Best Actress 1987: Loretta Castorini

They both cleaned up well, both peaking looks-
wise; but, to Cher's credit, he had practically
a two-decade advantage

The frontrunner for Best Actress with the critics groups in 1987 was newcomer Holly Hunter for Broadcast News, James L. Brooks peak inside the workings and politics of primetime news.  She delivered a memorable serio-comic performance as a producer in the middle of a love triangle, Jane Craig, a more likable answer to Faye Dunaway's Oscar winning Diana Christensen in Network.  More liberal virtue, less blood-hungry ratings grabbing, Broadcast News was earnest, but more superficial than it was probably willing to admit.  A theatrical commitment would prevent Hunter from participating fully in the awards season (who was having a great year also having released the hit Raising Arizona).  She was up for the Golden Globe in a Comedy or Musical and when she lost to Cher, her chances for an Oscar win almost evaporated entirely.  A win in this category often leads to an Oscar nomination, sometimes not, sometimes more.  But, a loss in this category seldom bodes well for the actress. A nomination is still possible, if the Drama side isn't so competitive, but a win for lead?  Only Hunter's old roommate and Raising Arizona costar Frances McDormand has pulled it off since for Fargo.  She lost the Globe to Evita's Madonna, whom the HFPA worship, but the Oscars relish in ignoring.

She couldn't steal one
just like a baby, so Oscar,
like motherhood,
would have to wait

But, Cher, another musical icon, had more going for her than Madonna.  With her respected film debut in Come Back to the Five and Dime, a nomination for Silkwood, and a perceived snub for Mask, Cher had built up an immense amount of good-will in the movie industry with only a handful of films (Moonstruck was also her final bow for the year, with three well-received films in 1987).  Not only that, but Moonstruck (which according to commenter Robert A. had Sally Field attached to the project) was an even bigger box-office sensation than Broadcast News.  A Best Picture nominee in its own right, it would go on to prove to have been a formidable candidate winning three Oscars after the evening was finished.  By comparison, currently, Moonstruck is one of the basic positive indicators of Jennifer Lawrence's chances at a win for Silver Linings Playbook.  The Oscar winner is culled from the Golden Globe Comedy/Musical category about 30% of the time.  If you specify modern romantic-comedy, it's less than 10%.  To complicate matters further, Lawrence is not the lead like Cher, and Playbook is idling along at the box-office and may not even eke out the $45M Harvey Weinstein's The Artist managed to do.

The Three Faces of Sally

One of her other main competitors was Sally Kirkland for Anna, who had invested a great deal of time and emotion into getting an Oscar.  Decades later, her reaction to the loss would become a small internet meme.  After twenty-five years of countless movies, plays, auditions, learning Czech, everything rested in this moment for the actress.  But, alas, Hollywood did not want to turn her into a star and she would have been better being thankful for having gotten nominated.  After Paul Newman read Cher's name, if Kirkland's look could kill, she would have keeled over on the spot that night.  The moment mirrored her title character in a plot that was a hat-tip to All About Eve.  It was only a split second later that she realized the camera was on her that she joined in the applause for the victor and painted a smile on her face. Ever the actress that she is, she exposed a vulnerable and real side to the business that often gets painted over with a broad glitzy brush.

You give the performance of a lifetime and the AMPAS
shit on you

Even though she was playing a villain, a character type The Academy doesn't generally cotton to in the Best Actress race, Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction had delivered one balls-out amazing turn as batshit crazy singleton book editor Alex Forrest.  A role that originally was turned down by Miranda Richardson, as well as several other actresses including Debra Winger (and sought after by tons of other notable names), Close fought hard for the part, and with costar Michael Douglas' support, eventually won it.  The movie made mad money and became a touchstone in debates regarding feminism, fidelity, and casual sex, especially in the age of AIDS; it also kicked off Douglas unofficial Persecuted White Male Trilogy that would continue with Basic Instinct and Disclosure.  Perhaps Close was never a player for the win, but it's difficult for me to imagine otherwise.

This is how it's done ...

