Melissa Leo complains her Oscar win has been her unwelcome career curse

[TMC]

https://www.theguardian.com/film/202...e-or-my-career

"...winning an Oscar has not been good for me or my career. I didn’t dream of it, I never wanted it, and I had a much better career before I won."

What was it like filming police drama Homicide: Life on the Street [the series ran from 1993 to 1999], and did you get to hang out with the cast afterwards?

The cast was almost all male, so that perhaps answers that question. Did they invite me to the bars with them – the single mother of a seven-year-old? No. It was a lot of years together, so I held a lot of those guys really close. But I don’t do what I do for the party afterwards. I’m more interested in the process.

[TMC]

Melissa Leo says her Oscar win hasn't been good for her career: "I never wanted it"

Melissa Leo gave a blunt assessment of her career nearly 15 years after winning her Oscar, confessing the award “has not been good” for her.

The actress, who won the Best Supporting Actress award for her work in “The Fighter” at the 83rd Academy Awards in 2011, reflected on her big win for a Q&A with The Guardian and admitted the prize wasn’t a game changer for her career.

“Winning an Oscar has not been good for me or my career,” she candidly said. “I didn’t dream of it, I never wanted it, and I had a much better career before I won.”

She also bemoaned that she was only offered “older, nasty women” roles in the aftermath of her performance in “The Fighter,” in which she played the tough and brassy Ward matriarch opposite Mark Wahlberg and Christian Bale.

She added: “I don’t want to do that any more.”

While Leo did not elaborate further on how the Oscar impacted her acting career, she did express regret for swearing in her acceptance speech.

“Kirk Douglas came out to present the best supporting actress award, opened the envelope and called my name,” she recalled. “I was so delighted to meet him – that was all I was thinking about. I turned to the house, which in most theaters, you can see by looking a little above your own eyesight. In the Dolby theatre, you have to raise your chin like you’re about to scale Mount Everest. Every single actor, director and producer you recognize, is staring you in the face. I then cursed, and I’m still sorry I cursed.”

She added: “I f–king curse all the time, but you cannot curse on network television. Thank God for the 10-second delay, which was introduced for f–king idiots like me.”

Leo went viral for her acceptance speech after she infamously dropped the f-bomb while onstage. She quickly apologized backstage for cursing, noting at the time that it was “an inappropriate place to use that word in particular.”

In the decade-plus since winning her Oscar, Leo has starred in a number of films and television series, including 2012’s “Flight,” 2013’s “Olympus Has Fallen,” 2013’s “Prisoners,” 2014’s “The Equalizer,” 2015’s “The Big Short,” 2021’s “Thunder Force,” Showtime’s “I’m Dying Up Here,” HBO’s “Treme,” among other titles.