What to Know About Weapons' Amy Madigan After Critics Choice Upset

Critics Choice Awards 2026 Biggest Winners: Timothée Chalamet, One Battle After Another & More

No branches were broken in the crowning of Amy Madigan as Best Supporting Actress at the 2026 Critics Choice Awards.

But while the Dior-wearing 75-year-old's history-making win at the Jan. 4 event was considered an upset in a stacked category featuring Teyana Taylor, Ariana Grande and Elle Fanning, fans who were entranced by the villainous Aunt Gladys in the sleeper-hit horror film Weapons were not crying into their canned soup afterward.

Madigan, however, got a bit misty-eyed after hearing her name called for not the first time—the veteran performer having won over a host of critics groups—and quite possibly not the last, since she's also nominated for a Golden Globe Jan. 11 (and the 2026 Oscar nominations will be announced Jan. 22).

"I really wasn't expecting all of this," she said from the Critics Choice stage, "because I thought people would like the movie, and I thought people would dig Gladys. But, you love Gladys! I mean, it's crazy!"

"I get makeup tutorials and paintings," the Chicago native continued. "I even got one weird thing about how she's a sex icon also. Which, I didn't go too deep into that one."

She went on to thank Warner Bros., studio heads Pam Abdy and Mike DeLuca, the film's PR reps, the "beautiful" Weapons cast and "the whole team that created the look."

"Because," Madigan quipped, "once we found those bangs, we knew we had it."

She concluded, "I never really knew what it meant to thank your fans, usually I see that with great music people. But I'm thanking my fans for this, too."

Though it's not as if Madigan just acquired a following. She may have been near-unrecognizable as the hairline-challenged Gladys, but there are countless reasons why the Oscar- and Emmy-nominated, Golden Globe-winning actress (that's right, if she wins next week, it'll be for the second time) looks familiar to you.

Here is more to know about Madigan before awards season carries her off into the night:

In case you missed her 1970s appearance in Playboy while slathered in jelly, to promote her rock band Jelly (of which she was the lead singer), Madigan made her screen debut on the TV show Hart to Hart in 1981. She appeared in her first film—Love Child, costarring Beau Bridges and Mackenzie Phillips—the following year and scored the first of her, to date, four Golden Globe nominations, New Star of the Year in a Motion Picture - Female.

The stage and screen performer made her off-Broadway debut in 1987 in The Lucky Spot, earning a Drama Desk Award nomination, then starred as Stella in A Streetcar Named Desire on Broadway in 1992.

What is Amy Madigan's movie Weapons about?

Written and directed by Zach Cregger, Weapons—in a nutshell—is about what happens to a suburban town after 17 kids from one third-grade class inexplicably get out of bed one night, leave their homes and vanish into the darkness. When their teacher (Julia Garner) comes to school the next morning, only Alex (Cary Christopher) remains.

Spoiler alert, Alex's creepy Aunt Gladys—played by Madigan—has something to do with it.

For starters—aside from the 1989 TV movie Roe v. Wade, for which she was nominated for an Emmy and won a Golden Globe for her supporting turn as Sarah Weddington, the attorney who took the landmark case to the Supreme Court, or the 1985 film Twice in a Lifetime, which earned her an Oscar nomination—she's the mom in Field of Dreams!

That's right, she played Annie, the very patient wife of Kevin Costner's Ray, who took it as gospel that, if he builds it, they will come.

Her other pre-Weapons film credits, among many, include Uncle Buck, Pollock (starring her husband, more on that in a sec), Gone Baby Gone, Rules Don't Apply and The Hunt.

Madigan is just as prolific on the small screen, having appeared on TV in the likes of (also to name just a few) Frasier, A Bright Shining Lie, The Laramie Project, Carnivàle, Grey's Anatomy, ER, Law & Order, Fringe, Grace & Frankie, How to Get Away With Murder and Penny Dreadful: City of Angels.

While Harris hasn't made an appearance with his wife yet during this awards season, there are more events to come. And over the years, Madigan has attended her fair share of these ceremonies alongside her husband, including the 2001 Oscars, when he was nominated for Best Actor following his turn as the titular paint-splattering artist in Pollock.

Madigan played philanthropist Peggy Guggenheim in the 2000 film, not the first or last time the couple worked together. In fact, they met doing a play at in Los Angeles in 1981.

Who is nominated for a 2026 Golden Globe alongside Amy Madigan?

Except for Sinners' Wunmi Mosaku, all of the stars Madigan topped at the Critics Choice Awards are also nominated for Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture at the 2026 Golden Globes Jan. 11.

Joining Madigan, One Battle After Another's Teyana Taylor, Wicked: For Good's Ariana Grande, and Sentimental Value's Elle Fanning and Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas in the category is The Smashing Machine's Emily Blunt.

May the most captivating performance win [snap].

See more surprise nominations, plus who got snubbed, ahead of the 2026 Golden Globes: