The Marvel Cinematic Universe may have changed the film industry forever, but the film industry’s feelings toward Marvel have not changed much at all, as judged from the guffaws that occurred Tuesday evening at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Governors Awards. The event, which was created 14 years ago to hand out lifetime achievement Oscars to honorees who wouldn’t be played off the stage by an orchestra (or shown at all during the live Oscars telecast), honored legends in the business like Mel Brooks and Angela Bassett. However, the latter’s award arguably felt like an apology after Bassett famously lost the Best Supporting Actress prize for her turn in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever just this past March.
Governor Awards host John Mulaney may have then said the quiet part out loud when he took the stage in front of much of Hollywood’s elite, including presumed presumed Oscar frontrunners Christopher Nolan and Robert Downey Jr., and explained the incredulity that would occur from a Marvel acting Oscar win.
“Here’s what a great actor Angela Bassett is,” Mulaney began, “she got an Oscar nomination for a Marvel movie. That’s like getting a Pulitzer Prize for a reddit comment.”
As you can see in the recorded tweet above, Mulaney’s Marvel burn not only earned knowing howls in the Academy audience, but also from Downey and Nolan, with the former putting his head in his hands while hiding his laughter. The fact that both Nolan and Downey’s careers are forever (and intimately) entwined with the superhero genre, particularly Downey’s as the face of Marvel Studios for more than 11 years, is striking.
After being the face of the MCU for over a decade, Robert Downey Jr. can now have a laugh about acting in Marvel movies. Read More