BACKSTAGE INTERVIEW
CATEGORY: Directing
INTERVIEW WITH: Michel Hazanavicius
FILM: “The Artist”

Q.      Congratulations.
A.      Thank you.

Q.      I’m going to ask the question in English.
A.      Sure.

Q.      And if you don’t mind, you can answer in French and then translate it in English, since it’s got to go in the news in, like, ten minutes?
A.      Are you sure?

Q.      If you don’t mind.
A.      Okay.

Q.      We thanked Billy Wilder three times and not once.
A.      Yes.

Q.      [Speaks in French]  If you don’t mind translating, please.
A.      Yeah.  So I    I thanked Billy Wilder three times, because I had to make it short, but I could thank him, like, a thousand    a thousand times, because I think he is the perfect director.  This is the perfect example and he’s the soul of Hollywood, and most of all, I wanted to thank him.  And I love him.

Q.      [Speaks in French]

Q.      Michel?
A.      I don’t speak French.  Sorry.

Q.      All right.  And I don’t speak English either.
A.      Okay.

Q.      But we are going to try.  What was for you the most challenging anecdote, if you consider the road is over as a foreign director, what was the most challenging for you to make it here in Hollywood, if you can give us a little bit    some kind of anecdote, what it is the most difficult to make it here?
A.      Actually, it was not so difficult, because I think because of the movie and because of the connection between people and the movie.  I mean, from the very beginning, it was in September    end of August and September.  I’ve been in three festival, Telluride, Toronto and New York.  And then I realized that people really enjoy the movie and really love the movie.  So when people love the movie, it’s not very difficult because you are not selling, you’re not promoting.  You just smile and say “thank you,” and it’s not so difficult.  You    I mean, you can do that.  And maybe the most difficult thing was to the back and forth and being here while the kids were in Paris.  But this is a personal difficult    I mean, difficulties    it was for professional part it was not so difficult.

Q.      [Speaks in (French)]

Q.      Hollywood, next step Hollywood.
A.      It’s not next step.  I mean, I    this movie bring me some opportunities to meet people and some of them propose me send scripts, or told me that they wanted to work with me.  And if there’s a chance to make a good movie I will do it with    really with honor and great pleasure, because people know how to make movies here.  So there’s some beautiful actors, beautiful scriptwriters and, yes, I hope I will make a movie here once.  It won’t be the next one.  And also, I    I have a wonderful producer who is French and I want to work with him again.  And when you have that kind of producer you don’t drop him off.  You stay    you stuck to him.  You stick to him.  That’s better I think.

Q.      Hello?
A.      Hello.

Q.      With the popularity THE ARTIST and HUGO, what would you say is your favorite silent film or silent films that you helped guide you through the process of making the film in that era?
A.      Which one of my favorite silent movies?

Q.      Yeah, your personal favorite.
A.      I would say, like, I don’t know, maybe, eight or something.  It’s very difficult to say one, because silent movie is not a genre, you know, that because it’s just a format.  I would say that the Murnau’s movies, the American ones SUNRISE and CITY GIRL, I think I prefer CITY GIRL, because I think it’s more simple, but both of them are really great.  King Vidor’s, THE CROWD.  It’s a wonderful movie.  Everybody can see it.  It’s easy to watch.

It’s very touching.  It’s moving picture and very modern.  Tod Browning’s, THE UNKNOWN GYPSY CIRCUS, which it’s a great, great covert and sexy movie set in a gypsy circus, and it’s really great, a short one like one hour and ten minutes the Borzage movie, the Von Stroheim movie, Von Sternberg movies, like, UNDERWORLD and DOCKS OF NEW YORK.  UNDERWORLD is a great, great movie.  DOCKS OF NEW YORK is written by Ben Hecht who wrote SCARFACE after that.  It’s a great movie.  The great    [inaudible]    old Charlie Chaplin.  You can    you can spend a good week with that.

