Hollywood Reporter’s Scott Feinberg was mostly dismissed on Twitter yesterday when he suggested that Naomi Watts could not only get nominated for Best Actress but also might win. But there has been such a groundswell of support, and Watts has gone unrecognized for so long, that she just might become a force to be reckoned with this year. There are several reasons for this – the first is that the two strongest contenders, Jessica Chastain for Zero Dark Thirty and Jennifer Lawrence for Silver Linings Playbook are both relatively new on the Oscar scene. Usually you have to built up clout, either Oscar cred (Renee Zellweger) or career cred (Sandra Bullock). Playing Oscar pool year after year, if you’re in it to win it, can eventually land you a win, if the performance is good enough and if you’re likable enough. But just being in a great film that everyone liked isn’t enough.
The model for Jennifer Lawrence winning is probably Gwyneth Paltrow for Shakespeare in Love. A very good performance in a movie everybody liked but let’s face it, voters fell in love with her that year. That’s how she beat Cate Blanchett, the more deserving contender, for Elizabeth. They fell in love with her – critics were waxing dreamy prose about Paltrow’s breasts and good cheer – she is an enthusiastic fan of Shakespeare and the lead character and wants only to be the love of his life and perhaps act on the stage as a woman. A WOMAN! On the public stage!
The model for Jessica Chastain winning is possibly Jodie Foster for Silence of the Lambs, but not really, since Foster had been acting since she was a kid and had already won a Best Actress Oscar for The Accused. Chastain reminds me of Meryl Streep not so much for her performance in Zero Dark Thirty but for her whole body of work and her ability to utterly disappear into a character. Jennifer Lawrence, as Tiffany in Silver Linings, has hit the exact right role at the exact right time and let’s face it, it’s hard not to fall in love with her. Chastain is in the best reviewed film of the year and is the only central character in any Oscar frontrunner that is female. Think about that one for a minute. That is huge. Still, Oscar doesn’t pick winners that way. The voters are under no obligation to forward any political agenda; they vote for who and what they like.
It probably isn’t even worth going there, to imagine they would honor, say, Emayatzy Corinealdi, who gives one of the best performances of the year in Middle of Nowhere. One black actress in 85 years of Oscar history has won an Oscar. You have to be a star to get nominated for Best Actress and most of the films at the multiplex — hell, on all of the critics lists as well – are stories about white people and if they aren’t, they’re still stories about men. Corinealdi is in a film about a woman. The odds are against a nomination. But that doesn’t mean she shouldn’t be in the conversation. Alfre Woodard just wrote a “consider this” for EW:
In Middle of Nowhere, we experience an exquisite, intimate tale of a woman in progress — as told through the vivid screenplay and deft direction of Ava DuVernay and the breakout performance of Emayatzy Corinealdi.
These are the kind of women artists rarely heard in modern day cinema. They are women of color telling a universal tale in a very specific way. And it is important that their work in Middle of Nowhere be seen by those of us who truly care about film.
To speak of Corinealdi’s work in this Sundance award-winning drama is to speak of discovery and revelation. You watch the film and wonder how a talent like that has gone undiscovered for so long, then revel in the joy that is watching her portray “Ruby.” Corinealdi imbues the film’s heroine with a carefully modulated combination of vulnerability and strength, humility and gusto, defiance and dignity.
The Gotham Awards bestowed her with its Breakthrough Performance Award last month, while the Spirit Awards and Image Awards have both nominated her for Best Actress. My hope is that voters and viewers will embrace and enjoy Emayatzy’s wonderful work in Middle of Nowhere. She is a bright new actress who singlehandedly occupies nearly every frame of this beautiful film with guts and grace. A performance deserving of celebration.
Quvenzhané Wallis will likely become the tenth black actress to be nominated for Lead. Ten in 85 years. I suspect that most people are underestimating Wallis’ chance to win. Voters might love Beasts of the Southern Wild and they may hate it. Since it doesn’t qualify for SAG or WGA, and it didn’t make a splash at the Globes, it’s hard to know. But if it were me voting I’d have a hard time not voting for Wallis. She is young, and would have a better chance if she were nominated in supporting. The outcome of this race is uncertain.
