After a shocking and controversial win at the SAG Awards two weeks ago, Hollywood’s most defensive nepo-baby Jamie Lee Curtis is setting the internet ablaze again after beating Angela Bassett for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.
The 64-year-old screen veteran won the Oscar for her role as an antagonistic IRS inspector in Everything Everywhere All At Once—not only beating Bassett but her co-star in the film, Stephanie Hsu. Despite the excitement in the auditorium when she won, social media seemed less than enthused about Curtis walking away with the prize.
The Best Supporting Actress category has been refreshingly fluid this awards season. At the start, it seemed like Bassett, who was nominated for her role in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, was on her way to earning her first Oscar in her almost 40-year career—particularly after she won the Golden Globe. In 1994, Bassett controversially lost Best Actress for her iconic portrayal of Tina Turner in What’s Love Got To Do With It to Holly Hunter for The Piano. This fact, as well as her beloved status online, made her potential Oscar win this year something to root for.
Kerry Condon was also seen as a likely winner in the final weeks leading up to the ceremony. The Irish actress won Best Supporting Actress at this year’s BAFTAs for her part as Siobhán Súilleabháin in The Banshees of Inisherin. Despite being a lesser known actor in the category, she quickly became a fan-favorite nominee on social media, with some of her scenes from the film going viral on TikTok and Twitter. The same can be said about Hsu, who was initially written off as a dark horse but has gradually received support from her Hollywood peers throughout awards season.
Curtis’ place amongst the nominees has always been a bit odd, given her limited, arguably one-note performance in the film. (I personally think she overstays her welcome in what seemed like some sort of white-person screentime quota.) At the very least, Curtis naysayers didn’t have to listen to the actress shout out her nepo-baby status for the millionth time in her acceptance speech, which was actually quite endearing.
“To all the people who have supported the genre movies that I’ve made for these years, the thousands and hundreds of thousands of people, we just won an Oscar together,” the Scream Queen said, seemingly to horror-movie fans.
The Halloween star dedicated the entirety of her speech thanking people who got her to this moment, including the EEAO’s directing team The Daniels, her castmates, her children and, of course, her thespian parents, Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh.
“And to my mother and my father, who were both nominated for Oscars in different categories, I just won an Oscar.”
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