Supporting Actress 1983

I have seen none of these women but am excited to finally knock off some of these films. Hoping for a good year, but we will see. Let's do it.

1983 Best Supporting Actress

Linda Hunt - The Year of Living Dangerously

If you go into this film cold, finding out who Linda Hunt is will be quite a shock. I imagine not knowing and then watching makes the impact of her performance much greater to the viewer. If you go in already knowing that Hunt plays Billy Kwan, the dwarf photographer, then the shock won't be there and you can focus on paying attention to the performance. Hunt plays a convincing man minus the voice and I can see how people would be fooled. Hunt definitely puts her all into the role which is very serious. Kwan is a very serious and morally guided person which leads to a very intense performance from Hunt. As compared to the other actresses in this group, this role and performance has way more heft to it and stands out as being more important in a way. You can take away the playing a man part and the same sentiment would still apply which is why Hunt succeeds. Her man is believable but it's the performance that is impressive, not just the gender thing. I think that's why Hunt is a good winner here because it's not just a gimmicky role but the passion with which Hunt treats her Kwan. Watching Hunt is also more enjoyable than the other women who mostly don't do much to even affect their own film. So Hunt is really the only choice for the win here.

Cher - Silkwood

Well, I think from this first nomination that it was obvious that the Academy loved Cher for whatever reason. She got a Best Actress win for a role/film that wasn't the most amazing and this was the precursor to that. Cher plays the friend to Streep's burgeoning activist and she's a lesbian and that's about it as far as her performance. She doesn't do much at all besides be the friend and have a shocking moment where a beautiful blonde comes out of her room in the morning after Kurt Russell and Streep were having loud sex the night before. The blonde sticks around but Cher doesn't do anything else than lounge around. Then one day the blonde leaves and at most all Cher does is have a talk with Streep but that's it. I honestly don't see what's nomination worthy about it. She has no big scenes, even the lesbian reveal isn't big. She's legit just a woman who works at the nuclear facility and then by the end doesn't. She just lives at the Streep household and that's it. It's a bizarre nomination that if it didn't have a big name attached you'd question the sanity of the Academy members. This is very clearly them trying to bring Cher into their fold. Nothing at all to see here other than an activist movie.

Glenn Close - The Big Chill

I'll have to go back because I can't remember but I feel like I haven't voted for  Glenn Close performance to win ever. Yet you'll see online so many Close fans or just people saying that Close deserves an Oscar blah blah blah. I mean yeah she may for her body of work and being a great actress and all that but for what nomination exactly? I still have one more nomination of hers to watch but I feel like she has been a go to nominee because she was well liked. I don't know why Close was nominated for this film among the myriad of talent around her. Maybe it's easier because she's a woman and there are less performances to choose from but she doesn't stand out in this film/performance at all. The film is about a group of college friends who get together after the funeral of one of their friends (Kevin Costner, though deleted from the film) and old issues and loves and all that come back to the forefront. It's a film with Close, Tom Berenger, Kevin Kline, Jeff Goldblum, William Hurt, Meg Tilly, and two other women you've never heard of. Why is Close singled out? No clue. She does nothing to stand out and is good but average. There's a scene where she cries naked in a shower but it feels exploitative and unnecessary. She also has had a fling in the past with the dead friend which greatly affects her and therefore she isn't in many of the big group scenes because she's sad and off in her room. So that's why I question why she was chosen because she doesn't have a big presence in the film. She's representative of the others but probably shouldn't have been the representative.

Amy Irving - Yentl

Yentl is Barbra Streisand's directorial debut and I've got to admit it's very good as far as the direction goes. Interesting camera movements and angles and nice cinematography, it's a good debut no doubt. The question is can you stand a Streisand musical where only she sings the songs? If you can, Yentl is a decent enough film about Steisand pretending to be a man to get into school to study the Talmud. But then she ends up marrying a woman, Amy Irving, after Irving's initial engagement with Mandy Patinkin is called off. Irving isn't featured much in the first hour, she is just shown as the dutiful fiance giving food to Patinkin. In the second hour, she plays more of a role because she gets married to Streisand. She's more visible and gets to speak and all that but doesn't get much to do because she's opposite Streisand, who let's face it, isn't going to let anyone outshine her on the screen. So Irving just plays the love interest basically and not much else. There are no Oscar moments for her, nothing to make her really stand out other than her being a pretty redhead. Not sure why she was nominated other than this being a very weak year and the Streisand support behind her. The draw for this film is Streisand's direction, not Amy Irving's performance.

Alfre Woodard - Cross Creek

I really enjoy Alfre Woodard as an actress. She should probably have more nominations, honestly. Anyway, in this film she plays the help to Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, the author of The Yearling. I love the book and the film, so I was interested to watch the story of the woman behind it. It's about Rawlings who moves to the Florida wilderness and then writes the great American classic. Woodard is Geechee, a woman who comes to Rawlings' new run down digs and offers to help her however she can. The two become friends and then Geechee's husband gets out of jail and stops by and he doesn't want to stay and ultimately Geechee chooses to stay with Rawlings. It didn't really stand out as anything amazing to me but you can clearly see that Woodard is a talented actress who could be even better in the future. So with that, she probably brought more to the role of Geechee than maybe someone else would have. I'm not sure why exactly Woodard got singled out here for a nomination but I'm glad she did. It's great to see a black actress back then getting some recognition for her performance. It might not be a can't miss performance but it's at least worth seeing for Woodard and the historical aspect. It just sucks that she was stuck playing these stereotypical roles like this one and her performance in Passion Fish (which I loved her in).


Pretty awful group overall. Nothing to really hang your hat on and point to as amazing. Hunt playing a man in an intense performance is the obvious winner and is a decent performance but could be better because the film isn't totally amazing. Without her, though, this would be one of the worst of all time maybe. The rest of the ladies just don't actually do anything in their films! Woodard probably has the most oomph of the rest of the group because at least the leading lady in her film reacts to her choices. Close is the representative for her film but I don't know why. It feels like people were trying to make her a star by gifting her Oscar nominations but she does nothing in the film full of stars. Cher is just Cher. She doesn't do anything, either, but she has name recognition and the support of Streep behind her. You don't watch that film for Cher by any means. And then Irving is a wasted nomination because she offers up nothing. Point me to why she was nominated performance wise because there is nothing to see. A bad group and one that I'd like to forget by seeing an actual good group hopefully.

Oscar Winner: Linda Hunt - The Year of Living Dangerously
My Winner:  Linda Hunt - The Year of Living Dangerously
Alfre Woodard
Glenn Close
Cher
Amy Irving