On video: Oppenheimer being announced as the best film of 2023/courtesy of AMPAS© 2024, yes and +STING
Comedian Jimmy Kimmel, who hosted the Oscars yesterday, told for the first time what happened behind the scenes surrounding the skit in which actor John Cena came up to present the costume design award while completely naked.
In a monologue he delivered on the entertainment program he hosts, Kimmel said that the executives of the ABC network, where the Oscar ceremony was broadcast, "were horrified" by the idea and demanded that the envelope, which Cena held in his hands and which hid his shame, "be big."
"Of all the times I've hosted the Academy Awards, no skit has gotten as many reactions as this skit," Kimmel said.
"There were meetings upon meetings, and discussions, and emails, and messages, and phone calls, and people were sweating, someone even cried. They understood that we were not going to take 'no' for an answer on this skit. There were extremely intense discussions about the size of the envelope that John Cena would hold. There were also Those who thought we should stick it to John's body."
"They kept asking us for the envelope to be bigger and bigger," Kimmel added to the laughter of the audience in the studio, and he even presented the size of the envelope that ABC executives wanted John Cena to hold.
In the end, as mentioned, a smaller envelope was chosen.
He further explained how everything was taped and held and concluded: "When Cena was supposed to leave the stage, the seniors were in complete panic."
Jimmy Kimmel reveals what happened behind the scenes:
Remember, the bizarre moment of yesterday's 96th Oscar ceremony did not include a slap or an insensitive speech, but rather one related to clothing - or rather, the lack of it.
The actor and wrestler John Cena, who appeared this year in the hit "Barbie", went on stage without clothes with only the envelope containing the winners of the Best Costume Design award hiding his lower body.
The reason for the strange act: a tribute to the moment when photographer Robert Opal burst onto the ceremony stage naked exactly 50 years ago, when David Niven introduced Elizabeth Taylor at a ceremony held in 1974.
After the bizarre skit, it became clear what was really hidden behind the envelope.
In the photographs that were revealed behind the scenes of the ceremony, it was revealed that the actor wore a body colored cover-up to avoid any mishap that would really expose his shame in front of all of Hollywood.
When the host of the evening, comedian Jimmy Kimmel, mentioned that moment, Cena appeared behind him without clothes, as if he was about to present the next award.
But Cena stopped, and told Kimmel as part of the skit that he felt "guilty" and that this was a "pointless" idea.
Afterwards, Cena took the envelope and walked with it to the center of the stage, for the announcement of the costume design award - with it being the only thing covering him.
"Costumes, they are important. Maybe the most important thing there is," he said to the laughter of those present, before declaring: "I can't open the envelope!".
At this point Kimmel took over, and Cena was dressed by stagehands.
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This is what it looks like on stage/GettyImages, Kevin Winter
And this is how it looks behind the scenes, with the emergency cover
John Cena, 96th Academy Awards, March 10, 2024/GettyImages, Al Seib/AMPAS via Getty Images
The full sketch:
The reaction of Margot Robbie, who played with Cena in "Suicide Squad"
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And that's the original moment from 1974
The prize, by the way, was finally won by "such poor people".
More on the same topic:
John Cena
Oscar 2024
The Oscar ceremony