The countdown to the Oscars is on. And Will Packer tells EBONY he is finally ready for it. To say this is a big moment is an understatement. For the first time in Oscar history, Packer and his righthand Shayla Cowan are the show’s first all-Black solo producing team—but it wasn’t a job Packer immediately accepted.
“They actually called me for a couple of years and asked would I be interested in [producing the Oscars] and I kept saying no,” reveals the Girls Trip and Ready To Love producer. “I didn't feel I had time and it wasn't the perfect time in my career. By the way, all those things were probably right, but I realized you have to do the thing that scares you the most.”
It’s a philosophy Packer lives by. “If you’re going to do something, just go in, confront it head on, and just make the best of it,” he says. “That’s how I approach all my challenges in life and that’s how I’m approaching this.”
For Packer expanding the reach of the 94th Oscars is of paramount importance. “I think the show before now has been a little too insider-ish,” he explains. “I think that it felt like a show that is made for Hollywood people by Hollywood people and nobody else was really invited, and people haven't really come. This year, I'm trying to make a show that feels inclusive, that feels welcoming to everybody, movie lovers of all stripes.” That’s why “Movie Lovers Unite” is this year’s theme.
To help bring it home is the show’s unprecedented three female hosts—Girls Trip star Regina Hall, comedian Amy Schumer, and The Upshaws’ Wanda Sykes. “They’re going to bring craziness and spontaneity and that’s exactly what I want from them,” Packer shares. I wanted some really funny women who could control a stage and help shape the narrative. I love the fact that they’re three really strong comedians with very different styles.”
Participants representing the culture include Jill Scott, Serena and Venus Williams, Jason Momoa, Tiffany Haddish, Sean "Diddy" Combs, Zoë Kravitz, Samuel L. Jackson, Tracee Ellis Ross, Tyler Perry, Daniel Kaluuya, Ruth E. Carter, H.E.R. and Lupita Nyong’o. Adam Blackstone, who is coming off the all-star Super Bowl performance featuring Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Kendrick Lamar, and Mary J. Blige, serves as this year’s musical director. And he is joined by an all-star band that includes Sheila E. and Robert Glasper. If that weren’t enough, D-Nice is also part of the festivities, plus, for the first time in five years, Beyoncé is performing at an awards show. However, Packer also takes pride in other inclusions that might not generate as much fanfare.
“I'm just proud of the way that I have been able to do things like bring in HBCU students, an amazing African American voiceover artist who will be the voice of the Oscars named Janora McDuffie and I’m very proud of bringing in the Ghetto Gastro chefs out of New York to partner with Wolfgang Puck,” says the Florida A&M grad.
“For the first time in show’s history, the actual trophy presenters, who hand the trophy to the winners, two of them will be HBCU students from North Carolina A&T,” he beams. “The nomination show this year, we had students from [Howard University’s] Chadwick Boseman School of the Fine Arts with Dean Phylicia Rashad. …. If you know me, you know I'm a big supporter of HBCUs,” he adds. “That is a true Packer stamp that I'm putting on this event.”
While Packer won’t say if the Oscars will honor the 20th anniversary of Halle Berry’s historic Best Actress win, the first and still only for a Black woman, along with tributes to 50th and 60th anniversaries of The Godfather and Bond, he does reveal that there is “a tribute to Mr. [Sidney] Poitier that will be soul-stirring and upbeat.”
The significance of this moment is not lost on Packer. “Representation matters. Optics matter, images matter. And so to have folks that look like us at the helm of Hollywood's biggest night, it's important,” he says. “That hasn't happened in the 94-year history of this award show. I think it's timely and it’s just another reason why I want the show to succeed.”
As for what that show will look like exactly, Packer says “it's still coming together. Things are still changing. It's live TV. So I don't even know what's going to happen on Sunday.”
What he does know, however, is “[the Oscars] will be a lot of things, but it won’t be boring. I promise you that.”
Ronda Racha Penrice is the author of Black American History For Dummies and editor of Cracking The Wire During Black Lives Matter.
