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The biggest movie stars aren’t necessarily the ones who experience sustained awards season glory, with Tom Cruise being one of the most prominent examples given that he’s closing in on 40 years as one of the industry’s top draws.
He may have four Academy Award nominations to his name – and he definitely should have scooped the Best Supporting Actor trophy for a career-best performance in Magnolia – but he’s still waiting on that elusive first victory. In fact, his Best Picture nod as one of the producers of Top Gun: Maverick was his first time being shortlisted in almost a quarter of a century, but there’s a bulletproof method of virtually guaranteeing him his maiden Oscar.
Along with the overworked and underpaid VFX artists who work their fingers to the bone just to see their substandard CGI used as a weapon to criticize the films they worked so hard on, stunt performers are another pivotal aspect of the filmmaking business that very rarely get awarded the praise they deserve.
John Wick director Chad Stahelski and star Keanu Reeves have long been touting an Oscar for the best stunt sequence of the year, and if the Academy finally sees sense and decides to add it to the lineup, then who better to find themselves in the running for the gong than cinema’s pre-eminent daredevil?
Hypothetically, if the Oscars brought in a Best Stunt or Best Stunt Performer trophy in any year a Mission: Impossible blockbuster is released – or any action-heavy Cruise title for that matter – then he’d instantly become the heavy favorite to win. It wouldn’t even be about his celebrity status, either, seeing as this is the guy who rode a motorcycle off a cliff and parachuted to safety half a dozen times with only a six-second window to pull the cord, all in the name of our entertainment.
