Best Supporting Actress 1983

[FilmFan720]

James Coco did the same thing a few years earlier too, for Only When I Laugh. Remember, this was the day when the Razzie's didn't go for the obvious worst films of the year, but more of the most disappointing and ridiculous "respected" films

[anonymous1980]

How DID Amy Irving earn both an Oscar nom and a Razzie nom at the same time? Was her performance really that divisive?

[ITALIANO]

America was less politically correct back then (thank God) - or maybe it's just that Linda Hunt's unique acting job trascended any kind of possible criticism. And unique it was - in an otherwise unmemorable movie, Hunt wasn't just an actress playing an ethnic male role, but an actor creating a multi-dimensional, affecting character. Needless to say, I've given her my vote.

Especially considering the not stellar competition, today any other outcome would seem unthinkable, but it's true that back then the race was perceived as being really between Cher and Glenn Close - two completely different actresses, but both much-loved and - rightly, it turned out - considered to be potential stars of tomorrow. Cher is actually good in Silkwood, but I feel that, had Hunt not been there, the Oscar would have gone to Glenn Close (it's actually very possible that Close finished second four of the five times she was nominated).

After Cher, Woodard would probably be my third choice - though her movie is really nothing special. As for Amy Irving, I wasn't at all impressed by her when I saw Yentl many years ago. But things change; I've seen Yentl again by chance very recently and, well, impressed would still be too much, but I've certainly understood why she was nominated. She was very young and obviously not technically expert - but as Barbra Streisand was even too technical, Irving represented a pleasant contrast. Her character has an interesting narrative arc, her acting was quite natural and spontaneous, and she also was extremely beautiful.

[Bruce_Lavigne]

I'm surprised to see so many questions regarding Glenn Close's nomination for such a wonderful performance in such a popular (even moreso at the time) movie. Mary Kay Place's snub for the same film definitely raises my eyebrows, but Close's nomination is as well-deserved as any in this category.

I'm voting for Linda Hunt anyway, though. My B.S. detector usually starts beeping pretty loudly when I see white actors cast as non-white characters, and at first glance it sure seems like they should've tried to get somebody of Asian descent to play Billy Kwan -- to say nothing of, y'know, a guy.

But somehow, it works. Maybe it's the sheer weirdness of it -- a half-Chinese Australian man with dwarfism, played by a white American woman who just happens to be really short? Who even considered her for this part?

Maybe it's the fact that in this case, the casting seems motivated by actual artistic necessity. The role is essential enough to the film that you want a seasoned actor playing it, even if you can only find one who needs some pretty serious wardrobe and makeup magic to play it. It's not like this is Angelina Jolie in A Mighty Heart, taking a role that could (and should) easily have gone to an actress of color, in an attempt to make a non-commercial movie seem commercial.

Or maybe it's the fact that Hunt, apparently already a highly-regarded stage actress, had never really had a chance to shine on film before, and realized that such chances would be few and far between for her, so when a meaty actor's-dream role like Billy came her way she just seized on it.

Whatever it is, not only is the transformation seamless, but the actual performance is one of the best ever rewarded in this category. I'm somewhat lukewarm on The Year of Living Dangerously as a whole, but Hunt's performance is as rave-worthy as it's been made out to be. The stunt casting might have made her impossible for Oscar to ignore, but the performance itself justifies their attention.

[flipp525]

Amy Irving won a Razzie nomination for her performance as Hadass in Yentl in addition to this Oscar nod. I don't think there is anything particularly offensive enough in the acting to earn a Razzie. In fact, Irving acquits herself rather well. She has the difficult task of conveying a dawning sensibility--her growing love for Streisand's Anshel--within the constraints of her prescribed feminine role and there are moments that are quite tender between the two. Her work actually raises the emotional stakes of the entire film.

Cher's performance in Silkwood as the homely Dolly Pelliker is so natural and unaffected. It’s deferential to Streep's brash and dominating Karen, but in her ordinariness, Cher conveys something honest and true in Dolly. In another year, she could have easily taken this. And, oh look, there's Diana Scarwid again, quietly turning in another solid performance.

