Always a nominee, never a winner.
With the recent buzz of awards season culminating in the ever-controversial Academy Awards, there have been a lot of big wins and even bigger losses. Amongst those going home without a golden statue is Timothee Chalamet. With his numerous interviews and press-runs for “Marty Supreme,” a lot of controversy and clips have arisen around him. Besides his reputation, the hard truth is that he has been nominated three times to win an Oscar for Best Actor and has lost every time.
Last year, in a speech for winning a SAG award for his role as Bob Dylan in “A Complete Unknown,” he said he wanted to be “one of the greats.”
Would someone that “great” really lose one of the most prestigious awards in acting not once, but three times?
His story of loss is not one that’s unfamiliar. Before him, Leonardo DiCaprio was infamous for always being nominated for highly lauded roles, and never winning. Eventually he did win for his role in “Revenant.” A role wherein he had to eat raw liver and sleep in a horse carcass. Before DiCaprio, there was Al Pacino. His roles in “The Godfather” Part I and Part II (some of the most acclaimed movies ever) didn’t win him an Academy Award, but his role in “A Scent of a Woman,” is what finally won him an Oscar.
Are these actors simply not that good or is winning an Oscar just that difficult?
Some people are content with just coasting by, but some people want to be great. In the pursuit of greatness, is the only goal that matters a golden statue of a miniature man?
While most people aren’t actors in million dollar movies, a lot of us can relate to the idea of wanting to be great or even just wanting to be good.
Trying your hardest in a class you care about and ending up with anything less than an A is a feeling that we’re all familiar with. Success is often measured in those awards. From a letter grade or a certificate of achievement to a statuette awarded with millions of people watching.
Whether those awards are given or not, the work you did to get to that point still matters.
Amongst all the Oscar nominees who have lost, there are hundreds more out there who have never even been mentioned. Maybe the Oscars do award those who are “great”, but their own scope of greatness is something that is only decided by a private group of voters anyway. In the objective art of the motion picture, how can one thing really be categorized as the “best”?
Timothee doesn’t need a golden statue and you don’t need the letter grade of one professor.
Greatness is something that comes from within. Of course, being awarded for your work is something that feels nice, but the real achievement is the work you put into whatever your goal is. Perseverance in the face of a loss isn’t something that an award can teach you. The award isn’t what makes you improve.
Great expectations may lead to great disappointments. However, expecting greatness also begets the motivation to strive for something more. Even in the closing lines of Chalamet’s SAG Awards speech, he admits that the award itself is not a signifier of greatness, but simply “a little more fuel to keep going.”
Don’t let others define what greatness is for you. Let it be your guiding North Star in whatever you do and awards will become a second thought.
Tweet us on X, @VALLEYmag, with your thoughts on the Academy Awards. Do you think any of the winners are “one of the greats”?
