But what’s so interesting about the reviews/feelings towards the movie is that Hathaway has remained unscathed. That she’s coasting to an Oscar is an even greater testament to her performance.
Terence Johnson(Quote) (Reply)
As one of the few Les Miz supporters on the staff, I certainly don’t think the film is chopped liver. That RT is a bit misleading, I think it’s grade amongst top critics is like 55%…it’s hard to withstand the LA Times, New Yorker, NY Times, Slate, Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, Village Voice, Time, EW (too name a few) ALL giving it a C or less. And even most of the positives are measured in their praise.
But I do think that if any aspect of the film is undeniably agreed upon it’s Hathaway’s performance.
Terence Johnson(Quote) (Reply)
Yes i do believe Samantha Barks gave the better performance but she has been ignored for in favor of Hathaway’s performance. Another great perforamnce this year was Ann Dowd (tbh she really was lead but had no chance there). Like Clayton said i think the biggest reason Doona Bae was not even considered was aside from Cloud Atlas being a divisove film is that Asian actors never really get nominated (Kukuchi, Umeki, anyone else?). History shows they are ignored. Look at Gong Li. Her range of extraordinary perforances in both American and Chinese films has been ignored time and again. From farwell My Concubine to JuDou, to Raise The Red Lantern to Breaking The Silence. Even she and her co-star Zhang Ziyi was snubbed in 2005 for Geisha (Let’s be honest, Gong Li was the best thing in Geisha, she totally stole the show). To this day Gong Li is still regarded as one of the most talented actresses of her generation(Rob Marshall even said after working with her, he realized she would be the best actress she ever get to work with in his lifetime) with an incredible resume and yet no Oscar nominations.
kailor(Quote) (Reply)
for what it’s worth, i believe Field clocked in the least amount of screen time at 15 minutes or so, not Weaver. Hathaway, Adams, and Weaver were all around 20-25, with Hunt around 40-45.
slater(Quote) (Reply)