At the 2003 Academy Honors, speaker Denzel Washington cheekily revealed that event’s Ideal Starlet victor with a little yet sharp, pun-fully-intended prosper: “By a nose…Nicole Kidman.” The joke fit since to represent author Virginia Woolf in “The Hours,” Kidman notoriously went through 3 hours of preparation and put on a prosthetic schnoz, triggering argument amongst Oscar lovers over whether hours in the makeup chair along with a dedicated remarkable efficiency is the fast-track key to getting the prize. So … is it?
Well, it sure does not harmed, as confirmed by current Oscar background. Simply in the last 2 years, Jessica Chastain (“The Eyes of Tammy Faye”), Brendan Fraser (“The Whale”), Jamie Lee Curtis (“Everything Everywhere All at Once”) and also WillSmith (“King Richard”) discovered themselves bounding to the platform by means of duties that needed them to vanish within typically elastic, handmade skin. Given that the very first affordable Academy Honor for Best Makeup in 1981– the Makeup and Hairstyling name did not come up until 2012– the usual knowledge has actually been that the Academy prefers motion pictures with severe makeover, typically in science-fiction and scary images.
That is not false, considered that the very first makeup Oscar mosted likely to Rick Baker’s game-changing lycanthrope transformation in 1981’s “An American Werewolf in London” and was complied with by such movies as “Bram Stoker’s Dracula,” “The Fly” and “The Wolfman.” The last of those notoriously triggered speaker Cate Blanchett to quip survive air as the movie clip finished, “Gross.”
Nevertheless, a more detailed look reveals that the Makeup Oscar likewise occasionally mosts likely to the “classiest” movie of the number, also regardless of the visibility of eye-popping prosthetics. Significant movies that completed this are “Frida” (which bested “The Time Machine” in a uncommon two-film race), “La Vie en Rose” (which beat the Eddie Murphy makeup fest “Norbit” and a “Pirates of the Caribbean” function). One of one of the most entertaining came when Mike Leigh’s small “Mikado” beginning tale “Topsy-Turvy” defeated the 2nd “Austin Powers” movie (yes, the one with Fat Bastard), Murphy (once more) and Martin Lawrence in extra pounds of aging latex in “Life,” and Robin Williams hidden in silvery robotic clothes in “Bicentennial Man.”
Usually the classification simply occurs to match the ultimate Best Image victor, with instances consisting of “Amadeus,” “Driving Miss Daisy,” “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” and “Braveheart.” And an also more detailed look reveals yet one more fad of the movies winning twin Oscars, one for the primary star and one for the makeup group. This took place for both Chastain and Fraser simply in the last 2 events, with various other well-known instances consisting of Meryl Streep in “The Iron Lady,” Martin Landau in “Ed Wood” and Gary Oldman in “Darkest Hour.” The very first 2 instances are traditional 2-for-2s, where the movies won both Oscars they were chosen for, a task likewise duplicated by “The Eyes of Tammy Faye.”
So that’s mosting likely to utilize the makeup chair as a automobile to reach the Dolby Theater this year? The pickings are currently available. There’s Helen Mirren in “Golda” and Willem Dafoe in “Poor Things.” And, oh yep, Bradley Cooper, showing off old-age makeup and a much-discussed prosthetic nose in his Leonard Bernstein biopic “Maestro.” It’s early to identify faves now, yet Oscar practice can be recognized if last period’s Ideal Starlet victor Michelle Yeoh were to open up an envelope on March 10 and utter words, “By a nose…”
A variation of this tale initially showed up in the Below-the-Line problem of TheWrap’s honors publication. Find out more from the problem right here.
