Since its announcement last week, the new ‘Achievement in Popular Film’ award category at the Academy Awards has been the subject of much debate, including many lingering questions regarding how is this award determined and what qualifies as ‘popular’.
One of the obvious beneficiaries of this new award is someone like actor Mark Wahlberg who stars in the kind of action films this award is supposed to celebrate. Well, the Mile 22 star was asked by Variety to offer his opinion on the new Oscars category. Turns out he’s a fan:
“Maybe if they’d had the category before, we’d have won a couple of them. We’ve had some really commercially successful films that we think certainly warranted that kind of notoriety. We make films that we want people to enjoy and if we get those kind of accolades, fantastic. If not, we make the movies for audiences to enjoy. There are a lot of great films out there that happen to be very popular and haven’t been recognized that probably deserve the recognition.”
Wahlberg’s co-star, former MMA champ Ronda Rousey agrees with the stance saying:
“Finally, I’m in the running for an Academy Award. I’m gunning for the outstanding achievement in popular film [award]. You heard it now. Vote for me.”
The Oscars will air on ABC, in the United States on February 24, 2019.