As far as the Oscar nominees go, few categories can claim to be as competitive as the one for Best Actor; it may be the popular opinion that it’s down to Oppenheimer‘s Cillian Murphy and The Holdovers‘ Paul Giamatti this year, but realistically, we have a five-way pendulum on our hands.
Of course, that shouldn’t deter anyone from tossing their hat into the predictions ring, and Sterling K. Brown—himself nominated for Best Supporting Actor following his performance in American Fiction—was all too happy to oblige.
During a recent appearance on The Graham Norton Show, Brown named Colman Domingo (who was also present on the show at the time) as his prediction for the Best Actor winner, with Domingo having been nominated for his eponymous leading role in Rustin, a biopic about civil rights activist Bayard Rustin and the pivotal role he played in organizing the March on Washington.
Keeping in mind the closeness of the Best Actor race, Domingo is perhaps nevertheless the most inspired prediction for Best Actor (which includes the aforementioned Murphy and Giamatti along with Maestro’s Bradley Cooper and American Fiction’s Jeffrey Wright). Despite arguably being the least subtle of the five, Domingo’s performance was packed to the brim with a unique, deeply personal, and strikingly kinetic verve. He absolutely demanded attention with every word, gesture, and glance, and he gave Julian Breece’s and Dustin Lance Black’s razor-sharp screenplay the life it deserved, and then some.
It also goes without saying that the significance of Domingo’s nomination in particular is unprecedented, and while it’s entirely his work on Rustin that’s rightly being honored, his victory would represent something much more than that. And, when you further consider the quality of character Domingo has displayed over the years, well, let’s just say that out of the five possible acceptance speeches we might hear in March, Domingo’s would be cause for the most excitement.
(featured image: Amazon MGM Studios)
