For weeks now, I’ve read time after time after time what a hard shoot The Revenant turned out to be. Did you know Leonardo DiCaprio ate raw meat? Well, he did. I am not sure how this information translates into winning an Oscar, but someone out there sure thinks it might do the trick. To be fair, from most accounts, it doesn’t sound like shooting the film was a pleasant experience. (Though, I’m not sure the whole “I went to my job and I didn’t have a good time” strategy is going to play well with the overwhelming majority of human beings. If this is the only qualification for an Oscar, I’m sure there are some people down at the Chrysler plant who feel they should win Oscars, too.)
Anyway, yes, we get it: Filming The Revenant wasn’t fun. But here’s something that didn’t happen to Leonardo DiCaprio while filming The Revenant: He didn’t get knocked out after being punched in the face. Twice.
Michael B Jordon, “young creed and “getting KO’d for real! But he got up and did it again! That’s called guts!! pic.twitter.com/yFo3PVmvhA
— Sylvester Stallone (@TheSlyStallone) December 9, 2015
Oh, DiCaprio also didn’t break his leg, recover, then finish filming one of the most financially successful movies of all time.
If we are having a “hurt off,” I’m going to side with Michael B. Jordan and Harrison Ford every time over DiCaprio. Now, putting all that aside (because this isn’t a “hurt off,” a lot of movies can be hard), I’m not saying DiCaprio doesn’t deserve an Oscar nomination. But, for the life of me, I can’t figure out why we aren’t talking more about Jordan and Ford also receiving nominations … because they both should.
Let’s start with Jordan.
Yes, Jordan is getting some accolades, but not nearly enough. Without Jordan (and Ryan Coogler’s deft directing), Creed is nothing more than Rocky VII. After I saw Creed (a movie I love), I immediately thought both Jordan and Sylvester Stallone would be Oscar players. Now, a few months later, Stallone is well on his way, but people seem unsure of Jordan. I don’t understand this! Michael B. Jordan is the life force of Creed. The reason we all got chills down our spines during that scene when that music comes on is because of Jordan. Yes, it’s a well-timed musical cue, but it works because we care so much about Jordan’s Adonis Creed.
If I was staring at the odds on favorites to nab a Best Actor nomination and thinking, Well, those really are five of the best performances of the last decade, it really is tough to make a case for Jordan to get in, I would not write this piece. But this is a year where the frontrunners are “fine.” Like, how is Johnny Depp in Black Mass a frontrunner and Michael B. Jordan isn’t? I don’t care about predicting how “the Academy votes,” this is just stupid. Honest to goodness, looking at the frontrunners, there is not one person on this list that has anything close to a consensus (except DiCaprio because “he’s due” and “he had a bad time at work”), but Jordan can’t crack that group? Especially in a year when the field, across all categories, is not looking diverse. But we’re going to nominate Steve Carell again? For yet another role (after last year’s Foxcatcher) that is clearly supporting? (I think Carell is great in The Big Short, but if there was ever an ensemble movie, that is an ensemble movie.) Creed isn’t an ensemble and Michael B. Jordan absolutely carries the weight of one of the best movies of the year on his shoulders.
Look, I don’t have a vote and certainly no one has to listen to me, but Jordan not being one of the five frontrunners is infuriatingly dumb.
Speaking of Stallone – if he can garner so much awards attention for a reprising a role he started playing in the 1970s, then so should Harrison Ford. It’s a little trickier with Ford, mostly due to logistics. Creed started screening in early November for critics and voters, and this put Stallone’s name in the heart of awards chatter pretty early on – and we knew Stallone’s Rocky Balboa would be a big part of the film from early on. With Ford in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, literally no one outside of Disney honchos and the cast and crew saw the film until the week of Dec. 14, which is after almost every voting body had already voted. No one even knew for sure how much Ford would be in the movie: Would it be a glorified cameo?
So, Stallone has “momentum” because he’s picked up a couple of awards, including the National Board of Review’s, which had their ceremony Tuesday night. I do wonder what things would look like if The Force Awakens had screened for all of the regional awards? Would Ford have picked up a supporting nomination here and there just to keep his name in the mix?
I have followed the career of Harrison Ford literally almost my entire life. He’s kind of in this strange category by himself: An actor who has been in a lot of action movies, yet doesn’t have an action star physique (he’s kind of a skinny guy!) and owns an Oscar nomination for Witness. When he’s engaged, Ford can bring a “cocky yet underdog” quality to a role that not many others can quite duplicate, if anyone really. It’s been many years since I’ve seen Ford truly engaged in a role. Even the last time he played Indiana Jones – a role he likes! — in Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, he’s trying to be engaged, but it’s just not there. Who knew that it would take him playing Han Solo again – a role he has not liked! – to find a role he could really sink his teeth into.
Much like Stallone, this might be Ford’s last great role. Hopefully not (for both of them), but there’s something nice about both of them finding redemption, of sorts, in the roles that made them and giving performances that are legitimately great. Though, both performances brought something different. For Stallone, it was quiet introspection reflecting on what it means to be older. For Ford, a guy who has built his recent career on being “the cranky old guy,” he found the fountain of youth in Solo and it was remarkable to watch. In the scene where two rival gangs corner Solo on his freighter, Ford gives the line, “Tasu Leech, good to see you!” – a line delivered with the kind of Ford bravado we haven’t heard since the ‘80s.
Again, the lack of Ford talk is understandable to a point: It’s Star Wars. Then again, if Alec Guinness can get a nomination for the original Star Wars, why not Ford this time around? He’s legitimately wonderful. But for Jordan, I don’t understand this at all, and hopefully all of the prognosticators and voting bodies up until this point are wrong – because Jordan gave one of the five best performances of the year, hands down. (And remember, for as hard as The Revenant probably was, no one took a punch to the face or broke their leg.)
Michael B Jordon, “young creed and “getting KO’d for real! But he got up and did it again! That’s called guts!! pic.twitter.com/yFo3PVmvhA
— Sylvester Stallone (@TheSlyStallone) December 9, 2015
Mike Ryan lives in New York City and has written for The Huffington Post, Wired, Vanity Fair and New York magazine. He is senior entertainment writer at Uproxx. You can contact him directly on Twitter.
