Smackdown '94: Uma, Dianne, Jennifer, Helen, and Rosemary
Sunday, June 24, 2018 at 11:35AM Presenting Oscar's Chosen Supporting Actresses of the Films of 1994.
THE NOMINEES: The Academy wrapped up their love affair with a previous winner (Dianne Wiest) while starting a new one with a future winner (Helen Mirren). Two fresh-faced delights (Uma Thurman, Jennifer Tilly) and an esteemed veteran (Rosemary Harris) were along for the ride.
In a rare turn of events the shortlist leaned far away from tears and dove headfirst into stylized fun or outright belly laughs (Rosemary Harris was the only player in a traditional drama). A quick list of the roles sounds like a joke set-up or at least a wild party: A fertile queen, a pompous diva, a wealthy society matriarch, and not but one but two trouble-maker gangster molls who moonlight in acting.
Here to talk about these five nominated turns are, in alpha order: Erik Anderson (Awards Pundit), Nick Davis (Professor), Itamar Moses (Tony-winning Playwright), Alfred Soto (Editor/Critic), and your host Nathaniel R from The Film Experience. [Apologies but the sixth announced panelist Sheila O'Malley -- who previously provided brilliant insight in our 1984 discussion -- had to attend to a last minute emergency so we'll have to catch up with her again down the road.]
Readers form the collective panelist each month (though there were weirdly fewer votes this round for such a recent year!). You broke the panel tie to determine the winner this time around. Now it's time for the main event...
1994
SUPPORTING ACTRESS SMACKDOWN
Rosemary Harris as "Rose Haigh-Wood" in Tom & Viv
Synopsis: The wealthy matriarch of a society family warns her son-in-law about her troubled daughter but eventually feels betrayed when her daughter is institutionalized
Stats: Then 67 yrs old, 10th film, 3rd billed. 1st and only nomination. 27 minutes of screen time (or 23% of running time)
Erik Anderson: Harris sips tea and even delivers a little but it’s such a staid, boring performance and is emblematic of the 90s-era Miramax films and first noms for nice old ladies. I get so little out of her there’s little to write about it. She’s merely just fine here. It could have been any number of stately British actresses in this role. ♥♥
Nick Davis:While Miranda papers her trailer in post-its saying “GO FOR IT!!” and Willem sucks vinegar to stay in character, Rosemary elects to act—immaculately, albeit in ways that gratify directors and impress colleagues more than they excite Oscar queens. She achieves synergy with her onscreen husband while differentiating their outlooks and temperaments. She emanates period and milieu. She approaches emotionally complex close-ups with nuance and simplicity: a tricky combination. She obliterates Willem at minimal volume. She recuperates the word “subtlety,” often misapplied in discussions of acting. What else does she have left to give you? ♥♥♥♥
Itamar Moses: This movie is kind of a pretentious mess but Harris is pretty great in it. She manages to craft a complete and subtle arc, from thinking she’s identified a kindred spirit in Tom, who will care for her daughter, to feeling totally betrayed by him, and she does most of it with looks and stillness. There are times when she seems to be trying to communicate telepathically and we understand everything she’s saying. Even her climactic evisceration of Tom is accomplished with quiet dignity. No wonder she was so good at letting Tobey Maguire know that she knows he’s Spiderman without actually saying it out loud. ♥♥♥♥
Alfred Soto: “You are discreet. I can sense that,” Rose Haigh-Wood confides to her daughter Vivienne’s suitor, as if she needed ESP. The suitor is Thomas Stearns Eliot, a man so buttoned-up that, according to Virginia Woolf, he wore a four-piece suit to dinner and was likely born in one. But Eliot, to use Willem Dafoe’s bizarre approximation of the accent affected by the St. Louis-born expatriate, also wants “to write POH-EH-TREE.” Rosemary Harris builds her performance out of half glances and voice modulations that let everyone in the room know that she understands her unstable daughter better than anyone. In a film that’s at least twenty minutes too long and paced as if director Brian Gilbert was teaching a line-by-line analysis of The Waste Land, Harris and the original play’s conception of a mother of impeccable propriety who isn’t a virago mesh without strain. I don’t doubt casting directors had Tom & Viv in mind when casting Harris as Aunt May in Sam Raimi’s Spider Man (2002). ♥♥♥♥
Nathaniel R: There's something about Rosemary. Is it the fact that she listens so intently, never rushed to respond? Is it the way her hands usually move in slow motion which makes their sudden forcefulness during her daughter’s episodes so impactful? Is it in the delineation of how she feels about Tom and Viv in every scene? Whatever it is it works even if the scope of the role is far too limited — more than anything I wanted the movie Rose & Viv. Too often she’s stranded in short reaction shots paired with far less interesting players. ♥♥♥
Reader Write-Ins: "Thank you so much for doing this - the Smackdown is my favorite feature on the site!" - Suzanne [who didn't vote for Rosemary Harris but votes are weighted so no underseen performance is penalized! - Editor] (Reader average: ♥♥½)
Actress earns 19½ ❤s
Helen Mirren as "Queen Charlotte" in The Madness of King George
Synopsis: A queen frets that her husband, The King of England, has gone mad and is barred from seeing him by her opportunistic eldest.
