Re-Oscaring & Lead Actress Winners

Gunning for Another Oscar: Nicole Kidman & Meryl Streep

The post about ReOscaring got me thinking of who might be next as far as actresses go.  When it comes to the lead, the AMPAS are all about the icons (Bette Davis, Vivien Leigh, Katharine Hepburn, Jane Fonda, Jodie Foster, Meryl Streep) or are just completely random (Sally Field and Hilary Swank are both 2/2 having received no other nods for their work). They're either women who define their generation or just had luck and good timing on their side to go along with their talent.  Generally, the second Oscar, in most cases, is coupled with a film that did exceptionally well at the box-office, as well as snagged a BP nomination, among many others.  Who do I see possibly getting another lead Oscar in the next ten or so years?  From the current leading pool, I imagine Nicole Kidman won't rest until she scores a second win.  Her ambitions make it very clear.  And despite box-office poison running through her veins, she stands out amongst other actresses in her generation, having defined a very unique and respected path for herself.  I shudder to think that Julia Roberts might become a two-time Oscar winner, but she will go down as one of cinema's most commercially successful actresses and that distinction sets her apart (she shares this with Sandra Bullock, but one difference is that the Academy began paying attention Roberts early on).  I still can't figure out if she is going to campaign for lead or supporting next year in August: Osage County.  Years ago, she would clearly be Debra Winger to Meryl Streep's Shirley MacLaine, but strategic category fraud has changed the landscape.  Sadly, there hasn't been a film we can look to since 1991's Thelma & Louise as a precedent to how things have changed.  Perhaps, Chicago or The Hours are indicators, but, even then, from a narrative standpoint, the comparisons aren't similar enough for direct parallels.  I imagine that if she were to go supporting, she would be going for the win and would want a statue no matter what the designation.  But, my instinct tells me her ego wouldn't allow it.  Still, I imagine the details have already been worked out between her team and TWC.  Natalie Portman is young enough and with the right film could easily make her way back up to the podium, but possibly not for a few years.  Actresses like Charlize Theron and Kate Winslet are talented enough they could score more nominations.  This year's likely winner Jennifer Lawrence would easily land somewhere near the top of this list, considering how talented, down-to-earth, and young she is, but, for now, I'm sticking with those living and working actresses who had at least one lead Oscar under their belt.

Meryl Streep on the set of August: Osage County

Deanna Dunagan won the Tony for her portrayal of Violet Weston in August: Osage County, and now Meryl Streep is assuming the role.  And, right now, the movies are in love with Best Actress Tony wins.  While Jodie Foster didn't get an Oscar nod for taking on Marcia Gay Harden's mantle in God of Carnage, Kidman scored for Rabbit Hole and Streep for Doubt. (Could Good People be next?  I hope so.  I loved The Geffen Playhouse production.)  With TWC behind Streep, we're passed the conversation (already) of whether or not she will be nominated for 2013.  The question is: will she win?  Weston is a plum role and she is sure to hit it out of the park, because she has a history of doing so with everything she does.  Streep just took home her third Oscar (her second lead) for The Iron Lady, but Katharine Hepburn won four Oscars (all lead).  Streep is considered by many to be The Greatest Living/Working actress, as well as a benchmark of sorts, with a record number of nominations (17), which should remain untouchable for decades (and then some).  Having a career second-wind (and being one of the most bankable actors currently), the question is when will she win?  Hepburn won her second and third leads back-to-back in her 60s.  And, Streep is, well, in her 60s, and just won for 2011.  2012 is out, but could 2013 be her year?

