Can a Puppet Win Best Supporting Actor?

I think, like many people, I left Project Hail Mary in awe of the movie and the time I had watching it.

Now, weeks later, as I revisit it, I keep thinking how this is a film that will undoubtedly be up for awards next year, and as I look down the categories. I wondered, could Rocky be up for best supporting actor? And could his puppeteer be the first one to win that award?

James Ortiz, the mastermind behind "Rocky" has officially been ruled eligible for the Best Supporting Actor category at the Academy Awards and the SAG Awards.

This isn’t just a win for puppeteers; it’s a potential paradigm shift for how we define "performance" in the modern era.

Let's dive in.

The Man Behind the Carapace

We’ve had the "Andy Serkis debate" for decades. Since The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, the film community has argued over whether motion-capture performances belong in the acting categories.

We saw it revisited again with the Avatar movies as well.

But Amazon MGM Studios is about to take us back to something much more tactile.

In Project Hail Mary, Ryland Grace (Ryan Gosling) finds himself alone on a spaceship with a mission to save humanity until he meets Rocky, an arachnoid alien made of stone-like material, who's visiting the same star to try to save his people.

While the easy route would have been a purely CGI creation, directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller opted for a hybrid approach that leaned heavily on the physical.

That physicality, I think, endeared audiences to the character and made him the talk of the town. We laughed, cried, and cheered along with Rocky's journey. That's all you can ask from a supporting role.

James Ortiz wasn’t just a technician hiding under a green suit. He was the emotional anchor on set.

“Typically, we talk about puppetry as a technical achievement, and it is,” Ortiz told Variety. “It’s a spectacle. For me, as a performer, however, that’s never my entry point. I’m interested in the heart of the character — what they’re trying to communicate, what they’re feeling underneath all of it. When we can take a medium like puppetry, which is often seen as decorative, and bring to life a character with a beating heart in a way that genuinely affects people, then we’re doing something truly meaningful.”

The Eligibility Breakthrough

Okay, so let's get back to the meat of the conversation: can a puppeteer win this award?

Historically, the Academy has been hesitant to recognize "expanded performances."

But this one is different.

The Academy’s current rules allow for the recognition of a performance where the actor's physical and vocal contributions are the primary drivers of the character, even if that character is a puppet. And I think you can see on screen how these absolutely apply to Rocky. SAG-AFTRA has also confirmed that puppeteers fall under their jurisdiction for acting awards.

So getting an Academy Award seems possible under their current rules. They did give Robin Williams a special award for the genie in Aladdin, but it feels like these roles need to change, given where tech is headed.

Summing It All Up

Whether or not Ortiz lands the nomination, the campaign itself is a victory for practical effects and physical performers. And I think it speaks to how beloved the movie has become and the long legs it's had at the box office.

Hopefully, it inspires more filmmakers to use practical characters in these situations.

What do you think? Should puppeteers be able to compete with traditional live-action actors?

Let us know in the comments.