It was a big night for original movies; Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another and Ryan Coogler’s Sinners duked it out across the 98th Oscars.
It was, as described by Rob Mills, EVP Unscripted & Alternative Entertainment at Walt Disney Television, the man in charge of the telecast, like a “heavyweight fight”.
There were many major moments from Anderson winning his first Oscar to Michael B. Jordan triumphing over Timothée Chalamet to win Best Actor as well as some record breaking achievements such as Autumn Durald Arkapaw becoming the first woman to win in cinematography and Cassandra Kulukundis winning the inaugural casting award.
Hosted for the second time by an at-ease Conan O’Brien, fresh from donning his Aunt Gladys garb for the pre-taped opening, there were also a few hiccups such as sound issues and the evergreen challenge of whether to play winners off.
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In an interview with Deadline, Mills addressed what he thought of the show, O’Brien’s performance, whether the former late-night host will be back, the competition between One Battle After Another and Sinners, playing off the KPop Demon Hunters team, twice, and putting together an In Memoriam to meet the moment.
DEADLINE: Congratulations on the show last night. How was it for you?
MILLS: It was great. There was nothing crazy, but I think everything was planned… since Conan signed on very quickly after last year’s show and you had the production team, the producers and the host in place early… several months ago and the show really went according to [plan]. It was exactly how everybody kind of envisioned it, which we knew had the potential to be a really beautiful all time, great show. Then, it really came down to the winners and speeches and I thought Academy did an amazing job on all the winners. I thought you had great winners. You had great speeches and all time great Oscar moments. It it feels great.
DEADLINE: Does that the fact that it felt like a real race on the night help? One Battle After Another was clearly the favorite for Best Picture, but there did seem to be some momentum for Sinners. Does that make it a more interesting show to watch?
MILLS: 100% it made it more interesting. Obviously, none of this is by design, because you don’t know who is going to win but it was fascinating how the rundown went down. It literally started to feel like a heavyweight fight; you’d see one would win, and then one would win another. They won such interesting, different awards. Not only did they win big awards in acting and writing, but they won technical awards that were great, you’re talking about cinematography and score.
DEADLINE: There was also a few surprises with their wins in cinematography and casting.
MILLS: I agree with you, I think those were surprises. My favorite award was the cinematography win for Autumn Durald Arkapaw for Sinners, not only because of the history, but it was one of those experiences – I went to the Vista [in Los Feliz] to see it in 70MM and it’s beautiful, if that movie was just played silent and you just looked at it, it was gorgeous. That was exciting that those were sort of unexpected. Every award was absolutely deserved.
DEADLINE: Conan seemed at ease and that Weapons bit at the top was fun. What did you make of him in his second year?
MILLS: Since I’ve been doing the Oscars it’s Conan and Jimmy [Kimmel] as the two, multi-year hosts and you see, by the second year, there’s definitely a comfort that sets in, like ‘OK, I really know what plays to this room and to the world’. You can lean into that. I mean, obviously Conan has been doing this forever, so he knows that anyway. He had a great year last year, he was well received, so [he knows] this is working. He leaned into it more. I thought the film he did… Conan’s been doing those on his show or when he hosted the Emmys [for years] and does those as good as anybody. Billy Crystal used to do those.
DEADLINE: It felt very Billy Crystal.
MILLS: It did. It felt like it was the best of what Conan does and the best of what the Oscars do. When those two things can meet, it’s as good as you can hope for. That was fantastic.
DEADLINE: I want to run through a couple of jokes that he told and whether you were uncomfortable.
MILLS: I can tell you off the bat, nothing made me uncomfortable.
DEADLINE: He joked about being the last human host of the Oscars. Any comment? Can you confirm that there will be a human host at next years’s Oscars?
MILLS: I can’t confirm that. Well, let’s put it this way. Conan has, obviously, a standing offer to host as long as he wants.
DEADLINE: That’s interesting because I heard he had a one plus one deal. You would like him back if he’s interested?
MILLS: 100% we’d love him back. If Conan doesn’t come back, I can’t promise that next year’s host will be human.
DEADLINE: I thought the joke at the end of the show about him being replaced by Mr. Beast was a nod to him passing the baton. Should I not read into that too much?
MILLS: You’re absolutely right, that joke works on five different levels. The Oscars are obviously are moving to YouTube, and after two more ceremonies here, but also people like Mr. Beast are as big stars as any of our movie stars. I think that was great. He also mentioned on his social media how great it was to work with Jim Downey, who for any of those SNL guys, is one of their absolute heroes. He’s one of the best ever do it.
DEADLINE: OK, to clarify, no confirmation of a human host in 2027 and no confirmation as to whether Mr. Beast will do it. Are you sure he’s up to it? That’s a tough job.
MILLS: It is a very, very difficult job. I will say Conan definitely, he has about as good as you [can hope for]. He never looks miserable, even when he’s rehearsing,
DEADLINE: Or even when the camera cuts to him when he clearly thought it was still a commercial break.
MILLS: I thought for a minute that we must be doing a bit. By the way, we were running long at that point too. It’s like, oh, gosh, we really need to get going. He didn’t realize we had started, but if you ever needed proof that when the cameras aren’t rolling, Conan is still amazing.
DEADLINE: You mentioned YouTube taking over the rights to the Oscars in 2029 and Conan made light of that. How are you feeling about ABC losing the Oscars? You must be a little bit gutted?
