Supporting Actress Blogathon: Marcia Gay Harden, Whip It

This post is a part of the 2009 Stinkylulu Supporting Actress Blogathon. Click here to check out the other selections!





I may have liked other supporting actress performances from 2009, but one that continues to linger with me is Marcia Gay Harden's work in Whip It. Now, to be fair, Drew Barrymore's directorial debut may not have been the most amazing thing to hit theaters last year, but it was a nice fun time at the movies. What's not to like? The ladies of the film all look to be having a grand old time and the film's message, while not perfect, is a positive one.



What makes Harden stand out above all the other women in the film is how she was able to take a role as flimsy as the put-upon mother of a rebelling teenager and make us want to know more about her life (although Kristen Wiig and Juliette Lewis are also fabulous in the film as well). Harden's Brooke is a mom who wants her daughter to participate in beauty pageants (she's a former winner herself) rather than roller derby. You can tell that Brooke wants a more glamorous life than she currently holds (she works a postal carrier), but in reality it's that she wants her daughter Bliss (Ellen Page) to be successful in her own life than she ever was at her own. Of course, what mom thinks as "successful" is different than what her offspring thinks as "successful."



There is a quiet scene in the film, where we saw Harden's character apply lotions and moisturizing cream to her hands. Although she feels much younger than her hands give away, you can tell she is desperate to match her physical age with her emotional age. It's a scene that reminds many of us of our mothers, moms who want the best for us, even though they cannot seem to comprehend why our current endeavors would be considered "the best" by any standard.



Marcia Gay Harden might be one of my favorite actresses of all time. Although looking over her IMDB filmography it appears I may have seen her in earlier films, but really it was her performance in Pollock that made me take notice (as did the Academy). It's rare for a character actress to hit her stride in her 40s, but Harden did that in this decade.

Besides her Oscar-winning role in Pollock, Harden has delivered honest portrayals of women in Case de los Babys, P.S., Mystic River (another Oscar nominated role), Into the Wild and most recently on television's Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and Damages. In addition, Harden had just finished a Tony-winning run on Broadway in Yasmina Reza's God of Carnage. I don't see Whip It getting her a third Oscar nomination, but it's a performance that should be remembered with her best ones too.

Favorite All-Time Film Performances...On Hold

While working on my lists for the best of 2009 (and of the decade), I decided to put this monstrosity on hold until I finish those lists first (wouldn't want to spoil those lists). I have (obviously) been really busy in keeping up with this blog, as most of my attention has been with the For Your Speculation podcast. If you have been listening to them, I hope you enjoy them.

Please feel free to drop us a line at foryourspeculation@gmail.com or friend us on Facebook (ForYour Speculation) or follow us on Twitter (@4URspeculation).

~Ted

The For Your Speculation Podcast!

I haven't forgotten this massive project, but I wanted to make sure that I pimp the podcast that I am currently co-hosting. The link is at the top of the links column (to the left of this post) or, you can just follow the link below.

For Your Speculation Podcast Page

Favorite All-Time Film Performances...#93

93. Margaret Hamilton, The Wizard of Oz (Director: Victor Fleming, 1939)
“I’ll get you, my pretty…and your little dog too!” Imagine. You are five or six, sitting down in your living room and your parents have popped in a movie into the VCR (yes, imagine this is the early 90s). The movie is called The Wizard of Oz. You have never heard of it. After reeling from the excitement of seeing the movie go from the sepia tones to a vibrant kaleidoscope of colors, the Wicked Witch of the West has made her entrance. Oh what an entrance she makes! You realize that she’s vaguely familiar (doesn’t she look like Miss Gulch from the beginning of the movie?). And after hurling some nasty vitriol at Dorothy, our beloved heroine, she goes and really pisses everyone off. She went after Toto.


