The awards have also broken ground with three actors who are just as invisible as Davies in their film nominated – Sarah Snook, Jacki Weaver and Kodi Smit-McPhee, who voiced characters in Adam Elliot’s Oscar-nominated animation, Memoir of a Snail.
But Davies’ monkeying around has a better chance of winning over Eric Bana (Force Of Nature: The Dry 2), David Dastmalchian (Late Night with the Devil), Daniel Henshall (How To Make Gravy) and Guy Pearce (The Convert).
He thought it was crazy that fellow Brit Andy Serkis had been overlooked for major award nominations for his legendary motion-capture performances as Gollum in The Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit trilogies, and Caesar in the Planet of the Apes films.
Jonno Davies performs as Robbie Williams in Better Man. His motion-capture performance was the basis for a digitally created chimpanzee.Credit: Ben King
“You’ve had other performances before that have been nominated where [actors] have had very extensive make-up or prosthetics,” Davies said. “For me, it’s in the same realm. It’s just digital rather than a physical transformation.”
So should Davies have been included in the visual effects team nominated for an Oscar for Better Man?
“Oof,” he said. “It’s tricky because I didn’t have a say on how they animated …
“I suppose I was the original canvas, but I’m exceptionally proud of what [New Zealand VFX house] Weta achieved. They really set the bar for digital characters.”
The awards will be broadcast on the Ten Network.
The writer travelled to the Gold Coast as a guest of AACTA.
