On Kate Winslet's Oscar Win
Monday, September 14, 2015 at 11:02AM As The Dressmaker makes its premiere at TIFF here's Murtada on its leading lady's controversial Oscar win.
Kate Winslet is back! That seems to be one of the many “comeback” stories this fall season. Reviews for her supporting part in Steve Jobs have been stellar. And The Dressmaker is playing TIFF tonight! Has she ever been away though? Since her much maligned Oscar win for 2008’s The Reader, she starred in a much admired mini series (Mildred Pierce) for which she received multiple awards, worked with Steven Soderbergh (Contagion), Roman Polanski (Carnage) Jason Reitman (Labor Day) and her old Sense & Sensibility friend Alan Rickman (A Little Chaos). Some of these have been better received than others but none, with the possible exception of Pierce, have ignited the passion of even her most ardent fans.
Winslet’s a great actress who deservedly won the highest acting accolade in her profession. Yet there is a cloud above that win amongst Oscar obsessives. It is a somewhat unpopular win that still inflames a lot of passionate discourse even years later. Let’s examine why after the jump.
The Field
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Meryl Streep (Doubt), a performance that is now considered lesser Streep. However it’s fun and big, full of juicy repeatable lines "I have such doubts". It’s the kind of performance that aged well and is on its way to becoming a campy classic.
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Melissa Leo (Frozen River) was 2008’s indie breakout. This is the performance that led to her current thriving career and an Oscar win two years later.
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Angelina Jolie (The Changeling) was a makeup nomination for missing the year before for A Mighty Heart. No one remembers Changeling today.
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Anne Hathaway (Rachel Getting Married) showed the range everyone suspected she had by going dark and raw and coming up victorious.
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Sally Hawkins (Happy Go Lucky) won the critics trifecta NYFCC, LAFCA and National Society plus the Golden Globe for comedy and TFE’s own Film Bitch Award and endeared herself to many new and old fans.
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Kristin Scott Thomas (I’ve Loved You So Long) rocked TIFF and had quite a comeback narrative that ultimately fizzled. But she got new fans and drew attention to her thriving career in French cinema.
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Winslet (Revolutionary Road) won the Golden Globe for drama. The rare year when winners of both Golden Globe categories failed to get an Oscar nomination
Jolie aside, any of these performances could’ve been a worthy winner.
The Campaign
What was the exact moment when everyone turned sour on Winslet? Probably when she said “‘gather” while getting flustered accepting her second Golden Globe of the night for Road. By that time she had done numerous interviews, magazine covers and been everywhere clearly stating that she wanted to win an Oscar. And here she was with two awards in one night, and how dare she call Jolie “‘the other one”.
It is now expected that actors campaign aggressively for Oscar. How many events did Lupita Nyong'o attend on her long march to the Oscar podium? How many red carpets have Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones walked last year? Just look at the abundance of celebrities that attend the Governors Awards every year in November, all trying to get their films noticed. Someone like Cate Blanchett (for Blue Jasmine) can do one week of press and then stay in Australia for most of awards season, only attend the big events and major publications (NY Times and Vogue) and still win best actress. That's because she had the reviews and jump start on the competition. 2008 was very different year and Kate had lost 5 times before. And she had the audacity to actually say that she wanted it and that turned most people off.
There's also the category confusion factor. For most the season she campaigned supporting not to compete with herself in Road which rubbed people the wrong way. That was studio jockeying though. The Weinstein Company rushed The Reader into theaters when it was initially scheduled for 2009 and to appease their star, who was promoting the movie she made with her husband and best friend, they ran a supporting campaign. Once the critics and Academy shrugged off Road she was in the correct category but only for BAFTA and Oscar.
The Dark Knight Effect
Remember how mad everyone was that The Reader got what they saw as The Dark Knight’s spot. Even the Academy believed that and expanded the best picture field the year after. Of course Kate was The Reader’s face and the person who kept winning awards for it, a constant reminder that a better received and popular movie was overlooked. “I haven’t seen The Reader”.
Stephen Daldry gets no respect partly because his movies have been so well received by AMPAS. He has a theater director’s knack for translating episodic novels into engrossing movies, reminiscent of the late Anthony Minghella (a producer on The Reader). Daldry’s movies are about words and emotional distress, not exactly visually striking which often gets them characterized as “dull”. Far from it. Have you not been moved by Billy Elliot’s need to dance? Or Laura Brown’s deep despair despite the perfect life she has?
