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At the 88th Academy Awards on Feb. 28, the film industry suffered a devastating tragedy. This tragedy had nothing to do with remembering those who had passed away, or even the unbelievably awful attire that several celebrities chose to wear for the evening.
The tragedy occurred when Julianne Moore announced the winner for Best Actor in a Leading Role. “And the Oscar goes to …” She paused for several seconds, then proceeded to say, “Leonardo DiCaprio.”
He finally did it, folks. Leo finally walked away with his first Oscar after six previous nominations and a ridiculous number of memes alluding to the fact he had never won.
It’s no secret that he deserved the Oscar. He is, after all, one of the greatest actors in the world today, which is precisely why his win is such a tragedy.
To put it simply, his career just took a terrible downfall. One from which he truly can never recover. He could have gone down in history as one of the greatest actors of all time to never win an Academy Award. But now, as simply another winner, he has thus lost his most unique quality.
He deserved the Oscar, but the academy didn’t have a choice. DiCaprio’s other nominated years indicated other clear winners who had given substantially better performances, like when he lost in 2014 to Matthew McConaughey for “Dallas Buyers Club.” This year, however, DiCaprio easily gave the best performance of all the nominees, but that doesn’t matter. The academy still should have put aside its own selfish interests and realized the seriousness of this decision.
Although a great film, “The Revenant” also served as an illustration of just how much DiCaprio wanted to win a golden statue. Completely desperate seems like the appropriate terminology. While he drags his bear-mauled body through perilous terrain, beard gloriously blowing in the wind, one cannot help but imagine him crawling to the feet of director Alejandro González Iñárritu and begging on hands and knees, saying “Please! Please get me an Oscar!” Well, Iñárritu, you managed to make DiCaprio’s dream come true, and destroy his career in the process.
DiCaprio had so many more years to lose his nominations, which would have motivated him to try even harder, only to lose again. Unfortunately, that fantasy can no longer exist.
True, he had six nominations before this, but these nominations took place over a period of more than 20 years, and one of them wasn’t even for acting. He got another one for Best Actor in a Supporting Role, so he had only lost for Best Actor in a Leading Role three times prior to his win. The academy really has not snubbed him as much as everyone seems to think.
The whole “Poor Leo” social media frenzy didn’t even garner huge attention until 2014 when his performance in “The Wolf of Wall Street” couldn’t land him the award. Ever since then, the desire to get him an Oscar captivated the minds of his fans. Now they have no reason to feel sorry for him, so they’ll do what 21st century people do — move on to the next meme.
The greatest actor to never win an Academy Award has officially joined the ranks of those unlucky enough to win an Oscar — a real tragedy, to say the least. During the trailer for DiCaprio’s next film with Oscar potential, the credits are sure to proudly display “Academy Award Winner Leonardo DiCaprio.” The sheer and utter sadness of that statement is simply too much to even put into words.
Follow Alec Kuehnle on Twitter.
