Why Does Hollywood Hate Annette Bening

She's obviously not Oscar material.

She's good, but seems lazy to me and always been inaccessible which reads as cold to me anyway. Gotta put yourself out there however much you despise it or everone forgets about you. She should've made one movie after another either in the 90s or the 00s even a few stinkbombs thrown into the mix would've been ok. At least if she'd made a couple of dumb movies that get shown on basic tv channels too often that would be a sort of advertising for her brand.

some people aren't obsessed with peer given awards, they just enjoy good work and get enough satisfaction from it. insecure folks who need constant validation need trophies.

Not only snubbed for Golden Globe but now SAG as well

They should hate her for mutilating her daughter and enabling her to become a gayface minstrel.

20th Century Women was BORE

Can someone get Glenn to answer, OP? Thanks.

She seems boring

OP - Annette Bening

To me, she seems to be acting/reacting in her own head, not with her co-actors. Her smile is forced and uncomfortable to watch.

She should have won for The Grifters or American Beauty. None of her other performances were great enough to outshine her competition.

Hollywood likes Annette Bening and continues to give her worthy parts, but nothing transcendent occurs.

She never transitioned into Action Films. I find that problematic.

[quote]she doesn't even get Oscar nominated for her stunning work in "20th Century Woman"

What, do you work for Salem cigarettes?

To be honest, I was not impressed with her performance in FILM STARS DON'T DIE... She was portraying an aging, needy, self-centered actress. How much of a stretch could that have been?

I think she lost momentum as an actress when she married Beatty and started cranking out kids in the 90s. If she had more of a stellar body of work she may have beat Portman for pretty much a career Oscar.

Beatty doesn’t have the pull in Hollywood and I think the industry always has been jealous of him. They threw him a bone with a directing Oscar for Reds but it was telling when the film lost best pic to Chariots of Fire.

He’s tried to get her an Oscar for years by cajoling and schmoozing but it hasn’t worked. She deserved a nomination last year (I would’ve taken out Ruth Negga) but alas nothing.

1) Because she's ugly 2) Because her acting is average 3) Because she's old

She good.

She is NOT ugly, r15!

I can’t wait to see her new movie. She showed a clip on Fallon last night, and it looks very charming. Also, Jamie Bell looks hot and disco dances.

Hollywood has been very kind to her. 4 Oscar nominations, 2 Golden Globes, 2 SAG awards and a BAFTA are damn good for an actress who doesn't have a particularly large body of work.

I liked her a lot in The Grifters but found her shrill and over-the-top in American Beauty. I don't think it's an outrage that she hasn't won an Oscar yet.

She wasn't even good in The Grifters. She was the Naked Body. Angelica Huston was the good one in The Grifters.

if you have not watch Mrs. Harris with Annette and Sir Ben Kingsley, just to name a few you are SO missing out on a GREAT movie and performances.

Seriously WATCH IT....

I loved her in American Beauty. I grew up with a mother EXACTLY like her and she captured it so well that it was chilling. Some might find her shrill and over the top, but so is my mother.

r22 you are correct she was Amazing in AB........ a real WHOA performance....

She’s a good actress.

She did an interview on NPR today and she had this haughty, humorless tone. She was letting everyone know how *intelligent* she is. She was dropping names all over the place and explained to the listening audience who Stella Adler was, as if everyone is stupid. New Yorkers who listen to NPR KNOW who Stella Adler is. Jesus.

Her interview really turned me off. Sorry.

That's too bad R24. She is a good actress, I've always liked her but maybe she doesn't really connect with the heart of American audiences, if that makes sense. I've always loved her but I'm from Europe, so maybe that's why.

Yeah maybe she doesn't have that likability thing that American audiences apparently need. She's occasionally cold. She and Judy Davis remind me a lot of each other. Neither of them really ever clicked in the states.

R19 true. It’s not like she’s been unrecognized. She’s Mrs. Warren Beatty. She works in pretty good films and doesn’t do shit like Transformers 58. She’s talented enough to win an Oscar but it just hasn’t been her lucky year yet. Lots of talented actors have never won but she’s young enough still to pull it off one day.

Not all eyes weep for her.

She played a horrible dyke in THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT. And I should know.

Ms. Bening comes across as a tad affected, no?

She's not that talented. She's a democrat. She married Warren Beatty.

I think her problem is that her films are not much promoted by the studios. They never have momentum, are never that much pushed in the medias. Therefore she is not in the conversations about nominees, etc.

She comes across as a humorless, passive-aggressive Canadian.

