10 Superhero Movie Performances That Were Totally Oscar-Worthy
8. Aaron Eckhart - The Dark Knight
Eckhart’s potential nomination is tricky, as he would be Best Supporting alongside Heath Ledger. While Eckhart’s performance was brilliant and showed a nuanced duality, Ledger’s is absolutely legendary. However, since this is all hypothetical it’s fair enough to say his turn was Oscar-worthy.
It’s a little bit like The Departed, where the studio considered both Leo DiCaprio and Matt Damon as lead actors, but they split the vote and neither were nominated. Mark Wahlberg, on the other hand, got the nomination for Supporting, despite many critics feeling his turn was third best in the movie overall.
Potential competition with Ledger aside though, Eckhart is in many ways the unsung hero of the movie. The pacing isn’t as great as we all remember, parts of the Rachel subplot and most of China feel superfluous and Bale’s voice is divisive. Ledger is often credited with holding the movie together but he just adds the magic stardust; Eckhart is actually doing more work.
His paragon of good act is grounded, pure and real, making us root for him, while his change feels natural, yet terrifying.
It’s the Two-Face persona, with the grimacing menace which kicks this one into overdrive. A pity Ledger overshadows this performance.