As Lauren Bacall once wrote, “It’s better to win. In any contest, that is the goal.”

10 actors who got candid about losing major awards

As Lauren Bacall once wrote, “It’s better to win. In any contest, that is the goal.”

By Brianna Zigler

September 14, 2026 12:12 p.m. ET

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Angela Bassett; Lauren Bacall; Bill Murray. Credit:

Savion Washington/WireImage; Sunset Boulevard/Corbis via Getty; Gareth Cattermole/Getty

Stars are always expected to put on a happy face, but there’s something charming about an A-lister who lets their true feelings show after losing a major acting award.

Sometimes, you get that fleeting moment of emotional truth when the winner’s name is announced and one (or more) of the nominees lets slip their feelings while a camera is pointed at them — from Ellen Burstyn losing Best Actress for *The Exorcist* to Glenda Jackson in *A Touch of Class* in 1974 to Willem Dafoe losing Best Supporting Actor for *The Florida Project* to Sam Rockwell in *Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri* in 2018.

But some stars have gone further than a reaction caught on camera, opening up about how it felt to lose in the moment. Though many folks may chalk it up to “rich people problems,” it’s reassuring to know that even stars aren’t immune to disappointment.

* *takes a look at 10 actors who got candid about how it felt to lose out on major awards.

Lauren Bacall

Lauren Bacall reclining on a couch circa 1950.

Silver Screen Collection/Getty

In her 2005 autobiography, *By Myself and Then Some*, Lauren Bacall got candid about never having won an Academy Award.

Despite starring in such classic films as *To Have and Have Not *(1944)*, The Big Sleep *(1946)*, *and *How to Marry a Millionaire *(1953)*,* Bacall didn’t receive her first Oscar nomination until 1997, for her role in* The Mirror Has Two Faces *(1996)*. *The nomination came as a surprise, and she initially kept her expectations low.

“There are some actresses who are always nominated and some who always win. I have never been in either category,” she wrote. “So, imagine my shock when I was nominated for the Screen Actors Guild Award, the Golden Globe, the Broadcasters’ Award and the Academy Award for Supporting Actress. I couldn’t believe it, but I still had no illusions about winning.”

Still, Bacall wanted the award: “The truth is, I wanted to win,” she wrote. “No matter how you try to rationalise it, to be nominated is fine - chosen by your peers, etc — but it’s better to win. In any contest, that is the goal.”

Bacall ultimately emerged as the front-runner for Best Supporting Actress, making Juliette Binoche’s victory for *The English Patient* a major upset. “I felt so badly for my children,” Bacall lamented. “They were so upset for me. Steve [her eldest son] turned white. He couldn’t believe it. Sam [her youngest son] and Leslie [her daughter] were stunned.”

“We got through the rest of the programme and headed for the great dinner — chocolate Oscars at every place. I felt very alone. No matter how you slice it, this was a ball for winners,” she concluded.

Angela Bassett

Angela Bassett attends the 95th Annual Academy Awards on March 12, 2023 in Hollywood, Calif.

Kayla Oaddams/WireImage

When Angela Bassett lost the Best Supporting Actress Oscar to Jamie Lee Curtis for the latter’s performance in *Everything Everywhere All at Once *(2022), she was understandably disappointed. A year later, Bassett reflected on what it felt like to lose for her acclaimed performance in *Black Panther: Wakanda Forever *(2022)*.*

“I thought I handled it very well, and that was my intention: to handle it very well,” Bassett told Oprah Winfrey in 2024. “It was, of course, a supreme disappointment, and disappointment is human, so yes, I was disappointed, and I handled it like a human being.”

At the time, Bassett’s reserved reaction to Curtis’ win went viral, a response Winfrey said she didn’t quite understand. “I didn’t get the whole ‘Angela Bassett face,’” Winfrey said. “I thought, wow, you can see that [you] expected another thing, but you were still as gracious as a queen would be.”

“Absolutely. For myself and for my children, who were there with me, yes,” Bassett replied. “I know a pastor who says ‘technology is different — people are the same.’ There are going to be these moments of disappointment that they are going to experience. But how do you handle yourself in the midst of them? We’re going to smile, we’re going to be gracious, we’re going to be kind — we gotta party anyway.”

Naomie Harris

Naomie Harris at the Golden Globes Gala Dinner at the Red Sea International Film Festival 2025 on Dec. 10, 2025 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Daniele Venturelli/Getty

In 2025, *Moonlight* (2016) star Naomie Harris opened up to PEOPLE about how she really felt when she lost the Best Supporting Actress Oscar to Viola Davis for *Fences *(2016)*. *At first, Harris was actually relieved.

“Because Viola Davis, up to that point, had won everything going. So I was like, ‘Viola’s going to win,’” Harris explained. She had even spoken to another actress before the ceremony. “I said to her, ‘I don’t have a speech.’ And she was like, ‘No, no, no, you need a speech.’ And I was like, ‘No, I’m not going to win, so it’s fine.’ She was like, ‘You don’t know that. Anything is possible.”

