Will actors still talk about doing their own stunts now that there's an Oscar category for it?

A year after announcing the addition of a new Oscar category to honor casting directors, the Academy has announced they are, finally, adding a category to recognize stunts. The category will officially recognize “stunt design” at the 100th Academy Awards to be held in 2028, honoring the films of 2027.

This has been a long time coming, with increasing interest in a stunt Oscar growing in the last several years. The new category comes after a concentrated push led by filmmaker David Leitch, who started his career as a stunt man before going on to direct stunt-heavy films like John Wick, which he co-directed with fellow former stunt man Chad Stahelski, Bullet Train and last year’s The Fall Guy, which was an overt love letter to the stunt industry.

They made honoring stunt performers a central part of the film’s marketing, with Ryan Gosling saying, “I was happy to be the first actor to say I did none of my own stunts.”

Stunt coordinator Chris O’Hara was billed as “stunt designer” on The Fall Guy, making him the first person recognized with such a title. Now that the new Oscar category is being referred to as “stunt design”, I think we’ll see a lot more of this credit styling going forward. O’Hara campaigned alongside Leitch for the new category, with both men making presentations to the Academy’s board of governors.

In a statement, Leitch said, “Stunts are essential to every genre of film and rooted deep in our industry’s history, from the groundbreaking work of early pioneers like Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd and Charlie Chaplin, to the inspiring artistry of today’s stunt designers, coordinators, performers and choreographers.”

Who, precisely, will be honored with this new category is not yet clear. They have some time to figure it out, since films won’t be eligible for consideration until 2027, which is another reason I think we’re about to see a lot of people being credited as stunt designers, not just as coordinators or choreographers. It has also not been stated if this new category will be included in the main telecast, or in the off-air Scientific and Technical Awards (we’re still waiting to hear the same for the casting Oscar). The rules and eligibility for the new category won’t be announced until the rules for the 100th Academy Awards are published in 2027.

I bet they do include the stunt Oscar in the big show because it is the most obvious way to get more popular films included in the telecast. Forget doing stupid fan polls mid-show, the new stunt design category is a way to recognize the work of their peers in the stunt industry—there are already over 100 stunt professionals in the Academy—in the same way they already recognize costume designers, production designers, makeup artists, and other key collaborators who help shape the final look of the film.

I do wonder, though, if this will lead to a rhetorical change from actors when it comes to promoting action movies. Going back to The Fall Guy, the whole point of the marketing campaign was for Ryan Gosling to proudly own up to NOT doing all his own stunts, which is a line actors love to trot out. The new Oscar won’t be given to stunt performers, so I suppose an actor could still pretend they’re doing their own stunts, but I do think this will draw more attention to the artistry of stunts, and the involvement of professional stunt performers.

I’m just curious to see if actors embrace a bigger spotlight on the stunt community or not. I’ve heard for years there was some pushback from actors—not all of them, but not none of them—because it would be harder to pretend they’re doing it all themselves when the people responsible for planning and executing the stunts on screen are getting more mainstream recognition. Will they maintain that lie (for everyone except Tom Cruise), or will they, like Ryan Gosling, embrace NOT doing their own stunts and share the spotlight with their stunt doubles? And when the big night comes in 2028, who will present the first Oscar for stunt design? It’s got to be Tom Cruise, right?

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Attached: Ryan Gosling running errands in Santa Barbara on Tuesday.