There’s lots of Oscars drama recently, 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,” especially since Andrew Dominik‘s film has eight Razzies noms this year, including Worst Picture.
READ MORE: Academy Board Of Governors Taking No Action Over Andrea Riseborough Controversy
EW reports that Howery talked about his “Deep Water” co-star’s nomination for her role as Marilyn Monroe in an interview on Vulture’s “Into It” Podcast yesterday. The conversation was all about Riseborough making the final five nominees while other contenders like Viola Davis and Danielle Deadwyler didn’t. But Howery weighed in on another nomination instead. “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 specifically to “Into It” host Sam Sanders. “It’s just… and that’s somebody I did a film with,” Howery continued. “I did “Deep Water” with her, with Ben Affleck. Amazing. I’m just talking about the Academy. What are y’all doing? Come on, fam. For real?” The actor went on to praise both Davis and Deadwyler’s performances, and said “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 one of the best movies I’ve watched.”
De Armas and Riseborough go up against 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 at the Razzies the day before. This begs the question: is Lil Rel Howery onto something her with de Armas’ nomination? “Blonde” entered its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival last year to a flurry of intrigue and high hopes, only to prove to be one of the most divisive movies of last year. But does the myriad foibles of “Blonde” diminish de Armas’ performance in it?
As for the investigation into Riseborough’s nomination, the Academy doesn’t think it merits disqualification. However, they admitted that outreach tactics on social media and otherwise “caused concern,” which may prompt them to revise campaign regulations for next year. But does Riseborough (or Davis and Deadwyler if they got nominated) even stand a chance in the Best Actress category against the likes of Blanchett and Yeoh? As far as this writer thinks, the Oscar belongs to either of those performances in a close contest, with no one else even close. We’ll see how things pan out at the ceremony in March.
