Daniel Radcliffe Once Called out the ‘Snobbery’ at the Oscars for Snubbing ‘Harry Potter’
Daniel Radcliffe’s Harry Potter films enjoyed both critical and commercial success during its run. It attracted new fans to its story while satisfying fans it already had. At the same time, it went on to become a multi-billion dollar franchise.
For all of its success, however, the Harry Potter films had a difficult time getting attention from the Oscars. And at one point, it rubbed Radcliffe the wrong way.
Have the ‘Harry Potter’ movies ever been nominated for an Academy Award?
Although the Harry Potter films have never won, the Oscars has recognized the films in the past. But the Academy seems to have only nominated the films based on their technical achievements.
According to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the franchise has been nominated 12 times. Some of its nominations were for Art Direction and Set Direction, Music, Costume Design, and Visual Effects. But the films have always come up short with writing, directing, and acting nominations. Only the Harry Potter spin-off, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, has ever managed to pick up an Oscar for Costume Design.
Daniel Radcliffe once called out the ‘snobbery’ at the Oscars’ for snubbing the ‘Harry Potter’ movies
Radcliffe was one actor who noticed that the Harry Potter films weren’t getting nominated for certain awards. But to The Lost City star, this might have had to do more with the films’ popularity than with their quality. Radcliffe felt Oscar voters didn’t like commercial films unless they were made by Martin Scorsese.
“I was watching Hugo the other day and going, ‘Why is this nominated and we’re not?’ I was slightly miffed,” Radcliffe once told Radio Times (via The Guardian).
Radcliffe couldn’t help but express he was a bit put off by the Oscars’ perceived attitude towards the blockbuster franchise.
“There’s a certain amount of snobbery. It’s kind of disheartening. I never thought I’d care. But it would’ve been nice to have some recognition, just for the hours put in,” he added.
Daniel Radcliffe felt Alan Rickman deserved an Oscar nomination for his work in ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2’
Radcliffe was very proud of his work in the seventh and final Harry Potter film Deathly Hallows Part II. The actor even ranked his performance up there with some of his best work in the movies.
“Put it this way: It was the most proud I’ve been of my work in a Potter movie since the fifth film [The Order of the Phoenix],” he once said in an interview with Entertainment Weekly.
Radcliffe also believed both the film and his co-star the late Alan Rickman were worthy of nominations. As many know, Rickman played Harry Potter’s mysterious and stoic Hogwarts Professor Severus Snape. And it was a performance Radcliffe felt was one of the highlights of an already excellent film.
“I really think the movie is good enough to get recognition. And I think Alan Rickman deserves recognition because I don’t think there is going to be another performance from an actor in a supporting role that is so powerful, where the actor had the challenge of realizing a scene that’s been realized millions of times the world over in the imaginations of the readers,” Radcliffe asserted.
The actor felt Rickman lived up to an excitement surrounding the character that had been building since the first film.
“That scene — those revelations about Snape’s past — represented maybe the most anticipated part of the most anticipated movie of the past 10 years, and I think Alan does amazing, amazing work,” he said.
