The canine star Uggie from the critically acclaimed movie, “The Artist” celebrated the 10 Oscar Nominations in an unusual way, says Us Weekly. The adorable Jack Russell terrier was taken by his trainer Omar von Muller on the 86th floor of the Empire State Building in NYC.
“The Artist” was nominated for some of the most important categories of the Academy Award, that is, Best Picture, Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress. The motion picture is a celebration of the vintage period of Hollywood when silent movies were gradually replaced with talkies. The protagonist of the motion picture is George Valentin who is always accompanied by his dumb friend, Uggie.
Director Michel Hazanavicius has grown very fond of his canine star. He declared in all his interviews that the movie wouldn’t have been so popular and successful if it hadn’t been for Uggie.
Uggie is an experienced actor because he was seen playing in many other films besides “The Artist”. One of his recent projects included “Water for Elephants” where he co-starred with Reese Withespoon and Robert Pattinson.
Despite his career accomplishments, Oscar organizers didn’t attribute a nominalization to the four-legged actor. This is actually impossible, according to the Oscar rules because the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences adopted a law in 1929 which prevented any non-human actors from receiving an award.
Back then, American viewers were impressed by the acting skills of another canine star, Rin Tin Tin. The dog performed in 27 movies in the 1920s and was the first four-legged character to nearly win an Oscar. The Academy, however, adopted the aforementioned law because they wanted to establish themselves as a serious new awards program and honoring a dog would have been embarrassing, says Susan Orlean, author of “Rin Tin Tin: The Life and the Legend”.
Let’s hope Uggie will convince the Academy to change the rules because director Michel Hazanavicius thinks canine stars are essential in the storytelling process. The viewer understands, for instance, that George Valentin is a good person by following the dog’s instincts.
The people of Bafta and Oscars who made the laws of no give an award to a non-human actors feel the center of the universe as animal humans (if they even consider themselves as animals like all we are) to not be compare to other species of animals because that will show that we are not that different after all. A dog actor follows orders from his trainer and a human actor follows orders from his director and both of them get a reward for his good work either sausages or a paycheck.