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Then, once you get a song-and-dance man, you dont ask him to do a comic monologue.
You instead ask him to sing and dance.
Thats why Hugh Jackman turned out, in a way, to be the perfect answer to our prayers.
Bill Condon (producer):We thought,Lets make it a good time inside the theater again.
So we rebuilt the theater so the stage was closer to the audience.
Theres something about Hugh that is so disarming and open and charming.
In his great Australian way hes not better than anybody; hes not cooler than anybody.
The opening was sort of its own separate thing from the rest of show.
We had that notion that we were gonna tell a story during the show.
Hugh was actually going to kind of take us through the process of making a movie.
I was a young little boy with very few credits.
He said, Hugh Jackmans gonna be hosting the Oscars, do you have any ideas?
I told him some ideas and I sent him a bunch of jokes, and he dug it.
Mark:Hugh, on his own, does his thing in New York, by the way.
Dan Harmon (writer):We also had a meeting with Palermo.
It was very quick.
It was kind of like, So, you wanna do it?
And we were like, Yeah.
Then, a couple days later, we were on a plane.
Harmon:So far, this process did not include any references to singing or dancing.
Its just like, Do you guys wanna write for Hugh Jackman whos gonna host the Oscars?
We wanna stay away from that.
Harmon:We were in the middle of this weird economic collapse.
There was this tremendous fear of appearing elitist [at the Oscars].
Those were all things that were going on.
Were so in love with this idea, but its just an idea.
We havent pitched it to anybody.
Then, Hugh Jackman gets in the elevator with me and Schrab.
Schrab:Thats how we met.
Then we pressed up, and we were in there, and Dan did the elevator pitch.
Hugh would describe the idea and leap up onto chairs in the room.
No one can say no to him when hes that enthusiastic.
Literally, I was writing the same exact idea that Dan and Rob had had.
There was so much stuff around the recession and so much stuff about having no money.
Schrab:To start out of the gate with the concept was really, really a gift.
We know what the idea is, now all we have to do is write it.
Hats off to Hugh, who is just so warm and positive, and just committed.
Harmon:I have the most unabashed man-crush on this guy.
And every year we have this thing called the Channel 101 Awards.
We lean into, like, We dont have any money, so its all cardboard and hot glue.
Thats kind of my style, I build a lot, sculpt a lot.
While were writing [for the Oscars], Ive got my sketch pad and Im drawing up stuff.
We just built everything in two days.
It was all hot glue and … it was nonstop building, building, building, building.
Paint was drying backstage as the show was about to go on.
Schwartz:Schrab can create these things that nobody else can create.
Its that Hugh cant wait to host the Oscars; he really wants to do the best he can.
The melody and the tone of that song fromJekyll & Hydewas so inspirational.
Because Im not a professional musician, when I write lyrics, I tend to use a derivative melody.
He makes a couple tweaks to the song.
We were able to get their names added to the cue sheet for that number.
Schrab:They were actually way cooler than they had a right to be.
They were like, Look, we dont want any money.
We dont want any of this.
Were not gonna do anything.
We just want you to share credit with us.
Of course, we were like, Yeah, you deserve it.
Again, hats off to them for being so cool about it.
Schrab:I think Hugh came up with that.
Schwartz:I also remember us as a team thinking that this guys strength is singing and dancing.
We dont want to make a 45-minute monologue for him, thats not what he does.
I think we sat there and tried to figure it out based on sets first.
We wanted to have this sort of seamless thing where the sets are converting one from the other.
Harmon:The Batman song was Schrabs baby, for sure.
It was Schrabs, like, 10-year-old-boy anger.
These will be milk jugs; thisll be a mailing tube.
You look at the silhouette and youll know that were talking about the Batman movie.
Harmon: It is absolutely the beginning of the new era of Marvel.
Were referencing that, andThe Readersong, too.
We wanted to seeThe Reader, but there was a line of people wanting to seeIron Mana second time.
In the sequence aboutBenjamin Button, Jackmanages backward by sticking his head through cardboard cutouts.
Harmon:This thing was so not rehearsed, it was so under-rehearsed.
I was absolutely shitting my pants.
I remember, because Baz Luhrmann was doinghis thing in the middle that was a tribute to the musical.
It was such a big thing, and it just kept expanding in terms of rehearsal needs.
We literally had one full tech rehearsal of this thing.
Schwartz:That sounds about right.
TheBenjamin Buttonthing was the benchmark.
Ill just go faster.
Mark:Hugh wanted to pull someone out of the audience, for sure.
Just so you know.
With a tongue in cheek, it was done like that.
We smiled and said, Wed love to know that for future reference.
Schrab:This is 2008.
People love Anne Hathaway, and she can sing, so lets write something.
I think [Ben] just kind of took that, and just came up with this.
I did Anne Hathaways part to pitch him on it.
It was crazy; it was so fun.
It brought in the audience, even more.
Mark:Bill and I take full credit for the two of them being inLes Mis.
ForThe Reader, Jackman does a surreal modern dance about how he hasnt had time to watch the movie.
It wasnt that we hated it, we just cannot get to we had not gotten to it.
I think, was it Harmon or Schrab who wrote theReaderbit?
Schrab:It was Dan.
Harmon:And actually Hugh had spent all this time in New York while we were in L.A. You gotta watch this!
Mark:I bet he did do his homework [and watchedThe Reader], because thats Hugh.
But hed rather have some fun making fun of himself, in a way.
I think why that was funny was that he was making fun of himself, not the movie.
Condon:Also, there is this relentless thing.
Hes gonna do a number about each [nominee].
4, its sort of like,Oh Christ.
I think it was a nice jolt to get, Dont worry, Im not gonna doThe Reader.
Which was obviously a big issue surrounding it all.
Harmon:I remember [Jackman] pitching the Mickey Rourke hair thing.
Honestly, I dont even get that reference, but Hugh kept wanting to do it.
This is not a comic-book thing.
I think Dan was the one to put his foot down and go, You guys are crazy.
The Wolverine bit is gold.
Harmon:Its not because its clever or meta.
It was the opposite.
Barnum and the greatest showman on earth.
Hugh Jackman said, I love that idea.
We said, Jenny, would you mind thinking about P.T.
The writers watched the show on a small TV screen hidden away in the theater.
Schrab:We were in, like, a janitors closet.
There were mops against the wall.
Hugh came out, he did the long Australia joke, and then he starts doing the thing.
Is it going good?
Schwartz:We were nervous and pacing.
I remember pacing in all our schlub tuxes that did not fit us.
We were jumping up and down.
Harmon:Im surprised we didnt break each others toes, but I was limping for six months afterward.
I never went to the doctor, but I seriously damaged something in my foot.
Sean Penn, stand the fuck up!
He either did, or they cut to somebody else who stood up, and we just went crazy.
Our thought, which made some sense, was lets not show them that.
Lets force them to watch whats happening in front of them.
Harmon, Schrab, and Schwartz, along with songwriters Ross and Kimbrough won 2009 Emmys for their work.
Schrab:That was a crazy thing.
Schrab:Were just sitting there, and its like, Oh, okay, here we go.
Get ready to applaud for the Lonely Island.
Because theyre the best and everything.
Schwartz:We kept saying, Timberlakes gonna win.
[Timberlake was also nominated for Motherlover with the Lonely Island and a song from the ESPY Awards.]
Of course hes gonna win, hes incredible.
I had brought Aubrey Plaza because I knew her from UCB, and we were friends.
I was like, Dont worry.
And then we won.
Where Im like, Oh, were the ugly nerds.
