Funny in hindsight. Anne Hathaway joked about her disastrous gig hosting the 2011 Oscars with James Franco ahead of the 2019 Academy Awards on Sunday, February 24.
Sharing a photo of herself and the Disaster Artist star, 40, on Instagram, Hathaway, 36, wrote, “No matter what happens with today’s show, just remember, it’s already been worse. Happy Oscars!”
The Oscar winner — who scored a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award in 2013 for her role as Fantine in Les Miserables — and Franco were universally panned for their job hosting Hollywood’s biggest show.
Several critics claimed that Franco appeared to be trying to sabotage the show due to its lackluster writing, while Hathaway was annoyingly upbeat throughout the telecast.
The Oscar nominee later told Playboy that he acted that way on purpose and insisted he wasn’t high on drugs during the telecast.
“I thought, OK, Anne is going the enthusiastic route. I’ve been trained as an actor to respond to circumstances, to people I’m working with, and not to force anything,” he said. “So I thought I would be the straight man and she could be the other, and that’s how I was trying to do those lines.”
Hathaway told Entertainment Tonight last month that the hardest part about hosting the Oscars was “finding out how you actually did” the next day.
“Because it feels nice, everybody tells you it’s going well while you’re doing it. While you’re doing it, it’s like doing anything, you know?” she explained.
“My approach to all this stuff is really simple: we’re lucky,” she added. “Whether or not it does well or it bombs, this is the stuff of dreams. This is not something to get upset about. Now, that being said, when it really bombs, it does sting a bit. I think it might end up being a net positive over life. Well, the lessons that I learned, the life lessons about who to trust and when to trust them, that’s going to be the net positive.”
This year’s show faced its own controversy, with the hosting gig initially going to Kevin Hart, only for him to back out hours later, after he faced backlash over old homophobic tweets.
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The 2019 Oscars air on ABC on Sunday, February 24, at 8 p.m. ET.
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