Here’s the catch-22 when it comes to this whole Andrea Riseborough controversy, one that doesn’t seem to be slowing down and will only accelerate in the coming days and, possibly, weeks.
You have plenty of people groaning that she stole a nomination from a black actress (Viola Davis, Danielle Deadwyler). Many of these whiners haven’t even seen Riseborough’s performance, which is quite great.
The dirty little secret when it comes to the Oscars, and it’s not really a secret at all, is that practically every year, the best films and performances don’t get honored. Don’t get me wrong, you’ll have some great work nominated, this year I’m thinking of “TÁR,” “The Banshees of Inisherin,” Cate Blanchett, Judd Hirsch. But at the end of the day, politics come into play to turn you into an Oscar nominee.
So, when you have something like Andrea Riseborough’s performance in “To Leslie” getting nominated, the general reaction is to freak out because no pundits, critics or studio campaigning prepared you for this moment. It was a nomination that resulted via a large demographic of the actors branch actually thinking it was a great performance.
The backlash occurring right now is only increasing Riseborough’s odds of actually winning the award. No, really. More voters are going to be watching “To Leslie” now and what they’ll find is staggering work on the part of Riseborough, a performance that easily ranks as one of the year’s best. It’s a no-brainer to believe that voters who respond to this performance will vote for it. Not just because it’s top-notch work, but also in total spite of the haters out there.
Oscar voters like to make a statement, and the statement here would be that not only did Riseborough deserve the nomination, but that she now deserves to win. I don’t think there’s any way to stop this contagious mindset on the part of the voter unless the AMPAS rescind’s Riseborough’s nomination, which I doubt they will.
Back to who actually deserved a nomination in this category. I found all five performances in the Lead Actress to be worthy enough, even Michelle Yeoh in EEAO, but one could have easily concocted a similar grassroots campaign for the likes of Mia Goth (Pearl), Rebecca Hall (Resurrection) and Thandiwe Newton (God’s Country).
That’s the unfairness of the game. One steeped in the politics of studio campaigning rather than merit. The fact that Riseborough and her team actually found a way to beat out the powers-that-be at their own multi-million dollar game is both hilarious and cathartic. We need more of this in the Oscar race, and the Academy is trying to stop this from ever happening again.