The locks in the category right now are Chastain, Lawrence, Wallis and two open slots. One appears to be owned by Marion Cotillard for Rust and Bone and the fifth is probably going to Naomi Watts, who has tremendous support from the acting community. This was necessary since the film wasn’t going to be a critics’ darling; The Blind Side got a Best Picture nomination and a win for Sandra Bullock without the critics. It can happen when there is passion outside the bubble, or within the Hollywood community.
Naomi Watts has only been nominated once for an Oscar, for 21 Grams in 2003. She had her biggest break when David Lynch cast her in Mulholland Drive. Her willingness to go deep would become her trademark but it was really showcased in the Lynch film more than any other. She won the National Society of Film Critics, the National Board of Review but did not receive an Oscar nomination. After that, she was ignored for her work in King Kong, Eastern Promises, The Painted Veil and Fair Game. It was not until this year, with The Impossible, that Watts really started to put the campaigning into overdrive. It’s true that in the Oscar race you have to want it — you have to be willing to kiss a lot of ass on the Oscar walk. Think about Marion Cotillard during La Vie en Rose or Jeff Bridges during Crazy Heart. If you aren’t out there, voters forget about you and the moment passes.
If you don’t grab it while it’s right in front of you it will fade away, that’s the idea behind fighting for an Oscar win. You have to fight because there is so much competition. The master at this is Harvey Weinstein and the Weinstein Co. They know what it takes to win, which is why they had Meryl Streep out at the AARP as part of her campaign run to win, finally, for The Iron Lady. Streep, like Winslet, like Watts, is simply too polite to grab the brass ring. She makes the assumption, like all reasonable people, that if you’re good enough the awards will come. But they don’t. Oh sure, for every Jeff Bridges there is a Mo’Nique, who does no campaigning and still wins. But if Mo’Nique had been getting nomination after nomination and continuing to lose? You can bet she would be out there campaigning too.
When it was time for Kate Winslet to win at last she really had to basically come out and say it. She had to sex it up and work the circuit, even though she is so well respected that she deserved to have won before The Reader. But The Reader, like The Iron Lady, was tailor made for an Oscar win for Winslet. Christ, Nazis? Nudity? Even with all of that it isn’t enough. You have to get out there and let voters know you want it, finally. And if the lady asks for it, the lady shall be rewarded. If you want to win an Oscar, I’m sure actors know and believe, you get Harvey Weinstein to win one for you. And he – and his kick-ass team – can usually get her done. This amounts to a combination of knowing what Oscar voters like and knowing when it’s time to step on the gas.
For their Consider This section in EW, Reese Witherspoon wrote the following for Watts:
Hi Naomi,
I know we don’t know each other well. I hope it’s ok that I am reaching out to you, because I simply could not contain my enthusiasm about your performance in The Impossible.
Wow. Just wow. I was blown away by the film. The story of survival and the incredible images of the tsunami and the performances of the entire cast were astounding. By far, one of the best films I have ever seen in my life.
I could not speak for 24 hours after seeing the film. It was more than a movie. It was a mediation on life and family and humanity. It was fortifying.
But the life-breath of the film is you.
Your brutal physical performance, the ferocity of your mothering spirit and the soul touching moments where you hold on to life with every part of your being were incredible.
Not since I saw Meryl Streep’s performance in Sophie’s Choice have I been so moved by an actress’s performance. It also reminded me of Sally Field’s Norma Rae as well. Such strength and absolute vulnerability in the same performance. A mother who is determined to teach her child what it means to be a good person even when facing her own mortality. You showed every side of Maria’s story.
If I have anything to do with it (and I will literally tap dance on Sunset Boulevard for you!), you will be holding every beautiful statue that exists by the end of February.
But more importantly, you have created a performance that will stand the test of time.
Congratulations. And thank you sharing your heart and soul so openly.
A lovely tribute to Watts’ moving performance in The Impossible. Without this kind of urging, without Watts doing publicity and without the celebrity endorsements by Angelina Jolie and Mark Ruffalo, The Impossible would disappear. It has been accused of being a film that only cares about the white tourists (the original family, also “white” since they were Spanish) and not the many residents of the island who also died. What is remarkable about The Impossible, and the only thing (other than the performances) that is remarkable is that this family managed to find each other and survive a tsunami. The film reassures us that many of the white tourists found their parents and all was well. But it tells us less about those who lost their babies and parents.
