Brian Cox Calls Out The Oscars As He Remembers Gary Oldman’s Win The Year He Also Played Winston Churchill (And Did It “Better”)

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Veteran actor Brian Cox slams the Oscars while recalling the time he played Winston Churchill around the same time Gary Oldman won Best Actor for it. With a career spanning decades, Cox has earned widespread acclaim for his commanding roles in works such as the TV series Succession, the 2008 drama thriller The Escapist, and the 2000 Canadian-American series Nuremburg. Despite winning a Golden Globe for his portrayal of the global media titan Logan Roy in HBO’s Succession, the Scottish actor has yet to receive recognition from the Academy Awards.

Cox’s career is a testament to his versatility and talent, with roles that have consistently showcased his knack for embodying complex, larger-than-life characters on stage and the big screen. However, the actor has recently spoken out about his frustrations with the Oscars, criticizing the politics and timing behind the journey towards recognition. Cox argued that the Academy disproportionately focuses on high-profile, studio-backed films released during the “Oscar season” between Thanksgiving and Christmas, dismissing equally deserving performances that fall outside this narrow window.

Brian Cox Criticizes The Oscars Over Gary Oldman’s Darkest Hour Win

His Movie Churchill Was Overlooked That Year

Cox recently criticized the Oscars while recalling Gary Oldman’s win for Joe Wright’s Darkest Hour, the same year Cox delivered his own take on Winston Churchill. In 2017, Oldman delivered a lauded performance as Churchill, ultimately winning the Academy Award for Best Actor. The same year, Cox also took on the role of Churchill in Jonathan Teplitzky’s smaller independent film, Churchill. However, while Oldman’s film earned widespread recognition during awards season, Cox’s portrayal went largely unnoticed.

Cox’s frustration highlights a common criticism of the Oscars, during which independent films released outside the traditional awards season window often struggle to compete with big-budget, studio-backed campaigns. Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Cox candidly reflected on the disparity and did not hold back in his criticism of the Oscars, particularly when it came to the year he competed with Oldman. He said:

Our film came out in the summer, and it was a relatively independent film, so you haven’t got the power of the studios behind it. The Oscars are absolute nonsense because everything that’s judged in the Oscars, it’s not a year’s work. It’s just the work that comes out between Thanksgiving and Christmas. I think
it makes those awards a fallacy
quite honestly because there’s a lot of other good work that goes on outside of what they call Oscar season. So my film never even got a look, and
I still think my performance is a better performance.

What This Means For Darkest Hour

Gary Oldman’s Film Received Better Reviews Than Churchill

Winston Churchill delivers a speech over the radio in Darkest Hour.

Looking at the Rotten Tomatoes score alone, Darkest Hour is not any kind of failure. It received a Certified Fresh 84% among over 300 critics, and an 82% approval rating among audience members. Cox’s Churchill received much poorer reviews overall, getting a mixed 49% Tomatometer and a Popcornmeter that was not much higher at 54%. The gap between the critical reception of the two films is likely part of what led to Cox getting less recognition than Oldman. Whether the Succession actor would agree is another story, but it is undeniable that Darkest Hour received far superior reviews.

That said, Cox makes a good point about the level to which release dates play into how well a film succeeds at the Oscars. Darkest Hour was released on December 22, 2017, which was right in the “between Thanksgiving and Christmas” time slot Cox describes. In fact, of the nine movies nominated for Best Picture that year, seven were released widely after Thanksgiving. While release date is not always a proxy for a Best Picture win, Cox is right that it is the dominant trend. Churchill was released in June 2017, putting it outside this advantageous awards window.

Our Take On Brian Cox’s Oscars Criticism

An Increasingly Relevant Challenge To Oscar Norms

Brian Cox as Winston Churchill with a cigar in Churchill

Cox’s frustration can resonate with many performers and filmmakers who often see their work overshadowed by big-budget projects released in late fall. As competition for recognition in Hollywood grows, marketing power and timing continues to eclipse equally deserving work—a particularly relevant point as we near the Christmas Day release of various Oscar contenders, such as James Mangold’s A Complete Unknown and Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu. Regardless of awards recognition, Cox’s legacy as an actor remains undeniable, and his willingness to call out the industry makes him an essential voice in the conversation surrounding visibility and independent work in Hollywood.

As this awards season heats up, it will be interesting to see what other ways this year mimics Darkest Hour‘s awards year. For example, the Oscars also seem to like biopic performances that are great impersonations. This was true of Oldman in Darkest Hour, for both the hair and makeup and the performance seek to imitate Churchill. This year’s foray into that kind of performance is Timothée Chalamet in A Complete Unknown, wherein the young actor portrays singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. As such, it will be interesting to see how this year’s Best Actor race and more compares with previous years.

Source: THR