Stats: Then 49 yrs old, 27th film, 2nd billed. Her 1st of 4 eventual nominations. 26 minutes of screentime (or 23% of the running time)
Erik Anderson: A ferocious performance full of humor, empathy and fire. She has a tough job going up against Hawthorne’s mad king, but Mirren is such a secure actress it doesn’t faze her or hold her back. It’s one of my favorite performances of hers and her best up to that point (I like her here more than in Prime Suspect). ♥♥♥♥♥
Nick Davis: “Mrs. Nominee,” says Nigel, sliding into the limo. “Mr. Nominee!” Helen effuses, still savoring their matrimonial fondness. She suspects those bedroom valedictions secured her nomination: welcome glimpses at a marriage that works. A fun queen to play, this Charlotte. Not a bitch or joke or mere accessory. Perhaps not fully autonomous, though. So many reaction shots. Did she do enough with them? Helen worries. Look how much—yet how little!—Rosemary did with hers. Did I overstress the accent? Did I supply inner lives for Charlotte separate from George? Maybe not, but I’ll enjoy the ceremony. ♥♥
Itamar Moses: This, to me, is the weakest of the nominated performances by far. This isn’t Mirren’s fault: with the exception of an early scene where she takes the King to the roof and calms him, implying that their intimacy might be the cure to his condition (a thread the movie then drops) she doesn’t get a lot to do other than hit one note over and over. But it doesn’t help that the note she’s asked to hit — barely-concealed ineffectual panic — is kind of the opposite of her wheelhouse (authority and warmth). She’s also saddled with a French accent that seems to make it harder for her to get emotion into the language. ♥♥
Alfred Soto: Rehearsing for the regal parts she’d accept a decade later, the British actress known primarily to American audiences in 1994 for Prime Suspect brings tartness to an otherwise frustrating role that’s too cute by half on paper, starting with the way Queen Charlotte and George III call each other “Mrs. King” and “Mr. King,” respectively. ♥♥
Nathaniel R: Mirren is one of those performers who is so technically skilled and big-screen charismatic that her professionalism is oft mistaken for greatness. She plays this far too simply, hitting every seen straight on for drama when the tone of the movie invites much more flexible tragicomic or even camp interpretations (see Everett & Holm & Hawthorne). “Mrs King” is a cute nickname but it unfortunately sums up her limited take on the role. And that accent! I couldn’t place it — had to look up Queen Charlotte’s history online afterwards — but, then, neither could Dame Helen. ♥♥
Reader Write-Ins: "The amalgam of British phlegm and non-British sentiment seems about right, but that unrefined accent comes and goes." - Jacob (Reader average: ♥♥½)
Actress earns 15½ ❤s
Uma Thurman as "Mia Wallace" in Pulp Fiction
Synopsis: A mobster's wife demands that her bodyguard take her out on the town for a night of dancing and $5 milkshakes. She overindulges in 'nose-powdering' to disastrous results.
Stats: Then 24 yrs old, 13th film, 3rd billed. First and only nomination. 28.5 minutes of screen time (or 19% of running time).
