Supporting Actress (and Mothers & Sons)
Monday, February 21, 2011 at 10:00PM It occurred to me when completing the Best Supporting Actress page -- now with "How'd they get nominated?" theorizing, Polls and Trivia -- that "The Wisdom of Crowds" might be in order for this category in terms of predictions. It's the only category that seems ripe for an upset, given both the nature of the category (the most frequently upsettable as it were) and the unfortunate turning of the tide against Melissa Leo. I say unfortunate because I think that Melissa Leo is absolute aces in The Fighter and far less deserving performances win Oscars every year! She'd be my personal winner in a year that didn't contain something as untoppable as Jacki Weaver's "Smurf" my first pencilled in candidate for Best of the Decade in 2020 when we pretend that the Oscars are only held once a decade.
So humor me by voting on this poll and explain yourself in the comments. Who IS going to win? Also make sure to vote on each of the categories for your "should win" on the Oscar pages
You know you want to.
It feels like a nailbiter as we just discussed on the podcast. I'm still leaning towards thinking that Leo is going to pull off the win, given that I think her competitors are probably too strong across the board to steal all the NOT LEO votes for themselves.
But while researching this category, I realized that if Bale and Leo both win for The Fighter, it'll be the first time since Holly Hunter & Anna Paquin in The Piano (1993) that actors playing immediate blood relatives have both won. But what of Mothers & Sons? It turns out there aren't very many of them that are ever nominated.
Ordinary People (1980) and My Left Foot (1989)
Past 50 Years of Mother & Son Oscar Combos - wins?
Melissa Leo and Christian Bale in The Fighter (2010) -we shall see
Julianne Moore and Ed Harris in The Hours (2002) -neither won
Toni Collette and Haley Joel Osment in The Sixth Sense (1999) - neither won
Kate Nelligan & Nick Nolte in The Prince of Tides (1991) - neither won
Brenda Ficker and Daniel Day-Lewis in My Left Foot (1989) -WINNERS!
Jessica Tandy and Dan Ackroyd in Driving Miss Daisy (1989) - only the mom
Mary Tyler Moore and Timothy Hutton in Ordinary People (1980) -only the son
Meryl Streep and Justin Henry in Kramer Vs. Kramer (1979) -only the mom
Gladys Cooper and Rex Harrison in My Fair Lady (1964) - only the son
Thelma Ritter and Burt Lancaster in The Bird Man of Alcatraz (1962) -neither won
I think I've accounted for all of them. Are you fond of these pairings? Do you think we'll have another (fictional) mother & son set on Sunday night?
Christian Bale, Melissa Leo, Oscar Trivia, Oscars (10), The Fighter
Reader Comments (54)
This is funny musing. Not many mom/son winners? Haha. Someone really has too much time on his hands. Even if there's such a pattern, I don't think it would apply to The Fighter so much b/c even playing mom and son, Leo and Bale aren't the central relationship in the movie. We don't see their relationship develop fully. Had it been Leo and Wahlberg being nominated, I'd think your theory would apply. As is, they are just two supporters to Wahlberg.
Now I guess it's me who's having too much time on his hands. :)
I think Leo might well lose, but not because of the rarity of mothers and sons winning, or because of the rarity of two acting winners for the same movie. I just think those ads hurt her. I really do think it's all down to those ads and without them she'd be safe. We'll never know, and it's possible when the envelope opens, it will be Leo's name after all on that card, but i have to think she lost a number of votes and it MIGHT be enough to cost her the win. I don't think we'd even be having this debate were it not for this controversial AdsGate!
It's a shame, as I don't agree with the charge that she's just scenery chewing and too over the top to win. For me, "over the top" means your choices aren't justified by the content of the scene, that you're just narcissistically hogging the camera without regard to your co-stars or the purpose of the scene. To me, that's not what Leo does. She plays a loud, brash, extroverted person, and she plays her to the hilt, but that's not quite the same thing as going over-the-top. I think Sheila O'Malley's lovely appreciation piece on Leo gets it right.
If there's an upset, it might be Bonham Carter rather than Steinfeld, though.
Oscar Oscar ... i don't have too much time on my hands. I just have too much OscarOscar on my mind ;)
LosLobos ... we'll see. it's going to be a nailbiter. I actually feel tense in my stomach about it.
And Nathaniel, don't you think some of the criticism lobbed Leo's way is wildly unfair?
When I heard the uproar, I thought we'd be seeing her boobs hanging out of her bra or choking on a banana or something. All she did was pose in a fur coat! People went on and on about how tacky and tasteless she was: I thought she was just trying to avoid typecasting - like, Todd Haynes cast her in his Mildred Pierce and I think she was saying, "Yes! More, more! I can do that kind of movie too..."
And over-the-top? Hamming it up? Yes and no. When she loses her temper and takes a tantrum in her kitchen - people should record themselves when they lose their temper and see what it looks like. To me, her acting looked spot-on - that's exactly what a temper tantrum is like, whether you're on the giving or receiving end. Big scenes, yeah, but that's what the scenes are: that's what's in the script and she plays it beautifully.