--- title: Oscars 2014 Prediction: Why Jared Leto Will Win Best Supporting Actor description: The erstwhile Jordan Catalano takes screen roles infrequently — and this time, he nailed it canonical: https://time.com/9796/oscars-2014-best-supporting-actor-jared-leto/ author: Richard Corliss article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-02-25T21:41:31.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T06:29:17.444Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: Oscars 2014 Prediction: Why Jared Leto Will Win Best Supporting Actor og:description: The erstwhile Jordan Catalano takes screen roles infrequently — and this time, he nailed it og:url: https://time.com/9796/oscars-2014-best-supporting-actor-jared-leto/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5feed22adeccfbd0/6986830e13c79f9c73190c4f/dallas-buyers1.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Dallas Buyers Club og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Oscars 2014 Prediction: Why Jared Leto Will Win Best Supporting Actor twitter:description: The erstwhile Jordan Catalano takes screen roles infrequently — and this time, he nailed it twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5feed22adeccfbd0/6986830e13c79f9c73190c4f/dallas-buyers1.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Oscars 2014: Why Jared Leto Will Win Best Supporting Actor by [Richard Corliss](/author/richard-corliss/) ## Richard Corliss Feb 25, 2014 9:41 PM CUT  Dallas Buyers Club l-r: Jared Leto, Matthew McConaughey, 2013 Dallas Buyers Club l-r: Jared Leto, Matthew McConaughey, 2013Anne Marie Fox—©Focus Features by [Richard Corliss](/author/richard-corliss/) ## Richard Corliss Feb 25, 2014 9:41 PM CUT **NOMINEES** Barkhad Abdi, _Captain Phillips_ Bradley Cooper, _American Hustle_ Michael Fassbender, _12 Years a Slave_ Jonah Hill, _The Wolf of Wall Street_ **Jared Leto,** **_Dallas Buyers Club_** Best Supporting Actor is often a category that rewards some distinguished elderly gent — the oldest guy on the list — with a hail-and-farewell prize. Two years ago, Christopher Plummer, then 82, became the most senior recipient of an actor Oscar when he took the Supporting statuette for _Beginners_. Other examples: John Houseman, 70, for _The Paper Chase_ in 1973; George Burns, 78, for _The Sunshine Boys_ in 1975; Melvyn Douglas, 78, for _Being There_ in 1979; John Gielgud, 76, for _Arthur_ in 1981; Don Ameche, 76, for _Cocoon_ in 1985; Jack Palance, 71, for _City Slickers_ in 1991; and Alan Arkin, 71, for _Little Miss Sunshine_ in 2006\. Arkin was a Supporting Actor finalist again last year, at 78, for _Argo_, when the average age of the five nominees — Arkin, Robert De Niro, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Tommy Lee Jones and the eventual winner, Christoph Waltz — was 63. This year, though, youth must be served: the nominees’ average age is 35\. To emphasize that they are still in their tender years, [the dates whom Cooper and Leto brought to earlier award ceremonies were their mothers](http://www.popsugar.com/Celebrities-Parents-Red-Carpet-2014-33467411 "undefined"). (Leonardo DiCaprio and Joaquin Phoenix took their moms, too.) But one Oscar tradition won’t change. The winner will be the oldest nominee: Jared Leto, 42. Abdi, 28, was born in Somalia, moved to Yemen as a kid with his family and to Minneapolis when he was 14\. Working as a chauffeur, with no acting experience or intentions, he was cast as the lead of the pirate crew kidnapping Captain Phillips. (The Academy also likes the young and inexperienced; last year the nine-year-old Quvenzhané Wallis got a Best Actress nomination for _Beasts of the Southern Wild_, a role she filmed when she was six.) Instead of driving stars to the Dolby Theatre on Oscar night, Abdi will be chauffeured to a prime seat inside. **(READ:** [**Corliss’ pick for Best Actress in the 2014 Oscars**](http://entertainment.time.com/2014/02/24/oscars-2014-best-actress-cate-blanchett/ "undefined")**)** Hill, 30, has the snazziest résumé, at least as a box office attraction; the films he’s appeared in have grossed $2 billion in domestic theaters. Sometimes he’s the lead, as in the hits _Superbad_ and _21 Jump Street_, but he’s also proven to be a canny chooser of supporting roles; he received an Oscar nomination two years ago as Brad Pitt’s nerdy numbers-cruncher in _Moneyball_. An inexhaustible campaigner, Hill is making the most of working for his ideal director, Martin Scorsese, in the role of DiCaprio’s sleazy [second banana