On Sunday night time, Weapons star Amy Madigan gained the Oscar for Finest Supporting Actress on the 2026 Academy Awards. The 75-year-old actor — lengthy celebrated for movies like Love Youngster, Alamo Bay, Discipline of Goals, and Gone Child Gone, to not point out the perfect HBO present ever in line with me, Carnivàle — gained her first Oscar for a efficiency that few would have predicted may go all the best way even final August: the magic-wielding, makeup-abusing villainess Aunt Gladys.
Madigan’s win is each an trade’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 Finest Supporting Actress race beside Finest 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 nearly by no means do.
In 2008, Heath Ledger’s Oscar-winning flip because the Joker in The Darkish Knight set a gold commonplace for a sure type of mythmaking baddie. A 12 months earlier than, Javier Bardem picked up the identical statue for his work as Anton Chigurh in No Nation for Previous Males; a 12 months later, Christoph Waltz swept up for Inglourious Basterds. Even Robert Downey Jr.’s Oscar-winning function as Lewis Strauss in Oppenheimer — a pronounced villainous flip for Downey Jr. after 15 years spent taking part in the noble Iron Man — appears like a part of the pattern.
The Supporting Actress class tends to reward one thing completely different. Many latest 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 reasonably than narrative battle. You’d must 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 Finest 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 Madigan’s almost-over-the-top-but-neeeeever-over-the-line selections, 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 at all times accomplished that in nearly all of the issues I’ve accomplished,” Madigan informed the Los Angeles Occasions final fall. “I get pleasure from 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 girl 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 good three-way contest with Wunmi Mosaku (Sinners) and Teyana Taylor (One Battle After One other), every performer carrying completely 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. Possibly Madigan prevailed as a result of the Academy loves honoring a veteran. But in addition: Aunt Gladys refused to be ignored.
You recognize when a supporting character makes an Oscar-worthy impression as a result of Hollywood begins considering larger. A Gladys-centric prequel is already reportedly in growth at Warner Bros. Photos. Whether or not it in the end materializes could rely upon the still-unfolding takeover drama involving Paramount World and Skydance Media, which appears to have additionally concerned witchcraft.
However Madigan’s Oscar may change the equation. Years after Ledger’s posthumous win for The Darkish Knight, Joaquin Phoenix stepped into Gotham’s chaos and gained 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.
