Pop Culture Happy Hour - Actors Who've Never Been Nominated For An Oscar, But Should Win

Episode Date: February 24, 2025

The standard line for awards season goes: "It's an honor just to be nominated." But when it comes to the Oscars, there's quite a long list of great performers who have never received this honor. Today, we're talking about some of our favorites who should have at least one Oscar on their mantle — including Pam Grier, John Goodman, Oscar Isaac, and Regina Hall.Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus at plus.npr.org/happyhour See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

The standard polite line for award season goes, it's an honor just to be nominated. And yet, when it comes to the Oscars, there's quite a long list of great performers who have never received this honor. What gives? This is worse than Glenn Close batting 0 for 8. This is madness. So instead of debating winners and losers, we're going to honor some of our favorites who've been left out of the game entirely. Who should win an Oscar who has never even been nominated? I'm Stephen Thompson.

And I'm Aisha Harris. And today on NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour, we're talking about actors who should have Oscars. Joining us today is our co-host, Glenn Weldon. Hello, Glenn. Hey, Aisha, I'd like to thank the Gersh Agency. Thank you. And also with us is NPR producer Mark Rivers.

Welcome back, Mark. Hey, guys. Thanks for having me. Great to have you here. So, yeah, our premise is quite simple. We're each going to make the case for a performer who's never been nominated for a competitive acting Oscar, but should have at least one on their mantle by now.

And the only other criteria that we have is that they have to be living and currently active in the industry. So I'm going to save my rant for Marilyn Monroe and gentlemen prefer blondes for another episode. Let's get into it. Now, Glenn, let's start with you. Who is your pick? Okay, well, I kind of zeroed in on the lead actress category

because only lately has the Academy kind of disabuse themselves of a very annoying habit of hurling Oscars at actors portraying the same kind of people, strong, underestimated women who are nobly suffering in the face of adversity. Julianne Moore and Still Alice, Jessica's Chastain in the eyes of Tammy Fay, Merrill Streep in the Iron Lady, Nicole Kidman in the hours,

Hillary Swank and Million Dollar Baby, Renee Zell Wigger and Judy, Holly Hunter in the piano. On the surface, very different movies, very different roles, but here's the thing, they aren't, though. I mean, we are slotting these women in some very similar boxes, telling some very similar stories, as if they're the only kinds of stories about women worth telling

one actor who has constantly bucked that formula and delivered performance after performance after performance. And here's my criteria. Here's the thing I think we should be rewarding actors for is if you come away from a given performance convinced that only they could play that role... I'm on the edge of my seat here.

That's why I came up with Pam Greer. Yes. Oh, yeah. Pam Greer, folks know, made her bones in black exploitation films playing gorgeous badasses, basically. Foxy Brown, coffee, Shiba in Shiba Baby, and Friday Foster. And look, I'm not going to lie, there's a sameness to those roles. Yes, there is, because there's genre and genre has a formula. But there is an individuality to each of those performances.

There's nothing cookie cutter or pat about them. Another thing we should be rewarding actress for it, you have to respect the grind, right? She puts in the work. That should be rewarded. She's been in a Stephen Sagan. She did women in prison movies. She's the best thing in Scream, Blackyola's scream. Missed that one.

Just recently, she was in a pet cemetery movie, right? And Ayesha, recently on their show, you talked about Jackie Brown. Yes. Jackie Brown is the 1997 Quentin Tarantino film. She plays an L.A. flight attendant who smuggles money for her a gunrunner. I think it is widely agreed that that should have been her moment. Yeah. Yes.

But she should have won. She should have won. Yes. what you will about Quentin Tarantino and how he writes women, and there's plenty to say. But he wrote that role for her, and I don't think it's a stretch to think that he wrote it with the academy in mind. Oh, right? Of course. It's like all of his films.

It's a pastiche. But he gave her depth and vulnerability, but the important thing is not just vulnerability, right? Because Jackie Brown is resourceful. She's savvy. She's always looking for an angle. She makes her own agency. And I think he wanted her to come to the attention of the academy, and she damn well should have. I just came over here to talk to you.

