Natalie Portman is the likely winner for Best Actress this year for her thrilling, hold no bars performance in Black Swan. If she wins, she'll be in good company because Oscar loves it when the ladies go crazy:
Past winners for playing crazy (though, in fairness, some of these characters were just made to think they were crazy) include Joan Fontaine in Suspicion (1941), Ingrid Bergman in Gaslight (1944), Vivien Leigh in A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), Joanne Woodward in The Three Faces of Eve (1957), Kathy Bates in Misery (1990), and Jessica Lange in Blue Sky (1994).
Women nominated for playing mentally unhinged characters include Bette Davis in The Letter (1940) and What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962), Gloria Swanson in Sunset Boulevard (1950), Elizabeth Taylor in Suddenly, Last Summer (1959), Gena Rowlands in A Woman Under the Influence (1974), Isabella Adjani in The Story of Adele H. (1975), Sissy Spacek in Carrie (1976), Jessica Lange in Frances (1982), Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction (1987), and Ellen Burstyn in Requiem for a Dream (2000).
The Supporting Actress category has seen a few mad girls, too, including 1999's winner Angelina Jolie for Girl, Interrupted, and nominees Jean Simmons for Hamlet (1948) and Linda Blair for The Exorcist (1972)
4 comments:
Most interesting,
I hadn't really thought of this before, but I must say you certainly have a point, it does seem women on the verge of insanity are often rewarded by the Oscars.
I think Natalie Portman is definitely going to win this year, she was very good and certainly deserves it, but I didn't really like the film as a whole...
An interesting idea.. the Oscars loving "a woman on the verge" but Natalie Portman sure is among the favourites this year. Colin Firth is also up there for Best Actor.
i love a good woman on the verge performance. great post!
Interesting post. If some of these performances are as good as Natalie Portman is, I’ve definitely got to add a few more titles to the list of movies I need to check out
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