I’ve been thinking a lot about sympathy this week and where sympathetic coverage is applied. Should Melania Trump be seen as a sympathetic figure? That’s still up for debate in my mind. But Amy Adams definitely has my sympathy. She works hard, does consistently great work, starred in two of the best films of the year, and on Tuesday, her name was not called. She did not receive an Oscar nomination for Arrival or Nocturnal Animals. Many believed Amy would be and should be a major Best Actress contender for Arrival, a film which actually picked up nine Oscar nominations overall, just none for the actors. Many believed that Amy is more than “due” – she’s already been Oscar-nominated five times and never won.
What I like about Amy is that she doesn’t complain. If this had happened to a dude, we would never hear the end of it. But these photos are of Amy and her husband Darren out and about just hours after the nominations came out. She was back to work later on Tuesday too, attending the SAG-AFTRA Foundation’s Conversations event, which involved a discussion about her career and performance. The Daily Mail wrote about her appearance here – they make her sound like the saddest sack in the world when really she was just doing her job.
Her Arrival director Denis Villeneuve – who was nominated for an Oscar – namechecked Amy in his “reaction” interview too. He told EW: “This is the big disappointment. I’m deeply disappointed for Amy. She was the soul of this movie. For me, it was a given! She had the movie on her shoulders, she’s the one who made it happen. It’s a strange feeling to celebrate and feel sad at the same time.” Yeah, pretty much. Hollywood made a big-budget alien drama movie with a female lead and then every dude involved with the film was nominated and they snubbed the female lead.
Here are the photos from the SAG-AFTRA event. She looks fine. Maybe a little bit sad, but… here’s the thing. She WILL have another shot. And now people are being reminded that she’s absolutely due. So while I do have sympathy for Amy, I also want her to hold her head up high and keep doing her great work. She’ll get that Oscar at some point, probably sooner rather than later.
Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet, Getty.
Love Amy and I’m so disappointed she didn’t get a nomination for Arrival. Interestingly, the Oscars website initially had her as a nominee yesterday before they corrected it, which must have made the snub sting even more 🙁 It’s too bad the Janis Joplin biopic didn’t work out, because that could have been her Oscar-winning role (I’ll be so bitter if Michelle Williams ends up winning instead for portraying Joplin).
I can’t believe she wasn’t nominated, much less the winner, for American Hustle. She was the only interesting thing in that movie.
She was nominated for American Hustle, but she lost to Cate Blanchett. I think she and Bale were the highlights of that film (which was complete garbage in my opinion).
She was nominated for American Hustle.
Ugh it was a terrible film, but she always shines! I love her.
But Janis Joplin died at 27 and Amy is 42. A young 42 but still totally wrong for that role. Michelle is a young 36 but also probably still wrong. Honestly this was probably the one role Emma Stone would have been perfect for. She even has that hoarse singers voice, Janis had.
I thought Meryl Streep stole her spot!
I am sad about Amy, she carried Arrival on her shoulders. It’s HER movie! Anyway, I love Amy Adams, I think she is a great actress
EXACTLY!
Meryl was good but Amy was simply phenomenal.
I’m bitter that Meryl got nominated and not Amy. It surprisingly makes me dislike Meryl even though I know it’s not her fault per se, you know? I feel like she always gets nominated and takes other greta actresses’ spots and it just not fair.
@flr, I hear ya. But it’s perfectly ok to dislike Meryl “I’m a humanist, not a feminist” Streep for taking Queen Amy’s spot. She also gave Roman Polanski a standing ovation at the Oscars (and said she was “sad” that he was in jail when he was under house arrest).
Totally superficial, but I love that outfit!
I hope Arrival loses every single award it’s up for. Not only was Amy paid less than Renner but then they have the nerve to nominate the film SHE carried 8 times and then exclude her. There is no Arrival without her performance so they can gtfo.
She was paid less than Renner?! OMG I didn’t know. That’s awful!
Yea she was paid less than Renner. Even though it’s her movie, she carried it and is the star. So just adding insult to it all is not nominating her for the movie she carried but giving the movie itself a bunch of nominations. This is why I don’t take any of these award shows seriously and Hollywood can go jump off a cliff.
REALLY? Are you sure? She was a way bigger character!
Why do you want Arrival to lose every award? The studio campaigned for Amy. The Academy didn’t nominate her. Hoping a film is punished by the Academy because the Academy didn’t nominate one of the actors makes zero sense.
Also, I think you’re confusing American Hustle with Arrival re: Renner making more than Adams.
Do you mean she was paid less in American Hustle? I haven’t heard anything about her being paid less for Arrival. Do you have a link?
