The Oscars 2023: Snapshots from the Rehearsals

Andie MacDowell ripped open the envelope and took a long look at the “winners” listed inside. They weren’t the actual Oscar recipients, just nominees selected at random for the purposes of this Saturday morning rehearsal for Sunday night’s Oscar broadcast. 

“And the Oscar goes to …” MacDowell said, before hesitating on the stage of the Dolby Theatre. “I hope I pronounce it correctly. I wish Hugh was doing this part. But … I will do it.” 

“Hugh,” of course, was Hugh Grant, her love interest from the 1994 romantic comedy Four Weddings and a Funeral. Much about the rehearsals must be kept secret: 1.) which award the presenters were assigned, 2.) the scripted banter they exchanged, and 3.) which famous faces stared at them from the mostly empty theater. Out there in the aisles, poster boards emblazoned with celebrity headshots stood in the seats so the camera crews could practice reaction shots.

Interesting team-ups will be a running theme of this year’s show. Among others, Jonathan Majors will appear onstage alongside Michael B. Jordan, his director and costar from Creed III. Both are also iconic Marvel villains, with Jordan’s twisted turn as Killmonger in the Black Panther films and Majors’ timeline-hopping menace, Kang the Conquerer from Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania, and a whole slate of upcoming films in the comic book universe.

Harrison Ford and Glenn Close will also present together in a reunion that ‘90s action-film fans will love. She was vice president to his POTUS in 1997’s Air Force One.

MacDowell’s worry about mispronouncing someone’s name or stumbling over words was a common one among the people practicing for their global telecast. Pretty much every performer who walked through their presentations on Saturday expressed something similar: please don’t let me mess up.