Q.      When we talked at Cannes and then Toronto, we talked a lot about taking risks and your risk seems to have paid off.  So this is a two part question.  Do you think the success tonight, THE ARTIST, will help people take more risks and do you think it, also, will encourage other people besides those of us who already love silent cinema to pay attention to the real history of cinema including that era?
A.      I don’t know.  I    I won’t be so presumptuous.  I    if it    if it can be something for directors, if directors can take THE ARTIST as an example in discussion with financier and say we can shoot in black and white for example.  We can do something that is unusual and if it can help, I would be very proud of it, really.  But usually, it’s not one movie that can help to change things.  If 10 movies or 20 movies in the same year very different in a way, that can change a little bit.  But it’s not one movie, it’s just one movie.  It doesn’t change things.  But I don’t know.  If it helps, I would be very proud of it.

Q.      Now, that you’ve made an accomplished silent film, what is the next door you’re going to open?  Are we talking about documentary, action, love story and will your beautiful wife be in this next movie?
A.      So far, had my    we’ve always write.  I didn’t have a chance to work and so it just in my mind for now.  And what I want to make now is an adaptation of an American movie named THE SEARCH.  It’s a Fred Zinnemann movie    movie from
’47    1947, I think with Montgomery Clift, and I would like to make an adaptation of this movie and it’s a melodrama with a political background and it would    it would be a modern movie, I mean, today, and it will be with Berenice. [inaudible]

Q.      Often there’s a pattern at Oscar with one film tending to nominate below the line categories and the others doing well in above the line as THE ARTIST did tonight.  Can you talk about some of the contributions that your crew head, department head and key heads in the below the line categories, the ones that were nominated and didn’t win at all?
A.      Well, for the cinematography, I have to say    first of all, it’s my third movie with Guillaume Schiffman who did the cinematography, and we connect together.  He’s very    I mean, we can work together very easily.  One of the best performances in that movie is that we shot it in 35 days and to keep that quality of image in 35 days is really something very special.  I mean, not all the cinematographers can do that, I think, and he did a wonderful black and white.  And he did a wonderful job on that and that film, especially.  And the costume designer for example, Mark Bridges, is a great, great collaborator.

It’s really    he’s a lovely person, and he’s really, really good.  And he did exactly what I mean, I ask    I ask them some things about with the costume, the thing that for me was telling the story, but he did so much more, some things I did    didn’t expect that it will help so much the movie, like, the choice of the texture, the recreation of the dresses and the costumes, and their work on the extras, for example.  It’s a great    it makes things so easy when you can shoot all the extras.  I mean, so    yeah.  I’ve been very lucky, I mean, in the    with the crew and with the cast as well.

Q.      [Speaks in (French)]
A.      [Speaks in French].  I’m sorry, she ask me to answer.  Thank you.  Thank you very much.  Thank you.

BACKSTAGE INTERVIEW
CATEGORY: Best Picture
INTERVIEW WITH: Thomas Langmann, Producer
FILM: “The Artist”

Q.      Hi.  Congratulations.  When your costume designer was in here earlier who won, he said that part of the texture that he did was because of film was shot in color.  I’m curious to know, now having won this award, what are you going to do with all of the footage in color?  Is there going to be another life for THE ARTIST perhaps in a different color?
A.      No.  Sorry, but…

Q.      No.  Fair enough.

Q.      Congratulations.
A.      Thank you.

Q.      You know, this was one of the best run campaigns that I’ve seen.  I just wondered if you had any political ambitions because it was a wonderful campaign for the film.  But more than that, you made history tonight in terms of this being the first film in I don’t even know how many years to come out that’s black and white and win Best Picture honors.  So, for you, how does it feel to be part of that particular part of history in terms of bringing back a style of film that we haven’t seen in a long, long time?
A.      Well, it’s    it’s been an amazing journey.  When we started this movie, you know, all the meetings that we had were very short.  No one wanted to help us making a silent black and white movie.  But I was convinced that Michel Hazanavicius was a very gifted director, and I thought that if we were giving him the money that he needed, if we could come and shoot in LA and with an American cast, American crew I was hoping that the movie    I knew because it was silent black and white would be different, original.  And all the weakness that were at the beginning became strength.  So, now, of course, with all the award season and this amazing evening here at the Oscars and for us to be French, even if we come to American French movie, yes, it’s thrilling, it’s amazing.  I’ll never forget this evening.

And I remember I was thinking about my family because I    my dad won a BAFTA and a Golden Globe, and an Oscar, and he was nominated 30 years ago for producer for TESS, by Roman Polanski, and he didn’t win, but he won it in ’66 for a short film.  So, now I have all those beautiful objects that I can put next to his.  So, for me it’s very personal, and it’s a beautiful evening.