But it wasn’t really the film’s job to give us a whole history lesson on the tsunami. This was a story about one experience by one family there. It is a rather miraculous story and hard to believe — but that’s why they call it The Impossible – against all odds, this family survived.
Watts is overdue, well liked in the industry and is in a film many celebrities are pushing. I’d say her chances to not only get nominated but to win are pretty good.
Predictions
Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook
Jessica Chastain, Zero Dark Thirty
Naomi Watts, The Impossible
Quvenzhané Wallis, Beasts of the Southern Wild
Marion Cotillard, Rust and Bone
Thank you for all your wishfull thinking but Naomi doesn’t stand a chance . . .
Okay I’m just gonna spit it out. I…am in love with Naomi Watts, and have been, since Mulholland Dr. Pulling off the stark contrast between Betty in the first half and Diane in the second half is nothing short of remarkable. Every year she churns out one fantastic performance after the other and receives zero recognition. It was painful seeing her snubbed for Mulholland Dr., but even more painful seeing her finally being recognized by the Academy in 2003, only to have the hope drained out of me when I realized she was up against Charlize Theron who was literally unstoppable that year. This. Is. Her. Year. Her tour-de-force performance in The Impossible knocks Jennifer Lawrence’s Tiffany out of the water. Jessica Chastain literally came out of nowhere and can wait her turn, especially since her performances in The Help, The Tree of Life, and even Take Shelter, in my opinion, were more alluring than her turn in Bigelow’s controversial drama. Cotillard is horribly depressing yet breathtakingly uplifting in Rust and Bone, and Riva was phenomenal in Amour, but Cotillard has an Oscar under her belt and Riva stands no chance. I really don’t want to see Watts end up like Julianne Moore. She needs this win and wholeheartedly deserves it. I am, and forever will be, on the Watts bandwagon. Go Naomi! and on a side note, nominating children in lead categories is rare. I still don’t understand things like nominating Keisha Castle-Hughes over Evan Rachel Wood and putting Hailee Steinfeld in supporting. So if Wallis gets nominated over Watts, I’m gonna lose it.
Naomi Watts is one of the most underappreciated actresses in the system. Her bold, alluring performance in “Mulholland Drive” (one of the best American films of the past 20 years) still sends shivers down my spine. It’s about time she gets her due
Naomi is the best actress working in Hollywood maybe besides Julianne Moore, Tilda Swinton and Annette Bening but I prefer Naomi over the rest, Chastain and that chubby blond of Lawrence do not exist, I do not care if Watts win or not the Oscar, her best cover letter is her incredible work, maybe Chastain and Lawrence need an Oscar to probe that they are “superlative” because they are good actors but they did not pass the correct or expected, also if I have to chose between Chastain and Lawrence I prefer Lawrence because Zero is not ethic, I love the life, cruelty and torture apology is to much for Christmas
I really don´t think nothing special in Jennifer Lawrence performarce,her performarce is nothing.
Slept through Revolutionary Road after 10 minutes.
Kate and Leo are both terrific in Revolutionary Road.
Little Children wasnt her most showstopping performance, Patrick Wilson was just as good. The breakout performance from that film was justly JEH, so Winslet was in the shadow of that.
Winslet in The Reader was very deserving, and would have deserved a win for Revolutionary Road as well.
Sammy, Winslet is great in The Reader, an excellent movie too.
She doesn’ t lost in LC cause it wasn’t in BP.
But fir Mirren, that years’s Queen.
Anyway, I think im Little Chikdren she giver her weakest performance of her 6 noms.
@Fabinho – It was not Winslet’s best performance either. She was awesome in Little Children and she lost it because her film was not nominated for Best Picture.
If Jennifer Lawrence wins an Oscar I will forever have to stop weatching the Oscars. Mediocre, at best…horrible (X-Men) at worst.
If this happens then campaigning has trumped talent once and for all.
I will pull for Watts or Cotillard or Riva and even Chastain to beat their mediocre competition.
All y’all need to clean up the language a bit ….children may be watching.
Is Winslet mediocre in The Reader?
