Kieran, here. We've been celebrating Girls Gone Wild this month at The Film Experience. If you haven't already done so, make sure to check out Team Experience's wonderful relay-style Thelma & Louise 25th anniversary retrospective.
As the month comes to a close, it felt fitting to take a look back at some of the Best Oscar-winning "bad girl" star turns. Here are 11 of the juiciest...
Honorable Mention:
Cristal Connors in Showgirls (Gina Gershon)
Should have been nominated. Very possibly should have won. Haters be damned.
Top Ten Oscar Winning Bad Girl Roles
10. Addie Loggins in Paper Moon (Tatum O'Neal - Best Supporting Actress 1973)
A charismatic yet unsentimental child performance that perfectly nails the tone of its film. The only complaint is that she wasn't promoted to lead Actress where (judging by that roster) she very well could have contended.
9. Barbara Grahame in I Want to Live! (Susan Hayward - Best Actress 1958)
Delightfully over-the-top and melodramatic. Barbara refuses to wear a nightgown while in prison for murder. She wants to "sleep raw!"
8. Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (Louise Fletcher - Best Actress 1975)
A clear favorite among the pantheon of "bad girl" characters. A little cartoonish, but believable and fitting within the context of that film's reality.
7. Minnie Castevet in Rosemary's Baby (Ruth Gordon - Best Supporting Actress 1968)
It's always wonderful when Oscar gives shine to great performances in genres not typically considered "prestige," such as Ruth Gordon's Minnie--the neighbor from hell.
6. Flora McGrath in The Piano (Anna Paquin - Best Supporting Actress 1993)
Misguided and lonely, but causing no small amount of havoc for those around her. One can't help but wonder what Flora's relationship with her mother would be like all these years later...
5. Annie Wilkes in Misery (Kathy Bates - Best Actress 1990)
Paul Sheldon's #1 fan. Like the best of villains, she can be undeniably sweet. Just don't put her in the same room with a lying, dirty birdy...
4. Diana Christensen in Network (Faye Dunaway - Best Actress 1976)
Expanding the definition of "bad girls" to include "badass girls" for this entry. Today, in the age of joke celebrity political campaigns (and cable news giving them validity) Diana and her approach to news media feels sadly not that far off the mark.
3. Velma Kelly in Chicago (Catherine Zeta-Jones - Best Supporting Actress 2002)
To be fair, Velma would probably resent her place on this list. After all, she completely blacked out. She doesn't remember a thing...
2. Marylee Hadley in Written on the Wind (Dorothy Malone - Best Supporting Actress 1956)
As the mambo-ing seductress herself declared when someone calls her a dirty liar, "I'm dirty. Period!"
1. Scarlett O'Hara in Gone With the Wind (Vivien Leigh - Best Actress 1939)
Petulant, selfish, flinty and dramatic. Cinema's original diva, original bad girl. The original movie heroine we love to hate.
What are some of your favorite Oscar-winning bad-girl performances?