15 Days... (Remember When?)
Saturday, February 11, 2012 at 5:03PM Just a fortnight + 1 until Hollywood's High Holy Night
Remember what Jude and Nicole were looking at?
Remember when?
Jude Law Nicole Kidman Renée Zellweger
What profiles those two have, eh?
Continue for flashback / discussion
Yes, it was February 2004 and they were gazing upon their Cold Mountain co-star winning her gold man. (Nicole had already won the year before. Jude is still waiting)
Zéeeeee rattled off the names of her fellow nominees "Holly, Patricia, Marcia. and uh...." but had to look at her notes before saying "Shohreh" Awkward! Also: how ridiculously stratospherically gorgeous is Shohreh Aghdashloo!? I had forgotten. It's horrible that she only gets tiny gigs on TV series that I don't watch.
But let's end on a positive note. Zéeeeee thanked Vincent D'Onofrio for "teaching me how to work" and Tom Cruise for "showing me early on that kindness and success are not mutually exclusive". It's very classy when people thank former co-workers of any type for early key boosts to their career, rather than just focusing on the current performance. After all, Oscar wins are just as often about entire careers or in-the-moment momentum as they are individual performances.
In fact, you can break down all four acting frontrunner this year into "in the moment momentum", "career honors" and "individual performance", can't you? I think so.
- Who can you see forgetting the names of their co-nominees this year?
- Who would you love to hear thanked come Oscar night that has nothing to do with this year's movies and why?
Jude Law, Nicole Kidman, Oscars (00s), Renée Zellweger
Reader Comments (36)
Considering his well-known disdain for the film it would be funny if Plummer acknowledged The Sound of Music and Robert Wise for starting his career or something like that.
lol i took a pause just to look at the picture of shohreh and just fully realize how beautiful she is and then I read you're next sentence speaking my mind. but yeah, she should work in things i watch more.
Will Viola thank Meryl for telling everyone to give her more parts in her Doubt BFCA winning speech.
Love moments like this, Jeremy Irons thanking David Cronenberg comes to mind, and when Penelope not only thanked Pedro but Bigas Luna and Fernando Trueba as well! If Brad wins I would be over the moon if he thanked Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon!
^ It was actually her SAG speech. ;)
Ugh such terrible memories to bring up! For me, the worst performance to win an Oscar that entire DECADE.
Why are you reminding us of this? This isn't a cool Oscar win but one of those oh this person has to win an Oscar...Oscar wins...notice they never felt that way about Diane Ladd, Marsha Mason, Amy Adams, Glenn Close, Annette Bening, Julianne Moore--should've won Supporting for The Hours.
James & 3RT -- it was just on my mind. I'm working on a freelance job and happened to see this again and so I thought I'd see what discussions it brought up. I guess the wound hasn't healed ;)
There's a cheap albeit "so awkward it's funny" shot of Renee's speech where mere seconds after she thanks Tom Cruise, we see Nicole grinning so tightly that it looks like she could rupture at any second.
Notice, though, how her career hasn't been the same since? I wonder if there's a curse of the Undeserving Oscar Winner? You could certainly say it's happened to Swank, Paltrow, Helen Hunt and maybe even Eastwood as a director. Winning for a performance everyone knows deep down is undeserving takes you from underappreciated to overappreciated in one swoop.
Don't know if its undeserving or more like we are done with you, we gave you one. Renee got nominated 3 years in a row. Another example is Susan Sarandon who was nominated almost every year in a 5 year period until she won and then nothing. That is why I love what Firth said last year acknowledging that its probably downhill after the win.
Whatever Swank has done with her carreer post-Oscar, I think she certainly deserved the first and the second was won for a strong performance as well.
What has happened to renee 10 years ago she was one of th ahrdest working,best role girl actresses hell even an awards bait for 4 years,what gives.
I'm probably the only person who feels no hate for Renee at this win, even though I was all about Marcia Gay Harden's work in MYSTIC RIVER. But, then, I'm a moderate fan of COLD MOUNTAIN (although, I'm all about Jude and Nicole in that). I suppose, that's why I never got the intense wave of hatred for Renee's win.
I agree, James. Absolutely unwatchable. And she has 2 SAG awards.
Shohreh, Patti, Marcia Gay, and Holly all had lunch together in the lead-up to the awards because they all knew they weren't going to win.
