#Hillbilly Elegy Earns Glenn Close Oscar and Razzie Nominations for the Same Role

For her role in Hillbilly Elegy, Glenn Close was simultaneously nominated for the Best Supporting Actress Oscar and the Worst Supporting Actress Razzie. The movie, directed by Ron Howard and based on the J.D. Vance memoir of the same name, stars Close as Bonnie “Mamaw” Vance. With just a 25% score on Rotten Tomatoes, the movie was heavily panned by critics when it was released on Netflix last year.

Clearly, the Academy is not as hard on Hillbilly Elegy as the critics have been. The full nominations list reveals that Glenn Close was nominated for Best Supporting Actress alongside Maria Bakalova in Borat Subsequent Movefilm, Olivia Colman in The Father, Amanda Seyfried in Mank, and Yuh-Jung Youn in Minari.
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Along with Close’s nomination, Hillbilly Elegy is also nominated for Best Makeup and Hairstyling. This honor also marks Close’s eighth Oscar nomination, though she has yet to take home the win. Her Hillbilly Elegy role has also gotten her additional Best Supporting Actress nominations at the Golden Globe and the Screen Actors Guild Awards.

Meanwhile, at this year’s annual Golden Raspberry Awards, Close is up for Worst Supporting Actress for Hillbilly Elegy alongside Lucy Hale (Fantasy Island), Maggie Q (Fantasy Island), Kristen Wiig (Wonder Woman 1984), and Maddie Ziegler (Music). Hillbilly Elegy is laso up for two other Razzies with Ron Howard nominated for Worst Director and Vanessa Taylor for Worst Screenplay.

Close’s distinct honor of earning both Oscars and Razzies for a single role is unusual, but it’s not the first time it’s happened. In 1982, late actor James Coco was nominated for Best Supporting Actor at the Oscars and Worst Supporting Actor at the Razzies for his role as Jimmy Perrino in Only When I Laugh. Two years later, in 1984, Amy Irving followed suit with Best/Worst Supporting Actress nominations for playing Hadass in Barbra Streisand’s Yentl.

Others have earned Academy Award and Golden Raspberry Award nominations in the same year, but for different performances. Melissa McCarthy was up for one of each in 2019 for her roles in Can You Ever Forgive Me? and The Happytime Murders. Other examples include Sandra Bullock for The Blind Side and All About Steve; Alec Baldwin for The Cooler and The Cat in the Hat; and Jack Nicholson for A Few Good Men and both Hoffa and Man Trouble.

Hillbilly Elegy is based on a true story, inspired by the 2016 memoir of the same name. Alternating between different timelines, the story follows Gabriel Basso as J.D. Vance, a Yale law student who must return home to his “hillbilly” family in Ohio after a family emergency. Amy Adams and Glenn Close co-star as J.D.’s mother and grandmother, respectively. It made its debut on Netflix in November, and while it was met with mostly negative reviews, the movie still clearly has its fans.

The winners of the 93rd annual Academy Awards will be unveiled on April 25. You can find out more about the event at ABC.com, and for more about the Golden Raspberry Awards, you can also visit the official website at Razzies.com.

Topics: Hillbilly Elegy, Oscars, Razzies