Jamie Lee Curtis Oscar Win Ignites New Controversy
The 95th Annual Oscars were on March 12. The Oscars are a night that honors the absolute best in film annually. However, there are disagreements on whether the Oscars actually accomplished that this year. Specifically, people have issues with Jamie Lee Curtis winning Best Supporting Actress.
Curtis won Best Supporting Actress for her role as Deirdre Beaubeirdre in Everything Everywhere All at Once. This year, Best Supporting Actress was a first-rate category. Curtis was up against Stephanie Hsu, who was also in Everything Everywhere All At Once, Angela Bassett for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Hong Chau for The Whale, and Kerry Condon for The Banshees of Inisherin.
Comparing her to these other nominees, many people online felt that Curtis does not deserve this award based on her performance and her body of work which is mostly the Halloween franchise of films. Many dissenters stated that she does not qualify for the best supporting actress performance in her film.
Jamie Lee Curtis wasn’t the best supporting actress in the movie she was in. How she beat her co-star AND Angela? A mess and a fool.
— The Other Saeed Jones (@Danez_Smif) March 13, 2023
It can be difficult to compete with someone from the same film and that was the case for Curtis and Hsu. They both gave memorable performances in the same movie, but many of the film’s fans believed Hsu had the better performance. Hsu’s role as Joy Wang was meatier and more central to the plot and action.
Also, EEAAO is a film with a predominantly Asian cast and centers around Asian experiences. That makes it look suspect on the Academy that they picked a white actress over an Asian actress from the same film. However, Hsu is somewhat new to the mainstream film industry, which may have worked against her. Hopefully, Hsu will get this chance again.
i am genuinely so mad rn stephanie hsu was absolutely ROBBED there is no way you watch everything everywhere all at once and decide JAMIE LEE CURTIS is somehow the standout of that film. im so freaking mad, she absolutely did NOT deserve that pic.twitter.com/qn2tLptogu
— ZAYNA🔪#ANDAMOVIE (@sitcomabed) March 13, 2023
Hsu is not the only actress viewers believe deserve the Oscar over Curtis. Many Oscar watchers thought that Angela Bassett should have won for her performance in Wakanda Forever. There is also a clip going viral of Bassett not applauding when Curtis won, which makes it seem like Bassett agrees with this sentiment. Some viewers consider this a legacy award for Curtis as if the award was granted for her entire acting career.
If that were the case, then Bassett would have also deserved that legacy. She has also had an illustrious career which takes us back to the race argument, with a white woman getting recognition for her career over a person of color. Bassett could and should get her award someday in the future.
you’re telling me that corny ass Performance from Jaime lee curtis was better than this piece of Art Angela Bassett delivered?pic.twitter.com/lgykpGMKg7
— ST☆R BOY (@Dr7gns) March 13, 2023
Curtis’s career began due to her nepotism baby status. Her father was Oscar-nominated actor Tony Curtis, and her mother was Oscar-nominated actress Janet Leigh. She is the third person to receive a nominee for an Oscar whose parents were also nominees. She could possibly be one of the first big nepotism babies. While there is no denial about her talent, with the recent backlash against nepotism babies online, this does not help her case. Many critics of her win write her off as just another “white nepo baby” winning over people of color.
jamie lee curtis complaining about her nepo baby label while winning an oscar over 3 poc who objectively turned in better performances is fucking rich #oscars
— Cris ✨ (@lionesspike) March 13, 2023
Even though some people did not like that Curtis won, she still has a very successful acting career. A lot of that comes from her work in the Halloween franchise. Her first film role was in this franchise in 1978, and she was in the 13th film in the franchise, Halloween Ends, just last year. She has also been in many classic comedy films, like Trading Places, True Lies, A Fish Called Wanda, Knives Out, and Freaky Friday. In television, she won a Golden Globe for the sitcom Anything But Love and got a nomination for an Emmy for Nicholas’s Gift. Her acting legacy spans decades, and there will probably be more of her.
Literally any single one of them should have won over Jamie Lee Curtis https://t.co/apIAoKB51I pic.twitter.com/dMqzVgBxlj
— Nicholas (@NicholasPascar5) March 13, 2023
Against a different slate of nominees, there may not have been any backlash to Curtis’s win. It has been clear that she is a talented actress. However, with this specific lineup, it just does not seem to be the fairest. All of the Best Supporting Nominees gave extraordinary performances that deserve recognition. There are movie fans who think Hsu and Bassett are more deserving to win, and Condon and Chau also did a stunning job. The Oscars nominate the best group of supporting actresses of the year, and they did a successful job at that. However, when it comes to the winner, they might have not gone the right route.
