As mentioned several times today, it is Oscar nominations voting week, as Academy members decide on which artists will be nominated for the Oscars, happening on March 15. The nominations will be announced a week today, next Thursday. So the contenders and their various studios are doing what they can to be as visible as possible to secure those votes.

It’s important, I think, in these times especially, to remember who actually votes. The internet doesn’t vote. The people on TikTok don’t get a vote. It’s the Hollywood insiders who vote, the industry players are voting, not the social media commentators, not me, not the bloggers. And I say this because even though some corners of online have been critical of Timothée Chalamet, tired of his Marty Supreme-ing, and have been loud about it, that noise might not necessarily represent the opinion of those who determine Oscars.

The actors branch is the Academy’s largest branch, and this is the branch that votes on the actors who will be eventually nominated for Oscars. If the vibe at the Golden Globes was any indication, Timmy is popular among his peers. And he’s well-liked enough that Robert Downey Jr actually came out last night to moderate the Q&A after a screening of Marty Supreme at the Directors Guild of America. RDJ isn’t going to leave the ranch for several hours for some kid he doesn’t care for. The Robert Downey Jr we’ve known over the last 15 years is an influential Hollywood power player. And he’s decided to give the Marty and Timmy campaign an assist.

During the conversation, RDJ drew a connection between his own performance in Chaplin and Timmy’s playing Bob Dylan, but then going right into filming Marty Supreme.

I’m highlighting this clip because it’s worth nothing that the “I’m the greatest” energy that Timmy’s been performing over the last few weeks obviously isn’t what he’s serving when he’s in the presence of the acting community. While this might exhausting for the audience, the method of it all, which is where some of the backlash is coming from, it’s much less exhausting among those who, well, do it themselves. Actors love actor sh-t, insufferably, so it plays better in this environment than on Twitter.

And that’s why RDJ, at the end of the event, as the kids would say, just glazed the sh-t out of Timothée Chalamet.

Did Robert Downey Jr, who’s been at this pretty much his whole life, and who has only been nominated one time for best actor, 33 years ago for Chaplin, which is ONE LESS than Timmy who currently has TWO best actor Oscar nominations and is about to receive his third, at just 30 years old, just say that Chalamet is “one of the greats”? This is a vain business, with big and frail egos. This is a world in which RDJ’s compliment could evoke a less than complimentary response. I’m curious to see which way that swings. 

Robert Downy Jr interviews Timothée Chalamet at a Marty Supreme screening Q&A in Hollywood on January 15, 2026

Photo credits: @CelebCandidly / BACKGRID

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