14 DAY TRIAL // Jennifer Aniston is hoping to land her first Best Actress Oscar nomination for the role in “Cake,” an independent movie that premiered at TIFF and would be out in a limited run in the US in December, to qualify for the Academy Awards.
Most of the campaign is focused on the transformation she underwent to play the survivor of a car accident, which included gaining some weight, agreeing to go without makeup and, for once, ditching her glamorous hairstyle.
For a woman who has come to be known for her impeccable hair, that seems enough to warrant an Oscar nomination, at least from what she’s saying. Because critics and fans are yet to see the movie, for the time being, this is all they have to go on to judge her performance.
Jennifer Aniston is over-playing her makeup-free card
Since she started actively promoting the movie, Jennifer has been talking extensively about the physical transformation and very little about the actual role or the film.
This, in turn, has generated some negative attention online, because many people see in this a distraction from the reality: this probably being that her performance isn’t all that spectacular, but she’s hoping to get the nomination for agreeing to go makeup-free for it.
Not long ago, Aniston told reporters that going sans fard was “empowering” and “liberating” and that she felt like she lost herself in the role because she went Method. Other actresses do this on a daily basis, but you don’t hear them bragging about it all the time – hence talk that she might be over-playing her makeup-free card.
Moving the focus on the hair
So, if you can take a bit more talk about Aniston’s transformation (which, as you can see in the gallery, isn’t even all that impressive), let’s hear about the hair now. Chris McMillan, who has been styling her for years and who created The Rachel for her, spoke to People magazine about how Aniston has been experimenting with her hair, to make her onscreen characters more convincing.
He hints that she might get bangs after her hilarious cameo in “Horrible Bosses 2,” jokes that she could “switch it up” by getting a pink pixie (which will happen never, as we all know), and then drops this gem about how she uses her hair as a “prop.”
“She likes to use her hair as a prop, so she’ll be able to look over and use her fingers to push the hair out of her eyes,” he says. “Jennifer Aniston is a pro at having hair in her face and wrangling it out of her face, and making it look effortless and sexy.”
Let the acting talk for itself
Jennifer Aniston is considered a hair (and fashion) icon, but even for her, this seems exaggerated. First of all, in her career so far, she never used her hair as a prop, it just happened to be there, looking flawless regardless of whether she played a criminal or a next-door-type of girl.
“Cake” is the first time that Aniston didn’t have her hair styled to high heaven for a movie, and McMillan could just say that instead of making it sound as if he thinks Aniston’s hair deserved an Oscar of its own.
Or better yet, he should allow audiences and critics see for themselves if her performance in “Cake” really is Oscar-worthy: clips released so far have shown promise, but all this talk about hair and makeup and how amazing Aniston is for losing herself in the role is really not working in her favor, at least not online.
Sometimes, more really is more, so just let the performance do all the talking.