To talk. The way I see you and me got one thing to talk about. One thing. And that's what you are willing to do for me. The movie was on the Academy's radar. You know, I think... Oh, absolutely. Robert Forster was nominated.

This is my point. Rightfully so. He's fantastic. He's great. It's a subdued and nuanced performance. It's not loud and big, and it's not necessarily physically, visually transformative the way Oscars like to go for. But what I love about Jackie Brown

What I love about that Pam Gray performance is that it's not only great in isolation, but it's calling upon that whole history of films that you talked about, Glenn, that history of black exploitation. She's bringing that to the performance in a way that elevates it and kind of transcends those past roles. But it's so grounded, it's so human. And I think maybe Helen Hunt won that year for as good as it gets. I haven't watched that movie since, but I've watched Jackie Brown numerous times since. At this point, it might be my favorite Tarantino.

And Pam Gray is a large, it is the biggest reason why the movie is so. Wonderful. Love Helen Hunt. Hate that win. And it's even more galling because, again, you could tell yourself, yes, it's pulpy. It was Tarantino back in 1997. They were ignoring Tarantino, but they weren't. Now, Robert Forster, he had a long-historic career, talk about the grind.

Oh, my gosh. The definition of the grind. He's a great addition to the movie. But as we're all saying, Pam Greer is that movie, and they completely ignored her. And I think one of the thing that's come out of this discussion that we're having is, are we rewarding the actor or are we rewarding their ability to to conform to the kind of parameters that we are setting with our expectations of what an Academy Award performance looks like. Because if you wanted to have Pam Greer give you like typical lead actress performance, she can do it. She can give you indomitable, resolute, persevering.

But she's Pam Greer. She can also give you sexy badass. She can give you intelligence, defiance, resourcefulness. So justice for Pam Greer, but also justice, and I think this is going to be a through line through everything we're saying here. Just as for any actor who isn't playing into the Academy's very narrow parameters of whatever they think is, quote-unquote, Oscar-worthy. I think that particularly tracks when it comes to black women, right? I think you can see the kind of roles that the Academy has nominated or awarded in the past when it comes to black women, whether they're the Mammy role, playing a slave or playing some kind of servile subservient role.

Just last year, Dave I and Joy Randolph won for the holdovers. It's the kind of performance that Octavia Spencer gave in the help or the shape of water. Let's not go too far. I think that that is actually a very subversive, different kind of role. But we're not here to talk about that. I got take from a holdover. The last thing I will say about this is that I think that when it comes to being, to Mark's point about being a black working actor and especially for women, to a point,

especially in the 90s, it was kind of like you could say you were playing to the academy, but really you were just playing to what was available to you. And the fact that this is the rare role from that era that, was written with Pam Greer specifically in mind, with a black woman in mind, is, I think, what makes it such a unique thing and also makes Quentin Tarantino such a fascinating, complicated figure in our filmmaking. I support this choice, Glenn. She was actually kind of in my top while I was thinking about this.

I actually said, when we submitted names, I said, Pam Greer, unless Iisha picture. I came very close. So thank you. Yes, I am all for it. Pam Greer should have an Oscar. Let's get on it. Let's get her like another role. Let's, let's see what that happened. She's still, she's still working. All right. Well, Stephen, what is your pick? I'm very excited to hear this. Well, it's hard to find too much connective tissue between Glenn's pick and mine, except for the fact that both actors that we're talking about, I think, have been dinged

by the Academy because they weren't known at first as quote-unquote, like, serious cinematic actors. I think there is a ton of snobbery. My pick first became known as a comic actor on TV. I think has perhaps seen his Oscars pedigree suffer because of his work in kids' movies. I am not talking about Jim Carrey, who often turns up on lists of actors who've never been nominated for Oscars. I think he had a similar hill to climb from a standpoint of he was known as Ace Ventura.

