Andrea Riseborough: To Leslie nomination turns into racism drama

An investigation is underway after a British actress was nominated, while Viola Davis and Danielle Deadwyler missed out.

Andrea Riseborough was nominated for the film To Leslie, while Viola Davis and Danielle Deadwyler missed out.

An unexpected Oscar nomination for the British actress who stars in To Leslie has erupted into a race row, amid claims that Andrea Riseborough was shortlisted over The Woman King and Till stars.

The low-budget film, about a single mother who turns to alcoholism after squandering her $US190,000 lottery win, faces having the nomination taken away, with an investigation launched into the process behind the shortlisting.

Riseborough, a Newcastle-born actress who has played Margaret Thatcher, Wallis Simpson and Mrs Wormwood in Matilda, has been caught up in criticism of Hollywood by the Nigerian-American director Chinonye Chukwu, with the OscarsSoWhite hashtag re-emerging on Twitter.

There are questions surrounding the campaign tactics that propelled To Leslie on to the list and the Oscars has launched a review into rules governing its procedures following the film’s selection by members.

Riseborough appeared on the shortlist alongside Cate Blanchett, Ana de Armas, Michelle Williams and Michelle Yeoh, meaning that there was no place for Danielle Deadwyler for her portrayal of Mamie Till, the mother of Emmett Till, who was lynched in 1955, in Till. Viola Davis was also overlooked for The Woman King.

Chukwu appeared to criticise the failure of the awards body to recognise her film, for which Deadwyler has secured Bafta and Screen Actors Guild nominations, in an Instagram post to her 10,000 followers.

“We live in a world and work in industries that are so aggressively committed to upholding whiteness and perpetuating an unabashed misogyny towards black women,” she said. “And yet. I am forever in gratitude for the greatest lesson of my life - regardless of any challenges or obstacles, I will always have the power to cultivate my own joy, and it is this joy that will continue to be one of my greatest forms of resistance.”

In a comment piece in the LA Times, Robert Daniels, a film critic, wrote: “Although it’s easy to point a finger at Riseborough for taking a slot from black women, broken systems persist when we focus our ire on individuals . . . what does it say that the black women who did everything the institution asks of them - luxury dinners, private Academy screenings, meet-and-greets, splashy television spots and magazine profiles - are ignored when someone who did everything outside of the system is rewarded?”

In response to the investigation, Christina Ricci, theWednesday actress, slammed the Academy as “elitist and very backward” in an Instagram post to her 1.5m followers, which she has since deleted. “Seems hilarious that the ‘surprise nomination’ (meaning tons of money wasn’t spent to position this actress) of a legitimately brilliant performance is being met with an investigation,” she said. “So it’s only the films and actors that can afford the campaigns that deserve recognition? . . . If it’s taken away - shame on them.”

While the academy stopped short of mentioning To Leslie by name, the probe was widely considered to have been launched in response to the decision of the 1,300 members of its actors’ branch to back the small indie film.

The academy’s concern appears to centre around an Instagram post sent from the official To Leslie account, which contravenes its rules by referencing the fellow hopeful Blanchett. The post, since deleted, quoted a review by the Chicago Sun-Times film critic Richard Roeper. “As much as I admired Blanchett’s work in Tar, my favourite performance by a woman this year was delivered by the chameleon-like Andrea Riseborough,” he said. Oscars regulations prohibit tactics that single out any potential rivals.

The Academy is conducting a review of its campaign procedures around this year’s nominees “to ensure that no guidelines were violated, and to inform us whether changes to the guidelines may be needed in a new era of social media and digital communication”.

To Leslie, which could not count on the big-budget campaign that typically supports films being pushed by major studios, gathered endorsements from A-listers including Edward Norton and Gwyneth Paltrow. Norton told his 2 million Twitter followers that Riseborough’s performance was “fully committed [and] emotionally deep”. “It just knocked me sideways.” Paltrow posted on Instagram: “Andrea should win every award there is - and all the ones that haven’t been invented yet.”

The Oscars has faced criticism over its lack of diversity with a lack of any black or minority ethnic actors in 2016 leading to an overhaul that included a successful push to double its members from these backgrounds, as well as the number of women, by 2020.

By 2024, films hoping to secure a best picture nomination must meet two of four diversity standards, covering on and off-screen representation, access opportunities and the make-up of the workforce. Confidential “inclusion standards forms” were introduced last year, although no quotas were set.

The Times