A series of photos that circulated around awards season made the internet roundly do its nut. I will describe them, and you will see how our reactions show that earnestness has gone violently out of style. The first picture accompanied a quote from Jeremy Strong responding to his Oscar nomination. He’d put out a long statement saying this was the “realisation of a lifelong dream” and shared a photo of himself as a kid in 1993, when he spent the night “on cold metal bleachers” outside the Academy Awards to watch the nominees arrive. “I have not lost that feeling of excitement… I have devoted my life to the attempt to do genuine work that would be worthy of this honour.”
The second was an Instagram post where Strong’s Succession co-star Kieran Culkin reacted to his competing nomination with champagne on a balcony in Paris, and the phrase, “Let’s fucking gooooooo.”
