Brian Cox has a bone to pick with the Oscars.
The actor who lends his voice in the new film The Lord of the Rings: War of the Rohirrimreflected on his career in an interview for The Hollywood Reporterat one point sharing why he thinks the Oscars are “bullshit.”
“The Oscars are absolute nonsense because everything that’s judged at the Oscars is not a year’s worth of work. It’s just work that comes out between Thanksgiving and Christmas,” Cox, 78, said.
“Honestly, I think the awards are misleading, because there’s a lot of other good work going on outside of what they call Oscar season,” he added.
While distributors often release their awards-hopeful films towards the end of the year when voting bodies choose awards, there have been successful standout films with release dates earlier in the year. Last year’s winner for best film, Oppenheimerwas published in July, i Everything everywhere and at oncewinner of seven major Oscars in 2023, had a wide April release date.
Cox’s comment came when he was asked if he would play Winston Churchill in the 2017 film Churchillthe same year The darkest hour came out and resulted in a Best Actor Oscar win for Gary Oldman portraying the same historical figure.
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Brian Cox with his 2001 Emmy Award.
Frank Trapper/Corbis via Getty
“Our movie came out in the summer and it was a relatively independent movie, so there’s no studio power behind it,” Cox said. THRlater adding, “So my movie was never even seen, and I still think my performance is the better performance.”
The Succession the star is an Emmy and Golden Globe winner, although he has never been nominated for an Oscar.
Elsewhere in the interview, Cox talks about playing the same character as Anthony Hopkins, Hannibal Lecter, in 1986. Manhunterfive years before Hopkins would star in the hit film The Silence of the Lambs and win an Oscar.
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“I mean, it’s like playing Hamlet: Everyone’s going to have their own Hamlet. I decided to play him the way director Michael Mann and I decided to play him. Tony played him brilliantly,” Cox said.
He added: “Tony decided to take a different path. And of course Tony’s was a huge success, he won an Oscar and made a lot of money from it. I made something like 10 grand.”
Nominations for the upcoming 2025 Oscars will be announced on January 17, with the ceremony scheduled for March 2 with host Conan O’Brien.
The Lord of the Rings: War of the Rohirrim it’s in theaters now.
Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education