CHI& MIGHTY
Steppenwolf member earns first Oscar nomination as former Chicago improviser joins exclusive club
Steppenwolf Theatre ensemble member Laurie Metcalf earned her first Academy Award nomination on Tuesday as another locally trained talent, Jordan Peele, made Oscar history.
The “GetOut” director and former Chicago improviser became the third person in history to win nominations for best picture, best director and best original screenplay for his feature film debut.
He joins Warren Beatty (“Heaven Can Wait”) and James L. Brooks (“Terms of Endearment”) in the elite list of triple- nominated rookies.
Peele tweeted that he spoke to the film’s star, Daniel Kaluuya, a best actor nominee. “You know when you’re on the phone trying to disguise the sound of an ugly cry?” Peele wrote. “I failed at that.”
Metcalf, a stage veteran who won her first Tony last June, was nominated for her acclaimed work in “Lady Bird.”
“I got really emotional because everybody just poured their whole heart and soul into doing this film. I’m so happy for Greta [ Gerwig] and Saoirse [ Ronan] and the whole movie,” the best supporting actress nominee said on “Good Morning America.”
In the screenplay category, Peele is up against a pair of writers who also have Chicago history: comedian Kumail Nanjiani and his wife, Emily Gordon, who told the story of their courtship in “The Big Sick.” And Chicago native and Latin School grad Virgil Williams is a best adapted screenplay contender for cowriting “Mudbound” with its director, Dee Rees.