Hollywood veteran Amy Madigan has bagged the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress at the 98th Academy Awards on Monday for her performance in the horror film Weapons, becoming one of the rare actors to win the coveted trophy for a role in the horror genre.
The 75-year-old actor took the award home for her portrayal of Aunt Gladys in the Zach Cregger-directed film, marking her first Oscar win in a career spanning more than four decades.
In her acceptance speech, Madigan said, “Thank you very much. I am very overwhelmed”.
Madigan now joins a small group of actors who have won Academy Awards for performances in horror films — a genre that has historically been overlooked by the Oscars. Over the years, only a handful of performances in horror have been recognised, including Ruth Gordon for Rosemary’s Baby (1968), Kathy Bates for Misery (1990), Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins for The Silence of the Lambs (1991), and Natalie Portman for Black Swan (2010).
In Weapons, Madigan plays Aunt Gladys, an enigmatic and deeply unsettling figure whose presence looms large over the eerie events unfolding in a small American town. The horror thriller follows the mysterious disappearance of several schoolchildren, with Madigan’s character emerging as a key figure connected to the disturbing mystery.
A veteran performer across film, television and theatre, Madigan first received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the 1985 drama Twice in a Lifetime. She shot to fame in the 1980s with notable roles in films such as Love Child, Places in the Heart and Field of Dreams.