Q.      Congratulations.
A.      Thank you.

Q.      Can you talk a little bit about the Weinsteins’ contribution to the film?
A.      Yes.  But do you have enough time?  Talking about Harvey takes a lot of time, but no, he’s been very good to us.  I asked him to come a month before Cannes, and he flew to France, watch a movie with the director he never heard of with the cast.  He barely heard of Jean Dujardin because he knows about French cinema, but he came.  And I was supposed to leave him alone in the screening room, and I stayed just to check the beginning was going okay.  And I heard him laugh and laugh.  So, I stayed through the whole screening.  And he loved the movie, and I knew that Harvey sometimes say something very enthusiastic.  So, he can be one day, and not the next day, but I saw in his eyes and his attitude that he really cared for the movie, and he really believed that we could be maybe here today.  And I must say that I think he’s the only distributor, even with this very special movie, who had been able to take it to where it is today.

Q.      Hi, congratulations.  I actually spoke with Richard Middleton yesterday, and he was talking about how no one was quite sure what was going to come of this film.  When did you know that you had something special?
A.      Well, day after day, watching the dailies, and first, read the script and then watching the first cut, and yeah, I was superstitious, right.  People around me said there was something special, but I needed to show it.  And the first real screening was in Cannes.  So, in watching in Cannes, the reaction of the press, and I must say thank you to all of you in this room and all the countries, because this is typically the kind of movie that couldn’t speak for itself.  It had so many weaknesses, and you are ones with the press that made this movie what it is today.  Because if there were no    if there weren’t all those articles saying how special the movie was and how it was justified for audience and for people to go and watch black and white, and silent, nobody will have gone to see it.  So, thank you.

Q.      A question and a half actually.  Could you sum up what this means to you, five Oscars, Best Picture, and you just said you were superstitious.  Did you have any kind of a good luck charm with you tonight?
A.      Did I have any

Q.      Have a good luck charm.  You said you are superstitious.
A.      I must say my daughter gave me a coin and that I had in my pocket.  I didn’t think we would win the Cesar, and we win.  So, a few awards before Jean Dujardin, I told him, put this in your pocket.  Then he win.  And I went back to see him, and I said, “Give me back my daughter’s coin,” and it was in my pocket.
And I must say, winning five Oscars, you know, even before we win, when we heard we were nominated ten times, I mean, it was    I don’t think you even imagine how proud and happy we were.  I mean, this is    we did this movie as a tribute to Hollywood.  A tribute to cinema and especially American cinema, but we never expected that in return, we would get so much care and love, and of course these awards that mean so much to us.

Q.      Hi, congratulations on your win tonight.  I was just curious, your film kind of recaptured the golden age of Hollywood cinema, and I was wondering what your thoughts are as to where cinema will be heading in the future?
A.      Well, it’s interesting to see in the present day with all those 3D movies, and I love all kind of movies, and I must say that as a producer mostly we do print movies, I do, and I’m proud of doing what you could call popcorn movies.  And if I had not done movies that are easier for audiences to go and see, I will have    I will have not the money in my company to put the risk.  So, I think every kind of cinema helps another kind.  And if this movie    if THE ARTIST can help an independent producer and to be audacious, this is a great thing, because I’ve shown this movie to kids, and some of them had never seen a black and white movie, and they thought it was    it would be really boring.  And they said they watched it, and after five, ten minutes, they enjoyed it.  So, as Michel Hazanavicius, the director said, silent is a way of telling the story.  That is not maybe from the past that it’s an experience and it’s maybe as big as a 3D experience, even if it’s    was different.

So, we are really proud of this and all kind of cinema should exist.  And I must say that it’s amazing that it’s here in America that all the fuss came and    and all the great reports came about THE ARTIST.  Even when we had success in France and Europe, but now because of your reaction, it’s getting bigger and bigger in Europe.  So, it’s great.

