The “greatest injustice” in Oscars history, according to Ryan Reynolds
Putting Ryan Reynolds and ‘Oscars’ in the same sentence may provoke a burst of uncontrollable laughter from most of the cinemagoing populace these days. This is because Reynolds has spent the last decade mastering the art of playing snide, wisecracking Ryan Reynolds-ish characters in comedy action blockbusters, which aren’t the kinds of movies that usually get attention from the Academy. For good reason, too, as most of them are terrible.
However, before he became immortalised as the ‘Merc with a Mouth’ Deadpool, Reynolds was once an actor who rose to fame in comedy, and was darn good at it. There’s a reason why the likes of The Proposal and Definitely, Maybe were so popular, after all. It must be said, though, that Reynolds also once had a habit of demonstrating his range in movies like Buried, a claustrophobic thriller that just features him on-screen for 95% of its runtime; the gritty action thriller Safe House; kidnapping drama The Captive; and The Nines, a head-twisting sci-fi that saw him play three different characters whose mysterious lives sometimes overlap.
Looking back over some of Reynolds’ performances reveals an actor who was arguably not as far away from a nomination as it may appear on the surface. However, the man himself would likely bristle at the idea of only being worthy of an Oscar nomination if he ventures outside of comedy, because he has long been a proponent of comedy actors and writers being recognised by the industry for their craft.
He and writer/director Shawn Levy even pleaded their case for why their Deadpool & Wolverine script should have been nominated for an Oscar in 2025, acknowledging that its comedic aspects were likely what held it back.
“One thing that’s against it [being nominated] is that a lot of people consider it a comedy,” a thoughtful Reynolds told IndieWire. “That’s fair, but it has a backbone that is emotion and warmth. Comedy and drama both subsist on tension.” Reynolds explained that a good comedy script sets up an expectation in the audience and then subverts it, but this works much better “when you have dramatic stakes” too, which is why Deadpool & Wolverine worked so well.
In truth, the Academy’s general apathy toward comedies and comedic performers has long stuck in the craw of people who recognise comedy as an art form. It’s extremely rare for an actor in an out-and-out comedy to be nominated at the ceremony, and even rarer for one to win. In fact, you can count the number of true comedy winners on one hand, with the likes of Jack Palance in City Slickers, Marisa Tomei in My Cousin Vinny, and Kevin Kline in A Fish Called Wanda being the exceptions that prove the rule.
Over the years, this has led to a situation in which actors generally known for comedy only receive nominations when they take a “serious” turn. This applied to Will Smith in Ali, The Pursuit of Happyness, and King Richard; Robin Williams in Dead Poets Society, The Fisher King, and Good Will Hunting; and Eddie Murphy in Dreamgirls.
Interestingly, though, Reynolds is adamant that Murphy was the victim of the biggest snub in Oscar history, and it wasn’t when he lost ‘Best Supporting Actor’ to Alan Arkin for Little Miss Sunshine in 2007. Instead, the snub supposedly came when Murphy wasn’t nominated for his crowd-pleasing portrayals of Sherman Klump and the entire Klump clan in 1996’s The Nutty Professor, complete with fat suits, prosthetics, and excessive flatulence.
“One of the greatest injustices is that Eddie Murphy doesn’t have an Oscar for The Nutty Professor,” Reynolds told Variety’s Awards Circuit podcast with a completely straight face. To add credence to his theory, he’s not the only comedic titan to praise Murphy’s schtick in that movie. Incredibly, Williams once said he’d “never seen anything funnier” than the dinner table scene in The Nutty Professor. Maybe they’re on to something?
