This year’s Best Actress race is shaping up to be one of the most competitive in years. As more awards contenders reach theaters and streaming services like Netflix, we see talent like Emma Stone (Poor Things), Natalie Portman (May December), Fantasia Barrino (The Color Purple), and Sandra Huller being discussed for the five Oscar slots. But through no fault of their own, this means there are going to be a LOT of very talented ladies left in the lurch the morning they announce the Academy Award nominees. Annette Bening belongs in the Best Actress conversation for her role as Diana Nyad in the Netflix drama Nyad. And according to Bening’s co-director, the actress’s push for realism should help her Oscar cause.
Nyad, one of the best films on Netflix at the moment, tells the incredible story of determined 64-year-old swimmer Diana Nyad (Annette Bening), who attempted to become the first person to complete the open-water swim between Cuba and Florida. Bening herself is 65, and does all of the swimming in the movie… not an easy feat. In fact, her co-director Chai Vasarhelyi explained to CinemaBlend during an exclusive interview:
Annette Bening is a class act. And it always had to be Annette Bening in that role. It was important for us to cast age appropriately, and to find the actor who would commit to what was the demands of the role. And so Annette trained for over a year for the physical demands, swimming, and she was also unafraid to play a woman in her full complexity. Really what happened was, for Annette, we had three world-class stunt doubles available. But Annette wanted to make sure that the stroke of her swimming was consistent. So she wouldn’t let us use any of the stunt doubles. She was in such good shape, she had worked so hard that she made it easy. And she allowed us to maximize (the) limited resources that we had. She would keep on swimming so we could keep on shooting.
That’s remarkable. When you watch Nyad, you realize that this isn’t controlled swimming in a quiet pool. This is ocean swimming, against currents and wave patterns, which require far more physicality than swimming in a tank for a movie. Other Best Actress contenders have gone to great lengths to earn their nomination. But hearing that Annette Bening endured this physicality to maintain the look of Diana Nyad’s swim stroke is beyond impressive to me, and makes me appreciate her performance that much more.
Nyad made the fall film festival circuit before heading to Netflix, and generated a lot of support for both Annette Bening and her co-star, Jodie Foster. Lately, Foster took shots at the comic book genre, saying in interviews that she hoped the trend was dying, because she prefers movies that challenge audiences, and challenge her. And yes, Foster is an Oscar-winning actor, but I wonder if Bening talked to her about her contributions to Captain Marvel and the MCU? Or maybe Bening vented about it, and that inspired Foster to speak out? We may never know.