“And so suddenly I went from being like, ‘It’s okay. I’m just going to sit back,’ to like, ‘Oh my God, I don’t have a speech,’” she continued.

When Davis’ name was called, Harris initially felt a sense of relief. “There’s this first moment of like, ‘Thank God. I don’t have to go up there and speak,’” she said. But that feeling quickly gave way to disappointment. “Then you get that moment of like, ‘Oh, if only it were me,’ of course.”

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Olivia de Havilland

Olivia de Havilland. Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images

*Gone with the Wind* actress Olivia de Havilland was up against her costar Hattie McDaniel for Best Supporting Actress at the 12th Academy Awards. McDaniel’s victory was historic: She became the first Black person ever nominated for an Academy Award — and the first to win one. McDaniel, whose parents had been enslaved, played Mammy, an enslaved domestic worker in the O’Hara household, while de Havilland portrayed Melanie Hamilton.

In a 2004 interview, de Havilland revealed that she actually knew in advance that McDaniel was going to win — though the advance notice did little to soften her disappointment.

“The limousines were going to take us from David [O. Selznick’s] house to the Academy Awards at the Ambassador Hotel,” de Havilland said. “The phone rang and David said, ‘Yes, yes…Scarlett, yeah…best picture, hmm…[director Victor] Fleming, yes…’ and he went down the whole list of awards and then said, ‘Hattie…’ And my name wasn’t mentioned. Of course, he got advance news of who had won. He had some kind of spy.”

The actress later pointed to her youth when recalling her reaction. “I was only 22!” she said with a laugh. “At the table, I was able to keep my composure until it was all over and then one tear started down my cheek. [The producer’s wife] Irene Selznick saw that and said, ‘Come with me!’ and we went into the kitchen and then I really began to cry.”

She was initially “convinced there was no God,” as she explained to EW in 2015. But she reconsidered after reflecting on the historic significance of McDaniel’s win.

“About two weeks later, I woke up and thought, ‘Oh, how wonderful! I wasn’t a supporting actress, and Hattie was, and she won!’” she said via email. “Those blessed voters were not misled for one minute…. I’d rather live in a world where someone who is a supporting actress wins against someone who, instead, is a star playing a starring role!… There is a God, after all!”

Samuel L. Jackson

Samuel L. Jackson attends the 76th Annual Tony Awards at United Palace Theater on June 11, 2023, in New York City.

Bruce Glikas/WireImage

At the 1995 Oscars, Samuel L. Jackson appeared to mouth “s---” when he lost the Best Supporting Actor honor to Martin Landau. Jackson had been nominated for his performance in Quentin Tarantino’s *Pulp Fiction* (1994), while Landau won for portraying Bela Lugosi in Tim Burton’s *Ed Wood *(1994)*. *

“I should have won that one,” Jackson told *The Times** *in 2022 about his *Pulp Fiction* Oscar loss.

In 2023, he elaborated on the loss in an interview with *Vulture*. “The whole award season, everybody’s telling me about the winner. ‘Well, you know Martin’s been nominated four times. Your time’s coming.’ ‘Wait a minute. I lost already? What the f---? What are you telling me?’ I thought it was based on what we just did, not the fact that you’ve been nominated how many times,” he said. “Sure enough. I lost all the time. All the time. I lost the Globes. I lost this. I lost that. And then the night that you’re sitting there at the Oscars, you sit there and go, I lost every time. Maybe they get it right this time. And they didn’t. I think I’m the only person that’s ever said ‘S—’ in the middle of the little square on the TV.”

Jackson also believed he should have received a nomination for *A Time to Kill *(1996), but said too many of his scenes were cut. “The things they took out kept me from getting an Oscar,” he told EW in 2023. Jackson said he was particularly shocked when he realized one scene had been left out. “Really, motherf---ers? You just took that s--- from me?” he recalled.

Susan Lucci attends ‘Susan Lucci in Conversation with Andy Cohen’ for ‘All My Children’ at 55 at 92NY on Jan. 14, 2025 in New York City.

Stephanie Augello/Getty

For nearly two decades, *All My Children* star Susan Lucci repeatedly lost out on the Best Actress prize at the Daytime Emmys. After a while, she admitted, the mounting disappointments left her feeling “numb.”

“After the ninth time that I didn’t win. Mind you, I won on the 19th time, so this was 10 more years later. I would go numb every time,” she told PEOPLE in February 2026. “I don’t know if it was a self-protection thing that went on,” she added. “And I was just so afraid that someday I might go up there and it wasn’t really my name at all.”

“Over the course of the years that I didn’t win, it was so amazing to me that the press corps and fans and people were just wanting me to win,” she continued. “That was amazing to me and so touching and so wonderful. But every year, you get whipped into a frenzy because they were saying, ‘Oh, your storyline was so great. Oh, this is your year.’ And you didn’t want to go there, but it was very enticing to go there. It was so touching that people thought that and then I wouldn’t win.”

