Regarding Richard Gere, we've had this conversation elsewhere about his status. I understand how his role might have appeared on the stage but on-screen his placement of leading vs. supporting is clearly borderline. If you look at where he was nominated, he was only cited for the Golden Globe and the SAG for leading, but I think that's testament to the strength of his overall role. He's... fine? I think there was greater enthusiasm for the idea of Richard Gere getting a nomination than for the performance itself. The Weinsteins however saw an opportunity to get nominations in all four acting categories. But to be honest, I think had they pushed him for supporting, that might not have resulted in a nomination for Reilly but I do think that Gere could have won on career sentiment alone as well as the size of his role. Best Supporting Actor had a wealth of strong contenders that year to the point where Alfred Molina for Friday (who might have won in previous years) was barely mentioned. I love Chris Cooper in Adaptation. but it's not a typical winner. But "forced" to compete against that year's Best Actor pool (which included the non-nominated Leonardo DiCaprio for Catch Me If You Can, Hugh Grant for About a Boy, Sam Rockwell for Confessions of a Dangerous Mind among others) was too hard.criddic3 wrote
Gere has had some bad luck with the Academy. He's certainly been in well-received films and given performances that could have been nominated, but they never bite. I have to think, given that John C. Reilly got the supporting nod, that the Academy would have considered him more of a lead... but the role itself isn't introduced until, what half hour into the film or something? The ladies dominated that movie, despite Gere's Golden Globe win for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy. I placed him in support that year, along with Daniel Day-Lewis, who was clearly a supporting character to Leo DiCaprio's in "Gangs of New York." Yet he got the lead nomination. So, you may be right about category confusion there.
The DiCaprio in "The Departed" thing is interesting. He had "Revolutionary Road" out at the same time, and his co-star Matt Damon had to have been considered a lead in the film (though Damon received nothing for his work in it). But, like John C. Reilly, Mark Wahlberg placed in support (over Jack Nicholson) for the film at the Oscars. I think DiCaprio as a supporting player would have been more category fraud than if Richard Gere had been with "Chicago."
Daniel Day-Lewis is an even more borderline case. I can see real arguments either way.
Leonardo DiCaprio didn't have Revolutionary Road out at the same time (that was 2008). He had Blood Diamond out at the same time from the same studio (WB). I have no idea what conversations were going on behind the scenes or what contracts were signed beforehand regarding DiCaprio's promotional requirements. DiCaprio was pushed for supporting by SAG but was only considered lead elsewhere. I would love to see the vote totals in both categories because it's entirely possible that DiCaprio received enough votes to be considered lead but came in behind his Blood Diamond total and yet came in sixth in totals for The Departed, which might have been more overall but less than the five others that got nominated. It's hard to look at the push for Blood Diamond and think it could have done better than the five (!) nominations it ended up with but if they held off a year maybe DiCaprio could have gotten nominated in that Best Actor field. But again, that's why they have their job and I have mine.
Anyway... I would have considered Matt Damon and Leonardo DiCaprio lead for The Departed (and nominated both) and Jack Nicholson, Mark Wahlberg, Martin Sheen, and Alec Baldwin supporting in The Departed. I also would have considered both Leonardo DiCaprio and Djimon Hounsou leads in Blood Diamond. So, category fraud across the board.
Last point, I used to look at Jack Nicholson in The Departed and originally found him to be the weak link of the film. I kept thinking "Who acts like this? His character makes no sense!" Then Donald Trump ran for President and... I sort of see a lot of parallels between the two. Trump is a lot like that guy!
