Actors Forced to Pretend to Be Happy Over Ties at the 2019 Critics' Choice Awards

The only thing worse than losing is not really losing, but tying, and being compelled to say, “What an honor…” alongside your competitor who just moments prior, you were hoping would lose. At Sunday night’s 2019 Critics’ Choice Awards, four women were burdened by the tie: Lady Gaga and Glenn Close were both awarded Best Actress for A Star Is Born and The Wife, respectively. Amy Adams and Patricia Arquette took home Best Actress in a Limited Series or Movie Made For Television for Sharp Objects and Escape at Dannemora, respectively.

“I am so thrilled it’s a tie, I can’t tell you,” said Close. “I was thinking that, you know, the world kind of pits us against each other in this profession and I know that from all the women in this category, and I think I can speak for all the women in this room, we celebrate each other.” Gaga concurred, “I’m so very happy that you won this this evening. This is a tremendous honor.”

It would probably be viewed as uncouth if any of them had verbalized what we were all thinking, which is: How could this happen? (We need to see the math.) Consequently, all these actors deserve additional awards for their acceptance speeches. When Adams and Arquette accepted their award together, Adams addressed the room: “I actually can’t think of a more beautiful thing than a tie, because there really isn’t a winner when we get to do such great work and we have such wonderful opportunities. I’m overwhelmed. I have so many people to thank, but I don’t want to take it up.”

Arquette meanwhile thanked Ben Stiller. “I want to thank Ben Stiller, our incredible, courageous director who really let us explore and remove the yoke from my neck that I felt I’ve carried my whole career of, ‘But is she likable?’ Thank you for taking that off my neck. It was really heavy for me to carry that long,” she said.

In the game of life, sure, there are many winners, but awards shows should only be allowed one.