Hollywood’s A-list gathered on Saturday night for the Governors awards. The event gave honorary Oscars to Debbie Reynolds, Gena Rowlands and Spike Lee, while also serving as a fertile campaign ground for those hoping to be nominated for an Academy award themselves. Here’s what we gleaned from the evening and its satellite events.
Hollywood was once again called out for its lack of diversity
“We need to have some serious discussions about diversity and get some flavour up in this,” film-maker Spike Lee said, in accepting his honorary Oscar . “This industry is so behind sports, it’s ridiculous.”
In a 15-minute speech, Lee passionately recounted how he got his start as a film student at New York University, where he is now a tenured film professor. “My parents told us from a very early age that I had to be 10 times better than my white classmates; that just being the same would not be enough,” Lee said. “That was instilled in me from the beginning.”
Lee, sporting gold “Oscar edition” Air Jordans, warned Hollywood to “get smart” about diversity. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but the US census bureau says that in year 2043, white Americans will be the minority in this country,” Lee said. “Our workforce should reflect what this country looks like.”
His sentiments were echoed earlier in the show by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences president, Cheryl Boone Isaacs, who opened the evening by urging her colleagues to make major changes in the workforce. “You understand that when it comes to fair and equal representation, words are not enough,” she said. “We also have a responsibility to take action – and we have a unique opportunity to do so now. The world is watching to see how we respond to this critical issue.”
Lee and Isaacs’ words come in the wake of a recent study that gives further evidence of persistent inequality in Hollywood. It found that among the top 100 movies last year, 73.1% of all speaking or named characters were white; 4.9% were Hispanic; 12.5% were black; and 5.3% were Asian. None starred a female actor older than 45.
Paris weighed heavily on the events
On Friday, the night before the Governors awards, a number of Hollywood studios hosted parties to hype their Oscar hopefuls. Universal brought out the Straight Outta Compton cast for its shindig, while Fox Searchlight ensured Saoirse Ronan was present to tout her performance in Brooklyn.
Mere hours before the events got under way, news broke of the Paris terror attacks. The parties went on as planned, but the tragedy loomed large. One studio had considered canceling their event but decided against it, it said, to send a message of resilience to the film industry.
In her opening remarks at the Governors awards, Isaacs addressed the attacks, saying: “All of us here stand in solidarity with France and the French people.”
Late divas were remembered
Accepting her honorary Oscar, Gena Rowlands spent most of her speech recounting an interaction with her all-time favourite actor, Bette Davis, with whom she worked in 1979, on the television movie Strangers: the Story of a Mother and Daughter. Apparently, Davis tried to have cinematographer James Crabe fired because the All About Eve star was aghast at how orange her lipstick appeared on screen.
Room star Jacob Tremblay is Hollywood’s new darling
The youngest person in the room at the Governors awards was also the one everyone wanted to meet the most. Nine-year-old actor Jacob Tremblay, the breakout star from Room, sat next to Brie Larson, his onscreen mother in the film. Everyone from Will Smith to Johnny Depp made their way to his table to pay their respects to the burgeoning talent. Tremblay took the adulation in stride, telling the Guardian he was just excited to be wearing his first-ever tuxedo for the occasion.
Laura Linney proved to be one of Hollywood’s finest
Laura Linney is proof that even Hollywood’s A-listers can be victim to the lack of diversity in the industry. With three Oscar nominations, two Golden Globes and four Emmys to her name, Linney was among the most celebrated attendees. And yet in the two years since she ended her four-year run on her award-winning Showtime series The Big C, Linney has only appeared in supporting roles in The Fifth Estate and Mr Holmes. Most distressingly, she’s next slated to star opposite Megan Fox in the sequel to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Paying tribute to Rowlands, with whom she worked on the 2000 television movie Wild Iris, Linney outshone both Meryl Streep and Cate Blanchett, to deliver the evening’s most heartfelt and fiercely delivered tribute. Streep, on hand to honor Reynolds with a humanitarian honorary Oscar, read the two teleprompters dutifully, but appeared oddly nervous and stilted.
Jane Fonda is ageless
Leave it to 77-year-old actor Jane Fonda to wear the most revealing outfit at the Governors awards – and rock the look with abandon. The fitness maven looked magnificent in a see-through black blouse under a fitted gold jacket.
Wesley Snipes is fearless
The actor elicited as many gasps as he did laughs in introducing Lee while speaking in a put-on thick African accent. “This Spike Lee comes from a village in Africa called Brooklyn,” Snipes joked, before going on to recount how he and Lee were once not allowed into the Governors Ball following the Oscars ceremony a number of years back. “This is about perseverance and patience,” Snipes said, “because look at this here! They didn’t want you to come upstairs before, but now they’re giving you an award.”
The Blade Runner reboot is at the storyboard stage
At a lunch for Sicario, the drug war thriller starring Emily Blunt that’s been courting Oscar buzz since its premiere at Cannes, director Denis Villeneuve worked the room of Academy voters. He was accompanied by Blunt’s co-star in the film, Benicio Del Toro and cinematographer Roger Deakins, with whom he’s next collaborating on a reboot of Blade Runner, set to star Ryan Gosling.
Villeneuve told the Guardian that he’s presently holed up in a hotel room in Montreal with Deakins working on the storyboards for the film’s pre-production phase.
Ian McKellen is campaigning hard
Of all the actors gunning for recognition in the best actor field, few have campaigned harder than McKellen, who stands a good shot at netting a nomination for his work in this summer’s sleeper hit, Mr Homes.
The morning after the awards, he was feted at a brunch hosted by the British consul general, attended by Kathy Bates and McKellen’s friend Patrick Stewart. On Thursday, he is set to perform a monologue in Los Angeles about his favourite female co-stars.
Spotlight is still the favourite to win best picture
A dinner in Beverly Hills was hosted in Spotlight’s honor on Sunday night. Since debuting at the Venice film festival, Tom McCarthy’s dramatisation of the Boston Globe’s efforts to uncover a massive child abuse cover-up within the local Catholic archdiocese, has been leading the Oscar charge.
McCarthy was joined by his star from the film, Michael Keaton. According to Academy voters the Guardian spoke with, the only efforts that stand a shot at upsetting Spotlight’s chances are The Martian and two films that have yet to be seen: David O Russell’s Joy and Alejandro González Iñárritu’s follow-up to Birdman, The Revenant.
The Hateful Eight is long. Really long
Quentin Tarantino’s eighth film The Hateful Eight doesn’t open until Christmas Day, but on Saturday, hours before the Governors awards got under way, the Weinstein Company screened the film for a number of Academy members. Some said that the film was a slog to sit through, and at a butt-numbing 3hrs and 2mins that doesn’t come as much of a surprise. To offer respite for the viewer, the film will feature an intermission period, lasting around 12 minutes.
