Q&A: Actressexual Longings & Carol Gender-Flipped
Thursday, February 18, 2016 at 8:00PM 
It's another Q & A. Ask it and it shall be er... might be answered. When I started typing this week I couldn't stop and before I know it there were thousands and thousands of words. So that takes care of two Q&As .
Here's the first half of the mad scribblings typings then.
What is your favorite non-nominated performance from each of the five titans of the acting nominations? (Meryl Streep, Katharine Hepburn, Jack Nicholson, Bette Davis and Laurence Olivier) - SEAN
NATHANIEL: Oh this is a tough one since those people were Oscared for breathing. Okay. Let's take them in reverse order of preference as actors...
Sir Laurence Olivier. Weirdly I was just watching As You Like It (1936) just the other day. I wasn't all that impressed though he definitely had an easier time with the material and the medium than the other stagebound performers. I have seen several of his non-nominated films, mostly from when I was very young so I don't remember them well. Spartacus? Dracula? That Hamilton Woman? I have no idea. I'm not a Sir Larry person at all! I almost always prefer his co-stars even in his biggest hits.
Katharine Hepburn. Bringing Up Baby (1938) is such a comic jewel. Mid 30s to Early 40s is best with Hepburn.
Jack Nicholson. The Shining (1980). Sure he goes big but the nightmare requires that level of commitment to devilish abandon. He does supersized devilish abandon in Witches of Eastwick (1987) as well but in the latter case it's distracting since the women are already sparking so much. Take it down, Jack.
Bette Davis. I confess: I haven't seen all that many of her non-nominated performances. I don't think she's very good in Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte or her late camp work and not very memorable in Three on a Match. Hmmm. Maybe The Great Lie (1941)? But Mary Astor performs Grand Theft Movie in that one. What a knockout star turn.
Meryl Streep. Easy. The Hours (2002). "I seem to be... unravelling."
Who would you stake your life on being the successor to Streep, Hepburn and Davis? You may NOT choose 'I don't know' and you really will not die if you are wrong. -JESSICA C.
I would absolutely not stake my life on any answer even though you wish my answer was Jessica Chastain. Of today's performers the most likely seems to be Cate Blanchett. She's already high in the ranks, she is more amazing now than she's ever been (which is rare after that many noms) and she's still got at least a handful of leading lady years left. (We wish it weren't true but time and again we see that the roles start vanishing when actresses hit 50 no matter how great they are.) But Cate's frankly amazing bone structure means that she's going to age very well so it's easy to imagine her settling into the elderly stateswoman of ACTING when she's old like a regular Boss Dame even though she's Australian.
I know people keep saying it's going to be Jennifer Lawrence but I have some doubts that she''s always going to be this default Oscar popular. The easiest comparison for Jennifer Lawrence is Julia Roberts. People who weren't alive or weren't conscious of pop culture in the early 90s don't know this but it was INSANITY when Julia Roberts first burst from the head of Zeus as a full movie star. And we didn't even have social media back then to amplify the madness. It was insanity for about 5 years after which it settled down into another 5 years of immense but divisive popularity and then she just was a famous movie star with hits and misses just like all the other famous stars. And this is what I predict for Julia Roberts 2.0
If I could have my way --- and not just to piss the world off -- I would really love to see Anne Hathaway become a perennial BECAUSE I LOVE HER AND NO ONE CAN STOP ME FROM DOING SO.
Any old features from your site that you miss the most? I was thinking of this question because I kind of wish that you did a 20:15 for the best picture nominees. -KIN
I miss everything once I've been away for it for a good length of time. And the funny thing is that I was absolutely going to do a surprise 20:15 for all of them but my screener for Bridge of Spies doesn't work so my plan was thwarted because it was the first one I put in to start that post. As to your question I miss Best Pictures From the Outside In a lot. And I wish I could manage a Monologue every Monday but I'm only human.
