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Last month Joaquin Phoenix slammed awards season, telling Interview
magazine he considers it ”utter bullshit”. Now Anthony Hopkins, whose film Hitchcock is getting Oscar buzz, seems to be joining the anti-Oscar campaign. Hopkins tells the Huffington Post he’s not interested. ”Having to be nice to people and to be charming and flirting with them … oh, come on! People go out of their way to flatter the nominating body and I think it’s kind of disgusting. That’s always been against my nature”, said Hopkins, who won the Best Actor Oscar in 1991 for Silence Of The Lambs. He tells Huffpo he agrees with other actors who want the work to speak for itself. “You know, kissing the backside of the authorities that can make or break it; I can’t stand all that. I find it nauseating to watch and I think it’s disgusting to behold. People groveling around and kissing the backsides of famous producers and all that. It makes me want to throw up, it really does”.
Is this a trend? If so, who will be next to make awards consultants pull their hair out?
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On the other hand, I have so many people I want to thank.
Oscar “thanks” have become nothing more than a list of names. It’s ridiculous. An acceptance speech for an award need not be a laundry list. It’s interesting to watch the Oscars from decades past, when people commented graciously, or at least had something interesting to say. And WHEN will people stop incorrectly saying, “I’d LIKE to thank……..” You ARE thanking them (unfortunately).
Hilarious-
Trust me- in tinsel town you do not succeed unless you kiss the ass that hires/fires you. Hopkins has kissed ass just like everyone else. Just as he expects the same treatment from the starving artists of who’s fate he controls. Hopkins is an absoulutly one of the best actors of all time one of my favorites but, top with the ” I’m only here to share my art” crap.
Then he’ll LOVE the Academy’s new plan to secretly give all nominees a tab of acid just before the Oscars. Now that’s a show I’d watch!
He’s right. It shouldn’t be about who kissed the most butt. There was nothing more painful than Christian Bale smiling and pretending to love interviews and being photographed in public during his Oscar bid.
I think Melissa Leo’s self ads were worse. But, hey, I guess it worked.
Oh please, Bale never did any such nonsense. He didn’t even attend the pre-Oscar nominee buttkiss luncheon and during the ceremony he went on to endorse Mr. Eklund’s website for which he was vigorously jeered by some of the attendees. Imagine that, using an industry advertisement for advertising the very reason you’re there in the first place only to get booed by dumb, hypocritical snobs.
it’s true Bale was much more personable toward press during The Fighter promotion but he completely disappeared during the award campaign and stayed in China and let other people do the campaign for him. I always thought that it was one of the reason he did that movie just to avoid the scrutiny.
No carrot club. Fak Jeah.
Bravo, Sir Anthony. The whole awards season is pretty disgusting with all the shameless self-promotion and political preening. Most people don’t care about who wins. The dress designers are the big winners for the most free advertising. What does Vera Wang have to do with filmmaking? How can you even judge five, eight, or ten movies that have nothing in common and try to judge what’s the best? COME ON.
The guy is a legend, and consistently wipes the floor with his co-stars, even if it appears that he doesn’t give a shit about the material. Hopkins has earnt the right to say whatever he wants.
I guess it’s a good thing he isn’t interested : he already has one, so there is no pressure to give him another; apparently he is overshadowed by her leading lady; the film isn’t that great according to early reviews AND the Best Actor race is already crowded. I still think he is one of the greatest actors out there, but frankly, this new ‘trend’ is annoying. A lot of people worked on his film, then a lot of people will work on his campaign, so a statement like this is only a slap in the face of those who work so hard for his individual success. He isn’t forced to campaign, he could just respectfully decline the opportunity and quietly skip the circuit – that’s what Meryl Streep is doing this year – there is absolutely no need to trash a system that has been so kind to him in the past. Same goes for Phoenix. They should realize that these statements are not only hurting them, they are hurting their respective films and all collaborators, as well and I don’t think they deserve to lose points for something their leading man feels the need to say on record.
It will be interesting to see whether this kind of anti-campaigning will affect the final top5. I think we are down to 7 strong contenders (Day-Lewis/Jackman /Washington/Cooper/Phoenix/Hawkes/Hopkins) and while taking Day-Lewis for granted, I had no idea which two of those 6 would be snubbed in the end…but now we have 2 of those 6 openly trashing the award concept. So it might not be that hard to figure out which 2 will be left off afterall. The sad thing is, although I haven’t seen Hitchcock, I have seen The Master and I thought for sure Phoenix delivered one of the greatest performances of all time, so if he won’t even get a nomination probably thanks to his bad attitude, one of the very best turns of the year will go unnoticed by the Academy, and while it is frustrating all of this does NOT come down to quality in the end, we couldn’t really blame the distributor (Weinstein) for putting their marketing muscle behind the contender (Bradley Cooper) who doesn’t feel the need to belittle the hard work they are putting into his individual awards campaign.
“his leading lady”
“Phoenix delivered one of the greatest performances of all time, so if he won’t even get a nomination probably thanks to his bad attitude, one of the very best turns of the year will go unnoticed by the Academy, and while it is frustrating all of this does NOT come down to quality in the end”
Thought the same thing last year with Fassbender’s performance in SHAME. I understand that the Academy has a lot of old fogies voting, but the fact that this performance was ignored just shows that the best performances don’t get the acknowledgement they deserve.
