Andrea Riseborough Reacts to Best Actress Oscar Nomination for ‘To Leslie’: ‘I’m Not Quite Sure How It Happened’

Andrea Riseborough’s late blooming word of mouth for her title role To Lesley led to the British star’s first Best Actress Oscar nomination, turning opinion on its head on the direction of this year’s race. Riseborough joins Cate Blanchett, Ana de Armas, Michelle Williams and Michelle Yeoh at this year’s Oscar for Best Actress.

“I’m amazed,” she told Deadline this morning. “It’s such an unexpected ray of light. It was so hard to believe it could ever happen because we really weren’t in the running for anything else. Although we had a lot of support, the idea that it would actually happen seemed so far away.

How did it happen?

Directed by Michael Morris and based on writer Ryan Binaco’s semi-autobiographical experience, To Lesley premiered at last year’s SXSW, but remained largely under the radar, grossing just over $27,000 on a disappointing release from Momentum Pictures in October. This makes it one of the lowest grossing films ever to receive an Oscar nomination, and the film could languish forever if the team behind it didn’t fight hard to get their film seen by audiences and the industry.

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“The reactions we’ve had all along have been so personal from people,” Riseborough said of the encouragement she felt to continue to defend the film despite the distribution problems. “Sometimes you judge Leslie, sometimes you identify with her and take so many trips. It felt like there was room to touch so many people. It felt like the most natural thing in the world to keep talking about it even though people didn’t really care because once they saw the film, they were instantly interested and couldn’t shake the story. The film really drove that way.

Running out of budget for the awards campaign, they took it upon themselves to ensure the film was submitted and uploaded to the Academy’s screening portal, and Riseborough and Morris turned to friends to help screen the film. Charlize Theron hosted a screening at CAA in November, and since then performances by Gwyneth Paltrow, Courteney Cox, Edward Norton, Jennifer Aniston and Minnie Driver have ensured that members of the Academy’s drama department have every chance of seeing the film on the big screen. see. Marc Maron, who stars in the film alongside Allison Janney and Stephen Root, hosted Riseborough on his popular podcast. WTF.

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Although Riseborough was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for the role at the end of November and previously won Best Actress at London’s Raindance Film Festival, few forecasters saw it coming. In the final days before voting ended, a social media campaign led by these stars and others including Demi Moore, Jane Fonda, Naomi Watts, Kate Winslet, Laura Dern, Frances Fisher and many more put the spotlight on Riseborough thrown. Blanchett, now a co-nominee, mentioned Riseborough’s performance in interviews at the recent Critics Choice Awards, where Blanchett won best actress.

Responding to the outpouring of support, Riseborough said with a laugh: “I’m not quite sure how the hell that happened. After SXSW, there was quiet silence. And slowly, as the film was shown a few times elsewhere – including at Raindance, which was a big problem because we didn’t have a UK release – we noticed that people started talking about it. And people were like, ‘Why can’t I see it? Where can I see it?’ After a while we were able to point them to iTunes and Amazon, but it didn’t happen right away.”

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Riseborough said she got an increasing number of responses from people inside and outside the industry as word of mouth spread to the voting window throughout the season. “You always think, ‘If we’ve done well enough, it’s going to cut through the noise,’ but often it’s just impossible to compete with ads in the millions,” she noted. “Every year the spotlight shines brighter in one place than another for some reason, and maybe it’s all about money, although I try not to be so cynical. It was special to feel so supported by the community – especially actors – and to feel that the work broke because of it. I really have never experienced anything like this.”

In fact, there are very few precedents in Oscars history for a late grassroots awards campaign gaining enough steam to garner a nomination. Deadline’s Awards columnist Pete Hammond introduces Sally Kirkland’s 1987 personal campaign for which she was nominated annis the closest comparison, but Kirkland’s journey began earlier and she won a Golden Globe for the role, making her a staple of conversation this season.

Riseborough credits producer Claude Dal Farra with continuing to champion the film. “We could not have come this far without a producer like Claude,” she said. “It only takes one person to believe it’s worth sharing.” She was in London this afternoon with partner Karim Saleh, who watched the live stream and told her the good news while “making me look for a sock or something just to distract me”.

Riseborough’s Oscar nomination is her first in a career that has ranged from appearances in critically acclaimed and award-winning feature films such as bird man, Stalin’s death, battle of the generations and Don’t ever leave me. She has been nominated twice for a BAFTA and received a British Independent Film Award in 2012 for her role in shadow dancer.