We all know what everyone and anyone thought of James Franco‘s hosting abilities during the 2011 Academy Awards, but what did the head writer of the broadcast think of the actors performance?
Celebrated joke writer and main man behind all of the best one liners you’ve ever heard during the past 22 Oscar broadcasts, Bruce Vilanch, actually liked the idea producers presented of pairing Franco and Anne Hathaway, saying:
“I told them what I thought. I liked the two of them and what I like about them is they both hosted Saturday Night Live successfully, and what that meant is they knew all about working live, with little rehearsal, with many script changes, and a lot of pressure. And that’s sort of half of the job right there of the Oscar show.”
Unfortunately, even he admits Franco “didn’t get there”. The writer blames the actors busy schedule, explaining:
“He has so many balls in the air, he didn’t get to town till Thursday before the show on Sunday. And so we e-mailed a lot. But we had a lot of meetings. He had a bunch of people who were writing for him, and if it had been him alone, it would have been different. But it was him and Anne Hathaway, and they both had to be serviced. So there was a lot of communication beforehand. But he didn’t get there.”
Why couldn’t the versatile actor pull it off? Bruce isn’t exactly quite sure, saying:
“I don’t think he realized how big a deal it is to do it until he was actually confronted with it. I think he thought he would kind of … I don’t know what he thought. I thought maybe it was a performance-art prank, and then I realized he sincerely wanted to do it. But it’s outside of those guys’ comfort zones. The only people who know how to host those shows are people who get up onstage every night and say, ‘Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. A funny thing happened … ‘ Or people like Bette [Midler] who get up and sing all night and tell stories.”
Amen!
As much as we love and respect both of the actors, we think it might be safer for all parties involved in the Oscars to stick with comedians.
One thing Bruce does know for sure is that the actor WAS NOT stoned.
“No, he wasn’t high,” Vilanch said. “I was with him, and he wasn’t high. And I asked him, ‘Are you high, and can I have some?’ And he said no to both.”
Well, that’s good at least.
[Image via WENN.]
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