I want so badly to be a big enough person to say I'd rather have been at that lunch than win an Oscar, but my heart is sending so many confusing signals.
boy, do i not miss Renee Zellweger.....you captured the pursed lips thing great. when does she get her CBS sitcom "Renee!" about a single mom?
//What profiles those two have, eh?//
Jude - absolutely. Nicole - not so much. (And I say that as a fan but her profile is not her best aspect; even in Moulin Rouge.)
Matthew - I have got to see that now (I'm sure it's on YouTube somewhere).
And it is weird how ZeeZee went from one of the hardest working actresses, with a string of interesting failures but also big hits and really quirky choices (Nurse Betty, for instance) and then - nothing, or nothing of note. Murtada's theory sounds about right - or is it that she just stopped caring quite so much? I think the risky thing about being an Oscar winner is that for some people, they are no longer "hungry" they way they once were? I'm just guessing.
@Murtada - with Sarandon though I think it's a little bit different; she was 49 when she won (and we all know from reading Nat's research that AMPAS is not kind to women over 35). So she was sort of at the "end" of her career in the sense of Hollywood caring about casting her in lead roles (and in fact she managed to go further than some have successsfully); and it was also, I'm sure, a sense of "we gotta give this to her now 'cause it will probably be the last opportunity" (and she should have won for Thelma and Louise, but never mind that.)
Which is not to say that Dead Man Walking was not a worthy performance but it was - not nearly the achievement her perf in T&L was, IMO.
I think, with Renee, she was doing good projects and was well-respected so she started getting even better roles. And once she did the one-two punch of Bridget Jones-Chicago, people were like "Oh, she has to get an Oscar at some point," so they were ready to throw her more meaty roles, and then she got Cold Mountain and people just gave it to her then. It was like she peaked in such a short amount of time, and then people were like "Okay, onto the next one" since they [hopefully] knew the performance she won for was kinda a joke and she was pursing her lips more and more each day and there was no need to reward her anymore. I could see her getting one more nomination in the next decade or so, maybe in supporting, one of those "once hot actress that can still give a good performance" nominations.
Okay, not as big an offender as when Jennifer Connelly stepped up on stage with a gigantic piece of crumpled paper that I swear she ripped out of a spiral notebook. But seriously...what's with these people who know for MONTHS before the ceremony that they're going to win and can't memorize their speeches?
Jimmy -- i absolutely swear to you that I was not trying to capture the pursed lips thing. I just paused the speech to take a photo. I guess she was making that face a lot.
The Pretentious --NEVER SPEEAK TO ME ABOUT CONNELLY. THE WORST ACCEPTANCE SPEECH IN THE HISTORY OF THE OSCARS.
Janice -- I'm with you on Thelma & Louise. My god what a transcendent performance that was. Just heartstoppingly good. but then it's one of my all time favorite movies so there's that, too.
I love how (I'm pretty sure) Nat's spelling of "Zéeeeee" has changed over the years; sometimes the number of e's changes, or the placement of the accent moves. It makes me imagine Zéeeeee as a grotesque, slime-like creature that is always changing, adapting...
Not to mention Connelly won over Dame Helen and Dame Maggie in GOSFORD PARK...... Ugh I can't stand it. Talk about adding insult to injury with that speech....
But yes, RZ's win is NOT my favorite moment either. So undeserving.
Supporting Actress was horrible (01, 02, 03)
My Picks because I have good taste--
01: Kate Winslet
02: Julianne Moore
03: Patricia Clarkson
The Curious Case of Renee...I totally agree, it is a bit baffling how scarce she became after her Oscar win. I mean....nothing. Well, she did have the second Bridget Jones and I kind of think she got a Golden Globe nomination for the weird Beatrix Potter movie, but it's as if Hollywood stopped caring for her after that.
I do wonder (like some have mentioned) if some actors' ultimate goal IS the Oscar, and once they've reached that apex, do they stop caring or at the very least start losing interest in their craft? Some simply make horrible career choices post-Oscar (Berry, Witherspoon, Swank), some continue to do challenging and interesting work (Winslet, Cotillard), some stumble a bit with trying to balance commercial/art house fare, but ultimately are still successful (Kidman, Theron), but Renee weirdly disappeared off the radar, which is so strange because she was one of THE "it" girls of the early-to-mid '00s along with Kidman and Moore (and they are still highly in demand).
