Like other major institutions, the current political climate has much of Hollywood running scared about wading in on politics as awards season kicks off, with the Emmys on Sunday and the period of film honors right behind them.
As someone who has watched too many award shows — and has to for a living — here’s a simple suggestion: Embrace political speeches and encourage recipients to articulate strongly held views.
That likely sounds counterintuitive, especially with so many conservative voices just waiting to pounce on Hollywood liberals, charging that they’re out of touch and elitist and hate Donald Trump, blah blah blah. Why potentially alienate more viewers or rile up those already waiting to be outraged?
The toxic political environment has surely played a role in celebrities shying away from political speech, anticipating volleys of online vitriol or targeting by President Trump’s social media account. A wave of political violence, the latest being the murder of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, has added to the broader sense of unease, making the prospect of backlash seemingly even more potent, as Trump and allies like advisor Stephen Miller seek to clamp down on dissent by intimidating and silencing critics.
Given all that, turning a career-defining moment into a call to action might sound like a lot to ask. Yet regardless of the politics espoused or the cause promoted, those speeches generally prove more memorable because they’re about something, delivered with passion and a point of view that goes beyond the customary, “I’d like to thank my agent and co-stars.” And if award shows need anything right now, it’s a sense of spontaneity — a must-watch factor — to overcome all the well-documented forces dragging down linear TV ratings in general.
Conservatives will argue that like-minded viewers stay away because some outspoken liberal deeply wounded them — or at least hurt their surprisingly frail feelings — by talking about the environment, women’s rights or badmouthing Trump.
The president himself picked up that theme last week, after West Point canceled an event that would have honored Tom Hanks. Trump posted, nonsensically, that award shows should do away with “woke” recipients and “watch their DEAD RATINGS SURGE!”
Such gripes conveniently ignore the challenges plaguing the entertainment industry broadly and award shows in particular: a more fragmented audience, with less rooting interest in series and movies many haven’t bothered to see. Plus the knowledge that people can see show clips in near-real time on social media, without having to sit through three hours of presenter blather and commercial breaks.
With those elements diluting the live experience, it’s only genuine, from-the-heart moments that tend to stand out. And aside from the burst of emotion around claiming a major award — Olivia Colman’s hilarious speech after winning for “The Favourite” as one politics-free example of getting by on unbridled charm — recipients have the best chance of connecting on a deeper level by daring to discuss something bigger than themselves.
Admittedly, people still watch award shows for various reasons, many having nothing to do with who wins. That’s definitely the case for performance-driven showcases like the Grammys or Tonys, but even the Oscars and Emmys can deliver showbiz flair if they get the alchemy right.
Seeking gifts from “the award-show gods”
Among more traditional award-show viewers, though, what tends to make a show memorable are things that can’t be planned — what Gil Cates, the late producer of many Oscar telecasts, referred to as the “award-show gods.”
Plan all the presenter banter, reunions, skits and honorary awards that you like, but anyone who has watched award shows knows the limits of those scripted sequences.
Invariably, moments that have withstood the test of time don’t come from a teleprompter, from Marlon Brando dispatching Sacheen Littlefeather to accept his Oscar for “The Godfather” to Halle Berry’s tear-filled speech after making history for “Monster’s Ball.” Ditto for documentarian Michael Moore’s indictment of the Iraq war in 2003, Patricia Arquette’s plea for women’s rights (and equal pay) at the 2015 Oscars, Andrew Garfield embracing LGBTQ rights at the 2018 Tonys or Meryl Streep’s 2017 Golden Globes speech clearly aimed at Trump’s hostility toward immigrants, without ever naming him.
Who won best picture at that show? Who knows? But Arquette’s speech, with Streep enthusiastically pointing at her, prompted an enduring meme, while Streep’s comments echoed for days — and drew an inevitable “Overrated” rebuke from Trump.
Award-show ratings have remained on a downward arc, which reflects the gravity dragging at all of linear television, as well as the lingering after-effects of COVID and strike-disrupted years.
While last year’s Emmys rebounded to almost 6.9 million viewers, that followed two years of historic lows — the audience first slipped below 10 million viewers in 2019 — indicating that there’s relatively little to lose. And with its existing TV deal, in which the awards rotate among the four major broadcast networks, due to expire after next year’s ceremony, the Television Academy has a heightened need to present a telecast people will watch and someone will pay to carry.
Given the whirlwind of social media, taking a stand does invite certain headaches, but there’s plenty of talent with zero F’s to give — what are you going to do, cancel Helen Mirren or Harrison Ford? And besides, it only takes a few key moments, amid the obligatory business that needs to get done, to punctuate these ceremonies.
In an appearance on MSNBC in August, Henry Winkler addressed the issue of having the courage to speak out on matters of importance to him by saying, “I am an American, I’m a man, and then I’m a professional. And people still say to me on Twitter, ‘Stay in your lane.’ And my lane is being a man in America. My profession is being an actor.”
While it would be naive to ignore that choosing a lane involves risks, you often have to take chances to make noise. And that’s what award shows must do, ultimately, if they still hope to create the feeling they’re worth watching.
So bring on the politics. Sure, you’ll offend someone. But honestly, if they’re that sensitive, most of them weren’t going to watch anyway.
