Disappointed and Surprised: Why the 2023 Best Actress Category was the Most Promising

Although this year’s awards season was not without its controversies, the 2023 Oscars ceremony was relatively smooth-sailing (no envelope mix-ups, and Will Smith firmly banned from the building). Arguably the most contentious part of the night, more surprising than host Jimmy Kimmel making only four tasteless slap jokes, was the announcement of Best Supporting Actress. With the category steeped in talent from Hong Chau’s moving performance in The Whale, and Kerry Condon’s understated role in The Banshees of Inisherin, it was not an easy one to call. I was hopeful that Stephanie Hsu would be awarded for her astonishing work in the mind-bending A24 movie Everything Everywhere All at Once, but in an anti-climactic turn of events, it was Jamie Lee Curtis who took the Oscar home.

Considering she occupies just over fifteen minutes of the 140 minute run-time  (having oversized sausage fingers for most of those), it was a voting decision that baffled many. While Curtis turned in a solid performance as IRS inspector Deirdre, one of the heroine’s adversaries, it was nowhere near the realm of co-star Stephanie Hsu, whose double roles of Joy and her multiverse villain counterpart, Jobu Tupaki, quite literally support and propel the entire movie. The fractured mother-daughter relationship between Joy and Evelyn (Michelle Yeoh) is at the heart of EEAAO’s expansive, wacky, sensitive plot, and to see Hsu awarded for her part, alongside Yeoh’s win for Best Actress, would have been perfect. Hsu was given some recognition – she picked up a slew of critics awards – but the Oscar should have been the icing on the cake for EEAOO’s historic night celebrating Asian talent.

The ceremony seemed, in part, to be about nostalgia – or rather, compensation for the long-suffering stars who had graced screens pre-2000s and then swiftly faded into obscurity due to Hollywood’s mistreatment (see Brendan Fraser and Ke Huy Quan, who picked up Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor respectively). It’s hard to begrudge someone who looked as happy as Curtis did when her name was read, and she has undoubtedly served her time in the industry to get to that stage. But,  if this night was about long-overdue appreciation for historically neglected talent, then Angela Bassett fit the bill. 

Her career, spanning four decades, includes powerful roles in Malcolm X and What’s Love Got to Do With It, the Tina Turner biopic for which she lost out on Best Actress in 1994. The fact that her performance in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is the first from a Marvel movie to be acknowledged by the Academy is a testament to the grace and emotional scope which Bassett brings to every character. The clip that played as the nominees were announced, in which Ramonda gives a poignant speech about the loss of her children, made Curtis’ look foolish in comparison: “Have I not given everything?” Ramonda cries, and the same could be true of Bassett herself. Of course, winning an Oscar is not just about shouting lines or crying at the screen, but the pure devastation which she channels – probably in part due to the tragic loss of her co-star and friend, Chadwick Boseman – stirs goosebumps. Though Bassett scooped up the Golden Globe, Curtis’ win at the SAG awards a month prior, and the upset that ensued, was an unfortunate portent of what was to come.

The Academy has a long and embarrassing history of overlooking people of colour, but this could have been an opportunity to practice what they preach in terms of inclusion and diversity. In 2020 they detailed an initiative to ‘encourage equitable representation on and off screen,’ though I hoped Hsu would be recognised for her talent alone, outside of plans to diversify the ballot box. Awarding Curtis – in what seems like a legacy win – over her co-star who gave the stronger, more compelling and more essential performance, left a sour taste in the mouth of many viewers. I have no doubt that we will see Stephanie Hsu at these awards again, and that Angela Bassett’s career is far from over, but I am still mourning the winning line-up that could (and should) have been.

Featured Image Credit: Entertainment Weekly