So, now I look at the Oscar’s as I do the Golden Globes. It’s not about the best performance, it’s not about the very best acting. It’s about who plays the game the best and who you like the most. The Academy no longer has any credibility for me.
what could be more gratuitous and mind-numbing than the obsessive self-congratulation that hollywood spends MONTHS on every fall-winter with awards. stop the madness. it has some, marginal impact on ticket sales. beyond that, it serves to puff up already enormously over-inflated egos, and alienate normal people around the country.
Good for you Mr. Hopkins and Mr, Phoenix, for voicing your discontent… this shouldn’t be an ass-kissing contest — and unfortunately it’s become just that.
I love you for saying that Anthony Hopkins!
While I applaud his statement, it’s probably easier for him to say this already having won an Oscar.
Phoenix and Hopkins are only slamming the butt kissing campaign. Which is true.
On the other hand, he probably thought, sometimes it’s nice to dress all swanky and party hard!
I have to agree with with Sir Anthony Hopkins and Joaquin Phoenix, that the Oscars and other Awards drag is crap, it always has been. It’s just full of pompus snotty elitest people who think they’re better than the rest of us so called lower tier folks. People be kissing so much ass there that they’re lips start smelling like doo-doo, LOL. Props to great actors like these standing up for better causes and not getting swept in this fake fanstasy hollywood BS, makes me think of the late great Marlon Brando when he protested the ’73 Academy Awards i believe.
I agree. It’s exhausting even for viewers. Those actors have to campaign for 6 months often. It starts in September and finished after Oscars. They have to go and praise and praise their movie in every interview. They have to show up at every freaking event. Specially if they have good chances to be nominated for Oscar. They basically have to beg for that nomination.
And it pisses me off how sometimes they give awards or nominations to those who campaigned harder. Specially when it’s best Actor or Actress award. I remember when Blue Valentine opened in Sundance in winter and I believe and Ryan and Michelle had to campaign for a whole year so that movie would get nominations. They were everywhere. I even felt sorry for them. And I believe Ryan was not even nominated in the end? Only Michell got nomination.
Now Daniel Day-Lewis and Anne Hathaway will probably campaign like crazy for their nominations or wins.
Well, considering some of the films and actors that have won recently, it shows that it is all about the campaign and not the quality of the work. Buying Oscars (and kissing as much ass as one can in a two month periood) is the name of the game and apparently, it works, so good for Sir Anthony.
How about the elephant in the room: there being 10 oscar nominations for best picture. That waters down the quality of films being considered for best picture, and allows it to be more of a mouth piece for crap studio films than a contest of what really is the best picture. Anthony Hopkins and Joaquin Phoenix have every right to criticize the Oscars which has become nothing more than a celebration of pseudo artists like Ben Affleck and “writers” like George Clooney. Give. Me. A. Break.
Great for saying what so many feel. Now sell your oscar at sotheby’s for charity and refuse to show-up if you get nominated this year, then you’ll be an inspiration and not just another hypocrite.
I saw “Hitchcock” and Hopkins -Mirren deserve win the Oscar. Both are unforgettable.
We must clear : Hopkins is not against awards , he is against the dirty and stupid campaings.
Hopkins decrying the campaign for awards takes nothing away from lending his support for the film. He can do the talk show circuit and attend screenings without having to hop-knob and kiss the ass of Academy members.
Let the films and the performances speak for themselves. I understand wanting a film to get noticed, but it doesn’t have to be by the Academy. I would rather spend money on general advertising/marketing/promotions than on an Oscar campaign. If the Academy takes notice, great. If not, I’d rather stand by what I hope was just a really great film.
And yet, I suspect that he may somewhat enjoy everyone falling over themselves to kiss his ring when they meet him, make sure he’s first, gets the best, and is “properly taken care of.”
It isn’t all about you, you jags! It’s also about the (sometimes) hundreds of people who have worked to make it an awards worthy piece. Also, to award those who have worked tirelessly with little to no recognition, ie wardrobe designers, composers, fx people & so on. Ya know what, just attack the SAG awards if you feel the need to get your actor panties in a bunch. :l … No offence, actors reading this.
Ironic that they’ve both already won Oscars… must be easier to say all of this with an Oscar already sitting on top of the toilet.
Just saying what any semi-aware person in town knows, which is awards and ass-kissing to get them are bullshit. You do the best work you can for yourself, your collaborators, the people paying you, and the audience. Who cares if a bunch of assholes with dubious taste call it “the best” of the year in some overblown PR exercise (as all showbiz awards are, period) He and Joaquin are just breaking the code of silence saying it out loud.
Well, awards should be recognized as the advertising campaigns that they are.
It is impossible especially in the actors/actresses categories amongst others to distinguish how one actor (or actress) playing a role in a particular movie is better than another playing a different role in a different movies. Different director, different character, different story and so much more. It would be like having steeplechase racers racing on completely differently laid out courses and being timed.
Art is in the eye of the beholder. Marketing is in the box office totals.
Ass kissing contest or not I still enjoy awards season.
Now I love Phoenix and Hopkins even more! Finally someone has the balls to come out and say it. But lets take it one step futher and get rid of all awards, big and small. It’s getting plain silly, with all kinds of awards all year round. I think the catering industry may be behind it.