Can Kelly Mantle Make History with an Oscar Nomination for 'Confessions of a Womanizer'?

6/2/2014

Kelly Mantle may not have lasted long on RuPaul's Drag Race, but that just gave this talented queen more time to focus on her impressive acting career.

The effort to get Kelly Mantle nominated for Best Supporting Actor or Actress for her role in Confessions of a Womanizer is historic because she would be the first androgynous actress ever nominated for an Oscar.

Mogar Pictures and Bosch Media will be submitting Kelly Mantle to the Academy for consideration for Best Supporting Actress and Best Supporting Actor, and the Academy will decide which category she should be considered for.

Watch the Oscar submission here:

Kelly's performance is being endorsed for Oscar consideration by over 10 film festival directors and founders. Confessions of a Womanizer is an independent film which is currently traveling the film festival circuit and will open nationwide in the Fall of 2014.

What do you think? Can Kelly make herstory?

13 Comments

Dr. Dwayne

6/2/2014 11:37:20 pm

I mean... Jared Leto just won for portraying Rayon in DBC last year. The only difference between Mantle and Leto is the fact that Mantle is homosexual. Beyond that, they're both cisgendered males portraying women, right?

So I'm confused by this "androgynous" actress category... Is it because Mantle's film career is nearly exclusively based on her female characters? As I believe it, Mantle portrays transgendered and drag queen roles when in character... is he androgynous because he doesn't use a different name when in drag character? If that's the case, Barry Humphries, Dame Edna, while not ever nominated for an Oscar would certainly have more film/tv credits as Dame Edna.

I mean, I suppose Mantle would show up to the Oscars as a potential nominee in full drag whereas Leto, Humphries, (Hell even other drag portraying actors like Patrick Swayze, Robin Williams, etc.) would show up in tuxes and appear male. But isn't that just because he has found more success in that public persona? if Humphries was nominated as Edna, I would like to think he'd come AS Edna.

Not trying to diminish her performance, but I'm just failing to see the significance of Mantle's potential nomination... Perhaps if he were actually transgendered, or even gender-queer. then it would challenge the nomination system that is based around a gender binary system. But alas, it's honestly just a cis, gay male portraying a woman. I look forward to the film, though!

chloe

6/3/2014 02:37:12 am

Kelly doesn't identify as cisgender though.

Sara

6/4/2014 09:13:44 am

What does Kelly identify as then?

evesummers.xo@gmail.com

6/3/2014 07:26:19 am

The only difference? ........... I can think of a few others.

Jonny

6/4/2014 09:17:29 am

I think the guy was just pointing out that they're both cisgender males... And I agree, I mean if Kelly was trans then it'd be different. Right?

, link

6/4/2014 09:47:08 am

Kelly said in a interview she identifies as genderqueer/genderfluid.

even link

6/3/2014 02:40:14 am

well kelly is awesome, go furrrr the oscar girl!

Mock Turtle

6/3/2014 08:06:27 am

Kelly would definitely be worthy of a nomination, but can they only judge from that 90 second clip? I don't know how awards work, but still.

Max

6/3/2014 03:16:01 pm

I wonder what the Academy of Motion Pictures has as eligibility requirements for the gendered categories. I would expect it's a person self-identifying as that gender but also (even if not formally written down), the actor being that biological sex as far as legal status.

I'm not sure what you mean by "androgynous actress" in this article. Are you talking about your perception of Kelly Mantle's physical appearance when in drag? About Kelly Mantle's gender identity? (Perhaps she defines her gender as androgynous, in which case "her" may not be the preferred pronoun. I doubt you're talking about the character as of course a few actors have played trans characters and gotten Oscar nominations: Jaye Davidson (The Crying Game); Terence Stamp (Priscilla...); I think Felicity Huffman for Transamerica maybe; and Jared Leto. Also Linda Hunt played a male role as a female actor and was nominated in best supporting actress (I think maybe won). Ultimately what would be most "actory" and worthy of award is for someone to play someone not necessarily the same as they are outside of acting. So if a transwoman actress played a role of a male drag queen, that would be worthy of a best supporting actress nomination for example.

Overall, at some point I imagine they may need to expand from best supporting actress and actor to other gendered categories. But could be many years in the making. If you think about it many categories already have multiple gender nominees (director, screenwriter, etc.). But if they combined into just one Supporting Actor and it was regardless of gender, then it makes less stars, less awards to hand out, less reputation building, less stardom.

Overall, a onfusing framing device for this article. I like Kelly though and want to see her performances. An Independent Spirit Award may be more in the offing. Trans actress Harmony Santana got nominated for Best Supporting Actress in the Independent Spirit Awards for her role in Gun Hill Road (has been on Netflix. Check it out. Solid performance.)

Josh Labron

6/4/2014 11:16:25 pm

As much as I like her, I doubt it very much.

Scott

6/5/2014 07:58:58 am

The actor Kelly Mantle will never be nominated in a Female category. Academy Awards are very traditional. I mean, Brokeback Mountain didn't win Best Picture because of its theme.

Candy

6/6/2014 04:23:08 am

Kelly could be nominated for an Oscar. She's an amazing actress and singer & She obviously didn't need Drag Race. It was even leaked by one of the producers at World of Wonder that they actually paid Kelly a huge fee to be on Drag Race because they knew it would be good for their show & she knew it would be a boost for her career but she had an agreement that she would only be on one episode. That's why they had 14 girls divided into two groups this season & why she released her song Eliminated & handled the elimination so well because her & Ru planned it out from the beginning. She's been hugely successful since the show aired. So it worked out for them both. (She's been friends with the producers for years. There's a lot more that goes on behind the scenes than we know.) I've been a huge Kelly Mantle fan since I found out she was dating Johnny Rzeznik from the Goo Goo Dolls years ago (their my favorite band) & I saw her perform her music live so I'm just happy that more people are finally being introduced to her and her body of work. And by the way...she has said in many interviews that she identifies as genderqueer or gender fluid.

6/14/2014 07:05:30 am

Source(s)? No T no shade, but I don't believe any of what you just said.

Can Kelly Mantle Make History with an Oscar Nomination for 'Confessions of a Womanizer'?

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