Melissa Leo says winning an Oscar ‘has not been good’ for her career

Consider this: Winning an Academy Award isn’t always all it’s cracked up to be, according to Melissa Leo.

The “Frozen River” star, who won the Oscar for best supporting actress in 2011 for “The Fighter,” told The Guardian that the honor did not help her acting career.

“Winning an Oscar has not been good for me or my career,” she said. “I didn’t dream of it, I never wanted it, and I had a ‌much better career before I won.”

Leo, 65, also reflected on accidentally using profanity in her acceptance speech ‌at the 2011 Oscars. “I’m still sorry I cursed,” she ‌told The Guardian, adding that she curses “all the time, but you cannot curse on network television.”

Leo starred opposite Mark Wahlberg and Christian Bale in the 2010 David O. Russell sports drama “The Fighter,” which also earned Bale the Oscar for ​best supporting actor. Leo’s Oscar win was the first ‌of her career after she had ⁠previously been nominated for best lead actress for “Frozen River” in 2009.

During the 2011 awards season, Leo took the unusual step of ‌personally paying for advertising that asked Oscar voters to consider her performance in “The Fighter.” The ads, which drew mockery, featured images of the actress posing alongside text that read, “Consider.”

At the time, ‌Leo told Deadline she took out the ads because she was frustrated with feeling like she was not receiving much media attention for her role in “The Fighter.”

“I took matters into my own hands,” Leo told Deadline in February ‌2011. “I knew what I ​was doing ‌and told my representation how earnest I was about this idea. I had never heard of any actor taking out an ad as themselves and I wanted to give it a shot.”

After “The Fighter,” Leo went on ‌to have roles in films like “Flight,” “Oblivion,” “Prisoners,” “The Equalizer” and “Novitiate” and TV shows like “I’m Dying Up Here” and “I Know This Much Is True.”

Leo previously told Closer in 2022 that winning the ​Oscar “changed my life, but I can’t say it changed it for the better,” explaining, “Post-Academy Award, I was like, ‘Oh, this is so great! So the work is just going to come in now, all these leading roles!’ I began to have expectations, and ⁠I had to get over that. I’m trying to now really look ​forward and make conscious choices about the work that I do, and ⁠not do work that will be harmful to me or others.”

This article originally appeared on USA Today

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