The critical success that precedes an Oscar nomination is not always accompanied by financial security.
Anna Kendrick said that after being nominated for an Oscar for her role in Up in the Air in 2009, she was still stone broke.
“My stylist told me I had to wear the perfect shoes for an outfit, and because the movie isn't out yet, nobody really knows who you are," Kendrick, 31, told Ellen DeGeneres. "'The shoe places don't want to loan you the shoes so can you buy a pair of Louboutins?'
“I was like, ‘I’m still poor’. So it was this weird combination of like all these great things are happening but at the same time nothing has changed so, it was a weird dichotomy.”
This was nowhere more evident than when she was being placed in expensive hotels during promotional tours for the film.
“At one point I was like, if we do another trip to New York can you put me up in a less nice hotel room and then I could keep some of the cash?.”
The answer was a disappointing and categorical 'no'.
Winning an Oscar isn’t guaranteed to grant instant happiness either, as Anne Hathaway recently recalled. Instead, her win prompted a backlash.
“I kind of lost my mind doing that movie and it hadn’t come back yet," she said. "Then I had to stand up in front of people and feel something I don’t feel which is uncomplicated happiness. It’s an obvious thing, you win an Oscar and you’re supposed to be happy. I didn’t feel that way. I felt wrong that I was standing there in a gown that cost more than some people are going to see in their lifetime and winning an award for portraying pain that still felt very much a part of our collective experience as human beings.”