How do you know what she was paid? That info isn’t exactly floating around on the inter webs. We didn’t even find out about the American Hustle pay discrepancy until the Sony hack.
I seriously doubt that Renner was paid more than Amy. I have heard nothing to say that he was. The only thing I know for sure is that he took the role in the film as a favor to Amy because she asked him to do it – his was hardly a great part.
what?!? I don’t think you have your facts right. As Jesie said, you’re probably mixing with American Hustle…
Amy Adams should have been nominated. She was fantastic, as usual.
Denis Villeneuve is also overdue for an Oscar. He’s IMO one of the best directors of the actuality. Is this his best movie? Not at all…he has way better than this! Does this one deserves an Oscar? Absolutely! Furthermore, he might be one of the few directors out there who actually made a bunch of great movies centered on female characters with amazing stories. I don’t care if he doesn’t get an Oscar anway…as someone says down thread, the Oscars look more and more like a tacky prom and most often it’s not really the best actress/actor/movie that wins but the most pleasing to the white man in charge. Still, I will strongly disagree with you, plus i think what you’re saying is not even true. Denis Villeneuve is making a lot for the role of women in the cinema.
That’s strange. Jeremy Renner doesn’t sell any tickets. Not like people are sitting at home saying “Hey, lets go see the new Jeremy Renner movie”
LOL! Seriously…he’s weak.
Heh! I don’t even remember the Avengers character he played. I just say the dude with arrows. In fairness to Renner, I watched The Hurt Locker because of his casting choice. Same with The Bourne spinoff. I got intrigued with his take on that role.
Source?
I very doubt Denis Villeneuve would agree to pay her female lead less. He always made movie with strong female lead (un 32 août sur terre, Maelstrom, Polytechnique, Incendies…).
I think you got confused with that garbage American Hustle…
Overdue Oscar and they could have left out Streep….
I think it’s likely that she got votes for both Arrival and Nocturnal Animals and in a competitive year unfortunately cancelled herself out. Next time she’s nominated I think she’ll have a great shot at winning because her being left off the list this time has been getting a lot of attention.
Amy was good on Arrival and she deserves but GMAMFB she is probably fine drying her tears with her money and continuing to work on Oscar Bait, her time(s) will come, I mean I can’t believe people are really throwing a 5 time nominee a pity party FFS!!
Also Mel me preemptively save ya’ll time; Yes Amy Is Classy! ( LOL)
@QQ, I don’t think people are throwing a pity party (at least I’m not) for AMy. Personally, the reason this snub bothers me has been summed up better by others in other places but it does bug me that a movie that she carried and shouldered almost ALL the promotion for (because Dennis was filming Bladerunner at thet time) is going to get 8 Oscar nominations and she is the one that got shut out. Will she be fine? Of course she will because she’s class. I don’t think she really cares. But I don’t know. There is some weird casual sexism in this idea that a woman (over 40 too) could carry a movie about a woman saving the world, have her face be 85% of the film, carry the promo for the film and then be the one shut out of the recognition while the men get to up there and collect their awards. Like, I know she’s totally fine. I don’t pity her at all but that gets under my skin. I think that’s more why people are pissed.
Let’s not forgot Arrrival made box office $$$. I do not remember the current figures but it raked in at least or close to 100 mil. There are very few actors that can open a big box office today. Amy Adams is not getting her due credit for making movies that make money either (along with the Oscar snub).
Er, what else was she going to do, throw a tantrum and refuse to do her job because she didn’t get an awards nomination? I mean, I like her and she deserved a nomination over Meryl, but lets not act like she’s doing something amazing by not having a breakdown. People get snubbed every year, sometimes far more egregiously, and they too continue to go to work.
Thanks Jesie, I side eyed that headline as well.
True story: when Jennifer Aniston was “snubbed” for an Oscar nom for Cake, she canceled her press engagements for the next two days. Props to Amy for showing up to work, that’s all I’m saying.
So because one actress cancelled it’s noteworthy when every other actress doesn’t?
Unlike with Cake, Amy’s films are in contention for other awards, and Arrival is about to be re-released with extra footage. Aniston could bail on her events because they were purely for her benefit, Cake itself wasn’t a contender.
Amy went dark a couple of years back after Big Eyes failed to net her a nomination, something she was able to do because the film wasn’t in contention for anything other than Best Actress.
@Jesie, sadly….not everyone in Hollywood ::is:: as professional as this woman. Some of the stories out there are really egregious. I get that in the grand scheme of things a woman acting like a decent human being shouldn’t be a headline but the reality is that Amy Adams is one of the most genuine human beings in Hollywood surrounded by a sea of complete a-holes.
