Guy Pearce has opened up about his Oscars nod and why it has given him “mixed feelings” in a new episode of The Jess Rowe Big Talk Show, available now on LiSTNR.
Pearce has been nominated for Best Supporting Actor at this year’s Academy Awards for The Brutalist. He believes Kieran Culkin will win in the category. The acclaimed actor, whose career spans from Neighbours to Memento tells Jess of his reluctance to embrace awards culture and why he believes acting is an art, not a competition:
Pearce: “I don’t think about the awards stuff. It’s not a competition, it’s art. I have mixed feelings about what I think about awards for acting, however, included in those mixed feelings is that it’s lovely to be recognised. The truest and most meaningful recognition is when I look at the finish film and see how good it is and get the responses at film festivals.
“This was an example of the character being so well-written, so fully formed. Anyone who asks me what I had to do to build the character; I shoot that down immediately. I had to do nothing… genuinely nothing. I saw that character come off the page; I saw all his insecurities, all his failings, his weaknesses, all the energy and desire to be strong, powerful, in control. To not be weak, not be insecure. It created this performative creature that people can’t take their eyes off… it’s the Donald Trump effect.”