Amy Adams has stored 5 Academy Award nominations, four for Best Supporting Actress (
Junebug, 2005;
Doubt, 2008;
The Fighter, 2010;
and
The Master, 2012) and most recently one for Best Actress (
American Hustle, 2013). 5 nominations in 8 years is impressive, cementing that the Academy and Hollywood in general consider Adams to be a leading actress of her generation. And each year, the 39 year old actor was a casualty of pre-Oscar juggernaut. Let's take a look.
Junebug: Adams lost to Rachel Weisz who had won the Golden Globe, the SAG award, the British Independent Film award and the critics' award in both San Diego and London for
The Constant Gardener. There was no way first time nominee Amy Adams was going to beat her for an obscure, star-less indie comedy. Especially since
Gardener is one of those important "prestige" pictures.
Doubt: The winner that year was Penelope Cruz in
Vicky Cristina Barcelona, who had also picked up numerous awards before taking home the top prize. The Academy loves Woody Allen and loves to give the award to his supporting actresses. Cruz had the award in the bag. Also, Adams was up against
Doubt co-star Viola Davis and, honestly, if anyone was going to win from
Doubt it would have been Davis.
The Fighter: Adams lost to co-star Melissa Leo. With both
Doubt and
The Constant Gardener, I completely understand why Adams lost the Oscar; those two performances were more worthy of the win than Adams' (I hate to say that!). But if I ran the Academy, I would have given the Oscar to Adams over Leo. But Leo won out because she won most of the pre-Oscar awards and, more annoyingly, because of her relentless and (in my opinion)
tasteless campaigning.
The Master: Amy Adams lost to Anne Hathaway's tragic performance in
Les Miserables. Again, she was a victim to the pre-Oscar juggernaut. The loss was sadly inevitable with Hathaway pretty much winning every award (deservedly so). Even if Hathaway were to have lost, Sally Fields was the second choice for
Lincoln.
American Hustle: Adams gets a nomination for Best Actress...and she's up against Cate Blanchett. The Australian actress pulled off the remarkable feat of becoming the frontrunner when
Blue Jasmine premiered in all the way back in July and remained so during the entire Oscar season. Sure, there were times where Sandra Bullock (
Gravity) or Adams herself seemed like they might pull a win. But this award is Blanchett's to lose. And for the fifth time, Adams will have to put on her "happy to be nominated but dying inside" professional grin.
As annoying as it is to see one of the leading actresses of her generation walk home empty-handed year after year, Amy Adams is in good company. It took Kate Winslet six tries before hitting the home run. Peter O'Toole, Annette Bening, Leonardo DiCaprio, Sigourney Weaver, Michelle Pfeiffer and Brad Pitt are all multiple-nominated actors who never took home the Oscar.
But as we saw in the 2011 comedy
The Muppets, Amy Adams knows how to make being a loser totally fun:
1 comment:
Amy Lou Adams (born August 20, 1974) is an American actress and singer. Adams began her career on stage performing in dinner theatre and later made her feature film debut in Drop Dead Gorgeous. After moving to Los Angeles and appearing in a series of television guest appearances and roles in B movies, Adams appeared as Brenda Strong in Steven Spielberg’s Frank Abagnale biopic Catch Me If You Can. Her breakthrough role came in the 2005 independent film Junebug, for which she received critical acclaim and her first of five Academy Award nominations for Best Supporting Actress. In 2007, Adams starred in the Disney animated classic musical film Enchanted, a critical and commercial success, and received a Golden Globe Award nomination for her lead performance. She received her second Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations and first BAFTA Award nomination for her supporting role in the 2008 film Doubt....... Read More
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