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This year's Best Actress Oscar nominations signified more than just a bad year for women: They served as a sign of the times. For all the talk about women's increasingly important roles in the industry, actresses don't seem to fit into Hollywood's plans any more readily than they did several years ago.
Now there's a new generation of talented, emerging actresses having to cope with an ever more competitive Hollywood. On Oscar night these young actresses saw their strongest role models applauded for projects that didn't exactly inspire envy: a movie that no one saw for three years, made for a studio that went bankrupt (Jessica Lange in Blue Sky); a movie for a thriving independent that no one saw anyway (Miranda Richardson in Tom & Viv); a film based on a remake of a remake that only girls wanted to see (Winona Ryder in Little Women); and a movie in which the star was capable of making only semi-intelligible sounds (Jodie Foster in Nell). Finally, there was Susan Sarandon (in The Client), who carried enough weight to make a movie for a big studio based on a best-selling book that everyone went to see but few would call a tour de force.
If it's that tough for well-connected actresses, what chance do tyros have? In fact, unless you're Julia Roberts or Demi Moore, even lauded, highly recognizable, and well-paid (often upwards of $1 million a film) actresses must fight harder than ever for every role and continually prove their talent.
In the week before the Academy Awards, ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY talked to more than a dozen such women -- from relative newcomers Nancy Travis and Janeane Garofalo to established presences Uma Thurman and Halle Berry -- about what the industry looks like from where they stand. They spoke about the parts they're offered, the choices they make, and the power they wield -- as well as about the times when no amount of power makes it any easier.
THINKING BIG
Do you think of the world as being composed of one part Julia Roberts and one part normal folk? So do they. When Sarah Jessica Parker, 30, looks at peers like Roberts and Foster, ''I still feel like an actor for hire,'' she says. ''The missing link is a huge box office success. Was Miami Rhapsody [the recent romantic comedy in which she starred] hugely successful? No. Was it moderately successful? Yeah. So that changed things. But had it made $100 million...,'' she says, letting herself get carried away in the fantasy, ''well, you couldn't get me on the phone right now -- just kidding.''
Actually, she'd be lucky if spectacular grosses had that much effect, as Courteney Cox, 30, can testify. Cox, who starred alongside Jim Carrey in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, explains: ''I was in a big blockbuster movie, but playing opposite the guy is not the ticket. I don't think it got me [Friends, her NBC television series]. If anything, it got me [a guest shot on NBC's] Seinfeld.'' In fact, when it came time to cast the Ace Ventura sequel, Cox's character was nowhere to be found.
