Marquette University College of Arts & Sciences alumna Amy Madigan (’72) won her first Actor Award on March 1 for her role in “Weapons,” a mystery horror film released by Warner Bros. Pictures. This was also her first nomination for an Actor Award.
Madigan won Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of Aunt Gladys, the villain responsible for the disappearance of 17 children in the movie. Prior to this award, Madigan had not won a major acting award since her performance as Sarah Weddington in “Roe v. Wade,” for which she won the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress in a Series, Miniseries or Television Film.
At the Actor Awards, she beat out Teyana Taylor (“One Battle After Another”), Odessa A’zion (“Marty Supreme”), Ariana Grande (“Wicked: For Good”) and Wunmi Mosaku (“Sinners”) to win the award.
The Aunt Gladys character has received positive feedback online, becoming a topic of conversation on the Golden Globes and Actor Awards red carpet, with people calling for a prequel that tells the character’s background story.
The awards show was streamed live on Netflix for the third year in a row. Actor Jonathan Bailey presented the award, and Madigan approached the stage with a skip in a step and her arms flaying behind her as she accepted the award.
“It’s such an honor to be here,” Madigan said in her speech. “I’ve been doing this a long a** time, and I have never been nominated by the SAG committee and Guild.”
She continued by thanking the ensemble of the movie for their support throughout the process — along with Zach Cregger, the film’s director — and making comedic comments about the physical Actor Award.
To close her speech, Madigan said, “As you can tell, I’m nervous, just overwhelmed and so happy.”
Earlier this year, Madigan was nominated for a Golden Globe, marking her as the actress with the longest gap — 40 years — between nominations.
Madigan is up for another nomination for Best Supporting Actress at the Academy Awards, which will take place March 15 at 6 p.m. CST on ABC, or any platform that offers ABC.
This story was written by MaryKate Stepchuk. She can be reached at [email protected].
