Ferrell Calls on Academy for Comedy Oscar

By WENN | Thursday, March 22, 2007

HOLLYWOOD - Comedian Will Ferrell has called on the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to create an Oscar for Best Comedy Performance.

The Anchorman star insists comedic actors are more talented than 'serious' stars, and should be recognized for their skills by award bosses.

He says, "I think it's a bit of a copout, though. They really should just open up and consider comedic performances.

"I don't know why there have to be separate categories. I think you can look at comic performances and think about a dramatic actor doing the same thing. They wouldn't be able to do it."

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Then we need to have Best Horror Performance, Best Dramatic Performance, Best Romantic Performance, and so on....and when you do that, you start to slowly become the MTV Movie Awards. YUCK!

Comedic performances have been nominated...Johnny Depp (Pirates of the Caribbean) and Roberto Benigni (Life is Beautiful).

I agree. That's what the MTV Movie Awards are for.

Hasn't anyone ever won an Oscar for a role in a comedy?

Fixed.

Sure. Don't have to go far back for an example of that: Alan Arkin for Little Miss Sunshine.

Yeah, I was thinking of that. Or even Jack Nicholson in As Good as it Gets.

And many have won as well. Benigni, Jack Nicholson (As Good As It Gets), Kevin Spacey (American Beauty), Tom Hanks (Forrest Gump)...and those are just some recent ones.

The last thing Oscar needs to do is start recognizing some of the lame comedies that get released every year. The good comedies always get recognized...for heaven's sake, we just got done with an Oscar Show that nominated Little Miss Sunshine in several categories and gave out an award to Alan Arkin.

Well if that's the case then they should take away the "Best Actor in a Motion Picture-Drama" category. A performance is a performance.

American Beauty and Forrest Gump being labeled as comedies is stretching it.

If the Academy really respected that genre, they would've nominated Sasha Baron Cohen for Best Actor.

Then he probably would've gotten the pity-oscar this year for Talladega Nights instead of Anchorman in 2005... and I don't think we'd ever stop wining about that.

I remember that Steve Carell's performance in "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" raised a lot of this discussion. I specifically remember both Ebert and Roeper complaining about the fact that he would never be nominated even though it was a top-notch comedic performance.

No thanks. If the academy really felt your performance of running around a race track in your underwear while making weird faces was better acting than the other performances of that year, you would have been nominated.

Yeah, we definitely need more award categories since the awards broadcast always seems to end so early.

Will Ferrell should just try to take more serious roles. I'm sure he's capable of winning an Oscar in the right role.

Ironic considering Will Ferrell isn't in the least bit funny.

Ferrell still mad because his performance at A Night at the Roxbury was recognized by the academy.

"And the Oscar for best streaking performance in a motion picture goes to ...."

What did Mark Wahlberg get nominated for?

The Departed

The Departed may have been a drama, but Wahlberg's performance was comedy relief - and a worthy nomination, IMO.

The Oscar awards and the people who obsess over them take themselves far too seriously for this to ever happen.

There is no such Oscar. It's called "Best Performance By An Actor In A Leading Role". You're thinking of the Golden Globes, which do have a seperate Comedy/Musical category.

I'll give you American Beauty (maybe), but Forrest Gump is definitely a comedy. All great comedies have drama in them, and Forrest Gump is one of them - but it's definitely a comedy, as is As Good As It Gets.

Marisa Tomei won for her work in a comedy.

There may be exceptions, but the Academy rarely rewards comedies. A few nominations, an occasional win. Usually in a supporting categorey. Certainly not their fair share.

Still, I don't really think they need to change. There are other outlets for comedic actors, like the Golden Globes.