Introducing... Supporting Actress Characters of 2002
Friday, June 5, 2020 at 7:00AM The next Supporting Actress Smackdown is just 12 days away. We're on fire this season, aren't we? HERE ARE THE PANELISTS that will be talking about 2002 but we also need your votes. We highly encourage you to rewatch the movies before voting (time can change perspective!). To vote simply email us with "2002" in the subject line by Monday June 15th and include your rating of each of the nominees on a scale of 1 (weak) to 5 (perfect) hearts...
- Kathy Bates, About Schmidt
- Queen Latifah, Chicago
- Julianne Moore, The Hours
- Meryl Streep, Adaptation
- Catherine Zeta-Jones, Chicago
For an extra bit of whistle-wetting fun, let's look at how each of the characters are introduced in the movies. NOTE: Please save comments about the performances themselves for the Smackdown event. For now we're talking about the art of introduction in storytelling. Is the filmmaker tipping his hat to a star's arrival (fairly common practice) or merely introducing a new character...
Keep the change, Joe
[no dialogue]
[Bandleader on the mic] The Onyx Club is proud to present Chicago's hottest dancing duo, jazz babes moving as one: The Kelly Sisters.
1 minute into Chicago... meet "Velma Kelly"
I had COMPLETELY forgotten the opening two minutes of Chicago. I thought it began with Renée watching CZJ perform "All That Jazz" but it begins with the band warming up and the stage manager looking for "The Kelly Sisters" -- they're supposed to be on stage! One minute in we get the first glimpse of Velma, just her legs exiting a cab and then she tears her own promotional poster to remove her sisters name (that's the only blurred image of her face to keep you waiting). For the next frantic minute we track her, never seeing her face as she rushes to get dressed and get on stage (and dispose of a murder weapon!). It's practically a superhero film entrance it so fetishes the act of getting in costume and preparing to do your superpower (in Velma's case, performing). TWO spotlights greet her on stage though she promises she can do this one alone. Boy can she. This is, in every conceivable way, a STAR entrance. There's lots of build up and then a riveting "lights on / start the show" moment when we finally see said stars face in a closeup which fully delivers, her eyes flicking open to sing. Entrance Scene: A+
🎵 Come on babe, why don't we paint the town...
4½ minutes into The Hours... meet "Laura Brown"
Virginia Woolf (Nicole Kidman) gets the opening scene, a 1941 suicide in Sussex, before we cross the ocean and glide 10 years forward to 1951 Los Angeles. A husband is bringing his wife flowers. Alas, she's asleep. This scene (well, it's more of a glimpse than a scene) shouldn't feel ominous -- and doesn't fully -- but there is the lingering ickiness that we just started with a suicide and its broad daylight outside so why is this woman asleep? It's boring to watch people sleep and this camera is on the move and immediately back to England. Entrance Scene: D
Orlean makes orchids so fascinating. Plus her musings on Florida and orchid poaching, Indians -- it's great sprawling New Yorker stuff."
[Writing] John LaRoche is a tall guy, skinny as a stick, pale eyed, slouched shouldered, sharply handsome despite the fact he's missing all his front teeth."
4½ and 6 minutes into Adaptation... meet "Susan Orlean"
It's fitting that in the extreme sweaty chaos of Adaptation's meta-storytelling -- the movie is continually restructuring itself -- Susan Orlean (Meryl Streep) is introduced twice, in short succession. Once by being described over a copy of her book and then in her own act of description as we jump back in time three years with a dissolve from the cityscape to her at a desk writing. Nifty but it's worth noting that its only half of a traditional star entrance. Showing us Meryl's headshot before she acts would normally qualify as a full star entrance. But the star of this movie is its screenwriter Charlie Kaufman, both figuratively and literally. Entrance Scene: B+
"And now ladies and gentlemen, the keeper of the keys, the countess of the clink, the mistress of murderer's row, Matron Mama Morton."
17 minutes into Chicago... meet "Matron Mama Morton"
Queen Latifah gets a similar entrance to Catherine Zeta-Jones but hers is more sped up and tossed off, so we just gif'ed it for you above. We get a closeup of her ample bosom first (instead of legs as with Velma) followed by her shadow on the wall, and then door opening, dissolve, blow out, color filter, feather shake, and then Queen Latifah's gorgeous mug. And she begins to sing. To paraphrase the song, this entrance is a lot of tat for what she's got to give.
Entrance Scene: A- (but bonus points for giving the original Velma Kelly, Chita Rivera, that close up cameo to warn Roxie/us of Mama's entrance just before it happens. "Ever had Mama before?")
Warren, how grand to see you again!
