Pacific Stars And Stripes
March 22, 1992
LOS ANGELES – Can a performer win the Oscar when a co-star is nominated for the same movie? The issue will be tested at the March 30 Academy Awards, for which Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis were both nominated as best actress for “Thelma & Louise.”
“Thelma & Louise,” in which two women enjoy a law-breaking spree through the West, proved the sleeper of 1991.
The best actress nominees:
DAVIS AND SARANDON played free-hearted women intent on a payback for the indignities they suffered at the hands of men in Ridley Scott‘s “Thelma & Louise.”
Davis, an Oscar winner for her supporting role in the 1988 “The Accidental Tourist,” talked of her role as Thelma: “One kind of great thing that she has in her life is the friendship with Louise. “They’re like best, total-best friends. Thelma really idolizes Louise and looks up to her as a hero. “She kind of leans on her a lot, to help her out and take care of her. . . . It’s a movie about women finding their power.”
LAURA DERN makes her first entry in the Academy Awards as the free-spirited farm girl in Martha Coolidge‘s “Rambling Rose.” She grew up in the movie business as the daughter of Bruce Dern and Diane Ladd.
“She’s never been raised in society,” Dern said of her character, Rose. “She comes from the back hills of Alabama, basically an orphan. She had no education and just entered society as the movie begins.”
BETTE MIDLER has won best actress nominations for her first movie, “The Rose” (1979), and her latest, “For the Boys.” She plays an entertainer of the troops in three wars in “For the Boys,” which she also produced through her All Girl Productions.
“It was a wonderful picture, I had a wonderful time making it. I worked as hard as I ever have before. It was the top of the line, really an A picture,” she said recently
JODIE FOSTER could win her second Oscar as the FBI recruit who matches wits with a maniacal doctor in “The Silence of the Lambs.” She won as best actress in 1988 for her role as the victim of gang rape in “The Accused.”
“I think it’s one of the first in a line of cinematic female heroes,” Foster said of her “Lambs” roll. “I think this is a genuine female hero. I think it’s one of the first times that a woman has had access to that myth, to a folklore connection with what a real hero is. I think it’s a big step.”
