It’s no secret that I think Barbara Wawa is an idiot. Always have. Always will. The way Oprah has actors interviewing each other for her Oscar special is fabulous. She becomes the narrator with voice overs setting up the movie clips and stars interview one another, which mostly really works. She knows how to set up an interview, get the information we really want to know, and keep herself out of it. Barbara Walter’s special will not compare because it’s always about her. But enough about Barbara. If you missed Oprah’s show last night, try and pick some of it up on You Tube.
The best interview is clearly the one with Glenn Close and Michael Douglas. What a great revisit of Fatal Attraction. That amazing line, “I’m not going to be ignored Dan.” I love that line. And, her fighting the last scene in the movie and their making her into a psychopath was explained by her simply and elegantly. She just didn’t think that her character (Alex) was a psychopath. She felt she was a self destructive, sick person, but not capable of murder. I guess murdering a rabbit is not the same thing as a person.
Here is the thing. There is something all of us like about listening to those we pretend to be on screen. I never thought it was about their lives, but rather our relating to their screen lives and then wanting to keep the relationship going off the screen. While I never pretended to be Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction, I remember watching it with my now ex and another couple and the men were so uncomfortable and my girlfriend and I were sort of excited to have the scary person be the girl and not the guy for a change. We all went to dinner afterward, and the conversation was us being ‘high’ and them being quiet. Very, very quiet.
Ben Affleck was cute and I don’t even like him. He explained that he still can’t believe his stupid acceptance speech when he and Matt Damon won. He said they were young and just didn’t get it. Then he also mentioned that he took his mother to the awards, and then she expected to go everywhere with him afterward. It was really sweet.
And Sigourney Weaver doing Cameron with the Avatar movie was great. Cameron really is a genius, I get that now.
Bottom line is that the stars talking to each other works really well. Much better than the interviewing asking questions and the stars answering them. Well done Oprah.
