Oscar Nod Not Always a Big Boost for Career

If anyone doubts the power of Oscar, consider John Travolta.

Last year’s Academy Award nomination for “Pulp Fiction” sealed the actor’s comeback after a string of failures and talking-baby comedies. Since then, he’s won raves in “Get Shorty” and looks destined for another hit with his current action film, “Broken Arrow.”

But a nomination only goes so far, as Sally Kirkland discovered. The actress campaigned fiercely for--and received--a nod for 1987’s morose drama “Anna,” only to see her career sputter since.

The nominations for the 68th annual Academy Awards, to be announced this morning, will probably produce a list of predictable candidates along with a few surprises. Yet observers agree that for all of their horse-race atmosphere, the nominations can help shape a performer or director’s career, usually but not always for the better.

“The Oscar is a contributing factor, not a determining factor” in a Hollywood career, said Emanuel Levy, a film professor and Variety critic who has written about the Oscars. While the nominations increase visibility and credibility, they also raise the stakes. “What Oscar produces is tremendous career anxiety. After you get your first Oscar, you’re under tremendous pressure to get a second Oscar, and that becomes the point of each film.”

Producer Steve Tisch, whose “Forrest Gump” won as best picture last year, said he has since consciously avoided seeking “Oscar-winning” material. But he admitted that the award opens previously closed doors: “In terms of perception, which is all this business is about, it helps.”

Indeed, a look back at nominees from 1995 and previous years suggests how Oscar can both help and hinder.

Much depends, as usual, on timing. Travolta, who turns 42 this week, was considered a has-been until “Pulp Fiction.” The nomination helped secure his return as a respected leading man and probably helped hike his asking price. (The Oscar eventually went to Tom Hanks for “Forrest Gump.”) Now Travolta is gliding into busy middle-aged stardom, with upcoming roles in the comic fantasy “Phenomenon,” the Nora Ephron comedy “Michael” and the John Woo action picture “Face Off.”

A nomination can mean even more to a younger actor struggling for better parts. Jennifer Tilly was relatively unknown until she scored a breakthrough as a brassy blond starlet in Woody Allen’s “Bullets Over Broadway.” She will soon co-star (with Gina Gershon) in “Bound” and also appears in the ensemble comedy “House Arrest.”

Yet a nod means considerably less to the career of an actor or director facing retirement or to one already honored with an Oscar.

Paul Newman’s nomination last year for “Nobody’s Fool” probably changed few perceptions, inside or outside Hollywood. For the record, the 71-year-old actor, who won as best actor in 1986 for “The Color of Money,” has been involved for several years in trying to write, direct, produce and star in a comic western called “The Homesman.”

But three-time nominee Martin Landau, 61, who won as best supporting actor last year for “Ed Wood,” thinks the award can help validate hard-to-peg roles and performers. “I’m not a casting director’s dream,” he admitted. “Other actors have clearer outlines. It takes a certain kind of director to hire me.” Landau appears in “City Hall,” opening this week; his next project is a live-action version of “Pinocchio,” which he had committed to before he won the Oscar.

“It depends on what phase of your career you’re nominated in,” Levy said. “The younger you are, the more effect it has, generally. . . . Look what ‘Atlantic City’ did for Susan Sarandon. That was her first nomination, and now she’s turned into a perennial nominee. But it took her 11 years to win that major role.”

For Jessica Lange, 46, the honor may have come too late.

“I don’t think the Oscar for ‘Blue Sky’ will change that much in this phase of her career,” Levy said. “She’s already an established actress.”

In some cases, an Oscar nod can even have a paralyzing effect. Either the performer never lives up to the promise signified by the award--or else fears that he or she will somehow fail to meet the crushing expectation.

Levy cited Cher as an example. The 49-year-old actress took home an Oscar for 1987’s “Moonstruck,” capping an extraordinary rise from ridiculed pop star to respected leading roles. But in the nine years since, she has made only two films, the disappointing “Mermaids” (1990) and the troubled, as-yet-unreleased “Faithful.”

“Look at how frozen she became, picky and insecure,” Levy said. “The Oscar probably made her more insecure about selecting parts for herself. And [the industry will] forget about you. . . . The Oscar is like a credit card, and you have to use it the right way to win.”