The Oscars air on ABC on March 27.
Seth Rogen Doesn’t Get Why Hollywood Thinks Other People Should Care About the Oscars
"I don't care who wins the automobile awards," Rogen said. "No other industry expects everyone to care about what awards they shower upon themselves."
Seth Rogen
Priscilla Grant/Everett Collection
Film’s biggest night? More like an industry insiders-only event, says Seth Rogen of the Oscars.
The “Pam & Tommy” star told Insider that the emphasis on Academy Awards viewership is baffling.
“I don’t get why movie people care so much if other people care what awards we give ourselves,” Rogen said during an interview with Paul Rudd to promote their Super Bowl commercial for Lay’s potato chips. “To me, maybe people just don’t care.”
Rogen continued, “I don’t care who wins the automobile awards. No other industry expects everyone to care about what awards they shower upon themselves. Maybe people just don’t care. Maybe they did for a while and they stopped caring. And why should they?”
The 2021 Oscars marked an all-time low in viewership, losing half of its 2020 Oscars audiences. After the Academy attempted to pivot amid the pandemic with once again going host-less and shortening the show runtime by getting rid of Original Song performances, less than 10 million people tuned in last year.
Looking ahead, Rogen and Rudd suggested “outside the box” comedians to take over hosting duties, listing “Nathan for You” co-creator Nathan Fielder or “How To with John Wilson” star John Wilson to get people to watch. When asked who should host the Oscars, Rogen said, “That’s a tough one,” but added, “I’m sure there are comedians out there that want to, right?”
The 94th Academy Awards, taking place Sunday, March 27, is expected to have a host for the first time since 2018 when Jimmy Kimmel helmed the show.
The “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” host recently spoke out about the misstep of the Academy not nominating “Spider-Man: No Way Home” for Best Picture to reflect the film’s historic, record-breaking fandom.
“The biggest snub in my opinion, and I am actually even angry about this I am embarrassed to say, is the unforgivable omission of ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home?’” Kimmel said. “Why do Best Picture nominees have to be serious? When did that become a prerequisite for getting nominated for an Academy Award?”
Kimmel slammed Adam McKay’s pseudo-high brow apocalyptic movie “Don’t Look Up” for landing Oscar noms.
“You’re telling me ‘Don’t Look Up’ was better than ‘Spider-Man?’ It most certainly was not,” Kimmel continued. “Even if you go by the critics reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, ‘Don’t Look Up’ got a 46 percent and ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ has 90 percent. For god’s sake, ‘Jackass Forever’ has an 89 percent.”
Kimmel added, “You want to know what happened? Voters looked at the list and saw the names Leonardo DiCaprio and Meryl Streep and they checked the box [for ‘Don’t Look Up’] and then they put their kids in the car and went to see the movie ‘Spider-Man.’ And they loved it! But they didn’t vote for it.”
“Don’t Look Up” is nominated across four Oscar categories, including Best Picture. The addition noms are for Best Original Screenplay, Film Editing, and Original Score.
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