Conan O’Brien on hosting the Oscars after the wildfires

Hosting the Oscars has already proven to be one of Hollywood’s toughest gigs, but doing it in the wake of Los Angeles’ most catastrophic wildfires makes it even tougher. Especially considering it seems like everyone has an opinion on how, why, and whether this should even proceed given current circumstances.

But Conan O’Brien is ready for the job. He’s also among the thousands of Angelenos who were forced to evacuate from their homes as the Palisades Fire and Eaton Fire devastated the city, so he’s well aware of the sensitivities.

“It’s not the easiest job I’ve ever had, but I embrace it. And it’s not for me, obviously. This is a moment for all of us to step back and say, “Be humble.” Just be humble and say, “This is a massive moment. It’s a terrible thing that happened in Los Angeles,’ O’Brien said The Hollywood Reporter Friday afternoon after tackling the 2025 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. He’s in town to promote his first feature film. If I had legs Opposite Rose Byrne.

The veteran host, podcaster and comedian also saw the chatter online and how the devastation was swept aside by various factions of the fractured cultural landscape. “I know people are politicizing it and yelling at them about it. It’s just a human tragedy,” continued O’Brien, who will make his Oscar debut as host for the first time in a year of firsts for him. “We see them all the time, all over the world on our televisions, and then we go back and eat our turkey burger that was just delivered. I happen to now live in the town where something like this happened. We all take a moment to try to absorb it, and as an artist I have to try to figure out what’s the best way to respond to that? So we’ll figure it out over the next five weeks, and it’ll probably come together 45 minutes before the show. “

That’s the way of comedy sometimes, and O’Brien said he also knows it’s a very fluid situation, so they’ll be implementing it constantly as the days go by.

“The strategy is my writers and I and the team that I work with at the Oscars, who are fantastic, the producers, everyone, we all have our sensors,” he explained. “I couldn’t tell you right now what the show is going to be. We have a million ideas, but which ones will we use? What will be appropriate? What is the right tone? As I said, the tone could change somewhat. You never know one way or the other. It’s a moving target. I want to make sure that we do the show that meets the moment on March 2nd and that we shine a light on a lot of people in LA who have been affected; That we are a mix of sensitive, but also understanding, but hopefully also uplifting as there is fun. It’s a crazy combination.

Speaking of crazy combinations, O’Brien couldn’t wait to get into the Library Center Theater to see Mary Bronstein If I had legs Which is described like this: “With her life crashing around her, Linda (Byrne) attempts to navigate her child’s mysterious illness, her absent husband, a missing person, and an increasingly hostile relationship with his therapist (O’Brien). Danielle Macdonald
Lark White, Ivy Wolk, Daniel Zolghadri, Delaney Quinn and rapper A$AP Rocky round out the cast. »

O’Brien said this would be his first time viewing the film because although he had been offered a pre-festival preview, he passed because he prefers to experience it during the Sundance Film Festival. . According to the film’s press notes, O’Brien received a call from Adam Sandler, who suggested he connect with one of the Safdie brothers about the script. Bronstein’s husband, Ronald Bronstein, is close to the Safdies after co-writing their coup Uncut Gems. O’Brien then relayed to the filmmaker that he was in a “Radical Yes” phase of his career, which led him to the meaty part opposite Byrne.

Thr asked him to name something he never knew about the acting profession until he finally found himself on set. “You have to know what you’re doing,” he said with a smile. “We prepare in comedy, but in my kind of comedy, you prepare, you prepare, you prepare and then you have to throw most of your plans out the window because you go into a situation and the maintenance takes a right turn and you go with the right turn. A lot of my favorite type of comedy is accidents and things going off the rails. Taking action is realizing that you have to know your brand, you have to know your lines. It’s real work. I respected actors before, but watching Rose Byrne up close and watching what she can do and how brilliant she is, and I thought, “I’m happy to interview them for a living.” I’m really glad I don’t. ‘”

If I had legs Friday in Park City and will move to the Berlin Film Festival next month. O’Brien will be seen to face the Oscars on March 2.