Can we please get behind an EGOT for Lily Tomlin?
We’re about to enter awards season, that time of year where where multiplexes are filled with sad movies about terminal illness, and every studio decides to release a movie about a British scientist.
It’s quite a time to be alive! Unless you’re a dead person being portrayed in a movie by Daniel Day-Lewis, in which case, it’s quite a time to be dead.
But this year’s awards season presents us with a special chance to make history. And not just any kind of history, but the type of history that warms hearts and minds, makes people smile, and confirms for Mike Huckabee that Hollywood is a modern day Gomorrah.
And that would be Lily Tomlin winning the Best Actress Oscar and becoming the 13th EGOT — that club of people who have won an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony. Tomlin’s got three of those, and the one she’s missing is the big “O”.
Tomlin, if you haven’t seen, is the star of a comedy called “Grandma,” a delightful 80-minute romp through the streets of Los Angeles in search of tattoo parlors, lesbian cafes, and abortion clinics. It is also one of the most tender looks at lost love, family dysfunction, and growing old this side of your last family reunion. And Tomlin chews up the scenery like a pro.
“This is Tomlin’s first leading role in a film in 27 years, and even though she is sharing the screen with multiple generations of fine actors, nearly every moment in this movie is all hers,” wrote critic Richard Roeper.
Even the New York Times flipped their marbles, having an Oprah’s Favorite Things freakout in praising Tomlin: “Someone should start a petition to put [Lily Tomlin’s] face on the $20 bill. It wouldn’t solve all our problems, but it would be a pretty good start.”
While I certainly would appreciate having Lily Tomlin’s face in my wallet, there is a more practical way to honor this legend: give her the Best Actress Oscar award and vault her into Club EGOT.
Why is this so significant? It’s one part comedy, one part LGBT history, and one part honoring strong women who fight through a whole bunch of bullshit.
With Tomlin being one of comedy’s iconic staples for more than four decades, the Academy has the rare opportunity to do something it so infrequently does: acknowledge comedic performances. In the past 40 years, roughly only five women have won Best Actress Oscars for being funny on screen: Jennifer Lawrence (Silver Linings Playbook), Helen Hunt (As Good As It Gets), Cher (Moonstruck), maybe Cate Blanchett (if Blue Jasmine made you laugh instead of wanting to go on antidepressants), and Diane Keaton (for Annie Hall, which I’d argue is also the last comedic film to win Best Picture, though some Birdman fans might disagree).
There’s also diversifying that EGOT club. It’s currently eight men and four women, which is better than most elite clubs but could stand to represent the breadth of Hollywood a bit more. There are two gay men — actor Sir John Gielgud (though he was not particularly open about his sexual orientation throughout most of his career) and producer Scott Rudin. But think of how powerful it would be for an openly lesbian 76-year-old woman getting up on stage and proudly thanking her wife, as she accepts an award for playing a lesbian grandmother committed to reproductive rights? *Head explodes*
And the last part is honoring a performer who has had to cut through decades of sexist bullshit in the industry. Tomlin told Huffington Post Live earlier this year about sexism being rampant in the industry in the 60s, 70s and 80s; how male producers on movies would want her to sit on their laps, or how passing comments on sets would make fun of her looks. There’s even a bit of a gross anecdote about how on the set of “Nashville,” the movie she starred in the last time she was nominated for an Academy Award 40 years ago, the crew would spill beer on women on the set in order to give them wet T-shirts.
Putting up with decades of that deserves at least an Oscar, if not 20.
The actress is an icon. And the performance she gives in “Grandma” is equally iconic and memorable. Let’s not wait another 40 years before giving Lily Tomlin the opportunity to be honored on stage for all that she’s brought entertainment and film during her legendary career.
