And the Oscar goes to…not Timothée Chalamet?
After months of relentless campaigning, the young star’s dreams of taking home the little gold man Sunday night may well be dashed by the dynamic Michael B. Jordan.
“Arrogant” Chalamet, 30, “fumbled the ball on the five-yard line,” according to one top Hollywood awards expert, even though he appeared to have the Best Actor statuette in the bag for months.
Despite winning the Golden Globe and Critics Choice Award, Chalamet’s “Marty Supreme” campaign is ending with a fizzle, thanks in part to his comments at a Feb. 21 Variety and CNN panel — when he notoriously said, “I don’t want to be working in ballet or opera, or you know, things where it’s like, ‘Hey, keep this thing alive,’ even though it’s like, no one cares about this anymore.”
But sources say some in Hollywood were already growing weary of Chalamet’s antics.
“His campaign for ‘Marty Supreme’ started it — the arrogance of his outfits, befitting a clown more than an Oscar winner. The lengths he will go for hype … He reeks of Oscar desperation,” one Hollywood insider added.
Now, Jordan meanwhile, is the favorite to beat for “Sinners,” director Ryan Coogler’s vampire flick, in which he plays twins. The 39-year-old actor pulled into the lead on the Kalshi betting market after his surprise win at the Actor Awards March 1.
“Sinners” set a record for the most Oscar nominations ever with 16 nods, including Best Picture and Best Director for Coogler.
“Michael B. Jordan gave a tremendous performance,” Debra Birnbaum, editor-in-chief of awards tracking website Gold Derby told Page Six. “So the momentum sits with him.”
At first, “People weren’t sure [MBJ] was going to get nominated” at the beginning of awards season, said the awards expert. “He was on everyone’s ‘maybe’ list — or even not on their list at all.”
But, slow and steady, Jordan’s low-key charm and humility took hold.
“Michael B. Jordan is charming, humble, dresses perfectly, then kills it in every movie,” said a leading awards strategist. “He campaigned for the movie, the other cast [members], for Ryan. But he hasn’t drawn much attention to himself. He hasn’t even done many interviews.”
Birnbaum said you could see the turning point at the Actor Awards.
“What was interesting was the warmth for MBJ, from Viola [Davis, who presented and said he was ‘shining like new money’] on stage to everyone in the room,” she noted. “He’s been a working actor all his life and there was so much support for for him.
“If you’re an Oscar voter … and you had not yet submitted your ballot, that moment may well have influenced your vote.”
Jordan’s pals say it’s about time.
“He’s had a 20-year career, so it’s been really nice to feel that reflected,” said a close friend of the star, who was just a kid when he appeared in the hit show “The Wire” and has gone on to win plaudits for both blockbusters like “Black Panther” and art-house films like “Fruitvale Station.”
“If he wins [the Oscar] it will honor a body of work, and that’s super important to him,” the friend added. “He has a lot of goodwill, people are rooting for him. He’s one of those guys everybody loves.”
Meanwhile, sources say Chalamet’s gonzo quest for “greatness” and to create what he’s called “top-level s–t” has rubbed some people the wrong way.
After her husband, Jesse Plemons, was snubbed for his work in “Bugonia,” actress Kirsten Dunst seemed to mock Chalamet when she posted a photo of Plemons in the movie with the caption “Some top-level s–t.”
Chalamet embarked on his media tour for “Marty” in the guise of his cocky character, ping-pong champion Marty Mauser, including dressing head to toe in Marty’s signature orange.
The star drafted in his billionaire girlfriend Kylie Jenner — who is expected to join him on the red carpet Sunday — to help him hawk limited-edition “Marty Supreme” streetwear. Celeb pals ranging from Justin Bieber, Frank Ocean and Tom Brady to Michael Phelps, Steph Curry and ballet dancer Misty Copeland shared images of themselves wearing “Marty”-branded clothing which was instantly snapped up and resold for more than $10,000 online.
“Timmy’s part of a Kardashian zeitgeist,” one longtime Hollywood producer told Page Six. “When you’re in that world, you’re written about so much” the public, and Oscar voters, can grow tired.
Sources previously told Page Six the actor had been “Kardashian-ized”.
This may have well turned off Academy voters.
“The whole Marty shtick was made into something so big and Timmy tried to take control of the marketing campaign and put himself in front of it,” said the producer. “So this is partially on him, and then the media lifted him up even more. But he understands how to manipulate and play the game.”
Chalamet even “leaked” a Zoom call with staffers at A24, the studio behind the movie, where he pitched increasingly wild promotional stunts like painting the Statue of Liberty orange.
“He seems so arrogant,” said a well-placed Hollywood insider of Chalamet. “Then you realize he was in character, but that’s not so genius when most people don’t even know what the movie is about.”
However, it appeared that Chalamet’s campaign was bearing fruit when he won Golden Globe and Critics Choice awards in January.
The New Yorker, who’s been acting since he was a kid, has never made it a secret he craves an Oscar. He is the youngest actor since Marlon Brandon to be nominated three times for Best Actor, though he’s yet to win.
“People can call me a try-hard, and they can say whatever the f–k, but I’m the one actually doing it here,” he told director Richard Curtis at a talk in February. Still, “Sometimes I feel like I’ve been misinterpreted in my quest.”
And even aside from the ballet backlash — which only really kicked off after the March 5 Oscars voting deadline — “Timothée has a lot of factors working against him, beginning with the fact that the Academy has rarely anointed actors so young,” Birnbaum said. “And ‘Sinners’ comes with a message, whereas Timothée’s film just doesn’t have the kind of momentum behind it.”
Insiders say Chalamet isn’t the only one who really, really wants to win this year.
“I’ve never seen anyone more desperate for an Oscar than Teyana Taylor,” one Hollywood agent told Page Six of the nominee for best supporting actress. “Her looks are so over the top — she’s made this year’s awards shows into a Paris runway. She’s done everything to campaign.”
And Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell reportedly fought hard for daughter Kate Hudson’s best actress nom, for “Song Sung Blue,” according to a marketing whiz who arranges campaign screenings. “They worked it with all the screenings, they weren’t going down without a fight … she’s got zero chance of winning” against Jessie Buckley [‘Hamnet’], but this renews heat for her stalled career.”
Others seem less stressed.
While two-time winner Sean Penn is favored to nab best supporting actor for “One Battle After Another,” he may not attend, Page Six is told. “He truly doesn’t care if he wins,” a big-time manager said of gossip in Hollywood. Even if he’s not at the Dolby Theater Sunday night, a friend of the star said, “His work in the movie is unbelievable. I think he’ll win.”
Before Jordan, Chalamet’s main competition originally appeared to be Leonardo DiCaprio, who gave a sterling turn as a former revolutionary in Paul Thomas Anderson’s “One Battle After Another,” which is in strong contention to win Best Picture and Best Director.
DiCaprio, who insiders say hates the act of campaigning for awards, has been shooting in Prague for Martin Scorsese’s upcoming flick, “What Happens at Night,” but is expected at the Oscars, we’re told.
Still, “I don’t think best actor is locked up,” insisted the producer, pointing out that the Screen Actors Guild — the group behind the Actor Awards, which has about 160,000 American members — is completely different from the academy, which has around 11,000 voters, many of whom are international.
And Birnbaum, for one, is happy for it: “Honestly this is the kind of exciting night that we hope for.”
Additional reporting by Merle Ginsberg
Read the full article here
