Andrea Riseborough, To Leslie And The Oscars: What's All The ...
Andrea Riseborough is the actor that’s got everyone talking right now, thanks to her surprise Oscar nomination for her performance in a film few people have even heard of, let alone seen.
But why exactly is Andrea at the centre of so much conversation? Why has her Academy Award nomination been so controversial? What’s this about the Oscars reviewing their “campaign procedures”? And what exactly is To Leslie, anyway?
Here’s what we can tell you about the saga so far…
First of all, what’s the story with Andrea Riseborough and her To Leslie Oscar nomination?
Back in January, film fans everywhere were rather surprised to see Andrea Riseborough on the list of contenders for Best Actress at this year’s Oscars.
She’s been nominated for her role in To Leslie (a film many people had not even heard of prior to the Academy Awards), alongside Blonde’s Ana De Armas, Tár’s Cate Blanchett, The Fabelmans’ Michelle Williams and Everything Everywhere All At Once’s Michelle Yeoh.
Momentum
Wait, why exactly was her nomination so surprising?
The noteworthy thing about Andrea’s nomination is not that it’s undeserving – she’s had rave reviews from those who’ve actually seen To Leslie, as she has in much of her previous work – but that the film she’s starring in had no prior awards buzz.
You see, by the time the Oscars roll around, you can usually make an educated guess about who is going to be nominated based on what’s already gone down at the Golden Globes, SAG Awards, Critics’ Choice Awards and Baftas earlier in awards season.
Andrea’s name was totally absent from all of those awards in 2023, but she still ended up becoming a late-in-the-day favourite to be nominated for Best Actress when film fans spotted a number of A-listers had been singing the Newcastle-born star’s praises right before the deadline.
Everyone from Kate Winslet and Jennifer Aniston to Gwyneth Paltrow and even fellow Best Actress contender Cate Blanchett were suddenly heaping praise on Andrea either on social media or in public – and it didn’t go unnoticed.
Many began referring to the wave of support for Andrea as a “grassroots campaign” for her to finally get some recognition from the Oscars. And when the nominations were announced, there she was on the shortlist.
Steve Granitz via Getty Images
And why is that so controversial, exactly?
Since the Oscars announced they’d be reviewing their “campaign procedures” (more on that in a second), there’s been some conversation about whether the campaign to land Andrea her Oscar nomination broke any of the Academy’s rules about canvassing for support in the process.
First up, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with campaigning for Oscars votes. In fact, major studios now spend millions trying to drum up support for their films at the Academy Awards, pushing out their major stars onto red carpets and into conversations with journalists, while there are often billboards and posters all over Hollywood, paid for by the biggest movie companies.
To Leslie, on the other hand, was a low-budget independent film, relying more on word of mouth than the usual razzle dazzle to win over Oscars voters, with director Michael Morris and his wife Mary McCormack reportedly leaning on some of their celebrity pals to help put the message out there.
Jason Mendez via Getty Images
The issue here appears to be not with the campaigning itself – and certainly not anything Andrea herself has done.
However, many outlets have suggested that the phrasing used by some of Andrea’s A-list supporters – in particular those that are Academy members, which Andrea, Michael and Mary are not – while promoting her could have crossed a line, by “singling out ‘the competition’ by name or title”.
In other words, if anyone who’s a member of the Academy had been explicitly pitting Andrea against other women in the frame for the Best Actress award in their campaigning, that would be forbidden.
Variety recently highlighted one Instagram post from To Leslie’s page that could have been in violation, quoting one critic who commented: “As much as I admired Blanchett’s work in ‘Tár,’ my favorite performance by a woman this year was delivered by the chameleonlike Andrea Riseborough...”
This post is no longer visible on To Leslie’s account.
Meanwhile, there’s also an argument from some critics that Andrea’s late-stage nomination could have gone to one of the women of colour who some felt were left out of the running in 2023.
Two of the year’s biggest Best Actress snubs were Till star Danielle Deadwyler and previous Best Supporting Actress recipient Viola Davis. Neither Till nor Viola’s latest film The Woman King received any nods at all at the upcoming ceremony.
“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,” Till director Chinonye Chukwu wrote on Instagram after the nominations were announced.
“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.”
What have the Oscars said?
Last week, Oscars organisers confirmed they would be looking into their “campaign procedures” to ensure no guidelines or rules were broken while putting together this year’s list of nominees.
“It is the Academy’s goal to ensure that the Awards competition is conducted in a fair and ethical manner, and we are committed to ensuring an inclusive awards process,” a statement said.
“We are conducting a review of the 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.
“We have confidence in the integrity of our nomination and voting procedures, and support genuine grassroots campaigns for outstanding performances.”
ERIC BARADAT via Getty Images
It’s important to note that the Academy’s statement did not mention To Leslie or Andrea Riseborough explicitly.
Past years have seen nominations rescinded if it’s found that rules were broken, although this has only happened in extreme cases, and there’s little suggestion this will be the case for Andrea.
HuffPost UK contacted Andrea Riseborough’s representatives but did not receive a response.
What has Andrea Riseborough said?
Reacting to the support she and To Leslie have received from wider Hollywood, the Birdman actor admitted she was “not entirely sure how the fuck this happened”.
She enthused after her nomination was announced: “I’m astounded. It’s such an unexpected ray of light.
“It was so hard to believe it might ever happen because we really hadn’t been in the running for anything else. Even though we had a lot of support, the idea it might actually happen seemed so far away.”
Where have I seen Andrea Riseborough before?
A working actor for almost 20 years now, there’s a good chance you’ve seen at least one of Andrea’s acclaimed performances in the past.
The British star was previously nominated for a TV Bafta for her role in The Long Walk To Finchley, and won a SAG Award alongside the rest of the Birdman cast in the Best Ensemble category.
Alison Rosa/Fox Searchlight/New Regency/Le Grisbi/Kobal/Shutterstock
Her additional credits include projects as varied as the Mike Leigh dramedy Happy-Go-Lucky, the crime film Brighton Rock and the Madonna-directed W.E.
More recently, she’s appeared in the sports biopic Battle Of The Sexes, the surreal horror Mandy opposite Nicolas Cage and Roald Dahl’s Matilda The Musical, playing the title character’s mum, Mrs Wormwood.
You may have also seen Andrea on the small screen, in the TV dramas Black Mirror (specifically the season four episode Crocodile), the Netflix series Bloodline and Channel 4’s National Treasure, which was inspired by Operation Yewtree.
Channel 4
And finally… seriously, what is To Leslie even about?
Andrea plays – you guessed it – Leslie, a woman in West Texas who wins a life-changing six-figure sum on the lottery, only to blow the whole lot on alcohol and drugs, leaving her homeless and struggling with substance abuse issues.
Joining her in the cast are Allison Janney, Marc Maron and Owen Teague, who plays Andrea’s on-screen son James.
At the moment, it’s not available to stream on any major platforms, although you can buy it to watch on-demand on services like YouTube, Apple TV and Amazon Prime.
Watch the trailer for To Leslie below:
