Tatum O'Neal : Overrated performance in Paper Moon

Tatum O'Neal....The comparisons to Shirley Temple are disgraceful! She acts like a hoyden [on the screen], and it's encouraged. Producers with very immature tastes derive pleasure from watching child actresses and actresses in their seventies and above acting like tarts...and then to give her an Academy Award [for Paper Moon] on top of it!

—Joan Bennett

Online comment:

"Tatum was ideally cast as the outwardly obnoxious but inwardly wounded tomboy in Paper Moon. It was disappointing to learn that Bogdanovich and Tatum's douchebag dad had to drag the performance out of her, bribing her and giving her line readings for every single bit of dialogue as if she were a recalcitrant parrot. She was a cute kid who got lucky-- her subsequent lackluster career is proof of that."

Linda Blair or Madeline Kahn should have won that year.

And Ryan O'Neal should have at least nominated.

The only thing that ultimately matters about a performance is what's on screen, however those results were obtained. What's on screen with Tatum is great, but Addie was clearly a leading, not supporting , role.

R4 I disagree. Khan was Oscar worthy. So was Linda Blair who worked harder than Tatum.

They just felt it was cool to give a spoiled brat child an Oscar.

Tatum just got lucky, she was playing dress up, It's a shame that the real hard working actors got overlooked for a spoiled brat kid who got her lines fed to her and bribed out of her and only created havoc on the set.

You were only 8 when filming started. What do you remember about the shoot?

Most people on the set hated me, especially the actors! We all stayed at the Holiday Inn, This lovely lady -- my dad's boxing coach's wife -- became my guardian, and I was also always making a mess of her stuff. I once put her contacts in my eyes and had to go to the hospital. I remember having six-page dialogue scenes. We did take after take. Madeline Kahn got so annoyed in one scene because when I got the lines wrong, she had to keep walking up and down this hill. But I think they knew they were getting something good. I remember in one scene, my dad said something and I said, "Are you mad at me?" And he said (in a low tone): "No, Tatum. I am just doing the lines!" I was like, "Oopsie daisy!"

Does it matter how sausages are made?

At least they didn't tell her that her dog had died to get her to cry.

She was 8! Of course she needed to be heavily coached at that point. Sheesh!

OP your criticism of Tatum O' Neal is overrated.

Op = Ryan 0’Neal

How many kids are budding Meryl Streeps at that age? They don’t think of character motivation. They just want to have fun and or pretend. The Oscars can be like bingo. Bang. You get lucky. I think with child actors that win there’s that spark that can translate to something that they can build on (Patty Duke, Jodie Foster a nominee for Taxi Driver). Even Anna Paquin who is the modern day Tatum, is struggling with virtually no lines in the Irishman, even though she’s had more success than Tatum, thanks to True Blood.

Yep Madeline Kahn in Paper Moon was also nominated for Oscar and lost to Tatum O'Neal, but this monologue summarized it all, Kahn was an actress with range and O'Neal just being a kid, not her fault though.

Well, if it's any comfort to you OP, Tatum has paid for the injustice for the rest of her life.

Mercedes McCambridge should have been nominated along with Linda Blair.