Oscars Rewind: When a Woman Won for Playing a Male Character

"I was unaware of this. It is beyond travesty, beyond outrage. Her Oscar should be revoked and her career over at once. Her youthful transgression to have had the temerity to play a character which should have gone to a cis-gender man is unforgivable. Purity above all else!" - Virginia Governor Ralph Northam

I don't see why having Hunt play a half Chinese character is an issue. Her playing it, she half matches the character. A Chinese actor playing it half matches the character. Of course, a half Chinese half Australian matches the character, but that's not what anyone is talking about.

And on Feb. 28th, Glenda Jackson will portray King Lear on Broadway...

I remember having a discussion with a friend about the Oscars a few months before the 1984 awards, while at a cafe in North Beach { San Francisco } . My take was the Oscars did Not give out awards for acting but rather for who the most 'popular' leading lady of the day was . IF the Oscars were seriously about acting, Hunt would get the award because I had seen the film 3 times before realizing Billy was a girl . I said that was why I never bothered watching , just hearing the next day 'who won' was sufficient . When they actually gave Hunt the award I was truly surprised .

The same year Linda Hunt won for playing a male in the "Year of Living Dangerously" Dustin Hoffman was nominated for best actor for portraying a man playing a woman in "Tootsie."

She was and is wonderful.

This was an exceptional movie - it haunted me after watching it so that I had to watch it again. Linda Hunt as Kwan was the character that fascinated me and turned me inside out when I found out she was a she. That wasn't at all obvious in the movie, at least to me. Incredible acting chops! Ms Hunts other parts are equally well done and I absolutely loved her in Silverado - she made the movie for me. Kudos NY Times for writing an article about this incredible woman.

I'm not a fan of NCIS-Los Angeles; judging by the number of explosions in that series, LA should be totally rubble by now. But Ms. Hunt is a gem. Back in the late 60's, while working as an orderly in a Minneapolis hospital, I met on of the Wizard of Oz Munchkins. She was the nicest person one could hope to meet. Linda Hunt leaves the same impression.

A fantastic movie, one of my all-time favorites. I recall back when it was released, it was a little like the "Yanni/Laural challenge -- some focused on the intense love story, others on the intense political drama. Obviously Linda Hunt was outstanding, and Sigourney Weaver always delivers. But this also was Mel Gibson playing the role of his life, and imo was the high-water mark of his acting career. I introduced my girlfriend to this movie about 6 months ago, and it definitely stands the test of the time. It is a must-see move in every sense.

All these years later, Linda Hunt's performance is indelibly etched in my memory. So many dimensions of what the performance could be succeeded at a stunning level -- the spoken performance, the physical performance, the emotional performance -- even something large that I might think of as a spiritual dimension was there. To witness a great performance marks a person, it can be so revelatory of another human life. This is one of those for me.

Isn't it enough to recognize that "The Year of Living Dangerously" was one of those films where the story and all the characters (actors) were firing on all 8 cylinders? Can't we just leave it at that? Peter Weir did some great work in those days and his choice of Linda Hunt was pure genius.

I can understand why Ms Hunt might decline to be interviewed for this story. She doesn't need to be a the center of a retrospective tweetstorm over "appropriation". Her acceptance of the role clearly proved to be the right thing to do then and it would be the right thing now. But I suppose that if the actor were a male playing a female, a minor storm would become a major one these days. So much energy is expended, with destructive consequences, over ideological battles that do not need to be fought.

The subtle ambiguity in the character -- due in large part to the casting of Ms. Hunt -- colored the sense of mystery, tragedy, and danger in the film. Though a choice like this would be dissected and probably decried today, for some perfectly valid reasons, in that moment in history it was a stroke of genius; and her performance has stood the test of time.

That was a great movie, too; heart-wrenching. One of Hunt's lines has stuck with me my whole life, and actually has become part of my life's philosophy. Something like this: "What then must we do? We must give with love to all those whom God puts in our path."

She not only made the film. She gave a performance that haunts me to this day. How can one actor personify human compassion and anguish as she did. Impossible ever to forget.

There's a scene in the film where Ms. Hunt is watching the shadows of Gibson and Weaver come together against the window dressing in a multi-story building. Her character is deeply in love with Ms. Weaver's character and there's an underplayed wistfulness in her gaze that passes as she looks up at the stars. She draws a breath and comes right back to where she is and who she is. Exhale. Water from the moon, indeed.

Oh no, Hunt would be subjected to progressive histrionics for whitewashing if she did this film today. I actually did see this movie several years ago and it was very good, though it did have this sort of 80's feel to it unlike some of the more timeless films from that period. But worth watching anyways. I recall that Sigourney Weaver and Mel Gibson were in the prime of their physical beauty in the film - two people really quite stunning to behold.