Q.      Thank you so much.  Congratulations.
A.      Thank you.  Thank you.

BACKSTAGE INTERVIEW
CATEGORY: Supporting Actress
INTERVIEW WITH: Octavia Spencer
FILM: “The Help”

A. Do I push him down or    oh, sorry.  See, this is me not being the singer.

Q. To your right, Octavia, over here.
A. My right.  My other right.

Q. Hey?
A. Hey.

Q. Congratulations.  Obviously you must be so thrilled with this win.  I was looking at some of the deleted scenes from the film and there was one scene where your character was at the bus stop and she was obviously beat up.
A. Oh.

Q. Are you disappointed that perhaps the film didn’t include that more tragic ending for your character, although it had some low points, it had some, you know, a little bit of a light hearted feel at the end?
A. Well, I think that’s all in your perception.  No, I’m not disappointed that that scene was deleted.  I think that we wanted to make the movie that Kathryn Stockett had envisioned when she wrote the book.  I don’t think there’s anything light hearted about the Civil Rights movement, but somehow it makes it palatable when you see that type of strife.  So if you can have a laugh every other ten minutes while you watch the struggle then, you know, I have no problem with it.  But no, I’m not disappointed with any aspect of the film.

Q. Octavia, over here.  On your left.
A. To my left.  In the back.

Q. Hey, girl.
A. Hi.

Q. So at the luncheon you were singing one particular song.
A. [Singing] Oscar nominee, but now I’m a winner.  Winner.

Q. Congratulations.
A. Thank you so much.

Q. What will you do?  The plans after this movies?
A. Tonight or

Q. Tonight and then after that?
A. Well, tonight I am going to find my cast mates and we’re going to, you know    I’m actually going to have a quarter of a glass of champagne and hang out and    and I think we all start projects, you know, within the next couple of days.  But I’m just going to live in this moment because it’s never happened and lord knows it may never happen again.

Q. Hello, Octavia.
A. How are you?

Q. Good.  How are you?
A. I am very blessed.

Q. There’s something that stuck out to me in your acceptance speech and you thanked your HELP cast for how they helped you to transform into your character.
A. I said that?  I don’t even remember what I said.  I’m sorry.

Q. Can you explain how did they help you to do that or you know what your cast really meant to you when you said your family really meant to you?
A. Well, it’s very rare that you have the type of ensemble that we had.  You know, you don’t get all the Academy Award nominee winners and Cecily Tyson, Mary Steenburgen, Sissy Spacek, Viola Davis coming together to do a project.  And then you have the collaboration of Academy Award nominees behind the scenes.  We just left our egos at the door and worked together as one beautiful unit from Emma, Viola, Bryce, Allison Janney.  I mean, it was an award winning cast.  So to be a part of that and to just sort of dissolve into the world that we were representing is something that we’re supposed to do as actors but it was rare that we did it without judgment with each other.

Q. Thank you.

Q. Hi.
A. Hi there.

Q. Hi.  [Inaudible] from Despierta America with Univision.
A. Hello.

Q. Do you remember?
A. I totally remember.

Q. Awesome.  Well, we were so happy that we were able to be in our show.
A. Thank you.

Q. And while you were there you said that if you won the Oscar that you would come back to celebrate with us.  Is that still an open
A. Well, if all of those hot guys still work there, absolutely.

Q. Awesome.  We will be seeing you there.
A. I

Congratulations you were awesome.
A. I would love to go there.

Q. Good evening.  First, congratulations.
A. Thank you.

You originally spoke about overcoming fear in playing your role in THE HELP.  What would you say to a young man or woman about to start in the Army and overcoming their fears?
A. Well, I haven’t really overcome mine.  I’m scared to death right now.  You know, I don’t take what men and women in uniform do lightly.  You guys provide us with the freedoms and the protection that we as citizens sometimes take for granted, so I don’t know that I’m the person that can say because I    I’ve not served in that capacity.  What I will say is I think    I guess I’m reminded of Emerson:  Do not go where the path may lead; go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.  That’s what you guys do for us every day.

Q. Hi, Octavia.  Congratulations.
A. Thank you so much.

Q. Would you sum up this award season for us and tell us about the love affair you had with THE HELP?
A. Well, the word I want to use I can’t, it’s a word in the    well, I want to say fan effing tastic.  But we’ll just leave the effing out.  Fantastic.  It is    it is humbling.  It is    the love affair I’ve had with THE HELP, I am    I’m a benefactor of all of the riches that the real life Minnys, Aibileens, Constantines, Skeeters, Celias, that they basically repeated.  And so I am    I’m very humble because I get to stand here and accept this award and I haven’t really done anything.  So I don’t know.  That’s a tough question to answer.  Sorry.