If Carol had been filmed at the time the story goes (1950’s), which actresses of that time would you put in the roles of Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara ? Joan Crawford and Audrey Hepburn? And if you could change the gender of the protagonists who would you choose ? George Clooney and Channing Tatum? Brad Pitt and Ansel Elgort ? - Kimberly S
Rita & Eleanor - both photos from 1953
This is a lot of questions at once and also causing impure thoughts to flood my brain. I'm not sure that I can answer this but definitely not Crawford and Hepburn. Joan would eat Audrey alive and still be hungry for more starlet; a horrormance. I think my answer would be Rita Hayworth because a) the right age and b) glamour for days and c) underchallenged as an actor. For her sad shopgirl lover Eleanor Parker because a) brilliant and just getting started. For proof see Caged (1950).
As for who would play Carol & Therese Carl & Terence (haha), I want to say Brad Pitt because he is eternally hot and Alden Ehrenreich because he's fresh in the brain and so great in Hail, Caesar!. But why didn't you ask about men from the 1950s? Just to fuck with their closets, Cary Grant & Tab Hunter? The hotness squared. Or a grittier B movie version with, I dunno, Dana Andrews as Carl and RJ Wagner as Terry.
Important: This is how RJ looked in 1952 (Natalie Wood was 14 but supposedly already dreaming about marrying him)
Can't you just see him crying on a train because his rich tormented older lover dumped him to go back to his wife? (And now I will need some private time alone with myself.)
Is your pining for certain actresses (Moore, Bening, Pfeiffer) enhanced because they have been brilliant without the Oscars to show for them? I guess my real question is, do you appreciate them more because they have been overlooked or were overlooked for so long? - BEN
This is an interesting question and I was just going to say "No!" emphatically because I loved them before they repeatedly lost. And I love people deeply who've won Oscars. I love who I love regardless of whether any other voting body loves them. But maybe the answer is not that simple. I guess there is some sense of "closure" that happens with an Oscar win. Like, you can let them go in a tiny way because they were so honored. It was such a relief to see Julianne finally win and it will always be a miracle that Tilda Swinton won.
photo by Jeff Bridges
What movie prop would you like to own and why? Something famous like Rosebud, or something more obscure? - JAMES
The piano under Michelle Pfeiffer in The Fabulous Baker Boys. Okay okay, something smaller and thus more practical for Manhattan living... Hmmm. Obviously if any magic items actually worked any of those.
Genuine curiosity: how did you come up with the term actressexual? Stroke of fabulous gay genius or is there a story behind it? - CARMEN
The story of that involves Nick Davis and is here.
Would a movie based on your life be called a comedy, drama, thriller, horror or some weird category in Netflix that strangely has 20 other similar titles? Who would play you in a movie and what is his motivation? - JAMES
I suppose you could get some Ensemble Dysfunctional Family Dramedy out of it since I have had a tight circle of friends for many years. But otherwise my life is supremely boring. I spend most of my time staring at screens (sometimes to be entertained, other times to write). So perhaps a contemplative slow paced art film with bizarrely comic interludes -- like that accordion scene in Holy Motors. But I really wish I could say pornographic musical comedy for genre.
As for who would play me -- sexy people are always cast to play real life schlumpy people and I DEMAND to be treated the same way. So maybe James McAvoy, who looks nothing like me, but he is underused, and great, and I love him with his head shaved.
Have you ever realised that from NATHANIEL ROGERS you sure can fit a lot of actresses first names in it,here's a few: Geena, Glenn, Natalie, Sean, Sarah, Angelina... -MARK
This makes me happy. I did not realize this. Except that there's no way to get "Tilda or "Michelle" or "Liz" or "Judy" or "Bette" or "Norma" or "Joan" or "Kate" or "Meryl" -- not even if you include my middle name ... why do you hate me? This makes me sad.
YOUR TURN. Which movie prop would you like? Favorite non-nominated performances from Jack, Bette, and Meryl? Carol recasting?
Ready and go...
Reader Comments (57)
The Jennifer Lawrence / Julia Roberts comparison feels very apt considering Lawrence's project choices are skewing more genre just at the time when Julia became more notorious for romcoms.
Not a prop, but if I could magically make the game closet from THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS appear in my apartment it would be bliss.
