Ariana DeBose just won a Screen Actors Guild Award for her supporting performance as Anita in “West Side Story,” strengthening her as the Oscar front-runner for Best Supporting Actress. She’d be the second actress to win an Oscar for playing Anita, following Rita Moreno, but those aren’t the only footsteps she’d be following in. In the last 20 years, three other movie musicals have bagged this award.
2002’s “Chicago” earned four acting nominations from the academy, including bids for lead Renee Zellweger and supporting players John C. Reilly and Queen Latifah, but the film’s only acting victory was Best Supporting Actress for Catherine Zeta-Jones. The film won Best Picture as well that night. Four years later “American Idol” finalist Jennifer Hudson made her film debut in the screen adaptation of the musical “Dreamgirls” (2006). Surprisingly, it wasn’t even nominated for Best Picture, but Hudson and Eddie Murphy did end up earning supporting nominations, with Hudson claiming Best Supporting Actress as the film’s sole acting award. And 2012’s “Les Miserables,” an Oscar nominee for Best Picture, earned bids for Best Actor (Hugh Jackman) and Best Supporting Actress (Anne Hathaway). Again, the film’s sole acting winner was Hathaway.
DeBose is the only acting nominee at the Oscars for “West Side Story,” and so far she has won multiple regional critics prizes including the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award. Now she has won the SAG Award, which is the first major award of the season handed out by entertainment industry peers, much like the Oscars are. Next DeBose is up at the Critics Choice and BAFTA Awards, and she’s favored to win both. And she’s still on top of our Oscar odds, which is unlikely to change after her SAG Award victory. Do you agree that she’s about to join that growing club of lone Best Supporting Actress champs from musicals?
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