Leonardo Dicaprio’s quest for an elusive Academy Award has become somewhat of a running gag. Despite turning in one great performance after another and being nominated for an Oscar on a number of occasions, Leo always gets robbed by the Academy. It’s gotten to the point where this is a real conversation that takes place between Kevin and I.

Me: I’m finally seeing The Revenant today.

Kevin: Which one is that again?

Me: Leo’s newest Oscar snub.

Sad, I know. But you know what, it doesn’t matter if Leo gets overlooked yet again on Sunday for the recognition he rightfully deserves. Hit the jump to find out why. 

Even though Kevin and I will be extremely irate if Leo doesn’t win for Best Actor this Sunday, there will be no doubt in our minds over how good he is. His body of work speaks for itself and he doesn’t have anything left to prove. But what if he were to retire? Stop making movies? It would be a sad day for his fans, but an even worse day for the Academy.

I don’t know if you are aware of this or not, but Leo is one of the most in-demand actors in Hollywood. The directors he has collaborated with is a who’s who of some of the most prominent and accomplished filmmakers of all-time. Martin Scorsese. Steven Spielberg. Quentin Tarantino. James Cameron. Christopher Nolan. Ridley Scott. Clint Eastwood. Sam Mendes. Edward Zwick. Most recently Alejandro G. Inarritu, who helmed The Revenant and last year received critical acclaim for his work on Birdman.

Long story short, the best directors in the world all have one thing in common: they love working with Leo. Can you imagine the gaping void he would leave behind if he decided to quit acting? All of these great directors would have to cast someone else in their films. No offense to the other actors out there, but would they blow all of those roles out of the water as emphatically as Leo did? I doubt it. The filmmakers may just decide there’s no one who could replace him and scrap the movie all together. Then there would be a bunch of mediocre nominations for Best Picture and Best Actor and the entire world would come to an end.

A bit dramatic? Maybe. The fact of the matter is it doesn’t really matter what the Academy thinks is the best or whom it decides to bestow its honors on. They very rarely select the most worthy or deserving candidates anyway, so Leo is not the lone actor who has been slighted. He just gets the short end of the stick more than most. But if he really did decide that his acting career was over, his absence would definitely cost the Academy Awards some of its legitimacy.

Maybe he’ll win on Sunday or maybe he’ll get screwed again. The point is I don’t need Leo to keep acting to prove to me that he’s the best. I already know it.

By the way, The Revenant was freaking incredible. I would do a review but I would just be raving about Leo the entire time, which I have already done here.

Jesse’s Rating for The Revenant: A