The Comedic Performances That The Academy Overlooked
Reese Witherspoon knows. So does Steve Carell. It’s an open secret that being funny on film will not bring you Oscar gold. If it did, Steve would have been billed as Academy Award Nominee Steve Carell for the last 10 years. His performance in The 40 Year-Old Virgin was a revelation. The guy you saw on The Daily Show every so often suddenly turned in this nuanced performance that was both hilarious and sweet. The entire movie hinged on the believability of his character Andy, and Carell very subtly had us in the palm of his hand the entire time. If Andy was dyslexic or had a harelip instead of being a virgin, Carell would have been making the rounds on the awards circuit in 2005, the way he is this year for Foxcatcher.
There is a formula to getting that ever-elusive Academy Award nomination. For women, it involves not wearing makeup, gaining weight, and/or playing a “ballsy” character. Witness former winners Charlize Theron in Monster, Julia Roberts in Erin Brockovich and current nominee Reese Witherspoon in Wild. Being in a romantic comedy just won’t cut it; the exception being Renee Zellweger in Bridget Jones’s Diary. However, she did famously gain weight for the role of a somewhat “plain” woman, so the formula wasn’t entirely discareded. For men, the formula is a bit different. Their equation involves a disability of some kind (physical or intellectual), losing weight, and/or playing a someone with a “cause”. See past winners Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man, Sean Penn in Milk and current nominee Eddie Redmayne in The Theory of Everything.
Comedies just don’t do it for The Academy. Likely because the truly skilled funny people make it look too damn easy. Unfortunately, this is nothing new. Funny performances have been snubbed for decades. Going back as far as Barbara Stanwyck in The Lady Eve, Carole Lombard in To Be or Not to Be and Cary Grant in… well, take your pick. Cary Grant starred in some of the greatest comedies on film- His Girl Friday, Bringing Up Baby, The Philadelphia Story, Arsenic and Old Lace, and on and on- but he received his two Oscar nominations for two dramatic films (Penny Serenade and None But the Lonely Heart). Think of Gene Wilder in Young Frankenstein, Elaine May in A New Leaf or Ruth Gordon in Harold & Maude. Amazing performances all. Zany and crazy and funny. Michael McKean in This is Spinal Tap was hilarious and dead-on. Another revelation. Right next door to McKean, there’s Christopher Guest. Without the credits, who would know that the person who played Nigel Tufnel in Spinal Tap is the same person that played Corky St. Clair in Waiting for Guffman?
It seems The Academy notices the versatility of a comedic actor playing a dramatic role, like Tom Hanks in Philadelphia, but ignores the versatility of a comedic actor playing very different comedic roles. Two words. Steve Martin. No one else could have pulled off The Jerk. Like Carell in Virgin, the whole movie rested not only on Martin being damn funny, but whether you as an audience member could buy it and go with his character. And you do. You really care about this jerk. But okay, even if it’s a stretch to call Steve Martin in The Jerk Academy Award-worthy, he then showed his versatility with other comedic roles. His work in The Lonely Guy, All of Me and Roxanne were all worthy of recognition. Then there’s Eddie Murphy. If you want versatile, how about Coming to America? Murphy played 4 different characters in one film. Not enough? Try Eddie’s incantation of The Nutty Professor. He plays 7 characters in that one. It’s easy to think that it’s all makeup and special effects that make those characters different from one another, but it’s not. It’s Murphy. He creates a full, real person for each character, and they would be just as funny and just as different if he wasn’t wearing any makeup.
While The Academy loves to acknowledge comedians who get serious, they rarely show love to comedic performances of actors that are known as serious dramatic actors. Does it get much better then Robert DeNiro’s Rupert Pupkin making an audition tape in his mother’s basement in The King of Comedy? Talk about a revelation- DeNiro has a sense of humor! He also used it to wonderful effect getting exasperated with Charles Grodin in Midnight Run. The same could be said for another intense actor. Nicholas Cage was known for chipping his teeth and eating cockroaches for previous roles. But then came the Coen Bros and Raising Arizona. Cage had comedic chops and gave a fantastic performance.
Versatility isn’t, and shouldn’t be, the only criteria for an actor to be deemed award-worthy. Ostensibly, each performance should be looked at on its own merits. An actor like the aforementioned Charles Grodin tends to remain in his wheelhouse of dry and wry wit, but that doesn’t change the fact that he was wonderful and funny in both Midnight Run and The Heartbreak Kid. No one is ever surprised that the actor in Better Off Dead is the same actor that was in One Crazy Summer. But that shouldn’t mean John Cusack didn’t deserve the proper respect come award time for The Sure Thing or Say Anything. Sure, the Marx Brothers were always the Marx Brothers. But the mirror scene in Duck Soup alone was worthy of award recognition, as was almost anything Groucho did- although his Captain Spalding in Animal Crackers was the most egregious miss by the nominating pool.
The Academy does seem to show appreciation to one group in comedy- the Supporting Actors and Actresses. It seems there is a limit to the amount of humor permitted for an Oscar nomination. Melissa McCarthy in Bridesmaids, Kevin Kline in A Fish Called Wanda, Madeline Khan in Blazing Saddles were all within the acceptable time limit. Albert Brooks was within the time limit for his role in Broadcast News, since he did receive a Supporting Actor nomination. But he blew it in Modern Romance- where he is on screen 100% of the time and is brilliantly funny. He’s also very real in what is arguably his best performance.
It’s a shame that The Academy has historically overlooked so many funny, fantastic and entertaining performances. What’s even worse is that there seems to be no signs of change. There have been so many opportunities for the tide to turn in recent years. Why did it take a dramatic role in Moneyball for Jonah Hill to be noticed by The Academy, when he was so fantastic in Superbad? It’s great that Emma Stone is nominated for a supporting role this year in Birdman but what about her wonderful,funny and charming performance in the lead role in Easy A ? Jason Segal in Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Paul Rudd in Role Models– there wasn’t even a whisper. And just this year, The Academy had the perfect opportunity to blow the formulas out of the water and nominate Jenny Slate for her smart, funny and unique performance in Obvious Child.
Maybe Jenny should have gained some weight for the role. That seems to work.
Laura Brooks is a writer living in New York City.
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