American comedian Conan O’Brien, who hosted the Academy Awards this year, shared some brilliant ideas that he and his writer were not permitted to implement.
In an episode of his podcast, “Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend,” O’Brien and his lead writer for the Oscars, Mike Sweeney, talked about some of the previous event’s backstage activities.
O’Brien claims that he pitched a commercial in which he and a nine-foot-tall Oscar statuette were supposed to portray a domestic couple who were “fighting about things couples fight about.”
But O’Brien said he was told that couldn’t happen.
“I thought it would be fantastic if it was just on the couch,” he remarked. “As I hover, let’s lay it on a large couch and ask, ‘Could you at least raise your feet? Or at the very least, could you up and assist? Fill the dishwasher?”
He recalled that “Oscar can never be horizontal,” according to one of the Academy representatives who spoke up. “And that was mind-blowing.”
The Oscars statue, O’Brien remarked, “is like the thighbone of St. Peter. This icon is religious.”
He also would have liked to have the statue dressed in an apron to depict Oscar as a housewife. That, too, was shot down as they were told, “No clothing on Oscar. Oscar is always naked.”
According to O’Brien, the initial opening was also discarded.
It was O’Brien’s parody of Demi Moore’s “The Substance” that made it to the show. According to him, his first plan called for more films.
O’Brien stated, “It begins with me, and I’m in ‘Wicked,’ and I’m all green, finishing ‘Defying Gravity,’ or one of them. And after I finish it, you move on to “Gladiator II,” where you see me as a gladiator who is still green despite the clang, clang, clang of swords. Subsequently, you witness individuals casting their ballots during “Conclave,” with one hand remaining green.
“Dune: Part Two” and “Nosferatu” are just two more films that perpetuated the ongoing joke about being green, similar to Cynthia Erivo’s “Wicked” character Elphaba,” he remarked.
