Smackdown '00: Chocolat, Billy Elliott, Pollock, and Almost Famous

Welcome back to the Supporting Actress Smackdown. Each month we pick an Oscar vintage to explore through the lens of actressing at the edges. This episode goes back to the turn of the millenium, when Almost Famous, Pollock, Billy Elliot, and Chocolat were new in theaters and the following actresses were having a moment...

THE NOMINEES 2000 provided a bevy of possibilities in the supporting actress category but Oscar ignored the gifted comediennes (Parker Posey in Best in Show and  Elaine May in Smalltime Crooks), the foreign divas (Catherine Deneuve in Dancer in the Dark and Zhang Ziyi in Crouching Tiger), indie darlings (Lupe Ontiveros in Chuck & Buck) and even women in Best Picture contenders (Catherine Zeta-Jones in Traffic, Connie Nielsen in Gladiator). What they came up with instead was an almost eerily archetypical shortlist which included five different kinds of traditional Oscar-friendly roles: long-suffering wife, feisty grandmother, manic pixie dream girl, mama bear, and the tough mentor. The mix of actors was also super traditional: Oscar voters invited back two recent previous winners (Judi Dench and Frances McDormand), one returning nominee (Julie Walters), and welcomed to the club one rising character actress (Marcia Gay Harden) and a golden child of Hollywood (Kate Hudson). 

THE PANELISTS Here to talk about their performances and films are (from left to right) actor Nicholas D'Agosto (Trial & Error, Masters of Sex), journalist Kyle Buchanan (New York Times), actress Vella Lovell (Mr Mayor, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend), and from The Film Experience, Eric Blume and your host Nathaniel R. Let's begin...

 SUPPORTING ACTRESS SMACKDOWN + PODCAST  
The companion podcast can be downloaded at the bottom of this article or by visiting the iTunes page... 

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Gay Best Friend: Michael in "Billy Elliot" (2000)

In preparation for the next Smackdown Team Experience is traveling back to 2000.

The face of coming out to your crush, who's also a male ballet dancer.By: Christopher James

What do our interests say about our sexuality?  From sports to dancing, so many hobbies carry with them gendered expectations. Set in 1984 rural England amidst the coal miner strike, Billy Elliot follows one boy as he defies his family’s expectations of him and pursues dancing instead of boxing. Claudio recently gave us a beautiful write-up on Jamie Bell’s performance as the title character as part of his Almost There column. Needless to say, I second all the points he made in his article.

For the purposes of this column, we want to look specifically at what the film has to say about sexuality, specifically as it relates to Billy’s best friend, Michael Caffrey (Stuart Wells)...

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Almost There: Jamie Bell in "Billy Elliot"

In preparation for the next Smackdown Team Experience is traveling back to 2000.

by Cláudio Alves

The ingrained sexism within Hollywood, in general, and AMPAS, in particular, has many consequences. One of them is the disparity of ages when men and women are recognized for their talents. Male actors tend to be rewarded later in life, while the industry often ignores women after they hit a certain age. You can even see this dynamic at play with underage actors. Only six male children have been nominated in Oscar history in comparison with over a dozen actresses.

Over the past two decades, several boy wonders have been ignored by the Academy, despite buzz in their years. There's Alan S. Kim (Minari), Jacob Tremblay (Room), Tom Holland (The Impossible), Thomas Horn (Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close), Freddie Highmore (Finding Neverland), and, of course, Jamie Bell. In 2000, the latter was definitely in the Best Actor conversation for the sleeper-hit Billy Elliot…

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