Conan O’Brien is thought for retaining issues unfastened. Not within the sense of informality, however extra the concept in terms of giving him a stage and a microphone, something can occur. Normally, this has confirmed to be his superpower, as exemplified in his viral look on “Scorching Ones” final 12 months, however in terms of an occasion just like the Academy Awards, he is aware of he’ll be taking part in to a really specific crowd.
Talking to The New York Occasions for an interview forward of his Oscars internet hosting gig on Sunday, March 2, O’Brien admitted that as ready as he’s, he’s additionally able to pivot ought to the group not really feel what he’s placing out.
“Nothing’s in stone. I’m leaving each risk on the desk. I’ve selections proper now, and we’ll see what occurs,” he mentioned, including later, “There might be issues that don’t go the best way I would like them to go. However keep open to the likelihood that that’s a present, and you can also make one thing out of it.”
The comic and longtime late-night mainstay acknowledged that his flip up at bat on certainly one of leisure’s greatest levels comes when he’s feeling notably “nostalgic” about his childhood and the affect celebrities have had on his life and profession since then. O’Brien misplaced each of his mother and father late final 12 months, only some days aside, then later needed to face evacuating his residence in the course of the SoCal wildfires in January. He is aware of others attending the Oscars might be coming from comparable locations and desires to acknowledge their shared ache, but in addition needs to maintain the highlight on the facility films nonetheless maintain.
“Actually good cinema — particularly when it’s from totally different nations, totally different factors of view — has an unbelievable quantity of resonance and significance proper now, and that is the night time that celebrates that,” mentioned O’Brien. “To be part of it’s significant to me. I don’t consider it as a thankless process — even when I simply do it as soon as, and nobody’s occupied with me doing it once more, it can have been a significant expertise for me. My mother and father aren’t right here to see it, however I do know it could have been an enormous deal to them.”
By way of the movies that caught his consideration during the last 12 months, O’Brien did share that he’s seen a lot of the ones nominated and there a number of that stood above the remaining.
“[In ‘A Complete Unknown’], there’s a scene the place Timothée Chalamet, as Bob Dylan, is attempting to jot down a track — you see him struggling. I assumed it was an awesome depiction of the artistic course of, which is normally misrepresented in movie,” he instructed The NYT. “I used to be blown away by Mikey Madison in ‘Anora.’ I liked ‘Conclave.’ I’d watch Ralph Fiennes learn from {an electrical} handbook.”
However extra vital than these huge title contenders, O’Brien believed, are the unbiased filmmakers from everywhere in the world who might hardly think about themselves or their work being honored by Hollywood’s greatest names.
“After I see these those who have come from, you recognize, Latvia, rise up onstage, in the event that they rise up for [the animated film] “Circulation,” that’s thrilling to me,” mentioned O’Brien. “You’re seeing somebody have the best second of their life. It may be transformative.”
The 2025 Oscars air on ABC and stream on Hulu beginning at 4pm PT/7pm ET, Sunday, March 2.