As a Media major and a lover of film and celebrities, the Oscars are a big deal. LIKE A BIG DEAL.
It was the one night in my childhood, with the exception of New Years, that I could stay up past my bedtime and admire the celebrities and their acceptance speeches and smile with them as they received the gold little man.
The night of the Oscars would go like this.
My mother, also a lover of the Oscars, would spend all day cooking, preferably something that took hours to cook, so that when the Oscars were ready, so was dinner.
During the gap of when I woke up to 8PM when the Oscars started, I would finish any homework that I had and mentally prepare myself for the big night.
When 7PM rolled around, I would set up the table for the night. I would grab the blue and white checkered table cloth and cover the big coffee table that sat in our living room. I would grab the glasses, utensils and plates and set them on the table. And then I would grab the napkins and arrange them in a fancy way to make the table look presentable.
At around 7:30PM, my mom would serve dinner and we get in our spots (me on the floor, propped right in front of the television and my mom on the couch) and we would watch the last minutes of the Red Carpet Special and transition into the Academy Awards Ceremony.
Typically, people favor the Red Carpet Special because they love to admire the dresses that all the actresses where. I on the other hand, admire something else.
The acceptance speeches.
Specifically the ones where it's their first nomination and first win, or the ones who went from rags to riches.
There is one specific speech that remains in my head.
Hilary Swank's 2005 acceptance speech for Best Actress in Million Dollar Baby
It was Swank's second win in that category, but at that time I didn't know that.
A little bit of her speech was this:
I don't know what I did in this life to deserve all this. I'm just a girl from a trailer park who had a dream. I never thought this would ever happen, let alone be nominated. And a working actor, for that matter.
I can't quite put my finger on it, but it was something about that acceptance speech that stuck in the back in my mind for 9 years. Every time I saw Hilary Swank in anything, I would go back to her acceptance speech and how, in my eyes, she was the true image of rags to riches. I think one of the reasons it stuck was because at a young age, I thought celebrities were perfect in that they grew up rich and talented and eased their way through Hollywood.
My childhood brain was completely and totally wrong.
Swank was just one of many celebrities who grew up with hardships and gained their way to the top and became one of the most notable people in Hollywood history. To that thought, it may be the reason why I love acceptance speeches so much. The moment an actor, who has overcome such hardships, wins that little gold man in their spiffy outfit and holds back their tears is the most inspirational moment, that I sometimes hold back tears for them. It's weird, I know, but sometimes I just can't help it.
And then for my 16th birthday instead of a car or a tiara, I got the opportunity that any media-crazed-hormornal-16 year old would love- visiting the Kodak Theatre where the Oscars are held.
I couldn't believe it. It was an actual place that stood in Los Angeles and that was open to the public on a daily basis, it was a LEGIT BUILDING.
8 hour car ride later...here it is, low and behold.
There are more pictures of the inside, but I like I said I was 16 year old and still in my awkward teen stage and I wasn't prepared to showcase that stage on the interweb.
Also the tour guide told us that we couldn't take pictures, so there you go.
But I can tell you the jist of it.
When you walk in, there are two pillars with the years 1929-2030 (or something that far into the future) under those years are the movies that won the Academy Award for Best Picture that year. Then you walk in some more and SPOILER ALERT (for any future Oscar nominees and current nominees reading this) the theatre is actually a mall, like with stores inside selling merchandise, but the stores are covered up with curtains so when the celebrities walk through they have no idea that it is a mall....or do they??
I don't know, in my 20 years of living I have never met a celebrity so I really don't know, but when I do meet one (if I do meet one) I will ask them and see and then probably get back to you if you remember this blog post.
Enter in the building more and you get to the entrance way where the celebrities walk through and then enter the main area. Unfortunately, during that time Cirque de Sole was the big deal in 2009 and was doing a performance in the Kodak Theatre, so the main part where all the celebrities sit could not be entered.
I was a little mad about that part, at 16 years old, I was a huge Johnny Depp fan and wanted to sit in a chair where he left his butt mark on one of the seats or sit in the front row and figure out where Jack Nicholson sat because I knew he was always in the front row of everything because he was Jack Nicholson.
Maybe some day I'll come back and find it, or DREAM BIG and hopefully attend the Academy Awards and be known as the girl who photobombs Jennifer Lawrence and Emma Thompson and then seat jacks Jack Nicholson, I don't know, you never know.
Later we walked down the path where the winners are taken through to have a quick drink, take pictures and answer any questions that the paparazzo have for them. It was then that I realized that the winning celebrities actually miss like 30 minutes of the ceremony because they are walking down, saying hi, pulling a Jennifer Lawrence and taking a shot and then answering a ton of questions and then returning to their seat during a commercial break, which occurs every 30 minutes of the show, back to their loved ones and then they have to play catch up.
If I was a winner, I would have major FOMO (Fear. Of. Missing. Out) and would rush through all of those just to get back to my seat to not miss the show.
I'm 20 years old and have only missed one Oscar show in the couple years I have been watching the Oscars, just because I fictionally won a little gold man doesn't mean I would miss another Oscar ceremony, the Academy and the paparazzo would just have to understand.
So to conclude this long post and introduce the (nom) portion of this post, the Oscars are a big part in my media life and will continue to be a big part of my media life for years to come. Fortunately thousands of miles away from Los Angeles and San Francisco, I have the opportunity to watch the Oscars live this weekend.
Attempting to finish two (now one) paper(s) and getting baking ingredients, I will venture out to my friend's Sofie place where we will eat, drink, laugh, and cry until 2:30 in the morning (Sweden time) when the Oscars debut. So hopefully by Monday afternoon/night, if I am not too tired or too emotional, there will be a post on the Oscars, who won, who should have one, who fell asleep and who tripped.
Until then here is a fun fact I learned from newest Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon:
" Pros: The Academy Awards are created to celebrate film.
Cons: The Academy Awards are shown on television"
Enjoy that mind-blowing fact.
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