2024 Oscars: 6 overdue performers who could finally be nominated – Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt …
Last year was the year of overdue actors finally earning their just rewards after years of working in Hollywood or hard roads to their well-earned success. “Everything Everywhere All at Once” stars Michelle Yeoh, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Ke Huy Quan all won Oscars while Brendan Fraser took home Best Actor for “The Whale.” It was a joyous ceremony and was so much fun to watch these four actors become overwhelmed with emotion at finally getting what they deserved.
This year could be no different as there are plenty of actors who have long been revered by fans and other awards groups but have yet to even be nominated for an actor. So, without further ado, here are six actors and actresses we think have a great chance at landing their first-ever Oscar bids this year.
Cillian Murphy — “Oppenheimer” (Universal)
Dir: Christopher Nolan
Co-starring: Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, Robert Downey Jr, Florence Pugh
Release Date: July 21, 2023
Rotten Tomatoes Score: TBC
“The story of American scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer and his role in the development of the atomic bomb.”
Murphy takes on what is arguably his first lead role in a major motion picture. A Nolan picture is always a huge event and Murphy is the one entrusted to helm the ship with this one and playing a real-life person in Oppenheimer makes the task that much more difficult. However, playing a real person is, as we know, a classic way to landing an Oscar nod. Murphy will be up for Best Actor this year. Last year, in this category, Austin Butler was nominated for playing the titular role in “Elvis.” The year before that, Will Smith won for playing Richard Williams in “King Richard,” while Javier Bardem was nominated for playing Desi Arnaz in “Being the Ricardos” and Andrew Garfield was nominated for playing Jonathan Larson in “Tick, Tick… Boom!”
Murphy would fit right in here. His awards history, however, is surprisingly limited for an actor of his calibre. He was nominated for Best Comedy/Musical Actor at the 2006 Golden Globes for “Breakfast on Pluto,” while he was also nominated for Best Actor at this year’s BAFTA TV Awards for his acclaimed role in “Peaky Blinders.” Currently, Murphy is in our predicted five nominees for Best Actor alongside Paul Giamatti (“The Holdovers”), Colman Domingo (“Rustin”), Bradley Cooper (“Maestro”), and Leonardo DiCaprio (“Killers of the Flower Moon”).
Emily Blunt — “Oppenheimer” (Universal)
Dir: Christopher Nolan
Co-starring: Matt Damon, Robert Downey Jr, Florence Pugh, Josh Hartnett
Release Date: July 21, 2023
Rotten Tomatoes Score: TBC
“The story of American scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer and his role in the development of the atomic bomb.”
Murphy’s co-star, the marvelous Blunt, can consider herself very unlucky to not be an Oscar nominee already. She’s come close to an Oscar nomination on four occasions. Firstly, she earned a Golden Globe and BAFTA bid for “The Devil Wears Prada” in 2007. Then, she was nominated for a SAG and BAFTA award in 2017 for “The Girl on the Train.” And then came 2019, when it looked like she could have earned two Oscar bids but came away with zero. She won the Best Supporting Actress SAG award for “A Quiet Place” while she was also nominated there for Best Actress for “Mary Poppins Returns,” a film which also garnered her Golden Globe and Critics Choice nominations, too. Alas, despite a plethora of precursor prizes, Blunt has been blunted when it comes to the Academy Awards.
This year could be different, however. She plays Oppenheimer’s wife, Katherine “Kitty” Oppenheimer. However, at this moment in time, she is just outside of our predicted five nominees of Best Supporting Actress, where we expect her to compete: Viola Davis (“Air”), Julianne Moore (“May December”), Danielle Brooks and Taraji P. Henson (“The Color Purple”), and Lily Gladstone (“Killers of the Flower Moon”). Blunt will also be up for “Pain Hustlers” (more on that later), however, so she could be in the mix for a Best Actress bid, too.
Paul Dano — “Dumb Money” (Sony)
Dir: Craig Gillespie
Co-starring: Pete Davidson, Vincent D’Onofrio, America Ferrera, Nick Offerman
Release Date: September 22, 2023
Rotten Tomatoes Score: TBC
“Dumb Money is the ultimate David vs. Goliath tale, based on the insane true story of everyday people who flipped the script on Wall Street and got rich by turning GameStop (yes, the mall videogame store) into the world’s hottest company.”
Dano is one of those actors who pops in supporting roles and always makes a terrific impact whenever he does, yet he has never quite gotten the rewards his work warrants. Like Blunt, he’s been in the mix for an Oscar bid before. His supporting role opposite Daniel Day-Lewis in “There Will Be Blood” landed him a BAFTA nomination in 2008, while he was nominated for Best Supporting Actor in 2016 at both the Critics Choice Awards and Golden Globes for “Love & Mercy.” Then, he was nominated for his supporting work again for “The Fabelmans” — for a SAG and Critics Choice Award earlier this year. But, still, no Oscar bod materialized.
