If Lloyd Grossman were to go through the keyholes of Oscar winners’ houses, he would find their golden statues in various spots: from prime real estate such as the mantelpiece to the depths of cupboards collecting dust.
Emma Thompson, a two-time winner for Howards End and Sense and Sensibility, famously keeps hers in the loo: “They look far too outré anywhere else. They’re great big, gold, shiny things.” She’s not alone – Susan Sarandon, Lionel Richie and Sean Connery all claim to keep their golden fellas alongside their bidets and baths.
Kate Winslet is another Brit who’s opted for the loo for her best actress Academy Award, which she was awarded for her complex role as a concentration camp guard in the 2008 adaptation of Bernhard Schlink’s novel, The Reader.
While Jodie Foster used to opt for the bathroom – “they looked good with the faucets” – she has since moved the two she won for The Accused and Silence of the Lambs to a much more orthodox spot: a trophy case.
Traditionalists include George Clooney, whose awards – best picture for Argo and best supporting Actor for Syriana – are in his library at home, and Dustin Hoffman, whose two best actor awards – the first for Kramer vs. Kramer in 1980 and the second for Rain Man nine years later, are kept in his study.
Reese Witherspoon dreamt of being a non-traditionalist, reportedly wanting to transform the best actress statue she won for Walk the Line into a door knocker or a necklace (“statement” jewellery would not have cut the mustard). Neither option being practical, however, he now stands in her living room.
For all of the acceptance speech kerfuffle when Gwyneth Paltrow won best actress for her role as Viola de Lesseps in John Madden’s 1998 film Shakespeare in Love, the Hollywood star has since said she keeps the award tucked away – “the thing freaks me out”.
Tom Hanks has got a slightly more level head around his. He apparently keeps his best actor awards, one each for Philadelphia and Forrest Gump, on the family trophy shelf alongside football (the English kind) trophies and a World’s Greatest Mom trophy left from a mother’s day past.
Goldie Hawn’s award for best supporting actress in the 1970 film Cactus Flower rests somewhere altogether more zen – in the “India Room” in which she likes to meditate. Hers isn’t the only award to apparently emit good vibes – Russell Crowe’s award for best actor, which he won for his role as the bang-on-trend, leather miniskirt clad Maximus Decimus Meridius in Ridley Scott’s 2000 film Gladiator, is kept in a chicken coop on the actor’s Australian ranch. Crowe apparently thinks it helps the hens lay bigger eggs.
The parents of a number of stars have ended up with their Oscar-winning child’s awards. Angeline Jolie’s late mum, for a number of years, had the best supporting actress award her daughter won for her role as the troubled Lisa Rowe in Girl, Interrupted. Nicole Kidman’s best actress Oscar for The Hours now sits on her parents’ mantelpiece in Sydney, where neighbours apparently pass by for visits. Hollywood’s darling du jour, Jennifer Lawrence, keeps the award she won last year for her leading role in Silver Linings Playbook on top of her parents’ piano at home in Kentucky.
Holly Hunter reportedly keeps her best actress award, which she won for her portrayal of Ada McGrath in the 1994 New Zealand film, The Piano, at the New York offices of Joel and Ethan Coen. It sits alongside the statue Frances McDormand won for her role as the heavily-pregnant local police chief with the insatiable appetite, Marge Gunderson, in the Coens’ 1996 film Fargo.
In contrast to Hunter’s, her Piano co-star Anna Paquin’s Oscar seems to have no fixed abode, flitting between her sock drawer and on the floor next to her boots.
Nicolas Cage certainly bucks a lot of trends. He once told media that, for residency reasons, the award he won for the 1996 film Leaving Las Vegas was “in a truck somewhere moving through Louisiana”. Apparently, one of the ways the authorities determine if you’re a resident or not – in what must be the most niche of tests – is to ask where your Academy Award is.
But the best answer to the Oscar statue display question comes from Timothy Hutton, the youngest person ever to win the Academy Award for best supporting actor. Hutton, who won the gold figurine for his role in Ordinary People, was apparently having a party a number of years ago. His sister popped the Oscar in the fridge alongside the beers so that guests would happen upon it en route to refreshment. The statue is apparently still in there.
This article was amended on 25 February to reflect the fact that Angelina Jolie’s mother has since passed away.
