Honor the Man, Honor the Film: Watch the ‘Deadpool’ For Your Consideration Ad
It’s been a topsy-turvy week for awards prognosticators, relative even to the usual topsy-turviness of an industry based entirely on guesswork and speculation. Deadpool frightened and confused Oscar oddsmakers when it unexpectedly snatched up a Best Picture nomination from the Producers Guild Awards program on Tuesday, and then officially rejiggered everyone’s slate of predictions when director Tim Miller earned a nomination from the Directors Guild of America. What had been all but forgotten as a superhero oddball is staging a late-phase charge among the groups of professionals that vote for Oscar nominees — nothing is out of the question.
And when someone’s building Oscar buzz, the only thing to be done is a For Your Consideration ad, a reminder to keep a specific actor of film in mind come nominating season that’s then plastered all over the major industry publications. Sociopathic weirdo he is, of course Deadpool needed an ad befitting his many idiosyncrasies. And he got just that in a new video posted to Twitter by star Ryan Reynolds, goofing on the usual pomposity of the For Your Consideration campaigns with his trademark off-kilter wit. Over a magisterial swell of strings, Reynolds gives it to us by the number: 600 pounds of chimichangas, four pairs of assless chaps, and as footage from the film’s most notorious scene (the sex one) plays, he mentions 12 humiliating minutes on a casting couch.
It‘s a fun little diversion, but it could do a world of good for the film’s fledgling awards campaign. The overall irreverence and willing to laugh at itself were Deadpool’s two greatest strength, and presumably what’s endeared it to voting bodies so far. Playing that up could curry even more favor with the ballot-casters.