Obsessed: The Podcast hosts Kevin Fallon and Matt Wilstein think the nominees may have saved their best performances for the Oscars ceremony itself.
“The most exciting category of the night was Best Actor,” Wilstein said of Sinners‘ star Michael B. Jordan winning a nail-biter race with Marty Supreme‘s Timothée Chalamet. “He’s such a class act at this point, and everyone just loves him. And I think his speech was so sincere.”
“Even though it was predicted at this point, it was his reaction to winning: him getting up there, him starting his speech with ‘What’s up, Mom?’ was pretty great,” Wilstein added.
In Jordan’s heartfelt speech, the Oscar winner thanked the audience for believing in him throughout his career.
“I felt something at that moment, having watched him grow up on The Wire and Friday Night Lights, and all these other movies," Wilstein concluded.
Jordan’s speech was followed quickly by Jessie Buckley’s crowning moment for Hamnet, where the actress immediately wept into her hands upon hearing her name called.
“Because she was so predicted to win and she had won every precursor award, for her it was like: imagine if she had lost,” Fallon said. “I think her crying might’ve been like, ‘Thank God I didn’t have to face the embarrassment of losing.’”
The Best Actress’s tears were matched by Fallon’s during the night’s lengthy “In Memoriam” segment.
“I cried for the full nine minutes—it was long," Fallon said.
In the tribute, nine-time Oscar host Billy Crystal memorialized his best friends, Rob and Michelle Reiner, who were killed in December. Crystal’s speech was followed by tributes from Rachel McAdams for Diane Keaton and Barbra Streisand for Robert Redford.
The segment was then capped off by a montage of stars who passed away since last year’s ceremony, including Catherine O’Hara, Val Kilmer, Robert Duvall, and Gene Hackman.
“Going into the show, I was like, ‘Oh gosh, this is gonna be a really hard segment because so many legends have died.’ But I thought they did it really well,” Fallon said.
“I was really hit by that parade. I think it was like 16 actors walking out who had been to Rob Reiner movies,” Wilstein said of the tribute. “That was very moving.”
“They should have just ended the whole thing with, ‘I’ll have what she’s having,’” Fallon said, referencing the iconic line in When Harry Met Sally that was delivered by Reiner’s mother, Estelle.
During their Oscars recap episode, Fallon and Wilstein shared their favorite speeches of the night, which of the two musical acts was better, and what the future looks like for the ceremony’s biggest losers.
Much of the ceremony was dominated by the rivalry between contenders Sinners and One Battle After Another, who took home 10 awards between them.
“I’m glad that we even had this conversation about Sinners and One Battle After Another because they’re both provocative, they’re both very timely," Fallon said. “I think they’re both gonna be timeless. I think that we’re gonna be talking about these movies for a very long time.”
“What do you think is gonna be next year’s Best Picture winner?” Wilstein asked.
“Wicked: Part Three," Fallon quipped.
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