And yet, when Leo hadn’t won an Oscar for his years of mediocre work the whole world had to pull for POOR POOR LEO.
exacto!
Sometimes I feel sexism is deeply entrenched within us, generations of conditioning
She’ll be fine. If she shows up in anything next year that’s even remotely Oscar baity she’ll be handed an award for being deserving before and not winning.
Honestly, I’ve never liked her in anything until ARRIVAL. She’s not bad, just something about her that bugs me.
NOBODY IS OWED AN OSCAR!!!! I’m sure Irene Dunne, Cary Grant, Alfred Hitchcock, et al, weren’t crying themselves to sleep because the Academy never honored them.
I’m exactly like you, she is inoffensive and competent but she doesn’t wake in me the classy-let’s-fight-for-her-Oscar Passion that she does in these quarters THAT SAID ARRIVAL!!?!? whew She really worked all cylinders for me blew my socks off
Loving the new Avi QQ. Is that your new hair shade?
Yeeees I Choose me.. For the week.. or maybe two IDK, you know the bleach days of a “Bright Color Hair” process?
I don’t know what it is either, but I just don’t root for her. I mean – I don’t root against her either – she is just such a ‘meh’ person to me.
She’s talented enough, from what I’ve heard. I’ve only seen her in fluffy movies, and she’s perfectly likable. But that’s kind of all she is to me. She’s likable. She’s innocuous. She’s nice. She’s pretty. But nothing about her particular stands out to me.
She doesn’t feed the gossip machine, so I don’t have any real opinions based off of that. She works consistently, and seems to be a completely normal, low key kind of person. Which is great. But it also doesn’t keep you talking about her.
She always just seems so perfectly tailored to look a certain way. Non-threatening, perfect, full hair with a curl on the ends. She seems like the kind of friend that a lot of people seem to have, who has really has their shit together, enjoys a nice, comfortable life, a great family, and always look nice and tidy.
As a person I’d probably adore her. She genuinely seems nice. But she also doesn’t seem particularly interesting to me as a celebrity. And that’s not all her fault or anything – you see so many ridiculous people in the media that it kind of just automatically makes her kind of boring in comparison.
@Erinn I also had the same opinion about her until I saw her in the Graham Norton show. She’s witty and funny. And clever. Super professional. Perhaps too together and classy for Hollywood?
Watch her dramatic work. Amy is amazing.
@Erinn, She’s one of our only more super famous white actresses that didn’t come from money and privilege. Even Emily Blunt was born to a super wealthy family.
I think a lot of what you are describing can be traced to the fact that she came from a poor background and didn’t become famous until she was over 30. I think she’s a low key person because that’s just her life, you know? When you become famous later in life (and when you don’t come from money to start with) I would have to assume that a lot of this Hollywood stuff just feels very superficial which is probably why you don’t see a ton of gossip about her.
Anyway, I think she’s an incredible actress, love her in everything and want her to get an Oscar but also think the Oscars are generally BS and she doesn’t need one to matter.
PREACH.
and ultimately the Oscar itself matters very little. I mean, as an actor, whose career would you rather have – Adrien Brody (youngest ever Best Actor winner) or Alan Rickman (never nominated for one at all)? And if you were an actress, would you rather be Hilary Swank (two-time Oscar winner by age 30 but never heard of after that) or Kirsten Dunst (long, versatile and well-received career, but no Oscar nominations forthcoming)?
This is what bugs me about the so and so deserves an Oscar conversation.
The majority of the worlds greatest directors have never won, in fact many have never been nominated. Abbas Kiarostami died last year without one of his films ever even being part of the conversation! Kubrick never won! Kurosawa never won! Truffaut never won! Fritz Lang and Godard didn’t even get one nomination! Bergman, Chaplin and Fellini never won for directing!
Roger Deakins has been nominated 16 times without a win! Peter O’Toole only got an honorary Oscar! Richard Burton, Montgomery Clift, Barbara Stanwyck, Cary Grant, Rosalind Russell, Peter Sellers, Max Von Sydow and Deborah Kerr never won! Gary Oldman’s never won! This is Isabelle Huppert’s first ever nomination!
Off the top of my head Gong Li, Gael Garcia Bernal, Martin Sheen, Guy Pearce, Allison Janney, Brendan Gleeson, Oscar Isaac, Sam Rockwell and Tony Leung have never even been nominated. Nor was Alan Rickman. Or Buster Keaton. Or Peter Lorre.