77½ minutes into About Schmidt... meet "Roberta"
Yes, that's right. Alexander Payne makes us wait an entire feature's running time before Warren Schmidt (Jack Nicholson) even arrives in Colorado where the much-discussed wedding of his daughter is taking place. There's no filmmaking fanfare for Bates entrance. But Payne and his editors do know that we're waiting for this final act of the movie to begin so they take a beat on the door before it swings open to reveal "Roberta," the mother of the groom. After she welcomes the protagonist (no outrageous jokes, yet, just warmth), the door closes on us again. This is definitely more of a visual marker than a traditional star entrance. The filmmakers are saying "We've arrived in Act Three". Once inside the house, though, Bates will let loose to set the tone for the final act which falls under the sub-genre of Awkward Wedding Comedy. Entrance Scene: C+
We hope you enjoy revisiting these movies this week and we'll see you back here on Wednesday, June 17th for the full Supporting Actress Smackdown!
Reader Comments (60)
Moore & CZJ are actually co-leads, def NOT supp players....
I'd switch them out & put Collette (The Hours) & Pfeiffer (White Oleaders) in the supp instead.
Had Kidman gone supp (which she wisely refused), she'd won the Oscar too...Her de-glam role of VW + the nose transformation is rite up Academy's alley!! She is gonna win the Oscar no matter which category, after her loss the previous year for her one-two punch of Moulin Rogue! & The Others.
HW had shrewdly campaigned Moore & CZJ into supporting, increasing the studio's chance of winning. He can be said to be the originator of the current blantant category fraud sys!!
The Great Dane: "The Academy has shown too much love for second-rate acting performances in musicals. Chakiris, Zeta-Jones and Hudson are Oscar winners in acting categories. I just don’t get it."
Agree 100%. Jennifer Hudson in particular is a flat-out *bad* actress. Her win for Dreamgirls (and the lock she had on it from the beginning) rankles me to this day. The love here for CZJ is absurd to me.
The only reasons why I think some here think that Catherine Zeta Jones is supporting in Chicago is because: 1- The character in theater is leading but the way the film is adapted makes her supporting. 2- Catherine's performance is so powerful that it makes her seem central.
But she is supporting, she is never central and the whole movie is seen through the eyes of Renée Zellweger.
Julianne Moore on the other hand is Leading in The Hours. She has her own story, she is central and with characters that revolve around her.
PFEIFFER should have won that year for White Oleander ❤️
Sorry I wanted to say "The only reasons why I think some here think that Catherine Zeta Jones is LEADING in Chicago" in my comment above.
The Great Dane -- i would agree that Oscar voters aren't particularly discerning when it comes to musical performances... but then that's true of all genres for them. Their taste level isn't always there but there are A LOT of oscar-worthy performances within the musical genre... unfortunately most of them don't even get nominated.
Jesus -- i agree that Verdu is a fine actress but that is a lot of hardware for anyone. Especially since it's not even literally possible. "La Buena Estrella" (Lucky Star), for example, was never released in the US so it was ineligible for Oscars.
and to say that she's better in 2002 than say Julianne Moore (Far From Heaven) or Isabelle Huppert (The Piano Teacher) is just ... insert gif of eyes bugging out here / headscratching. I dont even remember her in LOVERS though I know I saw it since I had a total Victoria Abril obsession phase. but yes, a very fine actress. I like her in Blancanieves a lot. I wish that had made a bigger splash stateside.
MIKE -- that they didn't even nominated Pfeiffer will do for me as one of the grossest things Oscar ever did. I think it's one of her top 3 performances.
Streep got in for her best performance from the two that were eligible. Moore was having a moment earning two nods regardless if you think it's plain fraud for The Hours and she wasn't necessarily nod worthy she was having a moment. Zeta-Jones and Latifah were the other standouts aside from Zellweger from Chicago. Bates had the privilege of being Jack's girl and having a nude scene that sparked feminist discourse around a regular woman's body on display.
@Nathaniel R
Never saw White Oleander and you know I was term Pfeiffer when Mother! was released. Hate that opportunity to give her the overdue was overlooked for Janney and the rest of the lineup.
Why nobody considered ZETA-Jones as a Co.-Lead? I am not a Fan of Zellwegers 2 Oscar bids, but her nominetion for Chicago was well derserved, but I am thinking Moore was the Best that Year in Lead AND supporting. What a stellar Year and what great Performances she turns out and I am sad, that she dot won a Oscar that Year. I also think Michelle Pfeiffer and Patricia Clarkson should have been nominated as well. I thought Isabelle Hupperts Piano Teacher was in 2001, also she would nominated here, too.
My line-up what have been:
Lead:
Selma Hayek, Frida
Julianne Moore, Far from Heaven
Meryl Street, The Hours
Renée Zellweger, Chicago
Catherine Zeta-Jones, Chicago
Supporting:
Patricia Clarkson, Far from Heaven
Toni Collette, The Hours
Nicole Kidman, The Hours
Julianne Moore, The Hours
Michelle Pfeiffer, White Orleander
Any Complains? ^^
Doesn’t Velma kind of disappear in the middle part of the film before resurfacing? There’s a big chunk of the film dedicated to Roxy’s rise and fall from fame and Billy Flynn.