Nicole Kidman on the set of Grace of Monaco

Nicole Kidman is smart and ambitious, and she's daring enough to try just about anything.  She's not the most relatable person, however, and has a seemingly cool, detached persona.  This may explain her lack of consistent box-office muscle, and/or the roles she chooses which keep her from huge opening weekends.  Maintaining a commercial viability helps keep an actress in the conversation for coveted roles, yet Kidman seems to do just fine on her own.  Since her one-two-three punch in the early 2000s with Moulin Rouge!, The Others, and The Hours, she made some professional missteps like The Stepford Wives and Bewitched remakes, which infamously designated her box-office anathema.  She couldn't even open The Invasion with Daniel Craig assisting, which was terrible, but in her suspense wheelhouse.  The Golden Compass was her one failed attempt at a franchise.  And the romance epic Australia was the final nail in the coffin of good-will she had left from earlier success.  Yet, she keeps plugging away, choosing a lot of smaller projects and sometimes risky, controversial roles.  None of them caught any major awards attention until she produced herself in Cynthia Nixon's Tony-winning role from Rabbit Hole. The film only made $2.2M, but her gangbusters performance rightfully led to her third Oscar nod, which the AMPAS make her work for.  She most recently collected an Emmy nod.  Just last month, her dirty and sexy role in The Paperboy only grossed $0.7M, but got people talking about her.  There has been a lot of chatter for the trailer that just hit for next year's Stoker, which marks Chan-wook Park's (Oldboy) English-language debut.  The Railway Man, starring recent sought-after Oscar winner Colin Firth, will follow shortly thereafter.  But, all eyes are on Grace of Monaco, where she will play Grace Kelly during a pivotal moment of her life post-Hollywood as a Princess.  The 45-year-old Kidman is controversially playing Kelly when she was in her early 30s.  Olivier Dahan is directing, who got Marion Cotillard her Oscar.  The cinematographer is Eric Gautier (The Motorcycle Diaries, Into the Wild, On the Road), but otherwise, the crew doesn't have a lot of awards attention behind it.  The $30M is supposed to wrap at the end of the year, but IMDb has it listed as a 2014 release.  While playing a real-person disproportionately gets an actor on Oscar's radar, this project doesn't strike me as baity as The Danish Girl, which seems to have fallen apart, after a revolving door of costars and directors.  On paper, not as surefire as it appears.  There is so much Try and Expectation in this awards bid, it almost almost seems like everything is riding on this one role, though.  It will be interesting to see it play out.

Natalie Portman has had an extremely healthy career.  And, while she can't necessarily open a movie (who can these days?), she didn't do too bad with that banal rom-com costarring Ashton Kutcher last year in the thick of her Oscar quest.  Additionally, Brothers and The Other Boleyn Girl didn't exactly bellyflop commercially.  She's benefited from timing and good judgment with attaching her star to the yucky, but profitable Star Wars franchise, as well as the Thor movies.  She's down-to-earth and well-educated.  She's quite the beauty and doesn't draw too much unnecessary attention to herself.  She was outstanding in films like Black Swan and Closer, and is barely in her 30s, prompting me to believe that she has plenty of time to make mistakes and find further success.  I wasn't totally behind her  win for Swan (I wanted to see Bening win), but, in retrospect, I get it.  And, besides, it was a great film.  Along with the latest Thor, two films from the suddenly prolific Terrence Malick, she may appear opposite Tom Hanks in Michel Hazanavicius' followup to The Artist in a film set in 1930s Germany.  Lynne Ramsay (We Need to Talk About Kevin) will direct her and Michael Fassbender in western Jane Got a Gun.

Marion Cotillard on the set of Lowlife
(retitled Nightingale)

Those are the three I've summarized who I think stand the best chance at an additional lead Oscar.  Of course, in situations like Sally Field, or, especially, Hilary Swank, Best Actress ReOscaring is, sometimes, attributable to annual circuit's randomness.  This year shows that an actress like Marion Cotillard, whom a lot of people still aren't familiar with even five years after her Oscar (in a non-competitive year) and starring in the latest Batman movie, can make her away back into the Oscar race in another French film.  Will she win for Rust and Bone?  Probably not.  But, if there was no Jennifer Lawrence, who has benefited from a non-competitive year, it might well have been hers.  So, essentially, with the right role and timing, there's a chance that any previous winner could sneak in and take the statue.  She has Nightingale coming out next year, as well as a film directed by French actor Guillaume Canet.

