Jake Gyllenhaal: Ryan Reynolds Deserves Oscar Nomination for ‘Deadpool’
Ryan Reynolds may have accepted his 2017 Oscars snub with humor and grace, but fellow actor Jake Gyllenhaal offered a more in-depth response to the Academy’s Deadpool rebuff.
Gyllenhaal addressed the snub during a Nocturnal Animals Q&A with Entertainment Weekly that took place on Tuesday (January 24), hours after the 2017 Academy Award nominations were announced.
“We talk about brilliant performances all the time, you know, the actors who tear themselves apart for their roles, which I’m in a believer in,” he said. “But then I look at Ryan Reynolds in Deadpool and I say, ‘No one can do that but him.’ That is truly, purely him.’”
The Southpaw actor continued, saying, “As an artist he struggled for several years to figure that out and it's all there on the screen. And it's brilliant.”
Gyllenhaal further defended Reynolds’ performance, noting that commercial and monetary success shouldn't detract from the actor's work, though -- barring Heath Ledger's posthumous 2009 Supporting Actor win for his role as Joker in The Dark Knight -- the Academy has always notoriously overlooked comic book movies.
"Sure, it's a comic book movie and it's made a lot of money — but that doesn't subtract from Ryan's extraordinary work," Gyllenhaal said. "Because it's him. I mean, let’s ask ourselves: What else do we want from people who create? Something that is truly them."
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