Who Should Win Best Actress at the 2022 Academy Awards?
From my perspective, there is no doubt, Kristen Stewart delivered the Best performance by an Actress in a leading role in Spencer. Stewart’s innate, heartbreaking sadness, effortless charisma, and sly sense of humor are the picture of the Princess Diana so many people hold in their imagination. And yet, the performance is better than that. Stewart brings little touches of nuance and grace to the performance that are all her own. Left on screen a lone for long stretches of Spencer, Stewart holds the screen with confidence while never losing sight of the woman she is portraying, her vulnerability, longing, and closely held secrets. It’s a bravura performance and it is very unlikely to win Best Actress at the Academy Awards.
The Academy Awards do not often award the ‘Best’ in any particular category. On average, the Academy tends to honor the performance that a majority of voters can get behind. This often means the road of least resistance, which, in Acting categories, often means leads not to what Actor delivered the best acting but rather who did the MOST acting. In the case of this year’s nominees, there is no question that Jessica Chastain did the MOST acting if not the Best acting. Don’t get me wrong, I find Chastain’s performance as Tammy Faye Baker to be quite entertaining. She brings a heart, joy and naivety to Tammy Faye that feels authentic. At the same time, the performance can also be considered broad, showy, and obvious. For an Academy voter looking for the most obvious amount of Acting, The Eyes of Tammy Faye provides the most obvious volume of acting.
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That same quantity of acting idea could also be applied to the performance of Nicole Kidman in Being the Ricardos. Kidman’s take on the legendary Lucille Ball is a big, loud, boisterous performance. Other than Chastain, it’s clear that Nicole Kidman is doing the MOST acting. Her performance is broad and showy and its easy to point at while your half paying attention and think, that’s a lot of acting. The performance is very obvious, it’s broad so the average movie goer can say that they see the work on screen. I happen think, it’s one of the worst performances of Nicole Kidman’s career, though that is due more to Aaron Sorkin’s horrible screenplay which renders a Lucille Ball who is unfunny to a remarkable degree.
If I were forced to choose a performance other than Kristen Stewart in Spencer as the Best of this Best Actress crop, it would undoubtedly be Olivia Coleman’s bracing, awkward, anxiety inducing performance in The Lost Daughter. One could argue that the performance has showy qualities similar to Chastain and Kidman. Indeed, some scenes have a broadness to them that is undeniable. However, I would counter that by pointing out the subtle notes that Coleman brings, the sadness, an element of mystery underlined by the film’s brilliant flashback to Jesse Buckley playing the younger version of Coleman’s character. And then there is the spiky chemistry between Coleman and Dakota Johnson which ripples with life, it’s rife with jealousy, longing, fear and loathing. It all adds up to a performance that may actually be better than Coleman’s Academy Award winning performance in 2018’s The Favourite.
If you’re looking to bet a longshot in this year’s Academy Awards race for Best Actress, you would bet on Penelope Cruz. That’s not a commentary on her performance, she’s stellar under the brilliant direction of Pedro Almodovar in Parallel Mothers. That said, Cruz’s performance is the least showy, the least broad, and the least noticed among the majority of the Academy. Cruz has wowed critics, she won the Los Angeles Film Critics Award for Best Actress and The National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress, but with the Hollywood Guilds that make up the membership of the Academy, the film has been overlooked. Cruz herself was snubbed at the Screen Actors Guild Awards where she went un-nominated. The Screen Actors Guild membership makes up the largest block of Academy Awards voters. SAG success doesn’t always mean an Academy Award victory but a lack of nominations for Parallel Mothers among the remaining Hollywood Guilds, indicates that Cruz will have an uphill battle to win the Academy Award.
Who should win Best Actress? I answered that earlier but I will reiterate, Kristen Stewart delivered the best performance among the nominees. That said: Who Will Win? Jessica Chastain has the most momentum going forward with wins at SAG and the Critics Choice Awards. There is a groundswell for Chastain that appears undeniable at this point. Best guess is that Chastain will be hoisting the Oscar statue on on March 27th, 2022.
