Muristek
A loo with a view: on the ground at the Oscars with the celebs and the civilians
From Questlove to Olivia Colman via the makeup artists and their mums, our writer loiters in the stairwell at a most dramatic ceremony
‘This is the best bit,” says Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, the drummer, DJ and tastemaker behind Summer of Soul, one of the films up for best documentary at the 2022 Oscars. He’s surveying the ground floor of the Dolby theatre like a laser-focused shaman, waiting coolly until his category is announced. Sure, there’s a ceremony going on inside the area, where slaps are being served quicker than the canapés, but outside in the beige-carpeted lobby of the world’s most prestigious film event is where the other action happens. There’s Jake Gyllenhaal and brother-in-law Peter Sarsgaard in cahoots at the bar. Best supporting actor nominee Kodi Smit-McPhee, in a sky-blue suit and studded creepers, hugging The Power of the Dog director Jane Campion. Benedict Cumberbatch taking a breather, aware, perhaps, that most of the auditorium has by now seen his penis.
Thompson, the musical director of last year’s Oscars, who DJed in an empty Union station during the 2021 ceremony, must be the only person to have thought it was any good despite the ratings disaster. “I liked it!” he says. But now it’s an Oscars reboot: smaller categories controversially nipped and tucked, a fully mask-less event (though with 800 fewer seats) and a new master of ceremonies packing a punch – that’s telecast producer Will Packer – hoping to draw in a younger audience with musical numbers from Encanto. Thompson returns for 2022 as a film director and his producer, Joseph Patel, is quietly confident that they will take home a trophy. “I’ve got a good feeling,” he says.
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