In an interview with the Los Angeles Times this week, actor Samuel L. Jackson got real about the Academy Awards.
"I don't think an Oscar moves the comma on your cheque like it used to," the ballot voter and one-time nominee said. "It's all about putting people in seats."
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Australian Academy Award winners
Australians have won many Academy Awards over the years across multiple categories, from Best Production Design to Best Picture.
Of course he'd say that, he never won a damn thing, you might argue.
Well, what about Octavia Spencer, discussing her Best Supporting Actress win for The Help in 2012?
![Oscar faves Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone in <i>La La Land</i>: here's to your future obituaries.](/web/20170224124512im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/t/a/1/8/p/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.guk6c5.png/1487933499928.jpg)
"The reality for me is that I thought my phone would be ringing off the hook, and it wasn't. I didn't feel like anything was changing," she told Vulture.
That's #OscarsSoWhite's fault, you might say, they did the same thing to Mo'Nique after she won for Precious.
Fine, how about Matthew McConaughey's filmography since the Oscars capped off his much-fabled 'McConaisance' with a Best Actor nod for Dallas Buyers Club in 2014?
He's done The Sea Of Trees (2015), a lost Gus Van Sant indie with a 12% rating on Rotten Tomatoes; Free State Of Jones (2016), which "grossed just $25 million against its $50 million production budget" (that's the second sentence on its Wikipedia page); and Sing (2016), a kids' flick where he plays an animated koala named Buster Moon, who tries to save his... Whatever man, you're supposed to be an Oscar winner.
![Matthew McConaughey with his 2014 Best Actor Oscar for <i>Dallas Buyers Club</i>.](/web/20170224124512im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/1/1/a/a/r/m/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.guk6c5.png/1487933499928.jpg)
It seems despite the annual hoopla, the Oscars are ultimately insignificant.
Whereas once the statue might've kickstarted a career, signalling a distinguished filmography full of plum roles and hefty paycheques, that's not necessarily true these days.
![Cate Blanchett won in 2014 for <i>Blue Jasmine</i>.](/web/20170224124512im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/z/s/u/7/2/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.guk6c5.png/1487933499928.jpg)
A Best Picture nod might help a studio, scoring a film a temporary audience bump and box office dollars. But the prize doesn't seem to do much for actors and actresses.
As Jackson's comments hint, when it comes to acting offers studios are more likely to look at Forbes' "Best Value" list than a rundown of the year's Oscar winners (you win, Chris Evans).
![Halle Berry pretty much disappeared after her 2002 Oscar win.](/web/20170224124512im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/m/o/l/u/9/image.related.articleLeadNarrow.300x0.guk6c5.png/1487933499928.jpg)
Last year, Five Thirty Eight's Walt Hickey crunched the stats on Oscar-winning actors and actresses' productivity and, perhaps more importantly, the quality of that productivity after winning a statue.
It seems unless you're Cate Blanchett or Tom Hanks, an Oscar win hasn't done much for your career.
Since her 2014 Blue Jasmine win, Our Cate has made a movie with a 75% rating or higher on Rotten Tomatoes every 5.1 months. Since his 1995 win for Forrest Gump, Tom Hanks has done the same every 10.2 months. Even Meryl Streep could only muster a "good" film every 21.5 months after her 1983 Oscar win for Sophie's Choice.
Of course, this data doesn't factor in Oscar winners' discerning tastes. Jennifer Lawrence may have been higher up this list, but she's spent the years since her 2012 win for Silver Linings Playbook stuck in contract hell with the final few Hunger Games stinkers and raking in cash on X-Men movies.
Still, the history books are awash with so-called 'Oscar curses', actors and actresses who saw quality roles dry up after winning their Oscars.
Think Halle Berry after Monster's Ball (2001), Adrien Brody after The Pianist (2002). The former flamed out with bombs like Gothika and Catwoman, the latter had to head to TV for a Houdini miniseries.
"The Oscar is disastrous on a professional level. Suddenly the parts you're offered become smaller and the money less. There's no logic to it," said Marcia Gay Harden, years removed from the disappointing stasis of her 2000 Pollock win.
Other winners, meanwhile, just tend to get lazy and unfocused. After zealously chasing the Best Actor prize with over a decade of Oscar bait, last year's winner Leonardo DiCaprio is now semi-retired on some island with a supermodel and a bag of Nando's. (His next role, in Clint Eastwood's biopic on Atlanta Olympics security guard Richard Jewell, to be played by that other Oscar chaser Jonah Hill, won't start shooting till 2018).
So, why the endless Oscars fever, the "for your consideration" campaigns, the annual handwringing over who should win and who got snubbed?
George Clooney probably summed it up most candidly.
"It's always good to just have that behind you," he said about his Best Supporting Actor win for 2005's Syriana. "Just so when you die, they say 'Oscar winner'."
In that case, good luck on Monday – here's to your future obituary, Ryan Gosling.