How Michael B. Jordan Became the Best Actor Frontrunner
Timothée Chalamet’s presence this awards season has earned a mixed response, to say the least. On the one hand, the actor best known for films like Call Me By Your Name and the Dune franchise deserves credit for promoting the heck out of Marty Supreme, so much so that it became A24’s highest-grossing film (approximately $160 million at the box office worldwide). In this day and age, that’s a huge accomplishment for a film that is neither part of a franchise nor based on preexisting intellectual property. Marty Supreme went on to earn nine Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, and for a while there, Chalamet’s win seemed inevitable.
So what happened in the last few weeks? Well, Chalamet lost the BAFTA (the British Academy Award) to Robert Aramayo in I Swear, a film that’s not even eligible at the Oscars. Then, a week later, he lost the Actor Award to Michael B. Jordan. But chronically online cinephiles will know that Chalamet’s persona has been marred with controversy for some time now. Last year, he gave a divisive speech at the SAG Awards about his pursuit of greatness. This year, he waxed poetic about his own “top-level” performances. The 30-year-old even participated in a career retrospective in the weeks leading up to Oscar voting. These campaign highlights certainly kept Chalamet in the spotlight during what has been a particularly lengthy awards season, but they also led to backlash.
So how did Michael B. Jordan become Chalamet’s biggest competition? During the first half of the season, pundits were predicting that the actor standing in Chalamet’s way was Leonardo DiCaprio from One Battle After Another. However, Jordan’s triumphant win last weekend officially proved that the tide was turning in his favor. You could feel the energy in the room as an awestruck Viola Davis announced Jordan’s name and the crowd leapt to its feet. That momentum is undeniable and hard for someone like Chalamet to overcome.
What also works in Jordan’s favor is the fact that his film is a stronger contender in other categories. Sinners recently broke the record for being the most nominated film in Academy Awards history. Even if it ultimately loses Best Picture, it’s difficult to imagine Ryan Coogler’s vampire allegory missing in all the top categories. Furthermore, Jordan has been working in the industry longer than Chalamet and has a far less divisive public persona.
Even those who believe Chalamet is one of the younger generation’s few movie stars working today will have trouble arguing with Michael B. Jordan’s box office numbers. Not only was Sinners a gargantuan hit, having grossed over $360 million, but let’s also not forget that Jordan was a crucial part of the success of the Black Panther and Creed franchises. He has made a lot of folks in the industry a lot of money over the years and has yet to receive proper recognition for that work.
As for the performance itself, Jordan had an arguably more challenging role than his competition. In fact, he was playing two roles, having convincingly pulled off the magic trick of distinguishing the characters of Smoke and Stack through his physical and emotional embodiment.
But at the end of the day, Oscar season is just as much about campaigning as it is about the performance. Jordan has been a constant presence during the Sinners campaign but has always stood hand in hand with his ensemble and filmmaking team throughout the season. As a result, he comes across as classy and grateful, always drawing just as much attention to his peers as he does to himself. That humble approach to campaigning appears to be paying off.
As far as who will ultimately win on Oscar night, the race is still tight. From a statistics point of view, the argument against Chalamet is that no Best Actor winner has lost both BAFTA and SAG since 2004. Meanwhile, the argument against Jordan is that no contender has gone on to win Best Actor having only won the SAG Award. No matter who wins, it will be historic. Still, based on Jordan’s successful campaign approach and current momentum, the odds are leaning in his direction.
Sean Penn’s Successful Yet Silent Campaign
Unlike the Best Actor race, the Best Supporting Actor category this year was not as clear from the get-go. During the first half of the season, Jacob Elordi picked up a Critics Choice Award for his role as the Monster in Guillermo Del Toro’s Netflix adaptation of Frankenstein, while the long overdue Stellan Skarsgård won a Golden Globe for his performance as a troubled parent in the Norwegian film Sentimental Value. However, both of these contenders did not necessarily scream “Academy Award!” in the traditional sense. Elordi’s film is too “genre” to win an acting prize, while Skarsgård’s film is subtle and requires lazy viewers to read subtitles. This left room for someone else to emerge as the frontrunner.
After winning the BAFTA and Actor Awards, Sean Penn has turned out to be that frontrunner, and in hindsight, it seems obvious. First of all, he plays the villain in the film that is likely going to win Best Picture. Second of all, it’s a big, showy performance that is undeniable in its impact. Most importantly, however, his campaign choice to remain almost entirely out of the spotlight this season has been surprisingly effective.
Despite a memeable moment at the Golden Globes where he was caught smoking inside during the ceremony, Penn has skipped the remainder of the big precursor ceremonies. Given the fact that he has a complex persona and already has two Academy Awards to his name, Penn’s decision to campaign quietly is a smart one. He has chosen to let the work speak for itself, while avoiding the possibility of slipping up during the campaign. Now, the combination of winning both BAFTA and SAG ahead of the Oscars has made Penn practically bound to win on Oscar night.
There are lessons to be learned from the softer approach to campaigning. Timothée Chalamet could have benefited from Michael B. Jordan or Sean Penn’s approach in order to retain frontrunner status. That being said, if Chalamet had not been so aggressive in his promotional appearances, then Marty Supreme would not have been the box office hit that it was. We’ll never know for sure, but if there is one takeaway here, it’s that Oscar campaigning is a double-edged sword. It’s a privilege to be considered, but it takes strategy and self-awareness to mount a successful campaign. Jordan and Penn have shown that in different ways this year, with both contenders riding coattails of their films’ achievements while earning favor with voters for not wearing them down. Now, it’s hard to imagine a world in which they do not win their respective categories on March 15th.
via Martti Salmi / @PopBase