Erik Anderson: Still the defining role of Thurman’s career and she’s perfect in it. The right balance of bravado and vulnerability, it’s a supremely complicated character. Unafraid, like a wildling she attacks this role and never hits a wrong note. ♥♥♥♥♥
Nick Davis: Uma beholds herself, smirking like the cat who ate the canary who snorted the cocaine. She’ll reprise this exquisite smize in the bathroom at Jack Rabbit Slim’s. In fact, she’ll flourish throughout that sequence: luring self-conscious John into genuine conversation, signaling ebbs and surges of junk in her system, twisting like a charismatic party girl bored with being bored, but also like a cokehead. “So why isn’t this enough?” Uma asks, moonishly. “Why do I still feel upstaged by my wig? Why not one more meaty scene? Why am I good, but not great?” ♥♥♥
Itamar Moses: I was ready to be let down by this performance, watching it again after so many years, but Thurman really is terrific in this. The key is her vulnerability. Mia Wallace is a cool chick — that’s sort of her thing — but she’s also genuinely embarrassed to tell her Fox Force Five joke and seems to be using cocaine not just to party but to take risks she’d otherwise be afraid to. There are so many colors here: groundedness, intelligence, innocent, danger, goofiness and — when she ODs — near-death ugliness. I also love the one beat in which she appears outside her own story, in the bowels of the theatre where the boxing match takes place. “I never thanked you for dinner,” she says to Vincent, conveying her commitment to keeping their secret. ♥♥♥♥
Alfred Soto “Don’t you hate that? Long uncomfortable silences,” Mia Wallace (Uma Thurman) asks Vincent Vega (John Travolta) sitting opposite each other at Jack Rabbit Slim’s. Thurman’s Mia relies on those silences: a woman who has willed herself into being sure of herself. She plays an impression of vividness, an assemblage of attitudes, not a character, assembled by Thurman from a miscellany of props in the British acting tradition: cigarettes, Lulu wig, black nail polish, white blouse. During Mia and Vince’s famous dance number, she shimmies as if it were a solo performance; despite Vince’s bathroom monologue in which he tells himself to keep his hands off her, they have no sexual chemistry at all, which might be the point. Thurman’s loose-limbed gaiety also works when a hypodermic needle protrudes from her chest. She’s fun. ♥♥♥
Nathaniel R: Bless Tarantino and his greatly missed editor Sally Menke for their fantastic range — tight closeups, tracking shots, unrushed medium shots in service of that inimitable dialogue. This cinematic toolbox maximizes all of Thurman’s usually misunderstood or underutilized actressing gifts— her lanky singular physicality, that unforgettable face, her often stylized line readings. Uma gets that Mia Wallace is trying to entertain herself more than she’s trying to read or charm Vincent Vega in this iconic duet. Thurman can be uneven on screen but with the right scene partners and directors she’s just dynamite. “Warm. Warmer. Disco.” ♥♥♥♥
Reader Write-Ins: "Forgive me, for I've adored Thurman in other projects. Sure, she looks cool and sexy and iconic here but she doesn't really lift the proceedings in any meaningful way. " -Andrew (Reader average: ♥♥♥½)
Actress earns 22½ ❤s
Jennifer Tilly as "Olive Neal" in Bullets Over Broadway
Synopsis: A chorus girl and terrible actress fights with her bodyguard, her director, and her lines in a Broadway play she doesn't understand. Bankrolled by her boyfriend, natch.
Stats: Then 36 yrs old, 16th film. (All principles billed simultaneously as is Woody Allen's habit). 1st and only nomination. 25 minutes of screentime (or 27% of running time.)
Erik Anderson: Tilly had the tougher part in Bullets Over Broadway and it sits alongside Judy Holliday and Jean Hagen as one of the best comedic performances of all-time. “Who’s ever heard of black pearls? They probably come from defective oysters” is one of best line readings ever. ♥♥♥♥♥
Nick Davis: “Hey, Venus! Let’s go with that hootch!” The Governor’s Ball bartender looks stone-faced, horrified. “That was one of my lines,” Jennifer giggles. “I was nominated.” Everybody remembers Dianne’s lines, bless. But why has Jennifer felt all winter like an also-ran? She knows she’s dynamic fun in the film, fueling comic momentum throughout, stitched into the ensemble, whereas Bullets often halts for Dianne. Woody didn’t showcase Jennifer equally, but her cadences, energies, postures, mispronunciations—maybe not everything’s perfect, but so much is! Bullets dips once Olive’s gone. Jennifer, proud, sips her hootch and calls Teri Garr. ♥♥♥♥
Itamar Moses: Tilly and Wiest. These two performances are both great and make an interesting pair. Tilly pulls off the deceptively tricky task of giving a great performance as a terrible actor while Wiest is effortlessly commanding as a great actor who is performing 100% of the time. Between the two of them I feel like we get a masterclass in the different uses of degrees of vanity. Tilly’s character has so little it’s almost shocking. Her character has no idea how she appears to others and it’s riveting. Wiest’s character is entirely made up of vanity: she only responds to, is fueled entirely by, total, unquestioning adoration. Both characters are types but both performances are so detailed and specific that type is transcended. ♥♥♥♥
Alfred Soto: For audiences unfamiliar with Jean Hagen’s immortal work in Singin’ in the Rain or Judy Holliday in Born Yesterday, Jennifer Tilly’s ‘90s variant on the voice-like-a-drill-press routine to signify she’s playing a bad/non-actress may prove delightful. Enjoying Tilly rests to a large degree on whether you think Woody Allen thinks these characters are lousy people but hardworking artists or lousy people and lousy artists whom he’s mildly rebuking. Like Bullets Over Broadway, a little of her goes a long away; she’s too pleased with herself, too insistent on telegraphing her distance from the Dumb Broad she imitates. ♥♥
Nathaniel R: I’ve been struggling to zero in on a moment that best showcases her brilliance; They all do. If pressed I'd go with any of her dizzying mood-swings from demands to complaints to confusion to curiosity in split seconds, especially when surprised by big words or small gifts. I blame “charmed charmed charmed,” which isn’t quite the equal of “Don’t speak!” as catch-phrases go, for the fact that Tilly’s stratospherically funny performance isn’t held in as high regard as Weist’s ingenious flamboyance. Tilly’s charms as this charmless childwoman are miraculous. “Ha!” ♥♥♥♥♥
Reader Write-Ins: "Tilly is able to find a lot of shading to her portrayal wherein every word that leaves her mouth is brilliantly comedic. When her character departs the film she's missed greatly because line after line Tilly is a rocket blasting off into space." - Eoin (Reader average: ♥♥♥¾)
Actress earns 23¾ ❤s
Dianne Wiest as "Helen Sinclair" in Bullets Over Broadway
Synopsis: A theatrical legend sees a golden opportunity to reignite her career by becoming the muse of a young playwright she doesn't much like in a role she thinks beneath her.