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When Lucci finally won on her 19th nomination, presenter Shemar Moore preceded her name with the now-famous declaration, “The streak is over!” But Lucci didn’t immediately realize she’d won — or even comprehend what Moore meant. “When he said that, it was May, and I thought when he said the streak is over, I thought he was going to be reporting on the playoff game results, basketball, hockey,” she admitted. “And I thought, ‘Isn’t that nice? He’s keeping everybody .’”

When Lucci took to the stage, she told the cheering audience, “I truly never believed that this would happen.”

Demi Moore at the 98th Annual Oscars held at Dolby Theatre on March 15, 2026 in Hollywood, Calif.

Gilbert Flores/Penske Media via Getty

All eyes were on Demi Moore in the lead-up to the 2025 Oscars, where she was widely considered a frontrunner to win Best Actress for her performance in the body-horror film *The Substance *(2024)* *— her first-ever Oscar nomination*.* But in a surprise upset, Mikey Madison took home the award for *Anora *(2024)*.*

Many viewers noted the irony of Madison’s victory given the plot of *The Substance,* in which Moore’s character finds her life being overtaken by a younger version of herself. In a conversation with *TIME* a few months after her loss, Moore admitted that it stung. “The physical, human part that has ego, of course, has disappointment,” she told the magazine. “It certainly would have been wonderful to have won.”

Moore added, however, that she didn’t feel defeated by the loss. “That’s the beautiful thing when you really open up to how the universe really works, as opposed to gripping so tight, trying to force things to happen,” she said. “You really move with the flow.”

Moore was gracious toward Madison after the ceremony, congratulating her on Instagram. “Huge congratulations to #MikeyMadison,” she wrote, adding, “can’t wait to see what you do next.”

Bill Murray visits SiriusXM Studios to discuss the film ‘Riff Raff’ on Feb. 27, 2025 in New York City.

Roy Rochlin/Getty

Bill Murray’s performance opposite Scarlett Johansson in *Lost in Translation *(2003) is a total revelation, earning him his first Oscar nomination for Best Actor. But at the 2004 ceremony, Murray lost the award to Sean Penn for *Mystic River *(2003). Ahead of the nominations, EW had written that “Murray should finally hear his name called for the first time thanks to his career-best performance as *Lost in Translation’*s faded movie star.”

Murray, for his part, was less than thrilled by the outcome.

“Pissed off?” Murray said when *The Guardian* asked him about the Oscars in 2005. “You bet I was.” But his irritation stemmed at least partly from his distaste for awards shows. “I don’t approve of award ceremonies, so I was wondering what had persuaded me to attend that one. I was pissed at myself,” he added.

Mickey Rourke

Mickey Rourke backstage at Philipp Plein and Billionaire show, Front Row, Fall Winter 2019, New York Fashion Week.

Swan Gallet/WWD/Penske Media/Getty

Mickey Rourke had spent years on the Hollywood margins before mounting a major comeback with Darren Aronofsky’s *The Wrestler* (2008). The actor was widely considered a favorite to win Best Actor at the 2009 Oscars, but the award ultimately went to Sean Penn for his portrayal of openly gay politician Harvey Milk in *Milk *(2008)*.*

Rourke, however, didn’t seem especially bitter about the loss. “Y’know,” he told *The Guardian* in June 2009, “I didn’t think I was gonna win, because of Proposition 8 and the whole gay marriage thing that was going on in California. But it wasn’t just that. Sean did a hell of a job with his character.” His praise came amid reports, which Rourke denied, that he had dismissed Penn’s performance as average.

“I know we got the Golden Globe, the Independent Spirit, and the BAFTA, but that’s still not the people in the Screen Actors Guild, if you know what I’m saying,” he added. “As soon as *Milk* won for best screenplay, I knew the party was over.”

Sigourney Weaver

Sigourney Weaver at the ‘Dust Bunny’ premiere at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival on Sept. 8, 2025.

Earl Gibson III/Deadline/Getty

In 1989, *Alien* star Sigourney Weaver received two Oscar nominations: Best Supporting Actress for *Working Girl *(1988) and Best Actress for *Gorillas in the Mist *(1988). Weaver went home that night without either award: Geena Davis won Best Supporting Actress for *The Accidental Tourist,* while Jodie Foster took Best Actress for *The Accused. *In doing so, Weaver became the first performer nominated in two acting categories in the same year to lose both.

“I think anybody would be disappointed. It’s sort of built into the American system. I just found it embarrassing, a little bit, because people don’t know what to say to you. They’re afraid you’ll burst into tears,” Weaver told *The Washington Post* in June 1989. “We losers figured that we should all have a Losers’ Room that we could go in and criticize and complain and bitch and get all ruffled, and smoke and drink. And then when we had really gotten it out of our systems, we’d go out and be gracious and philosophical.”

“Also my parents were there and I would have liked to win for them,” she continued. “Because I always think they’re still worrying about me, but if I win this thing then they’ll relax.”

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