Now that Kristen Stewart‘s Best Actress campaign is all but toast after being excluded from the 2022 SAG Award nominations, and since no one explored the whys and wherefores in this morning’s initial reaction thread (“That’s It For KStew“), I’m asking again: why was her Lady Diana snubbed?
HE theory #1: It wasn’t the quality of Stewart’s performance, but the psychotic dreamscape “Diary of a Mad Princess” vibe of Pablo Larrain‘s Spencer. I never argued that Stewart didn’t give her all — she obviously dove into Larrrain’s vision hook, line and sinker. But the movie was agony to sit through.
HE theory #2: Ever since SAG merged with AFTRA ten years ago, the annual nominations have adopted a downmarket character and, especially since ’16 or thereabouts, focused on representation as much as quality of performance. Stewart might have been edged out, I suspect, by votes for Respect‘s Jennifer Hudson — never a truly serious candidate due to the film’s mediocre reputation, but popular with the SAG-AFTRA rank and file.
HE theory #3: On 11.18.21, Variety‘s Clayton Davis posted a Stewart interview in which she said “I don’t give a shit” about winning an Oscar for Spencer. This might have been a factor.