Stats: Then 46 yrs old, 17th film. (All principles billed simultaneously as is Woody Allen's habit). 3rd and final nomination (all in the supporting category). 1 previous win. 24 minutes of screentime (or 26% of running time).
Erik Anderson: A legend, to be sure. I hate to begrudge her win. Wiest’s stage diva is hilarious; it’s just a bit one-note. Sometimes repetition is the key to comedy (“Don’t speak” is an all-time classic now and deservedly so), but sometimes it’s just repetitive. I feel like a monster now. ♥♥♥♥
Nick Davis: Dianne voted for Rosemary, an actual Broadway legend. Quiet acting is hard and under-rewarded. Although big acting is hard, too! Dianne sees in some of the first takes she filmed that she was still getting comfortable but loves how the character and her catchphrases have caught on. She’s even prouder of her hammy fun with throwaway lines (“Would you LOOK!”), her way of manipulating John’s character in ways both subtle and not, the way she wields costumes and props, that train scene. She wonders if she deserves a second statue, but she’ll take it. ♥♥♥♥
Itamar Moses: [See the Jennifer Tilly write-up, as they're paired - editor]. ♥♥♥♥
Alfred Soto: The performance wasn’t working—it looked like a disaster. Then director Woody Allen realized the trouble: Dianne Wiest was using her natural, thin pressed-flower of a voice. Lower it a couple octaves, he suggested. Thus did Wiest unlock the secret to playing the overripe Helen Sinclair, doyenne of the American stage. Thanks to the drag-queen-playing-Tallulah Bankhead rumble, Wiest wrung all manner of camp variants on her semi-classic “Don’t speak!” line. She’s even better when playing fake-coy for the sake of John Cusack’s hack playwright. But is Helen a hack too? Bullets Over Broadway hedges. ♥♥♥
Nathaniel R: It’s true. I have a weakness for flamboyant grande-dames. But still. Every line reading, and gesture, and emotion in this justly iconic turn is a Performance. Sometimes Helen is acting for herself, sometimes for a man she’s manipulating, sometimes it’s even for Dianne; Weist’s three Oscar roles have incredible range and this is her ballsiest most crazily sustained risk. I worship Helen’s reaction to the question about whether we fall in love with artists or their art. Of course she thinks it a strange question. What’s the difference? She’s never not been ACTING. ♥♥♥♥♥
Reader Write-Ins: "One of the best winners ever - need we say more?" - Darren (Reader average: ♥♥♥♥½)
Actress earns 24½ ❤s
Dianne Wiest took the Oscar in what appeared to be a landslide at the time
but in the Smackdown she just barely ekes out a win with a 3/4th of a heart victory over her Bullets Over Broadway cast-mate Jennifer Tilly.
Two GREAT comic performances in one movie!
We hope you enjoyed the Smackdown!
Want more? The Podcast companion conversation is here (part one / part two) in which we discuss 1994 in more detail.
Previous Smackdowns: 1941, 1944, 1948, 1952, 1954, 1963, 1964, 1968, 1970, 1973, 1977, 1979, 1980, 1984, 1985, 1989, 1995, 2003, 2016, and 2017 (prior to those 30+ Smackdowns were hosted @ StinkyLulu's old site)
NEXT UP? 1943 in July.
Reader Comments (58)
I should add that I *think* my nominees for that year would have been THURMAN, TILLY, WIEST. Plus Sarah Pierce from Heavenly Creatures and Virna Lisi from Queen Margot.
I *think* mine are
Sandra Bullock for Speed
Jennifer Tilly for Bullets over Broadway
Alberta Watson for Spanking the Monkey
Dianne Wiest for Bullets over Broadway
Alfre Woodard for Crooklyn
Very close runners-up: Claire Danes, Kirsten Dunst, Janeane Garofalo, Melanie Griffith, Rosemary Harris, Virna Lisi, Sarah Peirse, and Brooke Smith, with some kind of honorary statuette made of fused shards from other, broken statuettes for Helena Bonham Carter's final scenes in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.
