‘A Quiet Place’s Disingenuous Oscar Campaign Is Worth It To Get Emily Blunt a Nomination

As studios and strategists continue to prep their strategies for Oscar season, some of the biggest decisions are where to categorize films and performances. Is A Star Is Born more a musical or a drama (it’s competing as a Drama at the Golden Globes); who among Emma Stone, Rachel Weisz, and Olivia Colman are leads in The Favourite (Colman will be campaigned as a lead, the other two as supporting). It’s all to help maximize the chances of a nomination (or, eventually, a win). Sometimes, these decisions are seamless, while other times, the stitching shows. The latter is what’s happening as Paramount gears up to campaign for A Quiet Place, as they’ve decided to submit the entire cast, including stars Emily Blunt and John Krasinski, as supporting performers, a piece of grade A Hollywood fraudulence that I will happily overlook if it means Blunt finally gets an Oscar nomination.

Now, to get it out of the way first: this is outrageous. While there exist true ensemble movies where no single role rises above the others to play a true lead — good movies like Magnolia or bad movies like Crash — A Quiet Place is not one of them. Krasinski and Blunt play the parents of a family who must keep absolutely quiet in order to stay hidden from the vicious monsters who come running at any kind of noise, and as parents, they’re the lead players in the film. Their two kids obviously have parts to play, but let’s not kid ourselves. Two stars. Two kids. A handful of monsters and some colored lights. A Quiet Place! We all loved it.  So, yeah, Paramount is playing dirty pool here, trying to sneak their actors into less competitive categories.

Best Actress is a particularly thorny category this year, with Lady Gaga (for A Star Is Born) and Olivia Colman (The Favourite) at the top, right above the likes of Glenn Close (The Wife), Melissa McCarthy (Can You Ever Forgive Me?), and then a scrum that includes Viola Davis (Widows), Julia Roberts (Ben Is Back), Carey Mulligan (Wildlife), and even a long shot for Emily Blunt herself in Mary Poppins Returns (the original role won Julie Andrews an Oscar, after all). Keeping Blunt away from that scrum, and from splitting her own vote, is the smart, if fraudulent, thing to do.

That Paramount is mounting any kind of Oscar campaign at all for A Quiet Place, not to mention one that is playing 3D chess with the rules, is encouraging for anyone who thought the Krasinski-directed horror flick was one of the best films of the first half of 2018. While there had been chatter about a Best Picture campaign, that all seemed to die down after plans for the controversial “Best Popular Film” Oscar were put on hold. But if they’re going to the trouble to disingenuously position their lead actors as supporting, Paramount must really be going full speed ahead with a campaign. That’s great!

It’s especially great if it means that Emily Blunt can finally get the Oscar nomination that has eluded her for far too long. It seems crazy that Blunt, one of the most popular and critically appreciated actresses working today, has avoided her first Oscar nod. We almost avoided this grim state of affairs altogether. In 2006, when Blunt had her breakthrough role opposite Anne Hathaway and Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada, she got a Golden Globe nomination for her role as Miranda Priestley’d bitchy, efficient secretary. If Oscar voters had only followed through, we might not be worried about whether Blunt’s near-wordless performance of terrified strength was going to sneak into the Best Supporting Actress race this year.

Since Prada, Blunt has given award-worthy performances in: The Young Victoria (Globe nomination), Your Sister’s Sister, Looper, Edge of Tomorrow, Sicario, and Into the Woods (Globe nomination). See, the Golden Globes know! They even nominated her for Salmon Fishing in the Yemen! Yet the Oscar shut-out remains. Even after Blunt and Hathaway gave the Oscar ceremony so much in the way of comedy:

Sometimes, when an Oscar injustice has stood for so long, you just have to bite the bullet. Al Pacino winning for Scent of a Woman instead of Dog Day Afternoon? Fine. Viola Davis campaigning as a supporting actress in Fences for a role that is clearly lead? Whatever you have to do. Emily Blunt delivers one of the year’s best lead actress performances in A Quiet Place, but if we’re going to get her her first Oscar nod, we’ll all have to bite down and say she’s supporting. Supporting to whom? Those monsters? That suffocating and terrifying silence? Whatever works.

Where to stream A Quiet Place