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Credit: Wikimedia\/David Hsankbone<\/p>\n
Fri 24 April 2026 20:15, UK <\/p>\n
Conventional wisdom is that, to win an Oscar<\/a>, you have to play a serious character. <\/p>\n Comedy does not fare well at the biggest night of the showbiz calendar, with only a handful of actors having won the top prize for being funny, and one of them is Marisa Tomei. <\/p>\n For her role as Mona Lisa Vito, the fast-talking, no-nonsense New Yorker in My Cousin Vinny, she was rewarded with the Academy Award for \u2018Best Supporting Actress\u2019, defeating such luminaries as Joan Plowright and Vanessa Redgrave to strike a blow to the \u2018more than just a pretty face\u2019 archetype, but\u00a0modern audiences will likely know her for her role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. <\/p>\n She\u2019s made five appearances as May Parker, aunt of Tom Holland\u2019s Spider-Man (who\u2019s apparently a big fan of her work), becoming the third actor to bring the role to the big screen in live-action form, following Rosemary Harris in Sam Raimi\u2019s trilogy and Sally Field in Marc Webb\u2019s Amazing Spider-Man films.\u00a0<\/p>\n The big joke surrounding Tomei\u2019s version of Aunt May is that she\u2019s sexy, for traditionally, the character is portrayed as an older woman, a mother figure to young Peter, presented more like a kindly grandmother figure. Not this version, as in literally her first scene, Robert Downey Jr\u2019s Tony Stark is surprised by how young and good-looking she is when she opens the door to him, a fun twist that gave Tomei the opportunity to get more involved in the action later down the line.\u00a0<\/p>\n While this take on Aunt May was ultimately very flattering towards Tomei, she took a little bit of convincing. Clearly not a comic book fan, she was a little shocked when she found out how her new character was originally portrayed, as she explained to The New York Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI was horrified,\u201d she said, before breaking out into a chuckle, \u201cTalk about crushed. I went through the whole negotiation without knowing. They just kept saying \u2018an iconic character, an iconic character\u2019. It sounds kind of ridiculous, but it all happened very quickly. It was right before Captain America: Civil War was shooting. Everything happened within maybe ten days. But I was more focused on my deal, honestly. And then, the illustration was revealed to me.\u201d<\/p>\n Maybelle \u2018May\u2019 Parker, to give her full name, has been part of Spider-Man\u2019s story right from the start, making her first appearance in Amazing Fantasy #15 (the same issue as the web-slinger), emblematic of the teenage demigod\u2019s human side, where her relationship with Peter, especially in the wake of Uncle Ben\u2019s death, is often played for sympathy, especially if she ends up in danger. <\/p>\n The decision to make her younger and less vulnerable was deliberately made, thus, to challenge this dynamic and bring a new dimension to the long-standing icon, and while she might not have been immediately impressed, Tomei did a great job as Aunt May, providing plenty of laughs and tears, especially with her tragic death in Spider-Man: No Way Home. It sounds like she didn\u2019t hate her tenure as the character, unlike Sally Field\u2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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