Appearing on Jimmy Kimmel Live! during his press tour for Netflix’s The Rip, Affleck described the snub as a “massive embarrassment,” especially because expectations were sky-high going into nomination morning.
At the time, Affleck was widely seen as a frontrunner. He had already won Best Director honors at the Golden Globes, Critics Choice Awards, and BAFTAs. Yet when Oscar nominations were announced, his name was missing. The irony only deepened when Argo earned seven nominations overall—and ultimately won Best Picture.
“It was the year where everyone kept telling you, ‘You’re going to get nominated,’” Affleck recalled. “So you wake up that morning, and suddenly it’s not just another year you didn’t get nominated. It becomes this big, embarrassing moment.”
The situation became even more uncomfortable later that same day when Affleck had to attend the Critics Choice Awards. Walking the red carpet, he said, nearly every reporter greeted him with the same question: the snub.
“What do you say?” Affleck joked. “It’s a bummer! I didn’t go around saying I was going to be nominated.” Ironically, he ended up winning the Critics Choice Award that night anyway.
Host Jimmy Kimmel pointed out just how strange the situation really was. Affleck not only directed and starred in Argo, but the film won Best Picture—while he wasn’t nominated for either directing or acting.
“It’s like the movie directed itself,” Kimmel quipped.
“That’s honestly what it felt like,” Affleck agreed.
Kimmel compared the moment to another infamous awards-night scenario involving Leonardo DiCaprio. At the Critics Choice Awards one year, DiCaprio attended only to watch his film win Best Picture and director Paul Thomas Anderson take home Best Director—while DiCaprio himself lost Best Actor to Timothée Chalamet.
“He probably got airlifted in from a yacht just to lose,” Kimmel joked. “That’s brutal.”
Affleck said the hardest part of his own snub wasn’t missing out on the nomination—it was being forced to publicly explain something he never claimed would happen in the first place.
“Suddenly it becomes a negative event,” he said. “You’re answering for something you didn’t ask for.”
Affleck isn’t alone in feeling that way. Bradley Cooper experienced a similar moment when he was snubbed for Best Director for A Star Is Born, despite receiving major precursor nominations. Speaking to Oprah Winfrey in 2019, Cooper admitted his first reaction was also embarrassment.
“I felt embarrassed that I didn’t do my part,” Cooper said at the time. “But the truth is, a nomination shouldn’t decide whether you did your job.”
Cooper added that his focus was never awards, but authenticity—telling a human story about love, addiction, trauma, and finding one’s voice.
Looking back, Affleck seems to share that perspective now. While the Argo snub may still sting, the film’s Best Picture win—and its lasting reputation—suggest that, nominated or not, the work ultimately spoke for itself.
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