Chloë Sevigny didn’t cry when she lost the Oscar to Angelina Jolie in 2000, but she does still have a few choice words about the Academy’s decision to have Jolie compete in the Best Supporting Actress category at the time.
Sevigny was nominated for indie true story “Boys Don’t Cry,” while Jolie won for novel adaptation “Girl, Interrupted.” According to Sevigny, though, Jolie had more of a lead role.
“I went [to the 2000 Oscars] with my boyfriend at the time, Harmony Korine, and I lost. Angelina Jolie won for ‘Girl, Interrupted,’ which was not a supporting part, I would say. Not that I’m bitter!” Sevigny told Variety. “But it was a very competitive category that year. Catherine Keener, Samantha Morton, Toni Collette and me — it was just great actresses.”
Sevigny reflected on the unanticipated success of “Boys Don’t Cry,” which landed Hillary Swank her first Academy Award too.
“We were really surprised that the movie ‘Boys Don’t Cry’ had gotten as much attention,” Sevigny said. “We filmed in Texas for two dollars, but I was obsessed with Brandon Teena, who the movie is about. And I love the part that I played, Lana. Then the movie just caught on, and this whole awards campaign business started, and I was like, ‘What is all this business?’ Because actually when I had started acting, I was like, ‘The moment I appear in People magazine, I’m going to quit acting.’ And then ‘Boys Don’t Cry’ came out, and everything changed.”
Sevigny became a ’90s icon and was deemed an “It” girl, coupled with her appearance in Korine’s “Kids.”
“Of course, this is pre-internet. This is a 100 years ago, ’99. People started getting very interested in my sense of style and my fashion. It was something they could grasp onto,” Sevigny said.
She added of her career today, “My desire was to be more of a character actress, which I’m hoping people recognize in me more now than maybe they had in the past. But maybe a leading lady; I wouldn’t refuse.”
Sevigny previously told IndieWire that she asked then-partner Korine about the Oscar chances for 1999 film “Boys Don’t Cry.”
“I remember like the year before Harmony and I watching and being like, ‘Wouldn’t it be funny if we could like nuke the Oscars and like just wipe away all the status quo?,’” she said.
Yet even then, Sevigny knew Jolie was poised to win: “She was like the most subversive of all of us because she was doing it in the mainstream,” Sevigny said.
