Jimmy Kimmel shares how he'll address the infamous Oscars slap on Sunday
Jimmy Kimmel is hosting the Oscars for the third time on Sunday and he’s sharing how he’ll lead last year’s show after the infamous Oscars slap.
“I have given it much thought,” he told “GMA” co-anchor Lara Spencer in an interview ahead of the Oscars on Sunday. “I know that a million jokes have been made about it, a million think pieces have been written on it… There has been a lot said about it, so whatever I say has to be I think -- you know, it has to be good.”
“And I do have some good things to say about it. I think that it’s gonna be on everybody’s mind,” he added. “Everybody’s gonna be waiting for that moment. And that will be part of the show, but certainly not the focus of the show.”
Can you predict the 2023 Oscars winners? Play for free and compete for prizes at ABC.com/OscarsPickEm!
The TV host first hosted the awards show in 2017, which had its own memorable mishap during the broadcast.
That year, Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway, who were presenting the night’s final award for best picture, incorrectly announced “La La Land” as the winner instead of the actual winner, “Moonlight.”
“We had a little envelope problem the first time,” Kimmel said. “That was that. And then -- but I’ll tell you what, nobody got hit when I hosted the show.”
“Everybody was very well-behaved at my Oscars,” he joked.
Kimmel said he doesn’t know how the envelope incident happened, but he believes that it got everyone interested in the Oscars again.
“I don’t know what happened, I still can’t believe it happened,” he said. “It’s hard -- I mean, it was like it was suddenly a WWE event. But I -- we’ll see. I wish it hadn’t happened, but it has resulted in a lot of people being interested.”
“And also there’s kind of an idea now that this is an epidemic of some kind,” he joked. “Like the -- this year, maybe two people will come up stage -- and hit. Maybe in the future, it’ll be three, four, and it’ll just be -- eventually it’ll be everyone rushing the stage and slapping whoever’s on it.”
This year’s Oscars is a special one for Kimmel as his wife, Molly McNearney, is an executive producer on the show. McNearney is also an executive producer and writer on Kimmel’s talk show, “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”
“She gets into all the details that I don’t necessarily have the time or patience for,” Kimmel said about working with McNearney. “And it’s great having her be part of it.”
During a press conference on Wednesday with the Oscars creative team, McNearney touched on what it's like working with her husband.
"In terms of being married to the host, I think we fought over a joke while brushing our teeth last night," she said. "One that I wanted out, he wanted in. And you know, we'll just see how it goes."
Kimmel joked that his and McNearney's son, Billy, will also take part in the action on Sunday.
“My five-year-old’s gonna be one of the cameramen,” he said.
When asked about what people can expect from this year’s show, Kimmel touched on the show’s duration, which he joked will be a “lengthy night” because of all the categories that were added back into the show, and also the exciting movies that are nominated.
“I’ve seen all the movies,” Kimmel said. “And one of the great things about doing the show this year is in past years, it was harder because most people hadn’t seen most of the movies. And this year, you got at least four movies that most everyone has -- who’s interest in movies has seen. So it makes the references easier."
"You know who the actors are, and of course, Tom Cruise will be there," he added. "I always have fun with Tom and fun will be had with Tom on Sunday night."
Watch the 2023 Oscars live from the Dolby Theater on Sunday, March 12 at 8 p.m. ET on ABC and catch the best celebrity moments, wins, and performances at Oscar.com.