Q. Hi there.
A. Hi there.

Q. The L.A. Times recently put an article out that showed that after about six months of research that the Academy was mostly white men.  Something like 94 percent white, 77 percent male and mostly over the age of    median age of 62.  I was wondering what your thoughts were about that?
A. I don’t really have any thoughts about it.  It’s not something that I’ve thought about.  I    I wish I could be more eloquent, elegant in answering that question.  But it’s just    I don’t know.

Q. I was wondering if maybe there    you thought    what your thoughts are if there’s a way for the Academy to be more proactively work towards
A. I can’t tell the Academy what to do, honey.  They just gave me an Oscar.  I just hope they continue to do what they do.  I just am not the person to ask that question.  I really don’t know.  I have no wisdom there.  I’m sorry.

Q. You said in your speech that you    that Steven Spielberg changed your life, and I just want to know if you can expound and expand on how he did that in your life?
A. I’m sorry.  I didn’t mean to cut you off, and I didn’t mean to cut you off, ma’am.  I just knew where we were going and I didn’t want to get on that bus.  No pun intended.
Well, Steven Spielberg is a luminary and as far as I can remember in filmmaking, he is    every decade of my life has been creating brilliance and he has this little studio called DreamWorks that could have put any zaftig actress with acting chops in my role, but he allowed my dear friend, Tate Taylor, to cast me pretty much unknown to most of you in that role when there were so many others that could have been    could have been chosen.  And that’s the sign of a true filmmaker to allow a true filmmaker to do what he does.  So he and Stacey Snider changed my professional life, and getting the opportunity to play this role changed life personally as well.

Q. Congratulations.  Tate was your date, too, right?
A. Well, absolutely.  But now I have a different date.

Q. Hello.
A. Hi.

Q. Congratulations on your award.
A. Thank you so much.

Q. My question to you is, is that when you were walking up those stairs and by the time you got up there, a heartfelt standing ovation was given to you and you went into strictly emotions.  What were you feeling at that moment and what would you say to any young girl who would aspire to be in your shoes tonight?
A. Well, get a great designer because you don’t know if you’re going to be on TV or not.  And really and truly I was just trying not to fall down because I had an incident where I fell at an awards show.  This is one of those evenings in my life that I’ll never forget.  I hope it’s the hallmark of more for young aspiring actresses of color, and by color I don’t mean just African American.  I mean Indian, Native American, Latin American, Asian American.  I hope that in some way that I can be some sort of beacon of hope, especially because I am not the typical Hollywood beauty.  You guys are supposed to go, oh, no, you are.

[Laughter]

There’s crickets, guys, work with me here.  Work with me.

No, I don’t know.  I just think that you have to believe in yourself and you have to work very hard.  You can’t ever think that you’re the best thing since sliced bread because I promise you, there are going to be Viola Davises and Jessica Chastains and Emma Stones who are the best thing since sliced bread.  So take it seriously, but don’t take it too seriously.

Q. So congratulations on your award.
A. Thank you so much.

Q. The outpouring of emotion tonight for you and for your movie has been overwhelming, especially considering that you’re a relative newcomer.
A. Well, it depends on who you ask.  Fifteen years, I’m a newcomer.  Okay, I’ll take it.

Q. Can you explain why you think that room responded the way that they did tonight to your name being called?
A. You know what, I would    I would be presumptuous.  I really don’t know.  Maybe it was that they responded to the message of THE HELP.  I honestly don’t know.  I don’t know how to answer that.  I    I don’t know.  I’m sorry.

We can take another question since I basically just said, I don’t know, I don’t know.

Q. Congratulations.  This is going to open so many doors for you.  In your wildest dreams what is the one role that you want to play?
A. I don’t have one role that I want to play.  I guess you know what, I want to be a producer.  I want to be an activist.  I want to be proactive in bringing about work for men, women, boys, girls, everybody who is good at what they do and deserve a shot at it.  So I think my role, I want to have a presence both behind the scenes and in front of the camera.  So I can’t say on one particular thing, so I’ll just name them all.  I’ll be the jack of all trades and hopefully decent at one of them.

