2023-03-11
33 分钟This is in conversation from Apple News.
I'm Shemitah Basu.
Today, the making and the missteps of the Academy Awards.
When New Yorker staff writer Michael Shulman was in his 20s, he.
He became obsessed with the way that Meryl Streep gave her acceptance speeches just.
Because they were all so funny and sort of grand, yet self deprecating.
And I started memorizing them because I thought, you know, not only is she the greatest living actress, she's sort of the greatest living acceptance speech giver at award shows.
So he started memorizing them.
It became a sort of party trick.
Name a performance, and he could whip out the words in the exact cadence with the same breathy size.
His favorite was her Oscar speech from 2012 for the Iron Lady.
She got up and she said, when they called my name, it was like I could hear half of America saying, oh, come on her again.
But whatever.
Michael has a unique obsession for Meryl Streep, but it comes from his deep love for all things film and television.
He's out with a new book called Oscar A History of Hollywood in Gold, Sweat, and Tears.
It's not a literal timeline of events.
Michael picks and chooses big moments in the history of the Oscars, ones that signal a shift in the culture and industry.
So with the 95th Academy Awards right around the corner, Michael is exactly the person I wanted to talk to about how the Oscars have managed to keep us watching all these years.
The fundamental flaw in the concept of the Oscars is that you sort of can't rank art.
There is no such thing as, you know, a best picture, best Actor.