It’s 5:15 p.m., just 15 minutes before the start of the 87th annual Academy Awards, and the backstage winner’s interview room is already packed with journalists and gossip.
It’s not hard to see why. For the first time in years, the show doesn’t feature a sure-thing front-runner.
Sure, everyone will have a heart attack if Julianne Moore doesn’t win for her devastating performance in Still Alice, and nobody expects anyone but J.K. Simmons to walk away with Best Supporting Actor for all the good-natured abuse he administered in Whiplash, but the night undoubtedly carries a little more mystery than the average Oscars telecast.
5:20 now, and everyone is readying up for the show to begin on our special backstage feed. These are the last hours before the veil is dropped and we learn the answers to the big questions. Birdman or Boyhood? Eddie Redmayne or Michael Keaton? How in the hell was The LEGO Movie not nominated?
Okay, we may never get an answer to that last one, and readers of this report likely know the answers to those first two questions, but I’m stuck firmly in the past. 5:29 p.m., Pacific Standard Time to be exact.
Oh look! Shut up everybody! The Oscars are starting!
Okay, I’m back. Let me tell you, when you’re crying backstage at the Oscars because Neil Patrick Harris got to you (it happens every time) nobody will offer you their handkerchief.
As expected, J.K. Simmons picked up the Best Supporting Actor statue, making art, acting, dancing, and music teachers everywhere feel validated by their students’ tears.
However, some may be surprised to find that Simmons doesn’t necessarily jive with his character’s questionable methods. “I think there’s much to admire in Fletcher’s passion for art, for, in his case, specifically, jazz music,” said Simmons. “I don’t find much to admire in his pedagogy.”
So what does Simmons consider to be a better way to find your passion? “You know, I read a very romantic book when I was young, when I was in college, Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet,” said Simmons. “And I’ve always felt that, you know, if you are in any kind of an artistic, creative endeavor and you feel that there’s something else you could do for a living and be happy, I think you should do something else because you are much more likely to find comfort and happiness. And if you can look deeply within yourself and honestly answer that there is nothing else that will bring you satisfaction, then there’s your answer.”
One of the locks not discussed above was the work done by everyone involved in The Grand Budapest Hotel in order to make it feel so genuinely grand and Budapest-y. Much of Wes Anderson’s vision in his films relies on the precise nature of his production team, so it’s needless to say that he found the right people for the job.
It’s not a small effort to transport viewers back in time and halfway across the world, but costume designer Milena Canonero, makeup and hairstyling artists Frances Hannon and Mark Coulier, production designer Adam Stockhausen, and set decorator Anna Pinnock all picked up the most stylish awards of the night.
Interestingly enough, all of those presented with awards forwarded their praise to director Wes Anderson. “What shall I say?” said Pinnock. “Wes is extremely meticulous, and he has very definite ideas about production design and set decoration. So, it’s a very, very collaborative thing. He’s involved in everything that we do. Isn’t he?”
The set, costumes, and makeup all contributed towards the same zany, posh, and highly stylized goal, and they succeeded with flying colors, whether those colors were via paint, silk, or eye-shadow.
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