#AskHerMore: Or, Why the Oscars Red Carpet Has to Change

“Who are you wearing?” As someone who interviews celebrities for a living – or rather, for a significant part of my living – I can think of few questions that make my hairs stand on end more. I’ve only asked this question three times in my career; once with a hint of irony and twice with the follow-up question “Oh my God, did you skin them yourselves?!”

And while my approach would no doubt be significantly different if I interviewed people in the fashion industry, that’s not what I do for a living. The physical appearance of an actor or a filmmaker is of relatively minor importance compared to everything else they do with their art form. The characters they play, the stories they tell, the impact their creative decisions have on audiences, these questions are relevant, even though they appear to be of relatively minor importance on red carpets, particularly at the Academy Awards.

The Oscars are one of the most important events of the year for most filmmakers. Although the actual awards are of at best debatable importance, a show with an audience as large as the Academy Awards raises awareness of films that otherwise might have difficulty finding an audience, and of the issues that those films at least attempt to address. The average moviegoer still hasn’t seen Still Alice, for example, and they probably haven’t gotten around to The Theory of Everything yet, if the box office numbers are any indication (just $104,000).

So getting the filmmakers and actors from these films in front of the cameras, in front of the whole world, and only asking them vapid questions like “Who are you wearing?” is insulting, to both the people being interviewed and to the audiences who, bless them, are in a key position to learn more about the art form that the Oscars supposedly exist to celebrate.

I was in this frame of mind that when I discovered, with no small amount of glee, that a hashtag was trending on Twitter. This hashtag that demanded the red carpet interviewers #AskHerMore. 

 

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The #AskHerMore hashtag hails from The Representation Project, which itself stems from the 2011 documentary Miss Representation, which highlights the insidious ways that the media prevents women in positions of power and influence from appearing powerful and influential. Reducing the most visible women in the entertainment industry to the clothes they choose to wear to the Oscars is only one example, but it’s a particularly relevant one at this moment.

And yet, although the hashtag #AskHerMore was designed to specifically call attention to the plight of women in the entertainment industry, its sentiment applies to the entire red carpet pre-show at the Academy Awards. The ABC Network, which hosts the Oscars, was a major perpetrator at this year’s ceremony, cutting away in the middle of a thoughtful interview with Patricia Arquette to a red carpet host saying literally nothing of consequence to the camera, just declaring his pointless excitement, right before the Oscars began. (Arquette had the last word, with a potent acceptance speech about the ongoing pursuit of equal respect and pay for women.)

The ABC Network also concluded their red carpet interview with soon-to-be Oscar winners Common and John Legend with a nonsensical screaming match, yelling “You guys are at the Oscars!” to the musicians as though it was a question. That Common was particularly eloquent in his own acceptance speech just calls further attention to how insipid this red carpet interview really was. Asking John Legend what he was planning to do after the show is incredibly superficial compared to the more important subject of the nominated film itself, Selma. The potential to get the Common and Legend to say something meaningful, something that actually might make for memorable television, was absolutely squandered.

What’s more, the ABC red carpet hosts even addressed the #AskHerMore phenomenon, on camera, as though it were the subject of a minor amusement. They moved on with their coverage as though nothing was wrong, and more importantly, as they nobody had finally told the emperors that they had no clothes.

 

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Blind enthusiasm was the rule of the day at the Oscars red carpet, praising the glitz and glamour above the artistic achievements that Hollywood was supposedly attempting to celebrate. Questions about which other celebrities that celebrities were excited to see littered the red carpet coverage, along with blisteringly superficial queries like who Kevin Hart would like to take a selfie with. As if any of this matters, and as if there was no other way to entertain audiences except with stifling inanity.

The talent at these red carpets – that is, the folks who are actually there to be honored – are forced to play nice in these situations. They don’t want to look ungrateful for their success, and they don’t want to turn off their potential audiences with looks of scorn. And to be fair, there were a few relevant questions scattered about and even some celebrities who seemed happy to indulge in the fancier Cinderella story aspects of the Oscars. And who could blame them?

But highlighting the glamour of the Academy Awards does everyone a disservice. It sells the filmmakers, the audiences and yes, even the interviewers hopelessly short. It’s important to remember that these interviewers are under a mandate to provide a certain type of coverage for these sorts of events, and ask certain types of questions in order to play to what their producers think are the target demographic. And the producers clearly think so little of that audience that they steer the interviewers in the direction of mindless pap, because you – dear audience members – supposedly don’t care so much about art or human beings as you care about what some actors are wearing.

And maybe that’s true. Maybe that’s what many of us really want to see. No one is arguing that fashion has absolutely no place at the Oscars. The talent goes all out to look their best, and often show up in dazzling suits and gowns that would indeed be the envy of anyone who cares deeply about such matters. 

But the issue at hand isn’t why we ask celebrities questions that are devoid of substance, the question is why these types of questions are pervasive. Why is it that this manner of fluffy media coverage has become the norm, instead of the exception? Why is it that fashion coverage dominates so much of the conversation at the Oscars? Why can’t we cover the Oscars for what they are, a celebration of an art form, and let tangential talk of fashion and frivolity occupy just one element of the press’s attention?

Oh right, because the network is only interested in ratings. Never mind, I suppose. Go on wasting your time, Hollywood. Catering to the lowest common denominator is way more important than your dignity, your art form and a modicum of respect for your audience.

 


William Bibbiani is the editor of CraveOnline’s Film Channel and the host of The B-Movies Podcast and The Blue Movies Podcast. Follow him on Twitter at @WilliamBibbiani.

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