They weren’t kidding at the end of last night’s Oscars: Conan O’Brien, if you want it, the Academy Awards “host for life” job is yours — well, at least for the final two years of ABC’s deal.
“Oh, that is no joke, Conan is host for life,” Walt Disney Television’s Rob Mills, the executive vice president, unscripted and alternative entertainment who’s in charge of the Oscars telecast, told Variety on Monday morning. “He hasn’t accepted yet. He’s just being told, we’re assuming that was not a comedy bit. We’re going to treat that as if that was fact.”
Variety got on the phone with Mills and others involved with the telecast on Monday to discuss some of the highlights and burning questions.
How did that cold open come about with O’Brien as Aunt Gladys from “Weapons,” passing through some of the year’s biggest films?
“It was one of the more ambitious things that we’ve done,” said one insider, who added that production took place within the last three weeks. “It took a couple of days to shoot. It was a lot.”
Said Mills: “Sometimes these jobs are like fantasy camp and to be working with Conan is always incredible. I remember those when he had special occasions, or when he hosted things like the Emmys, he would make these films, and they were great. When it was their 10th anniversary of ‘Late Night,’ he did one of those ones where he ran into the streets of New York, and literally, everybody’s following him. It was sort of similar to this bit. He’s always done these films that are great. And it also sort of reminded me of what Billy Crystal used to do. So it was great. It felt distinctly Conan, but also distinctly Oscar.”
How was the animated Conan-as-Aunt-Gladys inserted into “KPop Demon Hunters”?
Quite simply, said a source, “We found an animation company that could pull this off very quickly!”
Where did those “Weapons”-like kids in the opening sketch come from?
These are real child actors who were brought in via a casting call.
Who were those multiple Michael B. Jordans in the audience?
That was truly Michael B. Jordan, who loved the bit and came in last week to shoot himself reacting in multiple ways. “Once he got the idea, he said he was into it, came in and we had him there for a short time, and had him composited!” a producer said.
Did Leonardo DiCaprio know that he was going to be asked to be a meme?
Not at all! So forgive him for being a bit confused at first on how to react — but then he still figured out how to react! “I’m sure anybody over the age of 30 was confused,” quipped a source.
What was Josh Groban’s involvement in creating a song about Conan’s dream acceptance speech?
“One of my all time favorite award show things was when Conan did the ‘You Got Trouble’ number when he hosted the Emmys,” Mills said. “Last year he did the “I Won’t Waste Time” song. He loves a musical number. So, yeah, he thought of that. Remember, he did a film, he did a monologue. The song was so short that it was great. Conan clearly thought about this, because by the end of that, that first act, by the time you got to Zoe Saldaña, you did not feel like this has already been long. It moved. The film was brilliant, the monologue brilliant, and that song was brilliant. And very quick. He got the joke and then got right out.”
How did it work to have Matt Berry serve as announcer, live from London? Why wasn’t he here?
Yes, Matt Berry was in London — and the technology is now at the point where there wasn’t a delay. But why? “I think they like the idea of this being so international. God bless him, he was at every rehearsal. I can’t imagine all the different times he must have been up. I don’t know exactly why he wasn’t here, but I think they thought it was kind of cool that somebody was all the way across the ocean.”
Berry was supposed to appear one more time on camera — but it was cut for time. Like his previous old timey reference to Basil Rathbone, this time he was going to shout out Cyd Charisse.
How did Jane Lynch wind up in the YouTube ad parodies? Why a dangerous flashlight line? Was there a chance she’d do more ads?
The producers were big on some of the pretapes this year. “The vertical video thing was smart too,” said a producer. “Ideas come up, and we used a lot this year. There happened to be a lot more pretape things.”
The set had a lot more green this year, and O’Brien even made light of it with his leaf blower. Where did that design idea come from?
“You just don’t see a set with trees!” said a producer. Added Mills: “I think it looked really nice and [production designers] Misty Buckley and Alana Billingsley, do an amazing job. [Exec producer] Raj Kapoor has been doing these shows forever, and they really have an eye.” And yes, the bit with Conan and the leaf blower killed in the room. “I remember when we heard that was happening, that was one of those, ‘oh, I can’t wait to see what that’s gonna look like,'” Mills said.
How did you pull off that “Pierce the Veil” performance of “I Lied to You”? Why didn’t we get to see more of Buddy Guy? Did they forget to give him a guitar at first?
“I think it was one of those things where it was just you wanted something happening in every corner,” Mills said. “And yes, I agree. There aren’t words to describe Buddy Guy. He is a genius, and certainly one of the inspirations for the entire movie. So I think it was just, they had so much going on everywhere that I think they wanted you to be looking everywhere. By the end, you’re like, ‘Oh my gosh, there’s Misty Copeland coming pirouetting through.’ I mean, it’s just that the number had everything.”
Was there an unusual amount of cursing on this year’s show from winners? How did they miss “Frankenstein” costume designer Kate Hawley’s “shit”? Later, ironically, one of the winners of the sound category (“F1”) also had to be bleeped!
