We were told that the actors presenting in the Oscar movie would be playing themselves, and as I wrote last week, this would require more of a lift than in years past when they’d show up and read from a prompter and open the envelope. We saw several presenters early on in the show do that work. Regina King, Laura Dern, Don Cheadle, they all presented multiples and did some moving around the set which would for sure have required rehearsal.
Brad Pitt? Brad Pitt did it like it the same old usual Oscars. We could have been at the Dolby, you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference. And he seemed nervous, didn’t he? Did you see him tapping his envelope? Look, Brad Pitt is Brad Pitt. He’s a big deal, I get it. And it’s not his thing to walk around a theatre like he’s a lounge act interacting with the crowd. Still, Soderbergh knows him from Oceans. I wonder if he made the ask, to revive a little Rusty Ryan to the Oscars. Maybe even have him swagger around eating a sandwich, LOL. I wish he could have been down for that. Was that why he was so badly lit? Brad, like Halle Berry, did not have the benefit of proper lighting. That hair though. Is not working for me right now. If you contrast it with how good he looked when he was making his own run at the Oscar last year, there’s definitely a difference.
You know who did bring a bit though? Harrison Ford, who worked with Brad on The Devil’s Own. Most of us would expect Harrison to show up and grump out the list of nominees before quickly getting to the envelope. He was still grumpy, for sure, but he used it for his anecdote, reading feedback on the edit for Blade Runner to highlight the value of editors. I was so engaged in his story I didn’t bother to look to see if he was wearing his earring.
