How Did Marisa Tomei Win the Oscar for My Cousin Vinny?

Her performance was amazing.

What r1 said. It was the winning performance.

Sometimes it really is simply Occam's Razor and not a conspiracy.

Here's the clip

Marisa Tomei – My Cousin Vinny as Mona Lisa Vito Judy Davis – Husbands and Wives as Sally Wainwright Joan Plowright – Enchanted April as Mrs. Fisher Vanessa Redgrave – Howards End as Ruth Wilcox Miranda Richardson – Damage as Ingrid Fleming

Marisa Tomei – My Cousin Vinny as Mona Lisa Vito

Judy Davis – Husbands and Wives as Sally Wainwright

Joan Plowright – Enchanted April as Mrs. Fisher

Vanessa Redgrave – Howards End as Ruth Wilcox

Miranda Richardson – Damage as Ingrid Fleming

All four of the other nominees had their supporters. It was thought that since Emma Thompson was winning Best Actress so they didn't want to award two foreign women and Tomei was the only alternative. Plus she was extremely funny in it.

I think most if not all the times there was only one American among the nominees the American won.

Judy Davis was in Husbands and Wives and was the favorite but probably lost votes due to the Woody/Mia scandal happening at the same time.

the rumor was always that Jack Palance got confused and just read the last name off the teleprompter as the winner.

Youtube showed that he didn't. He very clearly looks at the card. (and also shows how even though Judy Davis was Australian most people thought of her as yet another English actress.)

the scene at the end where she testifies is just brilliant comedy and she's perfect in it

but yes it was a shock. I can remember Rob Reiner entering the ceremony and saying that he (for A Few Good Men had about as much chance as Marisa Tomei. Kind of obnoxious of him. But then he is a meathead.)

[quote] the rumor was always that Jack Palance got confused and just read the last name off the teleprompter as the winner.

That wouldn't surprise me at all. Jack Palance came to speak at my college in the early 90s (I have no idea why) and was three, four, maybe six or seven sheets to the wind the entire time. Our radio station had a station ID of Palance where he couldn't even say the call letters because he was so drunk. We used to laugh our heads off over that one.

In 1979, two movies were released: The Black Stallion and Disney's The Black Hole.

Stallion got rave reviews, and it's Cinematography was not only considered one of the greatest ever, but it won The NY, LA, and Board of Review Awards that year for Best Cinematography. It was considered a shoo-in for the Oscar. Yet when the nominations were announced, it wasn't even on the list!

The Black Hole, a huge financial and critical bomb, was nominated instead.

Really? Nobody questioned that perhaps someone had made a mistake??

in the technical categories r10 the voters are a much smaller pool and often know each other or their reputation. I'd bet either The Black Stallion had an unpopular cinematographer or The Black Hole had a very popular one.

Look at how The Swarm and When Time Ran Out got Best Costume nominations. The guy was well liked.

Roger Ebert predicted she'd win. He must have heard academy members telling him that they really liked her.

There’s a certain contingent of people who follow the Oscars who will never be happy with anything, and it’s never more transparent when they complain that comedic performances never win, then nitpick every time anything less serious than Sophie’s Choice wins an award.

There’s no bad choice in that category (when Joan Plowright is the weakest choice, that’s a pretty solid field), but Tomei’s performance has survived the test of time. She deserved it.

and proved herself not to be a fluke. Got two more well deserved nominations unlike others of that era like Mercedes Ruehl or Mira Sorvino.

If palance had announced the wrong name it would’ve been corrected right away by someone waiting in the wings backstage.

Love Marisa. Nobody questions why Kevin Kline won for his equally hilarious performance in A Fish Called Wanda, but people still question Marisa's win. It was well deserved.

As we saw with Moonlight/La La Land, they do correct it on stage if the wrong winner is announced.

And I think it's simple - Marisa is well-liked as an actress, a colleague and her performance in MCV. It's quite possible that Davis, as good as she was in Husbands and Wives, just didn't win over Oscar voters. She was known to be difficult to work with.

I did wonder about Kevin Kline. Also out of nowhere.

[quote] it would’ve been corrected right away

Well maybe not right away. Maybe after a long embarrassing bit of confusion.

[quote]And I think it's simple - Marisa is well-liked as an actress,

Actually at that time she barely had done enough movies for people to have an opinion about her. She won it on the performance (and yes Davis did have a bad reputation. Fought with David Lean on A Passage to India.)

I think Joe Pesci was more deserving of (another) Oscar then Tomei. She’s fine, but he makes the movie for me (and it’s oddly one of those movies I thought was decently good when I saw it, and now that they run it on IFC, Paramount etc all the time, I love it more than I ever did).

positraction!

The whole expert on cars thing is just so well written and so funny coming from a woman like Tomei in her fancy outfits.

