Oscars 2019: Dwayne Johnson says he was 'first choice' to host, but was too busy with Jumanji 2
'Academy and I were super bummed but maybe one day down the road'
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson claims he was “first choice” to host the 2019 Oscars, but was unable to commit due to his filming schedule for Jumanji 2.
The actor wrote on Twitter: ”I was their first choice to host this year. My goal was to make it the most fun and entertaining Oscars ever. We all tried hard, but couldn’t make it work since I’m shooting Jumanji.”
He added: “Academy and I were super bummed but maybe one day down the road.”
ABC’s president has confirmed the Oscars will have no host for the first time in 30 years.
Kerry Burke said that the controversy that led to the decision, sparked by Johnson’s Jumanji 2 co-star, Kevin Hart, and his departure as host after a number of old tweets resurfaced in which the comedian expressed homophobic views, has actually helped keep the Oscars relevant.
The 10 worst Oscar Best Picture winners
Show all 10
The 10 worst Oscar Best Picture winners
1/10 10. The Life of Emile Zola
Prestige counts at the Oscars. That is why a stodgy literary biopic like The Life of Emile Zola somehow won the main award at the 1937 Oscars. It’s a solid and worthy piece of work, with a grandstanding performance from Paul Muni (under a lot of whiskers) as the campaigning French novelist. The idea, though, that it is one of the “few truly great pictures of all time”, as its own publicity suggested, is clearly idiotic.
Rex Features
2/10 9. Rocky
It may seem churlish to go after an underdog like Rocky but this was an undeserving Best Picture winner. The Academy voters in 1976 acted as if they were punch drunk and had spent too long in the ring with Apollo Creed. The problem with its victory wasn’t so much the film itself but with the other nominees that were spurned in its favour. Taxi Driver, All the President’s Men and Network all surely had a better claim to that year’s statuette.
Rex Features
3/10 8. Around the World in 80 Days
This was a perfectly amiable big-budget travelogue but you can’t help but suspect its Best Picture Oscar was more to do with the marketing and hustling skills of its producer, Mike Todd, than with any brilliance in the filmmaking. It was directed by the Englishman Michael Anderson, previously best known for The Dam Busters, and featured David Niven as the intrepid traveller, Phileas Fogg, who bets he can travel all the way round the world in a little over two months.
Rex Features
4/10 7. Crash
Paul Haggis’s Crash is a decent and well-meaning study of the consequences of racism and violence in contemporary LA. It was independently made and had a large ensemble cast, all giving heartfelt performances. However, Robert Altman had covered similar territory better in Short Cuts and the feeling persisted that it had won the Best Picture award because some Academy voters were determined not to give the Oscar to the gay-themed contemporary western Brokeback Mountain.
Rex Features
5/10 6. Chicago
You rarely win an Oscar without a strong marketing campaign. The now disgraced distributor/producer Harvey Weinstein knew the secrets of getting Academy voters on his side better than anyone else in the business. Whether it was the Blitz-like approach to advertising in the trade press, or the timing of the awards screenings, or the way he kept the film’s stars in front of the media or his relentless courtship of the Academy members, he was arguably as important to the Oscar success of the so-so musical Chicago as any of the creative talent behind it.
Rex Features
6/10 5. A Beautiful Mind
It’s not bad. It’s a love story that touches on mental illness and mathematics (neither usually subjects that Hollywood embraces). Russell Crowe gives a fine performance as John Nash, the Nobel prize-winning boffin with the beautiful but unstable mind. Nonetheless, Ron Howard’s biopic isn’t any kind of classic. It won its Best Picture Oscar in an unusually thin year.
Rex Features
7/10 4. Marty
Marty, the 1955 winner, isn’t even the best version of its own subject matter. This story, scripted by the great Paddy Chayevsky, about an emotionally repressed Italian American butcher from the Bronx looking for love, had already been made as a live TV drama the year before. In the small-screen version, Rod Steiger gave a superlative performance in the lead role. Ernest Borgnine in the film version can’t help but seem like second best to anyone who saw Steiger in the same part. Whereas the puggish Borgnine makes Marty a figure of pity, Steiger turned him into a full blown tragic hero.
Rex Features
8/10 3. Out of Africa
You’ll remember the pink flamingos and all those scenes of beautiful Kenyan landscapes that looked as if they were cribbed from a David Attenborough natural history documentary. You won’t ever forget Meryl Streep’s eccentric accent as the Danish baroness and author, Karen Blixen (“I had a farm in Africa at the foot of the Ngong hills”). This is mushy stuff, though, and hardly deserving of its Oscar.
Rex Features
9/10 2. Braveheart
This rousing, Scottish-set (but partly Irish-filmed) medieval epic is famous for its scenes of William Wallace’s army in blue faces lifting their kilts and baring their bums. Regardless of how accurate this was as history, it played into ongoing debates about devolution and Scottish independence. The film also did its bit for the Scottish tourism business. Mel Gibson knows how to stage a battle scene. Whether that qualifies his film for a Best Picture Oscar is another matter.
Rex Features
10/10 1. The Greatest Show on Earth
From a vantage point 67 years on, the decision to give the Best Picture Oscar to Cecil B DeMille’s circus epic in 1952 is truly baffling. British viewers who have seen it will almost certainly have done so on TV (where its 152-minute running time made it useful for filling in gaps in the schedule). It has a decent cast and some reasonable stunts but Academy voters were surely clowning around when they chose it over other nominees in the same year which have aged far, far better like High Noon and The Quiet Man.
