Actors supporting other actors. What could be more heartening in these trying times? Despite the film’s mixed reception at TIFF, Amazon Studios is going forward with Oscars campaigns for the cast of My Policeman. Variety is reporting that all six — um, can’t call them leads — focal points of the film will be submitted as supporting actors. It makes a certain amount of sense, as the film is split between two eras in the three lead characters’ lives: the Emma Corrin–Harry Styles–David Dawson era and the Gina McKee–Linus Roache–Rupert Everett era. Still, in last year’s The Lost Daughter, Olivia Colman was nominated for Best Actress while her past-tense counterpart, Jessie Buckley, was in Supporting.
The My Policeman creative team may be looking to avoid a particularly messy Best Actor race this awards season. The divide between people’s love for Brendan Fraser and their wariness of yet another fat suit, a good performance from Hugh Jackman in a film that Vulture’s Critics newsletter called “emotionally fradulent,†and a Steven Spielberg self-insert character? Don’t worry, Oscars. My Policeman is sitting this one out.