We know the AMPAS love British dames like Helen Mirren, Maggie Smith, and Emma Thompson, and perhaps it's likelier for them to win a supporting Oscar over a lead in their future.  Fellow Brit Kate Winslet still has youth on her side, however and the lead statue generally goes to the young.  Winslet seemed to have overextended herself to collect her award, so while nominations may be in her future, a win would be harder to imagine.  But, I suppose if she decided she wanted another one, she could put her mind to it and make it happen.  It should be mentioned that, at age 37, Winslet presently has six nominations total.  No working/living actress has met that number younger than Sissy Spacek, Jessica Lange or Meryl Streep, all born twenty-six years before her, and Winslet was the youngest to do it when she hit six (33).  Bette Davis is now the youngest to seven, whether or not you count Of Human Bondage (34 or 36).  Streep was 38 when she got her seventh.  It's hard to imagine Winslet not trying to at least get more nods.  She will be reteaming with her Hamlet Kenneth Branagh in another World War II-related film, based on a novel by Annie Barrows.

Charlize Theron doesn't seem to care as much, but she certainly is inserting herself into proven franchises to keep her name in the game.  She had a rocky go after Monster.  Aeon Flux was major disaster, but her smaller, baity North Country showed the AMPAS really like her.  She continued doing unassuming films and accepting supporting roles, like she did when she first started, then hitching her star to Will Smith's inexplicably bad, but profitable Hancock. It does seem mildly desperate of her to sign onto Alien and Mad Max films, but if that's what a girl has to do these days, then so be it.  Considering she can pull out a recent film/performance like Young Adult and audiences at least partly showed up for her evil queen in Snow White and the Hunstman, she's likely to continue at the speed she's going as the years continue.

Julie Christie and Diane Keaton have shown their longevity, as well as good-standing with the AMPAS for having gotten nominated infrequently, yet consistently.  After winning in the 60s, Christie has been nominated once in the 70s, 90s, and most recently coming close to winning for 2007.  After winning in the 70s for her iconic Annie Hall, Keaton has been nominated once in the 80s, 90s, and in 2003 having come the closest to giving Charlize Theron a run for her money in her breakout performance in Monster.  Keaton has a knack for tapping into box-office friendly films and the upcoming The Big Wedding and eventual And So It Goes look like they could tap into the Because I Said So audience, if not Father of the Bride.

Meryl Streep, Ewan McGregor, Julia Roberts on the set
of August: Osage County

With high profile roles in the upcoming August: Osage County, as well as the following year assuming the Tony-winning role in the film version of The Normal Heart, Julia Roberts will be on Oscar's radar again.  I've always been a fan of Roberts the movie star, but, as an actress, while she was great in films like Steel Magnolias, Pretty Woman, and Erin Brockovich, I feel like I should qualify that statement by saying she's great in playing herself.  Still, being one of the biggest, if not the top, female box-office draws since Julie Andrews in the 1960s, isn't lost on everyone and carries with it some value.  I do wonder what she has worked out with Harvey Weinstein regarding her Oscar campaign for August.  Will she compete as a lead against Meryl Streep, who she wouldn't stand a chance at winning against, ala Terms of Endearment, and enjoy the "nice to be nominated" distinction?  Or, will she take the Chicago route and go for a win in supporting?  If the film is anything like the play, she would have to commit category fraud in order to do so.  Considering that she has Heart the following year, I'm going to predict she goes lead.  Margo Martindale is a highly likely nominee for supporting and just may take it too.