Dano will be looking to land a bid for Best Actor this year, however, as he takes on the lead role in “Dumb Money” as Keith Gill, the financial analyst, investor, and redditor whose analyse of GameStop stock was a driving factor in the GameStop short squeeze in 2021. Dano is outside of our aforementioned predicted five for Best Actor, however.
Stephen McKinley Henderson — “Civil War” (A24)
Dir: Alex Garland
Co-starring: Kirsten Dunst, Wagner Moura, Cailee Spaeny, Karl Glusman
Release Date: TBC
Rotten Tomatoes Score: TBC
Plot under wraps.
Henderson is a veteran thespian who has plied a lot of his trade onstage, earning the admiration and respect of fellow actors across the land. He’s been twice nominated at the Tonys (in 2010 for Best Featured Actor in a Play for “Fences” and in 2023 for Best Actor for “Between Riverside and Crazy”). He was nominated for a Drama Desk Award for that latter play while that awards group awarded him the Harold Prince Lifetime Achievement Award earlier this year. On the film side, his only two major nominations came in the form of SAG Best Ensemble bids in 2017 and 2018 for “Fences” and “Lady Bird,” respectively. This is an actor of calibre and, given the right role, his peers would surely love to nominate him for an Academy Award.
Little is known about Garland’s “Civil War” but it sounds like an intriguing project, while he will also feature in “Dune: Part Two” and starred in “Beau is Afraid” (more on that below), too. They are all supporting roles but, currently, Henderson is not listed in our odds charts for that category and we think these five actors, at the moment, will be nominated: Samuel L. Jackson (“The Piano Lesson”), Ryan Gosling (“Barbie”), Domingo (“The Color Purple”), John Magaro (“Past Lives”), and Robert De Niro (“Killers of the Flower Moon”).
Patti LuPone — “Beau is Afraid” (A24)
Dir: Ari Aster
Co-starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Nathan Lane, Amy Ryan, Stephen McKinley Henderson
Release Date: April 14, 2023
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 67%
“Following the sudden death of his mother, a mild-mannered but anxiety-ridden man confronts his darkest fears as he embarks on an epic, Kafkaesque odyssey back home.”
LuPone is a legend. There isn’t much else to say, really. She’s been nominated for eight Tony Awards and won three — two awards for Best Actress in a Musical, the first in 1980 for “Evita” and the second in 2008 for “Gypsy.” She also won Best Featured Actress in a Musical in 2022 for “Company.” She’s also won two Olivier Awards, four Drama Desk Awards, and two Grammys — Best Classical Album and Best Opera Recording in 2009 for “Weill: Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny.” This is a cherished performer and a legend of the stage, so you can bet that if Oscar voters have a chance to nominate her for a movie and get her a step closer to that EGOT, then they will.
She plays Mona Wasserman — Beau’s mother. And, boy, it is a meaty supporting role. She steals every scene she is in, similar to previous scene-stealing mothers in the Supporting Actress category such as Angela Bassett in “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” earlier this year, Aunjanue Ellis in “King Richard” in 2022, and Scarlett Johansson in “Jojo Rabbit” in 2020. LuPone is outside of our aforementioned Best Supporting Actress predicted lineup, however.
Catherine O’Hara — “Pain Hustlers” (Netflix)
Dir: David Yates
Co-starring: Emily Blunt, Chris Evans, Andy Garcia, Jay Duplass
Release Date: October 27, 2023
Rotten Tomatoes Score: TBC
“Liza dreams of a better life for her and her daughter so she gets a job at a bankrupt pharmacy and Liza’s guts catapult the company and her into the high life not knowing that she will soon be in the middle of a criminal conspiracy.”
While LuPone is a Tony legend, O’Hara could be considered an Emmys legend. She’s been nominated eight times and won twice — for Best Variety/Music Program Writing in 1982 for “SCTV Network” and for Best Comedy Actress in 2020 for “Schitt’s Creek.” She also won a Golden Globe, two SAG awards, and a Critics Choice Award for her performance in that beloved show. That performance could help her land an Oscar nomination for her film work in the same way that Laura Dern‘s 2017 Emmy win for “Big Little Lies” helped her on the way to her 2020 Oscar win for Best Supporting Actress for “Marriage Story.” O’Hara will be in the supporting category, too, for “Pain Hustlers,” although she is outside or our aforementioned Best Supporting Actress predicted lineup. It’s unclear who O’Hara will play exactly in the film, although it’s no doubt that she will be magnetic to watch as usual.
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