There were, as always, surprises when the Oscar nominations were announced on Feb. 8, but none caused a bigger gasp in living rooms across Hollywood and around the world than the absence of House of Gucci’s Lady Gaga from the best actress field. (Right after the announcements, a 2.7 earthquake emanated from Silver Lake, which, some speculated on Twitter, was caused by Gaga herself.)
It’s not that Gaga is widely regarded as an actors’ actor — she’d given only one prior film performance of note, in A Star Is Born, for which she received a best actress Oscar nom two years ago, and she remains far better known for her music. But, in a competitive year for best actress, she looked better-positioned than anyone; indeed, no leading lady except her had received noms from the SAG Awards (both as an individual and as a part of her film’s ensemble), Golden Globe Awards, Critics Choice Awards and BAFTA Awards — and she also won the prize of the snobbish New York Film Critics Circle.
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So what happened?
Acting Oscar noms are determined by the Academy’s actors branch. Given that most branch members are American, and most American actors belong to the nation’s largest actors union, the SAG Awards were long thought to offer a strong indication of how the Academy’s actors branch felt. But in recent years, SAG merged with AFTRA (the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists), resulting in an influx of everyone from TV meteorologists to radio talk-show hosts; more recently, the guild began admitting TikTokers, too.
Furthermore, the Academy has made a concerted effort to become a more international organization, with members abroad accounting for 12 percent in 2015 but 25 percent today. In other words, the people who pick the SAG Award noms — or almost any of the noms from precursor awards, including the others landed by Gaga — and the Oscar noms are no longer very similar.
Additionally, to put it bluntly, many people hated House of Gucci. Moviegoers gave it a B+ CinemaScore, but the Academy’s taste aligns far more with the taste of critics, who rated it an abysmal 63% on Rotten Tomatoes, with many griping about its campiness and widely varying accents. Other than the SAG Awards, the only industry precursor which even acknowledged the film was the Costume Designers Guild, which helps to explain why it received only one Oscar nom (for best makeup/hairstyling). It’s hard to get an Oscar nom for a widely disliked film. If it happens, it happens once in a category, not twice. And this year, Kristen Stewart’s performance in Spencer — a film that critics liked but the guilds ignored — got that slot in the best actress race.
Pundits and fans have been pondering other possible explanations for Gaga’s snub. Did she turn off people by taking herself too seriously in interviews to promote the film (going on at length about sense-memory work, writing an 80-page biography of her character, using her accent for nine months and staying in-character for a year-and-a-half, including throughout the entire Gucci shoot, and stating that she required a nurse on set due to psychological strain)? Did voters who liked her work incorrectly assume that her nom was secure and instead vote for others? Something else? We’ll never know.
A version of this story appeared in the Feb. 11 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.
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