Everyone loves a comeback, and Hollywood is no different. Although Jodie Foster had worked steadily since her first Oscar nomination, at 14 for 1976’s Taxi Driver, by the time she starred in 1988’s The Accused, her career had become a string of roles in which reviewers often lamented how good she was with how little she was given. But as a gang rape victim who fights with an assistant D.A. (Kelly McGillis) to prosecute the men who egged her rapists on, Foster finally had a role that was equal to her talents, and she delivered a performance that lived up to her potential. Academy voters rewarded her with her first Oscar for Best Actress.
It wasn’t necessarily an obvious victory. Fellow nominees Glenn Close (Dangerous Liasons) and Sigourney Weaver (Gorillas in the Mist) had also more than paid their dues, so to speak, and each had given standout performances — though as two very different women. Five-time nominee Close just about devours the screen as a conniving French aristocrat, while Weaver settles into a comfortable naturalism as the real-life zoologist Dian Fossey. It was a strong year for Weaver, in fact; she was also nominated for her supporting role in Working Girl alongside fellow Best Actress nominee Melanie Griffith, who turned in a Golden Globe-winning, love-it-or-hate-it performance as a striving secretary who connives her way into Weaver’s corner office. (The "hate it" contingent generally found Griffiths’ breathy, Marilyn Monroe-esque voice like nails on a chalkboard.) Ironically, the only Best Actress nominee pretty much guaranteed not to beat out Foster for the prize was Meryl Streep. Though fearlessly unlikable in A Cry in the Dark as the real life Australian mother accused of murdering the baby she steadfastly claimed was abducted by a wild dingo, Streep had also become something of an Oscar perennial in the 1980s: This was her sixth nomination in eight years.
But after 20 years, all that context — Is it "her time"? Did she recently win? Do we expect to nominate her again? — has melted away, and just the performances themselves remain. Does Foster still deserve her Academy Award? That’s what we’ve asked Hollywood in EW’s Recall the Gold survey revisiting all the major Oscar categories from 5, 10, 15, 20, and 25 years ago, and that’s also what we’ve been asking you, PopWatchers, over the last few months. So vote in our poll below. If you need a reminder of each performance, check out clips from each film after the jump. While you’re at it, if you haven’t already, vote in all the other polls from our ongoing walk down Oscar’s memory lane. Tomorrow, in the final category (!) of our 13 week survey (!!!), we’ll examine the 2003 Best Supporting Actor race, and you can check out coverage of this year’s awards contenders in Dave Karger’s Oscar Watch blog.
Glenn Close, Dangerous Liaisons
Jodie Foster, The Accused (trailer)
Melanie Griffith, Working Girl
Meryl Streep, A Cry in the Dark
Sigourney Weaver, Gorillas in the Mist
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wow what a year! honestly they all deserved it (except melanie lol)… but as time goes on the performances that still hold up for me are Glenn Close and Sigourney… If I wouldve known Jodie was gonna win years later I wouldve given it to Glenn Close who has sadly never won and given Sigourney the Supporting Actress award for Working Girl instead of Geena Davis… Seriously, why hasnt Sigourney Weaver won an Oscar???
If I understand correctly, the story with Melanie was that at the time she was shooting Working Girl, she had a problem with alcohol. She was late to work quite often. As for the acting, Foster was a stronger choice only because of the rape scene. I don’t know about you people, but that scene scared the living daylights out of me.
I wonder why they are only asking these questions about actresses? Seems like there would be as many men’s Oscars to question. Also, honestly, the whole idea of this poll is sort of churlish.
I had forgotten what a tremendous slate of nominees there was that year. I personally would have voted for Meryl — to me, “A Cry In The Dark” is one of her very, very best performances — but Glenn Close’s final shot in “Liaisons” is possibly the greatest final close-up I’ve ever seen. No complaints about Jodie, though, although she REALLY deserved it for “Silence of the Lambs.”
I have been waiting for this category. I was amazed, shocked and completely blown away that Glenn Close did not win the Oscar for Dangerous Liaisons. Glenn Close gives the best performance of her impressive career in Dangerous Liaisons. That she didn’t win is one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in Oscar history. It has been 20 years since Glenn Close has been nomination for an Oscar, I am beginning to feel that she may never win.
Just for the clip provided here alone, Meryl Streep should have one a decades worth of Oscars. Incredible.
“Won”. Sorry.
This was an astonishing year for this category, any of these performances may have won in weaker years (yes, even Griffith’s comic work). Foster was magnificent and heartbreaking but her most lived-in, indelible character came three years later for Silence of the Lambs. I’d give this to Close because she played the ballsiest courtesan ever put to screen and is one of the greatest demons to assume human form on celluloid. Her final scenes are quietly devastating.
I didn’t see all the performances, but Jody Foster’s performance was incredible. Stephanie T., I agree completely with you – that rape scene scared me so much!
Agreed this was a very strong year. I would say this came down to Close and Streep. One a large scenery-eating role and one amazing in the control exercised.
Weaver is very good, however, vocally she is always the same and this role is no different. Foster was good as well but not quite where Close and Streep were.
Jodie Foster deserved the Oscar.
