The misplaced bet that put Werner Herzog off the Oscars
It’s probably not surprising to find out that Werner Herzog has attended only one Academy Awards show. Given his usual nihilistic and sceptical outlook on the film industry, you wouldn’t expect to see him sitting around, slapping the backs of every Hollywood bigwig and their mother. Especially considering the iconic filmmaker has only been nominated for a singular Oscar in six decades.
Out of the 60 films he has made, it was Herzog’s 2007 documentary Encounters at the End of the World that was nominated for ‘Best Documentary Feature’. It documents Antarctica and the people who decide to spend time there. Like most of his documentaries, it wasn’t a typical Antarctica film about “fluffy penguins”. Instead, it followed the psyches of those who live and work there and the brutality of the environment, even the animals who inhabit the space.
Many of his films focus on unique, egotistical and deranged protagonists with wild dreams, and often, they are documentaries, which makes sense for his lack of Hollywood award nominations. Herzog’s films are rarely the polished, audience-pleasing and theatrical features favoured by the Academy. However, it was not his lack of nominations or even a righteous indignation that had stopped Herzog from attending the Oscars until he was nominated. After all, many filmmakers, crew members and actors have attended many Oscars without a nomination or even a film out in that year.
Nor was it Herzog’s eccentricity and eschewment of the mainstream that stopped him from attending. No. In usual Herzog form, it came down to a bet. Speaking to The Guardian, he reflected on how “embarrassing” it was to eventually attend the Academy Awards in 2008: “I had no idea what to expect because I never watch the Oscars.”
However, when The Guardian claims that it is obvious given his seriousness, Herzog insists it’s not that at all, “It’s just that 12 years ago I made a bet on who would win best actor, and it was only after I gave my money that I realised the person I bet on wasn’t even nominated! So every time I see the Oscars, I think of that money I threw on the table!” It would be interesting to know just how much money we’re talking, surely it would have to be quite the sum to stop a filmmaker from ever engaging with the biggest awards ceremony in the industry. Then again, he probably had little interest in ever watching anyway.
However, it’s understandable why he would steer away from any reminders of a lost bet, given his reputation. In his vast filmography, Herzog appears in one incredibly unique short documentary entitled Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe. And funnily enough, it depicts exactly what it says on the tin. Directed by Les Blank, it begins with his friend Herzog cooking up his own shoe with garlic at Ches Panisse and ends with him actually eating it at the opening of Errol Morris’ Gates of Heaven.
The reason is simple. When Morris was having difficulty making the film, Herzog promised him that if he got it made, he would eat his shoe. Lo and behold, Gates of Heaven is made, but Werner isn’t one to break his word. Despite Morris asking him not to do so, Herzog actually ate his shoe live and on camera.
He’s also known for betting his colleagues on Even Dwarves Started Small that if they managed to survive the shoot, he’d jump into a cactus patch. You can imagine what happened next. So, relatively speaking, it must have been rather painless to simply lose some money to a joke bet on the Oscars. But it was enough to put him off the Academy almost entirely. Although, really, you’d think at that point he’d have stopped taking bets.