Was Debbie Allen there that year doing her horrible dance numbers? It must have been sweet revenge for Tomei if she got to pass Allen in the hall backstage. (Allen got rid of her on A Different World.)

R10 I just came upon The Black Stallion and watched it and I agree it is a fantastic movie that should have won .

Marisa was brilliant.

She's so calm in her acceptance speech. Most of those shocking winners are a bit flustered (Oliva Colman, Juliette Binoche and cute little speechless Anna Paquin.)

R10/R11: Frank V. Phillips was the cinematographer of [italic]The Black Hole[/italic]; he was older and mainly worked in Disney films including their then-most recent musicals [italic]Bedknobs and Broomsticks[/italic] and [italic]Pete's Dragon[/italic]; most of his work outside of Disney was in TV, but this was the first time since 1971's [italic]Scandalous John[/italic] that he had actually gotten to shoot in the anamorphic widescreen 2.35:1 ratio in a process called Technovision. Caleb Deschanel was considered less experienced at the time, and [italic]The Black Stallion[/italic] used the less wide 1.85:1 ratio, so those who chose nominations were probably swayed by the wider ratio. It still didn't win, and even if it had been a hit, [italic]Apocalypse Now[/italic], also shot in Technovision to obtain a widescreen 2.35:1 ratio, likely still would have won the award that year.

Disney hired Carroll Ballard to direct [italic]Never Cry Wolf[/italic], but there Ballard used a Japanese cinematographer, Hiro Narita, instead. It was shot to be screened in theaters at 1.85:1.

Did Judy David take her loss out on the director of her next movie “dark blood” which was the final movie of river Phoenix. By all accounts a horrible set, Jonathan pry won’t said it was his worst movie making experience and he’s worked with so many greats….

Worse than that movie he made with Madge a few years later?

Davis spoke about that film. Pryce made them all hold hands and pray for Phoenix's sprit to rise to heaven or something like that. She found it offensive that she was made to do something she didn't believe in. I think she felt the film should have just shut down once Phoenix died.

She was funny, and funny is hard.

I'm just glad it wasn't Judy Davis -- UGH.

R29 I’d never heard that about pryce. Sounds like the scene in heathers with the hippy teacher making everybody hold hands in the cafeteria.

[quote]And I think it's simple - Marisa is well-liked as an actress, a colleague and her performance in MCV. It's quite possible that Davis, as good as she was in Husbands and Wives, just didn't win over Oscar voters. She was known to be difficult to work with.

Hasn't the same also been said about Marisa -- that the reason her film career didn't take off after her Oscar win was because she became difficult on set? (This is also allegedly what torpedoed Mira Sorvino's career following her win.)

Ralph Macchio was also fantastic in this movie.

The comedy of errors by which cops extract a confession from his character is masterful. The scene where he calls his mother from the police station is also superb.

[quote]If palance had announced the wrong name it would’ve been corrected right away by someone waiting in the wings backstage.

[quote]As we saw with Moonlight/La La Land, they do correct it on stage if the wrong winner is announced.

I realize this is a razor-thin distinction to make but I wonder if it would be viewed differently taking an Oscar away from an actor than from film producers -- i.e., an actor being asked to give back an Oscar would be considered especially mortifying vs. taking it away from a picture, which is a thing, not a person. (The producers of "La La Land" were representing a picture, not themselves.) In other words, though it sucks for the producers to have to return the Oscar, no one remembers their names the next day or for years to come whereas if Marisa had been forced to give hers back, she'd have to live with that embarrassment for the rest of her life, likely even becoming the butt of jokes (SNL would've had a field day). Therefore, the Academy might be far less willing to take back an Oscar from a star vs. taking it back from someone who wins for producing a picture and would instead just shut up about it. This is also partly why I imagine vote tallies are never released because they'd never want the public or the winners -- or, in this context, the "winners" -- to know if such a mistake was ever made.

Not saying I'm right about this, just offering it as theory. And I personally think Tomei's win was real, not an error.

R32 I thought the reason Mira sorvinos career didn’t take off was Harvey weistein told people not to hire her because she’s difficult. I imagine it happens often to actresses like Mira and Marisa. In the case of Judy I believe she’s difficult from an artistic point of view.

Funny how she and Lisa Bonet quit [italic]A Different World[/italic] after its first season and Marisa went on to win this and get nominated again for [italic]In the Bedroom[/italic] while Lisa doesn't even have as many Oscars as Brenda from [italic]227[/italic].

R35 is correct; Mira's career was purposely derailed by Harvey Weinstein. The same for Ashley Judd and a few others that didn't succumb to his hideous face and figure. Daryl Hannah also opened up about him nearly banging down her door at Cannes.

Contrast the above derailments to Charlize, Renee, Jennifer Lawrence, etc and the difference is pretty crystal clear.

