Thanks to nominations from the Screen Actors Guild and Golden Globes as well as numerous critics' groups awards, Jared Leto is well on his way to earning an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor.
"You never know, but it's nice to hear you say," Leto told Ricky Camilleri when the HuffPost Live host broached Leto's possible future designation as an Academy Award nominee. Should things work out as expected, Leto will score his first Oscar nomination for his performance in "Dallas Buyers Club," where he plays a transgender woman suffering from AIDS. The prospect of playing such a large role during awards season has Leto excited, unlike actors such as Michael Fassbender and Joaquin Phoenix, both of whom have slammed the notion of campaigning for Oscars in interviews over the last year.
"They had done it before, so I guess they have every right to complain about it, but I think it's kind of ridiculous to complain about celebrating art and creativity and your peers," Leto said after Camilleri brought up the opinions of Fassbender and Phoenix. "It's certainly better than not celebrating each other. I've been a part of a lot of films where we all had high hopes and things just didn't turn out the way you had expected or dreamed that they would. When they do turn out in a way that works, and people celebrate, I think it's a wonderful thing to acknowledge that. This hasn't been anything but a joy so far."
After Camilleri joked that Leto should attack the Oscar institution as a whole, Leto said that he didn't "understand people that thumb their nose at that shit."
"It's your peers," the 41-year-old star continued. "If you don't want to be a part of it, just shut up and go away and don't be a part of it, I suppose. No one is forcing you to show up at the awards ceremony. Just don't go."
For his part, Fassbender, an awards contender for his "12 Years A Slave" performance, never criticized the Oscar ceremony itself, but the dog-and-pony show that precedes the event.
"[Campaigning is] just not going to happen, because I'll be in New Zealand. I'll be on the other side of the world," Fassbender told GQ in November about his year ahead. "You know, I get it. Everybody's got to do their job. So you try and help and facilitate as best you can. But I won't put myself through that kind of situation again."
Fassbender was expected to earn Oscar recognition in 2011 for his performance in Steve McQueen's "Shame," but the actor was snubbed by the Academy Awards, one of the most high-profile exclusions in recent memory.
“At the beginning people [say], 'You're going to be going to the Oscars,' and you're like, 'Whatever, doesn't matter, don't think so,'" Fassbender told GQ in June of 2012. "But after a while it does penetrate. After a while you're like, 'Anyway, so I'm going to the Oscars.' And you start to believe it. And I did. I thought I was going. And then I found out I wasn't and I was upset. I was very upset by it. The first reaction was 'What the fuck…?'”
Fassbender and Leto are considered the top two contenders to win Best Supporting Actor at the Academy Awards on March 2, 2014 -- of course, they just have to be nominated first. Both men's awards fate will be revealed on Jan. 16, 2014, when the Oscar nominations are announced.
Watch Leto's full interview with HuffPost Live below:
Before You Go