Also, I love and totally cosign what Itamar said here about Rosemary Harris: "There are times when she seems to be trying to communicate telepathically and we understand everything she’s saying."
Wait! Whaaaaaaaat??? That was today? No last call? No friendly reminders? We barely discussed 1994
I didn't take part, because I didn't get around to watching Tom and Viv, or re-watching King George, but I wanted to say how amazing it is that one category could include three such iconic, five-star signature roles as Tilly, Thurman and Wiest.
And Tilly's nomination, with no pre-cursor, no real reputation to reward and the huge shadow of Helen Sinclair, is one of the great miracles of the category.
@Nick Davis- did Sandra Bullock get any momentum for Speed? It was a money-making blockbuster and this was a look a she's a star! moment in her career.
Tom G. votes for Smackdown 1994
Jennifer Tilly- Bullets over Broadway- HA! They say it takes a great comedian to play an unfunny person. Does it take a very talented artist to play an untalented hack? HA!? Jennifer Tilly, with her unique voice and physicality, was probably never going to be considered a serious actress, but she ably spoofs her own image with her performance as Olive, a ganger's moll with big dreams of stardom. Olive is a terrible actress and we see Tilly show how much she struggles- the eye shifts, the uncomfortable posture around the seasoned professionals. Olive can't bully them on stage as she knows she doesn't truly belong there. Similar to Leslie Ann Warren in Victor/Victoria, Norma and Olive are unreasonably untalented but crave attention. The characters are working and struggling, but you never see the actress break a sweat. HA! 3 hearts
Helen Mirren- the Madness of King George- Yes her accent sometimes runs all over Europe but the spirit of her performance is true. Mirren is Queen Charlotte, the long-time married and devoted spouse of the titular king of England. Charlotte adores her husband. They have a familiarity that only comes with being together over twenty years and Mirren and Nigel Hawthorne have a breezy chemistry. Mirren's natural regal presence serves her well, but when the king begins to behave strangely, we can see the woman behind the crown. Seeing her beloved husband slowly descend into fits of madness and mania, Charlotte is horrified but more worried as she is powerless to stop or curb it. She makes excuses in public and tries to shield the king from the public and embarrassment while trying to connect and communicate with a man who may be changed forever. Her reactions and devotion ring true. Unfortunately, the movie seems uninterested in Charlotte outside of doting spouse. The queen obviously was a formidable woman, but she spends most of the movie staring wistfully out the window wondering about her husband. I kept waiting for her to take action. Perhaps her own confusion over her husband's illness made her feel sedate but there needed to be more of her. 3 hearts
Uma Thurman- Pulp Fiction- Mia Wallace is a cipher. Who is she? What does she want? Is she happy with her life? Mia keeps everything close and only those privileged enough can get a glimpse of the real her. In order for Mia to work on screen, the actress playing her needs to be mysterious- a modern-day Greta Garbo who holds everything in while drawing everyone close and then daring them to get closer. Uma Thurman gets the hearts for the charisma alone. 3 hearts
Dianne Wiest- Bullets over Broadway- Don't Speak! But there is so much to say! In a film filled with gangsters, Helen Sinclair may be the biggest badass among them. Everything she does is in service to herself, she has a groupie writer who worships the ground she walks on, and she has the talent to back it all up. If this was a literal horserace, Helen would protest that she shouldn't even have to run and the other unfortunate contenders should just let her win since she will anyway. Dianne Wiest is a ball as Helen. She especially uses her voice well, bellowing and cooing in the same scene. Wiest makes sure we feel her presence. But I really like her last scene. After the success of the opening night, the crew is waiting for the playwright to arrive. Helen, who has been using him and sleeping with him the whole time, says that he is on top of the world and is missing his own party. But of course, she is really thinking about herself. Wiest takes her fan out and very briefly flashes a vulnerable look. "Where is David? Did he stand me up?" Helen isn't used to having thoughts like this and is confused about how to process them. She quickly brushes it away but waving her fan in front of her face, almost like she doesn't want us to see the flicker of doubt, is such a great moment. 4 hearts
Peggy Sue -- i was alarmed that there were so few votes this month so perhaps I should have had more reminders!
I only buy Sandra as supporting if we consider Keanu's hotness the lead.
@Nick Griffith for what movie.Nat I was sure you loved JLC in True Lies or is she a lead to you.
@Mark: In Nobody's Fool. I haven't seen it since it played theaters but I remember it as such a sad, sensitive, direct, and naturalistic performance. Has really lingered with me. Probably the closest to making the cut into my top five.
Great comments, as usual. Thank you for all the work you put into these. I was dearly hoping Jennifer Tilly would win this one - but I never mind seeing appreciation for the great Dianne Wiest.
