After having won the Golden Globe for Best Actor: Drama and being nominated for another Oscar within the same week, there seems to be no stopping the Leo train from going full-steam ahead to finally bag that elusive golden statuette.
Then again, the field of nominees for this year Best Actor in a Leading Role is not short of truly worthy competition to give DiCaprio a run for his money. With that being said, let’s now take a look below at all five gentlemen that will duke it out for the most prestigious individual award in the world of cinema, and how each of them stands in the eyes of the oddsmakers just the same.
Afterwards, don’t forget to also check out our special coverage on the odds for the Best Picture and Best Actress categories as well to be on top of all the thrilling Academy Awards betting action.
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The Oscars: Best Actor Odds and Preview
Favorite
Leonardo DiCaprio (The Revenant)
Let’s face it: with all the buzz and actual momentum that Leonardo DiCaprio had leading up to the announcement of his nomination this Thursday, the Academy Award for Best Actor is his to lose this year.
The Oscar has been the one achievement that has eluded DiCaprio’s impressive career, having been nominated five times for the leading role category and never winning once (including being nominated for his performance in Wolf of Wall Streetback in 2014, which we believe is still his finest work to date and that he should’ve already won the award then, but we digress).
This time around, DiCaprio’s portrayal of Hugh Glass in The Revenant as a frontiersman who was left for dead by his fur-trading crew certainly deserves all the praises he had received for the role, especially considering the actual tribulations that he and the entire film crew had gone through in the production of the film. To boot, the strength of The Revenant in general (12 nominations – the most by a single film in this year’s Oscars) further solidifies his claim of the Lead Actor award.
With such a compelling case, and the fervor of fans and critics alike, DiCaprio is rightfully priced as the -2,500 runaway favorite to finally anoint him as one of the film industry’s finest without a shadow of a doubt. And in turn, netizens worldwide will also stop posting annual pity parties for Leo’s Oscar drought with hilarious memes such as this.
Sleepers
Michael Fassbender (Steve Jobs)
As powerful as Michael Fassbender’s performance in Steve Jobs as the titular co-founder and CEO of Apple, the movie itself drew little to no critical acclaim.
That both works for and against Fassbender himself as an actor. He had to carry the most of the film’s weight with his unwavering charisma, alright, yet the plot of the film is one that many people have already heard shortly after the wake of the real Steve Jobs’ passing – even having a similar movie about his life and death released years ahead of this year’s entry (albeit with more mixed receptions).
Although this is just his first nomination for Best Actor in a Leading Role, Fassbender (+1,000) has the worst of luck right now by running into DiCaprio’s banner campaign at a fevered pitch.
Eddie Redmayne (The Danish Girl)
Similar to Fassbender before him, Eddie Redmayne is also priced at +1,000 from winning the Oscar for Best Actor. But unlike the former, Redmayne actually has an Academy Award for Best Actor under his belt already, which he won just last year for playing the part of renowned physicist Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything.
However, having won an Oscar just in last year’s installment may have the panel at the Academy tip towards granting the award to somebody else who has not yet won in such a short amount of time.
Furthermore, Redmayne’s role in The Danish Girl as a one of the pioneers of trans-sexuality and sex transplants from the 1920’s may rub the people the wrong way. That, and maybe the general populace has even grown tired of the subject matter given the widespread exposure of the likes of Caitlyn Jenner and Jeffrey Tambor from the hit TV show Transparent already, regardless of Redmayne’s impassioned performance and the film’s overall social impact.
Long Shots
Matt Damon (The Martian)
Okay, so Matt Damon (+3,000) did win a Golden Globe for Lead Actor just a few days ago like DiCaprio, but he won that award under the ironically hilarious notion that The Martian falls under the ”Comedy” category.
Don’t get us wrong; Damon’s performance as Mark Watney, an astronaut that was forsaken by his crew on Mars and had to survive in uncharted territories, was a pleasant and gripping surprise. Then again, that Golden Globe win feels more like a consolation prize than an actual merit when compared to Leo’s own win, and the fact that the movie itself was relegated to comedic status just for Damon and Scott to take home an award.
Also, Damon’s the only actor from the list of nominees here to not have been nominated for a Screen Actors Guild award, which may bear heavy on the more by-the-book voters who look for the trifecta of SAG, Golden Globes and Oscar nominations to fully qualify as the year’s best actor indeed.
Bryan Cranston (Trumbo)
Bryan Cranston’s transition from television to the big screen has been a successful one to say the least, as particularly evident in his latest cinematic outing in Trumbo. In the film, Cranston assumed the role of Dalton Trumbo, a prominent screenwriter in Hollywood who got into trouble for political reasons.
However, the movie itself was basically received as another rather flat depiction of the filming industry, with his performance being the only saving factor of the entire film.
Though this is only Cranston’s first-career Oscar nomination, he has yet to find a role that can pretty much play to his strengths, like what he did for his landmark character of Walter White from the critically- and commercially-acclaimed TV show, Breaking Bad. With that in mind, it would be best to take Cranston at +3,000 to take home the Oscar with great caution.
Still, it won’t be long until Cranston starts knocking on the Academy’s door again in hopes of finally winning the big one. Just not this year, though… the Year of Leo.
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