Biting The Hand That Feeds? 10 Actors Who Dissed The Oscars Before Joaquin Phoenix

Yesterday, "The Master" star Joaquin Phoenix raised some eyebrows when a choice quote from his conversation with Elvis Mitchell in Interview Magazine, in which he slammed the awards process, made the rounds: "I'm just saying that I think it's bullshit. I think it's total, utter bullshit, and I don't want to be a part of it. I don't believe in it. It's a carrot, but it's the worst-tasting carrot I've ever tasted in my whole life. I don't want this carrot. It's totally subjective. Pitting people against each other...It's the stupidest thing in the whole world... It was one of the most uncomfortable periods of my life when 'Walk the Line' was going through all the awards stuff and all that. I never want to have that experience again. I don't know how to explain it—and it's not like I'm in this place where I think I'm just above it—but I just don't ever want to get comfortable with that part of things."

Whether the double-nominee has squandered his chances for a win or even a nod for Paul Thomas Anderson's "The Master," remains to be seen (we suspect not necessarily, and even if he has, he's unlikely to care), but Phoenix is following a fine heritage of performers who've dissed the Oscars over the years, many of whom then went on to win awards. There have been many famous Oscar controversies over the years -- Marlon Brando and Vanessa Redgrave spring to mind -- but not all of them actively attacked the institution itself. Below, you can find ten who did.

Woody Allen
Allen -- who's had 15 nominations for Best Original Screenplay, and has won four Oscars personally -- has always been uninterested in the Oscars, having only attended once, to pay tribute to New York at the 2002 ceremony. Back in 1978, he said "There are two things that bother me about them. They're political and bought and negotiated for, and the whole concept of awards is silly. I cannot abide by the judgment of other people, because if you accept them when they say you deserve an award, then you have to accept them when they say you don't. It's 'The Green Hills of Africa,' that's what it is. You put yourself in their hands as you're judged, and you're flattered, and the next year they say, 'No, you don't get it, Steve McQueen gets it' - and you know you were fantastic. The whole thing goes against everything you've worked for in your life. Also, there's no provision made for comedy and never has been. Consequently, artists like Groucho Marx and Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton never win Academy Awards. But it's not fair. Of course, if you're judging Groucho Marx against 'Death of a Salesman' or 'Streetcar Named Desire,' it's wrong."

He seems to have softened in recent years, telling the Washington Post earlier this year that "They always have it on Sunday night. And it’s always — you can look this up — it’s always opposite a good basketball game. And I’m a big basketball fan. So it’s a great pleasure for me to come home and get into bed and watch a basketball game. And that’s exactly where I was, watching the game.”

Javier Bardem
A few years after his first nomination for "Before Night Falls," Javier Bardem seemed to be unimpressed with the whole thing, telling About.com: "I live in Spain. Oscars are something that are on TV Sunday night. Basically, very late at night. You don’t watch, you just read the news after who won or who lost. No," and adding, in an echo of Bogart's quote "What does my performance have to do with Russell Crowe’s? Nothing. If I play Gladiator and we all play Gladiator with Ridley Scott in the same amount of time, maybe we have a chance to see who did it best." He won three years later for "No Country For Old Men."

Humphrey Bogart
Nominated, but beaten, in 1944 for "Casablanca," Humphrey Bogart remained skeptical about the Academy Awards, saying in 1951, "The only way to find the best actor would be to let everybody play Hamlet and let the best man win." Sadly, the Academy didn't take up his suggestion (we'd have loved to have seen Bogie's Hamlet), but his criticism didn't stop him from winning for "The African Queen" the following year.

Luis Bunuel
The surrealist filmmaker said in 1970 that, "Nothing would disgust me more morally than winning an Oscar." Three years later, he was nominated for the screenplay of "The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie," and again in 1977 for "That Obscure Object Of Desire," but presumably a nomination wasn't so morally disgusting.

Sally Field
Field gave one of the most famous and imitated speeches in Oscar history when she won in 1985 saying, "I can't deny the fact that you like me... right now... you like me." But soon after winning her first, for 1979's "Norma Rae," she said, "What does the Academy Award mean? I don't think it means much of anything?" She'll have another chance at being liked this year with Steven Spielberg's "Lincoln."