I find Cross Creek to be a pretty laborious effort on the whole. The story is kind of boring, the casting is pretty unimaginative (Rip Torn is downright hokey) and you kind of keep asking yourself why the film was made (and for what audience). Alfre Woodard comes out of the whole affair mostly unscathed, but it's not a character or a performance I'd dream of voting for in this lineup. I did appreciate her ability to create a full-bodied human being out of a character that was essentially a composite of several of Rawlin's maids. It's hard to believe that this is her sole nomination.

As others have pointed out, Glenn Close's nomination was probably at the expense of the equally wonderful Mary Kay Place. But, I think Close did an incredible job of conveying the quiet devastation that Alex's suicide has effected in her while outwardly portraying the one friend who's keeping everyone together. It's a very delicate balance and she does it wonderfully. Surely, goodwill leftover from her Garp loss must've helped secure this nomination, but by no means is this negligible work.

On Linda Hunt: I really think that her performance in The Year of Living Dangerously earned one of the most deserved Best Supporting Actress Oscars of this decade (the 80's offered a particularly outstanding string of winners in this category, no matter how much of a glut the decade was in as a whole). Not only was Hunt completely believable playing a man without any stunt-like fanfare, but her character realistically served as the moral compass of the film, a trait she portrayed nobly and beautifully. A great actress, no matter what she looks like or how tall she is.

Others worth mentioning: Kim Stanley in The Right Stuff; Sudie Bond in Silkwood; Roxana Zal in Testament; and Kathleen Quinlan in The Twilight Zone: The Movie.



Edited By flipp525 on 1284811535

[Reza]

Voted for Hunt.

My top 5 of 1983:

Linda Hunt, The Year of Living Dangerously
Dianne Wiest, Independance Day
Cher, Silkwood
Greta Scacchi, Heat and Dust
Madhur Jaffrey, Heat and Dust

[Big Magilla]

I forgot about Dianne Wiest. Her battered wife in Independence Day was a knockout, and to this day remains one of her three best screen performances. Maybe not quite as good as Hannah or Bullets, but definitely a notch better than Parenthood.

[Precious Doll]

I think this is a good line up but nothing Oscar worthy which is a shame because there were a number of better performances than those nominated including a career best from a future two time supporting actress winner.

I voted for Cher and my choices are:

1. Dianne Wiest for Independence Day
2. Paula E. Sheppard for Liquid Sky
3. Sandra Bernhard for The King of Comedy
4. Veronica Cartwright for The Right Stuff
5. Tess Harper for Tender Mercies

Others of note that I preferred to any of the nominees include Diahnne Abbott & Shelley Hack for The King of Comedy, Mary Jo Deschanel & Pamela Reed for The Right Stuff, Patricia Hodge for Betrayal, Jane Lapotaire for Eureka & Michelle Pfieffer for Scarface.

[Damien]

Just as "The Sixties" didn't really start until JFK's assassination or Martin Luther King March on Washington the 1964 race riots or the Berkeley student revolt (pick your own touchstone), the Crappiest Decade In The History Of American Movies didn't really start until 1983. This was a painful year for filmgoers, and it would just get worse.

Appropriately, I couldn't care less about any of these 5 nominees. None of them is better than adequate, and, except for Silkwood, the films for which they were nominated are putrid.

I'll vote for Glenn Close simply because somewhere along the line, Glenn Close should have had an Oscar.

My Own Top 5:
1. Kim Basinger in The Man Who Loved Women
2. Shelley Hack in The King of Comedy
3. Fernanda Montenegro in They Don't Wear Black Tie
4. Jamie Lee Curtis in Trading Places
5. Fiona Lewis in Strange Invaders

[Mister Tee]

I never heard a word. The country wasn't exactly sensitive to Asian issues at the time. (The Miss Saigon thing is the first raising of it I ever heard, and, I must tell you, I knew a good many liberals who viewed it as wildly overblown. Different times)

It's also possible it wasn't an issue because Linda Hunt is so odd-looking, no one really knew what her nationality was.