Another actress, and box-office queen heir apparent to Roberts, who won in her late 20s/early 30s was Reese Witherspoon.  Being one of the few bankable actresses and America's Sweetheart, she doesn't have the luxury of ever flying under the radar.  I wouldn't ever rule out her winning another lead, but it seems it would take a more specific set of circumstances than say Winslet or Theron.  She's already learned to play instruments and sung for a role and she's not the best/most believable at accents, so I imagine something down and dirty, to play against her pearly white image would be in order.  She has a supporting role in the upcoming Mud.  Another film set in the South, Devil's Knot, is based on West Memphis Three murders which suggests her role may also be supporting.  I saw the original documentary Paradise Lost years ago when it first came out and I don't recall many females, let alone mothers, playing an integral role in the story.  Perhaps there is more to it.  My understanding is she plays the mothers of one of the victims, who may have died at the hands of her crazy husband.  Devil's Knot has enough producers to choke a horse, including two of the West Memphis Three.  Interestingly enough, their roles are played by higher-profile actors (on the IMDb surface anyway), than the third (Damien Echols).  Echols, however, produced the stand-alone Peter Jackson-backed documentary West of Memphis, which comes out at the end of this year after the conclusion of the separate three-part Paradise Lost series, which spanned 15 years, the third part of which got nominated for an Oscar for 2011.  Commercial friendly potential projects Wish List and Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus aside, Witherspoon may chase awards attention with Big Eyes about artist Margaret Keane, which Kate Hudson was once attached to.

It seemed like it was going to take a major event role like Gypsy to get Barbra Streisand to climb out of acting semi-retirement.  Who knew all it would require was Ben Stiller batting his eyelashes at her to play his mother in two awful, but guaranteed box-office hits with Fockers in the titles.  With The Guilt Trip costarring Seth Rogen opening next month, she hasn't had a turnover rate this fast since Yentl.  The AMPAS don't nominate her unless they have to, though.  She has starred in nineteen films in her entire career; roughly 21% of her roles involved playing Rozalin Focker or Fanny Brace, the latter of which got her tied for an Oscar, along with Hepburn decades ago (bitch was going to get one more after winning three; why couldn't she let Babs have this to herself?).  She would get nominated four more times, but only once for acting (the others were for producing and songwriting).  I would never rule Babs out, but it's pretty much Gypsy or never.

Both Jane Fonda and Jodie Foster are legendary two-time lead winners.  Only five actors (Hepburn, Streep, Ingrid Bergman, Jack Nicholson, Walter Brennan) have been able to reach beyond the two Oscar mark.  It wouldn't be unheard of.  Both actresses have worked less as they've gotten older, although Fonda has gotten hungry again and enjoying a later-life career renaissance.  But, she also has a lot of personal baggage that the General Public has not, nor will ever forget.  Jessica Lange also has two (one of each) and if she were ever to have the chance at a third, it seems it would be in the supporting category, however unlikely.

I already mentioned Helen Mirren, Maggie Smith, and Emma Thompson being likelier possible future supporting actress winners rather than lead, and they are either in the prime or second-prime of their careers.  While Smith may be looking at a supporting nod this year, Mirren is still in the running for lead if Hitchcock has anything to do with it.  Thompson is involved in the behind-the-scene Mary Poppins film, and may play a human rights attorney in The Secret Evidence.  Smith might still be a player for a nod with Quartet or The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.

The list for potential supporting Oscars for the lead winners isn't a short one.  Ever since she finally won for Terms of Endearment, the AMPAS have been resistant to renominating Shirley MacLaine.  They may hit their breaking point with their obstinence soon, however, as it appears she is lining up all kinds of projects which could lead to major awards attention.  Her preproduction slate includes projects involving high-profile talent like Ben Stiller and Melissa McCarthy, as well as reunions with Jack Black and the role of Mother Goose!  The exposure will only help her, and semi-baity pairings with Christopher Walken and Christopher Plummer (Elsa & Fred with director Michael Radford) show a lot of promise on paper.

Kathy Bates is one of my favorite Oscar wins, partly because she's a non-traditional choice and it was for a villainous role in a movie audiences embraced (and she had actual competition unlike most years).  Since, she's been thrown a couple of supporting bones, consistently enough that she could pull out a supporting win somewhere down the line.  Currently, she enjoys splitting her time between TV and film, shrewdly choosing to work with female box-office draws.  She has also worked with Michelle Pfeiffer twice recently.  Sissy Spacek is a workhorse, especially in television, and had a lead nod in 2001.  Also a TV workhorse, Ellen Burstyn scored a lead nod and almost won in 2000, if it were not for the year-long red-carpet coronation ceremony for Julia Roberts, Oscar winner.  I imagine there are future nominations of some kind for Holly Hunter and Frances McDormand (who has a role in the upcoming Promised Land).  And Helen Hunt will likely be enjoying her second nod for The Sessions, along with possible two-time winner Sally Field, who I doubt ever has a shot at a lead statue, let alone supporting.  What would her speech be like?  "You don't just really like me, you love me"?  (Please note the embarrassing lines in both Field's second speech, as well as Swank's.  Geez, even they know they're not in like company.)