Thank you.  Thank you, guys.

BACKSTAGE INTERVIEW
CATEGORY: Lead Actress
INTERVIEW WITH: Meryl Streep
FILM: “The Iron Lady”

A. Hi.

Q. Congratulations.
A. Gracias.  Thank you.

Q. Any Spanish?
A. No.

Q. Well, it doesn’t matter.  I wanted to ask you about what you said on stage because you said that it would probably be your last time there winning an Oscar?
A. Yes, I’m pushing the tolerance.

Q. Maybe you don’t want to give Katharine Hepburn a run for her money?
A. Did she have more?

Q. Four.
A. Oh, well, okay.

Q. No, but really, how did you feel winning this third award, and why did you think
A. Oh, I was thrilled.  I thought I was so old and jaded, but they call your name, and you just go into sort of a, I don’t know, a white light.  And it was just thrilling.  It was like I was a kid again.  I mean, it was    I was a kid when I won this, like, 30 years ago.  Two of the nominees were not even conceived.  So, you know, it was great.  And it was doubly wonderful because my long time collaborative colleague, Roy Helland, makeup man, hairdresser, he won too, and he won for not an outside    he won with his colleague Mark Coulier, who is a great British prosthetics designer, but he won not for some, you know, monster making, but for making a human being, and it’s very unusual in that branch that they give it to somebody who’s just trying to transform people.  And so I was really, really proud for him.

Q. Congratulations.
A. Thank you.

Q. Meryl, you said earlier that you were wearing a brand of shoes favored by Margaret Thatcher.
A. Yes.

Q. Do you think wearing those shoes brought you some good luck?  And also, Mrs. Thatcher liked a little whiskey at night.  Are you going to have a couple tonight to celebrate?
A. I am going to start with a couple.  And then we will see if I can walk on the Ferragamos.  Yes.  Mrs. Thatcher wore those shoes.  Yes, thank you.

Q. In researching your role, did you have a chance to meet Margaret Thatcher?
A. No, I haven’t.  Really, she has retired from public life almost entirely now in the last two years.  So, no, I didn’t.  But I studied her, and I studied, you know, there’s so much archival footage.  And then the challenge was to imagine her present life, and that was completely an active imagination on Abi Morgan, the writer’s part, and my part, but there was a lot of freedom in that, but also responsibility to a real person and to history.  So, it was    it was really very, very satisfying as an actor, as an artist, to make a film that starts out about Margaret Thatcher and ends up being really about all of us.  So, that’s all I’ll say about that.

Q. Thank you.

Q. Congratulations, Meryl.
A. Where are you?

Q. Right here, right here.
A. You have to wave your little arm.  Okay.

Q. Congratulations.
A. Thank you.  I am coming to Japan.

Q. When?
A. Next week.

Q. Oh, great.
A. Yes.

Q. We love you there, and I’ve been following your career, too, but I am learning that you have very good relationship with a lot of staff member as well as your family.  What is the trick of sustaining such a deep, good relationship in such a busy life?
A. You can ask every working woman that question and get a million different answers because it’s    it’s the juggle and the challenge that we have, but honestly, in my life, because it’s in the arts, I don’t go to work every day.  So my day has been more flexible than other working women.  Even when I was young and broke, I could    I was only working ever for four months at a time, and I was unemployed.  So my children never knew when I was going to be home.  It was very valuable.  But, you know, I think it’s a struggle.  And it’s an ongoing struggle.  Women have to do it all, you know.  And so, the more flexible work becomes, the more engaged the dads become, the better.

Q. Congratulations.
A. Thank you very much.
Q. And my question is, you won for KRAMER VS. KRAMER for the very first time, and then SOPHIE’S CHOICE, and now for IRON LADY.  Which one of those was    this is impossible question to answer, I guess, but talk about, you know, those different experiences in getting up there and accepting, you know, three times now, what was that    you know, what was it like the first time around and the second time around and is this better in some way?
A. I read a poem yesterday, and it had nothing to do with this but it said, one of the lines jumped out and it said, “It is strange to be here once as it is to return.”  So, that’s true.  It is strange, the whole thing is strange.  I mean, if you’re a human being, it’s weird.  If you are not, I don’t know.  Probably fun.

