Marc Maron is standing by his To Leslie co-star Andrea Riseborough and lashing out at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for its decision to conduct a review of the campaign procedures around this year’s Oscar nominees — a reaction to Riseborough’s left-field, grassroots nomination.
After news broke that the Academy will review its rules for online campaigning — Riseborough received a groundswell of support from fellow actors in the weeks leading up to the nominations — Maron took to his WTF podcast to speak out.
“Apparently, the Academy of Motion Picture Sciences or whatever the f*ck it is has decided to investigate Andrea Riseborough’s grassroots campaign to get her the Oscar nomination,” Maron said, “because I guess it so threatens their system to where they’re completely bought out by corporate interests in the form of studios.”
“The Academy is [like], ‘Well, we gotta take a look at this. This is not the way it’s supposed to work. Independent artists don’t deserve the attention of the Academy unless we see how it works exactly. So we’re gonna look into this.’ “
Maron took issue with the Academy’s perceived bias in favor of big studio Oscar campaigns. “Millions of dollars [are] put into months and months of advertising campaigns, publicity, screenings by large corporate entertainment entities, and Andrea was championed by her peers through a grassroots campaign which was pushed through by a few actors.”
“Nothing is going to happen because of [the investigation],” Maron said, saying the online campaign for Riseborough “was in earnest…and it is not undeserving. But I’m glad the Academy — at the behest of special interest and corporate interest and paranoia about how they look — are doing an investigation. Who gives a f*ck!”
Over the weekend, actor Christina Ricci also took issue with the Academy review, posting on Instagram, “Seems hilarious that the ‘surprise nomination’ (meaning tons of money wasn’t spent to position this actress) of a legitimately brilliant performance is being met with an investigation. So it’s only the films and actors that can afford the campaigns that deserve recognition? Feels elitist and exclusive and frankly very backward to me.”
