Editor’s Note: The views expressed in this piece are those of the author’s.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines) — Seasoned awards observers will tell you that an Academy Award win is the product of many factors coming into play. Talent and timing are part of it, of course, but studio campaigning and even the socio-political climate in the United States during a particular year help affect the outcome on Oscar night.
Consequently, long after thank-you speeches have been made and that famous trophy is proudly displayed, an Academy Award-winner’s career can still be hit-or-miss.
Here are a few examples.
Whoopi Goldberg
First Oscar Win: Best Supporting Actress for Ghost (1991)
Along with her Supporting Actress win, she has become one of the few performers with an EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony Awards). In 1994, she became the first ever female Oscar host, subsequently doing so three more times.
Most recently, she made headlines for her comments on the #OscarsSoWhite controversy on The View.
Anna Paquin
First Oscar Win: Best Supporting Actress for The Piano (1994)
At 11, she became the second-youngest winner in Oscar history for her supporting turn in The Piano. Since then, she’s appeared in critical favorites like Almost Famous and blockbuster fare like the X-Men franchise.
True Blood kept her on TV for 7 seasons, where she also met husband Stephen Moyer on-set.
Reese Witherspoon
First Oscar Win: Best Actress for Walk the Line (2006)
Mere months after her Best Actress win, Witherspoon and then husband Ryan Phillippe filed for divorce.
While she continued working steadily post-Oscar, it was only in 2015 that she would be nominated again, for the Best Actress category, for her work in Wild. She also produced the 2014 film adaptation of the bestseller Gone Girl.
Halle Berry
First Oscar Win: Best Actress for Monster’s Ball (2002)
Her history-making Best Actress win for Monster’s Ball was followed by some box office success (the X-Men films, Die Another Day), and a notorious flop (Catwoman), but she has yet to wow Academy voters a second time around. Her personal life, however, has often made headlines, due to her messy divorces.
She recently made the jump to television in the Steven Spielberg-produced sci-fi drama, Extant.
Marion Cotillard
First Oscar Win: Best Actress for La Vie en Rose (2008)
As the legendary Édith Piaf in La Vie en Rose, she became the first Best Actress winner for a French-language performance. Cotillard has since become one of the most in-demand imports in Hollywood, appearing in everything from arthouse pictures like The Immigrant to blockbusters like Inception.
She was nominated for Best Actress again in 2014 for her work in the Dardenne Brothers’ Two Days, One Night.
Catherine Zeta-Jones
First Oscar Win: Best Supporting Actress for Chicago (2003)
While she continued to appear in more high profile films after her award-winning performance in Chicago, few have had the same impact. In recent years, her personal life was faced with challenges as she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, while husband Michael Douglas fought cancer.
Among her notable works after her 2002 win include Ocean’s Twelve, Intolerable Cruelty, and Side Effects.
Nicolas Cage
First Oscar Win: Best Actor for Leaving Las Vegas (1996)
Cashing in on the momentum from his Oscar win, Cage evolved into an unlikely 90s action star beginning with The Rock, Con Air, and Face/Off. His career has been busy and occasionally mind-boggling, making it a curious study in quantity versus quality.
In 2003, he was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Adaptation, opposite Meryl Streep. Recently, his performance in Joe recently earned him critical acclaim but it never resulted in another Oscar nomination.
He will be seen next in Oliver Stone’s Edward Snowden biopic.
Adrien Brody
First Oscar Win: Best Actor for The Pianist (2003)
The Pianist made him the youngest Best Actor winner at the age of 29, but he has not exactly parlayed that into leading man roles or box office clout.
Instead, he seems content to take parts of variable size in films by celebrated auteurs like Peter Jackson (King Kong), Woody Allen (Midnight in Paris) and Wes Anderson (The Darjeeling Limited and The Grand Budapest Hotel).
Jean Dujardin
First Oscar Win: Best Actor for The Artist (2012)
Becoming the first French Best Actor has done little to advance Dujardin’s career in Hollywood.
After winning for The Artist, aside from Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street and George Clooney’s The Monuments Men, he has mainly made films in his homeland.
Phillip Seymour Hoffman
First Oscar Win: Best Actor for Capote (2006)
After being a sturdy supporting actor in countless films, Capote finally gave Hoffman his Best Actor statuette. He was nominated in the Best Supporting Actor category three more times after his win, for his works in Charlie Wilson’s War (2007), Doubt (2008), and The Master (2012).
The rest of his filmography consistently turned out highly praised work, and even the occasional blockbusters (Mission: Impossible III, The Hunger Games franchise) before his tragic drug overdose in 2014.
Denzel Washington
First Oscar Win: Best Supporting Actor for Glory (1990)
Since winning in 1990, Washington steadily developed into a leading man and box office draw, eventually bagging a 2002 Best Actor trophy for Training Day. To date, he is the most nominated African American in Oscar history with 6 nods in total, most recently for Flight in 2013.
George Clooney
First Oscar Win: Best Supporting Actor for Syriana (2006)
Winning for Syriana was icing on top of the cake for Clooney in 2006 since he was also up for Director and Original Screenplay for Good Night and Good Luck.
In the following years, he would go on to score nods for Lead Actor (Michael Clayton in 2008, Up in the Air in 2010, and The Descendants in 2012, Adapted Screenplay (The Ides of March in 2012), and a Best Picture win for producing Ben Affleck’s Argo in 2012, making him the only individual to be nominated in six different categories.