Best non nom performances from:
K Hepburn - Little Women (1933) [Morning Glory? seriously???) & Holiday (1938), yes Holiday not Bringing Up Baby (too irritating for me)
Bette Davis - Marked Women (1937) [She won Venice but snubbed by Oscar] & All This & Heaven Too (1940), thot she was nom for the equally good The Letter that year
Meryl Streep - The Hours (2002) of cos, & also Death Becomes Her (1992)!!! Yes it was pure camp but Meryl NAILED it!! I SEE ME, I SEE ME!!! Lol
Larry Oliver - Carrie (1952) & Spartacus (1960, as a supp actor)
Instead o Nicholson, who I not really familiar w, I'm gonna go w another 3-times Oscar winner: Ingrid Bergman - Notorious (1946) & Indiscreet or The Inn of Sixth Happiness (1958)
This round of Q&A was quite entertaining.
Going from the ages in the novel, gender-reversed Carol
early '50s: Montgomery Clift and James Dean (OF COURSE)
early '60s: John Gavin and Martin Sheen
early '70s: Michael York and Brad Dourif
early '80s: William Hurt and James Spader
early '90s: Colin Firth and Jared Leto
early '00s: Paul Bettany and Jake Gyllenhaal
Carol
1) If made in the 50s: Deborah Kerr (Carol) & Jean Simmons (Therese)
2) If made in the 50s w gender reverse: Cary Grant (Carl) & James Dean (Terry)
3) If made today w gender-reverse: Michael Fassbender (Carl) & Colton Haynes (Terry)
Movie prop: Keira's Green Dress from "Atonement" or Hermione's magically expanding bag from "HP & the Deathly Hallows" (so practical)
I agree with Claran - would rather give extra nominations to Ingrid Bergman for "Casablanca" and "Indiscreet". How did she not get nominated for "Casablanca"???
Carol - Lauren Bacall & Jean Simmons (1952)
Male version of Carol has already done in "A Single Man"
Colin Firth & Matthew Goode, Nicholas Hoult
@LadyEdith: Bergman was nom in 1943, but for "For Whom the Bell Tolls", instead of Casablanca & Bacall is an excellent choice for Carol!! I wld consider Lana Turner too if she doesn't seem so predatory!! Lol
Favorite non nominated roles:
Laurence Olivier-The Devil's Disciple & Bunny Lake is Missing
Katharine Hepburn-Holiday-hands down & A Woman Rebels
Bette Davis-The Sisters & Fog Over Frisco
Jack Nicholson-The Border
Meryl Streep-The Seduction of Joe Tynan & The River Wild-Her performance isn't extraordinary but I loved how she jumped right into the spirit of the action genre.
Best non-nominated performances:
MERYL: The Hours, no doubt. Two more: Falling in Love and Heartburn.
BETTE: The Old Maid (she was nominated for Dark Victory that year). Second best: All This and Heaven, too (same year as The Letter)
JACK: The Passenger and also the little-seen The King of Marvin Gardens.
LAURENCE: Bunny Lake is Missing.
KATHARINE: I'm not a big fan of Hepburn, but I'll say Bringing Up Baby.
All I know is that when it comes to Olivier, I prefer John Gielgud!
The first name that came to mind when thinking about the successor to Hepburn/Streep/Davis was Keira Knightley. I'm not saying it will be, but I wouldn't mind if it was. I have loved her performances in period settings and modern ones.
Gender-flipped CAROL:
Denzel & Michael B. Jordan
I think you should see more Bette Davis movies. But then, it;s national drink wine day, so what do I know?
adelutza - Everyone should see more Bette Davis movies!
This is a great piece on the Julia/Jennifer comparison: http://www.buzzfeed.com/annehelenpetersen/joy-is-bad-jlaw-is-good?bftwnews&utm_term=.hpK2A77wz#.fk1V2BBnN
The non-nominated Bette Davis role that immediately came to mind: The Corn Is Green (1945). And I like Claran's suggestion of Marked Woman. Nathaniel, you really should explore Davis's filmography -- she was every bit compelling in many lesser-acclaimed films.
