What Happens After You Win an Oscar?
By: Usamah Khan
Tags: Creativity, Passion, Data Journalism, Academy Awards, Data

Supposedly Richard Feynman once said, “the Nobel Prize will be the tombstone on all great work”. Ironically he went on to win the prize for groundbreaking work, but I always thought he raised a valid question which I think was ‘what happens when after years of passionate work and putting in your all, you finally receive recognition at the highest level’?

Most disciplines have an award at the top. One that’s highly coveted, more prestigious than all the others and reserved for experts, the best of the best — The Nobel Prize, Fields Medal, Pulitzer Prize and so on. Becoming an expert requires a commitment of mind, body and time while navigating the many inevitable obstacles that get in the way of achieving success. More often than not it’s only those with passion and a fire inside who can surmount the largest of obstacles to produce truly groundbreaking work. But what happens when people achieve success and recognition for their work? Rarely do those who practice in a field and win an award do so more than once.

Is this because people genuinely only have enough in them to produce one piece of groundbreaking work in their lifetime? Or is it because that once they receive this recognition, they no longer have the drive or passion to produce and overcome obstacles like they used to?

This last question got me thinking about how I could find a data-driven answer. But when talking about passion and creativity, we’re talking about variables that on their own don’t have any direct measures aside from rewards. There’s no ‘passion scale’ or ‘creativity spectrum’, just acknowledgment when work is extraordinary. So then how can we measure passion before and after recognition? This got me thinking about the field of cinema and a certain actor.

The McConnaissance

Matthew McConaughey winning an Oscar for Best Actor

Remember Matthew McConaughey? Between 2011 and 2014 he was experiencing a revival of his career, taking on more nuanced and cerebral roles than the usual handsome, romantic heartthrob characters he was known for. He performed in a slew of critically acclaimed and high grossing films such as “Mud”, “The Lincoln Lawyer”, “Bernie”, “Interstellar”, and a stint on television in one of my favourite shows — “True Detective”. Many critics referred this time as the “McConaissance”. He truly worked on revitalizing his career and this time eventually culminated in him receiving an Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of Ron Woodroof in “Dallas Buyers Club”.

However, since then, his career has been quiet with only a handful of lacklustre appearances in films such as “The Dark Tower”, “Beach bum” “The Gentleman”. In almost the same amount of time that the “McConaissance” was declared, it ended. So to our question, did Matthew McConaughey lose whatever it was that drove him to portray roles to critical acclaim? Is this a correct observation to make? And is this a common occurrence among other actors after they achieve the highest award in acting?

The Academy Award For Best Actor

Let’s first look at how we can come up with a measure for creativity and passion. The Academy Award, more commonly known as the Oscar, for Best Actor/Actress, is given out once a year and is probably the most highly coveted award in the field of cinema. It is given “in honor of an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance in a leading role while working within the film industry”. Only a handful of artists have won the award more than once. In fact, in its 92 years of running, 83 men have won “Best Actor”, and 76 women have taken home the title of “Best Actress”.

In addition to this, an outstanding performance occurs more often than not in a critically acclaimed film. In fact the average ratings for films in which there was a winner for best actor/actress on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes is 88% / 86% respectively.