Category Confusion '24: LEAD or SUPPORTING – Part One
Tuesday, November 5, 2024 at 2:00PM 
With the first batch of awards season honors coming in hot, questions of category fraud are bound to come up. And this year will be a doozy in that regard, with various leading actors campaigning as supporting for convenience's sake. It's a tried and true strategy that tends to block actual supporting and character actors from getting their flowers, forever living in the shadow of big stars in the wrong category. Well, if you're a regular at The Film Experience, you probably have read all this before, so let's not belabor the point. Instead, let's have some fun with polls like we did last year. This is just part one, of course, since many contenders still haven't been released beyond the festival circuit...
Starting with the latest theatrical releases seems like a good idea, so here we go. Emilia Perez is only campaigning one of its Cannes prizewinners in the lead category, leaving the three other victors to compete as supporting actresses. That's alright for Selena Gomez and Adriana Paz – two clear-cut smaller roles on the margins of the main narrative – but it makes no damn sense for Zoë Saldaña. While Karla Sofía Gascón has the titular role, Emilia Perez isn't just about a cartel king turned Santa Emilia. Structurally, Saldaña's morally ambivalent lawyer is even more of a lead than her co-protagonist, with the film starting and ending with her. The same happens with Kieran Culkin in A Real Pain, a film completely constructed around the relationship between two cousins on a trip through Poland's Holocaust history. Finally, last Friday, Blitz made it into a few theaters, bringing into question whether Saoirse Ronan should be considered lead or supporting. In a world without The Outrun, it's hard to believe the Irish thespian wouldn't campaign as a leading lady.
The season started properly with the Gotham Awards nominations and, just like last year, many of their category placements feel out of whack. Or, at the very least, they should inspire some reflection. There's Culkin, but also Brigette Lundy-Paine in I Saw The TV Glow. Their character comes and goes from the main action, but one could say they're the one who gives the film a sense of narrative movement while Justice Smith's Owen is defined by stagnation. Similarly, while Colman Domingo is Sing Sing's most obvious lead, Clarence Maclin's narrative arc feels more thematically important, more fundamental for the film's shape and purpose. Lastly, Katy O'Brian is half of the romantic pairing in Love Lies Bleeding. However, since she's not a well-known star like Kristen Stewart, she got relegated to the supporting category.
Then there are those films where one could argue three people share leading actor responsibilities. Netflix is campaigning every cast member of His Three Daughters as supporting, but surely the titular women could be considered co-protagonists. Then there's Challengers, a romantic triangle movie where all the corners touch, though, apparently, the men are supporting and only Zendaya is a lead. That's what MGM and Amazon are running with, at least. Finally, while The Bikeriders isn't earning much buzz, it's worth discussing how one could categorize its actors. Officially, Butler and Comer are being campaigned as the only leads, but watching the film, it's hard not to feel that Tom Hardy is more of a lead than his younger male co-star. One's story gives shape to the film's epochal portrait and tragedy. The other primarily exists as a piece of walking iconography, an enticing idea, a sensual blank slate where others may project what they want.
As a Golden Globes voter, I have access to a lot of FYC material this season (my poor email inbox is under constant assault) and some of the category placements decided by the studios have raised my eyebrows. There's Margaret Qualley deemed supporting though the very premise of The Substance implies two actresses sharing the protagonist role. Moreover, their screen time is less than two minutes apart for those who worry about such factors. Speaking of Qualley movies, how does one categorize Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons in Kinds of Kindness? The studio is going with her in lead and him supporting, but is that right? They're also campaigning the film as a drama, but that's a conversation for another post – maybe later today.
Though it's eager to put lead actors in the supporting category with some of its titles, Netflix can also surprise with others. Adria Arjona is being campaigned as a lead for Hit Man. Though the relationship between her character and Powell's is central to the film, I'm unsure where I'd put her. The same happens with Jude Law in Firebrand. On the one hand, King Henry VIII's relationship with his last wife is the heart of the film, the source of its conflict. On the other hand, don't we experience all that through her perspective, making him more of an object rather than subject? Much to think about.
In IP land, there are a bunch of curious decisions to consider. Disney is aggressively campaigning Deadpool & Wolverine. However, despite the movie's title, they're also running Hugh Jackman as a supporting actor. Then again, titles aren't great arbiters of right and just categorization. Remember Julia? Or, for a more recent example, remember Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga? I would argue that Chris Hemsworth deserves lead placement. His presence feels pretty essential and transformative of the overall film. Plus, unlike Anya Taylor-Joy, he doesn't share his role with another actor.
Joseph Quinn is an interesting case in A Quiet Place: Day One. He only shows up well into the movie, but from then on, he becomes a co-lead with Lupita Nyong'o, even going off on his own cat-related rescue missions without her. Is that enough to call him a lead? He's not being campaigned as one, that's for sure. Same goes for Zendaya in Dune: Part Two. Though the sequel expands her role considerably, even beyond her book counterpart, Warner Bros. is running her as a supporting actress along with Florence Pugh and Rebecca Ferguson.
At long last, let's end this first set of polls with a Cailee Spaeny double feature. In Alien: Romulus, David Jonsson plays her cybernetic brother, a central role that more cowardly campaigners would have denominated as supporting. Surprisingly, he is running as lead. On the other hand, Spaeny is the principal POV character in Civil War but is relegated to the supporting category, leaving Kirsten Dunst alone to bat for Best Actress nominations.
Next time, we'll consider some more cases, including Andrea Arnold's Bird and the actors in the new Piano Lesson adaptation. There's also Wicked to consider, multiple Tilda Swinton performances, and, of course, Lady Gaga.
Which is the worst case of category fraud this year? And what other performances would you like to see discussed?
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