How Did Emma Thompson Go From Oscar Contender to Afterthought?

At the virtual Sundance Film Festival in January and then again in June, Emma Thompson made the press rounds for her leading role in Searchlight Pictures’ “Good Luck to You, Leo Grande.” As usual, Thompson completely charmed her way through promoting her winning little indie picture, even with the expected media scrutiny of how “brave” she was to take on her role. (Male actors are rarely referred to as such when they play sixtysomething men who like sex.)

The performance, in which she portrays a sharp-minded but body-insecure widow who hires a sensitive, confident male escort (Daryl McCormack) on a quest for many kinds of fulfillment, earned Thompson some of the best reviews of a long and storied career that has often prompted journalists to use phrases like “a long and storied career.” She’s that good, that often. And yet, as 2023 approaches and voters cast their ballots, Thompson went from being a strong contender to an also-ran. What on Earth happened?

“Leo Grande” debuted on Hulu on June 17, 2022, with the kind of streaming debut that would ordinarily disqualify a film from Academy Award contention. But in these COVID-wracked times, Searchlight sought and received an AMPAS waiver to allow the film to be eligible on the grounds that it would have gotten a theatrical release if not for the pandemic. So Thompson seemed, as it were, off to the races.

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But whereas summer-movie male lead names like Austin Butler in “Elvis” and Tom Cruise in “Top Gun: Maverick” remained on the lips of pundits, acclaimed star turns by women have stumbled a bit in getting voters to remember them. Remember how euphoric everyone seemed to be by mid-September about performances like Aubrey Plaza in “Emily the Criminal” and Mia Goth in “Pearl?” Both were rangy and daring, but apparently not enough for awards season’s version of prime time. (No offense, of course, to frontrunners such as Michelle Yeoh and Cate Blanchett, as this is —finally! — a seemingly stronger year for leading women than men onscreen.)

Thompson’s lack of buzz is all the more confounding because, while refreshingly frank about sexual mores and female pleasure without any hint of prurience, “Leo Grande” is very firmly pitched to the “prestige” voter — especially one who would witness Thompson’s performance in the span of her career and notice she’s not repeating herself or playing down to this sometimes-rigid character. Or one who, like this viewer, wiped away tears after the conclusion of the film, where Thompson’s Nancy Stokes aka Susan Robinson finally finds the truest form of self-acceptance in a small, internalized victory lap before a mirror.

It wouldn’t be the first time Thompson strangely fell out of the Oscar conversation after a bold start; it’s still jarring to remember she was passed over for nominations for her impetuous “Mary Poppins” author P.L. Travers in 2013’s “Saving Mr. Banks”, or 10 years before that (despite what recent ABC reunion specials would leave you to believe about a 2003 film) for her now-classic, Joni Mitchell-infused marriage breakdown scene in “Love Actually,” a sequence oft-referred to even by the movie’s detractors as the most affecting.

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Yes, she already has two Oscars at home (and famously in the loo): one for her lacerating Margaret Schlegel in Merchant-Ivory’s 1992 classic “Howards End,” and one for her brilliant, expertly palatable adapted screenplay for the 1995 Ang Lee version of Jane Austen’s “Sense and Sensibility.” It might be that Thompson possesses that taken-for-granted quality that has often befallen icons like her “Angels in America” costar Meryl Streep, who once quipped that not only has she gotten more Oscar nominations than anyone in history, but likely lost more Oscars.

Thompson did manage to sneak into the Golden Globes musical/comedy race. (“Leo Grande” is definitely more dramatic, but one digresses…) But why aren’t we hearing her name more as we’re deep in the pre-Oscar noms awards swamp, when surprises are still very possible? It’s not as if Searchlight Pictures is traditionally a slouch in promoting great Best Actress candidates: Four of the last five Best Actress Oscar winners have come for Searchlight pictures, an impressive stat.

Maybe Netflix will give Thompson a hearty, late-surge push for “Matilda the Musical” given its encouraging early buzz and her Miss Trunchbull being a very obviously visual transformation? (Oscar voters still love those — it worked for Jessica Chastain last year.)

Maybe viewers thought Thompson cavorting unclothed with the very dishy McCormack was reward enough? (Kidding…or perhaps not?)

Or that she possesses that Goddess-level eternal cool of someone like, say, Dolly Parton, also somewhat undertallied in industry awards even though the woman is a musical genius and basically kicked in vaccine money to save all of our lives.

Like Thompson’s Nancy says at one point in “Leo Grande”: It’s all quite an education.

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