This piece is about actress Alfre Woodard, actress Danielle Deadwyler and director Chinonye Chukwu.
Last year, in between Thanksgiving and Christmas, I noticed much film festival response on Twitter. Movie journalists posted high praise and Oscar buzz for Brendan Fraser. Out of the limelight for quite some time and known for roles in entertaining comedies, he has reinvented himself with an outstanding performance as a reclusive and morbidly obese English teacher dealing with MOBY DICK and the heartbreaks of his life in THE WHALE. Around the same time, there were also ecstatic reviews and Oscar buzz for an actress named Danielle Deadwyler who played the lynched teenager Emmett Till in the movie, TILL, directed by Chinonye Chukwu.
The notices about Brendan Fraser and talk about TILL made the network morning news shows and ABC's daytime talker, THE VIEW. Whoopi Goldberg, a host on THE VIEW, has a role in TILL and co-produced the film. The murder of Chicago youth Emmett Till, committed while he was visiting relatives down South, gave intensity to the Civil Rights movement in the 1950s.
The, one day two weekends ago, multiple rave reviews for a film and an actress I'd never heard of appeared on Twitter. Celebs such Cate Blanchett, Kate Winslet, Gwyneth Paltrow and Ed Norton were said to be among those tossing in acclaim for the actress. Was this sudden wave of praise postings orchestrated? Was it an overnight campaign? The movie is TO LESLIE. The lead actress is Andrea Riseborough.
The Oscar nominations were announced this week. Brendan Fraser was nominated for Best Actor. Andrea Riseborough was nominated for Best Actress. Danielle Deadwyler was not nominated.
I have been an Alfre Woodard fan ever since I saw her onscreen at the Oriental Theater on the East Side of Milwaukee. The theater was showing HEALTH, a 1980 Robert Altman film. After the movie, audience members were joyfully buzzing about the funny, sophisticated performance delivered by the young lady who played the somewhat stressed out public relations director at a deluxe Florida hotel during a health food convention. The fact that she was a screen newcomer getting audience buzz was impressive considering that the ensemble cast included Lauren Bacall, James Garner, Carol Burnett and Glenda Jackson.
Woodard played a domestic worker for an aspiring author in 1983's CROSS CREEK, a biographical drama, and got an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress. After that, she became one of the many Black actresses who got an Oscar nomination and then went to TV for steady employment and opportunities. She joined a list that includes Cicely Tyson and Diahann Carroll in the 1970s to today's Oscar nominated Black actresses such as Viola Davis, Taraji P. Henson and Gabourey Sidibe. Davis booked the ABC TV series, HOW TO GET AWAY WITH MURDER, due to the lack of Hollywood script offers after she'd received her second Oscar nomination. But, after getting just one Oscar nomination, white actresses such as Julia Roberts, Renée Zellweger, Charlize Theron, Reese Witherspoon, Jennifer Lawrence and Amy Adams would find their mailboxes stuffed with good script offers. They'd all have more than one Oscar nomination to the credits.
Go to IMDb.com and look at Cicely Tyson's roles following her superb performance in 1972's SOUNDER, the film that brought Tyson her one Oscar nomination. The Oscar went to Liza Minnelli for CABARET. After SOUNDER, Tyson's great work in THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MISS JANE PITTMAN, her performance in ROOTS, her portrayals of Coretta Scott King and Harriet Tubman were all given in TV productions. Hollywood did not offer her other big screen lead roles like it did 2-time Oscar nominee Liza Minnelli.
In 2019, Alfre Woodard starred as a prison warden dealing with the psychological and emotional drawbacks of her job in CLEMENCY. The warden must prepare death row inmates to face their executions. The emotional severity of the work begins to fray her marriage. Alfre Woodard was so outstanding in CLEMENCY that she made your jaw drop. The entertainment press did not give nearly enough to this performance in the film directed by Chinonye Chukwu.
To me, Alfre Woodard should have been an Oscar contender for CLEMENCY. She and its director should've been invited to be guests on network morning shows to discuss the film.
Ms. Chukwu got an equally brilliant performance from Danielle Deadwyler in TILL. You need to see Ms. Deadwyler's remarkable portrayal of a single working mother in a nice Chicago neighborhood who is forged into national Civil Rights activism due to an evil racist act.
I wish stars such as Cate Blanchett, Kate Winslet, Gwyneth Paltrow and Ed Norton had praised and promoted the work of those three Black women in film the way they did TO LESLIE. Those three gifted Black women in film were also deserving of Academy Award attention.
Here's some Black women in film history: Angela Bassett, who was a Best Actress Oscar nominee for 1993's WHAT'S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT, is now a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nominee for BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER.
She is only the 4th Black actress in Hollywood history to have more than 1 Oscar nomination to her credit. The others are Whoopi Goldberg, Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer. Also, even though many of us expected Ava DuVernay to get a Best Director Oscar nomination for her Best Picture Oscar nominee, 2014's SELMA, she was not nominated. No Black female filmmaker has ever been a Best Director Oscar nominee. Not yet.
No comments:
Post a Comment