In a First since 1961, the Oscars Carpet Will Not Be Red

Crew members roll out the carpet outside the Dolby Theatre on Wednesday, March 8, 2023, in Los Angeles in preparation for Sunday's 95th Academy Awards. (AP)
Crew members roll out the carpet outside the Dolby Theatre on Wednesday, March 8, 2023, in Los Angeles in preparation for Sunday's 95th Academy Awards. (AP)
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In a First since 1961, the Oscars Carpet Will Not Be Red

Crew members roll out the carpet outside the Dolby Theatre on Wednesday, March 8, 2023, in Los Angeles in preparation for Sunday's 95th Academy Awards. (AP)
Crew members roll out the carpet outside the Dolby Theatre on Wednesday, March 8, 2023, in Los Angeles in preparation for Sunday's 95th Academy Awards. (AP)

Many things about the Academy Awards have changed over the years, but for the past six decades there has been at least one constant: The red carpet. The hues have varied over the years, but it has always been some shade of red. Until this year.

On Wednesday outside the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, workers unspooled a champagne-colored carpet as Jimmy Kimmel, who is hosting the 95th Oscars on Sunday, presided over the occasion.

“I think the decision to go with a champagne carpet over a red carpet shows how confident we are that no blood will be shed,” Kimmel said.

The decision to change the color came from creative consultants Lisa Love, a longtime Vogue contributor, and Raúl Àvila, the creative director for the glamourous Met Gala in New York.

This year the carpet will be covered, in part to protect the stars and cameras from the weather, but also to help turn the arrivals into an evening event. For Love, there has always been a disconnect between the elegant black tie dress code and the fact that it’s mid-afternoon when people arrive to be photographed in the daylight. With a covered carpet, they could change that.

“We turned a day event into night,” Love told The Associated Press. “It’s evening, even though it’s still 3:00.”

The Oscars red carpet dates back to 1961, the 33rd Academy Awards held at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, when Billy Wilder’s “The Apartment” won best picture, Burt Lancaster and Elizabeth Taylor won the lead acting prizes, and there was still a “juvenile award,” which went to Hayley Mills for “Pollyanna.”

It was the first televised ceremony, broadcast on ABC and hosted by Bob Hope. The general public wouldn’t see the red carpet in all its glory on television until 1966, when the Oscars were first broadcast in color.

There wasn’t any debate over the change, Love said. They just knew they had the freedom to break from tradition. They tried some other colors too, but they seemed too dark with the covered tent. “We chose this beautiful sienna, saffron color that evokes the sunset, because this is the sunset before the golden hour,” Love said.

Instead, they went lighter, and Academy CEO Bill Kramer approved.

They weren’t especially worried about upsetting Oscars traditionalists either.

“Somebody’s always got a way to find something wrong with something,” Love said. “This is just a lightness and hopefully people like it. It doesn’t mean that it’s always going to be a champagne-colored carpet.”

As for what we should call it? Love said “champagne” and “sand” are apt descriptions, but that there’s no reason to not default to “red carpet” either. It’s more metonym for the glamorous arrivals than a literal description of what everyone is walking on.

The 95th Oscars “red carpet” opens Sunday at 3:30 p.m. Eastern. The ceremony is set to begin at 8 p.m. and will be broadcast live on ABC.



Summer Movies: 11 Breakout Actors to Watch

 This image released by Disney shows the character Stitch, left, and Maia Kealoha, as Lilo, in a scene from "Lilo & Stitch." (Disney via AP)
This image released by Disney shows the character Stitch, left, and Maia Kealoha, as Lilo, in a scene from "Lilo & Stitch." (Disney via AP)
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Summer Movies: 11 Breakout Actors to Watch

 This image released by Disney shows the character Stitch, left, and Maia Kealoha, as Lilo, in a scene from "Lilo & Stitch." (Disney via AP)
This image released by Disney shows the character Stitch, left, and Maia Kealoha, as Lilo, in a scene from "Lilo & Stitch." (Disney via AP)

Many of the big movies this summer might come from familiar places - whether they're franchises, sequels or hybrid adaptations of beloved animated classics. But look closer and there are quite a few fresh faces making a splash with memorable characters new and old.

The Associated Press spoke to 10 of the actors about the roles.

Maia Kealoha was 6 years old when she saw an advertisement for an open casting call for the new hybrid "Lilo & Stich" movie and promptly told her parents that's what she wanted to do. Now, 8, Kealoha, who was born on Hawaii's Big Island, is making her film debut as the spirited Lilo in Disney's new live-action adaptation, hitting theaters on May 23.

"It was so amazing," Kealoha said. "I was really proud of myself."

Sydney Elizebeth Agudong, who plays Lilo's older sister and caregiver Nani praised her young co-star.

"It was amazing building a world with her," Agudong, 24, said. "It's a lot of CGI and we're working with aliens and such and she was full of imagination and creativity."

