Between the Oscars, BAFTAs, Golden Globes, Critics Choice and the Screen Actors Guild Awards, Leonardo DiCaprio has been nominated for acting awards 31 times during his career, which is quite amazing. He has won only three time though, two Golden Globes and a Critic’s Choice. There’s something deeply wrong with that sort of turnover for a man that many believe to be THE big actor right now. He outshines most in every performance, yet receives no acknowledgement past the critical acclaim.
This Sunday he once again heads into the Academy Awards in hope of finally taking away that big prize. He’s up for two awards: Best Actor for his leading role in The Wolf of Wall Street and also as the films Producer for Best Picture. It would be a cop-out for him to only walk away with Best Picture, but does he have what it takes to fend off the other four incredible performances? There’s just a feeling in the air that lighting will strike again.
What is it about DiCaprio that the Academy Awards don’t appreciate? Have they still not forgiven him for Titanic? Did he perhaps accidentally disregard the committee at a bar one time? Perhaps it’s his status as an Alpha Male. Seriously Oscars, the rest of us don’t mind, nor should you. Time and time again he has put in stellar performances that were either not given the big award or not acknowledged at all.
Here are his 5 finest performances that were deserving of an Oscar.
#5 Django Unchained (85th Academy Awards)
Can you believe he WASN’T EVEN NOMINATED! Yes, that’s right. Apparently you can only have one actor per film in each category, and for Best Supporting Actor that nomination and ultimately the victory went to Christoph Waltz for his role in Django Unchained. I don’t have a problem with that at all, Waltz was phenomenal but for me he was a joint lead, The Oscars however, seem to pick and choose this at will. Waltz was in the film for all but the last 10/15 minutes, I hardly think that makes him a supporting character. Alas, the Academy decided otherwise and Leo was robbed of even a nomination.
The Academy likes to make it up as they go along it seems. DiCaprio was nominated by the BAFTAs for Best Actor In A LEADING Role, for his performance in The Departed. Christoph Waltz has more consistent screen time in Django than DiCaprio does in The Departed, so how is Waltz only a supporting character? Some may say because the title of the film is DJANGO Unchained, but who unchains Django? Come on lads, sort your act out.
#4 The Departed (79th Academy Awards)
The most baffling of all of the exclusions must go to The Departed. Leonardo DiCaprio was, in fact, nominated for a role for the 79th Academy Awards. And he was nominated for Best Actor, it was just for the wrong film. The Departed was nominated for five different categories, including Best Director (Scorsese) and Best Picture – which it won both. Leo’s name did indeed come up on the nominees list, but everyone must’ve been very confused when it was for his lesser known film, Blood Diamond. It’s a good film and he was, as always, very good in it, but The Departed?! C’mon, that was on another level. Did they forget he was in it? Had they been drinking? Did they think “Damn, two good performances, okay we’ll draw it out of the hat. Saves us choosing”. Of course Forrest Whittaker went on to (unjustly) take the top gong for his performance in the [supporting] role for The Last King of Scotland.
#3 Gangs of New York (75th Academy Awards)
Another Scorsese collaboration. Another film positively received both commercially and critically worldwide. Another film that received many nominations at the Oscars. Another film that failed to give Leo his award. This must have been a tricky film, because when you’re acting alongside arguably one of the greatest actors of all time in Daniel-Day Lewis, a lot of the limelight is going to be taken away from you. Day-Lewis was the best thing about this film and he only missed out on winning an Academy Award himself due to a phenomenal performance from Adrian Brody. As critical as I’ve been about the way the Academy Awards conduct themselves, I’ll be a hypocrite here and say DiCaprio should have been thrown into the Best Supporting Actor category and here he should have won. While he would have been going up against some greats such as Christopher Walken in Catch Me If You Can and Paul Newman in Road To Perdition, you can’t deny that DiCaprio churned out yet another Oscar winning worthy performance.
#2 The Aviator (77th Academy Awards)
This is the most difficult to say from the list. A tricky year because of so many fine performances and you cannot take away from Jamie Foxx for his performance in Ray, it was stunning. DiCaprio, though, had an equally stunning performance as American business magnate and aviator, Howard Hughes. It’s not the large challenge of taking on the iconic American figure, but the subtleties in which DiCaprio plays the character which earned him the nomination for Best Actor, and it really was 50/50 between himself and Foxx for who should have received the honour, and perhaps if the film had been made a year earlier from the 77th Academy Awards, we’d be looking at Leonardo DiCaprio as an Oscar winner.
#1 What’s Eating Gilbert Grape (66th Academy Awards)
My best friend told me to watch this film when I was at University. Before then I hadn’t really been sold on Leonardo DiCaprio, only really seeing his work around the Titanic era. Leo was 18/19 at the time, it’s very important to remember this because when you watch it—and you really should—you won’t be able to understand how a teenager performed so uncomfortably real. He someone who manages to outshine the entire film’s cast (including Johnny Depp) in the utterly sweet drama and he was only the supporting role. Leo ultimately lost out in his Best Supporting Actor nomination to Tommy Lee Jones and it’s a real shame because he could have been part of a very exclusive club of young actors who won the award at such a young age. Perhaps at the time the Academy thought “He’s young, his time will come, he doesn’t need it yet”, little did they know years later he’d spill a Vodka Martini all over the lap of the head of the committee, therefore condemning him to never, ever, ever win an Award, such a shame. I can’t say I know much about the other performances (aside from TLJ in The Fugitive) that were also nominated for this award, but when you see his performance (bearing in mind at all times his age) it would have taken something pretty damn spectacular to genuinely say it was better than DiCaprio’s.
Come tonight this whole article/rant could be void, and I hope it is. I hope I have to print the pages out and eat them with a knife and fork. The competition is tough this year, perhaps as tough as the 77th Academy Awards. If DiCaprio does come away with the Oscar it’ll finally lay to rest the demons of three previous failed attempts. It may not be the Oscar for his greatest role, but it’ll be a much deserved Oscar none the less.
Recent Comments