If we're listing our would-be Top 5 - I'm thinking mine would be those two, and Thurman, plus Virna Lisi (probably my winner, if she'd been nominated), and Kristin Scott Thomas for Four Weddings and a Funeral. Although - would Moore count as Supporting for Vanya on 42nd Street? Or was she a lead? Sometimes those lines are confusing. And while she'd later play one of the most hated tv characters of the Aughts, I quite liked Mia Kirshner's work in Exotica. But I guess, Tilly, Wiest, Lisi, Scott Thomas, and Thurman.
I'm so delighted to see the praise for Tilly's performance. I think she's best in show in Bullets (though the whole cast, including Wiest, is priceless).
I haven't seen Harris and Mirren's work, and so I mean not to disparage them, but of the films I've seen, I think my nominees would have been:
Melanie Griffith in Nobody's Fool
Virna Lisi in La Reine Margot
Uma Thurman in Pulp Fiction
Jennifer Tilly in Bullets over Broadway
Diane Wiest in Bullets over Broadway
Dianne Wiest is the obvious winner , what a perfomance !
The others nominees should have been :
Uma Thurman in Pulp Fiction
Kristin Scott Thomas in Four Weddings...
Virna Lisi in Queen Margot
Kirsten Dunst in Interview With the vampire
@Peggy Sue - Same! I thought my ballot was due today, I couldn’t believe I missed the deadline.
Still, very happy to see Tilly pull it out, though I wish Harris had gotten third. Lovely write-ups from everyone, and huge congrats to Itamar Moses for winning the Rony. I’ll second Nick on Watson, Woodard, Dunst, Pierse, and Smith. Shout-out too to Roma Maffia, who cools down Disclosure for her scenes and grounds it in some reality before the plot ignores everything it was talking about for the last half hour. Excited to hear the podcast!
@Nathaniel - can you post a compendium of all the "she shoulda been nominated" answers? Would love to see the groupthink.
Also patiently waiting on the 1994-themed Q&A!
"her lanky, singular physicality" beautifully phrased Nathaniel. Uma seems to employ that unique physical frame so effectively across genres to punctuate comedy (Truth About Cats and Dogs, Batman and Robin) rage (Kill Bill) and despair (Hysterical Blindness) and like you say in the right hands she is magic. It was later in the 90s that I fell totally in love with her but i'm forever grateful to Tarantino for casting her in Pulp Fiction so that we may be blessed with those wild limbs and enchanting blue eyes for decades to come.
I second (or third) Griffith in Nobody’s Fool. She’s the definition of “uneven” as an actress, but she was perfectly cast by Benton and quitely moving opposite Newman. Her mid-‘80s run (from Body Double to Something Wild to Stormy Monday and Working Girl) is pretty dynamite, but this may be her finest hour—definitely Oscar nomination-worthy that year.
Tilly > Weist in BOB, IMO.
My picks:
Claire Danes, Little Women
Kirsten Dunst, Interview with the Vampire
Uma Thurman, Pulp Fiction
Jennifer Tilly, Bullets Over Broadway* (tie)
Dianne Wiest, Bullets Over Broadway* (tie)
What's the point in having personal awards if I can't have two winners?
I'm very much in agreement with Nathaniel, with my choices being Thurman/Lisi/Wiest/Peirse, but I'd go with Kirsten Dunst (Interview with the Vampire) just barely ahead of Tilley. Uma for the win.
@Nick: Is Alberta Watson really a supporting actress in Spanking the Monkey? She's always seemed like a clear lead to me but I'd be curious to hear reasoning otherwise.
@Dionne: Haven't seen in a long time, and I wondered about this. I remember her as riding that line, but you may well be right.
For me,
1. Faye Wong-Chungking Express
2. Uma Thurman-Pulp Fiction
3. Mia Kirshner-Exotica
4. Dianne Weist & Jennifer Tilly-Bullets Over Broadway
5 Sandra Bullock-Speed
What a lovely present on this lazy Sunday afternoon, my favourite series on one of my favourite years. First of all, I appreciate the critics who thankfully agreed with my choice.
Well done all of you.
And since I have never seen "Tom & Viv", you made me understand why Rosemary Harris got this nomination.
As for Dianne Wiest, she is such perfection as Helen Sinclair, she deserves that Oscar.
I tip my cigarette holder in your direction as thanks.
Jennifer Tilly does deserve generous praise for her clueless Olive. However I suspect many Oscar voters found it somewhat repetitive since Leslie Ann Warren played such a role in Victor, Victoria. (Not to mention Jean Hagen & Judy Holliday) Back in '94,"Olive" seemed like such a well worn cliche of a role.
Finally I want to add my praise for Kristin Scott Thomas in "Four Weddings and a Funeral".
I think the academy got the nominations largely correct, and I see why they chose Helen Mirren.
Her part is larger, and anguish always attracts nominations more than comedy.