A Kaua'I native, Agudong also came to the role from an open casting call. Being part of the film has been a special experience as a lifelong fan of the animated version and a proud Hawaii resident.

"Hawaii's very much like tough love and soft heart," Agudong said. "We truly created a family and hopefully people can see that."

Happy Gilmore is a dad in the sequel coming to Netflix July 25. The Gilmore boys, played by Ethan Cutkosky ("Shameless"), Conor Sherry ("Shake Shack"), Maxwell Jacob Friedman (a pro-wrestler) and newcomer Philip Schneider, "are just goons," Schneider said.

All came to the project strangers, though intimately familiar with a film they'd all grown up with. And everyone but Friedman, 29, had to prove they had a little skill on the ice.

"I looked like a goon so they just assumed I'd be fine on the rink," Friedman laughed.

The four actors quickly found their rhythm together on set in Jersey City playing the rambunctious, troublemaking Gilmore spawn during the four-month shoot.

"The fast pace of stupidity that we got to and what made us family was such an amazing thing," Cutkosky, 25, said. "It's really hard to come by."

Friedman added: "In between scenes, we could like look at each other and know what we were thinking and make each other laugh without talking."

Schneider, 24, attributed the atmosphere to their on-screen dad Adam Sandler, who made the whole set feel like a family. His genius, Schneider said, "is that he gets people he wants to work with and just sees what happens. He trusts the chemistry."

For Sherry, it was helpful so early in his career to get to see how Sandler could be both a giant in the industry and so humble.

"That's the dream, right? To balance both," Sherry, 24, said.

One of the breakout films from Sundance was "Sorry, Baby," a poignant drama that's both funny and shattering about the aftermath of a traumatic event. It's the feature debut of triple threat Eva Victor who wrote, directed and stars as Agnes, a graduate student at a New England school.

"I wanted to make a film that was about feeling stuck when everyone around you keeps moving that really didn't center any violence," said Victor, 31.

Victor, who had a recurring role on "Billions," was making short comedy videos online and writing for the satirical website Reductress when Oscar-winning "Moonlight" filmmaker Barry Jenkins messaged them and asked if they had any scripts. Now, that script is going to be in theaters on June 27, through A24.

"I hope the film finds people when they need it," Victor said.

Ben Wang didn't know he was up against some 10,000 people vying to play the new Karate Kid.

The 25-year-old actor, best known for his role on the Disney+ series "American Born Chinese," learned that after the fact. But it was a stressful month of not sleeping very well while waiting to hear if he got it, he said.

"Karate Kid: Legends" (out May 30) brings together Jackie Chan's Mr. Han and Ralph Macchio's Daniel LaRusso for this new entry, about teenager at a new school, Wang's Li, who has to learn from both.

"It's a fun one to play," Wang said. "And I get to try to kick Jackie Chan which is new and exciting for me."

Nico Parker grew up with both the "How to Train Your Dragon" books and movies, so it was a dream come true when she got the chance to play Astrid in the new live-action adaptation (June 13).

"It's a difficult thing when there's already such a brilliant version of Astrid out there," Parker, 20, said. "The main thing that I really wanted to be prevalent in everything was how driven she is and how it doesn't come easy. It takes effort and skill and determination."

Parker, the daughter of actor Thandiwe Newton and director Ol Parker, has been on sets her whole life. She was only 11 when she filmed Tim Burton's "Dumbo." But this feels different, she said, because she really understands the scale and scope of being in a major franchise.

"To be older I feel as if I'm acknowledging way more what it means and doesn't mean," she said. "And I get much more stressed about it."

You can't blame filmmaker Mike Flanagan for assuming Benjamin Pajak was a skilled dancer. Pajak made his Broadway debut as Winthrop in "The Music Man" with Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster. But ask Pakaj, now 14, and he demurs that dancing is not exactly his strong suit.

But you would never guess to see him waltzing and sambaing across the floor (thanks to Mandy Moore's choreography) in "The Life of Chuck" (out June 6).

"Film is so different from theater," Pajak said. "But there were just so many people kind of lifting me up and helping me throughout the process."

One of those was Mark Hamill, who plays his grandfather. Perhaps even more exciting than being in the movies? Sharing scenes with Luke Skywalker.

Superman's very good boy Krypto might be a computer-generated creation, but the inspiration was a very real dog: Filmmaker James Gunn's rescue Ozu. It was difficult transition to life in a home -- Ozu destroyed shoes, furniture and even his laptop. Gunn, who was at work writing "Superman," thought, "How difficult would it be if Ozu had superpowers?"

That was how Krypto came to be part of the newest "Superman" (out July 11) changing the story and the script. The white pup features prominently in the film's trailer. At the Puppy Bowl earlier this year Gunn said that Krypto is lovable and mischievous and has all of the powers of Superman - and, yes, he can fly too.