Marc Maron has slammed Academy officials for launching an investigation into his To Leslie co-star Andrea Riseborough's Oscar nomination.
Last week, leaders at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), who organise the Oscars, announced that they would be conducting a "review of campaign procedures" in light of the English actress's "surprise" nomination for Best Actress.
On his WTF podcast on Monday, Riseborough's co-star Maron accused the organisation of investigating the celebrity-led grassroots support for Riseborough because it "threatens" lucrative awards season campaign initiatives.
"Apparently, the Academy of Motion Picture Sciences, or whatever the f**k it is, has decided to investigate Andrea Riseborough's grassroots campaign to get her the Oscar nomination," Maron said. "Because I guess it so threatens their system to where they're completely bought out by corporate interests in the form of studios. Millions of dollars (are) put into months and months of advertising campaigns, publicity, screenings by large corporate entertainment entities, and Andrea was championed by her peers through a grassroots campaign which was pushed through by a few actors.
"The Academy is (like), 'Well, we gotta take a look at this. This is not the way it's supposed to work. Independent artists don't deserve the attention of the Academy unless we see how it works exactly. So we're gonna look into this.'"
He insisted nothing will come out of the investigation because the campaign for Riseborough was "in earnest" and "not undeserving".
Christina Ricci spoke out against the investigation over the weekend, stating that it is "elitist and exclusive and frankly very backward" that only films with big campaign budgets get recognised for awards.
Riseborough will compete against Tár's Cate Blanchett, Blonde's Ana de Armas, The Fabelmans' Michelle Williams, and Everything Everywhere All at Once's Michelle Yeoh for the Best Actress Oscar, which will be presented on 12 March.
