Actor Sterling K. Brown basks in Oscars nomination moment

LOS ANGELES — American actor Sterling K. Brown is no stranger to the thrill of winning awards in Hollywood with three Emmys, a Golden Globe and four Screen Actors Guild awards. So for his first Oscar nomination, the actor has decided to play it cool.

“I’m sort of the Vince Lombardi mind, when you score a touchdown, act like you’ve been there,” Brown told Reuters at the Oscars nominees luncheon this month.

“I want to try and maintain some sense of composure and decorum with the hopes that I’ll get a chance to be invited back again, right?” he added.

Brown’s best supporting actor nomination for his role as Cliff in the film “American Fiction” follows his popular television roles in the shows “This Is Us” and “American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson.”

Clifford “Cliff” Ellison, the brother of the protagonist and author Thelonious “Monk” Ellison, embraces his life as an openly gay man after divorcing his wife and becoming estranged from his children.

While Brown is excited to be in the Oscar race, his main focus is savoring the experience of being one of this year’s Oscar nominees rather than winning the award.

“For a long time, you’re on the outside looking in and you wonder what everything is that goes into it, and now you get a chance to be on the inside and you’re like, ‘Oh. This is what it’s like,’” the 47-year-old actor said.

Brown cherishes the chance to learn about what goes on within one of the most prestigious groups in Hollywood.

“It’s not the Illuminati, for anybody that thinks you have to be a part of the Illuminati to get a nomination. I don’t know if the Illuminati is real,” Brown said.

— Reporting by Rollo Ross and Danielle Broadway;Editing by Mary Milliken and Jonathan Oatis