In a recent interview, critically lauded actress Jessica Chastain rejoiced in the change of awards season atmosphere in a post-Harvey Weinstein world. Chastain is nominated for Best Actress in the upcoming 2022 Oscars for her transformative work as Tammy Faye Bakker, the Christian televangelist and accidental accomplice to fraud, in The Eyes of Tammy Faye. Chastain has also been previously nominated for Best Actress in 2012 for Zero Dark Thirty, and Best Supporting Actress in 2011 for The Help.
The disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein was indicted in Los Angeles and New York for a number of charges including rape in the third degree and committing criminal sexual acts in the first degree, and is set to serve 23 years in prison. For better or worse, Weinstein had a profound effect on not only the film industry, but on how awards campaigns ran leading up to awards season. This began in earnest with the producer's win for Best Picture in 1998 for Shakespeare in Love, triumphing over heavy favorite Saving Private Ryan. Weinstein pulled this coup with an unparalleled media blitz, which saw Miramax forking over inordinate amounts of cash to flood the trades with ads, to throw fancy galas promoting the film, and to set up private screenings to spread nasty rumors about the other competitors. While Shakespeare in Love's Oscar win has not been regarded kindly over time, Weinstein essentially created the template for the modern Oscars campaign.
It seems in the time following his indictment, things have begun to lighten up a bit in Tinseltown. According to IndieWire, in a podcast interview, Chastain said the effect of his departure has created a palpable shift in the mood of the season away from the toxicity that had been so prevalent before. Although she didn't say his name directly, instead likening him to Voldemort by referring to him as "he-who-shall-not-be-named," it's hard to imagine she was referring to anyone but the deposed media tyrant. And it wouldn't be the first time Weinstein was compared to a ghoul (or served as the inspiration for an Orc). Check out Chastain's full quote below:
"Listen, he-who-shall-not-be-named really changed awards season. I don’t see it nowadays like I saw it when I first came onto the scene. If a film had a lot of attention, there’d be all these negative articles about it, all of a sudden. I believe he-who-shall-not-be-named is the instigator of that kind of campaigning. Thank goodness our industry is moving to a more healthy environment, and we’re now more celebratory of everyone. We’re not trying to knock someone down because they’re competition. We have now moved to a much happier place."
Chastain's chances for Oscar gold were rumored to have been hampered by such a smear campaign for her role in Katheryn Bigelow's Zero Dark Thirty. Bigelow turned down having Weinstein brought on as a producer in favor of partnering with Annapurna, which reportedly upset him enough to kill any buzz for Chastain's performance. With Weinstein now out of the picture, her chances at taking home a statuette are sure to be better, although Chastain faces stiff competition from the other nominees.
Although hopefully some of the noxiousness has been sapped from the campaign season, the landscape leading up to any films or performers getting nominated remains forever changed. Getting an Academy Award nomination is as much a political game as running for any public office. It's not uncommon for millions of dollars to be spent to increase a film's chances of winning. These campaigns include ads, mailers, screeners, events, and most importantly consultants paid to target the Academy members they think are most susceptible to a given film. So while the campaign trail might be a happier place now, for nominees like Jessica Chastain, the road to actually winning remains costly.
Source: IndieWire