The 88th Academy Awards suffered a backlash after a lack of diversity amongst the acting categories, which was the second time in a row this happened. Even the Best Supporting Actor category could’ve given us a more interesting set of performances, but alas, this is what we got. We witnessed what felt like was going to be Sylvester Stallone’s shot at the title, but ended up going to a known character actor, Mark Rylance.
So, what happened here? How did Sylvester lose the Oscar? Was it his to win, or was it always going to be someone else winning the gold? In honor of I Play Rocky coming to theaters later this year, I’m going to examine how and why Mark Rylance managed to beat Sylvester Stallone at the Academy Awards.
First thing we need to discuss are some of the potential contenders that could’ve been nominated in this category. We have Idris Elba in Beasts of No Nation, who got nominated at the Golden Globes, BAFTA, and won the SAG award. Another possible contender would’ve been Oscar Isaac for Ex Machina; I’m not the biggest fan of the film, but I felt Oscar did such a tremendous job in that role. I would’ve even taken Benicio del Toro for his performance in Sicario; after all, the film did score some tech nominations for Best Original Score, Sound Editing, and Cinematography.
As for the actual nominees, this was an underwhelming crop for me. They’re not terrible performances per say, but outside of Sylvester they’re not ones that I’d actively jump for to give an Oscar win. To me, the biggest surprise in terms of who showed up in this lineup was Tom Hardy for The Revenant.
I get that the film was a big hit for voters, but outside of Critics’ Choice Awards he didn’t land a nomination in any of the major televised awards. Then again, he also had a stacked year of films; some of which were disappointments like Child 44 or Legend, but another big one in 2015 was Mad Max: Fury Road. And sometimes when you have a solid year for a certain actor, voters can rally behind the more likelier contender and nominate them for that film. But with The Revenant, he had the sadistic and villainous role; a type of role that can get nominated at the Academy Awards. Without any major nominations from SAG or BAFTA, Tom had no shot at winning the gold.
What about Mark Ruffalo in Spotlight? Afterall, he’s in a top three contender with Spotlight and was coming into the night with a guaranteed Oscar win for Best Original Screenplay. While he was on his 3rd Oscar nod, he had missed out on getting a SAG nod for his performance; he did win with the cast at SAG for Best Cast Ensemble, but that doesn’t always help you out for the win. Also, I do believe that there were other performances in the ensemble that received better praise than Mark. Outside of his big acting moment towards the second half of the film, it’s not the type of acting that would warrant a nomination.
As for Christian Bale in The Big Short, he could’ve been a contender had he not already won a few years prior. I also feel that while the film was a top three contender for Best Picture, it was only guaranteed to win an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay. Yes; it did win the PGA and ACE Eddie prize for Comedy/Musical category, but it couldn’t nab the Best Ensemble prize at SAG.
Of the actors in this category that I thought had a shot at winning the Oscar, I would argue it was Sylvester Stallone for Creed. While he hadn’t been nominated since his breakout film, Rocky, he was a known movie star for decades. Sylvester had his fair share of hits and bombs throughout his career, but was never taken seriously as a dramatic actor since then outside of Copland. It wasn’t until Ryan Coogler came in and pitched this story to the actor. Despite refusing to do Creed numerous times, Sylvester ultimately agreed to it.
Not only was this a box-office hit and critically acclaimed, it netted the actor his 3rd Academy Award nomination and even won a Golden Globe and Critics’ Choice Award for Best Supporting Actor. By that point, he had a narrative of being this overdue veteran, who went back to his roots and was to win this Oscar for a role many had thought he deserved with Rocky. Unfortunately, Sylvester Stallone came up short on Oscar night once again.
Much like his performance in Bridge of Spies, Mark Rylance was a quiet contender that slowly crept up on voters. Granted, he didn’t win many prizes and even lost SAG to Idris Elba for his performance in Beasts of No Nation, which didn’t even score an Academy Award nomination. When his name was called on Oscar night, my jaw dropped to the floor. I was stunned that not only did Sylvester Stallone lose the Oscar, but he lost to this performance. How exactly did this man win the prize?
First off, Mark Rylance was in a highly respected film directed by an Oscar-winning legend, Steven Spielberg. Bridge of Spies not only became a box-office hit, but also garnered critical acclaim and even scored six Academy Award nominations. Creed only managed to score a lone acting nod for Sylvester himself.
While the performance by Mark isn’t showy, it does leave an impact with his monologues and audiences can empathize with his character. If anything, people coming out of Bridge of Spies remembered his performance more than Tom Hanks. Even if he didn’t have a big name hanging on his shoulders back in 2015 for his film work, he was a respectable, character actor at that time for his stage and television work. On top of that, he had won a handful of prizes over the years for his work in theatre winning a few Tony awards.
As for his performance in Bridge of Spies, Mark Rylance only won the BAFTA. And while he lost Golden Globes and Critics’ Choice Awards, he managed to walk away with an industry prize. Yes; the Golden Globes and Critics’ Choice Awards can help you secure a spot at the Oscars, but they’re not voted by the industry themselves. They can help set up a narrative, but it’s the industry prizes with SAG and BAFTA that help you along the way to win the Oscar.
Something I didn’t realize until now as to why Mark lost at SAG was that Idris Elba had a stronger movie. While Bridge of Spies got a Best Supporting Actor nod from the guild, it wasn’t nominated elsewhere at the ceremony. Whereas Beasts of No Nation scored two nominations: Best Supporting Actor and Cast Ensemble. It was a similar advantage A Complete Unknown had years later, with Timothée Chalamet beating out the eventual Oscar winner, Adrien Brody, for The Brutalist. Not only was Beasts of No Nation a priority film for voters with its additional nomination, but Idris also had a great year on television for his work on Luther.
Bottom line: if you can’t score a win at BAFTA or SAG, your chances of winning the Oscar decrease. Sure; we’ve seen actors who’ve been able to win without those two. But as we’ve seen over the years, each season is not the same as the last one. We’ve witnessed completely different types of outcomes, especially in back-to-back years.
One year, we see Marcia Gay Harden win the Oscar without getting a single televised nomination for Pollock. But then the next year, we could witness a sweeper for the same category. Had Sylvester Stallone shown up as a nominee at SAG or BAFTA, or even Creed showed up in other categories like Best Picture or Director, maybe he could’ve had a shot at the title. As is, Sylvester Stallone will have to settle with his two prizes from Golden Globes and Critics’ Choice.
