Smiling, even in a losing Oscar battle

Bookies say Viola Davis will easily win best supporting actress for Fences. Yet, her contenders remain upbeat. They have reasons

SMILING AND clapping through marathon awards banquets. Week after week, month after month. Racking up frequent-flier miles to woo Oscar voters at question-andanswer sessions. Giving endless command performances to red-carpet reporters who ask the same questions on loop. All the hair and makeup. All the gown fittings. And losing the whole time. Nicole Kidman, Naomie Harris, Michelle Williams and Octavia Spencer — all nominatedforbestsupportingactressatthecomingacademyawards—knowthisdrillalltoo well: It has been their lives since November, when their fellow nominee, Viola Davis, startedtovacuumupprizeafterprizeforher tour-de-force performance in Fences.

Alltold,davishascollectedatleast29trophies in recent months. She walked to bellwetherwinsatthegoldenglobes,thebritish Academy of Film and Television Arts and the Screen Actors Guild. The oddsmakers at Goldderby.comhaveherseizingthesupporting actress Oscar in a landslide on February 26,thedayoftheoscars.it’sthemostlockeddown category there is: She’s winning.

So why do the other contenders keep going through the motions?

That question pops into my head almost every year around this time, when the gracious losing starts to seem like Oscar-worthy performance art unto itself. Red-carpet reporters do their best to keep the Academy Awards feeling like a contest, but at least one category is perennially a no contest.

In 2015, Julianne Moore won best actress on the September day when Hollywood insiders first saw her in Still Alice at the Toronto International Film Festival. In 2012, Spencer similarly breezed to the Oscar lectern, collecting the supporting actress statuette for her portrayal of a maid in The Help, in which she starred with Davis.

For answers, I spoke to longtime studio executives, publicists, agents and even a few of this year’s also-ran nominees. Some of their responses were surprising.

Joe Quenqua, who runs the entertainment practice at DKC Marketing and Public Relations, cleared up one thing right off the bat: No nominees, no matter what they say, concede they are losing until that golden envelope has been opened. “You can be the longest shot in the history of Oscar nominees,” he said. “You still have to think you have the teeniest, tiniest, halfpercentage-point chance of winning walking into that room.”

Quenqua, who has worked on numerous Oscar campaigns, including one for The Help, said that there are multiple reasons that long-shot contenders cling to hope. Aside from ego — and don’t underestimate that factor in Hollywood — actors and actresses, from their earliest days auditioning, don’t make it very far if they have a defeatist attitude.

Upsets from past Oscars can also contribute to magical thinking; nobody thought voters would select Marisa Tomei as best supporting actress in 1993 for My Cousin Vinny, but they did.

And reporters may play a role. “It’s not like journalists single out the long shots and say, ‘Tell me how it feels to be losing’,” Quenqua said. “Instead, the question asked to everyone is always, ‘What are you saying in your acceptance speech?’.”

Every year, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences hosts a luncheon a few weeks before its prize ceremony to celebrate all the nominees as a group, from major stars down to the sound mixers. The academy peppers the room with reporters. Since the event usually falls at a crucial time in the voting process — this year, a few days before ballots went out — nominees tend to be very chatty. One of my first stops was Harris, who played a crack-addicted mother in Moonlight and is vying for best supporting actress against Davis.

“Do you plan to write an acceptance speech?” I asked her. Harris smiled. “I’m goingwithhelenmirren’sadvice,whichistoalwayshaveaspeech,evenifyouknowbeyond adoubtthatyou’renotgoingtowin,”shesaid.

I knew I was pushing it, but I said it anyway:“howdoyouknowthat?”withasingle facial expression, she seemed to toss all 29 of Davis’s trophies in my direction. In the end, the affable Harris offered some insight into how she has approached the Year of Viola Davis, who has never won an Oscar despite two prior nominations (for The Help and for Doubt in 2009), making her the most nominated black actress in Academy history.

“I’m so grateful for the acknowledgment, which has made a huge difference in my career already, in terms of scripts and projects coming to me... But I’m also happy to be able to come to these events and help get Moonlight to a broader audience,” Harris said. “I feel a responsibility to get out there and do as much legwork as I can to promote the film.”

Perhaps her category mates had similar points of view. Kidman, nominated for her frizzy-haired adoptive mother in Lion, has certainly done her best, dating back to the September film festivals, to keep that littlefilm-that-could in the public eye. Ditto Williams, nominated for Manchester by the Sea. Before I could track them down, I stumbled across Spencer, honoured for playing a NASA leader in Hidden Figures.

“Can I ask you a question?” I said to her, after identifying myself as a reporter. “No,” she said, sitting down at her lunch table. Now it was my turn to make a face. “Well, you can ask me how my day is going,” she said quickly. “But I’m not doing any press.”

Maybe she just wanted to be left alone with her salad. Maybe she was worried that I might drag her into yet another discussion about the #Oscarsowhite controversy.

Or maybe, just then, she had stopped going through the motions. NYT