Watch out for Annette Bening to pull a Glenn Close at the Globes

Glenn Close delivered a killer Golden Globes acceptance speech in 2019 when she pulled off an upset in Best Drama Actress by winning for “The Wife.” Lady Gaga was the frontrunner for her performance in “A Star is Born” but it was Close who took to the stage.

We could be in for a similar situation this year as Annette Bening looks to claim a career win of her own. The frontrunner for Best Drama Actress is Lily Gladstone (“Killers of the Flower Moon”). Also nominated are Sandra Hüller (“Anatomy of a Fall”), Carey Mulligan (“Maestro”), Greta Lee (“Past Lives”), and Cailee Spaeny (“Priscilla”). Bening’s path to a Golden Globe victory isn’t just merited by her veteran status, however. She also has the backing of the critics.

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Richard Lawson (Vanity Fair) opined: “Nyad is played by Annette Bening, who trained for a year to ready herself for the physical demands of the role. It’s quite a testament to actorly commitment: This movie can’t have been fun to film, at least not for the person playing the woman who spends so much time working her way through the open ocean. Bening embodies both the grace and the unbearable strain of Nyad’s effort, its grandeur and its ugliness… Bening thoughtfully maps the character’s insecurity, the loneliness of her tunnel-visioned pursuit.”

Stephen Farber (The Hollywood Reporter) observed: “Bening has always been a performer who shunned vanity, and here she is willing to highlight Nyad’s single-mindedness and arrogance. The key relationships in the movie are Diana’s friendship with her coach, Bonnie Stoll (Jodie Foster), and with John Bartlett (Rhys Ifans), the ship captain who navigated her failed as well as her successful swims. Nyad risks alienating both of these allies with her character flaws. It is a tribute to Bening’s performance that she keeps us mesmerized by Nyad even at her most stubbornly pigheaded.”

Maureen Lee Lenker (EW) noted: “For Bening, Nyad is an undeniably juicy role, a spiky creature whose single-minded obsession with her destiny often expresses itself as brusque self-centeredness. Bening unsurprisingly put in the work, training in the pool for an entire year before filming. As Nyad, she gives a performance utterly devoid of vanity in her display of both Nyad’s exacting personality and the grueling physical toll of her training and efforts. Bening insisted on filming the bulk of the swimming scenes herself — and she gives the film its stakes with every shot of her waterlogged face, cracking lips, and sunburnt eyelids.”

Bening delivers another knock out performance and it’s no surprise she’s been nominated again. But could she win? Based on Globes history in this category… yes.

Close is just one established performer who has won over an emerging talent, with plenty of other recent such examples. Cate Blanchett won in 2023 for “Tár,” edged out Ana de Armas (“Blonde”); Nicole Kidman (“Being the Ricardos”) beat Kristen Stewart (“Spencer”) in 2022; Renée Zellweger (“Judy”) triumphed over Saoirse Ronan (“Little Women”) in 2020; Frances McDormand won for “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” in 2018; Isabelle Huppert won in 2017 for “Elle;” and Julianne Moore (“Still Alice”) won in 2015.

The profile of winner in this category at the Globes is usually an experienced, established thespian like Bening. Voters rarely choose to reward up-and-coming talent such as Gladstone.

And while both Bening and Gladstone portray real people, Bening plays something of an icon in swimmer Diana Nyad, who swam from Cuba to Florida in her sixties. There have been several winners who triumphed by playing similar icons in their films, including Kidman in “Being the Ricardos,” Andra Day in “The United States vs. Bille Holiday,” and Zellweger in “Judy.” Bening would again follow that pattern.

Plus, the Globes is a much lighter affair than most other awards shows. They tend to go more with the crowd-pleasing films and performances rather than the more serious fare. Kidman won in 2022 for the comedy “Being the Ricardos” over Olivia Colman in her moody drama “The Lost Daughter” and Stewart in the arthouse biopic “Spencer.” In 2021, Day won for the likable “The United States vs. Billie Holiday” over eventual Oscar-winner McDormand, who starred in the much more quiet, somber, indie flick “Nomadland.”

“Nyad” is a fun, crowd-pleasing hit that Globes voters clearly like. “Killers of the Flower Moon” is a much more serious piece of work, examining an important slice of American history. “Nyad,” and therefore Bening, may just be more to the Globes’ tastes.

This is Bening’s 10th Golden Globe bid. She was previously nominated in this category in 1992 for “Bugsy” and in 2000 for “American Beauty.” She also has five Best Comedy/Musical Actress nominations to her name: in  1996 for “The American President,” in 2005 for “Being Julia,” in 2007 for “Running With Scissors,” in 2011 for “The Kids Are All Right,” and in 2017 for “20th Century Women.”  She won for both “Being Julia” and “The Kids Are All Right.”

She was also nominated for Best Limited Series/TV Movie Actress in 2007 for “Mrs Harris” and Best Supporting Actress in 2020 for “The Report.”

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