# Why Brad Pitt and Leo Di Caprio never win an Oscar
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-brad-pitt-and-leo-di-caprio-never-win-an-oscar/683688
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [March 14, 2014, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-brad-pitt-and-leo-di-caprio-never-win-an-oscar/683688 "2014-03-14T12:45:10Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Ryan\_Liam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ryan_Liam)
#### Post date: [March 14, 2014, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-brad-pitt-and-leo-di-caprio-never-win-an-oscar/683688/1 "2014-03-14T12:45:10Z")
Because they’re mediocre actors in my opinion. They’re good at acting, as in they do the lines well and give a good performance but they’re nowhere on level with the types of Daniel Day Lewis or Cate Blanchett, who rather than trading on their looks to get roles, worked on their craft to obtain respect within the acting profession.
Sure, those two guys might win one when they’re older, in the type of a life time achievement award, but for a role they played? I don’t hold out much chance for them. I maybe wrong, if not, who else would fit into that category?
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### Author:  [@Hamlet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hamlet)
#### Post date: [March 14, 2014, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-brad-pitt-and-leo-di-caprio-never-win-an-oscar/683688/2 "2014-03-14T13:01:18Z")
I can’t watch Pitt in 12 monkeys or DiCaprio in What’s eating Gilbert Grape and conclude that they aren’t amazing actors. They were phenomenal in those roles.
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### Author:  [@Sr\_Siete](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sr_Siete)
#### Post date: [March 14, 2014, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-brad-pitt-and-leo-di-caprio-never-win-an-oscar/683688/3 "2014-03-14T13:04:08Z")
Sandra Bullock. She’s a pretty damn bland lead, and, if anything, Gravity proved that she can’t carry a movie.
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### Author:  [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)
#### Post date: [March 14, 2014, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-brad-pitt-and-leo-di-caprio-never-win-an-oscar/683688/4 "2014-03-14T13:10:51Z")
Brad Pitt is a perfectly good actor. Good, not great.
Leo is average to awful. In particular he completely ruined every scene in _What’s Eating Gilbert Grape_ that he was in. He just overdid it in a completely _cliche_ ridden way. I have no idea why other people thought this was anything but a terrible performance. Much worse than his Razzie nominated work in _The Beach_. His best performance was in _Catch Me If You Can_ and that was merely tolerable. And let’s not even get started on _Titanic_.
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### Author:  [@nevadaexile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nevadaexile)
#### Post date: [March 14, 2014, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-brad-pitt-and-leo-di-caprio-never-win-an-oscar/683688/5 "2014-03-14T13:11:42Z")
Let’s see:
[ol]
[li]Tom Cruise - too famous and too inconsistent. He riles the box office; but he’ll only earn a Lifetime Achievement Oscar[/li][li]Will Smith - See also Tom Cruise[/li][li]Patrick Stewart - Had he remained a Shakespearean actor,perhaps. Branched out too far and now he’ll have settle for a Lifetime award.[/li][li]Sean Connery - retired after giving Hollywood the bird. Too inconsistent. Another Lifetime award[/li][/ol]
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### Author:  [@Raygun99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raygun99)
#### Post date: [March 14, 2014, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-brad-pitt-and-leo-di-caprio-never-win-an-oscar/683688/6 "2014-03-14T13:14:54Z")
Sean Connery has an Oscar, for The Untouchables.
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### Author:  [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)
#### Post date: [March 14, 2014, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-brad-pitt-and-leo-di-caprio-never-win-an-oscar/683688/7 "2014-03-14T13:23:14Z")
All I know is that I hope to jesus someone does a biopic of Leonardo DiCaprio and the actor playing him wins an oscar. That is all I want out of life.
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### Author:  [@SaharaTea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SaharaTea)
#### Post date: [March 14, 2014, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-brad-pitt-and-leo-di-caprio-never-win-an-oscar/683688/8 "2014-03-14T13:24:39Z")
Leo is young and will win an Oscar eventually. I wasn’t a huge fan of Wolf of Wall Street, but he totally nailed that role.
I’ve always thought Pitt lacked the charisma to pull off leading roles, but he’s pretty good at smaller, supporting roles. I can still see him winning an Oscar someday in a supporting actor category.
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### Author:  [@sparky\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sparky_1)
#### Post date: [March 14, 2014, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-brad-pitt-and-leo-di-caprio-never-win-an-oscar/683688/9 "2014-03-14T13:25:20Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#):
>
> All I know is that I hope to jesus someone does a biopic of Leonardo DiCaprio and the actor playing him wins an oscar. That is all I want out of life.
Hahaha! Good one!
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### Author:  [@Ryan\_Liam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ryan_Liam)
#### Post date: [March 14, 2014, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-brad-pitt-and-leo-di-caprio-never-win-an-oscar/683688/10 "2014-03-14T13:29:59Z")
Johnny Depp springs to mind as well, he is a great actor given a good script, however due to POTC, his chances of gone lower of ever getting an Oscar.