“It’s a hard job. I mean, you never want any of them to get by, but of all the expletives, ‘shit’ is sort of a little more minor league. Fortunately, they did catch it.”
The In Memoriam once again omitted quite a few famous names, causing more anger. How does that happen?
That’s the Academy’s call on who ends up on the telecast, but “It is hard. I think it’s the hardest thing they possibly do,” Mills said. “It always is hard when they are sort of villainized for this. Yes, there’s always people who are left out. Unfortunately, we’re losing more and more people, and especially, we’re losing legendary people every year, so it is probably the hardest needle to thread. I do think what they did last night might have been the best In Memoriam in the history of the Oscars.”
What happened to the “Golden” songwriters? It seemed like the orchestra didn’t know another winner was about to speak, cutting him off.
“One thing, as we post mortem for next year, will be to look at how we’re handling speeches,” Mills said. “You win the Oscar, you know you go on stage, it could be one person, it could be five or six. Immediately you’ll see the sort of allotted time we have for them. Do we need to look at it and say, okay, designate one person to speak. Maybe you continue it backstage, and we have a feed on social or something like that. We look at everything and figure out what is the most elegant solution, because it is difficult, especially when you’re cutting somebody off and it’s their one moment. We talk about it at the award luncheon, that you have this designated time to speak, and it’s difficult. I don’t know what the most elegant solution is, but it’s obviously something we should look really, really long and hard at.”
Also, why was the “Golden” performance shortened? A full verse was cut, was that for time?
“That was by design, that wasn’t something that you can call an audible on, because those things are so well-rehearsed,” Mills said. “Yes, they cut a verse. But I think certainly with the lead up and the production, you got a feeling of it. Probably what is the best thing musical number can accomplish is it makes you want to go and watch the movie again. I think both musical numbers, they really encapsulated both the sort of just the feeling of those movies, beyond just just the music.”
What was with the raucous documentary contingent in the audience?
“I think they were just excited that they were celebrated,” Mills said. “I’m all for energy in the room. I thought that was great between a documentary contingency that was very excited for this night, and people really, really love ‘Sinners’ too. Anytime ‘Sinners’ was mentioned there was a lot of euphoria, which was really infectious.”
Where did the idea come from for Conan to partner with Sterling K. Brown on a “Casablanca” twist?
The O’Brien team brought the idea to Brown, and he was immediately game. The idea came together quickly over the weekend.
How difficult was it to wrangle so many stars of Rob Reiner films?
“Taryn Hurd, who does an incomparable job with this, she really worked night and day to get everybody there,” Mills said. “There are people that she’s told me she’s dreamed of having at the Oscars forever, like John Cusack. He was somebody that she was dying to have and that we’ll always talk about. Everybody wanted to pay pay tribute to Rob Reiner. There’s obviously a few stars from from the movies missing, but I would say for the most part, you had almost everybody.”
Was Barbra Streisand always just going to sing a snippet of “The Way We Were”?
“Raj and Katie went to Barbra very early,” Mills said. “I think she agreed right away. Up until the week of it, it was okay, what is this going to be? How much is is this going to be spoken testimonial versus the singing. You have to remember, she did the entire song 13 or 14 years ago when Marvin Hamlisch passed away. I don’t think you wanted to repeat the exact moment. Obviously Robert Redford was such a loss for everybody who enjoys films. think she wanted to make sure that that statement was impactful as well. And she also lost Alan Bergman this year too, who wrote all the music for ‘Yentl,’ and that was a big collaborator for her, too. I think she wanted to just make sure this really had impact, and I think she accomplished it beautifully.”
How was Grogu being operated in the audience?
“I did not ask,” Mills said. “I never ask how the magic happens.”
That Conan “host for life” sketch/”One Battle After Another” parody with Jim Downey came at the end of the Oscars. Has there ever been a post-telecast sketch on the Oscars? Did Conan film alts of the finale sketch in case another film one best picture?
First off, there were no alt end-of-show sketches. This “One Battle” parody would have ran even if “Sinners” had won.
Mills said O’Brien’s team pitched the end-of-show bit, which was really unusual for an Oscars. “They said, ‘we really love it.’ This is when it was they haven’t even shot it yet,” Mills said. “Obviously, knowing the fact that [legendary ‘SNL’ writer] Jim Downey played that role, and Conan gets to work with him. Downey’s a hero to these guys, for anyone who came out of SNL. You’re exactly right, this is the kind of thing that’s the easiest thing to cut. It’s pre-tape, it’s going to save us, whatever it is, 90 seconds of air time. So I had to give them my word that this will never get cut. I also thought it was so clever. As time passes, you sort of forget about how many minutes or seconds you went over but you remember bits like this. I’m thrilled we did it.”
Is O’Brien truly the pick for “host for life”? Or at least one more time, before it goes to YouTube and MrBeast really does take over? How firm is that offer?
“As firm as, whatever, you can look up whatever the firmest thing is,” Mills said. “It’s solid as oak.”
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