Jimmy Kimmel talks hosting Oscars for 4th time, Ryan Gosling's performance and more
The Oscars will take place on Sunday.
Ahead of the 2024 Oscars, Jimmy Kimmel, who will be hosting the awards show for the fourth time, sat down with "Good Morning America" to discuss the details surrounding Hollywood's biggest night.
In an interview with ABC News' Lara Spencer, which aired on Thursday, Kimmel, 56, shared one of the biggest reasons he agreed to return for the hosting duty is due to the films nominated at the 96th Academy Awards.
"There were some really good movies …I think they're all really good. I saw them all," he shared. "It's a big part of why I decided to host the show this year, because I do know that there are movies that people have actually seen, which makes it a lot easier to make jokes about."
Asked if "Barbie" -- which earned eight nominations at the Oscars this year -- had played a role in his decision to host, Kimmel quipped, "It did. [But] not the movie, 'Barbie.'"
"Actually, I have a little Barbie doll that I talk to in my bedroom every night. 'So what do you think? Barbie, should we do this?'" he continued.
Jokes aside, Kimmel said he had predicted that the Greta Gerwig-directed movie would be nominated at the Oscars after he went to see the film at a movie theater in Idaho Falls with his daughter and his son.
"Everybody loved it," he recalled. "And, so I thought, this is probably going to get nominated for an Oscar."
Tune in to ABC on Oscar Sunday! Streaming pre-show coverage begins at 1 p.m. ET on ABC and ABC News Live. The 2024 Oscars debuts at its new time of 7 p.m. ET live from the Dolby Theater on Sunday, March 10.
During the interview, Kimmel also dished on one of the most anticipated moments of the night when "Barbie" star Ryan Gosling is set to take the stage to perform his surprise hit from the film, "I'm Just Ken."
"I think it will be great," he said of the upcoming act. "It's a big production and Ryan takes this stuff very, very seriously."
Elaborating on his theory, Kimmel continued, "It's funny because I think Ryan was lying, for a couple of months leading up [to] when he said, 'Oh, I haven't been asked to sing,' That's untrue, he had been asked."
"And I think he had to think about it for a while. And he came and he looked around at the space, he looked at the theater, and he's like, 'Okay, yeah, I think I will do this,'" the TV talk show host said.
When it comes to what the audience could expect from the 2024 Oscars, Kimmel noted that the awards show will be starting "an hour earlier than it always has been."
"We have daylight savings time on Sunday," he said. "You will miss my monologues. Which is very important. Maybe not to the viewers, but to me, very important. So that is, I think, the big X factor going into this particular show. Will people miss the whole first hour of it?"
Despite the change, Kimmel said, "We're not ending earlier. We're just starting early. Okay. So it's still going to be long."
Kimmel hosted the Oscars for the first time in 2017. He has since returned to host the 90th and 95th Academy Awards in 2018 and 2023.
Only Johnny Carson, Billy Crystal, and Bob Hope have hosted the awards show more than Kimmel.
Discussing the possibility of him hosting the Oscars for the fifth time after this year, Kimmel said, "I'm not going to say I won't host the Oscars again."
"I'm definitely not going to say I will host the Oscars again. I don't even know if I'll be asked, this [year] could be a disaster and they go, 'Ok, that's enough,'" he said.
Leading up to the ceremony, Kimmel shared that Crystal gave him some guidance to help refine his hosting role.
"And in fact, he texted me this morning, checking in on me and seeing how it's going," he said. "I sent him my monologue, I want him to look at it and see what he thinks."
Asked if he would dress up as any of the characters from the films nominated at the 2024 Oscars, he replied, "All of them."
"I will be dressed as all of them, starting with Emma Stone's character in 'Poor Things' and going all the way up to 'Oppenheimer,'" he shared. "I'm going to try to lose at least 80 pounds over the course of the show."
While gearing up for the glamorous night, Kimmel told "GMA" he has to not only keep the show details under wraps from viewers but also from his youngest child, son Billy, whom he shares with his wife Molly McNearney.
"Billy cannot keep a secret …I have to be careful mentioning anything Oscar-related around Billy because he will blurt it out to somebody," he said.
The 2024 Oscars will take place Sunday and air live on ABC from the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood beginning at 7 p.m. ET (4 p.m. PT).
Related Topics
