After spending an unhealthy amount of time mulling this over, I’ve shortened my list to the following five actresses, one of whom will be crowned the winner:
Octavia Spencer
Jennifer Lawrence
Amy Adams
Emma Stone
Cate Blanchett
Shoutout to Saoirse Ronan, who just missed the cut, primarily because she truly came into her own only in the latter half of the decade. She’s all set to dominate the next decade though.
Natalie Portman, who gave one of the performances of the decade in Black Swan, also misses out because other than Jackie and Annihilation, she hasn’t been consistent. And consistency is undeniably a massive factor.
Commiserations to Michelle Williams, Marion Cotillard, Lupita Nyong’o, Jessica Chastain, Tilda Swinton, Viola Davis, Emily Blunt and Charlize Theron as well.
Why am I pretending that these women are going to read this?
Also, I’m excluding Queen Streep from this discussion, because, well, she’s won enough things. She doesn’t need the ‘Sarthak’s Best Actress of the Decade’ Award to go along with her 21 Oscar nominations.
Although they both carry the same amount of prestige, I’m told. By whom, you ask? That’s confidential.
To maintain a semblance of objectivity, I’m going to list down their best performances this decade, taking into consideration my thoughts as well as critical reception and awards.
I’m also including the Rotten Tomatoes score of their respective movies. Stop groaning, I know they aren’t perfect, but they are an indicator of the general critical reception.
We’ll take it from there.
Oscar Nominations in the 2010s
Jennifer Lawrence – 4. Amy Adams – 4. Octavia Spencer – 3. Emma Stone – 3. Cate Blanchett – 2
Other than Amy Adams, all four of them have won an Oscar this decade.
These are the factors I’ll be looking at:
Consistency
Versatility
Relevance
Awards Pedigree
If this were a horror movie, Octavia Spencer would be knocked off first, but thankfully, it’s not.
First to be eliminated is Cate Blanchett, which is sort of ridiculous because her work in Blue Jasmine and Carol was nothing short of transcendent, and she’s probably the best actress of her generation, but again, I’m looking for consistency.
I struggled to fill the last two slots in her top five. Ragnarok was great, but that’s a role she could sleepwalk through. Blanchett falls short on awards pedigree as well. The 2000s was a much stronger decade for her.
Next to go is Octavia Spencer. She’s remarkably consistent and has racked up plenty of wins and nominations, but a lot of her roles are made from the same mould.
And while I can’t hold the fact that she almost exclusively appears in supporting roles against her, she hasn’t quite carried a movie on her own.
Emma Stone too has left the building. If the timeline was 2015 – 2019, she would be hands down the winner, but the first half of the decade wasn’t as fruitful for Stone, who really came into her own after Birdman.
I enjoyed her in Easy A, but apart from that, the early years of the 2010s were quite barren.
And then there were two.
In many ways, Jennifer Lawrence is the defining actress of the decade. She became the second-youngest actress to win the Best Actress Oscar and racked up 3 other nominations.
She struck a fine balance between critical acclaim and commercial success (X-Men, Hunger Games) and was the internet’s darling for the early part of the decade.
But much like Stone, Lawrence’s decade too is lopsided. The latter part of the 2010s has seen her go through a bit of a rough patch, both in terms of commercial and critical success.
Passengers bombed, and her performances in the X-Men movies went from “I’m uninterested” to straight-up “I don’t give a f*ck.”
So, ladies, gentlemen and others, I give you the winner – Amy Adams.
What can I say about Amy Adams that hasn’t already been said? She’s truly remarkable in every way.
Consistency? That top five doesn’t include Vice, Nocturnal Animals and Big Eyes. All spectacular performances.
Besides, her top five is as good as anyone else’s and better than most. Starting from The Fighter in 2010 to Vice in 2018, she hasn't had a dip.
Versatility? Strong, broken, independent, petrified; you name it– Adams has played characters with completely diverse characteristics this decade.
Besides, she’s appeared in Dramas, Comedies, Romcoms, Thrillers, Musicals, Sci-Fi, Superhero - she’s covered a lot of genres.
Relevance? She’s in the popular consciousness through her role as Lois Lane and because of her remarkable consistency, has invariably appeared in ‘Best Performance of the Year’ lists throughout the decade.
And while she may not be as big of a ‘star’ as Lawrence, she’s certainly beloved and respected.
Awards Pedigree? The fact that she hasn’t won an Oscar is astonishing. And the fact that she wasn’t even nominated for Arrival is mind-boggling. It’s such a superlative performances, the virtues of which become more apparent on a re-watch.
Still, she was nominated four times this decade; she’s no slouch.
And we haven’t even gotten to her work on the small screen; she’s unsurprisingly excellent in Sharp Objects.
Amy Adams is a true icon of the screen, and according to me, the best actress of the decade.
That’s the end of our show. Drive safe.
Thanks ♥️
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