| Translate This News In |
|---|
The couple’s hosting of the 2011 Oscars ceremony will go down in history as one of the most memorable, and not in a good way. They bombed spectacularly, and The Hollywood Reporter even called the show “unwatchable” at one point.
It’s gone down in history, along with a joke made by Hathaway herself in 2019: ‘No matter what happens at the Oscars, just remember, it’s already been worse.’
Hathaway was in full-on movie star mode, dancing, singing, and changing outfits ten times. Franco, on the other hand, seemed to be dozing off on stage.
She was clearly the one trying, especially in comparison to a slow, robotic Franco.
As it turns out, the abysmal result is made even more awkward by the preparation for that night.
David Wild and Jordan Rubin, writers for the Oscars show, spoke to The Ringer ahead of the 93rd Academy Awards on April 25, 2021, recalling the different work ethics and personalities of Hathaway and Franco.
Even up until the evening before the show, the red flags caused “some level of panic” among the production team.
Wild, on the other hand, thought they’d made it when he saw Franco smiling at Hathaway. It wasn’t going to work out.
Their first choice for host was Justin Timberlake, but he politely declined.
After Hollywood heavyweights Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin hosted the 2010 show, the producers decided they needed a host who would appeal to a younger audience. Franco’s name was mentioned in this way.
But, of course, it was Hathaway who bore the brunt of the criticism, and her reputation suffered the most damage as a result.
The 2011 Academy Awards become one of the main reasons to dislike her, and Hathaway has an unusually large number of haters (they even have a name: Hathahaters).
Franco told David Letterman on his late-night show in March 2011 that he may have been tired after the show, but he’d delivered his lines as well as he could.
His comments added fuel to the narrative that Hathaway gave too much rather than not enough.
Shockingly, Hathaway claimed in 2019 that she didn’t want the hosting gig at all, but Franco convinced her.
She told People, “Can I dish some tea?” “I had turned down that job, and it was James who persuaded me to accept it.”
She claimed she thought Franco was playing a joke on her the whole time.
“I think I’d be okay with it if he turned around and said, ‘I’m pranking you right now,'” she says.
“I’d have said something like, ‘That stinks, but it’s epic.’ By the way, he could still do it to all of us.”
“When the dust settled, I thought to myself, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me.’ Your gut instinct is usually correct, and all of the reasons I turned it down were correct.”
Perhaps the problem stemmed from producers who were too focused on attracting a new audience to consider how mismatched their talent was.
But, as The Ringer’s interview shows, even if the show was doomed from the beginning, Hathaway gave it his all.
