Annette Bening scored her fifth Oscar nomination this year for playing Diana Nyad, and it’s highly likely that she walks out of this awards season still 0/5. Was Nyad an innovative film? No, except to the extent that it’s still novel in the 21st century to have a film centered on the friendship between two women in their 60s. But I agree that Annette’s performance was better than the film itself (same goes for Jodie Foster, who’s up for supporting actress). Though she’s a long shot compared to her fellow leading actress nominees, Annette is definitely campaigning. Harvard’s Hasty Pudding theater troupe just bestowed her with their Woman of the Year award, and she spoke with them about the quality of women’s roles today, and how her kids voted against her joining social media:
Strong, flawed women: “I do think that our understanding of women is growing, given what we’re able to do in film and TV, and then the nuance that is afforded in the way things are written now. There’s a lot of talk about strong women and strong women’s roles, and that’s great. But when you think about it, a strong woman is also a flawed woman and is also a woman with weaknesses and vulnerabilities. And so it’s not a question of just strong women’s role. It’s real women. And that’s what we want.”
Challenging yourself is not just a young woman’s game: Bening said that no age becomes the finish line for a woman’s evolution. “Just like we see in real life around us, just as we see among the women that we know, there isn’t a point at which a woman stops evolving and changing,” she said. … She said that since she started in film 35 years ago, there are “fewer stereotypical pictures,” but that goes for roles for men too. “I think a lot of people want to stay challenged as they grow older, not just in work, but in life and in relationships and in what they might do day-to-day,” Bening explained. “It doesn’t have to be a marathon swim to feel like you want to challenge yourself. You want to do something new, you want to change and grow. And that’s true of many of the women that I know.”
Stay off Insta, Mom! Bening, who has been married to actor Warren Beatty since 1992 and has four children with him, is also mindful about how much of her life she puts out in public. She said she once considered joining social media to boost some of the causes she’s passionate about. But ultimately, her children advised her against it. “I did ask one of my kids, I said, ‘You know, should I start? Should I go on social media?’ And they’re like, ‘No, Mom,’” Bening laughed.
Sounds like she wouldn’t have been on much, anyway: In a digital age when smartphones capture everything, Bening said, she would recommend that young actors and actresses maintain a sense of privacy. Looking back, that’s the advice she’d give herself. “I would say to my younger self, keep something of yourself to yourself, and to the people that you love and the people that you trust,” she said. “And I would certainly say that to people starting out now. There’s so much pressure on young actors and actresses to make themselves public and to talk about events in their lives in their publicity. And obviously, some is OK. There’s not some hard-and-fast rule, but to always find a way to keep the things that matter to you most private.”
So her kids just didn’t want their mom on social media, right? Didn’t want her seeing their accounts? LOL. I’m sticking with this interpretation until and unless Annette expands her answer. As for her advice that aspiring actors protect their privacy, I am wholeheartedly and spiritually with her in theory. In practice, I don’t think Annette is fully appreciating how much a young actor’s online following is factored into the business these days. I mean, even frickin’ Elle Fanning lost out on a role for not having enough Instagram followers, and she’s had a high profile in the industry since she was, what, four?! Again, I’m not advocating for this way of casting. I’m just saying that it’s a bigger reality than perhaps Annette was leaving room for. So yes, the roles being written may be getting richer, more honest, more complicated. But the question hovering over that is — on what criteria are actors being considered to play them?
Photos credit: IMAGO/London Entertainment/Splash/Avalon, Getty and Netflix press
I think for older, already respected actors, this is the best thing.
It elevates them in my opinion. Don’t know why. Just a feeling.
My mum is a few years older than her and I have also insinuated there would he little of interest for her in joining social media. Nothing about my own content, my worries are more about online literacy and norms, I think she would be much more hurt by the casual cruelty in comments etc than those of us who have grown up online.
So we have a little tradition of me saving any cute and funny videos and memes for her and sharing them all at once on a weekend visit!
Annette Ben ing and Glenn close both should have gotten academy awards by now.
Yes, this! Honestly, some years I shake my head. like goop…
I think your take is the right one. Her oldest son has written about all the shit his parents put him through because he’s trans. Conversion therapy. No short haircuts, dresses, etc.When they finally realized it was a losing battle, they tried to convince him to be non-binary to keep him from starting testosterone. His therapist had to shut down his practice once California banned conversion therapy.
All of this is why I get pissed off when Bening and Beatty. present themselves as being their trans son’s biggest allies and defenders. They fought tooth and nail.
Wow, I had no idea @Kristen from MA. Hideous. Between this and Jodie Foster’s comments about “weakness” (which I can’t repeat because they’re too upsetting in an animal-cruelty sense), I’m glad that I haven’t watched or supported “Nyad.”
I had to Google that quote and wow, Foster is a sociopath.
I was thinking about creating content for twitter and my kids quickly vetoed the idea.
LOL. Kids will humble you real quick. I have FB, and that’s pretty much all I post on. My daughter informed me that FB is for “old people”. To which I said, “cool beans”.
I grew up online basically – I’m an elder millennial. My dad’s job meant he had to have a computer even in 1990 so there was never a time our home didn’t have one. Oregon Trail, AOL, OpenDiary, etc. I’ve always embraced and enjoyed technology – until I didn’t. As a parent now I balk at the fact that everything is done on a computer, that we are expected to monitor district provided chromebooks because the “security” system they’ve chosen is WiFi based so all blocks are off once the computer leaves the school. I have app fatigue. Their grades are online. Fees paid online which of course is a mess because the person in charge of that messes up OFTEN and doesn’t reply, right now I’m refusing to pay another cent in extracurricular dues because they are claiming I owe more than I do (and I have sent them the receipts). Nobody even answers the phone anymore. You basically have to ambush the front desk to have a conversation with a person. Social media – I don’t really count CB – is rampant with assholes. I only really have IG now and I’m phasing that out too because you can’t leave a comment ANYWHERE about ANYTHING without someone trying to pick a fight. It’s exhausting and I can’t be bothered anymore.
Many, many years ago, I saw Warren Beatty at a restaurant; he looked like death warmed over. I can’t imagine having given up my youth and my prime, for that. To each her own, I guess.