The Performance
No less an expert than Sandra Bullock, whose mother was German, said Winslet realistically portrayed German women of a certain generation. The accent is perfection, with impeccable clipped German intonations. But what sticks in mind is what a very confident physical performance it is. Sexually frank with that earthy sexuality that Winslet embodies so well, coupled with weariness throughout showing the heavy burden this woman carries. Winslet conveys how guarded and secretive Hanna Schmitz was yet her face is so expressive that even the heavy makeup as she ages onscreen doesn't obscure the well of transparent emotions. No matter what was thought of the film it can’t be denied that Winslet opened up her well of nerve and emotion and was fiercely committed and ultimately very moving. While Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is seen by many as her career capper so far, Hanna Schmitz in no less a fantastic creation. The Oscar is justified and deserved for a career of excellent performnces and also for the very fine performance that she won for. Let’s relive that triumphant moment.
Do you think Winslet deserved her Oscar that year? Have your thoughts on The Reader changed since its release? Who gets your vote?
Reader Comments (62)
Yeah, she deserved not only because of her career, but because the performance is very strong, just like, for example, Denzel Washington in Training Day. These are not make up wins, the performances are there.
didn't we talk about this at the time...?
I know it's an unpopular view, but yeah, given who the five nominees were, I'm perfectly happy with Winslet having won for The Reader (though I hope Hawkins keeps getting the kind of work that'll keep her in the conversation for a future award).
That said, I think Kristin Scott Thomas did the best work here, by far, but she wasn't nominated, sadly.
Controversy? Really? I think it's her best performance. A deserved win. Also, Jolie is really rather good in The Changeling. The problems with that movie should be attributed to Eastwood's limp direction, not her performance.
My only problem with The Reader or her win was that terrible old age makeup in the end, it didn't made her look old but rather an middle age woman with severe skin disease. Apart from that, she was pretty much perfection.
She won for the wrong movie. She is much better in RR.
I liked the film and Winslet in it, so I had no problem with the wins and nominations.
I just remember a lot of screaming Internet chatter about injustice for The Dark Knight and Wall-E. That chatter was absurd considering how many nominations a superhero movie and an animated sci-fi movie got when there were only five Best Picture nominees. They were clearly #6 and 7 in the vote tally, but lost out to more traditional (and equally well-made) films.
There was a lot of anger online about the nominations that year. Kate Winslet got the brunt of it for daring to say, "Yes, I want to win an Oscar."
I loved the Reader much more than Revolutionary Road. I've actually re-watched the Reader more than I thought I would. Great Winslet performance. While Eternal Sunshine should've been her first win, she was definitely determined.
I haven't revisited The Reader since the year it came out, but I wasn't much of a fan. Still, I'm glad Winslet has her Oscar, even if I'm definitely one of those who pretends it's for Revolutionary Road instead.
Triumphant indeed! Winslet haters to the left, this was a grand Oscar win!
It's funny that you said her accent was perfect. Umm, it was still in English. Had she spoken German the entire film, I would have been more impressed.
I think her campaign was brilliant, actually. It inspired two of her co-nominees that year, Melissa Leo and Anne Hathaway to up the ante for their next nominations (and they also won!!). Without her paving the way, the world would not have witness those amazing campaigns.
no problem with the reader but wall e and dark knight was more deserving!
And about kate, very happy for her win she absolutely deserved this for the eternal sunshine.
Super baity role, so no wonder it's somehow controversal.
I don't mind it at all, although my favorite was Hathaway for RGM that year.
But it was Winslet's best chance and she grabbed it. Timing is all, people.
I thought she deserved it more for RR ... if she had been nominated in Best Supp. Actress, I would have liked the win....
Edit myself:
Hathaway for RGM from the nominated lineup.
Sally Hawkins for Happy-Go-Lucky was just as happy as her film's title, but I'm sure it was simply TOO happy for the Academy. *lol*
When was the last time the Academy nominated a character that was soooooooooooooooo optimisitic? Mary Poppins, maybe?
