Good news, Mikey Madison: The Oscars love ingenues
Mikey Madison is the current Best Actress Oscar frontrunner for her heartbreaking performance in the title role of Sean Baker‘s “Anora.” Her likeliest competitors are two past Oscar winners — Nicole Kidman, 57, for “Babygirl” and Angelina Jolie, 49, for “Maria” — plus six-time nominee Amy Adams, 50, for “Nightbitch” and Karla Sofia Gascon, 52, for “Emilia Pérez.”
At age 25, Madison has one advantage over her main rivals for the award: her youth. Of the 97 winners of this race, almost one-third (32) were in their 20s.
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Among those ingenues to take to the stage to collect this coveted prize was Emma Stone, who was 28 when she won for “La La Land” in 2017. Stone was 35 when she picked up a bookend Oscar earlier this year for “Poor Things,” which made her the 35th Best Actress winner in her thirties.
Bracketing Stone’s two wins were five women who defied this bias toward youth: 60-year-old Michelle Yeoh (“Everything Everywhere All at Once”); 45-year old Jessica Chastain (“The Eyes of Tammy Faye”); double champ Frances McDormand (who was 60 and 63 when she won for “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” and “Nomadland” respectively), 45-year-old Olivia Colman (“The Favourite”) and 50-year-old Renee Zellweger (“Judy”).
Besides Zellweger, the only other Best Actress champs in their 50s were both 54 when they won: Julianne Moore, who finally prevailed after four losses for “Still Alice” in 2015, and theater veteran Shirley Booth, who won for reprising her Tony-winning role in 1952’s “Come Back, Little Sheba.”
Sixteen, including Chastain, were in their 40s when they won.
McDormand was the sixth winner in her 60s when she won Best Actress for the second time in 2017 (she was just shy of 40 when she did so for “Fargo” in 1997). Her pal Meryl Streep had also defied the youth bias when, at age 62, she picked up her third Oscar in 2012 for “The Iron Lady.” Streep also had the overdue factor in her favor as it had been almost three decades since her second win for “Sophie’s Choice.” Likewise for Helen Mirren who was 61 when she was crowned champ for “The Queen” in 2007 after two previous losses. Geraldine Page was also 61 when she finally won on nomination #8 for “A Trip to Bountiful” in 1986.
Katharine Hepburn, who was 26 when she claimed her first Oscar in 1934 for “Morning Glory,” had just entered her 60s when she won Best Actress back-to-back (“Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner,” 1967; “The Lion in Winter,” 1968). The only other Best Actress champ in her 60s was Marie Dressler who won for “Min and Bill” at the 4th Academy Awards in 1931.
Hepburn was almost 75 when she won her record fourth Oscar for “On Golden Pond” in 1982 while Jessica Tandy was 80 when she prevailed in 1990 for “Driving Miss Daisy.”
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