From indie icon to viral sensation: Amy Madigan conquers Hollywood (again) at 74

Oscar nominations — at least in the much-publicized and frequently debated acting categories — tend to follow a familiar pattern each year. The nominations are almost preordained: they are parceled out to a couple of trendy stars to sit in the front row, a former icon returning to anchor an inspiring redemption story, an international guest to broaden the ceremony’s global reach, and a long-overlooked industry veteran whose very presence adds prestige to the award. In recent years, this last slot has been filled by names like Fernanda Torres, Isabella Rossellini, Michelle Yeoh, and Jamie Lee Curtis. Now, all signs suggest that another renowned actress, Amy Madigan, will join that list.

At 74, Madigan is experiencing one of those unusual moments so beloved in the hills of Los Angeles: the veteran actress who, almost overnight and without any marketing campaign, becomes a surprising cultural phenomenon.

“Give Amy Madigan an Oscar,” exclaims Vulture. “This is the performance of the year,” says actress Sarah Paulson. “Amy Madigan deserves an award,” adds the Los Angeles Times, as major U.S. media rush to update their outdated profiles of the actress.

Her role as the mysterious Aunt Gladys in Weapons, the horror film that portrays the collective trauma of a community after the disappearance of every child in an elementary school class — except one — has catapulted her to the status of a summer movie icon, meme fodder, and aesthetic inspiration for next Halloween thanks to that look that evokes designer Zandra Rhodes and Bette Davis in What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?

The impact of her character has been so profound that Warner Bros., the studio behind the film, has already announced plans for a prequel centered on Gladys. And all this after just two weeks in theaters — especially striking given that Madigan wasn’t even part of the promotional campaign for Weapons so as to keep her role secret.

“It’s been overwhelming,” the veteran actress told The New York Times, still incredulous at the predictions that place her among the frontrunners this awards season. And while the Oscars don’t typically look kindly on the horror genre, film history has made its exceptions: the aforementioned Bette Davis, Ruth Gordon in Rosemary’s Baby, or more recently Demi Moore in The Substance, all managed to win over voters.

That the breakout actress of 2025 is 74 years old is striking to both the trade press and the average moviegoer — but Madigan’s story doesn’t fit the familiar clichés of redemption or resurrection. Born in Chicago, trained in philosophy, and once a rock singer with the band Jelly in the 1970s, she soon traded stages for film sets.

The 1980s were her busiest decade, with credits including Streets of Fire, Field of Dreams, Uncle Buck and Twice in a Lifetime — the latter earning her her only Oscar nomination, for Best Supporting Actress. She recalls that milestone mostly because, with her unglamorous profile, no fashion house offered to dress her, and she had to buy a gown herself.

Madigan has never chased the spotlight —“I don’t get invited to many events either,” she once remarked — nor has she courted scandal. Instead, she built a quiet career across film, television (her turn in the cult series Carnivàle) and theater, until Zach Cregger, one of Hollywood’s most promising young filmmakers, offered her the juiciest role of her career in more than two decades. It happened at their very first meeting — she didn’t need to do a single casting call.

But talking about Amy Madigan also means talking about one of Hollywood’s most admired and enduring couples: her marriage to acclaimed actor Ed Harris (The Truman Show, Apollo 13). They met more than 40 years ago, in a stage production in 1981, and married two years later.

The ceremony took place on a Monday, during a break from shooting the film they were both starring in, Places in the Heart — the first of more than a dozen projects they would go on to share. Together they have a daughter, Lily, now 32, who is beginning to take her own first steps in the film industry. Their marriage has long been held up as a rare example of lasting love and commitment in Hollywood.

“It has been a great friendship. I fell in love with Amy and her smarts. She is a serious, deep person,” Harris once said.

One enduring image is from the 1999 Academy Awards: while Meryl Streep and Warren Beatty stood to applaud director Elia Kazan as he received an honorary Oscar, Harris and Madigan remained seated, arms crossed and faces stern. Kazan had famously named colleagues during Senator McCarthy’s Hollywood witch hunts, enabling them to be persecuted for alleged communist sympathies.

“There was no way we were going to do that,” Madigan declared about their decision not to clap. She is the daughter of a journalist who worked in Washington during those dark years.

This past February, the couple made headlines again after losing their home in the Los Angeles wildfires. Now the spotlight is on her — the actress who for years pointed out how her husband’s opportunities multiplied while doors shut for women over 50.

But Harris, as she herself has confirmed, never doubted that her moment would come: “My husband has said to me repeatedly these past few years [...] ‘Something’s going to happen and it’s going to be a very different situation for you.’”

Judging by the Oscar predictions — and her own past experience — Madigan will surely have designers lining up to dress her this time.

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