I'm talking about John Goodman. Yes. John Goodman was best known at first for playing Dan Conner, the lovable TV dad on Roseanne. And he's still playing that role. Pretty recently resumed playing that role on the rebooted Roseanne and then the Connors. John Goodman spent a chunk of the 90s playing Fred Flintstone and King Ralph. He does marvelous voice work in the various Monsters' Ink movies, in the various Emperor's New Groove properties. I wish I know you to be a gigantic Emperor's New Groove fan, as am I.

Yes, love it. But John Goodman is the type of character actor who is really always terrific in everything he does, whether the thing he's in is good or terrible. In terms of movies that feel Oscarsie, he is a big part of the Cohn Brothers movies, including perhaps his most iconic film performance. Smokie, my friend, you're entering a world of pain. Walter, you mark that frame and aid, you're entering the world of pain. I'm not. A world of pain.

This is her partner. It's the whole world gone crazy! So that is John Goodman as Walter in The Big Lobowski. One of the all-time comedies. Part of what has made John Goodman's film career so fascinating and so rewarding is that because he came to film with such a deep reputation for playing lovable figures. And the Cone Brothers, they'd put him in Raising Arizona before he'd taken off, like really, really early in his career. So he'd been on their radar for ages. But one thing the Cone brothers in particular love to do with John Goodman is bring him in and you think,

it's lovable John Goodman, and then you make him terrifying. And they did that in the Big Lobowski. They did that in Barton Fink. Oh, brother, where art thou? He pops up in these movies again and again, often as figures of menace. And when you talk about John Goodman performances

that should have been nominated for Oscars, you can certainly bring up the Big Lobowski, which was nominated for Zero Academy Awards. But when I looked at his filmography to kind of try to pinpoint, well, he should have been nominated for this, he should have been nominated for this. What I would often see is extremely memorable performances in movies that were either too idiosyncratic like Barton Fink or where his role was too small.

He is very often brought in to just bring a pop of something. He's like the guy who kind of comes off the bench and gets you like 15 points, 10 rebounds, and then like doesn't play for the rest of the game. You know, like, you know, he gives this iconic performance in the Big Lobowski. And I think for a lot of viewers, they would look at some of his work after that as kind of variations of that work in the same way that performances post Jeff Bridges kind of feels like variations of the dude. Right. And there's a sense what they call him brothers, that they have this kind of like traveling circus of actors, you know, traveling circus of clowns, you know. And we know that Academy doesn't really take comedy that seriously or historically tends to not favor comedy. Well, and I think one thing that sets him apart from, for example, Jim Carrey is I don't get the feeling that there has been.

as much of a concerted effort in the industry to get him nominated. Exactly. Whereas Goodman is one of those people where you just wake up and you're like, how did that guy never get nominated? The other thing is, is like, John Goodman's brand of comedy is, it can be broad and Roseanne was very broad, but it was not like Jim Carrey levels of broad, like in the same way. And that's a much more giant leap you have to make than with John Goodman.

I think John Goodman is a great pick. And again, it could still happen at some point. A Cohen, maybe, we'll make a movie for him. We'll see. All right, Mark, what is your pick? I think this person should have three to four Oscar nominations by now. And it's not just the performance, it's the fact that we should be putting him in everything. And my pick is Oscar Isaac.

Okay. Maybe the best actor of his generation, certainly one of the best actors in his generation. This is a guy I first saw in Drive from 2011 playing a very small and kind of stereotypical role. He was kind of former felon, you know, Latino out of prison. But what I remember from that performance is not the kind of criminality aspect. It's the intimacy, the connecting that you see him do with Brian Goskin and Curry Mulligan on screen. When he's gazing at you, you can just see him trying to connect with the other person on screen. And he really, I think the closest he came to an Oscar nomination was, speaking of the Coens, Inside Lewin Davis from 2013.

Yeah, for sure. I think this is one of the kind of great breakthrough performances that we've had in the last decade or so. It is the only time I've genuinely, genuinely cared about a Cohen protagonist in a way where I felt close to this guy's pain and agony. He does his own singing in the role. And the singing just, there's such an authenticity to this guy. I don't want to, don't send me off in the outer space. I swear when they put me in the pressure. Yeah, but we want to go to, but still do the papa please into the verse.