When many of the people who shaped modern cinema never even got a look in, it’s hard to feel like an actress not getting her 6th nomination is a travesty. And if we’re talking over-looked actresses, how about the fact that a Latina has never won Best Actress, and the last Latina nomination in that category was 13 years ago.
Add Satyajit ray who only ever got a honorary one few months prior to his death
@Jessie I agree! For some reason the Oscars have always lacked credibility and rarely make sense. I mean, who refuses to hand an award to Citizen Kane and gives it to some other movie no one remembers (true story)? And that’s the first of many cases in its history. You should Google about it, it’ll blow your mind how many wrong winners they’ve had most of the time. If I watch them it’s because as a film fan they serve as future reference, and thanks to social media (particularly Twitter) I laugh out loud at any random tidbit mentioned and made fun of. Time is what really judges a work of art and ultimately decides if it’s worth remembering. All the actors and directors you mentioned have had staying power due to its quality, they never needed an award to confirm it. So take the Oscars and awards shows for what the truly are: popularity contests. The truly greats are those who didn’t search for recognition, but it was earned due to talent and hard work.
Really. I’ve been rooting for her since Drop dead gorgeous and Catch me if you can. She has good timing for comic parts, so maybe she could go back to these parts.
Sunshine cleaning is still one of my favorite, maybe with The Master. I even forgive her the atrocious Leap year.
Like so many actors, I prefer them in small, original indie projects. Sure, that won’t earn an Oscar, but they tend to give more satisfying and subtle performances when they stop caring for the statuette.
On a sidenote, I can’t believe doing your job is worthy of a headline. What else was she supposed to do?
Great article Kaiser, and I do feel sad for her, it is tough to “lose.” I am a lawyer and I lose cases, motions, etc. and it is tough as heck to get back up the next day and keep fighting. Not everyone has the b@lls or whatever to do it. So my hat is OFF to Amy! She rocks and is a true professional to get right back out there and do her job promoting her film. I think it also is especially hard on celebrities because they are in the public eye and everyone is judging their every move. Amy, you will get your Oscar one day, so keep on keeping on, beautiful lady!
I honestly cant waste any energy on her not getting yet another Oscar nomination when its so obvious that she is 100% guaranteed to take that statue eventually, as will Emily Blunt and Emma Stone. Sure they are talented but it doesnt hurt to completely embody the “thinking mans” idea of pretty clean white beauty. Academy voters love that.
I hope I don’t offend anyone, but the Oscars always seemed like a tacky popularity event, like prom. Amy will continue to build a great body of work. She is the real deal in terms of talent and grace. She doesn’t need an award to be recognized for that.
They are. Hollywood is basically high school, and all movie premieres, events and award shows are the school year’s parties no one wants to miss. Hell, they even have their own cliques! But I love it when an “outsider” gets nominated in one of their awards, and even more when they win because I know it secretly pisses off the “popular kids” (eg. Isabelle Huppert winning the Golden Globe over student council president Natalie Portman). So there you have it. Amy and all of the fantastic actors out there will keep on working and delivering consistently, while the “It crowd” keeps trying to survive in the mainstream cesspool.
Amy is the female DiCaprio, gives great performances and carry’s the movie but yet is consistently left out. Don’t get me wrong DiCaprio is a good actor who deserved to win but he won for the wrong movie.
Its a travesty that Streep always gets a nom, even for a sub par performance. Its HW favouritism. I don’t think Streep or Portman will win thou!!
Listen, I saw Jackie last night and it’s a shambles that Portman got nominated – she was DREADFUL. I haven’t seen Loving yet, and I hated LA LA Land (but love Emma) but it just goes to show that Oscars no longer mean anything when the best performance by a female this year wasn’t nominated. Amy, you rock.
I saw Jackie last night and I was underwhelmed too, not just with Natalie’s performance but with the entire film (the only highlight was Mica Levi’s score). Her performance didn’t draw me in at all, and the film didn’t even attempt to dig below the surface. She did a good job of mimicking Jackie’s accent and mannerisms, but it was a very superficial performance overall. I can’t believe that Natalia and Emma ended up with nominations, and are the front runners, in a year where so many more deserving performances were snubbed (e.g., Amy, Annette Benning!, Taraji, Rebecca Hall …)
Didn’t expect any less from her. Amy will be fine. More than fine. She knows her worth, and will most definitely get the statue at some point.
Sorry Amy, but snubs must be made so Meryl Streep can get her annual nomination. I’m sure you understand
She should just live her life. This is the way the Oscars always have been. Gwyneth Paltrow as best actress? Julia Roberts….they were the flavor of the month. Many great actors/actresses have been overlooked, while some of the mediocre — like the aforesaid get crowned the best. Paul Newman and Al Pacino weren’t given Oscars until late in their careers. Like everything else in this world, it’s political.
