How do you resolve the enduring downside of Will Smith on the Oscars?
It is a longtime Academy Awards custom to have the lead actor from the earlier yr current the subsequent finest actress winner together with her trophy, and vice versa. However for Oscars 2023, there was an issue: Smith, who received final yr for King Richard, was banned from the present for a decade after slapping Chris Rock onstage over a joke he made about Smith’s spouse, Jada Pinkett-Smith.
Jessica Chastain, who received finest actress final yr for The Eyes of Tammy Faye, was by no means doubtful because the presenter of the brand new finest actor trophy. The telecast repeatedly had its presenters ship two awards again to again, which allowed devised a strategy to have her current each Academy Awards for lead performer by pairing her with Halle Berry, who received finest actress in 2002 for Monster’s Ball.
They started their two-award presentation by giving finest actor to The Whale‘s Brendan Fraser. Then it was immediately on to the class that Smith would possibly in any other case have introduced.
One of the best actress class was particularly dynamic this yr with two neck-in-neck frontrunners, Michelle Yeoh for All the things In all places All At As soon as and Cate Blanchett for Tár. Blanchett has received twice earlier than, supporting actress for The Aviator and lead for Blue Jasmine. Yeoh was poised to make historical past as the primary Asian winner within the class.
Pairing Chastain and Berry had that means regardless of which means the award went. Till tonight, Berry was the one lady of coloration to ever win a finest actress Oscar. Yeoh turning into the primary Asian winner on this class would have significance as one performer of coloration helps hand the Oscar to a different. Paired with the earlier yr’s winner, each ended up welcoming Yeoh into the pantheon.
If Blanchett had received, two fellow veteran performers could be those to current the award to another person already in that pantheon. In Smith’s absence, the custom of getting the earlier finest actor current the glory could be damaged, however nobody might deny the the status of getting Chastain and Berry fulfill the obligation.
The second known as to thoughts the trouble over a decade in the past to enlist 5 earlier winners in one of the best actor and finest actress classes to current not simply an award to the winner, however pay tribute to all the nominees. It was a protracted, lavish effort, significantly by fashionable Oscar requirements, and it was pleasant. Berry was a part of it that yr too, providing a heartfelt speech to finest actress nominee Melissa Leo, who like Berry in Monster’s Ball, starred in a tiny indie that made all of it the way in which to the Oscars.