The closest this category has come to a four-way race in modern history, the fifth slot went to Meryl Streep, as she sometimes surfaced as a placeholder.  As for the also-ran's, I've never seen The Whales of August, so I can't speak to the performances, including Lillian Gish's.  I do remember talk of "another shutout" towards Barbra Streisand for Nuts, though I imagine her chances were right down there with Faye Dunaway's, who, herself, had become somewhat of a joke.  Young Emily Lloyd had also made an impression on Siskel & Ebert with her turn in Wish You Were Here.  Perhaps with two comedies in the race already, Diane Keaton didn't have a shot with Baby Boom, but it certainly did some healthy business at the box-office. Sarah Miles was the matriarch in Hope and Glory, but it was the only Best Picture with a lead actress who didn't make it into her respective race. Rachel Chagall (whose costar was nominated) was one of the only lower profile actresses in contention to secure a Golden Globe Drama slot, as well as having a pretty baity role.

The very first year I really began to pay any real close attention to Oscar, 1987 was truly a great year for the Best Actress race, perhaps even my favorite. I would have voted for Close, but I certainly can't begrudge Cher, Sally Kirkland notwithstanding.

The Nominees:

... bitches

-Cher, Moonstruck: GG Comedy, Kansas City winner; BAFTA nominee (Domestic: $80.6M; 94% RT)
-Holly Hunter, Broadcast News: LA, New York, Boston, NBR, Berlin winner; GG Comedy, National Society (3rd) nominee ($51.3M / Worldwide: $67.3M; 98%)
-Glenn Close, Fatal Attraction: GG Drama nominee ($156.7M / $320.2, Fall; 79%)
-Sally Kirkland, Anna: GG Drama, LA, ISA winner ($1.2M)
-Meryl Streep, Ironweed ($7.4M; 65%)

The Competition:
-Rachel Chagall, Gaby: A True Story: GG Drama nominee ($0.1M, Fall)
-Sarah Miles, Hope and Glory: BAFTA nominee ($10M, Fall; 94%)
-Emily Lloyd, Wish You Were Here: National Society winner; BAFTA nominee ($3.3M, Summer; 83%)
-Barbra Streisand, Nuts: GG Drama nominee ($31M; 38%)
-Christine Lahti, Housekeeping: New York (2nd) nominee ($1.1M; 100%)
-Lillian Gish, The Whales of August: NBR winner; ISA nominee ($1.3M, Fall; 63%)
-Maggie Smith, The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne: BAFTA winner ($0.5M)
-Diane Keaton, Baby Boom: GG Comedy, National Society (2nd) nominee ($26.7M, Fall; 81%)
-Faye Dunaway, Barfly: GG Drama nominee ($3.2M, Fall; 78%)
-Anne Bancroft, 84 Charing Cross Road: BAFTA winner ($1.1M, Winter; 86%)
-Julie Walters, Personal Services: BAFTA nominee ($1.7M, Spring)
-Bette Midler, Outrageous Fortune: GG Comedy nominee ($52.9M, Winter; 50%)
-Jennifer Grey, Dirty Dancing: GG Comedy nominee ($6M / $63.5M / $214M, Summer; 68%)

poll by twiigs.com

Read More

Happy Birthday Suit: Glenn Close

Glenn Close at 2012 Oscar Ceremony 

Very few actresses make their film debut at age 35 (or anywhere near it), especially in these days, but in 1982, George Roy Hill introduced Glenn Close to cinema-going audiences as Jenny Fields.  She played a lesbian nurse ahead of her time who took motherhood into her own hands (literally and otherwise) way before science caught up in The World According to Garp.  Having read the book, I can't say there would have been a better casting choice.  She would not only get a Supporting Actress Oscar nomination, but score two more out of her first three films.  She was to AMPAS nods kind of like Mariah Carey was to #1 charting songs her first time out.  Today, Close turns 65.  She is older than any of The Golden Girls when the show first started.  My, how we view "the elderly" these days has changed in a relatively short period of time.  I will always love me some Dorothy, Rose, Blanche, and Sophia (yeah, in that order), but I'd pray for their souls if Patty Hewes were ever to come sniffing around their Miami home looking for a slice of cheesecake from the freezer.

[Picture via Just Jared]

1987 would be the year that changed everything for Close.  While she was doing better career-wise than most actresses working at that point, she was becoming a bit of a wallflower.  Her performances were sound and she was getting properly noticed, but did middle-America really know or care who she was?  Not really.  But, along came the role of Alex Forrest in Fatal Attraction, a singleton book publisher on the brink of middle age whose weekend affair with a married man reveals her to be one psychotic bitch.  Many of Hollywood's most sought after actresses turned it down for reasons stemming from typecasting fears, moral grounds, etc.  And many more would probably have chopped off a finger (or boiled a bunny), so to speak, to land this plum role.  After campaigning to be cast and receiving support from costar Michael Douglas, Close nabbed the part.  She played against her unassuming type and dove head first into the hyper-sexual and nut-job nature of the villain.  Yeah, Close went there.  And there, and there, and there.  We haven't seen ANYTHING like her Alex Forrest since.

