It seems like every year in recent memory, when the Academy Awards roll round, there are a legion of fanboys who say ‘This is Leo’s year! He deserves it for being Leo!’. The truth is that this simply isn’t the case, partly because the only Oscar that works that way is the Lifetime Achievement award, and partly because, despite his many exquisite performances over the last two decades (and more), he’s yet to deserve the big prize.
Before I go any further I want to say that I am a huge Leonardo DiCaprio fan, and I would love to see him win an Oscar one day, because he’s one of the best actors of this generation, and he’s pretty reliable in terms of the quality of the films he makes. In truth, I have no doubt that he will end his career with at least one of the gold statues on his mantelpiece, and when that day comes I’ll be cheering, but here’s why I believe he hasn’t been ‘robbed’ of one so far.
To date, DiCaprio has four acting Oscar nominations (and one for being a producer). The first was for one of his earliest roles in 1993’s What’s Eating Gilbert Grape?. This was a great indication of the way his career was going to go, and saw him nominated before he’d even turned twenty. While this is no doubt a great performance, he lost out to Tommy Lee Jones in The Fugitive, who was deserving, but in my opinion even he didn’t deserve the award, as that year also saw Ralph Fiennes get nominated for Schindler’s List, who would have been a more deserving winner, but once again that’s my opinion. The argument could be made that he was around third in line that year, or at the very best second, both of which mean he shouldn’t have won in 1994.
His second nomination came around ten years later in 2004’s The Aviator, which was really the true beginning of people saying he deserved the award every year. The film itself won five Oscars, so it was definitely the right kind of film to clean up at the Academy Awards, but once again poor Leo ran into an unstoppable opponent in Jamie Foxx’s performance in the Ray Charles biopic, Ray. This was a pretty sure bet that year, and even without taking into account the other performances (Clint Eastwood in Million Dollar Baby is a case that could easily be argued), It’s hard to say Leonardo Dicaprio would have been a deserving winner.
Now we go to what is in my opinion his best chance at winning to date, 2006’s Blood Diamond. Even though the film is only decent, he is a clear stand out, and he took on a very difficult accent that a lot of actors have struggled with, and succeeded so much that there were people who thought it was too fake sounding… which in a strange way was a good thing? This was also the year The Departed was released, making it an all round stellar year for DiCaprio, one of the best for any actor ever really, but much like Jamie Foxx a few years earlier, nobody was going to beat Forest Whitaker’s portrayal of Idi Amin in The Last King of Scotland. With rumours of Whitaker completely transforming into the role, both on and off-screen, nobody else really stood a chance.
His most recent nomination (until he no doubt gets nominated for The Revenant) was for The Wolf of Wall Street. Some people said that he didn’t win because this film was too controversial for the old-fashioned Academy, but the truth is (am I starting to sound repetitive?) he was never going to beat Mathew McConaughey’s unbelievable transformation in Dallas Buyers Club. Even if McConaughey hadn’t won, second in line was Chiwitel Ejiofor in 12 Years a Slave.
Now looking forward to this year, I can once again confidently say that he won’t win, and shouldn’t win. His performance in The Revenant is excellent, and there aren’t many actors that could have pulled off what he did, but looking at what will most likely be the nominees this year, it would be hard for anybody to argue his worthiness.
What do you think about Leonardo DiCaprio’s lack of Oscars? Do you agree with me, or do you think he should have won any of these years? Share any thoughts in the comments.
It’s sad really, more than anything else. I don’t see him winning this year, that’ll go to Eddie Redmayne. But perhaps ONE DAY he will win one. Here’s to you Leo!
SAD?!?!? SAD? SAD? I could literally type the word ‘sad’ with shitloads of question marks and exclamation points behind it all day long. I mean really!??? SAD?!!!!
Yeah, it’s sad that he hasn’t won an Oscar and he probably won’t for a while. I don’t see it as an unjust thing, I’ve never thought he should of won an Oscar over someone else for that year.
MAny words can, have and will be used to describe his career, but sad should not be one of them. He lives well.
This is the thing with DiCaprio he is has surpassed the need for an Oscar, in all honesty what would that little gold statue bring him, like you said every year legions of fans rally around him, can you name any other actor who has that kind of support, they recognise his accomplishments in acting probably more so then the majority of many other Academy Award winners. In this digital age were in he’s become a meme,which ingrains more so on the general publics subconscious then him picking up an award.
I’m sure most actors would take an Oscar over a meme… And yes he might be popular now but having that little gold guy I’m sure would mean a lot to him, his fans, AND the rest of his career.
Of course Actors would pride Oscars over e-fame, but Leo is the first actor to receive this kind of attention at this magnitude based off his status as a highly acclaimed actor who has not won an award. I am in no way saying he will drop off the face of the earth and become an obscurity, but I can see this attention on his acting disipate if he does win one.
Why do you think other actors such as Gary Oldman, Glen Close, Edward Norton or Ralph Fiennes have never received the publicity that Leo gets for not winning one?
I would argue all of those actors were at the height of their career in a different, non-internet heavy age, and also aren’t as genre friendly, which is what drives Leo’s internet popularity, despite the fact that he’s not even in many genre films.
Having said that, you do make a good point that less people will rally behind him should he win an Oscar, BUT I’m sure he would rather have one than not!
The last part is super wrong. Leo is the heavy favorite to win this year with no one even close and you are predicting him to win on this site.
I’m predicting him to win Best Actor but James and Todd have other ideas. I’m sticking with my prediction and agree with you.
Perhaps, it’s hard to know obviously as it hasn’t happened yet, I just feel like The Revenant isn’t the right kind of film to win any of the major awards. Too genre and too violent. Also, not quite good enough! That’s all my opinion though.