On Sunday night time, Weapons star Amy Madigan received the Oscar for Greatest Supporting Actress on the 2026 Academy Awards. The 75-year-old actor — lengthy celebrated for movies like Love Youngster, Alamo Bay, Area of Desires, and Gone Child Gone, to not point out the most effective HBO present ever in line with me, Carnivàle — received her first Oscar for a efficiency that few would have predicted might go all the best way even final August: the magic-wielding, makeup-abusing villainess Aunt Gladys.
Madigan’s win is each an business’s long-overdue stamp of approval and a small shock throughout the class. At first look, her victory doesn’t scream “Oscar historical past.” However place the Greatest Supporting Actress race beside Greatest Supporting Actor over the previous twenty years, and one thing turns into clear: Males win Oscars for taking part in villains on a regular basis. Ladies virtually by no means do.
In 2008, Heath Ledger’s Oscar-winning flip because the Joker in The Darkish Knight set a gold normal for a sure type of mythmaking baddie. A yr earlier than, Javier Bardem picked up the identical statue for his work as Anton Chigurh in No Nation for Outdated Males; a yr later, Christoph Waltz swept up for Inglourious Basterds. Even Robert Downey Jr.’s Oscar-winning position as Lewis Strauss in Oppenheimer — a pronounced villainous flip for Downey Jr. after 15 years spent taking part in the noble Iron Man — seems like a part of the pattern.
The Supporting Actress class tends to reward one thing totally different. Many current winners — Anne Hathaway in Les Misérables, Viola Davis in Fences, Alison Janney in I, Tonya, Regina King in If Beale Road May Speak, Da’Vine Pleasure Randolph in The Holdovers — collectively outline the “Supporting Actress” as a dimensional co-lead who anchors emotional drama somewhat than narrative battle. You’d should go method again to Ruth Gordon’s 1968 win for Rosemary’s Child to search out something resembling Aunt Gladys within the winner’s circle.
Madigan brings Greatest Supporting Villain mystique in Weapons. Her display screen time is transient — even lower than Ledger’s in The Darkish Knight — however each look feels seismic. It’s not simply the Joker-esque facepaint. By way of Madigan’s almost-over-the-top-but-neeeeever-over-the-line decisions, her Gladys embodies the movie’s supernatural lore and delights within the discomfort she causes.
“There’s an quantity of physicality and bodily humor in it, and I’ve all the time carried out that in virtually all of the issues I’ve carried out,” Madigan informed the Los Angeles Instances final fall. “I take pleasure in that and that’s simply part of who I used to be as a child, and I’m nonetheless that individual.”
That spirit formed the character’s unforgettable look, which Madigan says she developed with costume designer Trish Summerville and particular make-up results designer Jason Collins. The result’s a lady with, as Madigan put it, “a sure joie de vivre about her.” She doesn’t give a rattling about something however her personal mission.
The Oscar race itself was hardly a foregone conclusion. Madigan entered the ceremony in a decent three-way contest with Wunmi Mosaku (Sinners) and Teyana Taylor (One Battle After One other), every performer carrying totally different precursor wins into the night time. With Elle Fanning and Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas additionally each nominated for Sentimental Worth, the class was broadly thought-about one of many night’s largest toss-ups. Perhaps Madigan prevailed as a result of the Academy loves honoring a veteran. But in addition: Aunt Gladys refused to be ignored.
when a supporting character makes an Oscar-worthy impression as a result of Hollywood begins pondering greater. A Gladys-centric prequel is already reportedly in growth at Warner Bros. Photos. Whether or not it finally materializes could depend upon the still-unfolding takeover drama involving Paramount World and Skydance Media, which appears to have additionally concerned witchcraft.
However Madigan’s Oscar might change the equation. Years after Ledger’s posthumous win for The Darkish Knight, Joaquin Phoenix stepped into Gotham’s chaos and received his personal trophy for Joker. Villainy, it seems, has franchise energy. If Aunt Gladys returns, Madigan’s win could also be remembered not simply as overdue recognition — however because the second the Academy lastly embraced a feminine villain the best way it as soon as topped the Joker. I hope it’s as enormous because it feels.