Perhaps my memory is foggy, but I don't recall her win as that divisive or maligned, nor do I have any recollection of a backlash against her. Didn't most people want to see her take it that year, not particularly for either performance but because she was considered long overdue? I would have gone with Anne Hathaway myself (thus allowing Sally Field to go 3 for 3 for her deserving turn in Lincoln), though her victory set perfectly well with me.
I am elated that she has an Oscar, but I wish it was for a better performance. This happens all the time, though. I hope she wins another one for a worthier performance.
The way I remember it her accent kept reappearing and disappearing. Maybe it was perfect but for 50% of the running time at best.
Also, while I understand that she would have had no other option in such a mainstream prestige production, I really didn't like how she insisted on selling her character as deceptively huggable at her core.
I preferred and was much more intrigued by the rigid, astringent woman in the book.
That said, Winslet did bring the right, constantly shifting physicality to the role and it's hardly the worst performance to have won that decade, or even the worst performance nominated that year (that honour - as it so often does around this period - belongs to La Streep).
And Winslet is very much an actress for the ages. Like so many other actresses for the ages however, she just happened to land her Oscar during the slightly less inspired patch of her career.
I think she is great in The Reader, but I think she's extraordinary in Revolutionary Road!
Did she deserve it? Honestly, I don't know. I barely remember this film. I was, and still am, super-high on Hawkins for that year.
It is weird that this kind of killed her career for so many. I admit, the only things I've really enjoyed of hers since 08 are Mildred and Carnage, the latter of which I seem to be in the minority for.
I STILL haven't seen The Reader.
My vote would have gone to Hathaway, but I'm glad she didn't win. As unfairly pilloried Hathaway was after her win in 2012, it would have been even worse if she had won for Rachel Getting Married on her first nomination. And I don't think 2008 really offered a whole lot of other options (even in terms of the people who missed). It wasn't the deepest well of nominatable performances that year, Sally Hawkins aside.
I'm fine with Winslet winning for this. I would have rather her have won for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind but that was never going to happen. Her Reader performance sits right in the middle, qualitatively in terms of her own performances and all the Best Actress performances period. I understand that people are still weird about this win, but I don't understand who she beat that was such an outrage.
My take is the politics surrounding it soured her win,because of that silly supporting nonsense,so glad Meryl didn't get her 3rd for Doubt that year i'd have more of a problem with that plus when you talk Kate's win you have to remember the things she lost or wasn't nominated for and ask did she deserve it for The Reader,Rev Rd efinitely but they hated the film see Dicaprio's snub but it was time for her.
She was meh in this for me but that's somewhat because she was such a withholding character and I just didn't believe/care about her epiphany toward the end. It felt so cheap and silly. Plus she had a bigger role in RR that I thought she was better in.
I think people had just been excited and rooting for Winslet for years at that point, and then she finally wins for the most conventional, dullest role/performance possible.
I have no problem with Winslet having an Oscar and while I didn't really get much but typical Winslet from her two performances that year there's nothing wrong with that. Personally I would have voted for Leo for her career best and a performance that came before all the craziness which you think would make me look badly on Frozen River but still I love the performance in spite of her career after the nomination. While Winslet would have deserved a win more in 2004 as an actress she deserves to have an Oscar.
Also I hate this wanting an Oscar surrounding actresses especially where after they achieve it people start to hate them. No one ever feels that way about actors (e.g. Redmayne), just goes to show the sexism that people have towards women when they try to achieve something.
It was inevitable she win eventually, but the Reader is such a dreary film - I'm a huge Ralph Fiennes fan, but it's one of the few among his films that I have no desire to rewatch. And it's easily the worst of his six best picture nominees (the only "bad" one, IMO). Anyway, Winslet doesn't move me much - I would've voted for Anne, and Sally was the best overall that year.
It felt like a way to honor the accomplishments of a popular, talented actress even if the performance wasn't there for everyone.
I don't know if she worked it more than anyone else, but I do recall her candor of "Hell yeah I want to win!" That Vanity Fair Cover!!
Unfortunately I think she took that win to mean she should do more stern stoic women. I kinda miss her wild child she perfected so well.
