The Gold Rush
Everything it’s crucial that you know about this years awards season race.
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In the mid-90s, the title of Best Actress Whod Never Won an Oscar was held by Susan Sarandon.
Early in the 1993 ceremony, in Best Supporting Actor, he lost a seventh time.
Then finally, in Best Actor, his moment came.
You broke my streak, he joked.
The relative pleasure imbued by an Academy Award down the line may vary, as well.
Does the sun shine brighter, food taste sweeter?
What did their big moment actually feel like?
You never reach anywhere.
You just go on working.
Though hes now a two-timewinner, Alexandre Desplats first trophy was a long time coming.
He didnt take it personally.
(He carries his own packets of green sencha.)
I knew from things that I had heard that it would come when it had to come.
Its like love: It may take a while, but it happens boom, its there.
At the 2015 ceremony, Desplat was convinced he would once again be going home empty-handed.
Its about whats happening around the world, in the industry, and in cinema at the same time.
That night,Grand Budapestturned out to be the movie of the moment.
The movies so stunningly different, inventive, and fun, Desplat says.
And the music is playing almost all the time.
So what did it feel like to get up onstage and finally win?
Fabulous, he says.
He had been judged by a jury of his peers and declared worthy of entering the pantheon.
Youre the flower of the day, and its beautiful.
But the win also brought with it a new pressure.
And I must say for that the next year or two, I was really obsessed by that.
I just thought,Dont stop.
Dont think that youve reached a point.You never reach anywhere.
You just go on working.
He was back on a job in Paris within days of the ceremony.
Desplats hard work would pay off three years later, when he won another Oscar for theShape of Waterscore.
You might think that nothing could compare to your first Academy Award; you would be wrong.
Desplat had previously scored movies likeThe Kings SpeechandArgo, where the film won big, but hed missed out.
And on theGrand Budapestwin, as great as that night was, his joy couldnt be shared with Anderson.
But onShape of Water,we won everything, he says.
Best director, best film, best composer, best production design.
Then, there, I could play with the band.
(Like Desplat, Massey is nominated again this year, forFord v Ferrari.)
It was so beyond the horizon I didnt even think about it.
Like Desplat, Massey says that he was content with his place in the industry even without a win.
He was established and comfortable, and working on exciting movies.
To be on the safe side, though, he did always prepare a speech beforehand.
As I walked down to the stage, Brian May and Roger Taylor got up and shook our hands.
It was pure joy, to be honest.
How did winning feel for Massey?
I felt like I had achieved a goal I hadnt really set for myself, to be honest.
He noticed, too, that in the days afterward, people began to treat him differently.
Within the industry, they seem to take you a little more seriously, which is pleasant.
And people outside the industry think its just magic.
Massey lives in Ojai, a small city about two hours north of Los Angeles.
After his win, it suddenly felt like everyone in town knew him.
Id never met them before in my life.
It was a bit surreal.
In the 12 months since his win, Massey has not experienced that.
Or he hopes he hasnt.
Put the word out there, he says, laughing, the rates havent changed!
I ran to the stage in a full sprint.
For OConnell, constantly coming up short was agonizing.
Everybody used to say, Oh, this is your 12th time.
You must have a better chance next year.
Or This is your 15th time, then This is your 18th time …
But it really doesnt matter.
Actors may be able to build a case over time for a makeup award.
For sound mixers, every year is a reset; he had to start all over again.
It got even worse once he became the record holder.
Thats a title I dont wish on anybody else on the planet, he says.
Its not a fun thing to own.
In 2006, he even made the cover of the L.A.Times.
I said, The one thing is, I wish you wouldnt refer to me as a loser.
Then the headline read:Sound Advice From a 14-time Loser,with my picture on the cover.
I gotta be honest, it didnt feel good.
It didnt feel good at all.
At the 2017 ceremony, that nine-year gap came into play in unexpected fashion.
When he heard Chris Evans say the H inHacksaw Ridge, he didnt clock that hed finally won.
All of a sudden, my wife was shaking me, he says.
Three years later, OConnell remembers what happened next in vivid detail: I flipped out.
I barely composed myself.
What the show didnt show was that I ran to the stage in a full sprint.
At the end ofhis acceptance speech, OConnell gave a shout-out to his late mother, Skippy OConnell.
The year hed been nominated forApocalypto, Skippy was in the hospital.
The rest of the night unfolded in a blur.
I wasnt even sure it was actually really happening.
I was just sitting there looking at it, thinking,I cant believe this really happened.
Then, the next morning, he went back to work on a Netflix film he was mixing.
No one could believe that I was actually sitting there, he recalls.
But you know what?
I thought to myself, nobody was going to be at my home.
My kids had to go to school and my wife is going to be out.
I just didnt want to sit home all day.
Id rather be at the studio, which is where this all happened.
And the best thing about the long-awaited win?
Nobody that year referred to me ever as the loser, OConnell says.
It was the best year of my life.
