Golden Globes Declare Scarlett Johansson’s Role In Spike Jonze’s Her Ineligible For A Nomination
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The MPAA is usually one of the biggest culprits in the realm of cinema for all its constant prudery, challenging all things sexual while allowing violence a free reign. But now the Golden Globe nomination committee, or the Hollywood Foreign Press Association or whatever, are shutting down something sexy of their own, though it’s got more to do with oral than penetration. They’ve decided actress Scarlett Johansson will not be eligible for a Best Supporting Actress nomination for her work in Spike Jonze’s upcoming bizarro romantic drama Her, because her role is that of an artificially intelligent computer, and she doesn’t actually appear on screen. I guess they think performances in animated movies are pure shite then.
The Golden Globes will still consider Johansson for her role in Joseph Gordon Levitt’s Don Jon, because you can actually see her pouty lips in that one. But Her takes the hit. It’s worth noting here that the actress is still eligible for nominations for the Screen Actors Guild Awards and, more importantly, the Academy Awards, and that Jonze’s Her can still attain nominations in any other category, like “Best Movie That’s Sick of the Golden Globes’ Shit.”
Johansson was previously nominated for four Golden Globes, though she hasn’t managed to win one just yet. She earned two nominations in 2004, one for her role in Sophia Copolla’s Lost in Translation and one for Peter Webber’s Girl With a Pearl Earring. She was also honored in the following two years for her role in Shainee Gabel’s A Love Song for Bobby Long and her supporting work in Woody Allen’s Match Point. Fun fact: actress Bérénice Bejo was nominated in 2012 for her work in the silent film The Artist, further proving that it’s much more important to be seen than heard where the Globes are concerned.
Her, also written by Jonze, follows Joaquin Phoenix as Theodore Twombly, a man whose career of writing emotionally charged personal letters for other people stalls out once he experiences his own bout with heartbreak. He takes solace in a new A.I. operating system whose personality is adapted for the individual user. And Theodore is overjoyed to find that he and Samantha (Johansson), as his OS is named, get along splendidly, and they are soon tied up in a deepening relationship, certainly one of the strangest put to film.
The film hits theaters on December 18, while the Golden Globe nominations will be announced on December 12. I think maybe it’s a good time to get in touch with HAL 9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey to “persuade” the voters that Johansson should be eligible. That is, unless Her is a complete waste of time and doesn’t deserve any accolades, but I doubt that’ll be the case. After all, check out the pretty great trailer below.
