Who is Andrea Riseborough and why do so many actors want her nominated?

This has got to be the weirdest thing I've ever seen in the race up to the Oscar nominations. What is going on?

Riseborough made an indie called To Leslie. She was nominated for an Independent Spirit award a couple of months ago. But she was not nominated in the Globes; nor the SAGs; nor the BAFTAs. And neither she nor her film have gotten any attention I'm aware of from critics groups. Her film apparently made almost no money in theaters. Like, I looked it up and it made 23 thousand dollars. This is not a misprint.

Oscar voting started this week and suddenly, DOZENS of top actors and actresses are tweeting about how this is the greatest film performance of the season. Jane Fonda, Gwyneth Paltrow, Ed Norton, Mia Farrow, Joe Mantegna, Charlize Theron, and many more. Kate Winslett just held a video Q+A to push for Riseborough's nomination to Best Actress. In a tweet, she called her performance 'the greatest female performance on-screen I have ever seen in my life'. Say what?

Even weirder, the tweets mostly seem like variations of the following, as if they are cut and paste jobs:
"To Leslie is a small film with a giant heart. Andrea Riseborough gives the performance of the year, and Allison Janney, Marc Maron, Owen Teague, Andre Royo and Stephen Root are all incredible. Please go find this gem, directed by Michael Morris!!!"

It seems clear that this is an orchestrated attempt by somebody to get this woman nominated, but why are so many top stars involved? Why did they all seemingly discover this "unbelievable" performance at the same time, and just in time for Oscar voting? It's so darn fishy... But if they somehow get her in, what a weird turn that would be!

 

she's hardly a complete unknown. maybe the campaign is manufactured but her fellow actors like her work in general, so they're going along with it.

 

She has been in the running since the beginning. This is how underground Oscar campaigns happen. If not for this kind of thing, most people would never have heard of Jennifer Lawrence in Winter's Bone, Demian Bichir in A Better Life, or Jeff Bridges in Crazy Heart (he won that year).

 

She's hot. I remember her from the Tom Cruise movie "Oblivion."

 

Do any of those established actors have a connection? Maybe they're all represented by the same agency? or something kinda like that? And maybe she was recently signed by that management.

 

I can't answer your question, but I don't think she is quite unknown. She acted in Mandy - she plays Mandy of the title - and that film has developed a huge cult following in the past few years.

 

Unfortunately, when it comes to Hollywood, you can usually find the "reason" when you, follow the money, follow the fame, follow the politics, follow the social agenda.
I'm not saying Andrea has not done a fine job of acting, nor am I saying Andrea has done anything nefarious.
All I am saying is the Hollywood trend strongly shows us the reasons are almost always under the above headings.

 

I mean it’s possible that one actor saw the film and then raved about it to someone else, who did the same. That happens enough and everyone in LA watches it because they want to be in on the conversation on the new big thing. Films gain popularity with actors and in the creative community the same way they do with any other community.

Obviously they are using the For Your Consideration period to boost a nom for a film they like.

 

I saw that article, but it skips the fundamental questions: why, if this was so beloved, did no one post about it until the DAY Oscar voting started? And why did so many of them post virtually identical tweets?

It feels like cheating in a way; a film that virtually no one outside of critics and stars has seen is being given the biggest praise I have seen for any film in some time. The public doesn't get a chance to vote on this with their dollars or their opinions. It's like the Beach Boys' Smile or something; they can say anything they want about it and I guess we are expected to believe it.

Of course, if this hype causes people to seek out the film (and it will) and it turns out to be not nearly as good they say (and to be frank, it sounds impossible it could be THAT good), this could backfire in a major way, not only for this nomination, but for Riseborough's career. They might start calling her Fallborough at that point LOL.

 

Yes, and in all that time collected almost no awards, even from critics. I follow award twitter, too, and hadn't seen even a single person rave about this performance before last week, not one. I have watched the Oscars for decades and have never seen anything like this situation.

 

Well you're right to be cynical but if it weren't for the critics and awards I'd probably not have seen many great films that don't get decent distribution as they're not seen as commercially viable.
Andrea Riseborough is a great actress who seems to revel in challenging and unusual roles - Mandy, Possessor, The Electrical Life Of Louis Wain, Birdman.
I'm looking for an opportunity to see To Leslie, I know it didn't get a cinematic release in Australia, guess it'll show up somewhere.

 

OK, then. It must be the Illuminati.

 

I saw Andrea in ‘Nancy’ and ‘Birdman’, to me, clearly an excellent actor. It may be a case of a other actors closing ranks to support an under recognized fellow actor, with a PR company to facilitate it.

 

I must confess I've never heard of 'Andrea Riseborough'. It appears she has some well-known fans. I reckon the least I can do is look her up and see what this particular movie is about.

 

Crazy Heart cost $7M to produce and raked in $40M domestically. How is that underground?

 

Mandy

 

I’m watching this film now and she’s very good in it.

 

I haven’t seen this film but I am aware of her work and she is a fine actor.

All that said, I stopped taking the Oscars seriously in 1991 when Goodfellas lost to Daces With Wolves.

 

You need to read more. Reviewed by LA Times, NY Times, Variety, Richard Roeper, Hollywood Reporter…To Leslie

Roeper had it in his top ten for the year. Not sure who else did.

 

Yeah she was pretty effective in that role. Kudos.

 

She's an incredible actor with a long, storied resume of not just film but theater. An accomplished Shakespearean actor. "To Leslie" is a wonderful film and the main reason nobody knows about it is horrible distribution and promotion. The powers to be did a lousy job and so it got lost in the swamp land of programming. She is very deserving of the accolades and any award that comes to her.

She was recently on Marc Maron's podcast WTF(he was in "To Leslie as well) and she's sharp and funny. Well worth a listen.

Episode 1400 - Andrea Riseborough — WTF with Marc Maron Podcast

 

She’s been in lots of stuff I’ve watched and enjoyed. She’s a terrific actress.

 

It looks like it simply hasn’t been released anywhere apart from Israel and a limited release in the USA. We often don’t get “for your consideration” type films in the UK until much closer to the Oscars (eg The Whale is released in February) but To Leslie doesn’t seem to have a release date at all. Andrea Riseborough is English so feels like a missed opportunity to celebrate one of our finest actors.

 

Marc Maron calls out film distributor for hurting the success of new film, “To Leslie”