Nathaniel,
"Carl and Terence" is brilliant ! Made me want to see this movie !
And the pictures are great. Rita Hayworth and Eleanor Parker seem to be
really facing each other.
Nathaniel, in my question full of questions I asked you if with male protagonists
instead of the female ones Carol would go better in the box office.
What do you think ?
My fave non nominated Bette turn is 87's The Whales of August & for Meryl gotta be Marvin's Room,Hepburn A Delicate Balance..
Nat there are a lot more actress names you can fit in did a whole list.
I defintely do not wanna make you sad,it'sa fungame,see how many names you can get..
I must respectfully disagree with you Nathaniel regarding Jennifer Lawrence and the Julia Roberts comparison as Roberts was NEVER as critically acclaimed as Lawrence. Roberts never had films like Winter's Bone, The Poker House, The Burning Plain, American Hustle, or even Silver Linings Playbook.
As for Lawrence moving into genre as someone mentioned upthread... which genre?... the only genre picture Lawrence has on her schedule is Passengers with Chris Pratt. Lawrence currently has the Darren Aronofsky picture (filming in April in NYC), then the Spielberg picture It's What I Do, then Marita about Fidel Castro's lover. I see nothing similar in those pictures to anything Roberts did in her heyday.
Jennifer Lawrence is a character actress, a damn great one, and is also well liked in the Academy so, look for Lawrence to continue her Oscar nomination/wins.
i LOOOOOOOOOOOOVEEEE Meryl in "A Prairie Home Companion"
I don't know. I love J-Law and think that she can totally be an Oscar perennial ala Meryl, but NOT in the same level though. Julia Roberts earned 4 noms in 4 decades, while J-Law got 4 noms in a span of 6 years, with more to come.
Not exactly prop, but I would kill to eat one of those MENDL'S deserts.
Love that your favorite Meryl is from The Hours! Mine is Kramer vs. Kramer and Jack's is Terms of Endearment (yes, I'm a sucker for tear-jerking family dramas).
Blanchett has two potential monsters in the making:
- Where'd You Go, Bernadette (Richard Linklater)
- The Lucille Ball Biopic
especially excited about the former, Linklater's a genius
Whenever I hear the name Bette Davis, this crystal-clear image of Regina Giddens in The Little Foxes pops up. This has got to be the bitchiest performance on film!
Fadhil -- but the question was favorites among NON-NOMINATED. My favorite Meryls are actually Silkwood and Postcards :)
Yavor -truth.
Katharine Hepburn - Adam's Rib or Pat and Mike (how can you ignore her teamwork with Spencer Tracy?)
Laurence Olivier - Spartacus
Jack Nicholson - The Border (a criminally underseen movie)
Meryl Streep - Manhattan or The Manchurian Candidate
Bette Davis - Of Human Bondage, of course
Olivier-Carrie, which is also his best performance and maybe Jennifer Jones' best, as well an amazing and underrated movie.
Hepburn-tie between Holiday and Bringing up Baby (actually prefer the former as a film)
Davis-no idea, maybe In This Our Life or The Old Maid? Haven't seen much of what came before Jezebel.
Nicholson-The Passanger
Streep-The Hours I guess, though recently I would have nominated her for Its Complicated instead of Julia & Julia. I also thought she was considerably finer in Marvins Room than Keaton was.
Sucessor for Meryl? In 2008 I would have said Winslet but her career really seems to all over the place post Oscar (hopefully her recent Oscar nom will change that). I've been fairly agnostic about Blanchett but since her semi-comeback with Blue Jasmine I've just really been feeling her lately and Oscars show no signs of forgetting about her.
I get the Lawrence - Roberts thing, but don't totally agree with it. Lawrence is already way ahead in terms of Oscar and is already branching out into directing and writing. Her acting career just reminds me too much of another Jennifer, Jennifer Jones. Young with several Oscar noms that are from the influence of an older man named David O (Selznick and Russell). I think TFE even wrote about this before?
