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The Burden of Being Beautiful |
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Thursday, 04 May 2006 |
By D. W. O’Dell
 In an earlier column, I pointed out how the past few Best Actress Oscar winners seemed to be beautiful actresses who had to “ugly themselves up” in order to win an award. Examples are Charlize Theron in Monster, Halle Berry in Monster’s Ball, and Nicole Kidman in The Hours. But sometimes good looking actors get nominations; Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt both have Oscar nominations, and while George Clooney may have been a bit scruffy when winning for Syriana, well, he’s still George Clooney.
However, there is one actress who has been unable to overcome her looks and get an Oscar nomination. In fact, I can’t think of another actor who has been so overlooked for so many nomination-worthy performances. I have to believe that the Academy simply can’t see past Cameron Diaz’s looks to give her the respect she’s due.
Interestingly, her name was uttered in the same breath as “Oscar” by late critic Gene Siskel, for her very first performance. Her screen debut was as the love interest for Jim Carry in The Mask. In their “Memo to the Academy” show, Siskel said he thought Diaz’s performance worthy of a nomination for taking a two-dimensional bimbo-ish role and making it three-dimensional. Upon hearing this, Siskel’s partner, Roger Ebert, said that it hadn’t occurred to him, but now that Siskel pointed out how good the performance was, he agreed it was worthy of Oscar consideration.
Of course, actors don’t get nominated for movies like The Mask - just ask Jim Carrey.
Diaz next earned critical kudos for her breakout performance in There’s Something About Mary, another movie that was unlikely to lead to an Oscar nomination for acting. That didn’t stop her from picking up a New York Film Critic’s award as Best Actress, as well as a Golden Globe nomination, however…but no Oscar recognition.
Maybe, at this point, Ms. Diaz figured her looks were holding her back and donned a fright wig and make-up that hid her light under a basket for Being John Malkovitch. Alas, Catherine Keener picked up almost all the supporting actress nominations for the film (which she deserved) although Ms. Diaz picked up a couple of nominations from the Las Vegas and Online Film Critics Societies, as well as BAFTA.
Cameron Diaz pulled out all the stops in Oliver Stone’s Any Given Sunday, but the film wasn’t much of a success and garnered few award nominations; she did win her only ALMA award for her performance in the film. Then, in 2000, Ms. Diaz delivered her best screen performance - no, I am NOT referring to Charlie’s Angels. As Tom Cruise’s *ahem* “buddy” in Vanilla Sky, Cameron Diaz alternated between hot and creepy. She won awards from the Boston and Chicago critics’ associations and nominations from the AFI, the Golden Globes, the Broadcast Film Critics and the Screen Actor’s Guild. But still nothing from Oscar.
We will skip over The Sweetest Thing and move on to her next major film, Martin Scorsese’s epic Gangs of New York. The film received 11 Oscar nominations - not one for Cameron Diaz. In fact, almost the only recognition she received was yet another Golden Globe nomination.
Cameron Diaz has been nominated for, if not won, virtually every major acting award in the free world EXCEPT an Oscar. Why? Well, she’s beautiful, and she works mostly in comedy. Those are two strikes against her. She also has been unlucky in having done her best work in films where she’s been over-shadowed by another actor (Keener in Malkovitch, Cruise in Vanilla Sky, Jaime Foxx in Sunday).
What will it take for her to win an Oscar? Maybe she can get the lead in the Madelaine Albright story; yeah, that should do it. As long as she doesn’t mind spending several hours in a make-up chair. In the meantime, if she wants some suggestions, she should feel free to call me. I’d be more than happy to discuss her career with her at length over dinner. |
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