MILLS: I am sad. From a personal standpoint, the Oscars are one of those things I grew up watching and revering and so to have had even a little bit of time working on them, it’s been nothing short of a privilege. The job I’m in doesn’t last forever anyway. So, it wasn’t like I was going to be working on Oscars till the end of time. It’s a living, breathing thing that you hope that while it’s in your custody, you’ve done right by it, and I’m sure the YouTube people will as well. I think the most important job for me in the last years is making sure that it’s in as good a shape as possible for when we hand it off to YouTube. I am sad, obviously, as I walked through, starting on Thursday in rehearsals, it was a little bit of a okay, savor every moment of the time. You know you’re doing this three more times, and really, just take stock of everything, and then just really, I will enjoy watching them when the 101 is on and I’m sure it’s going to be phenomenal.
DEADLINE: OK, I’m going to run through some of the tougher moments of the night. The Kpop Demon Hunters team getting played off twice…
MILLS: It is difficult. The show has to end at a certain point. Everybody is aware. We talk about this at the nominee luncheon. There’s a big screen that sort of gives you the countdown, and it’s difficult. I think what we really need to do – because you don’t want anyone leaving with bad feelings and you don’t want people to be remembering those parts of the show – I think we’re going to have to do a serious post-mortem about what do we do. Do we do something where one person is sort of the designated speaker, and then there is a live moment, whether it goes to socials or something, but immediately backstage, we have a place where people can also speak. The biggest thing every year is about how do we get it off on time or cut time and we’ve tried different things like pre-taping awards and they talk about taking awards out of the show, it is the hardest thing you face every year.
I wish I had an elegant response for what happened, other than you just, you try your best and you try and get the most meaningful moments before you have to start playing people off, and I guess that we’ll look at it, and hopefully this won’t be a question next year.
DEADLINE: Were you aware of the sound issues? Was it a microphone issue? It seemed to come up a few times.
MILLS: I have heard this anecdotally, and obviously we will look at everything, because you want this to be an optimal performance or optimal experience for everybody watching. I think we’ll figure out what it is and certainly, again, I hope we are not having this conversation next year.
DEADLINE: A cameraman appeared to fall over when trying to get a shot of Leonardo DiCaprio. Did you notice that?
MILLS: I did notice that, yes, I’m not sure what happened, but he is also very good looking so I would probably also go weak at the knees.
DEADLINE: On a sweeter note, the In Memoriam section was lovely, you obviously had some huge figures to cover: Rob Reiner, Diane Keaton and Robert Redford.
MILLS: My gosh, we lost so many legends. When Redford and Diane Keaton passed away, you knew this was going to be [big]. We saw it last year, two days before the ceremony when Gene Hackman passed away. These are people who are absolute giants and legends. They’ve been in our lives, probably for you and I, we’ve had Robert Redford our whole lives, and then obviously the tragedy with Rob and Michele Reiner. When that happened, you start thinking about it. [Producers] Raj and Katie, really early on, knew we had to meet the moment and I thought they did a great job. Obviously, the Rob Reiner thing was fairly easy to figure out, you knew nobody else could pay tribute to them but Billy [Crystal]. I don’t know how he got through that. It almost looked like he probably to tell himself to keep it together.
DEADLINE: Then with Robert Redford, did someone had to persuade Barbara Streisand, or Babs as Redford called her, to sing? It didn’t seem like she was going to bust into song until very close to the end.
MILLS: No, I think very early on she knew she wanted to pay tribute to Redford. She also lost a very important collaborator in Alan Bergman, who wrote the music to Yentl. When these people experience this loss, they absolutely want to pay tribute. Barbara signed on very early on. I think the form it was going to take probably was a bit of a work in progress. I think the other thing, it was maybe 13 or 14 years ago, she sang The Way We Were in its entirety for Marvin Hamlisch, who wrote that song. I think it’s probably: how do I do something that’s its own moment. Obviously, Redford was somebody who was in our lives forever through his work, not only in front of the camera but behind the camera and his activism. It was needing to pay a testimonial and not just do the song. Then doing some of the song. You couldn’t do it anymore perfect.
DEADLINE: There was a tie in the live-action short category. How chaotic is that for you? I thought Kumail Nanjiani handled it very well. They are great and almost hope for it.
MILLS: The one thing you learn there is that when you need to prepare for something that’s unexpected, certainly have Kumail Nanjiani there. He’s an amazing talent but he’s also a comedian. That could have been hairy. We’ve dealt with worse. It’s been years since the envelope with La La Land. You’d be prepared for it but we had the absolute perfect person there.
DEADLINE: There was quite a lot of Disney synergy going on during the show with the Avengers bit, The Devil Wears Prada moment and that Mandalorian and Grogu skit. How much corporate pressure are you under to make sure that’s in the show?
MILLS: There really is none. I do understand that, as a Disney employee, but I don’t think it’s hyperbole to say those are three of the biggest movie events of the next year coming up. If you acknowledge the fact that it’s airing on Disney-owned networks and streamers, you might think it’s synergy, but who would turn down an Anna Wintour and Anne Hathaway moment. You can feel how palpable it is with The Devil Wears Prada how excited people are for that.
DEADLINE: Some people squealed when Anna Wintour came out without sunglasses.
MILLS: That was really, that would that was something else that was very exciting. That’s like when Jack Nicholson wouldn’t wear sunglasses at the Oscars.
DEADLINE: Last year was a big year for independent cinema, particularly for Anora. This year was a big night for Warner Bros. Which do you prefer?
MILLS: Oh, boy. I just prefer great films winning. I’ll tell you what I prefer, I preferred a big studio winning with original content. That was great that these were original stories, certainly in Sinners. If ever we needed more proof that Ryan Coogler is a next level brilliant storyteller, all you need to do is look at that. It was great. But that could have been released by an independent, if Ryan Coogler’s making that film 15 years ago, maybe it would have been Neon or A24.
Obviously, that’s not to say IP and sequels can’t and have won like The Godfather II and Lord of the Rings. There’s room for everything. But I am glad that that original storytelling is alive and well.