Oscar Ingenues: Lesser-Known Actresses Who Got Ushered Into the A-List After Receiving an Oscar Nod
Getting nominated for an Oscar is a big deal. But getting nominated for an Oscar when you're still a virtually-unknown young actress just starting out in Hollywood? That's a HUGE deal. An Oscar nomination is a surefire way to be catapulted to superstardom. Case in point: Rooney Mara, Best Actress Oscar nominee this year for her awesome work in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. A year ago most people had never heard her name -- and now she's one of the most sought-after actresses in Hollywood. Check out our list of some other lesser-known starlets who got ushered into the A-list by Oscar himself.
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20-year-old Jennifer Lawrence became the second-youngest actress ever to get a Best Actress nomination when she received the nod for her work in the 2010 drama Winter's Bone. Suddenly, the previously-unknown actress was a household name and started being cast in high-profile roles like Mystique in X-Men: First Class and Katniss Everdeen in what is sure to be a ginormous box office hit, The Hunger Games. I bet while she was kissing Josh Hutcherson during filming, she was thanking her lucky stars for that Oscar nom!
It's not often actors get nominated for Oscars for the first role they ever play. But that's exactly what happened to Gabourey Sidibe, who was nominated for the Best Actress Oscar for playing the title role in Precious. She was so amazing in that film that many people (myself included) maintain that she should have won. Precious may have been Gabby's acting debut, but after her nomination, she started getting a lot more work, including a hosting gig on Saturday Night Live, a featured role in the major studio film Tower Heist (opposite Eddie Murphy and Ben Stiller), and a recurring role on the Showtime series The Big C.
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The whole world fell in love with Ellen Page when she portrayed pregnant 16-year-old Juno in the movie that shares her character's name. Juno was smart, cool, quirky, and incredibly level-headed about the situation she was in, and, thanks in large part to Page, the character will go down in history as one of the most awesome movie characters ever. Since Juno, Page hasn't stopped working – she's played everything from a wanna-be roller derby-er in Whip It to a dream architect in Inception.
Catalina Sandino Moreno was catapulted to international fame in 2004 when she was nominated for the Best Actress Oscar for playing the title role in Maria Full of Grace, about a pregnant-teen-turned-drug-mule. Since then, the gorgeous bilingual actress has landed roles in several major films, including Fast Food Nation and Love in the Time of Cholera. She also totally played Maria, the evil vampire who turned Jasper into a vampire and then made him train and kill her newborn army, in The Twilight Saga: Eclipse.
Just four years after making her film debut at the age of 20 in Pride and Prejudice, Carey Mulligan was nominated for the 2009 Best Actress Oscar for An Education. In the few short years that have passed since then, Mulligan has become a major film star, starring in such films as Never Let Me Go, Drive, and Shame. She was also hand-picked by director Baz Luhrmann to play the coveted role of Daisy Buchanan in the 2012 remake of The Great Gatsby. Carey as Daisy is genius casting, and I predict she'll receive her second Oscar nomination for that film.
After being nominated for a Tony Award at the young age of 12, Anna Kendrick kind of fell off the map for a while. Ten years later, she gained the attention of critics and casting directors alike when she played the small-but-memorable role of Jessica Stanley in Twilight, which led to her being cast opposite George Clooney in the 2009 Best Picture nominee Up in the Air. Though she didn't win the Best Supporting Actress award, she won in a lot of other ways – suddenly, Anna wasn't just "that girl from Twilight" anymore, she was a legitimate, skilled actress. After giving stellar performances in Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World and 50/50, Anna will next be seen in What to Expect When You're Expecting, opposite some of Hollywood's most famous leading ladies.
It's hard to remember a time when we didn't know who Kate Winslet was. She's been in dozens of highly-acclaimed films and is the youngest person ever to receive six – yes, six – Oscar nominations. Her first one was in 1995 for her portrayal of Marianne Dashwood in Sense and Sensibility, and since then she has been nominated for Titanic, Iris, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Little Children, and The Reader (the latter of which she actually won!) Looks like Kate's following in the footsteps of 17-time Oscar nominee Meryl Streep. Not too shabby.
Anne Hathaway spent her late teens and early twenties acting in fun (but not exactly Oscar-worthy) films such as The Princess Diaries and Ella Enchanted. But then she started taking more dramatic roles and was nominated for a Best Actress Oscar in 2008 for her work in Rachel Getting Married. Now she's one of Hollywood's most sought-after actresses. In fact, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences loves her so much that they bestowed her with the honor of hosting the Oscar broadcast last year! So few people get to host the Oscars that it's in many ways an even more prestigious honor than winning the award itself!
Who are your favorite Oscar ingenues?
Photos courtesy of Pacific Coast News
