Is Kate Lead or Supporting?
I know the Katharine Hepburn was nominated for a Best Actress Academy Award, but do you feel that sh's lead or supprting in Suddely Last Summer?
share[deleted]
MovieChat Forums > Suddenly, Last Summer Discussion > Is Kate Lead or Supporting?
I have always felt Violet Venable was a supporting character but Hepburn was nominated for Best Actress because she is Hepburn. I think if Hepburn had been nominated in the supporting category as she should have been, Taylor might have won her first Best Actress Oscar for this film instead of for BUTTERFIELD 8 the following year.
shareShe was a lead. The story was about Taylor's problems, but she gave us those problems and the actresses had equal screen time. I think people register her as a supporting part because of the presence of Taylor.
shareI think if Hepburn had been in the supporting category, she might have edged out Shelley Winters, who won for THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK.
shareJust to think back, i don't Monty, Kate or Liz, none of them are leading, the true leading charactor is Sebastian. Kate and Liz both support him, don't you agree?
Just an opinion, don't give me eggs;)
[deleted]
I think she got "lead" status based on her long first scene. It sets up the rest of the movie.
share[deleted]
I think you;re probably right about that...I think Hepburn's stature in the Hollywood community got her the nomination in the Lead category because Catherine is really the female lead in this film.
shareI have always considered her as "the third lead" in this film - the two main characters are Monty Clift and Elizabeth Taylor, but Hepburn is very important and has many great scenes (like her appearance when she "floats, floats into view";oD). Furthermore, since this is written by Williams who was famous for dominating "mother characters" and Hepburn is the mother here, it's clear that she IS a lead.
"Life is full of censorship. I can't spit in your eye." - Katharine Hepburn
[deleted]
It's a tough call the argument can be made for lead and supporting for Hepburn her I do think had she been supporting and Taylor the lead both might have won and it was a step away from the typical Hepburn role.I think this role was more deserving of an Oscar then any of her other Oscar except for The Lion In Winter.
shareI think she was a strong supporting actress (because the part was written as a supporting one, but of course she left her strong mark and rose above the bar), but it seems she couldn't be placed in that category because she was "Katharine Hepburn" (that's clear since she was even more obviously supporting in Guess Who's Coming To Dinner and she actually got a lead Oscar for that).
shareI've always felt that both Kate and Elizabeth are the leads. In the play Venable, Kate's character, is the bigger one. In the movie version Gore Vidal lengthened Catherine's role to the point where she causes an inmate riot twice (Once would've been more than enough). You'll notice that Kate has a great deal of camera time in the first half of the movie and then in the second It's Elizabeth who has the greater time thus they're even.
The Academy was right in nominating both as leads. However it is always speculated that when two actors are nominated in the same catagory their votes tend to be split down the middle and another maybe less deserving actor wins. In this case the winner was Simone Signoret for "Room at the Top." I think Signoret deserved to win although, irony of ironies, She spends less time on screen in "Room..." than Elizabeth and Kate in "Suddenly..."
CinemaScopeRulz
I agree both parts should be considered leads. There's no way Hepburn would have accepted a film in 1959 that was a blatantly supporting part as she was still very much a star. I think Hepburn and Taylor's screen time is probably about equal it's just that the sort of role Hepburn plays here was usually a supporting one in similar films (the older mother figure vs. the young star).
share