The “meaningless event” Gary Oldman wanted everyone to boycott: “It’s 90 nobodies having a wank”
Plenty of actors have claimed they’re not interested in winning awards, and most of them are probably lying. Everyone, regardless of their profession, likes to be rewarded for a job well done, and Gary Oldman suspiciously changed his tune on an industry staple as soon as they gave him a trophy.
For most of his career, Oldman was at the forefront of the conversation whenever it turned to naming the best actors who’d never won a major award. He’d been hailed as one of his era’s best talents since the late 1980s, but despite stealing any scenes he was in, none of his performances made the right impact on the right people.
He’d won a pair of Baftas for his directorial debut, Nil by Mouth, but since he didn’t appear onscreen, his wins for ‘Best British Film’ and ‘Best Original Screenplay’ didn’t void the argument since he still hadn’t been recognised for his work on-camera. It was inevitable that his day would come, and when it did, there was a strong stench of hypocrisy in the air.
Oldman wasn’t nominated for an Academy Award until 2012 when Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy ended his duck, and he’d have to wait another six years for his maiden Golden Globe nod. That’s when he pulled off the double, though, winning the Oscar and the Globe for his prosthetics-laden turn as Winston Churchill in The Darkest Hour, and it’s worth remembering how he used to feel about the latter.
“A meaningless event,” he called it. “The Hollywood Foreign Press Association is kidding you that something’s happening. They’re fucking ridiculous. There’s nothing going on at all. It’s 90 nobodies having a wank. Everybody’s getting drunk, and everybody’s sucking up to everybody. Boycott the fucking thing. Just say we’re not going to play this silly game with you anymore.”
He did suggest that his rant “makes me sound like I’ve got sour grapes or something,” and it would be selling Oldman very short to say he didn’t have the same reaction at the Golden Globes when he took to the stage to collect his gong for ‘Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama’ four years after he’d gone scorched earth on the ceremony.
His first words were, “I feel very humbled and surprised to have been asked to this stage,” before he started thanking his friends, family, and collaborators. It’s funny how all of a sudden, after the aforementioned “90 nobodies having a wank” had decided that his performance was the best of the year, Oldman had no issues graciously making his way to the podium to bask in the adulation of his peers.
Maybe it really was sour grapes after all, because issuing a rallying cry for everyone to boycott the Golden Globes for being a completely pointless bout of industry backslapping, only to show up and scurry home with a shiny new trinket to add to the collection, is the sort of duplicity that actors have dabbled in since the dawn of the moving image.
