The final time Jimmy Kimmel hosted the Oscars, he presided over Envelopegate — the notorious incident when Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway incorrectly introduced La La Land as Greatest Image as an alternative of Moonlight. This 12 months, the late-night host is emceeing the ceremony as soon as once more because the Oscars seeks to maneuver on from the second of notoriety that outlined final 12 months’s telecast: Will Smith slapping Chris Rock.
And as Kimmel likes to remind everybody, no blows have been thrown on his watch, even on the peak of the Greatest Image disaster. “No one acquired hit once I hosted the present,” Kimmel jokes in a brand new interview with Good Morning America‘s Lara Spencer. “Everyone was well-behaved at my Oscars!”
Whereas the Academy of Movement Image Arts and Sciences — the group that oversees the Academy Awards — would slightly put the Slap within the rearview, Kimmel is aware of that the viewers contained in the Dolby Theatre, together with hundreds of thousands extra watching at dwelling, are going to be ready for his tackle the Smith/Rock feud. “I feel I’ve some good issues to say about it,” he teases to Spencer. “It should be on all people’s thoughts: all people’s going to be ready for that second. That can be a part of the present, however definitely not the main focus of the present.”
This can be Kimmel’s third time internet hosting the Oscars, and he is acquired a household connection to the 2023 ceremony: his spouse, Molly McNearney, is without doubt one of the govt producers. Which means he is already acquired the heads up that the proceedings will undoubtedly run lengthy this 12 months, as all the nominated classes can be featured through the telecast, versus final 12 months’s controversial option to exile some winners to a pre-show presentation.
“This present goes to be so lengthy, you would possibly get to sleep within the subsequent morning,” Kimmel joked to Spencer. “There’s not a worry, there is a assure. These classes, they take area. Until the speeches are 4 seconds lengthy, it is gonna be a prolonged night time. However hopefully not a lengthy night time.”
Among the many highlights that Kimmel is personally wanting ahead to are Rihanna’s efficiency of her Oscar-nominated Black Panther: Wakanda Endlessly music — “Rihanna is extra pregnant than the Tremendous Bowl,” he says — and attending to have some enjoyable with Prime Gun: Maverick star, Tom Cruise. “I at all times have enjoyable with Tom. Enjoyable can be had with Tom on Sunday night time.”
And Kimmel could have much more enjoyable with out his longtime frenemy, Matt Damon, within the viewers. “Matt Damon was not invited, and was not nominated and I hope he is by no means invited or nominated once more,” he says of the Bourne Id star, who he beforehand goofed on the final time he hosted the Oscars. “I feel he ought to come again when Will Smith comes again!”
The ninety fifth Academy Awards air Sunday, March 12 at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT.
