Melissa Leo Says Winning an Oscar Hurt Her Career, Not Helped It

Melissa Leo is opening up about an unexpected downside of winning Hollywood’s biggest prize. The 65-year-old actress says her Academy Award win did not improve her career — and may have made it harder.

Speaking while answering reader questions for The Guardian, Leo was blunt about her experience. “Winning an Oscar has not been good for me or my career,” she said. “I didn’t dream of it, I never wanted it, and I had a much better career before I won.”

Leo won the Supporting Actress Oscar in 2011 for her performance in The Fighter, directed by David O. Russell. The film also starred Mark Wahlberg, Amy Adams and Christian Bale, and earned Leo widespread acclaim during awards season.

Despite that success, Leo said the moment of winning felt overwhelming rather than joyful. “One loses one’s mind,” she recalled. Sitting in the theater, she admitted she thought the win was possible, but the reality of it hit hard once her name was called.

One detail that stayed with her was meeting presenter Kirk Douglas onstage. “Every single actor, director and producer you recognise is staring you in the face,” she said. Leo also famously swore during her acceptance speech — something she still regrets. “Thank God for the 10-second delay,” she joked, calling herself an “idiot” for cursing on live television.

After the Oscar, Leo says the types of roles she was offered became limiting. “After The Fighter, all I was offered was older, nasty women,” she explained. “I don’t want to do that anymore.”

While her career continued — including an Emmy-winning guest role on Louie in 2013, a starring turn in Wayward Pines, and the 2017 film The Most Hated Woman in America — Leo feels the range of opportunities narrowed rather than expanded.

Now, she says she’s ready for something very different. Leo revealed she would love to play royalty. “I’m dying to play a princess or a queen,” she said, adding that she enjoys period pieces and believes she fits naturally into historical settings.

Recently, Leo appeared in Guns Up alongside Kevin James and Christina Ricci, as well as The Knife starring Nnamdi Asomugha and Aja Naomi King. She will next be seen in Passenger, directed by André Øvredal.

More than a decade after her Oscar win, Leo’s message is clear: awards do not always bring creative freedom. For her, the real goal now is not prestige — but better, more interesting roles.