Best Actress 1992: Margaret Schlegel

One of my favorite Best Actress Oscar wins was Emma Thompson's victory back in the early 1990s; it also completed the trifecta of Kathy Bates and Jodie Foster the previous two years.  She first came into international public consciousness with her professional and personal relationship opposite Kenneth Branagh.  She appeared in his Henry V in 1989 and then two years later they reteamed in surprise campy suspense hit Dead Again.  At that point, she was well on her way.  This year's frontrunners, both Jessica Chastain and Jennifer Lawrence, have also had relatively brief feature length careers; like Thompson in 1992, they're both up for parts that are fairly stripped down of any artifice.

Her Margaret Schlegel was that rare role with very little bait-association.  Certainly, Howards End was period and that prestige factor helped her chances a marginal amount.  But, what she was being judged on was her performance without the bells and whistles.  There was no major physical transformation, disability, or accent (I think); she didn't learn to play an instrument.  Her character didn't get raped and she wasn't playing a real-life person.  She was Schlegel, a spinster who, along with her siblings, lived a comfortable life.  Her concerns were her family, but then she finds herself on an odd journey manipulated by the insecurities and greed of others.  I loved her simple, no-nonsense attitude, which Thompson had no problem connecting with.  There was nothing flashy or earth-shattering about Schlegel, yet, with Thompson underneath her skin, she was mesmerizing.  Small events would leave these strange ripples and that had as much to do with Thompson as it did the direction and cinematography.  Howards End was certainly when Merchant/Ivory were at the top of their game and Thompson was their crown jewel.

She was in her early 30s when End hit and had no delusions of movie stardom.  She was a rising star who cut her teeth in the theatre and British TV.  She even had her own variety show.  Post-End, she went on to multiple nominations, including winning for screenwriting her adaptation of Sense & Sensibility.  From there, her profile quieted some, but she has been working steadily ever since.  Not only is she a talented actress, but she is intelligent and has a bubbly personality.  Stupid comments don't fall out of her mouth.  She knows how to choose her words in front of a camera and isn't full of herself; she's just intuitively smart.  She also possesses an engaging beauty, that makes her seem approachable, informed, curious about the world.  She doesn't have the stereotypical English pale complexion either.  She has some color, especially in Much Ado About Nothing.  And, with that hair?!  She never looked hotter.  A win for Thompson was really a win for us all.

When Howards End arrived early in 1992, it was an arthouse smash.  It grossed $26M domestic, but with inflation, I imagine it would have blown The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel out of the water.  People showed up to see this film.  And, as a bonus, it didn't suck.  It was actually quite fantastic.  While Susan Sarandon was slowly gaining momentum towards a win, she wasn't quite there yet with Lorenzo's Oil; Thompson ended up running the boards as Schlegel.

It was Catherine Deneuve who was a bit of surprise on nomination day; her Indochine eventually won Best Foreign Language film.  While Mary McDonnell was wisely recognized for her bitchy infirm soap opera actress, Alfre Woodward was strangely left out of either category.  Perhaps, it was a poorly run campaign, considering her costar slipped in with nothing but a Golden Globe nomination (which, granted, carried a lot of weight back then).  Despite Miranda having a strong year with three movies showcasing her talents (one of which was Best Picture nominee The Crying Game) and winning the Golden Globe Comedy (often a likely ticket to an Oscar nomination), she ended up going for supporting with Damage going against her Enchanted April costar Joan Plowright.  Orion dusted Love Field off the shelf to fast track Michelle Pfeiffer to a nod.  As the competition wasn't overly strong that year (all of Thompson's fellow nominees were late-year low-grossing entries), the gloriously trashy Basic Instinct did secure nominations for both Score and Film Editing.  So, it wasn't unheard of that Sharon Stone was in contention.  It's unclear if the bad press the film received from the GLTQ community helped, hindered, or had no effect on her chances.  Though, with Annette Bening missing out for Bugsy the year before, and the smokey-voiced dame Kathleen Turner only getting noticed once by The Academy, one could surmise that the stodgy-old AMPAS just had a thing against a tough broad.  Whatever the case, with Jennifer Jason Leigh in Single White Female and Rebecca De Mornay in The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, it was a GREAT year for villainesses.

The Nominees:
Emma Thompson, Howards End: GG Drama, LA, New York, Chicago, Boston, Kansas City, Southeastern, NBR, National Socity, BAFTA winner.  (92% RT)

Susan Sarandon, Lorenzo's Oil: GG Drama, New York (2nd), Chicago, National Society nominee.  ($7.3M; 94% RT)

Michelle Pfeiffer, Love Field: Berlin winner; GG Drama, New York (3rd) nominee.  ($1M; 36% RT)

Mary McDonnell, Passion Fish: GG Drama nominee.  ($4.8M; 100% RT)

Catherine Deneavue, Indochine: César Award winner.  ($5.6M; 71% RT)

The Also-Ran:
Sharon Stone, Basic Instinct: GG Drama, Chicago nominee.  ($49M / $117.7M / $352.9M; 64% RT)

The Also-Nominated (for Supporting): 
Judy Davis, Husbands and Wives: LA (supporting), Chicago (supporting), Boston (supporting), Kansas City (supporting), Southeastern (supporting), NBR (supporting), National Society (supporting), London (lead) winner; GG supporting, New York (supporting; 2nd), BAFTA (lead) nominee.  ($10.6M; 100% RT)

Miranda Richardson, Damage (possible lead for Enchanted April, supplemented by The Crying Game): AMPAS supporting nominee, GG Comedy, New York (supporting) winner; BAFTA (supporting) winner/nominee; GG supporting, LA (supporting; 2nd), National Society (supporting; 2nd), Chicago (supporting) nominee.  (Damage: $7.5M, 80% RT; Enchanted April: $13.2M, 82% RT; The Crying Game: $62.6M, 100% RT)

The Rest of the Competition:

Alfre Woodard, Passion Fish: Independent Spirit (supporting) winner; LA (lead; 2nd), New York (supporting; 3rd), GG supporting nominee.

Pernilla August, The Best Intentions: Cannes winner, National Society (4th) nominee.  ($1.3M; 100% RT)

Li Gong, Raise the Red Lantern: National Society (3rd) nominee.  ($2.6M; 96% RT)

Jennifer Jason Leigh, Single White Female: Chicago nominee.  ($48M; 56% RT)

Geena Davis, A League of Their Own: GG Comedy nominee.  ($40M / $107.5M / $132.4M; 82% RT)

Tara Morice, Strictly Ballroom: BAFTA nominee.  ($11.7M; 95% RT)

Shirley MacLaine, Used People: GG Comedy nominee.  ($18M; 38% RT)

Meryl Streep, Death Becomes Her: GG Comedy nominee.  ($55M / $58.4M / $149M; 43% RT)

Whoopi Goldberg, Sister Act: GG Comedy nominee.  ($139.6M / $231.6M; 71% RT)

Rebecca De Mornay, The Hand that Rocks the Cradle: Chicago nominee.  ($88M; 59% RT)