Oscars producer reveals how John Cena's naked entry was planned, why Al Pacino skipped Best Picture nominees and more

We all saw the magnificent performances and celebration of some of the amazing works by the actors, directors, and other artists across the entertainment industry during the 96th Academy Award. What we didn’t see were the preparations done backstage and the efforts of hundreds of people who contributed to adding a golden touch to the prestigious event. Recently, the team of the Oscars spilt beans as they spoke about the reason why Al Pacino skipped the nominations for Best Picture. They also shed light on the preparation that was done to get John Cena naked on stage.

Oscars producer Molly McNearney, while speaking to Variety, shared that it was only minutes before the ceremony was set to begin that the team realised that some of the key A-listers and nominees were not inside the Dolby Theatre. He said that to see the reactions of celebrities as the hosts talked to them in monologues, it was needed that five to six celebrities were in their seats which was not an easy task to be done.

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McNearney, then, went on to reveal the conversation between her and Kimmel before the host decided to fire back at Donald Trump during the show. As reported by Variety, Kimmel was informed about Trump’s post ranting about the ‘boring’ show 10 minutes before the show ended. As the host decided to read his post, McNearney (also Kimmel’s wife) tried to talk him out of it saying, “I don’t want to give Trump airtime in the Oscars. This is the one time we don’t have to talk about him.”

Kimmel did not listen to her and came up with a retort immediately. Taking a dig at the former President of the US, he said, “Blah, blah, blah … OK, now, see if you can guess which former president just posted that on Truth Social. Anyone? No? Well, thank you, President Trump. Thank you for watching, I’m surprised you’re still — isn’t it past your jail time?”

During the same conversation, Rob Mills, the exec VP at Walt Disney Television, joined to open up about John Cena’s viral moment as he came nude to present the award in the Best Costume Designer category. The WWE wrestler walked onstage nude in a tribute to the 1974 Oscars streaker. However, his private parts were strategically covered to avoid any complications. Mills said, “We made sure that he looked like a Ken doll up front. His crack was covered in the back and then the envelope was Velcro-ed on there so it wouldn’t fall. But beyond that, he was naked.”

The producers also said that there was a lot of rehearsal done in a closed set as the network’s standards and practices were intense.

Moving further, the team also addressed Al Pacino skipping the Best Picture nominees. McNearney said that the actor was not supposed to recap the nominations before announcing the winner. McNearney said, “It was a creative decision we made because we were very worried that the show was going to be long.” The team says that they anticipated the winner’s name to be announced and this is why they did not give the actor a clip package. However, the show’s producer apologised for the same and said, “I apologize if our decision to not have to read through all those nominations put him in a tough spot.”