Lunchtime Poll: Who would Bette & Larry vote for?
Friday, March 5, 2021 at 12:00PM IT'S 10 DAYS UNTIL OSCAR NOMINATIONS. Academy voting on those nominations begins right now. For a bit of silly "lunchtime poll" fun, let's place ourselves in the shoes of 10* times nominated legends Bette Davis and Sir Laurence Olivier.
Both legendary performers liked to go BIG. Bette was a dangerous risk-taker and Sir Larry a big ol' THESPIAN ham. Pretend they're still alive and staring at their Oscar ballots. We know Sir Larry loved other hams (Mickey Rooney was his favourite) but what did Bette like in other actors? She was inarguably opinionated but her passions and turn-offs were hard to predict. We know that in the 1980s she preferred Debra Winger's work to Meryl Streep's (which makes a lot of sense if you consider that Debra's obstinant fire was much closer to Bette's persona than Streep's chameleon fluidity) but who would she have been into right now?
Which movies and stars would they be voting for this year? Share your theories!
* Bette has 10 official Best Actress nominations but we view it as 11 due to her write-ins for Of Human Bondage (1934). Olivier had 13 nominations but 3 of them were in non-acting categories.
Reader Comments (24)
Didn't Bette Davis send a letter to Meryl Streep saying she is her worthy successor ?
I always thought Bette had great taste. I think she'd vote for Nomadland in many categories, Hopkins for Actor and Mulligan in Best Actress.
Bette maybe an Andra Day for the excess or Pfeiffer for channeling Margo in French Exit.
I think they'd both vote for Ma Rainey's. Bette would like the transformational work that Viola Davis did, the desire/willingness to go "ugly", and the take charge bossiness she displayed.
Olivier would appreciate the heightened theatricality of it all. No one talks like that in real life, but they do in the theater. Plus the long speeches, the grandstanding, etc. So he'd vote for Chadwick Boseman.
Bette would vote for Carey, Vanessa, Viola, and Rosamund in best actress. And I think she'd go for Glenn and Young Yuh-Jung in supporting.
Larry would vote for Anthony, Chadwick, and Riz in actor. Maybe Mads, too. He'd be all over the place in supporting actor, but I could see him going for Mark Rylance.
Laurence would vote for Gary Oldman and Charles Dance, while Bette would go with Rosamund Pike and Glenn Close.
The New Yorker recently featured a profile of Bette Davis from the 1930s where she poked fun at actresses' need for glamour and artifice. I think she would have loved McDormand.
If they wanted to reward overripe cheese, they'd go for Close in HILLBILLY.
This is fun!
I think both of them would adore Hopkins in The Father and Boseman in Ma Rainey's Black Bottom.
Bette Davis would admire the raw, vulnerable, and go-for-brokeness of Vanessa Kirby in Pieces of a Woman and would vote for her. Olivier would probably be impressed by the staginess and physical transformation of Viola Davis (he was always an actor from the "outside" in, if that makes sense).
No idea for supporting actor - maybe they'd both like Baron Cohen?
I have a feeling Bette would despise Amanda Seyfried in Mank lol - she'd probably be impressed by Olivia Colman's expressiveness in The Father, and would vote for her. Olivier would definitely be a Glenn Close fan - talk about hamming it up!
Olivier would be LOVING Chadwick Boseman and Delroy Lindo
Carey Mulligan would be right up Davis' alley
They would vote for themselves!
Better probably wouldn't vote for someone who has already won once, she cared a lot about ONLY winning twice so I think she would want to keep her company as small as she can.
Olivier would go obviously Hopkins. He was mentor to the future Hannibal Lecter and had him as his undestudy in Strindberg’s “The Dance of Death.”
Davis would go Mulligan - a role she'd like to play. I think Bette liked Meryl, even writing the aforementioned letter in which she said she saw Streep as her successor. Who didn't like her and made it clear was Katharine Hepburn.
