Number 66: Lee Grant as Felicia Carr in "Shampoo" (Best Supporting Actress Ranking)

And we have an additional member of the ‘I’m happy this actress has an Oscar but why did it have to be for this movie?’ club.

In Shampoo, Lee Grant performs Felicia Carr, the bored society spouse of a politician and one of the many mistresses of Warren Beatty (I missing keep track of how a lot of instances she has sexual intercourse with him for the duration of the movie).

1st I want to say the good issues about her efficiency: Lee Grant is a excellent actress and in Shampoo, you can see how she sinks her tooth into this portion. Not a one line appears squandered, she uses every single chance to shine and command the screen (but in a good way). Of all the females in the movie, she seems to be the only one actually devoted to her role, attempting make as much impression as feasible. Very first, we only listen to Felicia while she is having sex with George in a dark mattress-room and Lee provides her lines excellently (‘Could you just move…because that’s…that’s…JESUS CHRIST!…that’s right…’). In a later on scene, she has a wonderful emotional moment when she is indignant at George and tells him ‘Don’t take up my time because my time is important!…You have no respect for me. You, you, you, you cannot distinguish amongst me and a single of your goddamn Hollywood quantities!’ And then there is her sturdy ultimate scene at the election celebration when is she is acknowledging that her life is slowly falling aside (she appears to drop the two her partner and her lover to one more lady) and she tells her spouse ‘I hope you like Overlook Shawn. Since she’s likely to be really, quite high-priced.’ And her final scene, when she is exhibiting her spouse the finger, is a wonderful way for the character to leave.

Now the not so excellent issues: Even with the truth that Lee Grant provides all she has in this position, she entirely misses what all the other individuals have: charm. Shampoo is a mild comedy and Goldie Hawn, Julie Christie and Warren Beatty can make that perform, but Lee Grant can’t. Julie Christie and Goldie Hawn also have a lot a lot more chemistry and screen presence – and, on leading of that, much better roles that call for much a lot more psychological and intellectual acting.

It’s practically thrilling to see Lee Grant consider this sort of a throwaway-position and fill it with daily life but at the same time her mix of lacking monitor-existence and deficiency of display-time make it difficult for her to stand out – even in an general instead lifeless film like Shampoo. It is frustrating that Lee Grant, regardless of all her efforts, stays so amazingly pale – as I said, she tries extremely hard but can only go so significantly and, at the finish of the working day, it looks rather stunning that a greater part of Academy members in fact imagined that this was an Oscar-worthy performance.

An actress with much more normal allure and a more powerful display screen-presence may have carried out more in this role but in the long run, even the most proficient actress could not have defeat the restrictions of the script and the portion. In this way, Lee Grant did a respactable task – but rarely praiseworthy.