Tom Sherak, a veteran of film distribution at 20th Century Fox and then film executive at Revolution Studios, was elected this week president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences. He agreed to be Grilled by TheWrap’s Sharon Waxman.
How does it feel to be elected AMPAS President?
Humbled. Humbling. Why? I truly didn’t expect it. It happened. This is my third term, and seventh year on the board. I’ve watched the Academy from the inside, and it’s taken me years to understand it -- it’s an amazing place. When the board members gave me a vote of confidence -- I’m not usually at a loss for words -- I had this thing in my stomach.
Who put you up?
I don’t remember who nominated me. Then I got elected -- it was unbelievable. Sort of like the Twilight Zone in my mind. I was sitting there and said to myself -- should I withdraw? Am I the right person for this?
That’s very nice. OK, so what’s wrong with the Oscars?
There’s nothing wrong with honoring excellence as a group. We have a product that’s different than any other product -- it moves and creates emotion. There’s nothing wrong with that part of the Academy Awards.
The other part is the show that that’s done on television. What has changed, I think, is the show used to be a look at Hollywood that you got to see once a year. It was like you couldn’t wait for that. With the advent of everything that goes on -- tabloids, "Extra" -- those people are in your life all the time. At Revolution, we had a picture called "Gigli" -- you couldn’t tell the stars in the movie from the people in real life.
What was great over the years was the spontaneity of what might happen, because it’s a live show. But how do you make it so a wide audience watches it and enjoys it? The awards can’t be old and stodgy. They have to try and move. You saw that a little bit -- and well done -- last year.
It’s a big thing for the Academy. If we don’t change, we will be like a dinosaur. We’re trying to do that. Not change the award part. But trying to make that show work.
What did you think of the Emmys this year trying to shorten the show, and might you do that?
I’m not going to comment on what they tried to do. Movies are made up of a lot of people in the arts and sciences. To remove some of those things from the show -- from your peers inside the industry -- I can’t see it.
The bottom line is, (last year’s producers) Larry Mark and Bill Condon said, "Here’s what worked, here’s what didn’t work. Take it and grow it." If you were at the awards, you’d have walked out saying, "Oh my God."
Now the trick is how do we do that on the box? How can we make what we felt sitting in there transfer onto the television screen?
How do you do that?
One of the ways is to try to find the next producer of the show.
