Can Andrea Riseborough Gatecrash Best Actress at the Eleventh Hour?
I’ve never cottoned on to Cate Blanchett.
Blue Jasmine made her cocky, and the pseudo-Emma Thompson shtick she affects in interviews is petty and spiteful! She appeared on The Graham Norton Show on Friday, courting controversy for her condescension towards fellow guest Margot Robbie. It’s not the first time. Remember the 2014 Golden Globes? Her aside that her agent “plied her with vodka in the same way that Judy Garland was probably plied with barbiturates” went down like a lead balloon…
On Sunday night, she won the Critics Choice Award for Black Viscous Liquid. A conspicuous selection given that Michelle Yeoh’s film, Everything Everywhere All at Once, triumphed in every other category. If there’s one consolation, it’s that Ms. Blanchett’s rambling, profanity-ridden speech was condemned for criticizing the “patriarchal pyramid”. The structure she’s benefitted from her whole life.
Oh, let’s not pit women against women! Social media has ennobled us all to say things we wouldn’t dream of in the real world. As for being aloof and intimidating, that’s the perk of genius. She’s the greatest actress working today. But I cannot help but feel her remarks come across as disingenuous at best and unappreciative at worst. Perhaps, that’s how she swings the race to Yeoh who, Asian and older, will never have this chance again. (I think of Paddy Chayefsky: “I would like to suggest to Miss Redgrave that her winning an Academy Award is not a pivotal moment in history, does not require a proclamation and a simple ‘Thank you’ would have sufficed”.)
After Michelle Williams missed a crucial SAG nomination, the idea that Blanchett could be the sole white nominee at the Oscars sent the Old Guard into overdrive. (Viola Davis, Danielle Deadwyler, Michelle Yeoh and Ana de Armas being a reasonable and good reflection of the world in 2023.) Who did they summon up as their favorite son compromise? Andrea Riseborough in To Leslie, a film that made $23,000.
“Andrea Riseborough?” I thought, when I saw Tharah Paulthon’s Instagram story “you mean, the lady who played Wallis for Madonna?”.
It wasn’t just Paulson – everyone from Gwyneth Paltrow to Kate Winslet and Charlize Theron (in fact, the entire ex-Miramax stable) are singing her praises. Florid comparisons abound. She is Falconetti and Gena Rowlands in A Woman Under the Influence combined. Amy Adams, who couldn’t buy a nomination for herself, is hosting a special screening. Where is this coming from? The only precedent I can think of is 2015 when, loath to include Jennifer Aniston, the Academy nominated Marion Cotillard for Two Days, One Night, a film that was playing in five American cinemas.
Like previous homespun campaigns (Melissa Leo’s infamous “Consider” ads come to mind), Riseborough has become Twitter’s latest meme. Although most outlets have picked up the story of her PR blitzkrieg. Even Cate, already taking a bollocking in the Murdoch press (because, after all, no one forced her to take part in the gamut of televised awards shows she now rejects), cited Andrea in her speech.
Will it translate to a nomination, this time next week? Stranger things have happened. But the reaction to it (and to what many feel is a race Ms. Blanchett’s already sewn up) has uncovered a sad reality. Women can’t do right for doing wrong.
They can’t want it too much, but Blanchett’s brand of apathy makes everyone hostile. Look at the fudge they’re making of Supporting Actress: as good as Angela Bassett undoubtedly is in Black Panther 2, no one was calling for a throwaway turn in a Marvel film to win – until they were.
Conversely, that’s what makes Andrea Riseborough such an enticing possibility. It’s the kind of “F-you” to the system that Blanchett advocates. (Even if this mobilisation escaped many worthy turns in the past. As recently as 2019, Lupita Nyong’o and Awkwafina were superlative would-be nominees.) It’s about passion and getting the requisite amount of Number One votes.
The question is: who’s listening?