There’s a lot of Oscars drama not too long ago, with Andrea Riseborough‘s surprise nomination for “To Leslie” having Hollywood and everyone else question the campaign tactics for the Academy Awards. But Lil Rel Howery is up in arms about a different nom altogether. In his mind, Ana De Armas‘ nomination for “Blonde” “doesn’t make sense,” particularly since Andrew Dominik‘s movie has eight Razzies noms this 12 months, together with Worst Picture.
READ MORE: Academy Board Of Governors Taking No Action Over Andrea Riseborough Controversy
EW reviews that Howery talked about his “Deep Water” co-star’s nomination for her function as Marilyn Monroe in an interview on Vulture’s “Into It” Podcast yesterday. The dialog was all about Riseborough making the ultimate 5 nominees whereas different contenders like Viola Davis and Danielle Deadwyler didn’t. But Howery weighed in on one other nomination as a substitute. “Somebody else should have got bumped,” Howery argued. “I’m not going to say anything, but it’s a movie nominated as a Razzie. That doesn’t make sense to me.”
Howery later named de Armas particularly to “Into It” host Sam Sanders. “It’s just… and that’s somebody I did a film with,” Howery continued. “I did “Deep Water” together with her, with Ben Affleck. Amazing. I’m simply speaking in regards to the Academy. What are y’all doing? Come on, fam. For actual?” The actor went on to reward each Davis and Deadwyler’s performances, and mentioned “Are we ever going to get that due? [Davis] did the work in [“The Woman King”]. She did the work. “Woman King,” to me, was among the best films I’ve watched.”
De Armas and Riseborough go up in opposition to fellow nominees Michelle Yeoh (“Everything Everywhere All At Once“), Cate Blanchett (“Tár“), and Michelle Williams (“The Fabelmans“) in the Best Actress category at the Oscars ceremony on March 12. As for “Blonde,” it vies for Worst Picture, Worst Director, Worst Screenplay, and Worst Screen Couple on the Razzies the day earlier than. This begs the query: is Lil Rel Howery onto one thing her with de Armas’ nomination? “Blonde” entered its world premiere on the Venice Film Festival final 12 months to a flurry of intrigue and excessive hopes, solely to show to be one of the vital divisive films of final 12 months. But does the myriad foibles of “Blonde” diminish de Armas’ efficiency in it?
As for the investigation into Riseborough’s nomination, the Academy doesn’t suppose it deserves disqualification. However, they admitted that outreach techniques on social media and in any other case “caused concern,” which can immediate them to revise marketing campaign rules for subsequent 12 months. But does Riseborough (or Davis and Deadwyler in the event that they bought nominated) even stand an opportunity within the Best Actress class in opposition to the likes of Blanchett and Yeoh? As far as this author thinks, the Oscar belongs to both of these performances in an in depth contest, with nobody else even shut. We’ll see how issues pan out on the ceremony in March.