By Natalie Hamil, Staff Writer, Emerson College
People are getting tired of Jennifer Lawrence. Or so a few personal blogs have said lately. When she began to get nominated for many different awards this award season (Golden Globe, Critic’s Choice, SAG, Oscar), people became frustrated with hearing her name announced over and over again. Some people think Lawrence is just a favorite among voters for her breath-of-fresh-air personality around Hollywood, while others think it’s due to her award season sweep last year.
People are getting tired of Jennifer Lawrence. Or so a few personal blogs have said lately. When she began to get nominated for many different awards this award season (Golden Globe, Critic’s Choice, SAG, Oscar), people became frustrated with hearing her name announced over and over again. Some people think Lawrence is just a favorite among voters for her breath-of-fresh-air personality around Hollywood, while others think it’s due to her award season sweep last year.
However, in many conversations both in life and on the internet, I’ve noticed people saying that the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress (Lawrence’s category this year) will go to Lupita Nyong’o, one of
the many crowning jewels in Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave, simply due to the fact that she is black. Reading through comments online and having conversations with other current students
fascinated with award season has caused me to realize that, no matter what, Jennifer Lawrence will be stuck in a lose-lose situation at the 2014 Oscars this Sunday evening. Should Lawrence lose, Hollywood will say that the actress has lost her touch, exclaiming over how wonderful it is to see a woman of color win the award for such a role. Should Lawrence win, those who support Nyong’o will cause uproar, claiming that the Academy is racist and that Jennifer Lawrence did nothing but play a floozy in David O’Russell’s American Hustle.
the many crowning jewels in Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave, simply due to the fact that she is black. Reading through comments online and having conversations with other current students
fascinated with award season has caused me to realize that, no matter what, Jennifer Lawrence will be stuck in a lose-lose situation at the 2014 Oscars this Sunday evening. Should Lawrence lose, Hollywood will say that the actress has lost her touch, exclaiming over how wonderful it is to see a woman of color win the award for such a role. Should Lawrence win, those who support Nyong’o will cause uproar, claiming that the Academy is racist and that Jennifer Lawrence did nothing but play a floozy in David O’Russell’s American Hustle.
It seems silly to even be comparing these two actresses for their roles this award season. The roles that they are nominated for are completely different, with different subtleties and different character strengths that caused them to be nominated by almost every award-giver in Hollywood. In a way, they’re apples and oranges. If the Academy wanted to give out awards in more “fair” fashion, they would divide the categories in a similar way to the Golden Globes, only with additional categories like best supporting actress in a drama and best supporting actress in a comedy, which would clear up this whole debacle. Unfortunately, I don’t think that’s going to happen any time soon. For now, we’ll have to watch one of the two get the award (based on the way the awards have been divided out this season, it seems that the others nominated aren’t even in the running), and watch Jennifer Lawrence have a bit of a PR nightmare dealing with it.
It’s okay, JLaw. You’ll always have my heart.
Natalie Hamil is a Writing, Literature and Publishing major at Emerson College. She enjoys skimming bookstore shelves, watching the sun rise, and wearing bright/patterned pants.
Images: Corbis
It’s okay, JLaw. You’ll always have my heart.
Natalie Hamil is a Writing, Literature and Publishing major at Emerson College. She enjoys skimming bookstore shelves, watching the sun rise, and wearing bright/patterned pants.
Images: Corbis