Director John Lee Hancock speaks out about Michael Keaton’s Oscar snub

A list of great performers are up for the Oscar for Best Actor, but Michael Keaton, for his performance in THE FOUNDER, isn’t one of them. The film, telling the story of Ray Kroc, a salesman who turned two brothers’ innovative fast food eatery, McDonald’s, into one of the biggest restaurant businesses in the world, is out in theaters now . . . but you’d be hard-pressed to find one. Simply put, the movie hasn’t received much of a push from The Weinstein Company and director John Lee Hancock had a few things to say about it to Newsweek. Take a look!

Director John Lee Hancock on Keaton’s Oscar snub:

It’s very disappointing. [Keaton’s] so deserving. Nobody knew about us. We weren’t in the conversation. The conversation for awards season starts months and months before, and it has to be carefully calculated, and it wasn’t.

Different people that were on the [Screen Actors Guild] nominating committee saw the movie and told me: ‘This is my favorite movie of the year. I wish I would’ve known, I would’ve voted for Michael.’ I don’t know how to answer that except nobody knew about us. I can’t answer the ‘why wasn’t it out there,’ but I do know it wasn’t out there. It wasn’t positioned in a way to [earn awards]. I think everybody involved realizes the error of that. I certainly learned a valuable lesson – scream more.

So what do you think? Did THE FOUNDER just not get the push it deserved or is Keaton’s performance just not enough to win folks over? It received a pretty lukewarm review from us (check it out HERE) so I think it was really just a matter of the story and performance not standing out enough. I can’t claim to have seen all of the performances that were nominated, but it’s hard to imagine a world where Casey Affleck doesn’t win that bad boy!

THE FOUNDER is now playing in select theaters.