Ryan -- yeah, we've mentioned that in a few articles. Maybe JLaw will be Streeplike forever but most Oscar-friendly actors (and people always forget this in the moment) have a 5-10 year span where Oscar cares about them and then it's difficult to get arrested. I remember in Renee Zellweger's period of popularity people will be like "she'll have 5 more nominations in the next decade... which obviously didn't happen. Jennifer Jones popularity declined.
LOL oh yeah I forgot the actual question, too excited for my Meryl I guess.
By far for non nominated it is MAMMA MIA!!!
For Jack it's The Departed.
I probably spend an unhealthy amount of time fantasizing about what props I would like to own from my favorite movies, so I love this question.
When this topic comes up it's usually fanciful items that get mentioned like The Maltese Falcon or a Hatori Hanzo sword but my mind usually goes to mundane objects granted significance by the film. I would love, for example, to possess the video that Joan Cusack has to run to the control room in Broadcast News.
Some other of my desired objects would be:
- Anton Chigurh's coin from the gas station scene in No Country
- the two crumpled Tracy Flick votes Mr. McAllister tries to toss in Election
- Pesci's mom's painting from Goodfellas
- the Glengarry leads from Glengarry Glenn Ross
- The handwritten votes from 12 Angry Men
- one of the Lacuna Inc. notes that inform people they have been erased
- the bloody bowling pin from the last scene of There Will be Blood
- the little dish the Pale Man uses to hold his eyes when they are not in his hands from Pan's Labyrinth
- Guy's monogrammed cigarette lighter from Strangers on a Train
- Robin's winning arrow that splits the other arrow from The Adventures of Robin Hood
Michael C - brilliant choices. I need to keep better track of these cuz i always want to do a "stocking suffer" post at the end of each film year with the best props.
I would cast Hepburn and Teresa Wright in that 1952 version of Carol.
Meryl's best non-nominated performance is probably The Hours, but I really like her in The River Wild - it's so unexpected to see her do an action movie. I'd probably go with The Passenger for Jack. I do like both of them in Heartburn, but it's more of a guilty pleasure than nomination-quality.
I believe that in coming years we'll see a lot of Streep, Lawrence, Blanchett, Amy Adams and Winslet in Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress. Maybe even Jessica Chastain and Viola Davis. This reminds me of the ten years from 1938 to 1947. The same names came up all the time:
Bette Davis: 6 noms
Greer Garson: 6 noms
Jennifer Jones: 4 noms
Olivia de Havilland, Rosalind Russell and Ingrid Bergman: 3 noms.
Joan Crawford, Katharine Hepburn, Barbara Stanwyck and Joan Fontaine: 2 noms.
@Jake D - omg, that would be amazing.
I am slightly disappointed that I was not chosen as a potential successor to Bette, Katharine or Meryl, and I do continue to have the utmost confidence in my abilities to succeed. However, I do acknowledge that this is a great and fun column. Gracias and Namaste.
I'm 100% behind those stumping for "Carrie" as Olivier's great lost nomination. An eloquently all-consuming portrait of a man in love.
And for a late 50's version of "Carol" - Patricia Neal and Natalie Wood . Top that.
Since no one has said these, I immediately thought of Stage Door for Katharine Hepburn. The academy loves "bad acting" but the role was probably too small for an Oscar Nom.
And I'll go to my grave saying that one of my favorite Meryl Streep performances was in Plenty. I haven't seen it in years, but I remember being very moved by it.
My favorite non nominated performances of Jack Nicholson is him as the Joker in Batman (1989). "I'M MELTING!...... BOO!"
I still prefer him whenever compaired to Heath Ledger tbh. Both are great though.
As for Meryl is obviously Death Becomes Her (1992). OMG, so fabulous, so quotable, so everything!
"NOW a warning???" "You're a big fat lie, Helen and I can see right THROU you!"
I also really love them both in Heartburn (1986) so much. Great chemestry. I can watch it over and over again, it never bores me for a second. This is truely her first comedy.
