Jimmy Kimmel is worried about striking “the right tone” as host of the Oscars this Sunday.
The late-night host and returning Academy Awards emcee told Good Morning America‘s Paula Faris Tuesday that he likely won’t tackle Hollywood’s widespread sexual misconduct scandal from the stage during Sunday night’s show, preferring instead to make people laugh.
“This show is not about reliving people’s sexual assaults,” Kimmel said. “It’s an awards show for people who have been dreaming about maybe winning an Oscar for their whole lives. And the last thing I want to do is ruin that for someone who is nominated for, you know, best leading actress or best supporting or best director or cinematographer or whatever, by making it unpleasant.”
“I’m not going to stop any bad behavior with my jokes,” he added.
Sunday’s Oscars come as Hollywood continues to be roiled by the #MeToo movement and allegations of sexual misconduct against dozens of prominent members of the entertainment industry.
Oscars producers told the New York Times this week that they planned to address the sexual misconduct scandal in a planned segment at the awards ceremony, but were also working to make the show as “entertaining as possible.”
Still, Kimmel hinted that he could delve into politics during Sunday’s show, as he defended his vocal opposition to President Donald Trump.
“I don’t think you can go too far,” Kimmel said. “I’m still doing a comedy show and I need to be funny and entertain my audience, but I also think that we’ve matured enough, to the point where we can accept late-night talk show hosts speaking about a serious subject. And I think that it’s almost necessary now.”
Kimmel — who has made emotionally-charged appeals to the president in his monologues a recent staple of his show — hit back at critics who say entertainers shouldn’t be outspoken about political issues.
“A lot of people are going with this line of reasoning where they say, people in show business shouldn’t speak out about politics. And yet, they elected Donald Trump president of the United States,” he said. “So I think that argument has pretty well jumped out the window.”
He also extended an invitation for Trump to appear on his ABC show, and said he’d be curious to ask him “why he’s changed his opinion on so many important things.”
“I do think that there’s probably a person in there who knows what the right thing to do is, and who wants to do the right thing,” Kimmel said.
Watch the full GMA interview above.
Follow Daniel Nussbaum on Twitter: @dznussbaum
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.