Andrea Riseborough’s nomination for Best Actress at the Oscars is messing her up and we tell you why

With it came the scandal. Andrea Riseborough has given the bell in the nominations of this edition of the oscar rising above more solvent candidates and with greater support from the Hollywood machine. The British actress is nominated for the film Uncle Leslie, a film that few have seen (it was screened in a few American cinemas and will be released in Spain on March 3), but not even this has intimidated the interpreter, who has campaigned for herself from scratch and outside the gear of the studies.

The curious thing about all this is not that he has taken the bull by the horns, but that, little by little, he began to gather support from well-known people who also have a vote in the Academy. We do not know if they said yes, either because they believe in Andrea’s talent or because of her audacity. inside this Team Andrea we find names as bombastic as Gwyneth Paltrow, Charlize Theron, Jennifer Aniston, Edward Norton or Susan Sarandon. On the opposite side, the brainy gentlemen of the Academy, fearful that the matter will get out of hand and a kind of Chikilicuatre will be set up. Or that the herd gets out of control and people organize their campaigns in future editions outside the established channels, channels that, by the way, report millions of dollars that go to the coffers of the industry. The circle of life, you know.

Andrea Riseborough in a scene from To Leslie.

To all this, the protagonist of the mess, whose name It also appears in recently released films such as Amsterdam either matilda the musical(Emma Thompson version) plays in To Leslieto a Texan who wins the lottery and loses it all on wild binges, forced to turn to her son for survival. We have no proof (and no doubt) that it is a piece of paper, but we do have that Andrea is on everyone’s lips right now more because of her rebellion than because of the sure proof that she’s a very good job.

Barbra Streisand in a scene from Funny Girl.

The peculiar thing about it all is that it is not the first time that the Film Academy has been in trouble. Reviewing the archives, we have seen that there were several occasions in which the academic party got out of hand and some had female protagonists. For example, the 1969 edition, when Barbra Streisand and Katharine HepburnThey tied in the fight for the Best Actress award. Both with the same exact number of votes: 3030. The ghost of the tongo flew over the stage, but was there a happy ending? Since Katharine was not there and she was not expected and Barbra was the only one of the two sitting in the stalls, the Oscar goes to Streisand by Funny Girl.

Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins.

Susan Sarandon, one of the actresses who now supports Andrea, also had her share of leadership. It was in 1993, when she went up to present an award with her then-husband, Tim Robbins, and they both scored a speech in favor of the reception of Haitians suffering from AIDS. The Academy threatened to ban them for life, a purpose that lasted a day and a half considering that Sarandon won the Oscar for Best Actress three years later for the film. Death penalty. And yes, she picked it up in person.

That same year, 1993, was that of the Oscar for ‘mistake’ to Marisa Tomei. The actress took the jackpot for the film my cousin vinny (which neither was nor fa) prevailing over teachers of the stature of Judi Dench, Vanessa Redgrave or Miranda Richardson. Legend has it that the person in charge of reading the award for Best Actress got the wrong name and the Academy said that “well, it’s done, hair to the sea.” Today, Marisa is still asked in interviews if she considers herself deserving of the award or if it was a series of mistakes. The same as Gwyneth Paltrow when questioned about Shakespeare in Love.

Ten years later, in 2003, one of those craziest ‘earth swallow me’ moments took place (with Will Smith’s permission, of course). it happened when Halle Berry presented the award for Best Actor and it went to Adrien Brody for The pianist. The interpreter, neither short nor lazy, took the stage, and before dedicating the award to his parents, teachers, pets or whatever is usual, he planted a snog to Halle. It wasn’t planned, but she took it as long as she could. Those were other times, and many locate precisely at that moment the germ of the Me Too.

Be that as it may, we believe the Academy will allow Andrea Riseborough to perform in her finery at the Dolby Theatre. Another thing is that she wins, that everything can be. And there she will make history. On your screens, next March 12.