random miscellany

The Night Lord of the Rings Swept The Board at the Oscars: Quotes about the Ceremony

• Jackson: We always knew Return Of The King was the strongest film. It has those powerful emotional scenes.
• Dominic Monaghan: We were all buzzing off the fact that we were sat really close to Prince. He was in the row ahead of us. And Angelina Jolie walked past me and I said to Sean (Astin), “Oh my God, she’s beautiful...” And Sean went, “Go talk to her...” I was like, “No! What, are you, insane?”
• Elijah Wood: I met Audrey Tautou that night. We carried on a conversation. She didn’t understand a word of it!
• Jackson: There were moments of absolute joy when the crew were winning, it was amazing. But it’s excruciating because Best Director and Best Film are the last awards. It takes a hell of a long time to get to those.
• Monaghan: People called it boring. Fuck that, we won 14 Oscars! Alright, 11. But I won a few more: Best Suit, Best Haircut, that was me. I remember being on the red carpet and some fan lady giving us a bunch of multi-coloured feather boas. And we all put them on. Someone’s in a yellow one, someone’s in a pink one…
• Billy Boyd: One thing I remember, and I hope Sean doesn’t mind me saying this... It was the night we had sex... No, no. Sean has the most connection to Hollywood and he has a different take on things. And Sean’s face, when we went up on that stage was the most real... Such a mix of emotions to be on the Oscar stage. It was amazing to watch. He was so proud, yet freaked out by it.
• Sean Astin: I can’t remember all the details, but ideas and emotions. It felt like immortality, like no matter what happens with the rest of my life, this moment has validated something that I’ve felt my whole life I needed to accomplish or be part of. When Spielberg came and talked to us, oh my God! He said, “You guys have done what America has wanted for years — fantasy has been recognized in this critical way.”
• Andy Serkis: That was a pretty extraordinary night. I was with [my wife] Lorraine, I remember a haka being performed at the Four Seasons Hotel and it was really emotional.
• Orlando Bloom: Tragically, I was not there. I was in Morocco making Kingdom Of Heaven, and I remember watching the ceremony from Ouarzazate. It was a crazy time difference. I remember staying up until the wee small hours to watch the events unfold, and there was a lot of frantic texting and messaging and rejoicing. At least I watched it live, so I was with them on some sort of spiritual level.
• Bernard Hill: I thought it was ridiculous that Return Of The King won everything and the rest got nothing. It’s nonsense that it won for the whole trilogy. The first film is the first film! They hadn’t seen the other two! I wasn’t at the Oscars. Only certain people were allowed to go. Viggo went, I think. I sat at home and watched it. Or was I in LA? I was there sometime beforehand. I was there for something in a marquee. The Empire Awards were good though!
• Viggo Mortensen: I watched the entire Oscar ceremony with friends and family. This was the first time I’d watched the ceremony since the early days of my career as an actor. I had long before become disenchanted with what I felt was the pointlessly competitive nature of prize awarding, the glaring omissions of creatively significant work. Although I still feel that the award ceremony is in some ways little more than a popularity contest geared to help a select group of star actors and directors — as well as television and movie executives — make a lot of money, I was quite moved to see so much praise and goodwill for The Return Of The King.
• Jackson: There is a weird feeling just as they open the envelope that you hope your name isn’t going to be read out. Then when it is, it’s like one of those weird sound-effects moments when all of a sudden all of the sound seems to be a million miles away. You can’t think of anything but hoping you are not going to trip over.
• Wood: It was particularly wonderful to see Peter Jackson up there for Best Director. That was the one we felt was the most profound and we wanted most to win. It’s him, it’s his vision, it took thousands of artists and passion and love to make it come together, but it was his vision we were all following.
• Steven Spielberg: I knew of Peter, certainly. My earliest protégé, Robert Zemeckis, produced The Frighteners but I never had the chance to meet Peter until the Kodak Theatre where I reached out and handed him the Academy Award for Best Picture.
• Mortensen: The clean sweep seemed to recognise the entirety of the journey that so many millions had shared with us. As much as I do not like other artists to lose or be made to feel that they are losers, I was glad that our team had won all of those trophies that night.
• Denise Robert (on stage after receiving the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar for producing The Barbarian Invasions): We’re so thankful that The Lord Of The Rings did not qualify in this category.
• Serkis: It had been such a phenomenon that it kind of felt it would be unjust if it hadn’t gone our way, because of the sheer size and beauty of the entire thing.
• Richard Taylor: It was fantastic to be invited to their show. Back home, all of Weta were down at the pub going barmy. ‘Well-oiled’
• Weta team member (at the Chicago Sports Café, Wellington, Oscar morning, 2004): There is justice in the world!
• Billy Crystal (Oscar host, during the ceremony): It’s now official. There is no-one left to thank in New Zealand.
• Jackson: I can’t believe how the night went; it was embarrassing... A clean sweep.