She seems uptight and preachy

I think that she slowed her work down to be a wife and mother. I think she has taken jobs that she wanted to do. Good or bad, she gets better with every role.

It is very true that Mr Beatty has schmoozed and helped actors win Oscars (as mentioned upthread), but Annette has not won one. Oscars are often given to actors who take controversial roles at parts that are way out of their normal roles—and do a great job. Has she been playing it safe so to speak?

Something else about her...I always heard she was from Kansas, born and raised, and lately I hear that she was raised in New England? What’s up with that?

She's not a classic beauty. And she's married to Warren Beatty - Hollywood probably thinks that this is her consolation for not winning an Oscar.

She's an okay actress but not a great one.

She had some great momentum in the early '90s with The Grifters and Bugsy. Also her performance in Valmont. She then went on to marry Warren Beatty and since then, she has worked but she never seemed to get the same momentum as those early films where she showed so much promise. She took off three years between Bugsy and Love Affair (both with Warren). She has worked steadily since but she hasn't amassed a strong body of work. Lots of flops like the Women and ho-hum pictures.

However, she was really great in Being Julia. A DL fave I'm sure.

Yes, but after four losses, she's still working in good, prestige projects, not doing Hollywood Game Night like some double Oscar Winners

She is pushing 60 and still gets A-list roles

I give her credit for having 4 children with His Highness Warren Beatty - and she probably did most of the work with them.

She reminds me of G. Always bridesmaids.

I'd like to amend my previous response to add that she's a cunt.

I'm so happy I'm not the most despised double Oscar winner.

I also respect her for not giving in and going the Botox route. She's got wicked crow's feet and yet it adds to her performances and their maturity.

Annette made Hollywood history by being the only actress to bag the big one Warren Beatty, getting pregnant, marrying him, and staying with him in wedded bliss. She deserves a special trophy for that one alone!

Have yet to see Being Julia - it's on my list! I'll be seeing the movie about Gloria Grahame, on my list too. Loved her in Running With Scissors, I thought that movie was great, although apparently no one's seen it or those who did, hated it.

Hate her? We don't even know her. Isn't she Jack Nicholson's nursemaid or something?

Winning an Oscar is indicative of nothing.

Nothing!

She’s boring and I can’t stand her voice. And you just know that she’s a mess in her personal life, with her self loathing lesbian daughter and all

She's always seemed older than she is. I remember a few years ago, when August Osage County was cast, a film guy -- either David Poland or Dave Karger -- said they should have cast Annette Bening as the mother and Jodie Foster as the eldest daughter! I had a good laugh about that, but I understand why the guy said that. Annette seems more like a Meryl contemporary than a Jodie contemporary even though she's only five or six years older than Jodie.

That could have worked, R49.

I agree R50.

Even M with Jodie Foster might have made a better film.

Hey, when is the Liverpool movie coming out? Has anyone seen it?

Blame it on Meryl.

I always thought she had this air of superiority, like she was too good for the peasants and she got that way very early on. Marrying Hollywood royalty inflated her even more. I personally felt she was VERY lucky to be sitting in the front rows with her husband and people like Jack Nicholson, Robert DeNiro, Dustin Hoffman, etc.

She's best at playing bitches and sociopaths. But she wants to play vulnerable and mommy-cuddly and it just doesn't work.

She should play Sante Kimes.

R43 She has had expert laser resurfacing on her face, and looks great. The laser work won't get rid of the larger wrinkles, but it leaves the skin bright.

Annette Bening is one of the great actresses. She was robbed of the Oscar for American Beauty. She was brilliant. Great too in The Grifters. She's outstanding in everything. Give her a goddamn Oscar.

No one was going to beat Swank that year. Besides, Bening's performance borders on camp. It's so overwrought and desperate. She was lucky to even get a nomination.

Bening appears snooty perhaps...because she was a stage actress .....

She began her career on stage with the Colorado Shakespeare Festival company in 1980, and played Lady Macbeth in 1984 at the American Conservatory Theatre.

She was nominated for the 1987 Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play for her Broadway debut in Coastal Disturbances.

She's good. Probably has made some crap movies, but hell, who hasn't......

i forgot to add, not that anyone gives a hoot:

She was a member of the acting company at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco while studying acting as part of the Advanced Theatre Training Program.

There, she starred in such productions as Shakespeare's Macbeth as Lady Macbeth. Bening also starred in productions of Pygmalion and The Cherry Orchard at the Denver Center Theatre Company during the 1985–86 season.

she's has chops.

