Amy Madigan Shares Reasoning Behind Her Viral Stone-Faced Reaction at 1999 Oscar Ceremony

As Madigan said in a new interview, she and her husband had "feelings" about director Elia Kazan being honored

NEED TO KNOW

• Amy Madigan is looking back on the 1999 Oscars, where she and husband Ed Harris were pictured stone-faced as director Elia Kazan was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award
• Kazan was a prolific director whose name became permanently tarnished when he went before Congress in 1952 during the McCarthy era
• As Madigan said in a new interview, she and her husband had “feelings” about him being honored

Amy Madigan is reflecting on a near-viral moment from the 1999 Academy Awards ceremony, where she and husband Ed Harris were pictured stone-faced as director Elia Kazan was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award.

Speaking on the Los Angeles Times' The Envelope video podcast, Madigan, 75, acknowledged that she and her husband, 75, had "feelings" about the moment.

"I had very definite feelings about it, and I thought it was wrongheaded and really somewhat shameful of the Academy to do that," Madigan said on the podcast.

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Kazan, who died in 2003, won Oscars for directing films such as Gentleman’s Agreement, On the Waterfront, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, East of Eden, Splendor in the Grass, A Face in the Crowd and The Last Tycoon.

To many, however, the director's name became permanently tarnished when he went before Congress in 1952 during the McCarthy era, naming those he said had been members with him in the Communist Party in the mid-1930s.

Madigan said she and her husband's response was not something the two had discussed prior to the ceremony.

"I knew he was going to get this special award from the Academy, which I did not agree with," she said. "My dad was a newspaper man, and a journalist, and a political analyst. And he, as a very young man, covered the McCarthy Hearings. And it really affected him. And he didn't talk about it too much."

She continued: "And I have pictures from it. And I'm very familiar with that period of time and what happened to people during that time — especially to people in my industry."

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"Somehow, Ed's picture and mine, because we're together, got really prominently displayed," Madigan acknowledged. "But there were other people in the audience who felt that way, too."

Madigan and Harris first met in 1980 and married in 1983 while working together on the film Places in the Heart. In the decades since, both have become acclaimed actors. Harris has been nominated for four Oscars, including for his work in Apollo 13 and The Truman Show, and an Emmy for his role on Westworld.

Madigan, who shot to fame following her roles in Field of Dreams and Uncle Buck, was nominated for an Oscar at age 75 for her performance as the unhinged Aunt Gladys in Weapons, her first nomination since 1986.

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