Seems like she is set for a 7th nom this year unless the dressmaker blows them all away,I did think she was rude to Jolie and seemed a fake,it did put me off her personally but not her performances,seems like she willwin her 2nd like Blanchett when she really really does give one of THOSE performances that become legendary,that is what she needs a la Charlize in Monster.
Like Pacino finally winning for "Scent of a Woman." The worst of all his performances, but was so overdue the other more deserving nominees (Rea, Washington and Downey) had no chance. But I am glad Winslet won, finally. Just would have preferred she won for "Sense and Sensibility," or "Eternal Sunshine..."
I am fine with the win. I might have picked Leo in a vacuum, but this is a film I liked far more than your average person and Winslet deserved to be Oscar-winning. Even in a vacuum I'd still put her in the Top 2 of these nominees, and maybe only Scott Thomas would be able to make it over her if we opened up the field.
Patryk: My bottom to top field for 1992 would be: Danny DeVito, Batman Returns, Jack Lemmon, Glengarry Glen Ross, Benoit Poelvoorde, Man Bites Dog, Tim Roth, Reservoir Dogs, Al Pacino, Glengarry Glen Ross. That hopefully gives you a sense of how I probably think they did in 1992.
Ah Kristin Scott Thomas! She was phenomenal in I've Loved You So Long! The best female performance of that year
Well when you officially states that you want and deserve the Oscar, that ain't charming at all.
The Oscar is the marketing price of the year while Cannes Best Actress is THE artistic performance of the year award
AMEN
I've always been fine with Kate's Oscar although I prefer her performance in Revolutionary Road. I would have given her the Oscar for Iris.
I think Anne Hathaway and Melissa Leo gave the best performances, but Anne was too young and Melissa too indie. It's a shame that Sally Hawkins and Kristin Scott Thomas were not nominated.
Manuel - While I agree that marketing plays a big part in the acting Oscars, you can't compare it to the Cannes awards, which only have a 20-odd selection of films to choose from. The artistic performances of the year are better found in the Los Angeles and National Society of Film Critics awards. They know what they're doing.
And as far as Kate goes, I'm a fan of her in The Reader and glad she has an Oscar.
One of the few who finds The Reader an enjoyable movie. Love Winslet and her Oscar win. Wanting an Oscar is no reason to dislike someone's win.
Preach it, Murtada! Kate's Hanna is a fine creation.
To all the haters (not the ones who just don't like the performance):
"You don't matter enough to upset me!"
Just teasing. Peace :)
Kristin Scott Thomas gave the absolute best performance by an actress that year!
Despite the film's generic quality, Angelina Jolie gave a wonderful performance in Changeling that was worthy of that nomination.
Kate Winslet is, and always has been, my favorite actress. She's what got me hooked into prestige movies and the awards season competition in the first place. She's my New England Patriots or my Boston Red Sox, and when she get's nominated it's like having my team finally make it to the playoffs. I'll still watch the Super Bowl even if my team is not in it, but when it is I always throw a big party. That year she won, I had my friends all around me pouring champagne and calling me up from across the country and congratulating me, which was hilarious, so I certainly don't begrudge her win, even if I prefer Eternal Sunshine or Hideous Kinky.
Also, I don't think there really was a major backlash. I think she's managed her career quite nicely. Streep is unique in that she engenders "overdoness" through repeated nominations, and Kate played that game for a while too, but seems to have taken a different route, which is to do solid, if not surprising work, so that she creates space to "comeback" into. I don't think she's made a movie since her win where she even really wanted an Oscar nomination. I think it was more about being in the conversation, which starts to earn back a little of the overdo-ness that is lost when winning. Streep is still coated with overdo-ness because she still hasn't caught up to Hepburn, which I think we all assume she will do eventually.
Kate doesn't work as much as Streep, and I honestly think seems to be mainly prioritizing her family. I mean, her most uninspiring performances always happen when she's pregnant, David Gale, the first Divergent movie, and A Little Chaos for example. I think when her kids grow up and she's an old lady with nothing to do but focus on her career, we're going to get some Maggie Smith, Judi Dench, Mirren style old dame awesomeness coming our way. Right now I think she's playing the long game, creating a career that can last, which is so much harder for women to do than men. That means she needs to always stay in the game, at least enough to still be considered for the best parts, but not overexpose herself, because that's something only Streep can really do successfully. I think she's balancing everything perfectly, and this is a great year for her to show off her talent, her range, and her ability to look and sound completely different, etc.
