- Guy Pearce is nominated alongside Culkin for Best Supporting Actor award
- Culkin has swept the same award at the Golden Globes, SAG Awards and Critic’s Choice
- Pearce is nominated for his role in The Brutalist, Culkin for A Real Pain
Guy Pearce doesn’t seem too confident about his chances at the Oscars, this weekend.
The Brutalist star is nominated for Best Supporting Actor at the upcoming Academy Awards, for his performance as Harrison Lee Van Buren in Brady Corbet’s sprawling, post-second world war epic. And while a deluge of platitudes have come the Australian actor’s way in the wake of his turn as the sociopathic Van Buren, Pearce does not believe the Oscar is coming home with him.
Instead, the Memento star is convinced that Kieran Culkin will scoop the prize, after reigning supreme at the Golden Globes, Critic’s Choice and Screen Actors Guild Awards in the same category over the past few weeks.
Speaking to The Guardian about his chances, the Emmy winning actor said, “I’ve been nominated for a few of these awards, and I haven’t won any! I’m not gonna win! Kieran [Culkin] will win, again.” Has he got a speech ready? “I’ve had one I’ve thought about for the last three months now – haven’t used it once! Nah, I’ll just forget it.”
Remarkably, despite such a distinguished and wide ranging career – one that has taken in mesmerising roles in the likes of L.A. Confidential, Mildred Pierce, Memento and the King’s Speech – Pearce is receiving his first Oscar nomination this year, which he finds very funny.
“It’s funny. Not funny that I haven’t had one before – just funny to even get one, I reckon. I stop and go, ‘Wow, is that – really? OK? That’s really happened?’”
Culkin, meanwhile, has swept all before him this awards season, for his portrayal of Benjamin ‘Benji’ Kaplan alongside Jesse Eisenberg in Eisenberg’s buddy comedy A Real Pain. The 42-year-old continuing his fine run of form after picking up a Golden Globe and an Emmy for Best Actor for his work on HBO’s Succession, which wrapped in 2023.
Should Culkin win this weekend, he would be the first Best Supporting Actor winner who’s film is not a nominee for best picture since 2011. The last time such a thing happened was at the 84th Academy Awards, when Christopher Plummer took home the award for his performance in Mike Mills drama Beginners, alongside Ewan McGregor and Mélanie Laurent.
As for Guy Pearce, 2025 will see the Oscar nominee star in Ned Crowley’s supernatural thriller Killing Faith and Simon Stone’s psychological thriller The Woman in Cabin 10.
