Leading? Supporting? Who's who in award season's favorite game?
And now let the category shifting games begin circa 2009.
Kate Winslet got through most of the 2008 awards season winning supporting awards for her lead performance in "The Reader" before late inning voters in the British Academy and Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences caught on and properly nominated her role where it belonged: leading actress.
She won both the BAFTA and Oscar, even though she was competing against her own "Revolutionary Road" performance in the former.
This category trickery was a strategy employed by the actress, her reps and the studios involved after "The Reader" became the Weinstein Company's last minute entry into the derby. This complicated matters greatly for Winslet, who wasn't counting on having both "Revolutionary Road" and "The Reader" compete in the same year. In theory, at least, the strategy would allow the actress to avoid canceling herself with her two leading roles.
It makes sense and it worked for awhile. She started out by winning Supporting Actress for "Reader" at the Broadcast Film Critics Association's Critics Choice awards and then actually won two Golden Globes for Best Actress in "Revolutionary Road" while picking up another Best Supporting Actress for "The Reader."
It happens all the time as strategists, often with input from actors and their PR reps, try to figure out which category they have the best chance in, supporting or lead.
As Universal campaign consultants and publicity honchos finally see their big Meryl Streep Christmas Day release, "It's Complicated" at a screening on the lot today they may find themselves asking the same questions since Streep is already thought to be a major best actress contender for her performance as Julia Child in Columbia's "Julie & Julia." If she delivers equally in "It's Complicated," an award strategy that doesn't divide her votes could prove to be, well, complicated. Would both studios get together with Streep's reps and try to have it both ways by suggesting (as Winslet did initially) that a leading role in "Julie & Julia" is really supporting despite the fact that she has top billing?
Even though the film goes back and forth in time between Streep and co-star Amy Adams, it can be argued that the real arc of the story belongs to Adams character. If Columbia could convince potential voters of this, Streep could land a supporting nod for her Julia Child impersonation and clear the way for a lead actress nomination for the Christmas entry, making everyone happy and Streep the odds-on favorite to pick up a third Oscar (most likely for "Julie & Julia"). She wouldn't even be the first actress playing a title role of Julia to pick up a Supporting Actress Oscar. Vanessa Redgrave already did that in 1977 for, you guessed it, "Julia."
It's certainly not unprecedented to see leading roles awarded supporting Oscars. Walter Matthau in "The Fortune Cookie," Timothy Hutton in "Ordinary People," Jack Albertson in "The Subject Was Roses" (a role for which he won the Tony), Tatum O'Neal in "Paper Moon," Jennifer Hudson in "Dreamgirls" (a role that won Jennifer Holliday a Best Actress Tony), Catherine Zeta Jones in "Chicago" and many others have done it in the past.
Columbia's sister studio Sony Pictures Classics which has 13, count 'em, 13 movies they are pitching in various Oscar races this year must also be very busy sorting out who goes where. They have at least double the number of contenders of one stripe or another than any other distributor. According to studio sources never-nominated veteran star Christopher Plummer is going in the supporting category for their December release, "The Last Station," a movie in which he stars as Leo Tolstoy opposite Helen Mirren as his wife. Mirren is being pitched for Lead Actress even though their actual screen time is similar. Is it a coincidence that there is perceived lesser competition in the Best Supporting Actor race this year, than the crowded Best Actor contest? Or that there seems to be less competition in Best Actress than in the logjam over at Supporting Actress? Plus SPC was facing an added problem with another of their December releases, "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus" in which Plummer plays the title role. We hear Plummer is likely being pitched as Best Actor for that picture which makes perfect sense..
All this means that James McAvoy, who plays Tolstoy's new assistant in "Last Station" and was thought to be a more likely supporting choice, is getting bumped up to Best Actor probably because he does actually have more screen time than anyone else in the picture. Hmmmm.
Over at the Weinstein Company, another distributor with a wealth of potential nominees, the strategy game is also being played regarding "Nine," Rob Marshall's all star musical adaptation starring Daniel Day Lewis and a host of superstar actresses. In both the 1982 original Broadway staging and its 2003 revival the three main female roles all competed both times for featured, rather than lead actress since other than the one male lead, it was viewed as more of an ensemble. With the movie version promising choice turns from co-stars Marion Cotillard, Penelope Cruz and Judi Dench in those Tony nominated roles (Oscar winners all), it's buzzed that the strategy is to bump Cotillard up to lead actress with Dench and Cruz in support.
For Cotillard and Cruz this is undeniably a good thing since Cotillard could figure in Supporting Actress already for July's "Public Enemies" while Cruz is being touted for Best Actress by, you guessed it, Sony Classics for her role in "Broken Embraces"!
Like we said, "it's complicated."
Photo: Meryl Streep is Julia Child in "Julie & Julia." / Columbia Pictures
it's not complicated at all. she is lead in julie&julia and it would be a grave error to put her anywhere else. besides, it's the kind of role and performance that is apparently endearing to academy members, given the substantial number of actors and actresses who won in biopics.
meryl's performance in julie&julia garnered universal praise and acclaim. (ok, discount the ones who just don't like her, in anything).
"it's complicated" seems like a fun movie (especially to an older demographic), but not award-worthy judging from its trailers!
Posted by: alluhrey | October 13, 2009 at 03:36 AM
If Meryl Streep was a lead in "Devil Wears Prada", she's the lead in "Julie & Julia".
Interesting you mentioned Vanessa Redgrave's "Julia", as Meryl was in that movie too.
Posted by: LostBoy68 | October 13, 2009 at 08:11 AM
I'm really wondering about Sophia Loren for supporting actress in Nine. She could garner "last chance to nominate her" support.
Posted by: Jon | October 13, 2009 at 09:59 AM
Meryl is lead in J&J period. She is also the frontrunner in lead so put her where she should be placed. LEAD!!!! This is a riduculous question.
Posted by: markus | October 13, 2009 at 11:00 AM
Just a correction on one of the facts in your post. Jack Albertson won a Tony for "The Subject Was Roses" but it was for Featured Actor in a Play; not Lead Actor. At that time, above or below the title billing determined in which category a performer was placed, not actual size of the role. Albertson was billed below the title and was therefore placed in the featured actor category.
Posted by: Ray | October 13, 2009 at 01:57 PM
Meryl Streep is the best actress period.
Posted by: thomas | October 13, 2009 at 04:30 PM