LEAST deserving Best Actress Winner - 1990s edition

There’s no apostrophe in Howards End.

Sorry R1 I knew I'd make a mistake somewhere. At least it isn't as egregious as misspelling "Katharine" Hepburn in a previous poll!

Some people think Swank in Boys Don't Cry was less deserving than Helen Hunt?

Gwyneth Paltrow by a country mile.

It's amazing that Hunt was nominated, let alone won. Like Lawrence in "Silver Linings Playbook."

How exactly did Helen Hunt win? Her performance is so pedestrian. Did she have some big scene I'm forgetting? Not like the movie was a masterpiece either.

Kathy Bates won the previous poll for MOST deserving winner btw

Gwyneth deserved it more than Helen. Hunt was up against four British actresses (Winslet for Titanic, Dench for Mrs Brown, Julie Christie for Afterglow and Helena Bonham Carter for Wings of the Dove), so maybe there was a vote-splitting situation there? Pretty sorry group of nominees overall -- who remembers any of those movies besides Titanic?). I'd call Winslet the most deserving.

R8, Julie Christie was my choice that year. She was magnificent.

I don't think Helen Hunt should have won, R6, but she had a couple of big scenes. She gets to yell at Jack Nicholson several times, she panics over her son's health problems, and she gets to curse out HMOs.

She plays the most sympathetic and relatable character out of the five nominees by far, so even though it's the least interesting performance nominated that year, it still makes total sense why Oscar voters would choose her.

Haven't seen Afterglow R9, will have to watch it.

R10 I take your points and they make sense, I guess compared to the other 9 winners of the 90s Helen's performance just seems quite straightforward and plain

I think Helen also benefited from having been in the industry from a very young age, like Jodie Foster.

Helen Hunt or Jessica Lange.

They started out with very worthy winners til about halfway through, then I disagree with some such as McDormand, Hunt, Paltrow

Any more thoughts?

Sarandon was a career award and the weakest of the 5 nominations. She shouldn’t have even been nominated for a tv movie that has been completely forgotten.

Julianne Moore, Nicole Kidman, Toni Collette, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Isabelle Huppert and of course Kathy Bates for Dolores were all more worthy of recognition.

Sarandon is very good in Dead Man Walking, but it was a career award and happened because she had the right competition. Meryl and Emma already had Oscars (and Emma was guaranteed to take home the Screenplay award), while Academy voters were probably hesitant to give an Oscar to Elisabeth Shue or Sharon Stone.

It does seem unfair that one of the weakest Best Actress lineups in history was followed by such a stacked year. The performances that R16 mentioned all could have been far more competitive the year before.

Should have won:

Bates

Foster

Thompson

Bassett

Lange (or Moore/Kidman is Safe or To Die For were released earlier)

Streep

Watson

Dench

Montenegro

Swanky

Hunt, Foster and Paltrow…troika of Oscar mediocrity.

Goop. Should have been Fernanda Montenegro.

Paltrow was great in Shakespeare In Love. She played Viola perfectly. A star making performance.

No, it wasn't a performance like Fernanda Montenegro in Central Station but it was a great performance in a great film that has held up well.

Yes she became insufferable very quickly but she deserved award recognition for Shakespeare In Love.

I watched "Blue Sky" not too long ago.

While I begrudge Jessica Lange nothing in this world, it is a bad movie.

And she isn't very good in it.

I loved Helen Hunt in "Mad About You," but she was horrible in "As Good as it Gets." Her Brooklyn accent came and went, she looked about as much like a working class single mom waitress as Princess Diana, and I didn't buy for a second that a character like hers would be remotely interested in a character like Nicholson's.

Helen Hunt's best acting was in "Six Sessions" as a sex surrogate. Brave performance with a lot of empathy. AnnE beat her with her shaved head

The answer is Helen Hunt. Looking back, Winslet in titanic is the iconic performance.

Paltrow is excellent in SIL. Star performance. Like Julia Roberts in Erin Brokovitch, hate for the actress clouds judgement.

I guess a good guide might be thinking what your top 20 performances of the 90s might be from an Actress. Unfortunately Jessica Lange & Helen Hunt don't make it in for me. Paltrow was really good so I didn't choose her as least deserving even though I don't think she should have won

If I could change nominates by one year backwards of forwards I would think the following were deserving

Kathy Bates, Misery

Jodie Foster, Silence Of The Lambs

Emma Thompson, Remains Of The Day (1 year forward)

Angela Bassett, What's Love Got To Do With It

Stockard Channing, Six Degrees Of Separation (1 year later)

Sharon Stone, Casino

Meryl Streep, Bridges of Madison County (1 year later, also for Marvin's Room)

Helena Bonham Carter, The Wings Of The Dove

Fernanda Montenegro, Central Station

Hillary Swank, Boys Don't Cry

If I could move movies from their release year:

Bates

Foster

Thompson

Bassett

Kidman - To Die For

Streep

Watson

Moore - Safe

Montenegro

Swank

How DARE you! NOBODY deserved that Oscar more than moi! Not even that old Brazilian bitch!

I sucked Harvey Weinstein's hideous, deformed toothpick dick for that Oscar! More than once!!!!

If we can just move movies to a different release year, then I'll say that in 1994 the Oscar for Best Actress should have gone to Gena Rowlands for "A Woman Under the Influence."