Rex Features
1/10 10. The Life of Emile Zola
Prestige counts at the Oscars. That is why a stodgy literary biopic like The Life of Emile Zola somehow won the main award at the 1937 Oscars. It’s a solid and worthy piece of work, with a grandstanding performance from Paul Muni (under a lot of whiskers) as the campaigning French novelist. The idea, though, that it is one of the “few truly great pictures of all time”, as its own publicity suggested, is clearly idiotic.
Rex Features
2/10 9. Rocky
It may seem churlish to go after an underdog like Rocky but this was an undeserving Best Picture winner. The Academy voters in 1976 acted as if they were punch drunk and had spent too long in the ring with Apollo Creed. The problem with its victory wasn’t so much the film itself but with the other nominees that were spurned in its favour. Taxi Driver, All the President’s Men and Network all surely had a better claim to that year’s statuette.
Rex Features
3/10 8. Around the World in 80 Days
This was a perfectly amiable big-budget travelogue but you can’t help but suspect its Best Picture Oscar was more to do with the marketing and hustling skills of its producer, Mike Todd, than with any brilliance in the filmmaking. It was directed by the Englishman Michael Anderson, previously best known for The Dam Busters, and featured David Niven as the intrepid traveller, Phileas Fogg, who bets he can travel all the way round the world in a little over two months.
Rex Features
4/10 7. Crash
Paul Haggis’s Crash is a decent and well-meaning study of the consequences of racism and violence in contemporary LA. It was independently made and had a large ensemble cast, all giving heartfelt performances. However, Robert Altman had covered similar territory better in Short Cuts and the feeling persisted that it had won the Best Picture award because some Academy voters were determined not to give the Oscar to the gay-themed contemporary western Brokeback Mountain.
Rex Features
5/10 6. Chicago
You rarely win an Oscar without a strong marketing campaign. The now disgraced distributor/producer Harvey Weinstein knew the secrets of getting Academy voters on his side better than anyone else in the business. Whether it was the Blitz-like approach to advertising in the trade press, or the timing of the awards screenings, or the way he kept the film’s stars in front of the media or his relentless courtship of the Academy members, he was arguably as important to the Oscar success of the so-so musical Chicago as any of the creative talent behind it.
Rex Features
6/10 5. A Beautiful Mind
It’s not bad. It’s a love story that touches on mental illness and mathematics (neither usually subjects that Hollywood embraces). Russell Crowe gives a fine performance as John Nash, the Nobel prize-winning boffin with the beautiful but unstable mind. Nonetheless, Ron Howard’s biopic isn’t any kind of classic. It won its Best Picture Oscar in an unusually thin year.
Rex Features
7/10 4. Marty
Marty, the 1955 winner, isn’t even the best version of its own subject matter. This story, scripted by the great Paddy Chayevsky, about an emotionally repressed Italian American butcher from the Bronx looking for love, had already been made as a live TV drama the year before. In the small-screen version, Rod Steiger gave a superlative performance in the lead role. Ernest Borgnine in the film version can’t help but seem like second best to anyone who saw Steiger in the same part. Whereas the puggish Borgnine makes Marty a figure of pity, Steiger turned him into a full blown tragic hero.
Rex Features
8/10 3. Out of Africa
You’ll remember the pink flamingos and all those scenes of beautiful Kenyan landscapes that looked as if they were cribbed from a David Attenborough natural history documentary. You won’t ever forget Meryl Streep’s eccentric accent as the Danish baroness and author, Karen Blixen (“I had a farm in Africa at the foot of the Ngong hills”). This is mushy stuff, though, and hardly deserving of its Oscar.
Rex Features
9/10 2. Braveheart
This rousing, Scottish-set (but partly Irish-filmed) medieval epic is famous for its scenes of William Wallace’s army in blue faces lifting their kilts and baring their bums. Regardless of how accurate this was as history, it played into ongoing debates about devolution and Scottish independence. The film also did its bit for the Scottish tourism business. Mel Gibson knows how to stage a battle scene. Whether that qualifies his film for a Best Picture Oscar is another matter.
Rex Features
10/10 1. The Greatest Show on Earth
From a vantage point 67 years on, the decision to give the Best Picture Oscar to Cecil B DeMille’s circus epic in 1952 is truly baffling. British viewers who have seen it will almost certainly have done so on TV (where its 152-minute running time made it useful for filling in gaps in the schedule). It has a decent cast and some reasonable stunts but Academy voters were surely clowning around when they chose it over other nominees in the same year which have aged far, far better like High Noon and The Quiet Man.
Rex Features
“Ironically, I have found that the lack of clarity around the Oscars has kept them in the conversation,” she told reporters during the Winter Television Critics Association Press Tour in Pasadena, California. “The mystery is really compelling. People really care.”
Ah mahalo dude, I was their first choice to host this year, and my goal was to make it the most fun and entertaining Oscars ever. We all tried hard, but couldn’t make it work since I’m shooting Jumanji. Academy and I were super bummed but maybe one day down the road 🥃 https://t.co/eiiMuBNOzb
— Dwayne Johnson (@TheRock) February 6, 2019
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