Can Kristin Scott Thomas win an Oscar and a Tony Award in the same year?
Since the Tony Awards began in 1947, five actresses have won theater's highest honor and filmdom's top prize — the Academy Award — in the same year.
The first to pull it off was Shirley Booth in 1953, winning a Tony for "The Time of the Cuckoo" and an Oscar for "Come Back, Little Sheba." The following year, Audrey Hepburn won her Tony for "Ondine" and an Oscar for "Roman Holiday." In 1975, Ellen Burstyn skipped the Oscar ceremony, where she won for "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore," as she was appearing on Broadway in her Tony-winning role in "Same Time, Next Year." Mercedes Ruehl won a Tony for "Lost in Yonkers" and an Oscar for "The Fisher King" in 1991. The most recent double winner: Dame Judi Dench in 1999, winning an Oscar for "Shakespeare in Love" and a Tony for "Amy's View."
Kristin Scott Thomas could well become the sixth name on that list of luminaries. She delivers a performance in the upcoming film "I've Loved You So Long" that has already generated Oscar buzz, and Thursday night she opened on Broadway in "The Seagull" to critical raves.
Last spring, Thomas won the English equivalent of the Tony — the Olivier Award — for her leading role in this Chekhov classic. Now, she is being showered with praise by American reviewers.
Linda Winer of Newsday said, "The actress, best known in this country as the handsome, unfaithful wife in 'The English Patient,' makes her glorious Broadway debut with her Olivier-winning portrayal of Arkadina, the vain, flamboyant, manipulative actress-mother whose visit to her family country estate is catalyst for a crowded household of Russian rapture, melancholy and mixed emotions. No mere monster-mom, this Arkadina manages simultaneously to seem acutely aware and distant, caring and thoughtlessly cruel — in short, the sort of star who, long ago, clearly lost interest in distinguishing between performance and reality. She wears grand gowns with offhand confidence, but doesn't bother to paint her face for family. She enjoys her virtuosic phony reflex, but has a smile that calibrates the tissue-thin affects of nuance."
Ben Brantley of the New York Times thought, "Ms. Scott Thomas, who was excellent as the aging actress Arkadina in London, here delivers a magnified, intensified performance that more than ever is the keystone to understanding this play." He goes on to explain — "Ms. Scott Thomas’s performance is funnier, sadder and braver than it was in London. Arkadina’s fears of fading away assume an almost clownish aspect as she scampers coquettishly to show she could play a girl of 15 or literally grovels in self-abasement before Trigorin. Striking grandly theatrical postures from the age of Duse and Bernhardt, this Arkadina knows that the only way to get attention in life is to be larger than life. Ms. Scott Thomas draws her with a vividness that is equally free of mercy and malice"
Michael Kuchwara of the Associated Press found that, "in Scott Thomas' striking, elegant performance, we get a beautiful, impetuous woman who craftily knows how to use her considerable physical charms to get what she wants." And Elysa Gardner of USA Today thought her, "a witty, poignant Arkadina, revealing a nervous fragility in the fading thespian who lives with and clings to Trigorin."
Joe Dziemianowicz of the New York Daily News thought, "As the aging theater diva Arkadina, Scott Thomas is sly-eyed, sharp-tongued and sure-footed (a little sprightly scampering proves her vigor) and holds you rapt while just standing motionless. In short, she's heaven in her Broadway debut." And said David Rooney of Variety, "Much of what we need to know about Arkadina is etched in her showy reactions and constant interruptions. But underneath the flamboyant narcissism there's a twitchy insecurity — a discomfort that makes her unable to regard her son as a fellow artist, and even less so Nina, an actress more youthful and beautiful than she is. It's the anchoring naturalism brought even to this diva in chronic performance mode that makes Scott Thomas so transfixing."
Finally, for Clive Barnes of the New York Post, "Kristin Scott Thomas is an actor who doesn't act. Rather, she moves into a character, breathing the same air as a human reality. It's a style heaven-sent for the plays and people of Anton Chekhov, as she's now demonstrating as Arkadina, the overbloomed actress who sweeps her way through 'The Seagull' in the wonderfully subtle production that opened last night."
Photo credits: Peter Kramer / Associated Press, Sony Pictures Classics
Scott, i accept that there's plenty of 'star power' in the appeal of other nominees. But perhaps those AMPAS members influenced by celebrity appeal will see their votes spread amongst your Jolies, Kidmans etc - with KST edging in front thanks to the votes of those (actors) who stick to the quality of the craft. That said, I think Winslet - on paper anyway - poses a strong threat.
Posted by: doobiedoo | October 07, 2008 at 03:36 AM
I love KST and am glad that she's back. Haven't seen the film yet, but I really look forward to it.
However, I really doubt that the Academy will give Best Actress a second year in a row to another non-English performance. It might happen if this were a year where the leading female contenders were weak, but this year there's the quadruple threat of Kate Winslet, Meryl Streep, Anna Hathaway and Angelina Jolie. No matter how brilliant KST is this year, I can't see her overcoming that star power in the competition.
Posted by: Scott | October 06, 2008 at 06:36 AM
"And I don't think that French would work for her. She's no Marion Cotillard."
What a spectacularly uninformed comment. Scott Thomas has lived in France for most of her life, speaks immaculate French (with a slight accent, which the story of "I've Loved You So Long" accounts for), and has been doing French-speaking film work for a number of years. She has admitted to regarding herself as being as much French as she is British.
Your statement is as foolish as if one were to stay that British actors can't play Americans, or vice versa.
Posted by: Rob | October 06, 2008 at 01:23 AM
I love when people who haven't even seen the performances in question throw their two cents in. Scott Thomas is going to be nominated -- her work in I've Loved You So Long is magnificent, one of the best female performances of the last several years.
Posted by: Matt Mazur | October 05, 2008 at 09:08 AM
Sorry Ross but i couldn't disagree more. KST's performance in I've Loved You So Long is absolutely superb. Have you actually seen it the film? i couldn't tell from your post.
If you look back at her body of work, she's been a consistent player in some good films and even not so good ones (I thought she was the best thing in The Other Boleyn Girl). But she's always been about the work - not once do you get the impression she's been hunting for prizes.
The raves for her stage work in The Seagull will only enhance her rep as a consumate - and multitalented - pro.
I think actors are going to vote for her in droves.
Posted by: doobiedoo | October 05, 2008 at 05:57 AM
I think people are overestimating her chance to win the Oscar. She could and probably will get a nomination, but the Oscar.... come on, she's not overdue for the Oscar. She has two or two major roles in her whole career - and she has not been Oscar-worthy in any of them. Can you say she was Oscar-worthy in The English Patient? Come on, Julianne Moore is overdue. Joan Allen is overdue. Even Laura Linney is overdue. Kristin Scott Thomas isn't. And I don't think that French would work for her. She's no Marion Cotillard. And you think critics would throw awards at her? Possibly, but I think that Sally Hawkins, Mellisa Leo and Meryl Streep have a better shot.
Posted by: Ross | October 05, 2008 at 03:21 AM
Kristin Scott Thomas could very well do it. These two roles, one on stage and the other on film, are so different that I have never witnessed such acting versatility in my life. She's absolutely believable in both and in two different languages. I don't think anyone will complain if this woman wins both. awards in the same year. She's deserving and definitely way over-due.
Posted by: questar | October 04, 2008 at 12:11 PM