With the Oscars just days away, return host Conan O’Brien is taking a moment to reflect on the people who helped him reach that stage.
“I am very fortunate. I have the best comedy writers in the world working with me and head writer-producer Mike Sweeney is doing a fantastic job and Jeff Ross. They’re providing me with every ounce of horsepower I could want,” O’Brien said. “And we have had some big ideas for things we’ve wanted to do.”
Producing Sunday’s ceremony with Raj Kapoor and Katy Mullan, O’Brien says the experience has felt almost like being handed the keys to a luxury sports car.
“Working on the Oscars is like driving a Maserati. So responsive, so fast, fuel-efficient,” he joked during a press conference on Wednesday. “I’m just trying to make a pitch to Maserati that I don’t have one. I think it’s an amazing car and I’d like to have one in lime green, if that’s possible, and I’d like it shipped to my home.”
Conan O’Brien at the 98th Oscars arrivals carpet roll out on March 11.Michael Buckner/Variety
Behind the jokes, however, O’Brien sees the job as something larger than simply delivering punchlines. Hosting the Oscars, he says, is about guiding audiences through an often unpredictable event.
“It’s not just about being funny moment to moment,” he said. “It’s also about acknowledging what this is about in a larger sense. And as the host, I’m sort of the human avatar. I’m the entryway for the person watching at home and who the person watching at home can relate to.”
Despite extensive rehearsal, O’Brien says the live nature of the Oscars is what makes it exciting.
“We talk a lot on this stage about prep and design and getting everything just a certain way and practice, practice, practice,” he said. “But when this show happens, it is an organic thing. It’s unfolding in real time and there’s life in it. We will respond to things that happen in the moment and this show will be a living organism for better or worse.”
For O’Brien, the significance of the gig reaches back to his childhood.
“When I was growing up, I’d look at my dad and I would think, ‘What’s my dad into? And is that a way to connect with my dad?’ And he used to watch Johnny Carson,” O’Brien said.
“That was his treat and my dad loved comedy. I would sometimes get to stay up and watch Johnny Carson with him. I remember very clearly Johnny Carson hosting the Oscars and watching my father watch Johnny and watching my father laugh thinking, wow, okay, that’s cool.”
The memory left a lasting impression on the future comedian.
“That man is making my father laugh and it’s a triangle. So to think that maybe now I’m part of that equation somehow and in a cosmic way links me to my dad is pretty amazing.”
One Oscar moment in particular stuck with him — Carson’s famously topical humor during a long ceremony.
“I think there was one year when the Oscars was of course running long and Johnny took the stage and at the time it was during the hostage situation in Iran and Nightline was doing its Day 300, Day 310,” O’Brien recalled.
“And Johnny said, ‘Well, it is Day 444 of these Oscars.’ And it was such a funny topical joke that touched on something everyone was thinking about and at the same time got a big laugh and was unifying. And that was meaningful to me.”
As he prepares to host, O’Brien also notes that he’s been impressed by the strength of the films being honored this year. He adds that signing on again so early to host — after last year’s success — gave him more time to delve into the films.
“I got to watch the whole year in film rollout in real time,” he said. “It is a spectacular year for movies. All the movies are so different. They’re all so vibrant. There’s so many different voices. So much artistry went into them. And I think it’s one of the best films years that we’ve had in memory.”