Scarlett Johansson Joins Elite Oscars Two-Timers Club With Double Nominations
By Adam B. Vary
LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Before Monday morning, Scarlett Johansson had somehow never been nominated for an Oscar. And now, with her nominations for best actress (for “Marriage Story”) and best supporting actress (for “Jojo Rabbit”), the 35-year-old joins one of the most elite clubs in Hollywood: Actors who have been Oscar-nominated twice in the same year.
While actors are prevented from earning two nominations within the same category, they can be nominated in the same year for lead and supporting performances. But it’s exceedingly rare. Prior to Johansson, only 11 other actors have earned double nominations in the same year in Oscar history.
Fay Bainter was first to pull off the feat. She earned a best actress nomination for the 1938 drama “White Banners,” but lost to Bette Davis for “Jezebel” — which was fine, since Bainter won best supporting actress for her performance opposite Davis in that film.
Four years later, Teresa Wright went through the same experience: She earned nods for best actress for “The Pride of the Yankees” and best supporting actress for “Mrs. Miniver,” winning the latter and losing the former to her “Mrs. Miniver” co-star Greer Garson.
The first man to earn a double nomination, Barry Fitzgerald, is also the only actor to earn double nominations for the same performance: As Father Fitzgibbon in the 1944 Bing Crosby vehicle “Going My Way,” Fitzgerald earned nominations for best actor and best supporting actor. Fitzgerald won for the supporting category, and the Academy changed the rules preventing actors from earning two nominations for the same role.
After Fitzgerald, it took 38 years for another double nomination: Jessica Lange, for 1982’s “Frances” (best actress) and “Tootsie” (best supporting actress, which she won). Four years later, Sigourney Weaver became the first actor to earn double nods — best actress for “Gorillas in the Mist” and best supporting actress for “Working Girl” — without winning either of them.
The year Al Pacino won his first and only Oscar, best actor for 1992’s “Scent of a Woman,” he was also nominated for best supporting actor for “Glengarry Glen Ross.” The following year also made Oscars history, when two actors — Emma Thompson and Holly Hunter — both earned double nominations, but only one walked away with a statue. Thompson was nominated for “The Remains of the Day” (for best actress) and “In the Name of the Father” (for best supporting actress), but she lost both categories. Instead, Hunter became the first double nominee to win in the leading category, for “The Piano”; she lost her best supporting actress nomination (for “The Firm”) to her co-star in “The Piano,” Anna Paquin.
Three actors were double nominated in the 2000s. Julianne Moore earned nods for best actress for 2002’s “Far From Heaven” and best supporting actress for “The Hours,” but lost both — the former to her “The Hours” co-star Nicole Kidman, the latter to “Chicago’s” Catherine Zeta-Jones. Jamie Foxx, meanwhile, won best actor for 2004’s “Ray” and lost best supporting actor for “Collateral.”
Three years later, Cate Blanchett became the first woman to earn two Oscar nominations for the same role (best actress for 2007’s “Elizabeth: The Golden Age” after her nomination in the same category for 1998’s “Elizabeth”) and only the second woman to earn a nomination for playing a cisgender man (best supporting actress for playing Bob Dylan in “I’m Not There,” after Linda Hunt’s Oscar-winning performance for 1983’s “The Year of Living Dangerously”). But she ultimately lost both categories.
Now Johansson has joined their ranks. To date, she’s not been a favorite to win in either category, and recent history suggests two nominations isn’t going to sway voters to her favor, either. Given Johannson’s rarefied company, however, this is truly a moment when it’s honor just to be nominated — twice.
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