Over the Academy’s 90-year history, countless women have seen their careers plummet following historic Oscar wins. Why has this continued and will it ever end? Vogue speaks to two winners — Mo’Nique and Marlee Matlin — to find out
On 29 February 1940, Hattie McDaniel made Academy Award history. The 46-year-old actress, who played whip-smart Mammy in. In her acceptance speech for Best Supporting Actress, she said: “I shall always hold it as a beacon for anything I may be able to do in the future.” But this moment, which ought to have ushered in a new chapter for her career — one that featured more substantial parts, bigger paychecks and greater artistic freedom — only curtailed it.
McDaniel was not the only victim of the Oscar curse — the personal and professional decline that actors often experience in the wake of an Academy Award win — but she typified those worst affected by it: she was a woman, a person of colour and above the age of 40 in an industry that values youth.
Over this period, the Oscar curse has been attributed to many factors: increased scrutiny, higher expectations, the dangers of becoming synonymous with an iconic role and the perception that a star has peaked. But for women and marginalised groups, there is also a sense of the industry wanting to keep you in line, discouraging actors from demanding better roles and more money.
“After Hattie won, there was this feeling of, ‘We don’t want you to think now you’re going to get paid what your counterparts will get paid,’” says Mo’Nique, who won Best Supporting Actress foranniversary of McDaniel’s win. “As for me, I actually got offered less after I won. Before the 2010 Oscars, people said, ‘She’s not going to win because she’s not playing the game.’ They wanted me to be excited. You go to the dinners, you go to the parties, you smile and hope they like you.
When she refused to campaign, but won regardless, the actress says she was “blackballed” by the industry. “Not only am I a woman, but I’m black and I’m fat. The feeling was, ‘How dare you of all people speak up? You should be glad you got invited to the party.’”Few other women of colour have been invited up to the podium since. In 90 years, only nine black women have won Oscars for either Best Supporting Actress or Best Actress .
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