Now You Know Facts you didn't know about the Oscars ceremony
This year’s Oscars would go down in history for several reasons, none more so than Will Smith’s altercation with an unsuspecting Chris Rock. On today’s Now You Know podcast we take a look at lesser-known facts and anecdotes about what goes on behind the scenes at the Oscars.
- Seat fillers
The first one is about seat fillers. While Amy Schumer did bring this to everyone’s attention this year at the Oscars with a poorly placed joke at the expense of Kirsten Dunst and Jesse Plemons, there is quite a bit that people may not know about regarding seat fillers. Seat fillers are essentially people who fill in for actors, filmmakers, and anyone invited to the ceremony if they are required to leave their seats for a washroom break. Nearly 300 people are hired and they have to join a waiting list by submitting a CV along with a picture of the attire they would wear for the function. Seat fillers are usually friends or relatives of people who work for the ceremony or people invited to the event.
- Food is banned
The most uncomfortable part of the Oscars ceremony for those attending is probably the fact that guests are not allowed to bring in food, nor is food served during the long ceremony. Guests are required to wait till the function concludes to grab a bite. However, when Jimmy Kimmel hosted the Oscars in 2017 he gave each guest a food box with a personal message from Kimmel himself, with him donating money for each box to the local food bank. - Two red carpets
Here’s another one you probably didn't know. There are two red carpets for the ceremony. One for the Hollywood A-listers closer to the cameras and reporters, and one for the other invitees closer to the fans and security personnel.
- Win and press conference
Oscar winners are immediately taken backstage to face the media. These press conferences are mandatory and they are required to answer all sorts of questions from media personnel from across the globe.
- 45-second time-limit
There are strict rules about the acceptance speech duration. All winners are required to adhe re to a 45 second time limit. If a speech goes beyond the 45-second mark, the orchestra will begin to play music to indicate that the time is up. Julia Roberts famously spoke for four minutes and asked the music to stop even before they began playing. - Humor to cover up on-stage errors
If a host of an award-winner makes a glaring error on stage, like when La La Land was mistakenly declared the winner instead of Moonlight in 2017, they are usually covered up with humor and jokes to disguise the awkwardness. Similar to how Chris Rock steadied himself and joked after the infamous slap by Will Smith, in order to ease himself and the viewers. However, it is almost ironic that it was a joke that triggered the whole ‘slap gate’ incident.
Well that's the OTTplay Now You Know for today’s episode, until the next podcast its your host Nikhil signing out
Aaj kya dekhoge OTTplay se poocho
Written by - Ryan Gomez