And The Awards Come Along
It started way back in 1989 when she was a young star. She won the Youth in Film Best Actress for Purple People Eater. Then came the Young Artist Award for Hocus Pocus. The new millennium of course brought with it a whole host of awards as Thora Birch continued her American Beauty success to spill over to many of the films that followed.
For American Beauty, she won the awards in 2000. There were awards a-plenty for her role as Jane Burnham in the film. She got the Young Artist Award again as well as the Young Star Award, the Best Young Actress/Performance in a Motion Picture Drama. She also got a BAFTA nomination for Best Supporting Actress. She also shared an award called Young Hollywood Award for the Best Screen Chemistry with Wes Bentley who plays Ricky in the film. She also shared an award with the rest of the cast at the Screen Actors Guild for Outstanding Performance by a Cast. She also shared an award from the Online Film Critics Society for the Best Ensemble.
Then came yet another movie where she excelled – Ghost World. Her performance in this movie won her a number of awards too – from the Best Actress Award by the San Diego Film Critics Society as well as the Seattle International Film Festival to the Toronto Film Critics Association Award. She was also nominated for Best Actress at the Golden Globe Awards. Then came the award for the Best Dressed from MTV for the same movie.
Her role a couple of years later in the Homeless to Harvard: The Liz Murray Story was also exceptional and this time, there was an Emmy nomination.
Well, with so many awards for someone so young, all we can conclude is that Thora Birch can act – and how. It’s almost as though she is used to the awards and the adulation that follows – after all, she was so young when she won her first award. The great thing is that the awards, while welcome, are not what her acting is all about. She’s not just a one hit wonder – someone who just comes up, shines and then disappears. What she seems to be more concerned with is whether the role is a challenging one or not. And that perhaps is what makes Thora Birch an actress that is sure to stay in the limelight for a very long time.