However, in hindsight KST is indelible in "Four Weddings". She has fewer lines, but every one of them counts. Most of all, her every reaction is memorable. Think of her face as she watches Hugh Grant, or reacts to the terrible folk duo in the church.
But they are both Dames now, and good friends so - someday KST will get another shot at an Oscar. And Dianne Wiest still get's hers for her magnificent Helen Sinclair. Bravo.
@Nick: Just rewatched. Supporting is actually totally a fair classification. Opens up a spot on my lead actress ballot...
LadyEdith I agree totally on KST it's her best performance,Fiona was class in that Dinner Table scene and she makes the reveal of her feelings to Grant work to.
Wonderful writeup.
My nominees for that year would be WEIST (Winner), TILLY, THURMAN, Sarah Pierce (Heavenly Creatures) and Jamie Lee Curtis (True Lies)
Love the smackdown!
@Dionne: Wow! You don't mess around! Top research. I'm hoping to rewatch it soon, too. Did the movie as a whole hold up?
I had to do quick sketches this month and I still barely made the deadline. Busy month. I'm a bit surprised it was such a squeaker for Dianne though I was sure she's emerge triumphant.
Rosemary Harris-Tom & Viv-I don’t think Harris is capable of being bad but I wasn’t very moved by her work in this or the film overall. 2 hearts
Helen Mirren-The Madness of King George-She doesn’t make the mistake of trying to make Queen Charlotte wholly sympathetic. Even though she is in a terrible situation she is still the Queen of England and is often haughty, thoughtless and formidable yet you still feel for her. A good performance just not the best of the year. 3 hearts
Uma Thurman-Pulp Fiction-I hate this movie so much that it might have colored my view of her work but when the film was over hers was not one of the characters I remembered with any great distinction. 2 hearts
Jennifer Tilly-Bullets Over Broadway-I’m not usually a fan of hers but there’s no denying she’s awfully good as the cheap and rapacious Olive but…. 4 hearts
Dianne Weist-Bullets Over Broadway-No one can touch the glorious creation that Weist made of Helen Sinclair. Every look and nuance is simply perfection. 5 hearts
Though if I had my way Dianne Weist is the only one I’d retain from this list of nominees. She would be a close second by a thin margin but there was one other performance that I loved even more that didn’t make the nominations. My five would run this way:
Glynis Johns-The Ref
Virna Lisi-Queen Margot
Susan Sarandon-Little Women
Kristen Scott-Thomas-Four Weddings and a Funeral
Dianne Wiest-Bullets Over Broadway
How some of the others made it in over the absolute brilliance of Kristin Scott Thomas (or for that matter Virna Lisi’s amazing work as Catherine de Medici whose soul has turned to dust) is beyond me and she would take the prize were she in the running.
I love Dianne Weist but I would've given my vote to Jennifer Tilly.
Also, I do wonder why there was no room for Kirsten Dunst in Interview With The Vampire or Sally Field in Forrest Gump.
BAFTA-winning Scott Thomas is superb in Four Wedding and a Funeral. (Incidentally, for a Best Picture nominee, Four Weddings got very few Oscar nominations. Hmm...)
Jamie Lee Curtis, though on fire (and best in show) in True Lies, is borderline lead, but she should've gotten in regardless. The Academy had notoriously terrible taste in '94 (Forrest *gag* Gump *barf*).
And nobody talks about it now, but The Hudsucker Proxy was delightful and ought to have gotten Jennifer Jason Leigh *at least* a Golden Globe nom. She was doing screwball comedy, mixed with poignancy, ferociously.
P.S. Tim Robbins is, hands down, my "body of work" winner for '94 (The Hudsucker Proxy, I.Q., The Shawshank Redemption). His chemistry with his co-stars was really potent.
In addition to Wiest and Tilly, I would complete the BULLETS OVER BROADWAY trifecta with a little love for Tracey Ullman in a ridiculously under-appreciated performance. Every time she is on screen, I achieve a near school-girl giddiness. That being said, Wiest is one of the best winners of this category ever, and one could argue has given the two best Best Supporting Actress performances of all time. Both are certainly high among my top ten.
Maybe we don't say that enough, but thank you Nathaniel. That was wonderful reading.
Tilly or Wiest? The eternal question: two actresses at pitch-perfect peaks showcased in marvellous stock-character parts.
I can't decide, and Uma Thurman's groovy-sexy-cool turn comes perilously close to making this ballot a three-way tie for me. So much fun in these performances, and it's especially inspiring to see Thurman (loosening up and dropping the high-school amateurishness that plagued her subsequent work) and Tilly (finally putting her heretofore irritating vocal schtick to good use) come into their own.
