The actress Amy Madigan, our guest on this episode of The Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter podcast, has been giving acclaimed performances on screens big and small for 43 years. Only twice, though, has she been in serious contention for an Oscar.
The first time was exactly 40 years ago, when she played a young woman fuming that her father, played by Gene Hackman, had cheated on her mother, played by Ellen Burstyn, in Bud Yorkin’s Twice in a Lifetime; for that turn, which Roger Ebert described as “one of the most complex movie characters in a long time,” she wound up with a best supporting actress Oscar nomination.
The second time is right now, when Madigan finds herself back in the mix —with the possibility of landing an Oscar nom in the same category — for her portrayal of Gladys, an eccentric old lady who represents herself to be the aunt of the only kid from his class in a Pennsylvania school who did not mysteriously disappear one night, in Zach Cregger’s acclaimed horror blockbuster Weapons.
For the 75-year-old, who says she was offered fewer interesting roles and therefore worked less as she got older, all of the awards chatter is a bit bewildering. But she is trying to accept that it reflects appreciation for an unexpected and daring performance in an unexpected and daring film —Weapons is at 93 percent on Rotten Tomatoes and has grossed $268 million worldwide since Warner Bros. released it in August —not to mention a lifetime of hard work that has enhanced countless projects.
Madigan’s filmography, which is comprised of nearly 100 projects, includes several landmark TV films, among them 1983’s The Day After, 1985’s The Laundromat and 1989’s Roe vs. Wade; the TV series Carnivale, which ran on HBO from 2003 through 2005, and ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy, on which she appeared from 2008 through 2009; and a host of great films, including 1984’s Places in the Heart, 1989’s Field of Dreams and Uncle Buck, 2000’s Pollock, 2007’s Gone Baby Gone.
Madigan with James Earl Jones and Kevin Costner in Field of Dreams.
Universal/Courtesy Everett Collection
Places in the Heart, Pollock and Gone Baby Gone are but three of 11 films in which she and her husband of 42 years, Ed Harris, both starred. The others include 1985’s Alamo Bay, 1996’s Riders of the Purple Sage, 2002’s Just a Dream, 2005’s Winter Passing, 2014’s Frontera, 2016’s Rules Don’t Apply, 2017’s A Crooked Somebody and 2019’s The Last Full Measure. Not since Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward has there been a couple comprised of such highly-regarded and socially-conscious actors.
Over the course of a conversation at the LA offices of The Hollywood Reporter, Madigan reflected on what changed her path from music to acting, and how she first gained traction in Hollywood; how she first met Harris, and why they work so well together; her impressions of how Hollywood’s awards season has changed over the past four decades; how she and Cregger connected, the personal connection to Weapons that he shared with her, and the physical transformation that she underwent to become Gladys; plus much more.
Fifty-seven years ago, another veteran character actress in her seventies, Ruth Gordon, played a batty old lady in a horror film from a major studio, Rosemary’s Baby, and ultimately took home a best supporting actress Oscar. Could history soon repeat itself? Stay tuned.
Quantrell Colbert/Warner Bros.