Wow! What an astonishing slate of nominees! Meryl was phenomenal, as always, and Jodie proved she was a great actress. However, the Oscar truly belonged to Glenn Close. Her performance is one that never gets old to me, and she should have won the Oscar just for the final scene and the scene where she declares war on John Malkovich’s character. Otherwise, I wish Sigourney Weaver had an Oscar. She’s a tremendous actress (who was also later snubbed for the Ice Storm).
Great year for actress nominees, you gotta love Close in Dangerous Liaisons but Foster was great too.
For me, it is a toss up between Jodie Foster and Glenn Close. My personal fav was Glenn for Dangerous Liaisons, but I can justify Jodie’s win.
Working Girl is a fun movie, but it would have been a travesty if Melanie Griffith won the Oscar. It was a joke she was even nominated.
These Oscar columns need to stop. Until you have 2 actors in the same role, there is no way to pick a best actor! The awards are just their to sell tickets and make the show biz community feel even more important. Meryl and Jodie are two of the finest actors around. They elevate everything they are in.
T.J. I am with you 100%. Foster over Close is a TRAVESTY. Glenn Close should have taken this in a walk. The single worst oversight in Oscar history. Pitiful.
Glenn Close deserved it, for sure.
I’m also in the Glenn Close camp. Funny thing is, by the time of Dangerous Liaisons she had become something of a perennial nominee, a bit like Kate Winslet is today, and I think a lot of voters just assumed she was sure to win eventually. But here it is 20 years later, and she is still Oscar-less, and at a career stage where another Best Actress nomination will almost certainly never happen.
I have to go with Jodie Foster. She definately deserved it.
Jodie Foster is a terrible actress. She looks like Michael J. Fox in drag. When she talks she grits her teeth and she acts just like Ben Affleck.
Oh come on Jodie Foster deserved to win.She was the most natural, heartbreaking and believable of all the performers in her category.Glenn Close,I don’t get the fuss about. Too theatrical.I think people are just saying she should win because of that scene at the end and she had a juicy character.She wasn’t even in the film that much it was the John Malkovich show.I completely understand why she lost.To me it was a supporting performance. Sigourney Weaver’s acting was wooden. Meryl Streep would be my second choice for A Cry in the Dark. She was great. But Jodie Foster deserved to win because she managed to completely rise above lifetime material, delivering this explosive raw performance. It amazes me how Foster could be so convincing playing this trashy party girl who she is nothing like in real life at all.Brilliant performance and the best performance to win an Oscar for a mediocre film.Jodie Foster is the best actress of her generation. Brilliant from the start as a child star
Sunny you know nothing about acting. Jodie Foster is one of the best actresses of the past 30 years. Even as a 12 year old she was way better than most actresses in their 30’s and certainly better than any young actress today. To say she is a terrible actress when she is so respected and acclaimed is a joke. Please tell me you’ve only seen her in Flightplan or something. lol.
Glenn Close losing the greatest Oscar travesty? Are you kidding me? lol. What about Judy Garland losing to Grace Kelly? THAT is an Oscar travesty. Glenn Close lost to a great performance period. And Foster had to do more for her role and carry her entire film. Glenn just had a great final scene and the benefit of juicy lines. People tend to take winning performances for granted. I bet if Foster had lost for the Accused everyone would be outraged that she lost for such a powerful dramatic performance and Close won for hamming it up in a few scenes. Foster deserved both her Oscars.
I’m voting for Foster only because the best actress that year wasn’t even nominated, Susan Sarandon for Bull Durham (see EW Oscar snubs). Also, Foster was better than her material and co-star Kelly (where is she now) Mcgillis) unconvincing as a lawyer.
Sorry Carly, but you are as wrong as wrong can be. Jodie won for playing a “victim” and for looking feminine. Talk about hammy! That fake working class accent ranks right up there with Julia Roberts in “Mary Reilly.” If you think Glenn Close was overdoing it perhaps you should take an acting class.
I had seen “The Accused” in years and just happened to catch it on late night TV last week; and even though I’m a huge Sigourney Weaver fan, and I LOVED “Dangerous Liaisons”, the Academy got it right this year. Jodie Foster’s performance is courageous as hell and unflinching. I have yet to see any actress since perform a scene as difficult and demanding as that rape scene. It’s one of the scariest moments in cinema.
P.S. As far as Sigourney Weaver goes, how about a redo of the 1986 Best Actress Oscar – let’s give Signourney the award for her brilliant work in “Aliens” over Marlee Matlin in “Children of a Lesser God”.
Glenn Close.
Jodie Foster was great. She deserved it.
Nothing to argue about this year. It wasn’t a great year for strong female performances; but Jodie’s was. It’s still powerful after 20 years.
You’ve neglected to mention the single biggest factor behind Jodie Foster’s win, EW: William Hinckley Jr. Foster was NOT coming off a career slump with “The Accused.” After forfeiting her entire childhood to stardom, she had purposefully walked away from Hollywood in 1980 to split her time between living in France, attending Yale, and acting only in films shooting outside of the U.S. In her final year of college, her quest for a private, normal life was shattered when the Foster-obsessed nutjob William Hinckley attempted to assassinate President Reagan in an effort to impress her. Much like her “Accused” character, Foster became the center of a media circus not of her making, a victim not only of Hinckley, but of the overzealous international press (who take a ‘hands off’ approach with her to this day in repentence.) Sentiment for her was overwhelming when she made her official return to Hollywood with “The Accused,” in a part voters could easily connect with the actress herself.