“American Fiction” Oscar nominee Sterling K. Brown admitted he doesn’t think he’s winning for Best Supporting Actor — and that’s OK with him. Sitting on “The Graham Norton Show,” the actor said, “Robert Downey Jr.’s going to win, and he’s incredibly deserving.”
Brown began the segment, saying, “I know that I’m not going to win.” After his fellow guest Colman Domingo shouted him down, he continued, “And I’m fine with it. Totally fine with it, totally fine with it. Listen, I’m going to tell you. Robert Downey Jr.’s going to win, and he’s incredibly deserving.”
“He’s an incredible actor,” Brown continued. “Like, you should give him love. And the fact that I get a chance to be nominated along with him, and Mr. De Niro, and Ryan Gosling, and Ruffalo, I’m just happy to be in the room.”
Elsewhere in the segment, Brown and Norton discussed the actor’s time on the popular series “This Is Us.” Brown told the host that fans still have emotional reactions when they meet him all the time. He said, “People come up to me. Usually, if they’re ‘This is Us’ fans, the first thing they want is a hug.”
Sterling K. Brown talking about how he will lose the Oscar to Robert Downey Jr is so sweet #Oscars pic.twitter.com/KdrivmLgi2
— Priyant (@Priyant1987) February 3, 2024
“They’ll talk about how the show changed their lives or provided them with some form of catharsis as they were going through something,” Brown continued. “It’s really lovely. Like, I never knew that it was going to have the impact that it did. I knew it was a great story with a great group of people, but to see how it affected people in the world … I’ve had women come up to me with an adopted baby, saying ‘I adopted this child because of you.’”
“I’ve had somebody come up to me saying, ‘Hey man, I quit my job because of you.’ I said, ‘I never told you to do that!’ You know what I’m saying?” he added.
“That’s too much responsibility!” Norton interjected.
Brown said, “It’s like, ‘I was already on the fence and because Randall had the courage to do it, then I had the courage to do it, too.’ Like, it … at a time in the U.S. when things are so divided, it felt like people were able to come together and be like, ‘You know what? I love my family.’ And this show is all about family, so at least it brought people together for a little bit.”
Watch a clip from the “Graham Norton” interview in the video above.
