How many times has a horror performance won at the Academy Awards?
Fredric March did it at the 1931-32 Oscars for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, though that was a tie with Wallace Beery's The Champ. Ruth Gordon famously won for her chilling neighbor in Rosemary's Baby in 1968. And partly because they have the prestige of Oscar, people still debate whether Natalie Portman in 2010's Black Swan and Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins in 1991's The Silence of the Lambs were in horror movies at all.
But I don't think there's any mistaking that 1990's Misery is a horror film, with its psycho leading lady, terrifying premise, and Stephen King source material. And that makes it all the more miraculous that against the critical (and pundits'!) favorite Anjelica Huston, the year's biggest box office queen Julia Roberts, and previous winners Meryl Streep and Joanne Woodward, it was Kathy Bates who reigned supreme:
Here's how I'd rank 'em:
5. Julia Roberts as Vivian Ward
Pretty Woman
second of four nominations; Golden Globe winner for Best Actress - Musical/Comedy; BAFTA Award nominee for Best Actress
A real movie star! She shines, tearing your heart out and filling you with joy - you fall in love with her, how could you not? She plays the early parts of weary, cynical businesswoman so well: she's still young, still more optimistic than the more seasoned girls, but you can see the edges beginning to form. Luckily the fairy tale arrives. Great to watch while watching...doesn't really stick after.
4. Anjelica Huston as Lilly Dillon
The Grifters
past winner, third and final nomination; Golden Globe nominee for Best Actress - Drama, LAFCA Awards winner for Best Actress; NYFCC Awards runner-up for Best Actress
Grit and fear, a tough broad at the end of her rope. She coolly opens the film with her fixing of the longshot bets at the track, she's a sharp customer even when snapping at hospital workers, but she crumbles - literally shaking from the moment she enters! - when alone with Bobo Justus. Huston's performance goes a long way to selling the kind of desperation and single-minded selfishness - self-preservation? - that inform her third act manipulations. Not entirely, mind you, but it's a good try.
3. Kathy Bates as Annie Wilkes
Misery
first of four nominations; Golden Globe winner for Best Actress - Drama; NYFCC Awards second runner-up for Best Actress
Sustains her high-volume, over-the-top fangirl act as it goes from grating to frightening to pathetic to horrifying. Just when you think there's nowhere else for her to go, she's snorting like a pig or, in a real twist, moved to tears by what she thinks is a genuine human connection. You never quite sympathize with her, but you do pity her. Bates somehow makes the ridiculous - she keeps a scrapbook of her crimes? - believable with her excited squeals, openly genuine face, and laser-focused looks. When she's still, it's terrifying. It's a performance that stuck with me.
2. Meryl Streep as Suzanne Vale
Postcards from the Edge
past two-time winner, ninth of twenty-one nominations; Golden Globe nominee for Best Actress - Musical/Comedy
Plays the functioning, then recovering, addict without slurs or mood swings but with lapses, "just one more" before it turns to chaos; her mornings after are embarrassing, but ritualistically so, she's done this before. Also plays the road of rehabilitation for what it is: a long road full of temptations and triggers and challenges, taken one day at a time, and very tedious to go through without something to "take the edge off" - but, ultimately, better, healthier, more present. She’s wickedly funny, too: “These are my options? Lana Turner, Joan Crawford?”
1. Joanne Woodward as India Bridge
Mr. & Mrs. Bridge
past winner, fourth and final nomination; NYFCC Awards winner for Best Actress; Golden Globe nominee for Best Actress - Drama, LAFCA Awards runner-up for Best Actress
Graceful, understated. She’s a woman who hasn’t really had to struggle at playing innocent, she’s the genuine article, credulous, kind, and devoted to her husband and family. The way Woodward depicts India’s little rebellions - laughing at ribald jokes, befriending the liberal boho Blythe Danner - is touching, she feels "naughty" and enjoys it. She's decent and she's discovering, a little at a time, something new about herself.
Next time, the nominees for Best Director: Francis Ford Coppola (The Godfather: Part III), Kevin Costner (Dances with Wolves), Stephen Frears (The Grifters), Barbet Schroeder (Reversal of Fortune), and Martin Scorsese (GoodFellas).
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