The director-actor partnership you’ve been hearing most about during this award season has been Inarritu-DiCaprio. Alejandro is the auteur who’d only shoot in natural daylight, or something like that, and, word is, made the shoot a “living hell”, to the point where some crew members walked off the set because even though they had to feed their families, they also didn’t want to be exposed to hypothermia. But, you know, all for the sake of art.
Inarritu and DiCaprio, however, were not at the Palm Springs International Film Festival on Saturday though. So the director-actor partnership that was featured that night was the one between Ridley Scott and Matt Damon. Matt was honoured with the Chairman Award. Ben Affleck received the Chairman Award in 2011. “Knowing that he won it just cheapens the whole thing for me,” Matt quipped on the red carpet. On stage, though, during his acceptance speech, it was all about Ridley Scott. As you know, Ridley’s Gladiator won Best Picture but he has yet to take Best Director. So, part of Matt’s campaign message is to get him one. That’s always a good look.
Matt will be at the Globes on Sunday, nominated in the Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture Musical/Comedy, up against Christian Bale, Steve Carell, Al Pacino, and Mark Ruffalo. I feel like he will take this one. While he’s at it, he can show Academy voters what it might be like to listen to him make some winning remarks – but on his own this time, without Ben. It’d be self-deprecating, cute, emotional, and, given that more people saw The Martian than any film that any of his peers in the Best Actor category were in, your audience numbers go up at that point too. And, if he puts on a real hustle, that all-American hustle, reminding voters that he too had to work alone, that while he wasn’t out getting not-humped by fake bears in the tundra, he too had to perform in isolation and grow a beard, well, maybe he too can give Leo something to think about.
