The Real Reason Why Marcia Gay Harden Made Less Money Than Ever After She Won An Oscar
Every year, cinephiles wait to find out who will win the Oscars that year since the Academy Awards is widely considered to be the most important awards show. Since the Oscars are such a big deal The Academy barely has to pay hosts anything because they value the exposure instead.
Just like the Oscars hosts, most of the nominees who show up to the awards show do so because they believe winning will do big things for their careers. Unfortunately for Marcia Gay Harden, however, her career proves that winning an Oscar isn't financially rewarding in every case.
What Movie Did Marcia Gay Harden Win An Oscar For?
Since many film fans value the Oscars, they assume actors care just as much. In some cases that is true like Ke Huy Quan whose whole career led to him winning an Oscar. However, there have been times when actors like Al Pacino didn't want to win an Oscar.
During Marcia Gay Harden's truly incredible career, she has never come across as the kind of actor who cares about fame that much. Sure, Harden has starred in a few bigger-budget movies like Flubber and the Fifty Shades movies, but she has spent her career mostly focusing on roles in smaller projects.
Some of Harden's most acclaimed performances include her parts in movies like Mystic River, Miller's Crossing, The Hoax, The Mist, and Desperate Measures. Harden has also been praised for her work in shows like The Morning Show and for her performances in two "Angels In America" plays.
Even though Harden has undeniably been incredible in a slew of different projects, her career reached its artistic peak in the year 2000. That year, Harden received almost universal praise for her stunning performance in the biographical drama film Pollock.
Alongside actors like Ed Harris and Jennifer Connelly, Harden gave a performance that was so good that she was nominated for and won several awards. The awards season went to another level for Harden when she was nominated for an Academy Award.
When Harden was nominated for the Best Supporting Actress Oscar, she had a lot of reasons to think she would lose. Most notably, Harden had to overcome the other women who were nominated alongside her, and it is an understatement to say she had stiff competition.
Alongside Harden, Almost Famous' Kate Hudson and Frances McDormand were in the running for the Best Supporting Actress award. Harden also had to compete against a pair of English acting legends, Judi Dench who was nominated for Chocolat, and Julie Waters who was nominated for Billy Elliot.
Despite the fact that all four of Harden's competitors are respected and acclaimed actors, none of them was destined to win. Instead, Harden's Pollock performance won her the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.
How Marcia Gay Harden Made Less Money After Winning An Oscar
In Hollywood, some actors have seemingly spent years wanting to win an Oscar. As a result, when an actor like Leonardo DiCaprio finally takes home a little gold man trophy, they almost certainly have spent years figuring out what to do next.
In 2021, Marcia Gay Harden was interviewed by Vulture, and she spoke about her Academy Award win at great length. During that conversation, Harden revealed that when she was nominated for an Oscar for Pollock, she had no idea what she was doing.
"Well, please understand, at that moment, I was a complete Oscar ignoramus. Positioning, campaigning — all of those things were completely new to me. I didn’t know that they had people at five in the morning that announced the Oscar nominations. I knew you’d take out ads, but I thought, Doesn’t everybody?"
Later in the same interview, Harden revealed what the process of promoting herself during Oscars season was like for her. Instead of being focused on doing everything she could to try to become an Oscars winner, Harden told Vulture she saw the process as an excuse to travel.
"I was busy traveling around the country doing the media thing — going to Texas and Cincinnati, wherever. My mindset was, “Oh great, I’ll go to Texas and get to see my mom! How much fun! Oh my God, they’re flying me everywhere!” Even though I was an established actress at that point, I don’t think I’d ever been on the kind of media tours that Pollock was putting me on."
While she spoke to Vulture, Harden explained that she didn't expect to be the one person to win the Oscar. "Oh, it was unlikely in my brain." Instead, Harden believed that Kate Hudson was going to be the person to take home the Academy Award instead of her.
As fascinating as it is to learn what the experience of being nominated for an Oscar was like for Harden, the reason why that matters for this article is she didn't seem prepared to win. Based on what Harden told Vulture, that likely played a role in the fact that she made less money after she won her Academy Award.
After Vulture's interviewer asked her about making less money after her Oscar win, she responded, "That is true." In retrospect, Harden has concluded that if she handled things differently after her Oscar win, winning the trophy could have been financially rewarding for her.
“In retrospect, maybe I could have held off for the next big role and constantly planted myself in a leading way. Retrospect is not my best friend. I think it’s a leash around your neck that keeps tugging you back. But I did ‘Max Bickford,’ and I loved doing it."
As Harden explained to Vulture, at that time she was most concerned about having a consistent income since she was "the breadwinner for [her] family". Since she believed that it would be a consistent job, Harden agreed to star in the show The Education of Max Bickford for less money than she'd made in the past.
Unfortunately for Harden, her faith in The Education of Max Bickford being a consistent source of income for her turned out to be misplaced. After only one season of the show aired, CBS canceled The Education of Max Bickford.
On the bright side, Harden is a talented enough actor that she was easily able to overcome her show's cancelation. In the years that followed, Harden went on to give many of her most acclaimed performances, and she has an $8 million fortune as of this writing according to Celebrity Net Worth.
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tbTErZ%2Bippeoe6S7zGiuobFdoq6zr8iaZKCZqWK1or7DnqVmpZGZsm64xKyqZqWfo7K6ecCfq56qXay2r7rIp55mmZ5ivLSvwKtkn6eiYr2wuMuomqRn