An erotic thriller that has a 94% Rotten Tomatoes score and should have been a shoe in for Oscar nominations ended up being disqualified for a technicality. Kevin Smith has been promoting the re-release of his cult classic Dogma into theaters, and he mentioned the Oscar controversy concerning his lead actress for that movie, Linda Fiorentino.

Kevin Smith went on The Rich Eisen Show to talk about the re-release of Dogma. The two discussed some interesting trivia about how Smith wanted Samuel L. Jackson to play Rufus. However, Chris Rock wanted the role and Smith said the actor fought for it. He also talked about how star-studded his cast was before discussing his lead actress, Linda Fiorentino, who played Bethany in Dogma. That is when Smith mentioned why he was so excited to get her for the movie.

Smith said Fiorentino just starred in Men in Black, so she had that fame coming in. However, the director said that he loved her from her 80s movie Vision Quest, her debut role. He then talked about the controversy surrounding her biggest role – the antagonist in the 1994 erotic thriller The Last Seduction.

“So, she was coming off Last Seduction… Fantastic John Dahl picture that she should have been nominated for an Academy Award because she would have won. But, if you remember, Showtime [it was actually HBO] aired it once at like midnight before it ever hit theaters and that disqualified it from Oscar compeтιтion. So, we were lucky to get Linda. Man, I was a huge Last Seduction fan.”

What This Means For The Last Seduction

The Last Seduction Could Have Won Linda Fiorentino An Oscar

In The Last Seduction, Linda Fiorentino stars as the murderous Bridget Gregory, a femme fatale in the erotic thriller neo-noir. However, she is a sympathetic character in other ways, as an abused wife who flees her husband Clay (Bill Pullman) and then tries to stop the abuse once and for all. Soon, she meets a young man named Mike (Peter Berg) and pulls him into her schemes, and then, in the end, double-crosses everyone, proving to be the perfect femme fatale.

This was the movie that brought Fiorentino her first mᴀssive critical acclaim, with comparisons to the femme fatale characters from classic film noir films. In his review of the movie, Roger Ebert said that Fiorentino impressed him in everything from Vision Quest to After Hours, but says that her role in The Last Seduction “is not only ingenious and entertaining, but liberating, because we can sense the story isn’t going to be twisted into conformity with some stupid formula” (via RogerEbert.com).

Fiorentino won the New York Film Critics Circle and London Film Critics Circle awards for Best Actress. She received a BAFTA nomination for Best Actress. However, she ended up disqualified from Oscar’s contention. That is because HBO showed the movie on TV once before its theatrical release. Stacy Kramer, the film’s executive in charge of development, didn’t know this until it was too late (via BBC):

“I didn’t even know. They didn’t tell me. I ran the creative team, but largely the business team operated completely separately. Nobody was watching movies on HBO and I thought it was a death knell, you know? We just ᴀssumed it was going to fade into oblivion.”

Our Take On The Last Seduction’s Oscar Disqualification

More People Need To Be Talking About Linda Fiorentino’s Best Movie

With Dogma back in theaters for another run, and a steel-case 4K release coming soon, Kevin Smith is pumping up his movie and the cast, including Linda Fiorentino, who retired from acting in 2009. This could mean people could look back and rediscover The Last Seduction, easily one of the best erotic thrillers of the modern era. Fiorentino was masterful in that movie, and as its Rotten Tomatoes score proves, it deserves more people talking about it. If Smith can raise interest in this modern classic, Fiorentino can get the praise she so rightfully deserves.

Sources: The Rich Eisen Show, RogerEbert.com, BBC