10 Actors We Still Can't Believe Are Oscar Nominees

6. Juliette Lewis (Cape Fear)

Juliette Lewis is a fine actress when she wants to be, even if she does basically just get pigeonholed into the same "Southern trashbag" roles these days, and the overwhelming majority of her awards consideration has been towards one performance, in Martin Scorsese's Cape Fear. At the mere age of 19, Lewis, who had limited acting experience in the world of TV, delivered a brilliantly multi-faceted performance as the young girl being mercilessly pursued by a slimy criminal (Robert De Niro). Lewis did have a strong run of films in the 90s in particular (Kalifornia, What's Eating Gilbert Grape, Natural Born Killers, From Dusk Till Dawn), but by the 2000s she tended mainly towards broad comedy and the occasional dramatic supporting role (Conviction and the recent August: Osage County). Lewis' penchant for playing white trash characters (and that's no slam against her) makes it easy to forget that she has played far above and beyond that in the past.