Close sports her slammin' body in the calm before the storm,
the suicide(s), boiled bunny, kidnapping, and wrath of fury.

The movie went on to make a gazillion dollars (a bazillion dollars adjusted for inflation).  Close and Douglas also made the cover of Time magazine (which was kind of a big deal many moons ago).  Everyone was talking about Fatal Attraction in the age of heightened awareness concerning AIDS, as well as the anti-feminist overtones of this socially questionable thriller.

Winning the Oscar for her touchstone performance proved to be difficult.  Subsequent wins would raise an eyebrow on how she could lose in retrospect.  Kathy Bates would brilliantly play a crazy villain in Misery, the only difference being that she is never viewed as a sexual object.  Charlize Theron would play a serial killer based on the life of a real woman, but her film would present her in an extremely sympathetic light.  It seems that the hangups the AMPAS would have back in 1987 would stack the cards against Close.  She would end up losing to Cher, of all people, an actress, who for so many years struggled for respect as an actress would take home the little gold man for a comedy-romance where she puts on a Brooklyn accent.  Don't get me wrong, Cher was absolutely wonderful and deserved to be recognized.  But, if I had my druthers, Close would have went home a winner.

A year later, Close would lose again for an ambiguously lead role in Dangerous Liaisons.  Child-star turned into legitimate adult actor Jodie Foster would eclipse her chances at a "makeup" Oscar and start her ascension to superstardom, as well as a trend to recognize young actresses whose characters endure rape for the sake of awards attention (Hilary Swank in Boys Don't Cry, Theron in Monster).  After Meryl Streep, along with Jessica Lange, Glenn Close was the most Oscar-nominated actor of the 1980's.  She has won several awards including the Emmy (3), SAG (1), Golden Globe (2), and Tony (3).    Dubiously, she has the distinction for being one of the most nominated actors for an Oscar without winning.

Aside from a delicious turn as real life Sunny Van Bülow, Close, well into her 40's, was experiencing the Hollywood kiss of death for actresses.  Having gotten such a late start on screen, and now being considered "old" within less than a decade, she took on mostly supporting roles in dramas.  She would often play high-level professional women with great responsibilities such as in The Paper and the hugely profitable Air Force One (where she played a U.S. Vice President to Harrison Ford's President right as Hollywood began fetishizing The White House).  She also branched out into broad comedy in big-budget endeavors such as Hook, Mars Attacks! (as the First Lady), The Stepford Wives remake and headlining the 101 Dalmatians franchise as the iconic Cruella de Vil.

In 2012, after almost 25 years, she received her next Academy Award nomination--her sixth--for her passion project Albert Nobbs.  An adaptation of a novel from George Moore, she first performed the title character on Broadway in the early 1980's.  It took her years, but she finally adapted it into a screenplay and secured financing.  While the film didn't make a great deal of money, it was a personal accomplishment and garnered her even more respect within the industry.

These days, however, Close is best known for her award-winning role as Patty Hewes on the FX series Damages, which will bow this summer with its fifth and final season.  She is currently attached to star in the very exciting prospect Thérèse Raquin, opposite rising star Elizabeth Olsen.  While rumors have abounded for years concerning a movie version of the Sunset Boulevard musical, a role which won her a Tony, budgetary reasons have prevented the project from ever reaching full fruition and if she ever had a chance to reprise in the role, it would have been during the Dalmatian movies where her public visibility was still quite high.

As far as her personal life, Close has had a few short marriages, as well as a relationship which produced her only child, Annie.  She married for the third time in 2006 to her longtime partner businessman David E. Shaw.  She is also a renowned canine lover and supports a program where prisoners train service dogs for war veterans.

Previous Actress Retrospectives:

Jennifer Aniston     Drew Barrymore     Glenn Close     Jessica Biel     Juliette Binoche     Geena Davis     Goldie Hawn     Holly Hunter     Eva Mendes     
Rosie O'Donnell     Lena Olin     Meg Ryan     Rachel Weisz

Read More