Oscar narratives can shape an entire awards season. More radically, they can transform the way we perceive certain films, actors and other artists. Leonardo DiCaprio is an example of the phenomenon. Until he won the Academy Award for Best Actor, the star brought with him a baggage of perceived injustice and honors long deserved but never given. He was due an Oscar, many argued, and the hysteria around his lack of one made every one of his new releases into an event – Would this be the movie to finally earn DiCaprio the Academy Award?
The Revenant (2015) was the production to eventually capitalize on all this hubbub, mounting a mighty campaign to win DiCaprio his prize. It worked and so it was that the poster boy for "Oscar dueness" lost his shine. That meant his following films wouldn't be able to take advantage of his lack of recognition and the reactions to his performances would no longer be inflated by the urgency to award him. But the next big film on DiCaprio's resume after The Revenant has proven to be an even more remarkable showcase for his talents than the production that earned him his overdue honors…
To say an actor won the Oscar for the wrong movie is a common thing, but that is particularly true in DiCaprio's case. Apart from the grueling physical demands of his character's adventure, there's little to recommend the actor's performance in The Revenant. That he won the Oscar was a matter of intelligent campaigning and fortuitous buzz, of puerile competition and a media obsessed with raw bison livers and freezing temperatures. It wasn't about the performance, but it rarely is.
Four years later, he's infinitely better in Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood, playing the character of fading star Rick Dalton with humiliating gusto and an intensity that can be as hilarious as it is startling. The interlude on a western's set and the coda at Sharon Tate's gate represent some of the best acting of DiCaprio's career and it's altogether bizarre to see him receive so little buzz after the mountains leaped upon him for the mediocrity of The Revenant. Now that he has an Oscar, he's no longer "overdue". Since he's no longer overdue, there's no need to celebrate his achievements so intensely, not even when they merit it.
How different this entire season would be if Michael Fassbender, for example, had won for 2015? Tarantino's latest flick would have been received as DiCaprio's glorious achievement, a sure bet for the Best Actor Oscar and the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Comedy or Musical would have been his. Brad Pitt's campaign might have even been obfuscated by his costars and both male acting races race would be incontrovertibly changed. In this alternative universe Joe Pesci might be sailing to an easy second win and, in Best Actor, we'd likely have a trio of solid locks instead of a pair of them and eight or nine actors fighting over the remaining three spots.
One wonders what the interwebs would do out of a Joker vs DiCaprio battle for the Best Actor trophy. Nothing good, probably.
Let's take it a step further. Could Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood's bid for the Best Picture Oscar be more assured if DiCaprio was frontrunner material? Perhaps this entire season would be much more predictable than it is right now, making it much less interesting, too. It all reveals how fluid and transfiguring the power of Oscar narratives can be.
What do you think would have happened to this awards season if Leonardo DiCaprio was still Oscarless?