Really? Yeah. I think this is someone who would have flourished in the 70s and 80s with folks like Dustin Hoffman, De Niro, Pacino. Sure. where it's not less about the plot, more about reveals of character. But if he were born then, maybe his Latino ethnicity would have held him back the same way, like Andy Garcia didn't get the roles he did. And today, someone like Oscar Isaac is forced to be blue in an X-Men movie.

Or, you know, he's forced to be in a Disney show. When you can tell what he really wants to do is stuff like a most final year from 2014, where he gives like, he gives the best Al Pacino performance the Albinino never gave in that movie. Just he's so electrifying. So when you look them in the eye, You have to believe that we are better, and we are. But you will never do anything as hard as staring someone straight in the eye and telling the truth. I mean, Mark, you say that he was forced to give these performances.

Well, he's forced to take bags and bags of money acting in Star Wars movies. He's in Dune movies. He basically pivoted into a lot of big franchise work. When you talk about why he wasn't nominated inside Lewin Davis, is a perfect example. He wasn't a big enough name. And that's one of the big problems with the Oscars is like you often have to sort of prove yourself as kind of Oscars material before they'll consider you. Well, that said there was buzz around him for inside Lewin Davis. And it was a very inward performance. But, you know, the way the world of that movie keeps punching him in the

gut, you see the weight of every blow in his face and his whole physicality. It's physicality changes over the course of that movie. He's funny and star. He's funny and star. Wars. He in Ex Machina. He's the best thing about Ex Machina. Of all the people we've talked about so far, I do feel, though, we're kind of time stamping this episode because I think a nomination for this guy is inevitable. I wouldn't know I don't necessarily feel, unfortunately, about the others. It's interesting because I think, like, with everyone in the industry at this point has been in a Disney or Marvel. Like, there's no, there are no. You can't escape the mouse. That's just what it is these days. He's still dabbling in the sort of, like, quote unquote, prestige. He did a movie with Paul Schrader also. He's doing those roles. But I think someone like Oscar Isaac, he needs the way Leo had Martin Scorsese, I would love someone consistently saying Oscar Isaac's my guy.

I'm going to put him in all my work the same way Brian Coogler puts Michael B. Jordan all his work. You know, like I think someone like Isaac might need that. As a partial defense, yes, he's in the Marvel television series Moon Knight. He's not wasting his time there. He gets to play goofy. He gets to play. He gets to have a lot of fun in that role because he's playing two roles. But was this a good show, Glenn?

It was not a good show, but it was a fun performance. It's hard out here for actors. It is. It is. Mark, I think this is a good pick. I also agree with Glenn that, like, it's just a matter of time before he gets that nomination. I'm impatient, Asia. I'm impatient.

We'll see. Well, for my pick, I am going with someone who kind of like, actually, like John Goodman. The first time that I think a lot of people notice her. the first time I noticed her, was in none other than Scary Movie, the Scary Movie franchise, which is, you know, as broad, as broad can be, as inappropriate, as uncouth, as everything you can think of. Of course, I'm talking about Regina Hall, who in Scary Movie, played Brenda, who was basically the black woman in the movie, except she gets to survive. But she comments a lot, and there's a lot of references to her being a black person in the movie.

It's a great role. She handles the very tacky, just like tasteless jokes so perfectly well. And it plants the seed for what Regina Hall can do. She can do everything. She can do the broadest comedy possible. She can also do the dramas and the nuance and all of the layers of a character. The shot that I would have loved to have see her have is to get nominated for the 2018 film, Support the Girls. Yes.

