by Nathaniel R
Ann Dowd and Martha Plimpton star in "Mass"
We may have gotten a little carried away with wishful thinking in (some) of our Supporting Actress chart building this time around. You see, so many actresses we love that have never or only once been in the Oscar race have what sound like amazing parts this year. But it's early enough in the year that optimistic guesses are as good as pessimistic guesses. At least that's true in the supporting categories where less is usually known this early about the roles themselves.
But what we found most interesting while thinking through the first predictions of the year was how many films have the potential for a double nomination in Best Supporting Actress...
two of the best performances of the 1970s... in the same movie, Paper Moon
Historically this category has been kind to double-acts. In the 85 years of the supporting races we've had double nominees 35 times (links go to Supporting Actress Smackdowns on those years): Gone With the Wind, The Little Foxes, Mrs Miniver, The Song of Bernadette, Mildred Pierce, Gentleman's Agreement, I Remember Mama, Come to the Stable, Pinky, All About Eve, The High and the Mighty, The Bad Seed, Peyton Place, Imitation of Life, Tom Jones, Othello, Airport, The Last Picture Show, Paper Moon, Nashville, Kramer vs Kramer, Tootsie, The Color Purple, Working Girl, Enemies a Love Story, Bullets Over Broadway, Almost Famous, Gosford Park, Chicago, Babel, Doubt, Up in the Air, The Fighter, The Help, and The Favourite. As you can see it's so common it happens 40% of the time. This year there are several possibilities along those lines.
Mass (pictured up top) is a drama about grief. It won raves at Sundance for its central quartet Martha Plimpton, Ann Dowd, Jason Isaacs, and Reed Birney who will all be campaigned as "supporting". Dowd and Plimpton are both actor's actors, Emmy winners, and tremendously versatile. On top of that they're both fairly ubiquitous rarely lacking for work so the industry knows them well. If distributor Bleecker Street can up their campaign game, it's not impossible to picture both of them making the shortlist. And we'd rejoice as long-time fans of both women.
Nightmare Alley boasts three key female roles. If we're going by just the 1947 film version of the novel, Collette and Blanchett have the juiciest roles as a fake psychic and an amoral psychiatrist, respectively, with Mara getting the dull naive love interest part. But we don't know how Guillermo del Toro will reinvent the material for this adaptation and Bradley Cooper is a great scene partner for gifted actresses and all three of these actresses are very gifted. Only once in Oscar history have three supporting actress nods gone to the same film (1963's Tom Jones) but it's fun to pretend that it might happen again. Some day.
West Side Story has always had just one terrific female supporting player. The awards magnet part of willful sexy tempestuous "Anita" has previously resulted in 3 Tony nominations and a win and 1 Oscar nomination and a win. Rising star Ariana DeBose (The Prom) has that classic role this time around but the catch for 2021 is that they've gender-flipped the role of "Doc" (a pretty good part for an older actor as is) and renamed it "Valentina" and given it to the original film's Anita, living legend Rita Moreno. It's easy to imagine a scenario where nostalgia plus a possibly beefed up part and a stellar performance bring the iconic star back to the Oscars for the exact same musical. Wouldn't that be eventful?!?
Other films with two or more potentially strong female supporting roles are Belfast, The Humans, and Parallel Mothers.
Finally, we don't know much about the comedy Don't Look Up yet beyond its basic plot about astronomers trying to warn the world of impending doom. But it's worth noting that Oscar favourite Adam McKay (The Big Short, Vice) has filled every second of it with stars. Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence have the leading roles but Cate Blanchett, Gina Gershon, Melanie Lynskey, and Meryl Streep are also in the cast. Are these cameos or good juicy supporting parts?
What'cha think?