We love you, Annette!

She has the same problem Hillary did. She comes off as too strong. Hollywood thinks she doesn't need an Oscar.

i didn't know it but

Bening married choreographer J. Steven White on May 26, 1984. They divorced in 1991.

Bening married Warren Beatty on March 3, 1992. They have four children.[19]

Bening was ordained as a minister by the Universal Life Church Monastery.[

She's a horrible lay.

Her pussy stinks.

She's a superb actress. Probably doesn't care if she has an Oscar or not.

Since when is Annette Bening not considered pretty? That's the first I heard.

Jesus Christ. Thank god for R67 and r58. Bening is so good you can't find the flash or begging in her work. Being Julia is what they used to call a Tour De Force. No one has given a wittier, more sympathetic, insightful or scandalous portrayal of an actress on screen. Ok, Bette Davis in All About Eve was good. Also Annette's better than beautiful, she positively radiant and sexy and substantial. She played the kittenish Myra in The Grifters when she was well into her thirties and she played her like a knowing little tootsie. It's a great film and great work. American Beauty doesn't work on a number of levels but it's not Bening's fault. She gives a gutsy comic performance. She would have been wonderful in August Osage County with or without Jodie. Julia Roberts did fine work in that piece of crap.

So many terrible and oh so predictable opinions on Datalounge. Bening may not be the type who wins Oscars. Neither is Julianne Moore. They gave her one for her least impressive performance in a movie of the week. I think it's time for the Oscars to finally lose prominence. It's mostly shit and fucking around and it's your year. Bening is intelligent and doesn't beg for attention, but she's not as remote as Kidman or Foster. She's fun at the roundtables, serious about the work but self deprecating. She's a much more convincing actress, wife and mother than a certain 3 time Oscar winner who lies on and off screen.

Everyone should see Being Julia btw. The climactic act is a disaster but the film is a lot of fun. Stylish and touching. It's a grande performance without the grandiosity that some others would make of it. She's very pretty indeed and Bening is also extremely talented. She excels in high comedy and subtle drama. Enough.

Her pussy still stinks.

She probably would rather Warren get the awards.

He's made nothing but shit for years now.

She’s great in Being Julia but it reeks of vanity project. The film has no reason to exist other than for her to give that performance.

Loved her in 20th C Women. Great film.

Hollywood is funny about her and I think it goes back to her nabbing Beatty. It was very telling that Bugsy received like 10 nominations but she never figured into it with her performance as Virginia, which was as good as any other that year.

Every actress of Annette's caliber wants an Oscar.

Thank you R69. Like I said, one of my favourite actresses.

Alright, R69, I'll check out Being Julia on your recommendation.

Annette Bening is sublime. I love her in everything I've seen her in. Would be great to see a lead role created for her in a Downton Abbey-calibre series.

She was great in The Grifters. After that she descended into painfully mannered performances, drenched in artifice and desperation to finally snag that elusive Academy Award.

R69 = Annette

"...she descended into painfully mannered performances..."

Hardly. She's one of the best actresses in Hollywood. She elevates everything she's in.

Bump. Just finished watching “Being Julia” for the first time. Not much of a story. Annette looked wonderful, giggled and cackled a lot. I think I’ll pretty much forget it.

Pumping 4 kids - after Bugsy, she was offered Catwoman in [italic]Batman Returns[/italic], but got pregnant. Later she was offered the female in [italic]Disclosure[/italic],but got pregnant.

She aged out of a lot of roles by the time she stopped having kids. So, she makes movies when she wants or can.

Benning chooses great parts more so than great movies. Those projects she does choose are often lower budget projects that she stars in—and it’s hard to get audiences to watch those movies. (Which is why Glenn Close lost the Oscar for The Wife). Ever since she dropped out of Freaky Friday she’s been content to do her own thing and not chase after studio work. Also she raised four kids.

I know someone who worked on their staff for over a year and only had nice things to say about both her and her husband. Low drama. Good kids. Happy house and staff—liked the job and liked them.

Cool, R83. I've always loved Annette Bening (Valmont), but again I'm from Europe (not the poster upthread). She's one of the great American actresses, but her career and the recognition she gets don't really show it. She was masterful in Being Julia, I don't think anybody else could have played that part the way she did. I think I'll watch it again soon.

The Oscar usually goes to the best role, and the recipient is whoever was lucky enough to get that role.

I think she's a great actress, robbed of The Oscar for AMERICAN BEAUTY and BEING JULIA. She's due and she'll get one someday. And not attractive? Where are your eyes??

