Meryl Streep is widely regarded as the best actress of all time and with a resume like hers, it is hard to dispute that. With movies such as “Silkwood” and “Sophie’s Choice”, the lady from New Jersey has amassed an incredible amount of critical acclaim. One award show that really seems to love her is the biggest one of all, the Academy Awards. As Academy Awards nominations came put, it was almost an inevitability that one name would be uttered. A few seconds later, it was official and Streep had garnered her twentieth nomination. Twenty nominations for one person seems rather excessive and it makes me wonder if the Academy even cares about Streep’s performance anymore.
There are so many quality performers out there
This is not a knock on Streep but there are so many actresses out there that could have gained that final spot. I watched “Florence Foster Jenkins” and while it was a great comedic performance, Amy Adams had two great films that were passed up. Streep has incredible depth and range but there are have been several times where I’ve felt that her performances were not up to par with the other ladies in her category. It seems as though members of the Academy clearly love Streep but at a certain point they need to stop nominating her if she is going to continually lose. She has twenty nominations total but of those has only won three times. I am not going to go as far as to call her overrated but when the same person continues to get nominated seemingly every year, it takes away the special nature of the Academy Awards by making the nomination process appear mundane.
The Academy clearly favors Streep over other actors
The Academy Awards are (at its core) a subjective award. It is impossible to judge art with any kind of formulas or mathematics and that’s why it is so tricky to figure out why Streep always gets nominated. For example, an actress like Glenn Close, who is just as talented as Streep, has yet to win an Oscar.
The Academy is made up of several divisions of people with one of the biggest being the actor’s branch. Streep has had such a long career that she has, pretty much, worked with everyone by this point. No one seems to have a bad word to say about her and in Hollywood, likeability is one of the most important aspects of being successful.
Hollywood is a lot smaller than people think and if you have a great reputation that sways the way in which people think of you when voting. I find it hard to believe that members of the Academy can remain completely subjective when voting for these awards because if some actress that you despise has one of the best performances of all time, you could still end up not voting for her. It’s not Streep’s fault but I do think that the Academy needs to look further and deeper when making their nominations. There are great foreign Film performances every year that get passed by.