Were Streep, Leo, Hathaway and Jolie ( you’re kidding… say me you’re kidding) better than Winslet?
Man… “The Horror… The Horror…”
@Jim – Kate Winslet won with a mediocre performance because her film was nominated. Angelina Jolie, Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Melissa Leo lost it with better performance (no BP nod for their films). The awards are always interrelated and you should look at the bigger picture. It is always difficult for an actor to get an award with a super performance in a mediocre film (a film without a BP nod).
I don’t understand why there is any controversy either, Wit.
People get high and mighty about racism in a movie when everyone making the movie understands and approves why the changes were made, even the subjects of the movie. And it’s a true story.
Yet these same complainers probably do nothing in their daily lives to eliminate the racism that takes place all around them.
It’s just passive-aggressive cowardice.
I still don’t get the criticism about how The Impossible was a whitewashed film. This issue certainly was not brought up when the movie premiered in Thailand last month. All of the Thai media did not even raise this issue. (Trivial fact: The film was locally titled “2004 Tsunami Phuket” even though the event took place in Phang-nga).
I find it interesting that some of the posts who I assume to be Americans need todisplay moral superiority to judge the intent of the Spanish filmmakers who want to focus on telling the story from the tourists’ perspective.
Should the filmmakers tell the stories by focusing on local survivors from five countries that got struck by Tsunami in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, India and the Maldives? Perhaps, but I can’t see how the results will be authentic. Why don’t you let the local filmmakers handle that job? I don’t necessarily want to see an all Asian cast like Slumdog Millionnaire, The Last Emperor, Memoir of a Geisha or Anna and the King. It will be really weird seeing Asian American, Chinese, Korean and Japanese actors, speaking in English trying to play Thai Tsunami survivors.
By the way, I’m Thai and I was a relief worker in South Thailand after the Tsunami and I approve this film.
I’m not so confident that she could win but, considering the support, I think she could have the fifth spot…even if I’m a bit sorry for Rachel Weisz (amazing in THE DEEP BLUE SEA). Regarding Cotillard, I think she gave her best performance ever in RUST & BONE (yes, for me even better than the academy award winning’s one in LA VIE EN ROSE) but it would be a pity that Riva who gave one of the most amazing perf this year in AMOUR finished overlooked
I, myself, cannot.
It’s the sort of thing Miggs would say:
http://cinesnatch.blogspot.com/2012/12/best-actress-1991-agent-starling-fbi.html
Phantom > I don’t know. What’s the definition of shocker? Keira Knighley or Rachel Weisz would be a shocker. Judi Dench would be a shocker against. So, if there’s a shocker, it’s going to be Dench. As it is, two slots are going to be filled by two of four actresses, two French, one a kid, and the other Helen Mirren. The chances of one of slots being filled by a French late are pretty high. The other one I’d say is probably Mirren. But, I could easily change my mind tomorrow (which is today).
He said “I can smell your cunt”.
Yes, multiple Oscar winner Daniel Day Lewis is the next cell. He hissed at you Tero, what did he say?
I’ve been on this website for eight years now, Matt. I know they will never, ever let me out while I’m alive. What I want is a show. I want a window where I can see the winners, or even nominees. I want to be in Academy’s inner circle, far away from Hollywood Foreign Press… I’m offering you a psychological profile of Daniel Day-Lewis, based on the case evidence. I’ll help you catch him, Matt.
I could go on and on…
But Sasha, I love you!
WOW this is playing in only one theater close to me..that being DOWNTOWN. as if im going all the way down there. how on earth do they expect to make any money playing in so few theaters? not surprise the numbers have tanked. guess ill have to wait till dvd:/
Sasha Stone. It’s an anagram, isn’t it, Doctor? Sasha Stone, “Hate Ass Son”, meaning that you hated your gay son?
Sasha Stone sent a trainee to me?
^ sorry, wrong thread.
No, it rubs the lotion on its skin or it gets the fuckin hose again
Sorry, wrong thread.
God was not here, thank God.
My God, you Americans can be some stubborn fucks sometimes. I PROUDLY don’t believe in God (like most reasonable people wouldn’t).
What is it with you and your God? Even Spanish (Catholic) people take such non-existing entity with a grain of salt.