I’m really pissed off. I’ve been a big fan of Amy since “Enchanted” and “Junebug”. She’s a rare gem : an actress you forget she’s an actress, because when she acts, you just see the human being she portrays, not Amy Adams in a big performance (like Streep). She is long overdue
Does Meryl Streep have dirt on the Hollywood hot shots?!
I was also meh on Amy a long time ago but she consistently blew me away, from her small part in “Her” to the huge part in “Arrival”. She disappears behind the roles, unlike Portman, Streep or Stone imo.
I’m not going to lie, I was pretty fed up yesterday about Amy not getting the nomination. Not only she carried the whole movie with an excellent performance but she also got a good box office. Putting things into perspective, she will probably win an overdue Oscar in a couple of years because we know it’s all about politics and campaigning.
At this point my only hope is that Isabelle Huppert snatches the Oscar from Emma but we know how the Academy feels about ingénue roles.
Unrelated but I just watched 20th century women and I absolutely loved it!
I think Amy struggled for so long to get her career to take off that once it happened she is happy to keep getting interestkng roles and delivering them. A true professional!
But I still find ridiculous that she got snubbed and Meryl Streep (and Natalie Portman) were nominated…
I am more disappointed Annette Bening didn’t get a nod tbh. She’s long overdue!
I don’t think she cares. She doesn’t look like the type. She gave two Oscar worthy performances this year alone. No other actress has that.
It is always all about Meryl. Now she would care if she did not get nominated ONCE in her life.
I always root for Amy Adams. Like always. And sometimes I think because she’s a bit of a mystery to people (and not a gossip story) people don’t really get why she’s so special. But I think she’s super special and a rare gem. Yes, she’s a pretty white girl. OK. That is true. But she also did not come from economic privilege, guys. She grew up really poor. That story about her mother being gay and having the kids taken away from her and Amy having to go live with relatives is true. That happened. Amy Adams is not the daughter of some other famous actor or industry person or super rich exec (like a lot of other famous white actors are btw) she’s this girl from nowhere who grew up poor and became a movie star. She’s married to a “normal” guy who raises their daughter while she works. She shows up and does her job and isn’t a diva. She consistently does good work. And, apparently, she’s genuinely kind. I will always root for someone like that. I’m pissed she wasn’t nominated for Arrival. I believe she carried the move and it’s BS that the film got 8 nods and she got excluded but, end of day? All of these awards are meaningless and I genuinely don’t think this woman is defined one way or the other by this. It’s why I like her.
I couldn’t agree more.
I get that it’s a major career milestone for these guys, but honestly…at the end of the day, it’s just an award. If she really loves what she does (and all that sweet money), it’s a bump that she easily steps over. Plenty of superbly talented individuals never got their recognition at the Academy, and that includes big names like Gary Oldman.
Amy is the new leonardo dicaprio. She HAS to win. Loved that the director is so vocal about his upset. It’s friggin Meryl people. She’s the one who doesn’t know when to retire and keeps getting oscar nods for basic performances. Ugh. Amy is so talented and will win eventually as she will continue to be offered outstanding roles to play.
I’ve loved Amy ever since I saw Junebug. She is awesome!!
I hate that they corrected it for Meryl Streep, after her Golden Globes’ speech and mostly not her latest movie. Meryl is certainly an amazing actress but she did not deserve Amy’s spot. God, it makes me so mad, but like you said I’m sure Amy will have another shot (she has to!)!
Amy probably would have already won if her team didn’t make her look SO keen after each loss/snub. Is it my time? Is it my time YET? This year then?!?! WELL MAYBE NEXT YEAR, RIGHT?!?!?!?!?! I doubt she cares that much, she gets plenty of great offers, works with amazing people, has been nominated plenty of times. Oscars have never been about quality, it’s a popularity contest and her team needs to realise that Amy just isn’t the Jennifer Lawrence I-farted-in-my-own-mouth-aren’t-I-adorable type.
I’ve said this several times Amy is her generations near female equivalent of Paul Newman in the amount of times she been nominated for an Oscar and not won. he lost best actor 6 times before he won on his 7th after winning the life time achievement Oscar the previous year while his wife Joanne Woodward won on her first nomination aged 28 shortly after they were married in 1958. as for the pay discrepancy between her and Jeremy Renner that’s nothing to be shocked by men have always for the most part made more money for their work in films than women do