Q. Meryl, over here.
A. Hi.

Q. You had mentioned that it has been a long time since the last time you won.  Were you worried that it never was going to happen again?
A. No.  I have    I mean, I have everything I’ve ever dreamed of in my life.  And no.  I mean, I think there’s room for other people.  Frankly, I understand Streep fatigue.  And it shocks me, it shocked me that it didn’t override this tonight.  So, I was really, really happy but I don’t take anything for granted, that’s for sure.

Q. Thank you.

Q. Congratulations.  In your very moving speech this evening, you mentioned jokingly we might all be sick of you in the future.  I hope that doesn’t happen, but it seems like you have the beginning of a second project in life with The Women’s Museum.  Would you talk a little bit about that?
A. Thank you for asking about that.  There is no national women’s history museum, but there is a lot of history that is not written about the contributions of women in our country and around the world.  And I think it would be really, really inspiring for people all around the world to have this fantastic center where you can learn the stuff that hasn’t been written about women, because for many, many centuries, history was not interested in us.  And yet, and our history is invisible and I think it would be great for boys and girls to go to a place where they could learn about the contributions of their foremothers as well as their forefathers.

Q. Hello.
A. Hi.

Q. Expounding on that idea, with young girls today, young women watching the Oscars, what advice would you give to them if they are thinking about going into filmmaking or acting?
A. Or anything.

Q. Or anything?
A. Or anything.  Never give up.  Don’t up, don’t give up.  I mean, many girls around the world live in circumstances that are unimaginably difficult.  And it’s not, you know, show business is a golf game compared to the way most kids grow up in the world.  But I would say never give up.  On March 8, 9, and 10, Tina Brown is hosting something called Women in the World in New York, a 3 day symposium bringing activists around the world on behalf of issues concerning women and girls, and it’s a great, great thing.  Hope you will write about it and go see it.  And thank you very much.

Q. Congratulations.
A. Thank you very much.

Q. Have you paid tribute to the great work of Roy and Mark on your makeup?  Can you describe that moment when you first looked in the mirror and saw the face of Margaret Thatcher looking back at you?
A. Well, by the time we had achieved the right amount of less, and less, and less, I had become acclimated to not looking at Margaret Thatcher in the mirror and thought it was me, and that was important to me that I wasn’t looking at rubber, that I was looking at me.  You know, I sort, of at that point in the process of creating a character, I’d already sort of morphed in a way, in my head, and in my heart, with her, and her concerns and her interests, her zeal, her mission, her sense of rightness, and all of that.  But honestly, when we first had the old age makeup on, I saw my dad.  You know.  I looked so much like my dad.  Maybe my dad looked like Margaret Thatcher, I don’t know.  So, is that the end?

Q. That is the end.
A. Okay.  Thank you very much.

BACKSTAGE INTERVIEW
CATEGORY: Music (Original Score)
INTERVIEW WITH: Ludovic Bource
FILM: “The Artist”

Q. Actually, I’ll do it in French.  [Speaks in French]
A. It’s unbelievable for me.

Q. [Speaks in French]
A. So he said he’s he’s incredibly impressed to be here and the first prize he ever got for THE ARTIST was at the EFA awards, the European Film Awards, and the statue is a woman and so his little boy said, Papa, you need to bring me the man, the Oscar, so that they can kiss each other.

Q. [Speaks in French]  It was very moving tonight, your speech, because you said at one point, Well, actually I would like that people accept me here in Hollywood.  Why, because I have so much love to give.  Can you please explain to us, because I know that actually to make it here in Hollywood you have to love and even be in love.
A. All of the work I did on THE ARTIST was a declaration of love to American culture, American cinema.

Q. [Speaks in French]  Congratulations.
A. Thank you so much.

Q. [Unintelligible]is a tribute to the American composer.  [Unintelligible] the next step for you is in Hollywood.
A. If Hollywood accepts me, it’s my dream to be here.  So yes, I would love to give you my love and be part of Hollywood now.

Q. Hi.  This is a silent film, and I just wondered for you, the music plays so much a part of this.  Do you feel like this was a character in the film?
A. Yes.  Music is it’s a character in the movie and it’s a unique language and I’m so honored to have been able to have made this movie thanks to Michel Hazanavicius.