Julie Andrews has struggled with her singing voice due to a botched operation for years now.  She still does voice-over, but her last three films were Tooth Fairy starring The Rock, and The Princess Diaries movies from back when Anne Hathaway was still a girl.

Which bitch-ho decided that 
macrobiotic-slut GOOP 
could play ME?

With Exorcist II: The Heretic and Flowers in the Attic near the *TOP* of her resume, Louise Fletcher hasn't enjoyed the good fortune and timing of Kathy Bate's career.  We can safely say that music icon Cher will never be nominated for an Oscar ever again, since she stole it from Glenn Close for an albeit golden, charming performance (and there are worse things in the world) as a middle-aged Italian-American.  Also, there's that range thing that Cher doesn't have, nor interest and ambition in acting.  Another music-icon Liza Minnelli is lovable and crazy, I think we can all agree.  And that's how she will remain. And Faye Dunaway is just plain crazy.  She tumbled all the way from Chinatown to Louise Fletcher territory faster than you can say Mommie Dearest.  Recently, she has jumped into the field of directing.  And she has supposedly also halted her current production of a Maria Callas film after cameras began rolling to roam around film festivals for "inspiration."  WTF?  And, it seems Marlee Martin's feature career was over after she won at age 21 for Children of a Lesser God.  I imagine Kathleen Turner could have somehow used it to greater effect.

Hey, I can learn Spanish!

There are those one may say have gotten more than they deserve, namely an Oscar.  And one may say that list includes GOOP-founder Gwyneth Paltrow and Not-Without-My-Daughter (about an American escaping her homeland and baby-daddy for France) Halle Berry.  One might not say that.  Paltrow will shove her Spanish skills in our face as artist Dora Maar in a film that began lensing with Antonio Banderas as Pablo Picasso. Meanwhile, Berry night be showing off her acting skills off in thriller called The Hive and Sex and the City knockoff Shoe Addicts Anonymous.  But, what I'm really looking forward to is watching her blow out the candles before the blind boy celebrating his own birthday can in Movie 43.  One may also say two-too-many for Hilary Swank.  She began lensing her next film where she plays a woman dealing with Lou Gehrig's Disease.  Can she quit with the Oscar bait already?  It's unbecoming.  Whatever.  Screw her.  Acting is more than playing disabilities.  One might hope none of these actresses ever got nominated again.  And, there's a good chance they won't.  Some may also attribute such a label to Sandra Bullock.  For me, the box-office queen and overall good person stands apart from the aforementioned three.  She's lovable, sweet (or her publicist works overtime to create that perception the other actresses don't enjoy), and The Blind Side was a huge hit!  That being said, it's unlikely Bullock will ever got nominated again.  Yeah, Gravity is coming up.  Who knows.

Sophia Loren and Joanne Woodward may pop up here and there, but, for all intents and purposes, are in semi-retirement at the very least.  And, two-time winner Glenda Jackson, having long left acting for a life of politics, hasn't appeared in a feature in over two decades.  Olivia de Havilland and Joan Fontaine are estranged (!) sisters who are both approaching the centennial mark (!).  Will they make up already?  They're also both the oldest living Best Actress winners and haven't worked since the late 80s/early 90s.  And topping them all out in age is Luise Rainer, the two-time winner resides in London at age 102.  [Thank you to anonymous for the correction.]

Thanks for reading.  I hope you enjoyed this.  Stay tuned for a comparable article which details previous supporting actress winners.