Every year when Oscar nominations are announced, there are always deserving parties who feel the cold shoulder of the snub. Sure, there is no way to properly recognize every great performance, but there are always a few that rankle especially. For Jake Gyllenhaal, this year the biggest snub was his Life costar, Ryan Reynolds. While at a Q&A for Nocturnal Animals, Gyllenhaal expressed his disappointment over Deadpool‘s lack of Oscar glory.
“We talk about brilliant performances all the time, you know, the actors who tear themselves apart for their roles, which I’m a believer in. But then I look at Ryan Reynolds in Deadpool and I say, ‘No one can do that but him.’ That is truly, purely him. As an artist he struggled for several years to figure that out and it’s all there on the screen. And it’s brilliant.”
However, it was his next soundbite that was the most telling.
“Sure it’s a comic book movie and it’s made a lot of money — but that doesn’t subtract from Ryan’s extraordinary work. Because it’s him. I mean, let’s ask ourselves: What else do we want from people who create? Something that is truly them.”
The continual snubbing of genre films not called Return Of The King or Avatar is usually up for debate at this time of year. Yes, Arrival managed to snag a handful of nominations (yay!), but Amy Adams, who is arguably the soul of the film, didn’t receive Academy recognition for her work. Just because there are aliens or superheroes involved, does that make a performance somewhat “less than?” Is art still art if it’s commercially successful? While it was unlikely that Reynolds was going to get a spot in such a stacked category, it’s still worth wondering about the weight of the popular vote.
(Via Entertainment Weekly)