No, Ted, it’s YOU who doesn’t get it.
So there!
Sasha, a minor correction–it is Alfre Woodard not Angela Bassett who wrote the lovely Emayatzy Corinealdi tribute.
I am very disappointed in Sasha’s comment midway through this strand. If Sasha truly believes this, why is she doing what she is doing on this site? It makes no sense. Celebrating mediocrity? I do believe that the quality of movies is going steadily downhill, despite the critics who find a new movie to rave about every second week of the fall/winter season, but not the quality of the performances. I think a lot of Best Actress nominees, and by extension actors nominated in other categories, are owed an apology.
Nor by the way do I believe Wallis was creating a character and making acting choices in that role. I would not nominate her among the top 5. But then I didn’t care for the film either.
It’s shocking to me how many people who read and comment on this site clearly just. don’t. get. it.
Anyway, i finally watched The Impossible this night.
1) Good movie. If it would be all about Tsunami, could be a classic in genre luke The Towering Inferno, The Poseidon Adventure and Titanic.
2) Watts is really amazing and brilliant. She’ certanly a lock and is nominated, whit Lawrence and Chastain. And it isn’t impossible her victory. I really think she’s brilliant in first half of the movie, but her eyes in last scene complete the hoke thing as one.
3) But who really made me speechless was Tom Holland. What an amazing performance!!! Holland is extraordinary, the shine and the heart if this movie. If there’s justice in thus world, he’ll be IN at February. And, after Hoffman, mt favorite at this point. A real new actir is born.
It’ a complete mistery for me some people fighting for a nom for that boooooring little girl Wallis, who isn’t an actress, a contender or nothing but a child, and I don’t see that people making justice to Holland marvelous andfull of energy performance.
It’s unbelievable!
Steve 50,
Of course, Citzen Kane and many others, like Reds.
But I was talking about the most awarded movies (in my mind, exactly Brokeback Mountain and The Social Network – the other, a BP winner is Schildeler’ s List) winning everything, except BP Oscar.
Vince, good point, but won’t it be more difficult this time since 1. there are more than two viable Brits in the Best Actress race so the usually powerful British-vote might be split in the end 2. there are two very strong French actresses in consideration, this year as well. Could the Academy go THAT European again ? I think it’s more likely the two French contenders make the cut than two Brits this year, and definitely not both ‘couples’ considering the top2 is American. I’m guessing the lineup will be Chastain, Lawrence, Watts and then two from the Mirren-Cotillard-Riva trio, unless the Academy pulls a Linney/Morton. Do you think there is a viable shocker in Best Actress this year and if you do, who ?
Sadly, the grosses for The Impossible were unrefreshingly tiny on Friday. Doesn’t look likely it will become a sleeper hit.
Paddy, I normally have great respect for nearly everything you say, but I can’t imagine anyone not identifying with the Renner character when he comes home from Iraq and feels disoriented and helpless and alone. Those scenes were heartbreaking.
The main character in The Social Network is deliberately unlikeable. I wouldn’t even call him an anti-hero since you don’t really root for him in any way shape or form. He’s just a typical workaholic selfish jackass that happened to revolutionize interpersonal communication – oh the irony! Sadly that irony and character dissection was lost on much of the Academy who instead were transfixed by speech impediment lessons.
The problem is the producers couldn’t find Asian actors to do the film coz they were all busy making Kung-Fu movies at the time.
Finally this film was made with white actors and the ticket proceeds from the premieres of the film from the white audience were donated to the white people’s so-called “Foreign Aids Charity Funds” one of which is the IODR (Indian Ocean Disaster Relief) to help out the rescue and recovery of the non-white victims of the Tsunami.
And Kung-Fu movies continues to be very popular and money-making…no problem whatsoever.
————————————
How do you address the criticism that the movie focuses only on white tourists, instead of the native citizens who were also affected by the tsunami?