Ironically, though the greener actresses rise to the occasion, the veterans sink a bit: the normally bewitching Harris, who can work wonders with limited screen time (example: "The Boys from Brazil") makes little impact in "Tom & Viv," and her big scene in which she tells off Dafoe comes off as the most anemic of verbal smackdowns. And usually, I'm fascinated by Mirren, but, all I remember about this performance is thinking, "Hmm . . . I'm not sure I'm buying this."
I'd have nominated Brooke Smith of "Vanya on 42nd Street," who embodies her role with remarkable simplicity. I was impressed by Claire Danes in "Little Women," especially in her final scene. I haven't watched "Interview with the Vampire," so I don't know how I'd feel about Kirsten Dunst in it. How do people feel about that performance?
cal -- you're very welcome. I love blogging and movie-discussing and providing all this but it does sometimes feel thankless :) I had a rough day today (other than meeting MARCIA GAY HARDEN -OHMYGOD) so xo. thanks again
matt -- i'm glad people have mentioned Brooke Smith. She's wonderful in Vanya... i just always forget that that movie was 94 because i didn't see it within its year (my Julianne Moore fascination started the very next year in [safe])
the difference between tilly and wiest can be seen in weist's acceptance speech - there isn't a trace of helen up there but, had jennifer won, we would have got an olive-esque speech [which surely would have been hilarious and quote-worthy]
btw, that clip has been edited; i remember the performances being shown as uma's included her "i want to dance, i want to win, i want that trophy" line, which delighted the audience
I am just glad Rosemary Harris has once been nominated for an Oscar.
Now her daughter should follow her too!
La Wiest needs a career revival.
@Nick: Absolutely. It is so gratifying to watch an American low budget debut with that much conviction. Watson's performance is deliiiicious without drawing too much attention to itself. Russell really makes her work for those scenes. It's been 4 years since I last saw the movie and I think about her character so regularly. A dream.
Uma Thurman - Pulp Fiction
Robin Wright Penn - Forrest Gump
Kristin Scott Thomas - Four Weddings
Natalie Portman - Leon
Susan Sarandon - Little Women
Nathaniel, what was it like to meet Marcia Gay Harden? She seems as if she would be a very gracious, pleasant person. Which of her performances do you like most? Did you get a chance to talk to her about them?
I've never warmed to "Safe," but the actress Kate McGregor-Stewart, who plays the head counselor, is my acting coach, and I just love her in that scene in which she's comforting Julianne Moore. I wish she'd had more scenes, because she really takes the movie out of its cold, clinical solemnity and brings it a much-needed spark.
And I wish "Vanya on 42nd Street" had gotten more attention when it opened.What a wonderful movie.
The few times I have seen Tom & Viv, I constantly think that Rosemary Harris was hurt by poor editing. It's like the filmmakers didn't know the gem they had. Oh well.
Um, how has nobody mentioned the legendary Mink Stole in SERIAL MOM?
Oh my God, I love Marcia Gay! I think my happiest Oscar moment ever is when she won for Pollock. Wins like that are so rare.
I thought that Dianne Wiest was widely acknowledged to be one of the best winners ever in this category, so I'm a little surprised it was so close, though Tilly is wonderful, too. My five nominees:
Wiest - WINNER
Tilly
Thurman
Garofalo
Woodard
Best Supporting Actress in 1994 is an embarassment of riches. Best Actress, now - that was a category that caused a lot of hand-wringing in the media at the time, as I recall.
Suzanne -- yes yes it was. I still think it was a TERRIBLE year for Oscar voters in the best actress category it's like they refused to look at anything that wasn't "traditionally baity" and so they missed almost every great option they had.
Suzanne & Nathaniel: my god, you're both right. What a really weak, weak line-up for Best Actress that was. Thus they ultimately crowned Jessica Lange for her perfectly okay performance in a little-seen,perfectly okay but basically unmemorable film. It's like no one really gave a rat's for that category in '94. A real shame.
I was unable to get to Tom & Viv and Madness of King George in time, but WOW those other three alone make for a pretty stellar lineup. It's nearly impossible to choose between them! That said, I would probably end up giving Thurman 4 hearts, Tilly 4.5 hearts, and Wiest 5 hearts. It's splitting hairs to even get to that, though.
This was such a rich year for Supporting Actresses. Even just of the ones I've seen I'd be hard-pressed to fill the extra two slots from Bullock, Dunst, Danes, Lisi, Sarandon, Scott Thomas... and my sentimental favorite, Sally Field.
Re: Sally Field in Forest Gump: as I recall Sally herself called her role in it a "gumdrop" and instructed the studio to skip submitting her name for Academy consideration. Sally is a very smart lady.
Thanks, y'all, for allowing me to participate.
It's true: 1994 was a horrible Oscar year for actresses. Jessica Lange (who would've been my choice among the nominees) won by default. As usual the Academy could've looked beyond its biases. Why not nominate Terence Stamp?!
@Nathaniel - ooh, can we derail for a bit and get into who should've been nominated for Best Actress?