Samuel L. Jackson, Danny Glover, Liv Ullmann and Elaine May Get Honorary Oscars
On Friday night in Hollywood, a Marvel superhero accepted an honorary Oscar from one of the biggest movie stars in the world.
Too bad it wasn’t televised.
The scene was the Governors Awards, an intimate ceremony at the Loews Hollywood Hotel where Samuel L. Jackson was given that Academy Award by an absolutely delighted Denzel Washington, who threw his arms around Jackson as they rocked back and forth, laughing. The 73-year-old honoree reminisced about a career that has included an Oscar-nominated “Pulp Fiction” performance as well as multiple appearances as the superspy Nick Fury in Marvel movies.
“I got out there to entertain audiences the way Hollywood entertained me: Make them forget their lives for a few hours and be thrilled, awed or excited in the big room where make-believe lives,” Jackson said.
He eyed his new piece of golden hardware. “When I got this call last year, it was unexpected,” Jackson said. “But I guarantee you, this thing is going to be cherished.”
Though the honorary Oscars were once a staple of the live telecast, they were stripped from the show in 2009 because of still-continuing concerns over the its length. That led the academy to create the Governors Awards, an untelevised ceremony devoted solely to the honorary Oscars that also became one of the schmooziest nights of the season, a party where dozens of would-be contenders vied for face time with voters.
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That element of the show was dramatically curtailed this year, when the Governors Awards were delayed from their original Jan. 15 berth because of Covid fears. By the time Jackson and writer-director Elaine May, actress-director Liv Ulmann, and actor Danny Glover gathered last night to receive their honorary awards, voting for this year’s Oscars had already been closed for days, and many of the nominees instead opted for Friday-night parties thrown by their agencies and studios.
But while the ceremony was smaller, the speeches were allowed to go on at great length, as there was no frantic network executive demanding they be trimmed. Glover acknowledged as much after he spent several minutes speaking off the cuff about the political activism that led him to receive the academy’s Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. He also made room to lavish praise on Ulmann as well as his presenter, Alfre Woodard.
“I haven’t referred to the teleprompter at all,” Glover said with an apologetic smile. “Sometimes we actors get a little lost without a script.”
The Norwegian actress Ulmann told several stories about the winding path that led her to become a key collaborator with the director Ingmar Bergman. For a long time, Ulmann said, she was made to feel bashful about her calling.
“In Norway, you have to live by a certain rule: Don’t brag,” she said, before slyly adding: “That’s why I brought 20 people tonight. They can tell Norway, ‘It is true, she got an Oscar.’”
Our Reviews of the 10 Best-Picture Oscar Nominees
“Belfast.” In this charming memoir, the director Kenneth Branagh recalls, through a rose-tinted lens and black-and-white photography, his working-class childhood in a turbulent Northern Ireland.
“CODA.” A shy 17-year-old is the lone hearing member of her rambunctious family. As she confronts a newly awakened desire to sing, her efforts to share her musical talent with her deaf relatives are remarkably affecting.
“Don’t Look Up.” Two astronomers discover a comet headed straight for Earth. When they pass along the bad news, the president of the United States has other things on her mind to pay attention to than the impending catastrophe.
“Drive My Car.” A theater director grapples with the death of his wife, as he mounts a production of “Uncle Vanya.” A chauffeur assigned by the theater company ferries him to and from work while holding back vast emotional reserves of her own.
“Dune.” In this adaptation of Frank Herbert’s science-fiction opus, the young scion of a noble family departs for a desert planet home to monstrous sandworms, enigmatic Bedouin-like inhabitants and an addictive, highly valuable resource called spice.
“King Richard.” This two-for-one superhero origin story follows young Venus and Serena Williams in their ascent in women’s tennis, as they fulfill an ambition that their father had conceived before the two were born.
“Licorice Pizza.” In Paul Thomas Anderson’s coming-of-age romance, a child performer who has hit maximum adolescent awkwardness is aging out of his professional niche. His encounter with 20-something Alana, whom he instantly falls for, gets the story’s juices going.
“Nightmare Alley.” A grifter with empty pockets and a mysterious past joins the sleazoid world of 1930s back-road carnivals. He soon begins cycling through women, including a clairvoyant whose husband once had a successful mentalist act.
“The Power of the Dog.” Phil Burbank has been playing cowboy his entire adult life, raising cattle on his family’s Montana ranch for decades. When his brother George marries a widow with a teenage son, a lifelong family dynamic is disrupted.
“West Side Story.” Steven Spielberg’s remake of one of Broadway’s most celebrated musicals — a modern take on “Romeo and Juliet” — centers on the forbidden love between Tony and Maria, who are involved with two rival street gangs in Manhattan’s West Side in the 1950s.
One honoree was far more concise. Before the night began, many wondered if there would even be an appearance from May, a comedian who was Oscar-nominated for two of her screenplays (“Heaven Can Wait” with Warren Beatty and “Primary Colors”) but who is also known for performing with Mike Nichols, directing films like “A New Leaf” and “Ishtar,” and acting (she won a Tony in 2019 for her performance in the play “The Waverly Gallery”). Though the other award recipients had been holding court for a while, May was nowhere in sight.
Then, just before the show began, the 89-year-old May entered the Ray Dolby Ballroom on the arm of Bill Murray and accompanied by her daughter, the actress Jeannie Berlin. May was up first, and Murray introduced her as “probably the most beautiful, intelligent woman I’ve ever worked with — and she saved my life on numerous occasions professionally.”
As she took the stage, May quipped, “They told me Zelensky would introduce me tonight, but thank God I got Bill instead.” Then, mere moments later: “I don’t know what else to say, except enjoy your food.”
With that, she left the stage and the ceremony.
