Annette Bening v. Hilary Swank: 2018 Edition
Thursday, April 27, 2017 at 1:00PM By Spencer Coile
;)
For those desperately hoping that Ryan Murphy will bring Annette Bening Emmy glory for her role on the second season of American Crime Story, think again. Hilary Swank has been cast in the new FX limited series, Trust, which will be helmed by Simon Beaufoy and Danny Boyle...
Swank will play Gail Getty, mother to John Paul Getty III, heir to the Getty oil fortune and kidnapped in 1973. The 10 episode limited series will follow Gail and she attempts to bring her son home and pay for the multi-million dollar ransom, despite being completely broke.
This news is surely exciting and even more indicative of the move to television many actresses have been making in the past few years. Still, and this is merely speculation currently, could this mean another showdown between Bening and Swank? Very little is known about the second season of American Crime Story, but it is centered around the aftermath of Hurriane Katrina and is set to premiere in 2018. Is it possible for Swank to swoop in once more to win the Emmy against Bening? And does this speak to the increasingly cutthroat Best Actress in a Limited Series/TV Movie race at the Emmy's that we have begun seeing?
Annette Bening, Danny Boyle, FX, Hilary Swank, TV
Reader Comments (30)
This hypothetical pairing on Emmy night will not rival the recreation Kathy Bates experienced when she beat Julia Roberts for Limited Series or Movie Supporting Actress and a Huston was in the audience–albeit the brother Danny.
"OH NO" is what I said out loud at work when I saw this headline.
Pleased to see Swank getting a good TV role.Look what it has done for the BLL ladies.
Feud: Annette v Hilary
Reading the headline, my immediate reaction was that the Academy wouldn't dare give Swank a third Oscar before bestowing Bening with her first. Then after reading the first sentence I thought, "Is Ryan Murphy ballsy enough to choose those two as subjects for a future season of Feud?" I'm glad both assumptions were false alarms.
Considering how inextricably linked these two actresses have been for the past two decades, I've decided that I want to see them star opposite each other in a movie, preferably as mother and daughter. Can we get another screen adaptation of August: Osage County in about 10-15 years?
I've got a feeling (just a feeling) Annette will go supporting for American Crime Story (it looks like a big ensemble drama)
Troy-I'm stunned they haven't tried it before. I don't think they actively dislike each other in real life, and I think they'd have a solid chemistry together.
So I'm guessing The One Percent, Hilary Swank's TV project with Alejandro González Iñárritu, is officially dead? Trust sounds far more like an American Crime Story than Hurricane Katrina. (Sorry, where's the alleged crime?)
Go Swank. She did not deserve her career nose dive nor her very hateful haters (on this blog and elsewhere). Ppl just like to see aging actresses fail imo (see also Zellweger).
Willful bureaucratic indifference and neglect.
Sorry, where's the alleged crime?
Anonny agree totally I thought The Homesman where Hilary is excellent would restore her fortunes,I think she deserved a spot on the 2010 and 2013 BA lists.I have always championed her on this site.
Here we go again....
Swank's first Oscar was 100% deserved. The second one was received in a weak year. My issue with Swank is that, while her highs are not as high as some other actresses, her lows, wow, she can really turn in a clunker performance. The Gift, The Core, Amelia, New Years Eve ... her lows are pretty low. You don't see that from the best actresses. Even in bad movies, or miscast roles, they can somehow eek out a decent performance. Swank cannot do that. She is a very specific actress for very specific roles. And for that, I would take away one of those Oscars.
2004 was anything but a weak year.
LOL! Poor Annette. It seems everytime she has a shot at an award, Hillary Swank trolls her by making something like Boys Don't Cry or Million Dollar Baby.
@CharlieG I have to disagree. Acting awards shouldn't be mistaken for Lifetime Achievement awards (which is also why I have no theoretical problem with Casey Affleck's win for Manchester by the Sea this year, irrespective of what I may think of him as a person). They should be for specific performances, and on that basis Swank deserved both of her Oscars. She arguably gave the best lead actress performances in 1999 and 2004 however iffy the rest of her filmography may be.
When Swank beat Bening for the second occasion in which the latter had been the Oscar frontrunner, I felt bad for Bening, but I then saw Million Dollar Baby, and was once again blown away by Swank's work.
"2004 was anything but a weak year."
