Best Actress in a Supporting Role 1983: Linda Hunt in The Year of Living Dangerously

Linda Hunt won the Oscar from her only nomination to date for her performance as Billy Kwan in The Year of Living Dangerously.

The Year of Living Dangerously is a compelling movie about a young, ambitious reporter who witnesses the political turmoil of Indonesia under the rule of President Tukarno searching for a news that might get him a career boost. There are some elements of the movie that might seem a bit dated nowadays, but otherwise I thought that this was an excellent movie with a strong sense of pace and one that really gave a honest and realistic depiction of its principal matter. Mel Gibson gives a very effective performance in the leading role: he carries the movie wonderfully thanks to his terrific screen-presence and he does a remarkable job in portraying Hamilton's growing sense of justice. Sigourney Weaver is stuck in a rather boring role but she still manages to be quite impressive thanks to her usually great screen-presence.

Linda Hunt plays the role of the male dwarf Billy Kwan, a photographer who befriends Hamilton. Of course, Linda Hunt's performance is particularly famous due to the fact that it features a female actress playing a male role. Peter Weir certainly took a risk by casting Linda Hunt in this role as this performance could have been an embarrassing disaster in a million different ways - but it ultimately turned out to be a brilliant idea. I personally don't want to give Linda Hunt too much credit for playing a character of the opposite sex but at the same time I can't help but being extremely impressed by the fact that she never even once made me doubt that Billy was a man: her voice and line-deliveries, her body language and her mannerisms are utterly convincing and they really looked effortless - I never once felt that this performance was calculated, it was all extremely natural and believable from the first minute she was on-screen. After the first couple of minutes I even forgot that it was a woman playing a man: all I saw on screen was the character of Billy Kwan, and this is a true testament to Linda Hunt's ability in disappearing completely into the character's skin. So, yes, Linda Hunt is always completely believable as a male but as I mentioned I don't want to give her too much credit for being able to play a man as there is much more to a character outside of its gender. Before watching the movie, I was curious to see if Linda Hunt's performance was just an interesting choice of casting or something more. And it's much, much more. 

There is not a single aspect of the character that Linda Hunt didn't explore - she gives Billy such a rich, complex characterization that you just can't take your eyes off her whenever she is on-screen as her performance is always so full of nuances and surprises. Right from the beginning, Linda establishes Billy as the most interesting character of the movie as she adds so much depth to it: in a very small scene with Mel Gibson, Hunt manages to convey Billy's long-suffering emotional state due to his physical condition for which he is occasionally made fun of; in the scene in which Billy talks to Hamilton about how he thinks that there is not just good or bad in someone but there is a combination of both, Hunt does a fantastic job in portraying his view on life and delivers that monologue in such a captivating and magnetic fashion; and, of course, she does a phenomenal job in portraying Billy's sincere respect and admiration towards Tukarno, therefore making the eventual developement of the character absolutely devastating to witness. His chemistry with Mel Gibson couldn't be more perfect - they pay off each other beautifully and they make Billy's and Guy's friendship believable and eventually moving. Billy is the one who introduces Guy to Jill Bryant (Weaver), a woman to whom Billy proposed but who turned him down. Hunt does a fantastic job in showing that Billy is sincere in his attempts to bring Jill and Guy closer together and that he is genuinely happy for their relationship but at the same time he is heartbreaking as he suggests that Billy's feelings for Jill have not waned. 

Hunt's best scenes come towards the end when a shocked and heartbroken Billy abandons Guy due to his ambition. His "I created you" monologue to Guy is an astonishing moment because Hunt is absolutely devastating in portraying his heartbreak over the betrayal of his friend, a man on whom he put his trust, affection and devotion. His delivery of lines like "I thought you were a man of light", "Why can't you give yourself, why can't you learn to love" and "I would have given up the world for her. You wouldn't even give up one story" is absolutely heartbreaking and unforgettable. Hunt is also incredible in portraying Billy's disillusionement over Tukarno as he slowly realizes that he does not care about the population: Hunt couldn't be more moving in scenes like the one in which he witnesses the death of a child he knew or the one in which he constantly and desperately repeats Leo Tolstoy's quote "What then we just do?", portraying Billy as a confused, devastated man as everything he believed in turned out to be different than what the thought. Her display of strength, dignity and acceptance in Billy's final moments is just incredible and her very last moment with Gibson brought tears to my eyes and was simply a beautiful closure of Billy's fantastic character arc.

Words cannot really describe how brilliant this performance is. Linda Hunt completely disappears into the role of Billy Kwan and delivers a phenomenal performance that is full of nuances and complexities. It's one of the most touching and heartfelt performances I have ever seen and her psychological characterization of the role is so beautifully realized that her ability to play so well a character of the opposite sex is the least impressive thing of her portrayal. One of the best performances of all time. 

5/5