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Two panned Oscar hosts, James Franco and David Letterman, commiserate about the experience on Letterman’s CBS show tomorrow night. After a long soul-searching, Franco says he has a theory why people thought he was under the influence onstage. “I love her, but (co-host) Anne Hathaway is so energetic, I think the Tasmanian Devil would look stoned standing next to Anne Hathaway,” he said. Here is the full clip:
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I love him as an actor, but good grief. I mean, he just loves to avoid blame by any means necessary. Was Anne overly energetic? Yes. But it was needed to counter him acting like a corpse. Effectively, he’s blaming Anne’s energy, the writers’ jokes, and the audience and industry’s low expectations. Never once has he said flat out, “I sucked. I didn’t bring any energy. Sorry, guess hosting just isn’t for me.” Instead, he acts like a normal person while he avoids any blame, but if he’d acted this upbeat and normal at the Oscars, NO ONE WOULD BE COMPLAINING. Sheesh James, get over yourself and learn a little humility.
You couldn’t be more right.
I think you need to get over YOURSELF. Honestly, the Oscars itself is a masturbatory snooze-fest and I didn’t think Franco did any worse than anyone else who has hosted. He was Franco — exactly the way he always is when he makes personal appearances. What more did you expect?
Which is essentially what he was telling Letterman.
> I didn’t think Franco did any worse
> than anyone else who has hosted.
Hope wept.
I think James Franco got a bad rap. They were not even given a proper monologue, no chance to shine. He’s an amazing actor and has a very charming personality. Chris rock still stands as the worst for me because he basically did a roast.
Chris Rock was great. He actually made good jokes, which isn’t surprising since he’s probably the world’s best stand up comedian right now.
Is the problem that he made fun of some Hollywood people? You probably thought Gervais was a disaster.
blame Anne and the writers and then finally, the audience. Lovely. He’s a jerk.
Yes, he is a jerk. So say a LOT of people. His lack of energy came from his arrogance in thinking that he was charismatic enough to walk through the show. Hosting is about playing off yourself. If you’re not that nice, the audience tend to feel it. Let’s face it: the whole idea of him hosting was a complete disaster. BUT the show was badly produced. Why didn’t someone see this coming and ‘adjust’ him?!
I honestly thought they should have pulled him out while the show was in progress. The writing WAS horrible but I suspect they had to throw together some jokes at the last minute when they realized Franco couldn’t sing, or in fact, enunciate a joke properly. He wasn’t stoned. He wasn’t bored. He was petrified.
And his ‘sarcasm’ about Hathaway isn’t lost on me, but it’s bad because he completely left her hanging on live television and she had to work doubly hard to keep the energy up. In other words, he’s not allowed to make light of it on The Late Show. His “joke” contains a jab. It’s a jerk move.
I think people take what is essentially always a shitty show WAAAAY too seriously.
@ Ryan: you’re right. I don’t know James Franco personally, but I have heard mutterings and read a few accounts of the fact that he is not the nicest person, which is a pity. But I suppose that in order to succeed in this business (and Franco has), you have to be a bit of a jerk.
Maybe Franco should look in the mirror. So far he’s blamed Vilanche and now Hathaway. Maybe she amped it up because she was trying to re-animate his corpse. Poor James-such a strong presence he was so easily overshadowed. He was terrible and he should take responsibility for a poor performance.
He was clearly joking about Hathaway. It’s called a quip. Who cares? Academy tried to do something different and it didn’t quite work out. I give them credit for trying.
Francoverkill
Take a breath, kid.
We now know without a doubt he was high during the Oscars…BECAUSE HE DOESN’T LOOK STONED HERE.
If you compare James Franco’s Oscar hosting gig to the acerbic David Letterman gig of a few years ago, James looks like a comic genius…
Kinda bad form to blame your co-host, true or not. Maybe it was just a bad decision on the part of the producers. Maybe James delivered the best he could.
The producers knew who they hired. The blame lies with them. That’s what they get for shamelessly pandering to the 18-35 demo
Franco, it’s not Anne Hathaway’s fault that you were showing absolutely no emotion all evening.[1] Hell, you were practically paralyzed in either fear or drug high — Hathaway even had to stand sideways, hanging off your shoulder, *because you wouldn’t move your head or your body to connect with her as a performer onstage.*
In other words, you were giving her nothing.
Thus, it was quite refreshing to see her giddily shake her tassled gown about midway through the show, giggling out with “I’ve always wanted to do this.” Because by that point in time she’d given up on trying to get you to do anything other than read robotically from the teleprompter.
It’s long past time for you to own the fact that you sucked at hosting the Oscars.
[1] Okay, except for when you came out in Marilyn drag. Your Freudian slip was showing.
Nicely said, Rob.
Yea, Anne standing sideways, preening, cavorting about, giggling, desperately trying to make some contact with her fellow performer-to no avail.