[Naomi Watts] Well, look. This was a big story, and hundreds of thousands of lives were lost, hundreds of thousands of others were affected. This is told from an intimate story point of view, which is [about] Maria Belon’s family, and if we told everyone’s story, it would be a mini-series or a documentary. It played out, in the script and on the screen, exactly as it played out for her, and it’s told from her narrative. In the title, it’s called The Impossible, not just because of what took place, but because there’s the impossibility of leaving behind that place. She felt that she would always be connected to that land and those people and it was difficult for her to move away from that … survivor’s guilt, if you will. (note: Maria Belon prefers to say survivor’s pains)
————————————
While the film shows events almost exactly how they happened, it did go through one major alteration. Filmmakers decided to change the original Spanish family to an English one. Says Sánchez,
“We didn’t know if we were going to get the financing to make this film. That first draft was in Spanish. Even in that first draft, 80% of the dialogue was in English because after the wave comes, that’s the language everyone would use to communicate. So then with the characters, you never know where they are from. We let everyone keep their accents. Instead of working against that, we thought it was an interesting concept to have this family have no home. It’s not clear what’s the home they want to go back to. At the end, they realize home is where they are together. We were trying to make it universal – to try to create a place where nationality didn’t matter.”
Bayona reiterates,
“It felt quite natural to get an English speaking cast. It was a film about people – about a Western family going to Thailand and how it’s an experience that transforms them. It’s the end of these people’s innocence. There’s a lot of suffering in survival – it’s not a victory. I thought that was very interesting.”
Oh, and one more thing, Jesus — when you say it is the story of a “REAL Spanish family” — well, yeah, but you know perfectly well that they are depicted in the movie as nice British people with posh accents.
And when you say “they only changed their nationality to make sure of box office success” …. really, you don’t see the implications of that statement????
The Dude — Dec. 22 — Sorry but your statistic about half the people who died in the tsunami being white northerners is wrong. The World Health Organization estimates 265,000 died in the tsunami — and about 9,000 were not native to the region that was hit. And 1.7 million people were displaced — from their homes in the region, not from their tourist hotels.
Jesus — It is irrelevant to my point that The Impossible tells a story that is “moving” and “human”. I saw it. Yeah, it does. Naomi Watts is an excellent actress. But what does that have to do with the fact that the movie is yet another example of a the depiction of a tragedy that occurred somewhere else, to other people, being hijacked to tell the story of a white person’s suffering? It’s the moral equivalent of a film about Katrina focusing on some rich folks who got stranded after her mansion flooded. Maybe it happened, but ethically it is rather a grotesque message in view of the masses of people whose homes (not their hotels) were destroyed and their country decimated. It’s also the filmic equivalent of Dances with Wolves — the story of the suffering and genocide of native people that can be understood and depicted, and sold to the public, only through the experiences of some white dude.
Rod — Wow, Slumdog Millionaire made some money in North America, so suddenly there is no racism left! One movie. What does that prove?
EMMANUELLE RIVA
EMMANUELLE RIVA
AND
EMMANUELLE RIVA!
HOW COULD THE ACADEMY AND YOU FORGET SUCH PERFOMANCE? IT’S ABSURD!
@Stephen Holt: The Actor’s Branch is going to think “That’s not acting, that’s stunt work.”
Stunt work, Oh yeah!
Jean Dujardin (The Artist 2012)
Patty Duke (The Miracle Worker 1962)
Marlee Matlin (Children of a Lesser God 1986)
Jane Wyman (Johnny Belinda 1948)
Holly Hunter (The Piano 1993)
That’s because those movies did have characters you could identify with and scenes to match.
All those scenes in The Hurt Locker that I identified with…
When Ebert declared Argo the BP winner many months ago in a blog post, he also called the performance of Watts astonishing – responding to a reader’s question.
At that time he was the only critic, that I read anyway, that singled Watts out as being anything other than servicing her role in a film that belonged to the young Holland.
There seems to be something about the film stopping people calling it an out and out great film. I guess in the age of cynicism it’s not hitting on a grand scale, but it is hitting big with those who are able to get passed that.
1 Australian actress in 85 years of Oscar history has won Best Actress – Naomi Watts needs to correct this!
A Christmas Message from Ann Dowd(this should be in the other thread, but I keep getting “Duplicate posting”)
From Ann Dowd herself ~
I am so grateful to anyone who was kind enough to offer to donate money towards
the campaign.. Given the number of people who are going without this holiday
season, I would not feel comfortable taking money for an awards campaign. Thank
you so much for your generosity.