We’re always on the lookout for Oscars records that could be broken and one surprising record that could be matched this year is the curious case of Emma Thompson. The British actress, a two-time Oscar winner, is the only person in Academy Awards history to win Oscars for both acting and writing. In 1993, she won Best Actress for her role in “Howard’s End.” Then, in 1996, took home the Best Adapted Screenplay gong for “Sense and Sensibility,” which was adapted from the 1811 Jane Austen novel of the same name.
It’s surprising that Thompson is the only person to win for both writing and acting when we’ve had so many incredible multi-hyphenate filmmakers across the years. To be fair, some of those people did earn nominations for both acting and writing or perhaps one just one of the categories. Orson Welles won Best Original Screenplay in 1942 with Herman J. Mankiewicz for “Citizen Kane.” He also picked up a Best Actor nomination for the same film. Warren Beatty has a rich history in both acting and writing awards. He was nominated for Best Actor in 1968 for “Bonnie & Clyde,” in 1979 for “Heaven Can Wait, in 1982 for “Reds,” and in 1992″ for “Bugsy.” He picked up Original Screenplay bids in 1976 for “Shampoo” (shared with Robert Towne), in 1982 for “Reds” (shared with Trevor Griffiths), and in 1999 for “Bulworth” (shared with Jeremy Pikser). Beatty also reaped an Adapted Screenplay nomination in 1979 with Elaine May for “Heaven Can Wait.”Sylvester Stallone, meanwhile, was nominated for writing (Original Screenplay) and acting (Actor) for “Rocky” in 1977.
Matt Damon won Best Original Screenplay in 1998 with Ben Affleck for “Good Will Hunting.” He has also scored two Best Actor bids (one for “Good Will Hunting,” the other for “The Martian” in 2016) and a Best Supporting Actor nomination (for “Invictus” in 2010).
Billy Bob Thornton has the opposite record. He won for writing (Best Adapted Screenplay in 1997 for “Sling Blade”) but lost his acting bids (Best Actor in 1997 for “Sling Blade” and Best Supporting Actor in 1999 for “A Simple Plan”).
George Clooney won Best Supporting Actor in 2006 for “Syriana” to go with three other acting bids while he was also nominated for Original Screenplay in 2006 for “Good Night and Good Luck” and Adapted Screenplay in 2012 for “The Ides of March.”
But, still, Thompson is the only to take home awards for both writing and acting. However, one artist could, in theory, match that feat this year. Bradley Cooper is a quadruple Oscar threat for writing, producing, directing and starring in “Maestro,” Netflix’s new Leonard Bernstein biopic. He already has an extensive Oscars history.
He’s been nominated for Best Actor three times — in 2013 for “Silver Linings Playbook,” in 2015 for “American Sniper,” and in 2019 for “A Star is Born.” He also has four Best Picture bids to his name — for “American Sniper” in 2015, “A Star is Born” in 2019, “Joker” in 2020, and “Nightmare Alley” in 2022. His other nominations came for Best Supporting Actor (in 2014 for “American Hustle”) and Best Adapted Screenplay (in 2019 for “A Star is Born,” shared with Eric Roth and Will Fetters). He has lost all nine races, so there is a feeling that he is overdue a win. He added three more Oscar nominations to his name this year with “Maestro” — for Best Picture (along with Steven Spielberg, Fred Berner, Amy Durning, and Kristie Macosko Krieger), Best Actor, and Best Original Screenplay (with Josh Singer).
Cooper is currently third in our Oscars odds chart for Best Actor and is nominated alongside Cillian Murphy (“Oppenheimer”), Paul Giamatti (“The Holdovers”), Colman Domingo (“Rustin”), and Jeffrey Wright (“American Fiction”). Murphy won the Golden Globe for Best Drama Actor plus the SAG and BAFTA awards for Best Actor. Meanwhile, Giamatti won the Golden Globe for Best Comedy Actor and the Critics Choice Award for Best Actor. They are the two frontrunners. Cooper’s best chance of winning Best Actor is taking the Adrien Brody route. Brody won Best Actor in 2003 for “The Pianist” after Daniel Day-Lewis (“Gangs of New York”) and Jack Nicholson (“About Schmidt”) split the vote in a two-horse race of their own. It could happen, but it’s unlikely.
He does tick off many boxes of typical Best Actor wins, however. He’s an A-list actor, he’s in a drama, he’s portraying a real person, and his movie, “Maestro,” is nominated for Best Picture. Nine of the last 10 winners for Best Actor (the exception being Brendan Fraser for “The Whale”) have won for films nominated for Best Picture.
Cooper and Singer are nominated for Best Original Screenplay alongside “Anatomy of a Fall” (Justine Triet and Arthur Harari), “The Holdovers” (David Hemingson), “Past Lives” (Celine Song“), and “May December” (Samy Burch and Alex Mechanik). “Anatomy of a Fall” won the Golden Globe for Best Screenplay and the Best Adapted Screenplay BAFTA, so the French film is the favorite here. Indeed, this looks like an ever harder win than Best Actor. Eight out of the last 10 winners have been fictional stories. Only “Spotlight” and “Green Book” (in 2019), both of which went on to win Best Picture, told real-life stories. However, Singer won this award in 2017 with Tom McCarthy for “Spotlight,” so Singer has a history of winning Best Original Screenplay by writing a true story film with the movie’s director.
However, it does look like Cooper is going to lose on both fronts barring any huge shocks. Thompson’s record, therefore, is still going to be intact come March 11.
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