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Inspired by Julie & Julia, by the end of the decade of the naughts, and by the upcoming Academy Awards show, I issued myself a challenge. The plan: to watch each Best Actress Oscar-winning performance from the last decade, and then to blog my thoughts here. I wanted to see the decade unfold through the talent of women, and to intentionally honor their important work as it can sometimes feel swallowed in the context of a still very male-dominated Hollywood.
So the plan was to re-watch eight outstanding movies featuring eight profoundly gifted cultural interpreters. Tough work, I know.
It was tough, emotionally. Oscar-winning female characters are notoriously demanding roles with brutal content. If any Hollywood producers are similarly inspired by Julie & Julia and want to make my challenge into a blog-to-film deal, they will need to cast an actress able to spend hours tucked into a chair or bed, often weeping, blue lights flickering around her as she quietly contemplates humanity. Here are nine women who more than up for the task.
Best Actress Award Winners in the 2000s
2000: Julia Roberts, Erin Brockovich
Image: Universal Pictures
Quote: Not personal! That is my work, my sweat, and my time away from my kids! If that is not personal I do not know what is!
It's an Honor to be Nominated: Juliette Binoche, Chocolat. She knows what I like.
2001: Halle Berry, Monster's Ball
Image: Lions Gate Films
I would not have rewatched this film if it weren't in my challenge, because I knew it would gut me. And it did. It took concentration to separate Halle's performance from every other flawless, biting detail of the film: the tender, broken sons (Heath Ledger's performance destroys the room, as did 10-year old Coronji Calhoun's), the horrific racism (Peter Boyle delivered viciously) and Billy Bob Thorton's surprisingly revealing work. Halle's raw, mean, vulnerable portrayal of Leticia resonated with quiet brilliance. Halle is so far the only African-American actress to win a best Actress Award; Gabourey Sidibe could be the second this year for her work in Precious, which is interesting to consider in context with Monster's Ball.
Quote: Make me feel good.
It's an Honor to be Nominated: I need to watch Iris again -- it earned Judi Dench a Best Actress nomination as well as a Best Supporting Actress nomination for Kate Winslet, both of whom portrayed Iris Murdoch at different ages.
2002: Nicole Kidman, The Hours
Image: Clive Coote, Paramount Pictures/Miramax
Amazing. This film is a poem, a dance, a silk weaving, and a catalyst for myriad discussions about women's creative lives and relationships, featuring some of our generations finest actresses. Meryl Streep and Julianne Moore (who was nominated as Best Supporting Actress for her role) are outstanding, and it is incredibly moving to see the unaffected care that Nicole uses to bring Virginia Woolf to life. She was more than a prosthetic nose, I assure you. Of all of the tremendous movies I saw for this challenge, The Hours is the most haunting, and the one that cut the closest to my bones as a writer, reader, mother and woman trying to make her way through our culture.
Quote: I was going to kill my heroine. But I've changed my mind.
It's an Honor to be Nominated: Julianne Moore for Far From Heaven. So this year, Julianne lost Best Actress to Nicole, and then lost her Best Supporting Actress Oscar for The Hours to, get this, Catherine Zeta-Jones for Chicago. Gracious.
2003: Charlize Theron, Monster
Image: Newmarket Films
Do not underestimate Charlize Theron. I had remembered this film fairly well, having a connection and special interest in Aileen Wuornos, the prostituted woman and murderer Charlize played. I remembered that Charlize nailed the character, the pathos, and the power of this story. It was heartening to see that her performance bears up. Every gesture fit her character's upbringing, history, socio-economics, personal history of pain, the unbelievably sad ability
