Sterling K. Brown reveals his vision board for EGOT: ‘It’s a marathon’

An Oscar nomination wasn’t on Sterling K. Brown’s 2024 bingo card.

In fact, when he heard the news, albeit a little late, on January 23, he responded, he says. THRit was, “Well, I’ll be damned.”

However, winning an Oscar has always been a dream for the actor and part of a long-term goal of one day becoming an EGOT. This desire arose after he won three Primetime Emmy Awards, the first in 2016 for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or Movie for his portrayal of Christopher Darden in American Crime Story: The People vs. OJ Simpsonagain in 2017 for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series for his role as Randall Pearson in this is usand most recently in 2021 for the featured narrator of Lincoln: Divided we stand.

“After you get a few Emmys or whatever, you realize, okay, this is a quarter of the way to EGOT, let’s see if we can figure out ways to get other awards,” he says in the conversation below. “But I didn’t think it would necessarily be this role or this movie.”

Brown is nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his role in a movie American fantasyCord Jefferson’s adaptation of Percival Everett’s 2001 novel Erase. Playing opposite Jeffrey Wright’s hard-working Thelonious “Monk” Ellison is his brother Cliff, a plastic surgeon dealing with grief and his newly embraced sexuality somewhat disturbingly after divorcing his ex-wife whom he disparagingly refers to as “his beard.”

The film, which uses the literary world to make a statement about the entertainment industry’s embrace of stereotypes of black life in the media as a whole, received a total of five Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Score. And Best Actor for Wright.

“I think what Cord has done with this script and this movie is so remarkable in terms of expanding the collective consciousness and imagination of what black lives can be like on screen,” says Brown, who recently predicted he would lose the Oscar to Robert Downey. , the son who was nominated for his role in Oppenheimer.

“I was happy to be a part of it and see the film get recognized and see Jeffrey get recognized,” he added. “I didn’t think it would be my turn, but I would love to one day, if I’m lucky enough, be considered among the people who get an EGOT. I wouldn’t be upset.”

Brown talks to THR About his Oscar nomination and what American fantasy Critical acclaim could mean dark storytelling moving forward.

Where were you when you heard the Oscars news?

I was at home. I was asleep and my phone died, and I slept on my kids floor. So I woke up in the middle of the night, went to bed, charged the phone, then went to make them breakfast and get them ready for school. When I got back to my phone after it charged, I realized I had 126 messages missing and they all said: “Congratulations”, “Congratulations”, “Congratulations”. So that’s where I was.

It’s funny because I was at a Super Bowl party with one of my wife’s best friends and my wife asked, “How was this morning?” My wife said, “I think he’s in shock. He’s acting like nothing happened.” And it was funny to hear how my wife saw it because it wasn’t like nothing was happening, it was just, I had to take these kids to school and after they were fed and they were in school, I was just texting all the time the rest of the day. When you receive this kind of love, you want to know that it was received in the spirit in which it was intended.

Did you deliberately step out of the news cycle that day knowing the nominations were coming out?

Nominations are read at 5:30 a.m. PT. I’m asleep. It’s dad’s bedtime. If I don’t sleep, the kids won’t go to school. My wife (actress Ryan Michelle Bath) doesn’t set her alarm in the morning. She will sleep until 10am on her day. So Brown is a morning guy and 6:45 or 7 a.m. is usually when I wake up. So it wasn’t that I was taken advantage of, but honestly, I was really surprised because I don’t think this was something I personally expected. I was happy to receive the attention I had received up to that point. I knew I was on a lot of people’s lists, but I was probably outside the top five or what have you. So when it happened, I said, “Well, I’ll be damned.”

Was being nominated for an Academy Award or winning an Academy Award on your vision for an actor?

I would say so. After you get a few Emmys or other, you realize, okay, this is a quarter of the way to EGOT, let’s see if we can figure out ways to get other awards. But I didn’t think it would necessarily be this role or this movie. I’m fully aware that it’s a marathon, not a sprint. I’m here for a long time. So the fact that the nomination came with this project is very gratifying because I think the project is great. I think what Cord did with this script and this film is so remarkable in terms of expanding the collective consciousness and imagination of what black lives can be like on screen. I was just happy to be a part of it and to see the film get recognized and to see Jeffrey get recognized. I didn’t think it would be my turn, but I would love to one day, if I’m lucky enough, be considered among the people who get an EGOT. I won’t be upset.

Are you planning to go to the ceremony with a prepared speech?

It will be about the present moment, which is what most of my speeches are. There may be some dots or what have you, but it’s really just brown coming out of the dome. You know, just make code for your kid and see what kind of freestyle we can do. But – and I don’t mean this to sound trite – the honor lies in the nomination. Gosling, De Niro, Ruffalo, and Downey Jr. The company I have the opportunity to be in is truly amazing. I’m happy to be there.

I imagine your phone has been ringing since the nomination. Are you feeling overwhelmed with all this awards season?

I’ll be honest with you, it’s a little stressful sometimes, especially when it comes to clothing and gear and all the different things. There are the Academy Awards, the Spirit Awards for Independent Film, the SAG Awards, and the NAACP Image Awards. You can’t go back and get the same suit every time, you have to come with a suit that fits and is slightly built-in. There’s also the unspoken truth that your wife wants to look as good as you do. So there are conversations that have been had. Strategies used. The wife doesn’t play. We have to make sure that everyone in the house feels good about their appearance.

I moved THR At the top of the year, “I never make the mistake of equating critical and popular success with each other. Do you still feel that way in light of the Oscar nominations? American fantasy received and how do you feel about its performance at the box office?

I feel like the nominations gave us a really nice boost in terms of the way it entered the consciousness. I think we probably had one of our best weekends at the box office after receiving five Oscar nominations, so I’m really grateful for that. I’m really grateful that investors are getting some kind of return on their investment in relation to this project because that motivates people to do it again. If it’s just a “prestigious film” and not popular, it won’t be easy to get the green light a second time, especially when it comes to us. So, yeah, I feel the same way, but I feel like we’re okay.

What comes after awards season?

Well, before awards season is over, we’re starting production on a new TV show with Dan Fogelman Paradise city At the end of the month. We’ll be streaming later in the year, but I’m very excited about it. My wife and I recorded our first podcast together called We don’t always agree, which is more convenient than you know, and hopefully sometime in March that will come to wherever you can watch podcasts. And I have a movie atlas, With Jennifer Lopez, Simu Liu, Mark Strong and a few others on Netflix. It’s a sci-fi movie, an AI kind of movie, and it’s really cool. There’s a lot of green screens, a lot of action, and some funky things happening, so I’m looking forward to that. Now it’s just one of those great moments where you get a chance to have industry meetings and see who wants to do things with you and whether there are any other new doors open to you with this nomination that may have been closed to you in the past. It is an exciting time of discovery for your child.