Nobody likes Kate Winslet more than I do. Well maybe her husband, kids and a few other people do, but not many.However, I was surprised by how completely turned off I was during both of her Golden Globe acceptance speeches last night. I get that she’d been obscenely overdue for a Golden Globe and remains obscenely overdue for an Oscar, and I’ve always hoped the latter situation resolves itself within the next two months.
Still, a potential Winslet victory might be a little less special if she turns into the blubbering, over long indulgent mess she was last night. I know I’m sounding like a bit (ok, a LOT) of a Frosty the Snowman here, but get a hold of yourself woman! It’s not even the Oscar! Also, you’re the best actress in your generation — you really had NO idea you could win?
Also, if you’re going to be emotional, at least pull it together long enough to sneak in something significant like Halle Berry did during her hysterical Oscar speech (too bad that win looks more like a jinx every passing year). I WILL say her forgotting Angelina Jolie's name was totally unintentional and pretty funny.
I understand that I can’t dictate how any person should act upon winning an award that’s very important to them. I have no idea how I’d react! I guess, for some reason, I expected better out of Kate Winslet. Hell, I even enjoyed Colin Farrell’s rambling speech more than Winslet’s words, which singlehandedly made the show go over time.
The second order of business is “30 Rock.” I know my girlfriend Erica’s gonna kill me for the Winslet bash, but she’ll have my back in this one — I hate to sound like one of the haters Tina Fey told to suck it, but does “30 Rock” really need to win EVERYthing? Yes, it’s a very funny and witty show, but is it THAT much better than all the other comedies on TV that the other shows don’t stand a chance.
Full disclosure: I’m an “Office” freak who thinks the people at Dunder Mifflin put on the best show on TV. However, I think “Weeds” had a remarkably strong season. Also, “Ugly Betty” and “Desperate Housewives” have impressively sustained their creativity to merit consideration.
I’m not saying any of those shows is DEFINITELY better than “30 Rock” (actually, I AM saying that “The Office” is better), I just wish TV critics would get over their obvious crushes on Tina Fey and Co. We get it critics — you like the show because it’s about TV and about a world you’re intimately familiar with. However, I WON’T go as far as to say that the “30 Rock isn’t clever”, which may or may not have been something Erica said.
Do I have a point with either of these two gripes or (as I suspect) am I totally nuts?
8 comments:
I found your post through a link you left at ew.com. Very interesting post. I will say that I'm a Winslet fan, she definitely deserves an Oscar, for either one of her performances. I kind of enjoyed the speech, it seemed real and genuine. I think the competition was pretty strong this year, considering she was going up against strong competition. Now as for your 30 Rock "rant", I kind of agree with you at this point. I love the show I'm a big fan. It's clever and smart, but I do think someone else deserves to win in the best comedy category.
Hey Kris,
Thanks for reading and thank you for not totally blasting my cranky post.
Unlike other people I've read or heard from, I didn't mean to imply that I thought Winslet was being "fake" or disingenuine. My main problem with her speeches was that they were terribly uninteresting. If you're going to get up there and talk for a long time, at least have something interesting to say. (I remember being snapped out of my stupor when she thanked DiCaprio and Mendes in her second speech). You know how bad it was? I was actually HOPING the band would play her off.
The bottom line is this: Kate Winslet is my favorite actress right now...I guess I just expected something better out of her.
Hi John,
Picked up this link at your semi-regular hideout at ew.com and felt I must come over to see what you had to say.
I too am Kate fan who thinks she has had to wait far too long for recognition in the form of major awards - I would have been handing them out since Heavenly Creatures.
But you are not alone in thinking that she could have made more of her time on stage at the Globes than the endless rambling that gave nods to, seemingly, everyone in her universe.
As an actress who comes across as witty and intelligent in interviews, I was surprised that Kate was unable to "gather" sufficiently to speak with more eloquence and, yes, brevity. Must say,though,that the unintentional slight at Angelina Jolie was the hands-most amusing statement of the night.
Oops - meant to say "hands-down most..." Don't want to sound like an incoherent award-acceptance speech myself !
RubyBaby-
I think you said what I meant to say in my post more eloquently.
I was more disappointed and a bit surprised that Winslet was such a mess, given that her on-screen AND offscreen persona appears to be of a funny, smart and composed individual.
Like I said, I know it's unfair to criticize because I can't guarantee I wouldn't get up there and pull a Winslet, but I guess I just have such admiration for her that I expected more, whether that's reasonable or not.
I see what you're saying John.
While I did find the speech genuine, I agree that she could have said something more interesting. But if you think about most of the speeches from these award shoes are usually pretty boring. I think aside from documentary winners, I can't think of the last time a speech caught my attention for being interesting.
She kinda did say that she has a habit of not winning, and she was taken completely by surprise. In fact, you could say the same for Sally Hawkins' speech, though I found it more endearing than blubbering.
Sal-
I'm not going to kill her too much for being surprised. I totally get that she'd never won a Golden Globe yet, and she'd probably mentally prepared herself to lose again.
I will ask this: If a performer is nominated in a category, doesn't that automatically mean there's a chance (no matter what the odds) that they'll win? It's literally a 1 in 5 chance. It's not like they said "And the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress goes to...Harrison Ford." (Now THAT would've called for a person to be as surprised as Winslet was.)
On top of that, she's Kate Freakin' Winslet, one of the best actresses working today. Unless she's completely naive or REALLY that pessimistic, she had to know she was due to win one of these things one day, right? She's not a relative newbie like Sally Hawkins
Finally, I totally agree with you about Hawkins and that's totally the point of my post. Like Winslet, Hawkins was OBVIOUSLY shocked, yet I found Hawkins' nerves to be endearing, whereas I found Winslet's speech annoying, which didn't make sense to me because I'm a big Winslet fan.
So it's not the nervousness thing that bothered me and it's not the surprised thing that bothered me because Winslet and Hawkins were surprised and I kinda liked Hawkins' speech. As I've said before, it just comes down to Winslet's speech simply not being good or interesting. And, since I think she's so great, I guess I wanted it to be good and interesting.
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