Seriously! Wow. I can't believe someone would suggest otherwise
For someone who won an uber deserved Oscar for a seminal and (for the time) uncharacteristically sympathetic portrayal of a FTM trans person, Swank does get a lot of shit thrown at her. The lack of acknowledgement of her brilliant turn as Brandon Teena is one of the most unfortunate things on TFE.
In 2004, the best two performances came from Imelda Staunton and Kate Winslet, so a Bening win would have been equally undeserved.
Staunton and Winslet, along with Swank, are testament to the fact that 2004 was not a weak year. And that's assuming we're just talking about lead female performances.
Agreed Swank works in a certain type of role a bit like Foster and Swank doesn't work in others but many Actresses face that problem.
TFE has always championed Swank's 99 Oscar winning turn.
Even the best actors and actresses have a limit to their range. It's actually what makes them so credible in certain parts, where they're playing to the strengths and entirely embodying the role in question, rather than simply donning a wig and funny teeth to simply perform a role.
Hillary Swank is an example of an actress who can completely embody certain characters, including Brandon Teena and Maggie Fitzgerald, but can be woefully miscast in other parts (I'm particularly thinking of films like Black Dahlia and The Affair of the Necklace).
That said, if we are going to condemn Swank for anything, perhaps we should be mindful of her utterly misjudged appearance at Chechnya President Ramzan Kadyrov's birthday celebration back in 2011, in view of the country's human rights abuses.
I was like "Poor Annette" as soon as I found out about this project. But with all the crud that Swank gets for winning over Bening twice, I will say that even though Swank is a pretty limited performer, I do admire how she tries to go beyond her limitations. Even if she is miscast, she still attempts to avoid getting pigeonholed.
@carmen sandiego
You go girl You are so right!
Isn't the Getty's story being made by Ridley Scott too with Natalie Portman for the movies?!
Ugh I'm bored by Hilary. Annette is owed by Hollywood.
One of the significant factors in winning an Oscar is timing. Hilary Swank just happened to give the best performance those two years. She deserves both. Glenda Jackson and Luise Rainer have two. Did they have a lot of awardable roles? No. I don't see everyone tearing them apart.
PS. Luise deserved both awards. Glenda's second Oscar is absurd. Blech
Glenda's second Oscar is absurd. Blech
Stop it. Jackson is the type of actress Oscar should grant multiple wins to. She straddles the fence between character actress and leading lady. More so character actress because she's interesting something not said of movie stars with magazine approved good looks.
I struggle to engage with this "rivalry" because I (shocking confession alert) only nominate Annette Bening once in my own Top 10s...
She's the runner-up in Best Actress 1999 to... Hilary Swank (my only nomination for Swank too)
The fact that both beat out Reese Witherspoon, Cecilia Roth, Winona Ryder (in her best performance and one that is always inexplicably ignored in favour of debates about whether Angelina is "good" or not in her part)... amongst others, a STRONG year.
2004 is unbelievably rich and one of the most competitive I've seen. My Top 10 (in case anyone cares) -
1) Imelda Staunton - Vera Drake
2) Nicole Kidman - Birth
3) Mirella Pascual - Whisky
4) Valeria Bruni Tedeschi - 5x2
5) Natalie Press - My Summer Of Love
6) Miriam Yeung - Dumplings
7) Julia Roberts - Closer
8) Catalina Sandino Moreno - Maria Full Of Grace
9) Connie Nielsen - Brothers
10) Kate Winslet - Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind
Neither Annette nor Hilary are in contention for these spots (Bai Ling and Emily Blunt are closest) but I marginally prefer Hilary's performance of the two...
On a side note, I've seen many a convincing argument that Bening is Supporting in American Beauty -
Spacey is a Lead
If Bening is a Lead then Birch is also a Lead (I agree)
If Birch is a Lead then Bentley is a 4th Lead (I disagree with this)
3rtful, yet again you completely miss the point in usual spectacular fashion. We were discussing the singular fact that Oscars should be awarded on the basis of performance alone. And you come up with a reply totally antithetical to what we were saying. Per usual. Your argument about Glenda's actress "profile has no bearing whatsoever. And think about who she beat that year -- Burstyn and Mason. Then make your absurd argument.
PS when are u ever gonna stop being such a
Staunton acted circles around Swank in 2004. So, no, Swank should not have two Oscars. I don't think she should have one, but she didn't deliver the best performance of 2004. She delivered the baitiest performance in a Best Picture winner.