Actor Will Ferrell should’ve been nominated for the Best Actor Oscar for the movie Elf, at least according to writer Richard Curtis.
The now-classic Christmas comedy from 2003 centers around Ferrell’s Buddy, a human man who retains a child-like sense of wonder due to being raised in Santa’s toy workshop with elves and believes he is one of the magical creatures. When he travels to New York City to try and track down his biological father, hijinks ensue.
Curtis — known for collaborating with Rowan Atkinson in his Mr. Bean and Blackadder series as well as penning classic romantic comedies like Bridget Jones’s Diary — lamented the fact that the Academy tends not to nominate very many films in the comedy genre, historically.
“I always get very antsy about the fact that Will Ferrell didn’t get nominated for Elf,” the Notting Hill writer told the press at the Oscar Wilde Awards in Los Angeles Thursday (via Independent).
“Or that Peter Sellers didn’t get nominated for [The Pink Panther character] Inspector Clouseau,” he continued. “But it’s the price you pay, as it were. Comedies tend to make a bit of money, and then you don’t get the prizes.”
Curtis went on to say that he thinks it’s a real issue that comedy is seemingly not as respected as much as other genres, but he tries to push for praising comedic performances whenever possible.
Though Curtis wasn’t involved in Elf, he did write and direct what many consider a now-classic romantic comedy film that same year that also takes place around Christmas, Love Actually. Curtis was also nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing for an original screenplay for 1995’s Four Weddings and Funeral.
As for Ferrell, he hasn’t been nominated for an Oscar, but he has won a couple of Primetime Emmys for executive producing Succession in 2018 and the variety special Live in Front of a Studio Audience: Norman Lear’s ‘All in the Family’ and ‘The Jeffersons’ in 2019.
Though Ferrell mostly sticks to comedies as an actor, he’s also made some commendable dramatic turns in movies like Stranger Than Fiction and Everything Must Go.