The 'Argo' director recalls the shock and disappointment he endured after being deliberately left out of the Academy Awards nominations despite getting intense buzz.

• Dec 18, 2021

AceShowbiz - Ben Affleck didn't hold back as he launched into tirade about being snubbed by the Academy Awards. His 2012 movie "Argo" got multiple nominations including Best Picture but, as a director and lead actor, he didn't receive any individual nod.

"We had Editing, Score, Picture. The only guy who f**ked up was the lead and the director? I can do the math on who the a**hole is here," he ranted in his recent interview on "The Howard Stern Show".

The actor seemed to confirm the long-running rumors about Hollywood awards. He appeared to suggest that the prestigious prize-giving event was about giving the right handshakes and, even after those efforts, he was still snubbed, which made him really furious.

"That really taught me a lot. I did everything they told me. They told me, 'You got to kiss the babies.' And I schmoozed everybody in the world right," he fumed.

"Everybody told me, 'Oh you're gonna win.' It wasn't, 'You're going to be nominated.' It was, 'You're a lock.' So of course I get up that morning, go sit in front of the TV. And I did assume I was gonna get nominated. You know what, because everybody said I would," he remembered.

Deep down, however, he knew it could be the complete opposite. "So all these people must know. And they read those names, and I remember thinking, 'It's never gonna happen. I'm never gonna get it,' " he said.

While he understood it was his job as a director to go on a media tour as part of the promotion for the movie, it was a humiliation for being left out after getting intense buzz and he refused to go through it again. "I said, 'Guys, I think you know I'm done. I'm never going to do it again. No handshaking. I don't give a f**k," he recounted his first reaction after the Oscar nominations were announced.

He noted, "Maybe I don't deserve it. If the directors didn't think I deserved it, that's their opinion, and that's fine. I'm proud of the movie. I'm glad Billy [Goldenberg, the film's editor] and Chris [Terrio, the screenwriter] got nominated. And they're like, 'Oh, we got Picture.' And I was like, 'Yeah, we got Picture, but they made sure to leave me out.' "

He also recalled getting drunk at an awards show following the shocking snub and described the red-carpet appearance as a torture. "Every single stop, you don't even have to say anything, they just hold the mic and they say 'So, snubbed?' You have to pretend that you're OK, pretend it didn’t bother you, because god forbid something bothered you."

"I went into the Critics Choice, got hammered at the table and figured, well, we're f**ked. And then we f**king won. So I went up and said, 'Well I don't want to thank the Academy.' Because I didn't give a f**k anymore. And then, of course, as it happens all the time in life, we never lost another award."