Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings, and Planet of the Apes are all franchises that deserved acting Oscar nominations for non-live-action roles, but never got them. Now, in a landmark move, next year’s acting category will consider puppeteer James Ortiz for bringing Project Hail Mary’s rock alien to life.
The sci-fi drama, released last month, stars Ryan Gosling as science teacher-turned-astronaut Ryland Grace. It was a critical and box office smash hit, with most of the praise being directed at the lead character’s friendship with Rocky, a creature he meets in outer space.
As Amazon MGM Studios prepares its awards campaign for the Andy Weir book adaptation, it’s been revealed that Ortiz will be submitted for consideration in the Best Supporting Actor category at the 99th Academy Awards.
Variety reports this is acceptable based on current rules, as puppeteers fall under jurisdiction dictated by the Screen Actors’ Guild. He will also be eligible at the Baftas, but won’t be considered at the Golden Globes.
A debate has raged for years over whether technical performances should be considered in the major acting categories, and a workaround was introduced in 1972, when the Special Achievement Award honoured the performances that would have otherwise lost out.
However, the award was primarily given to visual effects and sound technicians, namely Ben Burtt, the Star Wars sound designer, who won for creating and providing the voice of R2-D2. The category was stopped in 1995.
The Oscars has never nominated a puppeteer, voice actor or a motion capture performance in the main acting categories, despite strong competition in the form of Andy Serkis’s performances as Gollum in The Lord of the Rings and as Caesar in the Planet of the Apes rebooted franchise. In 2002, the Baftas nominated Eddie Murphy for his voice work as Donkey in Shrek.
Ortiz spoke about the importance of puppetry to Variety, stating: “Typically, we talk about puppetry as a technical achievement, and it is. It’s a spectacle. For me, as a performer, however, that’s never my entry point. I’m interested in the heart of the character — what they’re trying to communicate, what they’re feeling underneath all of it.
“When we can take a medium like puppetry, which is often seen as decorative, and bring to life a character with a beating heart in a way that genuinely affects people, then we’re doing something truly meaningful.”
When Peter Jackson lobbied to get Serkis nominated for his motion-capture performance in The Lord of the Rings, the Academy declined, claiming it would be nominating the character as opposed to Serkis’s acting skills.
Serkis addressed the lack of awards recognition for motion capture performances back in 2012, telling Wired: “The acting community has worries about motion capture because they believe it’s some form of replacement for performance when in fact, it’s the opposite … motion capture is a tool that allows actors to transform themselves into many different characters. You’re not confined by physicality. You can play anything.”
