I went into awards show season thinking that Bradley Cooper would dominate the Best Actor categories for A Star is Born. Clearly, I was wrong.
Rami Malek, who has earned rave reviews for his portrayal of Freddie Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody, has swept all the major award shows up to this point minus the Critics’ Choice. This included the Golden Globes and most recently the Screen Actors Guild Awards on Sunday night.
Christian Bale has been the only actor to stop Rami from a perfect track record by winning over him at the Critics’ Choice for Vice. Will Christian, Bradley or the other nominees (Viggo Mortensen: Green Book, Willem Dafoe: At Eternity’s Gate) stop him?
It doesn’t look that way, but who knows. A lot of major critics have Rami winning with some for Christian and some for Bradley. The SAG’s are a bit of an indication though that Rami will score the coveted honor, and perhaps rightfully so.
All of these men have done stellar performances, no doubt about that. This was a very strong year acting wise, but these five really did something special each for the world to see. Regardless, Rami has the best odds in winning from my perspective.
The Academy has had several chances at giving Bradley an Oscar in the past. He’s been up for roles that arguably could’ve scored him a win (Silver Linings Playbook, American Sniper) but didn’t. If this awards show season has taught us anything is that the hunky A-lister might just be a nominee again and not a winner, just like men similar to him in the past like Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise.
Christian’s performance as former Vice President Dick Cheney was amazing, but Hollywood is extremely liberal, and many voters may not want him to win based on who he played. Vice is also considered a comedy, which rarely does well in acting categories with notable exceptions.
Viggo’s physical transformation in Green Book was astonishing to see, but then again so was Christian’s. His mob-type character has been done before, so even though he was great in the film… it doesn’t merit him an Oscar. And Willem is an iconic actor, and did superb in his film, but this isn’t the year for him.
That leaves Rami for the win. Deservedly? I think so. I fell in love with his portrayal of Freddie as you believed he was him. The film was flawed from beginning to end, however my belief in Rami’s acting never wavered as he really fell into the character.
Could this be a big win for the LGBTQ community if Rami wins? Perhaps, but gay portrayals have won this award in the past (Phillip Seymour Hoffman for Capote in 2006). Rami simply deserves it because he just did a damn good job. This is an actor who was barely known a couple of years ago that has risen in the ranks to get to where he is now while the other four nominees have been in the game for a while.
For Rami to take on a role like Freddie, excel in it and make a beeline towards the win for the Oscar against such competition easily translates to the little horse that could winning the race in the end. And he just might do that.
This post was created by one of our Contributing Writers and does not reflect the opinion of Instinct Magazine or the other Contributing Writers when it comes to this subject.