Reminds me of women trying to arouse attention from their men fixated on watching sports on TV.
“You NEVER pay attention to me!” she screams.
“Sure I do! Get me a beer!” says he, his eyes never once leaving the TV screen.
It was a FREAKING joke. Why does everyone take this stuff so seriously? Lighten up.
Letterman’s advice was spot on. Any young Turks – being considered to host in 2012 – should pay attention to this clip. Maybe the academy should consider doing the show without hosts, just a moderator who doesn’t tell jokes or dance. If nothing else the show would be shorter and just maybe more tolerable. The point should be the winners – but the news centers on the hosts and who wears whom… What’s wrong with this picture?
That is why you hire an established comedian to host award shows.
Lost a little bit of respect for this kid. Pretty sad to blame somebody else for a bad performance. Ever think that maybe she had to be even MORE energetic to compensate for your lack of energy?
Whatever the case, somebody else’s energy does NOT cause a person to look stoned.
I don’t even like Franco, but it was obvious he was making a joke when he mentioned Hathaway.
lighten up people
What about Jerry Seinfeld? He would be an excellent host.
They should go back to airing the whole damned “dinner” on radio. Too much excess for the times and a waste of bling on people who don’t need any more.
Unless you’re named Billy Crystal or Hugh Jackman, being an Oscar host is the most thankless freaking task in the world.
Also, Jesus H. Christ, how humorless do you have to be to think that Franco was “blaming” Anne Hathaway. Seems to me that the most of the people come here are just trying to come up with new ways to out-mean la Finke.
franco is funny here. i think oscar producers wound him so tight he didnt know how the hell to act.
what…. a…. douche……. and terrible in comedies…..
He was a terrible choice to host they made a big mistake hiring him for it. I’d love to see Letterman return I think Dave was hilarious and he’d be much funnier and smarter if he’s ever given another chance. It was back in 1995 that he hosted more than enough time has gone past to forgive and forget let him try again.
seriously ppl he was odvisouly joking about the anne hathaway thing…ppl have no sense of humor and take everything too serisouly, inlcuding the oscars. They are a show nothing more!. Serisouly how ignorant do you have to be to believe that Franco was actually stoned during the oscars, whatever, give me a break!!
I will say thought that I was not too thrilled that franco would host mainly becasue he was not a stand up comic, but out of EVERY host of the oscar HE is not the worse. Christ rock, letterman, stewart were probably worse.
Im pretty sure that even if Franco delivered a different performance at the oscar ppl would still criticize his performance, because they like to put the blame, comparing him to others, when crearly everyone was at fault. Writers, producers, co-host.
It’s funny that he’s blaming Anne because she was the only bearable thing about the Oscars. And I’m not even a Hathaway fan. I think she’s a horrible choice for Catwoman. Man up and accept some responsibility for that debacle of a show, James.
yes he was joking but at the same time admitted he was overwhelmed by her energy. who knows what he really means…
He played host of the Oscars with a thinly veiled contempt. He should have refused the job if he could not give a credible effort. Poor Hathaway was often so hyper in order to make up for Franco’s wooden indifference.
Really the people to blame for the Oscars is the Academy who picked those two to Host. The Oscars and maybe Hollywood in general have forgotten about the Entertainer. The machine as a whole has whiddled out the need for a personality that can command a stage because there are no more stages. Problem is; if you can entertain a theater of live people on stage you can probably entertain better than any TV personality. Do people remember how to put on a show? The Oscar’s is Hollywood’s final proof that they KNOW entertainment and now I see people calling for it to be shortened? Made even more vanilla.
Maybe instead of cowardice Hollywood should sack up alittle bit. Go back to the old days and PUT ON A MOTHER FUCKING SHOW. Of course James Franco and Anne Hathaway bombed at the Oscars, what the fuck do they know about MCing? Both amazing talents but come on, this stuff isn’t interchangable.
You know who’d put on a GREAT Oscar show? The Muppets.
Of course I’m sure many would see this as a great mockery of the Awards. But those people obviously don’t realize that The Muppets are practically saints in the eyes the God’s of Entertainment, not to mention pretty much everyone on the planet loves The Muppets. And lets face it those felt bastards can put on a good show.
However I wouldn’t be surprised if Hollywood did the exact opposite and picked someone with “Authority” like Morgan Freeman, turning the whole thing into a giant lecture. Or just give up and pick Ryan Secrest.
I truly am sorry about the rant.
It’s just I grew up watching the Oscars, my family and I loved watching those good old shows, guessing who would win and laughing at truly talented people shining in our living room. I miss those days and long for them again.
James is making excuses for himself while blaming Anne.
What a douche!
For those people who say he was making a joke… His “joke” contains a jab as someone already said.
He is an immature, insecure, arrogant jerk. And what makes all of this worse is that he isn’t even a good actor.
At least if he excelled at his profession, I could forgive him for a bit of his arrogance.
He needs to eat a humble pie once in a while.