No, R35 is not correct. Mira Sorvino's career went in the shitter because she's a lousy fucking actress. (AND she's a cunt to work with.)

Wow. Julie Andrews really did lower the bar for what was considered Oscar-worthy.

And since Julie, it's practically under water.

No mystery here. Look at it this way .... only 126 total votes came in ....... 4 actors each got 25 votes. Winner got 26.

She was the only American nominated. Redgrave should have won but Hollywood hates her for defending Palestinians.

R3 : How many drugs is that dude on?

What r41 said.

There was an incident at the Golden Globes where Mira Sorvino told some but off (James Cameron maybe?) with "don't you know who I am? I'M AN OSCAR WINNER!)

And yes Tomei had a reputation right after the Oscar for being difficult. She also made some bad decisions. Had to be the star of her films so turned down Four Weddings and a Funeral and did some flops instead.

Andie McDowell stole Marisa’s career.

Tomei had trouble since she tried to become a romantic comedy star but was only getting the third rate scripts that Julia Roberts and Meg Ryan had already passed on.

#OscarsSoWhite

r34 the idea the accounting firms always put out was they had a panic button backstage so if the wrong winner was announced they would hit it and go to commercial.

The La La Land thing was odd since the guy was taking selfies and not paying attention BUT why the other accountant took so long to notify the producers and why Jimmy Kimmell wasn't cut to was very odd.

OP, you want I should file some lawsuits?

I don’t have much else to do right now.

People didn't pay as much attention to precursors in those years op.

The globes weren't even on broadcast TV. They were dumped on a Saturday night on TBS because of Pia Zadora.

As said Kevin Kline and in that same year Geena Davis both won seemingly out of nowhere.

Love it R22. I’m always up for that type of conjecture.

Come sit by me.

Joan Plowright won the Globe for supporting actress. Miranda Richardson also won a globe but for Enchanted April. Plus Miranda won the NY film critics, and Judy won all the rest of the major critics awards. Only Vanessa and Marisa won nothing before the Oscars. I think it was the epitomy of a split vote. Like the poster said, Judy had the Woody Mia thing and a difficult reputation. They might’ve not voted for Vanessa as much because they didn’t want her to open her mouth on stage again. Miranda and Joan are mysteries other than the voters maybe didn’t see their films as much as My Cousin Vinny which cut into the vote totals. It is the biggest upset for supporting actress ever. Tomei deserved it and proved her detractors wrong with two more nominations.

"It is the biggest upset for supporting actress ever."

Lauren Bacall might disagree.

R54 Binoche had SOME momentum. She was in the front running best pic English Patient (ultimately won 9 Oscars), and had the best shot representing the cast for an Oscar win. Plus Binoche had globe and SAG nominations, unlike Tomei.

Of course, no way to prove this, but when I saw Marisa Tomei on As The World Turns, I just knew she would have a great career. She was fantastic on the show, even among castmates like Julianne Moore and Meg Ryan. (However unlike Julianne, Marisa never ever mentions her soap roots....kinda leaves a sour taste in my mouth).

BTW, Fred Gwynne , who played the judge in My Cousin Vinny, was wonderful.

After Jenna, before Christina...

Marisa Tomei was excellent in the film OP. That's why.

DL lip readers, can anyone make out what Miranda Richardson says after the winner is announced?

R59 it looks like she says good job. What’s even better is her exasperated look when Palance takes forever to read the name. He really made those women sweat it out.

It was a great script and she (everyone really) was perfect in it. I took evidence from Charles Nesson and he used this movie to discuss admissibility and trial procedure.

She’s a good enough actress, but Oscar? *shrugs* I guess.

Reminds me of when people say Lindsay Lohan was amazing in “Mean Girls”. That’s a stretch.

Four weddings and a funeral was shot in 1993, and came out in 1994 a few years before anyone knew who sorvino was. Sorvino was going for leading lady parts and she’s not a leading lady, neither was Tomei but Tomei went back to supporting and character roles quickly and has built a great career.

SJP supposedly gave a horrid audition for Four Weddings and a Funeral. (according to her.)

For the best. The groom would have been prettier than the bride.

SJP still would have been better than the wooden Andie MacDowell.

Andie MacDowell's performance was QUITE bad (and you cite my favorite line, r65), but I think she works for the film. Except for the happy ending part, I can't see them together long term. I thank God it wasn't SJP. Who else was up for the role? I've no idea who I'd prefer at this point.

It says a lot that the movie was released early in the year, had no awards buzz, and she still was nominated. Whenever stuff like that happens it starts to smell like a win, especially back then.

She got the most votes, OP.

R37 Thank goodness JLaw's career is over now.

[quote]Who else was up for the role? I've no idea who I'd prefer at this point.

I always thought Holly Hunter might have done well in that role. She’s girl-next-door pretty but just quirky enough to work with the cast.