Let’s call it out like it is. I have never seen Margaret Hamilton in any other film or television show she made. Having read her history online, I can see that she did get a lot of work all through her life. That said if your only lasting impression in your lifetime is a character that will outlast you, a character that still leaves us with chills down our backs (AFI ranked the Wicked Witch of West at #4 on the All-Time Villains list) and a character that has been the subject of books and a musical; that is an impressive feat. It's only fitting that I was able to get to this performance the same day that we celebrate the 70th Anniversary of the film's release. And really, if you had suffered severe burns because the fire effects came out too early, would you have returned a month later, back on the job? That just proves how much of a badass Hamilton was.

Top 25 Actors

Taking a break from the 100 Favorite Film Performances to respond to Nathaniel R.'s challenge at FilmExperience.

In no order...





River Phoenix, Sean Penn, Peter O'Toole, Don Cheadle, Morgan Freeman







Tommy Lee Jones, Edward James Olmos, Peter Sarsgaard, Gene Wilder, Jeff Daniels







Clive Owen, Leonardo DiCaprio, Gene Hackman, Ewan McGregor, Brad Pitt







Jack Lemmon, Johnny Depp, Jeff Bridges, Delroy Lindo, Tom Hanks







Jude Law, Jack Nicholson, Gael Garcia Bernal, Daniel Day-Lewis, Chris Cooper

Favorite All-Time Film Performances...#94

94. Thelma Ritter, All About Eve (Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1950)
Birdie took no shit from anyone. Even though she was only Margo Channing’s dresser/maid, she would always call her out on her bullshit. So it comes as no surprise that Birdie was the first to figure out what Eve was trying to pull off by befriending the celebrated actress (“what a story…everything but the bloodhound snapping at her rear end”). When Margo finally asks her why she doesn’t like Eve, Birdie tells her that Eve seems to be “studying” her. At first dismissive, Margo realizes that Birdie may be on to something, when Eve mentions that she called Bill pretending to be Margo. Clearly, Birdie is a maid that shouldn’t be taken for granted.


Thelma Ritter may always be remembered for this role, but it’s deserved. Mankiewicz expressly wrote the part for Ritter, fully knowing what she would bring to the role. Ritter was not the first to play the sarcastic employee of a diva, but she is the one that is most remembered (and all in 11 minutes). She pretty much set up the ruler by which all “maid performances” are measured. Though only her seventh film role, Ritter established her reputation as a consummate character actress with this performances. The only complaint is that she’s barely in the film (an extended cameo, even?) and we never get any closure on her character. And while she might not been a winner with the Academy (a record six losses in the supporting actress category), she will always be one with us.

Favorite All-Time Film Performances...#95

95 (TIE). Madeline Kahn and Tatum O’Neal, Paper Moon (Director Peter Bogdanovich, 1973)
Okay, so I cheated, slightly. It’s going to happen a lot when I want to combine two performances in one slot. Deal. Moving on, Paper Moon is a bit of a hodgepodge. It’s a Great Depression-era film, yet it has plenty of hilarious moments, due in great part to both Madeline Kahn and Tatum O’Neal. The former plays a stripper and the latter plays a young con artist. Addie (O’Neal) refuses to leave Moses’ (Ryan O’Neal, Tatum’s ne’er-do-well father) side until he gives her the $200 that was meant for her. Miss Trixie Delight (Kahn, see, even her character name inspires an immediate chuckle) gets all the attention from Moses when he picks her up (until Addie has something to say about it).


Kahn and O’Neal not only elicit lots of laughs within their performances, they also have moments of sincere emotions. O’Neal gets a lot of mileage from the final scenes of the film (“You still owe me $200”), while Kahn has her incredible monologue, on the hill with O’Neal, that ends with one of the funniest lines of all-time (and she’s delivered a few choice ones in her other films, especially her work with Mel Brooks). Both ladies were nominated for Supporting Actress at the Academy Awards and even though O’Neal was the one that took home the trophy (arguably a leading role and clearly only in this category because of her age, not screen time) both performances are too excellent to leave the other unrecognized. And yes, I know Bogdanovich had to do a lot of work to get that performance out of Tatum O’Neal, so props to him as well.