Despite decades in the industry and several critically acclaimed roles, Aussie actor Guy Pearce had never received an Oscar nominaton. That is, until now.
The former Neighbours star, 57, is nominated in the Best Supporting Actor category at the upcoming 97th Academy Awards for his role in Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist.
It’s a nomination that many believe has been long overdue for the beloved actor since he first started his career in the eighties but Pearce himself doesn’t agree.
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“I certainly don’t think of it as overdue,” Pearce recently told The Sydney Morning Herald.
“I see it as some sort of validation but I’m not looking for validation. The thing that is far more meaningful to me – and truly what it’s all about – is my response to my performance and when I look at the integrity of the movie and how good it is.”
It’s a recognition that has been a long time coming for the star.
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Just like many Aussie actors, Pearce started out on Ramsay Street cutting his teeth in the acting industry on the beloved Australian soap Neighbours.
Pearce was cast as Mike Young in the long-running show between 1986 and 1989.
In 2022, he reprised the role for the show’s finale episode from the first time it was cancelled.Â
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Starring in the Australian soap was an experience that Pearce says he is grateful for.Â
“I’ve many feelings about that show,” Pearce recently told The Times.Â
“In the old days you were either a theatre actor or a film actor and if you got stuck in a soap you were the lowest of the low – but what an opportunity.”
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“I had no clue what I was doing but learnt a lot,” he continued.
“When young actors ask me for advice, I shrug and say, ‘Get lucky?’ Because I got lucky.”Â
And whether it was luck or not, Pearce did make it big in Hollywood.
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Pearce’s first three films were Heaven Tonight, Hunting and Flynn, which were cast by Frank Howson.
After attending the Cannes Film Festival in 1991 for Hunting, he caught the attention of the international film industry and made his first major film breakout with his role as a drag queen in The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.Â
Today, he is also known for L.A. Confidential, Mare of Easttown, Prometheus, The King’s Speech and The Hurt Locker and more recently, of course, The Brutalist. But his role in Christopher Nolan’s critically acclaimed thriller Memento is what many know him best for.
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Pearce played amnesiac Leonard Shelby in a role cinephiles have praised but Pearce doesn’t share the same sentiment.Â
“I’m having an existential crisis. I watched Memento the other day and I’m still depressed,” Pearce told The Times earlier this year.
“I’m s–t in that movie. I’d never thought that before but I did this Q&A of Memento earlier this month and decided to actually watch the film again but while it was playing I realised I hate what I did.”
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While Memento received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay, Pearce himself didn’t receive any major critical acclaim for his role, and he’s not worked with Nolan again.
Pearce had previously shared that Nolan had approached him to star in Batman Begins as Ra’s al Ghul (which was famously played by Liam Neeson) and a character in the 2006 film The Prestige.
But, according to Pearce, he had been blocked from working with Nolan, who had partnered up with Warner Bros.
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“He spoke to me about roles a few times over the years,” Pearce told Vanity Fair last December.
“The first Batman and The Prestige. But there was an executive at Warner Bros. who quite openly said to my agent, ‘I don’t get Guy Pearce. I’m never going to get Guy Pearce. I’m never going to employ Guy Pearce.’
“So, in a way, that’s good to know. I mean, fair enough: there are some actors I don’t get. But it meant I could never work with [Nolan].”
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Pearce added that the unnamed executive “just didn’t believe in [him] as an actor”, meaning he missed out on roles in Nolan’s films.Â
Nolan worked with Warner Bros. for 18 years in a working relationship that ended with his 2020 film Tenet, opening Pearce up to a potential reunion with Nolan.Â
“So now my time has come,” Pearce told Vanity Fair.
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On reflection, however, Pearce made a revelation that perhaps the fact he didn’t work with Nolan again came down to his performance.Â
“And so all this stuff about an exec at Warner Bros. being why I’ve not worked with Chris again? It came crashing down,” he told The Times.Â
“I know why I didn’t work with Chris again – it’s because I’m no good in Memento.”
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While he didn’t work with Nolan, Pearce proceeded to star in several memorable roles over more than three decades in the industry.
Over that time, he has received various accolades including a Primetime Emmy Award, an AACTA Award plus BAFTA and Golden Globe nominations.
Now, almost 40 years after he first starred on Neighbours, his name has finally made it to the Oscars.
The nomination is a major milestone for Pearce’s impressive career and fans are excited that he’s finally getting the recognition they believe he deserves but Pearce isn’t confident.
“I don’t think I’ll win because Kieran [Culkin] keeps winning,” Pearce told The Sydney Morning Herald.
“But I know there can be upsets, as they call them, sometimes, so I’d better have a speech in my back pocket just in case.”
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