How many times have we rooted for Leonardo DiCaprio to win an Oscar? I’ll tell you how many: every single time he was nominated – that’s how many. Unfortunately, no matter how amazing his performances were in his movies, he never won.
Leo was 20 when he starred in What’s Eating Gilbert Grape in 1993, and he was so good in it, I actually thought he was mentally challenged in real life. He was nominated for his first Oscar for that movie, but lost. (They should have given it to him then. They really should have.)
After that, Leo made teenage girls all over the world swoon, cry and giddy-giggle for a while before he went on to deliver more outstanding performances, particularly in movies like Catch Me If You Can where he made me want to become a con artist, and The Aviator, for which he was also nominated for an Academy Award.
Leo’s performance in The Aviator was ASTOUNDING in my opinion. Not only did Leo portray Howard Hughes well in that movie, he became him. But alas, Jamie Foxx won for Ray and the Academy Award flew away from his fingertips yet again.
In 2006, Leo made some more great movies, in which he took on completely different roles and accents. The Departed was by far my Leo movie of choice that year; but for some strange reason, he was nominated for his performance in Blood Diamond and lost to Forest Whitaker for The Last King of Scotland. Forgivable, though, seeing as Blood Diamond really wasn’t thaaaaat great in my opinion. I only saw it once and haven’t seen it again.
In 2010, Leo made two more amazing movies: Inception and Shutter Island, the latter of which deserved a nomination but didn’t get him one.
And then there was DiCaprio’s best performance to date in The Wolf of Wall Street. That was it. That was the year that they should’ve made him win. That performance deserved it. That was his Oscar-winning performance right there!!! Leo was such a powerhouse in that movie and made everyone root for him come awards night. But no. Still no dice.
When I heard that Leo was nominated for an Oscar this year, I definitely knew I had to check out The Revenant. Now, without a doubt, the movie is great, for sure… but it really isn’t the movie that I would have wanted Leo to win an Oscar for. There’s just so much going on in The Revenant that you can’t really focus on how great Leo is. Instead, you end up focusing on how much trouble and hardships he must have gone through just to get the movie done. It doesn’t help that the supporting cast was amazing, as well, so you couldn’t really just focus on Leo’s acting. And then there’s that bear, who also deserved an award, and then there was Eddie Redmayne who also deserved that award. :p
But seriously… Someone just told me, “Consider that Leo did an exemptional job in The Revenant. He had to endure below zero temperatures no mere mortal can withstand. Think of it as an award that he deserves that was merely delayed.”
And that may be true, but that is also my point. I love Leo and I wish they hadn’t delayed his award because now, it just feels like a pity win to me. 🙁 Hmm. What are your thoughts on this?