Yes, written and directed by Andrew Bojowski. I was shocked, kind of, that she didn't get a nomination for this because, of course, Glenn, as you were saying, oftentimes with women, especially black women, there's this need for them to be suffering to the utmost degree. This is not that kind of movie, but it is the kind of role that does occasionally get nominated if you're a white actress. She plays Lisa, an exasperated manager of a restaurant sports bar. She basically has to deal with all of the little annoyances and challenges at work and in her personal life. Her boss is bad at his job. Her employees each have their own dramas going on, and she's kind of like the mother hen. And she's also in the process of separating from her aimless husband.

And I feel like if she were to be nominated for an Oscar, this is the scene that would be playing when they're like, and Regina Hall. Am I not trying hard enough? Tell me. If you need me to sit on the couch and be sad with you sometimes, and maybe I should do that. Sad dudes is my business. You know, I'm not afraid of sad. I didn't say you were my customer, but at least they try. They try to enjoy themselves.

You know, maybe that's the difference. So she's talking to her aimless husband, exasperated. So, ugh, she's not yelling in that scene. She's not, like, crying heavily. And this is not that kind of movie. It's a movie where, like, she's got to go from point A to point B. She has to deal with all these different little fires. and the way she just like is able to both seem like, you know, a boss lady, but also someone who's like slowly unraveling because everything around her is going up in flames and who also just like cares for other people.

Now, the New York film critic circle named Hall the best actress of that year. And sadly, she was the first black woman to win that award. That's a whole other thing to, you know, talk about. And the Oscar Nons for that year included Olivia Coleman, who won for the favorite. Okay. Defendable. She was great. I liked some of the performances in that batch of Oscar nominees.

But I just think that it's the type of role that you don't usually see black women getting and doing. She should have an Oscar for that. I also think she should have one for a honk for Jesus, Save Her Soul, which came out a few years later. I didn't think it was quite as successful as Support the Girls, but I do think she is playing. a completely different kind of character, the first lady of a Southern Baptist megachurch, whose pastor-husband is embroiled in a sex scandal.

And the way that she also just, like, has to keep it in, but is also slowly unraveling in this very, like, weird satire. Regina Hall, she should have an Oscar. Regina King has one already. Let's get the next Regina. Let's get the Regina's in. I'm so glad you mentioned Regina Hall.

I've loved her ever since the scary movie. I think she's by far the funniest thing in those movies. Yes, yes. And like you said about Support the Girls, the movie does not raise its voice until the very end. I think also one of the great final endings in like recent years. Literally. Yeah, literally. It's the kind of role that, you know, maybe you could have put her in a Sean Baker film, you know, or something where that would get recognized, where it's just very ordinary and it's very approachable.

But we haven't given her enough chances to show just what she can do. Like, I think she just has such beautiful range. she's just such an authentic presence on screen and support the girls. Great movie and should have gotten more attention. Should have gotten more attention because it is an Oscar-worthy performance, according to my criteria,

because you can only imagine her in that role. I mean, I'm always going to pull for actors who come from comedy. She put in her time. As you mentioned, scary movie, she didn't get a statue, but she got a meme. Scary movie made her a meme. And these days, memes are almost as important.

Exactly. You know, she grounded girls' trip and kind of doing that same way. She can go broad. She can be the still presence in the chaos without being boring, right? Without being a stick in the mud. And that film, Girls Trip, great film, needs ground.

Needs some presence like hers that can bridge the gap. She's great. Well, support Regina. Support these picks that we all talked about. I think they are all worthy of Oscars. You should definitely let us know what actor you think should have an Oscar. Find us at Facebook.com slash PCH. That brings us to the end of our show.

Mark Rivers, Stephen Thompson, and Glenn Weldon. Thanks so much for being here. This was very, very fun. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And just a reminder, signing up for Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus

is a fantastic way to support our show in public radio and you get to listen to all of our episodes, sponsor-free. Please go find out more at plus.npr.org slash happy hour or visit the link in our show notes. This episode was produced by Liz Metzger and edited by Mike Katzif. Our supervising producer is Jessica Reedy. and Hello, Come In provides our theme music. Thank you for listening to Pop Culture Happy Hour from NPR.

I'm Aisha Harris, and we'll see you all next time.