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Long before there was a Best PictureOscarscontroversy betweenLa La LandandMoonlight, there wasSaving Private RyanversusShakespeare in Love.
At the 71st Academy Awards in 1999, the rom-comShakespeare in Love, starringGwyneth Paltrowand Joseph Fiennes, stunned over the presumed favorite,Steven Spielberg'sSaving Private Ryan.The Harvey Weinstein-produced film ultimately won seven Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Actress for Paltrow. Spielberg's war pic won five, including Best Director for the helmer, but its loss in the night's top honor was considered controversial by many at the time.
More than 25 years later, Paltrow is in another film thick in the awards race:Marty Supreme. When asked by host Gerrad Hall onThe Awardistpodcast if she and her godfather Spielberg have ever talked about the upset before, Paltrow didn't get into specifics, but does say, "Well, it was so funny because Steven won for director and I won [Best Actress]. And Steven has been at this rodeo for a very long time, and even 25 years ago had already been at the rodeo a very long time."
Laurie Sparham/Miramax
Getting reflective on the awards industrial complex as a whole, Paltrow pointed out that the whole thing is arbitrary, and no one knows why one film prevails over the other at the end of the day. CitingLa La LandversusMoonlightas an example, she says, "You know what? Both of those could have won." (In 2017, in one of the most stunning moments in Oscar history, due to presenters Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway being given the wrong envelope, they mistakenly announced the Damien Chazelle-directed musical film as the winner of Best Picture at the end of the night, when it was actually the Barry Jenkins drama that had won.)
"So it's like to say, I think awards are designed, I think, yes, to acknowledge people's amazing achievements, but it's also a monetization tool for a broader industry," Paltrow adds. "And so I think you have to understand them also from that perspective too, and know that even if your film is in the conversation, that in itself is an honor. That in itself is wonderful for a movie and for this business model of cinema, which I hope is going to continue to be viable."
She continues, "I think there's always discourse around what people like and don't like because art is subjective. That's the point of it. The point of art is to stir emotion and to help you process through emotion and to help you take something abstract and put it into a reference that you understand."
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In her latest upcoming awards hopeful from director Josh Safdie, Paltrow plays Kay Stone, a wealthy socialite and fading movie star who forges an unlikely connection with the younger ping-pong phenom played by Timothée Chalamet.
You can listen to Paltrow's full interview onThe Awardist, below.
Read the original article onEntertainment Weekly
