Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama
Nominees:
Cate Blanchett (TÁR)
Olivia Colman (Empire of Light)
Viola Davis (The Woman King)
Ana de Armas (Blonde)
Michelle Williams (The Fabelmans)
Cate Blanchett – TÁR
Three-time Golden Globe winner Cate Blanchett is nominated for her role as Lynda Tár, the passionate first female chief conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic in writer-director Todd Field’s psychological drama, TÁR.
In an interview with AVClub.com, Blanchett mentioned that the role was originally meant for a man. She said, “When Todd was thinking about it, Tár was originally a male role. Because the film is a meditation on power, you would’ve had a much less nuanced examination of that. We understand what the corruption of male power looks like, but we need to unpack what power is itself.”
The film follows the rise and fall of renowned musical composer and director Tár who gets embroiled in a sexual scandal along the way.
Olivia Colman – Empire of Light
English actress and three-time Golden Globe winner, Oliva Colman, received a Golden Globe nod for her role as Hilary Small, a lonely workaholic cinema manager, in the romantic drama, Empire of Light, written and directed by Sam Mendes.
Colman said to Entertainment Weekly that she agreed to appear in the movie before reading the script: “I just heard Sam Mendes was interested in me playing a part in his film and I went, ‘Yes, please.’ Then I went, what if it’s shit? But it was wonderful, and I was thrilled that he entrusted me to play this part, and nervous about it, which is a good feeling. It was one of those films that was a gut feeling. I want to do it and I’d be quite cross if anybody else did it.”
Set in an English coastal town in the early 1980s, the drama follows the story of the middle-aged Small who has a history of mental illness and a dependency on lithium. She begins a relationship with a new colleague, Stephen (Micheal Ward). Together, they experience the healing power of music, cinema, and community.
Viola Davis – The Woman King
The Rhode Island College and Juilliard School alum, Viola Davis, cinched a Golden Globe nod for her performance as General Nanisca, the fierce general who trains the next generation of warriors to fight their enemies in Gina Prince-Blythewood’s historical epic, The Woman King.
Harper’s Bazaar quoted Davis on the film and role: “When you get a story like The Woman King, it resuscitates you. I’m dark-skinned, I have a deep voice. My whole life, I’ve been told that I’m too strong, too masculine. We redefine what it means to be feminine in this movie. It liberated me.”
The historical epic film, from the story of Maria Bello and Dana Stevens, is about the Agojie all-female warrior unit that protected the West African kingdom of Dahomey from the 17^th to 19^th centuries.
Ana de Armas – Blonde
Born in Havana, Cuba, Ana de Armas got her second Golden Globe nomination for her role as Norma Jeane Mortenson, known as the iconic Marilyn Monroe, in the biographical film Blonde.
Written and directed by Andrew Dominik, the fictionalized take on the life and career of Monroe is the second adaptation with the same name, based on the 2000 novel by Joyce Carol Oates.
de Armas told Today that after transforming for the first time as Monroe, “Everyone in the room started crying. It was very emotional. It felt like she was back.”
Michelle Williams – The Fabelmans
Michelle Williams, the winner of two Golden Globes, made her film debut in Lassie (1994) and scored her breakthrough with the drama Brokeback Mountain (2005). She got her recent Globe nom as Mitzi Schildkraut-Fabelman, the nurturing mother-pianist of Sammy Fabelman (based on Steven Spielberg) in The Fabelmans.
The actress from Montana described her character to ABC News: “I think of her as the piano that she loved so much. That range was inside of her. That musicality. That emotional dexterity. That was her art. That music flowed through her, and it affected how deeply she could feel. She was the tornado that she drove into.”
The semi-autobiographical coming-of-age drama, loosely based on Spielberg’s adolescence and first years as a filmmaker, was directed by Spielberg and co-written with Tony Kushner.