I'm going to say Bette's Best Actress would have looked as follows:
Viola Davis, MA RAINEY’S BLACK BOTTOM
Catherine Deneuve, THE TRUTH
Frances McDormand, NOMADLAND
Michelle Pfeiffer, FRENCH EXIT
Rosamund Pike, I CARE A LOT
Alternate: Radha Blank, THE 40-YEAR-OLD VERSION
And Sir Laurence's Best Actor ballot would have looked as follows:
Kingsley Ben-Adir, ONE NIGHT IN MIAMI
Chadwick Boseman, MA RAINEY’S BLACK BOTTOM
Anthony Hopkins, THE FATHER
Delroy Lindo, DA 5 BLOODS
Dev Patel, THE PERSONAL HISTORY OF DAVID COPPERFIELD
I can just imagine Bette drooling over the opportunity to be in Promising Young Woman. I'd pay to see it! She'd kill to be in I Care a Lot, too.
Olivier would be all about Hopkins in The Father. I could see him defending Kirby if Bette wasn't into her take. He'd love the plays translated to film.
I bet they'd both be mystified by Delroy Lindo because our political landscape is so bizarre right now. Boseman, (Viola) Davis, Ahmed, Kaluuya, Day, and even Amy Adams would give them the BIG performances they would appreciate. They'd love Ellen Burstyn monologue and I'd be fascinated to hear what they thought about Mank. Come to think of it, I bet they'd both be stanning Seyfried - justice for the maligned actress!
I'd guess their ballots would be: Mank, Fincher, Hopkins, Mulligan (Bette)/Davis (Olivier), Kaluuya and Seyfried.
If Olivier were alive, he’d be incensed that Hopkins landed The Father over him. He would not endorse that casting with his vote. While he always enjoyed playing over the top, he didn’t admire the trait in other actors. Don’t forget that classic tale of his upbraiding Dustin Hoffman on the set of Marathon Man when Hoffman stayed up all night to look haggard for an intense scene. Olivier suggested, “Why don’t you try acting?” I think Sir Larry would vote for fellow European Mads Mikkelson’s understated work in Another Round.
I feel Davis would be a vocal advocate for fellow two time Oscar winner Jodie Foster. Davis felt actresses should be able to win more than two. She would not sign on to the current trend to fail to nominate most actresses after a second win. Further, she would applaud Fister for that fierce physical image the actress uses in hair and make to create strength. Davis relished actresses who made characters strong.
Laurence Olivier: He would vote for The Father in Leading Actor and Supporting Actress. For Best Actress Frances McDormand and Supporting Actor he'd go with Charles Dance.
Bette Davis: Anthony Hopkins, Frances McDormand, Jared Leto and Glenn Close.
Bette for Carey, definitely.
Larry for Tony, for sure.
Bette is a Frances McDormand voter as anyone with a little bit of taste.
Speaking of Nomadland, I think they're totally screwing their Oscar campaign with those ads saying "We've won 683 Best Picture Awards". Totally against the spirit and the tone of the movie.
Bette would probably be rooting for Sophia Loren because voting for her is as close as she could come to voting for herself. Another legendary actress, another enduring icon. Voting for Sophia would also be one way for Bette to show her gratitude for the Italian film industry, which gave her one of her last great roles in Luigi Comencini's Lo Scopone Scientifico (IMDB translates it as The Scopone Game). It is a brilliant, dark, caustic comedy that deserves to be much better known. And Davis is absolutely brilliant in it, playing the perfect foil to Alberto Sordi (with great supporting roles for Silvana Mangano and Joseph Cotten).
Davis would have voted for Loren if for no other reason than to underscore how wrong the Academy got it when it failed to nominate either Davis or Lilian Gish for their work in The Whales of August, a film that, like The Life Ahead, is understated but graced by the greatness of a true star of the silver screen.
Actresses like Davis and Loren are not a dime a dozen. We will miss them when they are gone and the time to honor their accomplishments is now. Here's hoping that Loren will be the unsurprising surprise when nominations are announced.
Both pity vote for Close.
We just forget how sexy, hansome and attractive Mr. Olivier was one day. 💗💗💗💗💗
@ Angel Alvarez Ortiz
Speak for yourself! ;-)
#heathcliff #maxim #straker #orlando
Bette would be voting for Mulligan, Ahmed, Close and Cohen.
Larry would be voting for Pike, Oldman, Close and Rylance. P