The "Good Luck to You, Leo Grande" star gave one of the year's greatest performances, but does anybody remember? No images? [Click here](
ID=167008;size=700x180;setID=527264;uid={EMAIL}7189050;click=template_daily_awards_wrap_up [Daily Awards Wrap Up] December 14, 2022
[- - -]
How Did Emma Thompson Go From Oscar Contender to Afterthought? The “Good Luck to You, Leo Grande” star gave one of the year’s greatest performances, but does anybody remember?
[- - -] By Jason Clark [Good Luck to You Leo Grande] Searchlight Pictures At the virtual Sundance Film Festival in January and then again in June, Emma Thompson made the press rounds for her leading role in Searchlight Picturesâ âGood Luck to You, Leo Grande.â As usual, Thompson completely charmed her way through promoting her winning little indie picture, even with the expected media scrutiny of how âbraveâ she was to take on her role. (Male actors are rarely referred to as such when they play sixtysomething men who like sex.) The performance, in which she portrays a sharp-minded but body-insecure widow who hires a sensitive, confident male escort (Daryl McCormack) on a quest for many kinds of fulfillment, earned Thompson some of the best reviews of a long and storied career that has often prompted journalists to use phrases like âa long and storied career.” Sheâs that good, that often. And yet, as 2023 approaches and voters cast their ballots, Thompson went from being a strong contender to an also-ran. What on Earth happened? âLeo Grandeâ debuted on Hulu on June 17, 2022, with the kind of streaming debut that would ordinarily disqualify a film from Academy Award contention. But in these COVID-wracked times, Searchlight sought and received an AMPAS waiver to allow the film to be eligible on the grounds that it would have gotten a theatrical release if not for the pandemic. So Thompson seemed, as it were, off to the races. But whereas summer-movie male lead names like Austin Butler in âElvisâ and Tom Cruise in âTop Gun: Maverickâ remained on the lips of pundits, acclaimed star turns by women have stumbled a bit in getting voters to remember them. Remember how euphoric everyone seemed to be by mid-September about performances like Aubrey Plaza in âEmily the Criminalâ and Mia Goth in âPearl?â Both were rangy and daring, but apparently not enough for awards season’s version of prime time. (No offense, of course, to frontrunners such as Michelle Yeoh and Cate Blanchett, as this is âfinally! â a seemingly stronger year for leading women than men onscreen.) Thompsonâs lack of buzz is all the more confounding because, while refreshingly frank about sexual mores and female pleasure without any hint of prurience, âLeo Grandeâ is very firmly pitched to the âprestigeâ voter — especially one who would witness Thompsonâs performance in the span of her career and notice sheâs not repeating herself or playing down to this sometimes-rigid character. Or one who, like this viewer, wiped away tears after the conclusion of the film, where Thompsonâs Nancy Stokes aka Susan Robinson finally finds the truest form of self-acceptance in a small, internalized victory lap before a mirror. ID=167008;size=300x250;setID=523257;uid={EMAIL}7189050;click=template_daily_awards_wrap_up It wouldnât be the first time Thompson strangely fell out of the Oscar conversation after a bold start; itâs still jarring to remember she was passed over for nominations for her impetuous âMary Poppinsâ author P.L. Travers in [2013âs âSaving Mr. Banks](â, or 10 years before that (despite what recent ABC reunion specials would leave you to believe about a 2003 film) for her now-classic, Joni Mitchell-infused marriage breakdown scene in âLove Actually,â a sequence oft-referred to even by the movieâs detractors as the most affecting. Yes, she already has two Oscars at home (and famously in the loo): one for her lacerating Margaret Schlegel in Merchant-Ivoryâs 1992 classic âHowards End,â and one for her brilliant, expertly palatable adapted screenplay for the 1995 Ang Lee version of Jane Austenâs âSense and Sensibility.” It might be that Thompson possesses that taken-for-granted quality that has often befallen icons like her âAngels in Americaâ costar Meryl Streep, who once quipped that not only has she gotten more Oscar nominations than anyone in history, but likely lost more Oscars. Thompson did manage to sneak into the Golden Globes musical/comedy race. (âLeo Grandeâ is definitely more dramatic, but one digressesâ¦) But why arenât we hearing her name more as weâre deep in the pre-Oscar noms awards swamp, when surprises are still very possible? Itâs not as if Searchlight Pictures is traditionally a slouch in promoting great Best Actress candidates: Four of the last five Best Actress Oscar winners have come for Searchlight pictures, an impressive star. Maybe Netflix will give Thompson a hearty, late-surge push for âMatilda the Musicalâ given its encouraging early buzz and her Miss Trunchbull being a very obviously visual transformation? (Oscar voters still love those â it worked for [Jessica Chastain]( last year.)
Maybe viewers thought Thompson cavorting unclothed with the very dishy McCormack was reward enough? (Kiddingâ¦or perhaps not?) Or that she possesses that Goddess-level eternal cool of someone like, say, Dolly Parton, also somewhat undertallied in industry awards even though the woman is a musical genius and basically kicked in vaccine money to save all of our lives. Like Thompsonâs Nancy says at one point in âLeo Grandeâ: Itâs all quite an education. Read more of TheWrap’s awards coverage [HERE.](
[- - -] [Follow us on Facebook]( [Follow us on Twitter]( [Follow us on Instagram]( [Follow us on Linkedin](
TheWrap 1808 Stanford Street, Santa Monica, CA, 90404
[Preferences]( | [Unsubscribe]( This email was sent to {EMAIL}. If you are no longer interested you can [unsubscribe instantly](.