Oscars boss explains this year’s disastrous ending

Viewers fumed as this year’s Oscars went haywire in the final minutes – now one key player admits it was never meant to go down like that.

If there’s one thing the 2021 Oscars proved, it’s that, for better or worse, the producers of the show truly do not look at the envelopes ahead of time.

Many viewers of the 93rd Academy Awards yesterday felt that was for the worse, when the show was rearranged clearly anticipating a Best Actor win for the late Chadwick Boseman – only to have the award go to Anthony Hopkins instead.

Not only was Hopkins not there to accept the award, but that anti-climatic moment closed the entire night because, defying years of tradition, the Best Picture category – normally the last award of the night – was presented before Best Actor and Best Actress.

In a new interview with Variety, ABC’s Rob Mills, executive VP of unscripted and alternative entertainment at Walt Disney Television, explained that both ABC Network and Oscar producers Steven Soderbergh, Stacey Sher, and Jesse Collins were surprised by Hopkins’s win for The Father.

“It was not meant to end on somebody who was not present,” Mills said. “It was a calculated risk.”

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It was left to presenter Joaquin Phoenix to accept Hopkins’ award and awkwardly close the whole show. Picture: Getty

Though Mills did not specify who the show was meant to end on, almost everyone assumed the award would go to Boseman, who died of colon cancer in August 2020. Boseman delivered a phenomenal performance in the Netflix adaptation of the August Wilson play, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, but the award would also honour the actor’s great but too-short career.

Boseman had won a string of Best Actor awards this season, including the Golden Globe, which was tearfully accepted by his wife, Taylor Simone Ledward. It seems likely the Oscar producers thought the Academy Awards would end with a similar heartwarming moment.

Instead, presenter Joaquin Phoenix quickly accepted Hopkins’s award on the actor’s behalf.

Still, Mills feels the unexpected Oscars ending “paid off, because everybody was talking about it”.

He went on: “Similarly, nobody wants the wrong envelope to happen, like it did three years ago, but everyone was talking about it. I think some people thought maybe they missed some awards. ‘Why is Best Picture early?’ or, ‘What’s happening, this is crazy,’ almost like, ‘How can this possibly happen? Best Picture has to end it!’ Some people were upset, some people loved it and that was really the point that there was no apathy.”

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Boseman was the bookies’ favourite. Picture: David Lee/Netflix

Hopkins took out the win for his role in The Father.

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That confusion and surprise, was, apparently the reason the producers decided to change the order of the show in the first place – it wasn’t just Best Picture that was out of order.

“It wasn’t just the final categories, the whole show was mixed up,” Mills said. “Screenplay, that usually comes in Act 5 or 6, one of the later acts. And Best Director was also very early. I think the point was, sometimes you watch the show and you feel like, ‘Gosh, I’ve seen this every year.’ So, it really was the ‘Wow, I really don’t know what’s coming next.’”

Unfortunately for Mills, it seems the majority of viewers – at least the ones with Twitter accounts – were not a fan of not knowing what was coming next. Familiarity is comforting! Especially when you never know what’s inside that envelope.

This story originally appeared on Decider and is republished here with permission