Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role 2001
Marcia Gay Harden Pollock 2001
SEX WORKER ROLE
Verna Bernbaum in Miller’s Crossing 1990
Character Is A Prostitute
Marcia Gay Harden in Miller’s Crossing 1990
“Miller’s Crossing” evokes the noir gangster films of the 1940s and 1950s, which were filmed in black and white. Here, Marcia made her film debut as Verna, an opportunistic gun moll (who is also a prostitute). To protect her brother, a bookmaker who is in major debt, she offers herself to a gangster. At the same time, she romances another gangster-in-training, thus juggling two men simultaneously.
Despite the high pedigree of Oscar Winners Joel and Ethan Coen, who wrote, directed, and produced the film, it received mixed reviews. Most reviewers praised Marcia’s performance highly. Rolling Stone Magazine would write of Harden’s perfromace:
“Harden scores a most impressive screen debut.”
Though the New York Times did write:
She “gives the impression of being tastefully dolled up for a 1920’s masquerade party.”
Watch clip from the film “Miller’s Crossing”
To read more about other Oscar-winning actresses playing characters working in the sex trade industry, please continue perusing Oscar Hookers