Another Old Lady Enters the Oscar Race

Post Reply
flipp525
Laureate
Posts: 6163
Joined: Thu Jan 09, 2003 7:44 am

Re: Another Old Lady Enters the Oscar Race

Post by flipp525 »

Lois Smith really should have won the Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Emmy a couple years ago for her brief appearance on The Americans in an episode named “Do Mail Robots Dream of Electric Sheep?” She was astonishingly good.

http://www.indiewire.com/2015/03/in-a-g ... ll-131221/
The old woman who utters these words (played by a charming and riveting Lois Smith) punctures a hole in Elizabeth’s otherwise impenetrable devotion to her grim life’s work for the KGB. Until now, Elizabeth has seen herself as a spy, a saboteur, a soldier—but overall an agent of equality. In this moment, forcing an innocent elderly woman to commit suicide for the crime of catching up on warehouse paperwork when she and Philip break in to bug the FBI’s mail robot, opens her eyes to a different reality: Maybe she’s just a murderer, a thug, an oppressor. Maybe she is the enemy.
"The mantle of spinsterhood was definitely in her shoulders. She was twenty five and looked it."

-Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
bizarre
Assistant
Posts: 566
Joined: Sat Sep 03, 2011 9:35 am

Re: Another Old Lady Enters the Oscar Race

Post by bizarre »

The reviews for this at Sundance were middling and Lois Smith, while a respected character actress, doesn't really have the pull to get in for subpar material that will probably be underseen - happy to be wrong, though.
Mister Tee
Tenured Laureate
Posts: 8637
Joined: Wed Jan 01, 2003 2:57 pm
Location: NYC
Contact:

Re: Another Old Lady Enters the Oscar Race

Post by Mister Tee »

Possibly it's because I've drifted into Medicare territory myself, but for once I can root alongside you. It struck me a year or two back that it was rather remarkable an actress so good as Smith, with such longevity, had been so meagerly provided with award recognition over the course of her career (she's had some stage kudos, but not even that much there). It's been great recently to see veteran European performers cited for late-career-but-also-full-career work -- Riva, Rampling, Huppert -- and we shouldn't ignore their American equivalents.

By the way, Smith was very highly acclaimed for the stage version of this material, so it's not such a leap to imagine her in the running.
Big Magilla
Site Admin
Posts: 19318
Joined: Wed Jan 01, 2003 3:22 pm
Location: Jersey Shore

Another Old Lady Enters the Oscar Race

Post by Big Magilla »

From East of Eden to Five Easy Pieces and beyond, it's more than about time that one of our greatest unsung actresses was given an Oscar campaign. Whether it's successful or not remains to be seen, but at least it's happening.

“Majorie Prime”: Sundance Institute

FilmRise has acquired U.S. distributions rights to Lois Smith and Jon Hamm’s holographic love story “Marjorie Prime,” Deadline reports. Directed by Michael Almereyda (“Hamlet”), the sci-fi film co-stars Geena Davis and Tim Robbins. “Marjorie Prime” took home the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Feature Film Prize at Sundance this year, where it made its world premiere.

Based on Jordan Harrison’s Pulitzer-nominated play, the film is set in the near future and centers on Marjorie (Smith), who “spends time with the young likeness of her deceased husband, Walter (Hamm). This revitalized Walter is a sophisticated holographic projection that provides companionship while stimulating Marjorie’s memory — allowing her to explore their shared past as she lives with dementia,” Deadline summarizes. “Marjorie’s daughter Tess (Davis) and her husband, Jon (Robbins), develop their own complex feelings about the new Walter, uneasily coming to terms with the nature of identity, memory, and our ever-shifting relationship to technology.” Smith originated the role of Marjorie in the stage version of the story. She first played the character in 2014.

According to the source, FilmRise is planning to launch a theatrical release mid-2017 and will “push all the main actors with a targeted award-season campaign.” Smith is currently 86 years old, so she’ll be 87 by the time Oscar nominations are announced. The oldest actress to receive a Best Actress nomination thus far is Emmanuelle Riva, who was 85 years old when she scored a nod in 2013 for “Amour.”

Smith’s career spans nearly seven decades, with film credits including “East of Eden,” “Five Easy Pieces,” “Fried Green Tomatoes,” “Dead Man Walking,” and “Please Give.” “Desperate Housewives,” “True Blood,” and “Grace and Frankie” are among her TV credits.

“We are thrilled to announce our acquisition of this superb Sundance award-winner,” said FilmRise CEO Danny Fisher. “Michael Almereyda has created a subtle and masterly adaptation, and the performances by Jon Hamm, Lois Smith, Geena Davis, and Tim Robbins are extraordinary.”
“Marjorie Prime” will also be available on Amazon Prime Video this year.

Lois Smith-Starrer “Marjorie Prime” Acquired by FilmRise was originally published in Women and Hollywood on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story. »
- Laura Berger
Post Reply

Return to “90th Predictions and Precursors”