I know, sort of like saying green plants like sunlight. But nonetheless, one of our readers, Phantom, lays out the (mostly) grim statistics. I remember Gold Derby’s Tom O’Neil telling me that “this Emmanuelle Riva” talk was crazy and that the actresses win are CTLF. Contenders they’d like to…you get the idea. There was no way Jennifer Lawrence was losing — her main competitors, all save one, were older than she was. So I guess next time I will listen to Tom O’Neil instead of thinking the best performance always wins (it hardly ever does, right?)
From Phantom:
1997 – Helen Hunt (34) vs. Judi Dench (63)
1998 – Gwyneth Paltrow (26) vs. Cate Blanchett (29) (twentysomething top2)
1999 – Hilary Swank (25) vs. Annette Bening (41)
2000 – Julia Roberts (33) vs. Ellen Burstyn (68)
2001 – Halle Berry (35) vs. Sissy Spacek (52) vs. Judi Dench (67)
2003 – Charlize Theron (28) vs. Diane Keaton (58)
2004 – Hilary Swank (30) vs. Annette Bening (46)
2005 – Reese Witherspoon (29) vs. Felicity Huffman (43)
2007 – Marion Cotillard (32) vs. Julie Christie (66)
2008 – Kate Winslet (33) vs. Meryl Streep (59)
2009 – Sandra Bullock (45) vs. Meryl Streep (60)
2010 – Natalie Portman (29) vs. Annette Bening (52)
2012 — Jennifer Lawrence (22) vs. Emmanuelle Riva (86), Naomi Watts (44), Jessica Chastain (35) and Lil’ Q (9)
Maybe we could give them voter viagra or something and that might help them vote for older women? Helen Mirren is one recent exception because even at her age she’s still a CTLF. Meryl Streep finally beat Viola Davis — I guess we don’t need to go over that one, right?