Irony, I guess, in this context: the following year, Hunt presented the award to one of Oscar's few Asian winners, Haing S. Ngor.

[Big Magilla]

The only complaints about Linda Hunt playing an Asain man are the recent ones that have popped up on the imdb. At the time it wasn't an issue as far as I knew.

[FilmFan720]

Not having seen Cher or Irving, the former of who seems to be a serious competitor, I am not going to vote here.

I do have a historical question, though. Was there any bad press/backlash against Linda Hunt for her role? I know we are a good 7 years ahead of the Miss Saigon scandal, but did no one find it odd that a Caucasian woman was playing an Asian man? The performance was so good that you forgive the possible racism in the choice, but I was wondering what the in the moment feeling was.

[Mister Tee]

Magilla, we see this year very much the same. Tess Harper and, especially, Gunn Walgren could have made the list -- that the latter failed to place despite Fanny and Alexander's clear beloved status shows just how difficult it is for even a dominant supporting performer in a foreign film to qualify.

I'd been a big fan of Mary Kay Place from the Mary Hartman years, and thought all Fall that she'd be the one from that ensemble to be cited. Like you, I wondered if Close's nomination -- not undeserved, but not inevitable -- was hangover voting from Garp. (Certainly her jaw-dropping inclusion in '84 was)

I was also quite smitten with Amy Irving at the time -- I'd really liked her around then in a Circle in the Square production of Heartbreak House -- and I didn't think she was bad in Yentl (though she wasn't up to Mandy Patinkin, who I thought was the film's standout). But she's probably the one Wallgren should have replaced.

Alfre Woodard was a mystery nominee to me at the time -- Cross Creek had come and gone quickly that Fall, and I didn't see it till almost a year later on HBO. She's strong in the film (as usual), but the role has its servile qualities -- she respects Rawlings and is watching her closely, but she'll also, conveniently, do all that nasty housework. It's a shame Woodward hasn't had more roles to accumulate further nominations; Passion Fish (for which she was passed over) and the TV Miss Evers' Boys show just how high she can fly.

Cher was a reasonably popular prediction for the win, especially after she won the Globe. I'm glad for her sake she didn't win, because she'd have been forever after thought to have stolen the award from her clear superior on sentiment alone. And the performance deserves better than that, because she's, in fact, quite good -- very different from her public persona but completely believable.

But for me this vote is a no-brainer. Linda Hunt obviously got points for stunt/degree of difficulty. But it's like Holly Hunter in The Piano: even if you look past the stunt, she's pretty goddamn sensational. Billy Kwan is a wonderful character to begin; a male Asian short person would have made an impression as well. But Hunt, in addition to the tranformation, gives Kwan a wonderfully mysterious, almost ethereal quality. She's a really special actress, and we're lucky to have had her for this part.

But, as I say, there was all kinds of doubt about whether she'd triumph. I recently run across the You Tube of her category/acceptance speech, and had my memory of that night confirmed: when her name was read off in nomination, the applause rose like a roar. It was the first moment I truly believed she'd win -- an instinct confirmed moments later when Dyan Cannon read out her name. It was one of the happiest Oscar moments I've ever experienced.

Now, let's see if she repeats her triumph here. For how many others is she a no-brainer?

[Big Magilla]

Cher and Alfre Woodward would have made perfectly acceptable winners, but this was Linda Hunt's year and she deserved to win for her stunning portrayal of the diminutive photographer in The Year of Living Dangerously. Never mind the stunt casting - she was neither Asian nor a man - she was was just plain brilliant.

Glenn Close was good in The Big Chill but I've always wondered if she had won the year before if her slot might have gone instead to her equally impressive co-star, Mary Kay Place.

What Amy Irving was doing in this company I'll never know. Tess Harper in Tender Mercies would have been my pick for the fifth slot with Roxana Zal in Testament and Gunn Walgren in Fanny & Alexander acceptable fill-ins, but Amy Irving in Yentl? Nah.



Edited By Big Magilla on 1289756892