Also will add to the chorus of Annette’s great work. Was shocked that Swank was lauded with an Oscar over her.

Began to see then that Oscars - or other awards - aren’t representative of stellar performances. In fact when individuals like JLo are nominated for roles (that they are essentially living in their lives), it begins to verge on the farcical.

Also think we (in the US) tend to be hypnotized by the “flash and sizzle” of things and others (in Europe?) can appreciate a bit more depth, nuance and substantive performances.

Does boring movies now. I loved her in American Beauty and The Grifters. Those are the movies she should have gotten her Oscar. Seemed over it in Toronto. Bitchy and boried with promoting The Report.

She was very good in the heartbreaking The Face of Love with Ed Harris.

I knew something was up when Bening failed to win any nominations for Bugsy. Best Actress? Best Supporting Actress? But Hollywood was like, “You chose Warren.” I think she’s always been resented for backing out of Catwoman for Burton in Batman Returns.

If she had actually murdered her husband in American Beauty she might’ve stood a better chance of winning. Otherwise her character was sidelined by re-shoots while the film was being audience tested.

Being Julia only existed to win Bening an Oscar and thus, despite her sly performance, it was too Oscar bait-y to actually win.

She should’ve won for 21C Women.

She's just okay.

She’s a scenery-chewer.

Annette Bening deserves an Oscar. Give her a damn Oscar.

I am another who didn't like her in AMERICAN BEAUTY - she carries on like she's acting in a different movie than the rest of the cast. It's very jarring and director Sam Mendes is primarily at fault. Swank certainly deserved her Oscar for BOYS DON'T CRY, IMO.

However, I would definitely have given Bening the award for BEING JULIA, which I enjoyed immensely, but few people saw that film. Plus Swank was in a well-reviewed Eastwood film, which gave her a huge advantage.

I didn't care for her in VALMONT, but I think that film is very weak, especially next to DANGEROUS LIAISONS.

A lot of Bening's recent work has been in films that didn't get a huge audience, which doesn't help your chances of getting noticed by the Academy unless the competition is incredibly weak (as when Jessica Lange won for BLUE SKY, which died at the boxoffice).

I thought she was terrific in THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT, 20th CENTURY WOMEN, and FILM STARS DON'T DIE...but her roles in the first two weren't truly "leading" (they were ensemble films), and FILM STARS was probably seen by fewer people in theaters than JULIA (probably due to the awful title). Plus you could make the case that FILM STARS was more Jamie Bell's film than hers (he's excellent and very sexy in it).,

She's very well-respected and perhaps her time will come, though most likely in a supporting role at this point.

just watched "Being Julia" last week, she was really good in that, and the film was a hoot

R90: "If she had actually murdered her husband in American Beauty she might’ve stood a better chance of winning." LOL! I think you may be onto something here. In retrospect, watching Kevin Spacey get murdered before trying to get it on with someone underage would age pretty well, I imagine. I think her character gets a bad wrap for being a shrew. I felt like she was doing everything she could to hold her family and marriage together and the husband was a dick. Rare instance where the lead actress is in the BP winner and then loses.

Annette's Globe nomination was a nice surprise this season. I don't think her age mattered in playing Feinstein. The movie starts in the early 2000s or so anyway when Feinstein was in her mid-60s (Bening was about 61 when she played the role). She captured her quite well. I don't expect a BAFTA nod, so the awards train will end on Globe night when she'll have to clap for Laura Dern or J.Lo. But, Bening already has two Globes anyway.

Hopefully, 2020, will continue her success off the heals of 2019, having played a pivotal role in a hugebox-office hit and got a Globe nod. She has a TV movie I don't know much about, but she'll be in the next Kenneth Branagh Agatha Christie film, which could be a hit. Her role wasn't in the original (at least, not by name), so that's interesting. And, then, she is supposed to film Turn of Mind with Michelle Pfeiffer. That could come out at the end of the year. It sounds like a thriller. But, she has the more lead role, it appears. Her character is a doctor with dementia accused of murder. There will likely be flashbacks (never the best sign). The director is the Emmy-winning writer/producer of the first season of Homeland and the screenwriter wrote Quills two decades ago, so we'll see. I hope it's entertaining. It better not be another Before I Go to Sleep (with Nicole Kidman). That was bad. Fingers crossed.

r21 looks interesting but the reviews are bad

r21 looks interesting but the reviews are bad

r44 but she got him when he was on the down slide

R99 That may end up the same way for Amal Clooney. Would it matter? Not really. She still got George.