Ben Affleck appears on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” During the press tour for Netflix’s The Rip, he recalled the “tremendous embarrassment” he felt when he lost out on the Best Director Oscar for Argo. Affleck was the favorite to win the nomination. He won the Golden Globe Award, the Critics Choice Award, and the BAFTA Award for Best Director. Unfortunately, Affleck was scorned and Argo received seven Oscar nominations, winning Best Picture and two other awards.
“That was a scary year when everyone was like, ‘You’re going to be nominated for director, you’re going to be nominated for director,'” Affleck recalled. “And then, of course, I woke up that morning, and sure enough, and, by the way, I wasn’t nominated for Best Director, unlike any other morning. But all of a sudden, I was so confused. I woke up and people were saying, ‘You weren’t nominated.'”
Speaking of Affleck, Kimmel recalled attending the Critics’ Choice Awards the night before. There, Once Battle After Another won major accolades for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay, but star Leonardo DiCaprio lost out on Best Actor (Timothée Chalamet won for Marty Supreme).
“I was thinking, there are so many better places for him,” Kimmel quipped about DiCaprio. “And this movie won Best Picture. Director Paul Thomas Anderson won Best Director, and then he didn’t win. And I think he must be so pissed off that he couldn’t put something that was flown in on a yacht from somewhere and not be there anymore. He came to lose.”
“This is probably the worst situation in the history of awards shows,” Kimmel continued. “I think you’re underestimating this, because not only was Argo nominated for a Best Picture Oscar, you won Best Picture. You starred in it, you directed it, and you weren’t nominated in either category. It’s like the movie directed itself.”
“That’s what it was like,” Affleck replied. “The day of the snub, it was a sudden negative thing and it was scary, but I remember having to go to the Critics’ Choice Awards and I got there and there was a red carpet line and there was like 500 people trying to talk to me and they were all like, ‘Hey! So you snubbed me…’ and what do you say to that? ‘Too bad!'” I ended up winning the Critics’ Choice Award. ”
Affleck added: “Honestly, it’s embarrassing.” “I didn’t go out thinking, ‘I’m going to be nominated!’ They must go through a ritual of answering why they were not nominated. I’m not saying it will happen! ”
Someone who can relate to Affleck’s story is Bradley Cooper, who also lost out on Best Director for A Star Is Born, despite being nominated for a Golden Globe, a Broadcast Film Critics Circle Award, and the Directors Guild of America. Mr Cooper also said it was “embarrassing” to be snubbed.
“Actually, the first thing I felt was shame. Think about it. I felt shame that I wasn’t doing my part,” Cooper told Oprah in 2019. “Even if you’re nominated, you won’t know if you’ve done your job or not. That’s the trick: to create something you believe in.”
Cooper explained that he didn’t set out to make a film that would be nominated for an Academy Award, adding, “What I tried to do was tap into as authentic a place as possible. I asked myself and everyone else to make this film about an authentic place. I wanted it to tell a human story of family life, childhood trauma, real addiction, love in the world, and people grappling with finding their voice.”
Watch Affleck’s full interview on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” In the video below.