I love Kate and I loved this Oscar (especially loved Marion's speech, one of this generations greats giving to another great). Also, Kate was stunning on Oscar night, my best dressed Best Actress of all time.
Glad she has an Oscar, although I also preferred her work in RR. I have to say, though, that the first minute or so of her Golden Globe is truly cringe worthy.
I really liked how they used to present the nominees, the best change made recently and now its gone. : /
I have no problem with her winning for The Reader. I have never been especially taken with Winslet's work, and I thought The Reader was perhaps her best performance up to that point. I also like the film, and think it should have won Best Picture over Slumdog Millionaire. But that was a weak year for nominees.
Kristin Scott Thomas was brilliant in "I've loved you so long" - pity it never got Oscar nominated.
Once she was out of the running my loyalties were divided between Sally Hawkins and Kate Winslet, and I was more in favour of Winslet because she was so overdue.
I had no problem with her win, and since I wasn't reading Oscar blogs at that time had no idea there was a backlash. As others have pointed out any sort of backlash is totally hypocritical - I haven't seen Jeff Bridges penalized for his win...(surely a weaker performance than Winslet's).
Oddly enough I have enjoyed Winslet's work since more than most people, I thought she was fabulous in Contagion, Mildred Pierce, and Carnage. She has matured into a really gifted dramatic actress, for me she is up there with Julianne Moore.
She could print a billboard with her own money in an Oscar campaign, and I'd still love her. Nothing will diminish my affection for Clementine Kruczynski. Nothing.
Jeff - totally forgot about those Divergent movies since I haven't seen any of them.
James T - I thought of including that as a gif. Hilarious! http://media.giphy.com/media/cLRNjn6AWiMfe/giphy.gif
LadyEdith: To an extent a double standard, but also that The Big Lebowski was (and still is) crazy iconic in a way VERY few movies (not even Eternal Sunshine) can claim.
I was overjoyed with Kate Winslet’s Oscar win and loved her performance in The Reader. Do I think it’s one of the best acting achievements ever, or even her career best? No. But I don’t think any of the other nominees that year were criminally robbed.
I do feel Winslet was unfairly scorned for being vocal about wanting to win. She’s always been refreshingly honest and candid, and I think it would have seemed disingenuous if she gave the eye-roll inducing “it’s just an honor to be nominated” answer in interviews given her track record of 5 nominations and no wins. Of course she wanted it, dammit.
As for her acceptance speeches during awards season, people (particularly the British press) were unjustly harsh with her in that regard as well. It has never been her style to be dry and self-deprecating and she deserved and earned to be emotional in those moments.
Even though she hasn’t been totally off the grid, I have missed Kate very much over the years and I’d be delighted to see her receive another nod this year. As for her long term future, please let her win another Oscar and let it be for a performance that that is undeniably worthy - like Meryl winning for Sophie’s Choice or Vivien Leigh’s lead actress wins for Gone with the Wind and A Streetcar Named Desire. Perhaps I’m greedy, but for a talent like Winslet, it would seem an injustice otherwise.
I think she's great in THE READER and think THE READER is great in general. It has always bothered me that people looked at Daldry's film as the one that kicked THE DARK KNIGHT out of the top field (I'm not even sure it was in sixth tbh, but that's another story) despite the fact that it is clearly a much better movie than FROST/NIXON and made twice as much as Ron Howard's film at the box office. Sigh.
The thing with Kate Winslet though is that it's hard to say she should have won any of the years she was nominated. I know we all like to look at ETERNAL SUNSHINE, but that year was also Imelda Staunton as Vera Drake and I probably would have voted for her knowing she'd never have another shot (and also, you know, she's just as good as Winslet). In fact, the clearest she probably should have come is SENSE AND SENSIBILITY way back in '95.
I also don't remember any controversy here. Sure Kate wanted it, but who doesn't? I thought she would be more popular, but she seems to have found her own path.
I loved Streep in Doubt and I loved Hathaway in RGM. I also loved Winslet in The Reader and do not begrudge her win. It really was a wide open field that year and anybody could have won. I think Winslet's win was partly that she was probably overdue.