The Cate Blanchett Curse

Tilda Swinton and Marion Cotillard continue to be at the edges of this year's Oscar races, and while I doubt that either of them ultimately ends up with a nomination in a few weeks, I came across a bit of trivia a few weeks ago that I've been dying to incorporate into an article, so I figured I would today.

Swinton and Cotillard, it should be noted, both won Oscars seven years ago for decisively different performances.  Swinton, long a major player in the avant garde of cinema, won for her role as a in-over-her-head attorney in Michael Clayton while newcomer Cotillard pulled off her Oscar for playing legendary French singer Edith Piaf.  In the years since, you'd be hard-pressed to find two actresses with more impressive filmographies.  Cotillard was the best part about Nine and brought a marvelous femme fatale to Inception, while totally dominating the complicated Rust & Bone.  Meanwhile Swinton gave the best performance of her career in 2009's Julia, and followed it with impressive work in I Am Love and a major Oscar-push (she got cited at the Globes and the SAG Awards) for We Need to Talk About Kevin.  This year they each have a pair of films (Cotillard's The Immigrant and Two Days, One Night, Swinton's Grand Budapest Hotel and Snowpiercer), but cannot seem to catch any Oscar buzz.  In fact, despite both having starred in major films since their Oscar wins, neither of them have managed to land an Oscar nomination since.  There are a variety of reasons for this, of course: both of them star in more provocative films than Oscar is used to, Oscar generally sours on someone a bit once they win (Matthew McConaughey, I have a feeling this will mean you), and there are only five slots-someone's got to be ousted.  However, I propose another reason: the Cate Blanchett Curse.

What is the Cate Blanchett curse, you ask?  This is the fact that the beautiful and talented Cate Blanchett, who has won two Oscars and lost four, has a weird history with the women who have beaten her for the Oscar, in that they have never returned to the Oscars as a nominee.  In 1998, Blanchett enjoyed her first nomination for Elizabeth, and lost in a tight race to Gwyneth Paltrow.  Paltrow, despite a promising career and years of moviestar-dom ahead of her has never been nominated in the years since.  Blanchett won in 2004, but in 2006 she once again lost for Notes on a Scandal to Jennifer Hudson in her film debut.  Hudson has won a Grammy in the years since, but never has returned as a nominee.  And in 2007 Blanchett had the dubious distinction of being nominated twice and losing both (for Elizabeth: The Golden Age and I'm Not There), and as we've already explored, Cotillard and Swinton have never returned.

You're telling me I'm just being paranoid?  This is clearly a coincidence?  Think again.  Meryl Streep, the most nominated actor in the history of the Oscars, has a number of performers who have beat her and had success later; Jodie Foster, Helen Mirren, and Maggie Smith all spring to mind.  The same goes for Jack Nicholson (Jack Lemmon, William Hurt) and Kate Hepburn (Greer Garson, Anna Magnani).  In fact, while it's quite common for an actor's final nomination to be the one they win for, no other actor with Blanchett's nomination count can equal her feat.  To add further proof, with the exception of Thelma Ritter (who lost to Shelley Winters in 1959, who would go on to gain two more nominations), every actor with six nominations or more has had at least two of their conquerors go on to be nominated.

This curse, thankfully for some, doesn't appear to crossover to other awards shows-just the Oscars.  The likes of Natalie Portman and Nicole Kidman have tussled with Blanchett at the Globes and lived to tell the tale, while Cotillard and Maggie Smith have trudged on with the BAFTA.  However, as you are opening your presents this holiday, be warned-there are four actresses out there whose present-receiving days are long done.  Those who defeat Galadriel only do so once.