‘The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart’ will find Sigourney Weaver back at the Emmys
Sigourney Weaver has been a powerhouse screen presence for decades dating back to her breakthrough role as Ellen Ripley in Ridley Scott‘s 1979 blockbuster “Alien.”. In recent years, she hasn’t featured in many projects outside of James Cameron‘s “Avatar” franchise but now, with Amazon Prime Video’s Australian series “The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart,” she has reminded everyone of her supreme talent as an actress.
“The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart” follows a young girl who survives a violent upbringing and is raised on a flower farm with her grandmother. Weaver plays June, the grandmother, and turns in a tour-de-force performance, as noted by critics.
Robert Lloyd (Los Angeles Times) proclaimed: “It’s a special treat to see Weaver, who does not overplay her assumed Australian accent, in such a substantial part; if the series seems a little long, one may at least appreciate the greater time it affords us to spend in her company. Her June, who seems stubbornly fixed at first, proves more mercurial, her taciturn toughness and controlling nature products of a finally revealed backstory that will lead to a much-belated reckoning with herself.”
Chris Vognar (The Wrap) opined: “It’s easy to take Weaver for granted… But when she commits, as she does in ‘Alice Hart’ (for which she was also an executive producer), there is no one better. Weaver is the emotional anchor of this series about trauma, memory, family and forgiveness — a thorny drama that crawls under your skin even as it struggles to stick a landing that does justice to what has been steadily built over seven tense hours.” Vognar continued: “This is ultimately Weaver’s show, and her feat here goes way beyond pulling off an Australian accent. She has fleshed out a character of near-Shakespearean complexity and violent moral ambivalence.”
Brian Tallerico (Roger Ebert) observed: “Sigourney Weaver’s work here is among the best of her luminous career, tackling a challenging role with subtlety and grace… The final stretch of the season also gives June a disease, which seems manipulative at first, but allows Weaver some of the richest dramatic material of her career as she comes to terms with the choices she made, the traumas that shaped her, and how both planted the seeds for Alice’s lost flowers.”
“The Lost Flowers of the Alice Hart” found great success at the AACTA Awards (the Australian Emmys). It reaped a dozen bids and won four races (including Best Miniseries or Telefeature); Weaver was nominated for Best TV Drama Actress.
Emmy voters may also not be able to resist the narrative of Weaver returning to the awards spotlight with this show. She hasn’t featured in many projects outside of “Avatar” of late so now that she is in a viable vehicle, they may choose to nominate her again in a category they have chosen to recognize her in plenty of times before.
Weaver is vying for her fourth Emmy bid as Best TV Movie/Limited Series Actress. She contended in 1998 for “Snow White: A Tale of Terror,” in 2009 for “Prayers for Bobby,” and in 2013 for “Political Animals.” (Her fourth Emmy nomination to date came in 2021 for Best Narrator for “Secrets of the Whales: Ocean Giants.”)
Weaver’s status as a veteran actress, a movie star, and an Oscar nominee (a three-time Oscar nominee, by the way) are all things that Emmy voters love in this category. Her career stacks up to the likes of past Best TV Movie/Limited Series Actress contenders Susan Sarandon (“Feud: Bette and Joan”), Jessica Lange (“Feud: Bette and Joan”), Emma Thompson (“Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street”), Frances McDormand (“Olive Kitteridge”), and Helen Mirren (“Phil Spector”).
Other Oscar nominees and winners nominated in this category include Jessica Chastain (“George and Tammy”), Toni Collette (“The Staircase”), Kate Winslet (“Mare of Easttown”), Octavia Spencer (“Self Made”), Cate Blanchett (“Mrs. America”), and Regina King (“Watchmen”/”Seven Seconds”).
Weaver is also an executive producer on”The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart.” Emmy voters admire women who produce the shows they star. Kathryn Hahn (“Tiny Beautiful Things”), Ali Wong (“Beef”), Chastain (“George and Tammy”), Winslet (“Mare of Easttown”), Spencer (“Self Made”), and Kerry Washington (“Little Fires Everywhere”) all earned nominations in this category for shows they also produced.
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