I've not seen enough of K.Hepburn or DDL to make a decision. I found Hepburn really annoying in Bringing Up Baby. Talk about "click click click"... But hey, that's just MY opinion. ;)
@ Jake D and DJDeeJay
Amazing in the most in-your-dreams, could-never-happen, parallel-universe kind of way. Moreover, Denzel (15 years older than Blanchett) is way too old for the part, making for an extremely queasy age difference. (Jordan is 29.) How about the versatile Chadwick Boseman instead, who—believe it or not—turns 40 this year?
On John Waters Top 10 list, he referred to Carol as a Lana Turner/Natalie Wood romance. That's as accurate a description as any
"...versatile Chadwick Boseman ..."
Phrasing!
(Or "no pun intended.")
Oh that Parker Hayworth story sounds wonderful. But then again, Carol said you can't handle redheads. Hayworth always had an untamed fire about her.
@Paul Outlaw - how appropos!
Boseman is a good call. Or what about Idris Elba? Daniel Dae Kim?
Bette Davis is amazing in All This and Heaven Too, The Old Maid, A Stolen Life, The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex, It's Love I'm After, and Deception. She probably came close to an Oscar nom for The Corn Is Green, but 1945 has a strong lineup that would be hard to top. Ingrid Bergman was having a great year with Spellbound, Notorious and got a nom for The Bells of St. Mary's, a quasi-sequel to the previous year's Best Picture winner. Jennifer Jones was still wildly popular and had just scored two consecutive nominations before her nod for Love Letters. Greer Garson was MGM's top box office female star, nominated for The Valley of Decision. Gene Tierny tore up the screen as a memorable villainess in Leave Her to Heaven. And Joan Crawford was irresistible to those who love a great comeback, and eventually won for Mildred Pierce. Another factor was that Bette had already earned 7 (8 if you count the write-in) nominations, more than any other actor. AMPAS may have felt they needed to wait a few years.
A personal fave from my childhood is the horror film Burnt Offerings, in which Bette has a small but exhilarating role with a memorable arc. Plus, she gets to play with Karen Black and Oliver Reed.
@ DJDeeJay:
Yes, Idris would also do just fine (if we're skewing slightly older than the novel)...but in that case, I'd replace Jordan with JOHN BOYEGA.
Ava Gardner as Carol and Grace Kelly as Therese.
@Paul Outlaw - I guess I was thinking more along Cate's projected age, and she's only 3 years younger than Elba.
@DJ: You mean three years older than Elba, yes?
@Paul - oops. yes.
Queasy schmeasy! Denzel/MBJ FTW!
Funny that I missed that post from March last year with the origins of Actressexual. The original post from 2006 I would not have seen as I was still hanging around at The Envelope before Tom O'Neill went nuts w/ Dreamgirls and I just decided to branch out to other movie sites.
Still, it is good to know Nick and Derek are part of the coining of the term, adds to the podcast thread of Nick's being effortlessly awesome.
Fave non-nominated performances of Oscar titans:
Davis - Of Human Bondage (WIPE! MY! MOUTH!)
Streep - Mandchurian Candidate (divisive choice, I know, but I love her in it)
Nicholson - The Departed (he had me with the rat impression)
Olivier - I need to watch more of hia filmography to be fair. Of the few I have seen, Spartacus
Hepburn - Little Women ♡♡
Flipped gender Carol:
Carl - Ralph Fiennes
Terry - Logan Lerman
1950s Carol:
Carol - Katherine Hepburn, but maybe that's too obvious? Maybe Gloria Swanson or Rosalind Russell
Therese - Shirley MacLaine
Props I'd love to have:
The Board Game from Jumanji
Beetlejuice's suit
Henry Cavill in Superman
The cool jacket from Drive
I consider Cate Blanchett the best actress in Hollywood at the moment, she strikes me as the successor of the Hepburn-Redgrave lineage. The Davis-Streep family tree is followed by Winslet. I believe Carey Mulligan will grow and succeed Cate the Great, while the successor to Winslet would seem to be Chastain, but though she is relatively new to the scene she is actually an older actress than your regular fresh starlet, so maybe it'll be someone else.