in _The Wolf of Wall Street_](http://entertainment.time.com/2013/12/27/the-wolf-of-wall-street-scorsese-and-dicaprio-fall-for-the-big-con/ "undefined"). He’s living the fantasy life of any pudgy kid who spent his teen summers at theater camp — but this particular dream will end in disappointment on March 2. **(READ:** [**Corliss’ pick for Best Actor in the 2014 Oscars**](http://entertainment.time.com/2014/02/24/oscars-2014-best-actor-prediction/ "undefined")**)** Fassbender, 36, should have been a big star by now. The German-Irish actor has the good looks (he resembles a younger Plummer) and smoldering charisma to light up any marquee. But in between his young-Magneto roles in _X-Men_ movies he has chosen to headline in intimate dramas (_Hunger_, _Jane Eyre_, _A Dangerous Method_, _Shame_) and play supporting parts in bigger films (_Inglourious Basterds_, _Prometheus_). His [Edwin Epps in _12 Years a Slave_](http://entertainment.time.com/2013/10/18/12-years-a-slave-an-unflinching-take-on-the-great-american-shame/ "undefined") is a pure-bred psychosadist, nearly whipping the life out of the one person he loves: Patsey the slave (Lupita Nyong’o). This portrait of stupendous malice has won Fassbender more admirers but, we’re guessing, not enough Oscar votes. **(READ: Jessica Winter’s** [**profile of Michael Fassbender**](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,2099723,00.html "undefined")**)** Cooper, 39, has ripened — more quickly and a little less spectacularly than Matthew McConaughey — from a reliable presence in comedies and rom-coms to a top-level dramatic actor. (Less spectacularly, because McConaughey renounced mainstream fare in favor of indie films.) Cooper, leading man of the three _Hangover_ farces, did establish some indie bona fides last year in Derek Cianfrance’s _The Place Beyond the Pines_. But his great good luck was to hook up with director David O. Russell for _Silver Linings Playbook_ and, the jackpot, _American Hustle_. **(READ: Our** [**review of** **_American Hustle_**](http://entertainment.time.com/2013/12/05/american-hustle-sex-scandal-and-flat-out-fun/ "undefined")**)** Cooper’s Richie diMaso, an FBI agent in hair-curlers, puts the Abscam sting in motion and watches it flourish and fester around him. In a movie with four sensational lead roles, Cooper drew the Supporting straw and earned his second consecutive Oscar nomination, after making the Best Actor shortlist in 2013 with _Silver Linings Playbook_. Where did his luck run out? In facing prohibitive favorites each time: Daniel Day-Lewis in _Lincoln_ and Leto this year. Alas, Cooper is no more likely to take the Oscar from Leto than he was, say, to outscore a two-year-old boy in a basketball game… **(SEE:** [**a two-year-old beat Bradley Cooper and Channing Tatum at basketball**](http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/12/07/this-two-year-old-beat-channing-tatum-and-bradley-cooper-in-basketball/ "undefined")**)** The night of _Dallas Buyers Club’_s world premiere last September at the Toronto Film Festival, most of those in the audience were floored first by McConaughey’s performance as Ron Woodroof — the actor lost between 30 and 40 pounds to play the homophobe who fell victim to HIV and traveled the world to find AIDS treatments unapproved in the U.S. — and then by Leto as Rayon, the delicate transsexual with a heroic soul. As it happens, Leto had gained 62 pounds back in 2007 to play Mark David Chapman, the world-be assassin of Ronald Reagan, in _Chapter 27_. When he lost the weight too quickly after the filming, Leto was diagnosed with gout. (Actors are cool. Actors are crazy.) As Rayon, he virtually swept the critics groups’ awards late last year and took the Screen Actors Guild and Golden Globe prizes — all well earned. **(READ: Our** [**review of** **_Dallas Buyers Club_**](http://entertainment.time.com/2013/09/12/dallas-buyers-club-mcconaughey-shines-as-a-homophobe-who-gets-aids/ "undefined")**)** Leto, who _deserved_ but didn’t _get_ an Oscar nomination for his role as a Brooklyn junkie in Darren Aronofsky’s 2000 _Requiem for a Dream_, devotes most of his energy to fronting the rock band Thirty Seconds to Mars. On stage at the _Dallas Buyers_ premiere, he mentioned it had been five or six years between movie roles and added flirtatiously, “How can you miss me if I never go away?” You won’t be able to miss Leto on Oscar night. He’ll be the one receiving the Best Supporting Actor award. 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