Oscars: Denzel Washington would be only the second acting win for a Ridley Scott film
Denzel Washington is rising in Gold Derby’s Oscar odds for Best Supporting Actor for Paramount Pictures’ “Gladiator II,” according to our combined predictions. Many pundits are singling him out as the standout performance in Ridley Scott’s latest sequel, as a former slave who plots to be the emperor of Rome. Interestingly enough, the only other actor in Scott’s entire filmography to emerge victorious at the Academy Awards for one of his movies was Russell Crowe (with whom Washington worked with on Scott’s “American Gangster” in 2007) for the original epic 24 years ago. Will Washington follow in Crowe’s footsteps and secure another performance victory for the franchise?
Back in 2000 when the first “Gladiator” premiered, it smashed box office numbers, becoming the second-highest grossing movie of the year, and won five Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Actor for Crowe. However, Crowe’s triumph was a bit of a surprise given that he won no precursors outside of the newly minted Critics Choice Award, and his win was likely attributed to the massive success of the historical epic as well as the indecisive Best Actor race that year.
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Washington also has had his share of uncertain award journeys throughout his career. While his first Oscar win for “Glory” (1989) for Best Supporting Actor was a surefire, his second was more rocky for “Training Day” (2001) as Crowe was sweeping all the precursors for “A Beautiful Mind,” yet lost out on the Oscar due to an unfortunate backstage incident at the BAFTAs involving an altercation.
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Aside from those Oscar victories, Washington has picked up precursors that showed him as a serious contender for the ultimate prize, but ultimately came up short, such as the Golden Globe for “The Hurricane” (1999) and the Screen Actors Guild Award for “Fences” (2016), along with his Academy recognition for “Cry Freedom” (1987), “Malcolm X” (1992), “Flight” (2012), “Roman J. Israel, Esq.” (2017), and “The Tragedy of Macbeth” (2021).
As of this writing, Washington is ranked third in the combined predictions of thousands of users at Gold Derby with odds of 5/1 for Best Supporting Actor and the backup of 28 experts, nine editors, and 18 of our top 24 users. He trails behind Kieran Culkin (“A Real Pain”) at 39/10 odds and Guy Pearce (“The Brutalist”) at 9/2, while Clarence Maclin (“Sing Sing”) with 6/1, Stanley Tucci (“Conclave”) with 23/2, and Yuri Borisov (“Anora”) with 14/1 odds complete the top six.
This will be Washington’s third supporting run since “Cry Freedom” and “Glory,” and if he’s nominated, it would be his 10th citation, joining five other actors to break double digits. More so, if he succeeds as three of our editors and eight of our experts currently have him projected to, he would be in the three-timers club which includes Walter Brennan, Ingrid Bergman, Meryl Streep, Jack Nicholson, Daniel Day-Lewis, and Frances McDormand. The first “Gladiator” proved beneficial for Washington’s “American Gangster” co-star and with the theatrical release of “Gladiator II” on Nov. 22, Washington could repeat another Oscar-winning performance for the sequel.
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