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### Author:  [@Sr\_Siete](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sr_Siete)
#### Post date: [March 14, 2014, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-brad-pitt-and-leo-di-caprio-never-win-an-oscar/683688/11 "2014-03-14T13:31:48Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#):
>
> All I know is that I hope to jesus someone does a biopic of Leonardo DiCaprio and the actor playing him wins an oscar. That is all I want out of life.
Not only a biopic… a movie about every single time he was nominated and lost.
Played by Seth Rogen.
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### Author:  [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)
#### Post date: [March 14, 2014, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-brad-pitt-and-leo-di-caprio-never-win-an-oscar/683688/12 "2014-03-14T13:37:44Z")
> [@Sr\_Siete](#):
>
> Sandra Bullock. She’s a pretty damn bland lead, and, if anything, Gravity proved that she can’t carry a movie.
Sandra Bullock has one, for The Blind Side.
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### Author:  [@Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackknifed_Juggernaut)
#### Post date: [March 14, 2014, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-brad-pitt-and-leo-di-caprio-never-win-an-oscar/683688/13 "2014-03-14T13:48:31Z")
Pitt is very good, but not an Oscar-level actor. But DiCaprio has always been great in everything I’ve seen him do since _This Boy’s Life_. But I haven’t seen _Gilbert Grape_ or _Titanic_, so I can’t speak for those. I was discussing him with a few friends this week and we concluded that the only reason that he hasn’t won yet is because of his baby face. The voting seems to favor actors that look at least a bit “weathered”.
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### Author:  [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)
#### Post date: [March 14, 2014, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-brad-pitt-and-leo-di-caprio-never-win-an-oscar/683688/14 "2014-03-14T13:49:12Z")
Pitt’s won a Golden Globe and been nominated three times for an Oscar. Hardly seems inconceivable that he’ll win one someday. Plus it probably helps that he’s still in several movies a year, and a lot of his films tend to be Oscar bait.
Tom Cruise seems a better candidate, because while he can act, he seems pretty happy just appearing in block-buster action or sci-fi films which make him a lot of money and don’t ask much of his acting talents.
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### Author:  [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)
#### Post date: [March 14, 2014, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-brad-pitt-and-leo-di-caprio-never-win-an-oscar/683688/15 "2014-03-14T13:56:06Z")
Brad Pitt won an Oscar twelve days ago.
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### Author:  [@peedin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peedin)
#### Post date: [March 14, 2014, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-brad-pitt-and-leo-di-caprio-never-win-an-oscar/683688/16 "2014-03-14T13:59:52Z")
People rave about DiCaprio being such a great actor, but all I see is Leonardo DiCaprio acting. I don’t see him becoming the role. I see an actor playing a role. Pitt is a good actor and to me he seems to be having a good time and sharing an inside joke with the audience of “isn’t this a hoot I get paid to do this?”
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### Author:  [@Sam\_Lowry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Lowry)
#### Post date: [March 14, 2014, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-brad-pitt-and-leo-di-caprio-never-win-an-oscar/683688/17 "2014-03-14T14:05:57Z")
There’s been several actors who win the Oscar as a somewhat lifetime achievement award, like Al Pacino winning for Scent of a Woman. If in another decade or two Brad Pitt hasn’t won an award, I could see him winning Best Actor for a film in which he was good, but maybe not great, and not the greatest of the year. Same with DiCaprio.
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### Author:  [@nevadaexile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nevadaexile)
#### Post date: [March 14, 2014, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-brad-pitt-and-leo-di-caprio-never-win-an-oscar/683688/18 "2014-03-14T14:08:56Z")
> [@Raygun99](#):
>
> Sean Connery has an Oscar, for The Untouchables.
I stand corrected.
Or rather, I sit.
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### Author:  [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)
#### Post date: [March 14, 2014, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-brad-pitt-and-leo-di-caprio-never-win-an-oscar/683688/19 "2014-03-14T14:14:40Z")
> [@Ryan\_Liam](#):
>
> Johnny Depp springs to mind as well, he is a great actor given a good script, however due to POTC, his chances of gone lower of ever getting an Oscar.
Johnny Depp received his first Oscar nomination for his role in the first _Pirates of the Caribbean_ movie, and has been nominated twice more since then for _Finding Neverland_ and _Sweeney Todd_. So if anything it seems like _POTC_ helped his odds of getting an Oscar.
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### Author:  [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)
#### Post date: [March 14, 2014, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-brad-pitt-and-leo-di-caprio-never-win-an-oscar/683688/20 "2014-03-14T14:37:42Z")
> [@Ephemera](#):
>
> Brad Pitt won an Oscar twelve days ago.
A producing Oscar doesn’t count for someone who is an actor the other 364 days a year.
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