@ Patryk...and Renee has THREE Sag awards (Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress, and Best Cast). She has more than Meryl...I know, frightening.
I look forward to the day that Naomi Watts wins an Oscar and gets to thank David Lynch. :)
@Nathaniel - Mine too. "Transcendent" is the word I was looking for, thanks. (That phone conversation in the motel room - OMG.) Thelma & Louise forever!
@Phillip & Aaron - reading your posts reminded me, oddly enough, of a Vanity Fair issue shortly before the Oscars, with ZeeZee (how are we spelling it now?) on the cover in a lovely black and white dress; and in the article the reporter had a phone conversation with Nicole and quoted her as saying "I really hope she wins" or somesuch. (Of course, what the heck else are you going to say about your own co-star? But she's not quoted saying that about everyone she's ever worked with so the sentiment was genuine.)
Was "Down with Love" before or after the Oscar win?
Hi Nathaniel - love your blog!
Its funny that you mentioned Shohreh Aghdashloo as I saw her on stage in London this week in a play called the House of Bernarda Alba. I must alas admit that I hadn't seen her before but I was blown away by her. She was amazing. Such stage presence, class and brilliant acting. I've seen some fantastic actresses on the stage including Helen Mirren, Rachel Weisz, Judi Dench, Lesley Manville, Maggie Smith, Sophie Okonedo and Jane Horrocks and Shohreh is right up there with the best of them.
I now have to watch her Oscar nominated role in the House of Sand and Fog - I bet she will be awesome in it.
Oh my, a lunch with Shohreh, Patti, Marcia Gay and Holly - if I had money, that's the type of thing I would pay heaps for in a charity auction.
Renee's win was definitely an example of the least talented but most movie starry emerging with the Oscar.
Janice -- down with love was directly after
When Renee won the Globe for Nurse Betty, she thanked Cameron Crowe, who was there for Almost Famous. Classy move, too.
I think most people have gone from 'her, again?!' to 'what the hell happened to her,' which means it's probably time for a proper comeback. Renee had an excellent run there, and well, not everyone can sustain that kind of momentum. She's not a Streep or even a Bullock. And frankly, an Oscar win for Shohreh probably wouldn't have done much for her career, either. But it would have been deserved, undeniably.
Nick-did they really not invite Renee? How deliciously juicy (and I must sadly say I'd still take the gold man over the lunch).
Aaron-I also think that for many actors (particularly Renee, but probably the likes of Sarandon and Paltrow as well), the Oscar is the high point of their career and then it's a question of "what do I do now?" You spend so many years trying to get to what the public, the industry, and your peers consider the highest of honors (there are very, very few actors who will have a success as public and memorable as their first Oscar role/win), and unless you're a character actor or a Jennifer Hudson where you win on your first try, you've likely already achieved enough financial success to be extravagently comfortable for the rest of your days. I think actors are aware that career laurels like the Kennedy Center Honors and AFI Life Achievement are considerably more unattainable than an Oscar, and therefore difficult to motivate you for decades and decades. So, you either go after Indie cred (Kidman, Weisz), chase the massive piles of money you'll be afforded in your afterglow (Berry, Cage, Jolie, Zeta-Jones), start a desperate hunt to win a second trophy (Cotillard, Cruz, Hoffman, and successfully, Meryl), convince yourself you need an EGOT matching set (Winslet), or slowly fade into the background and enjoy the "...and Oscar winner..." supporting roles that play at the ends of trailers (Renee, Roberts, and any number of others). Looking at it from their perspective and not ours (where we'd want them to give Oscar-worthy perfs every year), I can imagine all of these would be attractive options, but the last one the most attainable and easiest.
Down With Love actually was released the same year as Cold Mountain (and a few months after Chicago) so well before her Zelly's Oscar win.
Down With Love actually was released the same year as Cold Mountain (and a few months after Chicago) so well before her Zelly's Oscar win.
I love how this moment teetered in the balance of what could've been one of the best wins ever (Shohreh) to one of the worst. My opinion, of course, but that's how I've always seen it.
RZ looks lovely here though and the speech was indeed nice. I just can't in general with her though and seeing Shohreh in her seat instead on stage makes me hate the AMPAS.