Al Pacino Won An Oscar For The Wrong Movie, According To Johnny Depp

Most Academy Award winners take home the coveted gold statue as a result of a firecracker cinematic achievement. Sometimes, however, winning an Oscar is an overdue victory serving as a career-spanning symbol of recognition. In other words, it's the Academy saying, 'Sorry about all those snubs!' Consider Ennio Morricone's first Oscar win for "The Hateful Eight" at age 87, or Spike Lee finally bringing home the gold in 2019.

There's perhaps no better example of this phenomenon than Al Pacino winning an Academy Award for 1992's "Scent of a Woman," which doesn't quite reach the same lofty heights as "The Godfather" and its sequel, or "Dog Day Afternoon," or even "Scarface."

For Johnny Depp, "Scent of a Woman" pales in comparison to another '90s Pacino film in which the two actors starred together: 1997's "Donnie Brasco."

"When I did 'Donnie Brasco,' I thought Pacino was as good or greater than he'd ever been," Depp told Movieline in 2001. "I was blown away by his performance, his subtleties, and his work in general. And he didn't get an Academy Award nomination. I just couldn't imagine."

The actor continued to wax lyrical about Pacino's performance as debt-ridden mobster Lefty Ruggiero. "I don't want to put ['Scent of a Woman'] down," says Depp, "but I will say that his work wasn't on the level of 'Donnie Brasco.'"

As early as 2001, Johnny Depp had established his wary views toward the Academy. "I don't think I'm a particular favorite in the eyes of the Academy," said Depp in the same Movieline interview.

"I think there are guarantees for getting nominations," he continued. "You have to take the most tragic Hallmark card, adapt it into a screenplay, bawl your eyes out constantly, do a bunch of clichéd turns and bing, you're in." Depp also took issue with the narrow window in which a film is considered Oscar-worthy. "People said that [Pacino] wasn't nominated because ['Donnie Brasco'] came out in March. Like these people only have an attention span of a month or something?"

Stereotypical Oscars schlock and the entire process surrounding seemed to leave a sour taste in Depp's mouth. "This whole award thing," he summed up, "is really weird, really weird."

Depp's views on the Oscars don't seem to have changed much over time, even after securing three Oscar nominations himself. "I don't want to win one of those things ever, you know," he told BBC Newsbeat in 2015 while doing press for "Black Mass." "I don't want to have to talk. They gave me one of those things, like a nomination, two or three times. A nomination is plenty."

"The idea of winning means that you're in competition with someone and I'm not in competition with anybody," he continued. "I just stick to my guns and do what I want to do."