Olympics at the Oscar and "I, Tonya"
Thursday, January 25, 2018 at 9:39AM by Nathaniel R
Margot Robbie recently shared this pic from "exactly a year ago" when she was training for I TONYA
Is Margot Robbie the first actress to ever be nominated playing an Olympic athlete? I legit don't know the answer but I can't think of any others. The only previous Oscar nominated performances that we could think of were men: Will Smith as Muhammad Ali (though the focus there wasn't on the Olympics) and Mark Ruffalo as David Schultz (thanks commenters for this one!)
If you think back over movies that revolved around the Olympics in some way they aren't usually acting showcases (Chariots of Fire) or aren't focused on the Olympians themselves (Munich) or they're films that were either aimed at wide audience crowd pleasing or just didn't connect with awards voters (The Cutting Edge, Personal Best, Running Brave, Prefontaine, Eddie the Eagle, Cool Runnings) or they're documentaries which by their nature can't score acting honors.
There have been Olympians with movie careers but I can't think of any actors except Margot and Will Smith (who coincidentally co-starred in Focus in 2015) who have been nominated for playing an Olympian. Can you? Am I forgetting something totally obvious?
Reader Comments (18)
Okay out of topic I just figured out that THE POST is this year's SILENCE. Imagine that, acclaimed directors' passion project that absurdly doesn't connect with awards.
Anyway, Robbie's performance is so good that it almost makes me forget that we almost have a year where both Tonya Harding and Tommy Wiseau are Oscar nominated characters.
Mark Ruffalo (but yeah, don't feel bad I had to look it up myself)
Mark Ruffalo in Foxcatcher
Mark Ruffalo in Foxcatcher
oops, others beat me to it lol
Would LOVE to see a Rudy Galindo biopic. The first openly gay figure skate in the midst of AIDS hysteria. Give me!
A real Olympian, Kobe Bryant, was actually nominated for an Oscar this year.
Forget Olympian, Robbie is the first actress period to be Oscar-nominated for portraying a real-life athlete.
Your best actor write-up of who was left out is missing the person who clearly came in 6th (i.e., Franco)
'Forget Olympian, Robbie is the first actress period to be Oscar-nominated for portraying a real-life athlete.' - wow is that true? That's such a crazy stat that in 90 years it's never happened before.
Slightly off topic, but Focus is an underrated little gem. It falls apart in the last half hour, but the first half is a lot of fun, and Smith and Robbie have dynamite chemistry.
Jessica Chastain was *almost* nominated this year for playing someone who *almost* qualified for the Olympics!
@Rami - Incredibly, yes. However, that distinction should've gone to another actress this year: goldderby.com/article/2017/battle-of-the-sexes-emma-stone-oscar-history-billie-jean-king
"Coincidentally costarred in Focus".
Suicide Squad also happened, unfortunately.
And to the first comment: The Post with its BP and BA mominations is certainly in a better position than Silence awards-wise. Also, this can't really be a "passion project" like Silence was for Scorsese, considering Spielberg got The Post like last year, late 2016 at best. Much different than the time it took Scorsese to make his film.
Ha - on the Chastain stat.
And you must do a post about Buster Crabbe an Olympian swimmer who will always be Flash Gordon
If Stone and Chasitain had made the list that would have been 3 real life athletes... huh.
I'm sure Margot Robbie is the first actress to ever be nominated by playing a real life Trump voter. Do the fans of this movie even know they waste the entire year obsessed about a biopic of person that is an absolute right wing loser.