Producer, director and professor Gil Cates has been a longtime leader in the UCLA entertainment community. He was the founding dean of the School of Theater, Film and Television, from 1990 to 1997, and is the current producing director of the Geffen Playhouse in Westwood.
But his influence expands beyond Westwood: Cates has been the executive producer of the Academy Awards 13 times, earning an Emmy for his work on the award show. He returns this Sunday for round 14 to produce the 80th annual Academy Awards. As part of our Oscar coverage, the Daily Bruin’s Kate Stanhope spoke with Cates about the Oscars’ role as the last great variety show, the effect of the recent writers’ strike on the ceremony and his favorite moments from film’s biggest night.
Daily Bruin: You were quoted in March 2006 as saying, “If you want a sense of what America is like, you’ll watch the Oscars.” Can you explain that a little more?
Gil Cates: The Oscars represent a slice of the world in general and America specifically. When you watch an Oscar show from 20 years ago, for example, you see the movies people watched, the way they dressed, the songs they listened to, what they said to one another, what was on their minds. … You can get a very good sense of the mood of the country.
The first show I did was when the Berlin Wall came down, and there was a celebratory feeling throughout the world and in this country, (in contrast to) a show that we did when America went to war with Iraq. The pre-show was cancelled and there was a very palpable sense of thoughtfulness and awareness in the room.
I think similarly this year, locally, there will be ““ we don’t plan it, but there is a sense of the mood, somewhat of a celebratory mood, because the strike is over, but that will be tempered by what’s going on in the world and also what movies have been nominated.
DB: You’ve produced the Oscars a record 13 times. What keeps you coming back?
GC: Some years I’ve been asked but have not been able to come back because I’m directing something, and then a couple of times I haven’t been asked to come back. Basically, it is a wonderful, wonderful job because you have the opportunity to work with the most talented actors and actresses and people in general: writers, directors, sound mixers, etc.
Secondly, it’s probably the last of the big, live variety shows left. When I was (younger), there were probably 20 variety shows a week on television. You could go from Frank Sinatra to Andy Williams to Dinah Shore. So many people had variety shows, “The Ed Sullivan Show” being the one that most people remember. The last couple of decades there haven’t really been any.
So the Oscars, one of its characteristics is that it’s a variety show. First, it’s a news event because people tune in to find out who wins the Oscars, and then secondarily, its an opportunity to see celebrity stars and check out the fashion and then to see the entertainment, such as the songs that will be done on the show. It’s just great fun for someone to be able to do a variety show in this day and age.
DB: After having produced the Oscars so many times, does your variety of experience, from filmmaking to teaching at UCLA, help bring a new look to a familiar job?
GC: I think it’s a little like rotating the crops if you’re a farmer. It’s great to be able to do the Oscars and then be involved with the Geffen Playhouse, or teach at UCLA, or do a movie and then come back. It really gets you outside of the grind of doing the same thing all the time.
DB: What exactly do you do as producer of the Oscars?
GC: I have two primary responsibilities. One is to hire people who really can do a great job, like we have a wonderful director in Louis J. Horvitz. We have a great talent booker who interfaces with the stars. … The other job is to reflect what the Academy and, to a lesser degree, ABC wants in their show because this is the Academy’s show.
The Academy wants it to be dignified, special and wants it to be like no other show and wants it to reflect excellence in film. So basically that’s my job. Sometimes it gets down to specific elements of the show, sometimes I come up with the idea or sometimes it’s the director or the writers, but we all kind of work together. It’s really a group experience.
DB: The strike has had a large impact on this year’s awards season. Is there anything you had to do differently, since the strike ended only last week?
GC: We planned two shows, basically. We planned the show you’re going to see, and we planned an alternative if we would have been picketed. I don’t think the actors would have crossed the picket line, I don’t think (host) Jon Stewart would have crossed the picket line.
So the question was if we had 3,000 people coming to the Kodak (Theatre), what would they see? What they would have seen was a live band, because the orchestra would have been there. They would have seen the performances from the five nominated songs, and they would have seen a lot of people who they didn’t know, plus a lot of film clips ““ a lot of historical fun clips of stuff that has happened over the 80 years of Oscars.
The only thing that would have been missing was we wouldn’t have seen any of the actors, but we would have seen most of the other awards.
DB: Is there anything you’re planning on doing differently to acknowledge the strike?
GC: We’re not planning on commenting on it at all. It may be that some of the people who win Oscars may make mention to it, but I really don’t know. The thing that’s fascinating is that the most surprising things on the Oscars show are the things the producers don’t plan ““ they surprise me as well as you.
DB: Do you have any favorite examples?
GC: I have so many favorite moments; it’s really hard to pick one. I loved when Roberto Benigni won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film and jumped onto the seats and stood on the chair. I loved when Jack Black dropped down and did his one-arm push-ups.
My favorite piece from a producing point of view was getting an Oscar statuette on the spaceship Columbia and surprising George Lucas and Steven Spielberg with it, just seeing the Oscars floating weightlessly in space.
>DB: Do you have surprises in store for viewers this Sunday?
GC: I can’t tell you, or else they wouldn’t be surprises.