Audiences are really loving Project Hail Mary’s Rocky, the sentient rock-based alien lifeform who charms Ryan Gosling’s Ryland Grace and joins forces with him to save Earth — and that love might just translate into an Academy Award nomination, according to Variety.
The outlet reports that actor James Ortiz — who portrays Rocky opposite Gosling through puppeteering and voice acting — will be submitted in the supporting actor category. Further, they assert that he is, in fact, eligible for a nomination based on the Academy’s current rules despite the performance being somewhat unconventional. The performer is also eligible for a nomination at the Actor Awards (formerly known as the Screen Actors Guild Awards), as puppetry is represented under the union umbrella of SAG-AFTRA.
Additionally, Ortiz would be eligible, it appears, for a Critics Choice Award nomination and a BAFTA nomination as well — and considering the BAFTAs previously nominated Eddie Murphy’s voice performance as Donkey from the original 2001 Shrek for supporting actor, Ortiz definitely has a shot there.
However, it appears there is one major voting body that will be excluding the actor from potential recognition under their current guidelines: the Golden Globes.
“Typically, we talk about puppetry as a technical achievement, and it is,” Ortiz previously told Variety. “It’s a spectacle. For me as a performer, however, that’s never my entry point. I’m interested in the heart of the character — what they’re trying to communicate, what they’re feeling underneath all of it. When we can take a medium like puppetry, which is often seen as decorative, and bring to life a character with a beating heart in a way that genuinely affects people, then we’re doing something truly meaningful.”
We expect to see this film nominated all over the place when it comes to awards season, so there will definitely be tons to discuss on that front when things kick off later this year. In fact, we might even be talking about the Best Picture race for this one, and we definitely have to thank Rocky, at least in part, for that.
Lex Briscuso is a film and television critic and a freelance entertainment writer for IGN. You can follow her on Twitter at @nikonamerica.
